"Tied her hair with bands"

[November 22nd, 2021]

Aurora woke up at 5 am in the morning, realizing she had an exam and also finding out that she couldn't study at all. She had forgotten about yesterday, when she forgot about everything all of a sudden. In her fainting memories, she came back from Lucy's house and slept. She woke up normally, totally fine with no pain at all. However, as soon as she combed her hair, a bunch of hair fell down. She gasped at the sight.

"I thought he said they start falling out after 2-3 weeks?! WHAT?!" Aurora screamed to herself, referring to when Dr. Matthias told her not to worry about hair fall.

Suddenly, a bunch of memories of her past 'hair care routines' flashed across her mind as she sat down in a fit of sulks looking at her long, beautiful, dark brown hair on the floor. What just happened? They didn't even bother getting stuck on the hair brush.

They just fell down. They weren't even a lot of hair. She just wanted to exaggerate as they were her precious hair. She spent years on growing them. Her life-long buddies, falling apart like that? It was more depressing than the glioblastoma itself.

She sighed as she grabbed each hair from the floor, otherwise, her mother would give her an earful for turning her room into a mess of hair that her mother probably wouldn't have noticed but she wanted to overthink. She wanted to think about everything other than cancer.

She shook her head before going out for breakfast. She had an exam and hadn't studied anything. Perfect day? Aurora sat in front of her mother to eat the pancakes she had cooked for her.

"How's your cold?" Her mother asked as she reached out her hand towards Aurora's forehead. "It seems alright, but Honey, make sure you take her to the bus stop, okay?" She said to her husband.

He nodded while chewing on the pancakes. He found it as a chance to get his daughter to talk about her problems. Aurora grabbed her bag after breakfast and walked beside her father towards the bus stop. He wanted to say a lot of things but he was afraid his timing might frustrate her again.

"Dad..." Aurora called him first, surprisingly. "About yesterday... I don't remember anything." She added.

"What do you want to remember? I will help you." He was touched to hear her talk.

"Did I talk to you about my illness?"

He shook her head, with his eyes widely open to give her as much attention as he can.

"Then I wanted to say, I'd like it if you don't tell mom yet. I'd like it if you accompany me to my sessions. I'd like it, if you don't worry about me and treat me the usual way." She said politely. "I'm not hurting, don't worry. If you would, then I won't feel good." She added.

He nodded, without being able to say anything.

"Which point did you nod to?" Aurora asked while smiling a bit.

"... Everything." He said as she grabbed her arm and reached in for a hug. "I'm sorry for being a trouble. I'm sorry for making you overthink." He added, being close to tears.

The bus arrived, and Aurora took off, waving at her father with a smile. He waved back trying to hold his tears. As soon as the bus passed, tears flowed down his cheeks. His daughter was going to die in a few weeks. He couldn't believe it. She told him not to worry, but how could he not? He wiped his tears with his forearm, trying his best not to worry about her when she told him not to.

Aurora reached the school with a book in her hand trying to memorize things to at least write something on the sheets. During her exam, she made the best out of her memory to write in as much as she could. She wasn't the happiest with it, but that exam was really the least of her worries. After the exam, she grabbed all her friends for coffee. Each of them ordered one, at the café near the school and sat down together to clear their minds up from all the exam stress.

"Do you have a hair tie?" Aurora asked Giselle who always kept her hair, nice and tight.

Aurora would usually let her hair free because she adored how they looked. But knowing they had started to fall off, she needed to tie them up for her own self. What if she saw more of them falling off, out of nowhere?

"Yeah... I have black bands, white bands... Yeah, that's all I have." Giselle said showing off her monochromic collection.

Aurora took the white band and tied her hair up into a pony-tail. It didn't look horrible or anything but she hated it. She was used to seeing herself with open, free, long hair. On the bright side, they won't at least fall on the ground. That was a more painful sight than seeing them stuck to the band or to the hair brush. She sipped her coffee loudly to show her annoyance.

"Oh? Ethan... And others?" Emilia, Sean's only sister showed up coincidently in the same café. However, her words really annoyed Sean.

"Why are you here?" Sean said as he brought himself in front of sight trying to hide Ethan.

"Come on, Sean! It's been so long since I saw your friends." She said as she pushed him away to sit beside Ethan. Suddenly, she gasped. "Has it been an year already?! Last year, it was around November when you guys came over to the hide-out!" She added, "It's our 1 year anniversary then!"

Sean looked at her with an absolute disgusted face. How could she say all that? She was such an embarrassment.

"I don't know you." Sean murmured, looking away.

"So, how's it been for you, Emilia?" Ethan asked in genuine curiosity.

Emilia smiled. Her crush just asked her a question. She grabbed his coffee and put the straw in her mouth, slurping a little coffee before letting it go. Sean's eyes couldn't keep up with the mess she was putting up.

"Life's great!" Emilia said, pushing her hair behind her ears with her hands. "What about-" She was cut off by a group of girls, and a gangster-looking boy; also from their school.

"We ordered you to buy our coffees, not to flirt Emilia." One of the girls grabbed her arm and pushed her, so she stood up.

"Can't you do your job right?" The boy said, poking her forehead aggressively.

Sean stood up from his seat to push the boy away, grabbed Emilia's arm and let her be seated beside Ethan again.

"You can't even do your own job right... You're not supposed to bully a girl in front of her brother." Sean said sternly. "Didn't your mommy teach you?" He added sarcastically.

"You? Emilia's brother?" The boy laughed hysterically. "You guys don't even look alike. What were you, adopted?" He added while the other girls also burst into laughter.

Sean clenched his fist, and landed a powerful blow on the boy's face, before receiving one in return; not as powerful though. The gang left the scene after provoking Sean once again, before he could break their bones. Since it wasn't a powerful punch, Sean got off without any injuries. The boy broke a tooth though. Sean sat down again, as if nothing happened with everyone staring at him. He suddenly pouted and started crying. Not just crying, he started weeping, like a baby. Aurora pat his back, it was his alter.

"There, there." She said as she continued to comfort him, patting his back.

The 7-year old alter, named 'Baby Sean' by his friends was only triggered if Sean would receive any sort of physical trauma. Whether it is a tiny poke from another baby, or a punch, his alter would show up after any physical trauma. Sometimes, toys and milk also triggered him.

"Baby Sean, it's okay. Bad guys are gone." Giselle said as she chuckled.

Even though, Sean was technically an adult now, 'Baby Sean' was just as adorable as any other baby in the neighborhood that the girls would like to babysit. He oozed cute energy.

"Baby Sean, look at me!" Aurora grabbed the side of cheeks, squishing them and making him look at her. "You're the one who shooed away the bad guys! I'm so proud of you, so stop crying now." She added with a big smile.

He was a mood lifter indeed.

"Okay. I won't cry now. I'll never cry because Aurora is proud of me." Sean said in the cutest baby tone, only to put his head down on the table and fall into the 'deep baby sleep'.

Waking him up as of now, wouldn't be a great decision so they booked the table and started studying there until he wakes up.

"Emilia..." Ethan called her out. "Why didn't you tell anyone that a bunch of weirdos were bullying you?" He asked in a serious manner.

"Why should I? I can handle things myself. Plus, Every time I tell Sean about my problems, his alters take over and they hate me anyway." Emilia explained.

"His alters hate you? They get along well enough with us." Giselle said in concern.

"You guys have only seen 2 alters right? Hefty Uncle and Baby Sean?" Emilia asked.

"There's more?" Lucy asked, while she was just as surprised as the whole group.

"He has total 5 alters... Or I've seen just 5, I'm not sure. The others are 'Palanquin Lady', whom I ended up getting on the bad side of, she isn't a bad person in general, then there's 'Adam', He doesn't even consider himself human, he agrees to everything you say. The last one I saw was the most horrible one. She's a dead alter... 'Lyla'.

She tried to strangle me once for some reason but it was self-defense because I threw building blocks at her. She's harmless, and has no age." Emilia paused. "Sean has gone through a lot of stuff to end up with such alters. So I don't bring up my own problems because his problems are too big." She added.

Hearing that, Sean woke up.

"Were you talking about me just now?" Sean said with a straight face. It wasn't Baby Sean or Hefty Uncle, or Sean himself.

"Umm.. Yes?" Emilia politely said, wondering which one was it.

"Young lady! You are out of the house again! I told you it was dangerous outside. Must you always hear from me to understand?" Palanquin Lady said sternly.

"Oh no, Palanquin Lady, I'm really sorry. It's been so long, I'm a high-school student now." Emilia quickly explained. "She has a bad temper." She whispered to the others so they don't get on her bad side.

"Hello, Palanquin Lady." Aurora politely said.

"Hello. You are?" Palanquin Lady asked.

"I'm Aurora. We're all Sean's friends."

"Sean is a sensitive boy. I am glad he at least befriended someone. I wonder why I was kept in the dark from all of this. But if he befriended you all, then you must be good people."

"Palanquin Lady, you don't remember anything? Like... When Sean became friends with everybody?" Emilia asked, thinking she should've known.

"I had been sleeping the entire time! Even now someone is trying to switch with me. They say I'm too old to survive in this society. Kids these days..." Palanquin Lady paused, she was switching. "Sorry guys, I'm back." Sean said after a long pause.

"Don't worry about it. Palanquin Lady was cool." Lucy said.

"She... uh... She says thanks." Sean said. "And Emilia, we don't hate you. We just wanna make sure you're protected. That's all." He added.

"Aww, you guys are adorable." Aurora exclaimed, thinking her cancer wasn't something to be scared of when she had such reliable people around. Meeting Palanquin Lady felt as if she could trust her whenever.

Aurora definitely felt at ease after today. The memories from yesterday were hazy but at this point she didn't care, as long as she was happy.

[November 22nd, 2020]

"Non, non, non, non! Pas bon du tout!" Aurora's piano teacher, Ms. Béatrice didn't seem happy with Aurora. "Not good! Try again! Encore et encore!" She was dramatic.

"Y-Yes, Ms. Béatrice." Aurora said as she nervously played the G minor chord, without the G.

"Non, Aurora, Non! The G! We just went through this. G, B flat and D together!"

Aurora, once again, tried placing her hands on the keys as Ms. Béatrice said. However, she still got it wrong.

"Aurora. You know what your name means? It means Dawn, in Latin. You're mystical and romantic, however, unlike most romantic people, you're not quite gifted with piano skills." Ms. Béatrice tried to sound sophisticated but it didn't really work.

"Then what should I do?" Aurora asked.

"Instead of chords, let's go through the key-chart again. I know, je connais, we just learnt those but you keep on forgetting."

Aurora agreed to go through the key-charts again. They kept saying a key, and doing the ear training. She had never visited music school, not there were any music classes so she had never had ear training. After 3 hours of going through the charts, Ms. Béatrice had something to say.

"I think you're tone-deaf... Maybe get it diagnosed, and if I'm wrong, we can give this more time." She said slowly.

"But I can listen to music just fine!" Aurora said.

"With or without lyrics?"

"With lyrics."

"You focus on lyrics more than the actual instrumental. That is why you never thought about it till now. C'est triste but it's true! We spent hours on this but you can't get the keys right. I've never spent so much time on just keys. You might not be completely tone-deaf, just unable to differentiate between the keys. I guess you need to find another past-time hobby. Piano wasn't meant for you. Mon amour, you weren't enjoying it either, were you?"

Aurora looked at her to-do list, on the way back home.

1. First thing after semester break starts, grocery shopping with mom : Check.

2. Sleep-over with Giselle : Check.

3. Helping Ethan with a part-time job : Check.

4. Visiting Lucy's Dad's grave on his death anniversary :

5. Talking things out with Sean and his alters :

6. Taking piano classes : NEVER AGAIN!

She cut the 6th point aggressively, realizing she was half-way tone-deaf. She really enjoyed the orchestral festival and really wanted to learn piano. The thing she didn't want to know was that she was tone-deaf. That left her with 2 more points to finish the to-do list once and for all. However, after today, she felt like she wouldn't have any motivation for the last 2 points as both were emotionally connective points.

She gave off a huge sigh. Today wasn't fun at all. But she accepted it, as life was not just happiness overall. It comprised of all sorts of emotions and experiences. She understood that and labelled today as her 'experience gone wrong.'