#awaefanfic

Anne dumped the buckets in the doorway of Green Gables. “Here you are Marilla”

“Thank you, Anne”

“May I please go over to Diana’s house now?”

Marilla sighed, “Alright. But be back before sundown!”

“Of course,” Anne replied gaily, running to grab a coat before making her way to Diana’s house.

The warm sun glistened down onto Anne’s face, making her shield her eyes. The afternoon was perfect; the sun was shining, birds were singing. It seemed as if nothing was wrong with the world.

“Anne!”

Anne peered at the figure calling to her. Diana’s bouncing curls and gorgeous dress came into view as she eventually reached Anne.

“Diana! Whatever are you doing here? I thought we were meeting at your house”

“We were going to, but I was so excited that I had to meet your partway,” she exclaimed, skipping around Anne. Looking around, she found a log that was in fairly good condition and beckoned Anne over. “So,” she said, sitting down, “How do you feel about your birthday?”

Anne laughed, of course this is what Diana was excited about, “Ah yes, the soulmate day, of course,” she replied sarcastically.

“Really Anne? I thought you would be more excited than this!”

“I am,” she reassured her friend, “It’s just, I’m struck by nerves, that’s all. I mean, what if the person I match with is an awful person? Or what if we can’t find each other after the three days?”

“You’ll be fine, millions of people have done it before, even my parents managed to do it, and they lived on different sides of the world!”

“I suppose. There’s just a lot of pressure, that’s all”

“Well, I think your lucky” Diana shrugged, stood up and began walking towards her house.

“Lucky?” Anne jumped up following her, “How on Earth am I lucky?”

“Well,” Diana paused to think, “Frankly, you already know who your soulmate is…”

“I do?”

Diana cleared her throat. “Does the name ‘Gilbert Blythe’ ring a bell,” she said slyly. Diana hadn’t seen Gilbert for many months, as he was on one of his adventures, but even with their lack of contact, Diana knew Gilbert’s true feelings. Even if Anne didn’t want to hear about it.

Anne’s face flushed a beetroot red and her eyes widened, “I’ll get you for that”

“You’ll have to catch me first,” Diana exclaimed, running away from Anne. They continued the chase all the way back to Diana’s house; giggling the entire time.

As the golden glow of the sun was gradually disappearing, Anne began to make her way back to Green Gables, reflecting on her time with Diana. She still got nerves at the thought of her coming birthday, but she tried her best to push those thoughts out of her mind. This was unsuccessful. Her mind was plagued with worries and fears for the rest of the night. Her overactive imagination was no help in calming her nerves. All she could think about was what could go wrong and what that would mean for her relationship with her soulmate. She went to bed that night, still conjuring stories and situations that chilled her to the bone.

A cool breeze flew through the open window and tickled Anne’s feet. She curled deeper into her blankets, wishing that today would not happen. It was the day before her birthday, meaning tonight, at midnight, she would no longer be in her body. There was even a  possibility that she wouldn’t be in Avonlea anymore. She began to spiral; what if she appeared somewhere… outside of Canada? She flushed those thoughts away. ‘No,’ she thought, ‘today, I will do my best to remain calm and have the best day ever before I need to leave’. With this though lingering in her head, she jumped out of bed, dressed herself and headed downstairs for breakfast.

“Good morning Anne,” Marilla’s calm tone rang out from the kitchen.

“Good morning Marilla, wonderful morning, is it not?”

“I suppose,” she replied halfheartedly, far to focused on preparing breakfast.

“I am beginning to feel the warmth of summer drifting away from us. Oh how I’m looking forward to winter!” Anne gleefully skipped through the dining room.

“Anne be careful, you might hurt yourself,” Marilla said, dodging out of Anne’s way, clutching a plate of warm toast and butter.

“Oh I’m sorry Marilla,” Anne came spinning to a halt, “Just the thought of winter snow makes me want to sing and dance!”

Marilla raised her eyebrows, “Are you sure it’s not something else that you’re excited for? Something a little sooner?” Anne stopped in her tracks and turned.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about…”

“Oh you know,” Marilla struggled to find the right words, “You’re 16th birthday”

“Oh that. Well, I am excited, but I don’t want to think about it… I will make myself too nervous”

“I see.” She didn’t see. Marilla didn’t see how this 16th birthday hogwash was such a big deal. Back in her day there was no hype or excitement about it. It was just a part of life, but, with Anne as her daughter, she should have expected this kind of behaviour.

“I think I will go and find Matthew, to see if he needs anything doing.”

“Alright Anne”

Marilla watched from the kitchen window as Anne skipped out to the barn.

“So….” Diana began, raising her eyebrows glancing towards Anne, “How’s Gilbert going?” She finished slyly. Anne’s eye’s widened and her cheeks flushed, clearly discovering the implications behind her question.

“To my knowledge, he is perfectly alright” She responded keeping her head forward.

Diana turned to Anne and looked at her indignantly, “Come on Anne! I’ve seen the way he looks at you!”

Anne continued to walk forward, trying her best not to fall for her trap, “I have no idea what you’re talking about Diana”

Diana followed Anne forward, walking backwards so she could still face her friend, “No Anne, you definitely know what I’m talking about!”

They continued arguing back and forth like this, Diana walking backwards desperately, Anne walking forwards indignantly. Diana was so set on proving their possible relationship, she didn’t notice the large log looming behind her which she then ungracefully fell over. With a cry, Diana landed on her back and let out a scream.

“Oh no, Diana!!” Anne leaped over the log and knelt down beside Diana grabbing her hand, “Are you okay!?”

Diana had tears streaming down her face, “Anne! My ankle, I hurt my ankle when I fell!”

“How is that possible? You fell over backwards?”, Anne’s eyes flicked to Diana’s ankle. It was then that she noticed that Diana’s foot had caught in a large crack in the log, as it was quite rotten.

“Oh goodness, what to do! Can you walk?” Anne grasped her arms and helped her to stand. Diana winced. “Maybe try taking a step?”

She tried and failed. Her knees buckled and she quickly sat down on the log to relieve herself of the pain. Anne softly grabbed her ankle and moved it around gently.

“Does this hurt?”

“Yes”, Diana winced. Anne had no idea what to do, the only thing that she had treated in the past was coughs and colds, not hurt ankles.

“Anne, I can’t walk on it, I can’t move it, I don’t know what to do, I think I need a doctor”

Anne paused to think again, “We’re too far away from Green Gables for me to get Matthew, and too far into the forest to go back to the school house”

“What about the Blythe Orchard? It’s only half a mile away!” Diana said through clenched teeth, still wincing at the pain shooting up and down her leg

“No way, I am not going to get Gilbert! Please don’t make me go!” She begged.

“Anne, he’s studying medicine, he’s the closest to a doctor that we’re going to get! Please, it hurts so much!”

“Okay Diana, but I’m only doing this because you’re my bosom friend and I love you, Okay?”

“Okay, hurry back!” Diana shooed Anne away, and Anne started running towards Gilbert’s house

Anne’s feet started to ache. She had been running for a while and she wasn’t sure how long she could keep it up. Luckily for her, the Blythe Orchard was just around the corner. The house was just ahead of her and she used up her leftover energy to sprint towards the door. She began frantically knocking and calling for him. Suddenly, the door opened, and there stood Mary who seemed surprised to see her.

“Anne! What are you-“

Anne interrupted her before she could finish, “Gilbert” she panted, “I need Gilbert”

“He’s in the barn, is something the matter?”

“Diana, my dearest friend, she fell, and you know, since he’s studying medicine and all….”

Mary nodded knowingly and trudged through the house to the back door to fetch him. Anne followed quietly, still getting her breath back from the run. She admired the house, she realised that she had never really had a chance to look at it fully from the inside, besides Mr Blythe’s funeral of course, but at that time, her mind was distracted she supposed. She snapped out of her thoughts when she saw Gilbert approaching them.

“Anne! Hi! What brings you here?” Gilbert began with a soft smirk.

“No time to explain, we need to go!”, Gilbert could tell by the shake in her voice that something was worrying her, which immediately put him into ‘doctor mode’.

“Where do we need to go?” he asked seriously.

“Midway through the woods, let’s go!”

He thought for a moment, if this was really that urgent they would need to get there in a hurry, “I was just setting up the horse and cart to go to Carmody, let’s take that, it will be a lot faster!”

They both jogged towards the barn and Gilbert finished setting up the horse while Anne hopped in the cart, trying not to freak out too much. They headed out and Anne started giving directions to Gilbert.

“So, what has happened Anne?”

“Diana and I were walking, she tripped over a log and hurt her ankle”

“Alright, sounds like a sprain to me, but I’ll see when we get there”

The rest of the ride was done in silence, both of their minds preoccupied. Anne thinking about the state of her poor Diana, and Gilbert already thinking about how it should be treated.

Diana finally came into view and they stopped, got out, and ran over to where Diana was sitting.

“Diana, hi, I’ve heard from Anne that you have a hurt ankle?” Gilbert said, kneeling down beside her and inspecting her ankle.

“Yes, I tripped over the log and my ankle got caught and it really hurts”, at this point Anne had sat next to Diana and wrapped her arms around her in support. After moving the foot around a bit, much to the annoyance of Diana, Gilbert said, “Okay, I’m going to get you to stand up and try and walk around”

“We already tried that, it couldn’t support my weight”

“Oh, alright” He said, surprised that Anne would think of that “In that case, I will bandage it up and make a makeshift splint using a stick fust to support on the ride home.”

“Okay”

Gilbert then turned to Anne, “Anne could you find me a sturdy stick please?

“Of course”

Anne started shuffling around, looking for a good stick to use as a splint while Gilbert wrapped the ankle up with a bandage that he had brought with him. Anne ran back with a stick and Gilbert propped the ankle up with it.

“Now Anne, can you help me lift Diana onto the cart?”

On the count of three they lifted up Diana and slowly carried her to his cart and set her down gently. They then both got in and started off towards the Barry estate. Not much conversation went on during that ride either. They eventually reached Diana’s house and Anne explained everything to Mrs Barry while Gilbert gave medical instructions to Diana and Mr Barry. With a final goodbye, Anne and Gilbert left the Barry’s house and headed back towards the cart.

“Would you like a ride home Anne?” Gilbert asked hopefully.

“I suppose, my legs are still sore from running all the way to your house” replied Anne as she lifted herself onto the cart.

As they set off, Gilbert started up the conversation, “So, it was pretty good of you to be so on the ball, I mean, you got her to walk around and moved her ankle around, pretty impressive!”

“Oh really? That’s nothing!”

Gilbert was fully confused by this, “Have you had other medical experiences?”

“Funnily enough my most recent one was with Diana again, her younger sister had croup and Diana came over for help, I treated her and stopped her from choking up”

“Wow! Where exactly did you learn to treat croup? I heard that it is quite a bad cough!”

“I used to work for a lady with three sets of twins” Anne said quietly, “They all got sick often so I had to learn how to care for them”

Gilbert was surprised to hear this, he realised that he never really asked Anne about her past, he assumed she had been through something or other, being an orphan and all, but he can’t imagine her having to work for a family.

“Three twins? That must have been tough to deal with!”

“It was indeed, I’m glad that I left that family. Wicked group of people. Truly horrid”

At this point they had arrived at Green Gables and Marilla and Matthew were coming into view. Anne hopped out and ran over to them, no doubt explaining her tardiness. Gilbert got out and followed her towards the house to say goodbye and apologize to Marilla and Matthew.

“Why hello Gilbert! I hear that you and Anne have had quite the afternoon!” Marilla said kindly.

“We have indeed, you’ve got quite the doctor on your hands Mrs Cuthbert”

Marilla smiled at this. “Is that so?” Marilla said, proud that Anne was so well accomplished.

“For all we know she could become a doctor” Gilbert laughed, smiling warmly towards Anne.

Anne returned his smile and responded, “Thanks for all of your help today Gilbert, I can’t imagine how much pain Diana might be in, but I hope that with your help she’ll feel better”

“It was my pleasure”

“How may I help you?” said the man, with a disgruntled look on his face.

“May I please speak with a Cole Mac-“, Before Gilbert could finish his request, a younger boy, around his age, appeared at the door. Cole.

“Gilbert? Why ever are you here? Has something happened to Anne?” A look of panic shot across his face as he said those words. It was as clear as day that Cole cared about Anne, but Gilbert hoped that this ‘care’ was strictly platonic.

“Anne’s fine, I was here to talk to you actually…”

“Oh, in that case, come on in” Gilbert followed him inside, passing the butler on the way in. He put his coat on the hanger and took a second to look around. It certainly was a marvelous house, it matched Anne’s in-depth descriptions perfectly. He walked through the vast hall through to the living room where Cole was placing some tea and biscuits on the coffee table. Cole gestured for Gilbert to sit on a lavish couch in the corner of the room.

“So, what exactly did you need to talk to me about?” Cole said, taking a sit on an opposing couch and taking a biscuit from the tray in front of him.

“It’s about Anne… I heard something, and I just had to confirm it with you before I jumped to any conclusions.” He paused.

“What did you hear?”

“Well, according to Moody, while I was away, the class played a game of spin the bottle…. And apparently you and Anne… well, you know….” Gilbert began to feel uncomfortable, he felt sweat begin to build on the back of his neck.

“Oh that, well, I suppose you should know, Anne and I have fallen madly in love with each other and are eloping at the end of the year?” Cole said, holding back a grin.

“You WHAT? Anne would never do that! Are you joking?” Gilbert was in such a state of shock that he didn’t notice his voice getting notably loud.

“Of course I’m joking! I have no doubt that Anne would do something like that, but definitely not with me! We’re just friends!” Gilbert felt a rush of relief fly over him.

“You were joking? Never do that to me again!”

“Sorry, I was just having a bit of fun!” Cole cried in defense “Anyway, I have no idea why you would believe me. I meant it when I said that we are just friends. Nothing more. I only kissed her so she wouldn’t be made fun of in front of everyone.”

“Really? Thank goodness”

Cole chuckled, “Thank goodness, hey? You seem very passionate about Anne’s romantic doings”. Gilbert’s cheeks suddenly flushed a bright red.

“No, I’m not, I was… finding out for… a friend” He stuttered.

“You like her” Cole declared.

Gilbert went to retaliate, then decided against it. He had certainly had mixed feelings throughout this whole experience, but the one thing that he knew for sure was that he certainly did not like her. ‘Cole wasn’t the type of person who would make fun of someone, anyway’ he thought.

He sighed, “Yeah…. I do….. a lot”

“I’m glad that you admitted it for once! You’ve spent months denying it! Anne will be pleased when you tell her, I told her ages ago that you liked her, and now she’ll finally know that I was right all along!” Cole replied gleefully.

“Wait a minute, you told her that I liked her!? And what do you mean ‘when I tell her’? I’m not planning to do that anytime soon!”

“Of course I did! At the train station when we were saving Miss Stacey, and do you mean to say you’re not going to tell her? The whole point of embracing these feelings is to admit them?” Cole responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“She’s known all this time?”

“No, she didn’t believe me, but I suppose she may have a slight inkling”

“Well, she’ll have to stick to those inklings because I’m not telling her anytime soon” Cole stood up and walked over to the door.

“Come with me, let’s walk and talk in the gardens” Gilbert followed Cole through the elaborate house, through the back door, and into a beautiful garden filled with blooming flowers and butterflies. They followed a winding stone path, weaving its way through the flowers to reach a bench. On this bench was an elderly woman reading a Jane Eyre novel with a cup of tea beside her.

“Good afternoon Aunt Josephine” Cole announced to the woman.

“Good afternoon my dear Cole, and… who exactly are you?” She said, gesturing towards Gilbert.

“Gilbert, ma’am, Gilbert Blythe” Gilbert said with a bow.

“Ah, Gilbert, I’ve heard a lot about you…” She responded with a knowing look.

“You have?”

“Yes indeed, from the dear Anne girl!”

“Oh” Gilbert was shocked, in no universe would he have thought that Anne would talk about him to someone else.

“Take a seat, my boy, let me explain” He turned, Cole nodded for him to take a seat. As he did, Cole walked across to a wooden armchair on the other side of the path and sat down. “After your poor father’s funeral” The mention of his father’s funeral caused a pang in his heart. Aunt Josephine continued, “I was wandering through the forest and overheard Anne talking to herself about you. Now, that was the first mention, there have been countless times after that, especially when you left abroad and sent back a letter. She was very excited by that.” Gilbert hadn’t realised that Anne had cared so much about the letter, in reality, it was simply a reply to her previous one, but he supposed that it must have meant something to her.

“Gilbert here” Cole began, “has just admitted his feelings towards Anne to me, yet refuses to tell her about said feelings” Gilbert glared at Cole.

“What a silly decision, my boy” Aunt Josephine responded with a tut.

“Silly? I’m just protecting myself from embarrassment you see.” He cried in defense.

“Embarrassment? You know nothing of embarrassment. Besides, if you love someone, then you must tell them how you feel. This world is unpredictable, boy, no one knows when death shall arrive.” Tears started gathering, and she cleared them away with her handkerchief, “You must spend as much time as you can with your loved ones, you never know when it will be the last time. You of all people should know that…” What she was saying was right, harsh, but right. He had to make a decision.

“Thank you very much for your words of wisdom Mrs Barry, but I must be getting back to Avonlea before it gets dark, my train is due in 15 minutes. Cole, would you mind showing me to the door?” Cole and Gilbert weaved through the garden with haste, reaching the door in a matter of seconds. They reached the front door even faster than that. Gilbert reached for his coat and placed his hat on his head.

“So” Cole began, opening the door. “Are you going to tell her?”

“I think so!” Gilbert sighed walking down the stairs.

“Well, I wish you good luck! Do you mind sending me a letter with the outcome?” Cole called out to Gilbert, who was halfway down the street.

“Sure thing!” he called back. He arrived at the train station just in time. He boarded the train and sat down in an empty carriage. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a piece of paper and pen.

As Gilbert walked home from school, he glanced up at the trees that surrounded the path. Since spring had arrived trees’ leaves had grown and were now full of flowers. The lush leaves lit up the forest with a glow of some sorts. But no number of butterflies, flowers or trees was going to lighten Gilbert’s filthy mood. He couldn’t stop thinking about what Moody had told him earlier that day, “When Anne went to spin the bottle, everyone opted out and insulted her. She didn’t even want to spin the bottle in the first place, but Josie made her. Cole stood up and volunteered…”. Something about the whole conversation with Moody was bugging him. He could not believe that Anne and Cole would kiss, he thought that they were just friends, but apparently not! Gilbert kicked a stone into the bushes in frustration before continuing home.

When Gilbert arrived home, he was still in a foul mood, slamming the door on the way in. Bash immediately knew something was wrong.

“What is wrong with you, Blythe boy, the way you slammed the door could have knocked the whole house down!” Bash called down the hallway from the kitchen.

“It’s… nothing” Gilbert sighed as he put his books on the dining room table and slumped down in a chair.

“Nothing my butt, something’s up and I know it, and you are not leaving this room until I hear all about it!” Bash said.

“Fine…. Fine…. Look, here’s the thing…” Gilbert told Bash every detail of his day, even the bits where Gilbert was having a feeling that he could only define as jealousy. Through the whole story Bash had a look of sheer amusement on his face, humoured by his companion’s cluelessness. As Gilbert was finishing up his story, Mary walked into the room holding groceries for that night’s dinner.

“What’s going on?” Mary questioned.

“Gilbert here has fallen head over heels in love with a girl at school but hasn’t realised it yet, that’s what’s going on!” Gilbert glared at him as he said this, but his glare got only more intense when Mary replied, “Anne again, I assume?”.

“You assume correctly my angel” replied Bash with a chuckle. Gilbert stood up in exasperation.

“Just because I’m feeling these feelings doesn’t mean anything! I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again, I do not like Anne that way! We’re just friends, that’s it!”

“Sure, sure, think that all you want, but you’ll see, it will happen, and when it does, don’t blame me if I say I told you so” Replied Bash calmly, raising his hands as if surrendering. Gilbert huffed as he left for his room. Him liking Anne? Even the notion, Anne was just a friend and he wanted it to stay that way. At least he thought that he did. Gilbert didn’t really know what to think anymore. As Gilbert went to bed, he thought about the whole situation, especially what Sebastian said. Maybe it was going to happen, maybe it wasn’t. One thing that Gilbert knew for sure was that in the meantime, while he sorted out this whole situation, he didn’t want to talk to Anne, for all he knew, that might just confuse him even more then he is already.

The next day, Gilbert ignored Anne, just as he had planned to the night before. He did feel bad, walking off without responding to her, but it was the only plausible thing that he could think of doing. The day of schooling was like any other, they did Maths for a while, then moved to English. After school, Gilbert gathered up his belonging and went to take his coat off the hook, when Anne walked up to him, frowning.

“Gilbert Blythe, why in the world are you not talking to me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I said ‘hi’ this morning, and you walked right past me! I was trying to get your attention in Maths to ask you a question and you yet again ignored me! What’s going on? Have I done something?”

“No, you haven’t done anything,” Gilbert said through clenched teeth.

“Then what is going on?”

“It’s nothing,” Gilbert said as he put on his coat and headed out the door, his voice louder than usual. When Gilbert was far away enough from the schoolhouse, he ducked behind a tree and sat down panting. He hadn’t realised it before, but he had been running. Why was his heart beating so fast? Of course, he was running, but why was he running? Was he that scared to be around Anne? As he caught his breath he stood and began walking again.

As he arrived, he was met by Bash and Mary in the kitchen making dinner.

“Why so late my boy?” Asked Bash

“Took the longer way, felt like I needed a long walk” Gilbert lied as he sat down.

“Did anything happen with Anne today?”

“Yeah, as I was getting my coat she confronted me about why I was ignoring her”

“You were ignoring her?” Mary questioned, raising her eyebrows, putting down the wooden spoon she was holding and placing her hands on her hips accusingly.

“Yeah, I thought it was the best thing to do!”

“My my, you are a clueless one aren’t you!” Bash replied.

“What else was I supposed to do? Try and talk to her about the kiss? No way!”

“Exactly that! Talk to her” Bash replied in exasperation.

“I can’t” Gilbert whispered.

“Why?” Mary questioned.

“I’m scared” Gilbert whispered, even quieter than before.

“You’re scared to talk to a fellow human being? Wow” Mary said, turning back to the stew that she was making.

“You guys should have seen me when I was talking to her! My heart was beating 1000 miles a minute!” Gilbert cried out.

“Well if you can’t talk to her because you’re too chicken, why not talk to the other fellow in this equation, Cole was it? I remember you describing him as a pretty nice guy before, I bet you he’ll give you the answers!” Bash said.

Gilbert went to retaliate but instead replied “That’s not actually a bad idea! It’s Saturday tomorrow, so I could go up to Charlottetown and talk to him about it! Good idea Bash, I’ll pack my things!” Before anyone could say anything else, Gilbert was off to his room to pack.

It was roughly a month after Bash and Mary’s wedding when Gilbert was grabbing his lunch, his books and heading off to school. He had spent the past couple of weeks working in the Queens class at school, and his rivalry with Anne was more competitive than ever. But, unlike before, now at least they were friends, and joked about their rivalry rather than being totally serious.

Since Miss Stacy had arrived, the schoolhouse took a turn for the better, people were excited to learn new things, and even Billy found himself being intrigued by the simplest of scientific experiments. Today was no different to the rest, the day started out with Gilbert alone in the schoolhouse doing his medical study while everyone else was outside playing and talking. When Miss Stacy came, everyone sprinted inside and sat in a circle, ecstatic to start learning, and the day went on from there. Lunchtime finally rolled around and as the girls ran off to pick flowers, the boys threw a small rock to each other to pass the time.

“Do you know what we should do?” announced Moody as the boys went to sit down for a break. “We should have another game of spin the bottle! It was so much fun last time, even though half of the girls left to find Anne halfway through.”

“We should, I was so annoyed that I didn’t get my turn!” replied Charlie.

“You could’ve kissed Anne, no one else was going to” retaliated Moody. Since the master plan that had taken place the month before, Moody had become more accustomed to Anne, and enjoyed her company, much to the disgust of the other boys.

“Kiss that ugly orphan? I would rather be buried alive” Charlie scrunched up his face in disgust and faked vomiting, which made the group of boys erupt with laughter. Gilbert’s jaw clenched, he hated it when the boys made fun of Anne, she never did anything bad to them, and she definitely didn’t deserve the hatred that she got.

“That’s not very nice, Anne’s kind and smart, and certainly isn’t ugly!” Gilbert exclaimed, standing up, finding it difficult to hold himself back.

“Yeah, no wonder she ran out of there, you guys were being so mean!” Moody stood up as he said this and stood next to Gilbert.

“Hey, you were making fun of her too!” Billy shouted. Gilbert’s eyes flicked to Moody, and Moody opened his mouth in protest, but couldn’t think of anything to retaliate with. Gilbert stalked off, with Moody tailing, to find a place on the other side of the schoolhouse to sit, away from the other boys.

“Gilbert, I, well, I did make fun of her, but only because it was different then, she’s my friend now, and I do regret what I said, everyone was chanting, and I just joined in. I didn’t even mean it.” Gilbert’s eyes once again flicked over to Moody, and after 30 seconds of staring, Gilbert finally responded.

“It’s fine” he sighed, “I’ve done things that I’ve regretted too” he added, thinking back to the slate incident and absentmindedly rubbing the side of his head that was hit. “At least you stood up for her just then” Gilbert’s head rested against the wall of the schoolhouse as he sighed again before asking, “What were they chanting? The boys during the game that is.”

“Kiss freaks, kiss” Moody muttered under his breath.

“Pardon me?”

“Kiss freaks, kiss” replied Moody a little louder. Gilbert’s eyebrows furrowed and a look of confusion flashed across his face. “Kiss freaks kiss? What is that supposed to mean?”

“When Anne went to spin the bottle, everyone opted out and insulted her. She didn’t even want to spin the bottle in the first place, but Josie made her. Cole stood up and volunteered, they were hesitant, and that’s when everyone started chanting, the girls tried to stop the boys, but to no avail, then they kissed and everyone laughed.” explained Moody. Gilbert clenched his fist’s when he heard the word ‘kissed’. Did Anne and Cole really kiss? Did that mean that they were an item? Did Anne like Cole? These thoughts were racing through his mind for the rest of the day, he had no idea why he was so hooked on this, but the thought really bugged him. Later in the day, when everyone was collecting their hats and coats, Anne came up to Gilbert to congratulate him on his spelling bee win that day.

“I’ll have to work extra hard to beat you next time” she giggled.