Chapter 12 (Vanessa): A Song of Joys
The next morning, Vanessa found herself wide awake even before the sun was up. "May as well take advantage of that fact," she thought as she hurriedly washed and got dressed. She tugged her coat over her uniform before slipping outside and walking over to the wharf.
She found herself smiling at the sight of the sunrise turning the waters of the stream into rippling gold and rose. "The perfect subject for a poem," she whispered. She could practically feel the words tugging at her lips, begging just to be spoken or written down onto a piece of paper.
"Rose and gold, the stuff of life, at my feet…" she whispered even as she heard another set of feet headed towards the wharf. "The very ripples of it, in time with my pulse and breath…"
She looked back in time to see Neil standing beside her. "What are you doing here?" she asked before looking back on the water.
"I couldn't get back to sleep," he said, rubbing his eyes. Like her, he was also fully dressed, but his coat was unbuttoned.
"Nervous huh?"
"Yep."
Vanessa shrugged as she put her hands in her pockets. "So what class are you going to cut for auditions today?" she asked him bluntly.
"English," Neil said. "I know it's not a good idea. I hope the Captain will understand."
"I'm not covering for you."
"I didn't ask you to."
For some moments, an awkward silence descended on the wharf. "Come on, there's no reason that you two can't talk to each other," Vanessa thought as she willed herself to look at Neil. In the early morning light, she could see the slight strain on his face, clearly coming from a rather restless night. However his brown eyes shone with a knowing, luminous confidence, which was unlike anything she had ever seen him display in their classes.
"So you found time to rehearse last night?" she asked him at last.
"Yep. But Van, about last night…" Neil said awkwardly. "Did I do something that got you angry with me?"
Angry. The word seemed to hang thick on Vanessa's ears. She shook her head. "The word isn't angry, Neil. Annoyed maybe, a little disappointed, but not angry."
"About what?"
"It's not your fault, actually. Theodosia is a pretty girl, and she knows how to get her way, or people's attention," Vanessa said. "Even if it does mean that she blatantly ignores other people around her."
"Are you jealous?" Neil asked cautiously.
"Oh damn, he's on to me," Vanessa realized. For a moment, she cursed the fact that she found it difficult to lie to him. Maybe it was just the effect of his earnest smile, she decided. "Maybe I am. Would it change anything if I really was?" she replied.
"It could," Neil admitted.
Vanessa did not say anything to this as she moved to sit down on the edge of the wharf, her shoes barely touching the water. Neil remained standing as they watched the sun peeking through the forest beyond the stream. They stayed silent until the sound of the clock striking six rented the morning air.
"We'd better go back," Neil said after the clock stopped striking. "By the way, the expression really is "to break a leg"."
"Alright," Vanessa said as she got to her feet. She extended her hand. "Truce?"
Neil shook her hand firmly. "Fine, truce," he said before they walked back to the dormitory.
When they entered the back door, they saw Mr. Keating standing in the foyer, reading through the weather forecast. "Good morning Captain," the two students greeted.
Mr. Keating smiled by way of acknowledgment. "Enjoying an early morning stroll?" he asked.
"I guess you could say that," Vanessa replied.
"Back when I was a student, we sometimes played soccer before breakfast," Mr. Keating said. "It was one of the best ways to keep the blood pumping through our veins." He paused before glancing out the door. "Tell your classmates that for English later, I want everyone to be dressed for soccer, or in whatever clothes you play in. That goes for you too, Ms. O'Donnell. We will meet at the soccer field."
"Captain," Neil said sheepishly. "I'm sorry I won't be around in class later. I have an errand to attend to."
"That's a pity, Mr. Perry. You would have enjoyed class today," Mr. Keating said a little disappointedly. "But help Ms. O'Donnell get the message out to the boys."
"Yes Sir," Neil said.
"Don't forget your poetry assignment on Monday," Mr. Keating said as he walked down the hallway to the dining hall.
"Have you started yet?" Neil asked Vanessa.
"I was composing when you arrived," Vanessa said, punching his arm lightly. "This audition better be worth missing class."
"One can't have two heavens," Neil said as they raced upstairs to spread the word to their classmates.
Mr. Keating's request was the subject of much speculation and conjecture the rest of the day. "Do you suppose Nolan knows that we're going to have class outside?" Cameron asked the other Poets in a hushed voice as they waited for the rest of their classmates. Neil had slipped off to the audition right after Trigonometry class.
"Better that he does not. He'd have a heart attack," Vanessa said.
"That would be a big problem," Pitts said.
"Are you kidding? Sounds like the best thing that could happen!" Charlie exclaimed more pointedly.
"The ancients did have reverence for gray hairs, Mr. Dalton," Mr. Keating said as he walked up to them. He was dressed in soccer clothes as well, but he still carried his briefcase. He also had with him a whole net full of soccer balls.
"Since when did literature have anything to do with sports?" Vanessa asked.
"Both have to do with the excellence of man, expressed in different ways," Mr. Keating said as the rest of the class joined them. He now walked ahead of the entire group, kicking a soccer ball in front of him. "Now, devotees may argue that one sport or game is inherently better than another. For me, sport is actually a chance for us to have other human beings push us to excel. I want you all to come over here and take a slip of paper and line up single file."
In a moment, Mr. Keating was distributing slips of paper to the entire class. "Wonder what this is about. He said it was time to inherit the earth," Meeks said as he got in line.
"Who knows?" Vanessa quipped, falling in line right after him.
From some place on the field, Mr. Keating called to the boy at the head of the line. "You know what to do Pitts!"
Pitts looked down at the piece of paper in his hand. "Oh to struggle against great odds, to meet enemies undaunted…" he read unsurely.
"Sounds to me like you're daunted. Say it again like you're undaunted!"
"Oh to struggle against great odds, to meet enemies undaunted!"
"Now go on!" Mr. Keating shouted. Pitts ran forward and kicked one of the soccer balls.
The next boy in line came forward and read, "To be the sailor of the world, bound for all ports!". The next person in line read, "Oh, I live to be the ruler of life, not a slave!"
"Whitman again!" Vanessa thought ecstatically as she saw Mr. Keating start up a record player.
"To mount the scaffolds, to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect nonchalance!" another classmate read.
Meeks approached the soccer ball just as the strains of classical music began to fill the air. "Come on Meeks, listen to the music!" Mr. Keating called to the confused looking student.
"To dance, clap hands, exult, shout, skip, leap, roll on, float on!" Meeks read with expression before kicking the soccer ball.
"Yes! Give it some life now, Vanessa!" Mr. Keating said.
Vanessa took a deep breath before yelling with enthusiasm, "O the joy of my spirit—it is uncaged—it darts like lightning!" With all her might, she kicked the soccer ball such that it flew just as far as the rest of them.
She ran to the side just as Hopkins read dispassionately, "O to have life henceforth a poem of new joys," before barely tapping the soccer ball.
Mr. Keating frowned. "Oh boo! Come on Charlie, let it fill your soul!"
Charlie ran forward, raising his hands in the air. "To indeed be a god!" he shouted, delightfully outdoing the rest.
"If I could write a poem about today!" Vanessa laughed now from the sidelines. Just being outside was enough to make her feel as if her spirit had broken loose at last. All day, verses had been raging through her mind; couplets about the sun, haikus about the wind, and dare she even think it, sonnets about a certain boy who was absent at that very moment. She felt her face color again as she recalled Neil and how he had been earlier that day.
"I wonder what verse he would have wanted to read," she thought after English class, which had turned at some point into soccer practice. Fortunately for her, none of the other girls were using the showers that afternoon, thus giving her the luxury of taking as much time as she needed to wash up. By the time she was finished, most of her classmates were already freshened up and merely hanging around in the dormitory, judging from the conversation and racket from the seniors' hallway.
Just as Vanessa was about to return to her room, she heard a voice yelling over the hubbub. "Charlie! I got the part! I'm gonna play Puck! I'm gonna play Puck!"
"That could only be Neil!" she thought as she heard enthusiastic pounding on the third-floor annex door. She opened the door and saw him standing there, with a broad smile on his face.
"I got it Van!" he greeted ecstatically. "It's exactly the role I wanted!"
"Oh gosh, you're so contagious," Vanessa laughed before hugging him briefly, completely forgetting that most of their friends were watching. "Congratulations Neil!"
"Thanks for helping me practice my reading," Neil said.
"My pleasure," Vanessa replied. "Though I'm pretty sure you had the role cinched already on your own."
He smiled again at her before he hurried into his room with Todd. Vanessa followed them after a few moments. The two boys were seated at Neil's desk, in front of the typewriter.
"Neil, how are you going to do this?" Todd asked.
"They need a letter of permission from my father and Mr. Nolan," Neil replied.
Vanessa's jaw dropped as she rested her hands on Neil's shoulders. "You're not going to do what I think you're going to do…" she warned.
"What is it?" Neil asked innocently.
"Of course you're not going to write it," Todd replied.
"Oh, yes I am."
"Oh Neil, Neil, you're crazy!" Todd exclaimed.
"Yep!" Neil said, grinning at both Todd and Vanessa before he began to type.
"This is so going to end in trouble," Vanessa thought as she took her seat on one of the beds. For Neil's sake though, she knocked on wood and crossed her fingers, wishing only for the best.
