wherefore art thou » dead poets society

dvorak

the days evaline spent by neil's side would multiply by a tenfold. and the days evaline spent by todd's side would decrease by a tenfold. this became excrutiatingly obvious to everyone except for neil and evaline. they thought they were being clever but alas, all the boys of the dead poets society began suspecting. theories arose, questions arose, dirty jokes arose. but all were unconfirmed and todd sincerely hoped it would stay that way.

acting in english class became interesting, so to say. when romeo professed his love for juliet, her eyes rose from the ground to meet his and responded with what felt like a hint of fervour. this, too, did not go unnoticed. between study groups discussing the play and neil's budding relationship with evaline, she felt her distaste for romeo and juliet lessen. but only slightly because she still hated the two characters with a burning passion.

"okay, look, mercutio is a realist. if you take a look at this page, essentially everything he says counters romeo's ideals. romeo is an idealist, a hopeless romantic. mercutio's character is used to emphasize the idealist part of romeo." she tutted, standing over knox and charlie's shoulders, hands propped upon her hips like a disappointed kindergarten teacher.

evaline, when it came to english, was the spitting image of her father. she spoke with a fire ablaze in her eyes accompanied with wild arm gestures and frequent fluctuations in the pitch of her voice. and neil absolutely loved it, grinning like a madman. she opened up to him, displayed more emotion, spoke more thoughts. neil often came up with terrible excuses, ranging from losing notes to needing help with editing a paper, just to watch her frown and chew on that bottom lip of hers. he was absolutely smitten. even a blind man could see that. but even that, even the outbursts about the english language wasn't as raw as music. and that was the only thing todd had above neil.

and for the first time, neil decided to invite her to a dead poets meeting.

it was late in the evening and evaline was curled up in her bed with her copy of "romeo and juliet" when the door was flung open and neil burst in, radiating sunbeams and all. she cocked a brow, closing the book and sitting up a little straighter. the door shut behind him with the slighted creak and he made his way over to her, tackling her into a hug. he must've misjudged his own strength because no more than a second layer, the two lay sprawled across her bed.

"you have to come with me!"

"neil — it's almost 1 am. where on earth do you think you're going?" she grumbled, his soft cinnamon hair tickling her neck. "also you'd better get off me before i make you."

he huffed angrily and pouted, his arms tightening around her waist. evaline almost smiled at this, quietly revelling in the warmth of his body in the midst of a cold winter. he smelled of clean soap and something uniquely him which proved to be a concoction that had her near-euphoric. he smelled of home and she didn't even realize that he was talking. over the last couple of weeks, she had grown to welcome that alien yet beautiful feeling of his honey-sweet touch. his laugh became a delicate melody and his voice a warm, humming baseline. when he spoke, her eyes only watched his chapped lips and there was an excited glint in his dark eyes that had her entranced and speechless.

"eva!" he whined, "you're not listening!"

she scoffed.

"yea,h i was. you want me to go with you somewhere!"

"it's not just anywhere!" he exclaimed, exasperated in the cutest way possible, "it's the dead poets meeting! we celebrate poetry, we savor the english language for all its worth!"

"and what makes you think your fellow dead poets will let me go?" she chuckled, as though she were reasoning with an infant.

"it's about time i brought my lovely girlfriend to a meeting, don't you think?"

"... your lovely what?"

"girlfriend! are you not?"

and at this moment, her cheeks filled with a bright ruby color and she began muttering curses under her breath. neil found much amusement in her embarrassed manner, stifling any laughs in an attempt to escape the certain doom he would be faced with if evaline caught his snickering. she stood up and pulled on some extra layers of clothing before stopping by the door. her visage was still a warm, rosy shade, clearly still bothered by what neil had said. bothered in the most brilliant way, of course. she'd be more than willing to bear that title but she knew she'd have to do it in sworn secrecy. her father could easily get into quite the predicament if word of her romantic affiliation with neil perry got out to welton staff. it was a near-parallel of romeo and juliet's forbidden romance. and whilst she hated the cliché of a love standing against the odds of the cruel universe, she had no choice but to accept the circumstances of her own little secret. god, she hated the idea of being a juliet in a romantic tragedy.

"absolutely not," she hissed out with a cold glare that was met with a warm blink of his eyes.

"come on! let's get going before the sun comes up."

there was no formal end to the unsettled debate because the facts were that evaline was no giant. she wasn't short for the average female, but she was not tall by any means. and neil, being the strong young man he was, had no trouble throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and parading her down the empty halls. they quickly rejoined the rest of the group consisting of knox, charlie, meeks, pitts, cameron and todd. the group was huddled together under a shadow cast by the looming building of welton's dorms and there was something comedic about it all that made evaline want to laugh. she glanced at todd. he didn't look her way.

upon their arrival, they set out into the woods with no more than a mere nod. the moonlight was softer, more dispersed and filtered through the plentiful branches of the pine trees. evaline could barely see two feet ahead of her and relied on neil's grip on her hand and the few flashlights for guidance. after who knows how long of stumbling over bushes and fallen branches, the group entered a cave.

"i came to the woods because i wanted to live deliberately. i wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life... to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when i had came to die, discover that i had not lived."

neil looked quite astounding, evaline decided. in the gentle, white glow cast by the moon, neil's face was painted in colors even rembrandt would be unable to imitate. he seemed to glow, he seemed so much more alive than he had ever been. and throughout the course of the meeting, evaline would come to realize that this is where neil thrived. where electricity danced from his fingertips, where liquid gold dipped from his mouth. she rested her head against the cool mineral walls of the cave and watched as neil breathed vibrant colors and laughed mozart's greatest operas.

"i'd like to welcome to the group, evaline, as a new initiate of the dead poets society," neil announced with a slight grin pulling at his face. "let us begin!"

while her eyes were for neil the entire evening, she didn't fail to notice todd's behavior. of course, she had observed the gap now forming between herself and todd but never said anything to him. but tonight — it was painstakingly obvious how upset todd was. he didn't meet anyone's eyes, didn't speak, didn't smile, either. but when it came time to read aloud poems, either of their own creation or of those that belonged to the pioneers of english literature, todd stood up.

"um ill be reading an orignal poem."

cue a few cheers from various members of the group. he cleared his throat, unfolding a piece of paper with trembling fingers.

"we dream of the wintertime,
only to shy away from the bite of frost.
we crave the softness of snowflakes,
only to draw away at the sting of cold.
and we dare to venture out, to seek the barren whiteness of december,
only to, once again, return to the fireplace with frost-bitten fingers."

with this, todd looked up for the first time that day. and the subjects of the poem were confirmed. the ice princess and the boy who dreamt of winter.