Laziness

• Eden Gorry, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2009

Laziness

Thirteen year old Adrian Istratescu has a nasty case of laziness! He won’t do his chores, his homework and won’t even try to walk to the shower or kitchen. Adrian has been kicked out of eight schools, has received a total of twenty-three detentions, sixteen Friday detentions and eight Saturday detentions from his current school. He is always in trouble because of his laziness. Adrian’s room is always messy and the bin, dishwasher and washing are never done. This is an ordinary day at Adrian’s house:

BEEP! BEEP! Chimed the alarm clock at half past six in the morning. From under the blankets a moan sounded as a boy threw the blankets off, got out of bed and fell back into it. He lay there for five minutes and then the alarm sounded again. He got up and walked down the stairs, to the kitchen and sat down at the table. Gesturing at his mother to get the cereal out and a bowl and spoon, the boy sat waiting.
“Adrian get your breakfast yourself, you’re old enough now to feed yourself.” said Adrian’s mother.
“Why am I the slave around here?” murmured Adrian as he blankly got out his bowl and Weet-Bix. After eating half a Weet-Bix, Adrian walked over to his clothes all neat and tidy, nicely ironed and washed. He picked them up, crinkling them as he took them to his room. He threw them on, ignoring the collar sticking up and slid down the rail to down stairs. Adrian grabbed his lunch box and threw it at his bag. He ran upstairs again and turned on his X-Box. After an hour of playing Halo 3, he heard the familiar noise of the bus horn. As slow as a snail, Adrian walked downstairs and picked up his bag, popped his IPOD earphones in and walked into a noisy bus of kids. Making his way down the bus, Adrian saw where his best friend, Eden, was sitting and sat beside him. They both listened to music on the way to school.

“Alright class!” shouted Mrs Oberholzer to Year 8 Geography/History class. “Turn to page twenty-five of your history text book and read the following about the man who invented the paperclip: paragraph four and five, paragraph six and nine.”
Everyone except Adrian opened their book to page twenty-five. Adrian was reading a magazine about BMX sport bikes. He was doing the old hide-the-magazine-behind-the-book routine. Adrian thought Geography/History was boring! Mrs Brown, his English teacher gave Adrian a D.T. for saying “boring”! DING! The bell rang, finally for Adrian, and the class was dismissed for recess, after two hours of work. Five minutes later, Adrian and Eden were walking towards the road, when Adrian stopped to pick up a two dollar coin. Eden was still walking, not knowing a truck was coming at him at fifty kilometres per hour. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!! The truck blew its horn but Eden was in its way. Adrian dived in front of the truck and pushed Eden out of harms way. Then the worst happened. Adrian felt the full force of the truck and was sent flying. Adrian smashed onto the ground twenty metres away, hitting his back on the hot, black road. Eden ran over to Adrian, took his IPhone out and dialled triple zero.

It was all blurry. Lights. Blurry lights. He could make out a fan, a few lights, but they were all blurry. He gained the strength and lifted himself up. He groaned as his leg ached as he tried to get up. He sat up and finally opened his eyes. He could see a broken leg, a hospital bed, a sink and a door opening slowly. He turned his head but it throbbed with pain. He felt his head but he hit bandages instead of hair. A familiar face came in, followed by another and then another and then another. His memory seemed to pour back into his head: his best friend, a two dollar coin, a truck and … He shivered at the thought of this: being smashed into a truck face-on, flying about twenty metres and landing on his back. Then the lights went out. He awoke to find himself in a hospital, surrounded by his best friends. Eden, Jesse, Paul and Mishael surrounded his bed and he smiled. They explained that when he had surgery on his head, which was split open, the doctors replaced his lazy/non-lazy part of the brain. His problem was cured. If only he could say something to them, but the pain took the words and drowned them. Half a year later, Adrian got an A for Maths and English, B+ for Science, Technology and Graphics and Design. Adrian did the kitchen for his parents without complaining and without his parents even asking him to do it! But one thing didn’t change; his addiction to video games lived on, forcing himself to have at least half an hour of video games a day.