Chapter 6

PATRICK

"I wish teachers would realize that no one is actually interested in the stupid-ass projects they come up with when they're trying to be 'fun' and 'different.'"

Patrick Vonswen walked through the hallway, heading over to his history class while listening to his best friend complain the entire time. News had spread through Enterprise High School like wildfire: the juniors and seniors were going to have a new project for the next few months, and it was going to involve kids from another school. But that was all they knew.

The little information he had did not stop Lance Frostburg from bitching the entire walk from the first-floor cafeteria to the third-floor history classroom.

Patrick slid into his seat beside where Vanessa Blacksmith, the most gorgeous girl in the junior class, usually sat. He knew she had texted him for his notes because they sat beside each other, and not for any other reason, but having her text him first sent butterflies through Patrick's stomach no matter the reason.

Lance took his seat two rows behind Patrick and propped his feet up on the desk, still muttering to himself about whatever their assignment would be.

Mrs. Kingsley walked into the room a few minutes after the bell rang, her arms wrapped around a large basket filled with sealed envelopes. She dropped the basket onto her desk with a loud thud and everyone turned to look at her.

"Good afternoon, class." Mrs. Kingsley smiled at the students as she walked up to the front of the room. Everyone's eyes followed her as she went. "I've heard through the grapevine that the secret's out about our little project?"

No one answered.

"Well, in case you happened to miss it, I'll explain." Mrs. Kingsley straightened her shirt out and then pointed to the basket, still sitting on her desk in the back left-hand corned of the room. "I was approached by an old colleague who teaches high school history in Arlington. He wanted to have our junior and senior classes set up pen pals with his."

Patrick heard Lance groan from the back of the room. If Mrs. Kingsley heard him, she ignored it.

"Mr. Evans' classes selected their pen pals and wrote each of you letters on Monday. For today's class, your only assignment is to read your pen pal's letter and write a response letter introducing yourselves. Lance," she turned to look at the back of the room, "since you're sitting right beside my desk, would you mind passing out the letters to your classmates?"

Lance rolled his eyes and stood up, grabbing the basket off of Mrs. Kingsley's desk. He dragged himself across the room as the rest of the students watched, and within three minutes, the room was filled with the sound of ripping envelopes.

Patrick received his letter last and looked at the front of the envelope for a moment before opening it. There was his name and the school's address. The return addressee's name in the top left-hand corner read E. Hall.

He opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of 8 x 11 paper that had been neatly folded into thirds. He opened the letter to see a comically small paragraph handwritten at the very top, with a signature and nothing else taking up the bottom 90% of the page.

Patrick,

Hi. My name is Erin. My mom or dad probably asked my teacher to do this, and I don't know how your school got roped into it. Sorry about that.

Sincerely,

Erin Hall

Every part of him itched to look up "Erin Hall" on every social media he could find, but he thought he would wait until after class to go full-stalker on the girl. Instead, he took out a sheet of notebook paper and began to write his response.

Dear Erin,

No need to apologize for getting my school 'roped into' this. It might be the least boring project we've done in a history class.

My name's Patrick Vonswen. I'm a junior at Enterprise High in Redding, CA. I think my teacher is friends with yours, which is how our two schools ended up being partners in this. My teacher mentioned that your class is in Arlington? My friend used to live close to there, I think. It's the only connection I can think of, so there's probably like a 0.1% chance that you ever knew him, but his name is Jonah Rosen. If you know anyone with that last name.

What's your favorite thing about school? And outside of school? How many siblings do you have? Do you go to Washington, D.C. a lot?

I hope you'll eventually enjoy this project. I promise I will try to be as exciting as possible.

Sincerely,

Patrick