three. secret pen pals !
real life...

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EDEN WOKE UP THIRTY MINUTES late all because she somehow found a way to not set her alarm the night before. it was the monday after the assembly, which meant back to school she went. and if that wasn't enough to start her day, she was being woken up by an angry mother and her favorite animal in the entire world, baby. thankfully one easily canceled out the others.

"i told you to get up already! get your ass out of bed now! please! you're already late on your third day of school. how do you think that'll make everyone think of you?" her mother had the tendency to over speak on even the littlest problems eden caused her. i.e. her being late to school once.

"okay, okay. i'm getting up. i'm sorry." she didn't feel the slightest apologetic when saying it though because she could honestly care less about what her mother thought about her being late to school. which she did have the right to be upset, but there was no reason to bring it out as far as she did.

she sat up in her bed brushing her fingers through baby's hair. it was her favorite past time whenever she woke up in the morning. when baby laid her head on eden's lap, it was like all her worries disappeared for a few minutes, until she remembered she was already late for school.

it didn't take her very long to get herself put together and look presentable for school, so she was out the door in a little under thirty minutes. she was going to miss her first period and almost all of second, but at least she would be there in perfect time for her third class of the day. which just happened to be the class with chris in it.

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WHEN SHE STEPPED INTO THE CLASS, she was one of the firsts to sit down in her seat. her face dropped as soon as she noticed the empty desk behind her. she was pretty early to class though, so she hoped he was just running late or something. this would also be the first day she got to eat lunch with them, so it would really suck if chris wasn't even here to show her where they usually sit.

the subject was taking up her whole mind, making her anxious about the boys absence until she felt a specific presence walk into the classroom. her head shot up at the sudden intuition, and she was right. she watched as he made his was over to the seat behind her, a smile creeping up on both of their faces.

"i thought you weren't going to be here." she turned around in her desk to face him, letting him know of her recent dilemma that he had simply fixed by walking in the door.

"what? would you have missed me?"

as she turned back around with a shrug and a smirky "maybe..." knowing it would possibly keep him on his toes for a bit. as well as the fact that the bell had rung, so she was also patiently waiting for mrs. walker to start the class.

"good morning everyone. uh, so for today i had this little idea that we could attempt to do with my other poetry class. it's basically like a secret pen pal but it's just from kids in another class. does that sound fun?" she waited for a response, but considering it was still around nine in the morning, no one was awake enough to actually respond.

taking into consideration of the few head nods, eden included, she continued, "okay, so i had everyone write at least four questions on their papers from first period, and i'm going to randomly assign you each a students paper." she licked her thumb and pointer finger before passing out each paper to each student individually. "these will be your pen pals for as long as we continue to do this, so please remember your numbers."

"i don't know how i feel about this." chris admitted in a low whisper. so low that she almost had to ask him to repeat it.

"why?"

"i don't know. i don't want to get some annoying person i already hate or something." he shrugged as he watched thier teacher pass out the papers on the other side of the classroom, getting closer and closer with every paper she handed out.

"it's anonymous, though, so how would you know?" eden had a point, and especially with her being this new and all, she was going to have absolutely no clue who her secret pen pal was.

"i may just know, you know."

"i highly doubt that."

"why do you doubt me so much, eden?" he had a challenging glint in his eyes, as well as making eden's heart jump a bit at the mention of her name coming from his mouth. is that really what it sounded like?

"i just know, you know?" she knowingly mocked his response from not even two seconds ago. which quickly caught his attention.

"well you're wrong. i'll find out who my pen pal is way quicker than you." the words easily flew off his tongue before he could even think about them.

"we'll see about that." eden was confident as she grabbed the paper mrs. walker was handing to her.

"am i being challenged?" chris grabbed his immediately after.

"maybe..." eden really didn't know what she was getting herself into. clearly chris knew more people than she did, so why was she signing up for something that she is nintey-five percent positive she's going to lose?

she started reading the questions on the paper, noticing the boyishness of the handwriting. which worried her a lot more than if it had been a girls—which it still could be—but with the chicken scratches she was seeing on the paper, she was seriously doubting. not to mention the randomness and stupidity of the questions.

what's the color of you're car?
what's 6x367?
are you single or taken?
do you like this class?

"my questions are dumb as hell." she complained to chris, before noticing he was still reading his note.

"ha! mine aren't." he responded a little too loud when he finished reading his own questions. eden grabbed and looked at the paper he had received with the neatest and negligible handwriting out of the two of their papers.

what's your favorite artist and why?
have you ever been in love before?
what's something can easily grab your attention?
do you have an absolute favorite movie?
why or why not?

"lucky." she narrowed her eyes towards him, not liking how he is probably going to win this little game of seeing who can figure out their pen pal first.

"yeah i already have an idea." his hand picked out a pencil from his pocket, as he started writing out his answers to the questions. accidentally printing his name at the top of the paper then erasing it.

"no you don't."

"you're right, but i do have an advantage. i know some people in that class." she watched the pencil in his hand point toward her before looking him in the eyes.

"i should get handicaps." her lips fell into a pout as she tried to convince him to give her some mercy.

"what do you want?"

she had to think about her answer and what could really help her in this situation. she took into account that she didn't know anybody here. which was probably one of her biggest problems, so she'd need to think of a way where she could learn all the people in that class fast. she needed someone she already knew, someone to get on the inside, and that's when an idea came into her mind. "matt and nick on my team."

"okay fine." he wasn't going to mention how he didn't really care because he was very positive that the victory of this challenge was going to be his no matter what. there was already a very slim selection of people he could think of that could be his pen pal.

"i'm going to need their numbers."

"i can't help you?! that would be self-sabotage, eden." he slid his phone into his pocket, partly because he didn't want her to try and take it, and also because mrs. walker was on her way over. she wasn't a very strict teacher, but when it came to phones she was relentless. she wouldn't go as far as to take it to the front office, but she'd at least confiscate it for the period.

eden narrowed her eyes at him, seeing how serious he actually was about this. "fine, i'll ask them myself."

"good, because the bells actually about to ring for lunch." and as if he cued it, the bell rang through the halls, causing everyone to hurriedly stand up so they could get to lunch, this time including eden.

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nat's notes !

just ignore the fact that the class period was only like fifteen minutes or wtv... pretend it was longer 🥲

<3