Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Dead Poets Society... I am just inspired by it.

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It's been six weeks since Todd and I first started our letters to Mr. Keating. I'd mailed them out at the beginning of March, when I was in town on a pass. We had hoped to get a reply sooner than this, but Chris got the flu and didn't come to see Knox last weekend. But she told him when he called her that letters had arrived for all three of us, and said she'd bring them when she and Knox met in town this weekend.

Todd can't come to town, of course, but I bicycle in with Knox, Pitts, and Meeks. The latter two are meeting Amy and Tina at the soda shoppe again, while Knox is meeting Chris at the diner. I go with Knox to the diner and we sit at the counter and order coffees while we wait for Chris to arrive with the letters. He surprises me a bit by initiating a conversation. While he's been much more civil to me over the last six weeks, he hasn't really spoken to me much outside of asking questions about our chemistry homework. But today, "Todd's right," he says rather abruptly. "You have changed for the better. What's going to happen over the summer?"

I shake my head a bit, puzzled by the question. "Thanks. But what do you mean, what's going to happen? Are you asking about my plans, or asking if I'm going to forget how to be nice over the summer?"

He grins a bit at that. "You'd better not forget how to be nice. I was wondering if you two were going to manage to get together at all over the summer."

"I don't know," I reply. "Although I guess we should try to figure something out soon. There's only two months left until the end of the term. He hasn't talked much about what his family will be doing. Mine is going to spend July on Martha's Vineyard like usual, though. My father is always saying I should spend more time with friends, that studying is all well and good but having connections also helps. So I bet he'd let me have Todd out for a week or two, assuming his family will let him come. What about you, what are your summer plans?"

Knox smiles. "Well, my family and the Daltons will be going to Fire Island for the summer, as usual, so I'll have the summer to catch up with Nuwanda. And if things go the way I hope... Chris will be joining us, along with Ginny Danburry, for the last two weeks of July."

I smile in return. "Sounds like you'll be having a good time, then. How are Ginny's parents taking her interest in Nuwanda, anyhow? I mean, with him getting expelled from Welton and all..."

Knox laughs. "Given that Chet flunked out, while Nuwanda was expelled based on the honor code due to his 'lapse in judgment' of punching you..."

"Which I deserved," I interject wryly.

"You did," he agrees. "Anyway, considering their own son, Nuwanda looks like the Archangel Gabriel in comparison. Under Welton rules, he had to be tossed out for hitting a fellow student, sure, but I understand it got put into his file that there were extenuating circumstances, that his mental state at the time was considered questionable due to his distress at Neil's death and that while the school considered permitting him to remain, his parents felt that he would be better off away from the scene of the tragedy."

"Todd's parents should have cared so much," I mutter softly. "Although I have to admit I'm glad they didn't."

He gives me a long and thoughtful look. I can feel myself reddening under his scrutiny, but I'm saved by the bell... the bell over the diner door, chiming as Chris Noel steps inside with a handful of letters and a big hug for Knox. I concentrate on finishing my coffee to let them greet each other, then I turn around and give her a smile.

"Cameron, right?" she asks as she smiles in return. "You're the one that Knox says used to be kind of a jerk but you got nicer since the term started." She hands me two of the letters she's holding, the one for me and the one for Todd. She gives Knox the other two, the second being from Nuwanda.

I give her my best smile. "I've certainly been trying to be nicer," I say. "It's good to know my efforts have not gone unnoticed. And Chris? Thanks a lot for taking these letters for us. It really means a lot." I drop some money on the counter for my coffee and a healthy tip, standing to leave.

She takes Knox's hand with a sympathetic smile. "I met Mr. Keating the night of the play, remember? Ginny and I went to the cave with you fellows and Mr. Keating after the play. He seemed really nice, and I don't believe for a moment that what they said about him is true. So I'm glad to help."

"It's appreciated," I tell her sincerely. "You two have a nice day, now."

"We will," they chorus as I head out the door, looking at the letters in my hand.

I do make a couple of stops before biking back to school; one at the general store for some Hershey bars, and the other at the local pizza parlor for a large pepperoni pizza and four Cokes to go. I figure Todd will appreciate having something other than mystery meat for lunch today. I don't figure he'll mind the pizza not being piping hot. It's a little awkward trying to ride without dropping the pizza... the Cokes fit nicely in my saddlebags... but I still make it back to school within about fifteen minutes.

Todd must have been watching for me to return, because he's outside taking the pizza box from me as I attempt to lock my bike up one-handed. Once he has the box, I grab the Cokes and the Hershey bars and we head up to our room. I open two of the Cokes as he starts separating the pizza slices. He hands me one in exchange for a bottle.

I set my Coke down on the desk and give him a smile. "Chris made it," I say, pulling out the letters. "Ready?"

"Ready," he replies with a smile of his own as I hand him his. He sets his own Coke down and we both open our letters and begin to read.

Dear Richard,

I hope you will believe me when I say that it is good indeed to hear from you. Before anything else, I want you to understand this: You are not to blame yourself for what happened to me. Even if you had said nothing to the administration, it was inevitable that I would be let go, from the moment Neil put that gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

I know this sounds harsh, and it is. But it is also reality. The school needed a scapegoat as badly as you did. Unfortunately, Mr. Perry saw to it that I would become that scapegoat, even before you spoke to the administration. They would have come to you, had you not gone to them. So, I repeat, do not blame yourself.

If it makes you feel any better, I am still teaching. Perhaps not as such a prestigious preparatory academy as Welton, but I am still teaching nonetheless. I was lucky enough to arrive in this area just as one of the local public high school's English teachers was leaving to have a baby. As you can see from my address... and incidentally, dare I ask just how you obtained it?... I am now living just outside of San Fransisco. I hope to begin teaching at the University of California at Berkeley come fall.

I also hope to hear back from you gentlemen soon. I realize that you probably won't be able to mail a reply immediately, as I know you won't be able to mail letters to me from school without getting yourselves into trouble. And may I say, that was a very good idea, asking Miss Noel to take my replies to you. But it means a lot to me, to know that I left friends behind, rather than enemies. I feared that you would be persuaded to the administration's view of what happened that night in December.

Anyway, I hope you will continue this correspondence and tell me more of this dream of yours, that you have become determined to have even if it means breaking with your family. I hope it isn't anything I said, that makes you think that will be necessary. Ideally, I want you men to have your dreams as well as your families intact.

Yours in friendship,

your Captain, John Keating

PS. Give my greetings to Meeks and Pitts.