Al Norris

Peter never had a choice. He may never have noticed anything about his supposed maturity but it's there nonetheless. Being the oldest of seven, he was the proverbial "Man of the house" even when his mother would deny that aspect. He was responsible for his siblings, even when she said he was irresponsible.

I would remind you that Peter had a partial meltdown when he first arrived at Uncle George's house with his paternal grandparents. Even then, Peter had not voiced his life as he did here.

@Mancunian, I like how you have deduced Pete's ability. Your last little missive is a fair warning. Young love, first love, is almost always full of joy and fear, often at the same time.

Much of what Pete is, what he can do, what he likes, can be blamed (if you want to use that word) on the attitude of his mother. Like all children, Pete has tried everything he can to get approval and acceptance from his mother. Along the way, he found he actually liked doing some of the things he tried. Since he received neither encouragement nor denial, he just kept doing what he was good at. When she did start disapproving of what he did, he had already discovered he liked doing that (those?) thing(s), so he kept doing it. As bad a parent as she was, she actually helped to define his skillset. All without knowing what was going on in Pete's life. Uncle George, on the other hand, praises Pete for just about everything he does. That was something I learned about garlic at an early age. We will never know how his mother felt about the meals Pete cooked. She doesn't figure in Pete's life as we move forward. This is something I have tried to bring out. George is a great parent.

I'm betting that Prince George wants to give Greg a public, "Well Done."

Dorothy Thomas loved the flowers! After the introductions were completed, Mitch helped me bring in everything we bought for the meal yesterday. Of course, Mrs. Thomas had to come to the kitchen to be sure we knew where everything was. Uncle George and Mr. Thomas, not wanting to miss anything, just followed the crowd. After a few minutes, I glanced at my watch and with a cheeky grin, spoke up. “OK everyone, we need to get started. There will be a 5-minute photo op, and then everyone is

Even though we're left wondering about Simon, it's nice to see that Byron's fickle anger may yet be his undoing. My problem is that I don't like Auren any more than Byron. That and I believe that Simon could handle Bryon more easily than Auren.

With apologies to Keith Richards and Mick Jagger?

Uh Oh! Somebody is in serious trouble! Way past time, in my opinion... But what do I know?

I knew after writing about the training, that there would be some comments about it. There are definite cultural differences between Americans and much of the rest of the world. The State of Nevada is such a place, outside of Reno or Las Vegas.

Hunter Thompson fan, I see.

Elko is an interesting place. Cattlemen and those that work with them are generally considered "rednecks;" that is, conservatives but not right-wing bible-thumping conservatives. Those in and around town are more of the liberal type. Not so much left-wing types but Jeffersonian liberals.

That's what the cream and the cream cheese is for. I don't think I gave the recipe for that, but I can if you really want it.

Peter told me, while writing this chapter, that not everything about his life was thrills and spills!

Oh, it is!

If Peter had stayed at home, I doubt he would have been able to hide his sexuality for 3 more years. The feces would have hit the rotating blades.

When I got home, I settled in at the kitchen table to do my homework. I didn’t have much, except the paper for AP English. So I sorta breezed through math and then history, which was mostly just reading. I opened up my browser to do more research on the differences between Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. After another half hour, I felt I had read enough to understand their views and now had enough references to start writing the paper. It was slower going than usual. It was kinda like that Ch

Thank you.

I had hoped that chapter 7 would be posted by now. It's been in the moderation queue since Sunday afternoon. I remember @kbois griping about that in one of her stories... Now I know why! LOL!!! All things considered, it's likely a good thing Peter is young: Meaning he should heal faster than an adult. So am I! Actually, Pete doesn't have it as bad as he would have in other places. Bad enough, yes, but it could be a lot worse.

And to think this all started as a short (but sad) Christmas story (essentially, a shorter prologue) back in 2021!

This is a nice continuation (?) of the two prior stories. Almost makes me wonder if a larger story can't be made with these three chapters...

If they were naked, they would find that they were kept very warm... Warm enough for certain activities! Things seemed to be going well until... The crew was having too good of a time. I think Murphy's Law just struck. As an aside, if it was early enough in the spring that (some) snow was still on the ground, I would have been looking for any creeks that fed the lake. Nothing tastes better than early-season brookies! Six to ten-inch (pan size) tender pink meat, fried with onions... YUM!

This is such a departure from the original version. I simply love it! It is so much better @Justin4Fun.

So, this Votu Vomir is the land of vampires who serve the most powerful vampire, the Demon Belothemid. I can see why the Wizards made war against them.

It appears that Julian is a match for Yidian. Will Julian be able to banish the demon? That would really free Simon.