Dead Poets Society

off, Mr. Future Lawyer and Mr. Future Banker!” The boys studied their shoes as Neil stormed around the room angrily. He ripped the school annual achievement pin from his blazer and hurled it furiously at his desk.
    “Wait a minute,” Knox said, walking toward Neil. “I don’t let my parents walk on me.”
    “Yeah,” Neil laughed. “You just do everything they say! You’ll be in daddy’s law firm as sure as I’m standing here.” He turned to Charlie who was sprawled across Neil’s bed. “And you’ll be approving loans till you croak!”
    “Okay,” Charlie admitted. “So I don’t like it any more than you do. I’m just saying...”
    “Then don’t tell me how to talk to my father when you’re the same way,” Neil snapped. “All right?“
    “All right,” Knox sighed. “Jesus, what are you gonna do?”
    “What I have to do. Chuck the annual. I have no choice.”
    “I certainly wouldn’t lose any sleep over it,” Meeks said cheerfully. “It’s just a bunch of people trying to impress Nolan.”
    Neil slammed his suitcase shut and slumped onto his bed. “What do I care about any of it anyhow?” He slammed his hand into his pillow, lay back silently, and stared with glazed eyes at the ceiling.
    The boys sat around glumly, feeling Neil’s disappointment and sadness. “I don’t know about anyone else,” Charlie said, again breaking the silence, “but I could sure use a refresher in Latin. Eight o’clock in my room?”
    “Sure,” Neil said tonelessly.
    “You’re welcome to join us, Todd,” Charlie offered.
    “Yeah,” Knox agreed. “Come along.”
    “Thank you,” Todd said.
    After the boys left, Neil got up and picked up the achievement pin he had thrown. Todd started to unpack again. He took out a framed photo of his mother and father with their arms affectionately around an older boy who appeared to be Todd’s famous brother, Jeffrey. Neil looked at the photo and noticed that Todd was slightly apart from the family group, with them but not really a part of them. Todd then unpacked an engraved leather desk set and laid it out on his desk.
    Neil plopped on his bed and leaned against the headboard. “So, what do you think of my father?” he asked blankly.
    “I’ll take him over mine,” Todd said softly, almost to himself.
    “What?” Neil asked.
    “Nothing.”
    “Todd, if you’re gonna make it around here, you’ve got to speak up. The meek might inherit the earth, but they don’t get into Harvard; know what I mean?” Todd nodded, folding a white button-down oxford cloth shirt. Neil held the achievement pin in his hand as he spoke. “The bastard!” he shouted suddenly, jabbing his thumb with the metal point of the pin and drawing blood.
    Todd winced, but Neil just stared at the blood intently. He pulled the pin out and hurled it against the wall.

Chapter 4

    The first day of class dawned bright and clear. The junior-class boys dashed in and out of the bathroom, dressing in record time. “Those seventh graders look like they’re going to make in their pants, they’re so nervous,” Neil laughed as he splashed his face with cold water.
    “I feel the same way,” Todd admitted.
    “Don’t worry, the first day is always rough,” Neil said. “But we’ll get through. Somehow we always do.” The boys finished dressing and raced to the chemistry building. “Shouldn’t have slept so late and missed breakfast,” Neil said. “My stomach’s growling. ”
    “Mine too,” Todd said as they slid into the chem lab. Knox, Charlie, Cameron, and Meeks were already in the class along with some other juniors. In the front of the room a balding, bespectacled teacher handed out huge textbooks.
    “In addition to the assignments in the text,” he said sternly, “you will each pick three lab experiments from the project list and report on one every five weeks. The first twenty problems at the end of Chapter One are due tomorrow.”
    Charlie Dalton’s eyes popped as he stared at the text and listened to the teacher. He shot a disbelieving glance at Knox Overstreet, and both boys shook their heads in dismay.
    Todd was the only one among them who didn’t seem fazed by either the book or the things the teacher was saying. The teacher’s voice droned on, but the boys stopped listening somewhere around the words “the first twenty problems.” Finally, the bell rang, and almost everyone from chemistry moved into Mr. McAllister’s classroom.
    McAllister, probably the only