Kathleen's poem is actually one of my own, be nice please. Writing poems has never been my greatest strength! Also, have any of you seen Welton Jumpers on Amazon or Etsy? Apparently, they exist!
Chapter 6 - A day of revelation, part two
"Why do I stand up here? Anybody?" Mr Keating looked down at the class from on top of his desk.
"To feel taller" shouted Charlie from the back of the classroom.
"No", the Captain rang a bell with his foot, "thank you for playing, Mr Dalton" he said over the shrill ring.
Kathleen turned around and grinned at Charlie, her eyes searched his desk for toady's doodle. Sure enough, on his notebook was a drawing of a woman with a sultry look, smoking a cigarette. She looked at him and he shrugged, their recently developed code for the game they played each English lesson, since she had seen his drawing of the breasts that first lesson. He would draw something and she would react. Sometimes it would serious, other times silly and sometimes he would surprise her like he had yesterday, when he had drawn the most beautiful sunset...which by the end of the lesson had a couple having sex on the beach beneath it. Really, she should have expected that one.
"It's good" she mouthed in response to his unasked question.
"I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things a different way" Keating's voice cut through their silent exchange and Kathleen turned to face the front of the room again.
"You see", he continued "the world looks very different from up here. You don't believe me? Come see for yourself. Come on!"
Charlie and Neil were the first to rise from their seats and join him, followed quickly by Kathleen and Knox who stood behind the desk, before Meeks stood and the rest of the class followed, forming a line by Keating's desk.
"Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way. Even though it may seem silly or wrong, you must try! Now, when you read, don't just consider what the author thinks. Consider what you think" Mr Keating jumped down from the desk.
Neil was the first student to go. Charlie helped Kathleen up, she smiled gratefully and laughed when Charlie deliberately turned away from Knox's mocking hand, which he held out like a lady, and a pout on his face when he was ignored.
"Boys, and girl. You must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation'. Don't be resigned to that. Break out!"
Kathleen and Knox jumped down and headed back to their seats to watch the others have a go. Most people stayed up a while but some jumped down almost immediately, causing Keating to yell "don't just walk off the edge like lemmings! Take a look around you!"
There were still several students in line when the bell rang. The gang gathered up their stuff and waited for Todd who was currently on the desk.
"Dare to strike out onto new ground! Now, in addition to your essays, I would like you all to compose a poem of your own, an original work." The Captain walked over to the doorway and flickered the lights on and off, ignoring the protests of the class, "That's right! You have to deliver it aloud in front of the class on Monday."
As Todd jumped down, Mr Keating who had just left, returned to the doorway, "Mr Anderson? Don't think that I don't know that this assignment scares the hell out of you, you mole." Before he turned off the lights, leaving the class in darkness.
"Todd?" Neil called out into the darkness, ignoring the sniggering of a few boys, "Todd, where are you?"
"Ouch!" Kathleen cried, walking into the corner a desk. There would be a nasty bruise on her right thigh tomorrow morning.
"Are you okay?" Charlie said from somewhere nearby.
"Yeah, just walked into a desk" she replied before shouting, "will someone please turn the lights back on."
"I'm trying to locate them" snapped Cameron from the other side of the room.
"She's hurt Cameron, don't be an ass"called Charlie, this time closer to her than before.
"I'm fine, don't worry."
"Neil? Is that you?" Todd's voice interrupted the brewing argument.
"Yeah" Neil said, "hold onto my arm. I'm holding onto Meek's. Everyone else grab on!"
"Neil, keep talking. I don't know where you are" Knox called.
"I think we're in the centre."
"Charlie?" Kathleen said, feeling her way around another desk " are you still nearby?"
"I think so" she heard his voice somewhere on her left, "stay where you are."
"Cameron, lights?" shouted Neil.
"I'm trying!"
"If you can't find them, find a window and pull up the bloody blinds" Kathleen suggested. Just then she felt a warm hand hesitantly touch her arm.
"Charlie?"
"I've got you" the hand relaxed and slid down her arm to take her hand, gently guiding her into what she guessed, was one of the walkways between the rows of desks due to the lack of obstacles. "This should be a less hazardous path" he muttered.
"Charlie? Kathleen? We're just missing you two and Cameron" Neil shouted.
"We're coming" Kathleen shouted back, "just keep talking."
Just then the lights flickered back on, revealing Fraser in the doorway by the light switch and a bewildered Richard Cameron with his hands on the opposite wall. In the centre of the room was a line of boys all holding onto each other's arms, bag straps or shoulders. A few metres away stood Kathleen and Charlie, hands entwined.
"All right, Dalton" smirked Fraser, pointedly looking at the pairs joint hands. Kathleen, coming to her senses, let go of Charlie's hand and went to pick up her bag.
Charlie scowled at Fraser before turning to Cameron, "Well found, genius."
As the students picked up their stuff and left, Kathleen caught up with Charlie and thanked him. For some reason, she felt awful about dropping his hand like a hot potato. He was just being a good friend, like Neil immediately seeking out Todd.
XXXX
That afternoon Kathleen lay stretched out on the grass under a tree by the lake, she put her copy of "The Secret Garden" down to watch the boys boat go by. She didn't envy them at all. Her grandfather ran the school rowing club and he was serious about the sport. Even from the embankment, she could hear him shouting orders at the poor boys. Friday afternoon rowing was the only time that Meeks and Pitts dared to use their contraband radio - even if they were on the rooftop.
As she spotted them rowing back towards the school, she got up and dusted herself off. It was best to make herself scarce and avoid any unnecessary awkward conversation with Nolan, especially in front to the boys. Although they all knew that she was the headmaster's grandchild, she didn't like to remind them of that fact. She headed back to her room and began to write her poem. Reading poetry was one thing, writing it was much harder.
I'm haunted by life.
Memories shroud every inch this family home,
secrets buried deep beneath stone.
Yet I've found friends far from my real home,
inside these walls which make me feel most alone.
Nostalgia haunts the bad, and time taints the good.
It's better than any sin.
Yet time marches on,
reminding me to act on whim.
I'm haunted by life,
By what is.
By what could and has been.
By what is ahead.
By what is within.
She had just put down her pen when there was a frantic knock on her door.
"Come in."
In tumbled Todd, looking troubled and uncertain.
"Todd?" Kathleen said softly, "what's wrong?"
"You're a girl. Girls know this, they're good with secrets - right?" he stared at her with intensity.
"I can keep a secret" she said, closing the door, "sit down" she gestured to her bed and he perched on the end.
She had just sat down next to him when he leapt up and paced the room.
"Todd? Are you-"
"I think I like someone" he blurted, "I'm sure- I- I don't- I don't know."
"Honey, it's okay. Feeling like this is completely normal."
"It is?" he asked uncertainly, "even a-even for a..." he trailed off.
Kathleen said nothing, scared of startling him and preventing him from getting whatever it was off his chest.
"Kat" he whispered, "we're friends, right?"
"Of course, we are" she smiled, taking his hand and leading him to her desk chair where she sat him down.
"And friends are friends no matter what?"
"No matter what. Friends aren't real friends if they purposely hurt you" she replied.
"I like Neil" he said.
Kathleen blinked, "okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay" she nodded.
Todd almost tripped in his haste to run out of the room.
Kathleen collapsed into the chair which he had just vacated, how had she not noticed?
Now things made so much more sense. Todd had really come out of his shell, but when they talked about their old schools he had shut down. He told her he had some trouble, lost his friends and his parents moved. She knew that Neil and herself were his best friend but there was a difference between how Todd reacted to him and how he reacted to her. She had been so caught up in Nancy's impending visit and the club that she had neglected to notice his turmoil.
She jumped up and rushed out of the room, "Todd?" she called running around the corner and down the boy's corridor, directly into Fraser.
"Sorry" she said, and went on towards Todd and Neil's room.
"Hey!"
She turned around, "I'm sorry, I need to be somewhere Fraser, make mysterious comments tomorrow."
"Mysterious comments? "the door between the two students opened and out came Charlie and Cameron.
"We heard noise" Cameron said, looking at the two of them.
"What mysterious comments?" repeated Charlie, glaring at Fraser.
"I don't have time for this!" Kathleen threw her hands up, "sort it out yourselves." She proceeded to rush off, past Todd and Neil's empty room and out into the courtyard.
"Todd?" she called out, "Todd?"
"Kat?"
"Todd" she breathed out in relief, "why did you run off like that?"
"I don't know, I just got overwhelmed and I-I panicked."
"Nobody will think any differently of you, not me, not Charlie, Meeks, Pitts, Knox, especially not Neil. And Cameron might have trouble at first but he'll get used to it. Neil loves you as a best friend for sure, you won't lose that, ever. Even if he doesn't feel the same he won't treat you any differently."
"Really?"
"Really. And if it doesn't work out, well...at least you have some more material for your writing."
Todd let a small laugh escape as they walked back up to the dorms. They stopped at the stairs and she pulled him into a tight embrace.
"Thank you, Kat" he murmured quietly into her ear
"Anytime" she whispered back.
See, I promised you Anderperry! Has anyone else in the UK seen the news about Alan Turing? His story was made into the movie, 'The Imitation Game'. He was only granted a pardon (for being gay) a few years ago in the UK and it's on the news this week that thousands more (mostly already deceased) gay men are to be pardoned in the UK.