Carrots Are The Best Vegetables

Chapter Six

Anne limped slightly upstairs, and collapsed in her bed, hoping tomorrow would go perfectly, with nothing but delight. She was gleeful that she would be with her friends again, and especially Ms. Stacy... but she still didn't know what to make of Gilbert. He made her feel special, and dizzy at the same time, which in any other situation Anne would've described as... 'romantic.' But it was not like that with Gilbert... she hated him when she first started school, and now less so, but it wasn't like him with that... it wasn't... it wasn't...

Was it?

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"Oh, Marilla! Thank you so much for allowing me to return to school! I'm so excited!" Anne cheered with her toothy smile as she made sure she had everything that she would need for today's lessons. She had her quill and ink, and her textbooks... and of course, her jason of milk and sandwich. She was off!

"Anne! Wrap yourself before you go! You're toes will become icicles if you leave without your scarf and coat! And remember, stay with Diana, Cole, Gilbert, and Ruby... if you don't feel well-"

"Return home. I know, Marilla!" Anne clasped her hands around Marilla before waving goodbye to her and Matthew, and shutting the squeaky door behind her, before allowing the wind to dance through her cherry freckles like they were a maze.

"Anne!" Diana giggled as she ran to her best friend, who look to be walking nearly normally. There was still a trace of her wound left in the footprints in the mucky snow, but without any context, it just looked like her ankle was a little sore... "I can't believe you kept up with all of your work despite being in bed all this time!... Oh, being in bed sounds like heaven compared to mathematics!"

"Being in school sounds angelic compared to being jailed in a bed for days, Diana! I can't wait to see Miss Stacy again! I wonder if she's missed me. Oh, do you think she's missed me?" Anne smiled with magic hidden in her stormy blue-gray eyes, as Diana laughed with her.

"It has been so boring without you... the only intelligent person is Gilbert, but he's always day-dreaming, so poor Miss Smith is always standing up there with no one listening... I try to answer, but most of the time, I cannot find the answer... oh, she'll be so joyous to have you back, Anne! We all will!" Diana explained until finally the church-looking school appeared in sight, with milk-jars lined in the small, nearly frozen river in front of the large brown doors.

"I'll be so excited to see Josie, Prissy and the rest of the girls again! Especially, Ruby, and you, of course." Anne hesitated for a little longer for a moment, until a broad pair of shoulders pushed past her, and from the back of his head, she immediately realized who it was... his dirty blonde hair?

Billy Andrews... Anne froze, and felt her blood slowly freeze like the snow running around her in flurries, and as Diana followed Billy into class, Anne stood beneath the doorway for literal minutes, until another warm body stopped beside her. "Anne?"

Anne was enthralled in memories... well, not memories, a memory. A wound... a scar that would forever plague her side like some sort of tattoo she wasn't willing to partake in. "Anne?"

The voice was now recognizable as nothing except Gilbert Blythe. The last time she heard him call her name was when she felt muscular arms shake her shoulders gently, as if they were pulling her out of her catatonic state with a plea for her to return to him. "Anne? Can you hear me?"

This was now the second time he'd asked her this with that nearly-panicked expression on his face, and the shocked look that was sculpted across her short body. "Gilbert... Gilbert... yes. Yes, I can hear you. I'm sorry, it was just I saw him, and he just-"