One Thousand Emails (Treebros) {#Wattys2018}

01

As Evan walked into 3rd Hour World History, he could almost feel the life drained from the medium sized classroom. He didn't say anything as he went to his seat and sat down.

The bell soon rang, causing the teens to run to their seats. Evan watched them do so, he soon turned to the teacher who walked in.

"Alright alright, settle down! Now, no shoving, Mr. Murphy. Thank you," the teacher walked in, and with a clipboard in their hand, took attendance.

While the teacher took attendance, the class whispered to one another, clearly not going to quiet down anytime soon. Evan seemed to be the only one who didn't talk, he sighed and crossed his arms.

"Now, quiet everyone! If you aren't going to quiet down you're going to miss something important!" The teacher warned, as the chatter in the classroom gradually decreased.

"There we are. Now, you are all going to pair up for a project, this will make up seventy five percent of your grade so take it seriously," the teacher explained as kids got up and went to get partners.

Evan got up, and just stood there. He waited for something, anything, preferably an answer to appear, but he watched people pass by him.

"Alright, everyone have a pair? Ahh, Connor doesn't. Let's see... Evan, do you want to be partners with Connor?" The teacher turned to Evan.

Evan just nodded. He had heard of Connor Murphy, but never talked to him. Evan approached Connor, feeling his palms growing sweaty from getting so nervous.

Connor turned to the boy approaching him. He was sure as hell he had no clue who he was.

"H-hi, I'm Evan," Evan nervously held out his hand to him.

Connor took it and shook it lightly, he didn't seem to mind his sweaty palm. "Connor."

"Alright everyone, your project will be making a presentation on everything we've went over this past semester. This is a large project, which is why I paired you up in the first place. It will be due by the last day of the semester," the teacher explained to them all. "Now, I'll leave you all to get started on your projects."

"Well, let's get started I guess," Connor went to an empty seat and sat down. Evan sat in the seat nearest to him.

"W-well, we should start off by splitting Sections Ten through Sixteen. It's uneven, so one of us will have to do three while the other does two," Evan explained.

Connor nodded and crossed his arms. "I don't really care what I do, just tell me what to do."

Evan nodded quickly and said, "I-I'll do sections ten, eleven, and twelve and thirteen, and you can do fourteen, fifteen and sixteen."

Connor nodded and asked, "So we just need to write about certain things we learned about in these sections, right?"

"Exactly, but we have to explain them a little more," Evan answered.

Connor nodded once more and took out a piece of paper, wrote something down, and handed it to Evan.

Evan took the slip of paper and gazed at it. It had an email address; Connor's email address. He gazed at it for a moment, before looking at Connor.

"Emailing our presentation back and fourth is easier than texting, right?" Connor asked him, but it sounded more like a statement.

Evan smiled slightly and agreed. He wrote down his email and gave it to Connor. Then they started to work for the remainder of the period.

One thing Evan noticed was that Connor needed a lot of help with his work, but he didn't question anything and just helped as much as he could.

Soon, the class came to an end. Both of the two boys grabbed their stuff and stood.

"I'll start on my sections tonight and email you the progress I make," Evan told him.

Connor nodded, "Got it. I'll get as much done as I can."

The two waved to one another, and left to complete the rest of the day.