A NEVER ENDING STORY

Nisrine Dabach Ghita El Boukfaoui Charlotte Pluvinage

Dear diary, 

Well, I don’t know where to start. I’m very confused nowadays. And I found you lying on my study table unobserved. I have heard people sharing their thoughts in their diaries but I am not sure from where to start. Let’s try…
So diary…
I’m Jane Walker from Los Angeles, 17 years old, studying in senior high school. The prom is in two weeks!!! And I’m so excited for that. My mom was always telling me that it was one of the coolest moments of high school, may her soul rest in peace. Yes, she died six years ago because of the pandemic that began touching the whole world in 2020 .It killed almost half of the population, they said. I don’t really know what to think about it. For my entire life, everyone has been wearing masks, respecting social distancing,It became a routine and some people can even say that leaving without our masks is nearly worse than leaving without our socks. Can you imagine?

I don’t even know how it is to be close to someone. My best friend Peter said that if you're less than a meter away from someone, you would be able to see his nose hair...disgusting ! The only one person I am able to take in my arms is my father. My super busy father. I rarely see him as he is never at home. He is someone that we can qualify as the right hand of the California governor. Oh and did I mention that it was prom soon? Oh my god, I can’t wait! 

     9:09 PM- Tuesday, April the 6th, 2100. 

My prom dress

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Dear diary, 

At the time that I’m writing right now, I’m on my couch, looking at my mom’s prom dress. It’s a red one, the kind of dress that makes you one of those shapes that makes everyone believe that you’re so fit and that you go to the gym twice a day, it is THE perfect prom dress. I found a little round box with pictures of my mom in her room, but some of them really made me ask myself many questions and god knows that I’m an overthinker. There was one where my mom was at a party, kissing a guy who I’m pretty sure is not my father. Anyways, there was another one where she was giving a hug to her four best friends. I know what you are thinking : “Why are you stressing, Jane? It’s cool.” But the fact is that absolutely nothing is “cool”. Look at her, look at the masks and the social distancing that are missing. What is she doing? Is mom crazy? Or, does she want to die? Go to jail? I don’t really know.

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So I decided to call my bestfriend Peter and tell him that there was something wrong, something that our parents didn’t tell us. But you'll never guess what he did: he laughed at me ! I was really serious and he laughed at me and even said that I was drunk.

11: 49 PM- Friday, April the 9th, 2100.

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Dear diary, 

I really need answers, I can’t stay like this. So when I heard the sound of the keys in the lock, I went straight to the door and let it all go, right in front of my dad…
who wasn't even listening, too busy talking on the phone. Not even 10 minutes later, he left again. However, this time, it was weird: my dad left the door of his office open. I think you don’t understand. I’m seventeen and it’s the first time of my entire life that this happens.

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Common sense told me to immediately close the door, but common sense forgot that I was completely lost, common sense forgot that I really needed to know what was going wrong. So I literally ran to his computer that took me ten minutes to open- seriously dad, my birth date?-Too basic. Duh !
I only had the time to find where he was classifying his work files and send a copy to myself when someone suddenly closed the computer. Oooops. I think dad was angry. Never mind, I showed him the second picture of my mom- the one with the girls. Then, silence, dad was quiet, too quiet. I was sure of it: he didn’t say anything. His face quickly became red and that was the moment he chose to start yelling at me as if I was doing some grave illegal act, to never tell anyone, NOBODY about what I discovered.Through his anger he became increasingly anxious.I've never seen him like that ever in my whole entire life. I, however, tried talking some sense to him and explained the situation and all of my doubts. But stubborn as he is, he cut short the discussion, grounded me in my

bedroom and forbade me to talk or ever continue talking about it. He said that if I began digging and searching answers to my questions, it could be extremely dangerous for the both of us. 
Oh daddy, you just roused my curiosity. So I directly went to my room, opened my computer and began reading, seeing everything… oh...my...god...

6:12 PM- Sunday, April the 11th, 2100.

Dear diary, 

Today you’ll discover a new jane. A Jane that no longer has trust in anyone. A Jane not only doubting herself but her own flesh and blood. Doubting her only family left , doubting her dad. A week ago today, I discovered odd things about our world.

Things that aroused my curiosity like nothing ever did before. On top of that my dad’s reaction pushed that curiosity to a level I have never known it could be reached in a lifetime. Thus this week has been not only insightful but exhausting mentaly and physically. Discovering that my entire existence and other people's were based on a complete lie is outraging to me. For days and nights I hadn't stopped searching. I dug deeper and deeper into the classified files that I transferred from my dad's computer the week before. Therefore, I took the responsibility to make a change and organize reprisals against a state that deluded its entire citizens by making them think that the pandemic wasn’t over. I am determined to put my plan into action, and I think I'll do it in a few days, during Prom actually. I'll use this event even though it will still be monitored by the police patrols, to extract people from their ignorance and find a way out from a secretly oppressive state.

11:32PM- Sunday, April the 18th, 2100.

Dear diary,

YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED! 
Let’s start from the beginning of this hectic and overwhelming day, full of unbelievable turns of events. Prom day came by so quickly, I started freaking out a bit. I wasn't sure if I made the right choice by choosing to reveal the states’ betrayal to everyone in my school. Being too afraid of the repercussions, I had second thoughts and truly second guessed my decision. Thankfully I didn't back out and prepared what I would say on that dreaded day. Finally prom came, I wore my mother’s gorgeous prom dress and went out with Peter as my date, only as friends of course. It wasn’t a surprise that my dad wasn’t home during prom day to take pictures of me and my bestfriend which made me feel extremely neglected by him, therefore I was a little tense, and Peter could sense it. As we entered the school, police officers were everywhere, usually it wouldn’t bother me that much but by knowing what I knew, I felt oppressed and constantly observed.

Dear diary,

YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED! 
Let’s start from the beginning of this hectic and overwhelming day, full of unbelievable turns of events. Prom day came by so quickly, I started freaking out a bit. I wasn't sure if I made the right choice by choosing to reveal the states’ betrayal to everyone in my school. Being too afraid of the repercussions, I had second thoughts and truly second guessed my decision. Thankfully I didn't back out and prepared what I would say on that dreaded day. Finally prom came, I wore my mother’s gorgeous prom dress and went out with Peter as my date, only as friends of course. It wasn’t a surprise that my dad wasn’t home during prom day to take pictures of me and my bestfriend which made me feel extremely neglected by him, therefore I was a little tense, and Peter could sense it. As we entered the school, police officers were everywhere, usually it wouldn’t bother me that much but by knowing what I knew, I felt oppressed and constantly observed.

If I remember correctly there were about 20 police officers, all of them having guns and batons attached to their belts.For a joyful gathering especially with minors in the building seems very extreme and absurd to me. I pointed that out to Peter while walking and he agreed with me. Finally we arrived at the gym that had been decorated for the event, music was loud but not as loud as i thought it would be, mmmmmh it must have been a rule set by the policeman there. Anyway, i enjoyed the first hour with my friends. We danced and sang wayyy too loud, it was so fun but if only i knew what would happen next. Despite that brief and delighting moment, I knew that I'd in a way ruin it. I decided to make a move when they called the prom queen to the stage and interfered by taking the mike and talking. I started by apologizing to everyone and then got right to the real deal.I began explaining that all of our lives were based on a lie, that being quarantined from other countries and even other states of our own country is not justifiable at all, considering that there’s no pandemic.