Ruby Red - Xavier Thorpe [discontinued]

Chapter Twelve

"See? I knew we should have done this earlier."

"Would you guys be quiet? We don't want to wake her up. She spent all day, probably thinking we forgot, and then spent hours alone. Waking her up is the last thing we want to do." Ruby couldn't help, but think that whoever said that, was right. It was Ajax.

"Well, it wasn't my idea to ignore her all day!"

There was a sigh, "what are we going to do? If we tell her tomorrow, she'll probably feel bad about falling asleep before we could celebrate."

"But if we wake her up now, she'll be all cranky."

Annoyed that they didn't decide to have this conversation outside of her room, she went invisible and moved over to them. She revealed herself, "she's already cranky."

They all yelled, screamed, or in Kent's case, squealed, and jumped back.

Xavier stepped forward and pulled her into his arms, "see? I told you, now she's in a bad mood, I knew we should have done this earlier."

She looked around, "what are you guys even talking about?"

Divina pulled her out of the boy's arms, and into her closet, and told her to change into something cute.

Yoko took her place holding the door, if Ruby tried to exit without changing, she wouldn't be able to match the vampire's strength.

After a few minutes, Ruby came out in dark blue jeans, a cream-colored long-sleeve top, and a pair of black, heeled boots. The lower cut on the top allowed the amulet to show on full display, and she had emerald green earrings to match. She still looked tired and upset but followed them to the Nevermore library.

It was decked out in flowers, art, and fake gems. Above one set of shelves, a banner hung, in big, bejeweled letters read the words, "Happy Birthday Ruby!"

Her bottom lip quivered, tears welled up in her eyes, and she let out a quiet, watery "You guys..."

Ajax began to worry as the tears started falling, "Oh no, she's crying, is that good or bad? Someone tell me!"

She laughed through the tears, and hugged Bianca, who was closest to her, "Thank you, this is so sweet, no one's ever done something like this for me before."

They all gathered around her and started a big group hug. They only pulled back when they heard footsteps nearing. They looked to see who was coming in, it was Wednesday and Enid. One held a black bag, the other held a flowery one. "Sorry that we're late, and we can't stay for much longer, but we just wanted to wish you a happy birthday, Ruby." Enid came in for a hug and was surprised to see that she allowed her to. She handed Ruby the floral present, "I know you're not supposed to open presents until the end, but since we can't stay, and I want to see what you think, we can make an exception."

With a chuckle, Ruby pulled the tissue paper out, and looked in the bag to see something crocheted. She pulled it out and held it up, it was a beautiful green, brown and white striped sweater. "I love it, thank you, Enid!" She pulled the girl into another hug.

Wednesday slowly stepped forward, "I liked your gift, thank you. I hope your day was horrible," which was one of the nicest things she could have said, it showed that she cared, since she would have enjoyed a horrible day. "Here."

Ruby grabbed the bag, and thanked her. Inside was a little green handbag that perfectly matched the handbag. "I really love this, Wednesday, thank you." She wanted to say more, but she knew it would make her sister uncomfortable.

The girl nodded, and walked to the door, Enid smiled apologetically and followed after her, leaving the group of friends to themselves.

They had cake, shared laughs, and opened presents. The friends fought over which present would be opened and when. Yoko was the first one, it was a pair of sunglasses that matched hers, and a shirt that she had seen Ruby eyeing at Hawte Kewture.

Kent and Ajax got a joint gift, with the huge basket of snacks, there was a booklet of Dudepons, coupons for various things that regarded her favorite dudes. This made the bunch laugh and Ruby hugged the two, one on each side and their faces pressed close together, which Divina snapped a picture of.

Bianca had gotten Ruby a scrapbook, it was filled with pictures they had all taken over the past few weeks, and she told the birthday girl that she would be taking it back every once in a while to fill in the empty pages, as their friendship was one that would last ages, and memories would go on forever. Divina got another few snapshots of Ruby hugging Bianca and thanking her for such a thoughtful gift.

When it was time to open Divina's gift, Ruby was told to hold on. She set up a few little things behind Ruby's chair, and gave Xavier her phone to take pictures with.

A giant box was set in Ruby's lap. When Divina gave her the go ahead, she removed the lid, only to find another box. Inside that was another, and there were about five more boxes inside each other before the final box, about the size of an Ikea cube. The box was filled with a best friend care package, there were bath bombs, a bottle of Ruby's signature perfume, a couple of pairs of fuzzy socks, a few scented candles, a few bottles of nail polish, a keychain that said "Divina is my best friend," and a pair of silver butterfly earrings, all sat atop a giant, soft, forest green blanket.

As she opened the boxes and present, sparklers were set off, and Kent went behind the chair and popped a confetti cannon, and Xavier got beautiful and hilarious candids of Ruby opening the gift. Bianca recorded it, and the group laughed at Ruby's struggle with the multitude of boxes.

After that, Xavier mentioned that it was almost time to leave, they had planned for him to take Ruby to her dorm, and the rest would clean up everything in the library.

While carrying the presents back up to her room, Ruby didn't mention anything about how Xavier hadn't given her a gift, she had already gotten so many nice things, and didn't want to seem greedy or anything.

When Thing had left earlier, the window was kept open, and it was for a reason. During the party, Thing had brought Xavier's gift into Ruby's dorm for him, so it was the first thing she noticed when they entered.

Sat atop her little coffee table was a beautiful art kit. It had all types of mediums, charcoal, watercolor, oil pastels, pencils. With it was a red sketchbook, and it was personalized with her initials, R. L. A.

She put her other gifts down and walked over to the book, and picked it up. Ruby opened the cover to see the first page had already been filled. There was a note with a few little sketches of her.

"Ruby Lucia Addams, I haven't known you for very long, but I want you to know that I'm here to stay, you're stuck with me for good.

I admire you for many reasons, your brilliant mind, seriously, you are a genius, your style, your creativity, and your ability to understand people, but I really like that we connect on another level, in a way that I know neither of us ever have.

You get me, and I get you.

I knew the perfect gift for you would be something that memorializes our connection.

Happy 16th, Ruby <3"

She didn't need to ask who it was from, of course. She turned to face him, and smiled up at his awaiting face, unsure of how she was going to react. He relaxed at her expression, "You like it?" Ruby nodded enthusiastically and wrapped her arms around him for a hug. When they pulled back, she moved her arms from his waist to around his neck, pulled him down, and smashed her lips against his.

The day might have been boring and drab, but the night had fixed it. Her friends, unofficial boyfriend, and sister had made her birthday the most memorable and it was the best one yet.