B1ue

Depends on when his birthday falls, but yeah. And that's kind of funny how far off your mental estimate is. You really did stick at age 20, didn't you? Or is all the research into obscure pop hits from 2000 skew your mental clock? And, wow, but I thought of popular dance music from when I was twelve. All three verses of Macarena flashed through my memory, so perhaps it's not an unreasonable request.

Tim would have been about 12 in 1990. I turned 6 that year.

You said it better than I could, Centex. Really great chapter, Mark.

It's not a bad influence. Bitches just can't handle their sunshine.

I was a bit young and virulently anti-drug during those times, but what Tim says rings true.

I would guess that is more likely than the Pentagon internship, though I'd wonder why he'd want to do that when Stef and Brad would be willing to have a place made for him in one of the Bay Area companies. I am curious how whoever winds up there winds up there. I thought the line of reasoning to have Stef or Brad involved in an a company opening up, particularly since they are expanding towards the East coast in Defense contracts side of things, was probably the best explanation. I still don't think it's likely, but with Mark saying "something happens," I can think that all I want and it won't change a thing.

Half my family, siblings included, has been in Iraq this time or the last time. One uncle has gone both go rounds. But we weren't talking about that. There were also several historical events in the saga where the family just watched them on TV. Often not, but they weren't in everything. I don't think it would be unexpected for a family with few, and tenuous, scorned ones at that, East Coast connections to be little affected by 09/11, on a personal basis at least. And Tim, Centex wasn't arguing against the senator knowing Olsen or his wife on at least a professional level. He's saying Wade wouldn't know her, except in passing. And what do you mean the senator wasn't blue blood? Weren't the Danfields politians and major landholders from colony days?

I, as I already stated last year, see Centex's side on this. The family does not have to know anyone who was killed to feel the tragedy as their own. Of course, this mirrors my own experience; my family and friends as as insularly Californian as they come. I can't name a single person who had a direct or indirect connection to the deaths on 9/11. But it wasn't like we did not mourn or pray or rage anyways. The entire world was affected, after all. Just not personally.

Unlikely doesn't mean impossible though. I ran the names of my entire family through that voyager thing. The msot popular name, my own, didn't crack 150 per million children. Mostly our names are in the 2-3 per million. I also sort of question what databases they are drawing from, as my first name is fairly common in Spanish speaking areas. Much more common than the English translation, but this thing said the English version was 3 times as popular. Also, did you mean "following decades?" Preceding, I think, means the ones that come before the one in question.

I think it's perfectly reasonable for WIll to act like that. 10 months is, what, 7% of your total life at 13? *does the math* okay, 6.4%. Still, a pretty big chunk of life difference. And they also grew up together. 10 months is a much bigger gap at 2-3 years old, when (if I remember my developmental psychology right) they would have begun establishing their relational identities. At that time, they would have thought of themselves as a year apart, and probably just haven't thought about it since.

I'm the opposite, I can't stand writing. Mostly because I'm not practiced enough to be fast at it, but there it is. Also, fine motor control like that is extremely taxing on me. Seriously, threading a needle can give me a minor headache. So I print. Sloppily. I type when I can get away with it.

Coincidentally At the time I was absolutely appalled Jeremy was skimping the country content, and was determined to suggest something. That this was a current hit was part of the draw.

Oh, I get where you're coming from. I'm having a difficult time separating myself from Will, because except where I knew my parents were (and are) basically smarter than I am, he is quite similar to how I was at 13. I actually think this would be most helpful. And Jeremy needs to pick theme songs for each major character (narrators allowed up to one for each of their stories), with the stipulation that any time period the character was or is presumed will be alive is eligible to be drawn from.

JJ, of course. Bright enough to connect the dots and pissy enough to actually say it.

I'm not saying there's a threat at this moment. I am saying that I can imagine one character or another pushing things to the point where there is one, and Will chosing to leave rather than fight it further. Again, that's not at all my experiences growing up. I chose to skip and test out of several classes in order to free up my schedule for the clubs I wanted to participate in, chose which high school I wanted to go to, and schools in an entirely different part of California were on that menu if I wanted them to be. District rules are laughably easy to get around; all you need is an address in the right area, or the compliance of the school board, which can be had if you build your case correctly. Where I lived was of course a factor; rougly half of trhe kids I went to 8th grade with went to an out of district high school, but some of my cousins in Los Angeles wanted a similar transfer, and got it. I did negotiate my own curfew. I also didn't abuse it once I had done so. Also, my parent's didn't even know what schools exactly I had applied to for college until after I'd picked. Neither of them went to college, how would they, natively intelligent and experienced as they were (which I never doubted, actually, I didn't go through any point where I thought my parents were idiots), have been of help?

To put it bluntly, a threat to his well being is pretty much what I meant. There's not to many ways you can force behavoir on someone, if they're willing to pay the price for their stubborness and unwilling to admit wrong. I think a case can be made that these particular parents, especially in the last year, have not proven themselves capable of making good, informed decisions about relationships. And how is he supposed to figure out how to make such decisions if he doesn't make them himself? Though it pains me to hold Brad up as some sort of paragon, but in this instance, he's doing a more right thing. He's attempting to explain to Will where he's wrong, and giving Will credit enough to treat him as if he was his own person. Jeanine is not giving Will that kind of credit, treating him more as an obstacle or decoration than child. In fairness, that's how he treats her too, so I can't exaclty say she's unreasonable in doing so. I'm not sure I can agree with you, and it runs quite contrary to my own experiences, that a parent's place is to directly run their teenager's life. But it may be your word choice, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant not quite what I think you said. Some teenagers may need more constraints and boundaries, but I picked my own classes, sports, and failed or succeeded on my own before intervention from higher. Heck, my sisters and I picked which high school we wanted to go to. Your verb "run," in my mind, implies all such choices should remain the parent's, down to the smallest detail, and the teenager gets to do exactly what they are told and nothing else.

Leave aside the right and wrong of his methods for a moment. He's self-entitled and full of himself; there's no questioning that. But consider, isn't he right? Isn't he quite correct that both Jeanine and Brad have let things go too long, allowed Will to be his own person for a very long time and are attempting to correct his behavior simply because they can? I'll allow that Brad, on the surface at least, thinks he ought to be more involved with Will's life. That's fine. But it isn't something I would have let my parents attempt unchallenged, and the limits my parent's imposed on me were done earlier and with less caprice. The conflict is, in my eyes, pretty authentic. Will has drawn a line in the sand, and what exactly are his parent's options at this point? Will may have been the one to make it an either/or situtation, but they're culpale there too, and in any case it doesn't really matter. They can either go along and try to compromise within the limits that Will allows, or they can try to force him into compliance. And, yeah, that'd go well. Will would (and it is prefectly within his means to do so) run away from home to one of his other relatives, and if there was evidence that they were trying to control his behavior by means subtle or brutal, I doubt not they'd side with Will. Further, how many options does will have in addressing these greivances? Jeanine will not listen to him, this is well established and an unquestioned assumption by not just one character. And, what of their greater experience? Will isn't trying to run a business, or buy a house. He's trying to run his own life, try to develop a relationship, and to finally get out of the line of fire of Jeanine's anger. She's admittedly and demonstrably less of a parent to Will than the children that are not even her own by blood. Who wouldn't want to escape that? What Will is asking for isn't even outrageous or uncommon, or something that both of Will's father's did not have at similar point's in their own lives, FOR SIMILAR REASONS. It's one thing to dislike Will's manner. To dismiss his legitimate complaints as acting spoiled is to not really get the situation or the characters.

Except Jeremy isn't 35. He's 25. Anyways, embrace your age! Just think, in a couple years, you'll be able to scoff at the crap music kids listen to, and tell them they should listen to real stuff, with lyrics that actually have meaning and artists that were made famous by their talent and persistence, not youtube.

Thank you for the review. Yes, that's one of my favorite country songs as well. These, and I believe all but one of my stories in the archive, were ones that I wrote for the anthologies and used the same characters from the beginning of Khayyam's senior year of high school up to this story, where he's in his mid-twenties. I don't know if I ever explicitly said so, but Khayyam and Satar are half-Persian/Iranian on their father's side, and half white on their mother's. The other characters are all white.

One point, every single surfer I knew in high school and college also skateboarded. And, as I've said before, I went to UCSB, so that's a lot of surfers. Admittedly, the reverse was not true, but both also snowboarded when I'd go with them, the silly fools. I wasn't really part of either group, so I can't say for certain if there was an intense rivalry between them, but there seemed to be an awful lot of skateboards to account for.

thanks! That's a great remix.

If you have not heard this singer, I reccomend you look her up. Her songs remind me a bit of Disco, especially in " ," and I mean that as a compliment. There's songs that will make me want to dance. This song just makes me dance, in the way that I first learned, where I didn't give a flying f**k who was watching or who laughed, it was me and the music and the fire and shadows of everyone else. Since I've a tendency to recount dreams here, I'll do so again. I was being questioned, demanded answers of in my own home. They wanted to know who it was I'd brought home Friday night. As I work Friday nights, and am worringly private about my personal space, the answer was no one. This was not an acceptabe response. I don't know if they thought I was harboring a criminal, or was a criminal, or what, but it didn't matter. I finally realized they onyl wanted an excuse to dragme away, and that gave them one. Salt in the wound, I'd been getting out of the shower when they came to my door, and they picked my lock before I could open the door for them. They barely let me put pants on before they took me away. And I don't think the main agent wanted to give me that opportunity, but the local police were a bit agitated, and his partner intereceded, giving her permission when I asked. I don't think she was a hero though. I think she was setting me up in her own way.

I was speaking more about his mentality towards his sport. One can play football for the fun of it, and I'd not consider them a jock. But someone who is totally dedicated to their sport, who lives and breathes it, then yeah, I'd consider them a jokc, even if they played something like golf.

Just checking, but does JJ count as both a jock AND a bitchy twink? As for the skater/punk guy, what do you think Will is? He may not skate, yet, but it's coming.

If it wasn't Will or Gathan, I could probably handle it. Will doesn't seem the type to get excited by academic achievement. He seems more willing to just work as hard as he can, and get what he gets, without the need to win at it. Gathan though, Gathan might be more tempted. And we've already established him as damaged goods, so yeah. I could see him losing himself that way. f**k. Now I'm sad.