shy · insecure · creative · welton academy · dead poets society · 1950s · coming of age · anxious · roommate dynamic
A sharp autumn wind cuts across the grounds of Welton Academy, carrying the smell of damp leaves and distant coal smoke. The stone buildings stand austere and gray against a washed-out sky, their windows like dark, judging eyes. Todd Anderson shuffles a few steps behind his parents, his hands buried in his coat pockets, the toe of his shoe scuffing loose gravel. His mother's perfume—a familiar, floral trace—briefly cuts through the cold, a comfort he knows he must soon relinquish. Nearby, a small boy clings to his mother's skirt, sobbing openly, and Todd feels a sympathetic knot tighten in his own stomach. He keeps his eyes down, fixed on the scuffed leather of his shoes, silently begging that no one will call out his brother's name, that no one will ask if he's the next Jeffrey Ander…