Chapter 1

Kim--As I write this Gio is 18 years old and living away at college. He got a scholarship to throw the discus for the track team! How did that happen you ask? I know you thought he was going to be just like his father, Frank. Leslie and I refused to let that happen. At seven years old he was well on his way to being the fat kid in school. Then a miraculous thing happened. One day, as Leslie and I were getting ready to go to a movie, I noticed him looking at his babysitter. It was pure puppy love. This girl lived near our house and was 16 years old. She was well endowed for a 16-year-old. Know what I mean? When we returned that evening, I walked her home and we talked. She was a high school sophomore and played on the girls’ softball team. She wanted to go to college and become a teacher, a physical education teacher. I had an idea and I explained it to her.

The next day she showed up at our house after school. She says she wants to go for a walk to get in shape for softball season, but she is afraid to walk alone and wants to know if Gio would like to walk with her. He jumped at the chance. They started walking every afternoon. After about a month they were walking an hour every day. Then one day she started telling me in front of Gio that she was saving her babysitting money to be able to join a gym. I suggested that she could use the one here in the house if she wanted. She said she would, but she needed someone to help ‘spot’. I said Gio could do that and of course he was happy to do it. (You do know that conversation was rehearsed beforehand, right?). That was the beginning of Gio working out. He became a fanatic about it. Now he was walking and working out with a high school girl and he was on cloud nine.