𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎 𝚋𝚎? {𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚎 𝙳𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚘𝚗}

'ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴘᴏᴇᴛs sᴏᴄɪᴇᴛʏ,

We were are sitting in the cafeteria when Neil walked in with an unknown book.

"Della, do you have the Latin work?" Meeks asked, and I handed him my book with a nod.

Neil sat beside Charlie and pulled out a yearbook. It was annoying that Charlie's face was in my line of sight if I tried to look at Neil. I worked with Cameron on the Trig homework.

"Hey, I found his senior annual in the library," He said and set down the yearbook for all of us to see. Beside me, Cameron laughed at Mr. Keating's much younger picture.

"Listen to this, captain of the soccer team, editor of the school annual, Cambridge bound, Thigh man, and the Dead Poets Society," I muttered a small Woah.

Cameron read from the yearbook. "Man most likely to do anything."

"Thigh man." Charlie admired. "Mr. K was a hell-raiser."

"And you're the devil," I whispered. Apparently, it was loud enough for Cameron to head and he laughed like I had said the funniest thing. Charlie glared at him and I kept my eyes on the book until Knox pulled it towards him.

"What's Dead Poets Society?"

Neil shrugged, "I don't know."

"Is there a picture in the annual?" Meeks inquired.

"Nothing," Neil replied. "No other mention of it."

Mr. Nolan walks over to our table and Cameron hides the yearbook quickly, and we resume our meals.

"Enjoying your meal, Mr. Perry?" He said, forcing a smile. It fell flat, only causing him to look more gnarly than usual.

Neil smiled and replied, "Yes sir, very much."

I admired how he could charm anybody. Even now, he sounded so perky that someone can easily mistake him for actually liking Mr. Nolan. He was good at putting up a facade, too good.

The table went quiet, the only sounds made by clattering vessels around us. Let us eat in peace, please leave - I repeated in my head, hoping it'd come true.

"And our Mr. Keating, finding him interesting boys?" Mr. Nolan spoke again after an awkward pause.

I assumed the pause was to evaluate if he should include me for once but decided against it. Shunned again. Charlie slightly kicked my foot under the table, as if reading my thoughts.

What will your verse be, Della?

Will you let him and all other pretentious tossers treat you like you mean nothing? Will you spend your life running after father's approval when you knew the man was devoid of all emotions except hatred? Will you let the days pass you until you're cold in the ground or will you make it count?

"Carpe diem," I whispered to myself, trying to calm my raging nerves.

"Yes sir," all the boys replied.

"We were actually talking about that," Charlie added with a smirk. He lived for the danger, even if it was little to nothing.

"Good. He has a very impressive record." Mr. Nolan spoke with a tinge of admiration in his voice. "He was a Rhodes scholar, you know."

"All that, and he has the decency to not outcast me," I said in a sickly sweet tone. "A real gem of a teacher, Mr. Nolan."

Back to cutlery noises, I felt Charlie's leg once again. He tapped my feet twice, I wasn't sure if he was proud of me or just happy about the drama. Cameron dropped the book but didn't move an inch. The boys all wore the same look of disbelief laced with pride.