Lisa

Whew! Thank God Rhyder was ok. Shit, he's lucky, he could have been hurt really badly. I was surprised Mrs. M. folded when Caleb started explaining about Rhyder's riding future. But I can see where Rhyder thinks they will try to get him to stay there. Hmmm, too bad he can't take Bryce along, sort of like collateral. lol They have to realize that he is eighteen now and I don't know how it is in England, but in the states if you're eighteen, you are considered a legal adult and you are your own responsibility; you don't have to listen to your parents. Then of course, as a parent, personally it would kill me if one of my kids just wanted to move across the pond. So I do see his folks' side of things too. Great chapter, Sasha!

Ok, I had to laugh, the name of the cooking school sounded like a disease! Sorry, Cole! I just hear the word 'gastro' and I think of diseases or ailments. lol I wish Chuck weren't so insecure about his cooking. I'm glad Dylan is helping him with the scholarship work. I'm sure he's going to pass at the dinner party with flying colors! Nora will probably offer him a job after dinner. lol =) Oohh, and the two Kelly's will meet. lol I'm glad now that Issac (or is it Isaac, sorry), (Trampolina, lol), and Chuck are getting along.

Otto!!!! Gasp!! I didn't see THAT one coming! lol I figured he wanted to join in, but I didn't know he loved Axel! lol Poor Xavier! I had to laugh when Jake tied his mother up with rope! That was too funny! Just one little critique: I don't think that they used the term, "stress out" back in the 40's. Not sure though. I should Google it...

I laughed when Mark commented on Daniel's prowess with the unknown 'woman' he had in bed the night before. lol You mean Mark didn't hear Daniel screaming, "Oh Sammy! Oh Sammy!" all friggen night long? haha The shit's gonna hit the fan when Sam realizes Daniel doesn't remember anything of the night before, especially telling Sam he loved him! Poor Sam...

Wow, what rock have I been under that I missed so many chapters? lol For slang I'm pretty sure you can write the word out. The astericks are just fucking annoying. lol Sam needs to control his temper and not take his frustrations out on his friends. Hopefully Daniel forgave him. Ok, on to the next chapter...

I just think it's horrible that there are parents out there who would stop loving their child/kick them out/beat them up, etc. if they found out their child was gay. As a parent, I cannot understand why another parent would do something like this. Your child is the same child he/she was five minutes before he told you. What changed? No kid should be so distraught over coming out to anyone, especially their parents, who are supposed to love them unconditionally. I think Grant is very brave for writing the letter to his mom, and also for posting the video on YouTube, where all his friends might have seen it by now. =) And he's also a cutie-patootie. lol

Holy shit, that's not supposed to happen, right? lol I agree with Sanguine; your details are fantastic - I felt like I was there at the rodeo watching Rhyder and Bryce. Rhyder was doing so well, what happened at the end? Wasn't Jase supposed to be watching the steer?????

I'm really proud of Oli for coming out to his friends. That is such a hard thing to do. It's hard enough coming out as gay (and he knows his friends will definitely accept that), but coming out as trans must be one hundred times harder b/c no many people understand it. I'm glad his friends readily accepted what he had to say. He'll need their support when/if he tells his parents. Although, based on the last chapter, I don't think he'll have any problems with that either. Great chapter, James! I'm learning so much!

I was so happy to read a "sequel" to this little story! I'm glad Sam is turning his life around! He deserves to be happy. As for Mark - good riddance to bad garbage. lol I hope Paul can make Sam happy. =)

These boys are certainly not having a good day back at school. I'm glad Mr. Evans is being fair and I'm glad he's punishing those assholes Jarrod, Kyle, James, etc. I'm curious to find out why the coach called them into his office.

Boy, those guys, Kyle, James, etal, really are not making it easy on Matt and Co. They think they're funny but they should be minding their own business. I hope they get in trouble! lol

So maybe it's not the physical act of sex that Andy is seeking (and now Matt), maybe it's the connection to someone else, yes, it's physical, but maybe it's not the sex itself that's attracting A&M, but the closeness they are getting from each other. They're just defining it as sex. Maybe they don't know any better. That's why they both feel empty afterwards; they're not sure what they're looking for. But they are only fifteen, they have their whole lives to figure it out. =) Ok, on to the others I missed reviewing. lol

Damn, I went in to review the latest chapter, only to find there were a lot of chapters I didn't review. Don't know how THAT happened! I thought I had reviewed every chapter. Anyway...Matt is certainly confused in this chapter. He loves what he's doing with Andy, but he also really enjoys being with Gina. And he's only fifteen, there's no reason why he can't do both. =) And Andy is thinking realistically - he can't possibly see how he and Matt could be together all through high school. We'll see what happens in the next chapters...

....and another story I needed Kleenex for! lol This one hit pretty close to home, although luckily the ex didn't abandon our kids. Now it's just ME who hates Father's Day. Anyway...terrific short story, Graeme! =)

Damn, Cole, every chapter of "Porcupines" makes me hungry. lol I need Chuck here to cook for me! Hey, why can't he take out a student loan? Doesn't the cooking school offer financial aid? There's gotta be a way he can work this out. Maybe find a job working in a restaurant, maybe the owner will pay for his schooling if he promises to continue working there. I don't know, it was just a thought. It's too bad Chuck has such low self-esteem even when others are telling him his cooking is fantasic. He should really look around at restaurants though, even Nora's. The more experience he gets, the better he will feel about his cooking. Loved the fact that both boys were thinking the same thing with the kittens. And kttens are so damn cute! Terrific chapter, Cole! Oh, in the review for the last chapter, I accidentally wrote 'the' instead of 'to'. I think I wanted to say, 'On to the next chapter.' Anyway, in my defense, it was after midnight...lol

I can't believe I missed this chapter, Cole. I would think hugs would definitely help. Everyone loves hugs, right? That must have been so scary for Kelli to watch Chuck go through that deep depression. I would like to think that now he has Dylan, his 'scary times' should be waning, but reading your author's note, there are more of them to come. I wonder if Dylan will be able to handle this. Is that what Kelli wanted to talk to him about? Ok, on the chapter twenty.

Graeme, your stories never fail to get me all choked up. Mitchell didn't need well-meaning family members telling him what he should be doing or feeling. All he needed was some divine intervention. I'm glad he bit the bullet and called Tim. Great story, Graeme!

Knowing Marcus' past now, I can certainly understand why he's not big on relationships or trusting and why he needs to feel he's in total control of everything. As he told his father, his father was a bully, a drunkard, and growing up, Marcus didn't have any control over what his father did or said and he couldn't control how his father acted towards his mother. When he finally realized he was taller than his father and he didn't need to stand there and take his shit anymore, he felt better - more in control. When Marcus was with Julien, he totally lost control of his feelings. Julien may have been beautiful and small and whatever, but he wasn't nice to Marcus. Laughing in someone's face when confess their feelings to you is really mean. And then throwing in all the other guys he's screwed around with is just sticking the knife deeper in Marcus' back. No wonder Marcus swore off relationships and love. Julien was the worst person he could have been with for his first time. Marcus buried himself in studying, which he could easily control. He constantly needs to be in control of every situation in his life. He can never just let go and relax, as Adam said. Hey, at least he didn't cut. A lot of kids cut b/c it's the only thing they have control over in their lives. It's very sad. I can see now how Marcus and Jacob's relationship would benefit the both of them. Marcus is in total control of "hurting" Jacob physically and that's what Jacob needs. They are meant for each other. lol Great two fucking chapters, Thorn! lol

I don't know why I didn't see this when it was first posted. Oh yeah, I think the 17th was the day I moved and had no internet. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. lol I am totally NOT put off by all the swearing. I remember my best friend saying 'fuck' for the first time when we were twelve. I guess she found it dirty and taboo and whatnot. I wasn't too thrilled. Not that I was a prude or anything, but I guess I didn't see the reason for it. But now it's years later (not too many, lol, you see by my profile I am only twenty-five, after all. lol), and the f-word comes out of my mouth very frequently. But only when I'm pissed. You should have heard me when the movers left and I realized that they piled all my heavy boxes in my 6x8 kitchen and I couldn't get to the fridge or the sink! I don't think my kid heard me say 'fuck' so many times in a row. lol So Jacob cursing didn't really faze me. Especially when I knew how his language was when he was older. He had to start somewhere, right? I was with Jo Ann with the whole jerking off, sausage in ass, blanket lighting on fire debacle! I was laughing my ass off, almost fell outta my chair. lol Omg, then Jacob gets his dick bandaged in the hospital! And Ollie gets the now-defrosted sausage out of his ass piece by piece. Shit, how embarrassing is that? lol I was saddened though when I read that ten years later they would screw one more time and never speak to each other again. I think that's so sad. Ok, on to Marcus' past. Great job, Thorn! You know, I was just thinking and trying to figure out why readers are so put off by kids cursing. My kids do it all the time. I'll hear them on the phone to their friends, f'ing this and that f''ing that, etc. I guess it just goes in one ear and out the other. All the kids do it. All their friends do it. Not that that means it's right, but seriously, they could be doing a lot worse things than cursing. After all, they are just words. After awhile, they don't mean anything; it's just a way to get out your frustration over a situation, or a way to describe something. lol It loses it's meaning after awhile. And plus I just spent a long time (can't tell you how long since I am only twenty-five you know. hehe), with my ex who used me (and still does), as a scapegoat whenever he's pissed. So reading about Jacob talking nastily to Ollie really didn't faze me either, because I'm so used to be talked to like that. Well, not that the ex ever called me names, he didn't do that, but I could relate to the tone of voice Jacob must have used on Ollie. Ok, enough rambling! On to Marcus' past.

Yes, these writing prompts are definitely not easy. You writers are all amazing.

Even reading it for the second or third time, the ending gave me chills. =)

Loved Carrington's review. Can't beat that. This was definitely perfectly paced. It was really funny with Ben pouring ketchup over Nick and kicking him and whatnot when Nick was on the phone. Ok, on to the next prompt.

Shit, podium! I can't believe I didn't r&r this! I moved last week, but I meant to review the chapter. Sorry. Anyway...I feel so badly for Thomas now. His father is such a douchebag. He must have felt mortified when his father was hitting on Amanda. And she's pretty brave and mouthy! lol Good for her, though! Not only does Thomas' father abuse him, but he was very well prepared to commit another crime with Amanda. He should be in jail. Great chapter, as always, podium!

Kitt, where have you been hiding? This is definitely a horrible subject. I hope old goat "Festus" gets what's coming to him! They should lock him up and throw away the key!

I was going to mention in my review that until you forgive Billy, you won't be able to totally let go of all the anger and move on, but you did mention in chapter two that you forgave him. The anger will just take time. As time passes, the anger, hurt, and sadness will lesson until you can think of Billy and not feel those emotions. Of course, it's only been two months; it's way too soon to even think about moving on. Imo. Just take it day by day. That's all you can do.