• coffee ~ todd anderson •

chapter 5

"may the lord make us truly grateful, amen."

the students and teachers sat down to eat their dinner. briony sat with the boys at their table but soon realised one was missing. "where's neil?" she asked lifting her knife and fork from the folded napkin.

the boys just shrugged and went back to their conversations about the public school girls. suddenly they were interrupted from their meal when they heard a bang on the table next to briony. she jumped looking up to see a smirking neil with a thin, leather book in his hand. he looked around at the others eyeing him from across the table before saying "i found his senior annual in the library" while waving the book in the air.

before he could show them anything, cameron snatched it right out of his hand and started flipping through the pages. the boys laughed as they read aloud the accomplishments and given names for mr. keating in the annual.

"let me see this" briony said firmly grabbing it from cameron's grasp. "hey, i was reading that!" he remarked furrowing his eyebrows. "not anymore you're not" she smirked as she scanned the page in search of mr. keating.

'dead poets society' it read at the very end.

"what's the dead poets society?" she questioned curiously. shrugs and 'i don't know's' were scattered across the table until their usual conversation sparked up again.

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"keating! keating? mr. keating, sir!" neil beckoned from across the courtyard. mr. keating disregarded neil's calls and kept on whistling his tune. "say something, neil!" snapped the boys.

briony smirked; "o captain my captain?" mr. keating immediately swung around facing the boys and briony. "gentlemen and lady" he smiled causing his eyes to wrinkle. the boys laughed as neil handed him the leather-covered book. "we were just looking through your old annual" mr. keating chuckled in awe as he took the book out of neil's hand and bent down, his eyes not leaving the page. he took his time analysing the book and reminiscing on his youth when neil finally asked;

"what was the dead poet's society?"

mr.keating looked back grinning at the boy, winking at them all;

"can you keep a secret?"

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for the remainder of the day neil was trying his hardest to convince the gang to join this "dead poet's society". mr. keating had told them earlier that day that him and his friends would come together and propose a meeting in a dark cave behind the school grounds at the dead of night. there, each of them would either perform their own piece to the gang or deliver a famous poem if they couldn't come up with something clever enough.

briony already knew she was in. we all know she loves poetry dearly but reading poetry with her most beloved friends would be a great delight for her. the rest were also in after a lot of convincing from 'the almighty nuwanda'.

but it took some convincing for todd to give in. briony begged and begged all day for him to join but he kept making excuses. "i have to study for an exam tomorrow morning" he pushed. "what exam, exactly?" briony smiled mischievously. todd blushed and turned away before placing his hands on the desk gently.

"okay" briony clasped her hands together and shrieked from joy. "but this doesn't mean i'm going to take part" he chuckled. "and i wouldn't want to force you, my dear" she smiled and walked over giving him a peck on the cheek before bouncing out of the room to join the others for study group.

todd pressed his hand against his cheek gently feeling the reminisce of the tingle from her lips softly touching it.

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the clock read 12:03am in the morning.

todd was woken up by briony gently shaking him. "come on! it's time.." she smirked. they put on their coats and silently creeped down the stairs to meet the rest of the group in the courtyard bickering with each other about who almost got caught and who's boots were the loudest.

as they ran into the woods to retrieve the mysterious cave, briony felt a gush of the cold breeze run past her. it felt so freeing. the pressure from her family, the fact she had to attend an all boys school and society's expectations from a woman like her were washed away. all that was left was that refreshing feeling of freedom.

the cave was a spooky, gaping rock. briony could hear an echo from the droplets of rain hitting the cold hard floor. they all gathered in a circle inside the cave as briony sat beside todd. neil stood in the centre of the circle unfolding the thick book in his hand flooded with poetry. as he started the meeting, briony could feel her eyes growing heavy. she hadn't gotten any sleep at all from the excitement of the meeting.

todd hadn't even noticed that briony had rested her head on his shoulder until she was called up to deliver her piece. the boys saw this scene and 'whistled and wooed' at the two. todd's face grew a bright red as he gently nudged briony to wake her up. as briony opened her eyes she realised what was taking place at that moment. she quickly got up and performed her piece without looking at todd out of embarrassment.

after the others had read their piece, charlie shot up from his seating position as they all peered up at him. "wanna hear a real poem?" charlie said proudly, breaking the silence. cameron offered him the book as charlie pushed it aside. "nah i don't need that" he smirked. the boys laughed in disbelief. charlie slowly opened a ripped page from a lure magazine containing his "imaginative words of wisdom" on the back. the boys whistled as briony shook her head and scoffed at the immaturity of these private school boys.

lastly, was meeks. he somehow turned his given poem into a musical performance! they all joined in with various items they found in the cave as they all chanted the piece creeping out of the cave and back to the school.

todd and briony walked back together in silence from the previous state of affairs.

hi! ok so i am so sorry for anyone who has been waiting for this part for almost an entire year lmao! it's the summer for me now so i'm sure i can finally get back to writing this story a bit quicker for you all now :)