Never Leave Me.

"Yo, Frank!" I turned around, seeing my friend Aaron walking toward me. "Did you ever find out what your pen-pal's gonna look like?" He reached in his bag and pulled out a picture. I carefully studied the picture. It was a girl, about 17 years old. She had short, light brown hair and straight bangs. I winced slightly. That picture reminded me of my ex-girlfriend. Needless to say, she was a total bitch, and I hated her. "She's hot, huh?"

I shook my head. "Nah, she looks like Sam too much." I walked with Aaron into our English class and sat down at our usual desks in the back corner. "I mean, I guess she looks kinda alright, but... I dunno. Can we just change the subject?"

I was still a little sensitive with the Sam subject. Not only was Sam my ex-girlfriend, but she was also my best friend. Well, ex-best friend... I really missed her, but she changed a lot. I know people changed, but I just couldn't take it. She was the one who broke up with me anyway.

Mrs. Ronalds was going off about something that wasn't even important, so I decided to just talk to Aaron the whole lesson. Well, I planned to talk to him the whole lesson, but Mrs. Ronalds called my name.

"Mr. Iero, your pen-pal sent you a letter back," she announced. I heard Aaron mumble something about how our pen-pals were overachievers. Aaron and I were one of the few students who already received a letter.

I neatly folded the envelope and stuffed it into my back pocket, walking rapidly to my desk. Not even five minutes later, the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day.

So, this is what I understand about the whole pen-pal thing so far.
1. We have pen-pals from California. Freedom High School to be exact.
2. Every class Mrs. Robinson has is participating.
3. It's worth 75% of our grade.
4. Our pan-pal has English the same period as us.
5. You cannot switch pen-pals, unless they're threatening your life or something.

I didn't bother going to my locker. I just wanted to go straight home. I placed my ear-buds in my ears carefully and turned my iPod onto some random song, which turned out to be Grenade by Bruno Mars. This song just made my heart ache even more. It reminded me more of Sam. I just hated being reminded that I wasn't good enough. It's not just because of Sam. It's a lot deeper than that.

"Sweetie, your teacher called," My mom spoke as I entered the house. I shrugged, taking a seat on the couch. I flipped the TV on, leaving it on G4's Attack of the Show. They were doing a review for the new Call of Duty. I figured what my mom had to say was more important, so I paid attention to her instead. "She informed me about your new assignment. Something about pen-pals?"

"Oh, great," I mumbled. My teachers always kept my mom updated because I was failing pretty much every class except for Band 1, and Gym. The only reason why I'm not failing Band 1 is because I played guitar in it, and playing guitar was my passion. As for Gym, all we really had to do was try. We didn't have to succeed, so...

"She told me that you already received a letter from your pen-pal?" I nodded, handing her the forgotten letter in my back pocket. She pushed it back my way. "No, no. This is your pen-pal, and it's private. Go up to your room, read it, and reply. If you don't, you're grounded this weekend."

I groaned. I had band practice this weekend! Mumbling incoherent words under my breath, I made my way up to my room. I sat in front of my desktop computer, reading over the letter the girl sent me.

'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 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 chuckled slightly; maybe this pen-pal thing wouldn't be half bad. I opened up a new document on Microsoft Word and tapped my fingers impatiently. I didn't know what to write. She did suggest that I write about myself, so why not?

Dear Dani California,
Yeah, I'm gonna be calling you that from now on. But I wanna say that I don't wanna do this either. I'm failing pretty much all my classes, so I'm being forced into this anyway.
Uh, you wanna know about me? Okay, my name's Frank. Frank Iero, to be exact. Don't ask me how to pronounce it because even I don't know. I don't have some nickname, because my name is simply Frank, and I hate it. So if you want, just gimme a nickname. Just don't make it stupid or whatever. Like cupcake. I don't even get why someone would call me that.
Anyway, I dislike most of the human race as well, mostly because I don't know most everyone. I usually keep to myself, and seem kinda evil at first, but I can promise you I'm not. It's all just an act to keep people away. I know it sounds horrible, but I just like keeping to myself. Besides my best friend and band-mate Mikey, Gerard, Ray, and Matt, I'm alone. None of them go to my school, so I'm a loner at school. Well, I do have this one friend named Aaron, but I know he's only talking to me to get close to my ex-girlfriend. I won't bore you and go into detail.
In my head, I think of a short little guy, trying to keep others happy. That's one of my goals in life. I wanna make others happy, and live out my dream of being a musician.
As for the pain that people caused you, you don't have to talk about it if you don't wanna. Just tell me when you're ready to talk about it.
Don't worry, you didn't scare me. I've been forced to talk to strangers before. Always turned out amazing. Anyway, I know this letter's really long, and I apologize for that, but there's my thoughts on myself... Kinda. Actually, it's not even half of it. But there's the short version.
-Frank.

I decided to stay sweet and simple, nice and kinda short, with the letter. Well, compared to what I originally had as my letter, this is very short. This pen-pal thing's actually pretty okay. This girl doesn't seem like a complete weirdo. I read the letter Aaron''s pen-pal sent to him, and it was so awkward. It was barely a paragraph.

Something like 'Uh, hi Aaron. I'm your pen-pal. I've never written a letter before, so... and uh... yeah, nice to meet you...' I'm glad she wasn't boring like that. I just hope I'm not boring to her as well.