"Wow, this place is nothing like home," a young girl said as she spoke to her brother. The two had just arrived into town to get a few grocery staples to bring to their new home in small road was bustling with people going about their daily tasks and chores. The auburn-haired girl hopped out of their carriage as her brother tied up their newest family member, Steele, their horse. She circled their buggy looking around at her surroundings not even noticing a few stares that she was getting.

Her brother however, he noticed. "Thea, I didn't quite think your outfit through. Avonlea is a little more conservative than we're used to back home." He nodded his head at her outfit, a nice deep blue button-down with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and…pants. He ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair moving it out from in front of his left eye, revealing a scar across the left side of his face,"I guess at least your hair looks nice and ladylike, but umm we gotta work on your clothing."

Althea rolled her eyes,"Sean no one is staring," she glanced around and noticed that she was in fact wrong. Almost everyone around them was stealing glances in their direction. "Ok…so a few people are staring, they'll get over it." She grabbed her brother's arm and began leading him in the direction of the general store attempting to ignore the looks they were getting.

"Fine, we'll talk about this later, but you can't dress like this in public anymore, end of story." He sighed as they entered the small grocery store and began shopping.

Meanwhile, a few aisles down, Anne was tucking a stray lock of red hair behind her ear, wiping a bit of sweat off her brow and putting the container of pencils back on the shelf.

She'd hoped to find a gift for Cole today, whose birthday was fast-approaching, but she was practically clueless when it came to buying art supplies and found herself feeling rather at a loss

As she looked, however, eyes narrowing in confusion, as all the brands and nuances in the different types of pencils and markers and ink, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to see a young girl about her age standing behind her.

The first thing that struck her as unusual about this girl was her outfit. She was wearing pants, and Anne was irritated to hear Rachel Lynde's voice in her head telling her that was improper. But then she thought of Ms. Stacy, and pushed those thoughts away. She would come to know this girl as Althea.

Althea smiled at the girl when she turned around, "Sorry, just need to grab a few pencils, chalk, and a slate," she reached for the aforementioned items. "So are you an artist?" She had noticed the girl staring intensely at the art supplies, "With firey hair like that I should have guessed you'd have the spirit of an artist.." She, unlike the people of Avonlea, loved red hair and freckles, she herself having auburn hair and a light smattering of freckles across her face from the hot New York summer sun.

Anne smiled, surprised by her comment. "Oh no, I'm certainly not. I'm actually getting quite lost in all those minuscule differences in brand, texture and whatnot..." She sighed. "But I take it as a compliment that you would think so." She noticed a slight difference in her accent as well, but did not mention it. Instead, she took a step back from the shelf, and turned to the girl, holding her hand out to shake. "I'm Anne Shirley-Cuthbert. What's your name?"

Althea smiled at the girl's enthusiasm, "It's nice to meet you Anne Shirley-Cuthbert. I'm Althea Rois* Conlon, my brother and I just moved here from New York " She gestured to her brother who was looking at carpentry supplies in the corner of the store. She noticed how many side glances they were both getting as well as the hushed tones of the people around her.

"Ah, New York!" Anne said. "I thought you weren't from around here. Not that it's obvious - you just are a bit different-" She could feel herself tripping over her own words already, and mentally chastised herself for making a fool of herself. "Sorry, I don't mean to offend." She said. Noticing the stares and hushed whispers, her voice got a bit lower. "Don't take it personally. They do that to every newcomer - they did it to me, and to Miss Stacy. This isn't as interesting as New York, gossip is practically the only thing that keeps some of these people going." She rolled her eyes a bit. "It'll pass once you've been here for a while."

Althea couldn't help, but chuckle a little as the girl stumbled over her words, "Don't worry it takes a lot more than that to offend me." She did find a small reassurance in that fact that Anne said this was not uncommon for people to gossip when new people came into town. She then leaned in and whispered back to her, "Plus, if anyone gets to uppity I'll just soak 'em," she teased. She wasn't a stranger to fights, but it would talk a lot more than gossip to start one.

"Thea!"Sean yelled over motioning her to come with him to the register, a small smirk on his face at the fact she seemed to have made a friend.

Althea nodded at her brother, "Well hopefully I'll see you at school?" She didn't give Anne a chance to answer as she ran off to join her brother in paying for their purchases.

*Rois = Irish spelling of Rose

A/N: Z: Hello everyone! This is a collaboration story between me and smilefreckleface. The original characters were created by her, although all other characters are owned by the author of Anne of Green Gables and showwriters of Anne with an E.

A: Enjoy the story!