2A/N So this is actually something I had to do in my English class this week where we had to write subversions of a fairy-tale and rewrite it the way you think the story should've ended or something of the sort. I fell in love with the Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen and I just decided to post this story as it's my first time writing something like this...
Please don't think that the protagonist's name is a reference to Disney's version of the story -_- sorry about that, I chose the name having thought of Greek Mythology of where King Minos' has a daughter named Ariadne who is involved in the story of the Minotaur and Theseus.
I hope I did alright :) So here you go!
The Art of Perfection
"Wait, what did you say?"
A girl stood by the bathroom door, her eyes staring at the sister before her. "It's nothing," She said to the older girl, her voice trying to sound firm. "It only takes a little while anyway."
"You shouldn't be doing this," the other said, her eyes showing concern.
"Why? I feel fine-if anything better."
"That doesn't mean it's good." Her sister insisted placing her hands on her hips with a clear indication of condemnation. "Don't be stupid-"
"Leave me alone Marina! You can't tell me what to do!" Ari barked out angrily while pushing her older sister out of the way and heading inside.
Her fingers trembled as they locked the bathroom door. She glanced at the blurry reflection on the stained glass and held her breath in as she kneeled onto the floor, her eyes shut tight as her face hovered in front of the seat. The tears stung her eyes and she wiped them away furiously. She cleared her throat and leaned into the toilet more.
Perfection. The flawless grace of idealistic dreams engraved into reality. Like a delicate glass of beauty. Like an elegant swan flying across a glistening lake of water. Like the diamond shining amongst grey pebbles. Perfection was a word that stung the girl the most.
Ari Shelly had grown up with many beautiful sisters, each with gorgeous, long, flowing hair, slender figures and striking features that attracted the eyes of so many. And of course the weight of idealistic image had been now rested upon Ari's small shoulders, where she didn't think her small body could hold. When she looked in the mirror all she saw was a homely, unpleasant person with big eyes that didn't fit the picture at all. Hardly an envision of graceful beauty.
And then off her sisters would go-giggling over 'irresistible' boyfriends and exchanging secret facial tips in order to keep their own pretty, and porcelain skin clear and looking great at all times.
They'd chap their lips with red gloss and beam at the world, heads held high. "I'm a Shelly girl!" That quote was something of a legend in her high school. It was like you were born into royalty.
Ari once thought they were ridiculous. She was nothing like them, and she would always feel her father look upon her with a disapproving gaze. Even all her sisters would exchange sceptical glances with each other whenever she told them of her true intentions as a young child to one day explore the world and the jungles.
"You want to become a homeless person?" her father boomed from the head of the dinner table. His blue eyes pierced her soul, his mouth pressed into a tight line.
"Not a homeless person daddy." Ari had said in her small voice, reaching out for a second helping of mash potato. She was always the one to go for seconds. Her oldest sister wrinkled her nose at her but said nothing at the action.
Mr Shelly narrowed his eyes. "Well then what do you call them then?"
"Explorers, daddy."
Her father had sniffed haughtily; the lines under his eyes making him look older than he must've been. "Don't tell me you're being serious about this Arianna. I think you're being ridiculous."
Nine-year old Ari looked away, her expression contorted with hurt. Her eyes fell on the empty chair at the opposite end of the table where her mother always used to sit. But her absence was something final, after all she had passed when Ari had only been a small infant.
But despite that, Ari felt like no one else understood her. And because the light to her true desire was cut off abruptly, she shoved out of the way-just as her father wanted her too.
"A person should not thrive in areas they won't be needed in." Mr Shelly's favourite thing to do was to say that every day. And sometimes he would look at Ari and refer back to her adventurous excitements. "Always remember that."
Nobody could see how she was a Shelly girl. Ari had tried to not accept the truth. She tried engaging in her sister's conversations. Smiling like she thought she was pretty-like she knew she was pretty. She tried to be everything she wasn't, and the more she did the less her family doubted her strange ways and interests.
And then she started to think maybe she was human. The boy who passed her locker almost every day had to have the nicest, beautiful eyes in the world. He passed on by everyone with a smile and she would always try to get one.
"A Shelly girl is always confident," Liana, the youngest of her older sisters told her all the time. "Never backing away from a problem."
Except apparently not in her case, because whenever she opened her mouth to speak to him no words would come out. Her mouth would feel dry and her heart would race a million times faster than it ought to have. She wouldn't be able to process anything in the moment she was near him.
"Poor girl," her sisters would say in hushed voices, with the assumption that Ari couldn't hear them. "She has so much potential, but honestly I don't know why she's this way."
And Ari would listen to them every night, with their words echoing inside of her head repeatedly in the same quiet whispers.
So much potential...wasted!
The light in the bathroom was dim and Ari ducked her head into the toilet once more. Ari pushed the stray ruddy strands of hair out of her eyes and coughed. Her throat felt horse and horrible. She felt horrible. She was.
"That sounds awful Ari! Why didn't you get a higher mark in class?" her father says, a disappointed look in his eyes as usual when she tells him why her teacher suggested tutoring. She couldn't do anything right.
"Don't put that sweater with those pants! Do you want to look bad?"
"How do you expect him to like you?"
"What do you expect me to do?" she cries at her sisters as they would all get ready for school.
"Not wear that. Why do even like him?" Marina says with a disgusted look on her face as if the idea was horrid. "What do you see in him?"
Ari saw everything she hadn't seen in a long time. Someone who seemed so approachable. But ironically, he didn't even see her. She was invisible, like a ghost pining for some affection from somebody-anybody. She wanted to grab his shoulders and shout to him "Why won't you notice me? Please, I'm right here!"
But nobody seemed to accept her for who she was. She had to be someone different, and that seemed impossible to do.
Or was it?
Last week, Ari had sat down at the family dining table just like every night. The table was set with the usual cuisine that her sisters had cooked that day. The atmosphere had always been quiet at dinner, so the silence that had fallen upon them wasn't something strange.
But instead of her freckled arm reaching over for a second helping of bread roll, she had stopped short. Her hand flinched away from the plate and she had sipped her water should've been absolutely no room for disapproval from then on.
"A person should not thrive in areas they won't be needed in."
Ari wiped her mouth with her hand, the nauseous feeling escaping her for the moment. She stood up and looked up at her reflection in the bathroom mirror again. "I can be a different person." She choked out. Ari only had to be what everyone wanted to be. She could turn into a slim, gorgeous girl. A Shelly girl. A Perfect girl. And she had been continuing this habit for a full week, and she began tying her long, untameable hair back just as her sisters had always said, and she never once mentioned anything about wanting to pursue dancing as a career to her father, and she tried hard to talk to the boy without stuttering.
But her hair hurt when she pulled it back like that. And she didn't want to become a lawyer when she could dance so beautifully. And she didn't need to worry about stuttering because she still couldn't even walk up to the boy.
"Ari?"
A voice made her jump away from the mirror and suck in her breath. She hastily fixed her clothes and hair before swinging the door open and facing her stern-faced father. Ari swallowed hard, fingers gripping onto the handle, fidgeting under her father's gaze.
His deep blue eyes stared her down with such intensity that she almost cowered away. She attempted to hurry out of his way to her bedroom but his body was blocking any way of her getting through. The silence emanating from his presence made her extremely uncomfortable. "There are other bathrooms in this house." Ari finally said, her voice wavering slightly.
Her father crossed his arms. "I realise that," Good. She thought a little bitterly. "But that's not what I came here for. I want to know what you were doing."
Ari felt baffled at the blunt question her father just asked. "W-what I was doing?"
He raised an eyebrow. "That's what I said, wasn't it?"
Ari frowned and twisted a strand of hair in between her fingers. "I just went to go to the toilet..." Her father didn't seem impressed by her response and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Ari you've been in there for a long time. If it's some other business then I understand but I am your father." He pursed his lips together in a tight line.
A horrible chill went down her back, her cold hands slumped to her sides as she realised she should've kept her habit a secret. Marina was always so nosy, and the minute she asked her what she had been doing...Ari couldn't believe she had confessed to her of all sisters.
"I'm going to ask one more time Arianna." He said in a low voice. She looked up at him again and his expression softened. "What were you doing inside?" He had a pained look in his eyes.
She could feel the blood pounding in her ears. The air in the room seemed to be getting tighter and her eyes began to brim with tears. She glanced up at the picture of her mother hanging on the wall. Her father followed her gaze and she saw tears in his own eyes. He stepped closer to her and she was almost scared he would yell at her but he only wrapped his arms around her.
"I'm sorry Ari. Please don't leave me too," his voice sounded hoarse, his words almost barely a whisper. "You've always been such a good daughter to me, I-I only ever wanted the best for you. I never thought I could end up leading you to this." He swallowed hard and she sniffed a little as he patted her back. "But you-you should never change.
"I need you."
Ari closed her eyes tight and rested her head on her father's shoulder, letting out a small sigh of relief and happiness.
That was all she needed to hear.