My School, a short story by Feifei Wan, 9

Even though the pandemic is still here, it doesn’t stop me from going to my school every day.

This Sunday, just like any other day, my mom and I decided to ride our bikes. While we were passing by a small pond near the school driveway, we saw a toad! The trick to spot a toad is to make sure the sun is out. It was a warm and sunny day. The toad whom I call Mr. Grogg was just like an old friend waiting for us to visit on the bank. Not far away from the pond, surprisingly, the cherry blossoms had bloomed a lot over the past week. Because the flowers were too beautiful to ignore, we took a lot of pictures. My favorite picture was the one where my mom and I did the photobomb. Even though my mom was in the background, I could still see her big smile. Our next stop was the grass field. There were a bunch of little daisies sparkling in the sun. I wish we could have taken more photos with the beautiful flowers, but I didn’t forget that our original plan was to get some exercise and enjoy the sun. So here we go! Our bike rides, one lap, two laps, three laps...... I felt so happy that spring was here!

It was Monday, but not a normal Monday. My school was open for K-2 for the first day of hybrid learning! It was so exciting since we have been studying on a computer for a whole year. Even though I am a 3rd grader, I was so happy for the lower grades that I decided to walk to school during my lunch break. Guess what I saw? A busy school with parents picking up their kids. Teachers were giving directions to the kids to find their parents. Kids were running up to the parents and kept talking. Some people were taking pictures of their kids in front of the entrance to memorize this special day. And there was the bright yellow school bus picking up kids to go home. I felt happy and sad at the same time. I was happy because, finally, the kids were going back to their classrooms to meet friends and teachers. I was sad because I also wanted to be there in a BIG classroom with my backpack on my back.

Tuesday was different. We didn’t even go to school because I went to my friend’s backyard to play in a bouncing house. But don’t worry, we caught up on Wednesday. There was no school so we got a good chance to take a window visit. It is so cool that each class has its own entrance. Teachers used chalk art and made cute arrows to guide students to keep their distance while entering the classroom. It was so kind and warm. What impressed me the most was in each classroom there were more desks and chairs than I expected. I thought it might only be a few sets since a lot of kids are still learning online like me, but surprisingly there were more than 10 almost in all the rooms we could see. It looked cool and full of hope. I could imagine myself sitting in the class and doing my math worksheet in the Fall. When we were walking back home, there were just so many plans for school days in my mind, and I wanted to say “Wait for me, my dear school!”

Thursday my mom and I didn't go to school either. We just walked around the neighborhood. It’s like all the even numbered days we don’t walk to school. Tuesday stands for 2 and Thursday stands for 4! So we had to take the school walk no matter what on Friday. It was a beautiful day outside with a few clouds, but mostly a light blue sky. On the sidewalk, I found so many dandelions! My mom told me a saying that if you make a wish and blow your dandelions in one whip, your wish will come true. So I tried my best...whoooooooooosh...all the little feathers flew into the air like little ballerinas dancing in the sky. This was not the only excitement; we met Mr. Grogg and his son in the pond! They were sitting together in the shining bright sun. Wait, was that snow falling? Oh, NO! That was just flower petals blown from cherry blossom trees. Everything is growing in spring. Kids started to come out to play in the school playground. I saw them playing on the basketball court, sliding down from the slides and swinging in the high swings. What a perfect Friday, not to mention my favorite show would be on at night. Yay!

Saturday was another perfect day to go on a bike ride. Different from the weekdays, I got to go bike riding with my friends! We first started the ride around the front parking lot of our school. “Click, Click, Clack, Click, Click, Clack...” I could hear my bike chain making sounds while I was pedaling hard. The boys pretended this was a race. They went at a turbo speed to beat us, the girls. But it seemed like we didn’t care at all. While we enjoyed talking about random stuff, we finally crossed the finish line even though it wasn’t a race :). The boys decided to run a few more laps while my friend and I found something more interesting. We went onto the green grass and I watched my friend do a bunch of super gymnastics moves. We even created a cool handstand giggly wiggly dance. Everyone laughed so hard that, basically, all the kids came to join the game. This was the BEST afternoon of all time.

Even though it might be a difficult time in the pandemic, if we wear a mask, and keep our distance, it will still feel like how it was before—full of friendship and hope.

THE END