Petrichor

NORWAY - Lake

A soft sigh escapes her lips as Adina stares at the afternoon sky. She lies on her house's snow dusted roof, not even bothered about the freezing cold. She's used to the numbness by now, considering she's spent her whole life encountering countless winters. In fact, she's grown fond of the cold and mostly spends her days outside. Right now, she's thinking about her future, pondering about life's paths and choices. She has just finished high school and is now looking for universities that would grant her a basic degree. At least that's what she's told her parents. You see, her family and I mean her whole family, does buckwheat farming in the outskirts of a small town. Right now, everyone thinks that she's getting a degree to complete her education and that she's going to continue the family business. ' In their dreams' is what she tells herself whenever they talk about it. Well, to be honest, she does like to stay in the farm all morning with all her huskies and walk around tending to the crops. Would she be happy with doing it her whole life? Nope. She has other plans for herself that no one else knows. Well, except for her best friend who's also part of the plan. As she daydreams laying there, an object, a rock to be precise, hits her on the head and leaves her to scowl in pain.

"What the-", she looks down from her roof to find a boy looking annoyed, his body shivering in the cold.

"How long are you gonna build castles in the air, ice princess?", he shouts from below, sarcasm and annoyance colouring his voice.

Adina chuckles and stares down at him, smiling mischievously. The boy's eyes widen in understanding as he shakes his head vigorously.

"No, no, no you're not gonna do it. You better don't!", he warns but nonetheless gets ready for what's to come. "Adina I swear I'll-"

"Catch me!", she screams dramatically and jumps from the roof, getting ready to land beside the boy. He widens his eyes and moves to make sure he catches her. In all the confusion there is, she falls behind the boy and he rushes to her aid only to find her laughing like a maniac. "Yah! Why would you ask me to catch you if you're not-", he's interrupted by her laughter, his very last nerve bursting. "You know what? I don't wanna hang out with you anymore. I'm going home you uncultured piglet", he huffs out, storming the way he came from.

Adina attempts to get up and winces in pain as the fall hurt her ankle. As she sees the boy's bouncing hair moving farther away, she giggles and limp-runs her way to him throwing her arms on the boy. "Lake don't be like this. I'm sorry", she grabs the boy's arm and prevents him from walking away again. "That was dangerous... You should be more careful considering we have things to do", he says as he stares down at her in concern. Adina hangs her head down, not wanting to meet his eyes. He is right. What would she have done if it had ended up terrible? She realises that she couldn't be carefree as she used to be and closes her eyes processing the whole situation.

Lake sighs and lifts her chin up, looking at her teary orbs. He really didn't wanna bring up their 'secret plan' to make her understand but he had to. Considering it's more important for her and not him. He notices that she isn't applying enough force on one of her legs and he sighs again.

"Did you hurt yourself?", he asks as he bends and takes a look at her ankle, analysing it. "It doesn't look bad. Probably just a sprain", he says as he gets up, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his sweater.

"Yeah..", Adina absentmindedly answered, overthinking about the incident. She tends to do that about everything and almost everyone gets annoyed with it. Surprisingly Lake seems to understand her instead of getting annoyed. Well, he does get annoyed but he rarely shows it. You can say he's a master of masking feelings and emotions.

"Hey", Lake says, gripping her shoulders gently. "Did I tell you we'll go to the barn today?Your amazing friend has cleared the slots for you your avocadoness" he says, his bunny teeth on display. Adina's eyes sparkle as she hears the word 'barn' and suddenly all worries seem to vanish. She looks up to him and smiles, her eyes closing up into crescents.

"Wow you must be bipolar. No one would believe me when I tell them you were tearing up a few seconds earlier", Lake jokes as he walks slowly, matching his pace with the other.

Adina scoffs and blows a raspberry at him, not witty enough to come up with a comeback that instant. Lake chuckles and ruffles her hair, knowing she'll be annoyed by it. Adina halts and glares at him, "You better run away before I catch you or you're dead meat, you hear me?!". Lake had already run away before she could finish. She chases after him, limping occassionally. With a smile on her face, she waddles after him, giggling at how childish both of them looked. She enjoys this moment with Lake and cherishes it as it is not often that he gives off a warm feeling just like he does now. That bunny smile and his happy face could make anyone toasty even in the coldest of winters.

After goofing around for a bit, they leave the front porch of Adina's home and head in the direction of 'the barn'. Adina's dressed in a basic overall with a full sleeved shirt whereas Lake is covered in woolen clothing from head to toe. He shivers as the cold breeze hits his body and he looks at Adina who doesn't seem bothered by the cold at all. "I know I've asked this a million times bef-", he begins but is cut off by her. "No Lake I'm not cold and I don't need your sweater", she deadpans as they reach the town's marketplace. He scoffs and tugs at his sweter protectively "Who said I'm offering?"

"Yeah yeah", Adina replies, looking around at the stalls. It looks like everyone has stocked up on new supplies. She realises it's a Monday and now it makes sense to her why the marketplace is more crowded than usual. Every Monday they have new produce and new items to fancy the customers and passerbys with. Realising that Lake would be uncomfortable staying amidst a lot of people, she picks up her pace and walks through the market with long strides as the other tries his best to keep up. "Yah yah! Why are we walking so fast?", he asks breathlessly.

"Just a few more minutes and we'll be away from here", she says as they both squirm and struggle to find a way out of the overcrowded place. "Oh", Lake exclaims, realising that they were going through all this hassle for him. A small smile finds his lips as he continues striding with Adina.

A/N:

    That's all for the first chapter I guess. Each chapter is gonna trace events happening at different places. The next one's gonna be a continuation of this of course. But later ones will be in Paris, New York and so on. You get the idea.

Yes, Adina is supposed to represent me and Lake, one of my friends. It's not exactly us but people with same behavioral patterns I guess..? Or something along that line. As I mentioned in the foreword (which most you would've skipped) , don't leave mean and nasty comments saying what a character should or shouldn't do. They're based off real people who mean a lot to me. Yes, some of the characters make mistakes and go through tough times. They're NOT perfect. I have no idea why I'm implying it this hard but you get the point.

If it's any suggestion you'd like to give regarding my writing, I'm open to em ꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡

Do comment! Don't be a stranger.... stranger... (;;;・_・)