Alex was my new friend I’d met in Greece. The last I’d heard, his dad had almost been abducted with the help of some of their security. I’d asked Pia, ‘Little Tony’ Giovanni’s sister and his go-between, to help them. When I left New York, she’d assured me they were safe.
“How’s everything going?”
“It’s starting to calm down. I don’t know if anyone’s told you, but my grandfather was in the drug trade. While I’m pretty sure my uncles still are, my dad never was,” Alex explained.
“I might have heard a rumor to that effect. So was your dad’s attempted kidnapping part of that?”
“Yeah, we’re pretty sure of it. Dad would be considered a soft target because he isn’t in the business. We think they planned to take him to gain leverage on my uncles.”
“Why did they plan to take me?” I asked.
“Money. Kidnapping is a big business in Colombia. We surmise that they thought they would take both you and my dad and get a payday.”
“I’m glad it’s not such a big thing here in the states.”
“It happens more than you think,” Alex warned me.
He was probably right.
“Are you back home?”
“Not yet. The Giovannis have been putting us up. Dad plans to move us to California soon. My sister and I start college in the fall, and Dad says that might have to be put on hold if he isn’t sure of our safety. We’ve been accepted to UCLA, but I’m not sure that will work out.”
“Why?” I asked.
“They want freshmen to live in the dorms, and Dad isn’t satisfied they have any secure enough. If it doesn’t work out, we may have to get a place off-campus.”
“With your dad’s money, he could make a dorm secure,” I joked.
“Better yet, he could build one,” Alex shot back.
“I bet they’d put his name on it. It would be a huge tax write-off.”
“He’ll get a kick out of us spending his money like that,” Alex said.
“I’m glad to hear you’re all safe.”
“Thanks. And David …” Alex said.
“Yeah?”
“I want to be your friend. I had a great time in Greece. What you did for us makes me want to get to know you better. I don’t want to lose touch.”
This was one of those moments when my life goals kicked in. If I said ‘yes,’ I would be obligated to follow through and be Alex’s friend. If I said ‘no,’ I would be off the hook, and we would just be acquaintances.
“I’d like that,” I decided.
We arranged to keep in touch and rang off.
◊◊◊ Monday May 1
The stress level had ratcheted up to the point where I almost felt it as I walked down the hall to my locker. The school year was coming to an end with finals next week. Prom was Friday, and we had our first sectional game tonight against Rockford Christian.
I found Dare and Chrissy at my locker, waiting for me.
“Did you know that you and Gina have better scores in math than I do?” Dare asked.
I wasn’t sure where he’d gotten that information, but I would guess he was right. Dare had a bad habit of being too smart for his own good. Brook and I had tried to set him straight on how to take tests. If you had a multiple-choice question in math, you picked the closest solution and called it a day. He’d missed a few because he considered none of the answers to be correct due to rounding. By being such a perfectionist, he had allowed Gina and me to keep up with him, grade-wise. The fact we were ahead of him was about to make his head explode.
“What?” I asked as I raised my eyebrows. “A dumb jock and a girl can’t be smarter than you?”
Chrissy threw her hands up in defeat. I assumed she had been trying to talk him off the ledge, and I’d just closed the window behind him.
“You know that’s not true. I’m way smarter than the both of you.”
I looked sad as I shook my head at him.
“Sorry, buddy, I don’t know how to break it to you, but numbers don’t lie.”
“Are you trying to kill him?” Chrissy asked me.
“What he needs is a distraction. If there was only something you could do to relieve his stress and take his focus off Gina and me being smarter …” I pondered.
“Wait a minute. You’re the one who broke him, so you should be the one to fix him,” Chrissy shot back.
I really did like Chrissy. She didn’t take any shit from me, and she liked my awkward genius friend enough to give him hickeys.
“What are you two talking about?” Dare asked.
“I was suggesting …” I began.
“Nothing!” Chrissy said as she grabbed Dare’s arm and began to drag him away.
“But David and Gina have to tank the final to set everything right,” Dare complained.
If the little dumbass only realized that had he not said anything … Now he’d poked my competitive side. I tracked down Gina before class and arranged for us to study after my baseball game tonight. We were both going to ace that final, I’d decided.
I sent a text to Suzanne, my former tutor, with an offer to hire her to help us get ready. Dare was going down.
◊◊◊
They’d reseeded everyone for sectional play, and we weren’t the top seed; we’d ended up second. Lemont had garnered the top spot. Since we were the second seed, we would have all our games at home until the finals. If Lemont fell, we would be the highest seed and play at home for that one, too.
