Never Leave Me.

"So here's your assignment, class. You are going to have pen-pals from the other side of the country. More specifically, students from Queen of Peace High in New Jersey." I rolled my eyes, not really wanting to be in here. I didn't want to write to some random stranger, and I'm pretty sure the stranger I'm gonna write to doesn't wanna either.

"And before the dismissal bell, I want to inform you that this counts as 75% of your grade. It doesn't matter what you write about, appropriate or not, just make sure it gets to them. The teacher in Queen of Peace will tell me if you sent a letter for the week or not. Your pen-pal address will be sent to your house by tonight, and you will have to write the first letter, handing it to me by Friday."

I groaned, like everyone else in the class. Once the dismissal bell rang, I ran. I didn't wanna be in that classroom. I honestly hated English, Literature, whatever you want to call it. It's all the same. I never really was one for school. I just did whatever I needed to so I could get a passing grade. Other than that, I was invisible to the rest of the world.

Once I got home, my parents greeted me, as usual. My mom said that we were going out to dinner tonight, to celebrate another week of our lives. I don't even know... My parents are so happy. Everyone wonders why it doesn't rub off on me. I am rubber, and they are electricity. I don't even know if that makes sense, but it did in my head.

After dinner at Panda Express, we watched a movie at home. My parents decided to watch a romantic movie, so I pretty much ditched the movie and went off to do my own thing. I went to the kitchen to get some midnight snacks, and looked through the mail for the letter Mrs. Simpkins was talking about.

'Ms. Daniella Roberts.
5390 Walnut Meadows Way,
Oakley, CA 94561'

I slowly opened the envelope, reading the letter my teacher and the teacher from Queen of Peace sent me.

'Dear Ms. Roberts,
As you know, you are going to receive a pen-pal. We thought you might want to know some basic information about your pen-pal.
Your pen-pal is in fact male. His name is Frank Iero. He lives in 780 Legion Place, North Arlington, NJ 07031. He's currently a senior at Queen of Peace. We hope you guys get along well.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Simpkins and Mrs. Ronalds.
PS, we will accept them typed or handwritten. If you have anymore questions, visit teacherweb.com and read the FAQ.'

I stuffed the letter in my pocket and ran upstairs. Might as well get this over with, right? I walked over to my room, taking a seat in front of my laptop. I opened up a new document and sighed, making sure it was set up exactly how a letter was supposed to be set up. I sat at my desk for about 10 minutes, trying to figure out what to write. I decided it was better to just write whatever came to my head. No use in trying to not weird this little kid out. He was stuck with me either way.

Dear Frank,
Uh, so I guess we're both being forced to write to each other. First thing's first: I don't want to do this. I don't know how this is gonna end up. Maybe we're gonna become great friends by the end of this assignment, or maybe we turn out to be the worst of enemies. Only time will tell. But let me introduce myself, I guess.
You may or may not already know, but my name's Daniella Roberts. Call me Ella or Dani. Anything but Daniella. I live in California, which is all the way across the country from you... And I'm a senior at Freedom High School. I enjoy the little things, and dislike most of the human race. I know I may come off really --

I sighed. I had to think of another word for bitchy... I know that Mrs. Simpkins would read the first letter of the year.

-- mean and rude, but trust me, I'm not. First impressions suck anyway. In my head, I think of myself as a girl who's closed her doors because of the pain everyone's caused her. Now I might be going a little too far with the introduction. If you ask be about that later on in this pen-pal thing, maybe you'll know... That's if you're interested. I wouldn't be surprised if you aren't.
Anyway, I honestly hope I didn't scare you. This is my first time being forced to talk to a stranger, and it's really awkward for me. How about you tell me about yourself now? Hopefully that didn't sound creepy in any way. If it did, excuse me...
Signed with skulls,
Dani from California.

I pressed the save button, making a new folder called 'letters to frank' and saved it under 'o1,' informing myself in future reference that this was the first letter I've ever sent him.

Clicking the print button, I sighed. I already wanted to know how this Frank fellow was like. I seriously hoped he didn't think I was crazy.

I addressed the envelope before putting the letter in it so the handwriting would look neater. I licked the envelope closed and pressed on a stamp, then neatly tucked it into my binder.

I jumped into my bed then clapped, turning off my lights. Yeah, I have a clapper. Jealous? It was time to drift off into sleep...