CHOICES [The Pen Pal Program]

The Second

By the time the bell rings to signal the end of lunch, Louis is sitting on the floor with his back against the wall of the toilet. His breathing has calmed down, but his stomach still feels uneasy and he worries he is going to retch again.

He sighs as he shakily stands on his legs and throws his bag over his shoulders. He is glad he has only two hours left - he could not stay here longer.

As he looks into himself in the mirror, he wonders who he has become. The boy who is staring back at him has drooping eye lids, a mouth etched into a frown and suffers from blotched cheeks.

He throws water on his face to wake himself up to remind him he is alive. He feels like he has been dead for months.

___

Five minutes later he sits in the back of his psychology class. He looks down whenever someone enters the room to avoid all communication between him and other people - especially since he knows that Zayn is in his class again. He fears another confrontation.

As soon as Mrs. Pratchett enters the room, everything goes silent. Everyone respects her - Louis wishes people would think about him the same (not that odd Louis boy).

"Hello," she begins and smiles at everyone. "Today is the start of a new project for you. This project will take up 50 % of your grade and it is going to take up the next three months."

The entire class already groans. Mrs. Pratchett responds by smiling and continuing. "A friend of mine has created a new website called www.EDHS.penpalprogram.co.uk (A/N: please note that I made this up). By the next lesson, I want everyone of you to have gone to the site and created an account. My friend is going to compile a random partner for you who you are going to text for the next moths. This person can be anyone from your grade - all of the psychology classes are going to be in this program.

"The only condition for you is that you are not to tell the other person your name -" Louis internally sighs in relief at this. Nobody would ever want to text him if that person knew who he was- "At the end, the name is revealed and you are going to write an essay about your pen pal - especially of the differences between his or her appearance in school and the one you see when you are writing with that person. I want you to be able to give reasons why people show different shades of them and how that reflects their true identity."

She waits a few moments before speaking again. Nobody shows any reactions - Louis does not know what to think of it either. Maybe it is a chance?

"Does anybody have any questions?"

A girl raises her hand. Louis thinks her name is Clarice, he is not too sure of it. Usually he does not pay attention in class and just tries to sleep for a bit.

"Why can't we choose or partner? Wouldn't it be easier then to choose between their appearance in school and their personal one? We would already know them and probably be friends, so it would be easier to write more about them."

"Claire," Mrs. Pratchett begins while Louis thinks close enough. "I need you to be objective about this person - and knowing who it is is going to destroy this distance. You need to know the person you are going to write, not the one he oder she is in school."

Claire, who Louis stares at from the side, seems to get a bit red. "But what if it is a person whom I know nothing about? How can I tell differences about the appearances?"

"Well, who do you nothing about? I think you should know your grade."

Louis has a bad feeling in his stomach, he dreads the answer. "Well, for example Louis."

Suddenly, everyone is looking at him. He feels his face growing red and instantly looks down. He hears some people snickering and Mrs. Pratchett breathing in sharply.