Daniel's 10th Birthday

• Michael Aranha, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2020

Daniel’s 10th Birthday

Today is Daniel the dragon’s 10th birthday! Daniel lives in a gigantic cave in Dragon village. For some reason Daniel is in a very grumpy mood today. Ah, I know why! He can’t celebrate his 10th birthday because the Dracoronavirus is out roaming the streets like a vicious wolf hunting its prey.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Daniel received a message from one of his friends asking him to use the Zoom-app on his Dragon-pad. “We are waiting,” flashed the message on his Dragon-pad. Daniel remembered that he had downloaded the Zoom-app a few days ago, but did not get the chance to use it. He scampered over to his dragon-computer and switched it on with a flick of his long, sharp talon. Zoom opened up and the meeting began. Immediately Daniel recognised his friends who popped up in individual boxes on the screen. His heart nearly leaped out of his chest with joy as he had not seen them for a whole month! Dracoronavirus isolation by itself was horrible, but it was even more terrible that little dragon school had to shut down. However, this meant that everyone would be safe from the deadly contagious illness in their little village.

One by one, each of Daniel’s friends joined the meeting. Then after everyone sang ‘happy birthday’ to Daniel, they each ate their own home-made cakes, which their mums had baked that morning. Before long Daniel forgot all about his grumpy mood and enjoyed his friends’ company while they played online dragon chess, shell shockers and joked about. That day Daniel had the most fun he had ever had in the whole year, playing with his friends online. The little dragons all decided to celebrate their birthday parties online until school reopened. They could all still have fun and play games while eating their favourite flavoured cake. From then onwards Daniel was never lonely anymore because he still had the opportunity to play with his friends whenever he wanted.