The Three of Us

28. The End and The Beginning

Jane had to bring an extra lunch basket to school, to hold her five little cakes. Since Prissy was home with her teacher, she was able to use Prissy's. She did not use Billy's because she knew Anne would not want her food to touch it.

--

At school, Ruby could not stop sniffling the whole day. Her eyes were red, and every time she made eye contact with Anne she put her handkerchief over her mouth to stifle a sob. Anne was glad Ruby cared for her, but Ruby was making everything worse. Diana looked like she was near tears, too, but kept them in, wanting to comfort Anne rather than make her more upset.

When it was time for lunch, Josie again went off with the older girls. Anne wondered what it would be like when she left school- would Josie come back to the group? She wasn't sure the other girls would accept Josie back, now that they had switched their loyalties to Anne.

Jane opened Prissy's lunch basket and brought out the dessert. Each tiny, round cake was covered in white icing and had hearts made out of cinnamon drops on the top. When Anne saw them, she almost cried herself.

"Here, Anne," Jane said, passing out the first one to Anne. "This is for you."

Anne took the cake, with a deep breath to steady her emotions. She started to say something flowery and appreciate to Jane, but she could not speak without crying, so she only bit her lip and took the cake with a nod.

Jane caught her eye, and then looked away, ashamed, as she passed out the rest of the cakes. They did not taste as good to her as she had expected them to.

The day ended with hugs from Diana, Ruby, Tillie, and Jane.

Before leaving, Anne had begun to write down the homework for the weekend, and then had a bizarre moment of realization:

I don't need to write down the homework for the weekend- I won't be here to turn it in on Monday.

But then an even more surreal thought came- not just about the weekend and Monday, but about life:

I wouldn't be turning it in on Monday anyway, because as of tomorrow I'm no longer a student at this school.

And then she had to take a deep breath- she felt she'd been holding back tears with deep breaths all day long- and try to keep herself together, because the thought of officially being unenrolled and not belonging in the school was too much to bear.

--

She was glad to see that Marilla and Matthew were waiting with the buggy as promised. They waited until all of the students left before going into the building to speak to Mr. Phillips, so they would not be overheard. Anne sat in the buggy, Gilbert and Diana waiting with her until Matthew and Marilla returned to take her home.

Diana rode with the Cuthberts in the buggy part of the way home, but they had to drop her off relatively quickly because they could not come within sight of her house, since her mother still found Anne to be an unsuitable companion for her daughter.

So it was a quiet, somber foursome that arrived at Green Gables that afternoon. Gilbert and Anne, who had sat in the back of the buggy together and huddled too close to each other for Marilla's approval, climbed out of the buggy first.

Anne got upset again when she started to ask Gilbert if he wanted to come in to work on their homework together. It was such a habit now, that she'd said it without even thinking- and promptly burst into tears.

Once she started, she could not stop. They had been building all day and she'd been successful in keeping them back, but now she was home with the people she cared about most in the world and she could no longer keep a stiff upper lip.