"The Coronavirus outbreak seems to engulf 542 more people into its flames. 5 patients died in Veridian city, 9 in Cerulean City, 2 in Pallet town, 4 in..."

I poured cereal into my milk. With sleepy eyes and an irritated expression, I glanced at the television.

"Fucking Virus" I muttered and scooped a spoonful of cereal out of my favorite bowl, into my mouth.

"Why do we have to listen to the news all day long? All they talk about is this nonsense" I yelled frustratedly so that my mom in the kitchen could hear me.

"Because we need to know what's going on around, Misty" my mother spoke in a tired voice.

"Yes, but can -like- give the TV some break, right? You keep it on at all times of the day. Watch movies, binge watch Netflix - why this crap all the time" I replied irritatedly, wailing my arms in the air in order to express my anger.

Rolling her eyes, my mom picked up the remote and switched the television off. "Good?"

"NO! YOUR CRAPPY NEWS RUINED MY MORNING"

➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶

I sighed and pulled the headphones off my head. Rubbing my eyes, I got up from my chair and closed all my books. Utterly tired, I jumped on the bed and closed my eyes for a few couples of minutes.

While I was taking a small rest, my phone chimed beside me, making me flutter my eyes open.

@serenayvonne tagged you in a post.

I clicked on the notification. The cellphone display now reflected a sunset scene at the beach with me and my friends, Serena, May, Dawn, and Iris smiling at the camera as we took a selfie.

A small smile made its way to my lips. I missed this.

From the past two months- ever since the Lockdown was implemented- all I had seen were the walls of my house, my mom, my teachers, and classmates in small 3x2cm boxes on my laptop screen

I yearned to go out- long drives, hangouts at cafés, high school, my part-time job, but I knew I couldn't. It wasn't just my safety, it was for my mom too. And for those hundred people, I could probably infect if I went out and happened to catch corona. But sometimes, I really wanted to be selfish. Break all the rules and go meet my friends. Go to the beach, sit on the rocks, play in the sea waves.

Funny how a thing - not even properly classified as living or non-living - with no motive other than cloning, was taking over the world. Coronavirus had already made history - it shut down many things in many countries which were never closed even in the most adverse situations. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and affected are in millions. Economies are collapsing, areas are being sealed.

And among all these things closing all around the world, I had this little hope that all the online meeting apps and sites would magically shut down too. I was tired of online classes. It rendered me so motiveless that I didn't even feel like binge-watching my favourite shows, or read books or cook and bake.

Now all I did was attend online lectures and sleep and when I was doing neither of the two, I played Snake Squad on Snapchat.

➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶

I didn't realize when I fell asleep. When I woke up, I heard some shuffling noises. I flipped to the other side of the bed, only to see mom working on my laptop. Microsoft office was open on the screen and mom was trying to read the various functions and toolbars present on the screen.

"Mom?" I spoke quietly, however in the dead silence of the room, my voice was loud enough to startle Mumma who seemed to have no idea I was up.

"You scared me" mom spoke with a small laugh, turning on her swivel chair so that she could face me.

"What're you doing?" I asked her, sliding towards the edge of the bed and then getting off it. I stood beside the chair on which mom sitting on.

"Actually, I'll be counseling a boy for the SATs and helping him with English skills for the examination"

"What about your book?" I asked mom.

"Under progress... I have a writer's block, to be honest. I need some fresh air, you know. To write. To think. To be creative, or just motivate myself" mom replied looking out of the window and I nodded my head, empathizing with what mom was going through.

I decided to ask mom about her counseling. "Well, what about the student then?" I asked, changing the focus from the gloom to the extra classes.

"Oh yes. You know, my counseling centre is temporarily closed and they're firing counselors because of the tremendous loss they are facing financially. So, I'm not really sure if I'll still have the job or not— that's why I'm starting this online counseling. Do you think it will work?"

My mom worked at an SAT counseling centre owned by a small businesswoman. The organization was private and not affiliated with any universities, but it was pretty efficient in our locality. However, all businesses were facing losses and they had to fire their employees so that they could keep their business as stable as possible.

I smiled supportively "Of course it will, mom! It won't be so difficult for you to shift online, in addition to that, one-to-one lectures have no disturbance. Also, please don't worry about your job, I know they won't fire you"

I started walking towards the room's exit to get some quick snacks for myself from the kitchen, when I thought of telling mom about my job "And I confirmed at Jacob's, they're not firing anyone. I still have my part-time"

Mom smiled at me. "Want to eat dinner now?"

"I'm starving so bad!"

The two of us immediately got down and I took her seat on the dinner table. I laid the plates down for the two of us.

As mom picked up the vessel from the stove and brought it out, I could sense the aroma of White Sauce Pasta fill the air.

"Presenting you white sauce pasta from Tyrrell's kitchen" mon spoke with some Italian accent to it and placed the vessel down. She looked at the pasta and gave a chef's kiss.

I giggled. "Mom you sound and look so funny when you do that"

Mom gave a small laugh and then served two plates with hot pasta and two pieces of garlic bread.

Mom and I were devouring our meal when mom spoke "Misty, I need you to teach me to use Microsoft Meetings. I don't want to embarrass myself in front of my friend and her son"

"You know the student's mother?" I asked, taking another bite from my plate full of pasta.

"Yes, we were in high school together. We weren't the best of friends, but our friend circle was pretty big, so I know her pretty well" mon explained.

"Have I seen her?" I asked. Mom had shown me many pictures from her school and college days. She loved to collect all the pictures and make scrap books out of them. We had a box full of scrapbooks in the store room. "I mean, in the yearbooks or anywhere"

"Not really, I don't think so" mom replied "I just showed you my best friends— the squad. She's a part of the good friends. Or maybe she was in some of the pictures, but I don't think I spoke much about her to you"

Misty nodded. "Where do they live?"

"Pallet town—"

"Farmers?" I asked instantly. Pallet town was a relatively backward town. They didn't really have this competition for money and power system there. All the people were farmers or old age citizens or retired people who wanted to spend rest of their life in leisure.

"No no" mom replied "They practically own the town. Ketchum Agriculture industry"

"Wow," I spoke in utter shock "That wasn't expected". I didn't really have much information about the company in depth, but she knew a bit about Pallet town. Owning the entire town meant cultivating at least thirty types of different crops. From regular food crops to cash crops and also tea and coffee on the Nothern hills of Palate. Ketchums almost owned two thirds of the town. They employed the original farmers of the place to work for the benefit of the company. The farmers gave the company their produce and in turn, the company gave them money, respected their partial rights over the farmland and provided them with modern equipment to cultivate.

"They must be paying you a lot then" I asked mom in a playful voice.

"Yes, they are paying thrice of what we charge" mom said with a laugh "Robin Ketchum wants his son to get into the best university. For the parents who don't have much or nothing, they try to provide the best for their children. Ketchums have everything, it's quite obvious they will do anything for their son"

"Gives me daddy's prince vibes" Misty teased again, a small smirk on my face.

"Let's see... We'll only get to know the prince after we meet him. Online, of course," mom spoke, and almost deadpanned at the last sentence.

"Spoilt rich brat" I repeated.