The Final Run

• Vaidehi Sankar, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2022

I can’t believe it was finally happening, the last week, the final run at the school. Seven years at the great and mighty Ashgrove State School were nearly over. It was all starting to feel real, and I didn’t know how to react. After only a few days it would be over, it felt like the last month had gone by in a flash, and I couldn’t stand for that last bell to ring.

Graduation was the first of our goodbyes. We hid our sadness for the photos and laughed along with other classes while they danced. We proudly wore our school emblem and received our certificates, we even sang our farewell song, with a smile. Though we still had more time we couldn’t accept this was one of our last days as a cohort. Throughout this year we didn’t realise how fast time was going.

Even with the sadness, we all felt, everyone was buckled up and ready for “Wet and Wild”. The tiresome bus ride gave us time to talk to our friends and of course sing a few songs. Everyone was still tired from the night before but the excitement of it took over. Once we arrived, we spilt into small groups to spend some quality time with our friends. We screamed and laughed and talked all day long and had the time of our life. On the bus ride home everyone was starting to realise, it was nearly finished. How do you react to leaving your closest friends forever?

We knew we had to spend the last day doing what we loved. ‘Capture the flag’ always brought out the worst for people in our class, even if there was never a real winner. We went across the school signing our yearbooks and in every classroom, we entered a new memory came into my head; when we had to hide in a classroom when there was a lockdown but all of us kept talking, the science fair me and my friend attempted to win, when me and my friends tried to sue our year four teacher. Even memories from this year came flooding back into my head. So much time had passed in a click of a finger.

The morning session was lived to its fullest and the afternoon was going to be emotional. It was the final assembly forever. We patiently listened to our principal and saw teachers we knew for our whole life retire or move to another school. It was happening and we had to accept it. We reminisced over memories shared by the teachers and sang some meaningful Christmas Carols our music teacher had taught us years before, it was time to finally end our school year. As the bell rang, we all throw our hats in the air and knew this was the end of the affair.