B1ue

Please forgive my bluntness, but that's thinking like a parent, not a teenager. To put it another way, you see the outcome as something that is in JJ's hands, correct? He keeps his act together, he goes ice skating, nothing changes, right? That's not necessarily how he'd see it though. In that situation, I would have already seen ice skating in its entirety as stolen from me. Maybe I'd get a few crumbs, if my guardian of the day felt like it, but my future career as a skater is now no longer determined by how much effort I put into it. Instead, it is dependent on that guardian's whims, on whether or not he thinks it is important. Let me make a similar comparison. Say you got a job as a teenager, a real one, and put your money in an account that you opened for yourself. Six months into it, after saving up for, say, a car, you try to pull money out only to find out that your parents have completely locked you out of access to that money. "You're our responsibility," they explain, and refuse to either give you partial control or allow you to keep your money or open a different account. In fact, if the check fails to reach the account every week, they'll take all of it as you can't be trusted. Oh, if you are good, and do exactly what they say when they say it, they'll let you have access to the money. Probably, unless they're busy or don't feel like it. And by the way, they don't think you having a car is appropriate, even if the entire reason you have a job is to buy and maintain that car. All that, while annoying, is probably reasonable if you have trustworthy parents. Now, add a further dimension to it. From JJ's perspective, I don't think Brad or Wade would count as trustworthy. Not that they'd count as abusive, but both of them have "proven" from JJ's perspective that they don't give a damn about JJ in general or ice-skating in particular. The only people JJ could depend on, except Tiffany, are either dead or will be completely across the country from him, and Tiffany is going to be busy.

The problem is that someone else has already decided for him that he can live without it. Eventually, it's going to occur to him that his younger brother doesn't have to live on someone else's sufferance, or depend on someone else's competence. While I would agree with the characters (and, probably, all of the forum's posters) that JJ is being a brat, he's not exactly wrong in his assessment of Wade's character for the last couple of weeks. Also, using something that central to his life as an opening shot is probably not the wisest move, or one calculated to do anything but up the stakes all around. But, then, that's Brad for you.

Nonsense. He'd never wait that long. He'll try a different tact. If nothing else, this confrontation has proved that Brad and the rest of the family have a handle with which they can try to control him. I don't know about you, but my default reaction to finding such a handle is to destroy it, whatever the personal consequences. I mean, if JJ's career is going to get destroyed either way, why let Brad or Wade do it? Why not do it himself, on his own terms, to the greatest possible effect and hurting as many targets as possible?

Ironically, I now own a couple tank tops. I've been taking yoga classes, and a tank top is an acceptable compromise between sweating excessively into a t-shirt or just going shirtless. I was not thrilled to learn that, with a shirt that does not take my shoulder breadth into account, I wear a size small. I fit into an extra small, but I just know I'd break the flimsy little thing if it was tight as well as tiny.

As a matter of fact, I was one of the first passengers when they opened the Red Line subway. My dad worked for MTA, so all of their families were invited to attend the opening weekend event, and we did so. As I recall, I was completely unimpressed. But, nah, it's fine. I don't even think about when I ride the subway. I don't do it very often, since I rarely go downtown, but it's no big deal to me. Edit: It's very hard to overstate how much a nonevent an earthquake is to most Californians. You hear about the bigger earthquakes, I'm sure, but do you realize that there are smaller earthquakes happening here pretty much all the time? Feeling a small shake is a weekly to daily event. I don't even get out of bed for anything less than a Mercalli 5.

That's pretty awesome. And, might not be TOO far off. One of the dedicated gasoline taxes for LA County is for light rail and other transit projects, so it might acquire funding quicker than you'd expect. Just depends on what politician wants to make it their pet project, and who they convince to support their delusions of grandeur. I am a little concerned though, because light rails are expensive to operate and maintain, as well as build. But, well, we'll see how it goes.

While for most people, I would agree with you Henson, for Brad and Will there are other complications. Brad is a control freak that likes to control other people specifically. He's been doing that, in one way or another, since becoming a narrator. He also likes to control information, and make a situation where he has it all and only dispenses what he feels other people need to know. I think it's important for Will, over and above everyone else aside from Stef, to show Brad that such tactics are not going to be allowed. Plus, Brad can stonewall Will all he wants, but Will can as well. Once he's been emancipated, does Brad still have a legal right to know Will's medical history? Reminding Brad about that particular set up is probably to the general good.

I do not wear tank tops. Tank tops are for people that don't see gyms as torture. And I have no idea what flat fronts are, so likely no.

On a semi-related note, has anyone questioned why Zach is so dead set on becoming a professional football player? Is it to become rich? Famous? Independent of his parents and their community? To be seen as successful in a way that few can dispute? I ask, because some of those motivations, Will simply won't have the mindset needed to get. Particularly if Zach needs to be seen as successful; we see in his interactions with JJ that while Will is prepared to humor his brother, he doesn't really understand him. Some of those motivations have also changed since Robbie passed away, and I wonder if Zach has been so focused on this one path he might not have noticed his options have opened up.

Wasn't implying that it was a bad thing. It's just a thing.

Actually, yes. Presumably, he is making all that effort. He's apparently a world class surfer, with near daily practices for a while, he just never bothered to actually compete because it wasn't important to be seen as a winner. He knew he was good, and that is evidentially enough. One thing that Will lacks in his character is the need to be seen as a winner, or anything at all, really. He can give a damn how other people perceive him, as long as that perception doesn't interfere with his long term goals. Compare that to Brad, who takes pride in being a butch jerk, or JJ's careful mask, or Matt's self perception of a someone at their physical prime, or Stef's joy in being beautiful, or even JP's and Wade's shared need to be coolly commanding. None of that applies to Will. He's curious because he has no default persona that he projects, he just doesn't care. Although he is developing a tendency to see himself as right all the time, but with JP making small attempts to curb it, I don't know how if this will be a permanent feature or something the character will eventual drop.

I am guessing that Alex rejected Wade, but *why* he rejected him is probably important. Because he's not attracted/interested, or because his own sense of honor precludes poaching on taken men?

No, actually. I agree with yours and Mark's assessments that they are basically straight. I seem to have failed to have made that clear, so my apologies. What I meant by it not excluding them is that total heterosexuality does not seem to, in this story, take them off the table as potential hook ups. Having a relationship might be more difficult, but I more or less think that's what JP had with Andre, so even there... In the case of Alex, even if he is completely heterosexual, (which, given his lineage, hah), he might not remain immune to Wade's considerable charms. Either way, we'll have to see how it plays out. Wade appearing at the end of this chapter threw my calculations off.

Well, if we're nitpicking, from Timothy's review Both Ace and Frank messed around with guys at some point in their lives, so even 100% heterosexuality doesn't completely exclude them.

And for a demonstration of how difficult that ideal can be in practice, please scroll upwards.

Sure. Oh, they called it "intellectual debate" but it was really cat fighting.

What I find decidedly ironic amid this discussion of relative maturity is that, were any of us to come upon some teenagers Will's age arguing like we all are about characters on an internet serial, we would take this as evidence that they are completely immature and not ready to face real life. Again, it should be noted that I took several classes in this kind of catfighting, so the irony is not new to me.

I'm going to stay out of this for the most part, except to also put in that I don't see Will as mature as the narrative insists I believe (a change from my initial stance when Will started to become a major character), but I will comment on this aspect. I hate that Will smokes pot. I, in fact, hate it that Brad and JP indulge in the habit as well. This has nothing to do with a rational analysis of benefits and pitfalls of smoking, and entirely to do with my own experiences with people that smoked it, including my immediate family members (I'm pretty much the only person I know personally that has never smoked). Despite my distaste, I don't count it against Will. Even if he had never sought emancipation, and was just as agreeable on the surface as JJ, he would probably still smoke just as much, because all of his potential guardians and role models have no problem with it. While in reality, I think it would be a useful point to debate someone's character, in the context of this story it's pretty silly. Smoking pot is about as risqué, and defiant, as breathing.

Nah, I'll just get fat instead.

I admit, I did not think of Kennedy on my own. I met these two young sisters named Madison and Kennedy once. I briefly considered asking their mother if a boy would have been named Garfield, but sense reasserted itself in time.

But why would they want to name their child after an X-man? Also, Kennedy would fit the theme better, wouldn't it? Plus it would piss Elizabeth off, no minor consideration in its own right.

Yay! An interesting chart. So it *isn't* my imagination that I run into Christophers everywhere. That name seems to have hit the center of its popularity right around the same time I was born. ...It's because The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was released about ten years prior, spawning a franchise and household name, isn't it?

Only one had to be a shot of skinny jeans. The other was specifically of me not in skinny jeans. And, before you judge my taste, I didn't actually buy those cargo pants. Actually, I'm not sure who did. After a party sophomore year (so, early 2004), they were on the floor of my roommate's bedroom. Since none of us knew who they belonged to, I claimed them, because why not?

Well then. You do remember how sarcastic I am, right?

Nice of you to say, but not really. Unfortunately, it's somewhat difficult to actually find clothing that fits me in a price range I am comfortable with. Most clothing, in the places I shop at least, long enough to fit my legs and torso, and wide enough for my neck, is cut for someone a lot bigger around the waist than I am, so it tends to look baggy. Dress shirts are a particular pain; luckily I can skate by with polos and sweaters at work at my current seniority. If I wind up stuck with another promotion, things might get ugly.