Mattyboy

Aha that's cool. That makes sense too about the district record that Jackson was happy after the meet, but didn't actually mention the record to his parents. He's cool about that kinda stuff, but some times are good enough you mention 'em. And so moving up in the US from regions there's the 59 sections and the 4 zones? (I was nowhere near as good a swimmer as your characters, I was the waterpolo player filling out the relays and doing backstroke cuz it wasn't a cool stroke for the club kids.) I like the way you're handling that, it has a nice broad appeal- could be anywhere from western New York down to Tennessee- a bit Rust-Belty and it snows, but we can plug in our own visions. Mm, I guess not a million miles from Georgia.

mhmm, I feel maybe Brody and Will both "work for the Solicitor General"? (shhh). Nobody who isn't from Ottawa knows what that means, right?

He might have been talking to Peter in the garden

Greenwood continues to be a gem.

mm, very supportive.

Hockey team took care of their own business, for once. And I buy that 7th graders were vague on how credentialled Will was when he taught them. I buy that scene from Vanguard #18. Sports have changed a lot in the last while.

Hehe this is a hilariously original "coming out" arc. New to me, anyhow.

'phods! Those were the days!

There's a bus station in Merrickville with throngs of people? Like, the Merrickville in eastern Ontario? Loving the story but, um? Glad Peter is safe, though

Krista, I used to swim a bit so I know the feel of the races, it wasn't in the US. Can you give me a ballpark on what a district record vs a regional record look like? Like, are those multi-state blocks? or multiple regions in a state?

If the school is on Mom's way to work, maybe she can just pull in and see Mr Welker then. That was clever of Ally to get into the photos of Jackson in the office, that will deflect a lot of blame. I was wondering why Jackson was being the last to be told by Connor what the prank was, but it makes a lot of sense, other than using his name, he hasn't actually left a lot of fingerprints on this. It would have been even smarter of the kids to send him over to the Tate's for the evening, but teens, ya' know.

Interesting with these silent confrontations with the Major. Must be tortuous for Will, but in some ways he's winning big. The Major had nothing much on him the night he left except that phone call from Jenny - his community at both the church and his wife's family know he's behaved badly, and he doesn't have the slightest argument he can use to justify himself. And thanks to Brody's house and Gran's cheques, Will's walked and never needed him. And I'd need to scroll back , but I think has said nothing except maybe "Merry Christmas" at the church Abusers hate it when they've taken a public turn at treating someone badly and they can't blame it on the victim.

Outstanding line about the croutons.

This is fun! I'm glad we're back to regularly scheduled programming!

Love the "stolen moments" interactions! I'm feeling starved for information about what the heck's going on over at Luke's house and what the hell Welker and Yolanda are thinking! Which is Jacksonland, so it's great, but argh!

Perhaps the turn of the calendar will bring the muse of back-to-school stories back to your writing space. Nate and Bodie have been waiting and getting ready for their big day starting at high school for what seems like years now!! I promise to go on a like-sprinkling mission in a bit.

So, as a new reader, I'd like to let you know I've caught up, and you don't need to wait for me anymore. That was superbly polite of you, but please carry on, then.

Oh boy, you nailed the old Ontario patter with Mrs B. I was hearing Mary Walsh for a while, but that was pure Upper Canadian there, both the rhythm and the vocab. Outstanding.

Ha, I wondered if we'd see a Senators jersey on one of Chet and Arron. And those were the Erik Karlsson years! Thanks for the notes in the comments that Song and Dance was starting, it was fun to flip back and forth.

The best thing is that Kendall's assault of Lanny gets cancelled out. Hockey players suing other hockey players for on ice stuff is tricky but it can be done. I Hehe, just looked at the OHA rules, and as I thought, you can only be penalized for things you do to your opponents. Punching and slashing your teammates is considered rude but is not prohibited by rule. Maybe unsportsmanlike conduct could be bent to fit, but by the letter of the (hockey) law, Kendall was good to go, here.

Thank you. (And it's so great to be able to binge this- I see at the time your cliff-hangers had people pretty antsy!) Also, I feel there ought to be a "Canadian" or "Canadian Gothic" tag available for stories.

This felt very real to me, actually. One of my closest high school friends had a (quite big, I understand) crush on me all through high school (not as close as Kendall and Mike, but we shared a lot). A bit later he came out, and he assumed that we were done being friends. It's one of my big life regrets, now. I've tried since to tell him that I want to be friends, and that I'm open to any shared time together or more, and I've never gotten anywhere. I don't think he has a life-partner, I've wondered if he's into some kind of extreme kink that he thinks I couldn't handle, or if I was too crude when we first had "that" conversation. But I think it's that we spent so long in asexual intimacy that he can't think of me that way. And it fucking sucks. He's gay and open and brilliantly smart and used to crush on me. The only idea I've ever seen him not be able to get his head around is that I'd love him back. Great story Headstall, guess I'm late to the party again.

The race description was extremely good. Thank you for representing gay people in sports as serious athletes.

Viv, I take it you haven't been around here for a while, so don't know if you'll see this note. This story is very beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with us.

I'm still looking for that rugby game, too! I woulda hit you with the Chekhov thing on introducing all those rugby players and sending your characters to rugby practices and having them join clubs.... and no rugby games get played Northern Hemisphere rugby games get played. But I've done that thing that I'm trying to organize a game and we've got 15 registered players and 15 guys with boots and shirts and 15 guys at the park .... AND its 45 different people. So I totally know those guys (or they're on my list but I haven't met them, y'know, cuz I ditched practice).