Idiosyncratic {Gilbert Blythe}

Chapter 17

Caspienne woke up the next morning, but this time she knew exactly where she was. She was covered in a blanket and laying on the couch, it seemed that Gilbert had moved at some point during the night, as he was in a chair next to the couch. 
"Hey, you're awake" he smiled, "It isn't late, by the way, so you don't need to be worried about getting ready for school."
"oh my goodness, I'm sorry Gilbert, I overstepped your boundaries, I need to go," Cas said flustered
"No, hey, I am the one who let you in. You didn't overstep any boundaries, trust me, I would have said something." he reassured her and she calmed down a little bit
"I should at least leave before someone sees me, Lord knows what someone might say if they saw me leave here alone, and I need to get ready for school." She started to put on her shoes and headed toward the door, "...thank you, by the way, you really helped me last night" she smiled softly then left. 

At the schoolhouse, Gilbert sat in the corner studying as everyone else had their own conversations in little groups. As usual, Caspienne paid no mind to any of them, they were either gossip or stupid boy stuff anyways. Miss Stacy walked in looking solemn headed to the backroom, Caspienne looked at her in pity, not the condescending kind of pity, just genuine empathy for her. All of the other adults had done nothing but gossip and look down on her ever since she got here. But, before Cas could dwell on it, the door slammed open and... Cole ran in? Again, before she could dwell on it, he lunged at Billy without a word and started throwing punches. The two boys started wrestling and throwing each other around, everyone jumped to their feet, not knowing what to do, and after a few moments of quarrel, they all heard an awful thud as Billy held his ear screaming and Cole shuffled back, shocked. Billy's ear was scorched with Gilbert knelt down beside him, Diana ran in with a presumably wet cloth as Gilbert pressed it against his ear. Miss Stacy dismissed class and told everyone to pack up and leave, and with a worried glance, Cas packed her things and headed home. 

If you were to ask Caspienne what she thought, she would probably say "It was horrible, poor Billy". But secretly? She thought the kid got what he deserved, all the years of cruelty he had dealt out to others had come back at him in one blow. She wouldn't say she was happy that it happened, but she wasn't upset either, he had it coming, one day he would face the consequences of being a bully. What she was truly worried about was Cole, and what would happen to Miss Stacy. She knew the blame would be put on her, all the adults would say that she "couldn't handle a classroom" or "didn't have the authority" just because she wasn't a man. It boiled her blood, the blatant sexism they showed. 

The substitute teacher droned on, his voice was even worse than Mr. Phillips. Cas, once again, tuned him out and read her own book, he seemed clueless enough to not notice anyway. As lunch time approached, Anne, Diana, Ruby, and Caspienne huddled up in the supply room to figure out what they could do to save Miss Stacy's career. As they congregated, Moody stepped in
"I want to help, everything went wrong after I dropped the lightbulb," he said, and just like the lightbulb, something turned on in Anne's head, "I know what to do!" she exclaimed. 

The five of them met at a carriage and went to Cole's farm and picked him up to take him with them. Quietly, they all laid on their belly next to the train tracks, ready to hop on the cart once the inspector turned at the right time. Anne quickly jumped on the train, then waited to give everyone else the signal and waved her hand, as everyone else hopped on one by one. Caspienne needed a little extra help as she needed to be careful to not move her arm the wrong way, and as she turned her head to make sure no one saw them, she made eye contact with none other than Gilbert... until she was pulled into the train and the door was closed. After a long ride the door opened and everyone panicked, until they saw the person opening it was Gilbert
"what are you doing here?" Anne questioned
"I was going to ask you the same question" Gilbert retorted, then looked at Cas, and she waved sheepishly. 

"I hope you find Sebastian, and that he is okay" Cas walked alongside Gilbert
"I hope he forgives me for being so selfish," he said
"I'm sure he will, he'll realize that you are truly sorry" Cas comforted him
"good luck on your mission to save Miss Stacy. I can't believe you hopped a freight for it!" he said
"yeah, me neither. I'll see you later, okay?" Cas smiled
"See you later" he smiled back. 
After he walked away Cole came up behind her 
"you know he has a crush on you, right?" he teased
"huh? w-what? why would you say that, what makes you say that?!" Caspienne stammered out, but Cole didn't elaborate and just said goodbye with a smirk. 

Everyone made their way to the pawnshop to haggle their goods, Cas had gotten a bunch of the stuff her parents sent back to her. Most of it was junk to her, but to a shopkeep, they were exotic treasures, and she had a bag full of them. After selling all they could, they bought the lightbulbs and made their way out, but of course, there had to be dent in their plan, as Moody tripped any everyone heard a horrible shatter. Fortunately, the shatter wasn't from Moody, unfortunately, it was from the lightbulbs, every single one of them. They had stopped at Aunt Josephine's house to check on Cole when Aunt Jo had her own idea, "Rollings, do we have any ladders?"
Aunt Jo had let them borrow the lightbulbs in her lamps, chandeliers, booklights, everything! now they had all that they needed. The next step was an intervention at the town hall to save Miss Stacy's career and reputation!