Ruby

3

The next week is when I spotted her sitting on the bleachers, admiring the day's cloudy skies. The wind was whipping her long hair around, throwing small strands in her eyes, but none of it seemed to be enough to steal her attention away from the sky.

A smile crept onto her lips and soon her mood shifted to giddy; like she wanted to share what she was thinking with someone, but no one was with her.

That week I noticed that it was a rare scene to see her talk. Her chapped lips were always sealed shut. She never raised her hand either, although I could see the eagerness in her eyes when she did want to answer a question, but didn't have the courage.

In English she never took notes, in fact she would stare out the window for the entire hour. And it was the week I noticed that no one ever noticed her. She was invisible to everyone.

That week, I wondered if she was satisfied with how her everyday life was being ignored and silent. Was Ruby happy?

Then that was the month when I all I could think about was Ruby. Everyday was observing the way her lips would twitch when she considered speaking up, the way she held on so tightly to her notebook, how she constantly pulled her ginormous sleeves over her hands.

When she was reading a book that had all of her attention, she would chew on her lip so hard that by the time she was done her lip would start to bleed. When lunch came around she would sit on the bleachers everyday with her head down and hair tied up away from her face; she was beautiful without all of her hair covering her face. She was either staring at the sky or reading a book; never anything different.

I saw that when we talked about Shakespeare, her grey eyes would light up, literally. It was the best sight to witness. Her eyes bright, smile wide. And when the final bell rang and the cool air from outside met her skin, she would let out a sigh as though weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

I noticed that she loved the rain more than anything. She loved the sound it made when it was hitting the roof of the building, she loved the way it felt when the liquid touched her palms, and she loved the smell that would mix into the air and fill her senses. Why has nobody taken any interest in Ruby?