The Kingswood Amelioration - Chapter 12
Added 2025-10-03 16:00:20 +0000 UTCComments
Yeah, David definitely needs a good influence. For a smart kid he makes some stupid decisions. Josh's insecurity is often masked by his cocky bravado, but it's definitely there, and this whole Mark situation is really bringing it out of him. Let's hope he can tackle it as well as he has the bigger problems in his life. You're right that what Nicky did is an improvement. Admittedly it was still stupid and will have consequences, but emotionally/mentally it shows his progress. Mikey has deifnitely won a few hearst recently. I'm happy to see so much love going his way from readers.
Matthew Smith
2025-10-05 14:09:21 +0000 UTCHaving fallen behind myself on both emails and comments, I can totally sympathise! It's nice to catch up though. I'm glad you like Mr Everett, and I agree, while there is culpability, just firing someone so they can feel like someone has been punished doesn't feel productive. The staff have definitely undertaken measures to improve safeguarding, although it's one of those things that is more implied than shown (if I don't have room for The Lads, I definitely don't have room for staff meetings about recruitment protocols lol) but it does get mentioned down the line. That's a fun exchange between Josh and Mark, they're a lovely combination.
Matthew Smith
2025-10-05 13:54:35 +0000 UTCI had fallen woefully behind on chapters for the last several weeks. Last night I binge-read chapters 10, 11 and 12 as I was going to bed. So I'm caught up again. So much to talk about and clearly the others have already covered a significant amount of ground. Happy that Mr. Everett is apparently going to stay in place. He won my heart when he egged on the naked challenge for the faculty/Year 11 football match. I have had my criticisms of him over the course of the school terms but it would have been absurd to sack him because of Todd's activities. I presume he is going to direct his staff to re-investigate everyone working at Kingswood, and perhaps even engage an outside background checking firm to buttress that investigation. Kingswood cannot afford a repetition of those events. Out of the three chapters I read, this exchange from the end of chapter 11 is what stuck in my head as a quotable quote: >> “Or… how about no more fights!?” Mark suggested with a crooked smile. “Oh, yeah,” Josh nodded, brow crinkling thoughtfully, “That’d be a better choice. Let’s do that one!” << Here's hoping that will come to pass.
Rutabaga
2025-10-05 13:38:56 +0000 UTCReading your comment made me realise that, despite writing a wall of text, there's still stuff I forgot to mention. Namely wondering about Josh's and Nicky's punishments and, more importantly, a second reason to be proud of Mikey, him beign upfront to Robb.
Davide
2025-10-04 21:05:56 +0000 UTCI knew you were expecting Chris to cum onstage; we've had similar thoughts about situations in the past. So I'm going on record as saying you called it anyway.
Rich
2025-10-04 19:14:54 +0000 UTCOkay, so I am a little frustrated at the moment. I had a nice long comment typed and hit 'Post' only to find that my internet connection had dropped and my comment disappeared without actually posting. Oh, well. Lesson learned, I hope. Typing my comment out and then copying and pasting it so that I'll still have it if it happens again. So on to the actual comment. Johnny is correct that Mikey is the hero in this chapter. And I'm making it official - Mikey has won my heart. Danny has had it since Book One, but Mikey has been giving him a close run for a while now. The conversation that Mikey had with Rob is as great a moment for me as his speaking in the meeting. Both Mikey and Rob have had a lot of growth, especially recently. I've been calling for them to be a couple for a while now, and their conversation keeps my hope alive that I might see it come to pass eventually. Both Davide and Johnny made some good points about Nicky in their comments. Now that spending break with Gray is off the table, maybe we'll get to see Jorge spend it with Nicky. As long as we are mentioning The Lads, I agree with Davide that it would be nice to see a little of Rob and Milo together, OR a little of Milo and Avery. I'm also hoping that we see a little more about the situation with Avery and his deceased brother soon as well. Tyler and David's upcoming date is eagerly anticipated. I also hope that Tyler will help David overcome their addiction to the hidden camera footage. I'm curious to see what Josh's punishment will be for the Harley situation. I'm glad to see Josh and Mark begin the hard work of repairing and strengthening their relationship. So much is going on that it's almost impossible for one story to contain it now. Yet somehow Matt continues to work everything in. Great work, Matt!
Rich
2025-10-04 19:13:17 +0000 UTCHonestly, I don't think switching to exclusive would make Josh less jealous, since his jealousy is caused by his insecurity and that wouldn't vanish in a short time, even they were exclusive he could still get jealous for like, someone talk to Mark. It's a path Josh (and Mark) need to take and explore. BTW I had no a tiny idea about what is this "her Grand Exalted TERFness".
Johnny Kape
2025-10-04 16:21:40 +0000 UTCWith Max (I'm using his first name because I'm talking about him as a parent, not as a teacher) taking Josh and Mark to London, I imagine we'll get one chapter taking place during the midterm mostly focused on that. But I hope that chapter sprinkles in a few scenes with other character, such as maybe Finn catching Chris wanking or Robb and Milo rebuilding their brotherly friendship. I'm very proud of Mikey, walking into that room to talk about Todd must have been very scary and he somehow still managed to improvise an amazing speech. He basically saved Mr. Everett's job and made Mr. Reeves smile, two daunting tasks. Now I'm curious about what changes will be made to try to prevent things like this happening again. Even though what Nicky said to Mr. Stone was very bad, I'm actually also proud of him. Ever since Matt died, and because of the circumstances surrounding that, Nicky was scared of any kind of confrontation. He had one initial case of yelling at someone earlier in this volume, but that was a single sentence. A more prolonged confrontation like this gave him the opportunity to back down and he managed not to do it. Chris' five weeks of abstinence ending with a bang and it was amazing. "The first row may get wet" as they say. It also shows how much wanting to obey Danny was how he managed to hold back, since he burst without touching and without wanting it the moment he got permission. There was no mention of a punishment, but I feel like maybe there will be one, since he was told he had to cover himself and didn't. Josh was being immature for him age in regards to his jealously about Mark, but it makes sense in the context of what we know about him. First, this was his first ever relationship, the stuff with his brothers left him uninterested in anything like that until later than his friends. Second, he's insecure about his body im comparison to Mark's, fearing him leaving him a for hotter guy, like Harley, who Mark has been kissing for the play. Mark said all the right things to reassure Josh he won't leave him, especially the part about how he chose to be with Josh, despite all the other guys he could get. But Mark being demisexual means him kissing another guy for professional reasons won't make him develop a crush for him. Switching to being exclusive was a great suggestion and I hope that ends Josh's jealously, with the trip to London helping put that behind them. I'm happy Tyler finally asked David out, I'm looking forward to that. With what Tyler caught David doing, although they didn't see what they were watching, I wonder if that can eventually lead to him finding out about the cameras. I really hope Tyler can get David to stop doing that for good and actually delete all the footage from both times he did it. The entire "her Grand Exalted TERFness" exchange was hilarious, but I also enjoyed that you brought that up about her.
Davide
2025-10-04 11:04:11 +0000 UTCCongratulations to David and Tyler! I hope it could bring David out of his (again) illegal behaviors. And it's hilarious that Josh thought his dad "shagging his boyfriend". It also shows how insecure Josh was, which is understandable given his own experiences. Nicky finally(?) made mistakes a 15-yo boy usually makes, reckless speaking; his amygdala reacts faster than his prefrontal cortex. Actually I see it as an "improvement" to Nicky. As for Mikey... hero of this chapter, no doubt. But what actually made me happier to see is that he's finally open to Rob.
Johnny Kape
2025-10-04 03:48:14 +0000 UTCI'll comment more later, but I want to say two things. I don't think I can pick a favourite guy because it depends on what we're measuring. Chris is the one whose personality I like the most, but Mikey is the one I'm most proud of. This already true because of what he has been doing regarding Todd, but this chapter pushed it so much more. Right when Chris got his 5 weeks of not cuming forfeit, I pointed out the coincidence with the time left until the play. That made me wonder if he'd cum on the play, but it seems I unfortunately didn't say that explicitly. So I can't quote my words to prove I called it.
Davide
2025-10-03 17:38:21 +0000 UTC
