I'm sitting in Mr. Zahhak's class. It's been a week since I turned that letter in and Mr. Zahhak sent it off. The weird thing is, I've actually been hoping this guy sends a letter back. I thought I would hate having top do this letter exchange thing, but I'm actually looking forward to it. It's just that I've been thinking I guess, and maybe this'll be good for me. You know, to talk to someone other than Roxy. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Maybe this guy won't be as boring as I thought he would be.
Mr. Zahhak clears his throat to get everyone's attention. "Class," he begins, "some of your letter replies have started to arrive. If I call your name, please come get your letter. Kat, Rosalinda, Emilia, Noreen, Josh, Melisa, Ashlee, Lorrie, Hugh, Justin , Sol, and Dirk." I go get my letter. Apparently it's from a Jake English. "Don't open your letters until after class," says Mr. Zahhak. "Any letter I see open will be thrown STRONGLY in the trash immediately. Am I understood?"
"Yes Mr. Zahhak," the class answers in unison.
When the bell rings, I grab my things and walk outside. There's a tree in the back of the school that I sit at when I don't have detention. It's shady there and everything is green. There's an old wooden bench right under the tree. I sit down on it and begin to read my letter.
"Hello Dirk! My name is Jake English. You may not want me to write back, but I'm going to anyway! I should hope I don't get killed! That might not be very good for my health, you know. I'd honestly rather not talk about why I joined the army. It is quite a long story, and not the happiest one I'm afraid. What's college like? I joined the army right after high school. I'm 23 right now. Being an animator sounds like fun! I'm going to be an adventurer. I'll be the one exploring new ruins, finding secret treasures, navigating the catacombs, and so much more! It'll be great!
Texas actually sounds quite nice. It may be a bit on the hot side, but that's not too bad. I'm sure it's not as bad as you say it is. You just have to work with it! If you keep thinking like that, that's what you're going to believe, but if you tell yourself that it's not that bad, you'll start to believe it chap!
Contrary to what you think mate, I quite enjoy talking to you! I hope you write back, but that's up to you.
Sincerely,
Jake English"
I'm grinning my stupid ass off by the time I finish the letter. I'll definitely write back to him. I guess I'll try thinking positively. I haven't tried doing that since my parents died, and maybe it has been dragging me down. Being a bit happier does sound nice. My life is fine now, don't get me wrong man, it's just a little... depressing sometimes. Just me and Dave, al alone in this apartment building, and we're sure as hell not going back to Dad's place. That place was hell. Every night he'd come home drunk, and sometime's he'd get violent. He'd start throwing things around, hitting stuff, and hurting us.
A few weeks after I turned eighteen, he came home drunk off his ass again. It was one of his violent drunk nights, and he threw a beer bottle at the wall. It broke in half and he picked it up by the neck of the bottle. He started swinging it around, and Dave happened to be standing in his way. Dave was only twelve, but that didn't stop Dad from raking across his face with the sharp end of the bottle. I heard Dave crying and ran downstairs to see what was wrong. I saw Dave lying in the ground clutching his eye, and Dad standing over him with a bloody beer bottle. That's when I snapped. I punched him until he got knocked unconcious. I turned to Dave and saw he had a deep gash over one eye. It was bleeding heavily, so I called the emergency room. As we were riding in the ambulance, I knew we had to leave that house. The doctors said that Dave's eye would heal, but he would have a scar over his left eye.
That night, I took the money I had saved up for art school and bought us an apartment in Houston. We packed our bags and just left. We didn't say goodbye, and we didn't leave a note. We kept driving until we reached the apartment. We may have lost the first round of the game, but we were ready to restart and try again.