Ruby Redfort Fanfiction: Look Into His Eyes And Take Your Last Breath

An Uncomfortable Conversation

Ruby straddled her bike and started to peddle up her street in the direction of the diner for her breakfast. It was a chilly morning and Ruby wore an old jumper with holes cut at end where she could insert her thumbs so the sweater acted like a pair of gloves as well. Needless to say, Ruby did most of this to drive her fretful mother crazy. That was her only particular change to her clothes today. Ruby once again neglected to tie her hair up and instead cherished the relaxing sensation of it blowing backwards in the wind. Ruby did not stop pedalling the whole way up the steep hill, her natural athleticism kept her in shape and no matter how much she ate, she would not grow, horizontally or vertically. When she reached the top of the hill, she stopped a moment to gaze over the entire of Twinford. She could see the taller, business buildings rising towards the sky in the centre of the town square and she could spot the very park which had got Ruby into this Spectrum mess in the first place. Not that she minded. Ruby had a talent for getting herself into danger and like all famous books and films, danger had got into the habit of finding her too. The only things that got Ruby going down hill again was the watch, which read seven thirty, and if she wanted breakfast, would have to hurry, and the prospect of seeing Clancy and the rest of her pals again made her shiver with glee. It was her first day back from half term week and while she and Clancy would normally be running around Twinford solving Spectrum cases, or sitting at home with Mrs. Digby's cookies and watching Crazy Cops, he had been dragged of to the Bahamas by his father to attend a Go-Green conference on another luxury cruise for the week. It was extremely ironic, Ruby had speculated, as the cruise probably was giving off plenty of harmful gasses and therefore creating more pollution. Ruby had missed him of course, in her opinion, nothing was quite the same without Clancy Crew, but she had found plenty to do in his absence. Visiting the cinema with Del Lasco was certainly a highlight, and that Table Tennis championship was a nail biter, but she was glad to see him again and she pedalled a bit harder while going down the hill in her excitement. She leaned her bike against the railings outside the Double Donut, not bothering to lock it up. Nobody in their right mind messed with Ruby's bike, so she was never inclined to take steps of precaution to protect it. Clancy stood up as she entered the restaurant, a wide grin on his face. His dark brown hair had been allowed to grow longer than usual, giving it a windswept look. His focused blue eyes were lit up in fondness and freckles had formed on his nose. His skin was fair from the magic the sun had worked on him overseas, though Ruby suspected it would disappear in a few weeks and he would return to his normal, milky hue.
"Ruby!" He said fondly as he embraced her. Ruby cracked a rare smile as she inhaled Clancy's soothing scent. It reminded her of autumn days like these. Clancy sensed her slight discomfort of having to stand on tip toes to get her arms around his neck and released her. He was certainly small for his age, but Ruby was smaller. Ruby's smile had disappeared, but Clancy wasn't worried. Ruby did most of her smiling with her eyes and she was doing it now.
"Nice to see you too buster. But we better order now, or we'll make it to school sometime next year." Clancy's normal anxiety about arriving to school on time returned and ran nervously to the counter to order. Ruby didn't need to tell him what she wanted. He already knew. Ruby listened to Clancy's moment by moment account of the disaster on the cruise, in which a famous opera singer had fallen over board after, funnily enough, finishing singing, "My Diamonds Are Over the Ocean". Ruby, in return, told him of the gripping Table Tennis final between Mouse and her, in which they had finished after three sets and eight duces in the final set to conclude, and Mouse had won by a fraction of the table. Then they left for school, and met up with the rest of the team, who were delighted to be back together.
The first two lessons, to Ruby's annoyance, were Double Maths. Ruby decided to tune out and she and Clancy tapped out messages in Morse Code to put a stop to their boredom. Ruby was vaguely aware that they were learning about the Fibonacci Sequence, and when disaster struck, the teacher asking Ruby to tell the class the formula while Clancy was tapping out a message. Ruby didn't even look up and unconsciously answered,
"To get the next term of the sequence, you have to add the two previous numbers together." The teacher looked disappointed, but the stuff they learnt was far to easy for Ruby's standards. The middle two lessons, Science and Technology, vastly consisted of Ruby trying to combine chemicals from the periodic table to see how they would react. This almost resulted in a fire alarm, much to the amusement of the class and exasperation of the teacher. At lunch, Ruby ate the usual, egg sandwich as prepared by a rare combined effort of Hitch and Mrs. Digby. They saw eye to eye over Ruby's lunch and while Hitch was in charge of gathering top quality ingredients, Ms. Digby made most of the sandwich.
"What do you think, Ruby?" Asked Red from across the table. Ruby frowned.
"No, I certainly don't need one. I've got a nice life the way it is, and I don't want a silly bozo mixing up with me."
"Hear, hear." Called Del appreciatively.
"What are we discussing?" Asked Clancy, who had, like Ruby, been more interested in his food than the conversation, and hadn't the gift Ruby had to focus and listen to two things at once.
"Boyfriends." Ruby sighed.
"I just said that I don't need them, and I'll stick by that decision for my life."
"Ah." Said Clancy, but looked ever so slightly disappointed. It was lucky Ruby hadn't seen his face, or she would have smelt a rat.