"Her little fluttering wings"

[November 25th, 2021]

Earlier than 6am in the morning, when the light rays from the sun were screened by curtains, Aurora received a call. Her voice came out muffled from under the blanket as she played a guessing-game first thing after waking up. Who would be calling her? She guessed Sean before grabbing her phone to see. The blue light of the phone pierced her eyes as she narrowed them down to see. Of course, it was Sean. She sighed before picking up the call.

...

"Aurora?" He called her out first.

"Mmm..." She murmured.

"Did I wake you?"

Aurora yawned to show him that he obviously did.

"I'm outside your house..." He said slowly.

Aurora kicked the blanket before sitting up in shock. That was when he gave a huge sigh.

"I'll wait outside... You didn't study yesterday so I thought I could break down important things to you right before exam..."

He had arrived at her house with a pure intention. But she was flustered. She quickly washed up and grabbed her books before going out. Her mother was cooking breakfast at the moment but she let her know that she'll be eating with her friend.

"Which one?" Her father asked from a distance.

"Sean." Aurora said before going out and missing her father's reaction.

She opened the door to see Sean standing in front of a flower pot. It was an orange butterfly milkweed still alive and well despite the snow, shining dirty orange directly under the little sunlight as snow fell upon it's clumped petals. The butterfly weed, known for blooming in the spring was in front of their eyes blooming just fine.

"We got it imported the other day..." Aurora said as she walked towards Sean.

She picked up the flower pot, it had a tag that said 'shipped'. She walked towards the door and opened it to leave the pot inside as it was meant to be an indoor flower for this weather.

"Why get an off-season flower?" Sean asked. His voice trembled as the weather got colder. He had been standing there for too long.

'I won't live to see another spring...' Aurora thought to herself. Even though he knew, she didn't want to say something like that to him.

"Why didn't you come inside? It's so cold out here..." Aurora changed the topic by opposing a question, which was usually Sean's trait. It would only be right to act that way.

Without replying to her, he closed the distance between them bending down to match her height.

"I called the others." He said slowly.

Aurora nodded nervously. Sean's attitude had changed ever since he found out about her. It made her wonder if everyone would change if she told them. She didn't think of it as a bad change. It was subtle anyway.

They went to the library beside their school to find that only Ethan arrived. Like always, Lucy would've been sleeping and Giselle would've wanted to study alone. Ethan, who was confident about his memory today, explained all the important things to Aurora. Sean's grades were average and he kept them that way. He already had the company so in some ways so he never had to study much. He diligently listened as Ethan explained. Ethan had studied a lot for their third-last exam so his explanation was on point. During the exam, everything that Ethan had made her memorize was in front of Aurora, and she had one less thing to worry about.

Later they all met up at the school cafeteria for future plans for the day because Aurora insisted for group studies. However, before any of that they needed food. The scrumptious burgers of the cafeteria were not to be missed.

"My dad's memorial gathering next Friday... Do you guys wanna show up? I don't wanna show up personally." Lucy murmured while chewing on the burger.

"I'll come..." Aurora said. "I missed it last year, right?" She added.

Aurora remembered making a to-do list last year, but not being able to fulfil two of the clauses. Accompanying Lucy to her dad's grave and opening up with Sean's alters. These had become her goals that she must complete before stepping into the afterlife.

"Don't go." Sean leaned in sideways to reach her ear before whispering.

"Oh?" Lucy caught him red-handed. "What's going on between you two?" Lucy asked.

"They ran off yesterday too..." Giselle uttered.

Ethan looked at with his eyes widely opened, and his eyebrows twitching as he tried to frown in confusion.

"W-What do you mean? What is supposed to happen between us?" Aurora asked innocently.

"Ooh!" The group cheered at her reaction to tease the two of them.

Sean sighed as he stood up.

"Baby Sean wanted to visit the amusement park so I won't be coming along the group studies." Sean said as he grabbed his bag and walked to the side. "See you guys later..." He added as he walked away.

"Ooh!" The group exclaimed again. "His reaction is saying something!" Lucy tried to tease Aurora.

Clueless Aurora just stared at her in confusion, why were they trying to tease her and what did he mean by 'Don't go'? Just when she was lost in her thoughts, a message clicked on her phone.

"Don't go to the gathering for the sake of your own mental health." Sean completed his sentence through text.

She wanted to ask him why she had to do that, and how going to a memorial gathering would mess up her mental health. However, she did not. Knowing he had already told her not to, and how she already decided to go anyway, she wasn't going to ask him further questions.

"I'm going." She texted him back after an hour of thinking.

Sean sighed to himself as he read her text. He wasn't going to go but now he had also made up his mind. He didn't ask her for the reasons.

[November 25th, 2020]

"Dad! This is impossible!" Aurora exclaimed as she panted while holding her knee caps, bending down to catch a breath.

Aurora's father had suddenly decided to drag her to a hiking trip of three days. They had talked about it last night and left as early as 5am in the morning. She confidently, excitedly agreed to go to the mountains with him and feel the freshness of the pretty evergreens dusted with snow. However, she was regretting every ounce of her decision now. They were at Tip Top Mountains, with no hiking trail. Just some despair and energy-depleting hike. Why did he have to choose Tip Top mountains out of all the pretty suggestions?

"Build some stamina in yourself, Aurora! These trips are important for development." Her father replied to her exhaustion.

"How is this development?!"

Aurora thought of it as a calm hike up a pretty mountain, with no effort at all. However, her father wanted adventure, so, there they were, suffering.

"You'll remember it in good thoughts, later." He assured her that they were going enjoy.

Aurora shook her head in disagreement as she picked up her pace again. It was better to just get over with it. The snow had made it harder. They had taken a jeep to come as far as they had arrived but the jeep bounced a little too much and she had started to feel nausea right off the bat. Followed by a series of rage quits, her father kept motivating her back onto track.

As the sun started to set, the path became a bit easier. Or, she became comfortable to it. Since it was getting darker, they set up a tent. There were some villages at distance but her father wanted 'adventure'. So, he decided setting tents would be more memorable.

They opened their sleeping bags and tried to fall asleep in that cold weather looking like two homeless caterpillars with a tiny leaf as their shelter. Even caterpillars would've set up better tents. Her father picked the oldest tent in their store room and didn't care to get the torn parts stitched. They had two other tents that were new and good-to-go.

But her father didn't want to hurt the ecosystem. That was his logic. He took the three R's, namely reduce, reuse and recycle in a wrong way perhaps. He thought that buying new things wasn't the problem but throwing old things was. He wouldn't let his logic get questioned either and always change the topic if someone would try to talk to him about it. 'Boomer was the right word...' Aurora thought to herself while trying to sleep.

At least he didn't snore! When will this caterpillar turn into a butterfly and see the light of the day so it could flutter it's wings, or in easier words, get over with the trip!