In the Woods When First We Met

28. Carrots

Her sandwich felt like a rock in her stomach.

She thought maybe she better not try to eat anything else. Nothing sounded good to her anymore. On the other hand, the afternoon would feel longer if she was hungry. So she looked in her basket to see what else Marilla had given her. She still had two deviled eggs- which she would usually be practically drooling over- and she had carrot and celery sticks. Well, maybe she could handle the celery. Celery was pretty bland. Maybe that wouldn't feel bad in her stomach. She ate it slowly, listening to the crunchy sound of it. She finished her celery sticks but gave up eating after that. The deviled eggs and the carrots weren't going to happen.

She decided to put her lunch basket in the cloak room before recess ended. That way she wouldn't run into Billy, because once recess ended and everyone clambered into the cloak room, she would just be able to walk past them all and go straight to her desk.

She slipped into the school and tried to be quiet so that Mr. Phillips, who was sitting at his desk grading papers, wouldn't hear her.

Before she could even step over to the shelves, the door opened quietly behind her. She turned around to see Billy looming over her. He had followed her in.

She dropped her lunch basket. It didn't make much noise because it landed on her shoes, but her carrots sticks rolled across the floor of the cloak room.

Billy, ignoring the food rolling across the floor, stepped closer to Anne and whispered, "Miss me?"

Anne tried to think quickly. She could hear Mr. Phillips clear his throat as he shuffled some papers.

Billy seemed to read her mind, knowing she might try to get Mr. Phillip's attention.

With a smile, he put his finger to his lips, "Shhh."

Before he could say or do anything, the door opened again, loudly this time, as Gilbert rushed in. He didn't understand why Anne had yelled at him earlier, but that didn't matter- he wasn't going to just watch Billy follow her and do nothing to stop him.

Billy looked disappointed that someone had walked in, interrupting them. He shrugged it off and went past Gilbert back out the door.

Gilbert looked at Anne's face, white, startled.

"Did anything-"

Anne shook her head before he'd finished asking.

Gilbert looked down. He reached down to pick up her basket. Then he saw the carrots all over the floor.

"Oh, Anne, your carrots," he said.

He looked down at her lunch basket in his hands and saw that she also had deviled eggs wrapped up in her basket.

"Didn't you eat anything?" He asked.

"I ate my sandwich," she said.

"That's all?" Gilbert asked.

"I don't like carrots," she lied. The truth was, her stomach was in knots.

Gilbert smiled. "That's funny. I thought eating carrots was what made your hair turn red."

"That's cute," Anne said absently, with a half-hearted smile.

Gilbert smiled- but unfortunately, believing that Anne had liked his joke about carrots would get him into some trouble later.

The truth was, she had barely even heard him. If she had, she would have reacted quite differently to what he had said about carrots making her hair turn red.

Suddenly Mr. Phillips appeared. He seemed startled to see students in the cloak room. "What are you doing in already?" He didn't wait for an answer before saying, "Go on in, then, I need to ring the bell."

Gilbert looked at Anne's face.

Anne looked just as startled to see Mr. Phillips as she had been to see Billy.

Anne was so on edge that anyone could startle her now.

"Go on in," he said quietly. "I'll clean up the carrots."

Anne, again looking as if she barely registered what he had said- looking like any little noise or movement would make her jump out of her skin- nodded and walked into the school room alone.