Colin knew that Seth was hell on wheels in that car, but he was still confused. "What does all this have to do with fixing games?"
"Do you know what the odds were on those games Liberty lost last month?" Moe asked. Colin shook his head in the negative; he really hadn't been paying attention to it back then. "Liberty was favored to win by more than ten points for each game."
"Statte cito, Massimo! Statte cito!" Matt hissed through his teeth.
"Vaffancullo!" Moe said which meant "fuck you!"
"Ah vaffancullo!" Matt said as he brushed by them in a huff and walked ahead of them.
"Moe just because our team lost to a few teams we were heavily favored to beat doesn't mean the games were fixed," Colin said. "The team could have been overconfident and not played to the best of their abilities; if there is one thing Seth has it's over confidence."
"Colin, I know those games were fixed. Okay?" Moe said sharply.
"How?"
Moe let out a long breath then said, "Let's just say the basketball games aren't the only things Seth has been fixing." Moe glanced meaningfully at his older brother walking ahead of them.
Matteo, the school's star wrestler. Colin hadn't been paying much attention to the wrestling matches just like he hadn't been paying attention to the basketball games but he thought he recalled hearing Matt had lost a few matches here and there which was odd because it was rare for anyone to beat Matt.
"Oh Matty," Colin said under his breath. He considered Matt an upright person; it just proved how strong Seth's influence was if even he could be corrupted.
"Our family is having some tough times right now, we've been really short on money," Moe said. "Our dad was laid off last year and he hasn't been able to find a job that pays even close to what he had been making."
"I still can't believe Matt would do that." Colin said.
"It was your fucking cousin that put him up to it and convinced him to do it!" Moe said hostilely.
"Moe, my head is spinning here, first you are talking about games being fixed and then you are mentioning how Seth never gets ticketed. What's the connection? You've got to explain to me what this all means!" Colin said as he noted in the back of his mind that never in his entire life would he have thought he would be asking Moe Rosini to explain something to him.
"Colin, you're smarter than me when it comes to tests and getting good grades and all, but it always amazes me how dumb you can be about how the neighborhood you live in works," Moe said. "Your cousin has an in with at least one of the Bosses."
"Bosses?"
"Oh Cee, man do I have to say it? Organized crime!"
"You mean the mafia?" Colin asked.
Moe raised his eyebrows, "Look I'm only gonna say this once because you're my friend but if I ever hear you making assumptions about me or my family we're through, got it?"
"Got it." Colin said nodding his head.
"Just because my family is Italian people assume we either know somebody in the mafia or are in the mafia ourselves. It's one of those fucking stereotypes we all got to live with. You don't know how many fucking Sopranos cracks I have to put up with every day! The only reason I know what I know is not because I'm Italian, it's because I live in this neighborhood and can see what's happening with my own two eyes. It don't take Italian blood to see it, anyone can if they look hard enough, your cousin sees it very clearly."
"So Seth is with the mafia?!!" Colin asked.
"Not so much the mafia as organized crime, there is a difference. The mafia isn't just Italians anymore, now you got the Russian mafia, the Black mafia, the Japanese mafia. They are constantly bumping heads with each other now and when they bump heads people notice, people like the Feds. Around our neighborhood? Yeah we got some mafia ties, but who really runs the show are the Bosses. They stay underground and try to draw as little attention to themselves as they can. They figure let the ones with the high profiles fight with the Feds and each other over who's got the right to rule where. They don't give a damn which mafia is the current power in the area, whoever it is, they just pay them enough money to keep them off their backs so they can rule their small territories in peace.
"Keeping a low profile is the main objective for the Bosses outside of making money and staying informed about what's going on in their territories. The Bosses even work together sometimes if there's enough profit or incentive in it. It's an underground crime network. Sometimes conflicts arise between two or more Bosses, but then they just send out their foot soldiers to settle the matter, in other words the gangs, while the Bosses stay hidden in the shadows. Most of the people in the gangs don't even realize they are working for a Boss, they just think they are part of a local crew and the leadership stops with the guy who's giving them orders."
"It sounds to me like there isn't much of a difference between organized crime and the mafia, the Bosses just sound like they control smaller areas," Colin said.
"Okay, so maybe they are both forms of mafia," Moe said grudgingly, "but they are two different forms, there's high profile and there's low profile. Some people love to advertise that they are made men, but that's fuckin' idiotic. There's no more immunity for made men anymore, the ones that bring the most attention to themselves also bring either a Fed to their doorstep or a bullet to their brain. That's what being high profile costs you. The Bosses are definitely low profile."
Colin was trying to grasp in his mind the entire meaning of what Moe was trying to explain to him when they arrived at school. "We'll pick this up later," Moe said.
Ricky Woods was standing outside the building talking to Matt who had gotten there a couple minutes before Colin and Moe. Colin looked over at Matt, he still found it beyond belief that he would do such a thing, but Colin supposed if their family was really hurting for money throwing a few matches wouldn't seem like such a big deal, especially if Seth was the one who talked him into it.
"Hey Colin!" Ricky shouted, "Nice look you got there, you might wanna think about wearing a bag over your head the rest of the week!" He started laughing.
"No, I don't think I'll need to do that, my face is only going to be like this for a week or so, but you've been stuck with that ugly face all your life and you've never seen the need to hide it." Colin shot back. Moe started laughing his ass off while Ricky turned red with rage. Matt found something particularly interesting about his shoes because he kept looking at them.
Once again Seth arrived to school in his car right when Colin and Moe got there. Seth and Sheryl got out of the car. Seth took a little more time getting out of the car favoring his rear end a little, Colin inwardly smiled at that, but Seth had the same arrogant look he always had, and perhaps he was looking even smugger today.
When they approached, Sheryl went over to Colin and slapped him hard in the face, hard enough to make his head turn. "Bastard!" Sheryl said. "I never want to speak to you again!" She then rejoined Seth and he put his arm around her but he also turned his head around so Colin could see the gloating smile on his face. Ricky was in a better mood now and followed Seth inside like a puppy dog, all the time laughing at Colin.
"What the fuck was that?" Moe asked. "Yesterday she was acting like a bitch in heat around you."
Colin knew that Seth felt threatened by the private conversation he and Sheryl had yesterday and after the scrimmage match, he also felt humiliated. So now it wasn't enough that Seth had taken Sheryl away from him, he had made her despise him as well. "You should recognize it by now Moe," Colin answered with a sigh. "That was a direct result of the manipulation machine known as Seth."
"Fuck me," Moe said in a quiet voice
