Hello kindred spirits!
Ah you guys! You have no idea what a thrill it is to have you guys following liking and commenting on this! It was fun to write! I'm wowed by you all!
OriginalMcFishie- I've said somewhere or maybe to someone ignoring or not speaking to someone in high school even if you don't like them is difficult! This chapter is the start of them talking but no real forgiveness is going on with Anne, and it won't for a long time. Even when he's incredibly sweet and down right hot, this Anne like the original holds onto the grudge as long as she can, but with them being seventeen already...
kayleerenea- Thank you for your reviews in both chapters I do notice!
ploiuiu- again thank you so much for the review!
and Ineedaname personally out of irony I's make that my username! (Thanks for the reviews!)
As always my homegirls CatieGirl and KimBlythe always my eternal thanks!
You will notice I'm making these chapters longer then my other stories, more or less its because they needed to be and I never started this one with the intent of it being... 50 60 chapters long... however I must admit I do have some future points and plots inside my head... A 2017 AOA/AOTI will probably be written!
"A good education is a well-rounded education Diana." Anne said with a fierce resolve. "Now we have our physical education sorted we're running track, we have our mental education to sort out, you do music I need my logic and my debate skills are by far my strength."
"But Gilbert is the Captain of the debate team, won't that be awkward, being that you won't talk to him?" She questioned.
"I won't need to talk to him Diana, debate yes, talk no."
"What's the difference?" she asked.
"One is an opinion, even if its not your own, the other is who you are, and Gilbert Blythe isn't going to get to me like that." She said.
Diana shrugged. "I don't get it." She sighed.
"well regardless I'm not going to let Gilbert Blythe stop me from getting a well rounded education, if he wants to avoid me he will have to quit the debate team."
"I don't think avoiding you is on Gilbert's mind."
"Whats that suppose to mean?"
"Just what it sounds like, Charlie said Gilbert said that brains were better than a pretty face right in front of Josie…"
"Then Josie will be upset." Anne said with a smug smile.
"…and that you were the smartest girl in school." Diana ended.
"How would he know?!" Anne exclaimed.
"Oh come on! no one else can keep up with you." Diana told her straight. "You can't pretend it doesn't annoy you that someone like Gil could actually be smarter then you…"
"…take that back!"
"I will not." Diana said determinedly. "Anyway back to my point, he thinks being smart is better then being pretty."
"he should get to know you better you are both." Anne said with a grin to her friend.
"I'm not. " Diana sighed.
"don't do that Diana... " Anne started
"Well not the same kind of smart as you and Gil..."
"Do not put me in the same sentence as that boy!" Anne exclaimed as Diana went quiet.
Well then…" Diana sad defeated "good luck." Diana said as Anne entered the debating teams classroom they met in.
Gilbert looked amazed as she entered the classroom and sat quietly down at a table. His Vice President went to greet her.
"Oh hey Anne." Charlie grinned. "I didn't know you were interested in debate."
"I find the element of surprise is the best tactic in debate, I thought once I was settled into school that I might like to join up."
"Well don't let our captain scare you away, I know you and he started on the wrong foot." He said with a grin to Gilbert.
Gilbert walked over having heard enough of Charlie's greeting. "Hey Anne." He interrupted them, "I glad you could make it, we're debating 'the schools internet controls'." he said to her.
Anne simply nodded taking a sheet of paper from him. "Yey or nay?" he asked her.
"Yey or nay?" she asked him with raised eyebrow.
"Oh, erm, it's our way of informalizing the club, it's still your pro con situation, just…" he trailed not able to defend it, "It was Charlie's idea, it was either this or adding a third view of neural to the mix, so decided to let this one go."
"I see." She said a smile playing on her lips. "Can't even keep order in our own debate team." She said her nose going up. "That's some strong leadership skills there Gilbert."
Gilbert sighed. He knew she was right, he gave into peer pressure far too easily. "Just, which side do you want to debate?" He asked her.
"which one are you debating?" she asked him.
"Well, I always think you should play with your strengths." He admitted. "and go with the one you agree with. So I'm on the pro internet controls."
A grin came to her face. "and I always think you should see things from another person's point of view, you already know and value your own opinion, now see it from another person's point of view. I'll be on the nay team, thank you." She said with her nose upturned.
Gilbert took a deep breath and tried to hide his own smile. "As you wish Miss Shirley."
"Oh can I?!" Anne exclaimed hugging Marilla "Oh thank you, thank you!" she said gratefully. Matthew watched quietly as the events unfolded "Oh it'll be so eloquent. I dreamed last night of a eloquent tea party, with bunting and sugar cubes!" Anne said giggily.
"You'll need to serve Matthew his tea too." Marilla said, fairly sure Anne couldn't hear her.
being able to serve tea, oh high tea! Oh on the china set!"
"Anne! Not the china set!" Marilla called. "Plain every day will do for Diana Barry."
"Oh are you sure?! I will be careful with them." Anne assured Marilla.
"I'm sure you would be but the plain set will do just fine." Marilla emphasised again.
"Oh you'll have to show me how to make plum puffs and Victoria sponge cake!"
"You can have the raspberry cordial as well, its in the front of the pantry." Marilla tried again to talk to her.
"Oh can I call Diana?" She said running out the room towards the phone. Marilla rolled her eyes.
"Its nice isn't it?" Matthew said to his sister "that a sixteen-year-old girl can get excited about inviting a friend over for tea." He said with a nod. "It makes you real grateful for the freedoms we had."
Anne sat wordlessly, her arms crossed in front of her. Coming to detention every day was tiresome she would much rather come here and listen to Gilbert Blythe harp on rather than forgive him. The former was much easier than the latter.
Miss Stacy it seemed had no objection to Anne reading while Gilbert talked. He never seemed to stop to draw breath. Apparently, it seemed they shared a talent. He never actually said anything about himself, not since that first day at least and she wasn't actually sure what his political opinions were, as soon as he talked himself into a view he was able to talk his way back out of them balancing his own argument.
But today, he provoked her. Today he had a way of making sure Anne spoke back to him.
"I heard you got Diana Barry drunk." He stated. "And that's why Diana's locker has been moved and she's had to shuffle around all her classes so she isn't in any of yours." He paused for a second waiting for a reaction, when none came he whistled from high to low "Gee Anne, that's an awfully risky way of keeping Di your friend. Getting people drunk is generally something you do in middle school." He said with a smirk. "…and when camping, or even after a football game, with really bad cidar… really really bad… seriously where did he get it from?" he trailed off in his own thought for a second. "Its easier then you think with that stuff, it maybe cheap but give it to a 13 year old boy …"
"I did not get Diana drunk!" She exclaimed going red, then turned her nose up at him.
"That's not what I heard." He said shrugging his shoulders. "And without the truth being out there, everyone has to assume the rumours are true. That you did it deliberately and Mrs Barry was furious."
"Why would I want to get Diana drunk?" She asked him in temper.
"…well if you aren't going to tell anyone what happened…" he started.
"I don't want to say what happened!" she objected.
"Then we have no choice but to listen to Mrs Barry's version."
"But it hurts to talk about it! I don't want to relive it over and over again!" she told him the tears gathering in her eyes. "Do you know what its like? To have negative things said about you over and over again and having to relive it over and over again? To be told you a trouble and not worth anything?!" She yelled at him.
Gilbert looked at her wide eyed. "No." He admitted in a whisper knowing he had hit a nerve, but not the one he was intending on hitting. "No, I don't."
"Well that's what I've had since my parents died and left me behind!" She said still shouting. "So, don't tell me I have to go through it all again for your convenience and for your amusement, so you can tease and torture me over it."
Gilbert swallowed and looked briefly to Miss Stacy. Her eyes had a look in them which spoke she knew. "I wouldn't do that Anne." He said quietly backing down. "I'm sorry. I never meant to upset you over it."
Silence prevailed for a minute before Anne looked up at Gilbert. "You can't stop talking." She said in a huff. "That's against the rules."
He was looking down at the desk when he stated "The rule is one of us has to be talking." he observed.
There was silence again before Anne started quietly. "Marilla said I could have Di over for a sleepover, pizza, chips, the tv even her raspberry cordial." She said the tears running down her face. "Thing is I went into the pantry and Marilla said the raspberry cordial was at the front. Well I've never had it so how should I know that Marilla left the Red Current Wine there accidentally?" She said quietly. Gilbert looked at her in disbelief, not because of the situation she was describing but the fact she was actually talking to him about it. "Diana drank… rather a lot of it, believing it was raspberry cordial and she started to feel sick about an hour later, before we had even ordered the pizza. We had the whole night planned, pizza and the back to the future films, she'd never seen them before."
"Really?" he asked. "Great Scott that's insane!" he said with a half-smile, knowing this girl was his perfect companion now,geeky shirts and movies and old music, would be perfection.
"I know that was heavy, right?" she replied. "We didn't even make it through the first film."
There was another silence before Gilbert spoke. "Well that doesn't sound like your fault Anne."
Then the school bell rang. "I don't care what you think." She muttered as she shuffled out the room.
Gilbert sat silently at the desk for a moment.
"Is there a problem Gilbert?" Miss Stacy asked him.
"Is it true? What she said about before she came here?" He asked Miss Stacy.
Miss Stacy sighed. "With the exception of when she's in the room with you she does seem like a fairly sunny character doesn't she? Don't let that fool you Gilbert. She's had a very troubled past."
Gilbert swallowed. "She doesn't deserve that." He said quietly.
Miss Stacy smiled. "No she doesn't."
Gilbert gave eye contact to his teacher. "How troubled?" he asked.
"I can't tell you that Gilbert, I'm sorry." She whispered. "You care about her, don't you?" She asked to which she received no reply. "She will forgive you one day, she just needs some time to realise you aren't going to hurt her."
Gilbert stood from the desk and moved towards the door before he said quietly "Thank you Miss Stacy."
It was a few days later in Miss Stacy's office when Anne came in she said to Gilbert "You didn't tell everyone?" She asked slamming her books down on the table in front of Gilbert.
"Ummm…" he said
"why didn't you tell people?" She demanded.
"I didn't want it to seem like I was teasing or taunting you over it Anne." He said. "I want you to know you can trust me, with anything and I will never, ever betray that trust."
Anne looked at him and swallowed. "Oh." She said before she sat down and continued not to say anything.
"Can I ask you something?" he said to her.
"Um okay." She replied.
"How old were you when your parents died?" he asked.
"Oh." She blushed. "Three." She whispered.
He looked at her with wide eyes again. "D… do you remember anything about them?" he asked quietly.
"Sometimes I think I do." She replied. "But I don't know if I imagined it or not."
He swallowed and nodded his head. "I'm sorry for that Anne. Really I am."
"I sometimes…" she trailed before she stopped suddenly.
"Go on." Gilbert said quietly.
"Its nothing." She swallowed.
"Its something." He told her. "I can tell."
"I can sometimes hear my mother, she tells me she loves me." Anne told her. "but, I…"
"Its her." He said quietly.
"You can't know that."
"I do know it, its your mother."
There was a pause before she said "They told me it's not her."
Gilbert looked at her. "Who?" he asked.
"The child psychologist, the people at the home. They said it was a figment of my imagination." She said.
"Its her." He insisted.
"I wish it was." She muttered as she went quiet again.
He took a sigh knowing he wasn't going to win this one. So swallowed then kept the rule in place "So did I tell you about choosing between swimming and my football?" he asked her.
She looked at him and shook her head.
"Oh." He said with a smile "You're going to love this one."