⇎CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

||home||

" home, a place where I can go, to take this off my shoulders "

***

"Olivia, please start saying the blessing," Grace says to her daughter, placing a cloth napkin on her lap.

Sighing, she puts down her fork and folds her hands together. "Bless us, oh Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen." Picking her utensils back up, she stuffs her mouth with mashed potatoes.

"So, Olivia, how is school?" Charles asks his daughter, taking a bite out of a piece of chicken.

"Okay, I suppose." She shrugs, moving her peas around with her knife.

"Just okay? Haven't you got any friends mon amour?" He questions her.

"No, I do, but there's just girl drama," Ollie says quietly, leaving out the part about Gilbert.

"I hope you're not starting anything Olivia. We've got a good reputation here and we don't need you tainting it." He says strictly.

"No papa, none of it is my fault. For some reason, everywhere we go girls just have to be mean." She slumps into her seat.

"Sit up straight chérie." Grace reminds her and with a huff, olivia obliges.

"Just please try to stay out of it. For us?" Charles asks and she nods silently. "Good! What about you Isaac? How's your schooling?"

"It's all going fantastic. My professors are very nice and so are my friends." Isaac nods.

"Anyone in particular that you enjoy being around?" Charles smirks and leans closer to him. "A girl perhaps?"

Laughing, he shakes his head. "Well, technically there is this one girl..." He trails off, looking down at the table. Olivia had never seen him like this. His cheeks were red and he didn't make eye contact with anyone.

"What's her name?" Grace asks, suddenly interested.

Of course, she's ecstatic when Isaac likes someone but once she started talking to Gilbert, she banned it.

"Hattie." He states, still not looking at anyone. His mother gives him a look as if to say 'and?'. "Abrim. Hattie Abrim."

"Abrim?" Charles furrows his eyebrows. "Where have I heard that name?" He asks himself.

Ollie thinks. She knows that last name. It sounds so familiar. Then, it hits her. When she went into town with Jerry they walked past Abrim's shoe store. There was a girl outside of the store shining shoes, that must've been Hattie. Hattie was a gorgeous dark-skinned girl with beautiful curly hair and dimples. Isaac chose wisely.

"Isn't that the name of the shoe store in town?" Grace questions, raising an eyebrow.

"That doesn't make sense, Abrim's is owned by a black family," Charles states, turning to Isaac.

Oh no. Olivia's family was very open to different races but her father was...old fashioned you could say.

"Actually it does make sense." He takes a sip of his water and sets the glass down, looking up at his father. "Hattie is their daughter."

"Please tell me that you're joking Isaac." Taking a deep breath, Ollie's father continues. "You can do so much better than the help."

"Dad!" Olivia shouts at him as her mother also scolds him.

"No, father, she could do better than me just like mom could've done better than you." This sets her father off as he sits up so quickly his chair falls backward. Picking up a glass plate, he slams it onto the table, the plate shattering into a million pieces.

Olivia stands and backs away, her mother doing the same. Her father had never been the violent type. Sure, if he got drunk he would throw a few things but he would never lay a finger on anyone in the family. At least that's what she thinks.

Maybe.

Probably.

"You will not disrespect me in my house, boy!" He shouts at Isaac. "I raised you, paid for your schooling, made sure you had a roof over your head and what do you do to repay me? Bat-shit is what you do."

Grace gasps. "Charles, that is enough! How could you take the devils words into your mouth?"

"Are you kidding me? After what he said, you're going to take his side?" Olivia's dad looks almost hurt by his wife's words.

"I am not taking anyone's side. Isaac shouldn't have said those things but neither should you." She shakes her head, placing one hand on her heart.

"Whatever, I'm out of here." Isaac grunts, leaving the house in a rush. Olivia stares at the ground, not knowing what to do. That is until she realizes that her brother left his jacket behind.

Grabbing it off of the hook, she moves towards the door. "And just where do you think you're going?" Her father asks her.

"He left his coat. I'm not going to let him freeze." She says without looking at him. How could she? He scared the hell out of her at the moment.

Olivia quickly leaves the house before her father could say anything else. Looking around, she spots her brother pacing out by the barn and without hesitation, she runs out to him.

"Ollie, what are you doing out here?" He grabs her arms and rubs up and down to keep her warm. "It's freezing."

"I brought you a coat," She hands the clothing to him. "Wouldn't want you freezing to death now, would we?"

He smiles for a second but it leaves just as quickly as it came. "Are you okay?"

He laughs and shakes his head. "No, I'm not okay. I really like this girl. More than I've liked anyone before but everyone thinks that the idea that we could be together is absurd." He sighs, sitting on a bench that rests outside of the door to the barn. "What can I do about it, though? It's not like I'm going to change anyone's mind about it."

"Well, why can't you?" She aks him.

"What do you mean?" He asks, turning to look at her.

"Why can't you change anyone's mind on you two? I changed people's mind about me." Olivia states. "There was a girl— is a girl who is heck bent on making people hate me. It started working at first but I showed people the real me and now I have plenty of friends."

"Okay..." Isaac thinks for a moment. "How do you suggest we do that?"

"First we have to start with dad. Now it's going to be hard to change his mind but I know we can do it. I suppose we should start out slow by you just talking about how amazing she is. If there's one thing dad loves, it's something that makes his kids happy. Hattie makes you happy, right?" She raves.

Isaac nods in agreement. "As soon as he sees how much you like her and how amazing she is, then we introduce her to the family. It'll be a public meeting, like a party,"

"What about that dance that's coming up? Everyone in Avonlea will be there." He suggests.

"That's perfect! Dad would never make a scene in front of all those people. And while you show dad how great she is, you can show the rest of the town as well." Olivia finishes.

"Killing two birds with one stone, I like it." Her brother smiles and gives her a hug. "You really are the best Ol."

"Trust me, I know."
_
Guys it's officially the first post of my new updating schedule!

If you don't know, I posted the new updating schedule on the very first 'act one' post.

I now update every Saturday at 5pm central standard time and every other Wednesday at 5pm central standard time as well.

(my next update will be 5pm wednesday)

This chapter was dedicated to everyone who commented that they wanted to see more of Ollie's home life and her relationship with her brother so I hope you enjoyed it!

Also, if you haven't noticed I gave this book a makeover! I have a new cover made by blushingbieber which is AMAZING by the way so big thanks to them!

I also added Hattie to the cast if you guys wanted to go check her out :)

And if anyone cares (which no one probably does lol) the job interview was amazing and I'll be finding out if I got the job by next week. (The job is at a movie theater btw) which is like my second home so fingers crossed! 🤞

Also, yes I had to add in some sort of racism considering that at this time in history people were very racist and unfortunately still are :(