So, yeah, this one is way later than I wanted. Sorry, but college sucks.
Another issue is that this story and the next one were so poorly done the first time that I had to go through and restructure and redo the whole thing. Chapter 4 is almost done and hopefully it won't take as long to bring it up, but I'm not so sure about 5 and 6. I can only fear just how hastily it was made and how overall bad it looks.
Either way, I'm trying my best to do better on them all. I know I need to be a bit more descriptive, which I'm trying, but I've never once in my life been able to describe anything. It's only been "That thing there" or "That one thingamajig." I'll try, though!
So this is the chapter everyone's been waiting for! Well, not really. This is just the chapter where Plot is introduced to a certain extent. If you want cute, somewhat cringe-y dialogue, well you came to the right place! Knowing me, this entire chapter is going to be one cringe worthy festival of fail!
Enjoy!
Silver eyes slowly fluttered open as their owner woke up, her sight clear in the barely illuminated darkness. There was a light from beyond her door, which she paid no mind to as she carefully turned over in her bed to face her alarm clock upon her nightstand. In digital red light, the machine read ten-twenty. 'Almost nine full hours, uninterrupted...' the redhead thought with a smile, 'Nice.'
She flipped back over, determining more sleep could prove useful, throwing her deep red comforter over her body and covering everything up to her neck. She tried, at least, until a certain short, two-tone haired woman she had come to know and love swiftly opened the door walked into the doorframe of her room, light from the nearby kitchen accompanying her, "Ah, you're up!" So close. "Finally!"
"No I'm not, Neo..." The younger girl grumbled into her pillow, curling up into a tight ball as she faced the far wall. "This is all your imagination."
"Oh, is it now?" The women asked, playfully, "I think the curtains might have something to say to that!" Neo skipped over to the far wall, where a fairly large window was covered by thick curtains. They stayed closed so Ruby wouldn't be disturbed in her sleep, as the light from the streets outside have a tendency on finding their way inside.
"You wouldn't dare, Neo!" Ruby cried from her interrupted slumber. "The curtains have no say in any of this"
"You'd censor the voices of inanimate objects?" The shorter woman accusingly called, "There might be a place for you in politics after all!" Neo turned back and saw tired silver eyes staring at her, pleadingly, begging her not to do what she was about to do. Those eyes almost made her feel bad… Almost. "I'm sorry, hun, but you gotta get up." With a smirk and a single move of the hand, she flung the heavy maroon cloth away, letting in as much sunlight as possible in a flash.
Neo looked around the freshly illuminated room, noting the clothes scattered on the floor around the bed. "I can see you missed the basket..." She commented in a chiding tone, "A few times…"
"Ha-ha." Ruby retorted sarcastically, achingly turning away from the window and covering her face with her comforter, "I'll pick it all up when I do laundry."
"Why not just keep it out of the way?" The inquiry was backed by a confused tone as the shorter woman maneuvered around to the other side of the bed in order to face her tenant.
"Why would I do that?" Silver eyes poked out of the covers, staring at the woman before her, while also feeling an odd sense of déjà vu.
"Why not?"
"But... Why?"
Neo stared at the teen for a moment, blankly contemplating whether or not she wanted to push this. Obviously, Ruby was dealing with a classic case of College Student-itis, where one gets justifiably lazy enough to keep their living quarters barely clean, but not exactly spotless. Mostly just livable. The woman shook her head and chuckled while she walked out the room. Ruby inevitably threw the covers out of her face and heavily sighed. "Guess I really don't have a choice, here..." She sat up, being blinded by the unusual amount of sunlight in the room. Normally the curtains would be barely cracked on the less busy days, which was what today was. The little light that would be let in would usually allow her to wake up on her own, if she hadn't done so already. Ruby was a surprisingly light sleeper, as well as an early riser. Neo usually never said a word in the morning when she acted like the teen's alarm clock, unless the it was a busy day; rent collection, maintenance orders or just maintenance work all fell in that category.
Ruby shook her head to try and fully wake herself before dragging herself out of bed. She was still dressed in her attire from the night before, save for the jacket. The way she figured, what's the point of wearing something if it can't last literally the whole day? She shuffled her way out into the main room, only to find a certain woman standing at her kitchen counter, carefully watching the bedroom. "There she is!" Neo clapped in a cheery tone, "So, how was last night? Tell me all about it!" Despite her interest and enthusiasm, it still wasn't enough to wake the young teen up. Instead, Ruby shrugged, clearly giving her friend the silent treatment. "That bad, huh?"
"It wasn't bad," The red girl piped, "It was a ton of fun. I'm just worn out is all."
"Ah, I see." Neo nodded, turning to a newspaper that she had brought for the tenant whose counter she now occupied, leaning into it to read. "Was that girl that I don't like there? What was her name... Pyrrha?" Ruby nodded as she began to look into her, albeit empty, fridge. "I don't know why you don't tell her off. Call her out, do something!"
Ruby walked onto the kitchen tile barefoot, the cold floor giving her a mild jolt as she moved towards the fridge. "Because doing that implies that there's a problem, Neo." Ruby easily replied, "And you shouldn't say that you don't like her because you never met her." Neo rolled her eyes with a 'tsk' as Ruby continued her mini-speech, "Besides, it's not my issue anymore. Yang and Nora said they'd handle Pyrrha. I don't want to do anything that might make anyone mad..." She pulled out the gallon of milk Neo had bought for her the day before, still unopened.
Neo pulled out a dry, clean glass from the sink, "You're just too nice of a person, aren't ya? Speaking of which!" She turned to the young girl to her left, "Blake, next door, has everything set up. She's now a full tenant."
"That's good."
"I want you to go over and visit her." Ruby took a sip of milk and gave a curious glance to Neo, raising her right eyebrow with mild concern, "Let me explain. She told us that before she came here to finish up the paperwork, she went to Beacon to pick up her schedule. I want you to go over there, make nice, be her first friend in the school and help her with her schedule and how the school works."
"Okay..." Ruby said, "And what would happen if I decide not to participate and stick to your side and work today?"
Neo gave her the look, moving dangerously close to the younger girls' face, though having to stand on her toes in order to truly get that face-to-face action she wanted, "You seem to forget that I can single handedly make your life a living hell here, right?" She whispered, her eyes barely even allowed to be referred to as slits anymore as her eyelids slowly closed. Ruby's silver eyes went wide with fear, "Ah, there it is! So, now what do you say?" It wasn't every day when the shorter woman had to threaten the teen, but Ruby knew for a fact that her boss was not to be taken lightly.
Ruby slowly ran her fingers through her bedhead, thinking of any way she could delay this. She wasn't exactly a people person, unfortunately. "Uh, well… Can… Can I at least take a shower first?"
"Well I'd be offended if you didn't..."
The teen blushed, of course she should do that. What a dumb question, a poor attempt to stall for time. "Right..." Silence overtook the duo, Ruby waited to be briefed on her job for today, other than meet with Blake. That couldn't have been it, there had to be more to do today.
Maybe something was up? Neo had been giving her less and less work these past few weeks, and Junior hasn't exactly been the most thrilled person in the world with her… Ruby had been thinking about this for a while now, at least, thinking of something to ask, but couldn't find the right way to ask it. "Um, Neo?"
"Yes?" The women flipped through a page of newspaper (one meant for Ruby, mind you).
"Can I ask you something?" Neo raised an eyebrow as the duo locked eyes, the former now curious as to what was coming. She nodded, silently telling the tenant to go on. "I want you to be as honest as possible... Please?"
The shorter woman noted the worried tone of the tenant, her heart skipping a beat as a hint of anxiety took over. "Of course... Why, what's up?"
"Am I doing a good enough job? Are you and Junior mad at me?"
The women stopped dead in her tracks, all trains of thought instantly derailed. She looked at Ruby, who held a very serious, yet almost pleading look in her eyes. "W-why... Why do you ask? You're the best employee I have here!" Ruby slid down, sitting on the cold tile floor of her kitchen area as Neo tried to gather her bearings after being completely blindsided like that, "Why the sudden interest in something you know the answer to? Did someone say something last night?" Ruby shook her head, though the shorter woman above her continued anyway, "Was it that Pyrrha girl?"
"No, no! Neo, it's nothing like that!" The silver eyed teen assured. "It's just, I dunno… Junior seems to get more and more upset with me everyday and won't tell me why, and you stopped giving me work to do which makes me feel like I'm not pulling my own weight around here-" Neo slowly knelt down as the teen before her continued, "-And I know how you two are with employees you're not happy with, you give them less work and less time on shift, which makes me think that-"
"-That we're upset with you?" The woman interrupted, her expression now soft and caring, rather than worried. "Is that what's been bothering you lately?" Ruby nodded, confirming the woman's suspicions. She didn't know what to say or do at this point, she and Junior decided against kids, so this was a whole new experience for her. However, she could say, for a fact, that she completely understood where Ruby was coming from, worrying about what family thinks. Or, in Ruby's case, family figures.
The woman took the glass from the teen's hand, setting it on the counter above and wrapped her arms around the aforementioned girl, pulling her into a tight embrace, opting not to say a word. What could she say? What can she say to ensure the teen that her fears are for not? That yes, she is respected and loved by both Neo and Junior, even though behind the scenes that's not the case. How is she supposed to tell Ruby not to worry when she has every right to worry?
It was obvious that Ruby was seeing things much clearer than Neo had hoped. She had noticed the ripples in the water, so to speak, and knows that something is wrong. Yet all Neo can do is lie and tell her that everything is okay, even though she knows it's not. 'She can't get involved anyway…' The woman with two different hair colors thought, 'This is between him and I… Nobody else.'
With a pat on Ruby's shoulder, the short woman split from the embrace and rose to her feet as silver eyes peered up at her. "No more of this self-depreciating talk, you hear?" Neo warned with a wag of her index finger, "I won't stand for it. Now, you have your job for today and if you're done early you can come down and see me. I'm sure I can find something for you to do." Ruby nodded slowly, not in a cautious manner, but in almost a sad manner, maybe even a depressed tone. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some paperwork ahead of me." She quickly packed her files, even the newspaper, tucked them all under her right arm and hurried out of the apartment, avoiding what she could only fear was an awkward moment and leaving the teen alone.
The one time Ruby didn't want to be alone…
Still, the silver-eyed teen shrugged everything off, telling herself that her foolish talk earlier was just that: Foolish. Of course Neo and Junior weren't mad at her! What a stupid thought to have. Things have just been kind of crazy lately with everyone's schedules being screwed up and some of the maintenance workers quitting out of nowhere, it has just left everyone on edge. Nobody's mad at anybody!
Her head now in the game, Ruby quickly downed what was left of her milk, washed the glass out in the sink and peered towards the bathroom door. She had no homework but knew that paperwork for this place sucked, so helping Neo was her prime directive. However, one certain new neighbor stood in her way. It was time to swallow her pride, put away her anxiety for a few minutes, do the job she was given and return to her boss, her friend, to help.
Sighing heavily, Neo chastised herself for rushing out of the apartment too quickly. Then again, could anyone blame her after being blindsided like that? Did Ruby really feel unloved amongst management? Sure, Junior had been a pain lately, but the other employees loved working with the girl, they were honest and she was thorough with her work, so why would she ever think that she wasn't loved?
Sure, the past few days have been busy and both the husband and wife landlords didn't have a lot of time for anyone, even each other, but is that really enough to warrant such worry? Or was it something else?
'It's gotta be that Pyrrha girl...' Neo told herself as she entered the elevator farther down the hall. 'Ruby wasn't talking like this before last night, that has to be it!' Though, as she pressed the ground floor button, all she could think was that her excuse was weak. It used to be that every day, after ensuring that her schoolwork was done, Neo would take Ruby and the two would work throughout the complex , finding what repairs needed to be made, noting what was needed for orders and even some rent collection, even though that was Juniors job.
He would go after the more repeat offenders of rent-dodging, while the girls would go and collect from those who were often on time. Mainly, well, a more threatening presence, in Junior's words, would get people to pay up in a hurry.
But recently, for Ruby with the start of the new year, her workload from school has increased and therefore, she hasn't been readily available for her job. Neo gave her the benefit of the doubt and would check in throughout the day to make sure that everything was fine. Even on the first month of classes, Beacon swamped the students.
The elevator rang out and sparked the shorter woman's attention, allowing her to catch the doors opening and walk out the moment she could. All the while not once taking her mind off of her issue. Ruby had a point, even if she didn't mean to: Neo and Junior had been very distant lately. Even if she knew it, now she couldn't ignore, because the closest thing to a daughter that she has in life can see just what she herself tried to ignore.
Today had to be day that the couple sat down to talk. For Ruby and for them.
Neo turned into the empty lobby, a spacious lounge area that reminded one of a hotel, mainly because the complex was built to be one. Only late in its construction did the owners, Junior's grandfather, make the decision to turn it to an Apartment. The lobby area had a reception desk in the far back with three computers, mostly for various banking and supply ordering, but it could also be used for security purposes with the cameras throughout. Upon the desk had many papers, most of which were old notes. There really wasn't much use for the reception area unless it was rent day, or somebody was looking for apartment space.
After you walked behind the desk there was a little room directly behind the space separated by a divider wall, this room was an employee lounge/prep area where the few workers joined in the morning to discuss what had to be done for the day. Across the small hall was another door, this one was Neo and Juniors apartment. The short statured woman walked across the freshly cleaned tile floor past what she called the "Lobby Lounge", which was just a small carpeted space at the other end of the lobby with four leather couches around a large TV, and maneuvered into the Prep Room. She sat herself down at the circular table in the middle of the room and popped open the file folder in her hands, unable to think about anything at all.
The work she had to do was already set and being completed by her trustworthy Maintenance Team- Two broken down vending machines which needed repairs and four reports of busted air conditioners. In other words, an easy day. Two Vending machines can be fixed by one person with no issue, the A/C units, though, could take some time.
She sat back in her chair and deeply sighed, unable to concentrate, Ruby's words still having an adverse effect on her, and she knew why. She just hoped that her husband would listen. Junior could be very... Stubborn sometimes. Strict, as well. Sometimes he wasn't the best listener, or talker for that matter. Knowing him, he'd probably avoid this discussion.
A large set of footsteps stomped through the lobbies tile floor, alerting Neo to the presence of the one man in the whole building who could make that kind of noise. The buzzing of the lights above her didn't do much to hinder his arrival, as a large man entered through the threshold of the door and onto the pure white tile of the prep room, the blue painted walls doing their work and bringing down his already poor mood. He turned to his wife, flicked his lighter on and lit up the unlit cigarette in his mount before making his first words of the late morning. "Got your text." Short and sweet.
"Hey," She greeted, noting how aggravated her husband seemed. Probably disgruntled over some rent-dodgers. They duo's had a few of them recently. "I, uh, wanted to talk to you…" The main raised an eyebrow with curiosity before allowing his wife to finish her sentence, noticing how badly she had stuttered. "About, uh… Us."
He visibly stiffened before shutting the door, turning the knob slightly so that it wouldn't make a noise by the time it fully closed. When the door was closed, it usually meant that there was a private meeting going on. In this case, there was nothing more private than what the couple was going to discuss. Sighing heavily, he sat down at the table and prepared himself for a long, long talk.
Ruby finally got dressed, her shower taking unusually long. The hot water soothed her aching muscles, topped with the fact that she was already really tired, made the last seven minutes very enjoyable.
She ran a towel through her damp hair one last time before walking out into her kitchen, deeply sighing as she stretched her leg muscles. She pondered for a moment about if she had another job to do, and one thing came to her mind. 'I guess I should go see Blake now.' She thought to herself, 'Oh please don't let me mess it up.' First impressions are everything, of course. She looked herself over in the mirror, making sure she was approachable at the very least. That was just one of the many things she had learned in recent years.
She exited her room and walked into the carpeted hall, before making a very short walk to her target. 'What if she's still asleep?' Ruby wondered. 'What if she's busy and doesn't want to talk about it right now? Maybe she has it all worked out?' She held her fist back from the door in hesitation. 'Why are you so afraid?!' A familiar voice hollered at her from within her mind. It sounded like Neo… But she was nowhere to be found. 'What's with the fear? Why hesitate? Go get her! Make a friend!'
'I… I don't know how…' Ruby admitted to herself, hesitantly. 'I don't know what I'm doing…'
'Oh what's with that you coward!' Oh yeah, this was Neo's voice alright. Must be Ruby's inner-person trying to reason with her mind, trying to bring up her confidence. Wouldn't be the first time and won't be the last. 'You've made tons of friends before! What about Yang?'
'Velvet helped me with that…'
'Well what about Nora, or even Pyrrha?!'
'I met them through Yang, and she made them give me a chance, remember, brain?'
'W-well what what about Velvet? You're friends with her, right?'
Ruby balled her hands into fists in frustration as she internally yelled at herself. 'That's something totally different! We were friends as kids!'
'W-well you still shouldn't give up, young lady. You have a job to do, and you owe it to yourself to make a friend on your own for once. Now-' Ruby's left fist slowly raised up to the door as her silver orbs opened in concern. Was she actually going to do this? What was her mind telling her body?! She didn't want to do this. 'Knock on the door, and-'
'No! Stop, hand!' She ordered harshly. 'We aren't ready!' Quickly, her hand fell to her side as she regained control, nearly breaking into a sweat during the ordeal. 'Lets just go back home and we'll come back tonight."
As she turned to go back to her room, she heard the door creak open. Stopping in her tracks she turned around to see a tall figure, amber eyes staring right at her. "Ah, there you are." The woman in the door greeted, calmly, with a small smile. "I thought I heard you. I've been expecting you."
"Oh!" Ruby said nervously, "I uh, hope you weren't waiting too long?"
"Not at all. Come on in." Blake moved away from the the threshold of the door, welcoming her neighbor into the apartment, "Let's see if I can remember your name, uh… Ruby, right?" The red-clad girl nodded while humming an affirmative sound, "Great. Feel free to make yourself at home." Ruby entered the main room, boxes still scattered about, "Sorry about the mess. I haven't had time to unpack."
Blake's apartment was much like Ruby's, in both interior design and paint job. Nearly every apartment in the building was the same, in that regard, the only difference was what kind of interior they had, be it wooden walls or pure drywall. In Ruby's case it was drywall with a more grey paint job. She couldn't even say it was white anymore. Though Blake's apartment was more white, purely because of a fresh paint job that the maintenance crew does over every vacant apartment.
The rooms were the only thing that differed between the apartments. Whereas Ruby's bedroom was on the back left of the space, Blake's was on the back right with her bathroom being the first door on the direct right after you've gone through a little hallway inside. Also, Blake had a patio, it would appear, something that the shorter teen was instantly jealous of. On the left of the main room, where a lone couch and a coffee table sat, along with two pillows on the ground, was Blake's kitchen and an open window between the two rooms, offering a much larger countertop than Ruby had, this counter had three stools to accompany it.
After examining the space, Ruby concluded that a small pile of boxes near the entrance to the back patio was nothing compared to what she could do. "Oh it's ok." The younger girl waved her off, "You should see mine. This place is like a hospital compared to my room." Blake covered her chuckled at her neighbor's comment. "So, you're going to Beacon?"
Blake answered Ruby's question with a question of her own. "And you're a student?" She asked curiously, "Neo told me you were a third year, but you seem so young for that grade?"
"Actually I started about last year." Ruby replied, "I took a test and got accepted with a scholarship." Blake looked over her with wide amber eyes, speechless at the information she was just told, "They also bumped me up a year, why I don't know. I guess I did better than I thought. I was thrown into the second year last year, where I met my friends that I have now. You'll meet them on Monday, they're great!" Blake nodded, interested in what the younger girl had to say. "Oops, I think I started rambling..."
"No, no. You're fine." Blake gladly waved her off with a smile. In her mind, all she could think is how this must be how the red clad girl acted and didn't want to do or say anything to offend her. This was Blake's chance for a new friend before going to school and there was no way she would mess this up.
"Um, anyway, I was hoping to help you through your schedule? I-if you need it, I mean… I remember my first day there and I had no idea what was going on, I kinda wanted to help you like I was helped."
The black haired teen silently nodded and pulled out a binder from a bag, within it held a number of papers. The most attention-grabbing one was the schedule sheet. She also pulled out a map to the school. "Here." She handed the papers over to her neighbor, who sat on a stool at the kitchen counter.
Ruby read through the new girls' list of classes, and noticed how familiar it looked.
Class Schedule
Student: Blake Belladonna
Day: Red
Block One: P.E. Goodwitch
Block Two: Free. Peach
Block Three: Creative Writing. -
Block Four: Math. Port
Block Five: History. Oobleck
Day: Black
Block Six: Science. Peach
Block Seven: Free. Peach
Block Eight: Health. Goodwitch
Block Nine: English. -
Block Ten: Art. Torchwick
"Huh..." She said, furrowing her brow with interest, "You have almost all of your classes with us… U-us being the group as a whole."
"Most?"
"Oh, um," Ruby thought of a way to explain a very easy answer, "You won't have the same classes with me the whole way. See, we'll have Gym first period and free block right after together.." She began, pointing at the two classes on the sheet, "I won't have your second class with you, which is the elective block. Everyone will be taking their elective class then." She took a look over the sheet once more You took creative writing as an elective?" The black haired girl nodded happily, "Nice."
"Why won't I have that with you?" Blake wondered aloud, leaning her head into her hand as she place her elbow on the counter.
"I have an engineering class second period. Anyway," Ruby went back on track quickly before Blake could inquire further, "You'll have Math with us, which means we'll have lunch on Red days, too." Blake looked to her quizzically, her right eyebrow raised slightly. "Oh, right. You see, out of these ten classes, we only take five on one day, and the other five the next. Then we repeat after cycling through the last five."
Blake made a small 'Oh' sound in understanding. Ruby continued, "You'll finish the day with the gang and I in Oobleck's history class. And that's your red day. Black day, which is your second set of classes, we'll be in Science with Peach, who's really nice. Then we'll have free block again, then for the seventh class, we'll be in another elective, which you'll have Yang and Nora. Then we have English with Yang and Pyrrha as well as me. Finally you, me and Nora will finish the day in Mr. Torchwick's art class."
Black nodded, understanding a little bit. "So, where are all of these classes?" She asked, "And when will I meet any of your friends? They sound nice."
"Oh they are! You'd get along great with them. But Pyrrha has an odd sense of humor, so watch out for that. But other than that they're all great! You'll meet them all on Monday. Also we'll be sure to show you around school before classes begin, just so you can get a basic understanding." Again, Blake nodded.
"So how did you meet your friends?"
This question came as a surprise to Ruby. She often recollected on the time when she met her now friends. "I, uh, I have a friend there, Velvet, who's in her last year, who introduced me to Yang, and she introduced me to the others."
"I see." The two continued their discussion, Ruby telling her about the school, other kids and what not. Ruby also gave a specific warning about a certain group of students: The rich kids. This group consisted of four spoiled brats (in Yang's terms) of wealthy families who thought they ran the school. Spoiler, nobody likes them. Blake made a mental note to heed the teens' warning and stay clear of these kids, as they sounded pretty vicious.
The younger neighbor went on about the school; what you'll find, what the schedule is like and how much homework there usually is. She continued, not realizing that she was doing a bit of rambling. Blake didn't mind, though. She found the silver-eyed girl to be interesting. She wanted to get to know her new neighbor. So, she didn't talk; rather she sat back and listened. She even offered Ruby food and drinks, to which Ruby politely declined.
"I... I'm not sure what else to go over?" The teen shrugged, "Like I said, I'm sure Yang and the others will help you where I can't, and you seem like you'd be able to find your way around easily. I'm sure you'll have no trouble!"
"I'll try not to, but I'll come to you the moment I'm lost." Blake smiled. Ruby reciprocated the motion and set the papers back down on the counter. "I, uh, don't like to be that host, but I'm meeting a friend in town in an hour and-"
"Oh, say no more!" The redhead declared, "I know when I've overstayed my welcome." Ruby quickly stood from her seat. "I'll get out of your hair, now."
"Well I wouldn't say that," The black haired teen spoke honestly, "I would have kicked you out long ago if you had done that."
"You mean it?"
Blake stood up, seemingly towering over the fifteen year old, "Yes." She assured. "You did me a huge favor by doing this. I was completely lost with this schedule. At least let me walk you back to your place? As a thanks?" Ruby looked quizzically at her host, who continued, "I know it's right next door, but still... Courtesy"
Silver eyes blinked as their owner happily nodded, "Uh, yeah! It's the thought that counts, right?" Blake smiled lightly as she led her guest out the door. As the two walked out, Ruby felt a calming hand on her shoulder. One she was sure that she had felt before. She looked up and met Blake's sincere amber eyes. "You know, Blake..." She started, focusing her vision, "You look... Familiar... Have we met before?"
Blake stiffened as she tried to hold a steady look, "You know, I was getting the same vibe from you." Her voice was steady, but she could still hear herself wavering a bit, "But I don't believe we have." Mentally, the black themed teen patted herself on the back for finishing strong.
Ruby kept thinking as the two began to walk down the hall. Terrace View's hallway's all had the same designed carpet on each floor; maroon along the sides with an intricate box design ever few feet in the middle. The wallpaper was lighter color. Tan if one had to guess.
The duo made it to their destination, a short ten-foot walk was nothing to their speed. "Well, here we are." Ruby declared with a surprisingly nervous tone, "Home sweet home." She turned back to her new neighbor and spoke, "Like I said; if you have any other questions or need anything else before Monday, let me know!"
"Sure thing." Blake delightfully smiled. As Ruby began to open the door, her neighbor noticed a... Lack of noise coming from within the apartment. There wasn't anyone else inside, no music, no sounds from a TV. Actually, now that she was thinking about it, there hasn't been anyone inside, save for Ruby and Neo, just this morning. "Say... I don't hear anything in there… Are you home alone? Or are your parents out?"
Muscles visibly stiffening, Ruby's expression turned serious, though she was luckily facing away from the inquirer beside her. She had been in these situations a few times before. Most of the people on her floor knew of her... Arrangement with Junior and Neo, some were even willing to pay her rent every now and again. Still, she was prepared for this emergency scenario.
"Uh, yeah! I live with my parents!" She barely got out without a stutter.
Blake warmingly smiled, hoping to find a way to figure out her neighbor a little bit more. "Well, where are they at? I'd like to meet them." Needless to say the bow-wearing girl's interest had been peaked.
"They, uh, had overtime work." The younger girl shrugged. "Yeah, gotta make money to pay rent, you know?" Blake nodded easily, accepting the answer with no other thought. "Alright, well I'll see you Blake!" They said their goodbyes and Ruby closed the door, chastising herself for doing it too quickly. She leaned against it, the full weight of her body pressing against the wood as she started sliding down to the ground. Her head hung low as she brought up her legs to her chest. Taking in a deep breath, she gave herself a mental pat on the back; Blake seemed to have bought it. "Why does everyone want to meet my parents?!" She huffed to herself with an annoyed tone.
Amber eyes blinked as their owner watched her neighbor enter the apartment and walked back. She could tell Ruby was lying clear as day, but couldn't figure out why.
Why lie? What's so bad about admitting her this...? Was it even an issue? Why was she keeping her life... No, herself a secret? There wasn't something wrong with all of this, Neo didn't seem like a malicious person... She wouldn't have anything to gain from that kind of abuse...
Maybe she was thinking too far into this. Maybe Ruby just didn't want anyone to know about her. After all, she's always been a secretive person, carrying that over into adolescence and adulthood was inevitable. The black haired girl took one more look down the hall before entering her own apartment. As she did, she kept going back to what Ruby had asked her just a few moments prior, her honest and innocent words buzzing around in her head, causing her to worry...
'Have we met before?'
"She... Doesn't remember?"
So, yeah. Neo seems to be in a bit of denial, Ruby still can't make friends, Junior seems like a stuck up douche and Blake is hiding something.
Boy, not really a difference between here and the show, huh? (Don't answer that.)
Anyway, thought I'd give a little insight to how the schooling works, as well as a bit more into Neo and Junior's relationship with Ruby. It's more of a legal guardian situation, only less legal system. Also, if you still don't know how the school works, here's the rub, based on my High School Schedule:
Red Day: Class 1-5 (class 2 happens both days)
Black Day: Class 6-10 (Class 7 is also Class 2).
Got it? Good. I based the days off of what I figured Beacon's colors are, only through the uniforms of the students. I could be wrong, but either way that's what it's going to be from here on.
So how was it? Like I said I had to restructure it a little and I feel like I might have missed a few parts or at least didn't do a lot of it justice, but that's not for me to decide. I have a very respectful, though oddly not really vocal clientele who will tell me how it was! (pst, that's your cue!) So go ahead and hit me with your thoughts. I'm working on the next one now and will hopefully have time throughout my busy schedule to get it up faster than this one was.
As always, if you have any questions for me, feel free to shoot me a PM. I'll try to get back with you as soon as I possibly can.
Thanks for reading, and as always:
Until Next Time.