Spotlight Girl //a Jeremy Jordan Fanfic//

Julia's Diary (#1)

23rd August 2000

Dear Diary,
Some fun developments have come to light in the last few weeks and I'm so excited to share them all with you.

My school has finally unveiled their ICT department and it is GLORIOUS!!

We've been learning to make documents and browse the web and send emails and it's SO COOL! Even better than all of that, we've also been learning how you can print and fax off documents from the computer itself and its like magic! This may be the peak of humanity, I'm just saying!

But that's not all! We were also assigned Pen-Pal's last week, people from all over the world who are doing exactly what we're doing, learning about the internet and how it all works, and we're all to exchange electronic messages with each other. We'll learn about where our Pen-Pal is from while they learn more about where we are from and then we write an essay and make a presentation about what we've learnt - HOW COOL IS THAT??

So, as our teacher explained what we had to do, a plastic bag was passed around. Inside there were a bunch of pieces of paper that had names and the emails we were to message. I was very excited and couldn't quite sit still at the thought of talking to someone from a foreign land...

I could learn about the vast desert wilderness of Australia or virtually walk across the Great Wall of China or even visit a village in South Africa! All the possibilities overwhelmed my brain!

Another fun fact about the assignment was you could be talking to anyone, no matter their age, religion, skin colour or gender ad that made me all giddy, thinking how I could be talking to someone younger than me or even older than me, what if they're a Monk in a temple in the Philippines or a college professor in Cambridge?

Do the get an internet connection in temples??

Anyway, when it got to my turn to pick a name, I was so excited I almost ripped the plastic bag in half from plunging my hand in so hard! But when I finally got my hands on a tiny spread of paper I was beyond thrilled. I don't know what I was expecting but when I unravelled the sheet I won't lie, I was a little disappointed. I was expecting someone at least half to a full decade older than me, with life experience and a cool job, maybe living somewhere in Europe.

Instead, I got Jeremy Jordan, who was 16, a year older than I was and lived in Corpus Christi Texas.

For the rest of the day I didn't know how to feel, but by the time school finished, my head had gotten around to the idea of being this boy's Pen-Pal and decided to go to the local library and use one of the computers there to send my first email.

This is what I wrote:

To: jmjordan@yahoo.com
From: juliamatt@gmail.com
Subject: Your Pen-Pal

Hi Jeremy,
My name is Julia, I'm from the south of England and as part of an assignment at school, we had to pick a name out of a hat and then, whoever we get, we send them an electronic message and get to know about a different part of the world and write about it. And, surprise! I got you!

I don't know what to expect from any of this, I don't even know if I'll get a reply from you or if this is a big waste of time, but if you by some chance get this in your inbox, I want to hear all about you and Corpus Christi. Tell me about your favourite places; Your favourite restaurant and where you get the best views. How hot is it in Texas? Do you all where cowboy hats and ride horses and wagons? Or is that just a harmful stereotype? Is it as cool and badass as they portray it in the films?

Most of all, I just want to hear about you, tell me about yourself and your life, I want to know everything...as much as you want to share hat is!

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Yours sincerely,
Julia Matthews, 15, Peninsula Cornwall

I also decided to add on a picture of myself for good measure and now it was just a waiting game, which wasn't fun, seeing as we didn't have a computer at home and I sent the email on Friday, so I'd need to wait until Monday to be able to see f I got a reply or not.

2 weeks later, I had forgotten all about it, as I'd been back to the library a few times to check and had no luck. I'd started researching the area in which the mysterious Jeremy came from so I'd have something to write about or class, but just as I had put I aside and given up on getting a reply, I logged into my account yesterday at the library and was greeted by a new message in my inbox.

It had been almost a month since I had ent my first email and my heart leaped for joy as I opened up the email:

To: juliematt@gmail.com
From: jmjordan@yahoo.com
Subject: Hello Pen-Pal!

Hey Julia,
It's great to make your virtual acquaintance! Thanks for reaching out and writing to me from all the way across the pond! Although I'm sure you didn't really have a choice, seeing as you picked the names out at random as you said, but I'm glad you did either way.

To answer your questions, no, we don't all wear cowboy hats and boots or ride horses, but there are a few riders out here along with some wild horses too. The best view is actually from a tree in my backyard, there's an old swing hanging from the branches that overlooks the whole of Corpus Christi and makes you feel as though you're on top of the world!
I'm not that educated in the fine eateries of my town, but there's a great diner nearby that me and my sister frequent to get root beer floats, milkshakes and dollar fries, it also has a juke box in the corner that plays retro music, it's honestly the best!

As for me? Well, not much to say really. I'm kinda a loner, not that many friends and painfully shy too. I love music though, even have a guitar but haven't picked it up in some time and is currently collecting dust in the corner of my room.

I hope that's given you some perspective of me and my hometown. I'd love to hear about you and where you grew up, if that's the path we want to go down in this virtual correspondents!

Thanks for the photo you sent by the way, nice to know I can put a face to the words I'm reading and replying to. Hope we can speak some more soon.

Until next time my virtual friend!
Yours,
Jeremy
P.S. it depends on the season, but Corpus Christi is pretty hot most of the year, but in winter we're lucky to get below 62 degrees!

He too tagged a picture on the end of his message and no word of a lie, this boy is CUTE! Nice to know I can visualise such a handsome face to go along with these lovely words :)

I can't wait to get back to the library and write to him again! This whole thing is just so exciting.

I have an American pen-friend who I'm communicating with over the computer!

Update you more soon!

Until next time,
With love,
Julia xx