celia stared off into nothingness as the boys around her sang a hymn. charlie, next to her, stopped singing, leaving the two as the only ones not singing along. "all my life, thy light shall surely follow me. and in god's house forevermore, my dwelling place shall be. amen."

nolan stood at the pulpit of the room, the other professors seated behind him. "the death of neil perry is a tragedy." he began.

celia's hand rounded into a fist that charlie grabbed, the two holding onto their hands as if they were the only things keeping them upright.

"he was a fine student." the headmaster continued. "one of welton's best. and he will be missed. we've contacted each of your parents to explain the situation. naturally, they're all quite concerned. at the request of neil's family, i intend to conduct a thorough inquiry into this matter. your complete cooperation is expected."

after he'd finished, the society members all moved into the hallway outside of their rooms. they wanted to go to the cave, for their usual meeting, but they knew they wouldn't ever be able to utter thoreau without neil.

"who do you think they're gonna interview first?" meeks asked, nervous.

charlie shrugged. "doesn't matter to me."

"but what's our story? it isn't our fault, or the school's fault, that this happened." the red-head continued.

knox looked up at this. "what, do you think they're going to try to blame us?"

"it depends on what we tell them." charlie replied. "as long as none of us.. shit."

"what?"

celia looked among the group. knox, meeks, pitts, todd, herself, charlie. she then knew what the latter was suggesting. "guys, think about it. which one of us isn't here right now?"

pitts was confused for a moment as he registered her question. "you don't think he'd-"

"cameron." meeks agreed.

"we're all fried." charlie said.

pitts turned to him. "how do you mean?"

"cameron's a fink." charlie spoke through gritted teeth. "he's in nolan's office right now, finking."

"about what?"

"the club, pittsie. think about it. the board of directors, the trustees and mr. nolan. do you think for one moment they're gonna let this thing just blow over? schools go down because of things like this. they need a scapegoat."

"he wanted to tell nolan about the society anyway, he won't hold back if they ask him directly." meeks worried aloud.

"exactly." charlie said, slamming his fist onto the floor angrily. "whichever one of you finds him first, tell him we need to talk. the closet, tomorrow. all of us."

·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

the next day, the group all sat about the cluttered cloakroom, waiting for cameron. "you told him about this meeting?" charlie asked, lighting a cigarette.

pitts nodded. "twice."

before they could just get up and find the red-head themselves, the door opened. charlie was the only boy who didn't attempt to put out his cigarette, keeping it between his lips.

"what's going on, guys?" cameron asked as he walked in, feigning innocence.

charlie stood, tossing his cigarette. "you finked, didn't you, cameron?" he accused.

"finked?" he asked. "i don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"you told nolan everything about the club is what i'm talking about." charlie countered, his anger growing.

cameron scoffed. "look, in case you hadn't heard, dalton, there's something called an honor code at this school, all right? if a teacher asks you a question, you tell the truth or you're expelled."

"you little-" charlie lunged at cameron, but knox and meeks held him back. "he's a rat! he's in it up to his eyes, so he ratted to save himself."

"don't touch him, charlie." knox warned, keeping him back. "you do and you're out."

charlie laughed. "i'm out anyway!"

the other boy shook his head. "you don't know that, not yet."

"he's right there, charlie." cameron said. "and if you guys are smart, you will do exactly what i did and cooperate. they're not after us. we're the victims. us and neil."

charlie turned to him. "what's that mean? who are they after?"

celia, who'd been quiet the whole time, then moved towards the front, outraged. "you asshole!" she yelled, moving to cameron.

"what?" charlie looked down at her. "what, who is he after?"

"they're firing my dad," she looked at cameron, "and it's because of you?" she spoke through her teeth. "you are out of your mind. how could you even suggest that it was his fault that neil-"

"you guys didn't really think he could avoid responsibility, did you?" cameron asked. "who else would you think? the administration? mr. perry? mr. keating put us up to all this crap, didn't he? if he wasn't for mr. keating, neil would be cozied up in his room right now, studying his chemistry and dreaming of being called doctor."

todd then burst, making his way through the crowd. "that is not true, cameron." he shouted through his tears. "you know that. he didn't put us to anything. neil loved acting."

"believe what you want," he responded, "but i say let keating fry. i mean, why ruin our lives?"

charlie lunged at him once more, and this time no one made a move to stop him as he punched cameron in the face.

the red-head fell onto the floor, lifting a hand to his now bloody nose. "you just signed your expulsion papers, nuwanda." he spoke the name like bile, rising to his feet. "and if the rest of you are smart, you'll do exactly what i did. they know everything anyway. you can't save keating, but you can save yourselves."

"fuck you." celia spat.

he turned to her. "and you- you can pretend your dad's innocent as long as you want, but none of this would've happened if you hadn't been here. neil would still be here if you hadn't-"

"that's bullshit, cameron." todd spoke angrily, almost ready to punch the boy himself. "don't say that about celia, he loved her."

cameron rolled his eyes. "i'm warning you guys. you're going to ruin your lives for some stupid girl anyway." he made to move for the door, and it took the force of all of the boys to hold charlie back now.

·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

"i trust that you know why you've been called here." nolan said, looking to celia, who sat wordlessly across from him. "do you or do you not confess to being a member of the dead poets society?" he got angry as she didn't reply.

she eventually looked up, nodding. "yeah."

"that wasn't too hard, was it?" he then asked, passing her a paper. "i have here a detailed description of what occurred at your meetings. it describes how your father, mr. keating, encouraged you and the boys to organize this club and to use it as a source of inspiration for reckless and self-indulgent behavior. it describes how mr. keating, both in and out of the classroom, encouraged neil perry to follow his obsession with acting when he knew all along it was against the explicit order of neil's parents. it was mr. keating's blatant abuse of his position as teacher that led directly to neil perry's death."

celia looked up after pretending to read through the paper. "i'm not signing this."

"please, this doesn't have to be difficult."

"i'm not going to agree to it when it isn't true." she said, sliding it back to the man.

"we have multiple sources that have informed us of this. i understand that he is your father, but you have to be honest now."

celia smiled. "if he's looking for a reason behind his son's death, please tell mr. perry to look no further than the man in the mirror." she said, standing and leaving the office.

·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

"expelled?" celia asked charlie as she sat down next to him. he'd already packed up most of his belongings, seeing as he only had one day left of classes before his parents would pick him up.

"yep. worth it." he smiled. "what about you? why are you packing? i thought you were staying."

she shook her head. "no. i basically told nolan to kiss my ass and then left. so, i'm expelled too."

charlie laughed. "wow, maybe nolan was right on his little paper!" he exclaimed. "maybe i am a bad influence."

"how dare you ruin the life of an impressionable young girl such as myself." she agreed, chuckling to herself. the two sat in comfortable silence until celia rested her head on his shoulder. "i miss him."

he nodded. "i miss him, too."

another break of silence. "are you going to be in class tomorrow?"

charlie shrugged. "might as well raise a little bit more hell before i'm booted out, right? what about you?"

"if you're gonna sneak in, i guess i will too."

"we sit in the back, no one will even notice us if we flip off nolan the whole time." he joked.

celia laughed. "now that truly would be a glorious prank." she agreed. "if you wanna really prank him, you should tell him about the inarguable fact that his wife has the appearance equivalent to that of an orca whale."

he threw his head back with a laugh. "did you come up with that?"

"yeah!"

"that's good, that's real good." he laughed. "i dare you to say that to nolan's face."

celia pondered this for a moment. "mary shelley wrote her 'frankenstein' on a dare with lord byron while they were vacationing on a volcanic island. frankenstein went on to become both a best seller and a classic. so, i'll take on any dare." 

"i'm not sure why i'm impressed by you knowing this." charlie said. his laughter ceased after a moment, and his face grew serious. "you didn't have to get expelled, you know. you should've just signed the paper. now you're not going to get to-"

"get to do what?" she countered. "not going to get to sit here and wish he was here? or wish you were?" she shook her head to show her distaste in either of those options. "i don't want to be here if you, neil, and dad all aren't here. i can't.. i can't do that."

charlie nodded, trying to understand her perspective. "i mean, you could've just transferred schools, you know. you didn't have to tell nolan to kiss your ass." he laughed.

celia laughed with him, shaking her head. "carpe diem, right?" she asked. "besides, it was so much more fun this way."

he shook his head fondly. "oh, my gosh."

·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

"you shouldn't have risked your own expulsion because of me." keating told his daughter, who was sitting in his room.

"you know i couldn't sign it!" she argued. "i'm not going to agree to something that isn't true. everything they were saying was wrong, and i couldn't lie just so, what, i get to stay here and live under the roof of nolan?"

her father shook his head. "no, i don't expect you to lie. but i also don't expect you to insult mr. perry and then leave. you're better than that, you're better than this."

she frowned. "i know. i know i am really lucky to be here, and that it looks like a just threw it all away for nothing. but i.. i can't go here without you. without him, without.." she put her head in her hands. "i just can't do it."

keating knelt down so that he was at eye level with her, removing her hands from her face. "this is going to be this way for a while." he admitted. "i don't expect you to immediately recover from this. but, please, promise that this will be your last reckless choice as a result."

his daughter nodded. "okay."

·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

the next day, charlie and celia slipped into their normal seats in the back of the classroom. the room felt barren, and a cloud was over everyone as they knew this would be their last day at welton. "are you still set on the middle finger plan?" she asked the boy, who sat behind her.

charlie smirked. "you know, it really was foolish of them to let us continue attending classes until we could be 'collected'."

nolan then walked into the room, taking keating's previous place. "i'll be teaching this class through exams." he said. "we'll find a permanent english teacher during the break. who will tell me where you are in the pritchard textbook? mr. anderson?"

todd stuttered. this was wrong. keating hated pritchard. "uh, in the, in the pr-"

"i can't hear you, mr. anderson."

"in the, in the, in the pritchard?" he managed to ask.

nolan rolled his eyes. "kindly inform me, mr. cameron."

charlie made a quiet pig sound that made celia cover her mouth from a laugh.

"we skipped around a lot, sir." cameron said. "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."

nolan nodded. "all right, then, we'll start over. what is poetry?" a knock at the door made him stop. "come in."

the students all looked up as keating walked in. "excuse me." he said, scanning the seats. "i came for my personals. should i come back after class?"

"get them now, mr. keating." the other man silently slipped to the back of the room. "gentlemen, turn to page 21 of the introduction. mr. cameron, read aloud the excellent essay by dr. pritchard on understanding poetry.

cameron looked up. "that page has been ripped out, sir."

nolan stared at him blankly. "well, borrow somebody else's book."

"they're all ripped out, sir."

"what do you mean, they're all ripped out?"

"sir, we, uh-"

"never mind." he grabbed his own book, slapping the open page onto cameron's desk. "read!"

cameron, as always, did what he was told. "understanding poetry by dr. j evans pritchard, ph.d. to fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme and figures of speech, then ask two questions: 1) how artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered and 2)..."

the door to the office squeaked as keating shut it behind him, making cameron pause. celia turned over to her father, who was solemnly observing his students.

cameron continued. ".. how important is that objective? question 1 rates the poem's perfection; question 2 rates its importance. and once these questions have been answered, determining the poem's greatness becomes a relatively simple matter. if the poem's score for perfection is plotted on the horizontal of a graph-"

as keating passed by the students, making his way to the door, todd leapt from his seat. "mr. keating!" he exclaimed. "they made everybody sign it."

nolan got up from his desk, moving over to todd. "quiet, mr. anderson."

"you gotta believe me. it's true." the boy pleaded.

keating nodded. "i do believe you, todd."

"leave, mr. keating." nolan groaned.

todd turned to him. "but it wasn't his fault!"

"sit down, mr. anderson!" todd reluctantly returned to his seat. "one more outburst from you or anyone else, and you're out of this school! leave, mr. keating." the entire room silenced at this, but the teacher hesitated by the door. "i said leave, mr. keating."

he slowly turned, opening the door. as he did, todd stood upon his desk, turning to keating. "o captain! my captain!" he called, his voice sounding throughout the room.

"sit down, mr. anderson!"

keating paused at the door, looking back to see todd.

"do you hear me? sit down! sit down! this is your final warning, anderson. how dare you? do you hear me?"

celia and charlie, both having nothing to lose, since they'd already been expelled, clambered onto their desks. "o captain! my captain!" they both called, smiling at todd, who looked over to them.

after a moment of indecision, knox joined them. "o captain! my captain!"

"mr. overstreet, i warn you! sit down!"

pitts climbed onto his desk, joined by meeks and several others.

"sit down! sit down. all of you. i want you seated. sit down. leave, mr. keating."

more and more students stood on their desks, and soon most of the class was standing, all turned to their teacher. celia didn't miss cameron, who glared around the room, but remained planted to his desk. even hopkins, who hadn't seemed to care about the class at all, stood.

"all of you, down. i want you seated. do you hear me?" none of the students acknowledged him. "sit down!"

a smile came to keating's face as he looked around the room. "thank you, boys. thank you."

·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

"so, that's it, then." celia said to charlie as they looked around her now empty room. "i gotta say, i am going to miss the private bathroom." she told him, picking up her last set of suitcases.

"you got your own one?" he asked in surprise, turning to help her carry her bags.

"wait!" todd exclaimed before the two could walk down the hall.

celia turned. "hey, todd." she smiled at him. "it was.. it was really cool. what you did in class today."

he smiled. "thanks. but, i.. i thought you'd want this." he held out a blue canvas, and celia cracked a smile as she recognized the painting that she'd given neil.

"i thought nolan had thrown it out." she marveled, taking it from him.

todd shook his head. "no. i put it in my stuff so they wouldn't take it wherever they took the rest of his stuff." he explained. "and i.. i thought.."

"thank you." she said, ending his rambling. "thank you for everything, todd."

his eyes teared up. "i'm going to miss you." he admitted.

celia smiled. "hey, i'm only a call away." she assured him, giving him a hug. "but, i'm gonna miss you, too."

todd hugged her back, nodding his head. "i'll see you over break, okay? and you too, charlie. i'm inviting everyone over, no matter what my parents try to say. okay?"

she laughed. "okay, sounds like a plan."

he reluctantly let go of her, watching as she and charlie descended down the hall, receiving high fives and cheers from some of the boys that they passed.

when celia stepped outside, it was snowing. she descended the steps to the school, holding her arms out, spinning in a circle.

"what are you doing?" charlie laughed.

"carpe diem!" she cheered back, looking over to him. breathlessly, she stood still once more, watching as the snowflakes continued to fall.

as she gazed at the sky, she felt neil's presence in every single light. every star, every comet, every planet; it now all belonged to him. the sky was his.

and so celia looked up at the stars.

the end.