where all the poets went to die [dead poets society]

13 - a phone call from god

The teachers hurried down the steps, led by a very obviously agitated Mr. Nolan. Several of them carried newspapers in their hands and the group - the Dead Poets - who were feeling the "Dead" part of their society name to the fullest extent looked around at each other discretely.

The students rose as Mr. Nolan and the teachers entered, Maria's knees gave out when she almost immediately met Nolan's eye. He narrowed his gaze on her, nose twitching once, twice.

Oh, God. Maria could practically see the steam spewing from his ears.

She flicked her gaze over to where her uncle stood among the teachers and he gave her a slow, contemplative look. His expression not giving away much.

"Oh God," Maria breathed as the teachers took their places and Mr. Nolan got to the front of the hall, his hands gripping the podium.

"It's okay," Todd mumbled beside her, blinding squeezing her fingers. They were cold and shaking.

"I don't think it's going to be okay, Todd," Maria whispered back, gulping.

"Sit," Nolan roared.

The students hurried to sit.

Nolan took a deep breath, his chest visibly raising up and down under his tailored suit. "In this week of Welton's Honor there appeared a profane and unauthorized article," he surveyed the crowd, his eyes once again falling onto Maria for a moment too long. "Rather than spend my valuable time ferreting out the guilty person - and let me assure you I will find them - I'm asking any and all students who know anything about this article to make themselves known here and now. Whoever the guilty persons are, this is your only chance to avoid expulsion from this school."

Maria's heart pounded in her chest as Nolan's words hung in the air.

Her mind raced.

She could take the blame, and speak up before anyone else took the fall and Nolan actually sniffed out the entire Dead Poets Society. She wasn't technically a Welton student and so he couldn't really expel her - could he?

She shifted to stand, but froze when the sound of a phone ringing sounded around the hall. Murmurs erupted and the teachers looked about for the source of the noise.

Sitting in the row in front of her, Charlie stood, holding up a ringing telephone. He picked up the receiver. "Welton Academy," he answered. "Hello. Yes, he is. Just a moment."

Charlie held out the phone to Nolan. "Mr. Nolan, it's for you. It's God. He says we should have girls at Welton."

Maria's heart sank as she realized that Charlie had inadvertently taken the blame. She paled, shaking in her seat as laughter erupted around her from the other students, but her friends looked between one another, shaking their heads in disbelief.

••●••

"Wipe that smirk off your face," Nolan seethed after he walked into his office. He glared at Charlie who slowly, but surely, swallowed his pleased expression as the reality of what was about to happen sunk in.

Nolan circled him, stopping when he stood directly in front of Charlie.

Charlie straightened, his arms crossed behind his back and tried his best to appear unconcerned and undeterred but internally he was anything but calm. His friends had been right last night - he had put them all at risk with his publication - and now he was seeing just how legitimate their concerns were.

"If you think, Mr. Dalton, that you're the first to try to get thrown out of this school, think again. Others have had similar notions and have failed just as surely as you will fail," Nolan lectured and then he reached for the flat wooden paddle lying on his solid oak desk and jutted his chin at Charlie. "Assume the position."