They were excited to start their first class with Mr. Ronald, it is obvious he was their favorite teacher; he brought them all small gifts, Hershey chocolate bar for each one of them.
Yet again he was easy with his classes, unlike the other teacher who had assigned them with homework from day one, Mr. Ronald just sat down reading poetry with them, introducing them to the new semester.
It was time for Dylan to read in front of the class, he took the stand with his acting and reading matched in one class, he acting all the poems by Oscar Wilde; gasping, wailing and making the class fall in burst of laughter.
Mr. Ronald stood in the back of the room joining the student's in laughter, until Dylan fell, they all laughed even harder thinking he is doing it as part of the play.
Mr. Ronald stopped laughing when Dylan did stood up after a long minute, John and Noah were also a bit concern at the sight, without thinking Noah called for Dylan, he didn't answer.
Immediately Noah got up rushing to Dylan's side, trying to shacking his friend to wake up to no avail 'Dylan stop it this isn't funny' Mr. Ronald said as the students laughter died down.
'Mr. Ronald, He passed out' Noah said, they all gasped, Mr. Ronald rushed to his aid, he lightly tapped his face but he didn't move. Mr. Ronald picked Dylan from the Floor rushing out of the door to the nurse room, his friends all followed.
After few minutes of resting Dylan woke up in the nurse room, confused to how he got there, urounded by his friends looking down on him just like him, they all looked confused but also scared.
He chuckled 'I thought there are fairies in heaven what is this?'
They all laughed at his comment and moved as he sat on the bed holding his head 'what happened?'
'You fell, you were reading and you fell, are you okay?'
He shrugged 'I don't know, really. I think I didn't eat enough this morning?'
The nurse came in 'oh, you are awake. Good, how you feeling? You hit your head pretty hard, Mr. Ronald told me.'
'I think I do have a bit of headache from that but I am good' Dylan explained, he thought it is a passing by headache that will be gone by the next few hours. He was wrong, for the rest of the day his headache kept coming and disappearing for a moment.
It wasn't a painful headache but it wasn't good also, he didn't think much of it and let it the last thought on his mind, avoiding it was the best idea he came up with. And for a while he kept his mind of it by reading.
That night they decided to not just to be safe, Dylan thought otherwise but Henry wasn't listening to any of it. Dylan was glad that Henry didn't listen to him that day, because of the rest of the night Dylan felt sick with the pain of headache, he felt soo sick to the point he vomited twice before eventually falling asleep.
Dylan couldn't be much happier to wake up with no headache and no pain at all, in fact he felt way too energetic for his own good. He went around laughing, going back to his normal self, it felt as if he never had any pain earlier yesterday. His day went much to his delight.
The drama club have been working on a new play which Dylan himself wrote, it was for Christmas; having much work this year the Welton academy allowed only one play this whole year and that was for Christmas.
The play was supposed to be healed before Christmas break, giving them three months' worth of time to practice.
For the next few days Dylan was busy with planning the costumes, going through everyone's role in the play, one of these days Aiden found the small stage where they performed, so he decided to come in and sit at the back to draw.
It was mostly empty so it was the perfect spot for him; no one was bothering him nor screaming around. Aiden saw Dylan who waved at him and went back to doing what he did best at the stage with the practice.
He saw one of the members in the drama club wearing his costume and just stood their reading, it was a boy in half-done elf costume, Aiden placed all his focus on that boy and started to draw him, it wasn't anything. He just imagined the boy in the costume as a real elf reading the Christmas list, letting out a low chuckled Aiden went over the drawing fast and easy. Eventually looking up to capture the boys features.
Dylan was done dividing the roles for the play between the others and decided to come by Aiden to say hi. He noticed how focused Aiden was with his drawing and decided to take a look at it, without Aiden noticing he said catching Aiden's attention causing him to jump in his place 'You really are good at this, can I see?'
Aiden handed the drawing to him 'I-it's not that good but I was just-'
'No this is really good! You did amazing with this, are you taking art class?'
Aiden shock his head, remembering his father reminding him that it wasn't necessary to take the art class as an extracurricular activities, Aiden shrugged 'I prefer it as a hobby actually' he lied.
Dylan handed him the drawing 'Well, you never know, I used to think acting is my hobby but now I wasn't to be a full time actor.'
Aiden smiled at Dylan's words 'I can't wait to see you perform for the play.'
'You will be mind-blown!'
Fall has been joy-fall, it seemed like no one cared to catch the boys skipping through the nights carrying on with their poetry and words. Receiving letter from John had been a weekly thing, and every time Jessica wrote back without doubt, they seemed to be getting along very well.
He'd ask her if she and Clara would like to join in their meetings every now and then but she always turns the offer down with the excuse of school work and her cello practice.
She always woke up first to find the letter from John, hid it from her parents and take it to her room to read it, then hid it in her secret box under the bed, her parents might have been strict but they never went through her things.
That Monday morning Jessica forgot to head downstairs for the letters, a knock on her bedroom door turned her from combing her hair 'come in?'
He mother walked in the room with a blank look on her face 'Morning, Mama, I was just heading downstairs'
With a sigh he mother shut the door 'sit down Jessica; I need to talk to you.'
Jessica half confused sat down, the moment her mother uncovered the letter she held in hands 'From John Keating' she read.
Jessica thought about snatching the letter from her mother's hand but didn't dare to do such thing.
'I hope you are doing great, how is your cello practice going? The last time you mentioned that you will be busy the whole week with the practice, the boys send their best wishes, I want to write to you to mention my soccer game. I know you might have a lot of work to do but if you have the time this Tuesday to attend the match. With love, John.'
Jessica dare to not look at her mother, scared of what she might say or do.
'The envelop has Welton Academy mark' Said her mother 'is he a teacher there?'
A lock of shock printing on her face, with wide eyes Jessica stood up 'No! Mama, he is not a teacher? Why would I be talk to a teacher, he is a student, like me but in I mean i- uh he is a student in Welton, he is a friend mama, I swear it.'
With a sigh of relief her mother said 'Oh, thank God, I thought you were writing to a teacher, God's I don't know where my mind was thinking.'
'No, he is in my age'
Her mother sat on the bed and urged Jessica to sit down beside her tapping on the empty bed beside her, quietly Jessica sat down beside her mother waiting for her to speak 'do we know this boy?'
Jessica shock her head 'Do we know any Keating's?'
'Not sure we do, how long have you been seeing this John?'
'Mama, I am not seeing him! We are just friends, I ahh meet him last year but we just started talking I mean writing to each other.'
'I see' was all her mother replied for a while. 'Alright then, as long as this John is not your boyfriend, nor is he an obstacle then I don't see a trouble in being his friend, but do not tell you father. Leave that to me. You know how your father can be rumbling about this and that but he dies it all because he wants the best for you, and that is all.'
Jessica nodded with a soft smile 'I know mama.' Her mother gave a slight tap on her daughters hands 'come on now, get going you will be late for school, come on. Breakfast is ready.'
Fall has indeed being kind to them once again, Jessica and Clara often walked together from home to school and it was now that she would see much of John, even for few minutes as they pass by, waving at each other, it was enough.
Clara and Jessica often joined the dead poets often in their cave meetings, Clara was probably the most of both of them who joined in the meetings sharing poems, jokes while Jessica sat behind admiring her friends joining in their artistic thoughts.
Never did they made Jessica feel as if she was left out since Henry waste no time in asking her to join them in guessing who was the poet they were reading from, Noah and Dylan would whisper the name to her in case she didn't know.
Jessica and Clara did attend the match to watch John and Henry win the match.