Goes On // Dead Poets Society

six.

Ridge Academy, NY
2/5/60

As much as Charlie hated attending planning committee meetings, he found himself showing up every single time, not wanting to disappoint Evelyn. He knew he had already disappointed her enough during his time here and she was genuinely just trying to be a good friend to him. The least he could do was attend the meetings to a club she cared very much about. So even though the last thing he wanted to do on a Friday afternoon after a long week of classes, was attend this meeting, he started the journey there anyway.

"Hey" Evelyn grins widely at him when he enters the room and Charlie quickly notices how she's the only one here, hands feverishly working as she ties goodie bags with hearts all over them.

"Where is everyone?" he asks, confused why even though he's about two minutes late, Evelyn is the only one sitting here doing stuff.

"Oh no one showed. That's normal. Everyone fizzles out after a while. People always love planning until it comes down to the actual work" Evelyn says with a sigh, hands still moving a mile a minute as she places an assortment of candy in each bag and ties it off. This should be their classmate Sarah's job considering she suggested goodie bags at the first meeting.

"You're the easy credit club then huh?" Charlie asks, noticing how she fights off a sad look on her face.

"Sadly and since I love it too much I continue to let it go instead of risk losing my club" she mutters under her breath and Charlie sighs as he moves to sit next to her. Evelyn's hands don't stop until Charlie's lands on her own.

"When you asked me to help you plan the dance you really meant it, didn't you?" he asks and Evelyn finally gives up her busy work considering she needed enough goodie bags for the entirety of the Junior and Senior class.

"Yeah, it just was nice to know that maybe someone would actually stick around the whole time" she says, a forlorn look painting her face, and Charlie smiles softly. Five months ago he more than likely would've attended Evelyn's club for the easy credit but now he genuinely just wanted to help.

"Well let's do this, you fill em, I tie em?" Charlie suggests and the grin the cracks along her face is all the confirmation he needs as Evelyn scoops candy into a bag and passes it his way.

"I'm sure you really regret joining my club now" she says after about three bags and Charlie just laughs.

"I wouldn't say that. You're one of the few people in this school I can stand and do not get all excited. Someone just can't learn boundaries" he tells her but the wide smile is all he needs to see to know that she has already taken it to heart. He smiles back until an image of Neil comes to mind and that smile quickly leaves as he turns to tie another bag.

"You do any clubs at your old school or just sports?" she questions, not noticing the change in his demeanor and Charlie feels his heart sink.

"School newspaper, service club, and-" he wants to say it. He wants to say it so badly. It sits on the tip of his tongue and urges it way out but even the thought of it reminds him of everything he was given and everything he had lost. Learning you had free will came with discovering you're never as free as you think.

"What? Can't remember?" Evelyn teases and Charlie reminds himself to not be upset with her. She doesn't know, he made it that way. No one here knew what he had been through. How four months had changed the direction of his life completely.

"Something like that, at Welton everything was serious. The dean would meet with every single one of us to assign extracurriculars 'based on merit and desire' and if you missed a practice, a meeting, it was instant demerits. He could assign you or unassign you whenever he felt. It made the things that were supposed to be fun, suffocating" Charlie says, thinking of all the ways that entire school suffocated him until it stomped his lungs out. In fact, he was pretty sure he hadn't had a real deep breath since then.