Ashley came home from school excited. She knew that there would be another letter for her in the post today. When she got home, she ran up the stairs as quickly as possible to get to her room. Indeed, there was a letter addressed to her on her desk. Excited, she took it and opened it neatly. With slightly trembling hands she carefully took the letter out of the envelope, slowly unfolded it, threw herself on her bed and read it.
When she was about halfway through the letter, her mother stepped into the room.

"Honey, I've been calling you for 10 minutes, but you seem to be on your ears."
Said her mother a little angry.
"Only 5 more minutes Mum, then I'll come down to eat, I promise."
Ashley's mother saw the letter and sighed.
"As much as you two write to each other, it will probably take more than 5 minutes. Please come with me now, otherwise the food will be cold. After all, you can read the letter later.""Mom .. just ..."
"No, honey, don't argue. You come with me right now. You know that your father doesn't start eating until everyone is seated at the table."
She interrupted her daughter.
Ashley muttered something unintelligible, reluctantly put the letter aside and followed her mother downstairs.

Everyone sat down and Ashley and her father began to eat. Meanwhile, her mother was feeding her brother Josh.
Josh was now 1 ½ years old and Ashley, who is already 17, had actually thought she would remain an only child. She had gotten used to the idea, but Josh came into her life a year and a half ago. At first she was pretty jealous of her little brother for being so cared for, but now she loves him and is proud to have him. Since Ashley had to take care of him a lot, because her parents wanted to go out to eat or something, the thanks for that was that 'Ashley' was Josh's first word. To be more precise, Josh said something like "Ashey", but she could deduce that he meant her because he often had trouble speaking an 'L'.The time they spent together welded them together very much.
There was a long silence, only the cutlery jingled and Josh smacked his lips.
Finally Ashley broke the silence.

"Mum?"
She asked carefully.
"Yes, darling?"
"It's summer vacation in 3 weeks and I was wondering if I could fly abroad for 2 weeks."
She already saw her mother's expression and how her gaze wandered to Ashley's father, so she continued to pursue it.
"Oh please, please Mum. Everyone in my class is going abroad somewhere and I don't want to spend my entire summer vacation here at home."
She looked intently at her mother.
She just took a deep breath and then finally said.
"Okay ... but, I don't want you to drive alone. Maybe someone in your class would like it. But ... maybe we should ask your father for his opinion as well."
He lifted his head, looked alternately from his wife, to his daughter and then back to his wife, and said."That's fine, if it shouldn't be too expensive."
And then he continued to eat.
"Thanks for your contribution, honey."
Ashley's mother said ironically.
It had annoyed her for a long time that he didn't really participate in something like this.
Ashley, however, was very happy, so she got up, hugged her father, gave him a kiss on the cheek and she did the same with her mother.
Josh watched the show and started crying when Ashley was about to sit down again.
"Oh ... I'm sorry brother, you too, of course.
So she went to him too and gave him a particularly big peck on the cheek. Then he stopped and laughed again.
Finally her mother asked.
"Where do you want to go anyway? We'd have to book soon. And have you already thought about who to take with you?"
She answered cheerfully.
"Hmm .. well I heard that Bulgaria should be very beautiful. And as luck would have it, I also have a holiday catalog upstairs in my room."A mischievous grin spread across her lips.
So her mother knew straight away that Ashley hadn't just thought of it while eating, but had been planning to do it all along.
"Oh yes, and I'd take Rachel with me. You should have guessed that, Mum .. she's my best friend after all."
Ashley replied.
"Yes .. of course .. but it could just as well have been that she was going away. All right, we'll go to the travel agency tomorrow morning. The best thing to do is call Rachel right away and let her know, then we can together there."
Ashley nodded happily, put her plate in the dishwasher and said.
"I'll go back to my room then."

And already she hurried to her room.
Actually she wanted to finish reading her letter, but she realized that it was more important to call her friend and give her this good news. She picked up the phone and dialed Rachel's number."Hy Rachel! It's Ash."
"Hy! What's up?"
"About our trip we had planned. My parents agree and we would go to the travel agency first thing in the morning. Is that ok?"
"That's great."
Rachel was happy.
"Yes, that's no problem. You can pick me up, right ?!"
"Yes of course."
Rachel wanted to talk to Ashley about so many things, but Ashley pushed a little so that she could continue reading her letter.
And so the conversation broke off after 5 minutes.
As soon as Ashley hung up the phone, she dived over to her bed.
Full of tension she immersed herself completely in her letter.

The letters that she eagerly awaits every week were from her pen pal.
She had met him in a chat and immediately found him likeable. His name was Matt and he was 2 years older than Ashley. He described himself to her with short dark blonde hair and brown eyes. He typed his height at 1.82 m, but did not know exactly because he has not been measured for a long time.Since he only had the Internet for a certain period of time, he suggested that she start a pen pal. She was for it immediately and they have been writing back and forth for 3 months. During this time she was able to get to know Matt well. She doesn't want to fully admit it yet, but she has fallen a little in love with him. Both have never seen any photos of each other, Ashley has always been against it, but she didn't want to tell him why.

Ashley slowly approached the last lines of the letter, which began with 'Looking forward to an answer! Until then Matt 'ended. But she discovered another P.S. on the back of the letter.
'I know you don't really want that, but I enclosed a photo of myself for you anyway. Then at least you will know what the guy you're talking to here looks like. A small winking smiley was painted next to it.
"A photo?"
She was startled, but looked again at all pages.
"But there's no photo here at all."Wounded about it, she looked around her rather large room. Then she discovered the envelope she had left on the desk.
Ashley slowly got up and walked over to the desk. When she was about to take the envelope, she only noticed how her whole body began to tremble.
"II can't ... on the other hand, he'll probably expect me to text him how I find him. What do I do now ?!"
Desperately, she looked around her room one more time.
"Apparently there is no way around it. Ok Ashley .. you can do it .. it's just a photo."
Encouraging herself, she looked in the envelope.
"Shit .. there is actually still something in there."
Still trembling, she took the photo upside down.
She took a deep breath and turned the photo over, but screwed up her eyes.
Determined to trust herself now, she took another deep breath and slowly opened her eyes. At that moment the door opened and her mother poked her head through the door.Ashley turned to her and instantly let the photo disappear behind her back.
"Mum!"
She beeped.
"What else I wanted to say ... are you hiding something behind your back?"
She eyed her daughter suspiciously.
"What ?! But no .. what should I hide there ?!"
She slipped the photo into her back pocket and then held out her hands.
"You see, I have nothing."
She smiled uncertainly at her mother.
"What did you want right now?"
"Um, I wanted to ask you if we have ever had a passport issued for you ?!"
Ashley pondered briefly.
"Yes, of course. Last year we were abroad from a school trip."
She pulled it out of her desk drawer. Since Ashley was very neat, she found her things quickly.
"Fine, thanks. That's it."
The door closed again.
"Phew ..."
She took the photo back out of her pocket.
"Okay ... but now!"
Before she changed her mind, she finally turned the photo over and took a look at it.She took a closer look and went red in the face.
'As soon as he described himself, I thought he looked good, but I didn't expect that he would look so good right away.'
Ashley sat at her desk, put the photo in front of her and adored it.
"It's just a shame that he lives so far away."
She sighed.
"It will probably never be more than pen-friendship."
But a little sad about it, she put her head in her hands and thought about it.

The next morning she got up early with her mother to pick up Rachel and drive to the travel agency.
"Well ?! Has your sweetheart written you again ?!"
Rachel teased.
Ashley blushed and returned in protest.
"He's not my sweetheart. But if you really want to know ... yes, I got mail from him again yesterday."
"I knew it. You always smile like that when you get mail from him."
She grinned cheekily.
"Y-that's not true at all. What you're saying again.Oh .. we're already at the travel agency. "
Distracted Ashley.
She was a little embarrassed, especially in front of her mother.
Rachel, on the other hand, just had to smile wider because she knew she was right about what she was saying.
At the travel agency, Ashley took out her vacation catalog and showed the travel agent what she and Rachel had in mind.
"So that's where it should go. I'm just going to quickly see if something is still available."
Said the woman kindly.
She quickly typed something into her computer and then clicked through with the mouse.
"Yes, there are still a