In the Woods When First We Met

112. Billy is Tested

Anne was glad she hadn't made them late to school with her bout of "morning sickness". She tucked Diana's card into her coat pocket and hoped her friend would be there today.

She bumped into Diana in the cloakroom.

"Diana!" she shouted.

"Anne!" Diana exclaimed, giving her a warm hug.

"I made something for you while you were gone," Anne said, getting the card out. "It's supposed to be a get well card. I'm sorry I didn't bring it over to your house...but, you're back now, so I suppose it worked."

Diana fussed over the card. "It was so creative of you to use fabric in a card!" she said, touching the lace Anne had cut into the shape of a heart and positioned over the blue fabric she'd pasted to the paper. "What a pretty heart. And how did you ever manage to find a color that exactly matched my dress?"

Tillie had come over to see what Diana was talking about. She said, "Anne, you're so nice. I almost hope I'll get sick so you'll make me one."

They all laughed.

Josie made her way over, not wanting to miss anything, and Diana handed her the card. "Look what Anne made," she said.

Josie tried to look unimpressed, but finally admitted, "It almost looks store-bought."

Anne felt it was going to be a good day.

Gilbert slipped through the door, and, ignoring Anne, put his coat away and went to his desk. He had, as always, waited at the edge of the woods a few minutes so that he wouldn't walk in with her and upset the girls.

The door opened again and this time it brought the Andrews in with a blast of cold air. Prissy went past them quickly, but Jane stopped to welcome Diana back.

Billy stamped his boots on the floor to get the snow off.

The girls looked at him making a racket, and Jane said, "Couldn't you have done that on the porch? The floor's wet now." She rolled her eyes.

"Don't tell me what to do," he said.

Then he saw Josie holding a card with a lacy heart on it. Was it from a boy?

"Who gave you that?" he asked, shoving past Jane to look at the card.

Josie held it up. "It isn't mine. It's Diana's."

Tillie provided, "Anne made it for her."

Billy pulled away quickly. "You ought to have warned me. I almost touched it. I could've caught something. Like fleas."

Anne's lip trembled in anger.

Diana said, "Billy, why don't you go away?"

Anne said, "You're ridiculous." She held her head high and turned and walked out of the cloakroom. The other girls followed her.

When they were gone, Jane yanked Billy's arm. "When I get home and walk through the door I'm going straight to mother. I've had it with you. You'll never change."

"Oh, shove off," Billy said. "I wasn't even mean to her. That's nothing she doesn't hear all the time."

"From you!" Jane said.

"Look, don't tell anybody anything. I'll lay off her, okay?"

Jane shook her head. "I don't believe you. But you better think of something you can do to be nice, because school is about to start, and that means you've got about eight hours to convince me that you can care about her like a decent human being."

She put her lunch on the shelf and walked past him.

Billy angrily threw his coat onto a hook and went to his desk.

He was annoyed. It wasn't enough to just leave Anne alone. Now he had to care.