“Mr. Miller is pretty hot, ain’t he?”

Sully closed her eyes and counted to three before answering her very, very, very loud friend. “Really, Katherine? Mr. Miller?”

The lunchroom was abuzz with chatter, the noise deafening enough to hurt the ears of the dying elderly at the teacher’s table. Students ambled to their seats at the long, orderly tables, picking specific seats out of habit, and eyeing the disgusting piles on their vibrant yellow trays that the lunch ladies dare to call “food.” Sully sat with her typical friends: Katherine, a pretty girl who fell in love and out of love as quick as a lightning strike; Madison, a girl with a penchant for anything pirates; Sawyer, a boy with a lot of arrogance but just as much kindness; Jessica and Jesse, fraternal twins, one girl and one boy, who fought more than they didn’t. Despite the annoying shrills of voices around her, Sully smiled and relaxed her shoulders, biting into her sandwich – thank god she brought a lunch.

“What’s wrong with Mr. Miller?” Katherine frowned, swiping a French fry from Jesse’s tray. Jesse grumbled, but instead of saying anything, he turned an eye to Jessica as if it was her fault.

Sawyer snorted, a breath breezing from his nostrils over Sully’s shoulder and the brunette pushed him away with the back of her hand. “He’s, like, seventy, Katherine. He’s not even rich, so why bother?”

“I wanna marry Hugh Hefner.” Sully interrupted, raising her eyebrows, chomping down on one of Jesse’s fries.
“See, that’s reasonable.” Sawyer pointed at his seat-neighbor, chewing a fry as well.

“He’s like a hundred!” Katherine protested, reaching for a fry but having her hand slapped by a disgruntled Jesse.

“Ah, but he’s a millionaire who is a hundred. It’s okay if he’s a millionaire. But a teacher? Too poor.” Sully grinned and folded her hands, resting her chin on them with an innocent blink of her eyes.

Katherine had half a mind to say more, but the strident bell rung and students began to drag their feet back to their prison cells. Sully was overjoyed to go back to class, however, as history was her favorite.

The class was freezing, as per usual, but Sully cozied herself up to the heater that Mrs. Zolner let her use. The blue-eyed girl nearly felt her heart palpitate at the computer, hoping that today would be the day for the penpal project. Her legs shook with excitement and she buried her face into her black jacket, smiling warmly at the thought of meeting someone cool from another country.

When everyone settled in the room, Mrs. Zolner came to the front and announced loudly, “If you signed up for the penpal project, I’ll be passing out your penpal information and you’ll be able to email them when you get home.”

Sully always sat in the front; it was her favorite place to be as teachers typically favored those in front. And Sully did like to be favored by her teachers. She was the first to get her slip of paper and she glanced down, reading it quickly:

Elizabeth Castillo
elizabeth.castillo@saintsacademies.com


“Elizabeth Castillo…” Sully muttered to herself happily, pressing her lips together to prevent a smile.

When the school day was finally over, Sully rushed to her car to drive home and didn’t even bother to volunteer for a teacher or a tutoring session, but instead pressing on the gas pedal. The car sped down the street until she pulled haphazardly into her garage and sprinted to her computer.

Dear Elizabeth Castillo,
Hey, I’m Savannah Sullivan, but you can call me Sully! I’m from the penpal project; I go to St. Mary’s in Alabama (: