Chapter 7

About a week later a firm friendship had begun to be established between Gilbert and Henry. Anne still doggedly ignored him, but he was determined to eventually win her over. He was Gilbert Blythe, everyone in Avonlea liked him, so it stood to reason Anne should as well. He remained as fascinated with her as he had been that first day and unashamedly asked Henry about her whenever the opportunity arose.

"So you've known Anne just over two years?" Gilbert asked curiously at lunch, not even attempting to disguise his interest from Henry. He knew Henry was no fool and had noted his curiosity about Anne, but hadn't commented on it as of yet or refused to answer a question Gilbert had put to him. Gilbert had carefully kept his questions as unobtrusive as possible so far and Henry's answers had been pretty general, often accompanied by a smirk of amusement.

"Yup, nearing three now. Her and Tommy arrived on the same day. Some of the other kids whispered that they were brother and sister, both having red hair. Course my hair is red too. That is what brought as all together, ya see. The matron believed we all had the devil in us. She figured she had mostly beat it out of me by then. I'm afraid that when Anne and Tommy arrived it came roaring back to life. I had learned to keep my head down and keep to myself and all of a sudden there was this skinny underfed red haired girl throwing herself on top of another skinny underfed red head to shield him from the kicks of the other orphans as they taunted him about his red hair. They began to jeer at Anne to and I had the thought that if I'd of had a sister, she'd of looked like Anne. And well I couldn't just walk away and leave them to get beat then. New orphans are always picked on, and well Anne can have some extreme reactions-"

"Don't I know," Gilbert mumbled.

Nodding is head in agreement, Henry added, "and just the way she is, a bright and sunny light in a place where that just isn't allowed, made the orphans determined to make her no better then the rest of us, bland and lifeless. Gray. But you can't take the color out of Anne. Anne made me live again and she was wouldn't let me fade away again or let Tommy start to fade into that dull nothingness. I always kept Tommy with me in the boys dormitory, but Anne was supposed to sleep in the girl's dormitory. Anne was always imagining stuff and sometimes we would all sneak out and Anne would tell us stories and we would fall asleep huddled together in some corner where we didn't have to worry about anybody else."

"Didn't she well, she has a bit of a temper-" Gilbert began.

"A bit?" Henry said with a smirk. "Maybe she didn't hit you hard enough if you think she only has a bit of a temper."

"Fine," Gilbert said. "She has a temper. Didn't she ever get in trouble for it at the orphanage?"

"Plenty," Henry said with a laugh. "But at least she was getting in trouble for real things, not stupid things. They didn't need to make up reasons for her to be in trouble. They loved denying food at the orphanage for wrong doing. Never was enough to go around, so if you was in trouble you didn't get any, other then some scraps you could scrounge up on the sly."

"That's downright unfair," Gilbert said angrily.

"That's life," Henry said shrugging. "Cause we had red hair the other orphans hated us and made up stuff to the matron, making her think we had the devil in us. Course Anne's temper didn't help matters with the matron. But as Anne said missing your dinner for a real reason was better then for a lie told to the staff. Said it was more satisfying and she could stave off her hunger on her righteous anger. We got pretty good at staven off our hunger with righteous anger. We was pretty lucky that Tommy was so small and got pretty good a nicking food out of the kitchens with nobody knowing."

Sitting up straighter and looking Gilbert in the eye, Henry said with all seriousness, his customary smirk gone, "That don't make him no thief, so don't you be thinking he is. We had a right to eat and Anne made sure he knew any other theivin' was wrong. If you go spreading tales of what I told you-"

"I'm not gonna," Gilbert interrupted him scowling. He had decided on the walk to school that first day he liked Henry, that he would be a good chum to have. Gilbert really liked all the red haired orphans, and Gilbert once he really liked you, not just just the shallow liking so often found, but real true liking, he was as loyal as could be, a trait he shared with Anne. For some reason the hero worship Tommy looked at him with meant just a little bit more to him than the hero worship the other Avonlea small fry looked at him with and it wasn't just because he wanted Anne to look at him like he was her hero. Now he was contemplating that when he had repeatedly hit Henry, who didn't even seem to hold it against him, he had beat a boy that had been underfed and starving for years and had only been having regular meals for a scant few months.

"I shouldn't have hit you," Gilbert said quietly.

"I'm used to it," Henry said with a shrug. "I could always hold up much better to any beatings the matron dished out than Anne or Tommy, and she didn't care which one of us took the beating when she thought our lot deserved it. We was all one and the same."

"That's terrible!" Gilbert exclaimed. "To treat all of you like you were the same."

"Better her think one red head to punish was as good as any other," Henry said philosophically. "Or she would have been after Anne and Tommy."

All of a sudden the call went up of School Master's coming and Henry looked wildly around spottting Tommy with some other small fry, but not seeing Anne, looking for her in the direction she had gone. He began to stand in a panic, but Gilbert was already on his feet saying, "You see that Tommy makes it back before Mr. Philips. I'll get Anne."

Henry took less then a few seconds to think it over. Instinctively he knew he could trust Gilbert to see to his sister and gave him a nod before darting off to grab Tommy while Gilbert went the opposite way to retrieve Anne.

Gilbert quickly made his way to where he had seen Anne head off to while he was chatting with Henry. He spotted her fairly quickly, her hair strewn with flowers as she dreamily hummed to herself. Gilbert put his hand to his chest as if to stop his heart from leaping out of it at the sight. She really was a bright and sunny light like Henry had said. Full of color that hadn't belonged in dull gray orphanage. A shrudder passed through him to think of Anne, Henry and Tommy in the place Henry had described. Tommy being younger and less candid had mentioned before running off to play the other day, that at the orphanage being with Anne was paradise in hell, though Marilla, he had said, said he shouldn't talk that way.

"Anne Shirely!" Gilbert called out to get her attention, fairly certain the use of her name wouldn't rouse her temper at least.

Anne looked over at him with a start of surprise. Henry had reported that Gilbert had claimed, before they had shown up at his farm, he had been planning on apologizing the very next day on the walk to school. She regarded him with cool suspicion, but said nothing.

"Henry sent me for you while he got Tommy. Mr. Philips is headed back. We've got to hurry to make it back before him," Gilbert said with what he knew was a winning smile. Apparently it wasn't winning enough for Anne though because she ignored him and immediately broke into a fleet run, brushing right past him. Gilbert stared after her for just one second before he was at her heels, headed back as well. He was greatly tempted to grab her hand to ensure she didn't slip and fall on the race back to the school house, but didn't think his action would be well received.

His ma, he thought wryly, would say it was good to see he was showing some sense. She couldn't make up her mind if she was more upset those red headed orphans had attacked her beloved son or that he had managed to provide such a provoking welcome to a poor group or unfortunate orphans. She had settled for somewhere in the middle and was put out when she found out Marilla had beat her to insisting on an apology being issued. Right after the Green Gables group had left she had bustled briskly out of the house, calling for Gilbert and then instructing him that they were going to Green Gables where he would apologize to the orphans for his shabby treatment and by Gilbert setting the proper example they would guiltily apologize as well and then they could be made to feel welcome by getting to know each other while she had a chat with Marilla.

Gilbert had been tempted to go along with his ma's plan since it allowed him the chance to spend time with Anne after the obligatory apologies, but suspected Anne would out him for the fact that apologies had been made, before Marilla even had a chance to. So he dutifully told his mother that Anne, Henry and Tommy had come over and apologized and he had apologized as well and that he planned on walking to school with them tomorrow. He didn't tell his ma that while Henry and Tommy seemed ready to let by gones be by gones, Anne, the one he really wanted to get to know, didn't have an ounce of regret for breaking her slate on his head, other than that it broke, and hadn't forgiven him.

Henry considered Gilbert with some degree of confusion as he watched him and Anne at the shared desk. At the orphanage Anne's presence had certainly been like a bright light for him and Tommy. Her imagination and optimism had drawn them to her and her sweet nature at tied the bonds of kinship between them. But why was Gilbert Blythe, a popular boy with a family and everything going for him so determined to be in Anne's vicinity? When the cry of teacher's coming had gone up, Henry had said, "Anne," looking in the direction he knew she had gone and Gilbert had eagerly volunteered to find her while Henry saw to Tommy. Of course when Anne ran in with the group of boys and Mr. Philips saw fit to punish her by moving her seating assignment next to Gilbert, Henry had inwardly groaned while Gilbert had lit up, unsuccessfully hiding his initial response, though he did do a credible job of disguing it as soon as Anne was seated next to him.

Gilbert stealthily slid the candy heart he had bought as a planned peace offering for a certain red haired girl under the curve of that very girl's arm. So far all of his attempts at forgiveness had been rebuffed. His first apology in the school yard and offer to help the red heads back to Green Gables was scorned. His apology by the Blythe's fence was met with icy acceptance, but not forgiveness. He had attempted to apologize more than once on the way to and from school everyday, but Anne refused to let him do so, icily reminding him he already had said his piece by the fence. His warning for the fact the teacher was headed back to school hadn't earned him an ounce of gratitude, likely because Mr. Philips had seen fit to only punish Anne. He could only hope his current offering did the trick, or at least started the thaw he was looking for.

Alas, Anne did worse than ignore the offering. She crushed it with such regal disdain, Gilbert was begrudgingly impressed. Gilbert quietly studied Anne out of the corner of his eye for the remainder of the day. The notion of giving up and deciding he really couldn't be expected to do any more to be forgiven was dismissed before it had even half formed. Most things in Gilbert's life had come fairly easy to him, his one sorrow being his father's ill health, but he suspected something he had to really work for might be worth it. Sitting at that desk he decided he was willing to work for Anne's forgiveness and friendship.

As Anne, under the watchful, curious eyes of Henry, Tommy, Diana and Gulbert packed away her school things, Henry said knowingly with a smirk, "Whatcha doing?"

"Packing my things. I won't be coming back to school," Anne said with a sniff.

In this moment Gilbert got his first lesson in managing Anne. "So your just gonna let him win?" Henry demanded of her. "Have we ever let them win, Anne? You can't start now. You don't come back and that fool Mr. Philips wins," Henry hissed quietly. "Ain't nobody ever beat us yet, Anne. Not the matron, not the other orphans. None of 'em. You walk out that door and don't come back and one of them wins. You think he wants to deal with us? Or you think he'd be grateful he has one less red head to deal with? He chases you away and then who ya think he's gonna go for next? I won't be chased away. I'm gonna get my education. But what about Tommy? When he starts in on him? Mr. Philips is the type to be so assured of his own success after succeeding with you, he'll be relentless. You got more stubborn in you than that, Anne."

"Anne?" Tommy said looking at her with big pleading eyes while Henry waited for her to respond to the challenge as he had laid it out.

Anne gave a morse sigh and began unpacking her school bag.

"Your staying?" Gilbert asked a hair to eagerly, earning him a glare from Henry who feared Gilbert's transparant delight would undue what he had just done.

"I am," Anne said narrowing her eyes at him as if daring him to contest tbat fact.

Henry smirked, but said nothing. Anne didn't even realize how fascinated with her Gilbert was. But then again Anne had never understood her own draw.

Gilbert realizing to much delight on his part might have Anne just as quickly changing her mind, did his best to school his face to one of neutrality but it was impossible to remove the spark that shown in his hazel eyes. Anne though had no intention of ever meeting Gilbert's eyes and missed it entirely.