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CHAPTER EIGHT! ( TO INDEED BE A GOD. )
LATER THAT DAY Joan sat alone on the riverbank, watching the boys on the rowing team. Girls' rowing practice was tomorrow, which Joan was forced to participate in. She hated rowing, but since Mr. Nolan assigned extracurriculars at Welton, she never had much of a choice. Joan noticed Todd sitting alone as well, looking wistfully at the river with a book in hand. She decided to walk over to him and finally, try to have a real conversation with the boy.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked him with a smile.
"Oh- no," he said quietly.
Joan took a seat and remained silent for a few minutes, she finally broke the awkward silence by pointing to his book cover.
"Hamlet?"
"Yeah, I uh- I got it from the library," Todd explained.
"I didn't know you were actually into poetry."
"Well, I read it sometimes. I just like the feeling of it. Neil told me to read this one."
"You should read something out loud at the next Dead Poets Society meeting. I know you're not really into the whole public speaking thing, and honestly, neither am I, but you should try it at least once. No one will judge you, I mean did you see Charlie's? You really can't get more adventurous than that," Joan said. Todd's eyes were still trained on the boys rowing across the river.
"I don't want to read, I'm just not the type of person who does that."
"You could be. You don't have to though, I don't want to pressure you."
Todd finally turned towards her and smiled softly, "I just don't know what I'm gonna do on Monday," he said dismally.
"Oh! I forgot about that assignment. Just write something short and sweet. You can get it over with quickly."
Todd just shrugged and looked back at the rushing water somewhat sadly. Joan wished that she could see what was going on inside his head, he was so reserved. She wondered if he was born like that, or if some external force caused him to be so timid. Joan flipped open her sketchbook and continued drawing the scene in front of her as she sat wordlessly with Todd until rowing practice was over. She tried to focus on the movement of the lines, but found herself coming back to the face of Charlie. She kept looking up at him, trying to perfect the shape of his eyes and the curve of his jaw. Joan let herself stare when she saw that Charlie was telling off Cameron for something stupid he must've said, and she couldn't help but smile at the scene. She prayed that Todd hadn't noticed her staring at Charlie. Joan really wished she could just forget about him but for some reason she couldn't.
❦
The next day at rowing Joan had gotten all wet since the girl in front of her, Elizabeth Harris, apparently still didn't know how to paddle properly and kept splashing her. Despite her good grades, the girl couldn't play sports to save her life, and her utter carelessness towards the people around her didn't help the situation.
