AMYBELLA SPURRED HER STALLION
on as she and Anne romped through the white landscapes, covered in snow. The red head caught up next to her, tiring the mare that she named Belle.
Bella laughed and howled into the wind. Anne's hairband came loose and her wild red mane, which had grown back a lot in two years, swirled wildly in the wind.

"Anne, your hair tie!" Amybella shouted. Anne looked behind her and laughed. She shook her head and with that freed her hair out of the braid.
Bella shook her head amused. The wind tossed her hair in the air and she felt her lips freeze. All too soon their ride was over.

"You've gotten better!" Amybella said. They dismounted their horses and lead them towards the frozen water. They saw Ruby, Josie and the other girls standing on the side of the lake, watching the boys playing hockey on the frozen ice.
Anne picked up the book that laid on the ground and looked through the pages.

"You should report on the game Ruby. Do you even know what the score is?" Anne asked, holding out the blank notebook to Ruby.

"It's just for the school paper Anne. Not for the Daily Telegraph." Josie said, annoyed.

"We're all here, Anne. We don't need an article." Bella smiled kindly at the redhead.
Billy drove up and slammed on the brakes which caused Josie to be covered in snow.

"Cad! Bounder!" She shouted with a laugh.

"Okay. Who are the team captains?" asked Anne, who had pen and paper in her hands.

"Gilbert!" replied Ruby without having to think.

"And?" Anne asked.

"Whoever?" said the blonde girl. Amybella rolled her eyes.
Gilbert approached.

"Isn't Ruby covering the game?" he asked, looking at Anne.

"She was distracted," Amybella told him.

"From a certain someone!" Tillie shouted, and they giggled. Gilbert looked at Ruby, who was staring at him strangely. He shook his head and drove on.

"He noticed me! He looked right at me and smiled!" Amyvella raised her eyebrows unimpressed.

This kid is driving her crazy.

She looked over at a girl and a man who came running up towards the lake. Moody drove over to them and picked up his new bat.

"Uh.. thank you!" he said empathizing his words dramatically. Bella rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry! Country people. Don't have much in their head." She said, after she had walked over to them. The girl laughed and seemed to translate what Bella had said for her father in her own language. He then laughed too.

"Hello, Good afternoon. I'd like to order a stick. If I may. Uh..?" Gilbert said in a normal and respectful tone, before he rummaged in his pocket. He gave the man his money.
It was one of the things she liked about Gilbert. The way he treated people no matter where they came from. It made him a lot different than the other people of Avonlea.

"I've got skates with me. Let me see if I can beat you!" Amybella said to the boy, when she snapped herself out of her staring at Gilbert.
She grabbed Moody's old stick.

Anne appeared next to Bella and started talking to the girl and the man about her articles. The blonde girl didn't listen much to the conversation as she was watching the boys play hockey. She wondered if she could play too. Her father taught her how to skate on the ice but she never actually played. It wasn't common for girls.

She again snapped out of her thoughts when Billy came over to them.

"Hey, make me a stick? I'll trade ya for it." Billy threw them his sweat towel.
Amybella looked at him in disgust.

"Billy!" She hissed sternly, but he ignored it as usual.
The small girl at the man's side picked up the cloth and threw it back in the Andrew boys face.

"Ka'kwet!" Her father must have called her by her name. He was telling her something in their language.

"Watch your step redskin." said Billy. The man said something again and seemed to want to leave. He looked at Billy dismissively.

"I'm really sorry!" Anne called after them.

"Savages." Billy drove off.

"He's very rude. See you ka'kwet! I hope we meet again!" Bella smiled and then put on her skates. She went out onto the ice.

"Billy!" She called and then stood in front of him.

"What are you doing on the ice?" he asked, eyeing her.

"If you're that disrespectful to anyone ever again, I'll smash you like a bug." Amybella looked at him seriously.

"Oh yeah? Try it." he came closer to her and grinned stupidly.
Gilbert approached beside them but kept his distance. He didn't seem to like the scene.

Suddenly Billy had Amybella's stick behind his leg as the girl pushed him away from her. The stick was a block behind him, which caused the boy to loose his balance and fall backwards.
He seemed to have hit his head and looked at Bella in shock. He moaned in pain which caused Bella to smirk.

"Are you all right?" Gilbert asked, seeming shocked at how she'd managed that. Bella grinned at him.

•

Bella slowly opened her eyes and saw Gilbert lying in front of her, asleep. His hair hung tousled in his forehead and his lips were slightly parted. Amybella smiled at the cute sight of him.

"You're staring." he suddenly whispered and opened his eyes.

"I didn't." She turned onto her back and then noticed her book laying on her stomach and the pieces of paper spread on the bed. They must have fallen asleep while studying.

"Yes, you did." Gilbert said smirking. They stared at each other for a while, before they snapped out of it.

"Hrm, we must have fell asleep." Gilbert said and Bella nodded.

"Let's go downstairs." Bella said and stood up. They went down the stares and met Bash, sitting at the table and held the little Delphine in his arms. Mary was making breakfast, as the both of them stared at the girl.

"Is today 'stare at Amybella' day or what's wrong?" The girl asked.

"There's something different about her." Bash said, leaning over to Mary and eyeing her critically.

"Is it the hair?" asked Mary, but Amybella knew she wasn't serious.

"It's the nose!" said Bash, clapping his hands. The blonde girl giggled and didn't notice how Gilbert had disappeared.

"You can say it now." She had her hands raised.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" they shouted at the same time. Bash did a few strange dance moves, then came up to Bella and pulled her into a warm hug. He picked the girl up and spun her around, then set her down and turned her away from him.

Amybella saw Gilbert standing in the hallway with a bouquet of flowers that he had probably picked himself.

"Happy birthday Amy." He handed her the flowers.

"Out of the way my baby is 18 now!" She heard the squeaky voice of Mary, who almost crushed her in her arms shortly afterwards.

"You guys are the best." Bella smiled.

"You'll get your cake later, off to school with you!" Mary said and shooed them out of the house.

"You're 18! And I'm 16! Anything is possible!" Anne shouted excitedly when she spotted Bella. She ran up to the girl and pulled her into a hug. Bella grinned mischievously.

"Diana! Anne! Amybella! 'Look at that!" shouted Josie and they want over to her.

"Someone put the notice board back up and posted something about me!" she said.

"Isn't that scandalous?" Bella looked at the board.

'Billy walked Josie home after the game'

"The scandal will be when folks find out it was you," said Jane annoyed.

"You're a sly one Jane, since I'm sure it's from you!" Josie responded.

"Everyone will know now!" squealed Tillie excitedly.

"On the other hand, it's a good thing, we should all make it clear who our suitor will be." Ruby came running up.

Oh no.

"At our age, we should all be promised to someone." Tillie continued.

"I don't want to end up an old maid." Josie said, Bella rolled her eyes. All the worry about one's future was so unnecessary.

"I'm so confused. We're old enough, but Gilbert hasn't made any advances yet." Ruby howled again and Bella rolled her eyes.

"Maybe because he's not interested in you." She said and left, annoyed. She knew she was hurting Ruby with this but it has been 3 years now since she knew the little girl and she was still talking about loving Gilbert all the time.
It was particularly annoying because Bella herself had feelings for the brunette boy but hadn't told him yet.
Amybella wanted their relationship to change but she wasn't so sure about Gilbert wanting it.

The girl walked into the classroom.

"Amybella. Hey!" a boy approached her, she was sure to remember his name as Percy.

"Hey." She greeted him kindly and walked past him.

"Um.. your dress, I like your dresses, they look great." He continued. Amybella just nodded, clearly overwhelmed by the situation.

"Thank you." She smiled and sat down next to Gilbert.

"What's wrong with them?" She shook her head, Gilbert looked at the girl with a grin.

"They're boys," he said and continued to leaf through his book. Amybella then went to her seat next to Ruby when she saw the girls coming in.

"Good morning." She heard Anne say.

"Morning." Gilbert said.

"I'm not sure if you're aware but the old 'Take Notice' board is active again." she said and Bella looked at her in confusion.

"Take Notice?" Gilbert asked.

"As in you post on the board when you want to let someone know that you've taken notice. It's a way to make a casual declaration to someone.. A quiet attention." she told me and I saw the look on Ruby's face.

"For someone... you like." Gilbert said.

"Yeah.. so.. if you're interested in Ruby you should tell her before someone else takes their claim!" she said quickly.

"Ehm.. thank you.. for the suggestion." He looked at Bella and smirked.
The girl covered her mouth, with her hand cause the situation was so absurd.

"Did you see his face?" Ruby suddenly stood in front of her.

"How he looked at me when they were talking about me?" Bella looked at her confused when Anne came over to them.

"His eyes were so full of romance, I could have died happy right there and then." Bella dropped onto the bench.

Someone please get this girl out of here.

•

"And don't talk to strangers."
"Of course not."
"Don't let anyone invite you for a ride."
"Of course not."
"Always stay close to Gilbert."

Of course not. Amybella thought.

Marilla gave Anne 'advices', which she answered with the same two words for ages.

"It's all right, Marilla. We'll look after her." Bella stood next to Gilbert, laughing. Marilla went on talking.

"Marilla! I've never fallen into a ditch!" Anne affirmed, embarrassed, addressing Gilbert and Bella. The blonde then pulled the boy along to the train.

"Come on, let's find our seats. I don't think Marilla used to be like that, before they took Anne in. She's so motherly all of a sudden, don't you think? Anne changed her. " She said, seeing them still standing at the same spot, discussing.

"Anne has changed a lot of things." Gilbert said. He looked at Anne and Marilla again, then they got in the train. Anne came running up excitedly.

"Gilbert! Don't let her out of your sight until you get to Mrs. Josephine's!" Marilla called out.

"Thank you for looking after her," Matthew said.

"Gilbert drives every Saturday, that's no problem." Bella shouted back and urged Anne to get on the train before they could change their mind.

"I'll try my best to keep her out of a ditch." Gilbert winked at Anne and walked past them. Anne rolled her eyes annoyed and Bella laughed.

"Come on." She smiled and pulled Anne along. They sat down in front of Gilbert.

"If it's any consolation. We don't mind being your escort." Gilbert said with a grin.

"Well, I mind. I can fend for myself! Do you even know what my quest is?"

"Anne." Bella put my hand on Anne's lap. She looked at m the girl in shock.

"Sorry I didn't mean to-.." she started. Bella gave her a reassuring nod, while Gilbert stared at his book, his pride visibly wounded.
They were silent for the rest of the ride and when arrived at Josephine's house, Anne stopped and turned around.

"Thank you." she said with a smile.

"You're welcome." Gilbert replied simply and turned to go.

"Gilbert." Amybella got upset. She took Anne in her arms.

"Good luck with your search. I hope you find what you need." She separated from the redhead and took her hands in her own.

"But don't forget, it's the past. No matter what you find. It's history and you're living in the present. Don't get too attached to whatever Anne you may find." She looked at her seriously now and Anne nodded, glad that Bella took her quest seriously.
The door of Josephine's house opened and Cole came storming out.

"Cole!" Bella laughed delightedly.

"I missed you guys so much!" he shouted, taking Anne in his arms and spinning once. Then he put her down and came towards Bella. The girl felt herself being thrown around as well. She laughed as he put her down.

"My two favorite people in the whole world." He grinned.

"You look smart." Bella said and tapped his jacket.

"Amy!" She heard Gilbert's voice and turned her head. He stood a little way off, annoyed and impatient.

"I have to go." She hugged them both again and then walked to the boy.

"What's wrong with you? So hurt?" It was meant as a joke, but Gilbert shook his head and walked off. He suddenly seemed distant towards the girl and Bella didn't know why.

"I'm nervous," She said as they arrived outside the bakery. She had decided to look for work, where she could earn some money. After all, she couldn't live off her parents' inheritance forever.

"You'kk be fine." Gilbert said simply, looking ahead. Bella gave him a hug and then went inside.

"Ah, there you are." Mr. Beauxbo said with a smile. Bella liked to call him Bob.

"Alright. This is an unusual event, but what's wrong with progressive thinking, right? I'll show you around," said Bob with a smile. Bella grinned.
Mr. and Mrs. Beauxbo used to be very good friends with her parents, but that was when Bella was a small child. When they had moved to Canada, they had lost touch with the family and it was a miracle that Bella met the man by chance, as he recently moved here too.

He was immediately willing to help her and offer the girl work, since they were in desperate need of help anyway.
Amybella served customers, even baked and cooked and in the end was really satisfied with her work.
She came out and saw Gilbert waiting.

"How was it?" he asked.

"It was good!" She said excitedly.

•

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