Laying a Foundation: Bonus volume: Includes series prequel, The Groundbreaking (The Love Under Construction Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Marco stared at him, horrified. “I want to join the service.”
    “Well, nipote , the service will not take you if you have a juvenile record. So think about that, young man.” Marco got up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
    What the hell am I supposed to do? , Vic wondered. All of the kids at school hate me. I have no friends, no dad, no girlfriend. In his mind, Vic had no one. He and Bennie were the same age, but Bennie wouldn’t have anything to do with him. Bennie was a Walters, and even though Vic had lived in the lap of luxury growing up in Italy, to the Walters boys, Vic was a poor relation. Freddie was only a little older, but he didn’t really have anything to do with Vic either. Tony had always been nice to him, but Tony wasn’t around; he was in college in Lexington and besides, he was older too.
    On top of that, none of the Walters kids had gone to American public high schools; they’d spent their high school years in Italy, living with relatives and learning about their heritage. Vic had never gone to a public school – his years in Italy had been spent in expensive private schools, so an American public high school was like a whole different universe to him. And as if it wasn’t bad enough already, Vic had graduated from secondary school at the age of twelve. The last thing he wanted to do was go to school and sit, bored, all day long for no good reason. The only class he even remotely liked was civics; he enjoyed learning more about the United States.
    Zio Marco didn’t understand what it was like, being dropped into a strange, new world. He’d worked hard to get rid of his accent, but it still crept out from time to time, so he just tried to be quiet and not really talk to anyone. And being so tall made it impossible to blend into the crowd. He was sure he was a pretty good guy and he’d had lots of friends in Italy, but none of the kids would even give him a chance. I’ve tried staying to myself, ignoring those people, but they just won’t leave me alone. I hate that school. Maybe I should just run away. It didn’t help that he was easily the best-looking young man in the whole school. That only made the other guys hate him even more.
    At school the next day, Vic was trying his best to lay low and stay below the radar when Mr. Barnes, the physics teacher who coached the wrestling team, walked up to him and asked, “Vic, can I talk to you for a minute?” He headed to his classroom and Vic followed, wondering what he’d done this time.
    Mr. Barnes sat down behind his desk and motioned for Vic to sit. “I wanted to talk to you,” he said once they were both seated. “You’re a big guy.”
    “Yeah. I guess I am.” He was only fifteen, sixteen in October, and already he was at least six feet and three inches tall.
    “Have you ever thought of trying out for the wrestling and the weightlifting teams? I think you’d be pretty good.” He smiled at Vic.
    “How do I do that?” He’d never tried out for anything in his life. Any kind of sports would have been out of the question for him in Italy – he was supposed to look good and be a politician’s son, not an athlete.
    “They’re holding tryouts tomorrow. Would you like to sign up?”
    Vic thought for a minute. Yeah, what the hell? Worst thing that can happen is that I don’t make it. “I guess so,” he told Mr. Barnes with a shrug.
    “The signup sheets are in the office. Just go and ask Mrs. Connors to let you sign them. And good luck.” Mr. Barnes stood and when Vic stood, Mr. Barnes shook his hand. It was the nicest anyone at the school had ever been to him.
    Vic went straight to the office and asked Mrs. Connors, the school secretary, for the signup sheets. He put his name on both the wrestling team sheet and the weightlifting team sheet. He took a minute to look at the football team signup sheet, then thought better of it. I don’t really understand American football that well. And I’d rather do