Iridescent

"Hey Leena, what did you do in Ms. Kelley's class?" Alex asked his best friend as they walked together out of their 3rd period class, AP Biology.
"Uh, nothing really. Just some pen pal thing or whatever. Your locker or mine?" Alex furrowed his thick eyebrows together in confusion. Pen pals?
"Yours." He replied, because his locker was closer to his English class, so they would go to his last. Leena smiled slightly, and began making her way to her locker.
Alex followed suit, still pondering on what she said a few moments ago. What kind of pen pals? Would they be writing to someone in a different school? What would he even write? What was even the point of this? Leena’s voice shook him out of his thoughts.
“Alex, its not a big deal. We just get assigned classmates from her other AP class, my class, write them letters, and they write them back. Its much better than having to do a research paper, or anything of the sort.” She stated as she shut her locker. Her other AP class, that was 1st period. The class that Zoella Rickards was in. Alex had been studying her a lot lately. She was very interesting to him. But he figured the odds of him being her partner were unlikely. And even if she was his partner, its not like she would talk to him. Leena turned to face Alex, and he nodded in response.
“Yeah, you’ve got a point. Let’s go.” He turned on his heels, and sluggishly walked to his locker. Leena walked by his side, but honestly, he could care less if she was there. His mind was somewhere else. When they reached his locker, he opened it, and threw all of his belongings in it. He grabbed his stuff for English, and hastily slammed his locker.
“Alex, are you alright?” Leena questioned, obviously concerned. After being friends with Alex for so long, she realized that he only acts like this when something is getting to him. And she was dying to know what that something was.
“Yeah, yeah Leena I’m good. I, I gotta go, okay? I’ll see you at lunch.” He replied hurriedly, and walked away before his friend could even respond.
When he got in the classroom, he took his seat in the third row of desks, and put his head down. He was about 2 minutes early, since he cut off his chat with Leena. He sat there as he sinked into a much needed doze, only to be awoken by the bell.
“Hello everyone.” Ms. Kelley stated a bit loudly, which made Alex pick up his head. Ms. Kelley must have noticed that he was getting few minutes of sleep in though, because she soon spoke up.
“Nice to know that you’ve been getting adequate amounts of sleep at home, Mr. Gaskarth.” She said sardonically, earning some laughter from the class, then shooting a smile at Alex. He smiled back, knowing that she obviously meant no harm in that statement. Ms. Kelley was one of his favorite teachers, and she knew that. So she had quite a bit of fun poking at him.
“Alright guys, so you’ve probably heard, but we’re gonna be taking it easy this week.” The class erupted in cheers, much more cheerful and awake than her 1st period class.
“Okay, okay, calm down before I take it back!” She laughed out, walking to the front of the room. The class did as they were told, and quieted down.
“It’s simple, you write letters, they write letters back, do I have to go in depth about this?” She asked, obviously tired from explaining this three times already. Everyone agreed that it wasn’t rocket science, and that they’d be fine without a detailed explanation.
“Great. Uh you probably already heard, but you’re writing to my other AP class, 1st period. They already wrote their letters, so here they are.” Ms. Kelley then walked to her desk, and picked up a bin.
“When I call your name, come get your letter. I feel like I’m passing out Hogwarts letters or something.” She joked, causing everyone to laugh again. She smiled, then pulled out the first letter.
“Evelyn.” She called, and Evelyn rose in order to receive her letter. Alex put his head back down on his desk, awaiting for his. Who would be his partner? That seemed to be the only thing on his mind at the moment.
“Alex.” Ms. Kelley spoke again, and Alex woozily raised his head from the desk. He must have been the last person, because he was out for a good 10 minutes.
He walked to Ms. Kelley, and she handed him the letter with an uneasy look. He knitted his eyebrows together, something he was famous for. She sighed.
“Just tell me if you can handle it, alright?” She whispered, to which Alex nodded nervously. What the hell did she mean?
He walked back to his desk, and slumped back into the chair. The envelope was blank, with the exception of his name written on it in tiny print. He sighed and tossed the letter on his desk, only for his thoughts to register, and he picked it back up. He knew that handwriting from anywhere.
“Open your letters, and get to work on replying.” Ms. Kelley ordered, sitting down quietly at her desk. Alex impatiently ripped the letter open, in order to prove his thought true. He unfolded the neatly lined notebook paper, and scanned his eyes across it.
even flawless toned skin can lose its hue
from the slightest poke
even the happiest can turn blue
and lose all hope
-zoella
‘Oh my god,’ he thought to himself, reading the short poem over and over. She was really his partner. But there was three things at hand, one, what would he even say to her, two, what will she even say to him, and three, what did this poem even mean. Alex took another look at it. He was good with deeper meaning in writing, hell, he wrote his own songs. But for some reason, he couldn’t wrap his mind around this. Sure, he understood it metaphorically, that was the easy part. But what he couldn’t understand was, what is she trying to say for this? Is she trying to call for help? Or letting him know how she feels on the inside? Either way, it was getting the best of him.
He sighed, and got a piece of paper out to write a response. He thought to himself for only a moment, then figured what he would write.
that was beautiful, honestly. i’m not too sure you care, but since we’re sharing writing, here’s some of mine.
i can keep a secret if you can keep me guessing,
the flavour of your lips is enough to keep me pressing,
for more than just a moment of truth between the lies told,
to pull ourselves away from the lives we lead back home.
- alex
He put his pencil down, and looked up to Ms. Kelley. She raised her eyebrows, as if she were asking him the statement she brought up when she handed him his letter. He nodded, and she smiled softly, then went back to her work. What he had written was a song that he was currently working on, a song about a relationship had. With an older woman. Alex had an affair with a married woman, and it just ended a few weeks ago. It started during the summer, and it carried on throughout this year. He cut if off, because it was all getting to risky. And honestly, he felt like she was falling in love with him. She probably was, but Alex had no feelings for her whatsoever, with the exception of attraction. And as bad as that made him feel, he put an end to it.
Alex sighed, and put his head back on his desk. He laid there until the bell rang to awake him out of his slumber.
“Alright, letters in the bin. See ya!” Ms. Kelley chimed from her desk, waving as students flooded out of her classroom. Jack was already waiting by the door, due to the fact that it was both of their lunch periods now. Alex put his letter away, and began to walk down the hall with his friend.
“What did you guys do in there?” Jack questioned, looking over at Alex, who scratched his neck, obviously still sleepy.
“Uh, pen pals. You write to another class, real easy.” He said absent mindedly, trying his best to wake up.
“Oh, that’s rad. Well that’s another class I can sleep in.” Jack laughed, and Alex simply chuckled lightly.
“And it looks like that’s exactly what you did, you alright man?” If there was one thing about Jack, he cared about Alex more than anything. And Alex cared for him. They were really close friend, Jack and Alex.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Tired.” Alex replied with a yawn, earning a shrug from Jack.
They walked to the lunchroom in silence, as Alex sleepily bumped into someone.
“Sorry.” He mumbled, blinking his eyes repeatedly so he could see who it was. Before his vision even focused, all he saw was a mess of purple curls.
“Oh, uh, my bad. Honestly.” Alex stammered out, trying to reassure her that he didn’t mean to do that. People always bumped, shoved, and pushed Zoella to the side all the time, but he never did. And he didn’t want her to think that. She blinked rapidly, her eyes wide and her lips pressed together tightly. He looked her in the eyes, and she looked down to the floor, then rushed off quickly.
“Alex, what was that?” Jack asked, looking at Alex very confused. Alex shook his head.
“Uh, nothing, man. It was nothing.” He replied blankly, looking behind him as he saw the same mess of curls bounce away quickly.