Chapter Text
Anne skipped along the pathway to her school, imaging all the glorious events that could take place today. Of course, none of the day’s actual occurrences could be quite as extravagant as she imagine them, but picturing it in her head made her smile. She hadn’t been able to see Diana for a few days, due to her mother demanding her to watch Minnie May, and Marilla bombarding Anne with chores over the weekend. But, she could see everyone at school, and Marilla gave her a place to call home, and showered her with love, in her own, odd way, so she couldn’t complain.
The flowers along the edge of the path were beginning to blossom as spring crept in, letting the trees and grass flourish themselves in beautiful green shades once again. It was a beautiful sight, but then again, all of the sights at green gables were absolutely splendid. Sometimes she wondered if her parents were watching over her, seeing all the beautiful things that she was lucky enough to have around. The people included, all the wondrous souls that she had met since moving here. She could only hope that she would be able to stay with the things until the end of her days.
Just then, her thoughts were interrupted by her school coming into view, peeking through the dense trees in the small clearing it sat in. She picked up her pace as she was it, excited by the idea of being able to see Diana, Ruby, and, even though she would not admit it, Gilbert Blythe. She hoped that they were already inside, so she didn’t have wait even longer to see them again. It hadn’t been long, only a weekend, but Anne found herself heavily connected to them, and thriving in their company, Gilbert included. She couldn’t tell Ruby that, of course, she would only assume that their was something going on between the two and get territorial, even though Gilbert and Ruby scarcely spoke to one another.
She walked up to the door that led into the school, pushing it open with a wide, toothy grin decorating her freckled face. Fortunately, she looked inside to see Diana and Ruy chatting about something or other, she just ignored the fact that Josie was in that cluster as well. And, she peered over to her right to see Gilbert surrounded by a group of boys all hollering about something or other. He is forever the popular boy. Though, she will admit, it was for good reason, he was funny, and kind, and understanding, and caring, and - no, she may not hate him, hell, she may even like him, but she’s not that invested in him, only Ruby was. Only Ruby was allowed to be, she thought, but quickly pushed that mindset out of her head, there was no way she was interested in someone as disrespectful as Gilbert Blythe. Albeit, despite her negative thoughts, she knew that he wasn’t truly disrespectful, it just wasn’t in his character.
“Anne!” Diana chirped from her left, pulling her out of her thoughts, and bringing her to the bitter realization that she had been staring at Gilbert. He didn’t seem to notice, he was laughing about some joke that Fred had made. She could just hope and pray that Ruby or Josie hadn’t seen her wandering eyes. Luckily, as she turned to the two of them, they were whispering and giggling while glancing at Gilbert, so she assumed they were so entranced by him that they hadn’t cared to notice. Diana, on the other had, was raising her eyebrow suspiciously at her best friend, giving her a look that clearly meant that she was going to be interrogated on the topic at a later date.
“Diana!” Anne cried joyfully, pulling her friend into a tight hug, and swinging her lightly. Partly because she hadn’t seen her in what felt like two years instead of two days, and partly so Diana couldn’t ask any questions on the Gilbert topic. But, she could always blow it off by saying she was simply still happy that he had returned, but that may raise even more suspicion. But, Gilbert had just returned from his venture after his father had passed. He hadn’t explained the reason for his return, to anyone, but everyone, including Anne, was elated that he was back.
“I missed you!” Diana mused as they pulled apart, arms still holding on to each others elbows, gripping tightly as if they were scared they would be separated once again. The mirrored grins at each other, making it show that they did not like the separation their guardians sometimes forced them into. Anne only pulled away to remove her coat, hanging it on the rack without even look at it, then removing her hat and placing atop the coat. She was just wearing her normal dirt brown dress, but for some, she felt a little pretty today. Or a least, a little less homely than she usually felt.
“As did I, oh glorious Diana! I hope your weekend with Minnie May was fantastic!” Anne said, bouncing slightly with her words, as if they animated her every movement. In that moment, she swore she could feel Gilbert’s gaze on her, and thought she saw him staring from the corner of her eyes, but when she turned her head to check, he was staring at the crown of boys that had gathered around him, like always. “Come on Diana, let us take our seats and prepare for a glorious lesson today!” She added, oddly excited about learning, well, not odd for her but odd for any other child her age.
Right on cue, Mr. Phillips strode into the quaint classroom, books supported on his right arm, walking briskly towards his desk at the front of the room. This Prompted all of the kids to find their way to their desks quickly, still giggling from their last bits of conversation. He remained silent as he situated his books on his barren desk, but the class didn’t dare speak out of fear of getting themselves reprimanded by the teacher, and then their parents.
Gilbert, however, didn’t seem to care about getting himself into trouble, probably because Mr. Phillips continuously turned a blind eye to the boys shenanigans. He continued to laugh along with her friends, which, she didn’t mind all too much, it didn’t affect her. But, she did mind when she felt his eyes boring into the side of her head. This time, when she turned to check if he was truly doing so, she ended up locking eyes with him, and neither made a move to turn away. They just stared at each other as if there was no place they would rather be looking, and she could already see hear Josie yelling at her. Until they heard Mr. Phillips do his traditional opening sigh, which typically meant a lesson was about to begin. He simply winked at her, turning back to face the front of the classroom. She just narrowed her eyes at the side of his head before following suit and noticing that the teacher had written a few math equations on the board. The only topic in school that she found herself dreading every second. But. she knew english would come up eventually, so she just quietly undid the leather belt that connected her books to her slate, pulling out her chalk diligently.
She got through math without much hazard, she had been studying extra hard in this particular subject, since she knew to was her weakness. She couldn’t let Gilbert beat her, academically, she made it a point to always top him, no matter what, and to make sure that she beat him fairly. But, when she did inevitably find herself stuck on a question, she made sure to not show on her face that she was stuck, so Gilbert didn’t know that he may have the upper hand on her, in math, at least.
~~~~
Gilbert followed along in his copy of the school issued copy of The Trees That Mark The Hills by Frances Hertin as Ruby performed a strenuous reading of it. The rest of the class went by so quickly, but when he was just waiting for Anne’s turn to read, it felt like time had slowed to a snail-like crawl. Hearing Ruby struggle through even simple words in the book sounded like nails on a chalkboard to him, leaving him longing for the dramatic renditions that Anne would never fail to deliver. Sadly, no one else, not even the teacher, seemed to appreciate her way of illustrating the book, so she barely ever got a chance to read. But, she hadn’t had a chance to read within this book at all as of yet, so he knew that she had to have a chance sometime.
“That’s enough, Ms. Gillis, please take your seat.” Mr. Phillips said as she finished reading off her page of the story, which took much longer than it should have. But he didn’t complain, because her turn was finally over, and there was that miniscule chance that anne could be chosen to read next, which had him resting on the edge of his seat. As Mr. Phillips shut his book, returning it to his desk, signally the ending of english, Gilbert had to use all his willpower not to groan aloud. Then he remembered that english was the last subject before lunch, and found himself to be slightly chipper, he would attempt to speak with her during lunch, hopefully they were actually on good terms now, so maybe she wouldn’t reject his presence so violently, but she was an enigma, that one. So, he wasn’t quite sure what he was going to get as Mr, Phillips dismissed the class to their lunch period, and strode out of the room as if he couldn’t stand to be in there.
He reached into his lunch brown lunch bag, pulling out what he had brought. It wasn’t much, a simple sandwich and a few carrots. When he glanced up, he thought he would see Anne, getting ready for lunch with Diana and Ruby still, but they had already cleared out, disappearing to wherever they went to to eat their lunch. Any other person would just give up at this point, and he wasn’t going to lie, he thought about it. He thought about leaving the topic alone and staying to eat his lunch with a few of the boys in the class, some of them his friends, some of them just friends of friends. But, some driving force compelled him to go and search for Anne, and offer his carrots to her, a small homage one of their first few conversation, just to be cheeky. So, he stood up from his desk, brushing off the calls from the boys by walking backwards for a few steps and shooting them a small salute. Then, turned back around and pushed his way out of the schoolhouse door.
Once outside, he wasn’t sure where to go, he scanned the area with his eyes, searching for any sign of her brilliant red hair. To his dismay, there was none, simply a few boys sitting in a circle in the clearing, but no sign of a single female soul anywhere. He bit his lip, deciding to head in the opposite direction of the boys, recalling the girls’ stigma to hang around them. Honestly he couldn’t blame them, he wouldn’t even sit with that lot, and he sat with some people he didn’t exactly adore just because they wanted to sit with him. Billy Andrews was among the young boys outside, so he could pretty much completely confirm that Anne would not agree to sit anywhere near that foul human being.
“Where did you fly off to, Shirley?” He muttered quietly to himself, tossing the dark red apple between his hands in thought. He traveled around the school yard, eventually hearing the soft giggle that belonged to Diana Barry, who usually had Anne glued to her hip. Mostly because they were ‘Kindred spirits’, as Anne liked to say. He followed in the direction of her laughter, listening to it grow louder as he got closer to their location. After a minute or so, he pushed himself into a small room that connected to the school, as he entered, he saw all the girls gathered in a circle. Anne didn’t seem to be talking much, which was out of character for her, making him furrow his brow in confusion. But Josie seemed to be giving off a semi-hostile vibe towards the redhead, so maybe that silenced her. Although, he didn’t know why she would be mad in the first place. Perhaps Josie just didn’t like her, but he couldn’t understand that, he found her to be a remarkable person.
“Carrots!” He called out, and to his surprise, Anne actually turned around, as if that was truly her name. The giggle-filled conversation also ceased at that moment, which he wasn’t expecting, but he tried to let it sway him. He smiled softly at all the girls there, and saw Ruby’s pale cheeks suddenly go several shades pinker than before. Probably due to her unrequited crush on him, which, yes, he knew about. But it’s not like it wasn’t utterly obvious. She was constantly stuttering and fumbling around him, and whenever he did anything remotely gentlemanly towards her, she turned as red as a tomato. He pushed the rest of the girls out of his head, and instead locked eyes with Anne, who had her lips absentmindedly parted out of confusion, and for some reason she seemed a bit frightened by his presence, which he couldn’t understand. They were friends, why was she acting so odd?
“What?” Anne asked quietly, not seeming to see the carrots that he held in his limp arm. So, he lifted his arm up brandishing the carrots in front of her face. She simply rolled her eyes at this, but he could see the corners of her lips threatening to curl up into a smile, and knew she was fighting one down. He always thought that a bright smile belonged on Anne Shirley’s face, that it suited her quite well. He would pay good money to see a smile always painted onto her pale, freckled face. He smiled toothily at her, reach down to hand her the carrots.
“Carrots for Carrots,” he remarked quite pleased with his joke, but noting how she hesitating before reaching to retrieve them, flashing a look at Ruby and Josie, then gingerly taking them from his grasp. He smiled even sider at that, he wasn’t quite sure she’d take them, and didn’t know why he was so glad she did, he just was. He counted it as a win, at least, a win to him, maybe a bit of a cave for her. At this point, he didn’t think there was any point in questioning it. “Look how far we’ve come.” he remarked quietly to himself, neglecting to notice the look Josie shot at him in that moment. Anne wasn't meeting his eyes, and he took that as his cue to leave, so he shot them one last smile, tipped his head towards them and left the building. Heading back to the main School room to finish his lunch with his other friends.
~~~
Anne strapped her books to her slate efficiently, pulling it together tightly, and securing it so that they didn’t slide out as she walked. She clutched it in her hand, walking with Diana to the front of the school house, before taking her hat off the rack and placing in gingerly on her head. Then, she took the jacket off too, and flung it onto her body, stretching her arms through the holes so that it fit on snugly. Diana was chattering on about something she had to do after school, explaining why she couldn’t walk home with Anne that day. Normally, Anne would hang onto her every word, but she was just saying the same thing over and over again. She was desperately trying to apologize for something she shouldn’t be sorry for.
“It’s okay, Diana, I completely understand, just being able to be at school with you shines a light on my life,” She said, simply smiling giddily at her friend, hoping that she wouldn’t feel bad. Anne didn’t mind walking along, it allowed her time to imagine more extravagant things around her, like eagles soaring through the sky above her head, and flowering sprouting and blossoming within a matter of seconds. And, Obviously, her, in a huge long dress with puff sleeves, and a crown atop her head, dawning the name Cordelia.
“Oh, Anne!” Diana cried, pulling her into a quick hug, before pulling back and smiling at her softly. She offered a wave as a way to say goodbye, and slipping out of the door. Anne followed after her, but they were headed off in opposite directions, so it didn’t really matter. She made her way back through the dense trees, taking her time and relaxing in the comfortable, warm air of spring. She danced around on the path, admiring how the light cut through the trees in the most wonderful way, creating transfixing patterns on the dirt below her. Oh how she wished Gil-Diana could see this, in all of its glory.
“Hey! Fido!” A voice called out behind, making her blood run cold, she knew that voice, and that nicknamed, and she would’ve been a fool not to hear the malice behind it. She whipped around, clutching tightly onto the strap that bound her books to her slate, as if it was her lifeline. Sure enough, she came face to face with none other than Billy Andrews, the boy that hated her for seemingly no reason, well, she didn’t know the reason. “You really get around, don’t you Fido? First Prissy, now poor Ruby? Do you enjoy being nasty to everyone? You pick that up in the asylum?” He snapped walking up to her and hitting her hat up lightly as he stalked towards her ever so slowly. This prompted her to start stumbling backwards desperate to put some distance between her and her assailant. She was absolutely brilliant, so clearly it didn’t take her long to decipher what he was trying to do.
“I don’t know what I did to Ruby but I am ever so dreadfully sorry about it I didn’t mean to cause offense in any way I-” She started, sputtering out her words, knowing that her gony form didn’t contain much muscle, well, not enough to beat Billy Andrews in a fight, since all he ever seemed to do was pick fights, simply by being an asshole. But, as she was getting into the meat of her apology, he cut her off, obviously not interested in what she had to say to him.
“Sure, Fido, whatever you say,” he mocked, making even more fear bubble in her dainty chest. Now that Billy had shown up, Anne was ever so glad that Diana had not embarked on this walk with her, she would hate to do anything that put her friend in danger. She was snapped out of her thoughts as Billy quickened his pace, advancing towards her at an alarming rate. Although, perhaps the most frustrating this was that Ruby was her friend, and she had no idea what she did wrong. If she had known that she was hurting her in any way, she would’ve ceased the activity immediately and begged forgiveness from her dear friend. “You didn’t have a boy to protect you this time, do you?” He sneered, which only proceeded to spark anger in her chest out of sheer indigence.
“I don’t need Gilbert Blythe,” She proclaimed, puffing her chest out and picking her head up, trying to crush down the fear that still sat inside her. She had no idea if Gilbert could even beat Billy in a fight, but, you never know. She guessed that she just couldn’t see Gilbert as much of the fighting type. Which was a positive trait, of course. Who wants to be around someone who communicates via punch? “You’re nothing but a bully, Andrews. I scarcely talk bad of others, but you are truly the most horrendous human being I’ve ever met.” She snapped, the rage within her clouding her judgement considerably. If she had really stopped to think about her situation, she wouldn’t have been as ballsy as she had chosen to be. But she hadn’t taken heed of the fact that she was alone in the forest, there was no one to help her if this really turned into an issue.
“Excuse me?!” He roared, charging forward and grabbing her by the collar of her simple brown dress. He looked angry, truly filled with unadulterated rage, and Anne, being Anne, was far too stubborn to admit defeat. Instead she rose her head up high, the indignant look still plastered on her freckled face. Her eyes met his, matching his rage, with her own wildfire, despite not being in the position of power.
“You heard me,” She spat, and she didn’t know where she had grown to be so snarky, but she couldn’t bring herself to regret it all, even as he brought his knee up and shoved it harshly into her stomach. She cried out in pain, groaning promptly afterwards, and clutching onto her pained stomach. Her eyes fluttered closed, pressing shut in pain, inwardly wondering if Billy Andrews would ever learn to control his monstrous temper. She hoped he would just stalk away after that, go holler at his friends about how he beat up the trashy orphan girl.
Apparently, Billy Andrews had a whole different plan in mind.