I have my AS exams in about week and I'm lowkey freaking out.

Anyway, here is the next instalment which I thoroughly enjoyed writing, because I felt less stressed by focusing my energy on something that I love. I hope you love it just as much!

optymalna - I hope everything works out well for you! I'm sure things will fall into place, in the meantime you can amuse yourself by watching Charlie and Kathleen figure things out in their own rather...interesting...way.

Chelocean22 - Thank you :) I'm so glad that you like it!

Chapter twenty - The God of the cave

It was Tuesday afternoon and the sun was beginning to set. Its last rays reclined lazily from the mouth of the cave, casting the poets into a dim, hazy light. Tendrils of smoke curled upwards from the pipes which were currently being smoked by the cave's occupants. An expensive set that Knox had been given this morning to pass onto his Father, a gift from the Danburry's. Which explained his melancholy mood.

"Attaboy, Pittsie, inhale deeply" called Charlie as Pitts choked, unaccustomed the smoke.

"Not all of us share your bad habits" Kat reminded the resident smoker. Refusing the pipe, he held out in her direction.

"My Dad collects a lot of pipes" mused Meeks leaning forward to inspect the box.

"Really?" Charlie flicked his lighter absentmindedly, "mine has got thirty."

"Your parents collect pipes? Oh, that's really interesting" snarked Pitts, blowing smoke at Meeks and laughing as it fogged up his glasses for the third time.

Kathleen felt a smile tug at her lips as Meeks removed his glasses to wipe them, only for Pitts to do it again. Causing the comedic sequence to repeat. Shaking her head in amusement at their antics, she caught Cameron's disapproving eye. The ginger was still sulking; despite his contentment to smoke a pipe like a grown-up. She sympathised with him to some extent. Yes, sneaking out to the cave in daylight was risky but they had taken a democratic vote and he always had the choice not to come. He didn't always have to look like he had - in her Father's words- 'sucked a lemon.'

"Come on, Knox. Join in" Charlie's voice interrupted her thoughts and she watched him shove a newly lit pipe in the boy's face.

"Yeah, Knox, we're from the government. We're here to help, man." Teased Meeks, swatting Pitts away before his glasses got fogged up yet again.

Charlie exhaled and turned to face his friend "what's wrong?"

"It's Chris" Pitts said, picking up the magazine he had abandoned in the cave at the last meeting and opening it up. "Here's a picture of Chris for you" he laughed, holding up an illustration of a blonde pin-up model, prompting some wolf-whistles and mocking cheers of Chris's name.

"That's not funny" Knox said, throwing a twig at Pitts.

"Smoke that" suggested Meeks over the cacophony. "Put that in your pipe and smoke it."

"Knock it off" commanded Charlie, glancing briefly at Knox, "smoke your pipes."

Silence reigned over the group once more, interrupted a few seconds later by footfalls outside the mouth of the cave. Dirt rolled in as a lanky teenage boy made an appearance.

"Neil!" Todd smiled through the smoke.

"Friend, scholar, Welton man" Neil greeted, patting his friend on the shoulder with one hand and carrying what Kathleen thought had to be the world's ugliest lamp in the other.

"Uh, what is that?" asked Meeks, wrinkling his nose.

"It's a lamp, Meeks. Duh" answered Pitts.

"No" Neil shook his head and removed the shade to reveal a statue of a man as the lamp base, "this is the God of the cave."

"Whatever it is, it's ugly" Kat voiced.

Meeks met Kathleen's eyes, assenting. "The God of the cave" he repeated, unimpressed, before jumping at the sudden blast of the saxophone.

Looking up in surprise, Kathleen and the boys watched Charlie, cringing as he killed their ears with the harsh, wild and out of tune notes of the instrument. Satisfied that he had their undivided attention he ceased the torture, "what do you say we start this meeting?"

"Yeah, I just need a light" said Cameron.

"and earplugs" added Kat under her breath, eliciting a stifled laugh from Todd who was sat close enough to hear.

Charlie ignored them and moved into the centre of the cave. "Ladies and Gentlemen" he announced, "Poetrusic by Charles Dalton." And proceeded to resume the infernal racket.

"No!" Cried Neil, clamping his hands over his ears, at the same time Kat buried her face into Todd's shoulder to muffle the obtrusive sound.

"Laughing, crying, tumbling, mumbling. Gotta do more. Gotta be more." He chanted between the erratic nonsense notes, "Chaos screaming, chaos dreaming. Gotta do more! Gotta be more!"

Suddenly the painful notes faded into a melancholic tune which danced through the air. Twirling up and out of the darkness, free from the confines of the brass instrument and the dark depths of the underground. The poets emerged from their braced positions to listen and found themselves swaying, spellbound by the melody.

"Wow" murmured Meeks.

"That was nice, that was great" agreed Pitts, "where did you learn to play like that?"

"My parents made me take the clarinet for years. "He put the saxophone down and collapsed onto a rocky ledge on the far side of the cave.

"I love the clarinet!" Cameron piped up cheerily, a contrast to his usual contained self.

Charlie shot him a disgusted look. "I hated it." Which prompted a round of laughter. "The saxophone..."he mused, "the saxophone is more sonorous."

"Ooh, vocabulary" Meeks grinned.

"Well done, Meeks" joked Neil "your tutoring has finally started to pay off."

Knox dropped his pipe dazedly. "That's it! I can't take it anymore" he yelled, bolting up to stand where Charlie had been moments ago. "If don't have Chris, I'm going to kill myself" he continued softly.

Kathleen whipped around, her mouth open in shock. Neil grasped her arm as she tried to stand up, his face drained of colour and his other hand clutching at the hem of Todd's faded blue jumper. The God of the cave lay cracked and abandoned on the ground.

"Knoxious" warned Charlie, "you've got to calm down."

"No, Charlie" he shook his head. "That's just my problem. I've been calm all my life, I have to do something about that."

"Where are you going?" Asked Neil, dropping Kathleen's arm.

"What are you going to do?" Charlie sat up.

"I'm going to call her" he chuckled. Jumping over a log and running out of the darkness into the open air of the woodland.

The others shot up, grabbing their coats before scrambling out after him. Everything else with the exception of Charlie's saxophone was abandoned in their haste to follow him into a task that most were betting he would chicken out of.

xxxx

"Hey, Cameron?" asked Kathleen from her perch on the radiator where she was watching Knox muster up enough courage to take the five remaining steps to the student telephone, "If you love the clarinet so much...Why not ask Charlie to teach you?"

Cameron folded his arms. "In which dimension would he ever agree to that? He is not the person you think he is, Kathleen. He would laugh in my face."

"Not if you ask in exchange for homework help" she tried "something like this might go a long way in improving things between you two."

The pair watched Knox grasp the telephone and then drop the receiver as if it a had burned him, oblivious to the five-dollar bill being exchanged between Meeks and Pitts.

"Maybe."

"Just think about it" she shrugged before leaving the warmth of the radiator to re-join the eager audience around the telephone. Knox held a coin in his right hand which hovered above the slot.

"She is going to hate me. The Danburrys will hate me. My parents will kill me" his eyes flickered between his friends and the phone. "All right" he breathed. "Goddamn it! You're right" he grinned, "carpe diem even if it kills me," and with those words he dropped the coin into the slot and dialled. Thirty agonising seconds later the call was picked up. With bated breath, his peers squashed together around the receiver, desperate to hear the exchange.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Chris?" Knox asked, hardly daring to breathe.

"Yes."

"Hi. This is Knox Overstreet."

"Oh, yes. Knox. I'm glad you called."

'She's glad I called!' He mouthed with excitement.

"Listen. Chet's parents are going out of town this weekend, so he's having a party. Would you and Kathleen like to come?"

"Would we like to go to a party?" he addressed Kat quietly. She nodded.

"Say yes! Yes" badgered Charlie.

"It's on Friday...about seven."

"Sure" he replied "we'll be there, Chris"

"Okay. Um, unless you need to talk to Nancy..."

"Oh no. That's okay."

"I'll see you two on Friday, bye."

"Thank you. I'll see you, bye."

He put the receiver down and slumped against the wall, "YAWP! Can you believe it? She was going to call me. She invited me to a party with her" he said dreamily.

"At Chet Danbury's house" cut in Charlie.

"Yeah."

"Well?"

"So?"

"So, you don't really think she means you're going with her?" he checked, "Seriously."

"Well of course not, Charlie" Knox scoffed, "But that's not the point. That's not the point at all."

Meeks pushed his glasses up his nose "uh, what is the point?"

"The point, Meeks. That point is, uh-"

"Yeah, the point is?" Charlie inquired again.

"That she was thinking about me" he settled, "I've only met her twice, once properly, and already she's thinking about me. Damn it, it's going to happen guys. I can feel it! She's going to be mine" he sighed, turning to address the group, "CARPE!"

"DIEM!"

"CARPE!"

"DIEM!"

He flipped his scarf over his shoulder dramatically and climbed the stairs as the clock chimed five o'clock.

Kathleen watched him go and slipped through the chanting crowd, reaching for the telephone.

"Boy, he has guts" commented Neil, leaning on Todd's shoulder.

"He certainly does" Kathleen replied as she dialled.

"Do you think that you could?" he asked, "or is he a fool in love?"

"I couldn't" Todd looked Neil in the eye.

Kat hummed, "possibly. I think it would depend on my certainty."

"I think I could. I would be a happy fool indeed" Neil gazed away from their little group and watched the others jumping and hollering at the foot of the staircase.

"Then, why don't you?" She said drily.

Before Neil could respond the telephone connected once again.

"Noel household."

"Hey, Nancy. I heard there's a party."

"Sure is, sugar. Now do me a favour and tell Nolan you've been invited over tomorrow. We have things to discuss."

"Why don't you get your Aunt and Uncle to ring. It will be more effective."

"That's what they're just about to do. And bring dresses with you, there are four of us to co-ordinate."

"Four?"

"Chet's sister Ginny is a friend of Chris' and the three of us are having a sleepover. Now go and make sure you can get your lovely butt down over here."

"Aye-aye Captain" she put the phone down and turned to Neil and Todd, "it looks like I have a job to do."

"Good luck" Todd called after her as Neil waved her off towards Nolan's office.

She had some persuading to do.

Guess who has already written the first 675 words of the next chapter…

I got into the flow and I couldn't let my idea slip away, so yeah.

On a side note, the movie script is online (I use it along with the movie when I write) and it says that Pitts holds up a centrefold. In the movie, he does hold up something but there is no clear image. Apparently, a centrefold is a double page picture, usually of a 'naked or scantily clad model' according to google... so I didn't make that part up completely. Pitts is just as bad as Charlie apparently.