TEN

The atmosphere was jolly and easy by then. The group was having a great time, smoking and drinking and chatting, trying to get to know October better. Being the heap of passion he was, Neil had already told her everything about his role in A Midsummer Night's Dream, which she had shown an immediate enthusiasm and interest in.

"Will you come and see me then, Tobie? I've been longing to invite you since the first time Charlie told me about you."

"Of course I will. I would also help you rehearse…" she began, then cast a side glance at Todd. "… If you hadn't got Todd already. I'm sure he's the best helpmate ever."

Todd gazed at her with an adoring look and blushed profusely.

"Charlie told me you are a genius, Stephen" she then said, addressing Meeks. The called-on boy had a sheepish but pleased smile for her.

"He flatters me. That's why I help him with Latin."

"And English" Charlie added, deliberately coughing. "And Trig."

They all laughed.

"Me and Pitts are working on a Hi-Fi system" Meeks resumed. "It shouldn't be that hard to put together."

"That's impressive. I would like to know how it works, but I'm sure I wouldn't understand."

"Well, I believe the opposite" he gallantly countered.

"Who's flattering, now?" Charlie interjected, blowing out a puff of smoke. October chuckled. Since their lip-crashing, he had been sitting next to her with a hand on her back, rubbing it softly in a nonstop motion.

"What about your plans, Gerard?" she asked. Pitts looked off-guard.

"Uh, I might be going to Yale. But I… I might not."

October sweetly smiled.

"Is that what you want?"

Pitts lowered his stare.

"Come on, Pittsie, you can talk to her" Neil incited.

"We are not exactly allowed to do whatever we want" Pitts explained.

"Who says that? Screw them" October exclaimed.

"I'll second that" Charlie agreed, cheerfully.

"You know" October continued, "Eleanor Roosevelt said that the purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. So don't give up, whatever you want to do."

She had addressed Pitts, but stared at Neil in the end, who was hanging upon her every word. She winked at him, who smiled in return.

"Yeah, but sometimes they know better than us what's right and what's wrong, don't you think?" Cameron butted in. "They just put us on the right path, for the good of us."

Charlie groaned.

"Oh, come on, Cameron, don't you get anything? They just want us to be homogenized and submissive."

"Rules exist for a reason, Dalton."

"Nuwanda, please."

"And you?" October stepped in between, putting an end to the bickering. "Do you already know the difference between right and wrong, Richard?"

Cameron frowned in puzzlement. She was piercing him with such an intense stare the red-haired boy had to look away. He wasn't sure he liked her. She was too… Pervasive. What would she know about right and wrong? What would she know about him? She looked like another don't-give-a-shit type, that was why she got on so well with Charlie. Jeez. He couldn't really get why people seemed so allergic to good old rules.

Sensing the tension, October decided to tone it down.

"So… Don't you guys miss having girls around here?" she asked.

"Yeah" Meeks and Pitts heartily confirmed, smiling.

"That's part of what this club is about" Charlie proclaimed. "In fact, I'd like to announce I published an article in the school paper, in the name of the Dead Poets."

The temperature dropped several degrees right away. October closed her eyes and wrinkled her nose. Here we go.

"What?!" Cameron was the first to recover.

"Demanding girls be admitted to Welton" Charlie elaborated. "So as to stop all that beating off" he added whispering to Meeks.

The boys couldn't believe their own ears.

"How did you do that?" Neil inquired, bewildered.

"I'm one of the proofers, I slipped the article in" he explained as if it was obvious.

"Look, it's… It's over now" Meeks claimed, shocked.

"Why?" Charlie persisted. "Nobody knows who we are."

"Well, don't you think they're gonna figure out who wrote it?" Cameron burst out. Charlie stood up, annoyed. "They're gonna come to you and ask to know what the Dead Poets Society is. Charlie, you had no right to do something like that."

"It's Nuwanda, Cameron" he corrected once more with a feverish stare, taking a sip of hooch. "Are we just playing around out here, or do we mean what we say? For all we do is come together and read a bunch of poems to each other. What the hell are we doing?"

"All right, but you still shouldn't have done it, Charlie" Neil scolded him. "This could mean trouble. You don't speak for the club."

"Hey, would you not worry about your precious little neck?" Charlie blurted, starting to get upset. "If they catch me, I'll tell them I made it up."

October gave a resigned half-smile. Too foolhardy, he hadn't considered the chance to be sussed. But, loyal until the very end, he was ready to keep them all out of it. She could get what he had meant to do. It was not really about chicks and sex. It was about gender equality. It was an attempted step ahead of his time. A way to break stupid rules. And he had signed the article in the name of all because there's strength in numbers, isn't there? On the other hand, his friends were not ready yet. They were still too scared. Each of them had their own small way to be the maverick, some more than the others. But facing the caste was another story. October didn't really blame any of them for that, she was able to understand both sides. She should probably talk some sense into them, at that point. But she had no time to articulate any of that and act as a peacemaker, because a commotion came from the outside. They all turned their heads towards it. Then a dead weight toppled from the entrance, causing Todd and Cameron – the closest – to jump up screaming.

"Knox?!"

"Knoxious!"

Charlie was the quickest. He dashed to his friend and flipped him over, slipping an arm under his head. He smelled like a blown-up distillery and a thin red rivulet was flowing from his livid nose. More dry blood was all over his mouth, chin and shirt.

"Oh, shit, Knox!"

"What the hell?!"

October came to help as well, pouring some liquor onto the edge of her blouse and cleaning the boy up, then she pressed the fabric under his nostrils, while Charlie was busy loosening the knot of his tie.

"Did he slam into something?"

"Are you blind? Somebody clearly beat the crap out of him."

"Did he really get here by bike in this condition?"

Knox dumbly blinked again and again, then focused on October, who was leaning towards him with a concerned expression. He slowly frowned.

"Oc-tober?" he sputtered. Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.