Ruby Red - Xavier Thorpe [discontinued]

Chapter Eight

The next morning, Ajax came to the breakfast table, moping and sad. "I accidentally stoned myself and missed my date with Enid. I can't even bring myself to tell her, it's so embarrassing!"

They were all sympathetic, well, besides Kent, he was as sarcastic as ever and made a stupid comment, but he apologized after.

Then the bell rang and most of the group made their way to the greenhouse.

"While most plants reward their pollinators with sweet nectar, many carnivorous varieties turn to sеxual trickery or deception." Thornhill said.

From her seat, Ruby could see Xavier talking to Wednesday, and forced herself to look back to Thornhill.

"The orchid produces a pheromone that mimics a female insect, luring the males in. Now, once the plant is pollinated, what do the male insects get in exchange?"

Bianca made a comment, "Nada. Just like all the guys at the Rave'N." This caused the girls in the room to laugh.

Thornhill told the class that she hadn't assigned homework. Ruby sighed happily, she loved hearing about no homework. It was one of her favorite sounds.

Later on in the day, all people could talk about was how one of the new girls was going to the Rave'N with Xavier. The girls ran up to Ruby's dorm, "Ruby!! Is it true?"

She opened her door, showing off her face, red eyes, puffy red nose, and pinked cheeks. "I guess you heard."

"What? We thought he asked you!" Divina was the first to enter the room, quite angrily too.

"Nope, my sister asked him. Gosh, I hate her! I've dealt with her ruining every happy moment for almost sixteen years! Why can't she just leave me and my life alone? I can't believe she did this! And I can't believe he said yes!" Ruby was more angry than they had ever seen , she threw a glass at the wall and sank to the floor. "Why does she always do this to me? All the time when we were kids, she would tell me that she hated being the center of attention, but all I've ever seen is someone who made themself constantly stand out. I finally have friends who aren't scared of her, and my very first crush, and she ripped that apart just like everything else."

The girls wrapped their arms around the crying girl.

"Well, at least you know we'll never betray you." she lifted her head to look at Yoko.

"I love you guys."

They got her to calm down, and they curled up on the couch to watch Brave, despite it not being their favorite, because it was Ruby's, and it seemed fitting. A strong, beautiful girl who didn't need a man to be happy.

After the movie, the girls went down to the school kitchen, and got ice cream out of the fridge. By the time they got it, they didn't feel like going all the way back up the stairs so Ruby put up and illusion to block people from seeing them go down into the Nightshades sitting room. Ruby was feeling much better, and they just sat and made jokes.

Despite not having a date, Ruby went with her friends to dress shop the next day, they had decided to go as a group. The only ones with a date were Xavier and Ajax because during their trip, they heard that Enid had gotten a date, and so, in hopes of making the girl jealous, he asked another girl. The girl knew, she was trying to make her ex angry, so it worked out for both of them.

After hours of looking, the girls found their dresses. There weren't many white dresses, and a lot of girls who volunteered to help with the Rave'N had picked their dresses while the theme was still secret.

Yoko found her dress first, a little while after, Divina picked hers, but it took a little longer for Bianca and Ruby to find theirs, though Ruby was last. She wasn't very enthusiastic about it, and was hoping that if she didn't find a dress, she wouldn't have to go, which meant she didn't have to see her sister, and her crush together. But her spirits were lifted when she put on one of the dresses, she knew she had to go because she couldn't wait to wear it. It had tied spaghetti straps, it was a tea length, icey blue, tulle dress with silver star sequins, and a corset type bust. It was perfect.

She walked out of the fitting room, and Kent who was trying on a white tux saw her first, and his jaw dropped. The girls turned to see what he was looking at, and gasped.

Bianca let out an uncharacteristic squeal and rushed over, "Rubes! This is gorgeous, it was practically made for you."

Divina was stunned, "Girl, you look amazing, you go to that dance and show up those jerks."

Kent came over, "They're right, you really do look great, Wanda," He had been calling her that since they watched the Marvel movies, and joked that she was the Scarlet Witch, not Wanda Maximoff, sometime it was Wanda, other times Maximoff, and occasionally, Maxi.

Yoko had also begun calling her Daphne, after her favorite Scooby Doo character, "You gotta get this one, Daph."

She did. She had to. It really felt like it was made for her. Ruby usually never went for light blue, it tended to clash with her hair, and if it wasn't her hair, it was her pale skin, or bright eyes, but this was the perfect in between color.

They had a meeting that night, so they just got there earlier, they just had to wait for Ajax and Xavier. Ruby snapped her fingers and their bags from the day went to her room, since that was pretty much their designated hang out spot, and they had established that was where they'd be getting ready for the Rave'N.

Ajax showed up a couple hours later, and Xavier was so late that they decided to go on with the meeting and they'd catch him up when he got there. He was running down the stairs when they were closing up the sitting room, and Ruby was ready to snap the candles and lights out. He looked angry, but shut it down when he saw the group near the bottom of the stairs.

Bianca, Ruby's number one defender, had seen how she kept looking at the door throughout the meeting, waiting for him to show up despite her being upset about him being Wednesday's date. "You're late."

He let out a sigh, "Yeah, I know, I tried to get here as soon as I could, but I got caught up."

They all left the Nightshades headquarters, and Ajax announced that he would be the one to fill Xavier in since they were in the same dorm hall.

Kent went along with them, and split after they got across the quad, while the girls went up their tower.

Yoko seemed annoyed, "I can't believe he was that late, I mean we've dealt with people being a little late, or not being able to come, but they always let us know beforehand. I wonder what he was doing."

As if he had heard what she said, Divina's phone chimed, Kent texted her. Xavier told him that the reason he was so late was because he was on a run adn his phone died, so he lost track of time. He stopped at his little art shed to put his phone on the charger to let the group know he would be late, but Wednesday was there, snooping. He figured out that she had asked him to the Rave'N to cover up the fact that she had been in there and he caught her so she did what she had to do or else he'd figure out that she had been snooping the first time. He got mad at her, and they weren't going together.

The girls' gazes fell on Ruby, who was still looking down at the phone. She felt their eyes on her, and lifted her head. "Oh, well, I don't know what he was expecting, Wednesday has never even tried to seem like she cares about anyone other than herself." She turned to go up the stairs, "well, goodnight."