𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 ᵍⁱˡᵇᵉʳᵗ ᵇˡʸᵗʰᵉ

35

༶•┈┈⛧┈♛ ♛┈⛧┈┈•༶

"No you're not"

- Charlotte Wells

---

Charlotte sat one on of the benches in the school budling, simply watching everyone else on the newspaper argue with each other.

Brown and blue bruises were evident on her face, as well as cuts along her knuckles and her cheek. She massaged her hands on her lap, trying to diffuse the swelling and bruising.

As the group silenced down, she glanced up towards Miss Stacy.

"I believe we've all yelled enough about this incident, how would you like to proceed?" Miss Stacy asked.

Charlotte had been in the room when Marilla barged in that morning, demanding to know why Anne wrote what she did in the newspaper.

"We're arguing about the wrong thing," Gilbert spoke up. "This isn't about what Anne wrote. This is about what's fair."

"My article is quite literally called 'What is Fair'," Anne replied.

"Anne, listen. Gilbert continue," Miss Stacy ordered.

"I mean fairness to us, to the team. You could have pitched your idea and we could have worked on it together." He glanced towards Anne, then Charlotte, who was still rubbing her hands. "I'm sure there's a way we can talk about equality without ruining a girls life."

"Now you have an opinion on equality?" Anne repeated.

Gilbert frowned. "It's the same opinion I probably would have had yesterday. Had you bothered to ask."

"Interesting, because at the fair I could have sworn I saw you negotiating for an attractive new parcel of land. I mean... wife." Anne raised an eyebrow.

A small grin crept onto Charlotte's face as she kept her head down.

"Okay, how bout I tell you all my plan before this room spontaneously combusts. From now on we will be exercising a rigid guideline I'd assumed was clear in the beginning," Miss Stacy announced to all her students. "I'm the editor and chief. All articles must go through me for approval before they go to print or they don't print. Understood?"

Each student nodded. Miss Stacy clapped her hands. "Wonderful. Onto the next topic of issue, please break into groups and start discussing what you'd like to see in it's pages. Anne, come with me."

Charlotte glanced down at her hands, standing up to walk towards Miss Stacy's desk and her and Anne left the room.

As she pulled out paper towels, Gilbert glanced towards the ripping noise, watching as she wrapped the paper around her hands. Slight traces of red were evident on the paper, signaling her hands had started bleeding.

He had seen her hands ripped and torn when she was yelling at Marilla, and he saw her massaging the wounds in class, trying to get rid of the pain and swelling. He knew rubbing it would just hurt her more and re-open the wounds, and he was right.

He just didn't want to tell her what do to when she was glaring at him from across the room.

But now as she winced while trying to tie her hands, he found himself stepping towards her, taking her hands in his, and removing the towels covering her hands.