Mark Arbour

Marie is a beautiful and charming, a princess, and has undoubtedly been treated that way. Now that she's moving into high school, things that may have been overlooked in the past simply aren't acceptable.

Rest assured that the topic of Will's emancipation will be raised. That glass houses thing is pretty inconvenient sometimes. :-)

Yep...setting the scene. Or scenes. I don't think Will is going to be that upset about Maddy moving to New Jersey. It's definitely farther than Malibu, but she's not there at Escorial with him anymore. I think distance is distance in this situation.

What you're saying, and what Jeremy mentioned too, is that it's easy for Will to have this incredibly logical and correct viewpoint when it's never happened to him. If/when it does, then he'll understand.

And I think Will would acknowledge that. As he sees it, though, the issue is between him and the guy he's with. I'll bet he freaks out just as bad as his father if he's on the receiving end of infidelity.

I think you credit adults with having a lot more influence over the lives and minds of teens. But it's good to think positive, so I'm with you.

June 14, 2001 I’d slept in late, waking up just to pop a pain pill and then doze off. It wasn’t until lunch that I roused myself, threw on some clothes, and went up to eat. No one was around except the staff, which seemed kind of strange for Escorial, which was usually full of people. I walked outside and gazed back at this massive building that I called home. It had been built in the 1920s, apparently inspired by Hearst’s San Simeon, when huge houses were the thing. Over t

Holy shit, that's a lot of writing. Wow.

You make some good observations here. I don't think Will is going to be all that worried about padding his CV. Even though colleges are more competitive, he has enough influence behind him to get beyond that. Remember that he has family connections with many of the most prestigious private universities, and JP is bound to have a lot of friends beyond Stanford. I doubt that would weigh on his mind.

Literature? That's a bit beyond my league, Tim, but I am flattered. I don't see myself doing a religious protagonist, but I have had characters dabble in it. When Brad hooked up with Father Tim (Millennium), he let his mind wander down that road. I got some great input from Father Harry on how to frame that conversation, and it was pretty interesting. Thanks. What I've tried to do with most of these characters is to give some sort of internal challenge to grapple with, and that inevitably runs into the moral/ethical/philosophical dilemmas. With Will, it's more interesting to me because he's evolving more rapidly. Sometimes people say they'll change, try to change, but never really change (like Brad with his control issues). But a guy who's almost 15 is more malleable. He can learn from his mistakes. One of the biggest complaints I've gotten about Will is that his temper gets out of control. This isn't unusual for an adolescent male. Something I have some personal experience with. But I find that can fade pretty quickly as a guy matures, and I think that can happen to Will.

Yeah, and there was a time when Jimmy Carter was president. I'm not keen on that either. Will is going to figure this out in his own way. Part of the fun of writing a character like him is following him through these epiphanies of life.

I think that Wade's issues with Jeff have less to do with embarrassment but more to do with Wade's perception of how Jeff is in a relationship. Jeff's come a long way since he and Wade hooked up, but Wade hasn't seen those changes in Jeff. I can't see the Danfields forcing Wade to stay involved in polo. They'd have other things on their plate, and were probably just hoping their despondent son wouldn't totally flip out. Will knows that Tony is dealing with a bunch of issues regarding his sexuality. He's been willing to cut Tony some slack on that, and I suspect that's what we see here. Plus, i assume they both had busy semesters.

Thanks Kitt! I hope the story ends up meeting your expectations!

Nana would go visit Virginia, which has been part of her for her entire life. I would suspect that at this point, she has little to fear from Elizabeth, especially now that Nana's got control of her money.

Thanks for completing that vignette. You're absolutely right about Will and his awkwardness. I think he'd be confident against most guys, but a huge 18 year old coming at him by surprise would probably bring all of those insecurities to the forefront.

I'm not seeing JJ as a narrator just yet. For one thing, if I did that, Jeremy would bug the shit out of me, arguing constantly. :-) But more importantly, he's not developed enough to narrate. He needs to get older, and mature.

Thanks for your comments. Comments count as reviews here. :-) I'm taking this whole narrator thing as it comes. Right now, I don't see any reason to insert anyone else, but that will change, especially when we get to 9-11.

I'm not convinced that it's "wrong" to sleep with someone who's in a committed relationship. I do think the basic commitment is between the two partners, not the third person who is the cheatee. Is that a word? Should be. Still, I can see that it could be morally similar to a person who is aiding in a crime. Sort of like even though they didn't rob the bank, they drove the getaway car. As I wrestle with it, I'd be more inclined to say it's unwise than wrong.

I suspect that JP will have something to say about Marie and John's lack of discretion.

Good luck dodging all those angry lesbians, Jason. :-)

And he's a local St. Louis boy. Some trivia. He mentions "Frontenac" in his song. For those of you non-St. Louisans, Frontenac is a tony suburb of the city known for it's mall, which has a Neimann Marcus at one end and a Sak's 5th Avenue at the other.

I agree with you in that it's the job of the person who made the commitment to live up to it, but I think there's more at play here. Will hasn't figured it out yet. He will. We don't know whether Marie engineered it so Erik found out. he's a friend of hers, so she must feel conflicted by this whole situation. If she did, she'll find that picking a friend over the family isn't a very popular choice.

Will is definitely trying to grow up too quickly, but then again, his body is sort of demanding that of him. With this latest issue, I suspect that he'll learn that even if you have all the arguments on your side (or think you do), you can still get burned.

Thanks LEN. I think that Will is evolving as the amalgam of the family because he has so many characteristics of the key players. He's a bit hotheaded like Brad, with a logical mind similar to JP's, and a playful sense of humor resembling Stef's.

Way to put it in perspective, Brad. Though that's almost certainly something my own parents would have said. LOL. I think that Brad is getting better at dealing with Will. Will has a playful sense of humor that is not unlike Stef's. Anyone wanting to get through to him would be wise to remember that.