Chapter X

It was February, the snow was still laying peacefully on the ground and everything around it too, the wind was still freezingly cold and the children of Glen St Mary and Four Winds still enjoyed building snowmen and playing in the white fluffy "stuff" as some of them called it.

Hester was never a big admirer of snow, she didn't love it in the same way every other of her cousins did, she didn't enjoy snow fights and building a snowman as much as everyone else around her did. She preferred to sit on the windowsill in her room with a hot tea in her hands, a good book in her lap waiting for her to be read and she much preferred to take glimpses of the snow behind the window from time to time instead of being outside and playing with it.

That's why she wasn't in the "depths of despair" when she had to stay after school one Friday evening instead of going with Lily, Marion, Vance and all of her cousins and brothers to Rainbow Valley to "enjoy the snow together". Hester participated in a History project about the Crimean War which had to be finished at the end of that day, and it had to be finished at school and not in the cosy room of Hester's.

Hester enjoyed History. She enjoyed all of her subjects, to be quite honest, maybe apart from Mathematics and everything which concerned this brain-exhausting subject. She was indeed in the top of each of her classes and she never was in the Toronto school, she and her parents thought that it might be because she didn't have any friends at the Toronto school and therefore she didn't really have much motivation to study as much as she did in the Glen school, where she had three very close friends.

Hester stayed at school then, she was working hard on her project and although the topic was quite full of violence and not extremely pleasant to learn about in some ways, she found it quite fascinating and she was especially interested in the information she found about the role of Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War which completely blew her mind and from the day she read all about her accomplishments she said that Miss Nightingale was her everlasting and etheral role model.

When she finished the project and found out that somehow she was disappointed that it was finished, she put on her hat, her coat and her gloves and took a deep breath of the warm air of the inside of the school before she came out to the cold.

"Oh, thank goodness! I thought you would never come out then!"

Hester jumped and thought that her heart jumped to her very throat. She turned her head to her left, her hand on her chest and cheeks flushed and finally sighed a sigh a relief while seeing a familiar yet not entirely liked by her person standing in front of her "Phillip Jones! What do you think you're doing?" she asked him, anger still ringing in her voice.

Phillip put a curl of his blonde hair under his hat and grinned at her "I was waiting for you." he replied jolly, his cheeks red from the cold air "I knew you had to finish this History project and I thought that that was a good moment to wait to ask you something."

Hester humphed at him and started to walk, her books in her arms and her nose up high. When it came to Phillip Jones Hester was not a timid girl, she was quite the opposite but for a reason too. Ever since Phillip started the Glen school all those four months before, he was constantly teasing her literally every single day. Whether it was calling her names like 'crow' or 'wren' or just 'stuck-up', or it was pulling her braid or sticking his tongue out whenever Hester looked at him. After some time Hester even got bored because of Phillip's teasing, rather than hurt, but nonetheless Phillip was still able to come up with a new joke or a technique to cause Hester's face to turn red from fury, however she never let the fury get to her entirely so all she ever did was to ignore him and she advised her brothers to do the same.

"Ask me what exactly?" Hester asked Phillip who was behind her, trying to catch up with her walking as fast as he could.

"Could we please be friends, Hes?" Phillip asked her eventually, his tone so full of emotion that Hester became absolutely confused by it, especially when she turned her head to face him and saw that his brown eyes really did reflect the truth in them.

"Friends?" she repeated, her pride and the blood of Blythes burning beneath her skin "After all those tricks you play on me every single day? I think you yourself should think it ridiculous." she turned her head and looked at the road again.

Phillip sighed heavily "I knew you would say this." he said dully and then turned his head again to face her "But you know why do I tease you so much? Do you know the reason behind all this?" he asked her hopefully.

Hester looked at Phillip for a moment "I don't think there's ever a reasonable answer to a question why a person teases someone else, it's simply not acceptable to tease anyone for any reason." she put her head up high and for a second, if any of the old friends of Anne Shirley like Diana or Anne's very own husband Gilbert would see Hester in that very moment they would have agreed that even though Hester didn't look like her grandmother at all with her coal-black hair, hazel eyes and fair and smooth skin; she was a picture of Anne Shirley when she put her head up high like that.

Phillip smirked but he put his hands to the pockets of his coat nervously "Well, you're right of course." he said finally "I shouldn't have teased you at all, I know it now." that's where Hester raised her eyebrows although she still didn't dare to turn her head and look into the eyes of Phillip who watched her face all the time "But the reason I did it is… I…" he sighed again and because of the melancholy sounding in his voice, Hester eventually turned her head towards him and it definitely cheered him up because he instantaneously grinned at her "From the moment I saw you I knew you were different from all the girls in the entire school and I didn't know how to start talking to you, especially because that would seem a bit weird to talk to a girl instead of another boy on the first day of school." Phillip explained and Hester noticed how his already quite red cheeks turned even redder.

She slowed down her pace and then eventually looked into Phillip's expectant eyes once more "I suppose it was hard for you to tell me this." she muttered eventually.

Phillip only nodded "Not as hard as it is for me to see you looking so angrily at me." he added.

Suddenly, Hester turned to her own more timid and shy person she was and stopped walking altogether. She started to feel a little guilty that she caused him such distress. She laughed on the inside, if she would have thought a day before that just on the next day she would feel guilty over causing Phillip Jones to feel sad because of her, she wouldn't believe it at all.

But she did feel sorry for him, because she also remembered the story of how her grandfather Gilbert tried and tried to make friends with grandma Anne when they were both at school and how terribly he felt whenever she was giving him a cold eye.

That's why Hester's heart felt warmer towards Phillip and she smiled at him sweetly, in her own usual and kind way everyone in the Glen school knew about. Phillip almost jumped from happiness however he stopped himself. Nevertheless he couldn't hide the wide and radiant smile which appeared on his face and somehow brightened it up as if the sun started to shine upon it, although it didn't. "I'm not angry, Phillip." Hester said kindly "And I am gladly accepting your offer on being friends with you." she smiled at him lightly.

Phillip chuckled because he simply didn't know how to express how relieved and joyful he was at that moment, but somehow Hester knew how he felt, just in time to realise that Phillip was in fact her new kindred spirit and that first appearances can be deceptive.

"I am so so happy, Hester!" Phillip put his arms around laughing Hester and hugged her tightly "I promise that you won't regret it!"

When Phillip finally released Hester from his embrace, she chuckled again "I certainly do hope that I won't." she said with laughter in her voice "Because if I will, you do know my brothers Selwyn and Gilbert, right?" she said with a raised brow and Phillip laughed a little.

"Yes, I do and I wouldn't even try to do anything to come face to face with them once I did something to make you angry with me all over again." he replied and when the two of them started walking together once more, he turned his head to look at Hester "I'm truly sorry, Hester, I really mean it."

"I know you do." Hester said cheerfully while strolling along her newly made friend "It's so nice to find a new kindred spirit, isn't it?" she asked him, her face grinning.

"Rather realising that you knew that kindred spirit for a long time already." Phillip said but he smiled nonetheless.

Hester's cheeks flushed with pink all of a sudden "You're right," she agreed with him timidly "-but I'm glad that I realised it sooner rather than later."

Phillip looked at Hester, Hester looked at Phillip and they both smiled at each other, and the first knowing glances were shared between them, beginning a friendship which neither of them ever expected to happen.