Nat's Resolutions

Dear Diary, here is my list of New Year’s Resolutions.

1. Exercise. I remember last year when the pandemic started, we were all shut up in our houses for like a few months. I did not do any form of exercise. I had unknowingly put on a few pounds at home. Only found that out when I got back to school.

“Natalie, is it just me or do you look chubbier than before?”

Ugh, that Mr Wiseman is just so trying. I wasn't even that fat. If you’d met me for the first time you wouldn’t even know I’d put on weight, you’d think that I was just a standard skinny-ish mid-sized girl. I’d only put on one dang ounce. I checked! That girl Evans put on much more weight than I did.

  Anyways, I was ridiculed in front of the whole class. Snickering came at me from all sides. Even worse, my best friend, Huey was trying not to laugh. He was just there smiling like an idiot. But he didn't think I was fat; he apparently just thought the whole situation was funny. Blast him.

2. Stop the pranks. Every single time I try something they don’t turn out (except that one time I forged a love note). 

I was really angry at Mr Wiseman then. And I had to give it back to him, didn’t I? 

  He started writing on the board. I kept getting muddled with all the sums and whatnot. After math period, it was locker time. I found a piece of gum and unwrapped it. I chewed vigorously and that guy Huey appeared from behind and tapped me on my shoulder. “Hey Nat, watcha doin’?”, said he and the piece of gum fell out of my mouth! And who would pass by at that exact moment but Big George. He went and reported to a teacher saying I went around purposely spitting gum on the floor.

  So, the teacher called me and I had to go and explain to her that I didn’t do it on purpose and after that, I gave it to Huey.

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had gum in your mouth. You wanna hang out after school?

3. Top up on credit frequently. At around 3.30 pm, I waited for Rosemary and Sav to pick me up. I waited for around 15 minutes and then started to get worried. They would usually be there at school to pick me up five minutes before the bell rang. I plucked my Nokia out of my jean pocket, dialled Rosemary’s number, and waited for her to pick up. But before it rang, a notification popped up. I. Was. Out. Of. Credit. Ding Dang it! There was no way I could contact her now unless she called. A few seconds later, she did.

“Nat, we’re not able to pick you up,”

“Why-”

“We got into an accident and Sav got injured,”

“What?-”

“Go home yourself. You need to… bike-”

And the line went off just like that. So what was I supposed to do? I didn't get to hear much. She mentioned something about a bike. Where was I supposed to get a bike? And I can't even ride a bike. It was getting dark- kind of and I was the only one left on the school grounds- well except Yolk the lizard.

4. Learn to ride a bike. I saw a bike resting on the wall. Without thinking twice, I sped over to it, stopped, and thought twice. This bike didn't belong to me. Was I just going to steal it? I wasn’t in the habit of stealing. But how was I going to get home? 

  I tore out a small piece of paper from my notebook and scribbled my number on it with a pen. I left it on the ground. Taking a huge breath, I mounted and waddled fast. Then, I took another huge breath and pushed off, wobbled and managed to catch my balance. 

  I waddled for a bit then, regaining my confidence, pushed and peddled hard. I was doing it! The bike wobbled quite a lot though. I found it hard to control it. Something got stuck. I was speeding away and from a distance, saw an upcoming bumper. I couldn't stop the dang bike and I literally flew. Of course, I landed in a heap in the middle of the road.

 I got bruised badly and oh, how the dang cut hurt. I tried again but I couldn’t push off. You know what? Screw it. I ended up walking home.

5. Know your medicines. I got home at around 6.15 and Rosemary enveloped me in quite a hug. 

“Why on earth did you get home so late?” she shrieked, squashing my bruises and cut.

“I had to walk home ‘cause I didn’t know how to ride a bike!” I replied.

She looked confused. “Huh?…”

“You told me to ride a bike.”

“No, I didn't. Where’d you get that from?”

“You said Sav got injured.”

“And then I asked you to go to the office and ask one of the teachers for a ride home. Where’d you get the bike story from?”

“I- huh” 

“I bet you got muddled on the phone. We’ll top up the credit soon.” Rosemary took my bag from me and put it in a corner. 

“Thanks-”

“Someone on a bike came swerving past the car just as Sav was getting in. She fell. We had to take her to the clinic to get the cut treated.”

Sav came into the room carrying ointment. “Hi, Nat” she groaned.

“Can I have some of that?” I asked her.

She gave me the ointment and I applied some on my bruises. It was a dull yellow and stung when it touched the cut. 

“Ahh,” I winced.

“Nat you do know that's fertiliser right?”

6. Pay the electric bill. “Why in the world of Life Extention Supplements would you carry FERTILISER?”

“I just used some on the hydroponics.”

“Oh- yeah, right,” I said forgetting.

I washed my cut and gave it proper ointment. I then sat on the sofa with Sav. She threw the TV remote at me and I pressed the ‘on’ button.

“Nice catch,”

“Thanks,”

We flicked through the channels and at last found something to watch.

‘“I trust it to you, Doctor N to take care of it,” said Doctor S, handing Doctor N a case.

As the three agents walked across the road, they were attacked!

A wild person started pelting them with arrows. 

“The case! Run!” Shouted Doctor S.

They fell unconscious and the wild person took the case with a sinister smile on her face.

“Where are we? Let us go!” cried the agents. “Who are you?”

“Speak and you die,” said the wild person pointing an arrow to one of the agent’s throats. “We are peaceful people but your technology is destroying us! You all forget where you once came from; Mother Nature.”

“I’m sorry- we didn’t know-”’

Just then, our programme was cut short. The TV went out and so did the electricity.

“Ugh,” Sav groaned, getting off of the sofa. Then we heard a loud crash followed by a scream. “Rosemary?”

7. Don’t leave each other. We shouldn’t have left Rosemary alone in the kitchen. Sav fumbled about in the drawers and got some torches. We then went into the kitchen and found Rosemary lying on the floor, a shattered dish of sticky rice dessert beside her. A bag of raisins was upset and scattered on the floor as well.

  Sav and I heaved Rosemary up and shuffled over to the sofa. We put her down and checked her pulse. We found a cut on her leg. I guess we’re all cutting ourselves. Just then, we noticed a light outside. Sav left us to go see. And after a few minutes, there was a huge bang.

  I left Rosemary on the sofa and went outside to see.

“Sav?

She was lying on the floor, unconscious. Was she dead? I checked her pulse.

Suddenly, all was fuzzy. Everything was fuzzy… fuzzy…