Last Flight Home

Alex fell into his chair, just as his English teacher walked through the door. She dumped a pile of books and folders on her desk before squinting at the class through thick black-rimmed glasses, her heavy eye makeup clear to even Alex, who sat in the back row.

"Okay class, firstly, welcome back to your second - and last - semester here at Dulaney High." She clapped her hands together, and Alex suppressed an eye roll. "I expect big big things from you guys! You all did splendid last semester, so lets keep up the good work."

Alex couldn't help but roll his eyes this time. Alex is known to bullshit every assignment, essay and project hes done, surprising everyone he knows with the fact that he's passed all his classes up to this point. Sometimes, Alex doesn't even know how he does it.

"Well, lets get straight to business. I have an exciting assignment planned! You're all aware that American soldiers are fighting in Syria, yes?"Alex zoned out, instead playing with the hole in his skinny jeans. He glanced around the room, remembering all the familiar faces; typical jocks, bottle blondes, nerds, and the other kids who don't fall into a clique. They just exist.

Like Alex.

The brunette sighed, resting his head on the palm of his hand, hair flopping into his eyes. His ears picked up on a part of the teachers drone;

"...you'll be assigned a soldier currently fighting in Syria, and become his pen-pal. You may wish to send only one letter, that's perfectly fine, but I encourage you to send multiple. Befriend that people fighting for your country, I bet they'd love to know about you!"

Yeah, who wouldn't want to go to war only to risk your life and get letters from a bunch of Seniors?

"I'll be reading and assessing the first letter you send, to make sure it is satisfactory, but after that, any letters you send will be your own. Is the task clear?"

A few people murmured and nodded, and the teacher beamed.

"Good! I took the liberty of pre-assigning all of you to a soldier, so when I call out your name, please come and collect their file." The teacher sat in her overly large chair and sorted through the stack of files in front of her.

Alex slumped in his seat, tuning his ears to respond to only his name, and started doodling in the margin of his book, wondering what sort of person would become his pen-pal.

"Alex Gaskarth."

He stood, walking to the teachers desk and raised his eyebrows. She handed him a folder containing all the necessary information on his new pen-pal.

Alex waited till he sat down to read the file.

The brunette lazily dropped the file onto his desk before gracelessly falling into his chair, immediately slumping and spreading his long legs out underneath the table.

He picked up the folder, opening it and pulling out the single piece of paper. Each file had a photo that came along with it, but Alex wanted to read everything on the paper first.

Name: Barakat, Jack Bassam

Age: 21

Date of Birth (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/06/1993

Id#: 053240331

Place of Birth: Lebanon

Currently residing: Baltimore, Maryland

Likes: Home Alone, music, playing guitar, partying, traveling

Dislikes: Mondays, serious moments, wearing clothes

Alex snorted at the last one.

He sounds like a weirdo.

Since the Government didn't want to hand out classified information, Alex didn't learn much about Jack besides the fact that he has two older siblings.

What the fuck do you write a letter about based on that?

Alex didn't necessarily have the most interesting life either. Like Jack, he played guitar, sang a bit and played video games. His two best friends, Rian and Zack, are who keep him sane during school breaks, and everything in between. Pizza parties, movie marathons, anything. Zack goes to a different High School, but at least Alex has Rian.

The brunette boy shook his head lightly, effectively cutting off his internal rambling.

Curiosity got the better of Alex as he reached into the folder, fingers grasping the picture of this Jack guy. He drew it out, and let out a sigh of relief when he saw he wasn't some buff skin-head.

Kinda hot, actually.

A lot hot.

Alex stared at the picture between his slender fingers, not believing that someone that looked this attractive was actually real.

Sounds cheesy but its true.

Jack had dark brown, nearly black hair that Alex immediately thinks is perfect. His stubble made him look sophisticated in a way, but the smile on his lips told Alex otherwise. Alex frowned as he read the one word on Jack's shirt, and rolled his eyes again.

Who wears a shirt that just says BONER on it?

Alex put the file and picture back onto the folder and sighed, knowing he's gonna do what he always does and bullshit the assignment.

I mean, it's not like Jack's ever gonna meet Alex or anything, right?