The Ruby Mystery

where it all began

"Hey Julia" said a familiar voice from behind me.
I spun around and there standing in front of me was Jonah Williams. He has lived down the street from me for the 15 years we have known each other (so basically all my life). His parents are high school sweethearts and so are mine, all four of them hung out together in high school, pretty cliché am I right?
"Hey Jonah, do you wanna go down to the beach today? You can bring Parker if you want" I offered.
"Okay yeah sure. It'll have to be around 4:30 though because me and Parker are playing Mortal Kombat 11!"
The bells rings like song out of tune and he winks to me just before heading to his history class.
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Today is supposed to be the hottest day in the history of Greensville. As I'm walking home from school I sling off my jacket so I'm just wearing my Harry Potter top. I pass by a girl called Amaya who I walk past everyday at the same time - 2:43pm - she smiles at me, her caramel skin glowing in the sun and her soft, dark curls bouncing as she walks. I smile back as I always have and carry on walking down the street.
I swing open the door and my dog max jumps up licking me to death, leaving signature clumps of fur on my clothes.
"Hi honey, do you think you'll be able to take max for a walk while I cook dinner? It's too warm for the both of you to be stuck inside in this weather" she says while chopping baby tomatoes.
"Yeah sure, I'm heading over to Jonah's at 4:30 'cause we're going to the beach"
I run up the stairs desperate to get on my shorts and crop top so my leggings would stop sticking to me and so I could take max on a walk.
I decided that I would take max to the forest behind my house as it would be less sunny and more cool. I let max run free through the forest while I slope behind and let the wind blow through my blonde strands of hair. I'm not looking and all of a sudden I trip over a large rock and twist my ankle.
"Owww" I say with a look of pain on my face. Max comes running over clearly worrying.
"I'm okay max, I'm okay" I pant out of pain.
I'm looking on the ground to find what I tripped over. There are leaves on the ground and I can't really see what I'm looking for so I feel around with my hand. After a few seconds of feeling around I touch something smooth but kind of sharp, maybe this is what I tripped over? I pick it up only to find a ruby that had just been lying on the floor. Maybe it belonged to someone and they dropped it, it could be fake but it seems pretty real to me. It's beautiful. The sun catches it at the right moment and it sparkles almost like it has some sort of power. I have to tell Jonah about this, maybe he will know if it's real or not. It seems like it's been on the floor for a while though, it's starting to collect mud so I give it a rub with my hand to try and get the mud off. All of a sudden, a light flashes in my eyes, wind blows in my face, the sky turns dark as if it's going to rain. It might be the middle of summer but it feels like the middle of winter a this moment in time. This lasts about a minute before everything turns sunny again. I put the ruby in my pocket. I'm going to take max back home and then show Jonah my finding.