7. Spying on jack and the old playground

School finally let out that day and I lost jack somewhere in the crowd, I waited outside the school so we could ride home on the bus together. Finally I spotted him and when I saw him my heart stopped. He was talking to Rachel!

I walked over to them and said "hey jack, what's, uh, what's going on here?"

"I was just thinking of taking Rachel up on that offer she made me this morning" jack explained.

My eyes widened "what offer?"

"We're going to get slushy's" Rachel rolled her eyes "if you must know everything."

"You don't mind that ruby, do you?" asked jack.

I forced a smile "nope. You two go enjoy yourselves."

Then they left, as soon as they did I texted my dad saying that I was staying after school for activities. Of course I wasn't doing that, I was going to spy on jack, if I know jack he was obviously going to try something with Rachel. And if he did I would catch if in the act!

I walked down to the snack shack that all the kids from school hung out after school, I spotted jack and Rachel at a table, sipping slushy's, I hid in a nearby bush and watched Rachel drank hers down fast.

How does she do that without getting a brain freeze? I thought, oh wait she has no brain.

Jack said he was going home and got up and left. Rachel huffed and stormed off clearly mad that she didn't get jacks lips. Ha ha!

When Rachel turned the corner to her house, jack walked over to the bush and said "I told you you can't sneak up on me, ruby."

I slowly rose from the bush with a mad expression on my face "why did you go out with her?"

Jack smiled "to make you jealous" he says "and it worked didn't it."

"I was curious, was all" I said.

"Of course" he said smugly.

I stuck my tongue out at him, then I thought of something.

"Hey" I said "do you want to see something cool?"

"Why not?" he said.

XxX

I brought jack into an abandoned part of town, most of the houses are for sale and old and run down. We were going into the forest not too far from there.

"You're not bringing me out here to trick me, are ye?" he asked "you know like someone's going jump out with a mask?"

"You never know" I said "there's a lot you don't about me, sparrow."

We finally made it to our destination, at the end of the forest laid an old playground. Memories instantly came flooding back to me.

Jack looked around "wow, this place is amazing!"

"I used to play here as a kid" I sighed "my grandmother would take me here every day, just to watch me play."

"What happened to her?" he asked.

"She died when I was seven" I said sadly "I haven't come back since."

"I'm sorry, ruby" he said, his eyes full of sympathy "what made you come back?"

I looked at him "you. I don't know why but since my grandmother died, I just haven't felt happiness since, now all I have is the memories of her. That was until I found you jack. When I left before to come back to my world, I felt so sad, like I would never see you again. That you would just be a memory like my grandmother. And when you came back…

I broke down in tears, he sat there and held me.

"I'm here, ruby" he said "I promise I'll never leave you again."

"How can you be so certain?" I asked softly.

He looked at me "hell itself couldn't rip me away from you."

I smiled and wiped the tears from my face. "Do you want to see something else?"

"Alright" he said.

I climbed up an old oak tree, jack looked up at me confused.

"Are ya coming?" I asked him sticking my head out of the leaves.

"Oh, uh…sure?" he said starting to climb.

We climb to the top almost when we stopped and I said "this is kind of embarrassing…but…"

I brushed away some leaves from a branch above us and there carved into the wood of the tree was the initials "r.j + j.s" in a heart.

"The r.j stands for ruby Jackson and the j.s stands for jack sparrow" I explained "I did it the day I saw the first movie of pirates of the Caribbean."

"You liked me even before you met me" he said.

I blushed "yeah, I was just four years old" then I noticed something "oh, can I borrow your knife?"

He slipped his dagger out of his boot and handed it to me, I took it and carved a letter c next to the j.s.

I said "There, now it's ruby Jackson plus…"

"Captain Jack sparrow" he finished.

He leaned in for a kiss, but accidentally fell out of the tree onto the ground below.

"Jack! Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I'm starting to think the universe doesn't want us to kiss" he said.

I grinned.

"Wipe that smile off your face" he called up to me.