Dear Declan

Chapter 1

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning."

- Louis L'Amour

- - -

It would be fun.

That's what Ms. Pickard, our young but oddly wise third grade teacher told us. Who knew it would be life changing.

Two months into the school year, Ms. Pickard handed out a bright yellow permission form, muttering something about how everything is about the law these days. I skimmed through it, eyes landing on the words Pen Pal over all the adult munbo-jumbo.

"One of my good friends from college moved to England a few years ago and now, he teaches a third grade class over there." Ms. Pickard walks along the back row of the class, gracefully placing a sheet of paper in front of each of the students. "We thought it would be fun to pair the students in our respected classes and have you guys be penpals with someone in England!"

Now, as a third-grader, this was probably the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. Topped when I lost my first tooth, definitely.

I was thinking about how exciting it would be to finally make a friend. At that time, I was extremely introverted; still am, but not nearly as extreme. It was hard for me to make friends with the other girls. All of them were too pretty, too fake, or too talkative. I suppose I could have sucked it up and made some friends, but clearly, I was a drama queen with too high expectations.

Anyways, I was so ecstatic about this new pen pal thing that I ran home that afternoon, piggy tails swinging behind me and all.

Mom was happy to see me so excited about academics. Even then, she was quite the pusher on the subject of how important academics were. She grew up with parents that were persistent for her to go into engineering and she entered one of the most prestigious programs at the University of Toronto in Canada. No wonder she's been pushing me and my sisters since day one.

Dad, on the other hand, was super laid back. Then again, we only saw him on weekends because of the factories that he had to make sure kept functioning and other reasons I was enlightened about just a few years ago, but to me back then, he was like a breath of fresh air from mom's constant nagging. He and mom met on the bus, which didn't seem very romantic to me back then because it wasn't. My mom told me it was love at first sight with him, but it clearly wasn't for him, as I learned much later on in life.

That night at dinner, I remember me gushing about how exciting the pen pal assignment was going to be. Olivia was too busy being a pre-teen, too proud to talk about "immature" things with her younger siblings. Maria, however, listened to me intently, probably something about wanting to please her big sister.

It was a week before we actually got our assignments. I was paired up with a boy named Declan. From what I could tell from the photograph Ms. Pickard handed us of our pen pals, he had tan blonde hair, one front tooth that overlapped the other, and small frameless glasses. Olivia told me later that day that he looked nerdy and not in a hot way, but in that moment, I was instantly mesmerized by the first trace of a friend.

His class was the one to write the first letter. It's so crazy that I can still recall the feeling of having that first of so many envelopes; I was overjoyed, excited, but also a little nervous. He must've also received a picture of me. What would he think? Also, I wondered if he'd disappoint me like all of the other friends I'd tried to make in short years I'd been alive.

Dear Viola,

My name is Declan, but you probably already know that. I like baseball, my family, and my dog. Speaking of my dog, he's a mix of a collie and a poodle and my brother named him. Of course, I thought we should've named him something like T-Rex or Spiderman, but he wanted Ollie. Mum thought it was more practical or something to go with Ollie, so Callum got what he wanted again. What a sick bastard he is. (Apologies for the language, Mr. Bailey, but please keep it in?)