"Bye, mama!" with a kiss on the cheek a young child had jumped out of her seat, her mother waving behind her calling out, "Good bye, Nepeta!"

Her light brown curls bounced as she skipped down the hall to her Kindergarten classroom. Nepeta's excitement was made obvious by how wide her grin had become.

It wasn't only because, with the help of her older sister Meulin, she had finished her blue kitty-eared headband and was excited to see how her friends thought…but that the pen pal activity Ms. Aranea had announced was to begin this day!

She'd wonder what her pen pal would be like, could they draw like she could? Maybe they had a pet, perhaps a cat! Or maybe they'd be what she would least expect… And that just added into her anticipation. She couldn't wait! Or maybe she could…but—! There was no time for musing because as soon as she had come across her classroom's door she could hear the bursting ruckus and from the little window on the center of the door a paper plane glided in and out of her view.

Nepeta pressed her small hands against the door, pushing it open. As if the collective noise of chattering kids wasn't loud enough it felt like a booming stereo in front of her face as soon as she walked in.
Looking around she caught sight of her small group of friends waving for her attention in one of the tables at the back.

Nepeta returned the gesture; giggling and opening her arms in reciprocation to the hug she was greeted with by her friend Feferi who immediately reeled her into their group.
With another brief exchange hellos and how are yous (and a pounce-gr33ting for Equius!)
They'd gone into idle chatter of small nothings, the interest and praise for the new accessory sitting in her head...which honestly made her quite proud, and the thoughts of the upcoming activity.

It wasn't until much later when the door opened did the entire class become silent while displaced children started scrambling for their seats.

Once they greeted their teacher she had began to introduce the concept to them.
For this first letter they followed a loose structure of introducing themselves, their interests and hobbies yet still allowed them freedom of what to write.
Ms. Aranea had the kids by the front distribute papers, envelopes and boxes of crayons while she blathered about something along the lines of keeping traditional letter writing alive.

Nepeta barely heard what had been said, her fingers already grasping for the box of crayons that was to be shared within their table group.

"Hey, calm down," called out Terezi with a cackle, "You're supposed to share."
"Sorry, sorry." Nepeta tittered, taking out a single green crayon and pushing the box back into the center of their table.

After quite a lot of thought Nepeta had started on her note with the best she could manage in shaky curlicues she had finished her note with a;

"Hi my name's Nepeta! I like cats I have a cat named Pounce, napping, being with my friends and playing outside.

I also like to draw and write stories!

What about you? I hope you write back soon! :33 "

By the end of the page she had scribble a crude stick drawing of her and Pounce de Leon with a little word bubble above her head with the words "Hi" inscribed in them.

While waiting for the rest of the class to finish, her table had exchanged each others letter. Nepeta admiring Aradia and Equius' neat writing and Terezi and Feferi's colorful designs.
Nepeta had packed the letter with a loom rubberband bracelet she had decided to spare, at the reminder of the optional choice to leave a little gift for their penpal before; sealing her envelope and passing it onto her teacher.

She hoped her penpal liked the color red.

Weeks rolled by until finally they had gotten something in return, their teacher had come in one day with a small box of mail.
Handing them out one by one from the names of the receivers written on the back of the envelope.
Each student bounded for their letters as soon as their names were called with a lucky few who had gotten a small token in return.
Nepeta had found that all her friends had received their notes before her and had already begun reading except for a distressed Equius who had somehow ripped the paper container open but had thankfully spared his the letter inside to his relief.

"So who'd you get?" she heard Aradia's voice ask to no specific person as Nepeta took her seat.

"Somebody named Gamzee." Terezi said with a wrinkle of her nose, "My letter smells like soda...it has stains too."

"Gross!" laughed Feferi.

Nepeta smiled at the exchange though her focus was on the letter and had begun carefully opening the envelope.
It wasn't the thing that actually mattered but she felt she wanted to preserve it...for sentimental reasons?
She didn't even really know what sentimental meant.

Taking out the pencil smudged paper she found big letters written in a jagged bold the words;
"MY NAME IS KARKAT. I LIKE WATCHING MOVIES, MY FRIENDS,"
where written under the phrase was 'when they're not bothering me'

"I THINK IM A GOOD LEADER.

ALSO, THANKS FOR THE GIFT.
SORRY I COULDN'T GET YOU ANYTHING, MAYBE NEXT TIME."

Hello! This is my first fic on this account.
Critiques and ideas for future chapters are always welcome! I cannot guarantee a set schedule for updates or quick one for that school had started in my country and well...you know the drill.