"Ugh… another school day over with…" Ruby sighed. The red-themed girl slid into her seat on the bus, all the day's stress catching up to her.
'You look beat Ruby,' Neo signed out as she sat next to the younger teen. 'I know Cardin can get on everyone's nerves but you can't let him ruin your day completely.'
"I know~!" Ruby whined with a pout. "But everyone was staring at us like we had the plague!"
"Ruby, be honest, that's nothing new," Oscar sighed. "Besides, you're acting more stressed out then I am, and I'm the one Cardin messed with."
"All for one and one for all! Going after one of us is going after all of us!" Ruby declared as she stood up.
"Quiet back there!" the bus driver shouted.
"Eeep!" Ruby squeaked out as she sat back down. Her face flushed in embarrassment as she heard a few students on the bus laugh at her. Though they were quickly silenced from the glare they got from Neo.
Letting out a laugh Penny reached across from where she and Oscar were sitting and Ruffled Ruby's hair to help calm Ruby down. This only caused Ruby to blush harder from the affection she was getting and for Neo to puff her cheeks in annoyance.
Shaking his head at his friend's outburst, Oscar gave Ruby a small smile. "Ruby, thanks but you sticking up for me is just going to have Cardin target you out."
The farm boy let out another sigh. "Wish we could actually do something about him, though. As long as his dad is rolling in the big bucks, he'll keep getting away with this crap."
"It is okay, Oscar. So long as we stick together, we should be just fine!" Penny smiled.
Oscar blushed a bit and looked away. "Y-Yeah. Good point Penny. Thanks."
Ruby just stared blankly at the scene as she turned towards her best friend.
"But wasn't that what I just said," the silver-eyed girl muttered. Getting a silent chuckle from Neo.
'Don't take it too hard Ruby,' Neo signed out. 'Oscar is only agreeing with her because he's thinking with a different organ.'
Ruby gave her friend a puzzled look before a look of realization appeared.
"Oh~! You mean he's thinking with his heart," Ruby said with a nod of pride at figuring out what Neo meant. It made sense Oscar would listen to his crush.
'Yeah…, his heart,' Neo signed out with a deadpan look. God Ruby could be dense even if it made her cuter in Neo's eyes. 'That's totally what I meant.' Neo really wished she could convey sarcasm with sign language.
Penny smiled as they all continued to talk, enjoying their company, only to recognize the surroundings, and a familiar woman by the road looking at her watch. Her face fell as the bus slowly came to a noisy stop. "Alright, everyone who's getting get out!"
"Well it looks like my stop is here," Penny said as she got up to leave. "Goodbye friends! I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!" she forced herself to say cheerfully as she walked off the bus. Waiting for her was an older woman with a tanned complexion, navy blue hair in a bob cut tucked behind one ear, with sky blue eyes. She wore a navy blue blazer over a white blouse, a navy blue pencil skirt, and black heels. Her only out of place features were a golden circle in the middle of her forehead with four points and a navy blue beret. To those who paid close attention, there was a white symbol on the front of her beret, a staff surrounded by a stylized ring.
Getting off the bus Penny turned around to wave her friends goodbye but was stopped as the young woman next to her politely tapped her shoulder to show her what time it was on her watch. Most likely letting Penny know that they were running late.
The group watched their young friend get into a car with the young women as the bus started to drive off to continue its route.
"I hate having to see Penny go," Ruby whined as she sank into her seat.
'We'll see her at school again, Ruby,' Neo signed before patting her on the head.
"But it sucks that her bus stop is so close to school," Ruby said with a huff.
"It's better than when she was picked up by Ciel at school," Oscar muttered. Frowning at the thought of the woman they saw, and all the times said woman would butt into their hang out time to pull Penny away.
"I guess," the red-themed teen muttered. They all went back to talking for a bit before the next stop came up, a bus stop seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
"Well my stop," Oscar sighed out. Grabbing his things as he got up and left the bus, all the while ignoring any comments from the other students. Said comments being silenced by Neo glaring at them.
'Why doesn't he just let his aunt pick him up?' Neo signed.
"You know Oscar," Ruby said with a sigh. "He doesn't want to feel like he's inconveniencing his aunt."
'The guy needs to stop putting others' needs before his own so much,' Neo signed out.
"He just likes to help people out," Ruby defended her farmworker of a friend.
'Yeah but he shouldn't do it at the expense of himself,' Neo countered.
Ruby just nodded before leaning against the window, looking outside as the scenery passed by. Neo meanwhile got comfortable leaning up against her, smiling as she did. Ruby smiled back. 'What a good friend she is.'
The bus soon stopped, and Neo let out a huff as her stop was here.
Getting up Neo turned towards Ruby and signed out. 'You sure you don't want to stay the night again?'
Shaking her head the silver-eyed girl gave her mute friend a smile. "Nah, I already stayed over for the last three days, I don't want to overstay my welcome."
Neo looked a bit disappointed at that, but nodded all the same. 'You could never do that,' she signed as she got up. As she got off the bus everyone subtly scooched away from her. After the bus started to move again Ruby looked out the window to see Neo waving.
Ruby smiled and waved back. 'What a great friend.'
Ruby leaned back into her seat as the bus continued on its route. She slowly tuned out the rest of the students. Their voices fading and their appearance becoming nothing but silhouettes to the young girl's eyes as she let the world fade away as she drifted into her mind and started to daydream.
Her mind began to drift back to the strange dream she had on the bus. Why was that dream so clear? And what were those two's name's again? Right, it was Igor and Henry… Huh, weren't both of those characters from Frankenstein? It's been a while since I read that. She began to remember the first time she read the book, and then somberly realized that she had actually had someone read the book for the first time. Mom…
"I'm sorry, miss. But… she's gone."
Jolting awake, the young girl held back tears as her heart started to beat faster and faster. Quickly scrambling to her school back the red-themed girl quickly found something that looked like a container. Twisted the top open and pulling out a small object from it before popping it into her mouth and taking a water bottle from her bag and downing it all within a few gulps.
Letting out a breath the silver-eyed teen put away her things and sank into her seat. Letting out a tired sigh and tried to calm down…
Right before the bus stopped, jolting the young teen and made her almost yelp out in surprise from the sudden stop.
"Alright." yelled the bus driver. "Last stop. Now get off so I can call it a day!"
"Jerk," muttered Ruby as she got up and made her way out of the bus.
As Ruby got off the bus she got a good look at her "home". Still, the same plain-looking building sandwiched between two other houses. It's dull gray paint and lack of any flair made the house give off a depressed mood.
"Home sweet home," Ruby muttered as she walked up the steps of the porch of her house before stopping at the door. She sighed and was about to knock but hesitated. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door. When there was no response back she sighed in relief, taking her key out of her bag before unlocking it to go inside.
The house was modest and humble, a simple couch in the living room across from a tv, a ceiling fan for light, a lamp in the corner. The kitchen was visible from the entrance and was about big enough for two people to work. On the opposite side of the room were stairs leading to the second floor, and right under them a door that led to the basement.
"Hello?" she called, hoping she wouldn't get an answer. When she didn't she relaxed a bit and headed to the kitchen for a quick snack. Soon she was humming a cheerful tune as she was about to dig into a bowl of strawberries and chocolate chip cookies when the door opened.
She froze as an unfortunately familiar face walked in.
"So Pyhrra was telling me about what happened to Jaune in gym class today and you won't believe what Vomit boy did this time," laughed a voice coming from the front door as two people walked into the house. Both were dressed in black jackets with brown edges over white shirts with red ribbons around the collars. Brown corsets were visible from under their jackets and they wore red plaid skirts and black stockings of different lengths and brown school shoes.
The first girl was a beautiful young woman with long flowing blond hair, fair skin. She was beautiful, with a well-developed body and a smile that could light up the room, her lilac eyes danced with mirth as she talked to her friend following behind her.
Said girl sported black hair that went down to the middle of her back, on top of her head was a large black bow that almost looked like cat ears, golden eyes framed by purple eyeshadow in cats-eye style.
As the two walked into the building the blond was taking off her school bag, but stopped mid action when she noticed Ruby, the smile fading from her face. The two of them just held each other's gaze for a few agonizing moments of silence.
"... Hey, Yang," Ruby said awkwardly, looking away.
"... Hey, sis," Yang said, also not willing to look at her sister.
Both of them went back to an awkward silence again before the other girl cleared her throat to come in.
"So um, hey Ruby! I'm here to help Yang with her math assignments. She needs a little help studying for math," the Blake haired girl said, trying to be as friendly as possible.
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me," Yang groaned. "C'mon Blake, let's get something to eat," she said while quickly walking past Ruby to the kitchen.
"We'll, um, just be going downstairs in a moment," Blake said.
"... Kay," Ruby muttered, quickly making her way up the stairs and putting an end to the conversation, much to her sister's relief as she and Blake went to the kitchen.
"You know you two can't keep acting like this," Blake muttered as they walked into the kitchen.
"You don't think I don't know that?" Yang hissed out. "But it's really hard to just look her straight in the eye."
"Well you better do something," the bow wearing teen muttered, her eyes narrowing to near slits as she gave her blond friend a disapproving look.
"Sorry that it's hard to bring up THAT in a conversation!" Yang snapped. "What CAN I say? Hey Ruby, I want to say sorry for what I did two years ago, ON YOUR BIRTHDAY NO LESS!"
Letting out a sigh Blake shook her head at her friend's outburst.
"All the more reason to talk to her Yang," Blake muttered. This made the blond teen sigh as she looked down in shame.
"I'll try," Yang muttered as she looked up towards the ceiling. "Besides, does she really need someone like me?"
(back with Ruby)
Rushing to her room Ruby ran towards her bed and jumped into it. Pulling her bookbag off the teen dug through it and pulled out the same small container from earlier. Twisting it open, the red-themed teen girl tried to pour its contents into her waiting hand. Only to receive nothing but air, much to her panic.
"No!" she said in panic, as she dropped the container.
Grabbing her head the young teen started rocking back and forth as her heart beat faster and faster, the sound of it getting louder and louder. It's loud beating became nearly deafening as her head started to hurt more and more as images flashed in her mind, and voices could be heard in her head.
"Mommy?"
"Where is she!?
"He's gone because of you!"
"Miss… I'm sorry."
"She's gone."
Gasping out as tears ran down her face the silver-eyed girl quickly scrambled to the edge of her bed. Reaching down and under her bed, she quickly pulled out a shoebox.
She threw the top off the box and rummaged through it before finding what she was looking for, two similar items that she quickly pulled out and held to her chest. She rocked back and forth, humming a tune to herself as her heart rate slowly began the fall to normal. After what felt like hours she held the objects up to look at them, tears in her eyes.
"I miss you both, so much," Ruby whispered as she looked at the two objects in her hands.
Two police badges that shone in the light of the setting sun that broke through her window, names inscribed into them.
VALE POLICE FORCE. Summer Rose.
VALE POLICE FORCE. Taiyang Xiao Long
"Mom..., Dad."
