Author's Note: So I've started yet another fic...I think I have a serious problem. Is there a disorder that causes a person to start and never end stories? Because I have that apparently. Anyway, this was inspired by a Harry Potter fanfic I read years ago...in fact I don't actually think I ever finished reading it...and I thought that it could work perfectly for Dead Poets Society. So, I can't take initial claim to the overall idea of this, but I obviously twisted it my own way since I can barely remember the original work of fiction that sparked my DPS inspiration. Now, after all of that rambling that may or may not have made sense to you, I hope you enjoy the first installment of Welton Institution. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Dead Poets Society, nor did I come up with the general concept of the mental institution. I did however twist it my own way and credit goes to all original creators.

The first thing Charlie Dalton realized when he woke up was that he was not in his Welton dorm room. This would have surprised him greatly if it hadn't been for the fact that he had just been expelled for sucker-punching Richard Cameron in the snout.

No. What shocked Charlie the most was that he was in a medical bed, surrounded on three sides by hideously bright white walls. The last wall, looking out onto an abandoned hallway, was made up of all windows. The door to the room was situated on this wall of glass, propped open with a stack of encyclopedias.

He blinked in confusion. Where the hell was he and why was he here? "Hey!" he called out loudly, nervous to even move off the bed.

"Oh great," he heard a female voice mumbling sarcastically on the opposite side of the, apparently, paper-thin wall. "Charlie's awake again."

"Charlie's awake?" an excited voice echoed.

"That's what I said, Todd," the first voice replied in a patient tone.

"Oh, right."

Charlie raised an eyebrow. Todd? Todd was here, too? …wherever it was they were.

Suddenly the two were passing by the windowed wall. The girl hardly glanced at him, but Todd Anderson, it was really Todd, pressed his face up against the glass as he moved, leaving a visible trail of slime from his tongue. They came to idle in the doorway of the room Charlie had woken in, dressed quite oddly.

The girl had extremely choppy hair hidden beneath what appeared to be an old, leather aviator's helmet, complete with time-fogged goggles propped on top. Her head was cocked to the side as she stared back at Charlie, arms crossed over a plain white t-shirt, disrupting the dog-tags that hung loosely from around her neck. Todd was even odder than this vaguely familiar young woman. He stood there with a horrifically cheerful expression, clad in socks, boxer shorts with red hearts dancing across the white material, and the top half of a straight jacket, forcing the floppy haired boy to hug himself.

Charlie rubbed at his eyes wearily, his jaw having reached the floor as he gaped at the couple before him. "Todd?" he asked in disbelief.

"And Dodge," the girl spoke up, shaking her head so that her unevenly cut hair fell into her face.

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "I…I don't know you…"

The girl made a sound of disgruntlement, throwing her hands up. "I swear, I'm the one that talks to you the most and yet, when you float off into that weird little world of yours, I'm hardly ever remembered. Tell me, who was I this time? A girl at the movies? One of the tramps you dragged to the cave? Oh, was I at the play? That's typical for you to dream up…"

Charlie was having trouble breathing, blinking in utter shock. What was this girl going on about? How did she know about the cave or Neil's production? He gulped, running a hand through his hair and glancing around him. "I…I…what the hell is going on? Todd?" Charlie glanced over at his friend, who had slowly begun to turn in circles, gaining speed as the seconds ticked by.

"Charlie!" he replied, staring up at the ceiling as he twirled before losing balance and crashing to the ground.

Charlie finally felt he was able to move, jumping from the hospital bed and bolting over to where Todd had introduced his face to the floor. The girl in the doorway—Dodge—rolled her eyes, her arms still crossed, and she sighed. "And that's why you aren't supposed to spin around when you're wearing the jacket, Todd," she drawled in monotone, as if she had said this phrase a million times, never having it fully sink in with the receiver of the message.

Charlie had propped Todd up into a sitting position before narrowing his eyes up at Dodge. "Okay, seriously, who the hell are you?"

Dodge huffed. "My name is Dodge. I'm one of your friends here at Welton Institute. No, not the school." She snorted. "Welton Prep doesn't exist. It's just Welton Institute for the Mentally Deranged and Disturbed." She blinked down at Charlie, who resembled a guppy, and sighed, whipping off her aviator helmet, running her fingers through her hair, and replacing it with frustration. "We go through this every single time," she muttered to herself before leaning against the doorframe, jiggling one foot. "Your name is Charles Dalton. You were born in 1992. Therefore you're eighteen years old, although you think you're seventeen most of the time. You suffer from derealization and fall into extremely vibrant hallucinations that put you in a coma-esque state. When you wake up, you only remember your…dreams, or whatever the scientific term for them are."

Charlie furrowed his eyebrows. "Look, I don't know who you are, and you clearly belong in the psych ward, but I need to get out of here. I don't belong in a nuthouse."

Dodge burst out laughing, which caused Todd to copy her actions, laughing along with her. "You're one of the most mentally disturbed people here Charlie. You fall into super long bouts of sleep and think you belong in a different time and a different world. But let me tell you something Charlie, like I've told you a thousand times before. This is reality, and Welton, as you know it, doesn't exist. Todd, as you know him, doesn't exist. Nobody as you know them exists."

She walked over to where the two boys were still situated on the ground, pulling Todd up by the shoulders. Charlie continued to kneel there, glaring up at her. "I don't know what you're talking about, but just wait until my father hears about this."

Dodge chuckled. "Your father sent you here so that he wouldn't have to take care of your delusions himself. It's in your file."

"My file?" Charlie exclaimed, standing up so that he was looking down at her, hoping to appear as intimidating as one could look in mental ward pajamas. "How the hell did you get my file?" Why the hell did he have a file?

Dodge sighed. "I'm a bit of a klepto. I know everything about everyone, as far as disorders and disfunctions go." She shrugged her shoulders. "Todd here has a few screws loose in the noggin'. Don't ya, Todd?" Todd eagerly nodded his head, leaning heavily against Dodge as she wrapped her arm around his shoulders. He snuggled into her side and then Dodge made the most disgusted face Charlie had ever seen on a person in his life. "And here comes Nurse Ratchet," the girl grumbled, her eyes darkening visibly.

Charlie raised an eyebrow and glanced in the direction Dodge was leaning away from. The sound of heels clicking against linoleum becoming more resonant until there, in his room, stood Ginny Danbury, dressed as a nurse. Charlie had to have died and gone to heaven. Perhaps she was kinky?

And then everything just turned for the worse, as Ginny gave Todd and Dodge two curt nods before shooing them from the room, despite Dodge's incessant grumblings and Todd's copy-cat behavior. She sighed, kicking the encyclopedias out of the way and slamming the door closed, drawing the shades over the windows until no one, not even Dodge and Todd, who had positioned themselves to peer through the windows, could see what was going on in the room.

Once Dodge and Todd were no longer able to see or hear anything, Ginny rolled her eyes and huffed. "We call them the terrible T's," she informed Charlie with a hint of annoyance. "Not that I haven't already told you that multiple times, but considering you never remember anything, I may as well just tell you again."

Charlie licked his lips. "Uh…terrible T's?"

Ginny nodded before groaning again. "That's right, you can never remember Dodge's first name since she refuses to respond to it." She grabbed Charlie's hand, automatically lacing their fingers together, which made Charlie's eyebrows raise in curiosity. She led him back over to his hospital bed before firmly shoving him down into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. "Tina and Todd are always causing trouble. It's mainly because Tina hates it here and Todd does everything she tells him to."

Charlie held up his hands to get her to stop talking, or at least to get her to slow down. "Wait…Tina? …Tina…Tina…" And then his eyes widened and a grin crossed his face as realization struck him. "Tiiiiina!" Then he blinked, once again confused. "No, that girl can't be Tina," he argued, shaking his head. "Tina's—"

Ginny gave Charlie a scathing look that quieted him immediately before pulling out a large note card from one of her pockets. "The reason you don't imagine Tina correctly in your little fantasy world is because she refuses to respond to the name 'Tina'. You could shout it at her all day long and she'll ignore you completely. Therefore your subconscious doesn't associate 'Tina' with 'Dodge' and instead manifests a completely different person." She placed one hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at Charlie. "Am I going too fast for you?" she asked snidely.

Charlie gaped up at Ginny for a moment before shaking his head to clear his mind. "Uh…no…no…I just…"

"Having a hard time comprehending it all? Taking it in? Yes, that happens every time you wake up, this is nothing new." She vaguely waved her hand around, returning her gaze back to her note card. "Now let's see…I may as well just start from the top. Number one, Neil is not dead. You used to be best friends with him until his family moved to Pennsylvania. Number two—"

Charlie perked up for a second, although a pang of loss jolted through him at the mention of Neil. He once again held up his hands to stall Ginny, receiving a huff of annoyance. "Wait a second! What are you reading to me from?" he asked, reaching out for the note card, that looked as if it had had its fair share of use.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Your dreams happen so often that we nurses developed a system of explaining reality to you. We've written down the necessary things you should know and compiled them onto note cards for ourselves. Quiet please," she said, effectively causing Charlie to clamp his jaw shut. "Number two, Mr. Perry—hey! Don't make that face Charlie, your dreams aren't correct, now just sit there and hear me out. Mr. Perry is the head doctor on this floor, and he's been very patient with your dislike for him, so I expect you to be respectful when he shows up, okay?"

Charlie bobbed his head, although he frowned slightly. "So Neil's father is my doctor?"

Ginny stood perfectly still for a moment, counting to ten and taking a deep breath. "Neil isn't 'Neil Perry'. That is the dream version. You're just upset because Doctor Perry sent Neil to a facility that is better suited to take care of his needs."

Charlie furrowed his brows. "But you said Neil's family moved to Pennsylvania…"

Ginny practically growled in frustration. "They moved to Pennsylvania because that's where the facility is, Charlie! Keep up! It's not that overly complicated and we've been over this way too many times!"

Charlie cringed slightly at the tone of Ginny's voice. "Sorry…" he mumbled, licking his lips and drooping his head.

Running a finger between the skin of her neck and the collar of her nurse uniform, Ginny sighed. "Moving on. Number three, the reason you fall into these coma-like states, we believe, is because of an incident that happened a few years ago when you were struck by lightning. You were playing outside in the rain, blatantly ignoring your parents scolding, when you got hit." She cleared her throat, rushing onto the next thing on her list before Charlie could interrupt again, since that was increasingly annoying. "Number four, please do not attack Richard when he and Knox come to visit you. He's had enough bloody noses, thank you." She paused, knowing Charlie was going to be outraged at that.

Sure enough, Charlie stood suddenly from the bed. "What do you mean 'don't attack Richard'?" he practically hissed, his fists clenching.

Ginny pursed her lips. "Dream Richard and Real-life Richard are two completely different people, Charles. Please sit down and let me continue." She stared at him evenly until he finally lowered himself slowly back down onto the bed. "Good boy, now, number five. I added this one myself since the rest of the faculty don't find it to be of utmost importance, but it's important to me, so I'm going to let you know." She bustled over to the bed and sat down beside Charlie, reaching out and taking his hand, once again lacing their fingers together, which surprised Charlie for a second time. "You and I…well…we're significant others." She blinked up at him, a small smile playing on her lips before there was a loud crash outside the door. She scowled, releasing Charlie's hand and marching over to the door. "Chris! Can't you keep them under control for five minutes?" she screeched, walking back to the bed and smoothing out her skirt.

"Chris?" Charlie asked. "Wait…where's Knox?"

Ginny sighed. "Chris is the other nurse on this floor. Knox is most likely at home for the summer, prepping for college next year. He's head over heels for Chris, but your brother basically has her wrapped around his finger."

Charlie nearly choked. "My brother?" He was an only child…wasn't he?

Ginny nodded. "Chet Dalton. Chris fell for him the moment you were admitted to the ward." She glanced down at her watch and sighed. "I have to go give Gerard his medication, but I'll be back to visit you later." She leaned over and pressed a kiss to Charlie's lips, leaving him utterly dumb-founded, before clipping back to the door.

Ginny turned the knob, glancing around before letting out an irritated huff. "Where'd those door props go?" she demanded of Dodge, who Charlie could see leaning against the adjacent wall, picking at her fingernails.

Dodge glanced up, shrugging her shoulders. "I told you not to use encyclopedias as door stops when there's an active bibliomaniac running around."

Ginny clenched her fists. "Steven!" she called, hurrying down the hallway.

Charlie furrowed his brows, shaking his head, and rubbing at his eyes. "So you're…Tina?"

"Don't call me that," Dodge snapped, stomping down the hall in the opposite direction of Ginny.

Charlie hopped from the bed and ambled over to the door. "But you're not blond!"

Dodge rolled her eyes and continued walking. "That's in your dreams, Charles!"

Charlie groaned. This was going to take some getting used to.