Anne Shirley Cuthbert's expectations

Chapter 33 - An Almost Studious Afternoon

It was a Saturday afternoon, Gilbert was in the midst of his revisions, settled in his room as usual. Jack was trying as hard as he could to concentrate, but unfortunately, one thing made him anxious, his father was coming in a few days, and he knew very well what that meant, incessant questions from him, and especially about the results. His father would not stand a failure from his son. So Jack did his best, he tried to imitate his classmate as much as he could.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, "Oh, that's the sound of mail.", said the dark-haired youth as he walked towards the door with a smile. Those made the redheaded youth giggle as well. Although there had been some tension a few days ago, things had calmed down. Gilbert had made sure to give his lessons directly at the Stuart's house to avoid disturbing Jack. And besides, it was also convenient for the young man with the brown curls, it made him really uncomfortable that Christine insisted on having his first class in his room.

When Gilbert opened the door, unsurprisingly it was the person who delivered the mail to the whole campus, and of course the letter was from a certain Anne Shirley-Cuthbert. He had been waiting for her reply for days, her letter had taken much longer to arrive than usual.

Once he picked up his letter and closed the door, Jack asked in a disillusioned tone, "I guess you're the only one who got something today."

The dark-haired boy looked at him with sorry eyes, "If it makes you feel better, I don't receive so many letters."

"Well, at least you have one person thinking about you.", said the young redhead with a touch of melancholy.

As always, when he received a letter from Anne, Gilbert settled down on his bed. Then he finally opened his letter.

"My Dear Gilbert,

Maybe I should say, My Sweetheart, but I was afraid it was too unoriginal, or I could have said, My Beloved, My Love? I'm really sorry, I couldn't choose.

There are so many wonderful words that I still haven't found one that could perfectly describe my feelings for you, Gilbert.

How can you still ask me if I have feelings for you? It seemed obvious to me by my gestures and my attentions towards you, didn't it?

I often think about you, I should even say every day, several times a day if I'm honest. I miss you so much here too, and it's not for lack of competition either, although I miss it in some ways too.

At the moment I'm a bit anxious about the contest, I've finished writing my short story at this time, but... I feel like I don't say enough, maybe I wrote my short story this way hoping to have more chance to win? But Ka'kwet deserves more, I wish I could see her again, when I think that the last time I saw her was when I gave her my precious dress at the Bright River station, it tears my heart out. I will never get over that, I will never be able to forget Ka'kwet. I also wonder what will become of her parents, they will probably never stop waiting for their daughter to return, if one day she finally manages to get out of this boarding school, this prison.

For my short story, if you want to read it, you'll have to wait until after First Snow's Prom, I guess. I'm not denying that I would have liked so much to be on your arm during this event. But your studies must come first.

When I came back from our wonderful weekend, I actually had a big surprise. You can imagine that Miss Blackmore was also part of the trip, she had probably just returned from Quebec. And...She had seen us. So I let you imagine the consequences of all this, but I finally decided to resist. I stood up to Miss Blackmore, and I even went to Avonlea. In fact, as I write to you, I have just returned to Charlottetown, and as you can see the first thing I did was read your letter. And this one was more than welcome, given that Diana and I had spent a somewhat hectic weekend in Avonlea. Marilla was aware of my escapade with you, and I don't know how she guessed it. I'm telling you this in case you are questioned when you return to Avonlea. As for Diana, she is still in conflict with her parents, but she is much more to be pitied than me.