A Thousand Nights Applause

Ch. 1

Neil Perry was known by everyone at Welton Academy first and foremost as Neil Perry, assistant annual editor, on the soccer team, and straight A student. But by his friends, more specifically the Dead Poets, he was known as the Sun. It was hard to think of him as anything but; with his bright personality,his optimistic outlook on life; even his ability to see the best in the worst people (mainly his father), and in the worst situations. When he smiled, it was the type to light up an entire room and cause everyone else's lips to curl upwards as well.

This is the way in which it had always been.

On the contrary, Todd Anderson was less known by everyone. Todd Anderson for the most part had tried to stay alone; to fly under the radar. Todd Anderson kept mostly to himself and shied away from participation. Todd Anderson was the Moon. Unlike Neil, Todd had a more pessimistic outlook on life, He had always thought of the worst-case-scenario when it came to situations, and he always made the assumption that people thought the worst of him. This at least had saved him from the disappointment of getting his hopes up of people liking him when they possibly didn't, and he preferred it this way.

Though, when the bright sun that was Neil Perry came in and lit up his world, Todd had absolutely no complaints. It was surprising, and caught him off guard, sure, but he was still ever so grateful that it was Neil who he had been paired with for his roommate. And he was even more grateful when the beautiful dark haired male welcomed him to his new school with open arms.

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A few months had passed by this point, and Todd had found himself growing accustomed to the comfortable routine that he had fallen into during his time at the school the boys had dubbed as 'Hellton'. Though, the one thing he could never get over was when his own eyes met with the gorgeous brown ones belonging to his roommate. Not just that, but the teasing manner he had, the jokes he would crack when it was just the two of them, were enough to make his heart flutter within his chest and his cheeks heat up with a nice soft blush.

But that didn't mean that he liked him...right...?

Growing up in the fifties, being gay was abything but accepted. If someone were to find out you liked the same sex, you'd be hatecrimed via called a slur at the very least. But still, Todd couldn't get the idea of kissing Neil's soft looking lips out of his mind. He could swear he was almost going crazy with how much of his thoughts the other male occupied frequently.

He knew if he were to discuss his feelings with the rest of the group they wouldn't really judge him. Well, Cameron might, but that's just how the ginger male was. None of the other Dead Poets could really say anything, though. They didn't have any room to say anything. After all, Meeks' "yessir" responses to Charlie's demands spoke ten times louder than any "I love you" ever could when it came to the two. Not only that, but you could tell there was meaning behind Charlie's flattering words spoken to Meeks other than an attempt to gain the smart male's help in the classes he was struggling in. And Todd wasn't blind, so he could see that Pittsie's longing glances at Meeks weren't as subtle as he may have thought originally.

Todd kind of felt bad for him, really. He knew how much it had to hurt Pitts to see Meeks be so madly in love with someone other than him. Part of him wondered how long it had been like this. Had the boys been pining over each other in a love triangle before he arrived? Was it a long ongoing thing that everyone knew about but never spoke of? Or was this something new that had just blossomed at the start of the school year? Though, before he could continue his internal interview of the group he had found himself apart of, he was soon snapped out of his thoughts by something Mr. Keating had said.

"Tomorrow, we will be starting a unit on love poetry. To prepare, I would like for each of you to compile a verse or two of your own-" a few uninterested groans had passed through the class, but the teacher only continued. "-It doesn't have to be about a person. It can be about whatever you want, whether that's nature, your extracurriculars, or even my class, perhaps," a smile formed on his lips as he teased, "A few of you will be called on to read your piece out loud, so I expect all of you to do it."

Of course. This was just Todd's luck. Knowing Mr. Keating, Todd was almost convinced that he would be one of the few to be called on. After all, it wouldn't truly be a day in his class if the silent mousy brown haired male didn't get 'bullied' by the well meaning teacher.

Todd hurried back to the dorm by the time classes were over and quickly got to work. The sooner he got this done, the better. After all, it would leave him one last thing to worry over.

Now, the problem wasn't what Todd could write about. In fact, he knew exactly what he was going to write about. In fact, he knew exactly what he was going to write about, Or, well, who, rather. No no, the writing wasn't the problem no matter how insecure Todd may be about it, but instead it was keeping the subject of his writing from seeing it. He would be far too embarrassed if Neil were to find out. Not only that, but Todd remembered the last time he had written poetry and Neil saw something he had written. He didn't go out of his way to embarrass him or anything, but he did have to chase Neil around the room in order to try and get his notebook back. If that's how he'd react with a simple poem then he could only imagine what he'd do with this one. Luckily though, he had finished before Neil came in. Though, unluckily for him, Neil was still buzzing from the assignment Mr. Keating gave to them.

"So," he started, "What's your poem about? Or should I ask who?" he smirked, his tone laced thickly with smugness.

It was almost as if he knew. Todd swore that he did. Though, his anxieties of this didn't stop his heart from trying to pound right out of his chest. That smirk was so attractive that he honestly felt like he couldn't handle it. He didn't know if he could take much more of Neil Perry's stunning looks, but he knew he had to. After all, he was unsure if Neil even liked him back, and he didn't want to risk losing his friend over his feelings that he had already come to terms with for him. Though, after realizing that he had probably been silent for most likely too long, he spoke up.

"Oh, um, I uh... I didn't do it..." he lied, keeping his voice soft as usual.

Now that he thought about it, he'd probably go with this lie if Keating were to call on him to read his poem aloud.

Neil's smirk faltered on his face, almost as if he was disappointed.

"Oh come on, Todd, surely you've at least started it, or are about to." he continued on in almost a hopeful manner.

Todd simply shook his head in response to Neil's words, which in turn earned a frown from the other. He hated the feeling of how his heart sank when he saw that look on Neil's face, even more so because of it being from him.