Moonlight

Chapter 1

Bzzz Bzzz. Bzz Bzz.

"Ughhh." I groaned as I heard my alarm go off.

"Time to wake up for school, Ariana. You can't miss the bus today!" my dad said as he opened my bedroom door. I crawled out of bed and began my normal morning routine. You know, go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, take a shower, all the normal things. Then, I get dressed and sit down at my vanity to quickly do my makeup. It was 6:30, I have plenty of time before the bus comes, I said in my head. Once I finished, I went down the stairs to eat some breakfast. I saw my dad standing at the stove making some scrambled eggs.

"Good morning, sweetheart." I walked over to him and gave him a hug,

"Good morning, dad." I said with a big smile on my face.

"Your plate is on the table." he said pointing over to it.

"Thanks, dad." I said as I began to eat the eggs and bacon on my plate. "No problem, Ari." Ari was my nickname. A lot of people call me that, but mostly my friends. When I finished, I went over to the sink and realized it was 6:50.

"Oh my gosh, dad. I have to go, can you wash my plate for me?" I started for the door and heard him say,

"No problem. Have a good day at school! I love you!"

"Love you too!" I said as I closed the door behind me and started towards the bus stop. Good thing the bus stop is right in front of my house. The bus usually comes at 6:56, but I like to be a little bit early. Also, to avoid doing my dishes.

"Hey, Ari!" my best friend, Liz, said as I walked up to her.

"Hey!" I said to her smiling.

"So, are you excited about the new project were being assigned in English?" Liz loves English class. She loves school as well. I like school too, but not to the extent that she does.

"Um, sure!" I said

hesitantly. The bus came and we all got on and sat down. All we do is talk on the bus, but some annoying kids in the back always play their music really loud so the whole bus can hear. I would complain, but the music is pretty good. We arrived at school about 10 minutes later and we went to our lockers at put our stuff away and grab all the stuff we needed for our first class. My first class is English and I have it with Liz and a couple of my other friends, Becca and Elaine. We usually hang out in the mornings in the cafeteria to wait for the bell to ring. The first bell rang and we all went to our class. The teacher for English is  Mrs. Hindenburg. She's alright, she's nice if you're on her good side. I walked into class and took my seat. The bell rang almost immediately after that.

"Alright, everyone take your seats," Mrs. Wisenburg said, "today I have an exciting assignment for you all!" she said with a big grin on her face.

"You may think it's great, but I think it's a complete pain in the a-" Becca said under her breath until the teacher cut her off and called her out in front of the whole class.

"Becca, should I give an even harder assignment then?" Mrs. Wisenburg said with a fake smile on her face.

"No ma'am" Becca replied a little red in the face.

"Then stop whispering while I'm talking."  Mrs. Wisenburg said with a slightly louder voice. Becca sunk in her seat a little.

"As I was saying, I have a new assignment for you all. As some of you may know my hometown is Tulsa, Oklahoma and my good friend, John, is an English teacher at Rogers High School in Tulsa." I kind of went into a glaze for almost the rest of her talking on and on about how they were good friends and how excited she was that this project worked out.

"Can you just tell us what the project is already?" Someone said in the back as a bunch of people started laughing. It was a guy, I think it was either Daniel or Brian, I can't really tell. "Alright then," Mrs. Wisenburg said a little offended.

"You are all going to be assigned a student from Mr. Syme's class. They will be your pen pal!" Mrs. Wisenburg paused to catch her breath, she talks awfully fast.

"I have already picked your pen pals and I will tell them to you now." She called people's names out following with a "your pen pal is" so and so. When she called my name, I almost wanted to die of embarrassment.

"Ariana, your pen pal is, Ponyboy Curtis." The whole class busted out in laughter. My face was so red and hot but I tried to act like the laughter didn't bother me, cause it didn't.

"What kind of name is 'Ponyboy'?" Someone shouted. "Oh yeah, real mature guys!" Elaine yelled at everyone.

"I'm sure he'll be great. Don't worry about everyone else." Elaine said reassuring me. She's real good at that, she always tries to see the good in people and doesn't judge a book by its cover. I try to keep an open-mind as well, but I'm not as good as Elaine at that.

"Class, calm down. It's really not that funny." she said, "Now, let me tell you your homework assignment." Everyone sighed,

"Oh, it's not that bad at all. All it is is you're going to write your first letter to your pen pal and make sure you do it because we will be sending the letters out tomorrow during class!" Mrs. Wisenburg finshed saying as the bell rang. Everyone grabbed their stuff and went out the door.

"Have a good day everyone! And don't forget to write your letter!" Mrs. Wisenburg said as everyone left the classroom.

I'm home now. My dad gets back from work before I get home, he was sitting on the couch watching baseball.

"Hi, Princess! How was your day?" He said as I walked in and took off my shoes.

"Good. How was yours?" I said mid hanging up my jacket.

"Stressful." Dad said. As I ran up the stairs I said,

"Cool." When I was in my room I threw my backpack on the floor I got to doing my homework. I have good grades in school and did well in most of my classes. I decided to do my other homework before I started on the the letter for English class. I wasn't really sure what I was going to write so I thought by the time I'm done with all of my homework I'll have an idea of what to say in the letter. When I finished all my other homework, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and started writing. After about 20 minutes of writing, this is what I came up with:

Dear Ponyboy,

Hello! My name is Ariana and I am 17 years old. I guess I'm your new pen pal! I'm so excited to get to know you. This is probably one of coolest assignemnts I've done in class so I hope you're excited as well. Sorry I don't have much to say, but that's all for now. Looking forward to your letter!

Your new friend,

                                                                             Ariana
Prince

The next day in English I turned my letter in and they sent the notes to Rogers High School. It takes a while to get from Florida to Oklahoma. I hope we could actually become friends in a way so this would be less awkward.