A Mob Boss's Honour

11. Encounter

It was early morning. Lena was walking in the school yard alone. She had a school map in hand and was trying to find her way and memorise the location of the different buildings and sports spaces.  Luigi and Lena had come early to school. Luigi had early morning football practice. Lena had not chosen her sports yet. But she wanted to try for the cheerleaders team. But the cheerleaders that morning had no practice scheduled.  So she decided to come to school early with Luigi and use the time to familiarise herself with the school. The place was huge. They had a range of facilities. Their old school was also big but it had different specliasims and facilities. She had been there studying for years so navigating was not a problem there but at this school it was. She did not want to just rely on the other students to show her the way.

As she was walking she came across one of the football training grounds. He stood far in the shadows of trees and watched the team train. They were training hard. She spotted Luigi but saw no sign of Gianluca.

As she was standing there she was startled when she heard a voice "Lena."

She put her hand on her heart and turned around. She saw none other than Gianluca standing there.

Gianluca said with a smile "Hi. It is good to see you here." He then thought to himself "What a sight and what a way to be greeted so early in the morning? I could get used to this."

She said shyly "It is good to see you too." The words felt true to her. Seeing Gianluca wasn't as nerve wracking as before. It felt like some barrier was lifted between them. When she had faced death, Gianluca had become an angel saving her. She was still shy around him and sometimes the thought of being close to him and what he was capable of terrified her. But she trusted him more now. She just did. She trusted him with her life. That was enough to put her at ease to have a basic conversation.

Gianluca said "What are you doing here? Are you lost?"

She shook her head "No. I have a map." She waved the map in her hands. She said "I was just walking around exploring the school to memorise the buildings so I can find the buildings more easily. Yesterday I relied on others to show me the way to help me find my way around. I had to keep asking for directions..."

Gianluca asked "Did anyone object to you asking them for directions? Is that why you are here so early walking around by yourself?"

She said "No. It is not that. I like to be independent."

Gianluca said "Alright. But there is nothing wrong with asking for help if you need it in our school. If anyone refuses to help you, let me know and I will ...have a word with them." He was of course going to do alot more than just having a word with them. But Lena did not need to know that.

Lena said "Thank you... But everyone has been so nice to me so far. I know it is only my second day here but I feel very welcomed by the kids in this new school.  I was worried about meeting new people after leaving my school because I was used to the people and everyone there was friendly with me...But now I can't believe how easy the transition has been. The kids here are nice. In my old school, they played pranks on new kids on their first days and made their first day especially quite difficult. But the kids are so nice here. I can not believe it."

Gianluca thought to himself "Oh, the kids here normally do the same. They are not nice. But when it comes to you, they just value their lives. They know that Luigi Alessandrini and Gianluca Bellagio will skin them alive if they played any pranks on you or made life difficult for you." He smiled "I guess this school has nice kids in it for sure."

Lena said "For sure. Yesterday when I was about leaving the school premises I was almost hit by a basketball. I thought here it is. The kids are going to be hitting me with basketballs on my first day. In my school they did similar stuff to new kids... . But to my surprise no more basketballs was thrown my way. I found out the ball was from the main boys' basketball court. They were training there and the ball had been thrown accidentally. They apologised so much when they came to grab the ball. Apart from that yesterday was a very smooth day... Accidents happen I guess."