"When her soul sings"

[November 27th, 2021]

"Last exam and then I'm free." Aurora said with a forced smile as she sat alongside her parents on the breakfast table screeching the plate filled with pancakes with her fork.

Staring at her anxiously, her mother added two more pancakes to her plate giving her the 'death' stare.

"I'm eating..." Aurora said, nervously rolling her eyes.

"No, you're not! No wonder you've turned so pale!" Her mother sternly complained. "Honey, why don't you say anything to her?!"

Her father cleared his throat to show his wife that he is about to nag her as well.

"Aurora..." He said slowly and sternly, looking at his daughter while she nervously sipped water from the glass held tightly within her palms. "Are you dating Sean?" He asked swiftly.

Gulp!

She gulped too much water at once, almost choking on water. She looked at her father with her eyes widely opened.

"He's my..." Aurora cleared her throat before whispering "friend."

"Honey! I told you not to bring this up!" Her mother nagged before sighing sharply.

Aurora quickly stood up leaving her unfinished pancakes to suffer on the table.

"I'm going to school." She said before grabbing her bag and running out of her house swiftly.

She deeply sighed, being flustered and forced to think about what just happened as she slowly walked towards the bus-stop. Upon reaching there, she learnt that the bus hadn't arrived. The roads were filled with feet on unplowed snow. It was her last exam, finally, but the state of the roads looked terrible.

Why wasn't it plowed? She walked down the road to find out another bus-stop, in case they would be plowed. As she walked she heard crippling noises, as if something was breaking. She narrowed her eyes to see a construction site at a small distance. Maybe that's why the road were not plowed. She sighed before grabbing her phone to ask for a ride. She stared at her phone going through contacts,... What was the point?

She put her phone aside in her bag and started to walk again, towards her school. There was still 2 hours to the exam, so she decided to walk around to clear her mind.

The snow wasn't plowed around her area so it was even hard to walk. But she liked the snow. Even though it was cold. Even though her hands were freezing.

Her soul was singing to the winter's call. Beneath the hard framework, lied a warm soul, waiting to embrace somebody's coldness. That's who she was.

Despite being close to the cold truth of life; Death, she was still the warm person inside she had always been. The warm person who couldn't possibly think about dating a friend while she was so near her end.

Of course, some company before the end would be blissful and absolutely beautiful. But, the thought of disappearing from sight, forever, made her stop thinking. Lost in thoughts, she didn't realize where she ended up. In the middle of cold road, becoming someone's prey, watching her from a distance, a car was approaching...

Crash!!

...

'It was my last exam.' Aurora thought to herself, lying down on the hospital bed.

Thankfully, the car was slow in speed and stopped upon looking at her from a distance. She fainted because of shock and woke up right after 10 minutes.

"Are you alright, miss? I'm so sorry!" The car driver, looked old and frail as he apologized.

"I'm alright." Aurora said before sitting up.

She only had a few bruises too faint to notice, around her legs and arms, one on her chin too. What hurt more was her head. It was spinning violently, though she wanted not to pay attention.

"Let me call your guardians."

"It's alright. I'm sorry for standing in the middle of nowhere." Aurora said as she pulled the IV drip out of her hand and stood up from the bed. "I have an exam... I must get going. Thank you." She said before leaving.

Normally, she would've been scared to death to be in an accident. However, a terminal illness was enough to shake her core to the point an accident meant nothing. She reached school with a ruffled figure. So ruffled that the Principal asked her about it.

"I was in an accident on my way to school. Nothing serious." She casually explained.

"Nothing serious?!" The Principal exclaimed in concern. "You were in an accident! Did you inform your parents?" He asked. "Do you need to visit the infirmary?" He added seeing the bruises.

Aurora shook her head to go to the classroom even though the Principal asked her to worry about herself first. She wasn't necessarily worrying about the exam either. She just wanted to get over with it. She felt too tired to worry about herself. Upon reaching the classroom, she made her way towards her chair before her wrist was grabbed from behind, stopping her. He stared at her pale hand still sore because of the IV.

"What is this?" Sean asked glaring at her.

A series of thoughts went through her head. From the thought of dating him, to the thought of dying.

"I don't know." She answered before pulling her hand out of his grip.

She swiftly made her way to her chair before he could bombard more questions at her. She knew he was worried. And she also knew that was no way to answer to his concerns. But the spins of her head and the unnecessary nausea was harder than usual to bear. She put her head down on her desk for a while before the invigilator distributed the sheets. She swiftly solved all the questions without even reading them. She handed her sheets over to the invigilator while drenched in sweat.

"Are you alright? It has only been 20 minutes..." The invigilator asked as he was confused.

Aurora nodded and left the classroom. Having witnessed that, Sean picked up his pace and quickly solved his own exam and left the classroom in search of Aurora. She came out of the bathroom after washing her face to see Sean waiting for her with orange juice in his hands. She quickly switched her line of sight away.

"I won't ask you questions." Sean assured her stretching out his hand to give her the juice bottle

She slowly raised her sight, still not accepting the orange juice. He sharply sighed before grabbing her hand, opening her fingers apart and placing the bottle tightly in her grip. After doing so, he opened the cap for her so she wouldn't just stare at it.

"Follow me." He said before walking away.

It took her a while to process all of that as her mind was in places. But, she followed him nonetheless. He walked down the stairs towards the infirmary. She hated that he chose infirmary to go into. She hesitated to go in after he opened the door.

"You want everyone to throw questions at you when you can't even tell me?" He scoffed tilting his head to the side, as a sign for her to go inside quietly.

He was right so she couldn't just argue him. He deserved to know, and she deserve to have her injuries properly treated. He guided her inside, and she slowly walked. The nurse inside checked up on her, applied ointment on her sore hands, and bruises.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk?" Sean asked as they walked out of the infirmary.

"Do you want me to talk?" Aurora asked while looking down at her feet, covered in fleets.

"If that makes you feel better then I want you to talk."

Aurora underpinned her back to the wall of the hall-way, staring at Sean.

"I was wondering... If I should date someone." Aurora said hesitantly. "No, right?" She chuckled. "I'm about to die."

"And?... Do you want to date someone?" Sean asked neutrally.

"My dad wants me to." She chuckled. "Maybe I do too..." She shook her head vigorously. "Let's go to the cafeteria. I bet everybody's already there." She turned around to go towards the cafeteria.

"Au-" Sean almost called her out before switching.

"Hmm?" She looked back at him. "Ah, you're switching..."

She didn't bother thinking what he would have to say about her thoughts. She just tried to ignore them. Maybe it was a drive caused just because of being close to death? Before today, she had never thought about dating anyone other than fictional characters. She wasn't desperate or anything!

[November 27th, 2021]

"No matter how many times I tell you, you don't listen!" She nagged from the top of her lungs. "And I'm saying that to both of you! Don't even think about leaving this room until you hear an earful from me!" She pointed at her husband who was secretly retreating from the room.

"H-Honey... Calm down..." Aurora's father nervously said to his wife.

"How could you tell me to calm down, after choosing Tip Top mountains for your unnecessary hike trip and bringing my daughter back with a sprained ankle?!" She sternly shouted.

Aurora nodded in agreement.

"And you!..." She sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you to eat properly?! How can you faint on mountains?" She sighed again. "I shouldn't be shouting at you, right... You are going to the doctor with me and we are going to get prescriptions-"

"Mom!"

"Sweetie, I don't have any patience now. We're going to the doctor and that's final!"

Aurora was left in her room, on her bed with a statement she didn't want to hear. She hated going to the doctors. She didn't like prescriptions, tests, the smell of hospitals, and she was scared in particular about having an incurable disease. Just the thought of having a disease that can't be cured and being in pain all the time scared her. She blamed her father for this one. The hike trip was an absolute disaster.