"Here are your letters" Mr Cleary's dull monotone was having it's usual sleep-inducing effect on Alex as he handed out the envelopes
"What?" Alex asked, confused
"If you listened once in a while, Alex, you might one day know what's going on around you." this earned the middle aged teacher a small chuckle from a few of the students, he smiled at the small victory "We're doing a pen-pal project with a class at Western, they picked the partners and wrote the first letter, which you now all have. You may open them now but-" and then Alex zoned out again, focusing instead on the letter.

"Alex Gaskarth" was written on the front in simple hand writing, but he barely registered this as he tore the thing open and read the first line.
"I got a girl, Hayley Jacks" Jack spoke from Alex's left
"Yeah, me too; Ariel Wilson" he replied absent mindedly as he read the letter. He laughed lightly at the beginning and then again at the end
"Hey guys," he said with a smile and pointed at the letter "Ariel says be nice" the three of them shot him confused looks before reading the PS and chuckling
"I think we all got girls, I got Anna Mason" Rian smiled
"Yeah, Skye George." Zack added
"I don't know if that's awesome or not!" Jack laughed
"As long as they're nice, I don't care" Zack shrugged and the other three boys agreed as they turned back to writing their own letters.

"Hey Laurie, I'm Alex, but you've probably figured that out by now. Why don't you like the name Ariel? I think it's pretty."
He felt like a dork saying that, but decided it would be even worse if he wrote it then crossed it out, so, with a sigh, he left it and hoped she didn't think he was a creep.
"I sing and play guitar but I look like a fish out of water when I dance, what type of dance do you do? And that's a long time to spend devoted to something, you're 17 right? I'm an only child, thank god, I'm no good with kids.
I'm really quite a boring person, probably not the best person to have for a thing like this. I like red and my favourite animals are dogs, what kind of dogs is yours? My dad won't let me have a dog, says he wouldn't trust me to look after it
I agree, this project is kinda lame, but I guess it beats Life Skills right?
I actually do know those guys, they're good friends. I'm sure they would have been nice anyway but I still told them for you
Alex"

The bell rang and simultaneously every teenager in the room folded the paper and pushed it into the new envelope Mr Cleary had put on their desk out as they'd been writing, then handed it to him on the way out of the room for lunch.

The four boys queued together, each buying a sandwich because they'd decided a long time ago, after what they'd dubbed "the curry incident", not to touch anything produced in the cafeteria. They sat at their usual table, near the fire exit on the far wall because Jack said if there was a fire or a zombie apocalypse or something of that nature, they'd have a quick and easy exit. The boys quickly settled into easy conversation and had almost finished when a girl who Alex recognised as being in their year, but didn't know the name of, approached them
"Are you guys coming to the party on Saturday?" the question was directed toward Alex as she smiled hopefully
"Uhh, yeah. Maybe." he told her
"Cool, I'll see you there" she grinned before practically skipping away
"Dude, are you gonna go?" Zack asked and Alex just shrugged, ripping another piece off his sandwich
"Dunno, I'll see how I feel I guess"
"Who are you, and what have you done with Alex?" Jack questioned, straight-faced and Alex looked up at him
"What?" he laughed lightly
"Never, in all the years I've known you, have you ever, ever even potentially declined a party invitation. It's not like you" Jack answered dramatically, narrowing his eyes and Alex laughed again
"He has a point" Rian murmured, over-exaggeratedly studying Alex, looking into his eyes from across the table as if he was doing some sort of weird visual examination
"Fuck off" Alex laughed, throwing a piece of his sandwich at him that he only just dodged without falling of his chair.

When Alex got home he said hi to his mum, answered her numerous questions about how his day went, grabbed some crisps from the cupboard and a bottle of coke from the fridge gaining an eye roll from his mum and then retreated to his room as usual. He started the CD player and it picked up where he'd paused it the previous night, New Found Glory's Sticks and Stones filling the silence of the room. With a sigh he slumped down into the chair by his desk and pushed some of the sheets of paper, some important and some rubbish, out of the way before flipping open his maths textbook to do the homework that had been due in the day before. He remained focused for about five minutes, getting two of the ridiculously difficult questions done before his mind began to wander. Something about what Jack had said really got to him, he'd been totally fine until Jack had said it wasn't like him to turn down a party invitation. He was right to an extent, Alex hadn't missed a party since freshman year, but when Alex really thought about it, he'd only actually enjoyed a select few of those parties and he certainly hadn't enjoyed any of the hang overs that always came afterwards. And now, with just one sentence, Jack had Alex questioning himself.

Discarding the maths work, Alex grabbed a piece of paper and started scribbling things down, words, lyrics, whatever came to his head. It was something he did when he was feeling a bit crappy, hence the ridiculous number of papers all over the table. Eventually he just began doodling until the pen just stopped moving, Alex too lost in his head to realise as he just stared blankly at the paper.