I sometimes wonder about the ages of the readers and commenters... It seems that sometimes a lot of us seem to forget what it was like to be in High School, to be younger, to have that presure to conform, and to not really have a strong enough sense of who you are to be able to not give a f#$&.

Personally I see these situations as Jocelyn doing a REALLY good job of capturing that, but as (I'm assuming) adult readers, we too often expect the charecters to have our perspective, and end up jusdging them. Personally, I think Drew will work through this. There will be mistakes, and some pain, but this is very realisticly and sympathetically written, and that stuff is bouund to happne, even with the best of us.

The ADULTS in Rain are a different story, and this strip does a really excellent job capturing all of the different reactions that people will get. (Accpetance, Rejection, hesitency, effort, apathy...) And obviously some (Aiden) do a lot better than others (Kellen), but I'm a lot more willing to give the benfit of the doubt to the younger charecters.

Actually, I'm in my second year of college, so I remember high school perfectly. However, my high school was a LOT different from other high schools, so I'm basing my comment on the school.

Even so, I think you might have misunderstood my comment. I'm not judging Drew for his outburst, or the portrayal of other students as individuals. Like you said, Jocelyn does a great job portraying characters, I'm not arguing against that.

No, I'm looking at the school itself. The teachers don't do anything to discourage bullying and prejudice against kids in the LGBT+ community, and even gossip about those kids for being different. The Headmaster in particular adds to the bad atmosphere, with his strict rules and beliefs. In short, the school itself fosters a sort of distaste for those who are different, and does nothing to encourage open-mindedness.

I also know for a fact that the school's atmosphere influences the kids' beliefs. I myself attended a Catholic school from Kindergarten to seventh grade, and while I didn't notice it at the time, the atmosphere actually discouraged open-mindedness to new ideas. Reading Rain actually reminds me of the atmosphere there a lot, and given that I dreaded going to school there every day of seventh grade... Well, you get the idea.

So, yeah. I'm not criticizing Jocelyn's writing at all, because she seriously does an EXCELLENT job at it.

I apologize... My comment wasn't aimed at you or your post sepcifically, it kind of ended up under it, and it just made me think of it in general. A LOT of comments have made me wonder about that.

But yeah, I'm totally with you RE the school itself. I've had a hard timine placing the exact TIME of the setting of the story because the atmosphere it presents, even for a religious school. I also attended a Religious school (Lutheran) but they were very liberal comapred to most, so my experience was naturally very different.

I'm down with you though. I get what you're saying.

You sometimes just do, like my reaction with that whole "creepy perversion" statement made by kellen. Just as me slapping/punching kellen was the first thing i though of, him snapping is his reaction. Seriously though that creepy perversion thing still just... gets to me. Like a jaw drop or something.

When you're struggling with surprise feelings and trying to figure out how to express how you feel to someone, it can be really frustrating to have someone talking more or less non stop, putting words into your mouth.

Drew's at least better off than I'd been in a similar situation, as it doesn't look like he's surrounded. Of course, knowing Jocelyn, they could be on a train in rush hour and there's 197 people in the car with them, but they're not relevant enough to even draw as outlines.