Me: I have, of course, another chapter for you all out there. Charlie: We could use some reviews. Anderson: Cough, cough. Rob: Hint, hint. Me: That's right, we needs reviewses, yes we does! Charlie: Will you stop that, the Gollum impression is freaking creepy. Sabrina: FRODO LIVES! Me: YA! FRODO LIVES! The Society: Ringers are insane much. Sabrina and Me: Get used to it! Charlie: We don't want to, you need to tone down the Lord of the Rings action. You know? Sabrina: GAH! If anything I need more Frodo in my life. Danny: What about me! Me: I love Pippin… Sean: You're drooling again. Me: Get over it dude.
"NARG!" I groaned as I put the finishing touches on my Chem. paper (Sabs helping, of course). She shook her head. "You shouldn't have left this to so late." She said admonishingly. I stuck out my tongue at her. "We can't all be genius' like some people I could mention."
"All that flattery isn't going to get you anywhere, Charlie Dalton, and you know it." Sabrina countered. I stretched in my chair at my desk and yawned. "It must get me somewhere if you're helping me."
"Oh shut up." Sabs said throwing her pillow at me. I laughed and caught it. We were burning the midnight oil on Saturday. Our only hope was that we didn't caught. The only good things about the weekends were that you could stay up as late as you wanted (so long as it as ten o'clock) and sleep in (so long as it was eight in the morning). I stowed my paper in a draw and loosened my scarf. The Welton officials weren't exactly free with the heat and as December loomed in the near future, they certainly weren't getting any better. Shivering I quickly pulled off my sweatshirt and regular shirt and slipped into my flannel pajamas.
"All the money our parents pay to send us here you would think they'd be able to afford heating to ensure we don't freeze to death during the night." I said through gritted teeth as I shook my hair out of its ponytail. Sabs looked up from her comfortable position on her bed. "Do you need more blankets?"
I had only a wafer thin sheet, an equally thin blanket and a comforter that looked like it'd been here since 1859. "Yes." I muttered, envying Sabrina's smart thinking over break; she'd brought back a mountain of extras. She reached beneath her bed and hauled out a spare suitcase. Popping the locks, she revealed a hidden wealth of warmth. "Take what you want."
"You're a savior, Sabs Meeks." I thanked her as I pulled more blankets onto my bed. "I think for the first time in weeks I'll be able to sleep without socks on." She rolled her eyes and settled in to her bed, tired. I, however, began writing a fairly long letter home. I heard Sabs stirring.
"Dalton. Lights. Off."
"Yes ma'am." I said as I dimmed the room. I needed to get some sleep as well.
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Breakfast the next morning was memorable. No, not Anderson complaining that he had to do his whole Chem. paper in one day, but rather Sean and Danny trying to discuss the Society amidst the entire populous of the school.
"So when do we have the next meeting?" Danny asked thickly through his toast.
"DANNY!" almost all of us within earshot immediately hissed at him.
"What?" he questioned, sounding offended. "I was only asking-
"Not here." Geoff silenced him.
"Well why not?" Sean piped up.
"Too dangerous." Rob and I reminded him.
"Why is this such a big deal?" Danny shot at us.
"Why?" Those of us descended from the older Society exclaimed in an exasperated tone.
"Don't you remember what happened last time, you moron?" Anderson asked in an annoyed tone.
"Well of course." Dan said. "But who said they're going to remember any of it?"
"HOW COULD THEY NOT!" The rest of us yelled at him. Danny slammed down his napkin and got up. He stalked off in miffed silence. I turned back to my breakfast. I poked at my eggs tentatively as I worried. Danny and Sean could very well threaten to blow our cover, a cover if blown could mean big trouble. Silence descended on our section of the Hall as everyone of the Society retreated to quiet thought. Anderson had stopped eating and was wringing his napkin. When we were let out to go about our business, he called an emergency meeting in one of the attics that resided over the boys dorms. It was bone chillingly cold in the attic as it had retained the freeze of the previous night. I pulled my Welton sweatshirt tight to my body. Geoff had been sent to find Danny, in the meantime, we waited.
Sabs and I were sitting close together trying to keep each other warm. Rob was lounging on a window sill somehow, Sean was messing with a chest of old memorabilia and Anderson was rubbing his hands together, occasionally burying his head in them. There was a clumping on the stairs; Geoff ushered Danny in with a cloud of smoke from the cigarette Danny had already lit. Dan let the noxious fumes seep out through his teeth as he took a seat, Geoff fanned the air furiously with a hand.
"What's up your ass, Neil? I thought you wanted to piss off Harding." Danny teased from his corner. "Thought you were in this to do something."
"There is a line as to how much we can do, it won't make things any easier getting caught. No one, and I mean no one, other than us are to know what we're doing." Anderson responded in a taught voice.
"But we're not doing anything!" argued Dan. "All we are is a bunch of people that sneak out to read poetry in a cave!"
"We have to figure things out first," yelled Neil, "We can't just dive into these things foolishly, we need to organize first. Make sure things are secure-
"Wait until the hiding is opportune? You're a fucking coward. All of you!"
I stood and my hands curled into fists. "We are not, Daniel, we're being smart. It'll be our asses that kicked the hell out of here if this gets blown of the water." I snarled, "You are in and quiet, or you are out and forget everything."
"What's it to you Dalton?" Danny sneered. I lunged Sabs and Rob grabbed me before I gave him his what for.
"Chill Charlie." Sabs said as I took my seat once more next to her. Danny looked at me with slight fear; I could see it flickering in the depths of his eyes.
"If you spill, we all go." Rob said calmly to Dan. "You can't hand one of us over without handing yourself over as well. Are you in or are you out?"
Danny finished his cigarette and crushed it on the dusty wood flooring. With a sigh, he ran his hands through his hair and paced a few steps. "I'm in, I'm in. All right?"
"You mean you're not going to turn us in or betray the Society in any way, shape or form?" Anderson queried.
"Yeah, yeah." Dan said easily. "Forget about this whole thing."
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But Sabs and I couldn't just drop the matter like that. Neither could Rob or Neil, so we came up with a great idea. Rules.
No, not rules about writing or whatever, that would be blasphemy, but rather a code of conduct. Like when you were in, what you could and couldn't do in order to keep the Society safe. Here's the final copy we came up with:
1. Never discuss the Society unless the situation is secured and you are among Society members.
2. If you are caught, no matter how much they torture you, you do not hand over any of your fellow Dead Poets or Poetesses.
3. If your fellow member needed help with grades (something that must be kept up as parents would certainly take interest if they dropped) and you were capable of helping them, you did.
4. The current initiates present were not to do anything in the name of the club without the club's approval to keep us secret.
5. There was no inviting new members once the club was started, the more people who knew would put the Society in jeopardy of an information leak.
So there it is, the Dead Poets Code of Conduct. It was signed by all of the members of
the Society that were initiated in the fall of 1983. That would include Robert Overstreet, Sean Blanc, Sabrina Meeks, Geoffrey Masters, Neil Anderson, Charlotte Dalton, and, though he paused before he signed, Daniel Mc Geough.
Anderson: I would like to say that those rules were my idea. Me: Ah, no, they weren't, I made them up. Anderson: No, I did! Me: Does everyone want to find out who Neil has a crush on? Anderson: OH NO! You wouldn't. Me: I would. Anderson: Uh, FINE they were your idea. Bitch. Danny: Why is my last name so funky? Me: Because it's an Irish name. Danny: What? Me: Danny is a very Irish name, so I thought it appropriate to give you an Irish surname, Mc Geough. Sean: What's with my name? Me: It's French for 'white'. Sean: Why? Me: I dunno, seemed like a good idea. Charlie: Do we need to start up the whole name issue again? Me: Oh, hell no. Charlie: Then don't make me. Me: Then stay away from the music down loads. Charlie: But I NEED Green Day! Me: My point exactly. Charlie: Grr. Me: Whatever. Now as a serious note- Anderson: Ha! Me: What? Anderson: Serious, ha! Me: Er, whatever. Anyway, on a serious note, I'm trying to keep some of the movie's aspects on while improving them. I still have the seven main Poets with the addition, of course, of the girls. The fact that the story is set in the future, for the time frame, makes more sense to me that girls are admitted. Call it picky if you would like. I'm trying hard to keep things along the lines of the movie, very hard. The meetings are obviously a little different and the story obviously longer as it will cover both junior and senior years at Welton. I already have plans and outlines for a short story for the summer between leaving Welton and college. But it's not in the near future at all, I have to finish this one first! MoRe CoUpLeS vOtEs PlEaSe!