I'm Your Enemy (Gilbert Blythe X OC)

Miss Stacy

Flora's POV.

There's a new teacher in school. Miss Stacy, I think that's her name. Anyway, they removed Mr. Phillips after the news got around. There are no secrets anymore. Everyone knows.

I sit by my desk as the girls sit in a corner eating lunch. I can't seem to put anything in my mouth.

"Just one bite."

"I can't." I tell Gilbert. This has been going on for a few weeks and I still have not healed or gotten any better from whatever this is. If anything, then it's only gotten worse.

"Okay. I won't force you to eat." He drops his expression into a frown and looks at me worried.

"You don't need to worry. I'm just not hungry."

"You haven't been hungry for the past 3 weeks, Florence. You're not eating. It's dangerous."

"Hey, maybe it's good. You know... I've been getting a bit bigger. Eating less might make me lose wei-"

"Hey! No. Don't say that. Eating less is not going to get you anywhere else except for the hospital." He says harshly. I sigh and lay me head down on the table. My eyes almost close, but they snap open when someone taps my shoulder.

"Eyes up. Class is about to start. Gilbert, you may go back to your seat." Miss Stacy walks up to the board and starts writing something down. Gilbert kisses my cheek and walks back to his seat. "Come on, everyone, back to your seats please. We are going to learn about something very exciting." I put my lunch basket under the desk and try to consume at least two words she's saying. "Our bodies are very important... and we need to take care of it to be able to survive." The new professor continues talking. "Who here knows how many bones our bodies have?"

I don't know? 6?

About three hands go up.

"You! What's your name?"

"Anne. Just plain Anne. I know it's a name that can bore you to death, but when you spell it, there's an 'E' at the end. Anne with an E."

"Well, Anne, can you answer the question for me please?"

"Yes. 206. That's the answer, Miss Stacy."

I was close.

"You are correct." Miss Stacy congratulates her. "But they are different when it comes to gender. The female skeleton is different from the male one. Females also have what's called a uterus. The male body does in fact not have that organ. And there is so much power behind that organ. It is what brought life to us all. But for a uterus to be able to bring someone to life, It has to be conveyed by a sperm" All of a sudden I feel myself get interested. "That comes from the male body. When the sperm enters the egg inside the uterus, it creates a baby. In the span of nine months, the baby is conceived. When a woman gets pregnant, she won't really suspect it until she starts feeling symptoms. Symptoms like... vomiting..."

Vomiting?

"...Fatigue..."

Go on...

"...missed menstruation..."

That's when everything stops. It feals that way at least. I have stopped breathing and my heart has probably stopped beating. Miss Stacy's voice seems blurry and I can't quite focus onto what's happening around me.

"Florence."

I probably just have a cold or something. There are many reasons to why I could have been feeling like this.

"Florence?"

What can cause a missed menstruation? Probably a lot of things. A million things. Something that doesn't have anything to do with a pregnancy.

"Florence?!" I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"Ye- yes, Miss Stacy?"

"Are you alright?" She looks down at me.

"Me? I'm fine." My voice stumbles a little. "I'm great."

"Are you sure? You can step outside if you need some air. I know being in here might be hard for you. There are a lot of bad memories here for you and I know that."

"Really, Miss Stacy, I'm fine." The attention that's on me makes me uncomfortable. Some whisper against each other's ears and point at me.

"Very well, let the teaching continue." She walks back to the front. "As I was saying..." The rest of her sentance is unknown to me. I doze off, staring at nothing for what seems like hours, and apparently it was.

***

"We need to talk." I hear Gilbert say as we walk in the snow on our way home.

"I agree."

"Flora... is there any way you think that maybe..."

"No." I tell him. "I'm not pregnant." He looks at me as I say it.

"And you're sure because...?"

"I- I'm not sure but I'd like to believe that it's not true, because I'm definitely not ready."

He looks down.

"And what if you are? What will you do then."

I look at him, hoping that I'll find my answer, but I don't. The look in his face makes me even more confused. Does he want a child.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Are you seriously suggesting we should have a child?!" I ask him.

"I never said that I only asked 'what if you are pregnant?' what happens then?"

"I don't know, Gilbert. I'm not ready to have a child so whatever happens there is no way I can keep it."

"What?! You mean to tell me that you want to put it up for adoption?"

"No!"

"Then what?! Give it to the Barrys?! I'm sure as hell you wouldn't want to do that. Maybe give it to Mr. Phillips. Maybe he's the actual father after all!"

I can't believe the words he just said as he walks away from me. I stop in my tracks. The words he said to me sting hard. And he dared to put such a sensitive subject into an argument.