Oh god. Why had Ruby even talked to her? She was her soon to be tutor, not a friend or buddy. How much was this 'tutoring' going to cost anyway? These were all very relevant questions, but not for now. Especially not when your teacher is asking you for the definition of a french phrase, and you've been pondering your deep thoughts for the whole lesson. "Faire du vélo. What does it mean, Ruby?" Miss. Diamond repeated, her words dripping with patronisation as she scared off Ruby's daydreams.
"F-Faire du vélo...?" The girl stuttered, looking at the desk and fiddling with her pencil to hide her embarrassment at the fact she had pronounced it wrong. Her eyes quickly scanned the room for any form of help, but received none. Only muffled sniggers at her failure and poorly hidden grins. Her stomach built with an emotion she hated; anxiety. It was as if fear, shame and sadness were having a brawl in her stomach, and nobody was winning.
Her cheeks turned an unwanted red hue as she repeated 'umm' aloud as if she was thinking about the answer, but she wasn't. If she stayed oblivious for long enough, Miss would move to somebody else, right? Wrong. The sour old woman was like a fox unwilling to stop chasing a rabbit, and that just happened to be Ruby. "Come on then. Spit it out." She taunted, making the girl sweat and flush more around the laughter of the class.
An unfamiliar foot kicked her own under the desk, causing her to sharply jerk her head to the side and see Sapphire, not even paying her the smallest piece of attention as she blankly stared forward. Had she kicked her by mistake? Probably. But no - the strategic girl was drumming her manicured nails on a specific part of the text book - a picture of a bicycle and words underneath reading 'Faire du vélo: Ride a bike.' Ruby's eyes widened. This was no coincidence, she was helping her, which she took as a big deal. Like she cared about her.
"It's ride a bike..." The now redeemed student stuttered slowly, and the subtle head nod from Sapphire showed that she approved. Anyone else would have missed that small action, but not Ruby. She often picked up on the girl's subtleties; the way she would always purse her lips when thinking, flick her hair over one of her eyes or hide her emotions by putting on a monotone voice. Ruby would see all this from a distance of course. Not that she intended to be creepy, she just found her... mesmerising, in a way. How she would do things so quietly, in a relaxed manner and still be so engaging was a mystery to Ruby, who was always loud and foul mouthed and quick to refer back to her fists instead of conversational skills.
Even her hair colour was fascinating, the way she could pull off white hair when other people look like fools with it. But it fit Sapphire like a glove. What didn't though? In Ruby's eyes, she was flawless, absolutely per- "Your staring." Sapphire's voice was like having an ice bucket chucked over her head, awakening her into the world of the living. "O-oh. Sorry. I was just daydreaming and looking at your face." Ruby then registered what she had said, putting her face into her hands and grimacing. Before she could apologise, a sweet hiccup of laughter deafened her panic, and she found herself so enthralled by it that she stayed still, wishing to see how long it would last. Sapphire finished on a sigh, "Don't you just have a way with words, Ruby?" And began packing away as it was the end of the lesson. "Hah, yeah." Was all Ruby could mumble. "So, when are you gonna t-teach me math?"
YOU ARE READING
High school tuition.
Fanfiction"I can tutor you... if you want?" Sapphire blurted out, much to Pearl's dismay. Ruby sat up. "R-really...?" She was surprised again. Why was she helping such a loser? Ruby quickly hugged the other girl, head on her shoulder. Sapphire was shocked, bu...
