Twisted Devil by Ivy Blake
Chapter Four
Ruby
The rest of my morning passed by a lot more smoothly than my maths class. That was probably due to the fact that neither Amber nor Tyler were in my English or biology classes, which was a relief.
By the time it got to lunch, I got really paranoid. I’d been a bit shaken after the incident in the morning that I’d kind of retreated into my shell in an effort to not have more eyes on me than necessary. Yes, I’d spoken to Bella in the morning and really liked her, but I had no clue where she was. Damn it, I should have gotten her number or something. Even though that probably would have been a bit weird and maybe come across as desperate, I don’t know.
I watched as the other seniors waltzed into the dining hall in their various groups, chatting away confidently. To be honest, I was a bit jealous, having never been someone who’d had a specific group of friends. I’d always wanted to after watching a bunch of high school movies as a kid, but by the time I got to high school, things just didn’t work out that way.
Don’t get me wrong, that didn’t mean that I was a loner, just a bit of a butterfly, flitting from person to person depending on who was around to have a chat or lunch. So far, I only knew one person that I felt comfortable enough talking to and I had no clue where to find her.
I stood by the entrance to the dining hall and quickly glanced around to see if I could spy Bella. Before I got a chance, someone shoved me aside.
“Move out of the way, Pauper.” Fucking Amber. She was already in front of me, sneering over her shoulder at me with her identical cronies in tow.
“Fuck you,” I said to the back of her head. Wow, what a great comeback.
Amber ignored me anyway, and my words fell to the wayside. My stomach gurgled beneath my shirt and I knew that if I didn’t put something in there soon, I’d be keeled over in agony. I walked up to the side where the food was being served and stood in line with a tray in my hands. The food smelled so good and I could tell that it was piping hot too, from the curling steam above the dishes. I was ready to dive in. But another feeling in my stomach notified me that I’d either have to sit alone or find a table to join.
I looked out to the dining room and the knot in my stomach grew bigger. There were so many people. I also noticed that nobody was sitting alone. From the vibes that I’d gotten so far from Valley High, I felt like sitting alone at lunch would probably be considered social suicide. Conveniently, I felt like any evidence of the social skills I’d built up over the last eighteen years seemed to vanish in an instant.
“What would you like, darling?” A sweet voice asked me. I turned back to the lunch lady, suddenly realising that I was at the front of the queue.
“Oh, urm…” My eyes darted over the different dishes, examining the accident potential for each one. I shifted my weight between my feet, aware that I was probably holding the queue up with my indecisiveness.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some students grabbing food to go before heading into the door on the other side of the dining hall that I assume lead to somewhere that students were allowed to eat food.
“Sorry, I’m gonna get something cold instead,” I said apologetically to the server. She shrugged at me and went on to serve the boy behind me as I slid over to the display of wraps, salads, sandwiches, and other snacks.
I watched the short girl in front of me grab a wrap, a muffin and a bottle of water and followed suit, smiling at the server who was overseeing the stand as if I was afraid that she was going to stop me. Of course she didn’t because I was getting food, not shoplifting.
I set my tray aside and followed the short girl out the door and into a hallway that I had yet to step into. At one end there were two large doors with the word Library carved above them and if I turned down the other end, it seemed to be an exit that lead outside to the sports pitches.
It probably made more sense to go outside, but outside also meant jocks. I hate to be prejudiced, but books sounded way more appealing than trying to avoid the wrath of high school guys who’d do anything for a laugh. I’d rather risk getting told off by the librarian than having to deal with immature guys anymore than I had to.
Tucking my food into my blazer and hoping that it wasn’t too obvious that I was trying to sneak shit in, I pushed open the doors of the library. It was a hell of a lot quieter than the dining room, that’s for sure. In fact, it was like a little heaven and the smell of old and new books instantly made me feel calmer. Luckily, the library wasn’t completely silent and there were a few people either on their phones or chatting quietly in small groups, creating an environment that was far less intimidating than the one in the dining hall.
Is it bad that I wanted to spend all my time here instead of braving the vicious hallways again?
Anyway, I walked past the librarian’s desk, which was thankfully empty, and made my way to a table at the back of the library that was concealed by two bookshelves on either side. I sat myself down at the table and slowly took my lunch items out, one by one.
I was pleasantly surprised at how good the food tasted, even in its takeaway form and being a bit colder than I would have liked. The niceness of the food was interrupted by the sudden realisation of how sad I must look eating lunch on my own on my first day. There was no way that I’d tell Dad about this because he’d just go off on one of his lectures about how I need to be ‘more forthcoming and proactive’ with my relationships.
To drown out my self-deprecating thoughts, I scrolled through my phone as I ate before deciding to catch up on some YouTube content while I had the time to spare. Not what I expected to do on my first day, but it was better than nothing.
* * *As I walked into my history classroom, happy that it was the final lesson of the day, I almost squealed with excitement at the sight of Bella sitting at a desk.
“Ruby!” Bella exclaimed once she saw me. She looked as cheerful as ever, which contrasted greatly with how I was feeling. It was the last class of the day and I was feeling absolutely drained. But seeing Bella was almost enough to shoot a spark of energy into me. Almost.
“Hey,” I said casually as I sat beside her and got my things out.
“How’s your day been?” asked Bella, leaning her chin on the hand that was propped up on her desk.
I filled her in on my day so far, deciding that I’d give Bella a brief overview of my interaction with my new tormentors, Amber and Tyler.
“Amber’s always like that and Tyler…” Bella drifted off as she shook her head and laughed to herself.
“What about Tyler?” I asked, unable to shy away from my curiosity. Clearly, she’d known him longer than I had, so maybe she knew how to deal with him or why he was picking on me.
“I don’t know. That guy is just something else. You’re probably just best of ignoring him. I’m sure he’ll get bored in a couple days.”
There was a tightness in my chest that I couldn’t explain at the sound of Bella’s words. I had to remind myself that she meant that Tyler would get bored of taunting me, not that he’d be bored of me, whatever that meant anyway. Why would I even care? Surely that’s what I wanted, right? For him to leave me alone?
“What did you do about lunch today? I didn’t see you in the dining hall,” Bella’s voice cut through my racing thoughts.
“Oh urm…” I stalled, embarrassed, as I thought back to lunch time. I decided that it was better to build our friendship on honesty, so came clean with the truth.
I got really nervous and ate in the library.” I grimaced and was surprised to see that Bella’s face was full of shock rather than pity.
“Screw that, you should have lunch with me tomorrow!” Bella exclaimed. “Here, put your number in my phone,” she hissed as she slyly passed her phone to me underneath our desks.
“I’d like that a lot,” I said, smiling back at Bella appreciatively. I was so glad that she was more forward and upfront about things and it made me feel a lot less anxious about our blossoming friendship.
I glanced up at our teacher while I quickly added my details into Bella’s contact book, hoping that he didn’t cast his attention over to me before I was done. Luckily, I’d handed Bella’s phone to her with a second to spare before he cleared his throat and was ready for class to begin.
* * *“How was your first day, Ruby?”
I looked up from my glass of juice as Dad walked into the room. He set his bag on the table and gave me a big smile and thumbs up. I didn’t even have the energy to match his goofiness and simply flashed him a polite smile.
“It was alright,” I said, even though it was only a half truth.
Meeting Bella had been the highlight of my day, but besides that, the stares I’d gotten from other people and the way that Amber and Tyler had treated me had not been the best introduction to a new school.
“How were your classes? Did you make any friends? See any cute boys?” Dad asked in a patronising voice while he set about making himself a cup of tea.
“It was just another typical school day,” I said halfheartedly. “I’m pretty tired though, it’s a lot starting a new school during senior year, you know?” I said pointedly.
Dad had to know that I still held some resentment for him at the fact that he’d made us move at such an awkward point in my school career. But if he did, his acknowledgment didn’t register on his face.
“Make sure you’re taking it easy and keeping up as best as you can, Ruby. But you know all this stuff. I don’t need to tell you, Miss Star Pupil.” Dad winked at me and I felt my stomach clench.
This was another thing that frustrated me. While a lot of parents had to chase their kids to do school work and would scold them about their grades, my dad was almost the complete opposite. He had so much unwavering faith in my academic abilities that it actually put a different kind of pressure on me.
It was like he just expected me to sneeze out perfect grades no matter what I did, even though I still had to put in effort behind the scenes. While I’d never admitted this to anyone, and most definitely not him, it almost made me feel as though my grades didn’t really matter. Those were the cons of being good at school from a young age, I guess.
“I had a test too,” I added, making eye contact with him over my cup as I watched him sit down opposite me.
“On the first day? That’s pretty intense,” said Dad. “I’m sure you smashed it though, darling.” He smiled widely, and I almost wanted to slap the look off his face.
“I didn’t have time to revise, so for all you know, I could have flunked it,” I said with a shrug.
“Don’t be silly, you’re a brainiac, you’ll be fine.”
“Whatever it is you guys are talking about, your dad is probably right, Ruby. You’re a smart kid.” Zoe’s annoying voice wafted into the kitchen as she swept in with her wet hair pulled back into a messy bun. The mood in the room instantly switched, and I suddenly felt like I needed to leave as soon as possible.
I watched as Zoe came behind Dad and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind before planting a big kiss on his cheek. Dad stroked her hand with his own and I could feel the puke threatening to escape my mouth.
“Dad’s always right,” Dad said in a teasing voice, his eyes glimmering as if he was under a trance. Maybe he was and Zoe had slipped something into his drink that had made him incapable of seeing who she was and how fucking weird it was that they were together.
My muscles felt tense as my gaze flitted back and forth between them. It was like they were sharing their own private conversations and wrapped in their own personal bubble, as if I wasn’t sitting across from them. An outsider might say that my emotions were born out of jealousy, but it was far from that. How could I be jealous of my dad, especially when he seemed to be going through what appeared to be a midlife crisis?
“How was school, Ruby?” Zoe asked with a smile as she continued to cling onto Dad like she was a baby koala or something.
Even though I could tell that she was trying to be polite, I couldn’t help but grimace at the scene before me. PDA didn’t usually make me feel uncomfortable, but I felt really antsy in Dad and Zoe’s presence, especially when they were pulling all this cutesy shit and gazing at each other as if they wanted to rip their clothes off right in front of me. It was time to do the thing I knew best. Exit time.
“It was fine, thanks. I’ve got some work to do so, yeah,” I said quickly. I put my cup in the dishwasher and before either of them could change my mind, I squeezed past them and practically ran up the stairs and to the safety of my room.
I pulled out my yoga mat and plugged my wireless earphones in, turning up the volume as loud as my eardrums could take as I drowned out the voices from downstairs, drowned out the day thus far and focussed solely on the voice that guided me through an intense yoga flow.
