Chapter Text
Gilbert was over the moon. It was the first Wednesday since Halloween. Halloween was on a Friday, so he waited patiently all weekend and into the first half off the week, but finally it was here. The first binge-session that Anne agreed to. He tried to mask his excitement since he promised Anne no one would find out. He waited patiently for class to end, but the seconds became hours. To pass the time, he wrote a note to Anne.
“Anne, Here’s the plan for tonight. You go home like normal, I’ll come by at around 4:00-4:10 with my laptop. We can watch in your room or wherever you feel comfortable. I can’t wait to see you then. You’ll love Jane the Virgin. Your truly, Gil P.S. Bring your Halloween candy.”
He slipped the note into her pencil case. No one really paid any attention to this. Gilbert passing Anne a love note is new, but not surprising. Anne read it, nodding along. When Diana asked whether it was a love note, she said yes and made a huge show of ripping it up into tiny pieces and throwing it into the trash so no one knew it’s content. Gilbert couldn’t help but smile, which no one understood but to be fair they also didn’t understand what he saw in her so they just let it be.
The hours ticked by slowly. Anne was starting to catch up with the rest of the class much to the dismay of Mr. Phillips. Her annoyingly stupid questions were gone, replaced with questions on what they are studying next. Apparently, she was bored going at the class’s pass having learned so much in the first month. Eventually, Mr. Phillips started giving Anne the next few lessons. Gilbert asked for it too, also board in class but not knowing you could annoy your way to more lessons.
When class was done, Gilbert ran home as fast as he could. He was so happy, it was as though his feet never touched the ground.
The Blyth house was pretty simple. It was a smallish two story brick house. Upstairs, Mr. Blyth had a small law firm. Actually, it was just him and a partner in Montague. They were both property lawyers, and agreed to go into business together after law school, but didn’t want to leave their respective hometowns so they both ran what was functionally a one-person firm with weird stationary. Still, Blyth & Wilkinson fielded most of the property law cases in Avonlea. John Blyth’s bedroom was also upstairs. Gilbert’s bedroom was downstairs, along with the kitchen and a small living room. There was a T.V. in it, and every Saturday John would invite his friends to watch hockey. Gilbert wasn’t a fan of the sport, he preferred soccer, but sometimes watched anyway just to spend time with his dad and his friends.
When he got home, he ran to his room. He emptied his backpack, filled it with his candy and grabbed his laptop. He wasn’t allowed to bring it to school till high school when he’d have lockers, his dad didn’t want him to lose it.
“What’s happening down there?” his dad called down.
“I gotta go,” Gilbert yelled up. “I’m hanging out with friends.”
“Will you be home for dinner?” His dad shouted.
“I don’t know,” Gilbert shouted back, leaving the house and making sure to lock the door. He and his dad were always yelling at each other because they were never in the same room. All screaming matches were out of necessity and love, never hatred.
Gilbert checked his phone. He had plenty of time, so he decided to walk. He came upon Green Gables and it absolutely took his breath away. Almost every other hour in Avonlea was small and cozy with a little garden, Green Gables was surrounded by a huge field and stood alone in it’s majestic beauty. He loved seeing it. Something about it had a timeless, dignified, almost regal appearance. Seeing it was like looking through time itself. It was the oldest house in Avonlea by far. Technically, it’s official name was the Avonlea Inn, but only the outsiders ever called it that. Everyone in town knew that it was Green Gables for longer than it’s been Avonlea Inn and will be Green Gables for long after.
He approached the front steps. There was a huge porch that went almost all the way around. Inside, there was a reception desk. No one was there. Gilbert briefly wondered if he should ring the bell, but decided against it. He didn’t know if Matthew and Marilla were allowed to know about these weekly visits. Instead, he explored. First, he went to the door to the left. It was the living room. It was a huge open concept room with huge windows and sliding doors along the far wall. Light spilled in. He didn’t know for sure, but he guessed that sunsets were beautiful in this room. The sliding doors opened onto the porch, which then spilled onto the grass. He imagined wedding were a huge hit there, with the huge, beautiful field to do have the ceremony in. At the far end of the room there was a round table with a half done puzzle on it. He wandered over to it. It was a lovely landscape, with trees and a waterfall and flowers. Anne obviously wasn’t here, but he could see where one piece went so he put that in before leaving the puzzle and room alone. He went to the other side of reception, where there was a really nice dinning room. It was a large table, with a dozen or so seats around the table. He continued into the kitchen. It was really nice, with a gas stove, lots of counter space and a huge fridge. He loved nice kitchens. He loved cooking, but he never really got many opportunities to they out new, fancy recipes. Anne wasn’t there so he headed upstairs.
Upstairs, there were 4 rooms. Two of them were normal, queen size, made for two. They were called Lavender Room and Buttercup Room. Every room was named after a different flower. There was also a smaller room with two twin beds named Iris Room. They advertised the Avonlea Inn as a family-friendly place, so they added it. It used to be a storage room. The final room is called the Rose Room. It was the huge honeymoon suite. Everything was a beautiful white, and there was a canopy bed. He walked into it. He just peaked into the other ones, but this one he entered. It was so lovely, he couldn’t resist. There was a beautiful white poplar tree at the window. He wanted to open it to touch it, but wasn’t sure if the window would close. With old houses like this, the windows were tricky sometimes. Instead, Gilbert knelt down and pressed his hands against the glass.
“What are you doing here?”
Gilbert shot up, turning around to see Anne in the doorway. She was beautiful. She let her hair down, she still had it in the Dorothy braids most days, and it glowed softly in the afternoon light. Gilbert was suddenly very self conscience of his appearance and what he was doing.
“Just admiring the lovely tree,” Gilbert said hastily.
“Her name is Snow Queen,” Anne explained, walking over to the window to look at it with Gilbert. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she.”
“Yeah,” Gilbert agreed, looking at Anne instead of outside.
She caught his eye and laughed, as though the idea of thinking she was beautiful was funny. Still, he loved her laugh. “C’mon. Let’s go,” she took his hand and led her down the stairs. He followed her lead happily. She lead him down the stairs, through the kitchen, through a door he hadn’t noticed the first time he popped his head in. It lead down another set of stairs to where the Cuthberts must live. There was a small living room with a couch and a few chairs around a glass coffee table. In the corner, there was a old but functional computer. There were five doors dispersed around the room. One was obviously Anne’s. It was decorated with her name and lots of pictures of her and Diana, as well as stars and glitter.
“I’m guessing that one’s your’s” Gilbert said as Anne opened it and went in.
“Yeah,” Anne confirmed, going to her closet to grab the halloween candy. Her room was plain enough, Gilbert observed from the door. There was a desk with her schoolbooks open on it in one corner and above it there was a bulletin board. It didn't have much on it, a participation ribbon from the Avonlea summer fair, a post card from Charlottetown and another from Avonlea, as well as a few pictures of Diana, Matthew and Marilla. The bed was neatly made with a plain but warm quilt. The closet had very few clothes in it. She didn’t come with much, but he overheard Anne and Diana talking on numerous occasions about going shopping to try and correct that. Marilla didn’t give them much so they had to go thrift shopping, which was an adventure for Diana who had never been. Anne was old hand at it, so Diana had a smart mentor. Later, Diana said she loved it so much she’s never going back to retail. Anne got the candy and left her room, forcing Gilbert out too. “That one’s Matthew’s,” she said, pointing to the room next to her’s, “that one belongs to the Marilla,” Anne pointed to another, “Bathroom,” pointing to a different door, “and boiler room. We have a huge boiler because we have so many guests.” She pointed to the last door, then took a seat on the couch. Apparently, they were watching in the living room, not the bedroom.
“There wasn’t anyone upstairs,” Gilbert inquired, but immediately regretted it. He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.
“It’s usually empty on the week days,” Anne explained, “but on week ends it’s packed.”
“That must be nice,” Gilbert offered, taking a seat next to her.
“Oh, it is,” Anne sighed. “You get to meet so many different people. Last week, I meet a doctor who worked for Doctors Without Borders and was actually the one to go up on stage when they were awarded a Nobel Prize. About a month ago, there was a philosophy professor who could talk for hours without stoping. I learned so much that day. Have you ever heard of the trolley problem?” Gilbert nodded, and Anne continued. “Well, I learned about it that day.” There was a moment of silence. “Anyway, did you bring your own Halloween candy, or are you planing on just taking mine.”
“It’s here,” Gilbert brought it out to show Anne. “I thought we could also trade a bit.”
“What’s that?” Anne asked.
“Basically, you give me the candy that I love but you don’t really like in exchange for the candy you love and I don’t really like.” Gilbert did it a lot with Moody and Charlie when they were younger. “What do you love?” Gilbert asked, looking in his bag.
“I love tootsie rolls and pops,” Anne said. “Or any of those caramel things, if you have them.”
“Oh, I have a million,” Gilbert assured her. “I was the last one to visit Rachel Lynde so she gave me all the one’s she had left.” He reached to the bottom of his bag to find them. Anne held out her hand for them. “Not so fast,” Gilbert told her, “You have to give me something in return.”
“Fine,” Anne sighed, “What do you want?”
Gilbert made a big deal to thinking, tapping his chin. “Do you have any coffee crisps?”
“I do, but Marilla loves them,” Anne explained.
“Ok,” Gilbert tried to think of a different candy bar. “Oh, do you have an of those Crunch things?”
“These?” Anne asked, showing him two.
“Yes,” Gilbert was excited. They were his favourite but they weren’t that popular so not that many houses had them. “I’ll trade you these nine caramels for those two crunches.”
“Deal,” Anne said, snatching the candy and opening one right away. Gilbert put the candy bars he got into the bag, wanting to save them for last. instead, he opened up a Kit-Kat.
“Next, I’m going for your chips,” Gilbert teased as they ate.
Anne laughed, and tried to respond, but her mouth was full of caramel and she couldn’t speak. She tried to swallow it, but couldn’t. They both laughed at Anne trying her best to clear out the caramel. When she could talk again, she said “Oh yeah, how?”
“Tell you what,” Gilbert said, fishing out all the tootsie stuff he had, “I will trade you two tootsie rolls for one of your bags of potato chips.”
“No way,” Anne objected, “they are worth three at least!”
“No way, three is too much,” Gilbert objected back.
“But two is too little,” Anne pushed back.
“How about five for two bags?” Gilbert offered. “Nice compromise.”
“Fine,” Anne conceded, “but I’m giving you the No-Name ones. I’m keeping the lays for myself.”
“Deal,” Gilbert took them, but Anne wasn’t done.
“Now, I want those two tootsie pops,” she announced.
“Do you have any skor or crispy crunch?” he asked.
“One skor, and two crispy crunch,” Anne confirmed. “All for all?”
“Sure,” Gilbert agreed. “Deal!”
After that last trade, they were both done. They sat back, looking at their treasures.
“Should we watch Jane the Virgin now?” Gilbert asked.
“Sure,” Anne agreed. Gilbert got out his laptop and opened it.
Anne was a bit taken aback by how it started. They laid down some heavy ideas on virginity and purity which Anne objected to. There was also a surprising amount of Spanish. Anne was taken aback by it, but liked the Latina representation. She knew about all the horribleness down in America, this show would be good. And it was good. Like, good quality. She enjoyed it. When the pilot was done, Gilbert clicked the Back to Browse option, not the Continue Watching one and turned to her.
“Listen, you can’t tell a lot from the pilot, a lot changes, but you’ll like it,” he promised. “There’s a lot more romance in future episodes. Can we watch another?”
Anne nodded enthusiastically. “I really like it.”
Gilbert clicked the next button and went back to watching. During the first episode, they both sat very rigidly. Anne had a straight back and wouldn’t relax. Now, she relaxed a little more. She leaned back against the couch, even brought her feet up on the couch, relaxing into Gilbert’s shoulder. Gilbert wanted to put his arm around her, but decided against it.
Gilbert already saw the episode, she he looked at Anne most of the time. She chewed her hair as she watched. Gilbert wondered if she did that when she was concentrating or bored. They got to this one scene where Jane is crying and Anne muttered under her breath “Wow, she’s a really good actor.” Gilbert smiled, glad she was enjoying it. In the last few seconds of the show, someone died in a very dramatic fashion. As the show ended, Gilbert asked if she wanted another. She gave a resounding “Yes!” so he let it play. They were in the middle of watching Michael at work when Marilla came downstairs.
“I’m back from the store in Charlottetown,” she announced as Anne quickly paused the show and pulled away from Gilbert. “What are you two up to?” Marilla asked suspiciously.
“Just watching some T.V.,” Anne assured her.
“How long till the end of the episode?” she asked.
“We just started it,” Gilbert informed her. “6 minutes into a 40 minute episode.”
“Well, stop it now,” Marilla told them, “Anne has a lot of homework to get through, and I’m guessing so do you.”
“Right,” Gilbert could tell when he was not wanted, and pretty happy it came from Marilla not Anne. He packed his bag and stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school?” he asked Anne.
“I’ll walk you out,” Anne offered, also getting up. They walked to the door together. Anne stopped him before he could well and truly leave. “You won’t tell anyone about this, right?”
“I won’t,” Gilbert promised, “but I don’t get what the big deal is.”
“The deal is, I just don’t want them to find out. I can’t explain it, I just need this to be a secret.”
“It will be,” he assured her, “if that’s what you want.” He touched her arm to reassure her and left. Anne watched him go. He looked nice in the late afternoon light.