Fear |Gilbert Blythe

✎ chapter nine

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Fear

"Most of those scraps aren't even fit for patching britches," Marilla tells us as we dig through her scrap basket. Anne invited Cole and I over to help her gather supplies for the Christmas pantomime. "What in heavens name are you planning to go with them?" She asks us as I start piling up a stack of red fabric pieces. "Art," Cole explains with a smile and Marilla still looks very confused. "Cole is painting a magnificent forest for the Christmas pantomime and we're going to add fabric to give it texture," I explain as Anne counts out how many pieces of fabric we have in each pile.

"My mom donated a lot of fabric that she's collected over the years but it has a lot of bright colors that probably won't work so we're getting more scraps from the community." Marilla nods along as she works on fixing something at her work bench. "That sounds like a lovely contribution, I'm sure it will look amazing." Anne smiles up to her while writing down number on her paper.

"I think someone is knocking," Cole tells Anne who jumps up excited and runs out the room. "Is Diana coming over?" I ask figuring that's the only other person who might come since Ruby's not feeling very good. "Must be," Cole adds as me stand and head to the main room to see who's arrived. "Mother gave me dresses to try!" Diana all but screams when we walk in.

Anne squeals as she pulls Diana upstairs with Cole and I following close behind. "I'm surprised her mother is letting us use her stuff," I tell Cole as we walk up the stairs. "She must really be into the Christmas spirit," he responds just as surprised.

"You guys will never guess what dress she lent me," Diana squeals as we get into Anne's room. "What's it look like?" I ask as Diana places the dress bag on Anne's bed and unzips it. She pulls out some gorgeous plain dresses before pulling out a royal blue dress and even with it slight crumbles I can see the fine lace detail on the bodice. "I'm my goodness-" Anne mumbles while pulling the dress out. She hold the dress up as Diana smiles to big I fear it hurts. "Isn't it lovely?" Cole is in awe and can't even say anything. "This is the singles most loveliest thing I've seen, Diana please try it on, I feel like it can only become more splendid while on a perfect model," Anne word vomits out and I try not to laugh from how much she loves the dress.

"Oh, then Ivy should try it on, she is the prettiest," Diana says while trying to hand me the dress my I back up. "Oh I couldn't, my brown hair would contrast too much with it, it needs your dark hair to suit it," I let the Raven hair girl know and she nods while holding it back to her. "Hand me that quilt," Anne orders Cole who sits up off the bed and hand the redhead her quilt. I help Anne hold the quilt for Diana to change behind it in the corner.

"Oh Diana the wait is killing me, please tell me you almost have it on," Anne squeals out impatiently. "Okay," Diana tells the girl and Anne drops the quilt whicker than me and Diana walks out. The dress is a big in her but it does look very nice with her dark hair. "Is that-" Anne's breath catches in her throat, "-a tiara?" I look to the top of Diana head where a thin band on silver and diamonds sit in her dark curls. I have no clue if the jewels are real or fake but there are three big ones at the front of the crown.

"You looked beautiful," I say at the same time Anne calls her a fairy queen. We giggle as Diana does a little twirl for us. Anne pulls her to the mirror as they gawk at her reflection. I sit down by Cole who's looking down at one of the dresses very intently. "You should try it on," I whisper to him and he looks shocked. "No, I couldn't-" but I cut him off, "please." And it's enough for him to stand and unzip the dress and pull it on. Diana and Anne are arguing about who should wear the crown with Anne saying it has to be Diana and Diana begging Anne to try it on.

One the dress is pulled up and help Cole zip it ups and he turns to face me. "You are ever handsome- beautiful," I correct myself. He smirks down at me while looking toward the girls who are still arguing. "I'll try it on," Cole cuts into the girls arguing and they turn to face him shocked. Anne starts to smile first while Diana quickly follows. We giggle as Anne runs over and places Cole's hat into her head. She bows like a man while Cole curtsies as a girl.

"You guys are crazy," Diana laughs out so hard I think I see tears in her eyes. Cole places the tiara on his head which makes us laugh harder. "I think we know who the real princes is," I joke as we hear footsteps walk up. We turn to see a very confused Marilla who smiles politely before walking away. This makes Cole break out in a fit of giggles while we follow after him. "Did you see her face?" Anne asks which makes us laugh harder.

***

"I cut out the red fabric into random shapes, what now?" I ask Cole who's currently working on painting the mountains. He's on a really sketchy ladder but insists he's find but I'm still cutting fabric bellow him just in case. "Maybe work on the brown, the little kids tried but I think they messed some stuff up," he calls down not looking away from his painting. "Okay!" I call up and get back the work. I'm thankfully not going to be on the stage for the pantomime just working behind it. I am truly happy all my friends enjoy being upfront in the center of stage.

I hear Mrs. Lynde scolding her husbands bad acting and I try and hold in my laugh and barley do it. Cole leans down and looks at me for the first time and raises her brow. "Oh shush, just pay attention to your work," I command with a teasing tone while getting back to work in cutting the strange brown striped fabric. The girls come over having been on there break and coo at Cole's work. "I love that bird so much," Ruby compliments with a slight flirty tone as Tillie agrees very enthusiastically. For some reason Cole doesn't even look fazed that he has multiple girls fawning over him.

"No one in the whole class can paint like you," Jane adds and the girls all giggle, I feel the need to roll my eyes at their silliness. "Come on ladies, there's no need to watch paint dry," Mrs Lynde orders finally breaking away from her husband. "Buy Ivy," they all echo while following Mrs Lynde to the back of the stage to do some warmups for their songs. "You're a real ladies man," I tease to Cole who snorts out a response. "No for real, they were fawning-" a board comes out of nowhere and swipes the air above my head and before I can warn Cole to brace himself it hits the ladder.

"Oops!" Billy says with a hint of laughter as I jump up to try and steady the ladder but the board comes back around and hits be in the gut knocking me backwards hard. There's nothing I can do as I watch Cole teeter on the ladder before falling. "Cole!" I scream out not worrying about my own pain I feel on my back. He hits the stage hard and rolls off toward the floor. A loud crack rings out in the auditorium as I jump up and run for the edge of the stage. "Cole!" I scream again and the singing has stopped now replaced with horrible moans of pain

I jump off the stage and stumble a little as I fall to the ground by Cole. "Are you okay! No!" I scream as he writhes in pain grasping at his wrist. The heat footsteps behind me as another person hops to the floor while more follow. I grab Cole's head and put it in my lap and I watch him grip is hand that's bent at an unnatural angle. Gilbert hold him down as he tries to grab the clearly broken hand. "Stay still don't move, hold him and try and calm him," he orders while looking at me. I feel tears come to my eyes but the intensity of his gaze pushes my worry away so that I can help him.

The other girls crowd around as adults come and see what's happened. He's groans have turned into cries as I brush his hair out of his face. Gilbert looks at my actions and I think I catch him pause for a second before he gets right back to work. "Good heaven! Is he alright?" Mrs. Lynde asks while looking down at us from the stage. "His wrist is definitely broken!" Diana answers which causes a few people to dramatically gasp which makes me want to roll my eyes if I wasn't holding Cole's gaze trying to calm him down. "Shhh- it's okay, you'll be fine."

"It was an accident-" Billy explains and I turn up to him and glare. "No it wasn't Billy Andrews and you you no it. I saw you come over with your stupid board for no reason. You hurt him on purpose didn't you. Didn't you!" I scream and I feel my face go red as Billy looks shocked but I know he's faking, it's all a stupid act. "I swear!" He argues back and I flare up at him and I feel a hand grab my wrist and I feel myself turn involuntarily toward the curly brunette who shaking his head. "Right now we need to get him help, you can scream at Billy for being a loser later, but right now we need to help him," his words are a whisper so I don't know how I hear them so clearly but I do. I nod without saying anything as I look back down to Cole whose eyes are now shut with tears leaking in the corner of them.