About Ruben

When one tries to play Holmes

"How does my plan sound?" Ruben had asked his two friends. Scar was giving him a neutral look whereas Mitchell was trying to kill the arising of a grin.

"So let me get this straight," Scar had asked after elbowing Mitchell and telling him to 'Mitch, you lousy beggar. Be serious'.

"You want to check every single notebook in this school and find the same handwriting as the one in your diary?" Scar had then asked.

"Memory book," Mitchell had piped in, a stupid grin on his face.

"Firstly-" Ruben had said. "Mitchell stop grinning. And secondly, no we're not going to do that any longer because it sounds stupid."

"And very unlikely," Scar had nodded.

The three friends were sitting under the huge willow tree in front of school. It was lunch period and the sun had steered the most people outside where a sunny lunch was much more nice then a cafeteria-atmosphere lunch. Ruben and Scar had their backs leaned against the trunk; Mitchell had his head on Scar's lap. And sometimes when he thought that no one was looking, Ruben had caught Mitchell looking at Scar.

While they were talking, Ruben had stared every single passerby in the eye. He had raised his eyebrows and widely opened his eyes to try to give off an intimidating look. Until someone had asked him if there was something in his eye.

"How about this?" Mitchell had then said. "We'll find the handwriting by pretending we're doing a survey or something. We'll hand out questions or something and when everyone's filled them in, we'll easily catch the culprit."

For once Mitchell had finally said something useful. Ruben had thrown him a thankful look.

"Good," Scar had nodded. "Now what's the survey gonna be about?"

"Beats me," Mitchell had shrugged.

"Blank," Ruben had pointed to his brain. And that was true. The only thing that was currently occupying his mind was Lotta and Lotta and Lotta.

Lotta and her friends and her boyfriend and her boyfriend's friends were currently sitting only twenty feet away from Ruben and his friends. And Ruben couldn't stop glancing in Lotta's direction every now and then especially when she laughed. And especially when she had smiled and waved at him.

Over the past few weeks, Ruben had finally realized something. It was unexplainable when and where and why but he just did.

At first it was just a normal teenage boy crush. But with time Ruben had learned that no, it wasn't just a crush.

Ruben liked Lotta.

And Lotta liked Parker Hood.

Now that Ruben didn't like.

Ruben wasn't the type to get angry over things. But he found himself getting angry whenever Hood was near to Lotta. He just didn't like Hood.

"We'll say it's for Noir," Scar had piped in. "He needs us to ask people from our school questions on...climate change?"

"Or Racism?" Mitchell had offered.

"Or Lot-" Ruben had begun but stopped before he could cause havoc. "Or Labour. Child Labour."

"Yeah we'll figure something out," Scar had said before she had pushed Mitchell away and gotten up.

"Anyway, I've gotta go," Scar had said.

"Where ya going?" Mitchell has asked, seeming disappointed that Scar wasn't close to him any longer.

"I'll just ride around town on Noir's bike. I'm a free bird."

"You're not," Ruben had interfered. "Ms. Lewis said you couldn't miss more of Chem class."

Scar had pointed to her face and then asked, "Do I look like I care?"

"Oh come on. Don't skip," Mitchell had looked up at her with huge puppy eyes. "Please?"

Scar rolled her eyes and then had bitten on her lips.

"Spoilsport."