Keirn,
I've always wanted to be part of something greater, but I find it difficult-- at best-- to believe that my mail is being caught in a temporal flux of some sort and sent to the future. Amazing things don't happen to girls like me, and Proper Young Ladies don't get to have Grand Adventures. I gave up on that dream long ago, when I got my first hair-comb and became a Young Lady. Mother made sure of that.
You live on Eraea? Oh, I hope you're not fooling with me, because I hope so badly that this succeeds. I am afraid to hear what you've got in your history books about my father. He is a good man, and I couldn't bear to hear that something had gone wrong. It is just as hard knowing that even if it does end up going horribly wrong, and you do know about it, you cannot tell me because of Time Streams.
I am not a silly young miss who knows nothing other than her parents, and I do realize that as we actually live here, more must be going on than lessons. That does not make this any easier to bear. I miss my home, and my friends. I miss my pets. We have a Dog, you know. They're exceedingly rare anywhere besides Original Earth, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have one. They are amazing companions, and they always make things better. It broke my heart when Diana left, and Dog made it better. (Our Dog is named Dog. I was young, when I named him.) Are Dogs still rare in your time?
The trouble with this school is that everyone is so aware of Status. They know that I outrank them, and therefore they ignore me. It matters not that I have told them that I do not care what their parents do. It matters not that I explained that with my father away, I have no true status. What matters to them is that my father was a Governor and is a Colonizer, and therefore I am too important to require things as basic as Friends. How does one get past that? I am at my wit's end, trying to be friendly, trying to be nice, trying to be interesting. Being myself didn't work and I cannot come up with a ploy that will work, either.
So, Keirn, it seems that you and Diana are as close to friends that I have, and you are both eternities away. Her in space, and you in time. It is terrible to not have friends close by. So please, tell me what you can about Eraea. At least I know my father's mission will be a success, but how is it? Is it as beautiful and green as we have hoped?
Yours,
- Cass
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
27 March 2418
How peculiar! It takes long'r to get your way than my way. I'd've thought it'd be the other way roun', truthf'ly. Then, like I said, temporal holes are just a side project o'mine, so maybe that's jus' some naive perception. Also, why'r'ya fighting so hard that I'm obviously just stealing your Diana's mail? Don't you want t'be part of somethin' bigger than that? I do, I always have, Cass. This is the firs' fantasti' thing that's ever happen'd to me, somethin' I've wanted my whole life. I'm not about to lie 'bout it to cushion your worries.
That is my address, by the way. 1717 Westmoreland Drive, West New England, Eraea 179305033-221165. I did take a peek in the histor-e-book, and found your Pa listed as a prope' founde' of my home planet. Nothin' specific about you and yours otherwise though, just a passive remark 'bout leaving family behind on the old home.
Also, what are you trying to say 'bout boarding school anyhow? That there's no chance you'll fall in love with a girl? I promise, they're not so bad, girls. I mean, a bit too cagey sometimes for my pleasure since few girls my age understand what it means to have this thin' in your pants that has absolutely no courtesy for what you are doing and what amount of time you have or that you're in class and the headmaster is looming over your shoulder with a massive yardstick. But still, you don't 'pect me to think that you're actually convinced the boarding school is learnin' all the time, d'ya? I wasn't born yesterday, I know how boarding school works. Y'get time to yourself for a bit at a time.
Novels have the bit 'bout dormitories all wrong, for the record. Few folks piss where they sleep, if y'know what I mean. Why would you harass som'un who you live with? It's a fool thing to do really, somethin' that'll get you kicke' out o' most schools. So if you're left wit' just meeting new people, it's not such a bad thing. Worse than just stayin' put, but not so bad. Y'may yet meet someone more interestin' than me.
Your friend in time,
Keirn Whiting
Thursday, December 16, 2010
March 24, 2238
Mr. Whiting,
I don't know what you're playing at, but frankly, I don't find it very funny. Clearly, my letter has gone astray, and Diana never received it, but you don't have to come up with such a ridiculous story about how you got it. It would have been enough to just "Return to Sender" without having read my personal composition.
However, as the damage has been done, I feel it is my duty to disillusion you. Boarding school is not a place for girls to practice kissing other girls. It is a place of higher learning, where ladies practice-- Drat, I was distracted from the letter by Mother, and when I came back, she had reclaimed her pamphlet. Suffice it to say that your school may have been a place where boys practiced kissing, but I have no intention of kissing any of my schoolmates. (As you've apparently been kissing other boys, I'm sure you are aware that it is fully legal, we are a civilized society, and not barbarians.)
My Father is Sir Christopher Holder, retired governor of Actis on Second Earth. As a natural, and experienced leader, Father was an ideal candidate to lead the first settlers to the newly terraformed planet Eraea. He has been gone for approximately a year now, and we expect he will be gone at least another. I thought this expedition was common knowledge. Feel free to look him up in your history book, or more likely, a news bulletin.
School is tiresome at the best of times, and having to move and make new friends is no simple task. I do not particularly like having to establish myself with new people, and vastly prefer the company of those I am already acquainted with. That being said, Miss Goddard's is a top-rate school with top-rate Professors, so aside from the distance from things I am familiar with, there is little to complain of. Even the dormitories-- which novels have suggested are the worst aspect-- are not so bad, perhaps because of my father's status, which has resulted in my own room.
I suppose it is rather nice to correspond with someone new, and is not entirely tiresome. Perhaps we can continue to exchange letters.
- Cassandra
P.S. I am not sure how to get this back to you, as the address you used is not real. I shall post it to Diana once more and hope the same mistake is made. Could you kindly give me a real address if you hope for future correspondence?
I don't know what you're playing at, but frankly, I don't find it very funny. Clearly, my letter has gone astray, and Diana never received it, but you don't have to come up with such a ridiculous story about how you got it. It would have been enough to just "Return to Sender" without having read my personal composition.
However, as the damage has been done, I feel it is my duty to disillusion you. Boarding school is not a place for girls to practice kissing other girls. It is a place of higher learning, where ladies practice-- Drat, I was distracted from the letter by Mother, and when I came back, she had reclaimed her pamphlet. Suffice it to say that your school may have been a place where boys practiced kissing, but I have no intention of kissing any of my schoolmates. (As you've apparently been kissing other boys, I'm sure you are aware that it is fully legal, we are a civilized society, and not barbarians.)
My Father is Sir Christopher Holder, retired governor of Actis on Second Earth. As a natural, and experienced leader, Father was an ideal candidate to lead the first settlers to the newly terraformed planet Eraea. He has been gone for approximately a year now, and we expect he will be gone at least another. I thought this expedition was common knowledge. Feel free to look him up in your history book, or more likely, a news bulletin.
School is tiresome at the best of times, and having to move and make new friends is no simple task. I do not particularly like having to establish myself with new people, and vastly prefer the company of those I am already acquainted with. That being said, Miss Goddard's is a top-rate school with top-rate Professors, so aside from the distance from things I am familiar with, there is little to complain of. Even the dormitories-- which novels have suggested are the worst aspect-- are not so bad, perhaps because of my father's status, which has resulted in my own room.
I suppose it is rather nice to correspond with someone new, and is not entirely tiresome. Perhaps we can continue to exchange letters.
- Cassandra
P.S. I am not sure how to get this back to you, as the address you used is not real. I shall post it to Diana once more and hope the same mistake is made. Could you kindly give me a real address if you hope for future correspondence?
15 March 2418
I'm sorry to inform you, Cass, but you've missed the button a bit. I mean, I'm sure your Diana got some notion of this letter, but as it's been post-marked in my time, I've a sneaky suspicion somethin' squick-odd temporal is goin' on. Fantasti' right? Literally, that is, something out of a fantasy novel. Let's give it a good show and see if I can write back and we can play that old antiquated game of what can we tell each other that won't break space-time, yeah? I mean, if you want. But given that you've got Great Adventures in your past, I think you'll be savvy.
I suspect that your boarding school woes are long past in my timeline, and who knows how long it takes this tube to deliver things as far as perceived time, so maybe my advice will come too late. As a boy of sixteen whose spent all but a few summers at boarding school, it's not half again as bad as you think it'll be. 'specially if you have any interest in members of the same sex. Wait...was that still taboo in your time? I always forget what century which colonies figure out when that people are people, y'know? I mean, my folks and their parents were pretty much born knowing that ish, but it get's all mixed up when you add in the Xtian colonies and what-not. So pardon me if that's a vulgarity, but I highly recommend kissin' queer at leas' once. You gotta know somehow, right?
Who is your Pa anyway? Bet the name's in my histor-e-book...or even yours, if you grow up famous like. I don't recognize Holder as a family name off the top of my head, but then, I never pay that much attention in my history class. Do you want me to check? I won't tell you the details, just if I can find ya! I don't think that causes any paradoxes...I mean, temporal holes aren't my number one focus in school, they're just a minor interest. I haven't really picked yet, as far as what I'll do when I'm properly grown, so I'm takin' a bit of everything before I finally get to choose which school to go to.
I know my writing must be tiresome to read; you must be studying calligraphy or some ish with your careful sentences and sharp letters. But, not me-I barely ever write things by hand, 'less I need be quick. Let me know how that first day goes, unless it's been so long you don't remember, in which case, just...write again.
Your friend in time,
Keirn Whiting
March 12, 2238
Dearest Diana,
Remember how we used to pretend that we were like the girls in those classic stories? The ones who got sent away to boarding school, where they went on Great Adventures and proved to be the Best of Friends and everything was Happily Ever After? I'm sure you remember them, you certainly borrowed them enough. Well, I always thought that getting sent away was the sort of thing that only happened in classic novels. Nobody sends their daughters away for school anymore, certainly not their teenage daughters. Clearly I forgot to factor Mother into my reckoning.
"Cassandra Holder, you know full well that with your father away on the Colony, you are expected to behave yourself. Others look to us for guidance, or look at us for something to gossip about. You are not to see That Boy. He is Trouble, and your continued acquaintance will reflect poorly upon our family. Because I know I cannot trust you to stay away from him, I am sending you to Miss Goddard's School for Ladies on the third moon."
She didn't even tell me, you know. She wrote it in a letter, Di. I came home and found the letter on top of a suitcase, sitting on my bed. She was conveniently out, visiting someone. She's sending me away! Why didn't I go with you when you asked me to? I know it seemed impossible, but we would have made it work somehow, I know it!
I miss you, you know. I miss having you around when I have my Terrible Ideas (remember the Incident with Dr. Blithe's laser scalpel?), most especially because of your ability to get me out of trouble after. You never would have let me get caught with him,or if we had been caught, you'd have known what to say to Mother.
I understand that Father's away, and he took so many men with him that most of us are a little lost. I know that people are looking to Mother for leadership, and that it does matter how I behave, but I didn't do anything wrong. Tell me that things will be alright, Di, that going away to school will not be as horrible as it seems right now.
I miss you, Di. Tell me about things there, they must be better.
All my love,
Cass.
Remember how we used to pretend that we were like the girls in those classic stories? The ones who got sent away to boarding school, where they went on Great Adventures and proved to be the Best of Friends and everything was Happily Ever After? I'm sure you remember them, you certainly borrowed them enough. Well, I always thought that getting sent away was the sort of thing that only happened in classic novels. Nobody sends their daughters away for school anymore, certainly not their teenage daughters. Clearly I forgot to factor Mother into my reckoning.
"Cassandra Holder, you know full well that with your father away on the Colony, you are expected to behave yourself. Others look to us for guidance, or look at us for something to gossip about. You are not to see That Boy. He is Trouble, and your continued acquaintance will reflect poorly upon our family. Because I know I cannot trust you to stay away from him, I am sending you to Miss Goddard's School for Ladies on the third moon."
She didn't even tell me, you know. She wrote it in a letter, Di. I came home and found the letter on top of a suitcase, sitting on my bed. She was conveniently out, visiting someone. She's sending me away! Why didn't I go with you when you asked me to? I know it seemed impossible, but we would have made it work somehow, I know it!
I miss you, you know. I miss having you around when I have my Terrible Ideas (remember the Incident with Dr. Blithe's laser scalpel?), most especially because of your ability to get me out of trouble after. You never would have let me get caught with him,or if we had been caught, you'd have known what to say to Mother.
I understand that Father's away, and he took so many men with him that most of us are a little lost. I know that people are looking to Mother for leadership, and that it does matter how I behave, but I didn't do anything wrong. Tell me that things will be alright, Di, that going away to school will not be as horrible as it seems right now.
I miss you, Di. Tell me about things there, they must be better.
All my love,
Cass.
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