Student Exemplar

A futuristic COVID19 Story by Ash which he used as 

part of his portfolio for expressive writing.

A warning for us all.

It was a cold windy night with tiny stones hitting the window. Emma quietly talks to her father “Dad can you read us a bedtime story?”Her father quietly replies “which story would you like me to tell you?” Emma and her older sister Isabel excitedly respond “ the one about the covid 19!” Slowly looking down at the ground about his regrets, “ok my young children just this once” he says.. 

It was a lovely sunny morning, when Jeremy woke up and heard the birds chirping. All of a  sudden, the birds went dormant and all he could hear was the t.v blaring in the lounge talking about the covid 19. As Jeremy slowly steps out of bed, exposing his pjs, he grabs his phone from underneath his pillow and starts to slowly waddle his way to the lounge. Jeremy stands in front of the couch and flops backwards, unmotivated to start the day. As he sits on the couch he grabs the remote and turns it up to 25%. Jeremy watches the news, and as time flies by he quickly rushes to the shower. After his shower he glanced at his phone, quickly realizing he's late for school. As he rushes out the door leaving the t.v on, the news reporter  saying,“please stay inside schools are currently cancelled” fades into the background. 

As Jeremy runs as fast as he can down the long stretch of road,  his bag bouncing up and down his back, he is unaware that there's no one on the road. Jeremy finally makes it to the steep hill. Running down it he feels like his feet are slipping underneath him, so he starts digging his heels into the ground, trying to get a grip as he slowly gets to the bottom. Finally hitting the lights and smashing the button with the palm of his hand, he catches his breath and waits. Now he realizes that there is hardly anyone on the road, even for this time of the morning. As the lights turn green he starts to sprint to school not stopping for anything.  One person screams out loud “run forest run!”.Jeremy checks his phone while running and he is 2 minutes late. 

As he gets to the last corner the bell rings for the class to start learning, but as soon as he gets there the doors are locked and there is no one to be seen.  He smashes his hands on the door, trying to see if anyone is there but no one is answering.  Jeremy thought maybe his phone clock was ahead and he was early, but that can't be true  as his parents would have left home too early. Jeremy dials his phone to call his mother but it goes to message bank straight away. So then he dials his Dad's phone.   His dad picks up the phone and gives an angry answer. “What is it Jeremy? I’m really busy”.Scared, Jeremy replies  “ Dad what's happened? My school isn't open”  Irritated even more, his Dad says“ do you ever think of waking up early and listening to the news? Your g** d### school is closed, so go home and wait for your teachers to call you”.

As days go by Jeremy does his work but he starts to get sick of what  he's doing. Jeremy realises he’s missing his friends, so he calls his best mate.“ Hey man wanna hang out right now?, i'm really p##### off with this work”.His mate replies with just a little cough “sure man why not”. 

As Jeremy and his mate meet up at the shops not far from his mates house, they shake hands. He asks “what’s with this stupid covid 19 s@@@?” His mate responds “ Apparently what I’ve heard is that people are dying from it”. Jeremy looks back with a confused grin “that's impossible there's no way it's just a cold” His mate glances back at him nervously “ it's not just a cold it's a full on virus. I'm sorry Jeremy, I have to go home”. As Jeremy watches his mate walk away,  his mate suddenly bumps into a random person that  is  coughing everywhere. Jeremy’s mate said sorry to the guy he bumped into and continues walking home.  Jeremy decides to go home and continue his school work, not thinking twice about the incident

As days pass by, (20 days to be exact) Jeremy tries to call his mate. There is no answer so Jeremy continues his work, waiting a little longer. 2 hours passed by, and Jeremy called again, but still no answer. “Hmm maybe his phone is dead” Jeremy wonders. As it was a warm morning he decided to go out the back and do a little bit of an exercise.  As soon as he is done and gets inside, he turns on the t.v. Hearing more people are dying from this virus, he quickly grabs his phone from the room and starts calling his mates number. The phone starts ringing still no answer, so panicking, Jeremy calls his mates mum. As his mate's mum picks up he rushes into the conversation “why isn't Brock answering my phone call?”  The mum starts crying heavily, balling her eyes out.  Jeremy realises something is wrong. “I'm so sorry are you ok?” She replies “Jeremy he, he’s dead. The doctors said it’s from the virus”. As Jeremy’s emotions kick in he starts to cry. cared, he drops his phone, making a loud cracking sound. Jeremy slowly drops to the ground, curling up into a ball, crying like he’s never cried before. As Jeremy slowly reaches for his broken phone, he replies with a horrid, crying, scared voice “I'm sorry I have to go”. 

As Jeremy realises he touched his hands with his mate, he runs to the bathroom cleaning his hands and rubbing sanitizer over his hands. Jeremy then bolts to his parents room grabbing the face mask and wearing it every day. As more days pass by the funeral is being organised. As a few more days pass by, Jeremy starts to get ready to head to the funeral. As minutes pass by, Jeremy can't handle it all. He leaves and starts to run, never stopping, as he thinks about what just happened.

1 week later it was time for Jeremy to go back to school.  It was a struggle as he walked to school, all of his memories with Brock starts flashing in his mind, making it harder for him. As soon he gets to the front door the last memory he has of him disappears. He drops to the ground crying, as the rest of his mates pick him up and walk with him through the door. 

As the young girls start dozing off Emma says with a weak voice “Dad what happened with Jeremy?” 

“Well he grew up, got married and had 2 lovely girls”.