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Description
From a section fic I'm writing that fits together with the book. Excerpts in italics from A Separate Peace by John Knowles, 1959.

One morning after a Navel officer had turned many heads in chapel with an address on convoy duty, Brinker put his hand on the back of my neck in the vestibule outside and steered me into a room used for piano practice near the entrance. It was soundproofed, and he swung the vaultlike door closed behind us.

This is third chunk in Chapter 11, by the way. Brinker goes on to yell at Gene for pitying Finny and never talking about his leg. He accuses Gene indirectly and threatens to out him. Gene all the while does his best to adopt Finny's possible reaction to all this by imitating his expressions.

..."What I mean is it wouldn't do you any harm, you know, if everything about Finny's accident was cleared up and forgotten."

I felt my face grimacing in the way Finny's did when he was really irritated. "What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know," he shrugged and chuckled in his best manner, "nobody knows." Then the charm disappeared and he added, "unless you know," and his mouth cosed in its straight, expressionless line, and that was all that was said.

And here's a piece of my fic-in progress (I know it runs together. I tried to make it independent):

Brinker could turn his charm on and off like a faucet. He was attempting to wrap up this mordant discussion in the sound-proof music room with it on full blast. Sometimes, though, I felt my skin crawl when he was too charming, as if he was flirting with whoever he addressed in this engaging manner. Then it ended abruptly, and my skin crawled even more as the words hissed from him, "Unless you know."

And that was all that was said.

I kept grimacing in that way Phineas did, reaching quickly for the vault-door behind Brinker. But a pain shot through my shoulders and my head whirled; my feet shuffled and dragged clumsily. I realized with a sickening lurch of my stomach that Brinker had not deterred me from the door, but instead had thrown me roughly against it. He still held me there, his charming smile marred with anger.

I started to say something, to break away, but my irrational fear swallowed up my voice, and my legs trembled uncontrollably. Seeing this pathetic effort, Brinker rattled me against the door, holding me tighter. His hands crushed my upper arms, and the same sensation I had had when first jumping from the tree washed over me as Brinker pressed his body against mine, crushing me against the door. The handles of my only escape dug into my back, and yet I was a million miles from it.

Even if I managed to reach behind me and undo the facets, there was no way I could pull the heavy door toward me when I had the weight of two boys pushing the wrong way. Then, with another dizzying fall, I finally comprehended that if I screamed in this room, absolutely no one would ever hear me.

~*~*~

And don't ask me where the fic is or when it'll be done. I have no idea.

Description
From a section fic I'm writing that fits together with the book. Excerpts in italics from A Separate Peace by John Knowles, 1959.

One morning after a Navel officer had turned many heads in chapel with an address on convoy duty, Brinker put his hand on the back of my neck in the vestibule outside and steered me into a room used for piano practice near the entrance. It was soundproofed, and he swung the vaultlike door closed behind us.

This is third chunk in Chapter 11, by the way. Brinker goes on to yell at Gene for pitying Finny and never talking about his leg. He accuses Gene indirectly and threatens to out him. Gene all the while does his best to adopt Finny's possible reaction to all this by imitating his expressions.

..."What I mean is it wouldn't do you any harm, you know, if everything about Finny's accident was cleared up and forgotten."

I felt my face grimacing in the way Finny's did when he was really irritated. "What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know," he shrugged and chuckled in his best manner, "nobody knows." Then the charm disappeared and he added, "unless you know," and his mouth cosed in its straight, expressionless line, and that was all that was said.

And here's a piece of my fic-in progress (I know it runs together. I tried to make it independent):

Brinker could turn his charm on and off like a faucet. He was attempting to wrap up this mordant discussion in the sound-proof music room with it on full blast. Sometimes, though, I felt my skin crawl when he was too charming, as if he was flirting with whoever he addressed in this engaging manner. Then it ended abruptly, and my skin crawled even more as the words hissed from him, "Unless you know."

And that was all that was said.

I kept grimacing in that way Phineas did, reaching quickly for the vault-door behind Brinker. But a pain shot through my shoulders and my head whirled; my feet shuffled and dragged clumsily. I realized with a sickening lurch of my stomach that Brinker had not deterred me from the door, but instead had thrown me roughly against it. He still held me there, his charming smile marred with anger.

I started to say something, to break away, but my irrational fear swallowed up my voice, and my legs trembled uncontrollably. Seeing this pathetic effort, Brinker rattled me against the door, holding me tighter. His hands crushed my upper arms, and the same sensation I had had when first jumping from the tree washed over me as Brinker pressed his body against mine, crushing me against the door. The handles of my only escape dug into my back, and yet I was a million miles from it.

Even if I managed to reach behind me and undo the facets, there was no way I could pull the heavy door toward me when I had the weight of two boys pushing the wrong way. Then, with another dizzying fall, I finally comprehended that if I screamed in this room, absolutely no one would ever hear me.

~*~*~

And don't ask me where the fic is or when it'll be done. I have no idea.