In the Woods When First We Met

5. Rescue

And then it happened. Someone was there.

It was another boy, about Billy's age, someone Anne hadn't seen before.

His name was Gilbert, Anne would soon learn.

"Hey, Billy," Gilbert called from afar. He was walking to them now, his eyebrows drawn together, concerned.

Billy turned to look. He called out jovially, "Oh, hey! Long time, no see, bud. Glad you're back!" As he said this he stood up, getting off of Anne's arm.

Anne slowly, painfully, moved her arm that he had been resting his weight on.

"What's going on?" Gilbert asked, still approaching, walking faster, clearly aware that Billy had either tackled or punched a girl, since she was on the ground and he was just now standing up.

Billy stood up, breathing hard, "How you doin', bud?" He grabbed Gilbert's hand and shook it.

Gilbert shook his hand, but he was looking back and forth from Anne on the ground to Billy standing next to him.

Anne had a terrified look on her face. Her eyes were darting back and forth between the two boys as if she thought maybe this new boy, obviously a friend of Billy's, had come to join Billy in her attack.

Gilbert assumed Billy had the girl on the ground in a fight, beating her up. He knew Billy could be arrogant and a bit of a bully at times, but he was very surprised to see Billy trying to fight with a girl.

He saw that the girl's eyes were red as if she had cried, likely out of fear- but he also noticed that she didn't have any marks or bruises that he could see.

He sighed with relief, sure that he had gotten to her in time to stop Billy from beating her up.

"So what's been happening?" Billy continued, sounding as if nothing unusual was going on.

"Not much, bud. Just glad to be back." Gilbert said, searching Billy's face for some kind of answer that would explain why he was about to beat up a girl.

There was a short silence.

"Yeah, so what are you guys doing?" Gilbert questioned, with a hard look at Billy. The expression let Billy know Gilbert's disapproval.

"You playing a game?" Gilbert continued when Billy didn't answer immediately. "It looks fun, but we ought to get to school before we're tardy, eh?"

"Uh...yeah. Yeah, I was just about to get going." Billy gave Anne a meaningful look- a look of possession- and said softly- threateningly- "See you there."

Gilbert watched him go, then turned back to Anne, who was still sitting on the ground, not moving.