Take Notice


Anne was plucking one clump of grass after another, without really noticing it.

Tomorrow they would tell Marilla and Diana that they are together. And whole Avonlea would see it in the evening.

She looked forward to it. Really. There were moments when she wanted nothing more than to shout it out to the world that he was hers. And hers alone.

But at the same time she was afraid and not completely sure if she was already prepared for the next step. Somehow it seemed so… ultimate to her, as soon as they've told it everyone. As soon as it wouldn't be a secret any longer.

There were still so many things she was thinking about and trying to figure out. So many questions. So many changes she still had to get used to…

Last night she just couldn't fall asleep. She'd tried to remember every single encounter with Gilbert and what she'd felt that day. And then she'd asked herself, when it had actually happened that she'd fallen in love with him and if there ever had been a time where she hadn't been. But then why had it taken her so long to realize these feelings?

After all, one simply knew that the sky is blue - so how should it be possible that you feel something without knowing that you feel it?

It just didn't make sense to her at all.

She'd pondered if she should ask Diana when she had known that she was in love with Fred. But she knew it wouldn't really help her. Anne knew that Diana truly loved Fred, but somehow it was a totally different kind of love than the one between her and Gilbert. Diana's was so much calmer… She couldn't remember a time where her bosom friend was so crazy for him like she was for Gil…

And she certainly couldn't speak with him about all her questions. Or could she?

When they still were friends she couldn't have, because she would have been afraid of a love confession for his part at a topic like that.

And now he would think she just wanted a reaffirmation of his love.

But that wasn't what she was looking for. She just wanted to make sense of all of this…

Suddenly a warm hand cupped her restless one and stopped her from plucking even more grass. She looked up at him.

"Anne? What's on your mind? You didn't say a single word since we're here."

"Um…"

"And don't say 'nothing', because it takes quite something to silence Anne Shirley," Gilbert said teasingly.

She smiled weakly, "It is… something… but… I can't tell you…"

"So that means it's about me?"

Anne looked puzzled at him. Was she such an open book to him? "Why do you think that?"

"Well usually we talk about everything. So… am I right?"

For some moments she pondered, then she finally nodded, "In some way. It's about love in general. But you in specific…"

Gilbert tried to hide a smile. He still couldn't really believe that he was 'love' to her.

"I see. And don't you want talking about it, or do you fear talking about it? Because if you don't want to talk about it, then I respect that, but if something is troubling you and you're afraid of telling me, then I hope to change your mind. I'm still your best friend, Anne, and there isn't anything you can't tell me."

"Well…," she gulped and looked down at their hands so it would be easier to talk about it. "I was just thinking… how it can be that you feel something but you don't know that you feel it." By now she felt completely ridiculous. This sentence didn't even make sense! "I don't know why I'm thinking such nonsense, Gilbert… I guess… It's just… now that I know and think back… I wonder if there was ever a time I haven't been in love with you."

He smiled at her.

"Do you…" Anne gathered all her courage and looked into his hazel eyes, "Do you remember when you knew? I mean not when you felt it for the first time, but when you really knew what you felt. That if someone would have asked you, you would have said you're in love?"

"In fact I do."

"Really?"

"Really." A grin spread on his face as he saw her surprised expression. "It was our second year. You know, when Miss Stacy came to our school." She nodded. "One day, Moody told me that someone has written yours and Charlie's name on the 'Take Notice' board. And without understanding it, I got suddenly so incredible angry! I couldn't stand the idea that someone would ever think of you with someone… well, who wasn't me! Even if just for the silly 'Take Notice' board. I was so close to go over and erase it!"

Anne looked amazed at him: "You wanted to stay on the 'Take Notice' board with me?"

Gilbert blushed a little bit and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I know it's silly, isn't it. Nobody who stood there was ever actually together."

Anne stood grinningly up, "Well", she stretched her hand out to him, "Why don't we change that?"

"What?"

"Why shouldn't we be the first on the 'Take Notice' board who are actually together?"

"You're not serious, are you?"

"Gilbert Blythe, did I ever say anything without pulling it through?"

"Well no, but-"

"No buts, come on!" She pulled him up.

And so it happened that a red-headed woman wrote 'Anne Shirley + Gilbert Blythe' on the ‚Take Notice' board of Avonlea's school.

Little did it matter that by now she was the teacher of this building and not just some student.

All that did matter to her right now was the one standing beside her.