❛ I guess I'll learn to take the good with the bad. Cause each night I ask the stars up above, why must I be a teenager in love? ❜

DEAD POETS SOCIETY
chapter fifteen

IT WAS A Friday night like any other. The boys and Eliza snuck out of Welton Academy. They met at the Old Indian Cave to resume their session of the Dead Poets Society. Although, this Friday night was a little different, with Knox missing the meeting in favor of Chet Danburry's party.

⠀⠀⠀Knox was beyond excited and giddy the whole day, and his unwavering happiness worried Eliza. To her, Chris didn't seem very interested. She seemed like she liked Knox as a friend when he most obviously was head over heels for the poor girl. She was leading him on while she had her beefy boyfriend beat him up when he took the wrong step towards Chris.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza even suggested she come along as his date, but not a date, so he wouldn't be alone. Knox was quick to point out that having her with him could send the wrong signals to Chris.

⠀⠀⠀Now, they sat inside the cave without Knox and, for some reason that no one knew, Charlie. He had claimed he had something he needed to do before joining them at the cave. The boys tried to find out what he was up to by pressuring Eliza into telling them, but she bit back, saying she didn't even know what he was up to.

⠀⠀⠀"Let's get the meeting started," Eliza suggested finally, clapping her hands for the boys to look her way. They couldn't wait for Charlie all night long. "Charlie can join when he gets here. He'll be fine."

⠀⠀⠀"To live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rot all that was not life," the Society recited together, by now having the poem long memorized.

⠀⠀⠀As they had been reciting Thoreau's words, a burst of odd, bubbly laughter interrupted their meeting. Their heads and flashlights whipped to the front of the cave, where three figures emerged from the dark. One being Charlie and the other two being girls.

⠀⠀⠀"Oh, my God," Cameron breathed.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza could feel her jaw tighten in annoyance as one shrill voice asked, "Is this it?" and her temper flared. Maybe if Knox were there, she could calm herself some, but that odd boiling in her veins raged as the two girls stepped inside the cave. Typically, Eliza could keep her cool in any situation, but this was something different.

⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, this is it," Charlie said cooly with a shit-ass smile on her face. "Go ahead, go on in. It's my cave. Watch your step," Charlie called behind the girls.

⠀⠀⠀Neil turned to Eliza, watching her face contract into annoyance. He and the rest of the boys following. Neil patted her knee reassuringly, the best of them thinking that maybe there was something else to this. Eliza turned to Neil, trying to smile, but she couldn't put the pieces right in her head to why Charlie would bring girls to them.

⠀⠀⠀"We're not gonna slip, are we?" the other girl asked teasingly as if she was testing Charlie on his answer.

⠀⠀⠀"Uh, oh," the shrill girl exclaimed. She stepped into the cave, a little shaky on her legs.

⠀⠀⠀The flashlights moved from her face to her chest in a heartbeat. Pitts stood quickly, hitting his head on the low ceiling once again. The other boys stood to be polite, chuckling awkwardly to themselves. Neil and Eliza continued to watch them from where they sat.

⠀⠀⠀"Hi," the first girl greeted.

⠀⠀⠀Meeks said hello back with an enormous grin.

⠀⠀⠀"Hi, you guys. Meet, uh, Gloria and—" Charlie introduced, turning to the shrill girl but found he could not come up with her name. Eliza couldn't blame him. They were both blonde bimbos who looked eerily related.

⠀⠀⠀"Tina," she hissed.

⠀⠀⠀"Tina!" Charlie shouted as it had clicked in his head. "This is the pledge class of the Dead Poets Society," Charlie explained, many of the boys giving their greetings.

⠀⠀⠀"Guys, move. Move. Come on, folks. It's Friday night. Let's get on with this meeting," Charlie called, moving the girls to the dry rocks Meeks and Todd had been sitting on.

⠀⠀⠀"I thought you guys went to a Prep School?" Gloria asked curiously, looking at Eliza with a perfectly raised eyebrow.

⠀⠀⠀"We do, but Eliza stays at the Academy under special circumstances. Her Uncle is a teacher," Charlie explained, waving a hand at her.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza rose an eyebrow as he sat across from her. Her jaw tensed as Charlie explained the nature of their relationship.

⠀⠀⠀"Seriously?" Eliza asked.

⠀⠀⠀"Oh, so you're friends?" Tina asked, looking at Charlie the whole time with only a sideways glance directed at Eliza.

⠀⠀⠀The tension in the air became stuffy as the boys watched Eliza fume while Charlie used his charm (whether or not he realized it) on the two girls he had brought down to the cave.

⠀⠀⠀"No!" Eliza said suddenly, slamming her hand against her thigh. "I was his girlfriend."

⠀⠀⠀"What do you mean was?" Charlie asked, his eyes wide in shock.

⠀⠀⠀"Why would I want to date you, Charles Dalton, if you're just gonna bring girls around every time we hang out and not even say I'm your girlfriend?" Eliza asked, trying her best not to explode, but the longer she had to look at the taut expression of Tina trying to win over Charlie was making it harder and harder to do so.

⠀⠀⠀"No, Birdie," Charlie cooed quickly, waving his hands around in front of him. "Birdie, I'm sorry," he said, moving across the cave in a second as Tina and Gloria's eyes trailed after him, shocked he was so quick to leave them. "I do like you. I do think of you as my girlfriend, although we haven't specifically talked about that yet," he said with a small laugh, but the tight scowl coming from Eliza made him stop. "Right, sorry. I just wanted to help the other boys out. You know how socially stupid they are. Now, I have you, and Knox is trying to get with Chris, and they have no one."

⠀⠀⠀Eliza frowned still but looked to the other boys, who were listening and awkwardly sitting around as they stared at Tina and Gloria.

⠀⠀⠀Curiously, Todd and Neil seemed to watch each other with similar intensity, but none of that mattered now. All that mattered was that Charlie was annoying her very much.

⠀⠀⠀"Charlie, we can talk about it later," Eliza said through her teeth, not buying what he had to say. "Not when I'm upset."

⠀⠀⠀Charlie sighed, the hand holding hers squeezed one last time before he stood and tried to put on a happy façade.

⠀⠀⠀"Guys, I have an announcement to make. In keeping with the spirit of passionate experimentation of the Dead Poets, I'm giving up the name Charlie Dalton. From now on, call me Nuwanda," Charlie stated, snatching the lipstick from Tina's hand and making strange lines on his chest as the boys watched on with slight amusement.

⠀⠀⠀"I'm not calling you Nuwanda, Charlie," Eliza muttered.

⠀⠀⠀"I'm not asking you to, Birdie," Charlie said with a smile, winking her way. "You can call me whatever you want, but to the rest of you! Nuwanda!" Charlie exclaimed, turning back to the group with a stubborn expression. "So, are we gonna have a meeting or what?" Charlie asked

⠀⠀⠀He handed Tina's lipstick back to her and slinked over to Eliza's side but kept his distance. Just the tiny act of staying by her rather than the two girls seemed to abate her mood for the time being, at least.

⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, if you guys don't have a meeting, how do we know if we wanna join?" Gloria asked with a sly smirk as she eyed Eliza for a reaction.

⠀⠀⠀Neil choked beside her, laughing at the idea.

⠀⠀⠀"Join?"

⠀⠀⠀Charlie recited Shakespeare to Eliza,

⠀⠀⠀"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
⠀⠀⠀Thou art more lovely and more temperate." 

 ⠀⠀⠀He was trying to get her to smile, and it was close until Tina interrupted.

⠀⠀⠀"That's so sweet!"

⠀⠀⠀"I made that up just for my Birdie," Charlie grinned cheekily.

⠀⠀⠀"You did?" Gloria asked, although the Dead Poets laughed at their ignorance behind their hands.

⠀⠀⠀"Would you like to hear another?" Charlie asked her, who nodded quickly.

⠀⠀⠀Gloria was kinder than her friend Tina. She liked Charlie and Eliza together and seemed genuinely intrigued by their relationship. Although, that didn't stop Eliza from getting annoyed as Charlie began to 'make up' another poem for her.

⠀⠀⠀"She walks in beauty like the night..." 

⠀⠀⠀Charlie began, holding his hand up to his chin in thought. 

⠀⠀⠀"She walks in beauty like the night
⠀⠀⠀Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
⠀⠀⠀All that's best, dark and bright
⠀⠀⠀Meet in her aspect and her eyes."

⠀⠀⠀Charlie was looking into Eliza's eyes, his hand on her neck and his other in her hand, and even though she was mad, she couldn't help but want to kiss him. But, unfortunately, they had yet to do so, and the tension was getting close to turning them both insane.

⠀⠀⠀"That's beautiful," Tina grinned as if reading precisely what was going through both of their minds. Both slowly turned to her without a word.

⠀⠀⠀The cave had become silent for a solid five minutes until Gloria had pulled out some booze from her coat and handed it to Neil.

⠀⠀⠀"Go ahead," she insisted. "Pass it around."

⠀⠀⠀Neil looked at the bottle, then back to the boys sitting around the cave. Cameron shook his head not to pass it, but that just incited Neil to take the bottle and pull a swig from it.

⠀⠀⠀"Don't you guys miss having girls around here?" Tina asked Meeks and Pitts across the cave. "I mean, you've got one, but that's enough for all of you, is it?"

⠀⠀⠀Neil had pulled the bottle from his mouth and went to hand it to Todd, but it was quickly snatched by Eliza, who took a long pull from the sweet, burning drink to keep herself from snapping at Tina.

⠀⠀⠀"Thank you," she said lowly, holding the bottle back to Neil. Neil watched her worriedly but didn't say a word as Charlie joined in on the conversation too.

⠀⠀⠀"That's part of what this club is about," Charlie explained, smiling stupidly. "In fact, I'd like to announce I published an article in the school paper in the name of the Dead Poets," Charlie said to the group, his smile wide and proud, but none of his friends joined with him. Instead, they only stared in shock at his announcement.

⠀⠀⠀"What?" Cameron demanded, dumbstruck.

⠀⠀⠀"Demanding girls be admitted to Welton," Charlie continued.

⠀⠀⠀"Charlie, what the hell were you thinking?" Eliza asked, her voice sharp as Charlie turned to look at her in innocent confusion.

⠀⠀⠀"I was thinking you could attend Welton!" Charlie defended himself, trying to walk closer to Eliza.

⠀⠀⠀"No, Charlie, this is going to get me kicked out of Welton!" Eliza shouted, throwing her hands up to show how she would be thrown out of the Academy.

⠀⠀⠀"How did you even do that?" Neil asked, trying to calm the situation before the couple said something they'd both regret.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza moved to the front of the cave and sat between Meeks and Pitts, her head in her hands as she shook it dramatically.

⠀⠀⠀"I'm one of the proofers," Charlie said slowly, his eyes trained on Eliza. "I slipped the article in."

⠀⠀⠀"Look, uh, it's... it's over now," Meeks stated.

⠀⠀⠀"Why? Nobody knows who we are."

⠀⠀⠀"Well, don't you think they're gonna figure out who wrote it?" Cameron asked blatantly, and for the first time, Eliza agreed with the goody-two-shoes as he had a point and, for once, a right to be angry. "They're gonna come to you and ask to know what the Dead Poets society is. Charlie, you had no right to do something like that."

⠀⠀⠀"It's Nuwanda, Cameron!" Charlie quickly defended the most unimportant piece of Cameron's statement.

⠀⠀⠀"Charlie!" Eliza shouted loudly, annoyed at how childish he was being.

⠀⠀⠀"That's right. It's Nuwanda," Tina said behind Charlie.

⠀⠀⠀"Shut up, Tina. No one gives a fuck that you're here right now," Eliza shouted, standing to her feet, her chest heaving and her mind racing.

⠀⠀⠀"Hey, hey, hey!" Charlie called, trying to calm Eliza down as he moved to her and held her shoulders, but she stepped out of his grip.

⠀⠀⠀"Stop it, Charlie. I don't need you to coddle me," Eliza whispered harshly, and Charlie took a step back, holding his hands up and now growing frustrated as well.

⠀⠀⠀"Are we just playing around out here, or do we mean what we say? For all we do is come together and read a bunch of poems to each other. What the hell are you doing?" Charlie asked, walking back to the end of the cave and catching Eliza's heated eyes once more.

⠀⠀⠀"We're enjoying the time we have with each other before we all fuck off to college and never see each other again! That's what the hell we're doing, Dalton," Eliza hissed, the truth in her words hurting Charlie as his views of the rest of their lives were a lot different from the morbid truth.

⠀⠀⠀"Alright, alright," Neil called to the two. "You still shouldn't have done it, Charlie. You don't speak for the club."

⠀⠀⠀"Hey, would you not worry about your precious little neck? If they catch me, I'll tell them I made it up," Charlie shrugged, leaving everyone in exhausted silence.

AUTHOR'S NOTE —

POEMS: William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 18" // Lord Byron, "She Walks in Beauty"

SONG: A Teenager in Love by Dion and the Belmonts

Thank you for reading! Leave comments telling me your thoughts on this chapter, but however you interact, know that I really appreciate you reading. I hope you enjoy, and until the next one.