RUBY'S CUBE

Chapter 1: Ruby Wake Up

  
   Helen finished cooking Charlie's steak and mashed potatoes and quickly served him. As she layed the food in front of Charlie,Charlie grabbed Helen from the waist and pulled her towards him. Charlie sat his wife on top of his lap and began kissing her in the lips,both of Ruby's parents acted as if Ruby wasn't even there. After a couple of minutes of passionate kissing and giggles,Helen stood up and began cleaning the kitchen,she picked up Ruby's dishes even though she had barely touched her food. Helen let out a sigh as she began throwing Ruby's breakfast in the trash along with Max's breakfast. Charlie noticed something was bothering his wife,"what's wrong honey,what's messing with you this time?"he asked.Helen let out another sigh,then she began telling Charlie about the fight she had with Max,and how Ruby ignores her and spaces out all the times.Without hesitation Charlie yelled out Max's name and told him to come to the kitchen.As Max walked into the kitchen,Charlie stood up.Charlie stood up so fast his chair flipped upside down."Who in the hell do you think you are,you don't go to school and you don't pay rent,so what gives you the right to come home at three in the morning,more importantly what gives you the right to talk to your mother the way you did?"Charlie shouted. Max stared into his father's eyes and began shouting back,"I'm sick of both you and mom,I wish both of you were just fucking dead already!" The words that came out of Max's mouth were enough to push Charlie over the edge. Charlie began removing his belt,Max continued shouting at his parents and Helen began crying as she pleaded for both Charlie and Max to stop fighting.

   Ruby hated seeing here family falling apart right before her eyes,so she closed them tightly and began imaging her fictional world. As she drifted deeper and deeper into her fantasy,the yelling from Max and her parents slowly began fading away until she couldn't hear anything. Ruby slowly opened her eyes and saw two male cartoon knights yelling at each other as one female knight was in the middle trying to seperate them. Ruby didn't know who the knights were,nor did she know the place she was in. What was Ruby's and her family's kitchen was now a forest filled with tall,beautiful,vibrant pink Sakura trees. The screams from the knights were drowned out by the buzzing sounds coming from the hundreds of hummingbirds flying around Ruby. It didn't take Ruby a long time to realize that this amazing world was home,and home was in her imagination.

   As Ruby continued observing the beautiful Sakura trees and the humming birds hovering above her, a hand covered in steel armor tightly gripped her shoulder. The armored hand belonged to the female knight. Ruby still didn't know who the knights were,but that didn't matter because the knights seemed to know who she was. The female knight stood in front of Ruby,staring down at her with tears running down her face. The two stared at each other for a couple of minutes until the female knight began to speak,"my queen are you okay,please you must wake up my queen please snap out of it"." Queen" Ruby was confused,she looked down at her feet and noticed she was wearing slippers completely covered in diamonds. Her legs were covered in a long white and blue dress with large gold threaded flowers stitched on the dress. Ruby looked at both of her hands and saw her fingers were decorated with gold,silver, and diamond rings. Ruby then then looked up and saw something sitting on the top of her head,she took the mysterious item off her head only to discover it was a silver crown filled with flower shaped diamonds,and sapphires. Ruby stared at her crown,coming to terms with the fact that she was the queen of this imaginary world,she also realized that two male knights were arguing about how to better protect her. Although Ruby now knew she was the queen,there were still a lot of questions she wanted to ask the three knights but couldn't. Even though this was Ruby's imaginary world she still struggled to speak. She couldn't utter a single word,not even to the weeping female knight standing in front of her.

   As Ruby struggled to speak,the female knight knelt down before her and asked if she needed help. The frustration of not being able to say anything was building up in Ruby. Her arms grew stiff ,her legs were beginning to numb,and her body was starting to slightly shake. Tears started running down Ruby's face,her lips trembled as she finally opened her mouth and was able to shout out just one word"yes."After Ruby's response the calm beautiful Sakura forest buzzing with hundreds of hummingbirds was now being consumed by a wild storm. The female knight wiped away her tears,she then called for the other two knights to come and join them.

   The three knights now stood firmly before Ruby as the storm continued raging around them. The three placed Ruby on their shoulders and lifted her up,"wake up Ruby"the three repeatedly shouted as loud as they could into the sky. Just after a couple of minutes of shouting into the sky, the raging storm slowly disappeared. A bright white light replaced the raging storm. Everything in Ruby's imaginary world was completely engulfed in this white light until nothing was visible to her. Once again Ruby closed her eyes tightly and when she opened them she was back in her family's kitchen. Max and her father were no longer fighting,and here mother was no longer crying.

   It was 7:50 A.M and school starts at 8:20 A.M,Ruby only had thirty minutes to make it to school. Helen looked at the kitchen clock and saw that time was ticking for Ruby." Ruby what did I say about zoning out,hurry up and get your things or you're gonna be late for the first damn day." Helen said with an angry tone still in her voice. Ruby ran up the stairs and into her room,picked up her back pack and quickly ran back down stairs. As she ran down stairs she encountered Helen walking up the stairs with tears coming down her face. "Who's gonna take me to school mom?" Ruby asked,"Max will" Helen snapped back. Ruby continued walking down stairs,as she was gonna exit the front door her father stopped her to ask if she still was drawing. "Yeah I still do dad" Ruby said "That's good kiddo because I got a surprise for you,but I'll give it to you when you come back from school." Charlie said with a struggling smile across his face.

   Charlie opened the front door for Ruby. Max was already waiting outside in the front yard with his bike,ready to take his little sister to her first day of high school. Ruby walked out the front door,and as she walked out Charlie waved one last time and quickly closed the door behind her. She slowly walked towards Max not knowing where she was gonna sit on the bike. Max noticed the confused look on Ruby's face,he told her, she would have to sit on the handlebars. Ruby didn't like the idea of riding on the handlebars because she thought it was dangerous. She refused to get on. Max laughed when he saw his stubborn little sister refusing to get on the handlebars. Max pleaded with his little sister telling her that if she didn't get on,she would be late for her first day of school. Ruby was not convinced she still refused to get on. Max smiled,he promised that if she got on he would take her to get a donut and some chocolate milk. Ruby thought about it she knew riding in the handlebars was dangerous, but she also trusted her older brother, plus the donut and chocolate milk was a very enticing insentive. Ruby thought about it for a couple more minutes until she finally decided to get on. She sat firmly on the handlebars,Max kicked off the brakes in his bike,and the two were off to Ruby's school.