Between You and Me

"Between You and Me" Part 2

The whole period had gone by, and so arrived the end of the school day, and Ruby had not come back to class. She could not stop crying in the girls' bathroom. Louise and Valerie came in at the end of the day, looking for her.

"Ruby?" Louise called.

"Ruby?" Valerie called.

As soon as she heard their voices, Ruby quickly suppressed her sobbing and covered her mouth, though her eyes were still red and puffy and her fluffy cheeks were damp with tears.

"I see you, Ruby!" Louise said, looking through the crack of one of the stall doors. "Come out of there and tell us what's wrong." Ruby quickly dried up her tears and came out.

"N-nothing is wrong," said Ruby.

"Have you been crying, Ruby?" Valerie said, noticing Ruby's red puffy eyes.

"No, no," said Ruby, sniffling. "No, it's just... allergies. That why I ran into the bathroom. Had to get it sorted out."

"You don't have allergies, Ruby," said Louise. "Why are you acting all weird? What's going on?"

"I'm not acting weird!" Ruby quickly retorted. "You're acting weird!" She ran to the door, looked back and yelled, "You're the one who's acting weird!!" She ran off, and Louise and Valerie exchanged perplexed looks.

After school at the Bunny house, Ruby tried to concentrate on her homework in her room, but the truth she had heard from Rocco stuck to her mind, especially around the recent "accident" he had at home. She was barely able to do the algebra she was normally good at.

Meanwhile, Max and Mr. Bunny had arrived home from the grocery store, with Max in the foulest mood and Mr. Bunny infuriated at him.

"I thought I raised you better than that, Max!" Mr. Bunny said with a snarl. "You're told you can't have a candy bar, and what do you do? You try sneaking it in your pocket out of the store! You stole, Max! It brakes my heart!"

"I don't even want that candy bar anymore! I don't want any candy ever again!" Max said infuriately back, and he started up the stairs.

"Not so fast, mister!" Mr. Bunny said with his finger raised. "I'm not through with you yet!" Max stomped back to the bottom of the stairs. "I'm grounding you for the week. Starting now, you are not to leave this house except for school and you are to go to bed an hour early every night."

"But..." began Max.

"No 'buts!'" snapped Mr. Bunny. "You're just lucky I'm going easy on you the first time, because if you ever steal again, I will ground you so hard they'll write country music songs about it! Now to your room!"

Max stomped his way up to his room, more so infuriated with himself and what he did, but trying to deflect his fury onto his father. Ruby had heard the commotion from her room. She came out and that's when Max let out his fury on her when he reached the top of the stairs.

"Dad is so mean!" Max barked. "He never lets me get treats and now I'm stuck in this house for a week! He's the worst dad in the world!"

"He is not!" Ruby snapped at him. "He is a loving caring dad who..." Tears formed in her eyes as she became hysterical. "... w-who would never hurt you!!" Ruby bursted into tears and ran back into her room and shut the door. Having no clue what was up with his sister, Max stomped into his room and shut his door.

Just then, Mrs. Bunny came out of Grace and Oliver's room, having folded some of the babies' footie pajamas when she heard the commotion. While it was obvious what was best for Max was some quiet time, what was best for Ruby was to ask her what was going on. Mrs. Bunny slowly approached Ruby's door and knocked on it.