Goes On // Dead Poets Society

eight.

Ridge Academy, NY
2/13/60

Charlie nearly jumps out of his skin when hands shake him awake. Eyes darting open only to not be able to spot anything in the dark room. His heart is practically in his throat as he registers he's still in his room where he is meant to be and the dark figure looming above him is none other than Nate's. Finally allowing himself to calm and sink back into his covers, he lets out a deep sigh.

"There is so many other ways you can wake a guy up" Charlie groans, hands coming to rub at his eyes. That's when he sees it's nearly midnight on the alarm clock beside him. Not so long until Valentine's day.

"Sorry, but get dressed" Nate whispers, shuffling back to his side of the room where he sees him start putting on his shoes.

"Any reason in particular?" Charlie asks as he sits up and Nate just laughs.

"Yes dingus. It's the night before the school dance. We have no homework and Mr. Lancaster took sleeping pills. That means it's time to party" Nate tells him, referring to the teacher that monitors the dorm floor. He was much different from Dr. Hager but he did pretty much the same.

"Party, and how does that work around here" Charlie says knowing it was nearly impossible to party back at Welton. Nate just grins in the night and throws Charlie his jacket.

"Dress warm"

It's not long until the boys are sneaking out the dorm floor. Finding their way downstairs and out the entrance. Snow falls slowly and Charlie is glad he had worn a sweatshirt under his coat. By the time they make it to the tree line and see the flicker of flashlights he finds himself experiencing some intense deja vu. Yet that all goes away when amongst the small crowd is Evelyn. She's bundled up tightly with a blanket low hung off her shoulders. The green hat atop her head brings out her hazel eyes even in the dark of the night. Charlie feels the breath get knocked out of him as he spots her. He realizes he had never seen her in pants until now and it makes his mouth go slack.

"There you guys are, what took so long?" Violet seethes, teeth practically chattering as she stays tucked up under Martin's arm.

"New guy here had a bunch of questions" Nate jokes as he moves to join his friends. There isn't many people within the small crowd that Charlie doesn't know. Only two he hadn't really gotten to know. A blonde girl named Amy from his Math class and one of the basketball players Eli, who had his arms wrapped around Laurie. Jay Adam's apparently never asked or Eli just beat him to it. Either way she still didn't end up with small Nick Harrison.

"Hey you" Evelyn smiles up at Charlie as she approaches him. He does his best to smile back as he freezes in the night. Her small hand reaching out and smoothing down the front of his jacket.

"It's freezing" he tells her and she giggles lightly, arm hooking with his own.

"Don't worry, we have ways of warming you up" and Charlie's cheeks flush red in the dark of the night. He knows that wasn't the way she meant but then again she still probably knew exactly what she said. The small group moving deeper into the woods where you could no longer see the faint lights coming from the school windows.

Pretty soon they reach a clearing and Evelyn leads him to a log sat on the ground. As Charlie moves to sit beside her, Nate and Marty begin work on a fire in front of them, and he realizes fairly quickly that it had become a makeshift campfire set up.

"Shouldn't be long until the fire is going but this should warm you up for now" she tells him softly, revealing the silver flask from her coat pocket. Charlie raises his eyebrows at her as she hands it to him.

"This is yours?" he can't help but question and Evelyn laughs.

"Yeah, I'm not much for wine coolers like those girls over there" she points across the fire to the other log where Violet and Laurie had already cracked open a few. "Marty has a fake and he sneaks them into the woods every time we want to celebrate"