Hope [anne with an e]

| LETTING GO AND STARTING OVER

chapter nine: letting go and starting over

"forgive and forget,
right?"

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"GILBERT, I SWEAR if you are not out of this house in five seconds, I will hang your body on the fence!", Caroline shouted, slamming the front door shut.

Bash glanced at Gilbert, who was rushing to put his bag on his shoulder. He furrowed his eyebrows at how stressed the boy looked.

"She is much smaller than you, Blythe, what can she possibly do?", the man asked.

Gilbert gave him an incredulous look, "I'm not foolish enough to find out."

Bash laughed and waved goodbye to his friend, setting his head in his hands as soon as the door closed. He wanted to be useful. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Caroline was not his biggest fan. Whenever he would go into a room, she would leave and she'd made it very clear that she didn't want him ever going into her's. Bash didn't blame her, though. He was a stranger who'd spent more time with her own brother in the past few months than she had.

Gilbert walked silently next to his sister. She wasn't looking in his direction. During the past several days, Caroline had gone from feeling complete indifference to her brother, to making snide remarks and threats. He wasn't entirely sure if they were empty or not. However, he knew her better than she'd want to admit. When Caroline got rude, it meant she was nearing the end of whatever grudge she'd been holding. Gilbert just hoped it ended soon.

They could hear the squeals and joyous shouts of their classmates growing louder with each step that they took. Caroline had plenty of apologizing to do. She felt awful for what had been said to Anne and Diana. All that she wanted to do now was make it right again. Her mission was to find Anne immediately and if she was lucky, Diana would be around too.

Gilbert welcomed the hugs of his classmates and was whisked away by his friends before he could barely even blink. Caroline rolled her eyes. She certainly hadn't missed that. Ruby, Jane, and Tillie were sat on the steps of the schoolhouse, giggling to one another when the boys walked by. There was no sign of Anne or Diana.

Ruby lifted her head up and locked eyes with Caroline. She gave her a bright but somewhat awkward smile before standing up and walking in front of her. Caroline smiled and Ruby felt a weight lifted from her shoulders.

"Hello, Caroline. You look very nice today, is that a new ribbon?", Ruby asked, averting her eyes to the ground.

It was a new ribbon. Gilbert has picked it up for her on his adventures. This one was orange, much different than the green she had been wearing for the past year or so.