Pandemic Anecdotes

Chapter 2

8th of March, 2020

I just finished some requirements needed for the prom. Well, sort of finished since I couldn't seem to find a proper tie. Everything was just as normal when I decided to check my phone for a while. In all of my inboxes, one of the messages was from Emma, the girl from the prom partner-up.

"Hey, I'm from the Prom Partner-Up last time. Just last night, I had a good chat with the other partner so I was hoping if we too do, to be fair."
- Emma at 9:15 A.M.

I jumped at the chance to talk to her again and... it was amazing. She let me know that she was a bookworm, loves to collect items and such. Of course, I too was a bookworm with genres Fantasy and Mystery to be precise. It was the best two hours one could ever imagine. And even if no one else could think about it, talking to someone whether physically or online, gives off a wonderful start of a good friendship. While the talk goes on, Mother seemed to see me in my happy place and gave me a scrumptious brunch of eggs, bacons and waffles, along with chicken soup and grilled porkchops. What a day to begin with.

Not a moment after, James called me. James is a childhood friend of mine, we knew one another way back since we were kids. He acknowledged about keeping majority of his secrets to me and I to him. Anyways, he told me that he had a problem with Tim, stating about actually backstabbing him by revealing to his ex about a certain toxicness just to get out of his own mess. I didn't much noticed about it because of the way he well-treated my friendship. He also told me that Tim might also have a certain problem when it comes to having too much fun. He can be offensive, immature, and downright just uncontrollable. After the call, my preparation goes on.

As I fix up my tuxedo for the Promenade, I turn up the news about a certain virus coming in to the country and having a first number of local cases. It gets worse for some reason that the government was already "assessing the situation regarding to the matter" despite having no such announcement said later on. If this would be cancelled, I'd rather call up the school, retrieve my payments, and not rather sue since I've been loyal to the school.

A few minutes later Bryan, another childhood friend, texted me. And the conversation went like this:

BRYAN: YOO, HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS?

JONATHAN: Yeah, what's with the Caps Lock?

BRYAN: I accidentally left on Caps Lock.

JONATHAN: Well, what are the chances? The moment I am preparing for the night to remember is the moment I've learned from the news about this covid madness.

BRYAN: NO, YOU DIMWIT! THE NEWS ABOUT THE NIGHT TO REMEMBER, IT WILL BE CANCELLED!

JONATHAN: What?

BRYAN: Yeah, the school announced just this time.

I opened my laptop, go to three places, which are class chats, and the school page and my friend is right. What follows is what shocked me:

Dear fellow students,

We personally regret to inform you that due to the circumstances of the COVID-19 Pandemic, our JS Promenade would be cancelled for the time being until further notice.

We're really sorry about that.

That's a real bummer for one to prepare for this memorable occasion only to be crashed by COVID. Thanks, carelessness. Anywho, just a few moments after my tyrade about the sudden cancellation, I fell asleep, like knocked out asleep. So much so, my conscience had finally let go of my decisions to actually go out anyways. Whatever I may face in the next days would be my anxiety to the world. It would suck that this would change me entirely.