B1ue

Well, actually.... Keep in mind, I went to a very small high school. Stardom wasn't exactly difficult. In any case, I did say age and class level were a secondary sort, or as you put it, there were certainly freshmen within the cocoon. But people caught more flack by stepping outside their primary social status than by ignoring ages. A senior nerd could date a freshman nerd, but eyes were raised all around if she were to date a senior stoner. Will might not be the apex of the pecking order when he starts at Gunn (though that will depend on Ella and John, won't it?), but he's certainly going to stand out and be higher ranked than could be expected. Look at how, for instance, Claire was treated in Be Rad. She was a freshman, but she ruled right along side Ace and Brad. And Billy was able to pull rank on at least one person old enough to drive.

That certainly wasn't my experience of high school. Elementary school was towards that, but in high school the social order snapped and realigned not along grades but along interests and activities. I was a freshman second, and a member of the soccer team or whatever first. Judging by how cliques have been described to me, that seems to be how it works more often than not. Age and grade might be a subclassification, but you're a football jock or a AV nerd first.

Yeah, sure. Earlier than that, actually. I remember seeing them around in 8th grade. I'm not sure if my living in the Sierras at the time made my peers more or less likely to be early adopters of the trend, but I distinctly remember a kid moving up form the city with one of those jackets during my freshman year, 1998. I remember because I wanted that jacket like anything, and because pretty much the first thing the kid did was hit on me (not seriously). I was pretty shocked, so much of that day is quite clear. And be nice.

I don't know. A bomb would be an expensive gift that would really get to the heart of how she feels about him. Centex, while I agree with you in spirit, I just can't imagine the senator divorcing his wife. It shouldn't matter at all, but remember Monica Lewinsky impeachment was only a couple years old at this point, and was certainly fresh in everyone's minds. Any charge that he might make against his wife's arguably criminal acts would be countered by his very, very many affairs. It'd be messy as hell, and would tie him up politically when his party needed him the most (Republicans split the Senate with the Democrats after that year, and only for about six months). My worry is that if the Senator were to somehow suffer a mischief, preferably along with his wife's chief-minion, that she'd be the best placed person to take over his seat. Jim Gilmore was the Governor of Virginia just then; he would be within one year the chairman of the Republican national convention. He could be counted on to pick a replacement senator that would rock the political establishment the least. While I don't know of any widows that have stepped into their husband's Senator slot, I can think of several at every other level, including a US Representative (the gentleman that died before the vote yet still won his election springs to mind). That said, I don't really think her mind works like that. It seems that her actions have primarily been motivated by love, as she understands it. True, she's not taking a bullet for any member of her family; protection is also not in her make-up. It's perhaps unfortunate that her would-be minions refuse to follow her scripts, but she really does seem to care about the fate of her family, and making them the best they can be. Her worst crime is that she defines best in overly narrow terms. Edit: And Wikipedia tells me that 7 separate women have filled their deceased husband's senatorial shoes since 1931. So, there's that. Edit2: Further investigation reveals that what I thought had been a Representative seat actually had been a Senate seat. I *did* remember correctly it was during the 2000 election that Mel Carnahan won his seat after his own death, but I hadn't been sure which Bush election that had actually happened.

What stupid lawyers. Asking questions they don't know the answer to, in front of a judge no less. Good for Sean. And for tall, lanky Mexicans named Gabriel everywhere.

I honestly laughed out loud at this. Jack is awesome.

So, I was trolling through Wikipedia to check my memories against analysis of the recall election, and came across this. Do you recall my mentioning that if you got a certain GPA and scored a certain level on SATs or ACTs, you were guaranteed enrollment in a UC? Eligibility in the Local Context was apparently the program I was talking about.

At first, yeah. But after a certain point, he's going to realize that he'll be more able to fight for those ideals and causes, and more effectively stymie his mother, from inside the system. Even propping up his brother or cousin wouldn't work as effectively. He's the Danfield that's openly gay and had a child out of wedlock. He could count on at least politeness from his father's traditional allies, especially if he spent time in his father's wake before doing all this, and use his status and name to begin courting more left organizations that wouldn't give the rest of his family the time of day. To put it another way, there's only so far Senator Danfield can stray from his backer's, even in support of his son, without ticking them off. But Wade wouldn't owe them a thing, as they'd never support him anyways, but he could pull the moderate towards him with his liberal lifestyle combined with his blueblood background. But only he could do it; the rest of his family simply wouldn't have the prereqs for getting liberal support, and would find their support base to be entirely on the right. In any case, I had been talking about Elizabeth's previous plans for Wade. She almost certainly had his life planned out: married to some cool-headed but dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks woman would never dare challenge her authority, shaping him to smoothly take over his father's legacy once the elder Danfield retired. Maybe a state rep seat at first, or something in the governor's cabinet, anything to build his statewide recognition. Perhaps even Lieutenant Governor (since Governors of Virginia can't serve consecutive terms). Stanford must have come as a rude shock to her, and then Matt, and all downhill from there.

It already does, as I've mentioned. In thirty years, when people my age are running corporate America, maybe people won't be automatically as repelled by tattoos and gauged piercings as they are now, but at the moment, those that have them are at a serious disadvantage in sales, marketing, mid-level management, or basically anything that requires another party that might not share your own personal tastes taking you seriously. And it does come down to taste. At the most conservative levels, people that have chosen to make more visible body alterations are unable to look professional. They may look attractive, mind, but that doesn't completely abate the issue.

Seriously. Restraining the urge to punch several of my fellow college students when they spoke of $100,000 limits on their credit cards occupied far too much of my time. On the other hand, I did use the fact that I was generally taller, fitter, and darker than most of the other kids to lean on certain susceptible peers, including my first roommate. Saved me a world of trouble, some times, and let me talk my way out of situations rather than pull out a weapon. Also, yeah. Girls made out. I remember it being a joke that you never saw guys doing the same, and that people wouldn't cheer if they did. There was even an illustrated article about that in my college's newspaper. I'd stopped partying after college; apparently I missed the advent of the emo by just a bit. Too bad. I'll take being partially right on Nana's mental situation. It does sound like she descended into depression, and her daughter yielded to temptation when she saw the opportunity, rather than create it out of whole cloth. While she's ruthless enough to do exactly that, I like this situation better. Wade make a good point. His mom really should have realized how completely the game had changed by now, with him as a player. Old age and treachery will win eventually, but will there be any prizes worth the bother once she does? Or anything next to her relationship with her son, whom she could have puppetted for decades once he'd started running for offices.

As an alternative to Sharon shooting herself, perhaps Mark can at the last moment send Will to, I don't know, Benlo School. Somewhat like Menlo school, but someplace he's completely free to make up the details about.

Mind, Jeanine really was the help. And Will's mother, but there's a defined employee-employer relationship dynamic.

The immediate question I had was, how reliable are Nana's mental abilities? Even if Elizabeth is clearly part crocodile, that doesn't necessarily mean Nana doesn't have problems of her own. She could, for instance, believe her son to still be alive. She could be a real danger to herself or possibly even others, as well as being a victim of her daughter's greed at the same time. So, this could be a simple example of elder abuse, this could also be a situation where there's no clear answer. Elizabeth might not be the ultimate cause of her mother's breakdown, or even her continued debilitation. But it would not be in Elizabeth's makeup to not attempt to wring fullest advantage of the situation when it arose. The character as presented literally could not resist that temptation, doubtless wouldn't even see the point in trying. She might even convince herself it's the responsible thing to do; after all, if she doesn't take control, somone else will. Granted, she doesn't have to take complete control by drugging her own mother, but that's just details.

On a slightly unrelated note, several of these actresses and actors I only recognize because of this thread. With both Lucas Till and Colton Haynes, I saw them do a role recently, and it took me quite some time to remember where the hell I had seen them before.

No one was attacking you. I'm not sure the bold type was exactly necessary to get your point across. And no, I don't think it was you. I could try and dig up the quote, but if I remember correctly, it was from someone in the 40-50 age range speaking about the generation behind him, and his perspective. But, seriously. Calm down.

Okay. I read the above reviews, and I'm thinking something very polite right now. Very, very polite. Not at all a direct attack on another forum poster. Okay, past that now. I found it hilarious that Darius and Will could go to a party still kind of pissed off at each other, but one little dust-up and they're bros again. Boys. (This has happened to me SEVERAL times, except with my sisters and a couple of my close-aged cousins). Edit: I think I'd be alright with Will's story wrapping up with this chapter. He's in a new place, mentally, not totally balanced, but the big climax for him was really the emancipation. Continuing much past that feels like we're heading into the next story, unless we're skipping Will as a narrator for a bit. Acually, no, I may be wrong here. We kind of do need Will to be in a more stable place, in order to have his reactions in the post-9/11 world to have something to be reacting against. I remember someone commented that 9/11 did not seem, to them, to really affect in a life-changing way those the generation that would now be between 20-35 or so. As someone that is right smack in the middle of that age group, I would disagree. The world was totally different by that afternoon.

Some private school do wear uniforms, but no, I haven't noticed all that strict a dress code. It's possible it's a reaction against the fact that most inner-city publics have uniforms.

I look 28. I'm glad I do. I may be less sanguine about looking my own age when I'm 40, but I kind of doubt it. I've usually been pretty happy being whatever age I happened to be at, never wishing I was older or younger.

Except neither of us are old, not even close. Just because I'm not a teenager doesn't mean I'm filing for social security.

Nineties music is oldies now? Great, now I feel old. Thanks Jeremy. I've been trying to put that off for a couple more years.

Before we run further rampant with speculation, as far as I can remember, Tim's correct. Jeanine was pretty normal, albiet a bit pressured with having someone like Will on her hands, until her life basicly exploded at her.

And Marie's primary criterion for a new hire was probably "can I hit that?"

Now you're just being silly here. You don't take away a compromised ID. You track it. Heck, if I'd been in the kid's position, I'd offer the fake ID voluntarily, as a good faith gift that actually costs me little. A new one, one my parent's didn't know the details (or existence) of, would not be all that hard to come by. And if I really needed to use a different identity to run away from my parent's a second time, like Will should be contemplating (not that he should do it, but it'd be poor planning if it wasn't on his list of options), a fake ID they knew about would be the last thing I'd use, as they'd be sure to check it even before my real identity. Edit: That actually stirs another thought to me. I'm not sure if it's occured to any of the characters in the story yet, even including Will, but whatever his maturity level, he has a couple of times, in a couple different ways, demonstrated a suprising level of competence at getting himself out of the control of a person that has every interest in keeping him confined. Considering the assorted enemies he's inherited and will surely make on his own, that's not a wasted talent. I wonder how the second kidnapping attempt will go?

Don't judge me. I just really like this show. Only part 1 of what feels like three parts, but may be only two. And I need to work on the main character's voice: “I realize that I’m probably the last you want to talk to right now,” Allison said to Stiles. She’d arrived to Stiles room unannounced, unwelcomed, and unrepentant, but since that described most of Stiles’s visitors, he was willing to let that go. Her continued existence was another matter. “You got that right,” he said, cutting her off. “Get the hell out of my house.” Her eyes flashed. Not literally, not like Scott’s might have, but the steel spines that let Argent men and women stand strong against the dark showed in her dark eyes and Stiles found himself wanting to flinch. “I realize that,” she continued as if he had said nothing, “but right now I need your help.” They stared, Stiles still furious, Allison’s cooled but still firm. Very slowly, Stiles nodded. It wasn’t in his makeup to not help someone. “Something has been bothering me about the night my aunt died. My dad caught up to us, outside the Hale House, right before she went to kill Scott. He stopped her, reminded her of the code, but she told him that she was only doing what she was told.” “She had orders? From who?” “That was my question too. That, and what those orders were. And who else got them.” “Good questions,” Stiles admitted. With a jerk of his head, he waved Allison into his desk chair as he sat on his bed. “Any ideas?” “My mother, my grandfather. I don’t know who would have been more likely. My father seems to follow the code strictly, but they were both less principled. Had their own agendas.” The pain of losing most of her family flashed across her face, but Stiles was unmoved. Mostly. The pain the Argents inflicted on his father, on Scott, on Scott’s mother, even on Derek, all that kept Stiles from feeling very sorry they were gone. But, still. Allison had been a friend. And they had been her world. So, only mostly unmoved. “Short of a Ouiji board, I don’t think we’re getting much information out of them.” Stiles said, and began to chew on his lip in thought. “No, let’s not try that. With our luck, it might work.” “Actually, I had something else in mind. My mother was too careful to have left records or notes, especially if she was running something behind my father’s back. But my grandfather, I don’t think he would have imagined any of us questioning him.” “Still a pretty crafty guy. And surprisingly good with modern technology. Just looking at him you’d think cars were new-fangled, but no.” “No, he was all for anything that would make it easier to spread mayhem and destruction. And crafty. That’s as good a word as any for him, I guess. So you think he would have covered himself too?” “Won’t hurt to check, but yeah, I think so. But your aunt…careful and your aunt don’t really belong in the same sentence, unless ‘aim’ is in there too.” Lip chewing apparently not enough, he’d moved on to biting the tip of his thumb. Allison nodded. “My mother took charge of putting all my aunt’s things into storage. She said I might want some of it someday, as the pain of her loss faded. I couldn’t imagine then I would ever sympathize enough with Kate to be able to mourn her, but now.” “Now you know better.” “Yes. I know them better, and that. And myself.” She shook her head, unbound black hair spilling forward as the self-pity faded. “So, my father would have the keys to their storage units, maybe even some of their personal papers.” “Did she have a laptop?” At her silent question, Stiles shrugged. “She moved around a lot, and apparently your father kept digital records. If she had a laptop, maybe there’s something important on there.” “What about Derek?” Stiles would later wonder how much he’d given away. Allison was one of the sharpest, observant people he’d ever met. And, annoyingly, as closed as he was open. If she came to any conclusions about why his body and expression tightened when she mentioned that name, she didn’t state them. “Well, he was sleeping with her. Kate mentioned it in passing once. If she had a moment of carelessness or two, one of them might have been with him, if he remembers. He’s about the only one still around who might.” “Except your father. He might know more than he’s told you, things he might not have even known for sure then that he’s reconsidered.” “Yes. And I can ask him. But you’ll need to ask Derek.” “Because he’d kill you?” “Because,” Allison said with a slow smile he hadn’t seen on her in some time, which reminded Stiles of the girl Scott had fallen so hard for, “out of everyone, Derek might actually tell you if you ask.” “Fine. I’ll ask.” No need to ask her what she meant. Why she smiled. Screw her. “Anything else you need from me?” “Help with her laptop, if I find one. Hacking isn’t exactly within my skillset.” “Not mine either.” This time Stiles smiled. “But I know who does know his way around computers. And who would be perfect to ask a favor of him. Assuming I can convince him to play ball.” “I’m sure you’ll give it your all,” Allison said. “I’ve never seen you do less.” She finally, finally stood up to leave. “I’ll call you in a couple days, letting you know where I’m at with all this.” “Fine.” He couldn’t bring himself to wish her luck, or even say goodbye properly. He hoped she never came back. At least, that’s what he told himself, even as he began planning exactly how he was to approach Derek. “What is that?” was Derek’s rather stunned reaction. Stiles had only thought he always felt just a little bit ridiculous. He knew better now; before he’d at least always felt like himself, as terrible and as awkward as that was, this was worse. A t-shirt from before the lacrosse practices had begun having an effect. Skinny blue jeans he’d purchased a couple months ago under the influence of his friends from the Jungle and that he’d worn exactly twice, neither time outside of his bedroom. A choker that used to belong to his mother, “borrowed” from her jewelry case that his father even now kept in their bedroom. Black cherry chapstick he’d bought just today at Lydia’s unexplained insistence that he couldn’t help but lick at constantly. He’d finally cracked and asked her advice on the best way to approach the terminally grumpy, figuring her experience with Jackson would stand him in good stead, and this was the result. “What? I think I look pretty good.” Stiles tried to sound like he meant it, little use as it was to lie to a werewolf. “Liar.” Derek still sounded stunned, but his eyes were getting at least a little less wide. His gaze was still taking in the total effect of Stiles’s look. “You do look good though. I’ve just never seen you try to look good like this before. What is the occasion, you going out with Danny again?” That was new. This was all new. Stiles dropping by to see Derek for no particular reason. Stiles going out with Danny, because Danny needed a wing man and Jackson, Isaac, and Scott couldn’t act laidback if you paid them. Derek grudgingly at first and then more naturally paying Stiles attention and compliments, in a way that raised a couple eyebrows in the pack. Stiles had not yet tried to make anything with this new status, but after talking with Allison, and then Lydia, here he was. And if they had been wrong, he had maybe twenty seconds to live. “Later, maybe. We talked about it.” Which was true, they decided not to, but they could change their minds. “Actually, I was wondering if I could ask you a couple questions. Personal ones, but important for some research I’m doing.” Derek looked confused, but not hostile. “I guess that might be alright. Why don’t you come inside with me? It’s getting too hot to work anyways.” Stiles admired the work Derek had put into restoring his family’s home. It wouldn’t, from what he remembers, look quite like it had before the fire. He’d eventually just knocked down and paved over one old section that would never be sound again, and added a deck along the northern wall. The paint, he promised, would be blue on grey instead of brown on white. Stiles could have told him it wouldn’t be enough, but maybe that didn’t matter. Maybe he just needed to be doing something constructive, and making his family’s home his own gave him something that just making what was left of their pack his own did not. He was doing most of the work, but not all of it. Scott, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd all turned up now and then to lend a hand. Chris Argent had spent all of a weekend helping to lay wiring down. Danny and Jackson had come by, but left quickly; neither being all that great with manual labor. Allison had not shown up at all, proving she was at least as smart as she was good looking. Stiles might be willing to cooperate once his curiosity was engaged, but Derek tended to blame her for not only her own actions, but her mother’s and aunt’s as well. Stiles considered acting like he’d come up with the questions on his own for that reason, but doing that would be too close to lying, and Allison wasn’t worth risking whatever this was building between him and Derek. Better to be honest, if blunt. “I’m here to talk about Kate, Derek.” Derek was never the most effusive, but his voice was even flatter than normal as he answered. “There is nothing to say about her. Ever.” “We were talking about her, and things aren’t adding up completely. What did she think she was doing?” “She thought she was murdering my family. And she succeeded.” Heat was creeping into his voice, but Derek was so controlled his expression did not flicker, though he did look away. “Are you asking if there was any clue, any sign she was thinking this when I was with her? No. Nothing I can pin down. I’ve spent years crawling back and forth in my memories, trying to find that one thing I missed, the lie I should have detected, but there isn’t one.” He covered his eyes with his large hand, and it took almost more strength than Stiles had to not try and take it into his own. Then he wondered why he was stopping himself, and did take it. Derek said the rest looking straight into his eyes. “She was the perfect product of her family. A born to betray, betray me and mine. She made no mistakes where I could detect them, except for missing Laura and I.” “I’m sorry, but I had to ask. What she did doesn’t match the ideals of Chris or even Victoria. So we wanted to know if there was something else, something organized, that we might have to watch for.” “Not that I know of. She may have just been crazy, like her father, but I’ve long since decided that Victoria and Chris were the exceptions, and most other hunters were like Kate. “Which is why I don’t trust Allison. She doesn’t have her father’s values. Which leaves Kate’s. I’m guessing she was what brought this up?” Stiles nodded. “She started to worry whose orders Kate was following.” “I’m sorry. I can’t help you. Now get out.” “What?” “I’m not stupid, Stiles. Neither is Allison, I take it, if she dressed you like that and had you ask me about her aunt. I don’t like playing other people, like you did to Danny, and I really don’t like it when someone does it to me. So get out. Don’t come back before I seek you out, or attracted to you or not, I will hurt you.” Stiles found himself in his jeep with no exact memory of how he got there. His mind was almost completely blank, except for the words “attracted,” chased by “Get out.” He wanted to hate Allison for that, for opening those doors in his emotions with the same action that closed them. But he was too self-honest for that. She might have put the question in his head, but his own curiosity asked it. Decided to test Derek. It was hard to see the road as he drove, with all those tears that refused to fall standing in his eyes. Three days later, Allison entered Stiles’s room without knocking. “Can’t a guy sleep?” he asked her, as she once again took a seat at his desk. Her eyebrow quirked up. “It’s barely 4 o’clock,” she observed. Stiles just grunted in response. He’d slept a lot, the last couple of days. Tried to, anyways. Allison patiently waited for him to sit up and talked to her. He noticed she moved less, like a true hunter. She was never like him, all energy and chatter, but the more he saw her the more it bothered him. Eventually he gave in, standing up to turn on the light. It was a measure of Allison’s new nature that she didn’t respond to his near-naked body. Getting dressed seemed like too much effort lately, especially if he was going to wind up right back in bed once his father left for the day. Showering had been too much effort, too. He couldn’t quite bring himself to care. “Derek didn’t know anything. He said, and I quote, that Kate was the perfect product of your family. For some reason, it didn’t sound like a compliment, coming from him.” She nodded, like that didn’t surprise her. “We’re trained in various techniques, I’m learning. Some of them involve going undercover.” “Do they include betraying your friends?” he couldn’t help but snap. “They include keeping your emotions so checked it’s hard to have real friends, as real friends have a tendency to become real dead when you are least ready for it. So, yes.” Stiles sighed. Things like that made it harder and easier to hate her. “So, he didn’t have anything. I don’t have anything. You can go any time.” “After I share this,” she said, pulling a tape recorder out of her pocket. It’d been a while since Stiles had seen anyone but his dad with one of those, but he was totally unsurprised Allison had one around. “Is it a confession?” he asked. “Of a sort. I talked to my dad. I figured it would help later if I could play it back, so I could really think about what he was telling me.” “That’s kind of awesome, and a little bit scary too.” And he was once again reminded how different from his guest he was when he couldn’t stop his next thought from crossing his face. “Did you record the last time we talked? Are you recording us now?” In answer, Allison pulled a second recorder from the pocket on her other side. She waved it at him a little, before putting it back away. He decided she was at least 80% evil now, minimum. “So, anyways. I wanted you to listen to it, if you could. You’re the closest person I know to being a cop. Maybe you’ll pick up on something I missed.” “Here I thought you never missed.” A laughing smile erupted before she could stop it. “Maybe,” she said as she set the recorder down to play.

I'm not disagreeing with you entirely, because that is pretty typical teenage behavoir, but how much of it is because he's a teenager, and how much of it is because he's him? Or to put another way, is it expected that he will grow out of it, or into it, if this is still an aspect of the person he has most strongly modeled himself on?