Mark Ponyboy Peters

@Summerabbacat ahhh ... the memories!

@Summerabbacat and wasn't he just The Bomb back then!!! lol

Thank you @Summerabbacat. After you've read the final chapter (epilogue) tell me then where we go! PS ... I do have ideas! Even a very rough draft!

I probably would have tried to put a poster over the offending spot! LOL MP

-- Chapter Five -- With summer rapidly approaching, so were the auditions for our school’s annual production, with Miss Carlton reminding Charlie every chance she got. Charlie’s dad came and went, due to his job, and we had settled back into our routine of spending afternoons at either his place or mine, or occasionally staying back after school for Charlie to receive some help from Miss Carlton with preparing for the upcoming auditions. To be perfectly honest

Oh, I WAS swearing like a banshee! LOL. Like I said, I was just lucky I had notes and scenes saved in other files! LOL

@Summerabbacat TBH I have no freakin' idea! This was over 20 years ago, you know! lol I suspect there must have been some reference to some similar kind of place name, but I can't recall. As for the character names, yes I know I was going for variations on 'regular' names we would be used to ... eg Willem / William. I also wanted to use some names that "might" sound like they come from different "cultures" so that there was no set region that people might associate the story setting with. Sorry there wasn't a new chapter tonight ... I was about 3,000 words in on Thursday, and on schedule, then when I opened it again Friday the whole file was corrupt. Lost the lot, despite trying various data recovery tools. Thankfully I had my notes and some bits and pieces written, so I typed out the chapter in dot point form and started writing it again, as close to what I had lost as possible. I'm back at 3000 words again now, so hopefully I'll get it finished tomorrow and can send it for editing! MP

-- Chapter Four -- ‘Brayden! Your mum is leaving,’ we heard a short while later, just as Charlie had finished changing out of his school clothes, so we both thundered down the stairs and outside to where the two women were still talking. They both looked at us and smiled as we pulled to a stop beside them. Mum put an arm around my shoulders and Charlie put his arm around his grandmother’s waist, before she then hugged him close. ‘They really haven’t been any trouble so far,’ Nan B

Great stuff! Congratulations @Jeff Burton

@drsawzall @weinerdog @Summerabbacat ... and anyone else who may me interested ... a possible future story idea ...

No, I did not know all that.

Fernando was my favourite ABBA song ... it had a story! (Swedish Country... who ever heard of such a thing? lol)

@Summerabbacat did I not send you the picture of the 'unholy Trinity' for a later story??? These lads are inseparable already, trust me! Maybe I should share that image? And yes . . . I remember Fernando very well . . . it and Bohemian Rhapsody swapped places a couple of times as I recall.

-- Chapter Twenty -- The land grew harder as they rode on. It wasn’t hostile, just less . . . forgiving. As they reached higher country, drawing closer and closer to Highshaw, the nights cooled and the ground offered fewer easy camps. As the roads narrowed, turning to tracks in places, it demanded more attention from the riders, and in ways it hadn’t previously. It was Enoch who remarked on it first. ‘This is where missions stop being stories, and become journeys that will be reme

I still won't be buying a ticket for the AFL pre-game show though ... just sayin! lol

If Nan stays there for Easter, she'll just throw a tea-towel over it!

@Summerabbacat have I said "keep reading" yet?

Interesting idea @weinerdog I wish I'd thought of that! hahaha!

@centexhairysub absolutely correct. And even those who may be comfortable in their own skin may still have reservations about actually coming out and letting it be known, which you will find out more about as the story unfolds.

@Summerabbacat just keep readin' lad There are only 8 chapters in total.....

@Summerabbacat very noice

So, Crimson and Ruby, huh? In a fatal threesome with Judayah perhaps Delicious ... but no. I already have plans for him! LOL

-- Chapter Three -- There was a new poster on the drama room noticeboard when we arrived for our next class on Wednesday of the following week. It was a picture of a young Prince; handsome, a crown perched up on his unruly blond locks, blue eyes and giving the impression of an almost haughty character. I had to look twice when I saw it there. This Prince was a dead-ringer for Charlie. ‘When did you pose for that photo?’ I asked him as we studied the poster. Some of our classmates

-- Chapter Nineteen -- The riders of Septimus fanned out from Castle Carronne, like dark wings across the land; north and south along the coast and the inland trade roads, spreading out into the farmlands, then west toward the Plains of Ashmere and the mountains where nestled the old bastion of Highshaw. To the east, lay the Dark Sea, which beat endlessly against the rocks. It was monitored for departing or arriving boats, of all sizes. No path was left unwatched. No traveller pa

-- Chapter Two -- When Charlie and I spoke on the Sunday night we had arranged to meet at his place and walk to school together the next morning. When I rang their front doorbell that morning the heavy wooden door was answered by a woman who looked nothing like the grandmother I had expected to see. The woman looking out at me didn’t even look old enough to be a grandmother. She had straight grey hair, but she looked more like an office worker; smartly dressed and with a neat hairdo. B