Let Me In ( Anne with an E fanfic)

Chapter 47

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1WjVkDHaHwp36Goia24jKo?si=HiqnO6L4T6u99BLqZfqSMw

"Grade 12..." Anne said, thinking. "It feels so long ago. It's kind of blurry, now. Some details are, anyway," Anne acknowledged. Gilbert nodded, agreeing. He had forgotten many details as well. "Still, I think it's important."

"We were so excited when the year began, remember?" Gilbert said after a moment, reminiscing, his voice a little lost. Anne looked at him, half smiling as she recalled the energy of that fall when they went back to school. The summer had been so great.

"It was supposed to be the best year ever."

"What happened then? When did everything... turn so badly?" he asked, more to the void than to Anne.

She shrugged, her face sad. They stayed in silence for a while, neither talking. Anne thought back about those first months of the school year, the fall term when everything seemed to be as promising as ever. Gilbert had started studying for the entrance exam for the medical program at Queens, she for her pedagogy one. Cole had received his first commission for a paid portrait (from Aunt Jo, but still!), Diana was finally recovering from the downfall of her relationship with Jerry. The rest of the gang was... same as usual. Billy Andrews was finally no longer at school, which was a whole relief all on its own. They couldn't avoid him all the time, since he kept lurking around the school and was Jane's brother after all. But either way, that fall... It seemed like every dream was coming true.

And then came the winter term. Which brought Winifred along. And it wasn't like she came and everything went to hell in one day. They were still best friends, or that's what she thought. Until... something happened. At some point.

"I think it's hard to pinpoint just one thing, or one day, Gil," she finally said. He looked at her, remembering how close they were when the year started and how horribly they had fought at the end.

"There has to be a turning point, either way. I mean, I understand what you mean, that it wasn't one day... But there has to be something we can pinpoint," Gilbert said, his hands going to his hair in frustration. Anne looked at him. "I feel everything was right... And when I realized, we weren't even hanging out anymore. Which is strange, considering we used to do everything together before."

"Well... I remember you had to study more, once you decided you were going to apply for UofT and not just for Queens," Anne said, because she couldn't think of anything else that had changed other than Winifred. But for Winifred to be able to tear them apart, there had to be something. "It was much more competitive. So you were busy with that, and..."

"Winifred offered to help, since she was preparing a similar exam for her entrance in the UK and it was so different from the one for Queens, for which I studied with you," Gilbert finished. "Fuck. I feel so stupid. It's like... she creeps everywhere. She messed us back then and now," he added, frustration evident in his voice and in the hard set of his jaw.

"She hasn't messed anything up now, Gil. Not yet," she said, trying to look at the positives in the midst of all the tension that was around the subject. Gilbert looked at her, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise at her saying that. Was she living in a parallel world or what? "Wait, let me explain. She tried her best, I'll give her that, and she's freaking good at it, but the only thing she managed so far now is getting us to confront all the... all the things we have been ignoring for months. And let's face it, we had to talk about all this at some point."

"Well, at least we know we're getting it all out of the way," Gilbert chuckled in disbelief and Anne laughed, relieving some tension. They stayed in silence for a moment. Anne put the empty containers in the paper bag again. He motioned for them to stand up and he picked up the trash and they walked over to a trashcan nearby and then kept walking in one direction, a bit aimlessly. "So... The entrance exams."