jkwsquirrel

Summer is my favorite time of year. I was so glad to finish the school year and head into June. Those weeks would go by all too quickly, so I wanted to savor each and every day. We had our first Alliance meeting before the end of the year. I was proud of Danny. He really had his stuff together. There were about ten kids who came to the meeting. Many of them, I knew they were gay or lesbian. Ryan was there, of course, and a junior from band named Kyle McHenry. There were a couple of kids who

It's litty, yo!!!!!11 Yeet yeet!!! Errr... I mean... Nah, I'm just going to go now...

Thanks! I loved Jake's reaction to the apology. It was kind of badass.

And sometimes the best kids have the worst parents. Weird.

Thanks! Lots of developments, for sure!

Thank you so much for these kind words. I've been amazed by the reaction to this story. Truly, it means a lot to me and has kept me going! And no one is more amazed than me that it's come together so well! It's giving me something to do rather than sit at home and think about the state of the world. It's a different experience than the way I've written before. With WAR, I had the first three books completely written before I sent the first chapter in. Even Aiden's World I had just about finished before I started publishing it. I kind of tried writing this free style to see if I could. I kind of expected it to be a train wreck, to be honest. I think the "episodic" nature of the story lends itself to the way I'm writing it. If I get trapped, I can just skip a few months and Jake can tell you how it went. It has been fun to see how things developed in ways I never expected. I name dropped Nick Jenkins back in chapter 1 with the expectation that he'd have Ryan's role in the story. Then Ryan came along and I had to find a way to bring Nick up in a different way. Justin was going to be a super douche, but he turned out just to be a dunce. I've also had the opportunity to read comments and switch things up on the fly, like the whole "yeet" thing, which has taken on a life of its own! All that said, I don't think I would have been able to write this way without having done WAR first. I wouldn't recommend trying to write and publish on the fly to an inexperienced writer. I've managed to avoid the dreaded "WB," but this thing could have very easily crashed and burned. It still could, which makes it kind of exciting!

You'll find no judgment here. LOL I love Ryan's ever evolving slang.

They definitely do Kiss Cam at PNC Park. They'll also put up random crowd shots between innings. Have you seen the video of the couple who are on the Kiss Cam and he gets down on one knee in front of his girl and then ties his shoe? Hilarious!

It was litty! I thought about the kiss cam, but it was a little too much of a stretch. Would have been funny though!

There's definitely more to him than first appeared. A complex man, for sure.

I'm not going there! LOL 😆 I'm guessing many people have experienced something like this. It's funny how we experience some of the same events in our lives, or at least similar circumstances.

Lydia and Danny's relationship seemed to be built on physical attraction, and not much else. I think Lydia was beginning to figure things out in the last chapter, the way she reacted to Jake and Danny's fighting, and her "He's my man not yours" defense. I don't see it as Danny suddenly deciding to come out to her, more like her coming to him and forcing the issue, not angry, but wanting answers.

I tried to capture than sense of not belonging anywhere here. It's not just that he's been uncertain, but that now everyone else is going to be uncertain about him.

You know, I was torn between writing a nice romantic scene or this. This just seemed to fit these characters better and I'm glad it went in this direction! I like that Ryan is a strong, fit young man who is the most gentle and sweet kid inside - shy until you get to know him, and then he never shuts up.

I like this analysis. Will Danny regret pairing Ryan and Jake together now that he is no longer in a relationship himself?

I love contrasting characters and playing them off each other. I like to think that most of the time characters like Jake and Danny get along great and with little drama, but when things do get dramatic we get to see how it plays out here for our enjoyment!

Maybe he read WAR? lol! Seriously though, I'm just assuming Danny heard things when he was little from his dad talking about school board stuff with his mom, and Mr. Rossi, being an advocate, would know the story of what happened.

I thought so too!

Can't you see Billy showing up at the polls for his first election at 7:30 with all the old people? Can't you see Brett not realizing it was election day until Thursday afternoon? "Oh crap, that was this week?"

This conversation made writing this story worth it! 😅

I tried to avoid the phrase "came in my pants." And of course, next chapter will help us understand Ryan's parental situation better!

I seriously looked up 2016 teenage slang on Google. 😆

I'm glad to do it!

Are you saying I might have been inspired by these comment conversations to write that last little scene? Or that I had a certain person in mind when Jake said "I'm getting too old for this?" Impossible! I deny everything! 😆😆😆

“The board… reluctantly… approves item 17-85 allowing the creation of an LGBTQ alliance,” old man Taylor announced. He quickly moved on to the next item for business. “I don’t know what was so reluctant about it,” Danny said to me as we walked toward his father’s car after the school board meeting ended. “He was the only one who voted against us.” I loosened my tie and took off my suit coat. Mom had just bought that suit for Christmas and it was already getting to be too small as I’d gro