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the students and john stood in the courtyard, watching as cameron, pitts, and knox walk around in a cirlce.
"no grades at stake, gentlemen. just take a stroll."
after a few moments, the three boys begin to march to the same beat.
"there it is." said john.
the other boys along with parker and rory start clapping to the rhythm of their steps.
"i don't know what i've been told--"
"i don't know what i've been told--" the class repeated.
"doing poetry is old--"
the class repeated john once more.
john began to walk along with the three boys. "left, left, left-right-left. left, left, left-right-left. left, halt!"
the boys came to a halt.
"thank you gentlemen. if you noticed, everyone started off with their own stride, their own pace." john began to walk very slowly. "mr. pitts, taking his time. he knew he'll get there one day. mr. cameron, you could see him thinking. 'is this right? it might be right. i know that. maybe not. i don't know."
john altered the way he walked, with his shoulders pushed back and his hips foward.
"mr. overstreet, driven by a deeper force. he couldn't take his eyes off of ms. mccallister the whole time." giggles erupted from the class, which made parker turn red. "i didn't bring them up here to ridicule them. i brought them up here to illustrate the point of conformity: the difficulty in maintaining your own beliefs in the face of others. now those of you--i see the look in your eyes like, 'i would've walked differently.' well, ask yourselves why you were clapping." the class looked around at each other in silence.
"now, we all have a great need for acceptance. but you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own, even though others may think them odd or unpopular, even though the herd may go, ' that's baaaad.' robert frost said, 'two roads diverged in a wood and i, i took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.' now, i want you to find your own walk right now, your own way of striding, pacing. any direction. anything you want. whether it's proud, whether it's silly, anything. ladies and gentlemen, the courtyard is yours."
the students begin walking about, some walking casually, other making up silly walks.
neil grabs scarlett's hand and twirls her around, earning a giggle from the girl as he does so.
parker and knox were engrossed in their own conversation as they walked, with knox walking backwards so he could maintain eye contact with parker. occasionally, he'd find himself bumping into another classmate, which would make parker laugh.
john looks around at his students, a smile forming on his face as he sees his daughter laughing along with neil perry.
"you don't have to perform. just make it yourself." john notices charlie, who was still leaning up against one of the pillars. "mr. dalton? will you be joining us?"
