Baker - G. BLYTHE

|33|

-ˋˏ *.·:·. [ONE WEEK LATER] .·:·.* ˎˊ-

CHARLOTTE HAD MIXED FEELINGS TOWARDS THE SCHOOL NEWSLETTER. She loved reading the articles and drawing the small pictures on the paper when necessary but the repetitive nature of it all vexed her. She found herself drawing the same picture over and over, writing the same piece of text over and over. In fact most people shared the same hatred, they all loved the paper but hated writing all the copies. The students were all currently giving presentations about their lineages, some of which were very interesting and others not so much. Charlotte's was amongst the boring ones, just your typical large Irish family who had lived in the country for their entire lives. Dianas was magical, she had family from all over the place and in very high places. Hers sounded like a fairytale and Anne was sure to tell her so.

After the newspaper had been written to Miss Stacy's standards and checked for spelling mistakes the school day came to a close. Since they had their exams this year, a very important exam for everyone's future even if they were unsure of what they wanted to do, most stayed after school to get in extra study time. Diana was amongst the few people who didn't take part in the extra studies, Charlotte could tell that she hated leaving earlier than everyone else so everyone made sure to make sure she felt somewhat included.

During the time usually allocated for study, everyone but Anne, Charlotte and Gilbert seemed very distracted. They had the books open in front of them, pens in hand but they weren't writing the task. Instead they not so secretly tore pages of paper in half, writing little notes on them as they snuck glances to the opposite side of the room. The constant tearing was something vexing, each brought her away from her focus. Charlotte hadn't a plan of what she was going to do with these exam results but they were important to have in case she decided to go to Queens.

After they were dismissed, Charlotte quickly noticed how a crowd had formed around the take notice board. She walked towards the board curiously and Gilbert followed behind, not wanting to see it but not wanting to wait for her alone. Her eyes gazed at all the notes, the entire board was completely filled with different shades of paper with different loopy handwriting written across it. She read through them all, finding that every single name had been strewn across at least one piece of paper. Gilbert had multiple so did Charlie, Diana, Ruby and Anne. Charlotte however had none, not a single piece of paper with her name on was pinned against the old board.

She turned and quickly walked away from it, biting away the disappointed tears that had formed in her eyes. She didn't care for the sentiment of the take notice board, in fact she found it rather horrid. But being the only one left out of all the compliments, the only one who no one saw that way had her feeling terrible. Not being taken notice of had a horrible feeling growing in her stomach and she couldn't stop her feet from walking quicker up the hill, even though Gilbert practically ran to catch up with her.

He eventually reached her and quickly matched her pace, his eyebrows were knitted in confusion as he watched the girl storming up the hill with an expression he hadn't seen before. "Lottie, what's the matter?" he asked as he put a hand on her arm in an attempt to stop her from walking.

She planted her feet on the ground, turning slightly and tried to settle the likely twinge that would show in her voice. "It's nothing, Gil," she replied quickly before turning and continuing to walk, this time slower but with just as much force underfoot.

"Of course, it's something if it's making you upset," he sighed apprehensively, matching her pace once again. Gilbert knew that it wasn't a very common thing for her to get like this, he hadn't seen it for at least a year so these actions had him very concerned.

"I don't even know why I care!" she exclaimed finally looking at him, he looked taken aback by the sudden change in her voice. Her upset expression soon changed to one that showed major regret. "Sorry, I didn't mean to shout at you. It's not your fault," she quickly apologized with a deep sigh. She felt terrible for shouting at Gilbert since he hadn't done anything wrong, no one had actually this was her own issue. He was quick to forgive her, seeing that she clearly wasn't thinking straight and chose not to press any further.