Hello? Hello hello! If you're reading this, this means you've survived all five nights! That's pretty awesome!
Ok ok no more of the phone guy shtick…
Moving on...
Halloween's in three days! WAIT NO TWO DAYS. No wait, three days because it's on the 31st, right?
Yeah.
Anyways, here's a super-engaging chapter, full of so many lore reveals, plot twists, action and excitement! *sarcasm*
Enjoy!
Chapter 16
Ruby Celebrates Groundhog Day (Earlier than usual)
Ruby wrapped her red plaid infinity scarf tighter around her neck and shivered as a cold breeze blew past her. The air was brisk, and the wind had started to get colder as the season changed, from the warm September fall to chilly October fall. Ruby was excited, however, because her, Tulisa, and Josh had been discussing Halloween costumes.
Tulisa wanted to go as the Powerpuff girls, which received a hard no from both Josh and Ruby. Josh wanted to go as Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach, but they all ended up arguing about who would be who. And Ruby...well she didn't really care what they went as, as long as she didn't have to be some dumb cutesy character. Halloween was meant for scary ghosts or movie slashers, even a simple skeleton onesie was alright. Not dressing up as heart-eyes emojis or sexy Ninja Turtles (yeah, that's a thing) or princesses (well, unless they're dead princesses with their heads lopped off and a thirst for revenge.)
Yeah, Ruby was pretty quirky. Definitely not like the other girls.
Finally, the three had decided on going as creepypasta characters. Josh would be Jeff the Killer, Tulisa would be Jane the Killer, and Ruby decided on Clockwork, her third favourite creepypasta character. Ruby's favourite was Jeff, but obviously she couldn't go as him, and her second favourite was Sally, but she didn't really want to go as a little girl in a pink nightgown, even if she was a vengeful ghost looking for murder.
Of course, Ruby also had other things to worry about. Like Tulisa's wrecked car and the fact that she'd have to help the Fazbear crew with fixing the...uh, mess she'd made that day, fixing it during her night guard time with some of the other employees because she wasn't actually defending herself from vicious animatronics at night.
At least her crashing through the wall had somehow miraculously ran over almost all of the scrapped animatronics, killing them instantly and driving the rest out.
Ruby pushed the button at the crosswalk and waited with two middle-aged women, probably in their forties, both bundled up in matching flower-patterned poofy jackets and holding each other's gloved hands. The first woman was tall with pale skin and orange hair, and the second had dark skin and pretty black hair braided into thousands of brightly beaded braids. Ruby smiled at the two and waited for the cars to stop zooming past them so she could head to her house.
The light soon changed from the red hand to the white person walking and Ruby hurried along the crosswalk. She reached the other side and turned to the left to head down the street to her house. The couple she'd waited with turned right instead and walked down the street together, laughing and chatting together. The orange-haired lady gave her partner a kiss on the cheek and they continued down the bustling street.
Ruby smiled at the gesture. She wasn't a romantic person, but she certainly hoped she could find a cute girl to spend her days with, just like them.
She turned down another street, her street. When she went to her street, the houses turned from nice two-story suburban houses, to broken-down, messy, dead-grass houses (if you could even call them that.) But even though Ruby knew they'd be moving to some fancy mansion when her mom married Jared, Ruby still preferred her house. She'd grown up in it, and she loved it, messy front yard and all.
Besides, most of the neighbors were pleasant people, and friendly too!
"Hello Ruby! How was school today?" Ms Posey asked her from her front yard. Ms Posey was a widower, and couldn't afford a nice house. But she certainly did a good job on her garden, which was teeming with roses and tulips and hydrangeas and bushes galore. Ruby usually wasn't a 'people' person, but she remembered Ms Posey from even when she was in diapers (hopefully Ms Posey didn't remember that).
"Good! I met some new people and made some friends." Not far from the truth. While Josh and Tulisa had talked to some other people, they had mostly stuck with Ruby, with the three of them becoming fast friends.
"And what about lacrosse? Any news on that?" Ms Posey asked, digging a hole into her vegetable garden with her shovel. She shook a few seeds into her hand from a small sack and dropped them in. Ruby knew they were carrots from her many gardening lessons she'd gotten from her neighbor.
Ruby was the co-captain of Hurricane's teen girls lacrosse team. Lacrosse was big in her town, and Ruby was an avid player. She had faded memories of being little and playing it with a man in a field, and Ruby knew that the man had to be her dad. The memory only showed the man's legs, because of her shortness, so it really could be anyone, but in the memory she'd called him Daddy, so it had to be him.
"Nothing new, I'm afraid. I'll have to miss practice on Friday because Mom's taking us to see our new house." Ruby said sadly. Ms Posey gave her a look of pity.
"Aw, Ruby...I'm going to miss you. Raven and Rylie and your mom too, but mostly you." She hesitated. "Don't tell them I said that please."
Ruby laughed.
"Can do. Yeah, I'm not sure how to feel about the marriage. I mean, I'm happy for my mom, and it's a great house, and Jared's nice and all, but still..." She trailed off.
Ms Posey gave her a sympathetic smile and finished digging the holes. She patted them down gently and watered the seeds with care. Ruby decided that it was probably a good time to leave Ms Posey to her gardening, so she waved goodbye to her neighbor, who smiled and waved back before going back to tending to her garden.
Ruby jammed the key into the lock and twisted it, with the door slamming open. She hesitantly closed it and plopped her backpack onto the bench.
Ruby walked into the kitchen to make herself a sandwich. Crunchy peanut butter with marmalade, she decided. Having skipped lunch, she was starving. Her mom was standing by the sink, washing the dishes.
"Hey Mom!" Ruby called. She was in a good mood, having saved five robots, made plans with her two new best friends, and had a pleasant chat with her neighbor.
Her mom didn't respond and just kept rubbing the plate with a washcloth. When she was done she turned the water off and stared out the window.
"I got a call from the school today." She said in a tight, monotone voice. Instantly Ruby's heart skipped a beat. She had a dreadful feeling that she knew exactly what her mom was going to say, and it wasn't good.
"They asked if you got home safe, and that they hoped you were feeling better. I asked why they asked that and they told me I'd driven you home. I have done no such thing. Care to explain why you skipped school?!" Her mother yelled. Ruby winced. She was used to hearing her mom yell, but usually just about stupid things, like bills or some annoying customer at the checkout where she worked.
"Mom please I can explain! I was only gone for two classes and lunch, I swear I didn't miss much!" Ruby explained hurriedly. Her mother shook her head.
"No. I did not raise you to skip school. I do not have the money to waste on you getting your education when you just...throw it all away! I can't do this, Ruby!" She was full-on yelling now. Rylaina, who was watching some kiddie show on the television, was completely engrossed in it, and didn't hear a thing. But Ruby was sort of mad too. She wasn't even listening to her! So, without meaning too, she blurted out.
"Well at least you're marrying Jared, so you'll have the money to waste!" Ruby spat, then instantly regretted the words. Gah, why was she so insensitive?
Her mother's face tightened. "Give me your phone."
"What?! No!"
"If you don't have anything to hide, then there's no harm in me looking, is there?"
"Oh my God! Fine!" Ruby huffed, crossing her arms.
There were many people Ruby could argue with and win, but her mom was not one of them. Her mother fiddled with the device awkwardly in that parent sort of way, until her eyes lit up. Ruby winced. She must have found something... hopefully it wasn't her dumb Blake fanfiction...
"What- who are all these people?! Chicachick, 2Lisa…?!" She was scrolling through Ruby's contacts. As if she has permission to! "And what is this- 'come quick please help'?! Is this who you were trying to meet?"
Ruby made a feeble attempt at snatching back her phone but failed. Ruby's mom put her hands on her hips, her mad mom-reserved face on.
"That's it. For two weeks, you're grounded. You may go to your work, and to school, and you may use your computer for homework, but otherwise no screens."
It was certainly very annoying, and definitely overreacting, but Ruby could live with it. At least she could hang out with the animatronics at night, and with Tulisa and Josh at school.
"And- no trick-or-treating." Her mother added.
Resisting the urge to tell her mom 'it's not trick-or-treating MOM', Ruby was mad. Furious, even. She'd finally made some real friends at her school, and now she couldn't even hang out with them on Halloween, her favourite holiday of the year?
"Mom! That's overreacting! It was just like three hours, and I've never missed school before!" Ruby protested. Her mother shook her head.
"Don't you smart-mouth me, young lady. Go to your room."
"But-"
"No buts. Go to your room!"
"BUT WAIT-"
"NOW."
"FINE." Ruby shouted, and stomped up to her room. She made a point of slamming the door as hard as she could. Ruby wanted to sit and cry and pout and say she'd never come out, like a child, but she knew that she couldn't. Not really. Even though it was a tempting thought, it just wasn't logical.
She thought mad teenage angsty thoughts about her mom for a while, but eventually those got boring. So instead of thinking mad thoughts about her mom, she decided to think sad thoughts about herself. Halloween would be sooooo boring if she spent it alone in her house, eating 2-year old Rockets that both taste and look suspiciously like pills.
Suddenly, an idea came to her. What if, instead of standing around with Tulisa and Josh and eating candy by themselves, or even better than sitting alone and eating old Rockets... they hosted a party at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria!
And it would be like an all-nighter, for older kids. Which would be kind of hard to do, considering it's a younger kids restaurant, but they could decorate it all spooky, hire a cool DJ, tell everyone it was a costume party, and the animatronics didn't have to perform. They could just go into their weird human form thingies (how did those robots do it? Very advanced technology...) and nobody would suspect a thing about their brightly coloured, unnatural skin and animal ears and tail, because it was Halloween! Besides, Ruby knew that most of the high school kids have younger siblings or other younger relatives that went there all the time, so they'd know the place well!
Ruby smiled to herself for thinking up such a good idea so quickly. So smart! Ruby got up to go text her friends her idea until she realized. She was still grounded with no phone. Ruby flopped back onto her bed. Ughhhh. She would never get her phone back.
Unless...
~lll~
Ruby took off her boots one by one, and kept her mismatched plaid-and-hotdog socks on. She stuck one toe onto the top stair and winced as it creaked loudly. Ruby inhaled and quickly ran down the stairs, much quieter than she'd anticipated. She could hear sounds coming from the TV, and when Ruby checked she saw that Raven was home from school, watching old reruns of Friends with their mom.
Ruby smiled briefly, then turned to the table where her phone was lying to snatch it. Ruby tiptoed over to it. Closer, closer. Her fingers just barely brushed the screen aaand-
"Absolutely not. Back to your room, young lady." Her mother said without even looking at her.
"Hmmmph." Ruby slouched as she stomped up to her room. Raven glanced up at her, and after a moment's hesitation, followed her up the stairs.
"Hey. What'd you do this time?" Raven asked, with genuine curiosity. Ruby looked at her older sister. "Does it matter? I can't go anywhere now." Ruby said sullenly.
"Why are you so upset about that? Got a hot date?" Raven wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and sat down next to Ruby on her white-gray-and-pastel-pink bed.
Ruby shoved her face into her derpy kawaii fluffy fox pillow (named T.H, after the fox in her favourite childhood book, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest.) Shoving her face in pillows always seemed to cure sadness and madness, and now she just felt...bleh.
"No…" Ruby sulked. Raven rubbed her back in a comforting way.
"Do you want to have a hot date?"
"No! Well yeah I guess... but like, I made plans with my new friends, but now I'm grounded for skipping school-"
"Woah." Raven's eyebrows shot up. "You skipped school? Damn, my little sister's a bad girl now…"
"WILL PEOPLE STOP SAYING THAT?! I SKIPPED LIKE THREE HOURS AND IT WAS FOR A GOOD REASON!" Ruby yelled. When she saw Raven's startled face she flushed red. "Sorry. I just...bleh." Ruby was unable to find words that made sense come out of her mouth.
"I know what you mean." Raven laughed. "Anyway, c'mere...sister to sister, I'll always be here for you. I promise. Isn't that what big sisters are for?"
Ruby smiled and hugged Raven back. She could get used to these kinds of sister talks, which seemed to happen...never, Ruby supposed.
"For someone with such a dark look, you're surprisingly nice," Ruby blurted out. She clapped a hand against her mouth. Oh god. Why did I say that?! Was that too mean?
But to Ruby's surprise and immense relief, Raven burst out laughing.
"I know right? I was totally going through some sort of phase when I was sixteen. I'm thinking about growing my hair out, at least. Don't ever pretend to be super 'goth' and 'emo' just because your friends are doing it, okay Ruby? Only do it if you like it for you. Otherwise, you might regret it."
"I promise," Ruby laughed. Raven nodded, and stood up from her bed.
"Well, I have a hot date with Phone Call of Duty, so I'll be at my computer if you need me." Raven told her.
"Okay. And...thanks. For the talk." Ruby thanked her awkwardly. Raven smiled, a rare occurrence.
"Anytime."
Then she left poor grounded Ruby to sit on her bed, all alone with nobody but T.H for company, with two weeks to plan this amazing Halloween party.
A/N
Engaging, am I right?
Next chapter will hopefully be more exciting, one of my friends partly decided what was in it so it should be more 'engaging and thrilling' than the last one.
I can't wait to write about the Halloween party, though it will probably be written in November, sadly.
Apologies that I didn't post a challenge the last two times I uploaded chapters, so here's a challenge:
Close your eyes and try to draw something. It always ends up...weird.
Bye for now!
~Ghost