'𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦'
Neil Perry is completely and utterly infatuated with the juvenile delinquent that attends W...
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𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡, 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐭, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐆𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐛𝐲. All were books that the children at Welton Academy are forced to read. From Shakespeare to F. Scott Fitzgerald their works are highly praised by the English department and despised by the students. Will does not enjoy reading about a rich white man idealizing about the one thing that he cannot have. Nor does she enjoy reading about two lovers torn apart by death when it could have easily been avoided. She despises the curriculum pushed upon her and her peers. A novel should be chosen by the reader. A novel should not be forced upon the reader. Though the girl would never admit it, her animosity towards the subject sparked in the fifth grade when she was sent home after engaging in an argument with her teacher about the validity of Peter Pan being a heroic figure. In the young girl's opinion the boy in the forest green tight tights ripped children away from their families and prevented them from experiencing life. In Will's opinion you cannot postpone the future simply because you are afraid of it. Her teacher was less than content with her opinion. Ever since that day Will has focused on mathematics and science rather than English and literature.
The students of Welton enter the classroom, the room not seeming different than any of the others throughout the building. Dozens of small wooden desks are lined up in four rows. Three windows provide light to the room, the midday sunlight draping across floor like a carpet and coloring the room in a pale yellow. From the wall hangs images in frames of famous authors and poets such as Whitman, Frost, and Wilde. One by one people take their seats at their respective desks, quietly conversing about whatever they please. Will takes her place beside the window, Moby Dick open in front of her with the pages split down the middle. The words of Herman Melville flood off of the page like the waves that the whale swims in. Behind her sits Neil, the boy scribbling down onto a scrap piece of paper with a pencil that was left behind. He crumpled up the page in which he has written and carefully tosses it forward, making sure that the paper does not land on another desk. Will's eyes are drawn to the piece of paper that just arrived beside her book. She glances around, stopping when she sees a grinning Neil. He gestures to the page in her hand with eyes filled with excitement. Will audibly sighs and opens up the paper, her eyes scanning across the sentences written in charcoal.
'Everyone is using one of our two days off to head to town, you in?'
'Yes or no?'
Will stares at the offer, contemplating her next move. The girl stealthily grabs a pencil off of Cameron's desk without his knowledge and circles her answer. She crumples the page back up into a ball and throws it behind her to Neil, smirking when it hits him in the head. Without hesitation Neil reads the response, grinning when he sees a circle around 'yes'. Before any conversations can continue Mr. Keating enters the room, weaving through the desks while whistling Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture. Everyone watches in a dead silence as he walks out of the room, leaving the group of students staring after him. The teenagers all glance at one another, searching for an answer for the strange behavior. Mr. Keating's head peaks back through the threshold.
