THE DAYS PASSED AND AMYBELLA heard nothing more from the brunette boy. She came into Charlottetown with her mother to run a few errands when she spotted Gilbert in a window. Hastily, she ran in the door and saw him standing by a shelf. She walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey Gilbert." she greeted him. Gilbert eyed her for a moment and then nodded.

"Hi." was his simple reply.

"I heard you were gifted with a Scheppre Pie?" Amybella smiled and didn't let his mood get in the way.
After his father had died, it was a given that he wouldn't be skipping all over Avonlea with a cheerful smile. He gave the blonde girl another simple nod.

"Hello Gilbert. Eh.. Amybella." Matthew Cuthbert greeted them both. Amybella gave up when she realized Gilbert obviously didn't want to talk to her and went looking for the things she needed to get for her mother.

"Good day Mr. Cuthbert." Gilbert greeted the man. Amybella got in line at the checkout.

"So uh.. bit of a cold snap, eh?" Mr. Cuthbert also tried to make conversation.

"True enough." Gilbert gave another short reply. He just didn't feel like talking.

"Ma'am?" Amybella turned her head to the sales clerk.

"Oh, sorry. I need a bag of flour and two packs of eggs." He nodded.

"I'm afraid the eggs aren't quite fresh. One of the merchant ships went down on the mainland." he told her and she looked at him in shock.

"Out of Charlottetown? That's horrible." she said.

"Nothing you can do." said the friendly man. Amybella paid and then turned back to Gilbert and Matthew.
Gilbert had just left the store and Matthew approached the blonde girl.

"What was it about, Mr. Cuthbert?" she asked him.

"Uh.. I offered Gilbert my help with.. with his fields. B-but he doesn't want to be eh-.. not a farmer." Matthew stuttered and cleared his throat. He was probably completely confused himself. Bella also looked at him, confused.

Of course Gilbert wasn't a farmer, but he couldn't let his fields go to waste.
She quickly grabbed her things and went out. She looked around when she heard voices.

"Come on, bud, I don't get you. Seriously, what's your problem?" Bella looked to the side and spotted Gilbert, Billy and the blonde boy's two idiots of friends.

Gilbert turned around, threw his bag at Billy and punched him in the face.
They started fighting and Bella ran towards them, startled.

"Stop it!" Gilbert was lying under Billy, who gave him the next punch.
Gilbert turned them around so that he was on top and punched Billy full in the face.

"Gilbert!" screamed the girl. He let go of Billy, who crawled away in fear, and the brunette's eyes met Amybella's. Billy and the boys who were always lurking around him disappeared. Gilbert picked up his bag and ran on.

"Gilbert!" She ran towards him.

"Stop walking away!" She said annoyed and tried to reach for his hand. He stopped moving so suddenly that Bella promptly ran into his slender body.

"What was that about! Haven't you grown up?!" Scolded the blonde. Gilbert looked at her stubbornly.
Amybella raised her hand to his temple where red welts were already forming from the punch Billy had made. He slapped her hand away.

"No, don't!" He said a little softer now, but still very harshly.

"You don't have to take care of me!" He must have heard what his father had said to her.

"I'm fine on my own!" he added quietly, turned around and left. She didn't stop him this time. She just looked after him in shock.

"Amybella!" she heard her name and turned to her mother.

"Where are you going child? Come on now!"

—
The weeks passed.
Christmas was just around the corner. Amybella decided to talk to Gilbert. She wanted to finally create clarity between them and tell him that she was there for him, regardless of what her parents would say.
She didn't like the silence between her and Gilbert. So she mounted Abraxas and set off for his house.

"Okay.. you can do this." She fixed her hair and knocked. No one opened the door for her, so she knocked a few more times. However, nothing happened and the house remained silent. Amybella looked through the curtains and saw that the table and chairs were set up.
The girl walked around the house and looked in the window. The furniture was all covered with white sheets.

Shocked, she stepped back from the window. She stared at the house and couldn't believe it.

He hadn't even said goodbye to her.

—
Marissa felt the hot water running over her skin as she dipped the stained fabric into the basin. She was scrubbing at the deep red stain that had formed on the fabric when she heard the front door open. She felt Marcus's presence behind her as something was held out to her.

She paused in her movement and looked at the ring clasped between his fingers, she then turned to face him.

"People will think I have no intentions if you have nothing," he said, taking her hand in his. He slipped the ring onto her finger, then let go of her.
Marissa nodded as he placed his hands on either side of her, propped up on the counter. She felt trapped by him, as if he had drawn walls around her.

"It's beautiful. The ring." she said hastily when she noticed the tense silence.

"You didn't really look at it." Marcus said with an arrogant laugh.
The woman looked at her long fingers and the ring hanging from them.

She thought about wearing her white dress.
Her mother's dress and her daughter's soon.
The dress that shouldn't be hers anymore, but she would wear it anyway.
Something stolen.
Something worn twice.

"Didn't he put a ring on your finger?" asked Marcus. Marissa felt his intense gaze on her, as if she would fail the exam at any moment.

"Yes, he would." she said quietly.

"Why don't you wear it? I wouldn't have had to pay money for yours," he said.

"It was his ring. I thought since I have you, his ring no longer exists." She heard the front door open again as the owner of her dress entered the door.
Amybella nodded politely to her parents. The girl couldn't stand Marcus at all. He now considered himself the head of the family, quickly became angry and ordered the girl around.
She walked up the stairs, mindful of not walking too fast.

—
"Do you suppose it's true that no two snowflakes are alike? I hope so," said the red-haired girl.

"It's kind of.. comforting, isn't it?" she asked and Amybella gave her a smile.

"Well, I think so. Just like no two flowers are the same or how we are all different." She said. The blonde girl was not particularly in the Christmas spirit.
The thought of Gilbert being gone now and leaving her alone pulled her mood into a deep hole.
They were sitting at school making snowflakes. Minimae, Diana's little sister, and the others her age were practicing Christmas carols in the choir.

"I've heard that snow is a sign of God's forgiveness. By-.."
Anne wanted to go on, but she was interrupted.

"Shhhht!" Hissed the choir leader and Bella rolled her eyes.

"By blanketing the ugly frozen earth and making it beautiful." Anne finished her sentence more quietly.

"Snow means Christmas is coming. And I love Christmas! Don't you?" asked Moody.

"I don't know. But I plan to," said Anne.

"Did you not have Christmas at the orphanage?" asked Moody. Amybella looked worriedly at Anne.

It often happened that people made comments or asked questions without even thinking about what they triggered in the red-haired girl.
She must have had a hard time and Bella wouldn't have been surprised if she'd kept quiet or looked at Moody in shock or anything like that. But Anne remained calm.

"There wasn't much to it, really. I'm not sure why Father Christmas wasn't able to stop there. Maybe the matron scared him off." Anne said and Bella smiled.

"What about you Bella?" Moody now asked the blonde girl.

"I don't know. It will be another Christmas without my father. And the first time with my stepfather," she sighed. Anne looked at her sympathetically.

"The Cuthberts had to mortgage their farm. Isn't that sad?" Josie Pye's voice rang out from the corner of the classroom.
Anne stood up with a jerk.

"Josie Pye you take that back!" said Anne, visibly upset.

"Why are you upset? It's only true, you're poor." Anne remained silent.

"Wait, you didn't know?" Josie asked. Bella looked at Anne, who was now looking down at the floor in shock.

"Do you at least know if they're going to keep you?" the blonde girl continued to provoke her.

"Keep me?!" asked Anne angrily.

"Josie that's enough." Amybella intervened before she could say anything else.

"Next. Come along! In Excelsis Deo. That's right, Children, come along now. Take your places, please." the choirmaster harangued. We lined up in a row and sang.

Suddenly Anne ran to the door of the school and out. Amybella looked at Diana, who also met her gaze.
Together they ran after Anne.

"I have to get on home. Oh it can't be true!" Anne got upset when they got to her house.

"It isn't. 'That Josie Pye is just as mean as they make them. She hadn't any right to tell tales about you." Said Diana.

"My first family. My first home." Anne said desperately and Amybella took her hand.

"They're not going to send you back." She tried to cheer Anne up.

"You're in the bible and everything." Diana said again.

"We can't lose Green Gables! They just can't." Anne sounded more and more desperate.

"I'm sure you won't." Bella stopped as the fork came where Gilbert had met her for her first day of school. She had to turn off at this point to get home.

"Talk to them first Anne. They are and always will be your family, it's probably not even true what Josie says," she said as she turned to leave.

Walking for a while, Amybella arrived at the intersection of Gilbert's and her house. She looked at the path that led to Gilbert, then sighed and continued walking along the path that led to her home.

Once home, Bella discovered her mother drinking some water, then looking at her daughter with an expressionless face.
Her face was paler than usual.
Her figure seemed frail and her eyes empty.
She had been officially engaged since the day before. As if she hadn't already been, only now she had a ring on her finger to announce it to the whole town.

She walked past Amybella like a ghost, so that she could barely be heard. She was walking up the stairs when Marcus came in the door.

"What's wrong with my mother? She's grumpy but she's never like that." the girl said. Marcus laughed.

"Don't stick your nose into things you don't understand. It's none of your business." He then said and walked past her.

"If it's about my mother, then it's very much my business." She knew she had gone too far again. He approached her with quick steps.

"Listen, you brat. You're only still here because I promised your mother. As soon as she and I are married, I'll be in charge and believe me, if you don't behave yourself, I'll put you in the nearest orphanage!" He hissed. Fear brewed in Bella's eyes. There was something crazy about the look he had on his face.
He was a monster.
The blonde girl took a step back.

"You can't send me away! People will talk!" Bella said, trying to put as much firmness into her voice as possible.

"I'll tell them you're at a girls' boarding school. Do you really think anyone here cares about you?" Amybella fell silent as her blood began to boil.

"No one will care where you are as long as you get the right education. I really should put you into a boarding school, but you're not worth that money." Amybella took a step closer.

"The people here have my back. I have friends here." she spoke, her voice trembling and growing louder towards the end.

"And what are they going to do? Your friends." Marcus had leaned down towards her.
Amybella remained silent.

What would they do, her friends? If she was no longer here?

"Behave yourself, or I'll throw you out at the next opportunity. Then you can find your home in the swamp."
His gaze said something Amybella dared not think.
She ran past him up to her room and sat down by the window.

Gilbert where are you?

She rested her head against the window pane and looked out at the sleet.

—
"He said when he comes back it should be voluntary," Anne told her about the day she had met Gilbert in Charlotte Town.

"So he's really gone," Bella said, plucking at her dress.

"And he might not even come back." There was barely a murmur from the blonde girl, but Anne had heard it and looked at Bella sympathetically. She shook her head.

"But what about you now? What are you going to do if you don't have Jerry's money?" She asked excitedly.

"We've put two of our rooms up for rent." Anne replied and drew her mouth into a thin line.

"I hope so much for your sake that it will work out."
Bella grabbed Anne's hand.

"Oh it has. We have two tenants." The blonde squealed with delight. Amybella smiled at Anne.

"Then why are you still talking about Gilbert instead of informing me about that great news?! That's amazing Anne."

Anne and Amybella became really close friends over the last months. In some way, she understood the girl, even if she hadn't such passion about literature and poems.

But when anne spent time with Bella, she had never felt more understood.

Author's note:
Oh Anne you crazy girl. No one could ever make me hate you!

Fuck you Marcus.

Anyway, ARE YOU READY FOR ACT II?!

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