May 27, 1988

The day was slow, it had only been 2 months since Ruby and her mom had moved to Sesame Street, no wonder everything was so boring.

The day seemed to drag on forever, would her mom ever be home at this point? Ruby looked around her room, would anything be good for an experiment?

Ruby rummaged around in the moving boxes she still hadn't unpacked. Tucked under a chemistry kit were her old roller skates, she didn't even remember how to skate. Gears started to whirl inside her head, an idea!

She ran out of her bedroom and across the living room to the kitchen. She opened the fridge, inside there were two Diet Coke two liters that she tucked under her arm.

She ran back through the living room, grabbing the extra keys to the apartment. She locked the door (mom taught her that!) and ran down the shag-carpeted hallway.

The apartment complex was a red brick building and one of the oldest on the whole block, it looked like it could collapse at any moment.

Ruby had slowed down considerably by the time she reached the front steps of the building. She looked around the street, it was empty. Perfect. What's more, is that it made sense, it was 1:00 pm on a Friday, everyone would be at school or work, and those who weren't were probably eating lunch or something. Ruby giggled to herself, she really was the smartest gal in New York.

She set the two liters on the ground and did her best to strap the roller skates on, she pushed up and wobbled to her feet. She reached down and grabbed the bottles, nearly falling in the process. She loosened their caps and positioned the mouths of the bottles so they pointed behind her, and began to shake them.

After a few seconds, Ruby blasted forward as a jet stream of soda blasted out behind her. She couldn't really see, but she saw an open door and tried her best to aim for the building.

The soda continued to propel her closer to the building until she finally zoomed inside. Yet she still didn't stop, and no one seemed to try to stop her! Instead, she crashed full speed into the candy display wall, glass shattered on top of her. The two bottles then blasted off into several glass soda bottles behind the counter.

"What was that?" A voice called out.

"Some monster crashed into the display case!" A different voice answered.

"What?!" The first voice called again.

"Gina, do you think they're alright?" A third much higher voice spoke.

The three voices continued to go on about this and that, mostly things that were unimportant like "do you think they'll sue?" Or "who's going to pay for the damage?"

At least Ruby opened her eyes, a black man with long sideburns, a white blond teenager, and a large yellow bird were standing over her.

The bird's eyes widened "Gina! David! They woke up!" The bird bent down to get a better look at the monster, before being pulled up by David.

"Hey, are you alright?" The teenager, who is apparently named Gina, asked

Ruby tried her best not to cry, or fall down, as she stood to her feet. "Y-yeah! Of course, it was just a little experiment!" Ruby nodded her head wildly.

David looked at Gina, and then back at Ruby. "An experiment?"

"Well yeah! An experiment! I still don't know if it was successful, but I will soon!" Ruby nodded once again.

"Was there something that you were trying to figure out?" David asked, confused.

"I still haven't figured that out yet, but after a while, I'm sure I can figure it out," Ruby answered.

David sighed. "Well, you do realize that your family has to pay for all the damages to the store, right?"

Ruby's heart sank all the way down to her feet. "W-what."

David started to repeat himself. "Your family-"

"Please don't tell my mom about this! I can take care of it! I'll work for you until the debt's paid off! My mom can't afford it anyway! We just moved here! Please don't tell her!" Ruby pleaded.

"Hey calm down, either way, we're gonna have to tell your mom." Gina placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "We have to take you to the hospital anyway."

Tears began to well up in Ruby's eyes, the last thing she saw was Gina trying to catch her as she fell to the ground.

—————————————————————

Ruby woke up in the drably-colored hospital room, she looked down at her wrist, a needle was connected to her, she remembered learning about that in school, but couldn't remember what it was called.

She was so bored, just like this morning. She looked over at the clock, only 7:32. It was too late to have dinner and too early to go to bed.

Suddenly, a felt muppet nurse walked into her room. Ruby tucked herself deeper into her covers. The nurse smiled at her. "I was speaking to David out there, and I learned that you just moved to the street, and we don't have your records yet. Could you please tell me your name?"

Ruby glared at the nurse. "No… y-you're just gonna tell my mom!" She started to sit up.

"Oh no, we just want to help you! We just need to find your medical history." Ruby could tell the nurse was lying through his teeth.

"You do not! You just wanna get me in trouble like everyone else!" Ruby sat up fully now.

The nurse huffed and continued with the reasons why she needed to tell him her name. It didn't matter, Ruby knew what he was trying to do. Finally, he left, saying something like. "I'll check on you soon." Or whatever.

About thirty minutes pass after that, nothing happens. There was a mounted tv in the corner of the room, but no remote was in the room. Bummer.

The door opened once again, but it wasn't the nurse. It was the large yellow bird from Hooper's store.

He ducked under the door frame and turned to Ruby. "Hi!" Ruby turned away from him. Big bird's eyelids lowered. "I'm Big bird! Welcome to Sesame Street!"

Still turned away, Ruby responded. "I moved here two months ago…" her voice was nearly a whisper.

Big bird's eyes widened. "Two months? W-where have you been? I've never seen you before today!"

Ruby looked at him. "My mom… doesn't want me leaving the apartment…"

"Did… you do something?" his voice was much softer now.

"... uh… well not here… that she knows about…" Ruby tucked herself back under the covers.

Big bird looked down and scratched his head. "Hmm… well we don't have to tell your mom what happened, I'm sure Gina and David would be fine with it."

Ruby's eyes lit up. "Are you sure?! I mean what are we gonna do when she finds me in the hospital?"

Big bird scratched his head again. "Hmm… that's a good point…"

"It's no use Big bird, I'm gonna get in trouble no matter what."

Big bird lowered his eyelids. "That's not true, I mean, I'm sure we can think of something."

"No… she's already home from work now… she's going to find me anytime now…" Ruby sunk back into the bed. "You guys might as well call her."

Big bird lowered his head. "Oh… alright." He turned to walk out of the room. "Hmm… wait a minute, you never said your name. What is it?"

"It's Ruby… Ruby monster…" she closed her eyes and sunk deeper into sleep.

but not before she heard Big Bird say "oh, it's very nice to meet you, Ruby!"

Note: Hi! I'm this is the author here! For anyone wondering, Ruby is a real character, I wanted to use older/retired characters in this fic so get used to seeing names you never see!