Across the Pond

Cultural diversity.

That's the guise this whole experiment was under. The social sciences department decided they needed a new piece to their program, and a new social experiement was born. Students taking any of the various social science general education classes were required to pick a sister school and recieve a pen pal from said place, get to know them over the course of the semester, and do a presentation on the country their pen pal was from.

At least, that's what Emily got out of it during the lecture. If she was being honest, she didn't forsee herself paying much attention in sociology. She was never much of a social students person, and the whole project sounded likea research paper with someone feeding you the answers. When the professor told them to write out their top three choices for where their pen pal could be from, she just scribbled down England, Spain, France without a second thought. They were countries that all either spoke English, or required students to learn it, and there wasn't much use putting lots of effort into an assignment that simple.

After they sorted out everything with the project, there wasn't much time left to start going over course material, so they were let out ten minutes early. Due to it being her last class of the day, Emily let out a sigh of relief as she stepped out of the classroom and maneuvered the halls out into the bright sunshine outside.

Soaking up the head and relaxing a bit as she walked, she got out her phone and sent a quick message to a friend as she ehaded for one of the small, grassy hills that littered the campus. Once she got an affirmative response, she found a nice, flat area in the sun and took a seat, tossing her backpack a couple feet away and claiming the spot for her own.

It wasn't too much longer until her friend, Sarah, joined her out on the field. She threw her backpack down as well, then spread out a big, soft blanket before falling to the ground and letting out a deep sigh.

"That great of a start?"

"Yeah, lots of dipshits in my history class; I don't know how well I can handle it." She groaned, flinging her hand over her eyes dramatically. "How are your classes?"

Interesting. Sociology is teleportnig me back to fifth grade." Emily sighed, moving onto the blanket and leaning back on her palms. "Apparently we get to be part of a social experiment, and we get pen pals!"

Sarah snorted, rolling her eyes. "I do suppose since it's a social science class..."

"It's still weird to me."

"It's practically art school, just take the easy A as it comes."

Emily shrugged, not quite sure how to fight that logic. Honestly, it was kind of an easy A, and maybe they'd end up friends and she'd have a reason to travel to Europe. Her luck, though, she'd end up with some posh bitch that was too good to write enough letters for her to do her project.

"You're still thinking about it." Sarah pointed out, nudging her leg. "Stop, steam might start to come out of your ears."

Instead of arguing, she simply pulled a clump of grass up and threw it at Sarah, laughing as she sputtered and flung it away.

{&}

By the end of the week, she'd gotten her partner for her sociology assignemnt. She'd been a little afraid to look during class, and waiting until she got back to her apartment to set the envelope on her desk adn glare at it. Somehow, this seemed like a gaitn thing; whoever's name was in that envelope determined how well she did on this project.

Sighing to herself, she sat down at her desk and stared at the envelope a bit longer before opening it. Inside was a small piece of paper with the name and address:

Niall Horan
River House
Kingston upon Thames
Surrey KT1 1LQ
UNITED KINGDOM

After reading it over a couple times, Emily wasn't sure what to do. First of all, she had no idea how to pronounce that name, therefore leaning to her second question on whether it was a boy or girl. Luckily they were from England, so they wouldn't be too difficult to understand, and they would know what she was talking about.

Even though she was offset by the ambiguity of her partner's gender, Emily figured the letter wouldn't be that long, and mostly about herself anyway. Before she could give herself a reason to put it off, she got out a piece of paper and got going.

Dear Niall,

hi, I'm Emily! I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to write, but I know we have to get to know each other, so I'll just do that.

I'm currently a sophomore here, and I'm from a small town on the east side of Michigan. I don't know if you know where that is; do you learn the states? I guess it'd probably be like when I learned the provinces of France, so maybe. I like pretty much all types of muss, funny movies, and long books. Not gonna lie, I hate general education classes, though this might not be too bad. What made you take a social science class?

not quite sure what else to say, so hope you write back soon!
-Emily

Glaring down at the paper, she grumbled at how stupid it sounded and forced herself to put it into an envelope. People rarely wrote letters anymore, so it wasn't her fault she had no clue what she was doing.

Once she'd labeled and stamped the envelope, she pinned the address up on the wall above her desk, bracing herself for more awkwardness and poorly written letters.

{&}

"It's cruel, having an assignment due online Friday of the second week of school. What kind of teachers are they hiring here?" Sarah complained as they stepped off the bus in front of her apartment complex after class.

Laughing, Emily shrugged and let them into her building. "Is it a foreign one?" She began to laugh harder as a look of realization dawned on Sarah's face. Making her way to the mailboxes, she checked hers and was surprised to find a letter hiding out there.

"Looks like you both had the idea to send the first letter." Sarah joked. "Let's go upstairs and read it!"

"Oh look, you're procrastinating your homework already." Emily teased as they headed towards the stairs. he ignored her friend's protest of 'I'm helping you with yours!' and let them into her apartment, tossing her bag to the side and falling onto the couch. Turning the envelope in her hands, she suddenly got a bit nervous.

"Let's do this thang!" Sarah shouted, jumping onto the couch next to her. Nodding, she opened the envelope and pulled out the letter.

Emily! Hello! I'm Niall, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of excited for this project. It's going to be fun!

I totally feel like I'm pulling one over on you right now. I go to Kingston in England, but I was actually born and raised in Ireland. I'm not quite sure which I like better; they're both pretty nice. I've got some good mates here, though, and if you're a chill person you'd love 'em. I'm in my second year, and even though this project will be fun, psychology is the worst class I've ever experienced, and it's only the first week!

Mostly, my mates and I just goof around and hang out, nothing too special. The Script is my favorite band, though I love all music. Especially Justin Bieber, don't judge. My favorite color is blue, and my favorite food is Nando's, although I really like all food. My mates make fun of me all the time for eating too much, but I can't help it! Food is awesome!

I can't wait to get to know you, I bet it'll be lots of fun! I think we should find a better way to communicate though, because writing letters every week would be incredibly slow communication. Do you have any kind of instant messenger?

Cheers!
-Niall

Though there was still no indication of the gender of her partner, they seemed much more enjoyable and Emily found herself looking forward to the coming weeks.