GRACE ☾ G.BLYTHE

19| No

『 19|No 』
❝ Nothing like a little peace and quiet. ❞

As I walk into my house, I sense a smell of something burning. I hurry into the kitchen, while taking off my coat. Adam is reading a newspaper and doesn't seem to smell anything odd. It has happened before that he was cooking something and let it burn, so I asked just to be sure. "Is something burning?"

"Crap" he says as he takes out the black and burned cookies from the oven. "Crap" he says again when he realizes that he forgot to put his mittens on, drops the oven plate and he looks at his burned hands. I put on mittens and say, "here let me do it". I pick up the hot scale from the floor that Adam has dropped and put it safely on the kitchen table.

I tell him to wait, when he wants to pick up some burned cookies from the floor and make a kitchen towel wet with cold water. I put the towel on Adam his hands and pick up the rest of the cookies.

"How can you forget that you're baking cookies?" The cookies are totally burned and unless you want to eat baked dust, I wouldn't recommend eating them. "I got distracted." I frown and look at the newspaper that he was reading earlier. I gasp as I read the headliner: MIKE MILLER AND EMILY SWAN ARE GETTING MARRIED.

I just now see that his eyes are slightly red and puffy.  "Adam-" I want to tell him that it is all gonna be alright and he shouldn't worry about her. That she is just a stupid girl that is trying to make him miserable, but he cuts me off. "Don't. I just want to be alone right now."

I grab my coat as a sign that I accept his decision. I tell Adam I love him and walk out the door. I know where I'm going to go. The place where I want to be most of the time, because the person who lives in there is the person I love the most.

➳

I walk into Gilbert's house and hear muffled voices. I know it is not the nicest thing to just walk into someone's house but Gilbert ones have said that I could. "When you go to school and leave me here whole day with no one to talk to," I hear Bash say, "I keep myself busy".

I listen to the conversation, while hanging up my coat. "If you cook and the food ain't have no taste, I chew and swallow. I've carried this pain, quiet into the cold Canadian spring." I start walking toward their kitchen and I hear some ruffles by the doorknob.

"You know me, Blythe. I don't like to complain. So when I say lesser men would've cracked by now..." I walk into the room and see Bash with a string in his mouth which is connected to the doorknob. I make eye contact with Bash and after that with Gilbert. "Grace!"A big smile creeps on his face and he gestures the seat next to him, which I take.

"May I ask what you guys are doing?" I ask, questioning why there is a string in Bash's mouth. "I was just about to ask Blythe if he wanted to close the door."
Bash asks, but Gilbert frowns and tells him no. "You're right. Give it a good slam. I only wanna do this once."

While shaking his head, he says, "this is a very bad idea. Go see a doctor." He closes his book and starts to pack up his things. "Just for a toothache?" I chuckle and suggest, "I'll do it if you want to."

"No, Grace, stop. Don't encourage this." Gilbert tells me. I look at the string that is connect to a tooth in Bash's mouth. "Gilbert, just be my friend. The onliest one I have in this vast, lonely country." All of a sudden, Gilbert walks towards the door and slams it. Bash reacts with a groan and touches his cheek. "Nothing like a little peace and quiet." Gilbert says, as he grabs my hand and take me with him as he walks away.

The rest of the day is calm. I tell Gilbert about what happened this morning as we do chores in his house. When we are working he touches my shoulder when he walks past me or he strokes a piece of hair behind my ear and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

➳

I walk in class with Josie, our arms untwined, and we get welcomed by our group of friends. Anne hands me a zilver shiny sixpence and Josie asks, "what are we buying?" Ruby looks at us and informs us that Diana got a genuine sixpence for Prissy, all the way from London. I laugh and say, "that adorable."

"I wrote to my cousin two months ago, as soon as I heard about the engagement. I'm just glad it got here in time." That's right, Prissy got engaged. It looks like a lot of people want to say the I do. First Emily and now Prissy. "Something old, something new." Tillie says.

"Something borrowed," Jane starts and I finish her sentence with, "something blue." She smiles at me and Anne says "a silver sixpence in her shoe." We all laugh except for Josie, who says, "sounds painful." And we all laugh again when Anne corrects her with "sounds like a magic spell for happiness."

Class is very boring. We are doing the usual, but normally Bash doesn't interrupt class. "Sebastian!" Gilbert says confused as he stands up from his seat. "Good morning. Pardon me. I need to have a word with Gilbert, please." Bash says. Mr Phillip looks him up and down in disgust and tells him, "I'd thank you to stay in the cloakroom." Gilbert and Bash hurry into the cloakroom, where their voices are heard like mumbles.

Billy turns around and says, "you're not welcome here. He tried to kill me at the Christmas Pantomime." I scuff and say, "you're the threat in this classroom, Billy Andrews." I give him a nasty look and turn around when Mr Phillips orders that we return to our lesson. The next thing I know, Gilbert puts on his coat and leaves class with Bash.

At lunch I sit with Cole and Olivia outside. We were just talking and calmly eating our food when Billy comes around and take Cole's clay ball from him. Billy runs inside and we run after him. "Hey! You have no right!"Cole says, as Billy starts to play catch with his friends and using the clay ball. "Stop"

"What is this?" Billy says disgusted by the texture of the ball. "Just give it back." I tell Billy when I step in front of him. I can feel his breath touching my face as he breathes out. "Sure. Catch!" He throws the ball towards the window and I hear glass cracking. Everyone gasps and looks at how the clay drops to the ground and shows the cracks in the window.

"Mr Andrews, that's enough!" Mr Phillips walks to the window, takes out a handkerchief and picks up the clay. "To whom does this belong?" I see Cole swallow and taking a breath before he says, "it's mine sir." Mr Phillips starts walking towards Cole, what makes Cole step backward into me, which makes me stumble into Billy.

Mr Phillips opens the heater and throws the ball in it. "Then your parents can pay for a new window." I turn my head to Billy and give him a angry look. Then I hear Anne say, "that's not fair. Billy threw it at him." Mr Phillips raises his voice and says, "I'm speaking to Mr Mackenzie!"

Tears form in Cole's eyes and he turns to Billy and says while his voice cracks, "why don't you tell the truth for once?" Billy his gaze goes from me to Cole. "I was just... doing what you told me to. I was giving it back." I can't believe him. I want to punch him in the face so bad, but I stop myself, because I know how much trouble I'll get into.

Cole takes another breath and turns around, back to Mr Phillips. "My parents can't afford that." Mr Phillips turns toward his desk and tells Cole, "then we'll have to punish you in some other way." He opens a drawer and pulls out a stick. When he walks back he taps on Cole's hand and says, "open your hand."

"I didn't do anything wrong." I turn my head to Billy and stare at him, our faces very close. "You are the most disruptive student in this classroom." Cole scoffs and I turn my head when he says, "that... is your perception, but it is not a fact. If you want to hate someone... you should look in the mirror."

"Open... your... hand..." Mr Phillips warns Cole, but Cole looks him dead in the eye and says what makes us all gasp, "no." He steps back and walks to the cloakroom to get his stuff, he opens the door and he walks out of the classroom.