The school year seemed to really be dragging along. The previous year had flown by, mostly because her students were interesting. She had had kids like Jaclyn, Eric, James, and Blue to add diversity to the class; they offered something to their peers. Now, she was stuck with kids like Stacey and everyone else who spent their entire high school career trying to conform to fashions set into place by some 40-year-old housewife who just so happened to be the editor of some magazine.

Life had become so empty and boring when the new school year started. Sonya had put in her notice that she was resigning at the end of the year to pursue a job offer from Colorado University at Boulder. Jaclyn was at Berkley in California studying to be an orthopedic surgeon. Eric was still around town, he was "taking a year off" in other words he didn’t know what he wanted to do. James was working as an auto mechanic at the local Ford dealership, he was also a husband and soon to be father. Blue was still touring the country promoting her debut album on Moonshine Records.

The skies were overcast and the leaves were blowing as Sonya walked out to the mailbox. The pavement was cold against Sonya’s bare feet; she pulled her sweater on tighter as the wind bore down on her. Her body shivered when she pulled down on the cold metal of the mailbox door. She expected the usual junk mail and bills, maybe a post card from Blue, but to her dismay was a letter to Sonya Baran from a Ms. Jaclyn Parker of Berkley, California. A shiver made its way up Sonya’s spine, as that beautiful tingly feeling took hold of Sonya’s insides. She quickly shut the mailbox door and ran inside, she was so excited that Jaclyn had written her. The weight of the letter added to Sonya’s excitement, the letter felt like it had pictures in it. A letter and pictures, Sonya could only be so lucky.

Sonya slammed the bedroom door, behind her as she jumped onto her bed tearing the letter open, careful not to see the pictures before she read the letter.

The grin on Sonya’s face stretched from ear to ear. She knew one day Jaclyn would find her way into a full leg cast, but she didn’t expect it so soon. A tiny feeling of jealousy nagged at Sonya, but she wasn’t ready to be back in a cast anytime soon. Her 14-week sentence had been enough for the moment.

Sonya sat in bed just smiling for a couple minutes, before she remembered that Jaclyn had accompanied the letter with several pictures. She folded up the letter and stuffed it back in the letter pulling out the pictures. The first picture was of a beautiful, wetsuit clad, blond girl standing proudly next to a surfboard on the beach. The back of the picture read, " This is Amy. She is very passionate about surfing, she seems the most at peace when she’s on the beach or surfing. "

The second picture was of James standing next to Amy who was propped on a pair of crutches, with a neon green cast on her entire left leg. Unfortunately, the picture cut off the foot portion of the cast. Sonya quickly flipped the picture over for an explanation, " This picture was taken outside of Chili’s the night you broke your leg. Amy’s in a cast because a car hit her the day I got my cast off. I think that was when my crush on Amy first developed, we had such a great intellectual conversation that night at dinner."

The third picture showed a close-up of Jaclyn kissing the back of some girl’s toes sticking out of a neon orange short leg cast. The girl’s long beautiful toes were painted neon green. Sonya found herself getting really turned on looking at all these pictures of Jaclyn, " I figured you would be the only who could appreciate this picture. This is me kissing Amy’s toes just after I painted them, she had gotten that cast earlier that day."

Sonya burst into tears looking at the fourth and second to last picture. Jaclyn, Eric, James, and Blue all had their arms around each smiling in their caps and gowns at graduation. Sonya couldn’t wait to frame this picture, " No explanation needed for this picture. I have it framed, and sitting on the nightstand in my room."

The fifth and final picture was no surprise to Sonya; the picture was Jaclyn’s view of her freshly casted leg. She remembered that color cast being called " tie-dye" because it looked like the fiberglass was tie-dyed with neon colors. The cast extended from the base of Jaclyn’s perfect toes to mid-thigh, and her nails were painted a cute shade of lime green, " I took this picture just for you. Every time I look at my leg I think of you. If you don’t get off to this picture I’m going to be deeply offended. Just kidding. "

Sonya smiled putting the pictures back in the envelope and putting the envelope on her nightstand. She sat back in bed and reflected on everything that had happened that past year, and then began to fantasize about how great her vacation to California was going to be.