Ruby had been shaking her leg all throughout class. She tried biting her pencil to distract herself, but that only left her with dents in her pencil and internalized confliction. Watching the clock, she knew that there was only about one minute left of class, but for some reason she dreaded that Professor Port would try to hold them back, talk for longer, or do something that would prevent her from leaving the room. Ruby's eyes darted to team JNPR.

Ruby knew that if she talked to her teammates about anything regarding Torchwick again, they would start to worry that he's starting to get to her head. Either way, she needed to talk to somebody about this self-perpetuating problem.

The bell rang, and Professor Port paused. Thankfully, everyone ignored whatever else Port had to say and started packing up their belongings. Ruby gathered her papers and shoved them in her backpack, remiss of how crumpled she would find them later. Slipping an arm through one of the straps on her backpack, she ran to catch up with Pyrrha.

Pyrrha was talking with Nora, who was creating frantic motions with her arms to explain something to her friend.

"Hey, guys!" Ruby called.

Both of them stopped walking and turned around. Nora visibly brightened upon seeing Ruby, and Pyrrha smiled welcomingly.

"Hey, Ruby, what's up?" Nora responded.

"I was wondering if I could ask you guys for advice."

"What kind of advice?" asked Pyrrha.

"Well…" Ruby hesitated, playing with the cuffs of her sleeve.

Nora leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Ooooh, you want to talk about boys?" Ruby blushed and reached up to twirl a strand of her hair.

Pyrrha giggled. "Maybe we should go somewhere more private."

Nora nodded and skipped over to the far end of the hall, leaning on the bathroom door and disappearing into the wall. Blush warming her face, Ruby followed in step behind Pyrrha.

The bathroom, a little colder than the rest of the school, felt strangely safe today. Nora was sitting on the counter, swinging her legs off the edge.

"So who do you have a crush on?" Nora blurted out.

"Nora!" Pyrrha jabbed her in the ribs.

"I—uh," Ruby laughed nervously.

Pyrrha wove away the question with a flick of her wrist. "Why don't we start with simpler?" said Pyrrha, a contentious tone pointed at Nora.

"All right," Nora submitted.

"What specifically are you dealing with?" asked Pyrrha.

"Well, uh," Ruby shifted. She'd have to choose her words wisely. "The age gap is the first thing."

"Oh right," Pyrrha thought. "Is he a first-year?"

"No, he's a little older than that."

"Oh, I see," Nora drew out. "Does he know about you?"

"Yeah…apparently how I got into school here was a whole thing."

"Yeah, you're a legend!" Nora exclaimed. "Do you think he likes you?"

Ruby shook her head. "No. He's kind of annoyed with me, actually."

"Hmm." Pyrrha tilted her head to the side. "At the very least, I would try to get to know him. Give it a real chance, but if it's not meant to be, then oh well. There are other fish in the sea."

"But what if he's not interested in getting to know me?" Ruby asked.

"I mean, honestly, I doubt that, but if not, then…" Nora shrugged her shoulders.

"I wouldn't be so pessimistic about the situation. Any guy would be lucky to know a girl like you." Pyrrha smiled warmly.

Ruby blushed at the thought. Neither of them knew how messy this situation really was. "It might be a little more complicated than going up and talking to him."

"How so?" Pyrrha asked.

Ruby thought about how much information she could divulge. "He doesn't exactly go here."

"What school does he go to?" asked Nora.

"I never asked. I'm not even sure how old he is. I've seen him in a dust shop a bunch of times." Technically, Ruby wasn't lying.

"Oh, it's one of those," Nora cooed. "Do you think he goes to college?"

"In that case," Pyrrha gestured to Nora, "I wouldn't try to make a move."

"Yeah, that's probably the case," Ruby muttered, barely loud enough for them to hear.

Pyrrha shifted onto her other foot. "Realistically, I can't stop you from doing anything. But if you do, you better be ready for what people might have to say about it."

"Personally, I don't care," Nora added. "But Pyrrha's right. Even though you're gonna be, well, legal in a few weeks, people are going to be stupidly touchy about the whole age gap deal and how you're not 18 yet, and it's pedophilia or whatever."

Attention suddenly piqued, Pyrrha turned and looked at Nora. "Is there something I need to know about?"

Nora shook her head. "No, I just watch a lot of TV."

Pyrrha raised her eyebrows but dropped the subject. "These things rarely work out, so he better be worth it."

Ruby nodded, but she was already deep in thought. Nora and Pyrrha hardly knew anything about the real situation, and they still knew enough to determine that she would be under meticulous scrutiny, a malicious spotlight, if the truth ever surfaced. The truth. She wasn't even to the bottom of the rabbit hole yet, but she could still grasp the sheer force of the burden she'd be carrying, the weight of everyone's stares. Red flags all around her, and Ruby was still considering her options. What the best one was should have been obvious, but…it wasn't.

Ruby wasn't exaggerating when she said she wouldn't notice what was right in front of her, even if it was kicking her in the face. This whole time, she had been absentmindedly thinking about how Torchwick's skin felt, the curves of his face, and the way his eyes refracted light. Actually, now that she thought about it, that's probably the reason her grades had been riding a slow decline over the past couple of weeks: she couldn't pay attention in class.

And now that she knows with full awareness of what was going on in her head, Ruby felt a little disgusted with herself. One would think that she could exercise a little restraint when it comes to these things, have a little decency, but no, she had to pick the most inconvenient guy in all of Vale. Oh, and not even to mention that she'd become a social pariah if word got out. Something nagged in her gut, a poison too stubborn to just fade away, sticking like glue to her insides. When she said it out loud, so quietly under her breath so that no one could hear, it sounded absolutely ridiculous, but in her head, it all felt right. Maybe it's one of those movie clichés. There's no logic—just plain human emotion. The only way to understand is to feel it yourself.