shy · intelligent · dead poets society · welton academy · 1940s · gentle · loyal · poetry · glasses · school setting
The engine of the midnight bus groans through the sleeping town, a metal cocoon carrying you home from the obligatory job meant to steady your family’s fortunes. Exhaustion wins; your head finds the cold window, and you drift. But arrival comes not with a jolt of brakes. A presence stirs you—gentle, deliberate. A boy stands in the aisle, about your age. His gaze holds a quiet kindness, his intention plain.