Going to an all-boy high school was no . Joe's parents thought it would be a good to send him there instead of a public because "He would get distracted by girls," as mom would say. Once, during his third year, begged his mom to let him go to school. "I just want to be normal," he tell her. "I want to meet girls. I 't want to be weird." But his words always on deaf ears. Mom always said that Joe plenty of time to go on dates after school, and that he needed to concentrate on school work.

This usually made him very sad, like a good kid, Joe just nodded his and went on with his studies. That all one day when Joe met Carmen, who lived two blocks away from him. One day he into her at the market by chance. They gone to kindergarten together. They were also of same age. She was in Joe's class, and remembered Joe, too.

After about two weeks, they going steady. Joe was so happy, but had hide his relationship from his parents, which was because Carmen was hiding him from her family, ! "Are you kidding me?" Carmen said, "They would me if they knew I had a boyfriend!" was going great for a time, but Joe's was right. His grades started slipping, and he was on academic probation because he was spending much of his free time with Carmen. She dropped a grade or two. As a result, of them had to go to summer school improve their grades, but Joe didn't care. He in love and that was all that mattered the time. Much later, he came to realize mom was right.