1819 words

⚠️⚠️

Every day since you had moved to Avonlea you check the mail to see if your father had sent you a letter but he was still yet to respond.

You rush downstairs. "Mother, is the mail here yet?" You ask. "No, I'm sorry dear, the mailman must be late today." She says. You sigh in disappointment.

You grab your stuff for school. "Are you not eating breakfast?" Your mother asks.

You shake your head. "No I'm not very hungry, thank you." You say. "I think I'm going to leave for school early today." You say as you walk over to the door. "Goodbye!" Ashley April shouts as you leave.

On your way to school, you hear giggling and talking behind you. You turn around to see Anne and Diana. You walk over to them. "I didn't know you guys came this way." You say.

Anne links arms with you. "We didn't know you went this way either. Well, this's great, now you can walk to school with us every morning!" Anne says with a smile.

"We were thinking of starting a story club where we join together and share our stories we wrote and read each other's and give ideas. Would you be interested in joining?" Diana asks.

You smile. "That would be lovely, I quite enjoy reading and writing." You say. You, Anne and Diana continue talking about the story club until you reach the schoolhouse.

- - -

The day slowly goes on, you continue to think about your dad.

Before the end of the day, Mr Phillips lets you all talk as he goes to the supply room. When you are talking with Anne and Diana, you see Ruby glaring at you with red puffy eyes, that look as though she's been crying. "What's wrong with Ruby?" You ask Anne and Diana.

You see Anne giving Diana a worried look before looking back at you. "Come," Diana says as she grabs your arm.

They pull you over to a corner at the front of the class. You feel everyone staring at you and whispering. "We didn't know if we should tell you but we both think it's best that we do," Diana says.

You start to worry. "Tell me what? What's going on?" You ask. You slightly tilt your head and furrow your eyebrows in confusion.

"Well, Ruby and Josie have been making up lies about you," Diana says. "The lies are extremely absurd!" Anne adds.

"Why would they do that? Have I done something wrong?" You ask.

"It's because you spend time with Gilbert. Ruby has liked him for almost 3 years and thinks she has "dibs" on him." Diana says, making you clench your hands into a fist.

"Which is most definitely crazy because if he liked her, he would have done something about it! I mean come on it's been almost 3 years!" Anne says almost yelling.

You feel enraged and upset over what you have just been told. "Why would they do such things?!" You say with an angry tone.

Anne rubs your arm. "As soon as we heard what they were saying, we told them to stop," Anne says.

"That doesn't mean they will." You say, staring at the ground.

"Speak of the devil," Anne says. You turn around and see Ruby and Josie staring at you and whispering.

"I need to talk to Ruby." You say. "Y/n wait-" Anne tries to say but you walk off.

As they're talking at a desk, without thinking you storm over to them. "How dare you!" You angrily yell at Ruby and Josie. You hear everyone run over. Everyone starts gathering around. Anne and Diana push past everyone. "Fight!" You hear Billy yell in the background of people scattered around you.

"Leave Ruby alone!" Josie dramatically yells as she wraps her arm around Ruby, acting like the victim. Diana grabs your arm and pulls you away.

As you look back you see Ruby start crying. "Ruby Gillis, Josie Pye! You are two foul people!" Anne says before storming away.

You see Mr Phillips come out of the supply room with an angry look on his face. "What is all this commotion!?" He yells. Josie points at you. "It's y/n!" She yells.

"What? Are you kidding me?" You scoff.

You start to hear everyone start yelling saying who was making all the noise. "No, it's not!" Gilbert yells. "She didn't do anything!" Anne says with Diana agreeing with her. You even hear Billy chime in. The only person you see is staying quiet, was Ruby and that was because she was too busy crying... and watching Gilbert.

"Enough!" Mr Phillips yells which sends silence through the whole class. He walks over to his desk and opens a drawer. He pulls out a long stick and walks over to you. Everyone gasps as he stands in front of you holding the giant, sharp stick, He grabs your arm and yanks you forward. "This will be an example to all of you. If you disrespect or disobey me or break rules this will be your punishment" he says.

"No!" Anne yells. "But she didn't do anything!" Gilbert shouts, which is ignored by Mr Phillips.

You close your eyes and wait for your fate. Your heart drops as you feel the slap of the stick hit your hand. You feel the instant, sharp pain of the stick as it swung into your palm. You slowly open your eyes and see your hand now bleeding. You try as best as you can to hold back the tears. "Uhm c-class dismissed." Mr Phillips stutters before he walks off.

You turn around and push past everyone. As you rush out, you look to the ground so no one can see the amount of pain and sadness in your eyes. You grab your stuff and are the first to leave. As soon as you leave the schoolhouse you run with tears streaming down your face. Anne, Diana and Gilbert chase after you. "Please wait y/n!" Diana yells. "Y/n!" Anne shouts. You keep running.

"Where is she going? This isn't the direction of her house." You hear Gilbert say not too far behind you.

After all of the running, you find yourself out of breath and struggling to breathe. Your legs unable to hold you, collapse underneath you. Your knees slam into the cool ground. Your cold tears drip down your face as the cool wind brushes your face and sweeps your hair against your face. You feel warm arms grab onto you. Anne pulls you up and gives you a giant hug. You feel Diana hug you as well.

After a short time, you pull away from the hug. "I have to get home." You say looking down at the ground, trying not to make eye contact, as you wipe the tears.

"Would you like me to walk you to your home?" Gilbert asks smiling. You shake your head. "No thank you." You reply before turning and walking off.

- - -

You slam the door shut as you enter your home. "Oh my! You gave me quite a fright." Your mother says. "Oh! Before I forget, there is a surprise for you in your room!" Your mother says with a child-like laugh.

You dump your basket on the table. "Well, how was school?" She smiles.

"Sorry, but I don't want to talk about it." You say before running up the stairs. As you run to your room you start sobbing. When you go into your room you see an envelope sitting on your desk.

You sit down and turn over the envelope. "To miss (y/n) (y/l/n), from William y/l/n." You slightly smile when you see that it's from your father. Still crying, you slowly open the letter.

"Dear y/n,"

"I'm so glad that you are liking Avonlea. I hope you're doing well in school, although I'm sure you're smarter than everyone else in your class. Bella and Susie told me they miss you very much but they hope you are making new friends, I told them that you have "made some great friends", they were very glad to hear that. I hope Avonlea and the people are as great as you have described. I miss you so much and even though it's not that far away, I'm counting down the days till I can see you all again and as every second, minute and hour pass I overflow with happiness knowing that not too far from now, I will be in the warmth of my loving family."

"I'm sending my best wishes to you at your new town and school, lots and lots of love, William."

Surprisingly reading this letter only made you sadder. Unable to control your tears, you try to write a letter to your fathers, but instead of the page filling with words, it fills with tears and sorrow.

Finally, after you stop crying, you look at your bloodied and bruised hand. You knew if your mother saw she would question you about it so you find a piece of long fabric and wrap it around your palm. You wince as the fabric touches the fresh wound.

You walk over to your bed and close your eyes and sigh as you fall back into your bed.

- - -

After laying on your bed, for what felt like years, contemplating about going to school, you finally decide to go. You didn't want ruby and Josie to win and you knew by you not coming to school, that would mean you surrendering to their cruelty. As much as you didn't want to see Mr Phillips, you knew it was for the best and that you would eventually have to face him.

You realise that after all the drama, you never actually asked Anne and Diana what Ruby and Josie were saying about you. You knew that it would have been bad things from the way Anne described them and how much of horrible people they were, but you were still curious.

You remember the old saying; "fight fire with fire." You think to yourself about starting rumours about them. You shake your head. "No, I mustn't stoop to their level of cruelty, as much as I may feel overwhelmed with hatred and anger I will not do as they did to me." You say to yourself. You knew that fighting back would only fuel their meanness and the way to stop them was with kindness, you weren't going to insult them or fight them, you were going to ignore them and move on.