DRESS || ( charlie dalton )

xxii. of instructions for poetry and last goodbyes

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

DRESS
(( — DEAD POETS SOCIETY — ))

—chapter xxii. of instructions for poetry and last goodbyes

THE NEXT MORNING, loraine had taken her time to get ready. she had showered, gotten dressed and put one of neil's ribbons into her hair.

today was the first day on which mr keating wasn't teaching english anymore. it was weird to even think about. loraine dreaded the lesson all day, but when she entered the classroom, she knew that she just had to make it through, no matter how wrong she felt about it.  

she was sitting in her usual seat. it was weird, not having charlie next to her. but everything felt weird the last few days, so she did not stumble over that kind of unfamiliarity anymore.

the door opened and almost immediately all of the students got up from their seats. this was not right, she thought. this was supposed to be mr keating's class, but now, her fathers was standing in front of the room.

while mr keating had felt like a friend, mr nolan felt like a dictator.

"sit!" he directed and the class followed "i will be teaching this class through exams. we'll find a permanent english teacher during the break. who will tell me where you are in the pritchard textbook?"

no one reacted to his question, which prompted nolan to pick one of the students.

"mr anderson"

loraine and todd looked up at the same time.

"in the— in the pr—" loraine closed her eyes when she heard todd's stuttering. he had been doing so well at overcoming it and now that keating was gone, his progress was ruined.

"i can't hear you, mr anderson" nolan pushed

"in the pritchard?" todd asked, while flipping through pages of the book

"kindly inform me, mr cameron" nolan finally freed todd from his misery and loraine sighed relieved.

"we skipped around a lot, sir" cameron answered "we covered the romantics and some of the chapters on post civil war literature"

"what about the realists?"

"i believe we skipped most of that, sir"

"all right, then, we'll start over" nolan nodded "what is poetry?"

before anyone could raise their hands or nolan could continue with a monologue, there was a knock at the door. the students heads turned to the back of the room.

"come" nolan directed

mr keating walked into the room. "excuse me, i came for my personals. should i come back after class?"

"get them now, mr keating" nolan nodded "gentlemen, turn to page twenty-one of the introduction"

loraine watched closely, how keating walked around the room. she could practically feel his eyes stay a little longer on both charlie's and neil's abandoned seats.

"mr cameron" nolan said "read aloud the excellent essay by dr pritchard on 'understanding poetry'"

cameron was silent for a few seconds, debating his answer, before he finally replied to his teacher. "that page has been ripped out, sir"

"well, borrow somebody else's book" nolan said quickly

"they're all ripped out, sir" cameron answered