POV: Calyx Sparks, Age 17

Calyx woke up on the ground beside his bed. Again. He was so tired of this. It happened at least once a week, sometimes two or three times. He couldn't help but to wonder if it was normal that when he fell, he didn't even wake up. Like seriously. What the fuck. He reached up and snatched his phone off the nightstand, not bothering to get up. It was 11 AM, a lot later than he usually woke up. His eyes widened. The letter! He immediately sat up and grabbed the edge of the nightstand to pull himself up. He started to head downstairs to check the mailbox, but then he saw that his mom had already put the letter from his pen pal on his bed. Calyx found it amusing that his mom didn't even wake him up when she found him on the ground. He shook his head with a laugh.

He turned his attention back to the letter. It was in a blue envelope as always. He had been exchanging letters with a with his pen pal since 7th grade. His class had been given an assignment to write to another student in 7th grade all the way in California, a pretty long way away from Tennessee, where Calyx lived. Every kid was to pick a kind of plant to use as a name. All of the names of the students from the other school were put in a box and drawn from at random. Whenever Calyx thought about that day he thanked whatever higher power was out there, if any. The letter read:

Dear Wisteria,

I have big (and nerve-wracking) news! I am moving to Tennessee and will be attending your school. What a strange coincidence. I guess the universe likes us or something. But then again, maybe it doesn't. Even though we will be spending a year together, I'm still not ready to share identities with you. But maybe Mr. Universe will throw us together anyway.

Calyx was rather stunned at the news. So I'll be spending a year with my best friend, but not know who he is? What he looks like? If he's hot? Stop it Calyx, you weirdo. Hot? Really? He rolled his eyes, annoyed, and continued.

Even though we're not meeting yet, I still want you to have a good year. On another note, I don't know why I'm telling you this again, but I'm still waking up feeling sick, with the wacko feeling that I should be doing something... And I still haven’t figured out what it is! And it still seems to happen every night after reading your letters (stop it, Mr. Universe). Even after all this time, it seems weird. You'd think that after several years of this, I would be used to it, or maybe find out why it happens. I haven't found out! Anyway, so is my weirdo still waking up on the cold, hard, cruel floor? Mwhahahahaha GET REKT

Peace out, Plant

Calyx snickered at his friend's name choice of 'Plant' yet again. Then disappointment and fear took over. You'd think that five years of letters would be enough time and communication for his friend to be comfortable with meeting him. Guess not, Calyx thought restlessly. His feeling of fear came from the fact that every time he received a letter from 'Plant' he had the same problem of waking up in the middle of the night, feeling sick, and desiring to do something unknown. He mentioned it once, but 'Plant' got angry, thinking Calyx was making a joke about it. Needless to say, Calyx never mentioned it again.

After reading the letter, he put it in one of his nightstand drawers where all of the other letters are kept. Calyx debated on writing the reply letter now or later. Later, he decided.

He got out of bed and stretched. Then, he slunk into his bathroom to take a shower. Calyx looked in the mirror as he passed by and glared at the gold eyes that gave him so many stares. At least they were intimidating enough to stop most girls from coming up to flirt with him. He got a lot of admiration for the way he looked. He had skater style black hair that he constantly had to brush out of one of his eyes, bright gold eyes, perfect smooth skin, a height of 6'0, and he had a slender but muscular figure. He didn't mind attention very much, but he hated it when people hung out with him and talked to him because of the way he looked. Also, he was an introvert and liked to relax in silence. Other people never gave him that. He had 'friends', but only on the swim team he worked with.

After taking a shower, Calyx threw on a black T-shirt and jeans to go skating in. He made his way to the skate park and hung around for about an hour and a half. After that, he went home to chill until a party at 5 PM came. He really didn't want to go, but he had to because the swim team was getting together for a last party before school starts. They did this all throughout the year, and he often got dragged along. Unfortunately, there were always people not on the swim team there.

The party lasted four hours but felt much longer. About 3 girls got up the courage (because they were drunk) to come up to Calyx, but he ignored them. One of the girls followed him around for about 15 minutes until he snapped at her to leave him alone. He didn't feel bad about it either.

Finally he was able to leave and go back home. The party had exhausted him so he took off his clothes and pulled on some underwear and a shirt on to go to bed in. He fell asleep as soon as he laid down.

That night, he woke up in a cold sweat, standing beside his bed with the latest letter from 'Plant' in his hand. He felt sick, his chest heaving. The desire to do something unknown welled up inside him as he dropped the letter. Then… Calyx looked at his hands and almost screamed at what he saw…