In the Woods When First We Met

76. Reunion

On Wednesday morning Marilla decided Anne was well enough to go to school.

But by this point, Anne didn't want to go. She thought Gilbert would have given up on her by now, and she'd have to walk through the woods alone.

She got dressed and ate her breakfast slowly, thinking that maybe if she was very slow, she'd be late to school and no one would still be in the woods or fields surrounding school when she finally walked through them. She knew Mr. Phillips would be mean to her if she came in late, but facing him was better than possibly running into Billy before class started.

But as she got to the woods, Gilbert came out of the trees, rubbing his hands together in the winter chill.

He saw her positively light up when she saw him.

"Gilbert!" She said.

Gilbert grinned at her.

Anne could have hugged him- but didn't. She just smiled so big that Gilbert was exceedingly glad he'd waited for her.

"Hi, Anne," he said, his smile looking to her like the sunrise.

"Hi!" She said.

Then for a moment neither of them could talk. They just laughed, both happy.

"You've been-" he began, just as she said, "You waited-"

They both laughed again.

"You first," he said as they began walking.

"You waited for me out in the snow even though I've been gone two days...I could've been gone today, too, but here you are! You didn't have to do that. I'd have understood completely if you didn't come for me anymore." But then she said, "But I am really, really, really glad you did."

Gilbert smiled, looking down. "I'd wait all week," he said. "And longer. But I'm glad you're back. What happened?"

"I was sick. I wasn't even that sick, but Marilla wouldn't let me go out."

"Sick, like...?" Gilbert began, remembering their discussion about morning sickness.

Anne blushed. "No, not like what we were talking about before. I still don't know about that. But I haven't gotten sick that way. Hopefully I never will."

He nodded. "You're better, though?"

"I just had a fever and a sore throat, it's gone now. Thank you for waiting, I hope you haven't been frozen to death every morning out here."

"I'm all right," he said, shaking his head. "Glad to see you."

"What did I miss at school?" She asked him.

"Well, let's see. We got our new spelling list for the week, but I noticed Diana copying them down twice, so she was probably making a list for you, too. And we're having a geography test this Friday- but since you've read our entire textbook at least three times, you should be ok," he said to her, smiling.

Then he laughed, "Oh, and Moody got in trouble for writing a dirty word on the blackboard. I'm sorry not to tell you what it was, but I don't think I ought to repeat it. But the funny thing is, he didn't mean to do it, he was actually trying to write a different word- a regular word- and misspelled it. It was just his poor luck that when it was misspelled it became a dirty word. But Mr. Phillips didn't believe him and he had to write lines at recess."

Anne laughed. "Poor Moody," she said.

Gilbert looked at her, smiling. "I'm really glad you're back. I bet the girls will be, too. Maybe having you gone a couple of days will make them realize what they're missing."

They came up to the school building.