Mattyboy

Thank you, I though I knew this, but I was thinking about Mike from Canmore.

I'm seeing a "no Tiger shorts in the pool" rule getting drafted in short order, thinking by-the-pants, as it were.

The bros seem to know how to operate their pretty nice house. We didn't pick up from the beginning how bored they probably are out on their rural road - they've got a chance to hang out with new guy, and they're going for it!

Yeah, I feel this. Joel's really not in touch with himself. The "scared-of-everything" dynamic for a teen who isn't ready to come out is believable enough, but Joel's inability to assess his situation is getting weird. If he's blind to social dynamics, I don't get why he'd be worried. If he's not, the path is clear. There haven't been very many days in the timeline so far, I feel Krista may still be in a "showing us" phase although the readers have already been well set up for a bit of narrative advancement. I kinda get the part that Joel hasn't come terms with the fact that he's probably quit his old baseball team. I hope this works out to be an opportunity, especially in combo with a night at the Keplers. That Dad is punishing Westley by making him call, but wouldn't come on the phone himself (and Cody wasn't in the room) is all the information Joel needs about what's going on in Temp-town, and he's able to articulate (woah!) to Celia that he doesn't want to go back to his old school. So it's high time he stops saying that he doesn't know what he's going to do.

That's interesting that the Keplers seem to feel a bit abandoned by their parents as well. That was a fun entendre about showing Joel a good time!

Marty seems very interested in Aunt Hanna- that's come up before, hasn't it ? Marty's knows Hanna from somewhere? Could Marty and Peter be distant cousins?

The way this chapter worked out with Nick having Jack in his arms (and being really sure he's done with Noah) and wanting Jack, but holding back, did make me think that maybe there was something very bad in Nick's backstory that we didn't know about yet. So yeah, maybe you are overthinking that about Nick, but I'm there too.

The flip side of those tuition fees is that Phillips has an endowment of way over a billion dollars (as does many of its peers). Their classes are curated so they have a mix of athletes and scholars and musical kids). If they want you as a student. money isn't a problem.

Also, old Ottawa families that own stuff downtown cuz their ancestors did is a thing. It's rare, but not as rare as you'd think because they don't yap about it too much.

Heaps of student rentals there, lots of old big houses split up to into apartments. People rent out the old maids quarters and stuff.

I had kinda assumed that this would be the substance of the next chapter (and maybe Joel falling off a horse, I'd think).

The funny thing is, Joel's kinda wrong about that. Johnny Lundst and Westley seem to have been suppressed for the moment. People mostly took punchy Joel in their stride at the falls, and felt like Davin would have enjoyed some more company for the day. Gavin clearly wants Joel on their baseball team. Colt-and-the-Keplers-new-friend seems like it would be an okay status at Fletcher.

Ah, I see from chapter 8 that there's a nurse on her way down the hall to tell someone from Team Liberty about Harry.

I was figuring this too. They seem to be in Devon's room, not in Henry's. Glad to hear you're working on it. Angelica seems quite capable, she was just trapped and didn't know before. But this, plus finding Henry is going to add up to a lot. And the twins know about Henry, but aren't in the building anymore. There were many POVs in this chapter, but Henry was neglected. Seems to be his day for that 🥹

As awful as the moment must have been for her, I'm glad Angelica has managed to pull the threads together about her husband. She's still got finding out that Henry's there to go, which may be a comfort to her that he's there and therefore safe, also awful that he's there and she'd not done anything about that.

I agree with your smart point that this portrait of Nick has a very blurred-out background. It's be interesting to see if that was just the focus tightened to the present to move the story along, or if there's more bad stuff back there. The supportive friend gang is excellent, and I think more common in boarding schools than it is in boarding-school-stories. Danny slotting into the empty chair at the table will be excellent for keeping the group dynamic stable (and maybe he can snuggle with Jonah a bit). From the reveal of the number of chapters to go, I can see why you'd think there might be another go-round with Noah. Noah may want the closure of a talk with Nick, but it looks pretty clear that they are broken up now. And Jack has a moral green light to try harder now that this has happened. It's been quite a while since Noah was offering much in the relationship, other than occupying a boyfriend-role in Nick's mind. So there's about no obstacles now to clear sailing with Jack, who definitely should be invited to Nick's (for safety reasons if it needed further justification) for spring break and the summer.

The suicide squeeze is on . . . here's the throw ... here's the play at the plate

This is not the way, @Krista.

That's a fun line about getting the tiger to jump, I bet he will.

I don't think it'll take long, although that's up to our author. Nick was upset about Noah, in a pretty understandable way, but this clears the way for Nick and Jack to get together; the main obstacle to that was Nick wanting to be true to Noah, and that's gone.

Our no-longer-secret-author likes her twists (and the comments section getting into its own twists). But yeah, I think that's what's going so far (pretty much agree with the rest of your assessment too). Krista I feel is being a bit coy about Davin, and (a bit rudely, I thought) says that "polite and diplomatic" isn't mentioned his character profile. But he lists off six things he's ruled out (including kitten-murderer), while very carefully not putting a foot near exactly one particular land-mine.

Roy not knowing anything and Westley apparently not talking seems to add up to Temp Town rumor mill hasn't caught up with this one. "Joel Benton missed batting practice" probably wasn't page 1 news there, either.

mm self-absorbed, but he had a date with his girlfriend, and then his parents ordered him to include new-guy-he-doesn't-know-well, and he doesn't love that idea. So sure. Also sure looks like he doesn't know what's going on, but didn't press Joel on the non-answer part.

We really know very little about Colt. One thing we do know about him is that Trace and Celia have high expectations for him. Remember the box-carrying; Colt can get in trouble for not helping, but it's not inherently all that much fun. Joel isn't up for questions, and Colt doesn't have any answers, but if they go as a group to the falls, questions will be asked, and Colt will held responsible for how that goes, but without any control over that. He may not be enthused about this deal. (I'm guessing he senses that problem but couldn't lay it out that cleanly). Minimally, Joel will be a third wheel attached to whatever Colt's normal falls fun is, and apart from the lawn-mowing relief, Colt doesn't have any experience with Joel being fun.

Celia: “I really do hope this angsty charity case phase runs its course soon,” Well, yes. That would be good.