Fourth Grade Pen-Pals

Chapter one ~Vanessa~

Dear Sean,
I'm really happy to write these letters. I've always wanted to have a pen-pal, I don't know why though. I don't care that you are a guy as long as you don't care that I'm a girl. I hope you write back soon.
From,
Vanessa

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"Good!" Mrs. Lyon exclaims when she comes to my desk. She quickly reads the letter over my shoulder. "Don't you have anything more to say to him?"

"No." I reply. "This is what I wrote for him to read. The next letter I write will be different." A kid on the other side of the classroom raises his hand, and Mrs. Lyon rushes away to help.

Good she's gone. I feel bad thinking that, but I hate my teacher. She's to perky and she treats us like kindergarteners. That might be because she used to be a kindergarten teacher last year.

I put my letter into the envelope we were given. I print Sean Myers neatly on the front and seal it. I leave it on the ground next to the beanbag I was sitting in while I get up to get my book. I love to irritate Mrs. Lyon. I can just hear her nasally voice again "Now class, remember to put the envelope on my desk with the letter in it."

I read until she calls us back to our seats. "Everyone pass up your letter, who didn't put it on my desk." I pass mine in along with everyone else in my group. "Who can tell me why we are doing this?"

I raise my hand. Another thing I love to do; look like a know it all to Mrs. Lyon. "Vanessa?"

"You want us to see that we can make friends with anyone in the world." I answer.

"Correct."

She turns to the board, but I keep talking. "If we can make friends with anyone in the world," I emphasis "then why don't we write to someone in a different country?" I ask in a snooty tone

"People in other countries speak different languages. We would have a hard time understanding them." She turns to the board again.

Again I don't let her. "Not people in England, that's why it's called English." My friends and some other kids laugh at my comment and I can see Mrs. Lyons brain turning under her fake smile.

"It's easier to write in the U.S." she turns to the board for the third time, and I try to interrupt, but she's to quick. "Children, take out your history books and turn to page 53. We are going to learn about the first U.S. president." She glared right at me when she said U.S., that made me laugh.