y/n crumpled the paper back up and stuck her tongue out at a smiling gilbert before she turned around and rested her head in her hands.
josie pye, who sat right behind her, had watched the whole thing. she turned to her left and whispered to tilly, who whispered to ruby, who looked at y/n with shock and disgust. ruby was y/n's desk mate, and also a huge gilbert blythe enthusiast.
ruby looked down to the crumpled paper in y/n's hand, and yanked it away. y/n gasped and tried to get it back, but ruby had already handed it to josie.
josie smoothed out the note and read it, before turning to gilbert and glaring, then to y/n. she stood up so fast it made y/n dizzy.
"mr. philips! y/n and gilbert are exchanging notes!" she called out and waved the paper in the air. y/n stopped breathing for a second, and looked over at gilbert who was turning redder and redder by the second. he looked over at y/n to give her a sympathetic glance, but she quickly turned away in anger.
mr. philips slowly walked over to y/n, practically staring through her soul.
"is this true?" he asked. y/n didn't say anything. she tried, but all she could manage was a small whimper. mr. philips walked over to josie and took the note out of her hand. he read it.
"i spend my own time and energy on teaching you and this is how you repay me? by exchanging sappy notes in my class? i don't tolerate this behavior. get up to the chalkboard. now!"
y/n stood up, shaking, and walked over to the chalkboard. she wanted to say she wasn't the one who wrote it, that it was gilbert's fault, but she couldn't manage to even open her mouth.
everything seemed to go in slow motion. it went even slower when mr. philips grabbed a piece of chalk as she turned to face the rest of the class.
"y/n is an ungrateful student with a bad attitude." he spoke as he wrote.
he wrote it over and over again, saying it out loud each time, and each time he said it louder. everyone laughed except gilbert.
mr. philips kept going and going, repeating the same phrase over and over until y/n heard everything muffled except her own uneven breath.
eventually, she snapped out of it and took one final look around the room. nobody had stopped laughing. then she looked at gilbert. he hadn't stopped staring. he looked pained, but as soon as y/n looked at him, he looked away.
her heart began to speed up as she started walking away from the blackboard.
"where do you think you're going?" mr. philips boomed.
she kept walking until she broke out into a run, grabbing her hat and coat as she bolted out of the schoolhouse. everybody sat in silence as they stared at the open door.
a shocked mr. philips cleared his throat and said, "back to work."
reluctantly, everybody turned away. but that didn't stop the slight but definite buzz of gossip.
gilbert's stomach started to churn.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
he rose from his seat and stood in the middle of the classroom.
"you shouldn't have humiliated her like that!" he said to mr. philips.
then he turned to everyone else.
"and all of you should be ashamed of yourselves. what happened wasn't funny. and it wasn't her fault either, so if i ever hear a word about her out of any of your mouths, you'll have me to deal with."
he lingered in that spot for a second, as if waiting for someone to say something in their defense. but no one did.
gilbert turned around and grabbed his coat and hat, then ran out the door as he thought of places y/n could be.
***
he decided to start looking in the woods where y/n walked to and from school.
"y/n? y/n, where are you?" he called out as he walked through plants and trees.
he went on like that for 45 minutes without taking a break. he found her at the very edge of the woods, sitting on the ground against a tree with her head in her arms.
gilbert slowly made his way over to her and sat down.
"i'm sorry." he said. y/n looked up, her face still red from anger.
"if it weren't for you, i wouldn't have embarrassed myself in front of everyone. imagine the trouble i'll be in tomorrow with those girls." she told him through sobs.
"i know. i should have left you alone when you told me to. but you shouldn't worry about them. what's the worse they could do?" he replied.
y/n dried her eyes. "they could ruin my life and no one would want to talk to me!"
"but i want to talk to you."
she looked at him for a second before turning away to hide her red cheeks.
"but i can't talk to you."
"if you couldn't, you wouldn't be right now. but you are. and honestly, you're going to need someone to be there for you tomorrow. who else is willing to do that?" gilbert said quickly, watched her face carefully for any sign of possibility.
"besides, don't you think it's more about if you want to or not? you can't let those girls decide everything for you. i think we'd be excellent friends." he added.
y/n didn't say anything, but instead continued to cry. gilbert stared at her, thinking of what to do.
he turned to his right and picked up a poppy. gilbert took y/n's hand and placed the flower in her palm.
"this flower was once a seed. but the flower grew, regardless of what troubles it may have encountered. do you think this flower always had these petals? do you think it's looked like this all it's life?" he asked her. y/n shook her head no.
"well then, what makes you think you'll be able to grow into a flower without obstacles too?"
he smiled, placing an arm around her and pulling her close. with her head on his shoulder, they sat there in silence for a second.
"for a seed to grow, it needs sun and water." he said.
"i'll be the one to give you that, if you let me."
***
(a/n) a part 2 of this imagine was requested by @Neon-flowers16 !! hope you enjoyed :)
