Krista

You're welcome. I am a bit ashamed if some of y'all thought that meant there'd be another chapter this weekend. Unfortunately, I'm busy... cleaning, shopping. My brain has been so drained that I just want to turn it off and focus on other things. The joke with Braden wasn't supposed to be a big thing at all. Just a stupid little comment, because Colt is a teenager and they say stupid things. Davin doesn't flaunt his sexuality. He's just a bundle of energy. There's differences between the twins that she probably notices. Gavin and Colt have successfully convinced girls to put with them. Davin doesn't seem as persistent with that or prioritizing it as much. If she notices anything, it might be that Davin is more sensitive to how his parents have treated him than Gavin is. And maybe if you were to ask her which of them are Colt's best friend, she'd probably answer with Davin. But that may be as deep as her thinking goes with that. Celia is more of a listener. She asks low-pressure questions to keep Joel talking, but she didn't put a lot of pressure on him to give her information that he wasn't willing to give. So, I don't think, even if she had any assumptions that she'd add pressure to Davin just to validate that. It is something that feels very self-serving to me, especially coming from a parent. It is one of the quickest ways to put distance between people. For me, the only time I cross that line is if I think the person is close to a crisis. Since Davin doesn't seem close to any sort of self-harm or crisis, there isn't a reason for her to act.

A relationship. I was shaking my head through a lot of Episode 2. Good character dynamics... mind you. But yes... I shooketh my head.

I don't want to burst any bubbles... So I'll just scoot right out of this comment. ... and I know with me saying that I don't want to burst any bubbles, likely popped them anyway.

I'm slightly confused by "no mention of him reacting after realizing what he'd done?" Because Colt did apologize to Joel a couple of times in the chaos of that scene. Then he kind of scooted out of there. Colt tends to bottle things up, a bit like Joel. When it comes out though, it comes out. Like the scene on the river bank, he had bottled up not wanting to continue to do ranch work after high school. That he had other plans. He kind of exploded and spilled all of that out with Joel, then went right into picking at the reason why Joel was there. Then here, in a lighter setting, he made that joke without thinking about the consequences. Or do you mean Joel didn't react to Colt? Because that was intentional. In the moment he forgot that everyone in the room didn't know that Davin already knew. So it hit him kind of late that he was supposed to have some sort of reaction. So he kind of frowned about it. Either way, I may be having a blond moment or a bit of author blindness with that scene.

On terms that make better sense for him. That's something he's not been able to find for himself for awhile now. It has forced him to plan ahead, probably in more detail that he had before. Still trying to find a place for him to settle mentally. Thank you for saying that I do this well with him. I struggled to reel in logical steps, time, and expectations. Sometimes I think I focused too heavily on that. Colt does have a big mouth. When he talks he doesn't waste the words. He's had a few examples when he was informative. It is almost as if he lives between silence and spilling his guts.

Lol. I was more concerned with the strut than the position. I mean, that's mostly the reason why I watch baseball. Nice 'form' on that first baseman too.

I was going to ask you about this the other day. The other trailers I've watched has kept my interest. I do not have HBO Max though. Do I pay a subscription just to watch it though?

yeah, if they were to look up I'm pretty certain a bad idea would smack them right in the face.

Going for the curveball. It could be cute for him to be the one that knows Joel the best and read him like an open book about Davin.

Yeah, if the boys started talking in that moment I think it would have went the way of chaotic. Luckily Davin still had food on his plate that he wanted to get back to. Colt was stuck in shock and apologies. And Joel was pretending to be shocked after remembering that Davin wasn't supposed to know despite what they've been up to. If anything the lack of chaos might throw Trace and Celia for a loop when they settle in for the evening to talk. In my head I see them decompressing and talking about their days before bed every night... because they're a perfect marriage on display and I hate them for it. To think I almost made Colt the Jaxton-type. Not Jockish, but a constant anti-voice. The one bothered by Joel's presence. I decided not to. That might have fed more Colt theories. Enemies to lovers... and all that. He's still grumpy and had his cold 'I don't care' sentiments about Joel mixed in. Joel may be slowly proving himself to Colt, or at least not being as scared around him so Colt 'can' take more of an interest in him. I think they were both stand-offish with one another based on annoyance/avoidance indifference and a tiny bit of fear. I have an interesting thought and opinion of Davin. It was brought up with me by Wildthing the other day when we were discussing the 'new' chapters. I can't say much about all that though. Your opinion of him does make me smile though. And the more guesses I read, I'm seeing more of you think Gavin will be the first to catch them out. Or say something. Colt if he's away from Sierra and wants to be around family does notice things. Boob blindness must really be a thing...

I do tend to spiral a bit. I think the story is close to over 250k now... I don't see my writing as this big groundbreaking fresh-idea sort of writing. Maybe the more correct word would be.... humble? Simple? I've been here since 2006ish and I'm still amazed when y'all take the time to read my writing.

Davin seems to be slightly paranoid that may be the case. He just doesn't know which way Gavin would go about it... quietly or loudly. Gavin seems to do things a bit... loud. Subtle is lacking with both of them to be fair.

I have my rare moments.

Yes, he has noticed the world around him a bit more and that includes cute faces in the crowd. It does seem like there's been a bit of him waking up all together. Celia is likely a slight favorite in the minds on who will figure it out. Lacey is interesting. She seems to bounce around the house. Maybe if she did it a bit quieter she'd catch them out. Cody... I have a bouncing in my head idea about Cody. We've seen so little of him for so long.

It is a 25kish monster of a chapter. That chapter... of course with the additional three to five chapters ahead of it, I'll have to go back and see if I oopsie double covered anything.

Not bad guesses. Celia and Trace are pretty damn perceptive. Lorianne seems to be a people watcher too...

I mean, I could skip over those chapters. They weren't in the writing before two-ish weeks ago as it is. It will save me two chapters worth of writing, because I still am well aware I need to do the writing for them. And the chapters scare me anyway.. lol.

Well.. that's scary.. lol. Don't know how to .gif respond with this one.. haha. Let's see... he's on the way dear, hold on!

Thank you all for the Thanksgiving Day wishes as well. I hope those in the world that celebrates that tomorrow has a great one as well. Safe travels. I've felt so blessed with the response to this little story so far. It has been a lot more than I ever would have expected.

He's showing more sides of himself other than being guided by fear and being completely closed in on himself. Still on the fence if that means he's settling in better, or just moving away from all that into a different direction.

He may only be somewhat obvious by people who know who Joel is as well. Colt knows about Joel, and Colt seems to also consider that Braden is an attractive guy. Colt is heterosexual, Joel is not. That's the difference between those thought processes. Naturally Colt is going to pick at him for it, because he's a teenage guy and teenage guys do that. It's just with Joel, it's other guys he's poking fun of him about. But Roy, if he caught Joel staring at Lorianne (which he does do), or the Ames twins, then he'd probably make a similar joke. So what we know can and often does influence such things. It is nice that Joel is in an environment that everyone feels safe to make such light hearted jokes of that nature. If Cody had made a joke like that at the Benton table, it would have landed like a stick of dynamite. Small as it seemed to be, it should show Joel where he stands with them. They all recovered after Davin made it clear he was accepting of Joel and they went on about their day. And yeah, it is safe to say both Joel and Davin got a 'feel' for what they can offer one another. *whistles*

He did make a small attempt to get Colt thinking about talking with Trace and Celia about his future plans. We don't know what those plans are though. Well I do, y'all don't. The one thing I do know about teenagers, they are good at making bad decisions. We need to all stop and be thankful about GA being the place that it is. Where we can all share our writing, reading, advice, and live in a good online community. These little communities are getting fewer.

Yeah, his frustrations with how he was being treated was picking at him pretty good. At least he went this route and not the route he told Davin he was going down. He'd be pretty banged up trying to kick all their asses and show them he's not a pushover. If I was a parent I'd pick public stunt over physical altercations, at least. Although I doubt a lot of people in that school will take that stunt lightly, least of all the ones that was sort of made the ass of that joke in the process. I had that scene going a lot differently. I originally wrote Reynart tracking him down and stopping him before he got to the cafeteria to begin with. Thinking his little stunt had gone far enough. It had swept through the whole school, I thought with that being an ingredient that she certainly would want to put that to bed sooner rather than later. Wildthing told me that she came across completely unfair with him and as I read it, I agreed. He wasn't doing anything really, just wearing a uniform shirt. Being from the wrong school wasn't technically breaking a rule, so for her to pull him aside and demand him change his clothes made her read differently. Something also needed to happen from that stunt outside of possibly being reprimanded. I rewrote that scene including the chant, having Roy be part of their stunt, and then the talk being slightly different. Her being more understanding to what he was attempting to do instead of focusing on weighing any kind of punishment. I don't think she'd continue being so forgiving if he keeps up such shenanigans though. Her words of, "this needs to end here.." shouldn't be taken lightly with him.

sigh... two attempts to post and the not posting bug kept biting me... Let's hope the boy, early in his growing pains doesn't backslide on us. It would be like Joel to do that. I do wonder who you all think will be the first one to figure them out...