Hunter Thomson

I ran from the frat party as quickly as I could. Part of me really wanted to stay and make a more serious effort at joining one of the fraternities based on them actually liking me instead of Bryce giving me a free place because he’s already in one, but with him having just blown me, I didn’t feel comfortable there and assumed that everyone would know what we just did and would say something to me about it, and that my chances were ruined anyway. Vincente saw me leave the frat party and decided

Hey Dayne! Like Graeme, I found things a little confusing at times when going between the two threads of the vocal conversation and the different text conversations. It's a tough thing to do and you did well, I'm not sure what could have been done to make that less confusing to follow, though. It was nice to have a chapter that was just about developing the characters, and it was interesting to me to hear what was going on inside Cory's head about his relationship with 'Rain. It's an interesting point that it seemed that for most of the relationship, it was outside actors who were pushing the relationship into its next phase, and, I'm worried about how Cory's going to take that information into account. It's cute, but if there's something that those two aren't talking about, it could get bad and that worries me. Thanks for posting again so soon, we loves you Dayne!

I actually thought it was pretty cute that Indie was still wearing the little bracelet that Preston got him, even if it was originally meant as a joke. It's a different side to Indie that he obviously tries to lock away, and the sentimentality of it is nice to see in the character you've otherwise so happily named the Iceman.

Hello Skinny; Thanks for the read and review. I wonder though, was Devin really being rational about everything he thought about? While he was certainly thorough, I'm not entirely sure he was all that smart about it, and I can't begin to guess at how I'd have acted in his place. Bryce is a product of where he's come from as well. he's direct and in your face, something his status as an athlete has given him the ability to be, without worrying about how others will treat him. I promise, one day I will write a chapter that doesn't end in a cliffhanger of any kind. Maybe... if we're all lucky.

Hello Jaysalmn; As usual, thank you for reading. I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy this chapter as much as some of the others. With regards to what is going on in Devin's life, think about what had happened to him in The Last Out, and how that might colour his ability to function in potentially sexual situations. We also need to consider the logistics of the relationship, which can be tough for someone who's still adjusting to moving from a town of less than 700 to a city with more than 20,000 people in it. That's not to condone his behaviour, but it is something to think about and consider when judging Devin. Rest assured I'm giving Devin's next interactions with Alex some serious consideration for how that should be scripted and crafted. If you have any particular concerns you'd like to address, I'm always happy to hear them, either as additional reviews or through a private message.

There are some days where you wake up and you just know that it’s going to be a busy, exciting day. Today was one of those days for me; I had a full set of classes again, and a second set of tryouts. The coach had posted who made the first set of cuts the other day. I was glad to finally have that taken care of. It had been a week since the first tryouts, and I was beginning to get worried that I had been cut simply because no one told me what was going on. Bit of a weird week, since Bryce is i

Hiya Robert I can honestly say as a high school teacher, high school is the worst. The kids are at the age where they have a fantastic command of how to hurt people, but they haven't fully developed the cognitive abilities to know that they shouldn't be trying so hard to destroy each other. It's a popularity contest, and everyone has to defend the people in their cliques. Parker's an interesting one, especially since he did graduate high school already. Like I alluded to in The Last Out, job prospects in Colfax and the surrounding area aren't great, that's why Devin was so desperate to get into college. There's a lot of hurt and frustration because of that, and it gets lashed out at innocents sometimes. I had a lot of fun writing from Alex's perspective. I'm not sure I'd do it again, but it was good to see how he was doing since I missed him as a character, and he has his own story to tell as well.

Hi Skinny! It's been my experience that mothers simply *know*. There's no logical reason for it, they just have this sense of where they're supposed to be that's quite awful in how it is always accurate. I can't speak to the characters themselves, but I can speak a bit to the area. Colfax itself is in a very rural part of Washington State; it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Miss Annabelle decided to do something else with at least part of her day, though I'd imagine that someone took her to school in the morning. Alex is a hard character for me to write, in that he's very similar to me at that age. He likes to be the mature and knowledgeable one, but being book smart doesn't always mean that he's going to be good with his people skills. It'll be interesting to see what he does and how he responds, especially since he's still just a teenager. Thanks for reading dearie.

Colfax sucks without Devin. Being a gay fifteen year old in the middle of nowhere sucks, especially when you’re all alone again. I didn’t mind being alone when no one really bothered me, but ever since I started dating Devin everyone knew who I was because everyone knows Devin. And everyone knows Devin because everyone originally thought he was involved in the death of a fellow student of ours. He wasn’t, but school rumours don’t die simply because someone proves they aren’t true. Of course, De

Hello Robert, thanks for stopping in for another read! Alex has always been a little less excitable, and he was definitely the one with more book smarts, but I'm not sure how he'd react if he actually knew what had happened. But then, none of us can really predict how we'd react if we knew our boyfriends were cheating. I know I always said that I'd be okay if my partner was doing things behind my back, and then it happened and I had a complete meltdown. So... maybe Alex is jealous, maybe he's not. It'll probably depend on how he finds out. Bryce is definitely the more forward one between him and Devin. That's not always a bad thing, but in this case it was too much, too fast. More is coming soon, I promise!

Hello Jaysalmn; I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Bryce is a bit of a complicated character. He's obviously much more open about his sexuality than Devin, and that's coming off a bit strong right now. Devin definitely handled things in his own way, and in particular based on what happened in his past. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy the next chapters as they come out.

Walking with Bryce and the other two frat boys was a nice way of getting to the party. Everyone already seemed to know Bryce and his friends, even the ones who were from different fraternities, so they were all friendly towards the group and were smiling a bit at me as well. I didn’t really realize it until now, but the guys at this campus were really fit. Everyone seems to be on a sports team of some kind, or otherwise they spend all their free time in the gym working out. The fraternity guys

There was a blockbusters video 15 minutes from my house. I used to go there every weekend. They even had a silly little program where you could get yourself recorded singing something, which you could then bring home with you. When I was a really small child that was my favourite thing to do, even more fun than renting the movies themselves.

Dear, sweet Drew. I'm sorry for being so late, but I hope your birthday has been full of love and newly cherished memories.

I was never, ever careful at frat parties. Including that one time at the ABC party... I still don't really know how I ended up waking up on the couch the following morning. That was more awkward than it needed to be. Oh, right! Chapter review... >.> It's definitely good that Devin's got a bit of a niche he's trying to fill within the school. I know that it can be hard in the first year and especially the first semester to figure out how you fit in the new, usually much bigger, school. Glad you liked the chapter, Skinny! Should be one next Sunday, that'll be my posting day

I’ve heard people say that there are moments of perfect clarity in your life, where everything seems to be moving in slow motion and you realize that this is a moment that you are always going to remember forever, that no matter what happens after that, you will always have a perfect, crystal clear image of what you were doing in the moment. That was how I felt my walk to the stadium was. Carrying my baseball bag and the duffel with my clothes, everything seemed to be going super slowly, like we

Thank you very much Ancientrichard. I know that once I'm in, it'll be okay. I'm not even worried about being a substitute/supply teacher, I have a lot of teacher friends I can call on for favours to get me days and even weeks of paid work, so I won't want for employment... Hopefully I get to do some good in the world through teaching, perhaps at the prison school.

Eventually I will be back into the social studies department, but at present it's a matter of giving myself enough 'teachables' that I'm even hired to begin with. Social studies is oversaturated with teachers, so I haven't gotten hired by any local boards to teach it. That's in contrast to science, where I can get myself on the sub list and then wait out the bad listings.

In eight hours, I'll be inside a science classroom, watching my new patron teach and taking copious notes about how to do the same when my turn comes. The main thought I've been having during all of the long spring break is "how did this happen?" Not the teaching part. I gathered that would happen when I went to teacher college and graduated with a bachelor of education degree. That part makes sense. But how did I go from being a political scientist, political activist and former candidate to a science teacher? I took my teaching program in civics and history, subjects I actually know something about. Now I'm preparing a lesson on comparative energy sources for a physics class that I'm nowhere near prepared for. I suppose this is similar to how substitute teaching would be as well; no preparation or strategy, just a classroom that you get thrown into and you do your best to work with what's left to you. But, wow. This is hard to consider and deal with, even if this is for the best in terms of my career development. This isn't really where I want to be. I want to be in back in my social studies classroom, where I can mold minds and teach students to think critically about things. I haven't even started teaching in this class yet, and I already miss my social studies practicum when my students would openly debate me about the issues we were discussing.Those were the best moments in class for me, when I could stop everything and have a class debate, or invite my students to come back during lunch or after class to finish arguing a point they passionately believed in. You can't do that in science. A resource is either renewable or its not. Energy conversion formulae are not subject to different perspectives and contexts, they're the same all the time and you either do it right or you don't, but there's no way to say "well, if we consider it from another perspective, here's how it could be". I shudder at the very thought. But, as I said, it's another way into the school system to become a real teacher. All of this is to say that while I know I'll enjoy teaching, wherever I'll end up because of how much I enjoy working with youth, this whole thing is weird. And it makes me miss politics. God, it actually makes me miss being politically involved. That'll be a post for another night. Wish me luck, and for goodness sake, pray that I don't have to do any lab experiments!

Hello Skinny. If I've done a good job of capturing the insanity of the first few days of college, it's because I keep reliving the experience every couple of years. I'm on my third degree now, and I promise that it doesn't get any less crazy with each degree. Even if I know what I'm doing, thousands of freshmen are running around with no clue what they're doing and that inevitably makes things harder for everyone else. I swear I'm going to stop going back one day. Really This is the part about college I'm not actually sure about. I never lived on campus or had a roommate. I lived close enough that I could commute from the family home, and I couldn't really afford to pay the costs of housing, so I commuted 90 minutes each way, every day. I like to think that I've captured the whole living with a roommate situation, but we'll see how that goes. Hopefully someone with more experience in that area can come let me know how it did. Best regards

Hero? Perhaps, but I think right now Devin's just trying to be a good person, not a great person. I remember the first few days of college were insane, just trying to get everything organized. College certainly looks like it's going to be a lot of fun for Devin.

I was panting, out of breath and was in an absolute panic. This was not how I wanted my morning to start, especially on the first day of classes. Getting my books and everything else I needed for school was pretty easy once I got settled in, and moving in a couple days before classes started was definitely one of my better ideas. What was much less smart was to not figure out where all my courses were. Of course I did the campus tour when I was deciding which school to attend. Everyone does that

Oh! I'm so sorry Skinnydragon! I thought I had responded to your review, so my apologies for that. Onto the response... I'm glad that you were able to get through some of the darker parts of the story, I understand where you were coming from and how much that must have been difficult for you to read; it was difficult for me to write as well. As I'm sure many people can identify with, high school is a tough time, and it's very hard to get through the senior year, it's a time of transition and we can see that Devin definitely goes through a number of changes through the story. Alex, just by virtue of being younger, isn't there yet. That'll be interesting to work through, especially with college and adulthood rolling around. Thank you for your read and your review.

Hello Robert. Thanks for reading and your review. If my characters are more diverse, it may only be because colleges are more diverse, and certainly Walla Walla is a larger city than Colfax is, so there's bound to be a bit more diversity of personality and ethnicity. I remember being one of those baseball jocks... or at least playing on the same team as them. They make a lot of noise, but they can be alright when you get to know them. It's just figuring out how to get in with them that can be the problem! Chapters will be arriving... Well, they will be arriving. Still gotta write a whole pile of them first!

Hello Skinnydragon. Thank you for the kind review. With regards to The Last Out, I had thought that the subject matter would be off-putting to some people. Frankly, it was difficult to write some of those scenes, though ultimately cathartic in the end. In the end, writing fiction allows us to explore themes that are hard to deal with, and even just having had the opportunity to explore that issue as a writer made it worthwhile. Not to glorify it, but to understand it and in doing so understand myself a bit better. I hope you read it; the relationship you saw does not continue forever, and it helps inform Devin's character a bit more. It is a hard read for those who have experienced similar things in their lives, though, so I will understand if you only read Extra Innings. College... I'm still in college (8 years and on my third degree ), so I can relate to this story better. I think most people find that they meet all sorts of people who change them for one reason or another, and that they go through drastic changes in who they are. Especially in the freshman year and for people who live away from home. Again, thank you. I'm still working on my writing style and voice, so it's nice to hear that I'm on the right path at least.