Baker - G. BLYTHE

|40|

-ˋˏ *.·:·. [ONE DAY LATER] .·:·.* ˎˊ-

CHARLOTTE RETURNED TO AVONLEA IN THE MIDST OF A SCANDAL. At the dance after the fair, one that she had been far too upset to even think about attending, Billy Andrews disrespected Josie Pye while they were without a chaperone. It didn't take anything to notice that the rumours were true, Josie Pye was completely heartbroken and had even earned the pity of those who disliked her. No one deserved to be treated like that. Charlotte knew Billy was horrid, that's for sure and certain but she never thought her would go this far. It was truly one of the worst things she had ever heard. Anne had taken action during Sunday's church service, going rouge and changing the contents of the paper. Her article was very heavy, using such persuasive and prominent language throughout but it got across a very important point. Charlotte backed Anne's decision all the way, maybe she could have presented it to the newspaper crew but the subject would have likely been dulled, thinned and made redundant. It was brave, she would give her that. 

However, the other members of the paper did not have quite the same reaction to the article. The next meeting quickly turned into an argument with students shouting across the room at each other. Charlotte wasn't mainly arguing with one specific person, she added her opinion to others' conversations if someone said something stupid. This complicated argument ended when Miss Stacy flew a folded paper plane through the group, immediately casting the schoolhouse in an eerie silence compared to before. "I believe we have yelled enough about the incident, how would you like to proceed?" Miss Stacy asked, her voice getting quieter as she went on. "My first recommendation is to talk at a level that won't cause deafness," she continued at a normal level, everyone turned to look at each other to see who would have an idea. No one did for a few minutes before Gilbert stepped up. 

"We're arguing about the wrong thing, this isn't about what Anne wrote. This is about what's fair," Gilbert spoke loudly, making sure that his point got across to everyone. Anne scoffed at this, making sure that she loudly told him that was the literal title of her piece. Charlotte scoffed quietly, the thought of this being a lover's quarrel making a short appearance in her mind. Gilbert took a few seconds to collect himself before continuing, "I mean, fairness to us. The team. You could have pitched your idea and we could have worked on it together. I'm sure that there's a way that we can talk about equality without ruining a girl's life." Anne seemed visibly appalled at this and the two started to have an argument about something which no one could quite figure out. It seemed that something had happened during the fair, something which neither had told anybody about. It did intrigue Charlotte but she eventually decided that if he wanted her to know, Gilbert would have told her during their walks to school. 

"Alright then!" Miss Stacy clapped taking everyone's attention away from the two arguing teenagers. "Why don't I tell you my plan, from now on we will be exercising a rigid guideline I'd assumed was clear from the beginning. I am the editor in chief, as such all articles must be met with my seal of approval before they go to print or else they don't go to print. Understood?" she instructed earning nods of agreement from all those present. Miss Stacy then instructed them to talk about things that they could write in articles, something which the majority of people didn't do. Instead choosing to go off into their own smaller conversations, Tillie and Charlotte began to talk about her little adventure to Charlottetown. 

"I have some news," Charlotte muttered nervously, she hadn't told anyone outside of her family about her plans for the school. Telling Tillie meant there was no going back on her decision, speaking it aloud meant that she could not back out (not that she would.)  Tillie urged her to continue with a nod of her head and a slight smile. Charlotte cleared her throat, "I got into an art college." Charlotte laughed feeling funny even saying it aloud, making such a big deal over something so small seemed stupid.  

Tillie's face contorted into a huge grin, something which soothed her nerves slightly. "I didn't even know you applied, Oh! This is amazing, congratulations!" Tillie lent forward to hug the future art student, earning weird looks from those in their surroundings. Before Tillie could explain anything to the whole group Charlotte squeezed her hand and shook her head, hoping she would get the idea that she didn't want anyone to know just yet. Especially Gilbert.

 -ˋˏ *.·:·. [TWO DAYS LATER] .·:·.* ˎˊ-

THE NEWSPAPER CREW ALL STOOD IN THE SCHOOLHOUSE LISTENING TO MISS STACY. Because of what Anne had gotten up to she had been taken off the team and the council deemed it necessary to give out a few guidelines that the students had to conform to. They were forced into these four topics because without them the paper would no longer exist. These topics included and were limited to; the weather, hat fashions, farm stories and absolutely no references to animal husbandry. 

"We'd be lucky to get even half a page of actually interesting writing on those and I am not drawing hundreds of hats," Charlotte sighed quietly, just so Gilbert and Tillie could hear. The printing press would print letters but not the needed artwork, she still had to draw hundreds of the same drawings on every article. It was exhausting and had her hand aching more often than not. Gilbert laughed quietly to himself, shaking his head slightly as he looked to Charlotte who returned the same look. It wasn't a topic they should have probably laughed about given the current atmosphere of the room. 

Gilbert picked up the newspaper containing Anne's article from the table next to him and began to read, "Women matter on their own, not in relation to a man. Whom here disagrees." Gilbert looked up to the students for their answer but no one raised a hand or nodded their head. No one disagreed with a single syllable that Anne had written and he was doing an excellent job of making that known. "We all deserve the right to bodily autonomy and to be treated with respect and dignity. To stay stop and be heard; instead of pushed, derided and told that a man knows more about our basic rights and desires than we do," he stood up and placed the newspaper down on the table. "What do you think Moody, do you know more about the contents of Ruby's mind than she does?" 

Moody looked to Ruby, taking a second to think about it before answering his question in a rather high pitched voice."I barely know one thing." 

"I certainly know more than that," Ruby responded enthusiastically as she looked at Moody, Tillie and Charlotte completely loved this relationship pairing. It seemed, that when Moody would finally gather the guts to ask Ruby to tea, they would work really well together and have a very happy relationship indeed. 

Gilbert pulled the newspaper back up into his view and continued to read, "Women are not made whole by men. Women are made whole the moment that they enter this world. You know she'd stand up for any one of you, even despite what you're saying about her, she'd do what is right. That's who she is." And after that rather dramatic (but rightly so) speech, Charlotte came to realise how much Gilbert actually cared for Anne. But before she could delve too deeply into the thought that felt like another swift punch in her gut, Anne burst into the room holding a punch of wooden planks and with a heartfelt apology in tow. With that, they had a plan. A plan to attempt to make a difference in Avonlea. 

The students all excitedly walked to Green Gables after listening to Anne's plan. Charlotte walked with Tillie, the two excitedly chattering about her future in the art school. Telling Tillie had added a further level of excitement for the future, the things that she would experience and how her day to day life would look. The conversation was hushed so no one else heard but even that didn't stop the excited giggles from Tillie, ones which caught a few people's attention. 

 Charlotte had a quick conversation with Jerry upon her arrival before taking her wooden board and going to sit with Gilbert. The two of them laughed when the majority of the girls started half swooning over Jerry, everyone apart from Diana who looked rather uncomfortable as she painted. They all worked on painting the carefully painting the letters onto the boards until Charlotte got bored and ended up flicking some of the paint at Gilbert, it landed on his cheek in a line. When he attempted to clean it off the line only smudged making her laugh. Gilbert then took it upon himself to dip the brush in even more paint and run it all the way down the bridge of her nose, this initiated a small paint fight that ended only when Anne came over. She headed home soon after that, one to get the paint out of her hair and two to get away from the two of them. In small amounts, Charlotte could handle their relationship but sometimes it got to be too hard, she couldn't help but feel horrible when she saw the boy that she liked with another.