Heavy is the Head

Ariel - 2

Chapter 11

Snow White, Jasmine and Ariel made for a strange sight filing across the hallway to Aurora and Ariel's room. Snow White was slightly more at ease now that she had made a friend but still looked very nervous, Jasmine looked extremely tired while Ariel was over the moon, jumping up and down excitedly behind Jasmine. She had even more reason for excitement when she got back into her room because Cinderella had brought cookies from Tiana as an apology because she felt bad for being so dismissive to Aurora. Ariel was a massive sweet tooth as the drawer underneath her desk could prove, being filled to the brim with sweets and her ultimate favourite snack - ruby chocolate.

"Hello Jasmine and Snow White, it's nice to see you again! I'm so sorry, I don't know your name, but you've got amazing hair!" Cinderella gushed.

"Thank you, I'm Aurora's roommate, Ariel." Ariel gushed, flopping down on her bed and gesturing to Snow White to join her happily.

"Thank you for the cookies, I really appreciate it!" Aurora smiled, setting the plastic container down on her desk.

"It's no bother! My friend, Tiana, made extra. Uhm... Anyway, I came here to show you the text message I just got, because I assumed it had something to do with you because you mentioned something about clues and hints." Cinderella held out her phone, "Mavis was the teacher's assistant at my school's fashion design class back in secondary school, and she really helped me deal with my parents' deaths and my stepmother... You know, just being there to talk to, she's great like that."

"I'm really sorry to hear about your parents... I didn't know she worked as a teacher's assistant though..." Aurora frowned at the text message which consisted of only two words, "Poem Collection? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Probably has something to do with this, right?" Jasmine plucked the pink piece of notepaper between the textbooks on Aurora's desk and showed Cinderella.

"Oh, so that's what led you to come to me!"

"I reckon there's probably more poetry collections where this one about you came from. Might be found in the library?" Jasmine yawned.

"There's a website that comes up when you type in the poem but the link isn't working." Snow White mumbled, scrolling down the search page on her phone, biting her lip nervously when everyone turned to look at her.

"Looks like the library is the best bet then, right?" Ariel smiled, "Aurora, we can have a look tomorrow because it'll probably be closed by now surely."

"I don't see why we can't just go now." Aurora said, standing up and pulling on her jacket. "It's not that late."

Cinderella also stood up, "Alright, well good luck girls, I'd better be heading back now. Let me know how it goes, this sounds super interesting."

"I will! Thanks for your help, Cinderella!"

Jasmine yawned, "Yeah, well I'm going to bed. Coming, Snow?"

"Yeah, I wanna finish reading my book."

"Alright, come on then Ariel." Aurora grabbed her hand and together they jogged down the hall to the stairs.

They were running down the draughty hallway near the Fire Dormitories that had a large mural with a design of golden trees on it when Ariel broke the silence.

"Aurora, can you please answer honestly if you like anyone right now, or have liked anyone in the past?"

"What?!" Aurora jumped back to stare at her as though she'd been stung, "What's brought this on?"