A/N: Because of a certain event that unfolds toward the end of this chapter, Jean Juan's was originally planned as the setting, as sort of a callback to Ruby and Spencer's first date... but, such a location was rather limiting. Moving the setting to Gus's Games and Grub instead really opened the door to unlimited possibilities (so much so, that some material has been trimmed to keep the chapter at a decent length).

Let us take a look and see how Ruby fits in with the rest of the sports club... or... not?

The Royal Woods Rocket Squirrels had a tradition for whenever they won a Friday night football game during their regular season, which was to get together the following Saturday and celebrate their previous night's victory – a celebration that was not exclusive to just the teamsters who played their hearts out in the game itself, but was also extended to groupies as well as players' girlfriends – of which, Ruby Patel was both; while she was still merely a groupie within the school's sports club, she was also the girlfriend of the team's number seventy-seven lineman, Spencer Banks, who had dropped by the Patel residence to pick up the girlfriend who would accompany him to their victory celebration, but as she stepped through the front door of her house to meet up with him at the end of the walkway, the look on her face did unsettle him a little.

"Hey, babe," he greeted her. "Somethin' wrong?"

"Like, why do you ask?" She responded in a rather dismal voice.

"You look a little irked about something," he pointed out.

Ruby cocked an eyebrow before she said, "Maybe I'm a little irked about the nacho breath comment last night…"

An eye-bulging duck face was Spencer's reaction to his girlfriend's explanation; he hadn't forgotten about their first kiss from the previous night, in fact, he still had thought about how it was not what he had expected it to be, but he was unaware that his rather tactful comment about the smell of her breath had struck a raw nerve with her. His face turned red and he began to nervously stroke his arm while he attempted to offer her an apology.

"Oh… uh… well… I… didn't mean it like… nothing personal…" he stammered. "It was just sort of… unexpected, I guess…"

Even if it was true, since she had eaten nachos during the game, it was quite a moment killer for her; not to mention such a comment had also stung her in a far deeper and personal way than she was willing to talk about to anybody.

Finally, Spencer sighed and told Ruby what she clearly wanted to hear him say: "I'm sorry, Rubes…"

Ruby remained silent for a moment longer before her face did finally soften ever so slightly as she then informed her boyfriend, "Well… I, like, brushed my teeth very thoroughly after breakfast this morning… if you… wanna give it another go?"

A rather crooked smile quivered across Spencer's round face; their first kiss may have been disappointing, but that didn't mean that, as a couple, they still couldn't share in other kisses.

"I'm game…" he mumbled.

As before, their eyes eased shut, and they slowly leaned toward each other until their puckered lips met for another kiss – this time, both parties went in with the intentions of trying to make this kiss all the more passionate and romantic, but, was it any better than their first? Not exactly. As was the case again, sparks did not fly for either of them, and there was an obvious absence of the kind of electrical excitement that both of them expected to experience from sharing in a kiss with each other. They pulled away from each other and locked eyes once more; this time, Spencer tried to say something a little more positive about their second kiss…

"That was… nice…" he said. "Really… nice…"

"Yeah… samesies…" she agreed.

Ever since they had first met earlier in the school year, Ruby had amazed Spencer in so many ways, from her feisty personality, to her playful sense of humor, and, of course, being the little hottie that she was; with all of that in mind, he felt certain that she would be an equally amazing kisser, but this was one area in which his expectations were not met. Likewise, Spencer was unlike many other boys whom Ruby had met… surely, a big culture potato such as him would have more of a touch of a romantic in him, but just the same, kissing him did not meet her expectations, either; she began to wonder if they had stayed in theater club, and had their first kiss in Romeo & Juliet, would it be just as disappointing?

Wanting to shake off this incredible awkwardness, Spencer decided to carry on with their day's plans.

"Ready to for our big victory celebration?" He asked.

"Yeah, totally," she said as she proceeded down the sidewalk by his side. "So, like, where are we going to celebrate?"

With its pizza buffet and gaming arcade, Gus's Games and Grub was one of the biggest youth hotspots in Royal Woods, which made for an ideal meeting spot for a high school football team to get together to celebrate their most recent win. Saturday was always one of the busiest days of the week at Gus's, and for good reason – it was one of the days of the week in which children did not have to attend school, so it was only logical that this would be a time of week in which business would spike, and this Saturday was certainly no exception; by the time Spencer and Ruby had arrived, the restaurant was already jam packed with kids of varying ages gorging themselves on pizza, or running around in the arcade. Even amidst the crowd, Spencer was able to scope out a few of his teammates mingling by the arcade entrance.

"There they are," he said before he motioned his girlfriend to follow him. "Over here."

The two maneuvered their way through the hustle and bustle of the crowd into the arcade, which was filled with high school-aged jocks as they indulged in a little fun of a more virtual sort. Spencer soon dominated the Dunkster 3000, a game that involved trying to score as many baskets in a row to beat whoever made the previous high score – which seemed to always belong to somebody whose initials were L.J. Basketball was another sport that Spencer enjoyed, and while this was not quite the same as practicing free throws on an actual court, he still found it an enjoyable way to shoot hoops out of season, as he sunk one shot after another while others had gathered around to witness his feat. The number on the digital point counter above the hoop kept increasing by twos with each basket he made, and it looked as though that this could be his chance to surpass the previous high score that had been set by this infamous L.J., but alas, this was one of those times where his competitive nature got the better of him, as the more baskets he shot, the more aggressive he became, until finally, one shot he threw bounced right off of the rim, and sent the miniature basketball careening across the arcade, past the dining area, and through a small opening into the kitchen, where it struck Gus in the head and knocked him to the floor while he was in the middle of making another pizza. 999,882 was Spencer's final score – a personal best for him, but still not quite enough to surpass the previous high score of 1,000,000.

"Awwwww!" He wailed dramatically. "So close, and yet, so far away!"

As Carlton stood next to him, he offered a somewhat sympathetic nudge to his shoulder and said, "Tough break, man."

Spencer sighed before he grabbed another miniature basketball and handed it to his girlfriend who stood on his opposite side. "Wanna give it a shot, babe?"

"Me?" Ruby asked as she took hold of the ball that was handed to her. "Like, why not?"

Even though she never actually played basketball before, this seemed simple enough: just throw the ball and get it through the netted hoop… how could she miss? She stepped up to the miniature court and tossed the ball toward the hoop… and missed spectacularly. The ball bounced off of the score counter above the hoop, which displayed a big red 'X' in place of a score; the red-faced Indian girl rolled her shoulders in embarrassment as those who had gathered around the Dunkster 3000 had a chuckle over her little fail.

Skee-ball was hardly any different. Just as before, Spencer effortlessly rolled the heavy, plastic balls up the incline, where upon they hopped over the various rings and fell into the holes that were marked with different point counts like a well-oiled machine operating with robotic precision – a few other regular visitors could have likened his skee-ball skills to that of a certain Filipina who, likewise, frequented Gus's arcade with her friends. By the time the ninth and final ball reached the prized 100-point hole, it had brought Spencer's final point total to 510 – not the highest score ever achieved on this game, but marginally better than what seemed to be the average for most visitors. Like previously, Spencer stepped aside and offered his girlfriend a chance to try her luck.

"Think you can handle this one?" He asked as he motioned for Ruby to step forward and give it a go herself.

Unlike the Dunkster 3000, the skee-ball machine looked far more challenging, and when Ruby gave it a try, that proved to be the case for her. In her attempt to imitate Spencer's technique, she rolled each ball up the incline, one right after another, and failed to hop over any of the rings – some balls failed to roll all the way up said incline, whereas others merely bumped up against the bottommost ring; the digital score counter above the rings never increased beyond zero after she failed to make even one ball hop into a hole. Again, Ruby was red-faced and embarrassed with the snickering jocks gathered around the machine, one of whom could even be heard remarking, "You're not really good at handling balls, are you?" Such a remark garnered a rather uncomfortable glance from not only Ruby, but her boyfriend as well… for different reasons…

Ruby did not fare so well at Around the World in 80 Seconds, either. She and Spencer sat side by side in plastic airplanes that they continually banked from one side to another as they watched the screens before them that simulated their flight through the skies, both of them trying to score as many points as they could before they reached the finish line on the opposite side of the virtual world. Ruby could see the finish line before her, but there was still one more point she needed to reach before her plane crossed said finish line in order to achieve a perfect score; alas, the placement of this point was such that she had to bank her plane farther than she had before to try to reach it, but she banked so far that it sent the plane on her screen spiraling out of control, whereupon it crashed into the ocean, which allowed for Spencer's plane to make it across the finish line unscathed. This was not turning out to be the fun day Ruby had anticipated, and Spencer did not help matters much when the two made their way across the busy arcade after their little race.

"You don't come here often, do you?" He asked in a somewhat teasing manner.

"I've only been here, like, once, and that was mostly for the pizza…" she admitted, but when something else had caught her eye, her attitude flipped on a dime. "O-M-G! Look-look!"

She took off in a flash for the claw game, and the one particular item contained within that had caught her eye was a rather large bobble-headed figurine of Peter Masters. On the current season of the popular reality dating series, The Dream Boat, Peter was one of the contestants who were competing to become the first mate of this season's new captain, Dina, and the one contestant with whom Ruby was absolutely infatuated. Unlike many of this season's other contestants, who were mostly big, buff, hunky, and muscular North American men, Peter was a suave and sophisticated Englander, who also possessed something of a mystical quality about him, given how soft spoken he was… plus, like many young American girls, Ruby found British accents hot. Her face was practically smooshed into the glass as her eyes widened like saucers at the sight of this bobble head of her favorite dream boat from The Dream Boat.

Spencer stepped over to the machine himself, only to shake his head and say, "Don't even bother, Rubes…"

Ruby peeled her face away from the glass as she turned to face Spencer and inquire, "What do you mean?"

"This thing is rigged," he groaned incredulously. "I've been trying for months to win that Shorty McGillicuddy bobble head, it just slips right out of the claw."

He pointed to the bobble head of the short, curly-haired, and freckle-faced fellow in the sports jersey with the orange ball tucked under his arm; one of basketball's brightest shining stars, in spite of his famously short stature. Ruby assessed the manner of which this bobble head was crammed into the containment of the machine, and figured she could probably be able to obtain it.

"Let me give it a try…" she said before she cracked her knuckles, inserted one of her tokens into the machine, grabbed the joystick, and began to maneuver the claw.

Spencer shook his head again and said, "Forget it, Rubes; it's a waste of time and tokens."

Figuring that Spencer's problem may have been that he could have been trying to obtain the figure by its bobble head, that, perhaps, the claw could not maintain a decent grip, as such, she positioned the claw directly over the base of the figure, then pressed the little red button on the tip of the joystick two times, once to drop the claw onto the figure, then again to grab ahold of it. Spencer watched in awe over the Shorty McGillicuddy bobble head being lifted by that pesky claw, then dropped into the chute for him to finally procure the prize that he so coveted from inside this impossible machine.

"Holy moly!" He exclaimed as he finally held his treasure in his hands. "I've tried for months with no luck… how did you pull that off?!"

Ruby shrugged before she began to playfully wave a pair of jazz hands into the air, while she quipped, "Guess I, like, got the magic touch."

"You're the best, Rubes; the best!" Spencer squealed as he threw an arm around his girlfriend and gave her an incredibly tight squeeze that nearly crushed her… before walking off with her once more; so much for her try trying to snag the Peter Masters bobble head for herself.

Meanwhile, Carlton's blonde, ponytailed, cheerleader girlfriend, Brittany, stood alone at Dance Battle as she scoped out a potential partner to compete with her.

"Anyone wanna go up against me?" She asked nobody in particular – whoever was in the arcade at the present moment, whether they were any of her fellow sports club members, or other random kids or teens.

As far as her fellow teamsters were concerned, they were wise enough not to duel it out with her – she was one of the best cheerleaders in their school's squad, and with her skilled footwork, that was an unfair advantage over any potential sparring partner… except for one taker…

"I accept the challenge," said Ruby.

After how poorly she did at pretty much every other game in the arcade, the reaction to Ruby's response was more restrained snickers, even Brittany felt this would not be much of a challenge whatsoever, as she motioned for the young Indian girl onto the platform next to her.

"Okay, tell ya what, I'll give you a sporting chance…" offered Brittany. "You select the tune for us to dance to."

It seemed to those who gathered around to witness this dance battle that to select a K-pop song essentially sealed Ruby's fate, she would probably trip over herself and fall off of her platform; Spencer couldn't even bear to watch this. The countdown flashed on their screens before a series of arrows began to scroll, of which, Brittany and Ruby's feet danced in sync onto the corresponding arrows beneath on their side-by-side platforms. Much to everyone's astonishment, Ruby brought so much more to her dance battle than just accurate and precise footwork; with her hands clasped behind her head, a shimmy of her shoulders, a slink of her belly, a swing of her hips, and a twerk of her rear end, she brought a little spicy choreography into the mix that surprised even Brittany, who was used to moving her body to music. While the two girls kept their focus on ensuring that their feet matched precisely with the graphics on the screens, everyone else was focused on Ruby's body movements – not only was Spencer mesmerized, so was every other jock who viewed the spectacle… some of whom garnered an envious glare or two from potentially jealous girlfriends. The music selection came to an end, and the two girls ceased their dance battle, which earned both of them a perfect score, as well as some enthusiastic reactions from their audience.

"Girl, you have got some serious moves!" Brittany complimented her sparring partner.

"Where did you learn to dance like that?" Spencer asked in amazement.

"Bollywood, baby!" Ruby exclaimed with another little cha-cha of her hips; naturally, she had been exposed to Bollywood material growing up, including dance videos, so it was fairly easy for her to draw back on her memories of the kinds of dance moves she'd see people of her culture take part in.

As the afternoon progressed, so did the appetite of some of the jocks and jockettes, and pretty soon, the booths in the dining area were filled with hungry teenagers who gorged themselves on Gus's variety of pizza, subs, and other similar menu items. Spencer and Ruby shared a booth with Horatio and Sophia, where the four of them not only helped themselves to slices of Gus's famous spaghetti pizza, the couples also split orders of hot wings, which have been known to make many a patron sweat and cry from the heat… except for Ruby, of course; thinking back on Spencer bragging about her ability to handle such spicy food, Horatio's desire to see a little friendly competition was fueled.

"So, Rubes," he began. "Word on the street is you got an iron gut."

Before Ruby could respond, Spencer chimed in with, "I hate to admit, but even I couldn't handle the heat at Jean Juan's like she can!"

This reminded Ruby of hers and Spencer's impromptu competition during what became their first date at the French-Mexican fusion buffet where they shared in some chips and the spiciest dips the restaurant had to offer.

"Think you could handle it better than Tripa de Hierro Sophia?" Horatio asked as he wrapped an arm around his cheerleader girlfriend who wore something of a proud yet competitive smile on her face.

Again, before Ruby could even respond, Spencer threw his arm around her and elected her into such a competition.

"Sure she could!" He exclaimed, while a dumbfounded Ruby succumbed to a duck face.

"We'll see about that; Sophia eats Montezuma jalapenos for breakfast!" Horatio bragged, while Sophia waggled her brow.

"Small potatoes for Ruby!" Spencer bragged, while she was blindsided.

Ruby was flustered to find herself thrust into a wing-eating contest against Sophia; at least when she and Spencer went against each other eating spicy dips at Jean Juan's, it was an impromptu little competition all in fun, no pressure; but this time, the heat was on in more ways than one, especially since the sports club was evenly split in their bets on who would handle better than the other.

Round one kicked off with Gus's signature hot wings, of which neither Ruby or Sophia had any trouble consuming. Round two followed with zesty Buffalo wings, and once again, Ruby and Sophia consumed them like they were nothing. Round three followed with wings smothered in fiery tabasco sauce; they still had no effect on either girl. To up the ante, each round of wings were smothered in an even spicier sauce than the previous rounds; Ruby and Sophia had soon gone through rounds of jalapeno wings, habanero wings, and wings smothered in a sauce so hot that Gus called them, 'Volcano Wings.' Witnesses to the spectacle were blown away that neither of these girls so much as broke a sweat, nor drank any water – many patrons couldn't handle some of these hotter wings. By the time they reached the curry wings for round seven, Sophia appeared to hold out better than Ruby, not because of the heat, but because Sophia had a much higher metabolic rate; after all, she was a very active cheerleader, and much of what she ate burned off quickly through her moves, whether on the field during games, or in the gymnasium during training sessions. Ruby, on the other hand, ate far more in one sitting than she ever had in her life, and was ready to call it quits.

"I gotta throw in the towel…" she mumbled to Spencer who remained by her side through the whole competition.

"What? You can't throw in the towel now!" He mumbled back.

"Dude… I can't do much more of this," she mumbled.

"I know you can handle the heat!" He countered.

"It's not the heat I can't handle, I'm about to explode…" she mumbled as she rested her hand over her bloated belly. "I have my limits…"

"Come on, babe, make me proud; don't let me down!" He pressed.

Ruby groaned in frustration and nausea.

Round eight brought on a serving of bhut jolokia wings. Bhut jolokia, widely recognized by its street name, ghost pepper, native to India, is the hottest pepper on the face of the earth. The only other restaurant patron who has ever been brave enough to even try these wings was one Lynn Loud, Jr., and even she couldn't handle it in spite of her love for spicy food. Much like Ruby and Indian food, growing up with a diet of Mexican food had helped Sophia build up a resistance to spiciness, but even she had trouble eating these ghost pepper wings. By now, both girls' faces had turned red and they had some mist in their eyes, but they kept going as much as they could… until Sophia finally admitted defeat; she couldn't handle the ghost pepper wings, and practically trampled over Horatio and other spectators in her path as she made a beeline for Gus's famous ice bar, where even handfuls of shaved, flaked, or pebbled ice weren't enough to relieve the burning sensation that set her mouth ablaze. In spite of the Hispanic cheerleader's agony, those who rooted for Ruby cheered over her victory in this little competition – especially Spencer who squeezed his girlfriend tightly, which was very uncomfortable on her bulging stomach.

"Alright! I knew you wouldn't let me down, babe!" He squealed.

A few cars were stopped at a red light intersection in front of Gus's Games and Grubs while the Rocket Squirrels exited the restaurant to call it a day. In the back seat of one of these cars was Shannon in a long-sleeved orange dress, and, of course, her nose glued to her phone; she and her parents were on their way home from attending an afternoon Shabbat service. Her eyes briefly scanned the surroundings outside before they fell and locked onto Ruby outside Gus's among a crowd of jocks, cheerleaders, and other groupies – all of whom seemed pretty content conversing amongst themselves, but somehow, she looked absolutely miserable. Before Shannon even had an opportunity to really process this sight, the light had turned green, and traffic proceeded to roll forward; just as quickly, Gus's and its customers were out of her sight.

In this time of the year, the days grew shorter, and the sun set earlier with each passing day; as the skies gradually darkened, Spencer walked Ruby back to her house, though he was still reeling from their afternoon at Gus's.

"Man, fun day today, huh, Rubes?" He asked.

"Yeah… like, super fun," said Ruby, whose walk home felt a lot more grueling with an overly full stomach.

"Thanks again for winning me this Shorty McGillicuddy bobble head," said Spencer, who cradled the prize in his arms almost like a proud father with his newborn son.

"No prob…" she mumbled and still lamented over not being able to try to win the Peter Masters bobble head for herself.

Spencer still felt a bit of a rush from the afternoon, and was not quite ready to call it a day just yet; he decided to see if his girlfriend was still in the mood for hanging out a little while longer.

"Say, you wanna head over to the mall?" He offered.

In as much as Ruby wouldn't have minded hanging out with Spencer, just the two of them, between the heaviness in her the pit of her stomach and the drain of her energy, she did not feel well enough to wander around inside a mall, which is why she fabricated a vanilla lie to gently decline the offer.

"Yeah, I would… but… I… promised my parents I'd be home before six…" she said.

"Ah. Okay then, well, guess I'll see you later," he bade farewell to his girlfriend before he resumed his homeward bound trek.

"Yeah, see ya…" she said before she reached her front door and stepped into her house.

The Patel household was always rather aromatic, from the sort of spices and seasonings that went into the family meals, to the kinds of candles that were occasionally lit throughout the house. This assault on Ruby's olfactory system had the misfortune of triggering another wave of nausea; she dashed down the hallway, slipped into the bathroom, and stepped over to the toilet, into which she regurgitated the excessive amount of yet-to-be-digested food from within her bowels. Moments later, a woozy Ruby flopped herself onto her bed, and contemplated that it was probably a good thing that she opted not to accompany Spencer anywhere else at that time - throwing up in public would have been humiliating enough, but considering how much he counted on her to win that wing eating contest for him, he probably would have been disappointed that she had literally flushed her victory down the toilet.

I hope you enjoyed the Easter eggs in the chapter - both from the show itself, as well as my previous fanfiction.

One thing to address, however, is that, as you know, with this story focusing mainly on minor, supporting characters, any involvement with the Loud siblings has been minimal - which, as I know, was one particular critique some of you had with Loud Triangle. I wrote a brief cameo for Lincoln and Lynn in this chapter (much like Luna in the previous chapter), just for the sake of tossing some additional siblings into the mix to appease the readers... however, Albertson was adamant that I remove them because they were unnecessary, and otherwise contribute nothing to the story as a whole. Aside from two scenarios in upcoming chapters in which we will briefly see all of the siblings, Luan and Lori are still the only ones who will contribute to the story, so if you don't care for that, well, don't forget, there's still 7K+ other stories in this archive you can browse through that do involve more or all of the siblings.