The Kingswood Amelioration - Chapter 25
Added 2026-01-02 17:00:02 +0000 UTCComments
Well, (maybe as a father as well), I can understand Mr. Stone' s feeling, though I don't approve his action at all, abusing his own position and power over students, but at least he confessed his mistake now. Honestly that's not a helicopter-type parents would do - helicopter type parents I know barely confess their any mistake (since they always think they're right at anything so they should make decision for their kids). BTW if he has to leave Kingswood, I think Gray has to leave too and I don't want to see that.
Johnny Kape
2026-01-04 02:40:05 +0000 UTCSo we learn that Mr. Stone (Gray's dad) was, in fact, the bastard that I (and probably 100% of the other readers) thought he was. I'm actually disappointed that the issue did not reach the ears of Mr. Everett. I honestly think Stone should not be permitted to teach at Kingswood -- he has shown a lapse in judgment that should be disqualifying. Indeed, I would describe his initial proposed punishment for Nicky in the same terms -- it would have caused massive and disproportionate psychological damage to Nicky. I want to see him go. Indeed, given that lack of judgment, I think it's only a matter of time before he crosses a line that cannot be hidden from management. I am, of course, happy to see Nicky and Gray get back together. Mr. Stone is lucky to have a son as loyal as Gray. It's too bad he is so inept at parenting. I don't know what to say about Danny. He seems to be regressing into the mentality of a 7-year-old. Josh's diagnosis of depression seems accurate, but it seems like there may be more. I wonder if his participation in the teacher Underground is too unhealthy. Whatever Mikey is thinking of for his latest enterprise is bound to be brilliant. We never heard about what became of David's hard drive. I hope, at the very bare minimum, he handed it over to Tyler.
Rutabaga
2026-01-04 01:48:47 +0000 UTCThanks for the compliment. Yeah, that's the sort of thing I do a lot. I'll often check the real weather forecasts for chapters to give them real weather conditions. The football matches are always based on real fixtures. I'll often check sunrise and sunset times to help set the scenes. It's not really necessary, but I always feel it adds a hint of authenticity. π
Matthew Smith
2026-01-03 15:07:35 +0000 UTCI have one small thing to add. I appreciate the attention to detail Matt has on real life accuracy. What made me think of this was the Storm Henk mentioned in passing in this chapter, Google told me it's real and it hit on the day it was mentioned. Another example was in Chris and Danny's Super Sexy Summer, when Danny was watching a football match with his father. With most authors, I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but I had a hunch with Matt. So I looked it up and found what I expected, the two teams mentioned to be playing each other in the story faced off in reality on that day.
Davide
2026-01-03 14:46:20 +0000 UTCI hadn't thought of tsundere in regards to Gray before, although I can see it now. That made me think of the term "helicopter parent" applying somewhat to his dad as far as Mr. Stone wanting to control Gray's relationship and also as a possible cause for Gray's lack of self-esteem.
Rich
2026-01-03 03:53:33 +0000 UTC``` βThis is... unnecessary,β Gray chuckled as he felt Chrisβs arms tightly wrapping around him. As he felt them loosen, he quickly added, βI didnβt say stop!β and grabbed hold of Chris in return. ``` This made me think of this term: tsundere ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundere ) And that seems to fit Gray perfectly! π Josh is the hero of this chapter, no doubt. Not only his talk with Danny, but also his efforts of working on his own jealousy issue. I can understand Mr. Stone, Gray's dad, to be overprotective over his son, his only family. But I'm also surprised too. I think the way he acted, deciding his son's couple, or who's "suitable for his son", is more of an Asian thing... I'm not like that, but I've seen enough examples here, not only deciding their kids' relationships, but also what schools they attend, even their jobs, something like that. It's good that Nicky confronted Mr. Stone about it but still kept it from Gray. I wonder what it may come when Gray learned the truth.
Johnny Kape
2026-01-03 02:30:08 +0000 UTCI hope you'll feel better soon. I'm glad you had time to give your thoughts on at least the main topics, I like your comments. Your memory is right, it was David that suggested ADHD. they're very good at noticing things like this, and it seems to fit well.
Davide
2026-01-02 22:54:13 +0000 UTCJust like Nicky confronted Mr. Stone, I foresee Gray having a difficult conversation with his father. Nicky may not tell Gray what happened, but Gray isn't stupid. I think there is more to come on that front. Great comments, btw! Always enjoy reading yours.
Rich
2026-01-02 22:39:58 +0000 UTCMy hero of the chapter is Josh. His conversation with Danny was so needed. I just hope Danny takes his advice before mental health reaches crisis mode again. I'm afraid Danny will be struggling for a while longer with everything. I do understand his feelings a little better after his uncomfortable brief talk with Levi. I was happy to see Nicky take the action he did with Gray's dad. I think it was David who suggested in an earlier chapter that Nicky might be ADHD. I hope there is further exploration of that by Nicky. It could make a world of difference to him (and perhaps even in the way Mr. Stone sees him). There's a lot of other things to comment on, but healthwise I am still struggling so I'll leave it to some of you others. I always love everyone's insights. I think I remember Matt saying something in the past about the end of the year being a busy time for him. I know we haven't heard from him as much in the comments lately. We miss it, Matt - hope before long you'll be able to have the time to do so.
Rich
2026-01-02 22:33:54 +0000 UTCWe predicted Gray's father to be behind Nicky's breakup, but it was even worse than we expected. What he did was blackmail, he knew about Nicky's issues with nudity and used an excessively harsh punishment in that area to force him to take the alternative he wanted. He also hurt his own son in the process and only cared when he saw the huge extent of that. An apology isn't remotely enough, especially when I feel like it wouldn't have happened if he had only hurt Nicky. It's thoughtful of Nicky to not want to hurt Gray because his father is all he has, but I think he should know what his father is really like. In chapter 21, Finn commented on how Danny is getting better at actually talking about his problems and Danny agreed. But look at him now, he has multiple things piling up bothering him, but he's been holding on to everything and reverting back into his depression. Josh caught it and like that, even though his unusual life made him immature in some areas, it also made him more nature in this kind of topic. I don't think Danny's in risk of wanting to kill himself, but this path is leading somewhere bad and that scare from Josh saying this could be what he needs to wake up. The reversal from the typical roles at the Secret Sex Club was cool, but that's not a healthy replacement for therapy. It's great to see David came back looking happy, after how miserable they were for the chunk of the holidays we saw. It seems the stuff they googled about how to deal with this, plus especially the help from Tyler and other guys he recruited, are doing a good job. Quitting the salon seems like a good idea, you want them to eventually be able to resist temptation, but staying away from it while they're more vulnerable is sensible. And they get to be busy with the logistics for the mandatory Mikey yearly business plan idea, this is an interesting one. Josh not voicing his jealousy about Mark is a start, but he needs to work towards not feeling jealous if he wants things to work when they try it a second time. Feeling jealous and keeping it inside will make him burst eventually, bottling feelings is never a permanent solution. Meanwhile, I forgot to mention this last week, but having those 50% odds hovering over him for years because of the cancer is awful. He says it feels worse than when he actually had cancer, I think that's because now he feels like he beat it because the symptoms are gone, which makes the risk still existing hit him harder.
Davide
2026-01-02 22:06:34 +0000 UTC
