The Exchange Student

Last Name: Jackson

First Name: Connor

Middle Initial: M

Height: 5'10"

Gender: Male

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Blonde

Age: 16

The form went on like this for quite a while. Connor thought it was a little extensive to sign up for an exchange student program, but then again he had never filled out such a document before either.

Native Country: USA

State/Province: New York

Address:

Connor filled out the rest of the form, tedious as it was. He would much rather be doing something else right now. Like reading. Reading was good.

Preferred Language to study:

He thought about this for a moment. "Anything but Spanish," he wrote. It seemed like an appropriate choice; he was already taking high school Spanish classes, and he decided that he did not like the language. I'd be screwed if Mexico suddenly took over somehow, he thought.

A few minutes later he finished up the document. Now he just had to mail it in. He found an envelope and a stamp and put the letter together. He would send it later. For now though, he went back to reading. It was probably one of Connor's favorite pastimes. Every weekend he would head down to the local library to find some good books to read. He recalled one time when he was young that he had actually slept overnight at the library; as it turns out the librarian never used to really check if anyone was still there at closing time.

Used to.

Another one of his favorite things was music. It didn't really matter what genre it was, as long as the music was well-made. Weezer, Guns N' Roses, Bill Withers, even songs by J Biebs were on his iPod.

Lastly was games. That was a given though; you couldn't be a teenager in this age and simply dislike video games. Even if the only games you liked were COD or Don't Starve or Generic Zygna Game #427ville, you still liked video games.

Later in the day Connor sent the letter, and shortly after got his things ready to pack. His father reminded him that the letter would not, in fact, arrive at the post office, arrive at the address, and get approved within 5 minutes, but Connor figured he could pack anyway. It's not like being prepared ever hurt anyone, he reasoned. Part of the reason he was packing already was because he wanted OUT. He had a nice life, and a nice family, but every day was the same. Get up. Go to school. Come home from school. Read. Go to bed. He figured the best way to break the monotony was to go someplace wildly different; that was why he wanted to become an exchange student.

Besides, how hard could learning a new language really be?

Twilight was reorganizing the books in her library. She figured that all the books were not very useful if she couldn't find the ones she wanted; for example, when she had been searching for the book about the elements of harmony, she couldn't find it, until Pinkie had found it, stating "It was under 'E'!" So now she was organizing them by subject instead of title. She had tried by author, size and even by color; okay, not that great and What was I thinking, in that order. She had Spike helping him as well. Spike did not seem to know where she wanted the books to be shelved, so she had to keep reminding him things like 'non-fiction on this side, fiction over there'. "You never told me that," he would say, and eventually Twilight realized that she had gotten so absorbed by what she was doing that she really hadn't told him where the books were supposed to go in the first place.

As she now thought in her head where she was going to have to shave off time in her schedule to explain to Spike where she wanted the books, there was a knock on the door. "For the last time, this is a PUBLIC library!" Twilight groaned.

After a brief pause, a familiar voice answered, "...so is the door open?"

She facehoofed and said, "Yes..." The door opened and in stepped a mint-colored unicorn. It was Lyra Heartstrings. "Oh, hello Lyra. What can I do for you?" said Twilight. Lyra grinned and said, "Did you get the newest book about humans?"

Twi rolled her eyes and responded, "Yes, of course. You know where the mythology section is." "Hey, two things," said Lyra, a little annoyed. "First, there are definitely humans out there somewhere, we just have to find them! Second, I really don't know where the mythology section is because you just go and put the books wherever you want, at random!"

"I don't do this at random!" retorted Twilight. Then she thought for a second and said, "Do I?"

"Yes..." mumbled Spike, just loud enough for them to hear. "I don't see you shelving Spike," she said. "Remember..." "Yeah, yeah, I know, 'books on the shelves so the customers can help themselves." he said, then added quietly, "it's so lame..."

"Anyway, the Mythology section is over there now," Twilight told Lyra. "Thanks, but are you going to ever put those books with the other creature books? You know, like with the Minotaurs and stuff?" she asked. Twi thought for a moment, and came up with an idea that would satisfy Lyra and her human obsession. "Tell you what, if you can ever manage to get a human to walk through that door," she said, pointing at the front door, "then I will personally make room in the Zoology section for humans. How does that sound?" "Great! I'll just grab my book and be on my way!" grinned Lyra.

As Lyra finally left, Twilight chuckled and got back to work. She would hold up on that promise, but it was very unlikely that humans really did exist. Even Lyra knew that, she was just joking around. After all, weren't they just an old, obscure fairy tale?