Ruby Red - Xavier Thorpe [on hold]

Chapter Two

Divina had left Ruby in her room to let her settle in more, and just have some time to herself later on the night of her first day at Nevermore.

That's what she did, Ruby decorated the plain dark wood of the walls with drawings of hers, every time she had to go to a new school, and every birthday and holiday she was gifted a sketchbook and art supplies from her parents. She spent lots of time drawing nature, sometimes there were things that seemed like they should be part of a fantasy novel. She had a bookshelf built into a portion of the rounded wall where she had tried to stuff every book and sketchbook she had into. She placed some candles and the crystals that she had for spells on their own shelf. Since she had thought she would be rooming with Wednesday, she left most of her colorful things at home, so she was planning on using the coming weekend to go to Jericho and shopping for some decorations. According to Principal Weems, this would be her room for as long as she's a student at Nevermore, so she could do whatever she wanted to her room. 

A knock on the door brought Ruby out of her decorating haze. "Come in," she turned to see Divina at the door with a few other people.

"Hey, just wanted to see how you were settling in, and I brought some people for you to meet. This is Bianca and Kent. They're excited to meet the new girl."

"Oh, hi, I'm Ruby Addams, it's nice to meet you all. You can come in, and sit wherever, I'm just doing a bit of decorating." Ruby had a couple of drawings in her hand that she finished hanging on the wall.

"Woah. Did you draw these?" Kent was the first of the new people to fully enter and speak, he plopped down onto the couch that Ruby had returned to its regular size after traveling with the miniaturized form. Ruby awkwardly replied with a yes, and he continued speaking, "how did you get all this furniture up here?"

Ruby looked away from the wall with her drawings to see them all looking at her, Bianca sat in the armchair near the couch, Kent was on said couch and Divina was laying on the bed on her stomach, "Oh, um, I'm a witch, I did a simple shrinking spell, and then an enlarging one when I unpacked." They all looked fascinated.

"We haven't had a witch in years, could you show us some of your magic?" Bianca asked.

Ruby did the first thing she could think of, she created sparks in her hands, put them together, and changed them from their golden color to a vibrant blue. While they watched her hands, she pushed herself to think of something more complex to do.

Then it clicked. These were sirens, they were water people.

The blue sparks morphed into a ball of water, which was then stretched to a stream that she moved around the room. The excitement they felt, combined with the proximity to the water brought some of their scales out.

Divina let out a little laugh, which pushed Kent to, and suddenly they were all laughing. When they cooled down a bit, Divina pulled Ruby into her arms, "I think you're gonna fit right in with us,"

The group got to know Ruby before they had to leave to get ready for bed. Ruby went to sleep happy, which was quite rare for her.

The next day, she woke up, got changed into her school uniform, went up to Divina's room, and knocked on the door.

She opened the door and let Ruby, "Good morning, so there's fencing today, so you should grab your uniform for that, and I can bring you to our coach so you can join. I'll wait outside your room."

Ruby thanked her and went back down, and grabbed the bag she had with her fencing things.

The two walked down to the gym and into the locker room to get changed into their gear. They, then, went to speak with the coach, who instantly let Ruby join, she was the daughter of a former fencing captain, and the Addams family was famously known for fencing.

Divina volunteered to spar with Ruby, and they were in the zone when Wednesday walked in, they stopped because she walked into their space. Ruby scoffed and turned to Divina, "Let's just go again,"

Before they could resume, Wednesday had to make a scene.

She challenged Bianca.

"Oh, you must be the psychopath they let in."

"You must be the self-appointed Queen Bee. Interesting thing about bees. Pull out their stingers, they drop dead."

"Rowan doesn't need you to come to his defense. He's not helpless, he's lazy. Are we doing this or not?"

Coach started their match, "en garde."

The sparring went on, and Wednesday eventually got a point, and then Bianca evened it up.

"That first point was clearly beginner's luck."

"Let's finish this. For the final point, I would like to invoke a military challenge. No masks. No tips. Winner draws first blood."

"It's your decision, Bianca."

"Let's see if you bleed in black and white." Bianca was clearly getting annoyed. They resumed, they were both angry. Bianca cut Wednesday on her forehead, and though she would never admit it, Ruby was enjoying that her sister was being taken down a peg, she needed it. "Your face finally got that splash of color it so desperately needed." Bianca had seen Enid's gossip post about Wednesday that talked about how Ruby was dragged around to different schools because her sister got expelled everywhere and the twins couldn't be separated. She somehow knew that Ruby had been the shadow sister, and Bianca could tell, just by the way she acted, that it had been true, and she liked the girl, they were fast friends, and she knew her sister couldn't be treated like the perfect Wednesday Addams that their parents saw.

Wednesday touched the blood on her face, and that's when Ruby knew, others may not be able to tell, but Ruby could, Wednesday was seething. She was used to being the best, though she never really had much of an opponent, Ruby didn't have fencing lessons at the same time as Wednesday, she had them after, so their teacher was never happy when it came time for her to learn, meaning she dealt with harsher punishments, which pushed her to try harder. She knew she was better than Wednesday, she just didn't bother trying to prove it. She liked fencing, but she didn't want to ruin it with competition and dealing with the temper Wednesday hid behind those dark, dead eyes.

Wednesday stormed off, and Divina turned to Ruby, "I see why you don't like her, she's a drama queen."

Ruby just laughed and nodded. She looked around, and caught eyes with someone who seemed familiar. The boy smiled at her, so she smiled back and turned to go talk to Bianca.

"Hey, I just wanted to thank you for giving me the chance to see my sister not be perfect for once," she started with a chuckle.

Bianca was standing proud and laughed, "It was an honor to serve you," she said in a fancy voice and bowed to Ruby, who laughed along with her. "Wanna spar?" Ruby agreed and the two were challenging each other while still having fun, and then Ruby beat Bianca, but she was happy to have made such a genuine friend that she didn't care that she lost. "Finally! Someone on my level, you're gonna give me a run for my money, huh, Addams?"

The two high-fived while Xavier stood back and watched, his ex-girlfriend made friends with the new girl who had just caught his eye. He remembered her, and it seemed that she recognized him as well. He didn't know what to think other than, she was more beautiful than ever, she lit up the room.