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CHAPTER SEVEN! ( WRONG FLOOR. )
"A MAN IS not very tired, he is exhausted. And don't use very sad, use-" Mr. Keating scanned the room before pointing to the back of the class. "Come on, Mr. Overstreet, you twerp," he called.
"Morose?" Knox replied uneasily.
"Exactly! Morose. Now, language was developed for one endeavor, and that is? Mr. Anderson? Come on! Are you a man or an amoeba?" Keating exclaimed.
Mr. Keating strode towards Todd's desk. Todd glanced up at him anxiously but didn't say a word. Mr. Keating waited a moment more before moving on. Joan found herself sympathizing for Todd once again.
"Mr. Perry?"
"Uh, to communicate," Neil answered.
"No! To woo women," Keating winked as the class chuckled, "Or to woo men! We don't discriminate," he added. "Today we're going to be talking about William Shakespeare." Most of the class sighed in disappointment.
"Oh, god!" One boy groaned. Joan, for one, was excited. Unlike most she quite enjoyed reading in her spare time, and Shakespeare was never a chore to her.
"I know. A lot of you looked forward to this about as much as you look forward to root canal work. We're gonna talk about Shakespeare as someone who writes something very interesting. Now, many of you have seen Shakespeare done very much like this:" Keating held out his right arm dramatically and began to speak in an exaggerated, nasally British accent. "'O Titus, bring your friend hither.'" Joan laughed along with the class at Mr. Keating's impersonation. "But if any of you have seen Mr. Marlon Brando, you know, Shakespeare can be different. 'Friend, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,'" he continued, speaking in yet another comedic accent. "You can also imagine, maybe, John Wayne as Macbeth going, 'Well, is this a dagger I see before me?'"
The entire class was giggling by the end of his performance, even those who were initially quite resentful towards Shakespeare. Every class Joan's respect towards Keating grew.
As Keating continued to teach, despite his engaging and entertaining lesson, Joan's mind began to wander once again. She didn't even really notice herself replaying the sequence of events that took place last night. She couldn't help but wonder if Charlie actually liked her or if he was just messing with her. She reminded yourself that he was just a flirt, and she shouldn't let yourself think of him as anything more than a friend, if even that. Joan tried to focus on Keating, on anything but Charlie. Her own eyes betrayed her when they glanced towards Charlie who was leaning back in his chair, twirling his pencil. His eyes began to turn towards Joan and she quickly snapped her head back to the front of the class, trying desperately to appear natural.
The rest of the day passed slowly, and the evening brought mountains of homework which kept Joan locked up in the library until nightfall. She and Violet sat in the back of the library, pouring over their homework. After they were kicked out of the library, Joan and Violet decided to wander the halls for a while so that by the time they were ready to go to their dorm, the hallways had already cleared up. Younger kids were so loud and hyper, even at night, it was a battle to get to their dorm room some days. The two of them chatted mindlessly about random things. They had come to the point in their friendship where they could start up a conversation about nearly anything and still feel comfortable.
