circles 𖧷 gilbert blythe

9th chapter „the french boy"

The school bell rang and we all went into the classroom together.

Miss Lynde was there to teach us how to dance. She is a regular citizen of Avonlea and volunteered to join. „Good morning, children! Please make couples, so we can start with the dancing right away", she said and everyone went to their partners, except me. I was the only one with no partner. Miss Lynde came up to me and asked: „Don't you have a partner, Jules?", just as the door opened and our new classmate came into the room. He had brown, curly hair and was relatively tall and slim built. He looked a little bit shy around the classroom, when Miss Lynde suddenly pulled me over to him and asked: „Are you the new student? The french boy?". He first looked at me and that was when I noticed how beautiful his eyes are. His eyes were a beautiful green.

„Yes Miss, I'm Timothée Élie Jean LaRue", he introduced himself while blushing.

Miss Lynde began to smile and said: „Perfect, then you'll dance with our precious girl, Jules". She pushed me to him and left us standing there alone. I smiled at him because I noticed how nervous he was. „Come on Timothée, let's go to the others", I said and took his hand. I pulled him to the others, who were standing in a circle, waiting for us. Immediately I felt someone staring at me. I looked around and noticed it was Gilbert. He was more precisely staring at Timothées and my hands, as we were holding hands. Why was his face expression so serious? Was something wrong? „Now that everyone has a partner, we can start right away!  Everyone, please,  go with your partner to a corner of the room and follow my instructions there", Miss Lynde said and everyone did what she said.

I turned around to Timothée, who was already staring at me, the whole time.

„Do we want to, M'lady", he asked me suddenly, smiling, bowing to me and holding his hand out. I started giggling and putted my hand in his. Whereupon we walked together to a corner of the room. „The boys put their hands on the hip of the girl and the girls will put their hands on the shoulders of the boy", came the first instruction from Miss Lynde. Timothée and I stood in front of each other, when I took the next step. I took a step closer to him and put both of my hands on his shoulders. He looked at me in surprise as I shook my head with a laugh, took his hands and placed them on my hip. „And now you start to move to the music, is that clear?", Miss Lynde asked and immediately walked to two students, who were having problems with the placing of the hands.

We followed Miss Lynde's further instructions and after a while all the dance steps we should learn, we could do perfectly. We had no problems in partner dancing anymore, but with Timothée I haven't had any conversation so far. The only thing we had done together was dancing and laughing about our mistakes, otherwise we didn't talked. I looked at him and thought about what to talk about, when I noticed his eyes again. They are very green and
were really breathtakingly beautiful. „You have really beautiful eyes.. Timothée", I said and he looked at me confused. „I? thank you.. I like your freckles and eyes too", he said and I looked at him in surprise. „My freckles, really? thanks. I don't hear that often", I replied. „I mean it, I really like your freckles", he said and I had to smile.

„Well, Timothée tell me a little about yourself. I want to know more about you", I said and he started smiling.

„Is that so? But only if you tell me something about yourself too", he said, and I nodded laughingly. „Okay, as you already know, my name is Timothée. I don't have to tell you that again. I was born in Paris, France. I have an older sister named „Ember" and a younger sister named „Édith". Together with them and my parents we moved here from Paris to Avonlea, as my father found a new job as a doctor here. I have a cat named„Bellé" and have been playing the violin for 4 years. That's it, nothing more to tell you, now I want to know something about you, Jules", he said and I had to smile. „Well, so my full name is Jules Loralei Rae River . I have a twin brother and I moved here with him and my grandparents, two months ago because my parents owned land here and we wanted to build a new life here, after their death. My parents are dead and that makes me and my brother orphans,

but our grandparents have taken care of us since then. We live on a piece of land here and even have our own animals. I think that's it, nothing more to tell you", I said and Timothée looked at me in surprise. He was probably surprised because how lightly I had talked about my parent's death. „My parents died a while ago, so I don't have a big problem anymore with talking about their death. I kinda got used to it", I explained and he nodded.
„I'm still sorry for the loss of them, must have been hard", he said and I nodded. „It was.. thank you", I said and he kept me staring at me. „Have you found a friend here so far?", I asked a while later. „Friends? No, not yet, but I was hoping maybe we could be friends. You seem very nice to me and you're the first person I talked with, so far", he said and I could see he was quite embarassed to say that.

„That sounds pretty pathetic, I know", he said right after that and I shook my head.

„No, not at all. I was just like you, when I arrived here, two months ago", I said. „I would love to be friends", I add and he grinned. „Okay well, are we really friends now?", he asked me, smiling and I replied with: „yeah, friends". We both started laughing , when Miss Lynde said: „Don't talk dance, Jules and Timothée". We had two more hours of dance lessons, when it was finally over. I was walking to the door with Timothée, when someone behind me grabbed my arm. I turned around and saw that it was Gilbert. „Gilbert? Is something wrong?", I asked him as he looked confusedly between Timothée and me. „Oh, by the way that's Timothée and Timothée that's Gilbert", I said smiling, while Timothée, next to me, smiled too.

„Can I talk to you for a moment?", he asked and I nodded confusedly as he pulled me away from Timothée.

He stood in front of me and I raised my eyebrows questioningly. „What was that?", he asked me. „What was what?", I asked confusedly. „You and that Timothée.. you've been laughing and talking with him all day long. Are you friends with him or something?", he asked me and I didn't understand what his problem was. „I don't understand what your problem is. Timothée is my friend, yes, just like you and I spent so much time with him today because he is my dance partner, so what's the problem?", I asked and Gilbert lowered his head. „I don't like it, I don't like him", he said. „Why? He didn't do anything to you. I really don't have to give myself to this childish stuff, Gilbert", I said, turned around and walked towards Timothée.

„Please don't come to my house either, Timothée is already coming, today", I said to Gilbert, when he grabbed me by arm again. „He's even coming to your house now? Jules..", he began, but I didn't let him finish his sentence, freed myself from his grip and went to Timothée. „You can spend the whole day with Anne, have fun!", I said slightly angry and walked away, together with Timothée into the woods. What was this theater of Gilbert? Why did he acted that weird? And what's his problem with Timothée. He didn't even got to know him yet, so why was he causing so much drama. I didn't knew and I didn't care either. Today I just wanted to get to know Timothée better and spend time with him, since he is my friend now.