Okay, sorry guys for the 'drought', but rain has fallen since then – so here we go. Please, please review! You are the rain and inspiration for me.
CHAPTER 3
Anne lounged on the bed, her eyes far gazing out the window, while her friend's chatter hummed around her. But she wasn't part of that right now, she was part of her imaginary world, an exclusive one only open to those with that fairy birthright. It was those rich red roads that had caught her eye at first, they reminded Anne of her first buggy ride with Matthew, when he'd picked her up from the station that fateful day… "Those red roads are so funny. When we got into the train at Charlottetown and the red roads began to flash past, I asked Mrs. Spencer (Anne shuddered at the memory of her, that face belonged to the dark past, which seemed more like a nightmare she had long ago) what made them red and she said she didn't know and for pity's sake not to ask her any more questions. She said I must have asked her a thousand already. I suppose I had too, but how are you going to find out about things if you don't ask questions? And what does make the roads red?"
"Well now, I dunno," said Matthew… oh! Heart pang, thinking about Matthew and Marilla, probably half way through afternoon tea - that couldn't of been a tear that just dropped off her nose – but Anne saw it all in her head, that old table of maple colour and her seat…empty. There went another tear, she saw Marilla spooning out her preserves with that exactness, oh Anne could just about smell it. Josie's whine cut through her thoughts,
"Shame Anne! You can't be crying over pokey old Avonlea now? You know I really do pity those who have homesickness, I never do, why I'm glad I've left!" That was one voice she could leave behind without regrets, thought Anne ruthlessly. Jane sat next to Anne, and smiled sympathetically with her,
"It is hard to leave cosy home for a hard boarding house like this, but I'm sure we'll get used to it, sooner or later" Josie just sniffed. Anne's eyes returned to the window, watching the sparrows twitter out of the way of a girl running head long, without a care down the road. It was the same girl who had looked so frightened on the steps of Queens that morning, they just about all had that look, and then the girl looked so wistfully at Anne and her friends, she had no one. But now the girl was grinning wildly, no, laughing, looking like she finally fitted in, with the birds and trees, Anne had an impulse to join her, until she saw two boys stroll down, and, her cheeks burned, he was there. It seemed almost like slow motion as the girl ran into him (trust him to be in the way!) and they collided head on, both tumbling to the ground. Anne gasped, and making the rest of the girls look to the window. Ruby started giggling at the look on Gilbert's face, Josie sniffed again.
"I've seen that girl, isn't she in your class Anne?" Ruby asked,
"You could almost be twins with that hair, both so re…" Jane cut in before Josie could finish,
"She was also on the steps, she seemed strange, scribbling in that notebook all the time, and then the one of the professors took it away from her in the assembly, she was scribbling in it then too and completely forgot to stand up for the anthem"
"She must be a Bohemian then" Anne said, her eyes shining again as she added in her mind 'and a kindred spirit'.
"I was behind her in the line, when we were signing our names in, and signed hers 'Rose Shirly'. Shirly Anne! Except it didn't have an 'e' in it like your name, other than that, you could be related, think about that!"