𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 ✰ 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲

twenty one ✰ "how could you be so fucking stupid!"

the group was sitting in the dark cave, another meeting of the dead poets society about to take place. 

"'to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. to put to rout all that was not life.'" the group said in sync. they stop as they hear the sound of female laughter coming from outside of the cave.

charlie, who was missing from the group, stumbled into the cave with two girls trailing behind him.

"hello, dead poets." charlie said with a smirk. he leaned down next to rory a kissed her on the cheek, which made her blush. 

the boys shined their flashlights on the girls who stood awkwardly behind charlie. 

parker and knox shared a look, both visibly confused by the two girls.

"who are the girls, charlie?" scarlett asked as she leaned closer into neil's side. 

"oh, these are some girls from that dinner party my father was hosting." charlie explained. "family friends. their names are gloria and uh--tina." 

the two girls muttered hellos as they shyly waved at the group.

"girls, this is the pledge class of the dead poets society." charlie looked down at rory, a grin forming on his face. "and my beautiful girlfriend, lorelai." rory rolled her eyes as she playfully hit charlie in the leg.

"alright, it's friday night." charlie ushered for everyone to sit, as he sat down next to rory. "let's get on with the meeting." 

meeks, pitts, and cameron moved aside to let the girls in.

"guys, i have an annoucement." charlie began. "in keeping with the spirit of passionate experimentation of the dead poets, i'm giving up the name charlie dalton. from now on, call me nuwanda. "

"nuwanda?" rory chuckled. 

"what kind of name is that?" scarlett asked.

tina took out a tube of red lipstick out of her purse. as she was about to apply a fresh coat, charlie took it out of her hands and painted red marks on each of his cheeks. 

"charlie, are you doing okay mentally?" parker asked in a serious tone. she looked at knox, he too had a look of worry painted on his face. 

"just peachy, parker." charlie smirked. "we gonna have a meeting or what?" 

"yeah," gloria chimed in. "if you guys don't have a meeting, how do we know if we wanna join?"

scarlett's eyebrows furrowed. 

who did these girls think they were to assume we'd let them in? scarlett thought to herself. 

"join?" neil questioned. 

charlie leaned over to rory, placing an arm around her waist. "'shall i compare thee to a summer's day? thou art more lovely and more temperate." 

the boys and scarlett and parker laughed at charlie's words.

"that's so sweet, charlie." tina cooed as rory rolled her eyes. 

"i love the attempt, charlie, but you and i both know that is shakespeare." rory smirked as she kissed her boyfriend on the cheek.

after a moment of silence, neil recited a poem: "'she walks in beauty like the night. of cloudless climes and starry skies. all that's best, dark and bright, meet in her aspect and her eyes.' lord byron." 

neil glanced down at scarlett, who was looking at him in awe. 

"you really know how to make a girl swoon, perry." parker chuckled. 

scarlett's face grew red and she flipped parker off, which made the group laugh. parker grinned, as she blew her best friend a kiss. 

✰

after an hour of awkward small talk, tina brought out a bottle of alcohol. she passed it to neil with a toothless grin. cameron and scarlett motioned for him not to drink it, but neil brought the bottle to his lips and took a swig anyways. 

a pregnant silence filled the cave. 

"me and ptts are working on a hi-fi system." meeks spoke up, trying to break the awkward silence. "it shouldn't be that hard to, uh, to put together." 

pitts nodded, "yeah. uh i might be going to yale. uh, but, i might not." 

"don't you guys miss having girls around here?" gloria asked. 

"they do have girls around here." scarlett hissed. 

"yeah, three of the best." parker added. 

knox and neil grinned at their girlfriends while charlie tightened his grip around rory's waist. 

"that's part of what this club is about." charlie said. "in fact, i'd like to announce that i published an article in the school paper, in the name of the dead poets." 

the groups' eyes widened. 

"what?" cameron gasped. 

"demanding that more girls be admitted to welton." charlie exclaimed. "it isn't fair that only ror, scarlett, and parker are the only ones. welton should be a school for all genders." 

the girls' jaws dropped. 

"you didn't." pitts whispered.

"how did you do that?" neil asked, sweat forming on his palms. 

"i'm one of the proofers." charlie explained. "i slipped the article in." 

meeks shook his head. "look, it's over now."

"why?" charlie argued. "nobody knows who we are." 

"well, don't you think they're gonna figure out who wrote it?" cameron hissed, his face red in anger. "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." charlie spat. 

gloria and tina nodded as rory ran a nervous hand through her hair. 

"are we just playing around out here, or do we mean what we say?" charlie defended. "for all we do is come together and read a bunch of poems to each other. what the hell are we doing?"

neil sighed. "all right, but you still shouldn't have done it, charlie. this could mean trouble. you don't speak for the club." 

"yeah, charlie. neil is right. this could not only effect you, but all of us." scarlett snapped. "hell, this could effect my dad, charlie! how could you be so fucking stupid!" neil laid a comforting hand on her knee, trying to calm the angry girl down. 

"hey, would you not worry about your precious little necks? if they catch me, i'll tell them i made it up." charlie explained. "captain will be fine, scar. quit your worrying." 

rory bit her lip as she watched scarlett rub her temples. 

she knew what charlie had done was stupid, but his intentions were good. the young girl just hoped that nothing bad would come from it.

boy was she wrong.