sunflower

four

i didn't wanna fall but then i stepped right in.

lunch time approached, meaning anne had to endure billy andrews for a whole hour. josie and billy were dating, even though none of the other girls or cole liked him with the exception of jane.

they all sat at their usual table, immersed in a conversation about something anne couldn't really concentrate on. probably about boys.

"ladies. and cole." a voice said, sitting down at their table. billy. his friends followed behind, including the last person anne wanted to see.

"well hello, miss shirley." said gilbert, sitting down opposite her. she rolled her eyes, causing diana to kick her from under the table. anne glanced at her best friend, who gave her a warning look.

"why are you sitting here?" anne questioned, instead of saying hello. gilbert chuckled, not expecting any less.

"well, billy here is my new friend. and apparently, he's friends with your friends. what are the chances, huh?" gilbert said playfully, earning another eye roll from the girl opposite him.

"of course. billy just loves to torment me." anne said, turning her head to face billy.

"shut up, dog." he said, laughing. anne stuck her middle finger up at this. no, he was not joking. no, they were not friends.

"dude, that was kinda mean, don't you think?" gilbert said, furrowing his brows at the comment billy made. how could her friends allow him to talk to her that way?

"gilbert, leave it. it's our thing, right billy? you're an absolute, utter dickhead, and i just sit here and stick my finger up at you." anne said, more than happy to not be friends with billy.

"she's right, that's what we do." billy agreed. nothing billy said ever upset her, he was just a stupid boy. her friends had confronted him countless times about it, but he never changed. she eventually just told them to let him get on with it, it wasn't effecting her life.

"so, gilbert, where are you from?" ruby asked. anne could already tell she was developing a crush on the new boy. she thought it was ridiculous, the amount of girls crushing on him.

"well, my whole family is from avonlea, but my father liked to travel and he met my mom when he was travelling and he never got the chance to come back here. well, until now." gilbert explained, smiling at ruby. ruby was listening to him intently, her chin resting in the palm of her hand.

anne managed to avoid a conversation with gilbert that lunch time, by simply speaking to diana the whole time. diana knew what she was doing, and even though anne could feel gilbert's burning stare at times, she didn't give in.

while walking to math, gilbert caught up with the fiery redhead.

"hey, anne." gilbert said as he walked beside her. she glanced at him, raising her eyebrows.

"can i help you?" she asked, giving him a look that said what do you want.

"well, i was just gonna walk with you. is that not okay?" he asked, confused. he didn't understand why she was so hostile towards him.

"i'd prefer to walk by myself." said anne, smiling sarcastically towards him. he nodded slowly, but it became awkward when he realised they were walking to the same class.

"uh..well we have the same class." he pointed out, putting his hands into his pockets. she looked at him, her eyebrows furrowed until she let out a sigh.

"fine. you can walk with me. but don't talk to me." she said. he smiled to himself, nodding his head. the girl was a bit rude to him, but he didn't seem to mind much. he knew he would get through to her eventually.

after a few minutes of silence, gilbert couldn't take it anymore. he had to talk to her.

"so, you like rex orange county?" he asked her. she looked at him again, but he couldn't read the expression she held.

"didn't i just ask you to not talk to me?" she asked. she secretly did want to answer the question, but there was something stopping her.

"oh come on, i'm only asking you about music." he said, smiling at her.

"fine. uh, yeah i do." she answered finally, pulling her backpack onto her shoulder carefully.

"cool. i like them too, i'm guessing you like the song sunflower since you were singing it. my favourite is loving is easy." he said. she nodded her head, she so desperately wanted to talk about sunflowers at that moment.

"yeah, sunflower is a good song. so is loving is easy. sunflower is my favourite though, because sunflowers are my favourite flowers." she explained, not knowing why she just told him that.

"oh, really? that's cool. sunflowers are pretty. i kinda guess from the colours you wear that you're into yellow/orange tones." he said, speaking from observation. she had amazing fashion sense, and the colours she wore matched her so perfectly. she nodded her head, he wasn't really as bad as she thought.

"sunflowers are pretty, you're right. and yeah, yellow is my favourite colour but i love sunset colours. so yellow, orange, red. them sort of colours. i feel like my hair only really goes with those colours." she said, tugging at her red hair. the hair she despised so much.

"huh. i think your hair would go with lots of colours. your hair is really nice, by the way." he complimented, admiring her fiery red locks for a moment. nobody except matthew and her friends had ever complimented her hair. she looked up at the boy, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"um, really?" she asked quietly. he furrowed his brows, he didn't understand why she didn't believe that he liked her hair.

"of course. red hair is my favourite, actually." he said with a large grin. he felt like he was finally making progress. she looked up at him, flashing a smile. the first real smile she had given him since they first met a few days prior.

"thank you." she said quietly, looking away from him. she suddenly went quiet again, beginning to close herself off again. the thing with anne was that she didn't like change. she was never very good at making friends, people found she was too loud and often used the term obnoxious to describe her. if it wasn't for diana, she would have no friends. so she didn't do well with new people. "okay, that's enough talking for now." she said, refusing to look at him.

well, at least we actually had a conversation. gilbert thought to himself as they walked into math class.

———
A/N: well, at least she talked to him :')
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