Purple

Eleven

"True," he said with a nod.

"Well, unfortunately, I'm already going with the captain of the football team, so..." Ruby walked over to the van, hands behind her back.

"Conner Jenkins?"

"Oh gosh," Luce mumbled with a small laugh.

"Did you just make that name up?" Ruby asked with a laugh.

"No, Conner Jenkins was at Caledonia with us," he told her.

"Even though I wasn't around any of the other kids, I even knew who he was," Luce said as she closed the van door.

"He was an idiot, though," he added.

"And that's how I knew him."

Ruby nodded her head. "Well, in that case, gotta dump him." She smiled at him, both looking at each other until they were interrupted.

"Why don't we start with scraping these letters off this minivan and then we'll see where it goes from there?" Luce asked as she rolled up her sleeves from her long-sleeved shirt. "I'll actually help you this time."

He chuckled. "This time? Well, I think that's a done deal."

He and the two girls started to scrape paint off of the van. Underneath the black paint was silver metal.

"So do you always carry a cocktail dress when you're on the run?" He playfully asked Ruby, earning a chuckle.

"No, Zu gave it to me."

"She likes you," Luce told her with a kind smile.

"Careful, though," Liam said. "She might need a friend this time and not just a mom."

Luce knew she was being called out on purpose. "Okay, dad."

That caused Liam to smile and Ruby to chuckle.

"I think she might turn you into her own personal dress-up doll."

"She's not turning Luce into one?" She asked with a slightly raised brow.

"She won't let her, although I will say that I feel like at times she'll give in. Right, Luce?"

"Keywords: at times."

A door opened and that caused the three to stand up and look where it came from.

"Tracers," Liam told them.

The man held a hand up in a protective way to who was assumed to be his wife. Compared to the world, those with abilities are heathens. The way the adults were told, of course he would be protective with her, even though they're the older ones.

Ruby looked at them, her eyes turning orange for a moment before returning to their usual browns.

"Come on, let's just go," the woman said before her and the man went to the car and left.

"Wait, what just happened?" Liam asked.

"I don't know," Ruby said.

"Did you do that?" He asked Luce. "Did you control them to leave?"

She looked over at Ruby and saw the expression on her face. Instead of answering, she looked at Liam and shrugged her shoulders, not saying yes but not saying no either. "I'm gonna go get Zu. We should get going."

"Yeah..." He slowly nodded his head, looking at her before he went to the back of the van, leaving the two alone.

Luce looked at Ruby, her eyes turning purple. I don't know what exactly you are, but you're not a Green, she told her in her head before she went to go get Zu.

Hearing her voice in her head made her eyes go wide. She went to look at her, but she was already out of her sight. The only word she could think of: shit.

§§§

They were back on the road. Liam was driving while Ruby was on the passenger seat. Luce was sitting in between them with the provided space and the two were in the back.

The radio was on and the speaker spoke, "And now the president's son, Clancy Gray, with his message of hope."

Clancy's voice can be heard through the radio, "If I can be cured, you can be cured."

Chubs spoke over, "Wonder king, Clancy Gray. 'If I can be cured, you can be cured.'"

Ruby chuckled. "You had those stupid posters, too?"

"Seven shades of bullshit," he told her.

"More like fifty shades of bullshit," Luce mumbled, earning a playful smack from the Blue next to her. She looked at Liam and smirked as she was sure he understood that reference.

"That's right," Ruby mumbled, completely unfazed.

Chubs looked over at Zu's notebook. On it contained numbers, but they appeared to be turned into pictures instead. "You gotta stop drawing the cats all over the nines and sixes." That caused the group to start laughing. "She needs her numbers. You have to learn," he said with a laugh.

edited