Paladin

Ouch! According to Google I shouldn't put Vick's Salve anywhere near my nose. Should I not believe Google?

It certainly smells.

I was suspecting we were going down the path of words referring to land based mammals. But @Myr is far more inclusive than that and now we are venturing into deep water. Other than being the base for that Zodiac sign Pisces, in English it is fish. Now fish is one of those few English words which as a noun is both singular and plural. Of course it is also a verb for something fish don't like. Fishes rather than being a simple plural describes a collection of different species of fish. Of course the homonym fishers is also something even a collection of species of fish doesn't like.

Names are Leo. I've no idea how to work out their Zodiac sign. Of course using the Chinese Zodiac the equivalent would be Tiger.

On GA we have three authors who are "Leo". I wonder how many members are a "Leo"?

Joshua's mumbled comment was “And I’m not going to do what men would pay me money for.” So he is aware what some men will pay adolescents for and seems determined not to do that. It also explains why he was so reluctant to accept money off Jordan. His interest in Olivia indicates that he is straight and as @Summerabbacat commented, Joshua came to Stingray Heads to commit suicide and would think he didn't need any money.

It's certainly going to be a full house and with a successful young drag queen in the mix. What a hoot! Loved the chapter and agree that ex from hell can go to hell.

@Summerabbacat your understanding of Joshua's comments is correct including his parents response to Adam's death. As I've already commented,.more about Joshua's parents in part 2. Again it had to be an emotional chapter and that means reading it can elicit emotional responses. Emotional responses display our humanity. ❤️ Placed in top 10 for the month. Only possible because of all you readers. Remember there are a lot of remarkable stories on GA. Please keep reading them.

I'm amazed how words can easily take me own a rabbit hole, or in this case a fox hole. As far as I could find all the words in English starting with vulp . are variations of vulpine and related to fox. A surprising discovery (at least for me) is that there is a star constellation called (you guessed it) the Vulpecula constellation or simply The Fox. It is a faint constellation in the northern sky (the 55th out of 88 in size) . Even so it still was identified in the 17th century.

Yes @VBlew The mystery surrounding Jordan has been revealed and understood. There is no indication that Joshua's parents owned a holiday house in Stingray Heads. They would have rented a holiday house. More about them in Part 2

Yes @Mark Ponyboy Peters we now know what happened so now what?

You were right that this chapter had to be emotional. Disclosure. I don't have shares in Kleenex. I'm pleased that you want more of this story and to find out if fate is has more in store for them.

I'm sorry but you will have to wait until Part 2 to learn more about Joshua's parents, but that is not far away.

Cameron moved swiftly and knelt beside Jordan. He wrapped his arm over Jordan’s shoulders and reassuringly pulled Jordan against his chest. Jordan continued to sob, and Cameron continued to hold him. Joshua took a step back and looked, stunned and concerned at the sight in front of him. He came to Stingray Heads with the expectation that no one would know him, and he could anonymously die. Instead, he met people who cared about him and whom he had come to care about. One of those people was

Interesting thought. Cottontail did perform extremely competently on Jamie's live stream.

That would be a very obvious and non subtle disclosure, which would be very unlikely, but there are many other ways to disclose or compromise a secret. We have seen the misinformation and misdirection Mac has engaged in at the dog park to prevent their secret being revealed or suspicions being aroused. The older generation has counselled Mac and Devin about their interaction with their obnoxious neighbour, again so as to not compromise their secret or make her anymore suspicious than she is already. So far there has not been any indication that Mac's mother has a filter for what she says. Just saying.

I totally agree with your house's rating. Over the years Arnott's have have tried a lot of different flavours for Tim Tams, often with little success. One year they won a Shonky Award for Peanut Butter Tim Tams which didn't contain any peanut butter. The filling was a mixture of paprika, flavouring and colouring. We have Twix here.

I agree with everyone that Mac had to tell his parents at some stage. This was a "rip the bandaid off" disclosure, so the parents had to be stunned and surprised and need time to comprehend and accept. Hopefully it will bring the two families even closer together. Now to swear Mac's mum to secrecy and have her keep the secret.

Yes, it is difficult to compare traumas @Cane23 and a good reason for not doing so. As @Summerabbacat has commented Micah has suffered his trauma, at least recently, alone while the boys at the farm had one another (and especially Oliver) for support. If I have the timelines right Micah has been subjected to his trauma for a lot longer than the boys on the farm. Arturo has been living this abuse for all of his 16 years. His response to his trauma is resignation and wishing for death. Responses to trauma are individual. To each person it is internally devastatingly real, something their outward behaviour may or may not reveal. To see that responses to trauma are individual we only have to look at the different ways people respond to and cope with the same traumatic event be it a mass shooting, war or natural disasters. Let's just accept that all the boys are experiencing trauma and PTSD and are trying to deal with it in their own way, and will need massive help and support to recover.

So now we have a link into another suit in this deck of cards; Clubs. I hope Arturo's "escort" has been detained and the FBI can get to interrogate him. We find out that Micah's mum was in "witness protection" when she was killed and Micah pulled into the Club's clutches. Not much "witness protection" which could point to some more corrupt law enforcement officers. The Liberty Academy is working well and now there is someone with the knowledge and skills to set up the school. Great chapter.

I'm with you on that @drsawzall. Harris is flirting very freely and doesn't seem in anyway upset by a recent breakup. Hmmm

But I bet she finds happiness.

You'll make us blush @Summerabbacat Bonza job @Mark Ponyboy Peters

An interesting start to this story. I wonder what limits there are to her ability to find missing things. Kevan and Jeremy need to be more careful with the borrowed magazines. But then maybe Neil needs to be more careful as well.

It's Friday night here so my TGIF state of exhaustion tells me I need a glass of wine, a simple meal and then sleep. That gay club will have to wait.