Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Dear Peter

Dear Peter,
Class was cancelled today, but there was no celebrating by your classmates. Having waited impatiently in the hallway to be let into the lab room, everyone settled into their seats and waited for lecture to begin. But it never did.

The prof seemed distracted, and when an older lady came in and took off her glasses in a somber mood, we knew this would not be an ordinary class. You weren't there...but that was nothing new, because you seemed to skip more classes than you attended.

You always looked good in your casual and comfortable clothes. Your shoes were well-loved and seemed like they were staying on by a thread. I thought that was kinda cool, though. You were quiet and observant, but whenever you spoke up, you sounded rather intelligent, more so than most class members. You looked put together and confident. But we didn't see you in class today.

And you didn't get to see the looks on our faces when the prof sat down and the school counselor said why you weren't there. You didn't see your lab partner put his face in his hands. You didn't see any of us, wishing we'd been able to get to know you better. You didn't get to hear the piano in the lounge playing for you. You didn't get to see the warm, sunny day. You didn't get to feel its warmth, or look for cloud animals in the sky. And we didn't get to say goodbye.

Maybe you thought you didn't matter to anybody. Maybe you thought you didn't measure up. Maybe you thought nobody cared about your pain. But you were wrong. Class was canceled today, but nobody was glad for it.

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