Nobody Knows This Little Rose - Dead Poets Society x Reader

21

The rest of September seemed to fly by, as if the higher powers above had turned the time machine onto turbo mode. The leaves were already falling, and as October rolled around the entire Vermont country side was lit up with vibrant hues of red and orange. Like a firecracker.

Schoolwork made it tough to find times to hold Dead Poets Society meetings. They had only had one or two since y/n's first endeavor, and the loss of time together affected the groups dynamics.

No teacher paid any mind to their floundering student body. That is, except for Mr. Keating. There was a steep decline in homework assigned for English, and a sharp uptake in class discussions.

Y/n and Mr. Keating's relationship had blossomed into one of mutual respect since she had arrived at Welton. Somehow it felt like they were newcomers together, as this was a new year for both of them at the school.

She often visited him in his office when she was particularly stressed about other work, to discuss an interesting book she had read, or a piece of prose she was fond of. She had discovered that she was almost as talented at writing short stories as she was poetry, but it was much more time consuming.

It was walking back late one night on one of these visits that she encounter Mr. Nolan for the first time. The headmaster had never bothered to introduce himself to her, and she had only ever seen him scowling at her from behind shelves in the library, or across the Dining Hall during meals.

He was walking in the opposite direction as her, and his eyes bulged as they caught sight. By now, she had gotten used to the looks and whispers other students let out when she walked by, but seeing such ferocity in a teacher was still slightly unnerving.

"Good evening sir," She said, nodding politely and just trying to continue on past.

"Who are you, exactly? Who let you in this premises?" He barked, holding an arm out to stop her.

"Uh-" She said awkwardly, shuffling her feet. "I'm a student, actually. Y/n, sir? Y/n y/l/n. I transferred from Ridgeway in the fall," She looked abashedly down at her feet.

"Oh" He said, caught slightly off guard for a moment. "Well... pleased to finally meet you, Miss y/l/n. You've made quite an... impression on some of your teachers" There was no change in tone from his previous one of aggression. "Why are you out at this hour. You should be in your room, studying or sleeping." He pressed begrudgingly.

"Uh..." she stuttered, her mind wiped blank all of a sudden.

"I can vouch for her, Mr. Nolan," Mr. Keating's voice came from behind, a smile on his face as he approached the pair from down the hall. "I had called Miss y/l/n here to my office to discuss some of her work for my class." He beamed down at her, before smiling back up at Mr. Nolan. "Might I add, she's one of my brightest and most promising students. Absolutely marvelous to have her in class. I am very glad she's broken the status quo and is attending this school."

Although there was no whisper of aggression in his tone, or any inflection that would hint of ulterior motives, the way in which he phrased his words made it seem like he was reading Mr. Nolan's mind. Almost as if he could see the judgmental conclusions Mr. Nolan was currently making about y/n.

"Ah. Mr. Keating. I was just coming to see you" Mr. Nolan said curtly, nodding to the teacher. When Mr. Keating spoke, he looked back at y/n.

"Well in that case... you are free to go, Miss y/l/n. Right to bed now," Nolan responded slowly.

Throwing a thankful glance to her English teacher, y/n nodded, hurrying away into the deserted hallways.

Of course she wasn't going to bed. It was only seven o'clock and she wanted to meet the boys in the student room.

Charlie and Pitts were in a furious battle of darts. Pitts, who was a surprisingly good artist, had drawn a charticature of an old, bespectacled man, above it printed the name "J. Evans. Pritchard" Someone had taped this paper onto the dartboard. Right as y/n walked in, Charlie hit Dr. Pritchard square in the nose, met with proud applause from the gaggle of watching students.

"Hey y/n!" Neil called amiably as she walked in. She joined him, squeezing in next to him and Todd on the couch. "How'd it go? With Keating?" He asked, glancing over at Meeks on the floor.

Why was Meeks on the floor? Y/n threw a curious look at the ginger boy, who was laying on his back as he read, holding a Radio assembly manual above him, in front of his eyes. When he noticed y/n however, he set down his book and sat up, sitting cross legged and looking attentive. Charlie and Pitts also wandered over to join the conversation.

"Yeah" Meeks chimed in. "How'd it go? Did you show him the story about the despondent mother and her dead infant?" He asked.

Y/n always gave her freshly written poems or stories to Meeks first. He proofread them, corrected a lot of her grammar mistakes, and discussed them with her after. She liked to joke that he was her number one fan, and her harshest critic all at once.

"Shh! Meeks I was going to read that one at the next meeting! No spoilers!" She winked at him. "And yeah, I did. He gave me some helpful feedback. Ways to develop it a bit more."

"Speaking of the you-know-what meeting" Neil said. "Any reason we couldn't do one tomorrow? It's a Friday night..."

Everyone in the group exchanged glances, nodding their heads.

"I'm gonna be exhausted." y/n spoke up. "That meeting with Keating set me back on my time frame. I'm going to need to stay up really late in order to finish the reading for Chem." She gave a deep sigh. "Plus running into Mr. Nolan on the way back did not help my anxiety."

"You ran into Mr. Nolan?" Charlie asked curiously.

"Yeah. He was a jerk to me too. Forgot completely who I was, seemed perplexed as to why a girl was in the school. Luckily Keating came in and saved the day. Started rambling about how much he loves having me in class and stuff. Was really nice" She smiled.

"Well it's true. You are fun to have in class" Meeks said clearly and smiled reassuringly at her. "And Nolan's a total jerk. Common knowledge." Charlie gave him an overt smile as he complimented her.

Y/n smiled. "Thanks Meeks. Now, Id better get going if I want any chance of not falling asleep during that meeting tomorrow night" She said, and left for her room.