Miguel’s cheeks hurt from smiling. He couldn’t wait to go to school with Elm, being in his classes, studying together in the library, being friends who hangout… maybe being more- Miguel cut his train of thought off, he didn’t want to set up unreal expectations and then get crushed when Elm was just a dude who didn’t want to date him. He wanted to be practical when he thought of this. Miguel thought about what he actually knew about Elm's physicality, so he could point him out tomorrow morning. He knew Elm was a shorter boy with brown eyes. 

He grumbled to himself, for once again all Miguel could picture was Elm's lips, what would they taste and feel like? He slapped his cheeks until once again he could think of how hard it would be to find the real Elm, the boy he had been infatuated with for years. Hell he didn’t even know what his lips were like! What if Elm didn’t have such delusional expectations for them?

He relaxed on his bed, allowing himself to daydream. Elm would really be near him. Miguel had been so scared when he first realized his feelings for Elm but now he
He relaxed on his bed and allowed himself to think of Elm in the way that had scared him at first, he allowed himself to think of how soft Elm's hair would be, his lips, his eyes, his neck, and fuck, Miguel needed to grow up. 

Miguel took ten deep breaths and thought practical, practical thoughts, he repeated the calming breaths until he felt like he could relax. He felt guilty for even letting the thought of Elm leave reality. 

Miguel walked towards the kitchen and grabbed the premade fried rice from the freezer and began to heat it for dinner. He added some hot sauce and tofu to it and wolfed it down. He left some in a thermous container on the table for his dad and hoped it would stay warm for until he got home.

Miguel trudged back up to his room, his glee from earlier killed by reality, and double-checked that all his school supplies packed. He moved his latest letter to his desk drawer, where he kept his other 516ish letters. Not that he had counted or anything.

** 

The next morning, as the sun rose, so did Miguel, he took a quick shower, and got dressed. After the summer it was weird to look in the mirror and see an olive skinned 6’ 1” kid staring back at him. He brushed his dark brown hair out of his kinda green eyes and sighed.

No one would expect him to be the dorky kid who loved Percy Jackson books and read a crap ton of online romance novels, and manga, Elm - whoever he was would never think track star Miguel and nerd Magnolia were the same. 

Miguel went into the kitchen and smeared butter onto a piece of toast after checking if last night’s thermous was empty. Glad to see his dad had eaten, he washed it, grabbed his toast, and jumped into his 1998 Subaru Forester that was the same dark green he was so happy to see in envelope form yesterday.

Miguel drove to school looking forward to revealing who Elm really was, only to pull up to school, where everyone looked short to him, and 80% of the kids had brown eyes.

...fuck nuts…