August Green

Pen Pals

Dear Jason,

I'm so happy to find someone that wants to write letters like me! Pretty much no teenagers in this day and age would ever think handwritten messages on paper and envelope is cool. It probably isn't, but I think it is. I'm glad to have contact now with someone who also thinks so. Who knew I'd find someone as cool as you through an online gaming message board? I love your user name, noodleninja2006, what's the story behind it? You may not even be curious at all why mine is colorcodedlife16, but it's because I'm 16, and my mind is constantly seeing and organizing things in a color coded way, even if it isn't visible in front of me.

For instance, I see the months of the year as different colors. January is pale, icy, wintery blue, or a minty green. February is pink or red. March is gray or muted blue. April is spring green or yellow. May is dark or regular blue. June is purple and orange and bluish green like aqua or teal. July is red, white and blue, (because patriotic) but mostly red. August is just green, but like a specific green, like the kind you see in nature in the trees and grass, the kind that you see right after Summer but before Fall. It's my favorite color green and I call it "August green" (hahaha). September is orange or red. October is is black, orange, purple and red (because of Halloween). November is a pumpkin orange, crimson or maroon red, and a plum purple (basically Fall colors). And December is pretty much all the Christmas colors: snow white, royal blue, emerald green, ruby red, silver, and gold.

I know it's weird to think of months and stuff in terms of colors, but I can't help it. I organize the clothes in my closet by color, I organize the dishes in the cupboard by color, I organize my jewelry by color, and so on. I don't know why. I guess I'm just weird like that. Sorry if this sounds too weird for you. I understand if you think I'm wacko or something. All my friends looked at me like I'm crazy when I told them. Except for my best friend, Emma, she's been my neighbor since we were 3, and she's grown up with my crazy self so she's used to it.

What about you? Who's your best friend? And is there anything that everyone else thinks you're crazy for? I can't wait to hear from you! Looking forward to this cool pen pal thing!

~ Your new friend,
    August Greene

   Jason sighed as he layed the letter down on his bed. This August Greene sounded really hyper, and yes, a little wacko. But this pen pal thing was his summer English assignment and he had to do it. His options had been to read a biography, write a biography of himself, or write a biography of someone else he knew, and by the time school started he was supposed to give an oral presentation in front of the class. None of the options were good. Jason hated reading, he didn't feel like sharing any information about himself with students that were strangers to him, and he had just moved to town and didn't know anybody he could do a report on. He had moved in with his aunt and uncle over the summer, but they were too busy with their jobs and volunteer work to sit down for an interview.

   He had met August during an online game through the message boards. She was quite talkative during one of the team quests that required them to deliver a message to the king of a neighboring kingdom. She talked about old fashioned letters and how cool she thought it would be to have a pen pal. Jason lied and told her he thought so too. All he wanted was a subject for his assignment, but he didn't tell her that. He pretended to be as excited about wanting a pen pal as she was. And now here he was with her letter in hand, not sure how to reply. He couldn't have just asked for an interview over the internet. She might have been scared away, thinking he was a possible stalker. This was his only way of getting the assignment done.

   It wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't 25% of his class grade. And that wouldn't be such a big deal if he didn't have to keep his grades up. His dad had promised to let him help rebuild the old mustang sitting in the corner of his uncle's back yard. And if he kept his grades up throughout high school, and stayed out of trouble with the law, the Mustang would be his. And he wanted that Mustang. As soon as high school was over he wanted to drive that Mustang far away from anyone and any place he knew. But that wouldn't happen if he didn't get at least a B on this English assignment.

   Jason sighed again and walked over to the desk in the corner of his room. He grabbed a notebook from the stack of school supplies his aunt had bought him and began to write.

Dear August,

He gagged as he wrote it, it sounded too girly. But he had too pretend that he was excited about this, so he continued:

Don't worry, I don't think you're wacko at all. I can't say I can relate to the color coded system you have, but it's definitely interesting.

   Jason tapped his pen on his desk. Now what? He wasn't good at this stuff. How was he going to pull it off? He read through her letter one more time and realized all he really had to do was just answer her questions. So he wrote:

And I also never thought I'd meet a pen pal enthusiast online. My name is noodleninja2018 because one time, when I was a kid, my grandpa knocked a bowl of noodles off the counter on accident. I happened to be turning around towards the counter and it fell into my arms. It happened so quick and smoothly that it looked like I meant to catch it and the noodles were completely unharmed. From then on my grandpa nicknamed me "the noodle ninja". And 2018 is because that is the year he passed away.

No I don't have a best friend. I've moved around a lot my whole life so I've never really gotten to know anybody that well. But I do have a bunch of buddies I still know from the different places I've been.

The only thing I've been called crazy for is the time I was 12 and I rode my skateboard down a really steep incline. All my buddies at the time were too chicken to do it. But I did and it was cool.

Jason tapped his pen on his desk again, trying to decide how to end the letter. It sounded incomplete. Finally he decided on:

Can't wait to hear more about you,

- Jason

   Jason read it over one more time. It sounded fine. He didn't need to tell her that his parents had to move a lot because he kept getting into trouble with the law. He didn't need to tell her that the reason he rode that skateboard down the hill was because he was forced to do it as a hazing and that he ended up in the hospital afterwards. He did answer her questions after all, she didn't need to know details.

   Jason wrote August's address on the envelope, then headed downstairs to get an address label and a stamp from his uncle's desk. After he walked outside to the mailbox and stuck the letter inside, he sighed again. He'd probably have to do this all summer, and he wasn't looking forward to it.