Ruby Red - Xavier Thorpe [on hold]

Chapter Four

Divina and Ruby were walking to the meeting and stopped at the Poe statue before Divina snapped twice, causing the staircase to reveal itself.

"Welcome to the Nightshade Society," she said in a jokingly ominous tone. Most of the others were already there, the only one who hadn't shown up was Ajax.

He finally came running down the stairs, only a minute after the two girls had arrived.

Bianca started off, "Tonight, we welcome our new friend to the Nighstade Society, normally we would make you do something entirely stupid to make you join, but all we're making you do is something we do every once in a while. We're gonna go to the lake, and you're gonna skinny dip." Ruby's eyes went wide, and out of the corner, she was able to see Xavier's do so as well. Neither of them was expecting that.

The girl just had to remind herself that she was an Addams, she could do this, her friends wouldn't judge her, and she could tell that they just wanted to see if she would actually do it.

Ruby stood up and started walking to the stairs, and she turned back to her friends who seemed nervous, and scared that she might be leaving, "Well, are you guys coming? Someone needs to make sure my clothes don't get taken by some ass that might be walking around."

Kent burst out laughing and ran to follow her, and the rest joined them. The group quietly ran out to the docks at the lake, and they all turned away for her to get undressed, they only looked back when they heard the loud splash. They looked down at the pile of her clothes to see if she had actually done it, not just jump in with her clothes on. Xavier struggled to look away from the red undergarments sitting atop her black t-shirt and grey sweatpants.

Yoko was nodding in approval, "I didn't think you would actually do it." Then, the rest of the group separated and jumped into the water. They splashed around, laughed, created new memories, saw a bit too much of each other, and found inside jokes.

It was moments like these that Ruby stopped to just look at her friends, the first real friends she had ever had, and smile, just soaking in the moment. As she watched her friends push each other and live in the moment, Xavier was the only one to notice that she hadn't joined in, and swam over to her. "What are you doing over here, all by yourself?"

She smiled up at him, "Well, Xavier, I'm just enjoying the moment where I can relish in the feeling of actually having friends who aren't too scared of my sister to be around me." She cast her eyes back over to the group.

He grinned back, he loved her sentiment, but he also loved the way it felt when she said his name. "I'm glad you found your people, Red."

She snapped her gaze back to him, he had given her a nickname. It made her feel butterflies.

The girl didn't know what to do, so she splashed water at him.

"Oh it's on!" The boy drew the attention of their friends, so they all witnessed him try to send the water back, but what he didn't expect was for Ruby to stop the water with magic. "That's so not fair!" He tried to swim after her, but the girl used her magic once again, this time she became invisible, and she moved underwater so she made no noise. She made sure to keep her eyes closed, she was with a bunch of naked people, and did not want to see anymore than she already had.

She appeared behind Xavier and pushed him into the water. The girl returned to her invisible state, swam back to the dock where her clothes were, and snapped. The group was looking around for her, until they heard someone clear their throat. There, on the docks, stood Ruby, completely dry and clothed.

"Last one back to the library is a rotten egg!" The girl took off running back to the Edgar Allen Poe statue and she sat there in the library for another ten minutes before anyone even showed up, the first being Yoko, perks of being a vampire. Then came the sirens, pushing and shoving at each other to get back before anyone else. Then there was Xavier, and finally, Ajax. Ruby had spent most of the time laughing at them, and then Yoko joined, and the rest.

Divina decided this was the time to say, "I'm so happy I invited you to join us." She had a devilish smirk on her face.

Xavier looked flabbergasted, "Uh Divina, I invited Ruby, earlier today, I even told her how to get here."

Ruby faked a confused look, "What? No, Divina invited me on my first day here, I already knew about the Nightshades, I mean come on, I'm a legacy."

His mouth opened and closed a few times. "No I asked you during our free period this morning."

Everyone was giggling and snickering as they watched this unfold. Xavier looked over to them, and it clicked. They all knew, and they were messing with him. "Oh, real funny," He pouted a bit before everyone got him to let out a laugh.

The next day, Divina and Bianca were busy working on their canoe for the Poe Cup. Ajax and Xavier had also been working on theirs, and Kent was busy with homework, so Ruby decided she was due for a sketch. She sat at her desk and picked up the sketchbook, she was interested in seeing Xavier's art, to say the least. 

The first couple pages had random objects drawn in charcoal, there was a canoe, no doubt what Xavier had planned for the Poe Cup, along with that, there was a sketch of a beautiful flower, a tulip. After that, there was a few other pages, one in the middle caught Ruby's eye.

It was her. And she looked gorgeous. She blushed at the thought of being drawn, any artist knew that when artists who don't draw portraits, do so, it means something. It was clear by all of the art Ruby had seen of Xavier's, he was not one for portraits.

She snapped out of her daze and kept flipping through the pages until she got to a blank one, but even though she had moved on from the portrait, the smile never left her face. She began her drawing, and ended up staring at eyes. Familiar eyes. His eyes.

She didn't know why she drew them, but she had a feeling. She closed the sketchbook, and went to her couch to lay down. There, she laid until the bell rang for class, just thinking and putting pieces together.

She liked Xavier.