"Are you two sure you're okay babysitting?" Mr Irving asked them. "You have finals coming up?" he asked them "I don't want your marks downgraded because you were too busy playing matchmaker for me." He told them.
"Paul is a pleasure to have." Anne said to him "And he has Davy and Thea to hang out with it'll be fun, we'll have popcorn and pizza, a movie marathon and camping out in the front room." Anne smiled.
"We'll be doing most of our studying here." Gilbert said.
It was nearing the Easter break.
"It feels like its been nearly every weekend you've had him." Mr Irving said.
"Its not." Anne said with a smile.
"And anyway" Gilbert started with a cheeky grin "it means you and Miss Lewis can…"
"Please don't say it!" he exclaimed, "I don't need to hear it from my high school students!" he said shaking his arms in front of him to which made Gilbert laugh but one glance at Anne told Gilbert she was uncomfortable.
"How's Paul taking to Miss Lewis?" Gilbert asked him trying to make Anne a bit more comfortable.
"Pretty well actually." He said. "Better than I thought." He admitted. "We've had a few 'Lavender and Paul' dates." He said with a smile. "she said he's very easy to love."
"we're attest to that!" Anne exclaimed.
"Call me, if there's any problems." He asked them, to which they nodded as he left the house.
As promised Gilbert and Anne knocked on Mr Irving's Flat door 10:00 sharp the next morning. Mr Irving answered the door with a pair of dark grey PJ bottoms and a white t shirt on his top, his hair unorderly it was clear he had just got out of bed to answer the door.
"Dad!" Paul exclaimed as he saw his dad.
"Hey little man." He said with a smile. "Did you enjoy your first sleepover?" he asked him.
"Sure did, Gilbert let us watch the original Star Wars Movie!" he exclaimed. "They were on until 4am this morning!"
"Oh?" he said laughing then looking up at his students "4am huh?" he smiled. "Do me a favour son, go and play in your room for a little while and don't go into daddy's room okay?" he asked his son.
"Okay Dad." Paul said then zoomed through to the bedrooms.
"Thank you, Anne and Gilbert." He said with a smile to him "looks like his first sleepover was a success."
"Indeed, I believe it was." Gilbert said with a smile.
"Did you two sleep?" he asked.
"Anne took Thea up to her bedroom at about midnight and painted her nails did her hair pretty. I stayed downstairs with the boys." He grinned. He looked at the blush on his teacher's cheeks "Should we not be here?" he asked Mr Irving before another voice came from the direction of the bedrooms.
"Are we all clear?" A Miss Lewis called covered in a robe which was obviously Mr Irving's. "Apparently not." She said with a blush.
Gilbert's eyes flew above him suddenly finding the doorframe very interesting and Anne didn't know where to put her eyes.
"Oh um…" Gilbert blushed still his eyes diverted.
"Morning Anne, morning Gilbert." Lavender said her own cheeks flushing.
"Good morning Miss Lewis." They both muttered.
"Um…" Lavender stuttered.
"I think we better get a move on." Gilbert said. "Good to see you Miss… I mean it was nice… I mean, good morning Miss Lewis." He said taking a flushed Anne by the arm and taking her down the stairway.
Stephen shut the door then turned and looked at Lavender and they both burst out laughing. "Do you think they knew?" Stephen teased.
"Anne!" Gilbert called to her down the corridor. "Anne!" he exclaimed again catching her attention she turned and looked for him through the crowds which he politely pushed through arriving at Anne. "The scouts for the feeder teams into the college football teams are back." He said with a look to her. He smiled "they are looking at placing another scholarship with our year." He said.
She threw her arms around him "You have a chance to make up for last year?!" she asked him.
"Not make up, have another go." He said quietly in her ear.
She pulled back and looked at him "Do you think you're in for a chance?" she asked.
"More than likely." He said. "They are coming just to recruit me, they aren't even looking at the other players." He said with a smile. "Just don't tell the others that." He said to her.
"Gilbert!" she exclaimed throwing her arms around him. "That's wonderful!" she told him. "Tell me the game and I will be there to see you win that scholarship!" she said to him pulling back looking up at him.
"The game in a weeks' time." He said to her. "That ties up nicely, the results for the Avery should be back by then."
"You could still win that." She told him straight.
"Na, everyone says it'll either go to you or Emily." He said. "This is my chance!" he said with a smile. "Oh please be there!?" he asked her "I don't think I'll be half as nervous knowing you'll be there cheering me on."
"Consider it done." She said with a smile to him.
"Anne, Gilbert!" Fred called from one end of the corridor, they both turned around to look at him. "There's something you should see." He called to them.
A line of ten students stood outside the town hall and looked at wonder at the old building.
"Remind me again what colour was it meant it be?" Gilbert asked Anne.
"Green!" she exclaimed. "A very pretty green."
"That's not green." Diana said their eyes still peeled to the building.
"That it isn't." Gilbert agreed.
"Its blue." Fred stated.
"Very very blue." Anne said amazed.
"Almost a TARDIS blue." Gilbert said. "Maybe the old building has been replaced by a Timelord's TARDIS."
Charlie turned to Gilbert. "Please stop being ridiculous."
"Hey, I'm just trying to find the silver lining!" Gilbert said.
"I don't understand how it happened!?" Anne questioned.
"Who did the paintwork again?" Joseph asked.
"Joshua Pye." Anne said with a sigh. "He promised the best value for money." Anne said.
Gilbert sighed.
"He did get the roof fixed…" Josie started but seemed to get cut off by half the student council
Gilbert interrupted "Everyone needs to just stop it!" He yelled at them "I don't think Josh would have done this on purpose, he's a start-up business and this was meant to showcase his talents."
"He needs to fix this out of his own pocket." Joseph exclaimed. "its his mistake and we can't afford to take it out of the schools funds."
"Now hold on a minute…" Charlie started to defend.
"Pipe down Charles." Gilbert said holding back his friend. "Its only paint, we need to find out how much it would be with the undercoat to cover the blue and then the green paint we chose on top." He sighed. "Then meet with the town council members and come up with some fundraising ideas."
"Do you think that will work?" Diana asked.
"There's no harm in asking." Gilbert admitted. "Joseph, go and get those figures for me." The group dispersed and Gilbert looked at Anne. "Why the long face Shirley?" he asked her.
We've done so much good this year." She said woefully. "And this is what we'll be remembered for? We'll simply be laughed out of existence."
"Never mind that Anne." He said putting his arm around her "You're looking at the down side, I think people are way more likely to remember we raised money not once but twice for the town hall."
"Mmm." She said her arms crossed in front of her, she seemly oblivious to Gilbert's arm being around her. "What did he say Miss Stacy?" Anne asked their high school principle approached them.
"It's to do with the numbering of the shades of paint. They use the Pantone system where our green number was Pantone 2456C it seems this was the 2955c."
Anne sighed heavily.
"Don't get pessimistic, we can fix it." He whispered to her. "Come on!" he said guiding her to his car "let's go get ice-cream." He said to her.
They sat opposite each other in the ice cream parlour they were sharing huge ice cream sundae between them. Anne looked to him thoughtfully and said to him "Can I ask you something?"
He smiled and looked up "You just did." He replied. "But I'll give you another for free."
Anne smiled and leaned forward "So you go to school you get up at the crack of dawn you have all your after-school clubs you're pretty much breaking even with me on every subject and you're holding down a job…"
He nodded listening to this list "How do I do it?" he said in anticipation.
"No, not how, you're clearly more than capable. But…" Anne said then she slowly said "Why?"
Gilbert sat back in his chair putting down his spoon his bottom lip protruded and he nodded. "Why?"
"Yes, why do you do it? When every other teen uses the bank of mammy and daddy, I mean I can't, but my hours are minimal as a tutor. So why? When your parents have plenty, why do you not follow the expected and get off your parents?"
He smiled and picked up his spoon again, playing with the melted ice-cream on his side for a moment "When I was twelve I decided to rebel." He said with a grin. "I was tired in a morning and I wanted to sleep and I let my parents know it." He took a breath and took a scoop of ice-cream popping it in his mouth. "I told them I wasn't getting up anymore I wasn't milking the stupid cows and I wasn't bailing the hay." He gave a grin and looked to Anne, "and they let me go through with it." He said honestly. "A whole week I slept until seven." He said. "Then there was no milk for my cereal." He said with a shrug "I said they could have bought milk and I genuinely thought it was stupid." He said with a chuckle. "So I went for some toast but there was no butter…" he smiled, "my dad took me out to the barn and we started to bail the hay and he told me that everything we did had a consequence and we don't always get to choose the consequence. In farming, if the cows don't get milked then we don't get milk, we can't sell milk so we can't make butter or cheese and we lose that income too." He took a breath "I asked him why I should why he couldn't do it, it was his farm, he said he could but then he would need to ignore the work he was doing in order to do mine. He said the consequences to my actions would be seen somewhere along the line, and it was my responsibility to contribute, not just to the farm but the world in general." He took a few more spoons of ice-cream before he said, "it had an immediate effect something about contributing to the world in general, I don't know lit something inside of me, I wanted to do… more. Of course he didn't tell me the cows had been milked the cheese and butter had been made, they did it to prove a point." he said. He fell silent though Anne knew by the look on his face he was trying to hold back on what was coming out of his mouth. "It was just a month later he was diagnosed." He said quietly.
Anne studied his serious face for a moment "It wasn't your fault." Anne said to him quietly.
"Wasn't it?" he said seriously not looking at her.
"Gil." She whispered putting her hand on his. "You couldn't have known." She whispered. "It was just unfortunate timing, you were just a kid."
"Selfish arrogant cocky little child!" Gilbert said still looking down.
"Gil! No, not you…"
"That's what you thought I was when we first met." He said looking up at her.
"Do you have any idea how wrong I was about you?" she asked him. "Not a single one of those adjectives describe you at all. You're sweet and kind, thoughtful, selfless…"
"Its who I try and be." He said quietly.
She squeezed his hand "No Gil, its who you are."
He took a deep breath. "What about you Shirley?" he asked her.
She took a breath and thought for a moment before she said anything but slowly and carefully she said "Someone told me a long time ago I was worthless that I would never amount to anything." She said quietly before she looked up at him "and I will do anything to prove him wrong in every single way."
He looked to her seriously before he whispered "You're worth a world Shirley."
"Thanks." She whispered they looked each other in the eyes their fingers intertwining their lips fainting a smile to each other.
The song in the background changed tracks to an upbeat loud tempo which snapped the pair out of their spell. Anne's blushed and looked into her side of the ice cream.
He felt the pang in his heart as she pulled back the blush at his own cheek so he decided to defuse the situation, scooped up some ice cream on his spoon and held it up "to being who we want to be." He proposed the toast with the ice-cream.
Anne chuckled and dipped her spoon in the ice-cream and brought it out. "Cheers." She said clinking her spoon with his.
"Anne you have post." Marilla said as Anne came in through the door. Gilbert not far behind her Anne casually said 'thanks' and picked up the envelope.
"Its big!" Anne exclaimed looking at it. She looked at the postmark "The Avery association!" she said before she looked back down at the envelope. Her hands started shaking.
"Open it!" Gilbert exclaimed.
"No what if I've got it, that means you haven't, what if I don't have it that surely means you do!" Anne said to him.
"yes, it's a bit of a Schrödinger envelope you have there." He said with a smile. "Open it and find out!"
Anne stood shaking "Oh Gil I can't!" she exclaimed. "You do it!" she told him.
He rolled his eyes taking the envelope off her. "You know this is illegal, right? Opening someone else's mail?" he asked her as he opened it.
"I doubt it counts if I'm right here in front of you." She said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Dear Miss Shirley," he started then a huge grin spread across his face "we are pleased to inform you…!" he exclaimed.
"No!" she yelled jumping up and down.
"Yes!" he yelled back picking her up in his arms hugging her "You did it! You did it!" he said.
"I can't believe this!" she said as he brought her back down to earth and she took the letter off him. "This is amazing!" she exclaimed where her face dropped. "but this means that you don't have it!" she exclaimed.
He shook his head. "I don't care about that, I'd already resigned the fact that I wouldn't get this one, full throttle for my football scholarship!" he exclaimed. "I'm so proud of you!" he exclaimed.
"I couldn't have done it without you!" she exclaimed back.
"Then we'll call it even when I get my football scholarship." He said with a smile.
"Anne, Gilbert, I'm sorry to interrupt your studies but I'm afraid this was a matter of some urgency." Miss Stacy greeted them as they came in the office. "It's been quite some time since I had the two of you in here." She said with a smile to them both. "How are you both? I understand your relationship has much improved since the last time you were both here."
"Yes Miss Stacy." Anne said with a smile to her teacher "I really was just being very childish, you were quite right in the suspicions you had last year about us." She continued "we really so make the best of friends."
Miss Stacy glanced at the pair "that is good to hear, and makes this so much easier." She took a deep breath "congratulations Anne on the Avery scholarship, that's some reward to be getting."
"Thank you." She replied. "I know it is."
"You should know that the Avery is a good indicator as to who will get valedictorian, usually when one gets the prize they get the other." She continued.
"Usually? Miss Stacy?" Anne asked with a hopeful eye.
"Where you are ahead of Gilbert in English he makes up for in maths." She said honestly. "As it so happens both your grade point averages are exactly, and I mean exactly alike." She took a sigh and looked at them both "You both attend multilabel after school classes and you both have glowing reports from each and every teacher. So we've had to come to an unusual decision." She said she paused looking at both her students for a moment "That you both are named valedictorian." She said with a smile.
They both looked to her wide eyed with huge smiles on their faces
"Gil!" Anne exclaimed grabbing his hand. "Did you hear it did you!?" she exclaimed.
"I heard." He said squeezing her hand back. "Congratulations Shirley." He said with the widest smile on his face.
"Congratulations Blythe." She replied back likewise.
"Will you be making separate speeches do you think?" Miss Stacy asked them.
"Oh should we do it together?" Anne asked him. "That would be fun right?" she said.
He smiled for a moment before he looked up into her eager grey eyes "sure, sounds like fun."
"Alright then," Miss Stacy said to them with a smile. "Congratulations, both of you, I'm very proud of my top two student." She took a sigh before she said to Anne. "Can you give Gilbert and I a moment Anne, I just need to discuss the scholarship at the football game he'll be playing."
Gilbert found Anne sometime later lying on the field looking up at the sky watching the cloud go past. He took a sigh and lay down beside her looking up at the clouds too.
"Do you see them too Gilbert?" she asked him. "The world which exists in the clouds, all the faces?"
"Sure I do." He said looking at them too "it's called Pareidolia." He said.
Anne chuckled "of course there's a scientific name. Not everything has to be defined to make it real."
"I know it doesn't, life wouldn't be much fun without a little bit of mystery left in it." He said with a grin to her. He stopped at studied her for a moment "Hey Anne?"
"Yeah?" she said in return.
"Come to Prom with me?" he asked her.
She turned her head and looked at him for a moment. "Most popular guy in school and you want to take the smartest girl?" she asked.
"I'm the smartest guy in school and I want to take the prettiest and smartest girl in school, which is you Anne Shirley." He stated.
"Oh." She said quietly looking back up at the clouds. "Okay then."
"Anne, Gilbert!" Mr Irving said as the two teens walked into his classroom rather nervously and they sat down. "I'm getting far too used to saying that." He said with a smile.
"Is everything alright Mr Irving?" Gilbert asked his teacher. "The note didn't say why you wanted us here." He said as Miss Lewis came in the room.
"We wanted you two to know, first, well after Paul of course but before everyone else…" Mr Irving said with a smile to Miss Lewis as she came to stand next to him her hands in his.
"We're engaged!" Miss Lewis exclaimed.
Anne jumped up with Gilbert not too far behind her.
"You didn't waste any time!" Gilbert exclaimed to them.
"We wasted eleven years!" Mr Irving said to him. "That's long enough."
"Oh congratulations!" Anne shrieked hugging Miss Lewis happily while Gilbert shook Mr Irving hand.
"We've sent for the adoption papers for Paul." Miss Lewis said "So I can be officially his mother. But last night when we told him, he called me 'mom' for the first time!" she said with tears in her eyes "I knew he was my little boy the moment I got to meet him!"
"Oh Miss Lewis you're making me cry!" Anne exclaimed.
"There is one thing we want to ask of you." Mr Irving said to them both. "Paul is going to be our page boy, we were wondering if you would be best man?" he asked of Gilbert.
Gilbert's mouth hung loose for a moment "of course!" he exclaimed.
"And you maid of honour!?" she asked Anne.
Anne squealed in happiness as a reply.
"You've really both, taken us and Paul..." Miss Lewis started as she started to sob.
Mr Irving smiled. "You mean an awful lot to us." He said to them.