PrivateTim

I think they knew Strider was an asshole, but I doubt anyone thought he'd sucker punch Will. I think it is too easy to forget we are reading fiction, not a biography. If Will didn't fall for guys he couldn't have, these stories would be three chapters long. You need the drama to move the story forward and keep it interesting. It depends on what you consider elite and how many sports you are talking about. I have no doubt the American NBA is rife with it and the NFL to a slightly lesser degree, but I've seldom seen it at the Olympic level of the sports I am involved in. Elite isn't always professional.

I'm sorry, is it just me, but is Will not a complete asshole? “So that makes your personal life my business, because....." No, there is no 'because'. You don't own him, even though you think you do, and someone as smart as you are purported to be, seeing Connie's reaction, would figure out it is gay drama and not dredge it up in front of a fourth person when Connie is trying to limit his exposure. Randy could have quietly been dismissed with a few quiet words between Will and Cecil... No drama, no 'I'm rich and pretentious' bullshit especially from a punk 17 year old. Mr. Arbor, I do admire your skill at creating such a loathsome lout that can get me so mad. Bravo. 😲😁

The age of consent for homosexuals changed from 18 to 16 in 2003. Australia, like many places had different standards for breeders and homos. The age of consent in NSW was 12 years old in 1880. That was raised to 16 in 1900, but legal homosexual contact wasn't even contemplated at that time. In NSW, homosexual sex between men was punishable by life in prison until 1924, and in Victoria sodomy was punishable by death until as late as 1949. I wonder if Will has learned anything about not flashing cash, not letting people know you are staying in a suite at the Four Seasons, and not paying in a club with an Amex Platinum Card. A platinum card is fine for impressing shop clerks, but in a club you have a vanilla Mastercard or Visa. My question on age is, what did 17 year old Will have to do to be admitted to Australia? I am not sure Australian immigration would be impressed by emancipation papers. You have to be 18 or have consent waivers to enter Australia as a minor.

I hope a damn bus hits him or he gets eaten by a man in a gray suit at Bondi. The first few chapters belie any notion that Will isn't easily the most selfish person in CAP. It isn't just racism, it is size-ism, age-ism, able-ism, just about any other ism you can think of. A community that claims to embrace diversity means diversity as long as you are just like us, dress the same hate the same people, make fun of the fat guys and old guys like we do. Oh and NEVER tell them you are bi-sexual.

No indoor swimming pool onsite at the Sofitel.... The pool at the Langham is too short, one kick turn, two strokes and you are at the next turn.

Will wants to be his own person but is buying illegal drugs in a foreign country he has been in less than 12 hours with a douche he'd known less than 20 minutes. I prefer the Park Hyatt in Syd, and Melbourne, for that matter. Will is pissed at Kai because he thinks he is clingy and won't fit in his world, because they are moving in different directions and he is pissed at Zach because he thinks Will is clingy and won't fit in his world, because they are moving in different directions. Hmmmm.

Do you mean is Will going to fuck Kai while he is on Maui (or get fucked?), I'd bet on it, it is Will after all. If you bump into Will, don't drop your keys, it is Will after all. As to Pe'ahi, it only goes off every so often and it is basically a tow-in spot and not a place people casually drop into. You have to be a local or a known Big Wave rider.

Will has never worked at relationship. He has always been more interested in indulging himself than finding that person to share his life with. Will is always looking for the next fuck, not looking for quality people to date and grow into a relationship with. Ah poor, poor Will, the boy who thinks he can have anything he wants. If he truly loved Zach, he'd be happy for Zach and if he was as smart as so many give him credit for being, he would have known that this path was inevitable for Zach. Zach loves football and in 2003, football is a straight man's world. Something was going to have to give. A smart person would have moved on and found someone who would commit to him. Zach is the selfish one compared with Will? And why does it have to be, "he thinks he is into girls"? Why do gay men have such a hard time accepting a) that bisexuality is a real thing and b) your sexual orientation classification is entirely up to you and no one has the right to challenge it.

I have to dig back very far and very deep to remember a time when I like Will. He is just a fucked up rich kid, arrogant asshole who thinks the universe revolves around him. It is too bad his family let him reach this state. I am surprised JP let Will be so rude to a guest. There is a time and place for challenging people, but good manners and graces say it isn't at Sunday Family Dinner. I may start an alternative Fan Fiction on Will Schluter and see that his affluenza bites off big chunks of his ass.

I completely disagree. I think John was completely justified in his reaction; I would have thought a lot less of him if he just accepted it. As I remember, John comes from a Lower Middle Class family. There is a lot of pride in his community and they are used to getting things by hard work, not 'charity'. JJ is in essence saying, 'you can't even provide decent housing for yourself'; that is a stinging humiliation. JJ, instead of being a little bitch (yeah, I know, impossible for him) should have calmly talked to John and shown him the logic of JJ's thinking. John is a generous guy, so if JJ had explained by asking John if he'd give someone he loved $20 because they really needed it, then JJ could have explained how buying him a car and house was no different than John giving someone $20, given JJ's vast access to money. Don't say that, Arbor will kill off Carullo for sure then.

Life gets in the way sometimes.

"I decided that at least it was more fun than watching Stanford get their asses kicked at football." Oh no, there is nothing more fun than watching Stanford get their asses kicked at football.

I like happy middles? I mean I can't say happy endings, right, because there are more chapters to come apparently, so I guess happy middles will have to do. I would have had Jake survive too, but not for Ty's sake, but rather Diane's. I gather Jacob is Diane's only child and it would have crushed her to lose him. I lost a cousin just before he was set to start his senior year of high school and I saw how it crushed my aunt and created a hole in her the rest of her life. She luckily had two other children who helped her along the way. I know if Craig, my deceased cousin, had been her only child, she would have never recovered. But enough maudlin introspection, let's do some cheery speculation. Which of the twins, Derek or Erik (that is how I would have spelled it) noticed the "closeness" of these boys and will later contact the group and confess he is gay and scared, but now more hopeful, since he has seen their interactions. I think Derek. I bet he is hung too. Housekeeping, do you have an editor Jeff? It is okay to abbreviate Doctor as Dr., in fact more common than not. When someone addresses him, as in, "yes Doctor, I'll get right on it", it is okay to capitalize doctor, but when he is talked about, as in, "he is with the doctor", doctor is not capitalized.

Fun fact, less than .5% of commotio cordis deaths in youth sports are from football. Over 40% were in baseball, followed by hockey (12%) and lacrosse (7%). It is usually caused by an implement, a batted baseball, a hockey puck or a lacrosse ball. It was about time for a little drama.... gets more operatic every chapter. Can't wait for the fat lady to sing.

I think my dear friend Mark Arbor would have Gavin and Deputy Chris Jones hooking up in graphic detail 😲

This is a bit of a gay version of Dawson's Creek, the characters are wise and mature beyond their years. However I don't believe for a minute that two healthy, young, gay boys in love could sleep in the same bed and not be exchanging bodily fluids, one way or another. Maybe one time, in special circumstances, but not twice.... Looking forward to how the talk with the team goes.

I am not sure if it is a different take on realty but rather having different agendas. In my family (grandmother, mother, cousins, aunts, uncles) I have a lot of educators. The stories they have of administrators are something between a Tim Burton, M. Night Shyamalan and Jane Austen movie; the palace intrigue, the looking for the next big move to more power and influence and the 'how can I keep my phony baloney job without doing any actual work' agendas and more are all in play. Dr. Davis could be an actual psychologist given they have a doctorate and are a guidance counselor. In the "olden days" when my grandmother started teaching (1952), guidance counselors were rare and those that there were, were usually teachers who were looking to get out of the classroom. By the time my mother started teaching (1979) guidance counselors were common and most had some training/credentials in psychology. In my generation, you see people who actually went to school to become guidance counselors and a lot do have their masters or Phd/Ed.D in psychology and educational specific psychology. A first year guidance counselor with a Masters in my local district starts at $80,000, which ain't bad for a 6 hours a day/192 days a year job.

"The weather was starting to get colder as the season slipped towards the end of fall. Foliage had long lost it’s battle with the change of season leaving much of everything bare, a chill had settled into the air that was becoming a more prominent fixture in the weather as the days had drawn on." I guess I am different, well I know I am, but what I mean is, the section above stood out more than any other in the chapter for me. It is just a beautiful bit of prose. String together 5,879 such sentences and you win a Pulitzer. One side note though, in my experience schools do not have any principles, but they do a Principal 😁

Meh.... Amanda is a literary device, a character that bridges other characters and introduces ideas that no other character can. One of the joys of being an author is getting to create your own universe. The group of friends is a group of friends everyone would love to have; supportive, outward focused, compassionate... not normal characteristics of many teens these days, if you are exposed to them. So it is nice to create the world and friends you'd like to have.

Except... we have no idea what Jacob was going to say, a lot people assume Jacob was going to ask Tyler to be his boyfriend. He might have merely been coming out to him, based on how close they were. His reaction was so extreme not because of rejection as a boyfriend, but because he thought his best friend was going to hate him, which is far worse than rejection.

Okay, so I admit to cheating. I read Chapter 2 already, so I get why Tyler was so forgiving, so quickly. I also understand Jacob's reaction and why he didn't confront Tyler; he thought he fully understood Tyler's feelings already. Being young has nothing to do with it. The "colossal" misunderstanding is a classic literary device. Without it we wouldn't have Othello, Romeo & Juliette, or any operas.

And I think Will would be fooling himself if he thought that. How we perceive ourselves to be and intend our actions to be is very different from how the receiver perceives us and our actions. That is part of the crux of the #metoo movement.

Will meets a fellow wolf and doesn't like it? Too funny.

Yes it is strange to rape someone you like. Personally I would have given Cameron my phone number and asked him to call me and then give a better, detailed explanation (in person, but away from school).

Yeah, I know this is from 8 years ago, but I have to agree with Connor that full on sexual assault seems out of the character that Quinn has been portrayed as. I thought maybe Quinn was going to apologize and come clean, at least partly, but instead he becomes a rapist. Not good.