PrivateTim

Less swimming, more fornicating 🤣

It irritates me that 50 chapters in, Jackson is still a smarmy ass. There is no reason to treat the school principle with the disrespect he does. Jackson has earned every one of his punishments. He can't blame Principal Welker for doing his job. I also don't get the high school lunch set-up. I've never heard of a high school where eating in the cafeteria is mandatory, and you can't leave before lunch is over. That sounds like elementary school. High schools I am familiar with people eat outside, some inside, some in the library, or a classroom of a teacher who has it open for students to use.

I looked back, and if I am seeing this right, the story started in 2016? I started reading it about 10 days ago and have been powering through it. What I am curious about is how much of this plot was settled 7 years ago, and how much was due to the story evolving on its own? Like did you plan on a trading post attic at that did, or did the idea develop along the way? Now Jackson has a decision to make. Is he going to commit to Georgia or follow Luke to the school he is going to? I've counseled a lot of kids to not give up long held dreams (going to an Ivy college, playing sports in college, getting into that film school) for a relationship that might not (probably won't) last. That said, I REALLY want Jack to go to school with Luke. I think they have been good for each other, with Luke changing Jack more than Jack has changed Luke.

I've been to a lot of high school dances, even chaperoned a couple, and I've never seen the chaperones intervene in dancing. When I was a chaperone we were told to look for people sneaking in alcohol and drugs, not police the dancing. I guess one of the bummers of living in a small, rural area is that you have to do dances at the school. My Senior Prom was in the Crystal Ballroom at the Biltmore Hotel with a live band. Luke is 18, he has been too polite and Christian to tell his mother to pound sand, but I think his patience is running out.

I am in Jack's camp, prom is a hassle. I think it is girls who get excited about prom; they get to get new shoes, a new dress, get their hair all done up.... guys just rent a tux and spend lots of money on dinner and a limo. I went to pretty much every function in high school, Junior and Senior Prom, Homecoming, Sadie Hawkins, various sock hops and always had a good time. I liked high school, but I was ready for the next step when it was over. It is nice that Luke and Jackson got pictures together. Whether or not they last a couple, I hope they have forever happy memories of each other and the time they had together. The actual dance should be interesting.

Certainly Jack knows enough about the Bible and Bible verses to drop a "judge ye not", and "he who loveth not, knoweth not God", etc. I am sure Henry calls her out, maybe Luke does too. PS as an FYI, body suits have been banned in swimming since about 2010, oh and the character who used to be on the team, if he failed a drug test he'd be banned for a year.

Why hasn't Jack asked Luke where he applied to college? Jack is going to face a crossroads on what is more important to him, swimming alone or being with Luke. Jack can swim at almost any university, whether or not he gets a scholarship. We got our first clue on where they live, if Tara ordered sweet tea and "sweet tea that was always a staple in every restaurant in the state" that pretty much tells you they live in the South. So if Jack wants to fight to be with Luke, and Luke is going to a school like Belmont University, Jack can apply to Tennessee and be three hours from him, and so.

I think Principal Welker told her she had no say in what clubs the school had because she was not full time faculty. Obviously as a teacher, even a sub, you have to have the ability to administer discipline to keep students inline. Very erotic scene and it's about time they got this opportunity. I wonder if any of the nearby towns have gay areas? I'll never forget my first trip to The Castro as a freshman at Cal. It wasn't the freeing, encouraging experience I was looking for.

He is pretty much the average kid from the Malibu Colony. I know a lot of his clones. It is much more than a hobby, which I think he has made clear. The ocean is his refuge. It was to surfing and the ocean that he ran to when he ran away. When he needed to repair his relationship with Brad, they went surfing. He escapes to the house in Santa Cruz when he needs space and a refresh. He took Connie to Bondi. He built a house in Maui near the best surfing in Maui. That wasn't a coincidence. Surfing is about the only thing (besides sex) that he has shown any interest in until just recently. He's never expressed a reason to go to Harvard other than, "it's Harvard".

It did strike me that Jack's parents have to know exactly what is going to happen leaving him alone in the house a couple of days, but that was probably the intent. Let's hope Jackson is smart enough to lock all the doors in his house and that Grace never gave Cindy a key to the house "for emergencies". If this were a Mark Arbour story, you just know Cindy would have a key and catch the boys in flagrante delicto. I did wonder why the boys didn't use the woods/field more for "hanging out". I definitely do not see clear sailing ahead. I see shoals and slack tides.

I think I would have driven less, and spent more time together someplace nearer. If they could have found a nearby bowling alley, they could have gone and not bowled, or gone to a pizza joint and just hung out and talked. They have not spent enough time just talking to each other. If Luke has plans to go to college, then certainly he has already applied places. They could have talked about that.

Will has not cared what Brad thought since he was 12. What you asked was, "why the weather should be a deciding factor in choosing your university", and I am telling you A LOT of kids want OUT of places like MN, OH, NY, etc and they are applying to schools in FL, AZ, TX and CA. I have also seen A LOT of California kids go away to schools like Michigan, BU, BC, NYU, Ohio State, etc and transfer back to CA or maybe to AZ and most say the weather drove them nuts. The Ivy schools are a bit stickier because of the prestige factor, but I'd seen CA kids come back from Yale, Harvard and Princeton too. I don't suppose you are a surfer, so you may not get how important it is in the lives of many CA coastal kids. UCSD, UCSB, UCSC, Pepperdine, LMU, CSUMB, CSULB and many other schools near the coast do get students who have among the factors important to them, access to surfing. For Will specifically, since the ocean is so important to him, picking the university with the top oceanographic department in the world, would make sense. But we've never heard Will's reason for going to Harvard or what his future plans are.

Can I tell you how annoyed most native Californians are by "Cali"? That is thing that came from gangsta rap and may be cool in younger circles, but it is roundly hated, almost as much as "Frisco". Montana is where you can buy tons of land. The Yellowstone Club is THE place for the 1% of the 1%. For Utah it is Deer Valley and CO it is Beaver Creek.

The trouble is he didn't care enough about Luke and he was still partying with his friends, only now he got Luke involved with them and partying and cost himself three weeks with Luke. It is hard for Henry to argue with Cindy that Luke should be allowed to hang with Jackson, when it was with Jackson that he got drunk. Jack is a little more dedicated to swimming, if he was really dedicated he wouldn't do things that hurt his swimming, like getting drunk, so he is hungover and shows up late or in less than peak physical condition because of physical labor (detention) or lack of sleep (staying out late).

🤣🤣 I think you need to spend more time in the West, especially So Cal. People are not leaving CA to go to the "East Coast", which to me means Baltimore to Boston. They are moving to TX, FL, TN, the Carolinas and the PNW. Check the U.S. population shift 1980 to present. It ain't shifting to the "East Coast".

That is Luke's perspective for now. It will change when he is no longer dependent on his parents, and may change before that. Luke appears to be smart so I presume he is going to college. Even if he goes to a Christian college, a whole new world will open up to him. He will total autonomy to figure out who he is and he won't be the only gay boy at his Christian college, regardless of which one it is. Why would a homeschooled kid not be aware of college options? Which "conservative Christians" don't want their kids going to college? Other than the Amish and similar sects, I've never heard of a "conservative Christian" not wanting to send their kids to college. As to the rest of the gang, Toby's father has a farm/ranch, so presumably has a barn. One of my best friends from college had grandparents who lived in Central CA and had a ranch. The kids and grandkids had created a "hangout" spot in the rafters. The parents understood the needs of the kids to have a place to go and they were fine with them taking a section of the barn. If the kids in that town wanted to do anything, they had to drive 45 minutes to an hour to a larger town for movie theaters, bowling, miniature golf, gokarting, etc. That sounds like the situation with the kids in Jackson's town.

Despite the students doing some clean up, it was still going to be a lot of extra clean for the janitors. And what about the kids who didn't want to be in a food fight, but got caught in the middle of it? Jackson is still being an ass and a fuck up and his friends are no better. Jackson never stops to think about consequences of his actions and what they might cost him. He has had Tony and Emily go out on limbs to support him, and Emily especially with her helping him with Scott, but even with good swim times, is a coach going to want a kid who causes trouble at school? A kid who thinks rules don't apply to him? Jackson showed real immaturity in starting the food fight. Yes Derek was throwing individual peas at him, but the mature thing to do would have been to leave, not escalate to a full blown food fight. Jackson is risking the future he wants to be a smarmy ass now, while disappointing adults who keep trying to help him.

I can count on one hand the number of times I got drunk in high school. After my first experience drinking, the water polo team's post season beach bonfire my freshman year, I didn't see the attraction. I got sick as a dog and felt like hell the next day so I didn't even try drinking again until my junior year. I also didn't like the feeling of nor being in control and making an ass of myself. I certainly wouldn't have been drinking leading up to a qualifying meet. I also never had the luxury of sleeping in. My school we had swim or water polo practice twice a day, depending on the season. We had to be in the water by 5:30AM during the school year/school day. Saturday practice we didn't have to be in the water until 7AM. If Jack can use swimming to get into the University of Georgia, he should take the opportunity, but based on his performance his last meet, the schools that were interested in him still would be. They wouldn't stop recruiting him because he didn't fill out a package. The beauty of swimming vs a sport like basketball is there is no guessing about how good you are. You swim a sub :45 100m freestyle and schools will hound you.

Give me textual evidence of being "a total control freak". Because she grounded Luke? Because she feared letting Luke go to public high school he'd meet people who'd lead him to party and get drunk? Who is she "a bitch" to? She's a tough teacher. She gave Jackson's mother advice on her permissiveness with Jackson that led Jack to misbehave more and get on more trouble. Who does she think should "bow down to her whims"? What whims? What chapter was that in? Where is the textual evidence she thinks everyone else is a sinner? Where has she called anyone a sinner or warned them of God's wrath? We have seen virtually nothing of her Christian beliefs and she hasn't pulled that card on anyone. I can see where she is horrible....... if you can just point me to that passage.

So help me understand what Cindy has done that is so terrible? She disapproves of her high school son sneaking out and getting drunk? She knows what he has been like up until the point he met Jackson, and what Cindy knows about Jackson really only comes from what Jackson's mother has told her about him and the trouble he's been in. Where is that you see evidence of maturity? They still seem like messed up, goofy high school kids with their drinking, sexploits and general lack of respect for anything or anyone. I get the story needs drama, but the LAST thing I would do with Luke is hang out with my friends or go to a party. He needs alone time with Luke, or maybe go out with a couple like Simon and Charlie. I would have called up Charlie and see what he was doing that night. I certainly wouldn't have let Luke get drunk, because that wasn't going to be good for anyone. Jack's shortsightedness tells you how lacking in maturity he is.

I am surprised Marie didn't apply down south to USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, maybe even SLO. In college it was nice being far enough away that you couldn't go home every weekend, but close enough you could go home easily if you needed to. Not really an earth shaking chapter... maybe Brad and Lark can stir up some drama. Is Claire aware Lark is alive?

Pretty easy really. The U.S. is not like Britain. Britain is about 60% the size of California, the highest point in the country is only about 1,300m, so no matter where you go in the country, the weather is very similar, so it doesn't matter if you go the University of Edinburgh or the University of Bath, the weather isn't going to vary much. For someone who likes to surf as much as they can, because they are in sunshine and temperate weather, going to a place where it snows six month out of the year puts a real damper on surfing..... and other outdoor activities like golfing, tennis, outdoor parties, etc. Lots of students from the Northeast, and Northern Midwest wind up going to college in Florida, Arizona, California and other warm weather areas. Marie is also a peer, vs a toddler.

Very erotic scene with Luke and Jackson. I do hope they soon can get several hours alone in a nice place to really explore each other in a relaxed manner without fear of being busted, or being late or any of that crap. Maybe a weekend away. They were also lucky a bored patrol officer didn't happen by and bust them, that could have led to disaster.

Well that was a little elaborate. Can't wait to see the reaction and repercussions. Our senior prank wasn't nearly as elaborate, but it did get a lot of attention in the local paper and the police made a half hearted attempt to run down the perps, but I think they thought it was pretty funny. We used to hang out at a specific lifeguard tower at the beach, and we had from the time we were old enough to go to the beach on our own. We "borrowed" the tower one Sunday evening and poured enough sand in the school quad to justify its own tower.... or so we thought.

I don't think Krista was referring to USA Swimming zones and sections, but to high school structures and every state is different, so using terms like "district", "regional" and "zone" can be pretty generic. I don't think we even know what state we are in in this story, or even heard the name of the town. Heck, we don't even know how large the school or senior class. The references to Texas, Georgia and Cal were the time using place names and the first references to actual places. I do think Jack was an ass again. Time for him to grow a pair and grow up, which he did a little of at the end. And one more swimming FYI, when lanes are crowded, you don't split lines, you circle swim, following the swimmer ahead of you. You always have the lane line on your right side, so to your right is the lane line and to your left is other swimmers. Circle swimming you could have 10-15 swimmers share a lane as long as everyone swam the same approximate pace.