Becoming Anne Again

Chapter Fourteen

A/N Thank you all for sticking with me! It means the absolute world to me :) Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow if you like the story!

The night was bitter, but the biting cold had never bothered Anne. She was dressed in capris and a flowy floral shirt with a white background that would have caused her seven year old self incredible happiness. Samantha had done up her hair into a crown braid, and she even put a sparkly white flower clip in her hair. She felt so free, and young, and innocent. And the way the cold washed over her felt as if it was purifying her. Each step her feet felt as though she was walking on air, because even if the sand was cold, her feet sunk into it and spilled in between her toes. The sun had not yet completely set, and brilliant colors painted the sky, providing a brilliant background to the endless blue of the ocean that stretched before her. It was, in so many ways, absolutely perfect. And nothing made it more perfect than the fact that it was there, by the ocean, where she could run and be encompassed by it, and where she could whisper to Aquatica when the other kids weren't talking to her.

The crash of the waves was soon overcome by the whooping and hollering of middle schoolers gathered on a sand dune just a bit above the beach. She could see Diana dressed in jeans and a floral tank top, and Anne couldn't help but think that the way her dark hair was piled on top of her head was just so exquisite, and the way her head was tipped, with the nape of her porcelain neck and her bare shoulders, her sweatshirt having slipped off them and hung around her elbows—"Anne! Anne!"

Anne grinned as Diana saw her, and immediately began to jump up and down. And for herself broke out into a run, giggling as she saw Charlie Sloane's own face pop up behind Diana, his own quirky grin in place. "Anne, I'm so glad you could come!" Diana threw her arms around Anne, who returned the motion instantly.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world. I mean, the way you described it all, it seemed just so..."

"Magical?"

"No, that's not quite the right word." Anne frowned, her lips pursed as she contemplated this new and incredibly important problem she was facing.

"Well," Josie Pye said, with her signature gobs of pink lip gloss and her own hair done in a deep side part, so the top of her hair was almost profanely high, "it's going to be so romantic if Gilbert Blythe shows up."

"Gilbert's not coming," Diana said, rolling her eyes. "Right, Ruby?"

"Yeah." The tiny blonde nodded, smiling over at Anne. "He couldn't come. His mom needed him to help out at the house."

Josie pouted in such a way that she was clearly trying to make her lips appear puffy, and her eyelids drooped, which was funny, since Gilbert Blythe himself wasn't even there for her to flirt with. "That sucks. I know he would have asked me to the Halloween dance if he came, and it would have been so romantic," she said, as if romantic was the only word in her vocabulary.

"It's barely September, Pye, calm down," Charlie said, rolling his eyes. "Why the heck would he ask you to a Halloween dance?"

"My name is Josie," Josie said, practically bristling at Charlie. "And you wouldn't understand because you're still a boy, and not a man like Gilbert is," she said, her nose upturned. "He loves me, and he would want to make sure to get to me before any other man does."

"Well, someone better tell Gilbert of his undying love for you," Charlie said, earning the snickers of a few other boys.

"You're just jealous because Diana doesn't like you back," Josie shot back, her voice filled with an especially large amount of venom that made every one of the kids to stare back at her. Diana's lips scrunched up, her lips forming an 'o' as she appeared at a loss for words.