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So..." Robbie stated, breaking the silence that had overtaken the room. "What do you do for fun around here?"
Josh tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders while thinking up a reply to the question. "Not much." He answered. "Living on a farm can be kinda boring unless there are chores and stuff to do. Before my parents get home I usually just do my homework, watch a movie or play with the computer a little." 'Should I tell him about the stories and stuff I read online?' He thought to himself.
Robbie's face broke into a smile. "You have a computer? Does it go on-line?" He asked with a hint of excitement in his voice.
"Yeah, you go on-line?" Josh asked as he stood to clear the table from the remains of their snack.
"Sure, one of the families I was placed with had a computer in their house and they used to let me go on to play games and read stories and stuff. I know a few cool sites if you wanna check them out." He said bouncing from his chair with an ear to ear grin to help speed up clearing the table. "Which do you like to do more, play games or read stories?"
Josh stopped in his tracks wondering how much internet surfing his new cousin did in his spare time. "I like to read stories, I found a couple of places that are really cool." He said hoping Robbie wouldn't ask just what kind of stories he read. 'If I tell him, he'll know I'm gay for sure.' He thought not wanting to out himself to his new friend and probably risking chasing him off.
With the dishes in the sink and the table now spotless, Robbie grabbed Josh's hand and nearly begged to go to the computer. "I haven't been on one in about a year now, you gotta see some of the stuff I found if I can remember where they are." He stated as josh brought him up to his room and pointed at the computer on the desk near the window. "Wow, you have your own computer? Cool!" He exclaimed.
"Yup, got it for my birthday last year. My dad gave me his old one after he decided it was time to get himself a newer faster computer." He said turning on the monitor and shaking the mouse to bring it out of hibernation. "
Josh looked as the screen came to life, and the story he was reading still displaying on the screen, causing him to fumble to close it quickly, hoping Robbie didn't have time to see the address.
"You go there too?" Robbie said with a smile as he moved closer to the screen. "It's ok." He said wrapping his arm around a now pale looking Josh. "I found gayauthors.org a long time ago and have found all kinds of really cool stories there." He said looking into the obviously panic stricken face of his cousin. "Relax, I won't tell if you don't." He said with a wink as he took a seat and brought the site's link section back up hearing Josh begin to breathe once again.
Josh stood behind Robbie as the window he had quickly minimized came back into view and the site was redirected to it's links section. "You really do know your way around this site." He said as Robbie scrolled down through the listing.
"Yeah, the family I was living with had a son that was a little older than me. He was Gay and found out I was too..." He said coming to an abrupt halt. "I hope you're ok with me being Gay. I normally don't just come out and say it but since you had this site open, I just figured you were too." He said looking up at Josh, obviously looking for his approval.
Josh snapped back to reality and looked into Robbie's pleading expression. "Um, yeah. No one but you knows though." He said bringing a smile back to Robbie's face.
"Cool." He said as he scrolled down the page. "Which site's do you normally go to?" He asked as he began to scroll down reading the listing to himself.
Josh sat down on the bed and laid back, now a bit more comfortable with the subject. "I just started going there." He said rolling to his side and propping his head up on one arm.
"The forum's are cool cause you get to talk to the author's and people who own the sites. Sometimes you can even make suggestions and stuff." He said as he looked back at the screen. "There's one here." Robbie exclaimed as he approached #18 in the list. "Sounds cool, wanna check it out?" He asked as Josh squinted a bit looking at the selection. "It says 'Fort Family Readers Discussion Forum' and must be cool if it's rated this high." He said as he got the nod from Josh to continue in.
"Hey!" Josh said as he sat back up and looked at the screen. "I've been here before." He said as he stood back up and looked at the screen. "There's a link for it at another site I found and I started comeing here for the other sites that are linked."
"Really?" Robbie asked as he looked at the Log In / Register portion. "Are you registered here?" He asked as he looked back at Josh with a huge smile.
"No, I just come here and click on one of the other site links at the top." He said pointing at the links just beneath the banner. "The Annex is a good one, They do a whole series of fantasy type Star Trek stories." He said as Robbie looked at the names. "The Fort is cool but doesn't get updated all that often." He continued as he looked at the name of the forum again and realized that the names were similar. "Must be the same guy running that site as this one." He stated as he pointed to the similarities in the names. "Never thought of that before."
"Yeah, maybe that's why he doesn't update too often, it must take lots of time to keep a forum like this going." Robbie stated. "Have you been to any of the other ones?"
"Yeah, They are all listed in the links section I think." He replied as he scanned the names and read them out loud tossing in his opinions in along with them. "The Fort like I said, Cool but slow with updates and stuff, The Annex has tons of stories and even more links. The Corner Cafe is really neat and even has poetry and music links. I go there a lot." He said noting the look on Robbie's face. "What?" He asked with a giggle. "I like poetry, so sue me." He said with his hands on his hips getting a giggle from his small friend. "Where was I?" He asked looking back at the screen. "Oh yeah, StoryLover's has a neat Sci-Fi story that is set in a totally separate world, you should read that sometime if you get a chance. Pyro's Place is cool, has flames all over and a ton of original stories. Bent and Twisted has a story that is also posted on The Annex called One Door Closes. I read that one recently, it's wicked cool." He stated appearing to be thinking of something. "I gotta read more of his stuff tho. Haven't read it all yet." He added getting a nod from Robbie. "The Padded Room is neat, kinda creepy and cool looking and has a bunch of really cool stories. I just finished reading one of his newer ones about an experiment on telepathic kids. It makes you think." He said thinking to himself that he needs to check back soon to see if it had been updated. "StoryMaker's is cool too. It has more Star Trek based stuff, which I'm kinda into and a really hot story that I started reading about a month ago." He added with a blush.
"But you aren't registered on the board?" Robbie asked as he looked back at Josh. "You like all their stuff, you should register, Then you could talk to all of these people. That's why I love these forums." He stated as he looked back at the site. "Wanna? We can do it together and I'll show you how fun it can be."
"Ok, I just never thought of it cause I was just looking for stories to read." Josh said getting a giggle from Robbie as he clicked on the "Register" link bringing up the disclaimer and quickly agreeing to it and continuing on.
"Aren't you even going to read that?" Josh asked looking confused.
"Nah, they all say the same thing anyways." Robbie said as the registration form came into view. "What should our name be?" he asked Josh who rested his hands on Robbie's shoulders.
"Well, since we are cousins, why don't we just use that as a name?" He asked.
Robbie looked at the screen and added "Hmmm... You like fictional stories, so do I." He said as if working things out in his head. "How about 'Ensign Cousins' cause I like Star Trek too and that could mean both of us." He said as if he had worked out all the problems of the world and smiled widely.
Josh wasn't all that impressed with the name but decided since it made his young friend happy, then why not let him have at it. "Yeah, that's cool. Use that."
Robbie rushed through the registration page, as kids usually do. Not filling out any of the extra contact information before hitting the submit button. "Oh great, we need to wait for a confirmation Email." He said as he turned in his seat to look up at Josh. "It says only a minute though." He said as he logged into his online mail and instantly saw a message with the subject line : Registration at Jeff's Fort Board ( From Jeff's Fort Board ).
"That was fast." Josh said as Robbie clicked on the link and was returned to the forum.
"There's a welcome section, wanna go in and say hi and stuff?" He asked as Josh sat back down on the bed.
"Go ahead, I don't know what to say." Josh said as Robbie began to click away on the keyboard. His entry was;
~
hi everyone!
just wanted to say hi and that my cousin comes here a lot to use the links to read stories on your sites. ive never been here before but he says the stories are the most amazing ever written so i gotta read them now too.
your forum is really cool and i cant wait to see how many stories are on all these sites from the people who run it. i hope ill be here long enough to read them all. we both like star trek stories so we decided to name ourselves "ensign cousins", i hope that's cool.
talk to you all soon!
robbie & josh
Josh got up and looked at the entry and with a smile noticed it looked like a little kid wrote them in. "You used our real names?" He asked as he read the signature Robbie had typed in.
"Yeah, no one cares, besides they don't know our last names and stuff, so it's ok." He replied as he began to look at the many categories in the forum that were available. "This looks cool. " Robbie stated as he clicked on one that said "Events For All!!!" and found a thread named "Calling all authors & readers..." and clicked on it.
"What's that all about?" Josh said looking at the screen. "The Most Amazing Story Ever Written" He read out loud. "Oh please, it can't be that good with a name like that." He said with a chuckle. "What else is in here?"
The boys poked around in the forum, they even found a category named "The Dog House" that they found was being run by two kids, which they really thought was cool.
"Hey, someone already replied to our post." Robbie said as he clicked on it gaining a smile from Josh.
"Akeentia. That's the author of the story I'm reading now!" He said excitedly. "What did he say?"
Robbie clicked on the post and read out loud...
Welcome to the board guys. Feel free to take off your shoes and use one of the big comfy chairs that we have here. There are a lot of good stories and a ton of great people here. So take a look around, you're free to read whatever we have, and have fun (i think that they have cookies here somewhere).
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The World Would Be A Better Place If We All Had Slushies!!!
"See" Robbie said as if his point had been proven. "I told you it would be cool to post in here. You never know who you will get to meet." He said as he hit "Add reply" and typed...
wow, this is soo cool. akeentia, josh has been reading your story and was just bragging about how good it is when i found out he never posted here before. i bet hes glad i talked him into it.
thanks for welcoming us and we hope to read some really amazing stuff in here :)
robbie & josh
Just after clicking "Add Reply", both boys jumped as they heard the front door close.
"Josh, Josh honey. Are you home?" echoed the voice of Josh's mother through the house.
Josh hurried to turn off the computer monitor and shouted back "I'm home mum, be right there!"
Just then he noticed the frightened look that had developed on Robbie's face. Josh had never thought of how hard all this must be for his new cousin and for the first time leaned over and gave him a hug whispering in his ear, "Don't worry, I'll make sure everything goes ok."
Robbie forced a smile as he looked up at josh and replied, "Ok, Josh. I know you don't really know me all that good but... um... I love you."
Josh gave Robbie another hug and said "I love you too. Let me do the talking and everything will be fine."
To Be Continued By: Sparhawk
Special note: No animals were harmed in the writing of this chapter but, quite a few registered family members were seriously confused on the forum, the damage from fiction intruding on reality is still being assessed. ;)
Notes from the Editor:
Jeff pulled a complete nono, but did it with the style and grace that only He could. If you don't understand yet, I personally suggest you dip your head in a cool strawberry shake and read it again .. Sparhawk is up next .. Lord help us all ... Gun