■ Helpless ■ Gilbert Blythe ■

The school house(s)

That Monday morning both Victoria and Edward had to wake up earlier. It was their first day in the school of Avonlea and Victoria felt beyond excited.

Victoria was always good at school and loved going with all her heart. Her mother would always brag that she had one of the brightest minds there is. Back in England, the schools took Shakespeare's works seriously and they started reading through all the plays during her time in school.

Victoria picked out a dark green dress which matched her eyes and made them pop out more. She pulled her hair into a braid, as back in England the other students would complain about how they couldn't see anything because of her very messy, curly hair.

Edward entered the room, looking smart in his elegant clothing just as Victoria was tying the end of the braid with a matching green ribbon. "You're looking smart today," Victoria commented as she looked at her brother who had a worrying look on his face.

"Is something wrong?" She asked as she kneeled to be levelled with him. Edward shook his head but that didn't even begin to fool her. She was going to push him to say something else when she heard their mother call them down.

The two young Edwards walked down the stairs together and entered the kitchen were the other family members were. "Well, don't you two look fit," Hamilton commented as he placed the cup of tea down.

Victoria smiled but Edward didn't, making Victoria worry even further. They sat down in the empty seats. Victoria grabbed a teacup and poured steaming water from the kettle.

"The schoolhouse is only about twenty or thirty minutes away. You best be going as soon as you finish." Benedict explained as he bit out of some toast. "It is not very difficult to arrive there, just go straight into the woods. If you keep heading north you shouldn't find any problems."

Victoria nodded as she took a bite out of her toast. "Duly noted and don't worry, I'll take care of my brother and we both will behave."

The rest of the breakfast went like that, with the additional taunts from Hamilton as he mocked them for still having to go to school. Hamilton was twenty years old and studying to become a doctor.

"It's best if you two leave, you wouldn't want to be late on the first day, do you?" Hamilton said with his eyebrows raised.

"Of course we don't. Come on Eddie." Victoria said as she wiped the crumbs off her dress. They passed their mother who was at the door. They were handed a bag with a slate, a few pieces of paper, their books and a pot of ink for each one of them. "Good luck." Their mother finally said as she straightened out Edward's clothes.

The two siblings left the house and made their way towards the woods. The first thing that Victoria did was take the bag Edward was holding, for her to carry and took his hand.

After five minutes of walking in silence, Victoria uttered her first word. "Alright, what's wrong with you?" Edward didn't talk at first, it was when Victoria asked again that he started getting things off his chest.

"What if they don't like me?" Edward said. Victoria chuckled. "That's what's been worrying you. Well, I can assure Eddie, they won't. Everyone likes you."

"Sure they did. In England!" Edward exclaimed as he kicked a rock out of the way. "Over here, we're different, weird. They don't get our accent or our words. We're outcasts. What if they make fun of my name? Edward Edwards, that's just horrible."

Victoria scoffed. "You have a great name. You're named after our dearly beloved King, you should be proud to share a name that is used in royalty." Victoria explained. "Well, you're named after our Queen but your name isn't Victoria Victorias." Edward continued to contradict.