PHILEO | Shirbert

Three ~ How Could You

"Oh, dear Diana, it was horrible" said Anne, covering her face with her hands.

"Horrible? If Gilbert Blythe said he wanted to kiss me, horrible would be the last word I'd think of" Diana admitted.

"No, No. What he said is not horrible, what's horrible is the situation" Anne tried to explain, but Diana did not understand what she was trying to say "I mean after he said that, I didn't know what to say. He probably didn't mean it, he was just being nice"

"Totally clueless"

"What?"

"Nothing" Diana smiled.

"Well, anyway. Thank god you came out of the supply room just in time for me to avoid responding, you saved me!" Anne hugged her friend "What am I gonna say to him tomorrow? What if he asks me something or wants to talk about what he said? Oh Diana, promise me you won't leave my side tomorrow so that he can't come talk to me"

"You know he could come either way and ask to talk to you privately, right?" Diana reminded her friend.

"And if that happens, you and I would have to come up with an excuse so that I don't have to go with him, Diana"

"You are unbelievable" Diana sighed "see you tomorrow Miss Anne Clueless-Cuthbert"

"What?" Anne said, clearly confused.

"Nothing! Bye!" Diana said running away.

The next day, Anne came a little late for class -only two minutes late-. She hung her coat and when she turned around, she saw something written in the blackboard that stopped her breathing.

'ANNE + GILBERT' was written in the center of the blackboard inside a big heart. Anne blinked hard to see if that was actually there –it was-, she quickly looked over at Gilbert's seat, he was not there, yet. Anne ran to her seat, next to Diana.

"Did you write that?" Anne whispered-yelled.

"Of course not! It was already there when I came in!" she responded. Anne believed her, after all, Diana was her kindred spirit, she would never do something like that to her.

"How has Ms. Stacey not seen that?" Anne asked her.

"She hasn't turned around" Diana said. Quiet sobs came from behind Anne's seat, it was Ruby.

"Ruby!" Anne quickly turned to see her.

"How could you!?" Ruby told her.

"I didn't do anything! I promise"

"Don't lie to me Anne, I might not be as smart as you but I'm not stupid. I saw you two, he was sitting next to you and you were laughing and sharing plum puffs. You seemed so happy with his company and he didn't seem nervous around you. How could you do this to me? You know how I feel about him and you didn't even care!"

"He's my friend, Ruby. We were talking about books!" Anne explained "I gave him one of my plum puffs because I was going to eat one and it would've been rude of me not to offer one"

"That doesn't absolve you from anything. I told you Ruby had dibs on him! You shouldn't have talked to him!" Josie said.

"Aren't we too old to call dibs on someone?" Anne said and Diana nodded in agreement "We don't own anyone. Maybe Gilbert doesn't like Ruby in that way! And here she is dreaming about them getting married" Ruby gasped and she realized what she was saying "Ruby I-"

"So you're saying what? That Gilbert likes you instead? You wish, how could he like you? How could any boy like you? You're just an ugly orphan" Josie said.

"I don't- I- Ruby I'm-"

"Sorry, I'm late Ms. Stacy!" Gilbert came running through the door interrupting the girls' argument "Bash needed my help with-"

"It's fine, Gilbert. You're not late. We haven't started yet" Ms. Stacy assured him.

Anne was worried enough about the Ruby situation, now she had to worry about Gilbert too. He, on the other hand, didn't notice the big writing on the blackboard; he just went to his seat. Once there, he realized almost the entire class –minus Anne- was looking at him.

"Charlie, why is everyone looking at me?" Gilbert whispered to his classmate. Question to which Charlie only responded by pointing his index finger to the blackboard "Oh" he finally said, after realizing what was happening.

"Alright class, open your books on page 47," said Ms. Stacy. She stood up from her desk and turned around to see the writing on the blackboard and gasped "Who did this?" she sounded angry. Everyone stayed quiet. She didn't want to push it, if she did that, she would make even more uncomfortable the people involved. So, she just erased it.