GRACE ☾ G.BLYTHE

1 | Friends?

『 1 | friends? 』
"She seems like an interesting girl."

Writing poems has always been my passion. When I am done with my work I write. When I don't want to do school work I write. It's like an addiction that I can't control. I need to write as much as I can. I need to get it all out. Everything that is in my head, I distort to a poem. All the beautiful things in life, but also the less beautiful things. But nothing is not beautiful.

"Grace, can you help with the horse?" The voice of my brother is walking in my ears. I look up to the barn and see Adam standing at the stables. Closing my book, I stand up from the ground and walk over to him. "With what do you need me?" I ask him, putting my book on the ground. "Can you hold the horse still?" I nod and take the halter of the horse.

Adam climbs on the horse and takes the halter from me. "Do you think that you can go a day without me?" He gives me a concerned look. "Going to school, coming back and giving Kyle work. I think I got it. Uncle Charles needs you. You can't leave him to die." He nods and whistle on his fingers. Kyle runs towards us with a bag.

"Here you go." He says, giving Adam the bag. "Take care of my sister, okay?" "I let nothing happen to her." Adam gives us a small smile and nods before he gallops away. I turn to Kyle and pork him in his stomach. "I was thinking about going to Charlottetown." I say walking to the house. "That is not gonna happen. You are going to school." I groan and turn around.

"School is boring and I don't have any friends. It's better to stay here." Kyle kneels down to get my book and stands up again. "Then make friends. You're a sympathetic girl and I bet everyone wants to be friends with you." "The only person that is my friends is Gilbert, but he isn't here." Kyle hands me my book and I hold up my hand to take it.

"If you're back from school I can take you to Charlottetown. But only if you go to school." I take the book out of his hands and give him a hug. "Thank you." I mumble into his shirt. "Thank me later. Now go to school!" He says pulling away from the hug.

➸

I can see the school from my perspective and walk towards it. There is a girl walking right in front of me. I got to say, she got a pretty nice hat. Is she going to mr. Phillips his class too? The girl with the flowers in her hat is trancing still in front of the school. This is my change to talk to her. I make my way to her and stop her from opening the door.

"Hi, sorry, I just got to say that I love your hat." I say admiring the flowers on it. "Well thank you. I put the flowers on, on my way here. Aren't flowers just wonderful." "You look stunning. Let me get the door for you." My hand goes to the door knob and I open the door for her. The sound of the other kids talking and yelling fills my ears. The girl steps inside as I follow.

"Anne!" Diana says, walking to her. So her name is Anne. "Hello, Diana." "What are you doing next to Grace?" She whispers. I give her a dumb look and say, "it's not that I can't hear you." She rolls with her eyes and looks at Anne's hat. It's not that Diana isn't nice, 'cause believe me she is really nice. She just doesn't really like me.

"My, What have you done with your hat?" She says, pointing at it. "Well, I wanted to make a good first impression, and it was so plain." I chuckle. "You're making an impression all right. I'm glad you found your way. I expect we should be able to walk together soon."

I decided not to listen to their conversation, for their privacy. I put my coat where it belongs and take my stuff to my table. I sit normally next to Josie. You can say that she likes me, but I'm not really a fan of popular people. Except for Gilbert, but he is the good kind of popular.

"Hey Grace, how is your brother doing?" Josie asks me. "He is doing good. He is helping my uncle getting better." "It's so sweet that he always helps people." She gives me this warm smile that she gives a lot of people. "He is like a Gilbert 2.0." Ruby says. "Well, I like them both so I guess so." "You like Gilbert?" Ruby asks sad. "No not in that way. In a friendship way."

Josie stands up and takes my hand. We walk over to the middle of the classroom, to stand with the other girls. "This is Jane Andrews, Josie Pye, Grace Barnes, Ruby Gillis and Tillie Boulter." Diana says, going down the queue. "Everybody, this is Anne."

I know I said that I don't have friends, but technically I do. I only hang out with them at school, and when Gil isn't here. Other wise I hang out with him. I see him more as a friend than Josie because, me and Gilbert hang out after school a lot.

"It is a scrumptious pleasure to make your acquaintance, and I shall do my utmost to prove myself worthy of your friendship." I never heard someone say that many big words in one sentence but, it's just like reading a book. What makes Anne very interesting. "Uh... Anne loves to read, and she knows ever so many big words."

"Does she use them all in every sentence?" I roll my eyes and smack Josie's arm. Yes, I did that. If someone else does that, she puts her out of the friend circle. "I like to read, too." Tillie says, what causes me to look confused at her. "No, you don't" Ruby says, shaking her head. "No, I don't."

"I saw you at the church picnic. I'm sorry, I should've said hello." "There were an awful lot of people there." Wait there was a picnic? "Mother wouldn't let me."

"Why do they make you wear that old-lady dress?" Anne stammers and says, "it's just nice to have something new." If you're an orphan, I suppose. I wouldn't be caught dead in it." Again I smack her arm. And again something I didn't know. Anne is an orphan.

"Anne isn't an orphan anymore. She has been adopted." "I'm still an orphan, Diana. I'll always be an orphan." "Goodness." I look at Tillie. "I'd hate to be an orphan." "I feel real sorry for you, Anne." Ruby says, comforting her.

"Ruff-ruff! Ruff-ruff!" Billy says. "You're ridiculous." "Hey, look! It's a talking dog." Billy chuckles. "Can you fetch, too?" "Billy, leave her be." Says Jane. I don't get why he does that. Being an orphan isn't a reason to be bullied. But Billy goes on, "sit. Stay. Roll over." "Don't mind my brother. He is ridiculous." Jane says, looking over at him.

"Ruff!" He says with his head between the heads of me and Tillie. "You can say that." I say, pushing his head back. "Never, let the boys know when they've upset you." Jane explains. "Never let them know when you like them, either." Ruby adds. "School... is a lot to contend with." "Have you ever been to a real school, or did they just send to a special orphan school?"

Anne was speechless, you could see that on her freckled face. "Come on, Anne. Let's finish the tour. Bring your milk. I'll show you the stream outside." Before they walk away, gives Diana, Josie an upset look. "She seems interesting." I comment. "I don't know if interesting is he right word to use." Josie says with a fake smile.