The clock was ticking by and my heartbeat was rapidly increasing. I could see every student absorbed in his/her test. The teacher was walking to and for to catch anyone who was cheating. It was the day of my "Data Management" mid-term evaluation. Being a Wednesday, I was already fatigued and stressed out about the rest of my exams. I was so busy doing my test that even the slightest noise of the clock ticking was diverting my attention from the test. Then, I heard the speakers screeching like car breaks. Suddenly, Mr. Bar, the school principal, made an announcement to the school stating that there was an important notice that needed to be picked up by all of students and staff. After a minute or two, he made another announcement in which he called all the teachers to the office immediately. We were all pondering and whispering about the unexpected mysterious announcement. I looked at the time; it was around 2.30pm and our testing time was almost over. A last glance at the test reminded me to write the date on the test. I took out my blue lead- pencil and printed the date; April 8, 2003.
Upon hearing the announcement, all the students in the class got excited as well as curious to know what the matter was. While the students were finishing up the tests, our teacher started discussing of what the important news might be. After a few minutes, Mr. Bar's voice was on the speakers again. This one was rather short and precise; he told the whole school to listen to the media tonight. The instant the word "media" was mentioned, it clicked to me that this whole hustle and bustle was about "SARS." Since it was the hot issue at that time, everyone was scared and could only think about that one issue. I was already terrified and did not need to be aware of the fact that one of my classmates was being suspected of this mysterious virus. In about another ten minutes, we wrapped up our tests. It did not take a long time for everyone to leave the class.