Jermaine lay in his bed that night, pondering the letter. After reading it - though he knew it wasn't intended for him - he folded it up and shoved the note into his pocket quickly.

All day, he kept reading the letter, laughing at the quirky girl behind the words, skirting any questions Leo asked about his girlish giggling. After spending the entirety of his day having an intense argument with his conscience about whether he should write her back or not, Jermaine decided he would, for ethical reasons. The least he could do was let the poor girl know that their seats got changed.

He got up from his bed and sat at his desk, pulling out a pen and a piece of paper.

     Dear 'Dimples',

Sorry to kinda rain on your parade like this, but our seats got changed in this class. Leo sits no where near here and he did not get your letter, obviously, as I'm answering.

Your letter wasn't a complete failure though. I enjoyed it, whether it was for me or not.

I'm not trying to be romantic writing back to you or anything. I just wanted to let you know that if you want to get to Leo, you might have to do it in a different cheesy and cliche way.

Just Letting You Know, J

Jermaine felt satisfied with himself as he read over the letter to make sure it wasn't sappy, girly, or saying 'hey, I kind of stole your letter and refused to give it back, thanks for the laughs.' He nodded to himself, feeling good about his wording and searched his desk for an envelope. Discovering that he didn't have one, Jermaine cursed to himself and opened his bedroom door slowly, hoping to keep the creaking to a minimum. Everyone had long since gone to sleep, so he had to make sure he kept quiet.

Jermaine tiptoed past his parent's room hoping that just this once, the floor wouldn't creak. It occured to him in that moment that his house seemed to booby trapped in caseof sneaky teenagers trying to sneak out of or around the house. He winced as his foot touched the ground, but immediately relaxed and sent a silent scoff to the cunning house when no sound came.

The relief left quickly when the second step groaned loudly. Realizing that his tiptoeing was doing no good on the old wood floors, Jermaine took a deep breath and jumped down the remaining stairs. Landing as quietly as he could, he army crawled to the desk in the dining room.

He'd just managed to sneak an envelope from the drawer with no noise when a hand clamped down on his shoulder. He screamed and swung the envelope at his assailant hoping that if anything, they could suffer a papercut. Luckily, before that could happen, he realized it was his mom. "Jermaine Montez! Quiet down!" She scolded. Jermaine squinted as his mom turned the light on, the light feeling foreign after his time creeping around slowly in the dark. "What are you doing? It's 11 o'clock, and a school night."

Jermaine, now lying spread eagle on the ground knowing that he isn't being attacked, looked at his mom. "I was... getting this." He said as he held up his envelope. His mother rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Jermaine, honey, why do you need an envelope at 11 at night?"

"I was writing a letter. I needed an envelope to put it in."

"Who were you writing to that was so important it couldn't wait?" Jermaine pulled at his eyes, "Nana, Mom! You know Nana wants to stay close to us. I was writing to Nana." His mom raised her eyebrow, "Really? You were writing Nana?" She asked, her thin eyebrow arched skeptically. Jermaine nodded ferociously, sitting up into a seated position. "Yeah, okay. J, honey? Nana lives five houses down the street." Jermaine's eyes popped open, "I was - I, uh - Mom! I just needed an envelope. Can we please just go back to bed? Please? I won't sneak around the house anymore."

Jermaine's mom smoothed her chin-length hair down with a sigh. "Yes, please. Just go to bed J, I will see you in the morning. Tell Nana I said hi." She said as she turned off the lights and walked back up the stairs. Jermaine flopped back down onto the ground as he listened to his mom close her bedroom door. After about ten minutes of lying on the ground with his heart pounding, Jermaine rolled up off of the floor and trudged back up to his room.

Pushing his door closed behind him, Jermaine huffed. He was way too close to having his mom find him out, and if she would have been in a lesser mood, she would have wanted to read the letter, and how embarrassing would that be? To make sure that wouldn't happen again, Jermaine pulled a post-it out of his desk and wrote BUY YOUR OWN ENVELOPES!  on the front before sticking it on his door where he would see it and be able to do something about it. "And now, to put this letter in it's envelope. I know one thing, she better appreciate this gesture after I almost had a heart attack getting this dumb envelope."

Realizing he was just rambling, Jermaine sat the letter down and walked towards his bed, "And now I'm talking to myself. This girl better appreciate my efforts to give her this courtesy letter or so help me... I'm still talking to myself. Someone needs to help me. and I am going to stop this now. Good night Jermaine."

*     *     *     *     *

"Good morning mo- whoa! Mom what happened to your face?" Jermaine looked up from his eggs at his mother hearing his brother's exclamation. Jermaine's eyes got wide as he noticed the long scratch going from his mom's ear to her top lip. "I got a paper cut last night." She said, eyeing her youngest son. Jonas, her eldest boy felt his face scrunch up, "Love you mom, but, what exactly were you doing to get yourself that papercut?" Minnie stood behind Jermaine now, her hands grasping his shoulders. "My baby boy here, was stealing an envelope from the dining room desk and thinking I was an intruder, he tried to slit my throat with the envelope with a manly shriek."

Jonas did not hesitate to start laughing at his brother's midnight exploits. All Jermaine wanted to do at that moment was sink into the ground, but thankfully, he heard Leo honking outside. "I actually have to go. Bye mom, love you, sorry!" The mortified teenaged boy called as he ran out of the house.

"Why do you look so flustered?" Leo asked his best friend as he slammed the door closed beside him. Jermaine just shook his head, "I'm just really ready to leave and go to school." He said, hoping the days events would help him forget papercutting his mom.