Becoming Anne Again

Chapter Fifty-Three

A/N Hello again, my loves! How is everyone doing this week? I am immensely tired and all tested out, despite having three more tests to go. Luckily, I still have a built in Anne chapters, so I have wiggle room--and I seem to write best when I should be doing other things. As always, thank you for sticking with me! I love you all! And as always, please let me know what you think!

Friday would forever be deemed the "mess up performance". Gilbert forgot a line, Diana knocked into one of the ensemble girls, and Anne fell off the raised platform she was supposed to be dancing on.

In that moment, Anne beat herself up over it, but she knew she had been preoccupied. She was preoccupied. Prissy had avoided Anne and Diana like the plague, and had withdrawn into herself. She would smile and laugh, but she wasn't all there. No one else could tell the difference—but Anne could. Something was wrong.

She had tried sitting next to Prissy, but Prissy would give an apologetic half smile and give some excuse. During rehearsals she would work hard, completely over dedicated for a middle schooler. Than she would wave good-bye and disappear. No, she couldn't go to dinner with the cast. She had a thing.

And that was all Anne could think about when they sat in Miller's Crab Shack. She had ordered some chowder, but somehow she couldn't quite get herself to eat it.

Diana and Gilbert flanked her on either side, and Anne could take solace in the fact that Diana was there. But it didn't banish the dark thoughts that were invading her mind, and abruptly, she stood up. "I have to go."

"What are you talking about?" Diana said, and both Diana and Gilbert simultaneously grasped either arm. For a brief moment, irritation flared up inside of her, because they didn't get it. But she took a deep breath, and gently stepped back from them.

"Di—" she turned to face her fully, grasping both hands. "I have to go."

"Can we go with you?" Gilbert said, beginning to feel a little desperate to regain control of the situation. With Diana creeping her way back into Anne's life, Gilbert couldn't help but feel jealous, and even if he didn't know exactly what was going on, he had this boyish need to be the hero.

But somehow, telling him everything seemed to betray some newfound sisterhood she found in Prissy, and she shook her head. She needed to be the adult, the one who saved everyone, the one who—

The one who gets everyone killed?

She gulped. "Okay, listen, girl stuff," she said hurriedly, grabbing onto Diana and hauling her off to the bathroom, leaving a bright red Gilbert behind them.

There were only family bathrooms at Miller's, but no one seemed to notice as the two girls both entered the same single bathroom, and for that Anne was grateful. As soon as the door clanged shut behind them, Anne grasped both of Diana's arms. "Something's wrong with Prissy. She was off today. We have to check on her."

"She said she was busy..."

"Yeah, that was an excuse," she said, struggling not to be short with dear, wonderful Diana. "I know. I used to give them." But Anne didn't have time for Diana's devastated expression, so she plowed on. "Listen, something bad is happening. I know. I felt it. I need to—we need to save her."

"Save her from what?" Diana replied, her voice slightly trembling.

Anne stayed silent, and Diana gulped. "We just need to find a way to get to her."