[Note to reader: This chapter takes place several months after the abrupt ending of the last, in which it was late summer (The beggining of school.) Now it is late fall, and Ruby and Craig have become close friends. She remains an outcast; her only other friend being Sean, and no one has found out about her cutting. There are several 'Memories' that take place in this chapter that might seem a bit unresolved or confusing-- but they are simply things they are remembering that happened between the last chapter and this one. If I get a resounding "YOU SUCK!" for skipping around, I will write a filler chapter, but I was bored with where the fic was, so I skipped ahead. If there are any questions, please, submit them in a review, and I will do my best to fix this fic in accordance. Anyway, just have fun, here is chapter 3! (P.S.- Sorry for the shortness of CH. 1!)]

"You and I in a little toy shop,

Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got.

Set them free at the break of Dawn,

'Till one-by-one,

They were gone."

Twang. Twang. Twiiing.

"Shit." Ruby plucked at the faulty string on her electric guitar again, and once more it responded with an offensive 'Twiiing.' She sighed. She couldn't get anything to go right in this stupid new high school, even though it was fall, now. "Godddamn." Slipping the neckstrap over her head and putting her instrument down on a chair, she looked at it, contemplating. Running her fingers through her hair (Now out of the braids and hanging in wavy sections past her shoulders) and growling in her throat, she turned away from it after a moment, and began to rant. "Stupid friggen' school guitar, dammit! How the hell am I supposed to practice with this SHIT?" There was the sound of running, voices in the hall. She had forgotten there were other kids still at Degrassi, and that the mike was still on.

"Dude, I'm SERIOUS, She's TOTALLY insane!"

"Come on, Spin, she can't be THAT bad-"

"No forgiveness!

You're no Martyr!

Sell yourself!

Make it true!

There's no price tag,

On my conscience!

Here's your answer!

It's still fu--"

"Uh, ex-cuse me, hon, but uh, could you please stop that unbearable wailing? We're trying to practice somewhere within a twelve mile radius, and we don't need the soundtrack from 'A friendless addict' playing in the background." Paige. Ooh, she hated that snotty bitch. She was wearing a cheerleading outfit. A. Cheerleading. Outfit. Ruby sneered.

"Oh, well, I figured you could use some real music instead of that peppy shit you're always bouncing around to." Paige smiled bitterly.

"Hon, that's not music. That's a freakish loser screaming into a microphone." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, turned on her heel. That was it. That as friggen' it, no way was Paige going to act like she wasn't even human.

"Come over here and say that to my face you slutty Canuck." Paige froze, did a slow-motion 180 to look at Ruby from across the auditorium.

"WHAT did you just call me?" She hissed.

"A slutty Canuck. But really, it's not just your broken hymen, it's the way it shows no matter WHAT you WEAR, because every Goddamn one of your outfits is so fucking small that I doubt even a four year old could fit into them. AND they're hideous, to add insult to... well, sluttiness. " Ruby jumped down off the stage. Her combat boots made a thudding noise. She cocked her head, bared her teeth in a challenging smile. Paige was on her in an instant, a flurry of fists and nails, furious. Fortunately, Paige was an inexperienced boxer, maybe because she was a cheerleader, but every blow was only against Ruby's shoulders and arms-- mostly because Paige was at least a full head shorter than her opponent, and each was a bit less than agony. Ruby was taken aback, but just for a moment, and then her fist hit Paige's jaw at an upward angle as her arm extended in a lightning-quick snap. The cheerleader stumbled back, holding her injured face, and Ruby beat her chest once. "Come ON, bitch, where are your high-kicks?! Ra-Ra, Sis-boom--" Paige jumped at her, and Ruby stumbled back, pushed her away. The cheerleader came again, and was struck with another hook, this one hit her square in the eye. And then Paige sank to the ground, hands over her face, muffled sobs seeping through them. For a moment, the rage was all Ruby felt, and then remorse, pity. She couldn't stay in there. Her fingers arched through her hair, clawed at it, as she first strode, and then ran from the auditorium, leaving the crying squad leader behind. She was hyperventilating by the time she got outiside, her chest rising and falling in spasmodic shudders. Ruby sank onto the bench, wringing her hands, trying to calm the crazed racing of her heart, trembling from the torrent of adrenaline rushing through her veins.

"Ruby?" She gasped, uncharacteristically startled, and jumped a bit in her seat. Looking up, she saw Sean, basketball under one arm, a concerned, confused look on his face.

"Sean." She said, and that was all she could think of.

"What happened, are you Okay?" She blinked, let out a short rush of air;

"Nngh." Her arms hurt a little, like they were sore from lifting weights. Bruised, she assumed, from Paige's enraged thumping. "I- ugh...nngh... Er." Sean lifted one quizzical eyebrow, "Paige and I... there was a fight." Ruby rose, her shaking had gone from violent spasming to mild trembling, she could walk home now. "She's in the... in the auditorium... I am... going home now. Bye." Sean, whos'e face had taken on a more urgent expression, used his free hand to grab her shoulder.
"What did you do to her?" He demanded. She jerked her shoulder free, glaring in a dazed fashion. Behind him, the doors to the school flew open, and a handful of teen cheerleaders came gushing out, Paige among them, angry. Ruby gestured, Sean glanced over his shoulder, then back at her, right into her eyes.

"Hey, if you ever need to..."

"Hey Freak! I'm going to make sure you never set foot in Degrassi again!" Paige hollered, rage in her voice. Ruby sneered.

"Whatever Bitch." Was all she could manage, and then she whirled, taking off at a pace a bit faster than a jog, trying to outrun the unfixable mistake she had just made.

Craig was sitting on her porch steps when she came striding up the walk, cigarette smoldering between two fingers, the look on her face darker than usual, she caught sight of him and then averted her gaze, fixed her eyes on the ground. She took another drag from her smoke exhaled into the dusk, and then flicked it onto the sidewalk, grinding it out with her boot. He rose.

"Why are you here?" She asked without looking at him, her voice flat. "I'm really not in the mood to talk." Ruby's tone was deep, rumbling, almost as if she had given up.

"Here." He handed her a small stack of photographs as he brushed past her, gruff. She promptly grabbed him by the nape of the neck, pulled him back, and put her arms around his shoulders. Ruby wasn't prone to displays of affection, but obviously he didn't know this, because he pulled away, turning around to look at her.
"Sean called me from the school." He muttered, his face blank but sad. "Said you got in a fight with Paige, that you were probably going to get suspended, at least." He didn't notice her trembling, all she could see was anguish in him. She looked at the ground.

"She had it coming to her." She mumbled.

"Ruby..."

"What? Nobody cares. I'm a stupid friendless American! Suspension? HA! I was expelled in America!"

"Well, maybe they should expel you here, too, then." Craig sighed. "There is no getting to you is there?" And then he left her with the photographs and her scars. She hadn't cut since that day when she saw him on the corner. She hadn't felt the need... he had always been there. She bit her lip and looked down at the stack of pictures in her hand...

"Craig..." She whispered, flipping through them. All of them were of herself, practicing on her guitar, candid leaving school or at the mall, a few of them were of her and Sean, or her and Craig, the only two people she really spoke to outside of school. The very last photograph in the stack was of a rainstorm, and there she was, dancing in the rain. He had seen her that summer's eve, running and twirling, he had seen her when no one had. Ruby Carter closed her eyes against bitter tears, and then she went inside.