Baker - G. BLYTHE

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-ˋˏ *.·:·. [EIGHT MONTHS LATER] .·:·.* ˎˊ- 

CHARLOTTE FELT AS IF SHE HAD JUST CELEBRATED CHRISTMAS WHEN IN REALITY IT WAS HARVEST. Eight months had passed, a blissful eight months. She had never felt that she belonged in Avonlea since the move from Ireland but now she truly felt like she belonged. Her feud with Josie Pye had turned into a slightly lit ember instead of a burning fire, she was civil with the girl for the benefit of her friends. She found herself growing close to Ruby and Diana, a friendship she much appreciated since it came with story club. A hut in the woods covered in moss, twigs and all sorts of delightful things found in the woods was where they spent some days after school. The four girls would write stories and read those stories out to the group for criticism. Anne's were always the best, her tall tales of Princesses and knights always outshone the others. Charlotte wrote some of the time but she spent most of the time painting the characters in the stories on their adventures, the inside of the wooden hut was covered in paper with various colours swirled onto it. Story club was one of the few times she didn't miss Gilbert as much. 

She had received two letters from Gilbert, one before he got onto the steamship and one from on the steamship. Each was full of happy themes and hope for the future along with him checking up on her, making sure that she had gone back to school. She hadn't heard from him since and she was beginning to worry.

With it being Harvest, the bakery got to its usual yearly slump where they had a few customers daily. People would come to use the fields mostly since now the sun had come out the tall colourful wildflowers had blossomed. Other than Christmas it was Charlotte's favourite time of year. With the Bakery having closed days, Charlotte and her Mother spend pretty much all day together. One particular sunny but slightly windy day, the two decided that they were going to go down to the beach. Mother packed lunch in a basket whilst Charlotte packed her collection of pencils into another basket, planning to draw her mother sat at the beach so she could paint it when she got back. They walked down to the edge of the cliff, pausing at the top to look out on the waves of blue crashing and swirling against each other. Upon arrival, they spread out a blanket and began to collect small ovals of greeny-blue sea glass.

"How's Anne and the other girls?" her mother asked as she got to work on the drawing, Charlotte had sat on a rock slightly further away from where her mother sat. Mother sat facing the ocean waves with strands of her long curly hair dancing in the wind, she truly believed that her mother had never looked so beautiful. 

"Anne's great, there are boarders staying at Green Gables and she's particularly fond of one of them. Tillie's great like usual, she got a few new dresses for when school starts up again which she loves. I haven't heard anything that would suggest the rest aren't okay, though Ruby seemed a little stressed last story club but that's probably because of Gi...Gilbert," she replied, looking up from the paper ever so often. Mother enjoyed seeing her daughter so focused on doing something she loved. She hadn't seen her paint since her brother left for Ireland and she was glad to see that the hobby had been picked up again. 

"Still no word from him, hm?" she asked turning to face her daughter once more with her eyebrows furrowed with concern. 

"Not a syllable, I don't mind though as long as he's happy where ever he is," Charlotte replied with a soft smile forming on her lips. Her mother noticed this and let out a small chuckle, one which tone had Charlotte snapping up her head. "What?" she blurted, giving her a glare. 

"Nothing flower. Nothing at all," Mother replied, gracefully waving the topic away with her hand. The nickname was one used by all family members, Charlotte had always loved flowers from a very young age and the name just seemed to stick. 

"Mother..." Charlotte sighed balancing the charcoal in between her two fingers, giving her Mother her full attention. 

"Get back to your drawing! I want to go in the sea when you're done," she exclaimed gesturing to the browning paper currently resting on her daughter's lap. Charlotte let out a soft, slightly annoyed chuckle then got back to drawing making sure each line was completely perfect. Making sure that it caught her Mothers beauty, a beauty which she felt was lacking in the world sometimes. 

Charlotte finished the basics of her drawing quickly after her mother's rather impatient waiting to go into the sea. The two hitched up their skirts and spent the majority of the day jumping between the waves, running from the approaching sea and kicking water in the others direction. It was a day of pure fun and one that they would both find themselves looking back on. Just before they were to leave and return to the bakery seeking warm dry clothes, Charlotte stood facing the ocean deep in thought. She knew that Gilbert was out there somewhere on the ocean, sailing through the cascading waves and the thought that he was somewhere out on the very thing that she was staring at made her miss him even more. Little did she know that Gilbert was currently doing the exact same thing as he stood against the steamships railings with the wind against his face, wondering about Charlotte and Charlotte alone. 

-ˋˏ *.·:·. [THREE DAYS LATER] .·:·.* ˎˊ-

ANNE, RUBY, DIANA AND CHARLOTTE ALL CRAMMED INTO THE HUT IN THE WOODS FOR STORY CLUB. To begin with, Charlotte handed out slices of a delicious strawberry filled a sponge with heaps of fluffy filling, a dessert that was much appreciated by the three girls. The sunlight had begun to peek through the small gaps in the wood as they ate, creating a setting which was most inspiring to Charlotte. She quickly took out her pencils and paints and began to capture the sunbeams gleaming across her friend's faces, Charlotte certainly had an eye for beauty when it came to her paintings. The other three girls began the usual conversation and then began to write, well the majority struggled.

"No, they're not!" Ruby exclaimed after Diana had accused her of only writing stories about Gilbert, which she had. "How else am I supposed to deal with the fact that he has been gone for eight months and three days and he may never come back!"

"It's eight months and five days," Charlotte corrected without a second thought, her eyes never leaving the painting of princess Cordelia she was working on currently. Anne raised an eyebrow at her sudden addition to the conversation as Ruby let out a sigh full of sorrow. 

"Anne please take your nose out of that book and help me here!" Diana exclaimed looking to Anne who was blissfully reading one of the previously written stories about two heroines fighting to save the world. She looked up from the papers and remained in thought for a few seconds until she appeared to get an idea. 

"How about a tragical tale of a sad and handsome scientist who one day stumbles upon a secret that could save the world," she enthused creating a picture of the story in her head as she spoke, Charlotte's interest was peaked at this and she began to think of different situations that she could paint from that story. 

"Oh, Anne! However, do you think of such amazing things all the time?" Diana asked looking at Anne enthusiastically, Anne propped her head on her hands and seemed to go back into daydream land. 

"I draw from life Diana, I draw from life," Anne replied with a grin growing on her face. Diana broke into giggles, Ruby began to scribble things down on a page and Charlotte finally looked up from her painting.

"One of your borders is a scientist- Anne!" she, at first, spoke with a confused voice then gasped Anne's name when she put two and two together. Charlotte had begun to think that maybe Anne had a crush on this man, the so-called handsome scientist. 

"Shush Char," she whispered sharply giving her a glare, Charlotte broke into a grin. 

"Tell me later?" she whispered back as Diana was rifling through stories to send to her aunt Josephine. Anne murmured an agreement and nodded her head secretly planning to tell Charlotte all about it on the walk home, Anne wasn't one to be able to keep secrets. Story club turned into a discussion club, like it usually did after a few hours and all four girls returned home completely exhausted from all the running through the trees.