shirbert

a dreadful day

"spell ravishing," mr. phillips spoke softly as he paced the room to gaze at his inamorata, who smiled at him dreamily. diana noticed this and whispered to the other girls about what anne told her outside of the supply closet. charlie, who was standing in front of the blackboard with his chalk, was writing 'ravishing' in big, cursive letters. "correct, you may sit," said mr phillips as charlie erased the word.

"moody! stand and deliver; spell dreadful." moody made his way to the board and drew a sloppy cursive 'D'. mr phillips rolled his eyes and sighed, "like your handwriting," which was followed by a series of laughs from the class.

moody had only spelled out 'dred' when anne stood up at her desk. "moody, it has an 'a' in it," she corrected. "right after the 'e'. but the 'a' is silent."

mr phillips looked at her in annoyance. "yes, the 'a' is silent," he groaned, "like you should be." he stepped up to her and spoke softly, "you're the, um.. orphan, yes?"

"my name is anne shirley-cuthbert, and please be sure to spell 'anne' with an 'e'."

"did i call on you?"

"you- you just asked me a question?"

mr phillips stared at her like she was an idiot. "did i call on you."

"..no," anne whispered.

"then sit down."

anne threw herself onto her bench in astonishment as the class chuckled and whispered. the day was long and tiresome for anne, and her attempts to ignore billy and josie all failed. once school had ended, diana walked up to anne and kindly offered to walk her partway home.

as they walked along the crunchy fall leaves, anne pondered, "isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet? there must be a limit to the mistakes one person can make. and when i get to the end of them, then i'll be through with them. it's a very comforting thought. don't you think?"

diana stayed quite for a moment and once their pathways diverted, they stopped and diana put her hand on anne's shoulder. "don't worry," she reassured, "i'm sure the girls will come around to liking you real soon. maybe talk a bit less," she laughed kindly. "and.." she added, "no mice. see you tomorrow, anne." they hugged and as anne watched diana walk away down her path, she angrily ripped the beautiful flowers from her hat. she looked up at the calm, dull sky and exhaled, starting off on her journey to get back to green gables.

the white gate creaked open as anne walked through it. she waved excitedly at her adoptive father, matthew, and his farm boy, jerry, who both waved back at her surprisedly.

she stepped through the front doors to see marilla, anne's adoptive mother, and her best friend, rachel lynde, conversing with each other at the table. "the two of you are such an inspiration," anne sighed enthusiastically. "to think that you've been friends since school.. kindred spirits forever. how do you do it?? wh-what's your secret?"

marilla ignored the given question and asked, "anne, how was your first day at school?"

"i think it went really, really well. very well, indeed. i'm just so happy to be there! i'll just put my things away, and then i'll be down to help you for supper!" her words came out faster than comprehensible and with that, she stormed up the stairs.

her act, however, quickly vanished as she shut her bedroom door and hurled herself onto her bed with a sigh. a thought flickered in her eyes and she sat up to pull her slate from her book pack. "long division," she sighed. "it must be like.. backwards multiplication. it can't be that hard to figure out." she exhaled a long breath before scratching numbers onto her slate with chalk.

with that, the sun set and the moon rose, and anne was off to sleep without being called down to help for supper.

{ sorry this chapter is a bit shorter! i only have limited time to write on my phone so it takes me forever to produce chapters. gilbert comes very soon, and i hope you enjoyed!🫶 }