EVERMORE | DEAD POETS SOCIETY

TWENTY-THREE!

*May 13th, 1960*

    IT HAD BEEN ALMOST A WEEK SINCE PROM. It had almost been a week since Rebetta had become vulnerable... letting her guard down and decided to be vulnerable in front of Charlie. She didn't even want to think about that. The thought of that embarrassed her.

    But Charlie was her friend. She didn't know why it embarrassed her so much. He was going through the same struggle with all these changes. She didn't understand why she got the worst out of it. Besides, Charlie was never the vulnerable type. She knew that he wasn't the type to pick up somebody's broken pieces and put it back together again. She didn't want to be fixed. She didn't know how to be fixed. She just knew that one day, she would move on from it.

    When Monday came along, she walked through the hallways of Ridgeway High and to her locker to see Chris and Ginny waiting for her. "Oh my gosh, there you are!" Ginny said to her and Rebetta went to put in her combination for her locker. "Where did you go on Saturday? We were worried sick about you!"

    Rebetta opened up her locker to grab her textbooks. "Guys, I just wasn't feeling good. Charlie took me home."

    And she left it at that.

    Ginny wanted to ask more questions about where Rebetta and Charlie actually went on prom night but Chris told her to drop it. Either way, both girls weren't upset with Rebetta at all. Rebetta wanted to remind them that she did have a very fun and swell time at the dance. But she didn't want to explain the reason why they didn't get it.

    On Wednesday at eight at night, she would wait by her telephone for her weekly talk with her best friend, Todd Anderson. Since she wasn't allowed on Welton property and with Todd's busy schedule with school, they both had set a time and date to talk on the phone for fifteen minutes, just to catch up with each other. She knew she was going to get bombarded with questions about the prom.

    The phone rang once before she picked it up and put it to her ears. "Betta."

    "Todd."

    "Knox told me you left the prom early with Charlie," Todd said. "Is that true?"

    Rebetta sighed into the phone. "Yeah, it is true. I almost had a nervous breakdown, that's why."

    "Why did you have a nervous breakdown?" Todd said before she had heard a ruffle of different noises. "Guys, be quiet! I'm on the phone with Betta!" She heard Todd arguing with who she assumed was the other guys.

    "Hi Betta!" She heard Meeks and Pitts say.

    "Hi Pitts! Hi Meeks!" She smiled widely. She missed her friends so much. She missed when everyone was together, including Cameron and Neil. Mainly Neil and less Cameron though. She just missed the whole Dead Poets Society.

    "Okay, yeah... I'll be there in like fifteen." She heard Todd tell them before turning his attention back onto his friend.

    "Some song came on that Neil and I listened to one time. It brought back a memory and I needed to step out and get some fresh air." Rebetta told Todd.

    "And?" Todd asked. "What did Charlie do? Did he find you after that song?"

    "No," She said. "He found me during the song."

    Todd laughed. "Wait, wait... so you're telling me that Charlie wanted to find you while the song was playing? That he couldn't have found a different girl to dance with but found you instead?"

    "Exactly."

    "So..."

    "So the point is that Charlie wanted to make sure I was okay," Rebetta had told Todd. "I didn't want to wreck his night so the first thing I wanted to do was shove the thought of Neil out of my mind. But Charlie... he wasn't buying it at all. I wasn't going to fight with him, but he told me we should just go and hang out..."