Jermaine made his way to his seat, a little bummed that he didn't just pretend to be Leo so he could get another letter. The last one gave him something to laugh about at least.

Sitting down, Jermaine pulled the folder from beneath his seat to do the Life As A Corpse assignment due in three days. Instead of a sheet of notebook paper though, he pulled out an envelope covered in girly doodles. Jermaine smiled to himself, imagining a blue eyed - Leo had a streak of liking blue eyed girls, so he imagined her with blue eyes - girl doodling on the plain envelope thinking about what she was going to write, wanting to talk to him even though she knew he wasn't Leo.

Snapping himself out of his girly excitement, Jermain opened it and read the contents.

     Dear Stranger,

I know that the first letter wasn't actually for you, and that you gave me a name to entitle this letter to, but I realized that I quite enjoyed writing the previous letter. Plus, if we're gonna do this, I feel like calling you Stranger is more mysterious (c'mon, it romanticizes the situation by 10000000%).

Thanks for letting me know, too. I thought I was gonna be embarrassed for some strange rando (sorry, you seem like a really sweet guy) (ugh, sorry for assuming you're a guy) (man, is it too late now to say sorry?)(look at that reference! I wasn't even trying!) (I'm going to stop with the parentheses now) to read the letter meant for the guy my children are gonna know as 'High School Love Leo'. But you know what, I'm kinda glad you read it instead.

We're gonna be known as those silly kids, doing pen pal things even though our lockers were right next to each other. Haaaa (this is a sigh by the way) (I just said I was gonna stop. My motivation really needs a couple espresso shots).

You should write back. Then at the end of our story, we'll meet and be the best of friends. I'll be surprised that you aren't some tall, dark, and handsome pirate, bringing guyliner back. And you'll be happy to see that I am exactly like the swimsuit model you've pictured me to be (but without the swimsuit, we're writing these in school Stranger J, don't get ahead of yourself).

We should make this our thing.

Look at me, only 2 letters in and I'm trying to give us a thing. Next thing you know, I'll be planning our wedding.

I should erase that, before I scare you off, but I have officially picked off the last shred of pen eraser I had exactly twenty minutes ago.

Arg, I'm rambling (don't be afraid to tell me to shut my mouth, Stranger).

Your letter (which you should totally write) will probably fare best in my locker, 2312.

Until tomorrow (hopefully)

Love, Dimples
(I mean, we've both already used it, and this will be so much cooler anonymous)

Jermaine shook his head humorously at the letter, meant for him intentionally this time. Reading the kind of sloppy, looping handwriting made Jermaine excited, just the smallest bit. His mystery writer was correct, it was romantic in that old English way.

He picked up his pen and addressed the paper to Dimples. He was considering decorating the envelope, but not only was he the worst artist ever, Leo was approaching quickly. In some stroke of luck, he stopped by their mutual friend Chief for some reason unknown to him. In a hurry for a quick fix, Jermaine put the envelope and hastily folded paper beneath his thigh and threw his folder open under the guise of actually doing work in class.

The timing couldn't have been better if Father Time himself had meticulously knocked over the dominoes of the scene at play, for just as Jermaine had himself situated in a natural manner, Leo pulled a seat up to his desk. "We're going out to Red's later, right? Like later this week?" He asked immediately after sitting down. Jermaine closed his folder as if he was really being disturbed during his creative construction. "Well hello to you too. Yes, I'm doing fine, and since you inquired so politely, yeah, we said we were gonna go to Red's. Why?"

At the question, Leo smirked a bit, "No reason. Just wondering. But, hypothetically speaking, how would you feel if I invited someone? Two someones, actually." Jermaine snorted, "I'd say do whatever you want with that fifty cent vocab word." Seeing Leo's indifferent face, Jermaine shrugged, "I'm cool. A friend yours is a friend of mine."

Leo smiles brightly at his friend's answer before standing and shoving the chair back towards it's lone station at the back wall. "Okay, cool, we'll have guests then." He says brightly (for a guy).

Only once Leo is sitting in his chair and facing forward does Jermaine dare to pull the papers from beneath him. With a deep breath of relief and a quick look at his desk neighbors, Jermaine starts the letter for the girl behind the pen. His assignment could wait until later.