In the Woods When First We Met

99. To Be On Her Side

On Wednesday Billy was still out of school, but word made its' to Anne that Jane had said he was fine now and was just resting at home for one more day, and he would surely be back tomorrow.

As soon as Anne got wind of that, she knew that today was going to be hard- she was glad Billy was gone another day, but she felt dread knowing that this was her final day of not having to look at him.

To make matters worse, Diana was out of school, presumably having caught Minnie May's cold.

Anne was nervous about lunch time. She'd been eating lunch with the girls every day again, but things weren't all smooth sailing yet, and with Diana gone...

It didn't take long for Josie to take advantage of Anne not having Diana there to be her ally.

Josie said loudly- intentionally excluding Anne- "Jane, your party was so much fun! Wasn't it, girls?"

Jane looked uncomfortable. "Thank you, Josie, but we shouldn't talk about that when there's someone here who wasn't invite- uh, who couldn't come."

Anne bit her lip, staring down at her sandwich, embarrassed.

Josie looked at her. "Oh, you're right." She said, her voice dripping with false sympathy.

Then she said brightly, sounding ever more like a mean girl, "I have an idea! The perfect idea! Seeing as you didn't get to come to Jane's party, why don't we have another party? One just for you?"

Anne did not like where this was going. Josie was not nice enough to actually want to have a party for Anne, so she was afraid to hear whatever Josie was going to say next. She held her breath as Josie continued, "We'll do everything just the same. That way you'll feel like you didn't miss anything. We'll have ice cream, and a cake, and parlour games, and we'll all wear our very fanciest of dresses-"

And there is was.

Josie stopped talking suddenly and put on an expression of concern. "Although I guess that wouldn't work for you, dear Anne, would it? All you have to wear are that dingy old gray dress you wore yesterday, and this plain-as-mud brown thing you've got on now. What a shame. I'm so sorry."

Anne didn't say a word to Josie. She stared at her, then got up and left, taking her lunch to the cloak room and sitting in the corner by herself.

Jane watched her.

"I think we should be nicer to Anne," Jane said quietly when Anne had left.

"Why?" Josie asked bluntly, a snotty look on her face.

"Because...because we haven't given her much of a chance," Jane explained. "Imagine if you were Anne."

"If I'm imagining that I'm Anne, then I'll also have to imagine that I'm ugly, odd, and awkward." Josie said. She looked around at the others and laughed.

"That's not funny, Josie," Jane said quietly. "Anne just wants to belong, the same as any of us."

Ruby put her word in: "Well then she shouldn't have stolen Gilbert from me! She walked to school with him at least three times that we know of, and he's always staring at her, and..." she stopped, starting to get upset.

"She's not an item with Gilbert," Jane protested, almost angrily.

This was a lie, because Jane now knew that Anne and Gilbert seemed to be inseparable. She wasn't quite sure how it had worked out that Gilbert knew what had happened, but he obviously did, and was now Anne's sworn defender. But that had to be kept secret, if Anne was ever to break into this group. "I know it looked that way, but we were mistaken...it wasn't what it looked like. I don't think she and Gilbert even really know each other very well."

She took a deep breath. "Anyway, I'm going to be nicer to her. Like Diana. You all do what you want."

Jane packed up her lunch and walked toward the cloakroom.

Anne looked up when Jane stopped in front of her.

"Mind if I sit with you? Josie's such a bore," she said, trying to sound light about it.

"...Yeah," was all Anne said, feeling a bit stunned that one of the girls had moved to her side even without Diana there to prod them. Anne moved her food over to make room for Jane.

After knowing what her big brother had done, Jane didn't know what to say to Anne or how to talk to her...she felt tongue-tied and shy. She still didn't know what she ought to do about the whole thing, but no matter how uncomfortable she felt talking to Anne, she had resolutely decided that she owed it to Anne to be her friend.

After a moment of awkward silence, Jane said, "I have shortbread cookies. You want to share them with me?"

She held one out to Anne. Lunchtime passed easily.