Chapter 8 Alpas

They say if something is not treating you right just leave, as if it is so simple to leave the one thing that kept you breathing. That gave you a purpose, that turned sour, that turned cold, but you did not notice cause you thought..maybe..little by little. If you just stayed longer, and held on longer, and subsided the little things that came in cravings like hunger... you would have saw that the red flags were much stronger then the happy times.

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Merliah was walking down the path back to De L'heure after school. Gilbert had stayed back to talk to Miss Herny about information about medical schooling; he had started getting into that after he found his father coming ill. Ida stayed behind with him; not wanting him to gain any more information then her. Although the brunette knew it was because she was not ready for Gilbert to leave her anytime soon.

As the girl walked down the path, her eyes glued to the sky. Her basket in her right hand, and her phone in her left, as she listened to music.

Although she was happy to be in a different time, she was relieved that she had one thing from the future, and glad that it was her phone. It was like a phone without service - she could play her music or watch videos on her phone from her camera roll, yet the time never changed on her phone.

"Unbreak the broken, I say these spoken words. Find hope in the hopeless, pull me out the train wreck.. Unburden the ashes uncha-" The brunette sung along until she heard crunches of leaves under someone's boots, someone running to catch up to her.

The girl turned around to see the one and only.

"What is it now boy?" Merliah says as she turns back around, humming to the music that is still playing in the background.

She sighed and paused her music as she slipped her phone into her basket.

"What is that, and how is it - music, music is coming out of it..?" Jonathan questioned as a frown appeared on his face. He had come to mess with the shorter girl.

"That is none of your concern. Now if you have come just to patronize me I will humbly ask you to leave." Merliah spoke as if he were just any other boy. She continued to walk home until she felt a sharp grip on her wrist as Jonathan turned her around to face him.

"You think you are so brave don't you? You would think that me beating you would put some sense into your brain." He gritted through his teeth. His grip tight on her hand. "Maybe you can make it up to me.." He grinned. "You're a sick man Jonathan." Merliah spoke, her eyes at competition with the boy. "I would fight you again, even if it meant loosing. I would keep choosing to fight, I do not care if you humiliate me, or if you are stronger then me. I will continue to fight because I will not let some stupid boy whose ego is bigger then his own brain, stomp all over me. I will continue to fight because it shows that I am not afraid of you. No Jonathan Sailor, I am not afraid of you. You may be able to get away with everything because of your families wealth, and be able to obtain everything you want, yet the one thing you will never have is someone's trust."

With those words said, she twisted her hand out of his grasp. She took a tighter grip onto her basket, Merliah was scared of him, yet letting him know how scared she was would only give him an advantage..something to cling to. Prove him victory.

The brunette turned back around, as she began to slowly walk back to her destination. Never turning around once. Afraid that if she did, the boy with the blond hair and the quick temper, would charge after her.

The Sailor's boy stood there; puzzled, not really knowing what to say or what to think. With the little time he had known this new girl, the more fond he was over her. Jonathan did not know why, yet something opened up whenever he was around her. She pushed his limits, and exposed him to feelings he did not know he had. This is what angered the young boy, what drove him to the edge. Being around Merliah made him surge with vexation as everything he had control over in his life, was being handed over to her. He stood there, dumbfounded until he realized she was no longer in his view. The blond stood up straight, and turned around back to the school, walking towards the path to his own home.

As Merliah reaches the porch of De L'heure, she gently sat on Williams rocking chair and began to untie her boots, everyone knew how Eliza dreaded mud on her clean kitchen floor. "I think we think about it all wrong. Instead of loving someone back we should love them for the qualities we appreciate. The ones that we wanna see the ones that we cherish." Merliah overheard Eliza say.

Wise words, sounds like something you would have read from a book. The school girl thought to herself as she finally untied her last string. Pulling the boot off of her feet. She set both of her shoes next to the rocking chair. Sitting herself up she put her hand on the latch and opened the door. As it creaked she shut the door and took off her scarf and her hat and hung it up on the hooks Eliza made.

Once Merliah put her hat on the hook, she turned around and was met with Eliza and Mary. Eliza was running around the kitchen, making coffee for William Merliah supposed. It had to have been three o'clock by now.

"Hello Eliza, Mrs.Gills." The brunette said as she nodded her head towards both of them. She then walked into the parlor, out of sight from the two older women. She set her basket down on the couch as she sat on the floor, taking her slate and chalk out of her basket along with her geometry book. The girl began writing equations from the page that Miss Herny had assigned for homework. Merliah's brain wracked as she thought very carefully as she solved the problems one by one, not listening to the conversation being held in the next room.

"Well I do not find any qualities to like about her." Mary replied as to what Eliza had told her before Merliah walked in.

"Oh quit your quarrel, what has she done to you that is so unforgivable? Hm?" Eliza added as she poured the coffee into William's cup. "I'll be right back.." Eliza says as she grabs the cup and swiftly walks out to the barn.

Mrs.Gills looks around the room as she tapped her fingers against the hard wooden table, a smile not visible on her face. "She starts up trouble that's what." Mary said as she shook her head.

In the distance she can hear the quiet markings of chalk pressing down on a surface. As Mary takes a sip of her tea she hears a groan. The woman turns around to face where the parlor is, knowing she cannot see the girl. "I give up, this is so stupid." She listens as the brunette erases her chalk board. Mrs.Gills hesitantly gets up and walks to the parlor. "For heavens sake child what is the reason for all this ruckus?" She speaks in a sharp demeanor.

The brunette whips her head around to be faced with a small somewhat chubby grown woman. Her arms crossed as she looked disturbed. "I'm sorry Mrs.Gills, I did not mean to disturb you. Geometry however is not my strong suit." Merliah states as she turns her head back around to her book, writing the problem down on her board as her gaze goes to and from the book. "It was not my strong suit either as a child.." The older woman piped up. Mrs.Gills slowly walks towards the couch as Merliah is leaning against it with her back to it. The woman sits down and slowly moves her gaze to the chalk board as the young girl tries to solve the problem.

"You did not move the three." Mary plainly states as she looks somewhere else. Merliah's head piped up to the woman, then looks back down at her work. "Oh, how did I not remember that. Thank you Mrs.Gills." Mary just nods her head as if the girl was still looking at her. When Merliah finishes with the problem, doing it right this time, she writes it in her book. "Mrs.Gills?" Merliah asks as she continues to work on the other problems.

"What is it girl?" The elder woman replies. "Why do you not like me?" The brunette hummed as if it were a simple question. Mary turned to face the back of Merliah's head. "Who told you such a thing?" She responded. "No one Mrs.Gills, I just know when someone does not like me.." Merliah said.

"It is because of my clothing when we first met, and the quarrel between Jonathan Sailor isn't it?" The brunette spoke.

"Well..it is just, it is an improper way for a young lady to act and for one to dress such a way, it is a disgrace." Mary spoke as she turned her head to look at the antique birds Eliza had placed on the dresser next to the window. "I understand. I am sorry I disappointed you." Merliah spoke back. The girl did not intend to sound disrespectful or snappy, she was genuinely sorry she made a bad impression on Mrs.Gills. Although the girl new none of it was her fault, and she did not really care either as she had been filled in by Ida and Gilbert how Mrs.Gills tends to react to such things. After Merliah finished her last equation, she put all of her things back into her basket. She stood up and turned around to Mrs.Gills with her school things in her hand.

"Good day Mrs.Gills." Merliah said as her last words before she turned around and started to walk up the stairs to her room.

Mary was left in the parlor alone.

"Mary? Mary where have you gone?" Eliza snapped Mary out of her thoughts as she was met eye to eye to Eliza as she stood at the door way of the parlor. "That girl.." Mary started to speak, yet then she thought about the encounter with the young girl. "The girl is not so bad as I may have arraigned her to be." Eliza lightly smiles. "Come on now, your tea has gotten cold, I'll whip you up a new batch." Eliza speaks as she walks back into the kitchen.

Mrs.Gills stood up and wipes the ruffles out of her dress as she walks back into the kitchen, putting on her shawl and hat. "No no that's alright, I will be on my way now." She began to speak. The door opens wide as a familiar suburban headed girl bursts through the house with a smile on her face as she begins to ramble out how magnificent her day has been, mentioning the word Gilbert and school here and there. "Besides, you have plenty on your hands." Mary says as she winks at Eliza, a smile growing on her face, as her childhood friend just waves her hand towards Mary's direction as Ida is persistent to gain Eliza's attention.