Annie's apartment- Greendale, CO- Monday evening
Just because Annie had a study group didn't mean that she didn't study at home. In fact, since study group was primarily time to talk and be social, she had to set aside non-study group time to study. Which, to be honest, was kind of cool. She felt like one of the popular kids who goofed off in class, except for the actual goofing off in class, and she didn't want her grades to suffer.
Unfortunately her Spanish notes were confusing. It wasn't that she'd taken them down wrong, it was that Senor Chang had rambled for half an hour straight and she'd actually tried to get it down just in case he slipped something that might be on the final in there, and now it was giving her a headache. So she decided she could take a break, and pick up the phone to make a call.
Rilla was still entirely too giddy that she had a phone of her very own with a line she didn't share with half the village. "Rilla Blythe here!" she chirped when it rang, expecting it to be her mother or father.
Rilla didn't get a lot of phone calls.
Oh, Rilla, how cute were you. "Hey, it's Annie," she said, smiling on her end of the line. And then she added, for some reason, "Annie Edison," like there were a ton of other Annies who'd be calling.
"Hello, Annie!" Rilla said, still sounding thrilled to hear from her. "Was your trip back home all right?"
"Aside from a lot of rushing because I thought I'd have had more time to pack because I hadn't counted on being four all weekend, yeah," Annie said. "Thanks, Fandom."
"You were very conscientious at four," Rilla said, "and probably much less prone to tossing cakes into brooks than I had been."
Well now Annie had to ask. "Why would you toss a cake in a brook?" Were there even brooks around Fandom?
"I'd gotten it into my head that there was something shameful about carrying a cake into town, so when Susan asked me to take one to the church social for her, I tossed it into a brook instead of taking it there," Rilla said with a rueful laugh.
"Sounds totally logical to me," Annie laughed. "And think of it this way: you're probably the only kid to ever throw away cake."
Rilla laughed along. "True," she admitted. "And as I was walking back, I ran into my Sunday School teacher taking her cake to the church, and I adored her, so I was now very sure that taking a cake somewhere wasn't shameful. Oh, how Mother and Susan laughed."
"Little you was adorable," Annie decided. "And hey, speaking of adorable, we didn't get to talk about Keeeeen."
Nice segue, Annie.
Could someone blush so hard that it became audible? If so, Rilla was your girl. "He's in France."
"And it kind of sounded before like maaaaybe something was going on there?" Don't mind Annie, she was just living vicariously through you.
"I'm not really sure," Rilla babbled. "The whole evening had started out such a disaster---"
"That's like a meet cute," Annie supplied. "...Except for how you already knew him."
"Well, yes," Rilla said, "but he was always friends with Jem and Walter and Nan and Di. The last message he'd left for me before he headed back to Toronto was to 'tell Spider I said goodbye.'"
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Spider?"
"Because I'm all arms and legs," Rilla said, sounding faintly exasperated. "Shirley began it."
"Awwww, he has a nickname for you!" Forget that Shirley started it. Not the point. (And let's not think about the milady/milord thing she and Jeff had going on. Totally different.)
"Well, he's trade it in for a different one," Rilla said, blushing wildly. "He's adopted Walter's name for me: Rilla-my-Rilla."
That squeaking sound would be Annie. Seriously, she might be on her end of the phone making flags out of index cards right this moment.
She wasn't. But she might later.
"Shhhhhhhhh," Rilla said. "I'm 'not even seventeen!"
Being that she had only turned 16 in July.
"That doesn't mean you can't like, like a boy." Said the strumpet.
"Oh I've been fond of Ken for years," Rilla admitted shyly, "but I didn't think he'd noticed me."
"But he diiiiiiid," Annie sing-songed. Sorry for the romanticism.
"He did," Rilla confirmed, still blushing. "And he wanted to come over before he went to Kingsport, and he just wanted to see me! And then Jims woke up from a nightmare and refused to be put back down."
"Ooh, was Ken all sweet about it?" Annie asked hopefully. "Did he offer to help?"
Rilla laughed. "Of course not!"
Because what would men do with babies, Annie? Honestly!
"Oh." Well, he did in Annie's head. "What'd he do, then?"
"Mostly sat there, really," Rilla admitted. "It was a bit of a disaster. And then Susan came back home and starting talking and wouldn't stop. I almost hated her."
"There should be laws against that sort of thing," Annie decided.
"And she wouldn't leave us alone," Rilla said, "which was right and proper...and not at all what I wanted."
"How long was she there?" You were ruining Annie's happy vicarious story, Susan. Absolutely ruining it.
"Forevvvvver," Rilla groaned. "Jims finally went to sleep, but Ken had to leave because it was a several mile walk back to where he was staying over harbour."
"I thought this was supposed to be a happy story!" Annie said. Where was her happy, Rilla?
'
"Well, I walked him to the gate and we paused on the stairs for a moment," Rilla said, "....and then he kissed me. On the mouth."
What followed was an "eeeeeeeee" probably only dogs could hear. "Much better! You have a boyfriend!" said she who was going to spend her whole next summer obsessing over a guy because of a kiss but hey.
Rilla blushed furiously. "And I haven't even told my mother this part," she whispered. "Well, any of this, really. But when he pulled back, he asked if I would save my lips for him--not kiss anyone else--until he returned."
"Awww, that's so sweet. You're so lucky." Annie was totally not jealous, really. Not at all, shut up.
"Do you think I'm engaged?" Rilla asked, biting her lower lip.
Okay, that was a little out of left field to Annie. "I don't think so, if he didn't actually propose? But I'd say you're definitely in like, a relationship. And if you are engaged, which again, probably not, I have a wedding binder you can look through! Seriously, it has everything."
"Well, I haven't even told Walter about this, so thinking I'm engaged would be--" exactly what she thought, "--silly," she said.
"Well... maybe you can operate under the assumption that you're not, and if you are, it'll be like a fun surprise later!"
Oh, Annie, what.
"So I can stop avoiding Mr. Murdoch?" Rilla sounded relieved.
"Yeah, definitely," Annie assured her. "You were avoiding him?"
"A little bit, yes," Rilla admitted.
"Then it's a good thing you don't have to anymore!" Annie said. "Are you going to tell him about the Ken thing anyway, or just leave out the thinking you were engaged part?"
"I might tell him some of it," Rilla decided. "The kiss is kind of private."
"Yeah, you might want to leave that part out," Annie said quickly. "But I'm glad I got to hear about it!"
"Well, you're my dearest friend who's not family," Rilla replied.
"Aww. Good. Because you're mine, too, and I don't get to hear this stuff hardly anymore here." She got to hear about things like Britta's ex-boyfriend's tiny nipples. Seriously.
If Rilla had heard the term 'overshare,' she'd probably put it on a note and glue it on Britta. "Is it lonesome?" she asked sympathetically.
"Not really lonesome... I have a study group for Spanish class, and we're all friends and we hang out a lot and everything at school. It's just, you know, different than it was at Fandom." She paused. "In some ways, weirder." Oh, Annie. Dear, sweet Annie. You had no idea how weird it'd get.
"Weirder?" Rilla sounded dubious. "Does everyone turn into women in America, then?"
"Well, not weird that way," she amended. "But there's really no other way to explain Senor Chang. ...Or Abed. And I question the Dean a little bit..."
"Well, all Deans are odd. Ours wore pyjamas," Rilla replied.
Give it time; Dean Pelton might start. "True. It's just... quirky. Fewer animal transformations, though."
"Well, that's probably good!" Rilla said. "Are you happy you're attending?"
"I really am," Annie said happily. "It might not be a real university or anything, but I'm learning, and I'm still going to graduate, and I'm throwing a Halloween party and I think people might actually show up!"
"Oooh!" Rilla said. "Am I invited?"
Because a girl from 1916 with a baby would certainly blend right in...
Annie paused, thinking that very thing. "If you can get here!" she said. "It's sort of a school function. We're doing it after classes end for the day."
Rilla looked regretful. "That might be difficult--I have classes, too. Maybe next time? Are you having treats?"
"I have to have something. But I'm also figuring if I stick to things like Rice Krispies treats and Halloween candy, no one's really going to eat anything else anyway," she said. "I mean, Halloween." And no lie, even adults would go straight for the fun size Snickers.
"And glitter!"
Rilla paused, then added, "Well, not for eating."
"...There has to be edible glitter, but I bet it's out of my price range. I'll just empty out some containers on the snack table and people will love it." Um, yeah, they'd love it a year from now when they were still finding glitter all over the study room table, Annie.
"Everyone loves glitter!" replied someone who'd loved how much glitter had been used at Homecoming.
"Jeff doesn't," Annie said. "I've never heard him say so, but I can just imagine him saying now how it's not cool, except he'd give a speech about it."
"Well, Jeff is obviously wrong," Rila retorted. "Glitter makes everyone sparkly and happy! Who doesn't want to be happy?"
"Jeff."
"That's TERRIBLE!" Rilla cried.
"Well, he's, you know, older, and I think he doesn't like to have fun in general," Annie said. "Only ironically, maybe."
"Can you have fun ironically?" Rilla worried.
"I think so, but you can't smile during it," Annie shrugged.
"Sounds a little like the Methodists," Rilla decided.
"They're probably anti-glitter, too, huh?" Annie asked.
"Oh, definitely," Rilla decided.
"That just makes me sad," said Annie. "I can even see being neutral on it, but anti? Really?"
"I'm sure Whiskers-on-the-Moon would call it sinful, but no one cares what he thinks," Rilla said.
"Also he's wrong. I mean, glitter." This was why people thought you were young, Annie. You were having an extended conversation about glitter. "I'll have it, and anyone who doesn't like it is just going to have to deal."
"Maybe a bucket of it over the door? It'd be festive." RILLA. No.
"I think they'd make me vacuum," Annie said thoughtfully.
"Well, they'll probably make you do that anyway," Rilla decided.
"No, we have janitors," she protested. "Who by the way, aren't trolls. It's so weird."
"But they're supposed to trolls," Rilla said. Rilla, it must be admitted, had never known what a janitor was before Fandom.
Huh. "Oh, that's actually a Fandom thing," Annie told her. "Most places, they're just human."
"Ohhhhhhhh."
"We learn something new every day," Annie said brightly. "I should probably let you go. I've still got some studying to get done."
"Oh, of course!" Rilla said. "Call the next time you need a break, all right?"
"I will. You too!" Annie told her. "Bye, Rilla."
[Preplayed with rilla_myrilla because we could.]
Unfortunately her Spanish notes were confusing. It wasn't that she'd taken them down wrong, it was that Senor Chang had rambled for half an hour straight and she'd actually tried to get it down just in case he slipped something that might be on the final in there, and now it was giving her a headache. So she decided she could take a break, and pick up the phone to make a call.
Rilla was still entirely too giddy that she had a phone of her very own with a line she didn't share with half the village. "Rilla Blythe here!" she chirped when it rang, expecting it to be her mother or father.
Rilla didn't get a lot of phone calls.
Oh, Rilla, how cute were you. "Hey, it's Annie," she said, smiling on her end of the line. And then she added, for some reason, "Annie Edison," like there were a ton of other Annies who'd be calling.
"Hello, Annie!" Rilla said, still sounding thrilled to hear from her. "Was your trip back home all right?"
"Aside from a lot of rushing because I thought I'd have had more time to pack because I hadn't counted on being four all weekend, yeah," Annie said. "Thanks, Fandom."
"You were very conscientious at four," Rilla said, "and probably much less prone to tossing cakes into brooks than I had been."
Well now Annie had to ask. "Why would you toss a cake in a brook?" Were there even brooks around Fandom?
"I'd gotten it into my head that there was something shameful about carrying a cake into town, so when Susan asked me to take one to the church social for her, I tossed it into a brook instead of taking it there," Rilla said with a rueful laugh.
"Sounds totally logical to me," Annie laughed. "And think of it this way: you're probably the only kid to ever throw away cake."
Rilla laughed along. "True," she admitted. "And as I was walking back, I ran into my Sunday School teacher taking her cake to the church, and I adored her, so I was now very sure that taking a cake somewhere wasn't shameful. Oh, how Mother and Susan laughed."
"Little you was adorable," Annie decided. "And hey, speaking of adorable, we didn't get to talk about Keeeeen."
Nice segue, Annie.
Could someone blush so hard that it became audible? If so, Rilla was your girl. "He's in France."
"And it kind of sounded before like maaaaybe something was going on there?" Don't mind Annie, she was just living vicariously through you.
"I'm not really sure," Rilla babbled. "The whole evening had started out such a disaster---"
"That's like a meet cute," Annie supplied. "...Except for how you already knew him."
"Well, yes," Rilla said, "but he was always friends with Jem and Walter and Nan and Di. The last message he'd left for me before he headed back to Toronto was to 'tell Spider I said goodbye.'"
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Spider?"
"Because I'm all arms and legs," Rilla said, sounding faintly exasperated. "Shirley began it."
"Awwww, he has a nickname for you!" Forget that Shirley started it. Not the point. (And let's not think about the milady/milord thing she and Jeff had going on. Totally different.)
"Well, he's trade it in for a different one," Rilla said, blushing wildly. "He's adopted Walter's name for me: Rilla-my-Rilla."
That squeaking sound would be Annie. Seriously, she might be on her end of the phone making flags out of index cards right this moment.
She wasn't. But she might later.
"Shhhhhhhhh," Rilla said. "I'm 'not even seventeen!"
Being that she had only turned 16 in July.
"That doesn't mean you can't like, like a boy." Said the strumpet.
"Oh I've been fond of Ken for years," Rilla admitted shyly, "but I didn't think he'd noticed me."
"But he diiiiiiid," Annie sing-songed. Sorry for the romanticism.
"He did," Rilla confirmed, still blushing. "And he wanted to come over before he went to Kingsport, and he just wanted to see me! And then Jims woke up from a nightmare and refused to be put back down."
"Ooh, was Ken all sweet about it?" Annie asked hopefully. "Did he offer to help?"
Rilla laughed. "Of course not!"
Because what would men do with babies, Annie? Honestly!
"Oh." Well, he did in Annie's head. "What'd he do, then?"
"Mostly sat there, really," Rilla admitted. "It was a bit of a disaster. And then Susan came back home and starting talking and wouldn't stop. I almost hated her."
"There should be laws against that sort of thing," Annie decided.
"And she wouldn't leave us alone," Rilla said, "which was right and proper...and not at all what I wanted."
"How long was she there?" You were ruining Annie's happy vicarious story, Susan. Absolutely ruining it.
"Forevvvvver," Rilla groaned. "Jims finally went to sleep, but Ken had to leave because it was a several mile walk back to where he was staying over harbour."
"I thought this was supposed to be a happy story!" Annie said. Where was her happy, Rilla?
'
"Well, I walked him to the gate and we paused on the stairs for a moment," Rilla said, "....and then he kissed me. On the mouth."
What followed was an "eeeeeeeee" probably only dogs could hear. "Much better! You have a boyfriend!" said she who was going to spend her whole next summer obsessing over a guy because of a kiss but hey.
Rilla blushed furiously. "And I haven't even told my mother this part," she whispered. "Well, any of this, really. But when he pulled back, he asked if I would save my lips for him--not kiss anyone else--until he returned."
"Awww, that's so sweet. You're so lucky." Annie was totally not jealous, really. Not at all, shut up.
"Do you think I'm engaged?" Rilla asked, biting her lower lip.
Okay, that was a little out of left field to Annie. "I don't think so, if he didn't actually propose? But I'd say you're definitely in like, a relationship. And if you are engaged, which again, probably not, I have a wedding binder you can look through! Seriously, it has everything."
"Well, I haven't even told Walter about this, so thinking I'm engaged would be--" exactly what she thought, "--silly," she said.
"Well... maybe you can operate under the assumption that you're not, and if you are, it'll be like a fun surprise later!"
Oh, Annie, what.
"So I can stop avoiding Mr. Murdoch?" Rilla sounded relieved.
"Yeah, definitely," Annie assured her. "You were avoiding him?"
"A little bit, yes," Rilla admitted.
"Then it's a good thing you don't have to anymore!" Annie said. "Are you going to tell him about the Ken thing anyway, or just leave out the thinking you were engaged part?"
"I might tell him some of it," Rilla decided. "The kiss is kind of private."
"Yeah, you might want to leave that part out," Annie said quickly. "But I'm glad I got to hear about it!"
"Well, you're my dearest friend who's not family," Rilla replied.
"Aww. Good. Because you're mine, too, and I don't get to hear this stuff hardly anymore here." She got to hear about things like Britta's ex-boyfriend's tiny nipples. Seriously.
If Rilla had heard the term 'overshare,' she'd probably put it on a note and glue it on Britta. "Is it lonesome?" she asked sympathetically.
"Not really lonesome... I have a study group for Spanish class, and we're all friends and we hang out a lot and everything at school. It's just, you know, different than it was at Fandom." She paused. "In some ways, weirder." Oh, Annie. Dear, sweet Annie. You had no idea how weird it'd get.
"Weirder?" Rilla sounded dubious. "Does everyone turn into women in America, then?"
"Well, not weird that way," she amended. "But there's really no other way to explain Senor Chang. ...Or Abed. And I question the Dean a little bit..."
"Well, all Deans are odd. Ours wore pyjamas," Rilla replied.
Give it time; Dean Pelton might start. "True. It's just... quirky. Fewer animal transformations, though."
"Well, that's probably good!" Rilla said. "Are you happy you're attending?"
"I really am," Annie said happily. "It might not be a real university or anything, but I'm learning, and I'm still going to graduate, and I'm throwing a Halloween party and I think people might actually show up!"
"Oooh!" Rilla said. "Am I invited?"
Because a girl from 1916 with a baby would certainly blend right in...
Annie paused, thinking that very thing. "If you can get here!" she said. "It's sort of a school function. We're doing it after classes end for the day."
Rilla looked regretful. "That might be difficult--I have classes, too. Maybe next time? Are you having treats?"
"I have to have something. But I'm also figuring if I stick to things like Rice Krispies treats and Halloween candy, no one's really going to eat anything else anyway," she said. "I mean, Halloween." And no lie, even adults would go straight for the fun size Snickers.
"And glitter!"
Rilla paused, then added, "Well, not for eating."
"...There has to be edible glitter, but I bet it's out of my price range. I'll just empty out some containers on the snack table and people will love it." Um, yeah, they'd love it a year from now when they were still finding glitter all over the study room table, Annie.
"Everyone loves glitter!" replied someone who'd loved how much glitter had been used at Homecoming.
"Jeff doesn't," Annie said. "I've never heard him say so, but I can just imagine him saying now how it's not cool, except he'd give a speech about it."
"Well, Jeff is obviously wrong," Rila retorted. "Glitter makes everyone sparkly and happy! Who doesn't want to be happy?"
"Jeff."
"That's TERRIBLE!" Rilla cried.
"Well, he's, you know, older, and I think he doesn't like to have fun in general," Annie said. "Only ironically, maybe."
"Can you have fun ironically?" Rilla worried.
"I think so, but you can't smile during it," Annie shrugged.
"Sounds a little like the Methodists," Rilla decided.
"They're probably anti-glitter, too, huh?" Annie asked.
"Oh, definitely," Rilla decided.
"That just makes me sad," said Annie. "I can even see being neutral on it, but anti? Really?"
"I'm sure Whiskers-on-the-Moon would call it sinful, but no one cares what he thinks," Rilla said.
"Also he's wrong. I mean, glitter." This was why people thought you were young, Annie. You were having an extended conversation about glitter. "I'll have it, and anyone who doesn't like it is just going to have to deal."
"Maybe a bucket of it over the door? It'd be festive." RILLA. No.
"I think they'd make me vacuum," Annie said thoughtfully.
"Well, they'll probably make you do that anyway," Rilla decided.
"No, we have janitors," she protested. "Who by the way, aren't trolls. It's so weird."
"But they're supposed to trolls," Rilla said. Rilla, it must be admitted, had never known what a janitor was before Fandom.
Huh. "Oh, that's actually a Fandom thing," Annie told her. "Most places, they're just human."
"Ohhhhhhhh."
"We learn something new every day," Annie said brightly. "I should probably let you go. I've still got some studying to get done."
"Oh, of course!" Rilla said. "Call the next time you need a break, all right?"
"I will. You too!" Annie told her. "Bye, Rilla."
[Preplayed with rilla_myrilla because we could.]