wondrous • gilbert blythe

nothing but trouble

"Adelaide, come up here and complete the sum." Ms. Marty asked the young girl. Adelaide shakily stands up, she absolutely hated when all of the attention was on her. She grabs a piece of white chalk and writes =26 on the board after doing the mental math of the problem.

"Well done, girl. Sit down." Her teacher says and Adelaide nods. As she walked back to her desk, one of her classmates sticks out their foot. She trips and is sent sprawling onto the hard, wood flooring. The class laughs and her face grows pink from embarrassment.

"William!" The teacher scolds. Adelaide stands up and turns around, ready to walk back to her seat. William also stands from his bench and grabs her arm.

"What are you going to do about it, little boy?" He teases. The other kids in her class always made fun of her for cutting her hair to rest right above her shoulders. She didn't see why it was that big of a deal, and it wasn't their business anyway.

Adelaide tells herself to calm down and ignore him, but the laughs of those that surround them send her over the edge. She swiftly turns around to punch him directly in his face. William stumbles backwards and she pushes him to knock him off of his feet completely.

"That is what I'm going to do about it!" Adelaide yells as she clambers onto him, getting in a few more punches. Ms. Marty pulls her off of William before she can hit him any more. Adelaide grins when she sees the newly-forming bruises on his face. He got what he deserved.

Adelaide happily walked out of the schoolhouse, Ms. Marty following close behind.

The thought of how much trouble she would be in with her mother never even crossed her mind until the teacher sent her home, banning her from the school ever again.

•••

Alice, Adelaide's mother, brings a frilly, light pink dress out of her closet, and Adelaide promptly shakes her head.

"I will stick to my green one, thank you." She says and walks out of her mothers room.

She was starting school in less than an hour, and it was a brand new school. She would have to walk quite a ways away, but it wasn't like she had a choice in the matter.

When Alice found out about Adelaide starting a fight with William that day, she was furious. How could her perfect daughter manage to do something like that? A woman should never hit someone, let alone a man.

After packing her lunch that consisted of an apple and some bread, Adelaide combed through her hair with her fingers and sighed when she saw that it was growing closer and closer to her shoulders. She loved having it short, but her mother locked up all of the scissors in the house so she couldn't cut it again. Maybe she would just have to do it at school.

Adelaide stuffed the lunch into her brown burlap bag, along with her books, and slipped on her dark green dress over her undergarments. She tied up her boots and kissed her mother goodbye.

Walking along the path of leaves, she grimaced as she thought of how horrid the walk would be once winter arrived. Maybe she could convince her mother to let her ride one of their horses to school.

A chilly forty-seven minutes later, Adelaide found herself face to face with the boring white schoolhouse. She had gotten distracted on the way by a rabbit on the path.

Kids littered the grounds, so she walked up to the doorstep and creaked open the door. Kids were inside, also. She didn't like hats or coats, so Adelaide had nothing to hang up on the hooks by the entrance. As she peered around for a seat, a lively redhead bounced up to her.