Ruby and the Turquoise Pendent
Preface
Running – it was always the running.
I was hurtling down the street as fast as I could try desperately not to fall over my mind focused on one thing. I could only imagine what terrible horrific things could be happening if I didn't get there quick enough, or if I was too late. How careless I had been not to see the signs and how very naive of me it was to assume it was all coincidence. It was all I could think about and it made it very hard to concentrate on my running. Stupid insignificant things kept popping up into my mind; mostly about how this seemed very familiar even though it was these very strange and thrilling situations that I had vowed to give up when I settled on Earth. Nevertheless, I was still running as fast as I could, I was nearly panting. There was only one thing in the world that could make me run this fast, something I had never counted on seeing ever again in my long life.
The boy I loved.
Chapter one
Well this was definitely a first.
We had just moved into our new street, Bannerman Road. Unpacking boxes of stuff in our new house, I wondered exactly how interesting living here was going to be, on a scale of 1 to boring. At the moment I had settled on a 2 because unpacking is a task of considerable boredom. Or maybe it wasn't – maybe it was a perfectly normal, perfectly indifferent task and I had just become acclimatized to amazement. I kicked one of the unopened boxes to null my boredom and I heard my tummy rumble and I sighed; I trundled over into our boring and very generic looking white kitchen. A lick of paint would sort this bad boy out. As I munched upon a ham sandwich, made from the food that Roxie had thoughtfully supplied our fridge with, I contemplated my surroundings. Despite my boredom, life was just about as perfect as it was going to get. We'd moved in pretty much successfully, we had a decent garden out the back and I hadn't chipped a nail - yet. The only flip side was school. This I was not looking forward too. I was worrying about the whole idea of attending school, mainly because I'd never been before, and my biggest worry of all – fitting in. Plus I did think it was kind of pointless.
Fitting in was never going to be a skill of mine, and I had thoroughly accepted this, but it didn't hush my qualms one bit. I was feeling quite tired. I was missing Martha lots, and the Doctor, but I simply couldn't travel with them anymore – I needed to settle. Mark the beginning of a new era. Though right now standing in a boring kitchen I wondered how long it would take me to regret my decision to give up a life of constant fantastic surprise. Unfortunately this meant blending in as a normal 16 year old human girl – something I most definitely was not. Of course I looked human. On Earth you couldn't really get away with anything else, but I'd always looked human. We all did. It was April and my Birthday had just passed. We were joining a school more than halfway through the curricular year – we'd had to fake out previous exam results and schools. We'd had to fake everything. Well... Martha's signature was real, as were our own. And how they'd managed to sort out this small house for us was completely beyond me.
Roxie however, hadn't a care in the world. Then again, she'd been to school before, so she hadn't much to worry about in the first place. She was merrily kicking another unopened box into the kitchen, whilst plaiting tiny little plaits into her long hair. She's my best friend and nothing short of a sister to me. In fact, the running story was that was my (adopted) sister, and our parents were off backpacking in India. Or some other far away country/continent. I glanced around our naked house. There were boxes everywhere...
Just then, with an impatient buzz, my phone rang.
"Hello?"
Roxie mouthed at me, who is it? So I mouthed back, Martha! And she just shrugged. Honestly, sometimes I think that Roxie just couldn't care less about her, I really do. I didn't mind her being careless; I knew that I was always closer to Martha than she was. We had a different kind of relationship. I chatted on the phone to Martha for a bit and began to unload the boxes we'd just moved into the kitchen. I was feeling a sky blue for the kitchen, something to compliment the white cabinets. I kept reassuring her I was fine, though I didn't really feel it and I made small talk while I listened to the comforting whirr of the TARDIS in the background of our conversation. Roxie kept shooting me quizzical looks and I ignored her. I think that was the last of the boxes. Well for now anyway. I said my goodbyes to Martha, for probably the fourth or fifth time in the last 24hrs and ended the call. I was already finding it difficult without her.
"What did Martha want?" Roxie asked helping me unload the final box. I sketched over most of the trivial details. It would make me homesick.
"She wanted to know if we were dropped off in the right area – apparently sometimes the TARDIS can play tricks on you. It once dropped of one of the Doctor's friends in Aberdeen." I told her.
"Oh." That was all she said – 'oh'. She never needed to read too much into things. Roxie knew every single detail of my life (and had lived it right alongside me too), so she knew how important this was for me, staying on Earth. She could also tell that I had the attitude of an injured athlete dead set on giving up their career. She'd be trying to cheer me up for months. Martha had told me fleetingly on the phone to look out for a Sarah-Jane Smith, who lived down our street according to the Doctor and I internally raised an eyebrow. Coincidence? I think not. She sounded very funny when she said it... like she was trying not to laugh, or she thought this would make me feel more uplifted. Well the last Smith I ever encountered was a complex story in itself. It didn't have a happy ending.
"Well this is definitely Ealing." Roxie said confidently, absent mindedly kicking a box around. I prayed to baby Jesus it didn't have anything breakable in it.
I looked down at the box. I really fancied a cup of tea, that would aid the settling in process. I opened the fridge and looked for milk. The doors were empty. Damn! My feelings felt uplifted though, perhaps a nice walk to a shop would improve my mood. I felt bad for Roxie. It was unfair to her that I felt so miserable all the time. As I gathered up some money and a jacket, yelling to Roxie where I was going, I ironically thought about running into this Smith woman. I couldn't help shake the feeling that she was familiar. I ran upstairs to my bedroom to retrieve my jacket. Wow. I've never had bedroom before either. I suppose there are lots of normal things I missed out on. I think. Then another thought slipped into my mind –what about school uniform? Argh! I will try and put off school for as long as humanly possible. Why do I look like a 16 year old girl? Why?
Just as I was going through my first silent scream of terrifying panic in my head, I left the house and noticed a girl watching me from about two doors down from where I was. I tried smiling at her, but her face remained motionless. Oh – maybe smiling wasn't the right kind of thing to do here. That didn't fill me with much confidence. I hope I haven't grown a third nose or something. I was pondering this over when I accidentally walked face first into someone and dropped my keys and purse. Whoops…
"Omigosh, I'm so sorry!" I said to the person, who began to help me collect up my things. I could feel my face hotting up in embarrassment (Please oh please don't let me bear too much of a resemblance to a tomato...!)
"That's quite alright young lady." I looked up from the pavement and found myself staring up at a middle-aged looking bloke, wearing a murky green Mac. I found this a little strange, since it was a lovely day and there weren't too many clouds in the sky. Then again, I wasn't exactly known to dress according to the weather either, so I couldn't really make a point of it. Well since I ought to meet our neighbours, I might as well start with this one.
"Hi, I'm Ruby Jones – I've just moved into that house with my b- erm, sister, Roxie." I said to him gesturing towards the small house that was yet to become a home and a mess of cardboard boxes.I could tell I was going to be terrible at this. Keeping up these appearances was going to wear on me, but I was fine with it all the same.
"How very nice to meet you my dear. I'm Robert Clarke; I live about two doors down from you, just there." Robert pointed towards a very neat looking house with sparkling white walls and ferociously clean windows. It looked like a very much taken care of sort of place. "We're newcomers like you, though we moved here only just last week and we feel very at home, the neighbourhood is most kind and friendly around here." He told me. I squinted at him in the sunlight. This man was a bit strange. I then had a flash of recollection.
"Two doors down did you say? Do you have a daughter?" I asked, intuition running wild. Sometimes I say things that are better kept in my head. And other times I say things I never planned on saying in the first place. I was quite interested in the statuesque face of the girl I had seen earlier, and I was curious. Nothing like a little mystery to get me through the day.
"Yes I do. You may run into her on your way, she just popped out minutes ago to get some milk. Knowing her, she's probably stopped around her friends' house for a natter." He said. I got the impression that Mr Clarke was a bit of a rambler, as well as strange. This was always a welcomed plus. I shifted my weight from one leg to the other, ignoring the fact that the strap from my top had fallen down my shoulder. I tried to nod and look interested but really I just wanted to get to the shop and then back to the house; I knew I was being rude but I had a lot to do.
"I saw her just when I was coming out earlier – she was watching me unload the boxes." I add-libbed a bit, hoping that Robert would give me a name to put with her face.
"That sounds like her. Verity is so easily distracted, especially at school when she is with all her friends, every time we get her report home from school; her teachers would say 'Verity would work harder if she concentrates and ignores distractions' or something like 'Verity has a good brain but she just doesn't use it'" He said obviously thinking back to a school report. I was bored now. I wasn't too fond of people who talked to long. I needed to leave before it got awkward. I sighed inside and focused on being bright and cheery – despite my longing to get away, I didn't want to give a bad impression.
"Well, it was very nice to talk to you Robert, but I must get going." I smiled and started to make my way (finally) to the shop, when Robert called out after me.
"If there's anything you girls need, I'll be happy to help!"
"Thank you!" I yelled back, walking down the street away from him and his boring conversation at last. He was right though, it did seem like a nice area around here and the shop wasn't very far. I peered further down the road and there also seemed to be a neighbouring chippy. Well that was tonight's tea sorted. I looked at the clock on my phone. It was around six o clock. I gave Roxie a quick ring and I received the all clear on the chip front, which cheered me up suitably. I love chips, particularly of the chip shop variety. I hoped they would be good.
Setting foot into the corner store I searched for the refrigerated isle and hummed to myself, feeling absent minded and accidentally bumped into someone for the second time today.
"I'm so sorry!" I said to the boy, whilst dryly thinking to myself that that should become my catchphrase. He laughed an easy laugh though and just smiled at me.
"It's okay." He had blond hair and grey eyes. He looked very nice. He was about to walk off when he stopped and turned to ask me,
"Are you new around here?"
"Yes," I mumbled shyly, shuffling around a bit. Not another awkward conversation. I didn't mind so much with this guy. He was easy on the eyes and not wearing a horrible Mac.
"Cool," He said, smiling warmly at me again and I smiled shyly in return. Then he left without a fuss. My type of person. I found the fridge section and got my semi skimmed without any further interruption.
As I turned my house key into our front door with a satisfactory little click I felt a great deal better than I did earlier. I scrambled into our box crowded hallway hugging the order of chips to my chest and made my way to the kitchen where Roxie was sitting, reading a book.
"You were gone forever, what took you so long?" She murmured, not bothering to look up from her book. She loves a good book Roxie.
"I kept bumping into people - literally," I told her, sniffing in the aroma of chips and fighting with the crackling paper packaging to free them.
"Grab me some plates will you?"
Roxie put down her book and went over a box on the worktop and fished out very carefully too bubble wrapped plates.
"Fancy eating out of the paper?"
"Works for me!"
Instead of eating in the kitchen which was probably the more sensible option, we cosied up on our plastic covered sofa to eat our glorious dinner of chips. We figured that since it was still wrapped in the plastic, not much could go wrong. And if it did we'd say it came like that and get another one to replace it.
"Mhmm, these are really good Ruby. Good shout on the chip front," She praised me and I nodded appreciatively, enjoying my chips.
"Saves us cooking," I said between mouthfuls and she giggled.
"So who exactly did you bump into? I was wondered what on Earth could be taking you so long," She said conversationally after another gulped down mouthful of chips.
"One weirdo man in a green Mac-"
"A Mac?"
"Yes a Mac."
"A green one?" She said in a tone of coloured disbelief.
"Yes, a green one!" I replied exasperatedly, rolling my eyes. She smiled cheekily and I continued.
"And one nice looking guy. Blond hair, grey eyes, your conventional beauty," I said reeling off a quick description of the guy who had not irritated me.
"Name?" She pressed interestedly.
"I was looking for milk Roxie," I reminded her.
"Doesn't hurt to ask," She said pointedly and I gave her a gentle nudge.
"Well he seemed nice. Maybe he'll be at our school," I said, instantly regretting mentioning school.
"Ugh, school! I can't believe I have to go to school. I can walk and talk and own a house under a false name, what else do I need to know?" I complained and Roxie patted my shoulder sympathetically.
"It's not that bad. Besides this is a matter of fitting in. It'll rouse suspicion with the neighbours if we don't go, they could call the educational authorities on us – or worse, child protection services or something. But listen; seeming as its Thursday, I'll cut you a deal,"
"Why is Thursday international deal day or something?" I interrupted and she narrowed her eyes at me and I stayed quiet, showing her I was ready to listen.
"Seeming as it's practically already the weekend, we can start school on Monday. Besides we need to decorate the house," She said excitedly with a twinkle in her eye that could only mean art-based trouble. I flicked my eyes over to a large collection of paints, wallpapers and art like accessories that had seemed to have escaped my attention until now. I groaned.
"That is so much effort!" I moaned and Ro narrowed her eyes at me again. She knew I didn't want to go to school badly enough.
"Fine I'm in," I reluctantly agreed, "But I want to do the kitchen."
"That's fine. I'll start the living room tomorrow I think. Are you feeling any particular colour scheme?" She said excitedly and I shook my head.
"Fantastic!" She squealed and I inched away from her. My expression was still playful though and she smiled. It was hard not to feel a little enthusiastic when Roxie was this excited.
I knew it was one o clock, and I knew I would be shattered tomorrow but I just couldn't sleep. I'd slung a bathroom towel or two over my window to act as curtains before I put mine up tomorrow, but the glow of the streetlamps were still getting in and my room seemed very empty apart from the surrounding boxed up furniture. I felt lonely. I didn't want to wake Roxie up by going into her room, she needed her sleep just as much as I did. I curled up onto my side and looked at my phone resting on my bedside table. I weighed up the odds of Martha answering and managed to talk myself out of it. What was she going to say that could make me feel better? I hated feeling so needy and depressed. This move was supposed to sort that. I suppose I had a lot to get used to. Living in a house was a lot different from living in the TARDIS and that was all I could ever remember.
Then my thoughts once again turned to me being different. I won't ever 'fit in' anywhere. I've spent my life recovering from this huge tragic accident or something; I can't remember. The first memory I have is waking up on the TARDIS floor while someone cried behind me. I remember The Doctor and his kind words. The words of another lost soul. He told me all about myself. How I had come from the planet that was the twin of his, the beautiful planet of Sunlok. The burning pink sky as if it was locked in a perpetual sunset and the huge mountains that glistened like diamonds in the twin suns that circled the planet. But, of course, there was a reason I was rescued into the TARDIS and not sitting on my lovely planet enjoying lemonade was, I remember him gravely telling me, because my planet was burning. Burning to death. There was fire everywhere and apparently I had become unconscious from the almost deadly smoke and I know I would have died if he just left me there. The Doctor had done me a fantastic kindness.
It was as you might have guessed Martha who was crying but I never actually asked her why. I was too shocked to register the true sadness of the event. I don't remember any of the destruction or the smoke and flames he told me about. I didn't even know what I was or where I came from. I cuddled my covers closer around me. I did know one thing. I knew that ever since I had woken up on the TARDIS floor, I've felt like I'm desperately looking something. I haven't told anyone. It's a very weird ongoing sensation. To not remember anything about a life you have led and still have desires from it. I have no idea what I'm looking for, or whether I'm completely delusional. I just keep that feeling to myself. As I restlessly flipped onto my back in my bed, trying to get comfortable I couldn't shake the desire now that I'd thought of it. Something had changed though I noticed. I felt a tiny bit closer to whatever I was looking for. And with that, and a few more relaxing thoughts, I sank into a pleasantly dreamless sleep.
I woke feeling refreshed and the daylight was bursting through my make shift curtains. I smiled. Today felt like a better day. I could hear Roxie pottering around in the kitchen downstairs and I snuggled further into my covers, rolling over to the opposite side of my bed. This was something I could definitely get used to – would Roxie kill me if I never got out of bed? It was a very comfy place to be. There was a soft knock on the door and I stirred.
"Breakfast in bed?" Said a very enticing voice that could only belong to a very lovely sister.
"Yes please," I grumbled in that 'I've just woken up' kind of way. She smiled looking pleased and made me scooch over so she had room to sit on my bed to eat our breakfast. It smelled very good.
"Mhmm, egg on toast," I said appreciatively before I tucked in. Now if this wasn't the life, I didn't know what is.
When we both finished, we sat, slightly crumb covered, on my bed wondering what exactly to do with our day. It was Friday and as promised we were not going to school. Instead we were going to spend our weekend decorating our new little house. I twiddled my necklace in my hands. The chain fell quite low on me and the pendent was quite large. It was an oval shaped smooth turquoise stone set in the middle of thousands of tiny turquoise rays embedded on a sterling silver back. It fit easily into the palm of my hand and I often played with it when I was stressed or bored. Or in this case, in a fit of pure absent-mindedness. As it was quite a statement piece of jewellery I normally wore it underneath my clothes - I never took it off.
Roxie saw I was playing with it and she mildly pursed her lips and her eyes flashed over to the box in it came in, sitting lonely upon my half made dressing table, with only a silver but empty perfume bottle for company. She looked sad. I didn't bring up that I'd noticed her face. I hardly wanted to think about it myself.
"So where do you want to start?" I asked in a mock cheerful tone and Ro snapped right out of her sad reverie.
"I was thinking, get the downstairs sorted and then work on our bedrooms," She said in an organized manner.
"Yes boss," I saluted her and she giggled.
"Get dressed," Was her departing note and I stuck my tongue out at her as I took our crumby breakfast tray downstairs. As I was clearing away I idly looked out our kitchen window and was stunned to see the blond haired boy I had ran into yesterday casually glancing from across the road whilst walking along. He caught my eye and appeared to laugh in surprise, gave me a little wave and continued walking. I knew I must've looked wide eyed and pyjama'd and I had no idea what to do. Why do we have no blinds? I need to get cracking on decorating this kitchen, pronto!
Two hours and some paint splattered clothes later, the Kitchen was looking a bit less generic and a bit more like home. It absolutely reeked of paint but it looked good – an attractive sky blue colour and as I had predicted it really brought the cupboards to life. I was humming along to my iPod and, as per usual it seems these days, nice and wrapped up in my thoughts. They were all over the place; I was really digging around my head. Worrying about everything. I didn't feel very distressed or anything; maybe this was just a logical and methodical process I felt I had to go through. I think in the big picture, no matter how much I thought and worried about everything, or obsessed over insignificant things or moaned pointlessly for something to do I could get through it. I could get by. I would get by because I had suffered worse things and I was putting that aside to try and settle here. I'd never settled anywhere before in my whole life. Or at least what I can remember of my life. It was then that I realised that I was a very depressing person. At least I was honest with myself.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts and continued to hum and paint. It was very therapeutic and relaxing. I smiled to myself. This kitchen was going to look fantastic. If there was one thing I should learn from human teen culture is that I should adopt a mantra of 'Don't get sad – get fabulous'. It seemed very fitting. It got me thinking about philosophies and I suddenly found myself coming over all metaphorical and then me painting this kitchen seemed to suddenly appear to be a very apt metaphor of how I was restarting a new life. Perhaps, painting a new Ruby.
I poked my head through the doorway (from which I had removed the door from in order to open up the hallway a bit) to see how Roxie was getting on in the living room. It was a feminine shade of lilac with and outstanding feature wall painted a much richer, much darker purple. She'd unwrapped the sofa (also deep purple) and appeared to be assembling lilac and other varieties of purple patterned cushion covers onto the cushions. It all looked fairly awesome, I like purple.
"It's looking fantastic in here Ro," I complimented her work and she smiled contentedly.
"I love decorating," She sang and I laughed.
"Do you feel at one with the paint?" I joked, and she nodded dreamily and then stuck her tongue out at me. She scrabbled up from the floor, nearly tripping over some stray paintbrushes.
"Let's see what you've done with the kitchen then," she asked as she wandered through into my sunny little kitchen.
"Not bad, not bad," She said appreciatively and I smiled proudly.
"Very open, light, airy... I like that you've taken the door out. Makes it much more accessible." She nodded looking very pleased.
"Very very nice. I'm proud of you Rubes," She smiled and I beamed back at her.
"Awesome, I'm glad you like it. I just need to find the table and chairs to put in here..."
"I think they're still in the lounge. With any luck I haven't painted over them thinking they were the wall." I had to giggle. I grabbed the table and chairs from the living room and brought them into my fabulously painted kitchen. The table was small and circular, white with yellow edges. The chairs matched the table and were predominantly white with the occasional yellow feature. It pulled the room together nicely. I realised that with all the blue, yellow and white, I had accidentally turned our kitchen into a sky. I laughed to myself – typical.
We were stuck for tea again and I could feel Roxie's resentment about having to order a take away again – this time Chinese – whilst I was growing very fond of ready cooked food being delivered to my door. Since we had an operational kitchen now (even though if you touched the paint for more than a second I guess you could say it was technically still wet) we arranged our delicious smelling Chinese food on our lovely table. Roxie picked out two sets of wooden sticks out of the white plastic take away bag and I frowned.
"What are they?" I asked.
"Chopsticks. You eat Chinese food with them."
"Do they not have forks in China?"
"Apparently not." She seemed very amused and I shook my head in disbelief. I gave eating with the chopsticks an admirable go but after about five hungry minutes of failing to get food into my mouth I surrendered to the fork. We didn't have much to small talk about so we were eating our food in companionable silence. I started to feel homesick again, wondering if Martha would make another call and my mind flittered back to our conversation yesterday about a woman called Sarah-Jane Smith who had travelled with the Doctor. I wondered what she might look like, if I ever had a chance meeting with her. I started fiddling with my necklace whilst I ate, feeling uncomfortable. Roxie snapped her head up to look at me with an alarmed expression on her face.
"What?"
She relaxed and said nothing. I was used to this; it can take a while getting used to being very close to someone who can see right into your mind. Sometimes when I think of things, I also think of things unconsciously that I have no idea I am thinking; but Roxie can hear it all. Sometimes she can't help herself reacting. I did narrow my eyes at her though. She wasn't relaxed at all – she was wearing her poker face.
"Why are you looking like that?" I asked in a suspicious tone. She retaliated with a question.
"Why are you thinking of some woman called Sarah-Jane Smith?" Even hearing the name spoken out loud was grating on me. I felt tense. It was dawning on me why. I started playing with my necklace again. Roxie speared some of her Cantonese style pork and took a mouthful. She absent mindedly stared out of our window. It was still nice and light outside.
"Smith." I sighed out loud, nudging my food around my plate.
"What about her?" Roxie quizzed, not seeming too bothered.
"Her? Oh..." She looked at me slightly gravely then and I felt quite foolish. That was why the name bothered me, it was so obvious. Of course it ached to remember him but something about Sarah-Jane made me want to remember him – I'd only heard her name in a passing conversation. I then read Roxie's face again and I knew she had worked out something else too. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know. I started thinking harder now but I was finding it difficult; what was it about this woman that clouded over my memory?
Roxie froze; a reaction to stress. She frowned and then briskly started to put things away from another cardboard box. I squinted at her and idly wondered if she could sift through my brain and save me all the effort. I knew she could hear what I was thinking nice and clear. A wave of sadness suddenly washed right over me and I dropped my fork on the table. Roxie sighed then and proceeded to start clearing up (she hates mess). Something flickered in my brain and then fizzled out before it had a chance to live – I could feel a headache coming on. I rubbed my temples, annoyed. I could hear Ro shuffling about clearing away plates and plastic, muttering to herself. I wasn't really paying much attention until she started rummaging through a small cardboard box I'd left on the side. I'd forgotten to take it upstairs with me after I'd finished decorating. She picked up a small wooden box out of the cardboard one. It had tiny golden flowers engraved on it. I winced. It was like the inconsequential box was screaming at me. Roxie stared at it, and then raised her gaze to meet mine. She sat down with it clasped in her hands and sighed.
"Ro, are you okay?" I asked, putting my hand gently on her shoulder.
"Yeah, I was just…. Never mind. This is yours isn't it?" She pushed the small box to me. The silence was long but I held it well.
"He gave it to you, didn't he?" She quizzed. Adrenalin pierced my heart. I felt slightly woozy but pulled myself together – I wasn't that weak. In fact, I was pretty strong. Strong enough to withstand some majorly crushing blows.
"Well?" Roxie asked again. I looked at her. My best friend is very beautiful. Her long dark brown hair was flopping into her blue eyes, partially interrupting her interested stare. She's taller than I am, but not by too much and she's got a cracking figure. Right now she was digging up some memories in brain that I was trying hard to ignore.
I have a very complex past.
"Yeah… he did." I managed to croak. We both looked at each other then, feeling the rise of a very emotional moment. Roxie came closer and offered a supportive hug that I took with good grace.
"When he gave it to you..." She began gently. I raised my eyebrows at her. So we were really going to do this? I sighed. This was so not what I wanted to talk about.
"….He said something to you. What did he say?" I held the box close, suddenly having an agonizing flashback of when he gave me the box. Terrifying fire blazed and loomed over us, before we got torn apart; his eyes were etched with pain you could only imagine living a thousand lifetimes to experience.
"I don't remember." I lied, just as airily as she'd brought the subject up. Ro just raised an eyebrow, knowing full well I was lying. I know she's not stupid; she's just clever enough to swallow that lie so I didn't get pushed over the edge. The memories came flowing into my brain anyway. When I'd been given the box, it was before the fire had reached us. Then Roxie, The Doctor and Martha had shown up, dragging me kicking and screaming away from the love of my life …
Things are hard.
"I'm going to make a cuppa, you want one?" I said suddenly, standing up and walking to the kettle, hastily putting the box in my pocket.
I didn't blame them. Of course I didn't.
"Umm, no thanks." She said, adjusting to the lift of tension in the room.
"Oh damn it! The electricity has gone. We'll never be able to call an electrician in time..." I said forlornly, yearning for my cup of tea. Then an intelligent thought occurred to me and my new acquaintance's words echoed inside my head.
"If there's anything you girls need, I'll be happy to help…" I murmured under my breath.
"What are you waffling on about now?" Roxie said in that oh-so-sensitive way she has.
"I know who can fix our electric." I said proudly smiling at her.
"Who? We don't know anybody around here!" she said, shooting a look of stone my way. And now for the lynch pin of my plan...
"You don't, but I do." I told her.
"Who?" She asked, looking puzzled.
"Mr Robert Clarke." She still looked mystified.
"Who's he?"
"Our next door neighbour…"
"Oh... with the horrible green Mac? Where did you meet him?"
"On the way to the corner shop.
"You bumped into him, didn't you?"
"Yes…"
"Ruby...! She sighed exasperatingly, shaking her head for extra effect.
I'm pretty sure that she wasn't all that narked though, because all she really wanted was for the electrics to be fixed and her cuppa. I could sense she wanted one.
"Okay, I'll go ask him." I said, determined to be successful for once.
I walked down the road to Mr Clarke's house. It still marginally freaked me out how eerily clean it was – creepy. But I got over my collywobbles and knocked on the blue painted door. A youngish looking woman, wearing a pink apron with (yuck!) frills on it. She was also wearing oven mitts and carrying a baking tin.
"Umm… Mrs Clarke?" I took an intelligent guess at who the woman in the doorway was.
"Yes?" she answered rather pointedly, as if I was a nasty smell.
"Err… is Mr Clarke in? I'm Ruby Jones – I've just moved in down the road." I told her, hoping it would make her want to make me feel slightly more welcome than a squished slug begging for a cup of tea. Great.
"Oh, yes, you're one of the new girls aren't you? How silly of me to forget! Of course he's in; let me get him for you…" Mrs Clarke said her blonde ponytail swishing as she talked. How could she forget? The woman didn't even know me!
"! THERE'S A GIRL CALLED RUBY AT THE DOOR FOR YOU!" Mrs Clarke yelled up the stairs, which was shortly followed by a thunder of footsteps in the shape of Mr Clarke.
"What seems to be the problem Ruby?" He asked, looking concerned. I got over my shivers and spoke.
"Our electricity has gone out, and I was wondering if you could have a go at fixing it?" I questioned hoping that he could – it was getting rather chilly on the doorstep.
"Yes, yes! Of course my dear! I'll be round in just a tick. Now where did I put my boots…?" He wondered of to go and find his boots and left me and Mrs Clarke standing at the door. It was beginning to rain, in a very April like fashion… so much for the clear skies and sun.
"Well I'd better be going then. It was very nice to meet you Mrs Clarke." I smiled at her and she beamed back. Her teeth were completely white.
"Oh please, call me Jane!" She exclaimed her ponytail swishing again.
One awkward hour later...
"There you go girls, all working." Robert said proudly, admiring his handy work.
"Thank you so much, you do not know how grateful I am!" Roxie gushed, racing towards the kettle and flicking the switch. That girl was in a serious need of some caffeine. Well that was one problem done with, only the rest of the house to deal with. I looked around at the cardboard boxes that still littered the bottom of the stair and though of our unfurnished bedrooms up the stairs; this was going to take forever...
"Yeah, thanks." I said showing him the door, nearly tripping over a box on my way there.
"It was nice to meet you Rob!" Roxie yelled after him as he waved good bye and I shut the door.
"That man is seriously weird; don't ever bring him into this house ever again. I mean, what is with that sludge green Mac? Has he seen the weather outside? It's a perfectly sunny day! He looked like he should've been out fishing somewhere rather than living two doors down from us. I told him he could take it of inside, but he went all defensive like he wasn't wearing anything underneath. In fact, what if he wasn't?" Roxie slated, her eyes popping wide at her last thought, turning into the biggest bitch ever right before my eyes. And I was about to join her.
"Well in his defence it did start to drizzle whilst I was waiting on the doorstep... although he was wearing the exact same outfit when I bumped into him earlier. He isn't the only oddly dressed Clarke y'know; his wife, 'call me Jane', looks like she's just stepped right out of a Bramley's apple pie advert – she was even carrying a baking tin!" I informed Ro, who had just finished making her cuppa.
"There is definitely something going on in that house." She concluded, with a ferocious sip of tea. So we had weird neighbours living further down the road...great. Just our luck.
"Yup, we have got to find out what." There was me thinking I'd left all of that behind. Ha, silly me!
I wandered back into the kitchen; Roxie had fixed our digital clock onto the far facing wall, in between two white cupboards. I took a moment to look around. So this was home... I was beginning to like it. Hopefully it would give me some of the peace I needed. I wandered into our living room (literally about five steps from the kitchen, in and out of the hall) and started to methodically unpack and arrange stuff from the remaining boxes. It was an odd way to sooth my mind but it seemed to do the trick.
After I'd successfully plugged in the TV (...after three goes) I could sit down on the sofa we'd viciously ripped cling film off a couple of hours ago. I guessed Roxie was upstairs, sorting her room... or maybe having a lie down. Our day had started so busy after all. I will never know how Ro and Martha managed to arrange all those calls for our things (that we'd only bought about 3 hours previously). Mind reading must have its perks. I sighed to myself... what to do! I'd never had quite so much time to myself before. I couldn't decide whether I thought about joining RO upstairs but then I'd probably get roped into helping her sort her room. I know she likes her things sorted quickly. I'm much messier, plus I take ages to sort stuff out, I'll never get it all done by Monday. Oh god... school. I'd pushed that thought to the back of my mind pretty well. However this brought less pressing (but more disturbing) thoughts to the front of my mind. I rather wished they'd go back to wherever they were hiding.
Sarah-Jane Smith, I thought to myself as I idly flicked from channel to channel. There was something about her name that did strange things in my head. Just then Roxie popped her head around the lounge door, startling me.
"What are you trying to think about?" She said quickly, her tone as sharp as knives, taking me by surprise yet again.
"What do you mean?" I said, frowning and flicking some of my hair out of my eyes. My fringe has got quite long. Ro's face was pinched with concentration and she rushed over to sit opposite of me on the sofa and her blue eyes probed at me but she seemed to find nothing; at first. Steadily, her lips parted into a profound, and abruptly horrified 'O' shape whilst her eyes glazed over. I put my hands on her shoulders and shook her slightly. She was scaring me.
"What is it? What are you talking about?" I said, studying her face intently. She blinked a few times and stared at me.
"Think of Sarah-Jane." She whispered. I frowned some more, but did as I told. But I knew nothing about her, what was she doing?
"There, right there, what is that?" she said, and for a fleeting moment her words reminded me of the Doctor and I pined for the TARDIS.
"What is what?" I said, irritated now. What on Earth was she talking about? She raised an eyebrow at me.
"You're telling me you can't feel that?" She said sceptically and I pursed my lips.
"Well I think you know that I'd tell you if I knew." I said pointedly, annoyed now.
"You're finding it hard to remember her, aren't you?" she said, her eyebrow still raised, until she clocked my quick change in expression and I pounced.
"Remember? What do you mean remember? Have I met her before? Do I know her? All I can think of is when we were talking about her and when Martha mentioned her. Roxie what the hell are you talking about?" Her expression was a complete poker face and I groaned in frustration, flipping back on the sofa.
"Why do you do this to me?" I moaned and she smiled faintly.
"I don't mean to, honest. I just worry about you too much." I flipped back up to look at her again.
"What am I missing Ro? Tell me, what is it I'm supposed to feel?" I nearly begged her, hoping for a good reaction. I'm so desperately fed up of constantly being in the dark. Roxie sighed then, looking troubled and torn.
"I didn't mean 'remember' her, exactly; it's just easy for me to say that when the way I look into your mind is so retrospective and introspective at the same time." She said smoothly, and both of our faces softened. I shuffled closer to my sister and she twirled a strand of my hair between her fingers.
"It's like something's blocking you... or restraining you more like, when you think of her name. But it just seems to be deep in your mind, something that you consciously fail to acknowledge, but I seem to be able to see everything... and nothing at all."
"Thanks that made the world of sense." I said half sarcastically. I averted my eyes to the lilac lounge walls.
"Cheer up Ruby. This is supposed to be happy." Ro said half heartedly but she knew how I really felt.
"You might find him." She said softly, almost knowingly. I didn't pause in thought to take in the tone of her voice. I'd given up looking for him years ago. I'd come to accept that a vast part of me would just be an empty void. Or at least that was how it felt.
"Yeah, if my subconscious stops playing tricks on me." I scoffed. Finding my love was a dream I'd given up on long ago. Well, maybe that wasn't true. I still have a little hope. Stupid, useless, vain hope. I wiped a tear from my eye and Roxie came back to me again.
"Just when I was about to leave." She murmured jokingly.
"Yeah." I said light heartedly, playing along. I looked right at her, her face a picture. Looking sort of far away, but I knew she was right there in the moment. Like she was day dreaming and concentrating hard on something right in front of her at the same time, blue eyes dancing in the light.
"I know how you feel." The sentence was heaped with empathy. I rubbed her arm. It didn't seem fair at all that Roxie had to suffer along with me.
"I know you do. I'm sorry." Her face creased into a well worn smile.
"I can't stop listening when I start – it's a terrible habit I need to get out of." She said and I laughed without humour. I wiped away a few more tears and got of the sofa then, not being able to stand the mourning feeling in the room any longer.
"You should try blocking me out more often." I said jokingly, but really meaning what I said. It wasn't right that Roxie should have to listen to the traumas in my head all day as well as me.
"Yes." She said, understanding, and I could tell by her tone that she wasn't listening anymore. A tiny part of brain acknowledged that my head felt a tiny bit lighter without her reading it. It always felt that way. I sloped up the stairs to my hardly-there-room and flopped down on my bed. The plastic on the mattress crackled and I covered my face with my hands. Of course this was so much better than the inside of the TARDIS, but it was going to be a while before this house felt like a home to me.
Thinking of the TARDIS brought back a flurry of memories and I blushed. Sometimes I felt almost ill remembering and thinking about that boy. Well. More of my loss. I was always thinking of him...he's beautiful. He was my whole life. I sighed and rubbed my head. And I felt more tears escaping. But somehow it was nice to think of him for a bit... he had messy chocolate brown hair that never managed to be tidy and the most gorgeous eyes I'd ever seen.
I sighed and lazily looked around for my sheets and duvets and such. I spotted a pile of fabric neatly folded up in the corner and I went to inspect it closer. I let out a startled laugh and knelt down on the floor by the pile. It was a gorgeous, fluffy and warm deep purple throw! How had I not discovered this sooner? I stroked it and admired its softly soft feeling. I must thank Roxie for this! Of course all my sheets and duvets were there too, of a purple colour. I sat there, all wrapped up in my new throw, immersed in duvets thinking about how I should thank Roxie when she wandered in. Did I believe she wasn't listening to me? Who knows.
"What on Earth are you doing?" She giggled, sitting cross legged opposite me and we burst into fits of giggles.
"They're so lovely. How did you know?" Roxie looked embarrassed then. I nudged her.
"Come on, tell, tell." I said and she smiled embarrassedly. I tucked my hair behind my ear and looked at her expectantly.
"Well when you dozed off in the TARDIS, I got a quick glimpse of what you wanted your bedroom to look like." She admitted, her eyes wandering off and avoiding me. I just laughed again.
"I knew it!" I giggled.
"Ruby this is a lot of laughing." She smirked and I just nodded, feeling very silly. But it was nice.
"I think I'm a bit high." I joked and smiled. Things were looking up.
*Bleep! Bleep! Bleep!*
"Wake up world, its 7:00AM and its predicted to be another unusually sunny day here at..."
I fumbled around, randomly slapping my alarm clock in a desperate search for the snooze button. Roxie was standing in the doorway of my room, brushing her teeth.
"C'mon Ruby, time to get up! You don't want to be late for your first day of school! Get up, get up, get up!" She yanked me out of bed with a mouth full of toothpaste and sent me in the direction of the kitchen.
"Hhhhhhhhhuuuurrrmmmmphhhhhh…"
Or at least that's what I think I said when I was exposed to the light pouring out of the kitchen window…
"Eat, now." Roxie said, shoving a bowl of multi-grain cereal in front of me. We'd got the downstairs looking really good over the weekend and the upstairs was coming along nicely. I felt a lot more settled in; shame all that feeling was gone now! School, what a swizz. No one really needs to go, do they?
"Yes, we really need to go. Now get a move on!" She said fiercely and I just glared at her. I wolfed that down and then went upstairs to get changed - I was nearly ready when there was something wrong.
"Roxie…"
"Yeah?"
"How do you do up a tie?"
"Come here..." She sighed exasperatingly, doing it up for me. I was nervous as hell. I checked my reflection in the hallway mirror and smiled weakly back at myself. I looked alright. Possibly a bit nerdy. No, way to nerdy. I raced back up stairs.
"Ruby!" Roxie yelled up the stairs and I launched myself into my room before she got me and locked the door. She banged on it so hard I was worried the door would just give in and break.
"What?" I said casually, airily overlooking my hasty retreat up the stairs and almost embarrassing flinging of self into my room. I heard her sigh.
"What are you doing?" She her muffled voice travelling into my room, in that tone of when a child is doing something you've told them a million times not to do.
"Changing." I said with my head stuck in my wardrobe. I loosened my tie and ditched my jumper and pulled out a blazer I had been saving for this particular occasion. I ran my fingers through my hair to give it a bit of volume and smiled at my much better looking reflection. I flung the door open and faced Roxie.
"Miles better." She appraised with a confident grin and I nudged her playfully.
We managed to leave the house on time and also (by some ridiculous miracle) we managed to get to school on time too. I walked up to the big metal gates and walked across the playground, following Roxie to what was obviously reception. I let her do all the talking. I found myself unexpectedly mute. Also pulling at my skirt a bit too.
"Quit staring at everything!" She hissed at me. Ooops.
"Sorry it's just all so ordinary…" I whispered back. And I wasn't kidding – halls! With fake plants and everything! This made me think way back. Back to some happier, much less complicated times.
"Hi, can I help?" said the receptionist. She seemed nice enough. Too bad I was having possibly a life changing epiphany. Did I know Sarah-Jane? This was something I was likely to remember. Then why couldn't I? My mind was way ahead of me though.
"Err, yes, I'm Roxie Harper and this is Ruby Jones-" she pointed briefly in my direction, giving me a confused look.
"-we're new in school and we need a timetable and what classes we're in and stuff."
I was so glad Roxie had got his covered. Even if I wasn't in the middle of something big I would have probably said I'd wondered in here by mistake and ask directions to the nearest chippy (which I already knew since I went there to buy our tea the other night).
"Here you go girls – we've made sure that you're both in the same form and you seem to be in most of your classes together."
Roxie.
"Oh my god I am so thick. Thick, thickety, thick, thick! The thickest idiot of thick town!" I burst out, forgetting that I was no longer in a time travelling box with the Doctor and in fact in a reception where social norms were required and no one would understand the what I'd just said roughly translated to 'I've worked it out' or 'I now understand the giant blaringly obvious solution'.
"Welcome to Park Vale." The lady said handing us our things, sounding genuinely quite sincere despite the mildly horrified and embarrassed look on her face. Roxie looked mortified.
"Thank you." I mumbled as the bell rang for us to go to registration, feeling more than embarrassed. Fortunately I was a tiny bit too happy to care.
"What are you playing at?" She silently fumed.
"Listen." I said, walking along side her.
"What? I can't hear anything."
I rolled my eyes and stopped her right in the middle of the strangely empty corridor.
"No Roxie. Listen!" I said pointedly and her facial expression became glassy. Her lips parted into a thrilled 'o' shape and she looked straight at me with nothing but pure excitement on her face.
"They're related! You finally worked it out." the fantasticalness of the discovering somewhat disheartened by a distinct lack of people to hug.
"Amazing." Roxie said and I raised an eyebrow. Her poker face returned.
"What?" I said, overly suspicious. Ro pursed her lips. I sighed and folded my arms whilst a small part of my brain acknowledged that I should be in lessons. The big part didn't care.
"Ruby-" she began, and the tone of her voice was intense. "-You know so much, and yet somehow, you manage to remember so little. What's happened to you?" She said, half puzzled, half worried. I was getting a bit worried myself. Scrap that, a lot worried.
"What do you mean 'what's happened to me?'? Nothing has happened to me, you know everything that has happened to me! And you were there for the most of it, and if that wasn't enough you can frickin' read my mind as well! Ro you're half a step away from being pretty much omniscient in my life."
Roxie smirked at that.
"Sorry. You know how I get."
"Yes I do. It's amazingly frustrating." Ro fished out the map from our pile of welcome stuff and started peering at it. I felt something distinct jingle in my pocket as I looked around for a clock. I didn't really care. I just wanted to go home. I was in an oddly good mood for remembering things now. I was getting swept away in the image of my special someone in my mind whilst Roxie was babbling on about directions. It was almost like I could feel his arms around me. He felt so in reach...
"Right, let's see, we're in class 11D. Hmm... Well according to the map it's…" I sighed, pulling myself out of my strangely real reverie and saw someone coming in our direction. I could make this a thousand times easier by just asking this person.
"Hey!" I called out at him. He turned around and walked over to where we were standing.
"What?" He said bluntly. Charming.
"Hi, we're new here can you help us please?" I said with the greatest of ease. Roxie may have the knack when it comes to people at desks (and social norms), but I have definitely got it when it comes to lads. And this one was particularly cute. Sort of blondish brown hair, light grey eyes. He was taller than me too. Then I realised I recognised him. God, I have been so slow recently.
"Sure. We met the other day didn't we?" he said with a charming smile.
"Yes. In the shop and embarrassingly through a window in my pyjamas." I said light heartedly. He chuckled.
"What seems to be the problem?"
"We can't find our form room." I explained whilst Roxie was still (uselessly) looking at the map.
"Which form are you in?" He asked, not freaking out in the slightest. Hmm, he must've been new before as well.
"11D." I told him, while Roxie was still mumbling to herself in the background.
"Hey! That's my class, I'll take you there."
"Cool." I said, smiling. I nudged Roxie.
"Ro." I hissed, nudging her harder.
"Roxie!" I said in an attempt to get her attention, with an accompanied shove.
"…and then we turn left… … …What!" She said, slightly irritated. Why was she sounding irritated? If anyone should be irritated, it should be me!
"That nice-looking lad that I told you about is taking us to our form room!" I hissed for the third time.
"Oh, how did you manage that? Ooh, he is cute!" She said marvelling at the lads undeniably certified cuteness. I saw a twinkle flash in her blue eyes instantly, and she flipped her dark hair over her shoulder.
"I know. Now follow!" I said, already walking away, and catching up with the lad.
"Oh, you never said, what's your name?" I casually asked.
"It's Chris." I mused over that for a couple of moments, and then re-focused my attention to the conversation. If I keep getting distracted by trying to remember things I wasn't going to get anywhere.
"I'm Ruby, and that's Roxie. We're sisters." I said, pointing over to where she was (which was only actually a couple of steps behind us).
"Sisters? You don't look very related." He said, looking at me as if he was having déjà vu or something.
"Erm, adopted sisters." I clarified with a smile. He grinned.
"Awesome. Have you been here long?
"Nope, just moved in this week." I told him.
"Here we are then!" Chris said pointing to one of the many doors that were dotted along the side of the corridor. It had 11D written in big letters on it…
"Thanks…" I mumbled to him and went to sit down in the empty seats at the back with Roxie.
"Ooh, he was dreamy…" She said with a distant look she wears when she's day dreaming.
"Ro! Snap out of it! And promise me you'll never use the word dreamy like that ever again..." I whisper-shouted at her snapping my fingers in front of her face. Then suddenly it jumped out at me (a thought I mean – a kipper didn't jump out and slap me if that's what you're thinking).
"I remember!" I gasped. Jesus I was doing a lot of remembering today. Maybe Roxie was right when she said I knew so much but remembered so little.
"What?" She said, immediately knowing that something was wrong. Our teacher (Mrs Bakermore) had just finished the register and Roxie had obviously clocked me staring at Chris (giving her the – wrong - impression that I fancied him).
"The Slitheen…"
"What about them? What about the Slitheen?" She asked, getting a worried frown beginning to occur on her forehead. She carefully scanned the classroom for Slitheen.
"Chris is the guy that I bumped into on the day that we were being chased by the Slitheen!" I could not have put it any simpler than that. It seemed like ages ago! And something oh-so-insignificant as bumping into a teenage boy who happened to be the first person I met in Ealing. The coincidence was baffling.
"Oh! I get it!" She replied, my hectic deduction sinking into her brain.
"I knew we shouldn't have moved here," she worried and I frowned at her.
"I like it here." I said sternly.
We managed to sit through most of our lessons relatively well. The initial novelty was wearing off fast and I found myself doodling in my lessons. The bell rang for lunch (finally) and I made a speedy exit.
"I've got to find him!" I practically yelled at her, yanking her across the hall and out into the school grounds.
"Why?"
"He seems nice!" I said cheerfully.