You Don't Know..What you Don't Know

Prologue

Prologue

Every girl can trace herself back to a moment—the instant that quietly revealed who she would become. A moment when time seemed to pause and the world nudged her onto a path toward discovering who she was, or who she hoped to be.

For me, boys had always been part of the story.

As far back as I can remember, there was always a boyfriend. At four, it was Danny. At seven, Tripp. At eight, Shane. During middle school, I took a brief hiatus to focus on basketball, but boys were never far from my thoughts. I simply didn't have the time. I had bigger goals.

I had to be an athlete.

I wasn't naturally pretty. At least, that's how I saw myself back then. I developed later than most of my friends, who seemed older, prettier, and far more confident. I was the quiet one in the group—the follower.

That was me.

Tia Scott.

Follower.

While the other girls experimented with makeup and hairstyles, I lived in oversized athletic clothes designed to hide what I lacked. Sweat shorts, baggy T-shirts, bandanas, and Nikes were my uniform. I was an athlete. A tomboy.

I know it sounds cliché, but it was true.

I didn't stand out.

Not until that summer.

That summer, I transformed.

Somewhere between June and August, I stopped being Tia Scott, the follower and became Tia Scott, the vixen. The princess. For the first time, the world seemed to clarify my place in it.

I just didn't understand what that place was until much later.

The summer before my freshman year, my parents decided that spending two weeks in Baltimore with my extended family would make the perfect vacation.

Two whole weeks with my grandparents.

My excitement was overwhelming.

Well, not exactly.

I loved Baltimore. I loved the city, the food, and the energy. But two weeks away from home and my friends wasn't exactly my dream summer. Especially now that boys had started occupying more space in my thoughts, and I knew my friends back home were spending their days flirting, dating, and collecting stories I'd miss.

My family was close—extremely close.

We're Greek, and with that came traditions woven deeply into every aspect of life. We were superstitious. We respected family above all else. Outsiders often saw us as male-dominated, but anyone who spent enough time with us knew the truth.

The women ran everything.

Still, growing up in that environment meant rules. Expectations. Limitations.

I was controlled.

What I didn't realize until that summer was that life wasn't about following every rule. It was about learning how to bend situations so they appeared as though you were.

I learned that lesson from my cousin Anna.

To say Anna was beautiful would be an understatement. She was stunning—effortlessly poised, graceful, and breathtaking all at once. She knew how to dress. She knew how to speak. She knew how to walk into a room and own it without demanding attention.

I admired everything about her.

Anna would never be caught dead in sweat shorts and an oversized T-shirt. She was everything I wanted to be and everything I believed I could never become.

Our family was dominated by boys.

There was my cousin Gus, eighteen that summer and the oldest child of my Aunt Desi. Gus embodied every Greek stereotype imaginable—proud, loud, stubborn, and fiercely protective. We couldn't have been more different, but I loved him anyway.

Next came Anna, seventeen. Gus' sister and the only other girl among all the cousins. She was my idol, though she rarely paid much attention to me.

At least, not until that summer.

That summer, Anna changed my life. She transformed me and forged a bond between us that I would treasure forever.

The youngest in their family was Nick, fifteen. Nick had always been the peacemaker—the calm voice in a family that rarely understood the concept of speaking quietly.

My mother's other sister, Aunt Mary, had three sons.

John, sixteen, was the oldest. Quiet and thoughtful, he preferred books to people whenever possible. We could spend hours discussing our favorite series.

Then there was Steve, fifteen. Steve and I were best friends. Looking back, I think he's partly responsible for my tomboy phase. He was my confidant, the person I turned to when life became complicated, and I did the same for him.

The youngest cousin was Mike, twelve. Easygoing and endlessly cheerful, Mike floated through life without much concern. He was still young enough to be excluded from the older-kid conversations and just spoiled enough to complain about it.

Then there was my immediate family.

My brother, James—Jimmy to everyone who knew him—was fifteen.

Jimmy was infuriatingly perfect.

Athletic. Popular. Smart. Kind.

An amazing brother.

He excelled at everything I struggled with and somehow managed to make it look effortless. He represented everything I aspired to become, though I often felt I was failing miserably in comparison.

And then there was me.

Athena.

fifteen years old.

Most people called me Tia, but Athena was the voice inside my head—the version of myself that emerged whenever my sass got the better of me.

I was finally old enough to be included in the older cousins' world, I stood on the edge of something new.

My parents had moved us to the Virginia long before I was born, but the rest of my family remained in Greektown.

Greektown stretched across roughly thirty blocks in East Baltimore, a neighborhood built by generations of Greek immigrants who had arrived from places like New York and beyond, determined to create a community rooted in tradition.

The restaurants, bakeries, churches, and family-owned shops reflected that heritage.

Today, many cultures call the neighborhood home, but the Greek influence still lingers in its streets, stories, and people.

Those streets shaped me.

Looking back, I realize how little I understood about life before that summer. There was so much I didn't know—so much I didn't even know I didn't know.

My journey began within those thirty blocks.

What started as a reluctant family vacation became the summer that changed everything.

It was there, among the crowded sidewalks, family gatherings, and endless lessons I never saw coming, that I began piecing together the puzzle of who I was—and who I was destined to become.