PrivateTim

But..... I almost found Zach likable this chapter. Unfortunately I can't forget what Zach has done in his past and I can't unknow what I know about the Zach of the future, through The Gap Year so far. It isn't fair, but it is what it is. I wish the world were a better place, but it isn't.

But.... the point you seem to miss is that the Willophiles act as if, not only is he as smart as the 40, 50 and 60 year olds, but he is smarter than them and he is right in everything he says. Virtually every adult in his life is wrong when their views do not sufficiently align with his. I got good grades; I wasn’t outrageous, so all he could do is point to stupid ass stuff. Yes, there was nothing outrageous about a 13 year old getting naked in a gay bar in Rome, dancing on stage and ejaculating; nothing outrageous about a 14 year old going to a college party and getting trashed; nothing outrageous about a 14 year old having sex with legal adults, nothing outrageous about a 14 year old drinking and smoking pot on a school trip......

Will is the biggest hypocrite in this entire series of stories, and that is saying something. Will doesn't want anyone to tell him what he can and cannot do, but he gets to tell his father and Wade that they cannot even refer to Matt as his brother, which he is, every bit as much JJ and Darius are. There is zero parallel between Sam & Jake and Matt & Tony. Sam was an adult and JP's long term partner, Jake was a 16 year old, and in the beginnings of a relationship with Brad. Matt and Tony are peers. Matt is in a relationship with Wade, but that isn't Will's business and Will isn't in a relationship with Tony. He has no right to tell Tony he can't sleep with Matt and he can't tell Matt that either. I wish Will would move out of Escorial and get a taste of real life. “My shrink says that’s normal, for me to try and figure out who I can trust. But when Matt and Tony did that, it was like both of these guys I’d relied on to be there for me, just said ‘fuck you’ to me and laughed in my face.” Maybe if Will wasn't such a nasty asshole when he deals with Matt, and to a lesser extent Tony, he could have explained in a calm, rational manner where he was and then ask Matt and Tony, especially Matt, where their head was. Will is not the only one hurting, but apparently he thinks he is. A wise beyond his years, mature teen would approach people differently, not like a petulant, self-absorbed, self-obsessed, indulged brat.

I've reread most of the CAP series, except for Black Widow, because it is so recent. I put off rereading 9-11 until now because I remembered how painful the chapters were. But in rereading 9-11, I've come to regard it as probably the best of all the CAP books. The middle chapters where we are actually in the towers, starting with getting ready for Hank and Jeanine's ceremony, are the very finest chapters of CAP. The writing is exquisite, gripping, poignant and almost could have been no fiction. This chapter was as fine as any in this book and in the whole series.

It's Mark's story. He gets to do as he pleases.

If Tony and Will were dating, it would be reasonable for Matt to not hook up with him and a reasonable request from Will. But Will and Tony are NOT dating, so fornicate Will and the horse he rode in on. He went ape shit on everyone who tried to tell to be careful around Zach, not even you CAN'T go there, like he did with Matt. He has no right to tell Tony or Matt who to hook up with. I WOULDN'T have if I was Matt, but for reasons of my own, not because the Golden Child so proclaimeth. I think that under extreme duress like this, it is possible for Matt to lose perspective like Robbie, but I think Matt learns and adapts from his mistakes better than Robbie did. Matt had a MUCH happier, much better life than Robbie ever could have dreamed of. I think if I were Will, I'd be so tempted to just say "fuck it" and move to Maui, go to school there, and forget about all these other people. Only that's not his way, because his sense of family is much too strong for that. Meh, he has no problem being disrespectful and petulant with anyone in his family who dares irritate him, including John Paul. So Will is an immature teen? You don't get it. These people are wildly rich, Crazy Rich Caucasians, they can buy new cars like you buy tennis shoes. It is nice seeing Nana spend time with Ethan. I think Ethan is responding positively to Nana not just because she is scary, but because despite others feeling differently, children do like and respond well (generally) to structure and boundaries. Ethan has an adult relative focused on him, providing things he's been missing for awhile.

Ryan comes back into the story in a big way, and I am hopeful Alistair will too. He will certainly be at Harvard in the Fall. Cue Andy Williams. Where do I begin To tell the story of how great a love can be The sweet love story that is older than the sea The simple truth about the love he brings to me Where do I start Doh! I was so with you until that last paragraph. There may be some level where Zach actually does love Will, as much as Zach is capable of loving anyone besides himself, but Will has only liked Zach for about 30 days now and one day Will will discover that Zach really is evil, and selfish, and an asshole.

I think you miss the points on Will entirely. To the Willophiles, Will doesn't just display the average maturity of an average 15 year old, Will is "wise beyond his years". Will is so wise beyond his years that he is always wiser than Brad, often wiser than Stef and sometimes even wiser than John Paul. Many readers don't see any of that.

Don't worry, you won't/ Zach is no saint: that's a great observation. Will gets that, and he doesn't want a saint, he just wants someone who will be honest with him, and he really needs people he can trust to prop him up right now. Will wants someone to be honest with him, but is that Zach? Is Zach honest with Will all through the story? Will demanded of Tony that he be honest with himself, but doesn't insist for the same from Zach. Zach is who always has been since we first met him, a manipulator who uses people for his own purposes and desires.

It was 84° at Disneyland on Christmas Day 2013. I am more smarter than I thought! Will is not a provocateur? His whole conversation was that way. Matt is right, Will should not be telling him who he can and cannot fuck. If Wil and Tony were boyfriends, sure, but they are not. For a guy that doesn't want anyone judging him or telling him what to do, he sure judges lots of people and tells lots of people what to do.

I know, right. Travis is worried about being murdered, but he is so bored, he is willing to risk going on shore, rather than wait out 11 more days on a luxury yacht.

Ouch! (true, but Ouch!) It didn't go as long as I hoped, but we've only moved a couple of years in CAP time from here to The Gap Year, so those storylines could still come to fruition. True 'dat. A brat? A kid who has been a virtual orphan since he was 7 years old? SEVEN YEARS OLD! And he is a virtual orphan because of Wade's mother engineered it that way. Wade is all about family. 'Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten' My comment was partly tongue-in-cheek, but you have to admit that Will treats hot assholes who rock his world sexually differently from how he treats ugly assholes who do not.

We don't know if he ever did or did not. It just wasn't in the story. A person, as sexual as Darius is, it would not surprise me if somewhere between 12-14 he had sex with another boy or boys, experimenting with MM and oral. No, it is not, "just the way things are". Some people have standards and moral codes.

Always happy for a new chapter of CAP, especially The Gap Year. Having been going through the entire CAP series again, it is now frustrating to be in a place to have to wait for new chapters vs being able to knock out a complete book. I wondered if Stef's yacht had a panic room, as is common in so many homes of the wealthy now. And I love the story... and the drama...... and the cliffhanger.... but there are several realities.... one, the Maritime Gendarmerie would never, ever arrest someone on a U.S. state extradition warrant, they might on a federal warrant for terrorism. Two, it is highly unlikely that Curtis Buck could get a CA judge to sign an arrest warrant with the Schluter/Crampton lawyers objecting. If the judge did issue a warrant, the S/C lawyers would move to quash it and get it delayed for a full hearing. Three, Travis would have 10 working days (14 days) to appear before the French Investigation Chamber that would consider the application for extradition. The Investigation Chamber then has 30 days to make a favorable or unfavorable decision. The clock would simply run out. But if I was Travis, I'd have my French lawyer write up a will, naming Will as the beneficiary, and if I was Will, I'd be sure my will was updated.

I had an epiphany.... it does require a small rewrite of The Streak, but..... in order for me to get a screen deal, we have to comply with new SAG/AFTRA rules to be Academy Award eligible. Zach Hayes died in Claremont in a tragic accident involving a toaster. In the new version of The Streak, Will meets a guy surfing in Santa Cruz who is from De La Salle High School and he is a football player. Here is the twist, the surfer/footballer is African American. It shatters the very pale complexion of surfing in the U.S., introduces a major character of color into CAP instead of in servants roles and his dick is 5", exploding another major stereotype.

I'm first! I'm first!

Oh.... and can we not have an option where Zach just never wakes up? And can that happen in Millennium?

I've been loving the CAP series forever and I am eternally grateful for Mark and this amazing body of work. Truly there are no accolades big enough that can be given. If there was a little less explicit gay sex, I think Mark Arbour novels would sit side by side with James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Patrick O'Bryan, Bernard Cornwell and Alexander McCall-Smith. There'd be several movies as well or maybe an Amazon or NetFlix series. But seriously... did we need a third "Jake" in CAP? Does no one on the team say, 'hey we have two Jakes already, let's call him Toby.'

Zach has been a douchebag since the say he entered CAP. Getting with John, one of my favorite CAP characters, just because he could and it fucked with Will is enough reason for me to hate Zach for life. I am 3/4 of the way through my first, painful reread of 9-11, the chapters where everyone is trying to warn Will off Zach, especially Gathan. Will goes all Volcano Will on everyone, including JP, Stef, Brad and Gathan. Despite all the warnings of what a self-serving asshole Zach is, Will buys Zach a car, buying into Zach's bullshit. Despite Will's poor treatment of Gathan, and getting Gathan removed as the main trustee on Zach's trust, everything that Gathan said about Zach was true, and more. On balance, I think Zach has been a bigger hurt to Will than a benefit. Will would have been better served to have spent his high school years with someone he could be out, open and grow with.

We really need to find more hobbies for you.... ever tried stamp collecting? 🤣🤣

Except Zach is neither. He is not being treated unfairly, and he isn't an underdog. The boys at the Mission are boys who are the ultimate underdogs. They are the ones who've truly been treated badly by their parents, the authorities and most other people. Their lives are the very definition of unfair. Five miles from the safe, cushy confines of Escorial is East Palo Alto, with an incredible amount of people in deep need (at least in 2000-01). It had a lot of fatherless boys that could have used tutors, volunteer sports coaches, etc. If Will wanted to help underdogs and boys being treated unfairly, he doesn't have far to look.

It irritated me that despite all this crap, he absolutely refused to consider that Zach may be a different person at sixteen then he was when he was fourteen. Be irritated, but through a lot of heartache you will discover that Zach is the asshole at 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, and probably for the rest of his life. It was all I could do to tell him that I didn’t give a fuck what Wally and Clara thought. And this is the problem on so many levels. It shows Will's elitism, his arrogance, his lack of respect for Wally and Clara's parental prerogatives, and his inability to have empathy for anyone else, or walk in their shoes. He can do that for Zach, but he can't for the man who has raised five kids, some of whom are not his, on a garbage man's income. “Maybe they should have a little confidence in him,” I said. “You might remind them that it doesn’t really matter what they think, he’s going to do whatever the fuck he wants anyway. They do have confidence in him. They let him leave home to go play football. They could just pull him back to Claremont.

“No, it is not,” I disagreed. “Seems to me you didn’t feel like you had to disclose how much money you gave to Brian. Now you’re saying I have to disclose whether or not I gave money to Zach?” First, there is the hypocrisy, Will doesn't want anyone to k now his business, but he thinks he is entitled to know JP's business. Then, there is the false equivalency between Brian and Zach. Brian was an adult. Zach is a child, still under the control of his parents. “Did you ever notice how Hayes men are not only judgmental, they’re stubborn?” I asked my father. Is there anyone in this story more judgmental than Will? He is judgmental about Wally & Clara, judgmental on Stef, on JP, his father, Isidore, Claire, Noah... I mean CRAP, who is Will not judgmental of besides Will? "Only in this situation, it’s some strange family he’s living with in New Jersey, and they can completely dictate where he can and can’t go,” I said. Will is a little bitch drama queen. No one is dictating where he can and can't go, he just wouldn't be driving himself.

I think Will is actually a unifying figure in the family, but he's also the mirror, and with this group, it's tough to use a mirror without pissing them off. He's the guy who's going to do what he thinks is right, and damn the consequences. Over time, perhaps the consequences will factor more into his calculations. More to the point with Will, he thinks ONLY his opinion matters. It never, ever occurs to him he might not be right. Which highlights one of Will's biggest flaws. OMG, who wrote that line, Mark or Will 😝 What a bullshit, post bad decision justification. “I didn’t think that I’d ever bring someone home and have that happen,” I said, piling on. “Is this the norm? Should I expect this in the future?” This is Will's passive aggressive attempt at manipulation. Here is what John Paul would have actually said, "I am sorry Austin felt that way, but I am not responsible for his misunderstanding with whom people were upset at. That issue has been laid to rest," he said, glancing at Stef and Brad who nodded their confirmation. "The issue on the table is you involving yourself into the personal business of another family." And the discussion could start from there. Wally and Clara are still responsible for Zach. He is not an emancipated minor. They can take the truck if they so desire. Will has no idea why Wally and Clara didn't give Zach a car because he didn't bother to ask. That alone is douchey.

The way the Chronicles of an Academic Predator is set up is narration from the characters in the story. We are not getting a third party, neutral narration, but from the eyes of one person. We see the world and events through their eyes and perspective. It is not reality we see, the way things actually are, but reality from the viewpoint. Sometimes, maybe often, the two realities meet and are aligned, but just as often, they are not. In the story, I think the younger the narrator, the further apart the two realities are. I remember being 15 and how I viewed my world, then I remember being 30 and how different my view was, how my experiences had shaped my perceptions. The same was true as I turned 45 and I'm smart enough to figure that at 60, 70 and 80, should I last so long, my views will change again and again; that is what experience does. It doesn't mean every older person is wise or right, but it does mean they are worth listening to. I was like Will in that I blew off what my father thought about anything when I was 15, but by the time I'd graduated college, I could look back and see he'd been more right than he was wrong. In CAP the last three books (I think three), many people (the Will Lovers), think that Will at 13 and 14, has been as smart, or even smarter, than all the adults around him. That just isn't the real world. I like the Will character, but he does annoy the crap out of me and maybe because growing up where and how I did, I've known too many kids like him. They usually would up at USC, were drunk for four years, graduated, and got a job at daddy's (or granddaddy's) company as a VP. Will is not that different. I don't think he'll work for any of the family businesses when he graduates college, IF he graduates college. Will may figure he is smart enough already, and doesn't need to listen to professors who are just another adult, not as smart as he. Whatever happens, he will always be shielded by the vast wealth he has access to. He will never have to worry the way Jeff Grimes did growing up, or the wrestler kid at the Mission, or any of the boys at the Mission. Will can do nothing, just clip coupons, and live in his dream world, unaffected by reality. “You haven’t seen how he works,” Gathan said. And Will throws out a smarmy comment, intended to make John feel badly. Here is Will's arrogance. He has known Zach a bit more than a year, but this is the first time he's spent any appreciable time with him, vs Gathan, who has known Zach intimately his whole life. Who, in reality, knows Zach better? “I think what they are trying to do is explain that they’ve had bad experiences with him in the past, and they don’t want you to get hurt,” Dad said nervously, knowing he was walking into an argument that he shouldn’t. But he was pretty wounded, so I let his comment slide. If he’d have said that to me a month ago, I’d have focused totally on him and just let him have it. What in the hell is wrong with what Brad said? In reality, he is right. The people, most of whom HAVE been hurt by Zach, ARE trying to prevent Will from being hurt. “You act like he cares about you, he doesn’t,” Gathan insisted. “He doesn’t have feelings for anyone but himself.” "So why should I step on them? Why should I try to kick him in the balls, just to hurt him? How is that the right thing to do?” In this exchange between Gathan and Will, Gathan reveals an essential truth about Zach, he doesn’t have feelings for anyone but himself. We will see that time and again in following stories. Volcano Will goes to his 'kick him in the balls' extreme. No one said, 'kick him in the balls', they said, 'don't trust him, he is not trustworthy'. “He didn’t have a car in Claremont, and he got in trouble there,” I said logically. That is newly minted 15 year old logic, not real logic. It is a logical fallacy. A does not follow B. No one knows how much more trouble Zach might have gotten into in Claremont IF he'd a car. “Regardless, he’s not in Claremont now, he’s back east,” I said. “Maybe since he’s not living at home, he needs a way to get around.” Did none of these brain trusts ever stop to think about that?" Here is another arrogant, no one is as wise as me Will. MOST kids in high school do not have cars. In Will's unreal world of Harvard-Westlake, Malibu, Menlo School, et al, when a kid turns 16 they get a brand new BMW, Mercedes, 4 Runner or some such car. That is not true for most high school kids. In a semi affluent family, the oldest kid might get a family hand me down when they turn 16, if they are lucky. Dad said, as if Wally and Clara Hayes were the brightest beacons on the planet. Like being Claremont’s best sanitation engineer made Wally an expert on teen psychology. This is beyond arrogant Will, this is asshole Will, looking down his nose at Wally and Clara. He doesn't once stop and ponder what is that these two wonderful people did. He doesn't for an instant consider that they might know what is best for their kids. He doesn't consider for an instant what buying a car for Zach might do to the family dynamic. He doesn't consider for an instant that Wally and Clara, who have raised Zach, might know him better and know what is best for him. No, all that matters is I WILL have made a judgment and decision and all others must bow to it. He has NO IDEA how smart Wally or Clara is. Either one of them could be as smart as JP, Brad, Robbie, or any of them, but Wally and Clara never had the opportunities or encouragement that John Paul, Brad, etc had. They never had the vast wealth to smooth over their lives. If Robbie hadn't left Claremont for Gunn, it is doubtful he would have wound up at Princeton. If Stef hadn't been Greg Anders partner, Robbie would never have joined the Anders Production Co. for it to become Anders-Hayes. This is the world of privilege. Privilege is not bad or wrong, but people who have privilege should at least be self-aware of it and empathetic for those who do not have it. Will gets it in bits and pieces, but at the statement above shows, it is not in the forefront of his mind. Where has Will obtained his expertise in teen psychology? Being a teen doesn't make you an expert on teens. Someone needs to set Will straight on this. This arrogant little prick doesn't think either Wally or Clara has anything to offer, any wisdom to impart to him because Wally is 'just a garbage man' and Clara is 'just a housewife'. Arrogant little cocksucker. “In the end, you’ll see I’m right about him,” Gathan said all self-righteously. Okay, a bit of a spoiler....... stop reading if you don't want to know..... but GATHAN IS RIGHT, as we will come to see. That isn't to say Will should write off Zach right now, but when Will touches the stove and it is hot and he burns himself he should go, 'wow, Gathan was right, you can burn yourself on a hot stove', instead of touching the hot stove time and again. “You seem reluctant to explain your reasoning,” Grand said, letting Dad and Stef know that these flippant replies weren’t going to work.