Beautiful; Gilbert Blythe

Quatre

The quiet sound of autumn leaves crunching beneath my feet soothed my mind as I walked to school alone as my sister was too ill to attend. I felt relaxed and at one with my thoughts in this chilly weather, my thick scarf doing its best to keep me warm. I had my school books in one hand and my small basket with my lunch in the other. The air around me tickled my reddened nose.

I heard foot steps behind me quickly approaching and I spun around in fear of an animal or worse running after me. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw it was just Billy from school jogging to catch up with me.

"Oh goodness Billy, you have me a fright!" I laughed letting out a breath I was holding in.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you just saw you walking and wanted to join you," he smiled at me and the blush in my face crept up. Noticing that he chuckled quietly.

"Here let me take these from you," he offered to hold my books and basket which I happily accepted as they were hurting my arms.

We walked in comfortable silence for a while until out of nowhere Billy said he had to get to school a little sooner, gave my things back, and jogged forward and out of my sight.

I sighed at the feeling of being alone once more, something I've always enjoyed. After a while of walking I spotted Anne a little further in front of me.

I quickened my pace to catch up to her but just as I was about to reach her I saw Billy. Confused, as I thought he'd already be at school, I didn't say anything and kept walking towards the two.

"Do you wanna get slandered?" I heard Billy say before Anne dropped her books. "I'm gonna teach you a lesson, Fido" he said as I got there.

"Billy, what's going on?" I questioned, bending down to retrieve Anne's books,

"This orphan had some pretty nasty things to say about my sister, now she's gonna pay for it." Billy responded, not looking away from Anne.

"I'm sure she didn't mean it Billy, just leave her alone please," I pleaded to him. He just shook his head and walked closer to Anne. I stepped in between the two just to get shoved to the side by Billy making me fall over. "Back off." He scoffed at me. I don't understand why he's being so mean when he was just so nice to me earlier, I truly don't understand how boys work.

"Hey Billy!" A voice from behind us rang out, "hows it going?" The boy askew

"Hey" Billy said in a much less harsh tone than he had before.

"Man it's-it's, um, it's good to be back" the dark haired boy said "yeah..yeah welcome back man" Billy stuttered over his words.

"Yeah it's good to see you buddy, So you three, uh, playing a game or something, right?" He questioned.

"Looks fun, but we should probably get to school eh? —hate to be tardy, Mr Phillips sure gets his dander up about that" he jested at Billy

"Yeah I was just about to get going, see you there." Billy huffed before walking away.

"You ladies alright?" He asked helping me off the ground and handing me my books as Anne ran off to school. I quickly thanked him and ran off to chase after her.

"Need anything else? Any dragons around here need slaying?" He jokingly called after us.

Anne being taller most girls in class was proven much too hard to catch up with and so I huffed in annoyance and stop running after her and just walked the rest of the way to school.