mon chouchou . jb

010

school mornings

since anne brought her schoolbooks to aurelia's abode, they've decided to walk to school together the next day.

anne was quite upset to leave the thatchers' home, but aurelia managed to console her by saying they could have more sleepovers in the future.

upon arriving at school, the two were greeted by the many familiar faces they've missed during the weekend. with diana, of course, being the most excited to see her bosom friend once again.

occasionally, aurelia wished to have a friendship as dear as anne and diana's. to have a bond as tight as theirs was something she seemed to be envious of.

the closest friend aurelia has at school apart from anne would be ruby, since she was her deskmate - and they share the same interest in fashion.

although, their relationship wasn't as wondrous as diana and anne's. as a matter of fact, if you were to ask ruby who her best friend was, aurelia was a hundred percent sure her name wouldn't even occur as a candidate in ruby's list of choices.

albeit, aurelia was not to be bitter of the fact, given that the love she has for her friends are all divided equally (except for josie pye, something about her throws aurelia off).

the rest of the school day went by like the wind. no one completed their essay yet, since the assignment wasn't due in a week. although, aurelia and anne had already begun writing theirs. like anne said, the sooner they complete, the better.

after bidding goodbyes to her friends, aurelia walked back home alone. she was used to it, and even though her trail was a bit longer than her friends, she doesn't really find it as tiring.

mostly because of the breathtaking scenes she was able to see on the way back home. variety of birds, colourful falling leaves, occasional sights of small critters - those are the things that makes aurelia's journey home not too mindless.

out of nowhere, a loud 'ouch!' was heard not too far from where aurelia was. it startled her, and she was quite afraid to be near the source of the wince.

aurelia was slowly tip-toeing towards the ruffling bush, until a person stood up on his own. this caused the poor, startled girl to stumble backwards and fall on her bottom.

"aurelia?" she definitely recognised that voice. "i'm very sorry, i did not mean to scare you." jerry quickly helped the girl back up, and collected the books sprawled around the ground.

"it's quite alright, jerry." she chuckled, assuring jerry all was good. "i fell on some leaves, i'm fine." she said, muttering a thank you once she was steadily standing back up.

"are you okay, jerry?" aurelia asked, putting her hat back on her head. "did you trip on something?"

"oh, i am fine," jerry exclaimed. "a dead branch fell on my head." he added, rubbing the top of his head, where the branch landed.

she smiled, relieved to hear everything was indeed alright.

"where are you headed to?" aurelia continued. "this isn't your way home, is it?" she looked around the trail, knowing this was not the road to go where jerry's home was.

"to the library," he shyly replied, showing the two, thin books in his hands. "i would like to return these."

aurelia was quite stunned and happy with the sight. she remembered anne telling her how jerry has started to read more on his own. with anne's help for the past few years, jerry's knowledge on the english language had begun to improve greatly.

"may i accompany you?" aurelia asked. "father's shop is closed today, we're refurbishing the interior. i have nothing better to do." 

"sure, i do not mind." jerry shrugged. 

with that, the two continued their way to the small, cozy library of green gables. on their journey, they exchanged a pretty fun chat, making their quite lengthy walk seem shorter than it usually was.

while jerry was returning his selection of books, aurelia decided to stroll around the library, occasionally coming to a halt to pick up a book that catches her eye.

as she was walking as gently as she could on the wooden floors (to not wake up the librarian's pet cat, otis), a very interesting spine of a book caught her attention.

glimmered with light blue sparkles, the edges sparkled with gold, the words "The Little Glass Slipper" embroidered nicely in the middle. 

the only problem was the distance between the book and aurelia's reach was almost impossible to meet. she assumed it was a very old book — no one reads it as much anymore — hence, it being placed at the very back shelf, on the very top rack.

aurelia stood on her tippiest of toes, trying her very best to get hold of the book. her slippers begun to crease, and her arm was getting sore from the stretch.

suddenly, a shadow looms over her figure. slowly, another hand (a bit calloused and rough) reached over her head, getting hold of the book. way more easier than aurelia could ever do.

"is this the book you want to read?" jerry questioned, giggling at the sight of how small aurelia seemed to be compared to the shelves. he never realised the height difference between them before, but seeing it now, brings a soft smile to his lips.

turning around from the bookshelf, aurelia quickly grabbed the book from his hands. "yes! thank you, jerry. what would i do without you?" she smiled, fiddling about with the book.

at that very moment, jerry found aurelia the most adorable. she seemed like a toddler excited about getting a new toy. he liked seeing her like this, it makes him equally as happy.

jerry pulled aurelia's arm, bringing her to the front desk to borrow his selected book and aurelia's. it wasn't a long process, so it merely took much of their time.

walking out the library, aurelia felt a gust of wind blow directly on her face. even with the layers she already had on, her body seemed to shiver slightly from the breeze. this didn't go unnoticed by jerry, of course.

while aurelia was blowing on her hands to cease the cold feeling, a warm, fuzzy scarf wrapped its way around aurelia's neck.

"to help you with the cold." jerry answered before aurelia could even utter her question.

"but what about you?" she continued, worried about the boy's own health.

"i'll be alright, i'm used to it. i already have these on too, so we're fair." he showed his hands, which were covered with fur mittens.

aurelia just giggled at the sight, after finally accepting her defeat. with that small exchange, the two parted ways to return to their humble abodes.

on the trail home, aurelia caught herself sniffing the scent of jerry's scarf (which wasn't on purpose, the scarf was wrapped up to her nose). and to her surprise, it smelled like vanilla, with a hint of cinnamon.

a light blush spread over her cheeks, after realising how silly it was for her to be smelling jerry's scarf like so.

even though jerry was on his own trail, and aurelia was on her own, somehow — it felt like jerry was still right there, next to aurelia, all the way home. indeed, she quite enjoyed his non-existing company, which stayed with her whenever the scarf was near.