Ruby smiles as the applause of the audience fills the small cafeteria at her elementary school.
Bowing another time for the other students, she left the small stage together with her co stars.
They were the theater group of the Green Patch elementary school, and they just finished their play of little red riding hood. And for a 7 year old, she made a pretty good red riding hood.
Once they were off the stage, one of her friends, Penny came over and hugged her "That was sensational!" Laughing Ruby was more than happy to hug Penny back. She was one of her best friends who always supported her. But the close contact made Ruby also blush a bit. Even though she was only 7, Ruby was very intelligent so she was already in 6th grade. So it wasn't surprising that Ruby already knew she liked girls instead of boys.
While Ruby had been in thoughts about her close proximity to Penny, her friend had started to tell her in vivid details how amazing the play was. "And the way you weren't afraid of the big wolf who tried to eat you!"
"Ruby." Looking to her side she saw her mother and older half sister Yang. Yang was four years older than Ruby and already in middle School.
After Penny released her Yang pulled her into a bear hug. "You were fantastic!" Barely getting any breath Ruby had to hit Yang in the shoulder "Yang...can't … breath."
Releasing her with a sheepish grin. Summer was standing behind them laughing lightly.
Running over to her mother Ruby gave her a tight hug, which Summer returned as well as she could.
The past few weeks, Summer had become paler than usual and a bit weaker but that didn't stop her from being supermom.
She used her lunch break to support and watch the theatre play of her daughter, not wanting to miss just one moment of it. "You were beautiful my little Rosebud." Ruby's smile got wider and brighter at this.
She was happy that her mother loved it. She always supported her dream of becoming an actress ever since she started to show interest in it two years ago. She was also the only one who knew about her preference of girls, having girl talks with her, where Ruby tells her about the girls she finds pretty and likes.
That were the only times at home when she could openly show who she is. Her father Taiyang didn't want to have anything to do with people like her, that's why it was a secret between Summer and her.
After Summer, Yang and Ruby ate something Summer gave both of them some of her self made cookies, before driving back to work.
Sitting there eating her cookies, Ruby couldn't be more happy.
But this happiness didn't last long.
While Ruby started to go to middle school and turned 8 not too long after, her mother started to get weaker and weaker.
Her dad was always home and drinking after he lost his job at Signal Academy because of his homophobic views and insulting a gay colleague and some students whose parents sued the school.
On a particular bad day, summer collapsed in the office, Ruby and Yang were both called out of their classes and taken to the hospital to see their mom. Tai arrived a lot later, looking halfway decent and still sober.
They had to wait a few hours before they were allowed to see her because the doctors had to make some tests.
The result? Summer was diagnosed with lung cancer.
The chance of her winning the fight was very slim since the illness was already in its 3rd stage.
If she had gone earlier to the hospital, her chances might have been better.
The shock of it pulled Tai for a short time out of his slump, and he was for a while the father he had been before he lost his job.
Summer fought everyday against her illness, so Ruby and Yang tried to help, through treating her as if everything was okay. Wanting to make more happy memories instead of wasting the remaining time they had.
During her time in middle School, Ruby was a member of the drama club. Summer tried to go to every play and even escorted her to a few auditions for commercials, where they met one of her old friends, Ozpin.
He was now a rather famous manager and producer of young talents. For Ruby he was like an uncle who promised Summer to support her daughter as long as he can in every way possible after she won't be able to anymore.
With only 9 years she had been in several commercials for cereals, bicycles, shoes and other things like this. She was a rising star.
Summer finally died when she just turned 10. It happened without any of them noticing it, since she peacefully fell asleep one night.
They all mourned her lost greatly, Ruby had just told her the girl she liked had kissed her on the cheek on this day and now she had nobody she could talk to about her feelings.
Yang tried to be there for her sister, but she also wanted to live her own life.
Tai…..Tai got a lot worse after his wife died. Now he was drunk on a regular basis. And when he was drunk he tended to have a very short temper when someone did something he didn't like or approved of.
Before Summer had been there to calm him down or shield the children from seeing this side of their father. But now there was nobody who protected them.
Especially after Tai learned from some of his old colleagues that Ruby apparently had a girlfriend. Even though she was just 11 when she started high school, one of her friends from middle school asked her out and now they were showing their relationship in school.
And so started the verbal and physical abuse by her father.
She got beaten on a regular basis, sometimes already before breakfast and she never heard a nice word from him that wasn't an insult from him.
The worst part?
Her own sister abandoned her. It wasn't that Yang didn't want to help her, but she was scared what he would do to her if she intervened and she was mostly in the mornings and evenings home, spending most of her time with friends or at her part time job as a mechanic.
Yang couldn't bear being home too much since Summer died.
But Ruby knew she shouldn't let anyone know about this. She learned how to hide all the bruises and her hurt and sad emotions. Ironically was this one of the reasons her acting skills improved immensely.
Ozpin acted as her manager after Summers death, with her signed agreement of course, and not even he knew how bad she had it at home. He was like a father for her and she felt warm and safe with him.
Her first girlfriend broke up with her after Ruby started to emotionally retreat, which Tai thought was great, and he tried to talk to her, thinking this could let her realize that this phase of her should end.
But if Ruby learned one thing from her mother, it was to never hide who you are. And so even though the abuse got worse and worse over time, she never lied about her sexuality and was proud of it.
But things got a lot worse after Yang graduated high school with 17. After her graduation she told Tai
she and some of her friends will make a camping trip before all of them go their separate ways. And since she was the "normal" child, he of course didn't anything against it.
Yang always was in his favor, since she was the perfect average teenage girl, straight and she was working part time to earn something for herself.
Though he didn't notice that Yang packed a lot more clothes than necessary for a camping trip. A trip she never returned from, since she used the opportunity to run away and never look back.
Something Ruby never forgave her. She left her in the hell of their fathers, no Tai's presence (she refused to call him a father)
Yang didn't even ask her or told her about her great plan to start a new life. That was the day Ruby knew she didn't have any family left. She wasn't naive to believe Yang would come back for her.
Tai blamed Ruby for it. And in his rage he even started to use her as a human ashtray. It wasn't often but she had a few burn marks on her body she always covered up with makeup.
One year later Ruby also graduated high school, with just 14 years.
Shortly after her graduation, Ozpin called her to his office, where he presented her an invitation to a casting for a big Role in an upcoming movie. The casting will be in LA, which is half across the country. But Ruby didn't have anything stopping her to go. This was the big chance she had been waiting for and she didn't hesitate to basically Run away to take it.
Ozpin saw this coming, just like Summer did a long time ago. That's why she made sure to name Ozpin as a legal guardian for Ruby.
And so he moved with her all the way to LA.
And that was the beginning of Ruby's bright career as an actress.