Another story in the life of David and Jeremy, this one has them starting high school... and stirring things up.

I didn't find it surprising that it took a couple of confident freshmen to change things around. It is always easy to go with the status-quo and Paul, the president of the GSA, said it well with his statement, "That's just the way it is." It often takes the young or the passionate to make a change, because even eighteen-year-olds can find themselves settled into a rut and just going with the flow.

Paul didn't seem to see the inconsistency in his position. He had asked an openly gay freshman to run for Freshman Student Council, but he thought that if that freshman danced with his boyfriend at a dance, it would kill his chance of being elected. Why? Is it because it would push the fact that David is gay in people's face? I would've thought the way David and Jeremy held hands as much as possible would have been doing that anyway. I think it was more that Paul had pushed himself out a certain way, but still wasn't confident with being out. If it was a safety issue (as Paul suggested), then he should have stopped David and Jeremy, but I think Darren sticking up for them made Paul realise that maybe he had been too scared. I believe Paul was surprised by how his straight friends so quickly stepped forward to support David and Jeremy in their wish to dance at the party.

I enjoyed the story... up until the end. That's when I got annoyed at what had happened. I understand why Paul and Sam did what they did, but it was stupid and could easily have backfired. The principal, at least, should have vetoed the idea, especially if he thought that he might have some homophobic faculty advisors on his staff (as it turned out he did). Deliberately putting a pair of freshmen -- without their knowledge -- in the centre of a potential conflict was, at the least, irresponsible. Paul probably thought it would also raise David's profile and his election chances, but if they wanted an incident, Paul and Sam should've been the ones involved.

To finish up on a good note, however, I loved Tyrone's speech. Thanks, Altimexis!

The nice thing about writing fiction is that you don't have to make everything so real it could happen in real life. With so many reality TV shows, a lot of people come to expect a story to be true. They have to believe it, but sometimes it's just a story, all made up, fiction.

This was a nice story about a boy and his boyfriend who go to a dance and are involved in an incident that turns out to have staged. That seems a bit implausible, but it makes a great story and it works out in the end. The black quarterback was a bit much, though.

Thanks for the great story Altimexis!

Carl

Graeme, it said : "Yup. Even the asshole faculty advisor played his part perfectly.”

So the advisor was just acting.

Anway, I'm glad that I read 'Back to School Jitters'. This helps a lot!

It's a great story! Well-written. The character of the teen is very well brought out! Very enjoyable too. The confession part did take me by surprise but I liked it!

Take care,
Ieshwar

I didn't read it that way. If that was the case, they wouldn't have said "asshole". My read was that the advisor did what they expected him to do, not that he was also acting. In other words, they expected the homophobic faculty advisor to act in an inappropriate way and had planned accordingly. Since he did what they expected, and wanted, that means he 'played his part perfectly'.

A good tale. I've read all three, and am much looking forward to part four.

Camy

First of all, another GREAT contribution to the anthologies Altimexis .

I really enjoyed seeing the boys going back to school, and having the idealism to push for change. I can't imagine having the balls to do that at 15, but it seems that there is some strength in numbers.

But, and there is always a but.... Hopefully you know that I really like your stories Altimexis, but I had the same feeling as Graeme stated here. So if I may digress and add my two cents worth on the following comments, hopefully you will see where my uneasiness comes from with the ending.







Unfortunately Carl, this does happen and on a regular basis .

When I used to work at a large venue, we would have music concerts fairly often. When a concert, part of my job was to help assist the floor security during the event. Usually with the concert( rock, county, metal, punk), the floor security would stage an incident before the band or warm up band came on, but usually someone paid the price. While the lights are still on, and everybody is standing around and not really doing something, you could be guaranteed that on the floor there was going to be at least one person, who was excited and maybe bouncing around and generally being an idiot (kinda like what everyone else will be like when the lights go down). Nothing really wrong with that, but, the floor security team would usually identify this person, try to get them to calm down to no avail, and then proceed to take the person out with force (and the person is usually really freaking when they figure they are getting tossed before even the start of the concert). They do this completely across the floor in order to have the most people possible to see what will happen to them if they don't cooperate. It can, and usually does set a tone for the 17,000 + people at the concert.

What I hate about this is that it is always staged ahead of time, and all the security know and play their part, but one person has to suffer for the rest. Much as David and Jeremy had to suffer being pushed down to make a point to the others.

Not cool in my books .

But as usual, I am able to look past this and enjoy the story for it's true meaning as I saw it. The ability to make a stand and fight for something that you truly believe in. For that, thanks again Altimexis.

Steve

PS can't wait to see what is going to happen to Trevor

I want to thank everyone who posted here. There were some interesting comments, and for the most part, you are all right on the money with respect to what I intended.

It's true, no principal in their right mind would allow kids to pull a ruse like the one I described, particularly if they knew David and Jeremy were in the dark about it. Still, I've known some assistant principals and principals in my day who were not above intentionally making use of kids' practical jokes to make a point. There were, of course, boundaries set, but when you think about it, there's always a lot that could go wrong.

My assumption in writing A Dance to Remember was that it was Paul who made the decision not to tell David and Jeremy. It was just one small detail he forgot to mention to the principal when he told him his plan.