GRACE ☾ G.BLYTHE

7| spare 'dress'

『 7| spare 'dress' 』
❝ Yes, I think we all should move to New York. ❞

"Grace, you're gonna be late!" Adam yells from downstairs. "I'm coming." I groan and I grab my new cap. I rush down stairs and run outside to Kyle, whom is waiting for me. "Oh, god! Your arm!" He exclaims as he holds it firmly. "What happened?" I look down at my arm and see that there is blood coming out of a cut. When could I have possibly it my arm? "I must've cut myself while I was rushing downstairs." Kyle takes a cloth out of his pocket and puts it on my arm. "Without you knowing it. Not possible. Look, it ruined your clothes. You can't go to school like this!"

"I have nothing else to wear. Adam is washing my other dress right now." Kyle thinks and looks at my dress. "Are you sure you don't have some other clothes?" I think I maybe have something. I walk back to the house and search through some boxes for that special item. "Can I wear this?" I ask and I hold up a grey sweater. He looks at me and then back at the item I'm holding up. "You're a girl. Girls only wear dresses." I roll my eyes at him. "Well, I also have my head up. Only women wear their hair up but, look at me. I'm wearing a bun."

"Fine. But I have to bandage your arm first."

➸

I open the door and all the eyes are on me. Some kids gasp and others point at me. After a good thirty seconds everyone starts to go further with their chatter. I walk over to Cole and put my book on his table. "You have to see what is written in here." I open the book and search for the right page. "What are you wearing?" He asks me. "I cut my arm and my dress had blood on it. So, I had to wear this."

"Don't you have a spear dress?" I sigh and explain him that Adam was washing my other dress. "Hey, guys." I look over my shoulder to Anne and Diana, whom are waving us over. "I'll show you later." I say, closing the book and walking over to Anne and Diana. "What do you think?" She asks us when she points at Anne's hair. "Yes, I think we all should move to New York." I joke and Diana smacks playfully my arm. "No time for sarcastic comments." I sigh disappointed, but with a grin on my face. "Then when is the time?"

"Guys, what do you think?" I take a look at Anne's hair that is decorated with white and blue bows. "Well... you hold your head with such an air." Anne chuckles and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. "Here. If you don't mind. I'd just make one or two adjustments. For balance, may I?" Cole asks, leading her to sit at her table. He looks at her hair and then he puts one of the braids over her head. "Ooh, that'll look divine, Anne."

"Grace could you...?" I nod and I take out the bows the other side of her hair. I feel a lot of eyes aimed at us. "Sorry, everyone is staring at us." Cole says. I wave them away and give my attention to Mike, whom is standing next me. "You know how to waste your time before schools starts." Mike comments and he touches my shoulder. "No, Cole knows how to do that." I chuckle and point at Cole.

"How was your date?" I ask, quit annoyed, while taking a seat. First he looks confused but, then it's like the light had turned on his his head. "Oh, yeah. My date. It was great! Definitely a next time." I slowly nod, but jump when Mr. Phillips yells, "Cole Mackenzie! Since you seem to have such... famine proclivities, we shall indulge your taste of it this morning. You can sit with the girls." I gasp and look at Josie, whom is looked a little shocked.

➸

"Isn't it beautiful, Anne?" I ask her when she opens the gate of Green Gables. "Who would've thought that someone could write so... intense." I admire the book that I'm holding in my hand. It's the book Moody and Charlie gave to me this week. "Since you got that book, there is nothing else you can talk about. It made you so much happier. I'm glad to see that that book made you so elated."

"Hi, Grace!" I look up to the barn to see Jerry, but I couldn't see him. "Over here!" I look over at my right and see him standing next to the hay. "Oh, hi. I'm used to seeing you up there." I point at the first floor of the barn. "Do you smell that, Grace? Marilla must be baking something delightful." She pulls me with her towards the house and I manage to say bye to Jerry before I almost trip.

"C'mon!" We enter the house laughing and Marilla was indeed baking something. "How was the beauty contest? I mean, school." She jokes. I take of my hat and my coat and, hand it over to Anne. "Anne, what did I say about your hair?" She sounds a little mad. "I know, but my friend Cole styled it for me and did such a lovely job that I just had to leave it."

"Perhaps one day you'll grow into a style like that, but for now I'll thank you to restore yourself to yourself." I take a seat at the table and open my book. "I know it's foolish to want to be anything other than what I am, but I can't help it. I love... pretty things." She takes a bite of one of Marilla's delightful snacks. I start to have an idea for a poem, what doesn't happen often to me anymore, and write it down in the back of my book.

"Mm. I hate it when I look in the glass and I see something that isn't pretty." I start to write down everything she says, with my pen. "It makes me feel so sorrowful, just as I feel when I see any ugly thing. I pity it because it's not beautiful." I am shocked that I could write so fast. I write every word down Anne said, and I know that I can make it into a beautiful poem. "How can you word such beautiful sentences that are so, so, true."

"Well, I have something that might cheer you up." I quickly finish my last sentence and look at Marilla. "We received a letter today. From Gilbert Blythe" I look up when I hear his name. I love when people say his name. I even love it more when he says my name. Now I think about it, it kinda sounds creepy.. "Oh! Oh, Marilla!" Anne jumps off the table. "I'd forgotten about my foreign correspondence!" I walk over to Anne and look at the letter. "Trinidad! I imagined that I was writing to some far-flung corner of the world, but nowhere this intriguing."

Why would he write her back and not me? I am 100 percent sure that it was received and that I had the right address. What does this mean. Does this mean that he likes Anne more than me? Or that he hates me and never wants to speak to me again? I wrote him letter every month and didn't got any response and she writes him one time and does get one? That's so unfair. I lov- I am his best friend.

"'Miss Anne Shirley Cuthbert.' How wonderful! Look at that, Grace!" She holds it in front of my face. "I saw." I laugh, pushing the letter away from my face. Is this jealousy? I mean, I know that people get jealous, but I never felt it so strong. I just have to accept that he likes Anne more than he likes me. Just focus on something else. "Do try to learn to take things calmly, child." Marilla tells her. "How can I be calm when I've never seen my name written with 'Miss' before?" She looks so excited about the letter. I've never seen her this excited before. It must be a big deal for her then. If she's happy, I should be happy for her.

"Well, open it." Anne's face turns to serious and she looks at me. "There's nothing romantical about this letter, nothing whatsoever." I give her a confusing smile and say, "you wrote him about the gold, as I recall." "Yes, that's exactly right. I wonder what he said." Her eyes start to sparkle and she takes my arm to run upstairs. I have to accept everything, how it is going. Don't make a drama out of this, Grace.