Broken (Gilbert Blythe)

chapter 17

-A Few Weeks Later-

Ever since Gilbert Blythe left Avonlea, things were so different for Nova. She wasn't used to not having him here.

Nova stared at herself in the mirror with her straight hair. She recently decided since she was going to turn fifteen soon, that she wanted a different look. She put on a purple dress, since she already ate breakfast, she started her way to school.

The young children were singing songs for Christmas while the older kids were making snowflakes. Nova sat along with Anne and Moody. The red head looked at the blonde, still not used to her straight hair. She shook it off, not wanting to mention it.

Anne looked to both Moody and Nova. "Do you suppose that no two snowflakes are alike? I hope so." She looks back to her snowflake and starts cutting again. "It's kind of comforting, isn't it?"

Nova heard Josie and the girls on the other side of the room, talking about Anne and the Cuthberts. "And the bank manager, who happens to be my uncle, he said that the Cuthberts are poor."  Josie says with a smirk. Nova raised an eyebrow, Anne kept talking, not hearing the girls. "I've heard it said that snow is a sign of God's forgiveness, and -." She was interrupted by the teacher shushing her, bringing Nova's attention back to Anne.

"By blanketing the ugly frozen earth, and making it beautiful." Anne continued.

Meanwhile, in the group of girls, Diana furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Anne is poor?" Jane hops in, "What do you mean "poor"?"

Nova looked back over to the girls, still talking about the same topic, not noticing that Anne looked over as well.

"Poor as in "penniless old fellow with no head for finance."" Ruby looks at Josie, "That's not very nice."

"Snow means Christmas is coming. And I love Christmas. Don't you guys?" Moody looks at the girls. Nova looks back and nods her head with a small smile. Anne continues on her snowflake, "I don't know, but I plan to."

Moody looks up from his artwork, "Did you not have Christmas at the orphanage?" Nova's eyes widened a little, nervous to hear what the red head was going to say. Anne laughed, Nova sighed in relief.

"There wasn't much to it, really. I'm not sure why Father Christmas wasn't able to stop there. Maybe the matron scared him off." Nova giggled.

Diana looked at Josie, "That can't be true."

"The Cuthberts had to mortgage their farm. Isn't that sad?" Josie said with a smirk. Nova watched the fiery redhead stand up and stomp over to Josie.

"Josie Pye, you take that back." Josie looks at Anne with disgust. "Why are you upset? It's only true. You're poor." Nova stood up and stood beside Anne. Josie noticed that Anne didn't act like she knew anything about the situation. "Wait, you didn't know?"

Nova scoffed,  "Really, Josie? You really have the nerve to say that to someone?" Nova said with sass. Josie looked over to Nova then back to Anne. "Do you at least know if they're going to keep you?" Josie continued, making Nova's mouth drop slightly. "Keep me?" Anne said with anger and sadness in her voice. 

The teacher called for the older children to come to the front of the classroom to sing 'In Excelsis Deo'. They were singing when Anne ran out of the classroom. Nova didn't hesitate to run after her. Nova caught up with Anne. "Anne, I'm so sorry for what they said." She kept on walking, with no response. "Why don't you slow down?" Nova grabbed her arm. "Everything's going to be okay." Anne shook her head and kept walking. "I have to get on home."

Nova kept on following the anxious girl, "Josie shouldn't have said anything. It's none of her business. Also, you know as well as everyone else, she makes things up all the time to start some drama."

They both kept walking to the Cuthberts house, hand and hand. Anne and Nova made it to Green Gables. They could hear Marilla raising her voice at Matthew. "You didn't trust me? To talk about our future? Anne's future?" Anne dragged Nova to the other door on the side of the house to hear the ruckus. "I knew you'd lose your head." Matthew responded, while still walking away from Marilla. "Oh, I ought to smack yours right off your shoulders!" Anne opened the door quietly, putting a finger over her mouth to Nova. She nodded. They tip toe while listening to the siblings argue. They both hide behind a wall.

"We have the loan. That's done. And with it, I have purchased everything that we need." The older man said to his sister. "You've already spent the money?" Marilla looks at Matthew with shock. "Yes." He answers.

Nova squeezes Anne's hand to show she is there for her. "Madness!" Marilla yells. Matthew tried to reason but Marilla kept yelling at him.

"This is madness!"

Matthew yells back at her, "Why can't you just listen?" Then the house was quiet. The girls looked at each other with worry. "We'll have a high-yield crop and then another in the fall. So now we have two new crops, in addition to the potatoes. We'll be fine, Marilla." Matthew got his word out to his sister. "So now, at your age, you're working even harder?" Marilla responds with more anger in her voice. Matthew stuttered, "It's just... It's a bit more work, uh, that's all." He says, looking to Marilla. She shakes her head, "I don't want you doing more. I want you doing less!" She yells.

Nova couldn't help but understand what Marilla was saying. He is getting older, so if he worked harder it could mess with his physical health.

The girls heard a groan and something falling to the floor.

"Matthew? Matthew!" Nova rushed to be beside Marilla while Anne was on the other side of him. "Matthew!" She yelled for him. "What's happened?" Marilla looks to Anne then back to her brother. "I don't know."

"W-W-What's wrong?" Anne says with worry. "Oh, dear God. Oh!" Nova looks to Marilla, with sadness in her eyes.

The doctor came, he put his stethoscope up to Matthew's chest to listen to his heart. "He's has an episode of the heart. An occurrence of coronary thrombosis. He's extremely lucky it wasn't fatal, but make no mistake, he's in a dangerous condition." Marilla took a small breath, "Dangerous?"

The doctor looked at her and nodded, 'It's going to take a very long time to heal. He's gonna need months of rest, with no stress or work of any kind." Nova looked over to Anne and Marilla, "Thank you." The older woman said to the doctor.

A few moments later, Nova decided that she should go home and give them some privacy. She walked up to Marilla. "Marilla?" Marilla turned to the blonde. "I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could do." Marilla gives her a sad smile. "It's okay, sweetheart. Thank you for being here for Anne. She really needed someone here today." Nova nods. "I think I'm going to head home." Marilla looks outside to see its dark. "Nonsense. Why don't you stay here for the night and I'll make sure your mother knows in the morning that you stayed here? It's too dark for a young lady to walk alone." Nova nods and heads upstairs to Anne's room.

The blonde knocked on the bedroom door, "Anne?" The red head was lying on her bed, not being able to sleep. Anne turned over to look at Nova with sadness in her eyes. Nova couldn't help but give her a hug. They stayed like that for a moment and separated. "I'm always here if you need anything." Nova said with a slight smile. She laid down beside Anne and eventually fell asleep.

-authors note-

I really appreciate you guys reading my story! I'm sorry for the late updates. I have been so busy with work, therapy, etc. etc.! This is more of a filler chapter, oops.

-mackaroni :p