DRESS || ( charlie dalton )

ii. of first school days and english teachers

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

DRESS
(( — DEAD POETS SOCIETY — ))

—chapter ii: of first school days and english teachers

THE NEXT DAY was a never-ending tirade of boring classes, that occurred every first day of every new year and from then on every day until the school year was over.

chemistry was first: "the first twenty questions at the end of chapter one are due tomorrow" and loraine groaned internally, already planning on neil's understanding of it, because she was a lost cause. she looked around the room and found neil's eyes, who send a friendly nod, reassuring his help. loraine breathed a sigh of relief.

after that came latin, which was mostly spent with mcallister reciting the verbs and the rest of the class repeating them, nothing too hard for the start. also, latin was something loraine could mostly manage on her own, and for the hard questions, she could always ask for meeks support.

the next class was math: "your study of trigonometry requires absolute precision. anyone failing to turn in any homework assignment will be penalized one point off their final grade. let me urge you now not to test me on this point." the class groaned in silence, no one making an audible sound, to not set mr hager off.

next came english, which was a relief for two reasons. first, it was loraine's best subject, she read a lot, mostly poems and famous novels of big names, and she had a perfect understanding of anything they had ever gone through before. her teacher had always been impressed by her english knowledge. and secondly, this year they would get a new teacher, she wasn't sure why, but somehow she had a good feeling about him, his kind eyes glistening friendly.

loraine took her seat next to charlie, who grinned mischievously, extending a hand and softly pulling at one of her curls. loraine slapped his hand away laughing. "this outfit looks much better" charlie muttered and pointed at the school uniform, skirt, and blazer, she was now wearing. "you look like a sexy school girl" he joked

loraine shook her head laughing "i am a sexy school girl" charlie beamed at her, this is why they were so good together, she never got offended by his jokes and would always use them to humor him further.

before any of them could mutter another word, mr keating walked out of the teaching room and the class immediately went silent. he was whistling and walking down between the rows of desks before he walked out of the room completely. charlie and loraine send each other questioning gazes, as keating poked his head back into the doorway. "well, come on" he said and gestured for them to follow him.

the students grabbed their books and followed him down the hall, to the entrance of the building. the walls were plastered with cabinets, filled with trophies and photos. in front of them stood keating, waiting until everyone had arrived.

"oh captain, my captain" he recited "who knows where that comes from?" his eyes wandered around the room until they reached a small and fragile hand, which was raised above the boy's heads. he couldn't even see the person to which it belonged. "yeah?" keating called, and the rows of boys moved to the side, eager to escape keating's sight.

keating's eyes light up, as he saw who had raised the hand. loraine was leaning against the wall, charlie right next to her. unlike the others, he hadn't moved out of the way, clearly noticing that she was the one knowing the answer. "ms nolan" keating said friendly "please" with a hand gesture he instructed her to go on.

"thank you sir" loraine smiled "the phrase is from a poem by walt whitman he wrote about abraham lincoln"

"very good, ms nolan" keating smiled approvingly and loraine grinned at him. "now in this class you can call me mr keating, or if you're slightly more daring, oh captain, my captain" he looked around the room, the class smiling at his words "now, let me dispel a few rumors so they don't fester into facts. yes, i too attended hell—ton and survived"