Everybody-

First off, thanks, Mom. I got the package today… I love the song "The Green Fields of France"… I swear, when I die, I want them to play that song on the pipes at the funeral.

Anyway, it's official, I will be coming home in November… I haven't been extended. I'll finally be able to get out of this hellhole, and it can't come soon enough! It's been forever since I've seen everybody… I can't wait… but it looks like I'll have to.

Well, I really don't have much time right now, so I'm going to have to cut it off here. Tell everybody I said hi.

Love,
Cpl Ashley Teslow

"Hey, Bonnie," Keely said, setting the letter down and picking up her keys, "if Mom asks where I am, tell her I headed over to Tia's, okay? And, uh, looks like Ash wrote you a letter…"

"Got it," Bonnie said, groggily. She was lying on the couch, on the verge of falling asleep for the first time in over thirty-six hours.

Keely, seeing this, muttered, "Never mind, I'll leave a note."

"Thnks…" Bonnie said, and almost instantly fell asleep afterwards.

A few hours later, she woke up to her mother talking about her grades.

"Three C's? You have a D- in US History? Bonnie… you've got to pick these grades up. This isn't like you at all…"

"I will, Ma," she said, groggily. "Don't sweat it."

"I won't be sweating it, because until these grades get better, you won't be going out anywhere and staying up late at night."

Bonnie let out a breath. She'd seen that one coming. "I'll get 'em up. You know me. I always pull through. I just aced a test in chemistry today, so that grade should already be coming back up. Alright? Now, just… stop… hassling me about it, okay?" she asked, and then headed up to her room.

Closing and locking the door, she fell face-first onto her bed and tried to sleep. However, just the action of going up to her room was enough to wake her up. She went over to her desk and looked in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair was a mess.

She looked down at the three pictures sitting in front of her mirror. On the left, a picture of her and Keely at the entrance at Disneyland. On the right, one of her and Ashley at her graduation from basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. In between those two pictures was one of her and her (now ex-) boyfriend, Chris. She reached out to that one, brushed the frame lightly, then sighed and set it face-down.

She soon found her eyes threatening to tear up, so she walked away from her desk and laid down on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

She decided to read the letter Ashley had written to her, hoping that would cheer her up, but after reading it, she just found herself even more depressed, and feeling more alone than before.

"Life is such a slut," she muttered to herself, looking down at her arms, folded in her lap.