I Promise

• Sarah Moyle, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

"I, April - May declare that I'm not going to tell anyone about your secret".
Hi, I'm April and I just told my BFFL (Best Friend For Life) that I won't say who she has a crush on, but seriously she shouldn't have told me because I am known as the gossip queen. I'm not the most popular person at school but I'm not one of those nerdy kids that get bullied, I classify myself as "middle class" as I'm not popular but I'm not a low life that gets picked on. Sometimes I have conversations with popular people but that's not relevant. What's relevant is the fact that I have a HUGE math test next period and guess what, I DIDN'T STUDY. I guess I'll be using my free period to study. Knowing my luck I'll fail but I need to at least try. I find a lot of things dumb at school and tests are one, I really hate doing them. My brain shuts off when I start and I can't remember a thing I learnt, even though I'm smart.

Here comes the dreaded third period, Maths. Butterflies form in my stomach and I'm so nervous, but it's all fresh in my brain. Mr Cholaine (pronounced Chew-lane) gives me my test. OH MY GOSH! its FIVE pages. You heard me right FIVE pages. Who gives out a five page test on a friday afternoon? I guess he does. After what feels like an eternity, it was over, yep I finished my test FULL confidence. ‘I AM GOING TO PASS’………… I hope so.

What's that sound? Its the bell. Finally home time, why was today so hard? Of course the moment I enter the car these exact words will come out of mum's mouth " How was your day honey". I hate getting asked that question. It's like can you ask any other question? What do you want for dinner? Do you need anything from the shops? Like why does it have to be “how was your day honey?”. But that's not the only thing that annoys me, there is one other person, my younger brother. If you want to know his name is Mason but he should be called “devil”. He isn't diagnosed with any disabilities but both mum and I know something’s up. It's the way he acts. We think he has ADHD but only the doctor will tell us for sure. You might be wondering, why haven't we taken him to a doctor? It's because my mum can’t afford it, her medicare card expired and she can't renew it, so doctors and medicine are too expensive, so we just deal with it. We shouldn't be in a rough patch for long, dad’s landing a big deal at his company and if it goes through then he gets a promotion and all is good. But if he doesn't then he is fired and we are most likely to be living on the streets. So let's hope that doesn't happen.