The Mailbox Girl

8. Different worlds

For another week, all I did was answer the mail with Shane. Going only after class wasn't enough anymore compared to the amount of letters we received – even though two/thirds of them were scam –so every day, at lunch, I would take my lunchbox to the Mail room and work at it again. My dads saw me bring some letters at home too,whether it was to ask them for some advice I felt I wasn't able to give myself or simply to work on more letters.

To be quite honest, I had less and less time for my usual hobbies and felt quite sad about it. I did not regret making the Mailbox, but I never imagined it would take so much space in my life. At least it had brought me some friends – Sofia's squad basically.

Our school's headmaster had also decided to meet me and have a talk with me. As a good and shy student, it was my first time in his office. Mr Fieldman was every headmaster's stereotype: quite strict with a passion for nagging at his students and of course, he was as bald as a golf ball. My own experience as a student showed me that headmasters had to be bald.

Basically, what Mr Fieldman told me – I'm not gonna repeat the entire dialogue here, it would be boring – is that he disapproved of my plan at first, which I was very well aware of thanks to Jane, but he had changed his mind when he noticed students were less stressed out about exams.

I had his acknowledgement and his blessing, what more could I ask for?

For the first time in my four years at this school, I felt like my efforts were being noticed.

After going out of Fieldman's office, I felt like sharing my joy with someone. And who would understand it better than my companion in arms, Shane O'Connell?

We were not used to talking outside of the Mail room and I would ignore him as much as he would ignore me – we're not part of the same microcosm – but today was different. Our work had been officially recognized!

Like every popular guy in this high school, Shane liked to hang on the lawn under the Old Tree – people lack imagination when it comes to naming things, not my saying, it's from Pirates of the Caribbean, a source of wisdom – which was a cherry tree whose colors were most ravishing at this time period.

I noticed Shane in the group as soon as I ran down the few steps leading outside. He was with that one guy who had won a Junior Olympic Gold medal in fencing the past couple years, who was no less than the school trophy and both of them were surrounded by a dozen girls, most of whom were, you can probably guess it the most beautiful ones out there.

As I was walking towards them my good mood slightly faded. Suddenly, I was realizing that maybe I had made a mistake coming here: it was not my place. But it was too late, most girls and the Fencing Champion – his name's Alejandro if you were wondering – had already noticed my coming and were looking up and down at me.

As they were staring at me, I suddenly felt really self-conscious. About my clothes, my hair, my Asian heritage, my body, everything really. I just wanted one thing at that moment and it was that Shane would stand up and come to meet me instead of me having to walk all the way there. But he didn't budge.

He had seen me by then and was just watching me come to him, a smirk on his face.

Oh boy, how could I think for a moment that it was a good idea to talk to him? We were not friends! Why was I so stupid?

"Hey." I said faintly once I arrived at their group.

I noticed a girl's head was resting on Shane's lap and it made me even more uncomfortable that I had interrupted this moment.

"You are the mailgirl!" Shouted Alejandro while snapping his fingers as he recognized me. "Nice to meet you, girl."

I couldn't tell if he was mocking me or being sincere but I decided to go with the second option and smiled at him warmly.

"That's why I'm here by the way. I wanted to talk to you about the mailbox, Shane but I guess now's not the right time."

I gestured towards the girl resting on him and she reacted with a giggle before exchanging a mocking glance with one of her friends.

"Nah it's okay. What do you want to talk about?"

"No, really. Let's just talk about it after class, it's fine."

"Well, actually I can't come today. I have something else to do."

This took me by surprise. We were forced to attend extracurricular activities just like they were real classes. He was not allowed to just skip it like it wasn't important. I said nothing though, not wanting to look like the all-righteous girl in front of all of these people.

So I just smiled – you can guess it was the fakest smile ever – and answered quickly:

"Oh okay then... see you later."

It was my cue to leave.

But as I turned around and walked back building, I was able to feel everyone staring at me. Then I heard, coming from I don't know which girl:

"She is fucking weird."

And a few people agreed to that. I did too, in my head: I was fucking weird today.