petrichor

Red

Natasha

Today was one of the best day Natasha ever had, but it was also the worst one.

The day started off fine. Today was the day she had to join the writing competition that Ms. Bennet told her to participate in. Natasha woke up early, prepared everything she needed such as her notebook, which had the plot of her story in it, and her pencil case. Her mom was downstairs when she had finished taking a shower making breakfast for her.

"How're you feeling?" Vera asked Natasha as she poured ketchup all over her rice and sunny side egg. "Good lah." Natasha replied, days prior to the D-Day, she had already thought of the plot and have already written some of the story down, she felt confident enough at least. "I think my story's coming out nice."

It was Saturday so her mom had the chance to accompany her ride the bus until they reached the place. "You're gonna be great." Vera reassured her when Natasha filled out her name in the reregistration form. There were many people from different schools and all of them looked like they were really prepared. Suddenly, Natasha felt nervous. "Mom, what if I don't do it right?" she asked.

"Hey, don't say that." Vera chided her, "Do you feel like you can win or not?" Natasha half nodded half shook her head, she didn't even expect herself to join these kinds of things had Ms. Bennet not read her story the other day. "Uh, yeah..." she replied. Her mom held her shoulders, "Then you gotta believe you can win, okay?" "Okay..."

Suddenly Ms. Bennet appeared out of nowhere. "Hello, Natasha, are you ready?" she greeted her student. She had the duty today to chaperone Natasha and guide her throughout the competition. Natasha nodded, "Yes, Ms. Bennet." "Good then." her teacher let Natasha said goodbye to her mother first before they part ways, "Don't forget to pray, ya, Tasha." Vera reminded her.

While waiting for the event to start, she tried hard not to focus on other contestants, an advice Ms. Bennet gave her. "Don't look at them, they can destroy your vibe." Natasha said to herself like a mantra. To pass the time, she decided to read her story plot again, trying to make sure she remembered it well as she couldn't bring anything to the competition room except stationeries.

"Remember, Natasha, you only have three hours to write, so make it count." her teacher said when the event was finally starting. "Yeah, okay." she replied. "You have a lively imagination, so I expect your plot to be out of the box. Make your grammar and punctuation right, remember, everything counts."

The duration of how long the contestants were supposed to write was three hours long, but Natasha finished half an hour before and had already edited it several times before finally writing over her pencil writing with a pen. In the end, she felt relieved she had finished but her right hand was also wearied. Natasha thought she would get distracted by other people, but she kept her head down and kept writing.

Waiting for the results to be announced was boring yet it felt like torture to her. Please, just tell us already! Natasha wanted to shout. She felt nervous, would she go home bringing glory or would she leave the site empty handed? At one point, she almost fell asleep before the announcer's voice boomed through the microphone.

"Attention, everyone, attention!"

Natasha's body jerked back up, causing a temporary heart attack. So much for staying calm.

"The judges have determined the winner, but first, let's hear a word or two from them." one by one of the three judges made a speech on the stage in the front, saying how grateful they were for everyone's enthusiastic participation, but Natasha paid no notice, she wanted to know who won already.

Finally, after about five minutes, the judges said they'd announce the winner.

"And now, the third place goes to...contestant number twenty-four, Annelise Knight!"