Huh, it appears it's April? How very interesting. Also, as I said in a review, I apologize for the last chapter. It got rid of the line breaks I usually put in, and the author's notes decided they wanted to squish together. So I decided, may as well have the author's notes legible instead of in bold. So, no more bold and italics until I figure out how to fix that.

Also! I got a YouTube channel! Here is the link. I know you can't click it, but if you can copy and paste it, try that. I definitely won't upload often, but I made a short animation based on a scene in this book :) Here is the link to the video! watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

Reviews!

Notjeillen: Thank you! Glad you like it :)

Violet88: Aha! I see someone has figured out the secret I put in the last chapter! Good job! Let's see if anyone else will figure it out…

LittleGhostCat: Wow, that's me! From the past! Hello, past me!

Enjoy this short (short, I say. It's like 2k words.) chapter!

Chapter 24

April 1st?

Ruby sat in Jared's limo to her work, humming a joyful tune. She was in an especially good mood that day. Why? Because, it was her birthday, of course!

Seventeen...wow. Sixteen seemed huge, seventeen was even bigger. Soon, she'd be a senior, top of the school. Seventeen seemed like an age in a dream, an age she'd wanted to be since she was little. But that dream was coming true today! At exactly 1:09 AM…and it was 12:00 right now!

Raven had her eighteenth birthday earlier in the month, on St. Patrick's Day, actually. Her mother's birthday was in May, and Rylie's was in June, the twentieth. They joked about how their birthdays were all in a row.

It was weird to think that Raven would be in college soon. Away from Ruby. They'd grown up together, side by side. Even though Raven went to a different school, they were still close. And to think that Raven would soon be flying across the country to stay with her friend Anna in California to go to Amberley College of Art and Design. So many things were changing, and Ruby didn't quite know how to feel about all of them.

"So, how's work? It's a tough job, the night shift." Jared flicked on his headlights as they entered an especially dark part of town.

Ruby shrugged. "It's going well. I've made some friends, and I get a hundred and fifteen dollars a week. Plus, it's fun getting to be in there after hours, just the whole place to our- er, I mean myself." Ruby caught herself. Jared nodded.

"I know how you feel. I used to work the night shift at the middle school as the janitor, and it was so calm and quiet. I could listen to music, sometimes I even danced with the broom." They both laughed. "It didn't pay very well, and eventually I quit. Got some degrees, went to law school, became a policeman and never looked back. The job is exciting at times, but it's also hard work. And sometimes I miss the calm halls of the school, but I prefer being a policeman. It's rewarding, knowing you helped someone. Although it's usually quite boring, just noise complaints and the usual jewelry store robber. Although there was...the case at Freddy's."

He tensed up, and Ruby was intrigued.

"What happened? I keep hearing stuff about it, and I know the basics - missing kids, masked killer - but what really happened?"

Jared sighed. "It was one of the worst cases I'd ever done. I worked long nights with no sleep, dealt with distraught families, interrogated suspects. And it's terrible, you know? Five little kids, the oldest was ten and the youngest was only seven, all with families and friends and hopes and dreams. And the murderer escaped. They were never avenged. It still doesn't sit quite right with me to this day, knowing they're still out there."

Ruby nodded. It was a terrible, and certainly a creepy story, one that the kids of Hurricane told to each other on swingsets, behind gloved hands on the bus, whispered over juice boxes and leftover pizza. The suspects ranged from a deranged serial killer, the substitute teacher for gym, even the class hamster Clarity, who Ruby had to admit, did have a truly evil glare.

"Do you know who did it? Killed the kids, I mean. Or are you allowed to say." Ruby asked, leaning on the edge of her seat.

Jared paused, then nodded.

"I knew. See, everyone suspected Henry Emily, the co-owner, at first. I mean, it was his daughter, Charlotte, that disappeared first. And the guy was always a little odd. But he seemed so genuinely upset, I knew it couldn't be him, no matter what the other members thought. So we turned to the owner, William Afton, and everything he said seemed to match up. We even found a rabbit suit and these creepy journals in his garage. But, he disappeared. And after Henry...killed himself, everyone in the police department suspected him. Sounds like it, right? Eccentric store owner fights with his friend, his daughter dies, goes crazy, kills kids, kills himself. Case closed. But I still suspect William. Even eight years later, I do."

Huh. That would make the kids the same age as me if they were still alive, Ruby realized, and the thought made her sad. Maybe they would have been friends. Those poor kids had their whole times ahead of them, and them some crazy psychopath had to go murder them for no reason.

"But I don't want you to go telling anyone that, okay? I only told you this because you'll be my step-daughter, plus you seemed genuinely interested and I trust you with this information. Got that?" Jared looked at her in the mirror.

Ruby nodded. "Can do."

Jared smiled, and pulled into the parking lot. "Okay. Have fun at work, birthday girl. See you soon."

"Bye!" Ruby grabbed her backpack and stepped out of the car, waving to him as he drove away.

As she headed inside, she smiled to herself. Maybe Jared wasn't as evil as she'd made him out to be. Maybe having him as a stepdad would be fun.

"Guess who's birthday it is!" Ruby sing-songed as she danced around the tables.

"Hannah Montoya, Kid Ink, Asa Butterfield, and Scotty Sire?" Chica asked. She set down a pair of 8 of hearts.

"Haha! You're going down." Chica laughed. The two were playing Go Fish, with Foxy as the referee. They were playing the version where whoever for the most pairs at the end of the deck won. Of course, Foxy may or may not have helped Mangle cheat. Sorry, what was she thinking? He would totally never do a thing like that. Totally.

"Oh, we'll see about that, honey." Mangle muttered, furiously scanning her deck. Over that week, Ruby, Tulisa, and Lily had fixed up Mangle's voice. It was still a little scratchy, and glitched out at times, but Mangle said she liked it even better. Ruby was still impressed at how well Lily was able to code something like that. She'd told Adam that, and he said Lily was in the sixth grade, she'd skipped. Which was certainly a good decision because Lily was probably the smartest nine-year-old Ruby had ever met, or seen for that matter.

"No!" Ruby yelled from the top of a table. "It's mine! My birthday! I'm turning seventeen, isn't that awesome?"

Freddy looked up from his place on the purple couch, where he and Bonnie were sprawled out, flipping through various magazines that they'd probably stolen from Chica's room.

"Really? Oh, happy bir-"

Bonnie sat up on his knees from his previous position lying down on Freddy's lap and quickly slapped a hand over Freddy's mouth to silence him.

"No! Don't say it! Remember what day it is?!"

"Uwhm...han woo peaz het loff ee moof?" Freddy asked. Bonnie took his hand off, embarrassed. "Oh, sorry."

"That's okay. Um... isn't it Thursday?" Freddy sounded confused. Bonnie rolled his eyes.

"No! April 1st! April Fool's Day?"

Recognition spreaded across his face. "Oh, right! Ha, you almost got me there, Ruby! Good one!" Freddy laughed. He picked up his magazine - something about 90 Great Handbags!, not like they needed handbags considering they never went anywhere - and sat back down, both of them resuming their previous positions as if nothing had happened

Ruby gaped at them. "This isn't a prank! It's actually my birthday! What, do you need a birth certificate or something?!"

"Do you have one?" Bonnie flipped a page on his science magazine. It boldly declared something about geysers. No, like it literally said 'SOMETHING ABOUT GEYSERS!'

"Well, no. I don't just bring something like that around with me. But come on you guys, it's actually my birthday." Ruby put her hands on her hips.

Chica looked up from her hand of cards.

"I believe you, Ruby." She said loyally. Ruby pointed to her.

"See?! Chica believes me. Thank you, Chica."

"You're welcome! Hm...got any 4's?"

Mangle scanned her hand and growled. "...No."

Chica glared at her. "Hey, you just said you had a 4! And I didn't see you put a pair of 4's down."

Foxy held up his hands. "Okay, okay. Let me see yer hands." He walked over to Chica's side first and inspected it. Chica rolled her eyes.

"Mangle, please stop getting him to help you cheat." She chided.

"He is not! Why would you ever think that!" Mangle yelled defensively.

Chica sighed. "Come on. We've both been watching Cakegurui, I know you two have been sending signals. Try and win this the real way, okay?"

Mangle groaned, but shooed Foxy away, knowing they'd been discovered.

"Ugh, fine! Take the stupid 4." She passed a four of spades to Chica, who had a big, smug grin on her face. She placed a pair down gleefully.

Ruby turned back to Foxy, Bonnie, and Freddy. Foxy had picked up his favourite National Graphic magazine, the one where they focused on pirate's, and was flipping through advertisements from 'A True Man's Watch.'

"It's actually my birthday though! What, do you guys not have birthdays?!"

"I don't remember mine." Bonnie said, rolling onto his back and putting his knees up.

"June 24," Foxy flipped through a gallery of the different kinds of pirate ships. His favourite was the ones with the black-and-red sails. He liked those colours together, they looked rather menacing. Foxy imagined himself sailing through the ocean on one of those, swashbuckling any scallywags that dared threaten him and his loyal crewmates.

"Don't remember mine either. Only Freddy and Foxy remember theirs. And Chica, I think. She just remembers that she's a Libra, and that's it." Mangle frowned. "Go fish."

Ruby tilted her head to the side. "Aw. That's sad. But...what do I have to do to prove that it's my birthday?"

"I dunno, do the Chika Dance. If you know it." Bonnie examined the Great Spring Outfits! article on Freddy's magazine. He pointed to a red scarf.

"You should get that one. It looks soft." Bonnie said. Freddy shrugged.

"True. How much did it say it was? Ninety-five dollars?" Freddy teased. Bonnie rolled his eyes.

"Six dollars, don't even. You should get it!"

"Uh, do I actually have to? Or are you joking." Ruby asked. Bonnie nodded.

"Do it. It'll be great. Ooh, those are some nice jeans! What size are they?"

Suddenly, breaking up their conversation was a poppy, bouncy anime song blasting from an ePhone and a very grumpy-looking Ruby. She proceeded to do the Chika dance, with such skill and grace that they wondered how much she practiced this.

When she was done, everyone in the building proceeded to applaud. Bonnie was laughing so hard it sounded like a wheeze.

"Man, I really wish I recorded that. That was- amazing!" He started laughing again.

"Well, I think you did great. Also, ha! A pair of aces! Get noobed!" Chica cackled. Mangle slammed her head onto the table and groaned.

"Alllll I knooooow is paaaaaain…" She sang in a broken tone of voice.

"Oh come on Mags, get up. The round's almost over! Then we move to the Death Match."

That got Mangle's attention. She sat straight up again and picked up her cards.

"Well, happy birthday Ruby." Bonnie muttered, crossing his arms and flopping back on the couch. Freddy nudged Bonnie.

"C'mon, what do you have to say to Rubyyy?"

Bonnie rolled his eyes. "Sorry for thinking it was a prank or whatever."

Freddy looked at her. "And I'm really sorry too. It must be really annoying to have your birthday on this day. So you're an Aries? Should've guessed." He grinned.

"We're compatible!" Chica yelled. "Aries and Libra make the best long-time relationships!"

"I thought it was Aries and Leo," Ruby teased. Chica glared at her furiously.

"No. Well, yes. But Aries/Libra is like number two on best Aries pairings." Chica grinned as she finished counting her pairs.

"Thirteen pairs! Beat that." She flashed her friend a smile.

Mangle returned the gesture.

"Five pairs. But I'll beat you in the death match, trust me." Mangle growled.

"Sorry we didn't get you a present." Freddy apologized. Ruby shrugged.

"That's okay. Hm...there is one thing I want…"

"Haha! I got another queen! Get noobed, all of you!"

"How did you get that?! Freddy, she's cheating."

"I only have one pair! And it's a pair of fricking twos!"

"I don't even have any pairs."

"Did ye know that pirate's favourite animals were actually cats? They killed all the rats on board. Very useful. Although parrots are still my favourite animals. Hey, can we-"

"No, foxy. We cannot get a parrot. Or a cat, for that matter. Go fish. Again!"

And so, the six friends played Go Fish until the sun rose and six o'clock was upon them. And Ruby decided that her birthday had gotten off to a great start. Especially because, well, it was April 1st, right?

"FREDDY! THERE ARE SNAKES IN THE TOILET!"

A/N

Huh, guess Jared is okay after all. Also, on a completely random note, Tulisa and Josh's dad is going to be a policeman, instead of in the army. Don't know if I've said that before.

Ruby is seventeen now...sniff sniff. I feel like a proud mother. In the beginning of the story, I said she was seventeen but ha, continuity errors said nope.

Also, she's an Aries! Pog! I myself am a Leo. My birthday shall be revealed later…

Challenge Of The Day: Comment your zodiac sign!

Have a great day!

~tallalivecat