Another uncountable shiver went up through Ariel’s body as she planted seeds of hyacinth in her small garden which was filled with different types of flowers. She would have abdicated this habit a long ago if she wasn’t obsessed with the smell of the blossoms when they bloomed in every spring, contradicting with winter. Which left the once barren piece of land never being arid in any season.
She hummed as she turned her head side by side in rhythm to match the tune coming out of her throat, at last, she patted her hands on the seed sown area and got up to stretch her body.
“Miss flower, can I get a bouquet of those bluebells and some of your time because the rose only with thorns might be waiting for us with a stick in hand in her grand dungeon? Mm?”
A loud voice came from Ariel’s back which she was all too familiar with, she felt a lump forming in her throat when she repeated the words which were told to her in her head slowly.
Ariel ran through the door while holding her best friend’s hand in a hurry,
“We are late! She'll eat us with her diet salad, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”, Ariel shouted while running through her house and instinctively looking at the clock hanging on her blue walls making her feel worse and worse. It takes her an hour to reach the desired place when in fact she had only twenty minutes left.
“Oh, so it’s my fault now that you got lost while sowing the hundredth seed in a place which looks like a colorful graveyard?”, the girl with fiery colored hair scoffed in disbelief but still ran with the same pace as Ariel.
Ariel paid no heed to the other girl’s accusation instead picked up two slices of bread from her breakfast table and stuffed each one of them in her mouth and the mouth full of blames.
“Defne.”, Ariel halted her steps and looked at the girl with serious eyes.
“What?”, Defne's eyes came muffled with the bread still in her mouth. Ariel breathed in again and held her one hand tighter this time.
“LET’S RUN, YOU CARROT!”, Ariel shouted her lungs out and started running again finally passing by the roads and street.
“IT’S FUCKING COLD OUT HERE, MY CHEEKS ARE ABOUT TO LOOK EXACTLY LIKE MY HAIR BUT WITH A LITTLE BLOOD FROM BOTH THE MOUTH AND CHEEK, APTAL!”, Defne cried out in her Turkish accent. Ariel couldn’t say anything in return because it was really cold outside and could relate to Defne's thoughts.
“I know, run”
They finally reached their destination and huffed out in front of the entrance of the ballet hall.
A sound of laughter came from the hall at their right which could have been called being haunted if not for the person walking through it with a smile on her face which reached to her eyes as if she was truly happy with her life right now and the corner of her eyes crinkled a little shading light on her age.
Ariel couldn’t decide whether it was from her or Defne, the sound of their throat gulping in fear.
“I’m really curious, tell me something.”, an elderly voice reached their voice in mockery,
They both stood straight and looked anywhere but their teacher in front.
Mrs. Caroline clicked her tongue in disappointment and asked again, “Aren’t you going to speak? Need time for it too?”
“Yes, Mrs. Caroline?”, Defne reached her voice out.
“Finally, you opened your mouth.”, the elderly woman laughed again and circled them slowly.
Like a tiger does to its prey. The clicking sound of her heels echoed around the halls and their ears.
As she was about to ask, the front gate opened, and a girl not older nor younger than both of them exited through it.
The silence slowly filled in between the four of them as everyone stood still, not getting what was happening at that time. But Defne couldn’t miss this chance for her life and she acted before her brain could command.
She slowly backed up and entangled her leg with the girl still in shock, she suddenly fell and screamed.
“Oh my god, are you okay?”, Defne acted upon her instincts and helped the girl to stand up with her, feigning absolute innocence. She looked down upon her leg again and gasped and looked at Mrs. Caroline.
“Mrs. Caroline, she sprained her leg. I should take her to the infirmary right this instant” she blurted the words out and ran straight with the injured girl in her hands.
“The infirmary is in the opposite direction, Ms. Defne", her teacher mocked.
Defne tsked and turned in the direction she was told, “Ah, yes. I must have taken the wrong turn.”.
She then winked at Ariel who was try to comprehend the incident happening in front of her, she gasped silently when she caught on to her friend’s act.
“So, it's just the two of us now”, Ariel would’ve forgotten about the woman with gray-black hair if not for her voice.
Ariel looked down at her sneakers and tried not to catch her eyes, she was finding words to say too like Defne to get out of the situation.
Mrs. Caroline sighed while looking at the brunette hair puppy, she couldn’t even scold her properly because of the soft nature she had.
“What were you doing, Ariel? You're late.”, she asked while rubbing her eyes with her fingers.
Mrs. Caroline heard a faint sound reached her ears but couldn’t catch it properly. She moved her head closer to ariel’s head and scrunched her forehead in confusion.
“What? I couldn’t hear you. Louder, Ariel.”, Ariel backed up a little in surprise and muttered a little louder than before.
“I was planting flowers.”
Ariel looked up as she didn’t hear any sound coming from her teacher, and saw a burst of laughter trying to break through her whole face.
Mrs. Caroline was humored tremendously when she heard the honest reply coming through her student.
Ariel's face went red in embarrassment, but she was a little happy to see her laughing for the first time.
When Mrs. Caroline composed herself, she cleared her throat and wanted to laugh more.
“Ms. Ariel, correct me if I heard wrong but you were planting flowers?”, she confirmed again.
Ariel nodded her head slowly as if waiting for the scolding she was about to get about how she was late and how silly her answer sounded. She kept thinking she should’ve lied instead of telling the pointless truth.
“Please come on time from now on.’, Mrs. Caroline excused her for the time being not wanting the girl to cry of helplessness now.
Ariel gratefully looked up and rushed through the gate to enter her practice hall only to catch the form of a certain someone she never wanted to see.
Their eyes met and name the shivers that Ariel would ever get.
Everything went cold, the handle of the door in her hands, the sweat forming in her shoes which made her feel unusually cold and her face too.
“Ah, I forgot to tell you, my mistake”, Mrs. Caroline's voice came from behind in the world of Ariel’s which was still in cold.
“You and your classmates would be acting as a dancing muse for the guest we have today and for the next week too”, Mrs. Caroline passed by Ariel and greeted the expected guest who broke her contact of their eyes first.
Ariel got downhearted a little, she didn’t know why though.
“What are you doing there, Ariel? Come in, you are the last one left to do so.”, Mrs. Caroline reminded Ariel’s legs to move forward and tried to run straight to the changing room until someone or that person blocked her escape route.
Ariel stopped instantly and didn’t let the momentum of her fast pace bump into the one in front of her. She gasped and looked up at the azure eyes staring down at her. And then her eyes cast down upon the white and pale veiny hands moving towards her.
“Amari Dorothea, nice to meet you.” 

‘Amari'

-
‘Eternal’

-
‘eternal winter’

-
“she should be winter”