/written by mak and stephanie. plotted by stephanie and mak. edited by stephanie (because y'all know mak don't edit her shit)
ruby didn't hate a lot of things. she didn't hate meeting people or making friends. she definitely didn't hate her family. she could never hate dance. but there was one thing she hated with a deep passion: homework.
although she'd always been a great student and loved school, she hated coming home with a ginormous workload of papers due the next day. but today was the absolute worst. it wasn't too often that her dance teacher gave them homework and it typically wasn't too hard, just pick a song and choreograph it.
but mademoiselle had given them a paper to write. earlier that day, she'd walked around with a small cloth bag, full of topics their paper had to be on. each student had to pick a song that reflected their topic, dance to it, and explain why their topic inspired their choreography.
of all the topics she could have chose, it was love. not the type of love one has for their family, but love for a significant other.
'god, just give me another seizure.' she thought to herself as she stared down at her blank paper. 'or send me a distraction. one of those would be ni-'
"hey flower."
ruby glanced up from her dance homework, a smile crossing her face once her ocean eyes landed on her extremely tall father. "hi papa."
"hey, rubes. go get some shoes on. pete and i wanna take you on a date. show you what it's like to be on a real date with real men." he puffed his chest out, grinning victoriously at the round of giggles his precious daughter let out.
once her shoes where secured, she made her way to the front door, jacket wrapped tightly around her tiny frame. entering the hallway she stopped, eyes locking on her father and her step father locked in a gentle kiss, a smile falling onto her lips.
"peter lewis, stop. i don't want ruby coming back to your tongue down my throat."
pete let out a laugh, pulling tyler into his chest, eyes filled with nothing but pure love for the man. "i love you."
"i'm in love with you too."
shyly, not wanting to interrupt, ruby walked into the room, clearing her throat.."papa..i'm ready.."
tyler beamed, quickly leaving his husband's arms to lead ruby to the car. "i was thinking ice cream."
she snorted. "dad. it's like 2 degrees."
"that's the perfect time for ice cream!" pete grinned softly as he held the door open for the two of them. "besides, you never know if your one true love is there or not. he's probably there right now."
she opened her mouth, eager to say something in response, but she bit her tongue, playing it off with a smile. "please, what guy wants to date me? not even the ones in dance want to be my partner when we get paired up."
tyler chuckled softly, kissing the top of her head. "then that's their loss. you're a diamond, flower, and someone's bound to see it at some point." he said gently as they all got into the car. "but enough of that! we're here to show you what it's like to be with men, not boys!"
as the trio drove off, ruby stared out the window, a small yet sad smile played on her lips. she knew she wasn't too ugly, that she had a lot of potential when it came to beauty, but love seemed like a foreign word to her. everyone, her family included, expected her to come home with a boy one day. it just seemed natural.
but it wasn't that she didn't like boys. god, ruby could talk about boys all day long if she wanted to. but she knew from a young age that she'd found girls more than just pretty. when she turned ten, she'd caught herself staring a little too long at some of the older girls while they danced. everyone else took it as her just trying to learn more techniques but ruby knew better than that.
