𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬

SEVEN.

Once their free period—well, skipped period in Ruby's case—was over, the three VK girls left their dorm room and made their way to their lockers. Ruby and Mal had their lockers next to one another, so after a quick stop at Evie's locker, they went to theirs. Their lockers had a lot of spray-painted art on them, curtesy of Mal.

"Girls, I've got to go, I'm going to be late," Evie said. Ruby nodded and Mal looked up from her bag to give a wave.

"Bye, E." Evie left and Ruby got the last of her books, slamming her locker closed.

"You don't seriously expect us to pay attention and do well in class, right?" Ruby muttered. Academics weren't really Ruby's thing, she preferred learning things through practice. Mal chuckled.

"Of course not. I know you hate it, so does Jay. I don't expect any of us to do well, just pretend till we've got the wand," Mal whispered. Ruby sighed in relief.

"Okay, good." Mal's lips twitched into a smile for a moment at how relieved Ruby had sounded, amused that it bothered her that much. She slammed her locker closed, just like Ruby had done earlier, and the two girls found Ben approaching them from behind it with that usual happy smile of his. Ruby's stomach twisted at that smile and she didn't understand why. Maybe it was just that nauseatingly happy.

"Hey."

"Hey." Both VK girls replied.

"How was your first day?" Ben asked, looking between the red and purple haired girls.

"Super." Mal said with sarcasm that Ruby didn't think Ben caught onto. Ben turned towards Ruby, who had remained silent. He raised an eyebrow. Ruby returned the gesture and kept quiet. Confused, Ben continued the conversation.

"Who made these?" He gestured towards the painted lockers.

"Mallie did. Did she violate any rules by painting them?" Ruby grinned as Mal smirked at the thought.

"No, no, it's fine," Ben reassured, unintentionally disappointing the two. "But you should really think about taking it off the lockers and into art class. I could sign you up." Ruby snorted at the very thought of Mal not spraying lockers and such.

Mal pursed her lips in thought, but Ruby knew her well enough to know that it was just an act. It was only when Jane passed them that Mal's mock-thinking look turned into a real one. Ruby could practically hear the cogs turning in her head. Mal turned back to Ben and answered,

"Way to take the fun out of it." She then turned on her heel and went after Jane. Ruby made a move to follow, but Ben stopped her before she could. Mal shot her a teasing smirk and left her behind to deal with the prince. Ruby inwardly groaned and turned to face Ben.

"Hey, Ruby, are you alright? I saw you walk out on the cheer try-outs."

"Well, it was more of a strut than walk, but yeah. Your point?"

"I was just worried. Thought maybe something was wrong. I mean, after last night, I..." Ben trailed off. Ruby raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"After last night what?" Ben shook his head and swallowed.

"Nothing. I was just worried that something was wrong."

"You mean aside from me being here?" Ruby scoffed. She turned on her heels after that and walked away.

Unfortunately for her, Ben had let her walk away once before after a conversation and he wasn't planning on making that mistake twice. He jogged to catch up with her quick strides and fell in step beside her. Ruby looked up and hazel green eyes met coffee brown ones. Ben frowned a bit.