Earth Angel
A/N: I have to do it, else I won't be able to live without seeing DPS everyday. I have to have my alter ego in short lived and tragic romance with my movie love, this time the object of my obsession is a certain dark eyed, dark haired, easily love-struck Knox T Overstreet. Amber is my alter ego, but her past and family history are in no way connected to my own, it just gives a fuel to Amber's personality.
being who I am, I will have some sappy tear-filled moments but not too many. Just at appropriate places. Dark it will be, that I can promise with a side of sarcasm.
I apologize for my two semi-anachronisms
1:Technically speaking, the women's rights movement didn't start until the 70's, but there had to have been a few women's rights activists before that.
2: Irish Dance didn't get big in the US, or the South, where Amber is from, until the 90's, but it was here in the 50's and 60's, just not as big. It's just the only form of dance I know well enough, and do sometimes.
Now the most important part of any fan-fiction: disclaimer- Sadly, I don't own any of the boys,as much as I'd love to have Knox. Peter Weir, if you want to give him to me, I'd gladly take him, and all of them. I'd share them, I swear.
Amber is mine, nobody would want her, but if you do, ask me and I'll let you have her, as long as she's back by midnight.
I don't own any poetry, unless I say differently.
Please read and review, under 2 conditions:
1:no flames- they will be used to char-broil my Whopper
2:If you don't like something, tell me how to fix it- I can't read minds.
I plan on this being my first attempt at a multi chapter story not up in one lump sum.......OOPS, I'm a-rambling. I'll shut up now.
It was 1960 and the papers all proclaimed it quite boldly: WELTON GOES CO-ED. Under that banner was typically the same general picture: A middle-aged woman, a beauty in her time to be sure, but it had faded, was agitated about something, and was typically making a huge a speech. Always with her was a teenage girl, who looked highly embarrassed. That girl was Amber Floyd and,thanks to her mother's tireless efforts, she was the first girl admitted to Welton. Her mother was so perturbed about Welton's exclusion of girls, that she missed the whole second part of Charles Dalton's expulsion papers, which she had found by some probably unethical method, and only saw his outburst about girls being admitted the previous year as the reason he was sent out. So she got him re-instated. Welton agreed readily to Ms. Floyd's arguments there and even allowed Dalton to rejoin his class after intense summer school so as not to be behind. They didn't want to be any more embarrassed.
As opening cermonies began, the student body looked around to find the new addition. Some were admittadly disappointed to discover she was hardly tall,thin, blonde or exotic. In fact, she was rather average looking. Sitting down, she was a few heads above the seventh and eighth graders but quite a few heads below the rest. She wasn't thin, she was about a 12 or 14, not the size 4 some boys were hoping for. Her dark brown hair was worn in a neat bun at the base of her neck. And that new uniform was highly unattractive. A black, knee-length jumper, with a Welton symbol on a front pocket, placed in a most innapropriate place, with a white collared shirt, and a red and black tie.
Most, however, were quite appriciative of Amber's presence. She was, after all, a woman. A living, breathing woman in a sea full of young men and boys.
On the other hand, a few boys found her rather pleasing to look at, and one, a certain Knox Overstreet, found her downright attractive. He'd recently broken it off with Chris Noel, as, once she was attained, she was all beauty and no substance. Amber appeared deep in thought, which meant she had substance, something Knox was slowly relizing he needed.
Mr. Nolan figured the papers had called enough attention to the fact that Amber was attending Welton, so he did little to acknowledge it. In fact, he did nothing. He'd worry about his speech the following year, when Welton truly became co-educational.
No matter how little Nolan said, Amber braced her self for whispers and stares. She got plenty of them. She heard the phrase "not what I expected" often in hushed voices, and most boys stared at her as if she was from another planet, as she struggled with her suitcase to the Senior boys hall. Her mother had lost only one battle with Nolan, and that was the battle over sleeping arangements. Ms. Floyd had wanted Amber to share a dorm with a boy, but Nolan could be pushed only so far. Amber was allowed to stay in the same hall as the Senior boys, but in a single room. That arrangement suited Amber fine. After all, she'd never had to share a room, being an only child and a public school girl to boot.
As Amber struggled with her luggage, she cursed her mother for putting her in this sitution. After all the fuss she had made, Amber would never be able to ask a member of the male species for help with anything as long as she was in Welton.
Amber was nearly halfway to her room when she saw two boys approach her, one of average height, with dark hair parted neatly, and dark eyes, another taller,with lighter eyes.
"I, uh, hate to ask, but do you need help with those, Miss Floyd?" The dark-eyed one asked.
"Please, do. I'm Amber, not Miss Floyd, and, uh, my mom's the milatant feminist jackass who would die rather than except a man's help, not me"
Both boys raised eyebrows, as Amber extended a hand and a suitcase. Amber's bitterly sarcastic tone was unheard of from girls in 1960. The taller one extended his hand first.
" I should really thank your mother, Amber. She saved my ass. I'm Ch..."
"Charlie- "Phone-Call-From-God" -Dalton. My mother's other cause. And you are?" Amber held out her hand as Charlie took the luggage dumbfounded.
"Knox Overstreet.Welcome to Welton. You are huge news, and a welcome change around here." Knox took the other luggage without being asked.
"Nice to meet you both." Amber began leading them toward the end of the hall, were a supply closet had been turned into a single dorm.
"She landed a room right next to us, Knox," Charlie murmured as they reached the door. Amber opened it, and the boys look around. The room barely held a bed, a desk, and a dresser, but it was a makeshift room after all.
As soon as the bags were down, Amber let down her guard enough to take in the boys for the first time. Charlie was attractive enough, in his bad boy way. Amber liked the bad boys a bit, but Knox, with is soulful eyes and over-all sweet look, Amber nearly melted to a puddle then and there. As harsh and sarcastic a front as she put up, Amber was truly very gentle and kind when her guard was down.
Nobody said anything for a while, even Charlie was speechless. Amber broke the silence.
"I'm sorry for how harsh I sounded back there, I know you guys were hoping for like an angel. I just don't like the position my mom has put me in."
Charlie feigned shock, "What, you didn't want to come to 'Hell-Ton'?"
Amber laughed. "Hell-ton? Is that what you call this place? That's pretty good."
Amber began to unpack her things, as few of them as they were. A few notebooks, a picture or two, and a small deskset were on top. She place these items behind her, near the desk, and began to unpack the clothing. Five uniforms, each a more depressing shade of the black than the rest, came out next. They were followed by two pairs of dress slacks, a few nice blouses, and a couple of "Sunday Best" dresses. Amber unpacked a nightgown and wrinkled her nose in disgust. It was long, black, and nun-like. A plaid robe, as another means of keeping her totally covered, was folded around it. A lovely Welton sweatshirt completed the clothing layer, which she placed on her bed, as neatly folded as could be.
"You don't have to stay here, you know. I can unpack by myself. I'm a big girl." Amber said, pretending not to notice Dalton, who was trying to slyly stare at her underwear, which was the next thing she was going to unpack.
"We don't have much else to do today, except get our extra-curriculars. What do you say we introduce you around to our friends." Knox said, as Charlie averted his eyes,slowly.
Amber held back a laugh, and said gratefully, " Thanks. I'd like that, but give me like 20 minutes to unpack and get used to my sparse surroundings."
"Okay, we'll see you in twenty. Come on Charlie, let the lady unpack." Knox headed toward the door, Charlie close behind him. Amber shut the door and laughed. If those two had friends as different from them as they were from each other, but still as fun,Amber knew that maybe Welton wasn't so bad, after all.
*******************************************
Almost exactly 20 minutes later, Amber heard a knock at her door. "Come in." She called and the door creaked open and Knox, Charlie and three other guys entered. The other three viewed Amber with the same wide-eyed curiosity as she was slowly getting used to around Welton.
"Guys, meet Amber Floyd, the first girl admitted to Hell-ton." Charlie said, as he straddled the desk chair. Knox was at the foot-end the bed, Amber was sitting on her feet on the head end.
"Nice to meet you, Amber, I'm Steven Meeks." The shortest of the group said, from his place leaning against the wall, pushing up his glasses.
"Gerard Pitts" A second boy introduced himself from the opposite wall.
"Todd Anderson" The third boy was standing near the door and he spoke in barely a whisper.
"Nice to meet you all." Amber smiled warmly, shaking each boys hand in turn.
"So, Amber, what makes your mother so, energetic about getting you here.?" Meeks asked the question that was on everybody's mind.
"It's a chance for her name to be in the papers. Anybody else would quietly accept the injustace, which by-the-way, I don't see at all, especially if it ment uprooting from Virginia to Vermont, taking an only child who has never set a foot in a boarding school, and dragging their daughter from her dance lessons and competitions. Not my mother, oh no." Amber's sarcastic tone was an easing force, after all, they'd been expecting an angel.
"You're a dancer? What kind do you do?" Knox asked, the first of many questions Amber knew she'd get.
"Yeah. Irish Step. It's kind of out there, but it's a lot of fun. Competitions and awards. The dresses are scadoulously short, almost two whole inches above my knee. I love it so much." Amber normally hated talking about herself, but this was different. Dance was her passion.
"So, what makes your mother want so many causes?" Pitts asked.
"More or less, she's a rejected actress. She once was a big player in a Shakespeare festival near where I grew up. She played Hermia once, and got a little too,um, friendly, with the guy who played Lysander at a cast party, and then she made all the gossip of '41 and well into '42." Amber was glad to let her story out so the rumors that would inevitably fly wuld hopefully be nipped in the bud by those that knew the truth.
The boys slowly did the math and their faces showed their shock as they let out a collective "Whoa."
Amber smiled sadly. "Yeah. Whoa is right. That's my life. Unfortunatly, my mother got really pissed that she was disgraced, and her Lysander was only midly punished with a pay cut. So she got all 'women's rights' and has been, for about eighteen years." Amber's sarcastic front was slowly crumbling.
"So, you're from Virginia?" Knox could sense Amber's uneasiness.
"Yeah, Yeah, I'm a real Southern-Bell," Amber turned on a thick, fake Southern accent, "I'm all about Corn-bread and hoop-skirts."
"You don't sound it," Knox said, as everybody laughed at Amber's dialect trick.
"My mother brought me up like any actress, to sound neutral. Not an 'ain't' or a twang to me." Amber returned to her normal speech pattern.
"Now, gentleman, let's reveal to Amber what the four pillars *really* are." Charlie slyly suggested, from his place at Amber's desk.
Knox had already seen Amber's rough side, so he knew Amber wouldn't be offended, but Meeks, Pitts amd Todd looked shocked. The word play on the four pillars was fine for just guys, but around a girl? Talk about being uncouth.
"Don't worry. I wouldn't suggest it around any other girl, but any girl that would call her own mother, a 'milatant feminist jackass', openly to two strangers is *not* going to be offended." Dalton was quickly recognizing that Amber was no dainty little girl, but more one of the guys.
"Fill me in, fellas. What *are* the four pillars?" Amber now had to know.
"Travesty.Horror. Decadence. Excrement" The boys waited for Amber's reaction, and were quite pleased when she laughed.
"Nice word play, boys. You really don't have to worry about offending me. My mother didn't raise me as a dainty little girly-girl. Just consider me, Amber. Not a girl, just Amber."
That was all the boys needed. Now they knew: Amber wanted them to be themselves, just guys, around her.
"Amber, we normally start off each year with a study group, that goes on throughout the year.We all have our own specialties. What are you especially good at?" Meeks said, getting the business out of the way.
Amber looked over her subject list. "Well, not math, not physics, certainly not Latin. Maybe English or History."
"Well, I can safely say nobody here is really all that good with History, so consider it yours. We've got a study group. What do you say to Latin, at 8'clock, in my room?" Meeks said.
The group murmered agreement.
After a moment of silence, Amber suddenly jumped up.
" I knew it. I knew I recognized your names. You guys were part of that Dead Poets Society."
The boys looked beyond stunned.
"How, How did you know?" Knox finally found his voice after the shock.
"My mom went to like 50 thousand one-on-one meetings with Nolan. I went to one, and they left me alone, in Nolan's office, for like hours. I got bored, and a little nosy. I did some snooping, and found that paper you all signed. Sounded like a blast." Amber sat back down, not remorseful in the slightest that she had her mother's snooping talents.
" I wouldn't fully trust that paper. It came from the mouth of a little red-headed fink." Knox miserably remembered that paper he'd been forced to sign.
"Well, I figured as much, papers like that aren't signed for good reasons. But the idea of getting out, and reading poetry, and being free thinkers? Sounds like a lot of fun." Amber had that womanly charm that could prove to be quite dangerous.
The boys all murmered along the lines of, "Yeah. A lot of fun."
Charlie stood up. " I say it could be, still. In honor of Neil and Mr.Keating, I say we reconvene the Welton chapter of the Dead Poets Society. Todd, you ended up getting the book, right?"
"Charlie, I don't know. After last year, should we really try it?" Todd skirted around the question.
"Do you have the goddamn book or not?"
"Yes,but..." Todd knew he had given Charlie the answer he was looking for.
"So what's the problem? Does 'Carpe Diem' and 'sucking the marrow out of life' mean shit to you anymore?" Charlie was getting close to yelling. " Or did it die with Neil, and was it buried when Keating left?"
The boys were silent for a moment and Amber began to wish she hadn't said a word, when Knox broke the silence.
" I say we do it," he exclaimed, quietly but eagerly, "Carpe Diem."
Those two words, from someone a little more logical than Charlie, changed the whole group spirt.
"Whose in?" Charlie asked, eyes sparkling with excitment.
"I'm in." Knox exclaimed.
"Me too." Pitts said.
" I assume I'm invited, so I'm in" Amber beamed.
"Me too." Meeks,after a little deliberation, added his agreement.
"Of course I'm in. And, this year, I might even read some." Todd agreed.
"Good. I say we go tonight. Start the school year off right." Charlie exclaimed.
"Just come get me when we go. I'll probably be awake." Amber said, as the boys got up to go.
Knox was the last to leave. "Thanks, Amber. You helped invoke the spirit of the Society again," he whispered, smiling at her.
"No problem." Amber smiled back, as she gently shut her door. So maybe Welton wouldn't be so bad after all.