Disclaimer: The characters of this work of fiction belong to L.M. Montgomery.
A/N: Written for the prompt - planets (cotton candy_bingo).
Anne took a deep breath and turned to face the boy who'd tugged on her braid yet again. Gilbert. That's his name, if she'd remembered it correctly. The boy was actually smiling at her. No, not smiling, smirking. She gave him her best death glare and then turned, her braids whipping out from her head, to face the chalkboard.
Ms. Stacy gave Anne a look which indicated that she'd seen what had happened, but otherwise, the teacher didn't pause in her lecture. The way the chalk moved across the board – swift, smooth and sure – mesmerized Anne as did what her teacher was saying about the different planets.
"And today," Ms. Stacy said, her voice is filled with an awe that is usually reserved for young children on Christmas morning, "you will each have an opportunity to recreate the universe using these materials."
Her excitement was contagious, especially when she pulled a sheet off of the table sitting at the front of the classroom. Anne would be lying to herself if her attention hadn't been on that table from the moment she'd walked into the classroom that morning. The white sheet adorning the table hadn't been what had drawn Anne's, and the other students' eyes, but rather the bulge that lie beneath the plain, white sheet.
It was a mystery. One which had been the topic of discussion during recess. Some students had speculated that Ms. Stacy was keeping the dead body of some hapless animal underneath the sheet because they'd heard of a school where a teacher had the students dissect an animal just to see what it looked like on the inside and to compare it to human anatomy. Anne had tossed her braids and said that they were being ridiculous, that Ms. Stacy wouldn't do something as cruel as that, but secretly she worried that maybe they were right.
As the day wore on, Anne's imagination was starting to get the better of her, and she started imagining any number of things that could be underneath that sheet. From the dead body of some poor, unfortunate animal, to a mummy, to a cage filled with pixies (she'd read about pixies in a book once, and has desperately wanted to see one ever since).
What lie beneath the white sheet was rather anticlimactic given where Anne's mind had taken her, but, Ms. Stacy's enthusiasm was infectious and Anne couldn't help but share a smile with Diana. She clasped her hands in her lap and squeezed them tight. The materials that Ms. Stacy had unveiled, while not nearly as exciting as what she'd imagined, gave Anne a number of ideas, and she couldn't wait to put them to use.
"You'll be working in pairs," Ms. Stacy said, and Anne exchanged a look with Diana, her best friend. "Those of you in the front row, you'll be pairing with the person sitting behind you…"
Anne stopped paying attention to her teacher's words after she'd learned that she'd have to be working with Gilbert. She turned, stunned, heart racing in her chest and her cheeks flushing with heat, to face the very bane of her existence. The freckled boy was smiling from ear-to-ear, and Anne wanted to wipe that smile off of his face. He was so infuriating with the way he tugged on her braids and called after her and Diana when they were on their way home. Gilbert was a menace.
She'd been paired with her very enemy and Anne didn't know what she was going to do, so she took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and held her head up high. Gilbert's inane expression never left his face as he offered to go get their supplies.
Anne worked in silence, ignoring every opening that Gilbert gave her to speak. For his part, he prattled on about this and that, and Anne wondered if the boy knew how to shut up, but she didn't say anything. She was determined not to fall for his bait, she didn't want to give him an opening to tease her for something that she'd said or did.
"Anne, aren't you going to say anything at all?" Gilbert asked after a long moment of silence, and Anne was surprised that he sounded so sad.
She raised an eyebrow, and broke her vow of silence to say, "Can you hand me that purple ball of yarn? I think it would be perfect for Pluto."
"This purple ball of yarn?" Gilbert asked, tossing the ball in the air and then catching it in one hand.
Anne drew in a longsuffering breath of air, and silently counted to ten before speaking. "Yes, that ball of yarn." She even managed to give Gilbert a small, somewhat forced smile.
"If you want it, all you have to do is take it." Gilbert held the ball of yarn up in the air, just out of her reach, and Anne seethed on the inside, but she reached for it nonetheless.
He held it further out of her reach, and further yet when she stood from her seat and stretched upward to try and grab the yarn. Gilbert danced out of the way, and laughed, and that was all it took for Anne to lose her temper. She lunged for the ball of yarn, toppling the desk that she and Gilbert had been sharing and sending their project every which way – the planets and the strings they'd been attached to rolling all across the room. It was a mess, and Anne didn't care until well after she'd cooled down.
At the end of the day, after both she and Gilbert had finished washing the chalkboard and cleaning the desks and sweeping the classroom floor, Anne looked over at the dark-haired boy and scowled. If it hadn't been for him, she'd have been able to walk home with Diana, now she'd have to walk home all alone. If it hadn't been for Gilbert, she'd have gotten to finish recreating the planetary system with the meager supplies that Ms. Stacy had brought to school that day.
"Sorry," Gilbert said as they walked out of the school room, "I didn't mean to ruin our project. I was just having a bit of fun."
"I don't care for your kind of fun," Anne said.
"Look, I'm sorry, let me walk you home. Okay?"
Anne narrowed her eyes at the boy, and considered his offer for several long seconds before nodding her consent. She shrugged and then started walking at a brisk pace. Gilbert scrambled to follow along after her, and a quick, sidelong glance let her know that he was doing his best to keep up with her fast walking. She could walk almost as fast, if not faster than, she could talk.
Gilbert was soon matching her stride-for-stride, and Anne felt a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, though she dared not let it out lest it give Gilbert the wrong idea. She didn't admire him, didn't think that it was impressive that he could keep up with her, at least not so that it would appear to Gilbert.
When they reached the fence surrounding Anne's home, Anne turned, acknowledging the boy for the first time since they'd started on the journey.
"Thank you Mr. Blythe," she said, and she reached her hand out to shake his.
Instead of taking her hand, Gilbert closed the short distance between them, and, quicker than Anne could react, he kissed her. It was nothing more than a little peck on the cheek, and then he was gone, disappearing across the field with long strides.
Gilbert said not a word. He just left Anne standing there, pressing a cool hand to her cheek, and thinking about what Ms. Stacy had said about how all of the planets were perfectly aligned, that not a single one was out of place. Anne didn't know how long she stood there, watching Gilbert's quickly retreating figure, but Marilla's voice cut through her inner musings, and she turned, shaking her head as though clearing it, and went in through the gate.
Reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you, NMF