User blog:TheJordanPowers/The Previously Unreleased and Recently Discovered Chapter 13

hTaken from The Jordan Powers' commentary podcast on Nov. 28, 2014: Hello, Jordan Powers here, and Chapter 13, which I guess they're just entitling The Lost Final Chapter, 1/4, and also Handful of Problems or whatever, was released today, just a short week after it was found, and I, being a big fan of Don Powers: Pot Topic, was just as excited as the next guy, maybe even more excited. And let me just say--this chapter's one of the best in the whole book. Alright, so the thing that held a lot of people back from thoroughly enjoying the first twelve chapters is that they aren't that descriptive. I mean, characters like Ammon, Connor, Josh, Hannah, and especially Mariah, you barely knew they existed. Here they were being billed as main characters, but they'd have like a line per chapter! But this chapter went into a helluva lot more detail, and I think that the author handled these filler characters a lot better than he did in the previous chapters. I mean, while they certainly served little or no importance in a lot of chapters prior, they were still main in everyone of them, like they were being squeezed in their with the more developed characters. But now, they serve just as much purpose as they should, which is very little. The four aforementioned characters, as well as Kody, Shelby, and Aleksa, don't even enter this chapter's story until the end of the second paragraph, and let me just say that these paragraphs are long like typical Don Powers paragraphs, so we all know what that's like. This is what I'd say is the longest they've gone without being shown since the introductory chapter! And that's really good, because besides Connor discussing Mrs. Breck a tiny bit with Don, they really serve zero importance to the chapter. I mean, they're only in two scenes in the only thing! One's a little bit less than midway through and one's a little bit more than midway through. Otherwise, they've got nothing, which I am completely content and completely pleased with.

Alright, so the character development is really excellent for all of the characters the author tries his damnedest to develop. Don is an excellent example of this. He's pretty smart and doesn't tend to bow to socioeconomic norms and he really is kindhearted at his core, but at the time he can be a little arrogant at times, maybe oversensitive, sometimes overprotective, and quick-tempered too. I mean, he's by no means an asshole, but you know, he's flawed, which makes him an excellent character. And you know Stephanie, she's typically regarded by her friends as perfect. She's smart, pretty, and really kind, but her character isn't dulled down by these restraints. You'd think she'd be too goody-goody and that she wouldn't fit Don, but the two have chemistry, and if anyone was ever a teenager, you can relate to the fact that true romance often induces awkwardness. But you know, Stephanie's normally calm-headed, but we saw by the way she kept hitting Don during the argument that she can be a little ill-tempered just like him, and she's typically positive and like Don, she doesn't bow to socioeconomic norms, she tries to fare from being stuck-up, but her friends, particularly Don, think that she is just because she is kind of flawless, which in a way is what makes her flawed. I guess she's also somewhat insecure about some things. Like, she had no problem confronting Brett at the first dance or anything and she typically doesn't stand for bullshit, but that didn't stop her from waiting until, like, ten chapters in to start being upfront with her feelings toward Don, and that was because Kayla came around and started hindering the once open chances. Kayla, let's talk about Kayla, um, she late-comer, you know? She didn't come until Chapter 8, but she's just been so masterfully developed, and she really has gone through a lot. I mean, this is the girl that was dating Matthew Madison, and you can still sympathize for her, and I think that's mind-boggling on its own. I mean, when she first came in, she was probably hated to death by the masses because she was serving as Matthew's defensive girlfriend about the black eye incident, but then we find out that she had no idea about the fact that it was all a ruse and she broke up with the guy on the spot for his lies and mistreatment. Kayla instantly fell in love with Don, and Don, with his tendency to love feeling needed, enjoyed it too.

So Don, just for like two chapters, is really protective about Kayla and it's leaning more towards them getting together rather than Don and Stephanie. But then Kayla and Stephanie start warring, Don can't choose, and Kayla just resorts to Bryan Haskon, which Don hates her for because he was one of the guys that was on Matthew's side in the gymnasium brawl. I mean, you get Don's frustration with this and how he thinks that it's betrayal, but you can't help but sympathize for Kayla because she probably thought she was helping by letting Stephanie and Don be, or at least getting out of his hair until he can make up his mind. So Kayla's like a constantly tilting mixture of strength and insecurity, which proves as really interesting. As for the rest of the lineup of developed characters, we've got Austen, who is typically ill-tempered, cynical, sometimes mouthy, and much more scornful about the socioeconomic norms than Don and Stephanie, often shredding it apart, and then we've got Jason, who's honestly a fairly nice guy, probably Don's right-hand man, maybe second-up to Austen, but again, Don and Austen's relationship sometimes strays. Anyway, Jason's not always the brightest but he's at the core decently nice and he's not nearly as cynical as Don or Austen and can sometimes serve as moral compass. Cody is like a maxed-out version of Jason in some regards, but Jason tends to be a bit more bitter, while Cody's up there with Stephanie as one of the most positive characters in the book. Don't get me wrong, he's cold to the people who deserve to be treated coldly, but Kody, again, didn't think that he was harboring Shelby, Aleksa, and Mariah, he thought that they had becomes friends--group-mates because of his positive and trusting outlook on things and he's sometimes used as a moral compass. Gary Motell is the easy-going teacher that loves rock 'n' roll, who can even serve as a confidante for the gang, even if what he's told is immoral. His ethics are slightly questionable, but I think we can see that Motell considers the gang as equals, more than students, and he doesn't like to tattle to the administration unless something that's done is pushing the threshold. We've also got Shelby, who is probably the least-developed of the most-developed I suppose, serves as somewhat of a leader-type character, compared to Aleksa and Mariah, and she's overall just a kind character that I guess Don hinted at a tiny bit that the could be romantically attracted to. I think he one time noted that he realized how beautiful Shelby was or something, but I don't know, I think that was just a little red herring.

Lastly in this roster of well-developed characters, we've got Aleksa, who I guess is just the embodiment of Kayla's insecure side. You know, she really is sweet, but she's stuck with a guy like Austen, who, despite is albeit drifting closer to being capable of romancing and who is drifting much closer to being relationship material, is kind of a dick to her. She's been shitted on a lot, so yeah, she's a good character. But then we've got five virtually undeveloped characters. We've got Ammon, Connor, and Josh, who have just the same characteristics. Use sarcasm, aren't too smart, and are just a bunch of decent guys that don't stand bullshit. They've got nothing else going for them. No subplots at all. At least they gave Kody a girlfriend, Hannah, who looked like she was going to amount to something, but she really didn't whatsoever. She talked like five times after chapter, I don't know, six. She's just a nice, ideal girlfriend. And Mariah's the worst victim of this lack of detail. She had only five lines before this expansion, which gave her maybe two lines, and we know like nothing about her still. She was once popular, but now she's not, she was skeptical of Austen and didn't like his mistreatment of Aleksa, and I guess she's Jewish. That's all we know. Jesus, she got like no development at all. It was a little late to fix all of this, but luckily, we saw basically nothing out of these five characters. We didn't really see much out of Kody, Aleksa, or Shelby either, which I guess is a shame, but besides that one little surprising bit that they did with Aleksa that I'll explain later, they didn't really have a purpose, so it's for a good reason. Alright, so this has strayed into more of what things were like before these new chapters, rather than these new chapters themselves, but they were thrilling, so let's get the hell into it.

Alright, so the last chapter ended with Taylor Arnold's little brother Troy or whatever and this other eighth-grader, hell knows what his name is, finding one of Kayla's diary entries and giving it to Don to read. She confessed that she didn't love Bryan and that she still loved him, which was fairly predictable. And for over a year, that was the ending we had. The other four chapters were lost until now, so it was always like a Lady or the Tiger-type thing where we had to decide for ourselves who Don got with. But, this new chapter comes out, and where does it start off? On the Monday after the Friday that climaxed Chapter 12, of course. Don apparently isolated himself from the rest of the world for the weekend, and Jason is the first to confront him. There was a pretty nice scene of dialogue between the two, which we honestly didn't see much of, besides between maybe Don and Stephanie or Motell talking to the gang. Otherwise, most of the conversations felt pretty rushed, but this one was paced perfectly. Don still hasn't chosen, but their interaction is cut short when Austen approaches them and says that Kayla is going bat-shit. That's not particularly unfamiliar, but God knows what the hell's going to happen at this point. Anyway, Austen leads Don and Jason down a few hallways and they finally get to Kayla, who is being pushed around by Bryan, along with Dakota Testa, Brett Fisher, and this other eighth-grader named Jared. Dakota was mentioned in the last paragraph of the last chapter, and Motell explained that he was somehow a part of the attack on Mr. Derr, using the code-name Testify. Brett, on the other hand, we hadn't seen or heard from since a bit with Clifford Gloskey in Chapter 10, so it was good that he was brought back. So these four douches are pushing around Kayla, Kayla's telling them off, Dakota tells Kayla, sounding drunk oddly enough, that he should suck Bryan's balls, and in the coolest insult ever, Kayla tells him, "Suck my ass!" That is hilarious. Anyway, Austen and Jason hold Don back from killing these four idiots because he's pissed, but Austen and Jason don't want Don in trouble or anything. Bryan knocks Kayla to the floor and Don loses it, and by this point, violence seems justified. Don throws Bryan into a locker and punches him in his face at this point, and Dakota throws a disoriented, groggy punch at him which Don easily ducks, and he socks him. Jared is focused on helping Bryan while this goes on, and Brett pushes Don, and Austen comes in and punches him. At this point, the technology teacher Mr. Baxter comes out of his room wondering what in Christ's name happened.

Don and company explain what happened, Baxter sympathizes for them hearing that Kayla was pushed, and says that they're all going to the office so that Pourby can figure out what to do and so Nurse Zimmerman can make sure the injured three are alright. Baxter, however, soon identifies Dakota and after using his walkie-talkie to discuss it with Pourby, tells Don, Kayla, Jason, Austen, and Jared that they may run along and that he'll testify for them later. Don hears the word "testify" and quickly relates to Dakota's code name, so the quartet goes to see Motell. Stephanie happens to be in Motell's room, but we had gone awhile without seeing her, so I don't really care, it'd be a nitpick to fuss, and Motell explains that Dakota was suspended, presumably for his involvement in the Derr altercation. Stephanie questions if risking suspension was okay, but when Don says that Bryan had pushed Kayla, she accepts that it was justified. Kayla starts acting like Don is her "knight in shining armor", which Don's fairly unhappy about. Anyway, they get to the table, Kayla leaves, and Stephanie kicks Don in the shin, somehow knowing about the diary thing. How'd she know anyway? Don didn't tell her, and Jason was the only one he'd confided with in the time, which was like ten minutes prior, so I don't see how the hell she could've known. Did Troy and what's his face tell her? I don't know, whatever, maybe it'll be explained. It's not a plot-hole until we read the other three chapters. Anyhow, Don realizes, hey, Kayla and Bryan must have broken up if all of this not-niceness has gone down. Later, in Study Hall, Don tries to explain to Stephanie that he'll choose by the end of the week, and although she at first doesn't go for it, she later accepts it. And then they kiss really hotly for a few seconds, which Stephanie starts to get even with Kayla from the dance kiss that they had. Now it honestly seems like they're leaning toward Stephanie and Don. It's a never-ending cycle. After History of Rock, the gang and Braxton, and I say "and Braxton" because it actually matters later on that he was there, go to Motell's desk like they typically do and Motell explains that Don and Austen can only lose rec time for the fight being caused by retaliation, which doesn't bother anyone, and that Kris Borelli illegally left the school after homeroom for unknown reasons. Even though Kris serves little purpose in this chapter, I'm sure that he will in the following ones, I really am. I think it just needed a little buildup. Anyhow, Motell tells Don a surprise is awaiting him on the bus, and what the hell do you know? Frieda's gone and Joe's back!

Joe explains that the legality of eighty-sixing a bus driver for justifiably kicking off a student, Dustin Gould, was nonexistent and that they had to allow him to return. Well, Willy, Jadynn, and Victor, who have quickly sprouted into really likable characters, an entourage of sorts that I hope we see more of as the story nears its end, board the bus, and Morgan also does. We know that she's been up-and-down in terms of morals, so how is she in this scene? Quite mature surprisingly. Morgan officially apologizes for lashing out at Don about all the Matthew and CJ Bufford shit, which was tackled slightly in Chapter 12, but then asks him, non-accusingly, if he was involved in slandering Matthew in a Porta Potty on Forks property, which Don, Willy, Jadynn, and Victor of course find hilarious but had no part in. That paragraph was really good. It spanned from a little bit of followup dialogue between Stephanie and Don and ended at the scene I just explained, and I liked that it focused on the other plots besides Don's choice and Don's romance with Stephanie and Kayla. The next morning, Kayla comes to the gang's table and kisses up to Don a bit, but she realizes she has to leave to talk to a teacher, which has become somewhat of a cliche in this novel, but whatever, it's convenient because they all start talking shit about her. I thought that we were going to get bombarded with more of the Don-Stephanie-Kayla story, but no, in what was really well-done, the conversation quickly becomes between just Don, Jason, and Austen. And we get a HUGE, major, major surprise. Austen and Aleksa, at merely fifteen years old, had sex! Jason's not really very moral and doesn't seem to care, but Don knows it's fucked up, but Austen rags on him for saying how stupid it is to get in underage intimacy, so he lays off. Anyway, except for a short scene between Don and Connor discussing Home Ec, where we once again DON'T see Mrs. Breck, the characters quickly end up at lunch, and in what was well-done, Natalie, one of Kayla's friends who hasn't really played too much of a role outside of filler, confronts Don about the choice, and after they banter about that for a short time, this allows for some answers on Kayla's mystery to be revealed. Natalie explains that Kayla dumped Bryan because he was insulting Don the night Chapter 12 ended, and Don realizes that Kayla ruined an okay thing for him, and he tells Natalie to apologize to her about it. Don runs into to Stephanie and Stephanie realizes that this situation does kind of suck for Don and apologizes for underestimating its severity, and then Austen and Jason tell Don that Motell wanted to talk to just the three of them in his room, so the trio goes there.

So we learn, no, Dakota wasn't suspended for his involvement in the Derr thing. Pourby and company was going to handle it maturely and figure out whether or not he was one of the assaulters, and also use him to get answers. But Dakota encountered Meira in his storm out, and he pushed her to the ground. Christ almighty, what is wrong with men pushing women in this school? But wait, Don notices, why didn't Braxton bring this up if he and Meira are dating? Why did he act shocked that Dakota was suspended when Motell was under the impression that it was because of the Derr thing. Anyway, he was suspended for that. He also got a breathalyzer after that, and he was drunk, as suspected. Then, Motell asks for Don to fill him in, Don explains Bryan and Kayla's relationship and also his own romantic connection to her, which Motell is puzzled about because he thought Don was romantically connected to Stephanie. Anyway, Motell tells the trio that there's going to be all-out war pretty soon, and Don, Jason, and Austen went back to the lunchroom. The chapter ends, and holy shit! That was definitely one of the best chapters I've ever read. I can't imagine how the hell these next three are going to be. We saw a goddamn fight, Don and Stephanie kissed, Dakota was suspended, Joe returned, Austen and Aleksa did it, Kayla and Bryan broke up, and this is all boiling into something that's going to rock everyone! I am psyched for these upcoming chapters! One of the editors is saying that these chapters are going to be absolute bitchcakes. I am stoked, and I cannot wait until the next chapter's released. Goodnight, everyone.