wherefore art thou » dead poets society

elgar

"for the last time — neil 'i-have-a-foot-up-my-arse' perry — i refuse."

evaline picked her way through trees, her boots crunching and flattening autumn leaves. neil followed after her, plodding through the foliage with a pout. she clutched her newest music scores — a copy of lalo's "symphonie espagnole" mailed to her from london — and her sleek, black violin case she was hung over her shoulder as she scurried towards the open field just ahead. her private music session has been cancelled because headmaster nolan had finally decided to replace the breaking, crumbling piano, and upon moving out the large instrument, several issues with the floorboard had arisen. the entire room was going under construction after that and nolan never arranged a another room for her to practice in. so, the little miss took matters into her own hands and decided to go watch todd and neil play football while making some annotations to her music.

however, neil perry's pleading was not on her agenda.

"we need to bond as costars! we need to have chemistry! we're actors, evaline!"

"and actors lie for a living."

"and authors don't?"

she didn't answer him and, instead, only increased the pace at which she was trekking to get to her destination. and still, neil perry persisted. a bounded after her like a diligent puppy, struggling to match her hurried stride. she continued to disregard anything neil would spew out until they reached the soccer field.

"eva, please! it'll be fun i promise i -"

"first of all, don't call me eva. never do that again. secondly, i really don't care that much about this whole acting out the entire script of romeo and juliet. there's value in presenting the play as originally intended but not to the point where i need to rehearse with you and have a convincing relationship with you. neil perry, like i've said, i really don't enjoy this whole acting business."

and with one more hot and fiery exhale, she plopped herself down onto the yellowing grass and began to spread out the pages of her music, violin set close to her side.

neil chewed on the inside of his cheek, rubbing his neck sheepishly. a simple man with simple aspirations he may be, but he wasn't a man to push someone else to do something they hated. he had enough of that in his own life and he'd absolute dread the moment he'd project similar behaviour onto others.

"i'm sorry. i shouldn't force you. i just really enjoy the whole acting thing but i guess it's not for everyone."

she grunted but refused to meet his eye and the finality in that one noise led him away from her and onto the pitch. neil was a little disheartened, a little discouraged but regardless of that, he jogged towards his blonde friend with a lopsided grin. here's the thing. todd anderson is no idiot and he very much saw the interaction between the two. it was almost a comical sight — a grumpy kitten stomping along with a hyper puppy dog pleading for attention. todd knew neil was upset and he felt a slight pang in his heart at the sight of his roommate's distress.

"neil, what did she say?"

"she didn't say much. but are we surprised at our ice princess' lack of response?" neil chuckled, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as the other team organized its players. they were awfully disorganized and the substitute coach, who was profusely blowing his whistle, was blatantly ignored. neil thought his head might blow up.

"are you alright?" todd asked in a second attempt.

"yeah, fine. shouldn't i be asking you that? you've been isolating yourself again, you know? you hardly even come to study groups."

a cleverly dodged bullet. todd noted that but opted to play along.

"i'm busy. neil, like i told you, can handle myself."

"oh my name's todd anderson i can handle myself," neil mocked in a high pitched whiny voice that earned him a blow to the arm. he gaped at todd who bore a triumphant grin, like a gold medal of being the world's biggest smiling shithead. this soon escalated into a tussle with two boys wrestling each other on the grass field. more whistling ensued. more play-fighting ensued.

eventually, the boys began their match though evaline was pretty much ignorant to whatever was playing out on that field in front of her for the majority of the game. that was, until a ball came flying her way.

and hit her.

she heard a crack and blazing hot pain shoot out from her nose that numbed her entire face. the culprit? none other than neil perry himself. red blossoms bloomed along her taupe coat and she groaned.

"neil go help her! take her to the infirmary!" the coach ushered, shooing the boy with flapping motions of his long bony hands.

"it's fine i'll go," todd quickly cut in, jogging towards the surprisingly calm figure of evaline who had both hands clamped tightly across her visage. rivulets of dark red peeked our from between her slim fingers despite her efforts to cover up that whole fiasco on her face. neil, without a word, quickly followed suit which left the coach whistling and shrieking once again.

as todd collected evaline's belongings, neil seized the opportunity to play the hero. of course. not a romeo? todd didn't believe a word of that as neil swiftly picked up a moderately distressed evaline, bridal style might he mention, into his arms. todd trailed after them, inexplicable bile burning at the base of his throat. he should be used to it by now — neil perry, the star pupil, the popular one, the talented student — but just this once, todd allowed himself to take in that bitter, bitter taste in his mouth. just this once.

"eva i'm really sorry," neil would mumble again. his guilt was tripled, to say the least, having grown increasingly anxious with each step he took towards the school holding a near-growling girl in his arms. he had already upset her with his pestering earlier and now he had even injured her. good going, neil, good going. she certainly wasn't pleased with the current situation, given the scrunch of her bloodied nose and furrowed brows.

but she didn't seem angry.

"neil perry, you've caused me quite the bloody headache today," evaline began, squinting at neil as her nose was cleaned with a cotton swab. "and stop calling me eva. i'd hate for you to make it a habit. but i thought about what you said. while i honestly couldn't care less about acting shakespeare, it seems that you see acting as something more." she sighed here. "an art form? i don't know. i respect that, though. so i'll do it — just don't get all giddy about it, alright?"

and todd watched, from the door to the infirmary, with holes in his mouth from the bitter acid that had formed earlier and only continued to brew. acting as an art form? complete bogus.