Green Eyed Beauty

Chapter 5

Birds chirped melodically, mocking Jade as she continued down the path to her house in dead silence, contemplating how to tell her mother she had assaulted a classmate a week into her school year. Twigs snapped and the wind blew through her hair, pushing it out of her face and allowing her house to come into view as she reached the pathway that led to her front door.

She hesitated. Maybe if I run back to the school and walk back it won't look suspicious. She thought, quickly dismissing the idea. With her luck, news of the new girl in town punching the Andrews' son was probably spreading like wildfire. Heart sinking, Jade trudged up the cobblestone path and up the stairs until she was right in front of the door. Might as well get it over with, nothing I haven't done before. She reasoned.

Holding her breath, Jade entered the empty entryway and prayed that her mother was still at the post office and would run late.

"Who is that?" A voice called from the kitchen and Jade's hope escaped through the crack of the door. "Jade? Are you home?"

Her mother's voice carried across the large home and she could hear the click of her boots as she made her way towards Jade.

"Uh, yes. School was let out early." She called back, hanging up her bag and hat just as her mother entered the hallway. Jade looked at her appearance and noted that she looked especially cleaned up in a beautiful navy dress with elaborate puff sleeves and her hair neatly pinned up. Her mother raised an eyebrow and frowned.

"Early? Did you all finish your lessons?" She questioned. Jade clasped her hands behind her back and rolled back on her heels, trying to think of a way to word the situation to her mother.

"Well, you see, an altercation happened at lunchtime and Ms. Stacey informed us to all go home." Jade started. At her mother's inquiring look, she decided to stop beating around the bush. "I may or may not have broken a student's nose."

Her mother's face was void of reaction before it broke into her expected appalled face. "You did what?"

Jade's eyes widened and she quickly cut in. "Let me explain! It was a boy who kept harassing me! He tried to grab me this morning in the woods and chased me halfway to school and then at lunchtime started smashing our milk bottles over our heads!" She justified.

Her mother's mouth opened then closed, setting a dark glare in her direction as she tried to collect her thoughts. "How many times must I tell you to keep that temper of yours in check?"

Now it was Jade's turn to glare. "What did you want me to do? Kiss him?" She drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm. "If he had hit me instead of Josie Pye, you wouldn't be standing here telling me to keep my temper under control!"

The two women both stood well apart, looking at each other with conviction and annoyance. "I'll admit, I shouldn't have allowed myself to be so affected by his actions to the point of physical altercation but he left me no choice." Jade affirmed, knowing deep down she did not regret breaking the fool's nose a bit.

With a deep sigh, her mother pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm assuming your teacher wants to speak to your father and I."

Jade nodded, rubbing her aching fist and waiting for her mother to begin reprimanding her. "You said he tried to grab you?"

Surprised she wasn't hatefully glaring at her anymore, she nodded once more. "How did you get away from him?"

Gilbert immediately popped into her mind, the embarrassing memory of her knocking them both over playing in her mind. "I ran into another student and they offered to walk the rest of the way to school with me." She confessed, deciding to not bring up his name and drag him into her drama more than she had already.

Her mother nodded approvingly and wiped her hands on her dress. "Well, nothing we can do except talk to your teacher and smooth things over as best as possible." Her brown eyes met Jade's gaze with a thoughtful look. "Go wash up and change into something presentable for dinner. Your brothers should be arriving soon."

Jade nodded and quickly went past her mother, making it halfway up the stairs when she heard her call out in a softer tone than she'd heard all day from her mother. "For what it's worth," She turned and looked up Jade's hesitant face. "I would have done the same."

With that comment, her mother went back into the kitchen leaving Jade standing at the railing dumbstruck. Did she just agree with me? 

She carefully made it up to her room, not quite believing that her mother had just let the situation go like a bad test grade. Biting her lip, she began to undress and changed into a nicer, summer green dress as she let the events of the day play in her mind.

She thought back to Gilbert Blythe and how much he had unknowingly helped her today. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn't collided with him? Would Billy have grabbed me and done unspeakable things? Jade shivered at the mere thought, knowing she owed Gilbert for his actions.

The sound of her mother's boots and clatter of cutlery traveled up the stairs and into the bathroom where Jade stood in front of the mirror and the mess of hair on her head. The front door creaked and she heard her older brother's, Charlie, voice call out a greeting.

"We're home!" She heard her second brother, Andrew, yell into the home. Quickly tying the green ribbon as a headband to keep her hair out of her face, Jade flew down the stairs and skidded to stop in front of her siblings.

Charlie grinned, shook his curls out of his eyes, and wrapped Jade in a large hug that she found hard to breathe in. "Char-lie." She choked out, pinching his side, effectively causing him to set her down.

"Sorry, I haven't seen you all week, how's school kid?" He laughed, taking Jade's disgusted expression in.

"It's school, everything is easy if you read." She snorted, turning to Andrew, and nodded in greeting. He simply blinked and walked past her into the dining room where her mother was. She felt the familiar pang of hurt she experienced every time she attempted to talk to Andrew settle in her stomach as the taller boy conversed with her mother about his work.

Charlie watched the brief interaction quietly and bumped Jade's shoulder. "Don't worry about him, he had a long day." He tried to soothe. Jade allowed the facade she always put on around her family to slip onto her face as an easy smile took place.

"That makes us both." She said quietly, gesturing for her 23-year-old brother to follow his younger one into the kitchen. As Charlie greeted her mother, Jade stood by the archway watching the way her mother's face lit up at the view of her sons standing in front of her. Andrews and Charlie laughed along with her mother, not noticing that their own sister had not cracked a genuine smile since they arrived.

"Dinner is ready, when will Walter be arriving?" Her mother asked, looking expectingly between her sons. Charlie took a sudden interest in his shoes and Andrew awkwardly scratched his neck.

"I'm afraid father is still at the clinic in Charlottetown," Andrew replied, watching as his mother's eyes saddened slightly. "He won't be able to make dinner tonight either."

Her mother nodded and as easily as she had dropped her mood, she picked it up once again. "That's quite alright, as long as I have all my children under one roof, how could I complain?"

The three of them continued conversing, making their way into the dining room, the chatter not ceasing once as they all sat down and began saying grace, all without a single glance in Jade's direction once.

Her appetite disappeared and was replaced with heaviness as she made her way back to her room, the laughter carried up from the dining room hanging around her head in ridicule. Jade changed into her nightgown, not caring to put away the green dress that now sat on the seat of her desk, and slipped under her covers. Pulling the blanket up to her chin, the only source of comfort that finally allowed Jade to slip into slumber was the thought of a particular hazel-eyed boy and his sympathetic gestures in her favor.