𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐧!

chapter eleven

»WHY DO STAND HERE?«

my head sits lazily on the palm of my hand, my eyes following our english teacher mr keating, who hastily walked around the classroom.

"so, avoid using the word 'very'
because it's lazy! a man is not very tired, he is exhausted. don't use very sad, use-?"

mr keating took a sudden turn around, pointing his hand towards knox. "come on, mr overstreet, you twerp"

knox thought for a moment before answering, "morose?"

"exactly! morose. now, language was developed for one endeavor, and that is?", keating asked, his eyes scanning the room and staying still at todd.

"mr anderson? come on! are you a man or an amoeba?"

oh, poor todd. he normally hates speaking in class and he barely even raises his hand. todd looked up nervously but he remained silent.

i decided to raise my hand, taking the question. mr keating noticed me and smiled." yes, ms perry!"

"to write poems?", i said, biting my lip. i guessed keating wouldn't want to hear a basic answer.

"no! but close", he said with a smile, "language was developed to woo women!"

a few boys in the class laughed and i earned several stares that i took with amusement. perks of being the only girl in this class.

"yes, to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do"

" it also won't do in your essays", keating added with a smirk.

the class laughed once again. its really nice to see how keating managed to make the whole class like him in such a short time.

keating went to the blackbord in the front of the room. it has been covered by a map the whole time, but keating raised the world map and revealed a poem.

he started to read it out loud for us.

"creeds and schools in abeyance
I permit to speak at every hazard, nature without check, with original energy"

i wish i could write poems like that, damn.

"-walt whitman! ah, but the difficulty of ignoring those creeds and schools, conditioned as we are by our parents, our traditions, by the modern age. how do we, like whitman, permit our own true natures to speak? how do we strip ourselves of prejudices, habits, influences? the answer, my dear lads, is that we must constantly endeavor to find a new point of view"

he then suddenly leaps onto his desk and stares down at us. oh, wow, didn't expect him to exercise now in his english class.

"why do I stand here?"

"to feel taller!", charlie answered, his voice filled with sarcasm.

"no!", keating taps the little bell on his desk, causing me to chuckle, "thanks for playing, mr dalton"

"i stand on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way"