It wasn’t long after lunch that we were brought into the gym. Class by class, all four hundred of us. As eighth graders, we got the benches in the back. The sevens were on the floor in front of us, the sixes in front of them and then the fives right in front of the stage.
I watched a couple of fifth graders settling onto the gym floor. They looked so young. It was hard to imagine I was ever that small. The start of fifth grade seemed like a lifetime ago. Now we were at the other end of middle school. In three months our time here would be over, and we would all be going off in different directions and to different high schools. A few eighth graders were even moving away after the school year ended.
Mrs. Reynolds came onto the stage, followed by our vice-principal and then Isaac and Jenna. As student council president and vice-president, they typically sat up there during assemblies. Isaac waved at the crowd as he crossed the stage. There was nothing he liked better than an audience.
Mrs. Reynolds came to the podium. Teachers all over the gym shushed their classes, and soon there was silence.
“Good afternoon, everyone,” she began. “I want to thank you for your quiet and orderly entrance to this emergency assembly.”
Emergency? What was the emergency? I hated emergencies. I hated anything I couldn’t predict. But I suspected I knew what this might be about.
“As you are all aware, there has been growing concern about the spread of a virus that causes a disease known as COVID-19.”
I knew all about this virus. It had become a big part of family discussions at dinner. It was also the reason our vacation had been canceled. I also knew that many of the kids didn’t seem to know much about it. Mrs. Reynolds talked about health officers and government guidelines. Finally she mentioned spring break.
“We have made some changes to the upcoming spring-break schedule.”
The room was suddenly filled with the mumbling of conversation as everyone tried to guess what came next. Mrs. Reynolds stopped talking and waited. She raised a hand, and the gym went silent again.
“As you know, tomorrow was meant to be our last day of school before the break. However, this year the break will start one day early. There will be no school tomorrow.”
A gigantic cheer went up from the students. We were getting an extra day off!
Mrs. Reynolds raised her hand again, and the teachers worked to quiet their classes.
“Everybody, listen!” Miss Fernandez said. “This is important.”
It got quiet again.
“As part of district plans to create more of what they’re calling social or physical distancing, all schools in the area will be closed for three weeks instead of just one.”
The gym erupted in cheers again. Three weeks off!
The principal signaled for silence once more.
“Classes are scheduled to begin again at the beginning of April. Your teachers are working on a plan to make sure you don’t fall behind in your studies.”
This time there wasn’t cheering but multiple muttered conversations around the gym. I wondered if we were going to get homework to do over the extra-long break.
Mrs. Reynolds continued. “Please remember that things could change. I will keep you and your parents informed of details as they become available.”
Her voice sounded shaky. Was she nervous? Standing up there in front of everybody like this would be a little nightmare for me, but it couldn’t be the reason for her. The principal didn’t get nervous, she made other people nervous.
“That is all for now. Thank you. Please return to your classes, where your teachers can answer any questions you may have. Have a great break, everyone.”
“I didn’t see that coming,” Reese said as our class filed out of the gym. “Quite a big surprise.”
“Yeah,” I said.
But it was not a big surprise for me. My father had been filling us in on all sorts of things that were being planned or talked about. Most of it hadn’t seemed real, like closing down schools and even businesses. It wasn’t that I hadn’t believed him, but it hadn’t seemed like something that would actually happen. Now it was real. He was right, and I wished he was wrong.
We got back to class and took our seats.
“Okay,” Miss Fernandez said. “Just to recap. We will be starting our break one day early and will not be returning to school for three full weeks. Questions?”
Hands shot up around the room.
“Why are they doing this?” Sasha asked.
“You heard Mrs. Reynolds mention the terms physical or social distancing? What that means is keeping people apart so they can’t pass on the virus to others if they have it or get it from someone else if they don’t.”
“Does anybody even know someone who has it?” Sasha asked.
“I don’t know if there’s anyone in our town, but I do know there are cases across our country. And in every country.”
“Quinn, your father is a doctor. Is he seeing anybody that has the virus?” Oliver asked.
I had heard my father telling my mother some things, but I wasn’t sure what I should repeat. I tried to keep my answer as general as possible.
“There are some cases at the city hospital. My father has treated them.”
“What? Are you serious?” said Oliver.
Somebody else jumped in. “My mom says there really aren’t that many.”
“And that’s why we’re doing this,” Miss Fernandez said. “By closing schools for a longer break, we can make sure the virus doesn’t get passed around, and try to keep it from getting out of control.”
“I heard it isn’t even that bad,” Darius said. “It’s like the flu.”
“It’s not like the flu,” I said without thinking. Everybody turned toward me. I had no choice but to go on. “People are dying from this.”
“Yeah, well, my grandmother died last year after getting the flu,” said Sam.
“I’m very sorry for your loss, Sam,” Miss Fernandez said, “but I have to agree with Quinn. This is worse than the regular flu.”
Just then Isaac burst in the door. “Woo-hoo! Longer break!”
A couple of the guys cheered, but I didn’t think Isaac got the big response he’d hoped for. Miss Fernandez motioned for him to zip his mouth and pointed to his seat. As he walked to his desk, he and a few of the guys exchanged low fives and fist bumps.
Sam started talking again. “Maybe they should wait until there are more cases and see what happens.”
“That would be bad,” Reese said. “They can’t wait for exponential growth.”
This time everyone turned and stared at Reese. My friend, the math whiz.
“Would you mind explaining what that means to the class, Reese?” Miss Fernandez asked.
“Well, I do love to get all geeky about probability formulas, but the way Quinn explained it to me yesterday is probably easier to understand.”
“Quinn? Do you want to give it a try?” Miss Fernandez asked.
I really didn’t want to, but it seemed like I had no choice. I took a deep breath. “It might be better if I showed you how my dad explained it to me.”
I stood up and walked toward the whiteboard. I picked up a marker and drew a large circle at the top. “Let’s say this is Isaac.”
“That doesn’t look anything like me,” he chirped.
“Isaac, stop,” said Miss Fernandez. “Quinn, please continue.”
I wrote Isaac and COVID-19 in the middle of the circle.
“Let’s say Isaac is infected with the virus.”
“I’m not.”
“But let’s say you are.” I drew four more circles underneath his circle and wrote a name in each—Darius, Noah, Dev and Oliver. Isaac’s buddies.
“You just infected these four.”
“How did he infect us?” Oliver asked.
“All of you touched his hand when he walked in, so now you have it too.”
I wrote COVID-19 in all four circles. Then I drew smaller circles under each to represent the people living in their houses, five under Darius’s name, three under Dev’s circle and two under Oliver’s and Noah’s. We’d all been going to school together for years, so I knew who was in each family.
“And each of you will pass it on to your brothers and sisters and parents.” I wrote COVID-19 in each of the smaller circles.
I kept drawing more and more circles. “And your family members will pass it on to friends, or soccer teammates, or people they work with, or people they meet when they’re out shopping.” Soon there were so many circles that all the blank space on the board was filled.
“Well done, Quinn,” said Miss Fernandez. “As you can see from this great visual, class, one infected person quickly becomes four who become twenty who become seventy. That is exponential growth. Can we get a round of applause for Quinn?”
People clapped as I sat down. I was just relieved to take my seat and get out of the spotlight.
“And what do you think a solution to this type of growth might be?” Miss Fernandez asked.
“Nobody should have any contact with Isaac?” Reese offered.
Everybody, including Isaac, laughed.
“You’re laughing, but that’s exactly what we need to do. By reducing our contact with each other, the hope is that we will stop this virus from spreading exponentially.”
“I still don’t really get it,” Sam said.
“Let’s see if I can explain it another way,” said Miss Fernandez. “I’d like to hire one of you to work for me, doing various chores around my house. You’ll start after breakfast and work until dinnertime. I’m willing to pay you one dollar for your first day.”
“What a rip-off!” Noah yelled.
“But I promise that the next day I’ll double your pay. So you’ll get two dollars.”
“Still no way,” Noah said.
“And each day I will continue to double your pay from the day before. Anybody interested in taking me up on my offer now?”
“How long do you want us to work for you?” I asked. I figured I knew where this was going.
“Three weeks.”
“I’m in. I’ll take the job,” I said.
“That’s a bad move,” said Noah. “You’re basically working for nothing!”
“Actually, Noah, Quinn has made a very good decision. I’ll show you why.”
Miss Fernandez erased all my circle art from the whiteboard and made a grid. There were three rows and seven columns, representing the three weeks. She wrote $1 in the first grid box, then $2, then $4. By the end of the first week, $64 was in the seventh box. In the second week the first grid started with $128 and went to $8,192. The third week began with $16,384. Miss Fernandez kept writing. The class got a bit noisy as students started to understand.
“So even though I started by paying Quinn only one dollar, at the end of three weeks, I will be paying her slightly more than one million dollars for her work that day. That is exponential growth. Do you all understand what it means now?” Miss Fernandez asked.
“It means I’m definitely going to ask Quinn to marry me,” Isaac said.
Some kids gave him the laugh he was after. I gave him a scowl.
“Well, I’m pretty sure Quinn will make another good decision about that,” Miss Fernandez said with a smile. “Any more questions?”
Rachel put her hand up. I was a little surprised. She was nice, but hardly ever spoke up in class.
“This physical distancing or whatever is only going to be for a couple of weeks, right?”
“I can’t imagine it will last any longer than that,” Miss Fernandez said. “But we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Rachel looked less worried, and I felt better too.
“Now gather up your things. And don’t forget to take home some reading material. You’re welcome to borrow anything you like,” said Miss Fernandez, pointing to the shelves of the class library. “I want you all to have a nice, relaxing break. But not too relaxing!”