Teenage Fever

The end 😄

I really thought we'd never get here and truthfully I don't want to leave these characters 😩 There's probably a lot to unfold and I'm unsure of where to start.

For starters I just want to say that I did not go to law school or whatever 😅 This story deals with consent issues and I'm apologizing now if I got anything incorrect. I didn't do a whole lot of research so that is bad on my part and this is a fictional story that takes place in a fictional setting... for the most part. Just roll with it 😅😅

Once again we have ourselves another predictable and boring story title, at this point I guess I'm naming most of my stories after songs 🥴 But as the story went on, I didn't mind the title name and it didn't take me long to come up with it; I had the title name probably before I finished the first chapter.

Once again I didn't know really where this story was going to go, I just knew how I wanted to set up the first chapter. I actually wrote a similar short story years ago and without even realizing I took some of the things from that story and inserted it here. This version is more "cleaner" and finished. I'm probably not even going to post that other story on WattPad (*this may change, I have a short story collection coming up and I could just add it to that*).

Let me also just say that... I love Damario. I have no idea where he came from but he's awesome. I really wanted to just keep it very platonic and friendship based between Leslie and Damario and just focus on Leslie and Tahj's relationship. I still wanted the news of Tahj's age and problems with that to occur but my mind had never got to how that story version would have ended. Didn't really give myself a chance to because Damario became a factor. Before I knew it the story was turning into a sort of love triangle situation. I wasn't planning for that at all. When Damario first mentioned his past relationship with a guy and how that was his first and only time and that he wasn't interested in seeing other guys, I really wanted to stick with that narrative... but I had to go and make him gay... my usual.

At one point I liked the idea of Leslie being with both Tahj and Damario so I was going to do either a sort of choose your own adventure or make an alternative ending. As I kept writing though (and came back from a writing break) that thought completely left my mind, I even forgot I had thought of it. I was starting to fall for Damario and Leslie also.

I like how it all plays out though. The ending is probably cheesy, I usually hate writing happy endings (I hate happy endings) but lately I find myself falling too in love with my characters that I don't even consider sad endings anymore. That needs to change... at least for my next story or so.

Another thing to talk about is the neighbors... or lack thereof. This was just a running joke for me so I kept making reference to it. Does Damario have neighbors? Or does he not? Who knows.

Now Disneyland. In the chapter 200 Feet I talk about a specific rollercoaster. The rollercoaster I'm talking about is Expedition Everest. It's a ride that's at Animal Kingdom at the Disney Park in Florida. I didn't know for sure if this was also at any of the parks in California but I had a old story of mine that I wanted to use in this chapter. This chapter is pretty much based on a true story. Back when I was a teenager I went to the Disney Park in Florida for the first time. The line for this ride is indeed long and it like winds around a sort of museum display until you finally get to the gates to board the ride. While riding this ride it in fact did stop while we were slanted in the air. We were like that for quite some time too. I also looked up how tall the ride was so I could get an idea just how high up we were when the ride stopped. At the time I don't remember feeling scared or nervous, I was pretty calm. So whether that ride was in California or not I still wanted to put that story into this story.

Let's also talk about why you're all here 😅 (I'm being funny, I'm sure you're not here for this reason). What was up with that one chapter? We all know what chapter I'm talking about. That chapter. It has a name: Haunted.
In most of my stories I like to bring up travel. I like to have my characters travel or go on a journey. In this case it was bringing my characters out to Section 3. And the only way to get to Section 3 is through Section 2. Section 2 is still a mystery even to me. The place isn't always "scary" since I do have people living there just fine but there are some disturbances that I occasionally bring up. It's my most fascinating creation and I lack what to do with the place sometimes. So I have characters travel through it and experience weird shit.
What happens to Leslie is really interesting because he basically experiences an "awakening" or like he calls it an "epiphany". The scary situation made him realize just how wrong Tahj was for him (almost like a premonition). And the form that the realization took (a scary version of Tahj) was also enough to sort of scare him away from Tahj. But also this figure is some sort of guilty conscience of Leslie's. He's just projecting his own thoughts and feelings back at himself with the help of Section 2's paranormal disturbances.

The chapter creeps me out actually. It's that sore thumb in there but I low key really like it. It's strange but works and is different.

I seem to dog these females in my stories and I need to stahp 😅 I swear my next story will have a decent female with no sad ending. First Treese and now Jackie. Tsk tsk.

And let me just mention the biggest motif in this story being alcohol. I don't know what to say about this. While writing this I wasn't drinking (I miss it too) and this could be why there are so many references to it. But I'm trying to find the importance in this, it hasn't come to me yet.

While writing this story I discovered a new song. Not Teenage Fever... but the other one that I mention which is Black Molasses by Mista. Never heard of the song or the group or knew that Bobby Valentino used to sing back way then until one day I was scrolling through Facebook and the song played on a post. I liked it from the first listen and was very confused as to why I've never heard this song a day in my life. It was a much needed song for me especially because of what I was going through, and continue to go through, at the time. I also came across other facts about the song, another being Tupac's love for the song and how they incorporated the song into his biopic. Listen, I watched that movie and I don't recall hearing this song whatsoever. I watched the clip when the song comes in in the movie and I was like 'that's crazy'. You mean to tell me I could have been fell in love with this song if my ass would have just payed attention to the movie? Wow. So I missed the song and it was as if I had listened to a completely different song the first time I seen the movie compared to watching the ending clip years later. I also went on YouTube and read some of the comments under the music video for the song. One of the comments was someone talking about how their mom used to always play the song... I can't fully remember the comment but I used it in this story when Leslie recalls having heard it before.

There are a lot of characters from outside stories in this story. Wasn't planning that at all and I swear that there are other people living in Section 1 besides the same ones I keep mentioning 😅 but we have Jackson! Never thought I'd write about him again. But when I was writing about the other coordinators I thought why don't I use a previous character, so I went with Jackson. And of course I had to keep the pairs together; Givanté and Jackson are still together and Stephani and Kivon make an appearance and after all this time they have been married. Cute.
A lot of Leslie's thoughts and decisions on marriage were inspired by Stephani and Kivon's relationship, obviously. It was that extra "epiphany" I guess that he needed.

Also, that Rock N Roll Is Dead song is by JPEGMAFIA 😜🤙🏾

🥺 But who was y'all's favorite character? Please let me know 🙂

🥺 Also, what was your favorite chapter title name? Can y'all tell I had fun with that? I used to shy away from naming chapters.

🥺 And also what was your favorite chapter? And why? I'm curious to know.

Always, thank you for reading.