over the creek - charlie dalton & fem oc

𓄼˚ chapter five

6 P.M. Main entranceway.

The man and students arrived at the main entranceway. It consisted of a medium room whose main attraction was the extense amount of pictures and trophies that carried the school history.

Louise always felt like a stranger to all of it. It showed once again the lack of femininity in the school. Now, it seemed even further. Most trophies were about sports, something that she would lose her last year. No matter what she did, she could never get to what the previous generations of students at Welton were, or became.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the man's unknown voice.

"'Oh Captain, My Captain' who knows where that comes from?"

Louise was next to Todd, and she noticed him looking up, as if he knew the answer. When she didn't hear him say anything, she frowned, writing that in a little list in her head. She used lists for every single person she met and Todd's was the most incomplete.

"Not a clue? It's from a poem by Walt Whitman about Mr. Abraham Lincoln."

Louise nodded, familiar of the author. The man continued.

"Now in this class you can call me Mr. Keating. Or, if you're slightly more daring, Oh Captain, My Captain."

Laughs.

Mr. Keating. That's who he was. He seemed a bit familiar back at the class, but she never even thought about it. She was more interested in his eccentric persona.

"Now let me dispel a few rumors so they don't fester into facts." He continued.

"Yes, I too attended Hell-ton and survived." Louise looked at Knox and they both shared a smirk when the nickname for the school was said.

"And no, at that time I was not the mental giant you see before you. I was the intellectual equivalent of a ninety-eight pound weakling." Mr. Keating said.

"I would go to the beach and people would kick copies of Byron in my face."

The students continued laughing.

"Now, Mr... Pitts. That's a rather unfortunate name. Mr. Pitts, where are you?" The professor looked around, looking for the student.

Pitts raised his hand, a bit embarrassed, and Mr. Keating asked him to read a stanza of a poem. To this, the student looked for the page he was asked of.

"'To the virgins, to make much of time'?"

Laughs were heard, and they increased at the teacher's next comment. "Yes, that's the one. Somewhat appropriate, isn't it."

Pitts continued by reading what was asked.

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a flying, and this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying."

"Thank you Mr. Pitts. 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.' The Latin term for that sentiment is Carpe Diem. Now who knows what that means?"

They turned to Meeks, who put his hand up. "Carpe Diem. That's 'seize the day.'"

"Very good, Mr.-" Keating waited for his introduction.

"Meeks."

"Meeks. Another unusual name." More laughs.

"Seize the day. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Why does the writer use these lines?" he continued.

"Because he's in a hurry." Charlie's sudden comment made Louise turn around, waiting for the guy to see her, yet she turned back when she heard Keating's response.