Part 1 - Denial is a stubborn thing
It was a beautiful day in Green Gables, Matthew was in his vegetable garden digging up his vegetables, while Anne was with Marilla in the kitchen making pastries.
The teenage girl was just sneezing, her nose was red, meaning she had been dragging her cold for a while, she sneezed a big blow, smothering the noise in her apron.
"My word, I felt the house shake that time.", said Marilla who was standing next to her, "Now, where was I?", she went to the stove to watch the cooking.
"A cold in the head at the start of summer vacation is an immoral thing.", said the young redhead with a nasal voice.
"As are chatty distractions when a red ribbon is on the line.", replied the woman with the bun in a rather stern tone.
But Anne answered determinedly, "But nothing short of absolute pneumonia could quench my interest in culinary matters this morning. I am determined to do Mary proud at the fair tomorrow.", Then she took a deep breath, "Of course, cakes have such a terrible habit of turning out bad just when you especially want them to be good."
"You can start by not sneezing in the batter.", The elderly woman, who was always so serious, advised, "Now please try not to distract me. These plum puffs must remain famous, not infamous."
The girl looked at Marilla's puff pastry, "You have nothing to fear, Marilla, you win your category every year. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a Green Gables sweep?"
The old woman smiled at her, then Anne immediately added, "Your plum puffs, my "Mary" cake and Matthew's...", the latter could not finish her sentence and sneezed again in her apron, as for Marilla, surprised once again, she stared at her with a grimace.
Just as Marilla was about to say something, "by the way, I needed you to do me a favor today, I hope you're not too sick to-"
They heard someone shouting, "Whoo!"
"Mercy on us! What was that?!", exclaimed the woman with the bun as she rushed out of the house.
Anne was also surprised, she was going to join Marilla, but out of clumsiness she dropped a bottle on the floor, "Oh... no. The vanilla!"
Meanwhile, the old woman rushed outside, "Matthew! Are you alright?", she saw her brother kneeling in his vegetable garden holding a huge radish, "Goodness me!", she noticed immediately with a smile.
Jerry arrived at the same time, "Oh, Mr. Cuthbert, that is the biggest radish I ever seen."
"I reckon your friend Jack may take a backseat this year.", said Marilla, her brother immediately smiled proudly at the remark.
In the house, after cleaning up the broken glass, Anne went into the pantry, looking for another bottle of vanilla, panicked she rummaged through the shelves, "Oh, please, please, please, please..."
Then after a few seconds of searching, "Oh...Yes!", she whispered, she came across a small bottle with the label "Best Vanilla" on it. She was so relieved that she put a kiss on the bottle, which made her sneeze afterwards.
At the same time at the Blythe and Lacroix house, Sebastian was trying his hand at knitting in his room, comfortably seated on an armchair, with his daughter nearby in her crib.
When Gilbert suddenly walked into the room, "I think I made a mistake."
"You mean this morning's oatmeal?", Bash replied mockingly.
"I always appreciate these remarks about my cooking, but... I was wondering whether I should not have invited Winifred to the fair. I think it would have been customary to do so.", the young man thought.
"Not to mention customary. Why didn't you?", asked the young father, frowning.
"I don't know, I had told her about the fair the other day, then moving from one topic to another, I forgot."
"You forgot, uh?", Sebastian laughed and asked.
"There's nothing funny about it, she agreed to visit me and I didn't take the chance. I just forgot."
"So... Does all this mean things are getting serious with you and Winnie?"
Gilbert winced at this remark, "Oh...no. She's easy to be with. I mean... I'm fond of her.", He corrected himself by taking a look at Bash.
"I wouldn't have forgotten to invite your mother.", said the young father looking at his daughter.
"I was just... I was thinking about other things.", he says, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"You will have many more opportunities to remember. But now I understand that you have no excuse not to come with me tomorrow at the fair?", Bash had a big smile when he said this.
"The Cuthberts don't come with you?", asked the young man in surprise.
"I'd like to be with my family if possible, and then... I couldn't always be with the Cuthberts, they take part in different competitions. A black man walking alone at the fair, among white people, need I say more?", he said sarcastically.
"I think whether I come with you or not, it won't change anything to that, unfortunately."
"But...", Sebastian pointed at Delphine, "Look at her, she's the one asking for it, you' d say no?", he asked pouting.
"If she asks for it, I'll think about it...", declared Gilbert smiling.
At Green Gables, Anne was still cooking, she went to check the baking of her cake when Marilla approached her to see.
"Don't touch them!", exclaimed the young redhead.
"Oh, well, forgive me for-", answered the woman with the bun, offended.
"I'm sorry...Marilla, but... I want to win... solely on my own merit.", said the young girl, sniffing because of her cold.
Then Marilla watched proudly as the teenager placed her hot cakes on the table.
When suddenly Anne looked sadly at her cakes, a tear rolled down her cheeks.
"Well, it looks fine to me.", said immediately the woman with the bun confused.
The young redheaded girl laughed nervously with a few sobs in her voice, "It's perfect.", Then she added, looking at Marilla, "Oh, I wish Mary could see it. I've never made anything perfect before."
The old woman tapped her on the shoulder, "I'm sure she's smiling from heaven."
Suddenly Marilla remembered one thing, she was looking for something in the living room, "Oh... Earlier I wanted to ask you if you could...", Then she came back to the kitchen, "...bring this to Sebastian.", She showed Anne a beautiful piece of knitting, it looked like a cardigan, there were some flowers crocheted, "I'd love Delphine to wear it tomorrow, it's her first County Fair after all."
Anne was immediately alarmed, "Oh no, no, Marilla, you can't ask me that. And then I have a cold, I don't want to pass it on to Delphine. »
"You won't need to see Delphine. You'll give it to Sebastian or Gilbert."
"Let him see me like... I mean, no, no, no!", panicked the young redhead.
"All right, all right... I won't have any time to do it myself, so hopefully Sebastian will have the idea to visit us today. Otherwise I'll see him tomorrow when we go to the fair together."
"Oh, we're going to the fair with Sebastian and Delphine?", exclaimed the young girl, suddenly more excited about the idea.
"And probably Gilbert too, do you know if he's coming?"
"How could I know?", Anne answered firmly.
"When you're done, I'd like you to pick up the laundry I hung outside in an hour or two."
"I'll...", the redhead cried out with a loud sneeze, fortunately she was still able to bury her head in her apron, "...do it, Marilla."
"Goodness gracious, some more and you'd sneeze on the cake. It's finally a good thing you're don't visit Sebastian.", with these words Marilla left the kitchen, leaving Anne more exhausted than ever from her sneezes.
In the early afternoon, Gilbert was saddling his horse in the barn, while Sebastian stood beside him, "Please give this to Marilla, I'd like to thank her for everything she has done for me these past few weeks."
"Mary's Jam?"
"I've tried to make it, I hope it's not too infamous."
The dark-haired boy was starting to leave, when Bash added, "Oh, and don't forget to ask Marilla if we're coming to pick them up tomorrow or not?"
Gilbert replied sarcastically, "Well, that's why I'm going, isn't it?", and then he left in the direction of Green Gables.
Anne had finished her kitchen chores some time ago. She was now getting ready to take out the laundry that had been drying outside all morning, she had a wicker basket in her hand, she seemed even sicker than before, with a swollen and red nose.
She stopped between the two clotheslines and then put the basket at her feet, she was about to start removing the huge sheet stretched out in front of her, when she heard a familiar voice, then the sound of a horse trotting.
"Thank you Jerry," said a distant voice.
No doubt about it, it was Gilbert's voice. Then she passed her head slightly and saw Jerry closing the gate.
Suddenly, she saw Gilbert, riding proudly on his horse, he was wearing a small brown jacket, his brown curls were flying due to a light breeze, and he had a high chin. Perhaps it was her health condition that was fooling her, but his arrival seemed so graceful.
The young brown stopped his horse at the foot of a tree and tied it to the wooden stake. Anne always observed the young man's movements, this one was only a few steps away from her, she didn't really know why, but each of his gestures seemed so graceful to her, her mouth was slightly ajar, as if she was extremely concentrated on her task.
And then suddenly she sniffed, her nose itched, a sneezing urge was felt, she tried to hold it in, but it made things worse. Gilbert should not have been aware of her presence. But when she finally sneezed, with an immense noise, she could be heard all over Green Gables. So, obviously, it couldn't have escaped Gilbert's ears, who turned his head towards the clotheslines.
The young redhead was in the depths of despair, why did it always have to happen at the worst possible moment? Luckily a huge sheet was hiding her, which prevented the dark-haired boy from seeing her. She didn't even dare to make the slightest movement, he shouldn't see her, if he did, it would be... so humiliating! Why? She didn't really know, well, maybe because of her scarlet red nose, or even her eyes which were getting bloodshot from sneezing over and over again. That's it, he shouldn't see her with this appearance, she wouldn't allow anyone to see her in this terrible state, and it had nothing to do with Gilbert Blythe.
Then she remained hidden behind the sheet, avoiding making the slightest movement, he would probably not stay long, he would leave at once. Besides, why had he come?
Before entering the house, the young man glanced again at the stretched linen, then he saw a silhouette emerging behind the large sheet, the sun was not kind to Anne, highlighted her silhouette, and the two braids that he could discern could not deceive him, it was Anne, and this idea made him smile.
When he finally opened the door, he saw Marilla who was putting up her Plum Puffs.
"Hello, Miss Cuthbert."
She jumped when she heard her name, she was so concentrated on her task, that she hadn't heard him come in.
"Oh, Gilbert! What brings you here? Oh, let me guess, Sebastian sent you?"
"Well yes, Bash gave me this, he wanted to bring it to you.", he said as he put the jar of jam on the table, "Oh, and then he wondered if tomorrow we should come and pick you up or not?"
"Oh well, we'll come, our cart being bigger. So you're coming too?"
"Yes, I think Bash insisted on It.", he replied, laughing.
"I almost forgot! Wait a minute, I have to fetch something."
Gilbert simply nodded and remained alone in the kitchen, and then he saw a beautiful cake resting on the corner of the table.
When Marilla came back with an item of clothing, she surprised him, staring at the cake, "I wanted Delphine to wear it tomorrow if Sebastian agrees, I finished it yesterday." Then she presented him the little cardigan, which he immediately took.
Seeing Gilbert's attention on the cake, the elderly woman couldn't help but declare, "It's beautiful, isn't it? Anne was so proud earlier, Mary would be too.", she smiled.
"Oh, Anne made this?", asked the dreamy young man.
"Well, yes, she hopes to win the red ribbon in her category tomorrow."
"Anne never aims for a second place.", he said, laughing and scratching his head, which made Marilla smile.
Anne was always impatient standing behind the huge sheet, she wondered if he was deliberately dragging himself so long. Then a thought crossed her mind, maybe he was looking for her? No, there was no reason to think that.
In a few minutes, he would be out, and she could finally get on with her life.
Suddenly, a voice alerted her.
"Good day, Miss Cuthbert, give my regards to Anne and Mr. Cuthbert."
Marilla nodded and returned to the house, waving to the young man for the last time.
As he was unhooking his horse from the wooden stake, a deafening noise was heard, it was the same as earlier, so he turned around.
The young redhead cursed herself as never before, as she watched Gilbert about to leave, it was as if she had lost control again, and her body was calling her to order. Her sneeze made an even bigger noise than before.
It was certain now that the young man had far less doubt about where the noise was coming from, so he glanced again at the clotheslines, where he had been able to see the girl's silhouette. All of a sudden a violent breeze was felt and in its path lifted the large sheet that had been hiding Anne until now.
The young girl widened her eyes, she hardly had time to react, it was too late, the dark-haired boy had seen her. She immediately saw a small smile appear on his face as soon as he looked at her.
The young man was content to greet her from afar, and Anne in turn imitated him with immense embarrassment. While Gilbert rode on his horse, she tried to keep her dignity by finally carrying out the task entrusted to her. Then she began to loosen the large sheet and put it in the laundry basket. She glanced briefly at the young brown, who had not yet left, then suddenly he surprised her with a brief glance, and she immediately looked away.
The teenager took the reins of his horse and galloped away. Once again the young girl could not help but watch him leave as she continued her task. Her mouth was half open, she was once again too focused on what she was looking at. Suddenly her thoughts were turned upside down by Marilla's intervention.
"Well, what's taking you so long to take down this laundry? Do you want me to finish so you can rest?", Asked the woman with the bun, who seemed a bit worried.
The redheaded girl felt terribly embarrassed, she had the feeling she had been surprised to do something wrong, "Ma-Marilla, no, no, I'm finishing."
"Fine, but get some rest after that, will you? You'll have to be in shape tomorrow for the fair, plus we're leaving early to pick up Sebastian, Delphine and Gilbert."
This announcement scared her, she didn't really know why, "But...But there isn't enough space for everyone in the carriage?"
"Of course it is..."
"And the cake? Marilla, I-I can't afford to ruin it."
"Well, if there's no space for your cake, we'll do it another way. All you have to do is ride with Gilbert in his carriage if you're so afraid for your cake."
"But, it-it makes no sense at all!", she exclaimed as she left with the laundry in her arms, leaving the woman with the bun completely perplexed by her reaction.
A moment later, the girl was in her room, she had refreshed her face with some water, she had to rest a bit afterwards, but she was not able to do so. She knew that she had said to Marilla that it wasn't possible for her to visit anyone today, but she had to visit her friend Diana at all costs.
So with the utmost discretion, she opened the door to her room, and then tiptoed through the corridor to avoid cracking the floor. Because if Marilla saw her, it was sure that she would persuade her to stay, and besides she would not lose an opportunity to confront her contradictions.
When she went downstairs, she saw the elderly woman who was now preparing dinner for tonight. The latter was from the back, so Anne had the opportunity to sneak without her noticing her.
A few moments later, the young redhead was in her friend's room lamenting. She was lying on her friend's bed. As for the young brunette, she was visibly making an inventory of her dresses to find out which of them Anne could wear tomorrow.
"Oh, it was excruciating! I've never been more embarrassed!", said Anne, who was in the depths of despair.
This amused the young brunette, "I can think of a few other examples. And since when do you care what Gilbert Blythe thinks?"
She straightened up, she was about to sneeze again, when Diana rushed to hand her a handkerchief.
The young redhead cried out with a loud sneeze, and finally answered, "I don't! Why did he have to catch me in such a disastrous state? He, on the other hand, looked as if he'd just galloped out of the pages of a novel."
Anne seemed to be somewhere else, and then she said in a dreamy way, "What a splendid chin he has. I never noticed it before.
"A splendid chin,?", Diana replied with a teasing smile.
"Yes.", she answered in a small whisper while lying on her stomach.
"Choose. Wearing a special dress tomorrow will do wonders for your beleaguered soul. You never know who you'll meet at the fair."
"Gilbert... We're going together tomorrow morning."
"You mean just you and Gilbert?", she says worried.
"Oh... no, no. It's Marilla, she wanted to accompany Sebastian and Delphine tomorrow, and then... apparently Gilbert will be there too."
"Why did he visit you, by the way?"
"I don't know, maybe Sebastian had sent him. »
"Or maybe he just wanted to see you.", said Diana with a smile.
"Hmm.", Anne said skeptically.
"Like when a boy goes out of his way to walk you home, even though it's forbidden.", the young brunette was definitely thinking of Jerry when she said that.
"Bless you, dearest of Dianas, but what are you talking about?", replied the confused young redhead.
"Um, you remember when Cole said he thought Gilbert had a crush on you?", asked her friend with a small smile, subtly trying to change the subject.
"It's not true...", the redheaded girl replied, giggling and standing up straight, "Could it be true?", she asked more seriously.
Suddenly a little girl's voice came out, "My name is Diana Barry.", it was Minnie May who was hiding in a wardrobe, she had put on a dress that belonged to her older sister, and she came out of the wardrobe and continued, "I don't want to go to finishing school in Paris!"
Diana looked up to heaven and sighed as she saw her little sister coming out, while she continued to select dresses for her friend.
"I always put my foot in it with Gilbert. Always.", said Anne upset.
Minnie May continued her sister's imitation, "Paris is boring, and so am I."
"The only time I didn't was at dance practice, and that's because I couldn't find any words at all, just very confusing feelings.", she said pensively.
"Feelings? Do tell.", Said the young brunette with a smile, while checking if the dresses she had selected corresponded to the young redhead's complexion.
"It was like a veil...hanging before my inner consciousness...was suddenly lifted...and I was Elizabeth Bennet dancing with Mr. Darcy.", she said dreamily.
Diana smiled when she heard this.
"Every time our hands touched, it was... I think he felt it too. Because his eyes were...", she didn't manage to finish her sentence, as dreamy as ever.
"I'm reading a monster book.", Minnie May interrupted again, holding the book that Jerry had given to Diana, as she began to imitate the sound of a monster, "Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr!"
Her older sister immediately lost her patience, went up to her, and took the book from her hands and hid it under a cover, "Minnie May, get out!", which the child did immediately, giggling.
Meanwhile Anne was still doing her monologue, she was fidgeting on the bed, and then she lay down on her back, "His eyes! That's what Ruby observed when I was telling him about the Take Notice Board. When we danced, he was gazing at me like...", she simply breathed in, unable to finish her sentence.
Diana, seeing her friend in full questioning, sat down beside her, cautiously she began to say, "Anne, I'm going to ask you a question. Don't be vexed and do answer earnestly."
The young redhead looked at her friend attentively, and then the young brunette asked, "Do you have a crush on Gilbert?"
As soon as these words were uttered, Anne stood up to sneeze into her handkerchief, but she realized at this moment that perhaps...