To those who followed the grim news this week, Joao Souza isthe 19-year-old engineering student stabbed to death Sunday night at Binghamton University.
But to Danielle Goz, he's Joao (pronounced "Jwow"), her Blind Brook High School classmate, prom date and gym buddy, a kid who wanted nothing more than to be right where he was, to live anAmerican life.
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Souza's death has left his friends numb.
It's hard for them to talk about the smiling, lanky teen with thick, dark hair and a Brazilian accent that gave him away instantly as someone who wasn't from here but was having a great time, just the same.
The wound is too fresh.
Goz didn't want this to be about her — ""there are so many other close people to him that I think would like to share stuff"— but she couldn't help talking about how much her classmate meant to her.
"It's important to remember him," said Goz, who embraced the chance "to share with people what an amazing person and friend he was."
Souza lived and breathed the American Dream: its language, its cars and its traditions.
The kid from the land of Pele made an immediate impact on the soccer field at Blind Brook soon after arriving here in the fall of 2012; the Brazilian made the varsity team as an eighth-grader, Goz said.
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"He was always a soccer kid," she said. "He was a star soccer player,always making the winning goals, always the star team player."
Time and again, a word creeps into Goz'sconversation. He was the sweetest kid. Came from the sweetest family.
"Everybody loved him," Goz said. "Not one person could say anything bad about him."
Goz and Souza became close late in high school, in their senior year. She wasn't sure what made the family — parents, a son, a younger daughter — come to America.
"But I know that Joao, he wanted to stay in America for college and have a life in America," she said.
It didn't take long for Souza to pick up English, even though Portuguese was spoken at home.
His younger sister, Helena, was a freshman when Goz and Souza were seniors. That year, the two could always be found working out.
"He was definitely my gym buddy," Goz said. "We would go to the gym almost every day after school. Shoulder day was every day for him."
Souza loved his adopted country.
"He just wanted to be like an American kid and go to college in America," she said. "He always told me that he wanted to live here."
Being an American kidin 2017 meant having a date to the prom. And having a date meant a promposal. Souza asked Goz to prom by presenting her with a plate full of sushi and a sign that read: "Will you roll with me @ prom?"
Souza's mother and sister came to Goz's house for pre-prom.
"They were the nicest people ever," she remembered.
Souza and Goz spent time together over the summer after their June 2017 Blind Brook graduation, a time Goz considered "the beginning of a lifelong friendship."
On Sunday, one of those lives ended. But Goz is thinking about how her friend lived, not how he died.
She recalled a kid who loved cars—particularly the Audi S7 —who freaked out when he found out that Goz's uncle owned one.
"I’ll never forget the look on his face," she said. "He goes 'No wayyy! This is my dream car!'And I said "one second' and ran to ask my uncle if he could drive it."
Before long, Souza was behind the wheel of his dream car.
"He drove the car around with me, my sister and her friend and it was like the time of his life," she said, beaming. "It was like 'Oh my God! I can't believe I'm driving this car right now.'"
After Souza graduated, his parents and sister returned to Brazil. On school breaks, the Binghamton freshman stayed with friends in The Arbors, the luxury Rye Brook townhouse community a stone's throw from Blind Brook High School.
It has only been a few days since Souza's life ended. But Goz doesn't hesitate when asked what she'll remember about the boy with "the cutest Brazilian accent."
"I think of his laugh and his smile and the sound of his voice and how sweet he was," she said. "He didn't have any bad bone in his body. He was always there for me."
