Little Ruby Red

Six

The next day...

Ruby

“Good morning, class,” Miss Wilson welcomed the class in her usual bright and cheerful mood.

“Good morning, Miss Wilson, good morning everyone,” the entire class chimed together in the same sing-song way.

As soon as I hung up my coat on my named peg, I heard. “Ruby, come and sit with me! No, Ruby, come sit at our table with us.” I felt myself being tugged in two different directions.

“That’s enough, children. You’re all to remain in your assigned seats,” Miss Wilson said, putting an end to the chaos that erupted in the classroom.

Then came a mixture of disappointed grumbles from the kids who hadn’t got to sit with me.

What's happening?

I threw up twice this morning because I was so scared of facing everyone today. I wanted to ask my mom if I could stay at home, but that would’ve meant that she would’ve had to take a sick day to look after me.

I heard her on the phone, talking to my grandma again last night about Daddy’s life insurance money running out. I heard her saying ‘no’ to borrowing money, so her taking time off work just because I was scared, seemed like a really silly thing to do.

Yesterday, I was the joke of the school, but now, everything seems different. Now everyone wanted to be my friend. I couldn’t wait to tell Storm all about my crazy day.

A little while later...

Today has been the best day ever! I got invited to Mia’s seventh birthday party. She was the oldest kid in the class. Sarah said that my shoes were pretty too. Josh and Tyler never tipped glue in my hair, either. Everyone wanted me to play with them during recess. So, I played jump ropes with the girls, then played cops and robbers with the boys.

I got a special gold sticker from Mr. Lyle for having neat handwriting. He made a huge deal about it, holding my work up to show the rest of the class, and everybody clapped. So I’d say, today was a pretty great day.

I met Mom outside the school gates with a gigantic smile on my face.

“Wow, someone seems to be in a positive mood?” Mom commented, raising her brows in surprise.

“Yep,” I replied, cheerfully. “I think I’m going to like it at Lakewood, Mom.”

She relaxed in her seat, blowing out a relieved breath.

“I’m so glad, honey. Hey, I had an awesome day too. Guess who got a promotion?” she asked, biting her bottom lip to hide her grin.

“Who?” I asked, confused.

She shook her head in astonishment. “Me, Ruby! I know, it’s crazy, I’ve only been working there for five weeks. Apparently, my boss is impressed with my work.”

“Really? That’s great, Mom!” I acknowledged, pleased for her.

“You realize what that means?” she hinted, wiggling her brows at me.

“What’s that, Mom?” I replied, waiting for her to just tell me.

It could mean anything.

“It means that things are looking up for the Knight household. And I thought that if I put away some money that we could have a vacation this year. What do you say?” Her face lit up with a big bright smile.

“That sounds great!” I squealed with excitement.

We’d never been able to afford a real vacation before. We spent some time during the holidays at Grandma’s house, but that was it. My grandma lived in Canada, so we could only manage to go once a year, and that was only at Christmas.

It was good seeing Mom smile. Even when we were waiting a while at the traffic lights, she didn’t get mad once.

“You think we have what Uncle Rob used to call ‘a lucky streak’?” I asked.

She snorted. “Uncle Rob, wouldn’t know what a lucky streak was, even if it jumped up and bit him on the butt.”

I scrunched my brows, confused.

Uncle Rob was my mom’s older brother. Mom said he liked to gamble. I always used to hear him and my aunt Vicky, arguing. He’d say ‘my lucky streak must’ve run out’. Whatever that meant.

Mom ordered a pizza for dinner as a treat. We were celebrating her getting promoted at the place where she worked. All I knew was, they made things to do with sports. Camping things and other outside stuff.

Mom told me about the big boss, Mr. Grant. He was a grumpy guy who yelled a lot. He only had one son, who also happened to be called Mr. Grant. That must be super confusing in their house.

The younger Mr. Grant was much nicer, according to Mom. He deals with Mr. Grant senior, not Mom. I’m glad she doesn’t have to work closely with his scary dad.

As soon as we scarfed down the pizza, I washed the grease off my hands, then ran straight to my room to change. I looked out of my bedroom window, feeling my heart sink with disappointment as the rain splattered against the glass.

The window misted up in the area that I was breathing against. I wiped it clean with the sleeve of my sweater and caught the sight of Storm walking across the garden.

My tummy did somersaults as I bolted down the stairs, running outside to go greet my dog.

My boots squelched through the waterlogged lawn, splashing muddy water up my nice clean clothes. The barn door was open, and there were sunken paw prints in the mud.

“Hey, Storm, guess what?” I called out to him, seeing his large head raise from where he was lying on the hay.

I told him everything that had happened to me today. I even informed him about my mom’s promotion at work, and how we can now afford to go on vacation.

Time seemed to fly by pretty fast. The rain was hammering on the barn roof, making a noise like a rice shaker.

Outside looked darker than usual because of all the grey clouds. Storm and I almost fell asleep in here, listening to the sound of the rainfall. If it wasn’t for my mom coming to get me, then we would’ve been fast asleep by now.

“Oh my God, Ruby!” Mom shrieked with fright.

I snapped my head up from where I was lying curled next to Storm. Mom was moving towards me and whispering in a panicked voice for me to run to her.

“Mom, what are you talking about?” I rubbed my tired eyes with my hands balled into fists.

Mom’s tone sounded higher than usual. She was acting like a crazy woman, waving her hands around as if to shoo Storm away.

“That’s a wolf! Go on, Shoo! Out! Ruby, that’s a freaking wolf!” She pointed at Storm.

He stood up, almost as if to do what she said. I wrestled him into a bear hug and scrunched his face with my hands.

“Mom, come on, this is my dog, Storm.” I looked at her as if she was acting stupid.

Mom cupped the sides of her face, her eyes wide with fright. “It’s a wild wolf, Ruby. Not a domestic animal!” Her face paled as though she’d seen a ghost.

“Storm’s not bad. Watch this,” I announced, standing up in front of Storm. “You’ll see, Mom,” I muttered, determined to prove her wrong.

“Storm, sit!” I said, jabbing my finger at the ground.

He obeyed and sat down, tilting his head to the side with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. He looked kind of goofy and it made me laugh.

I looked at Mom, whose mouth was hanging open with shock. “Storm, give me your paw,” I held out my hand and he placed his paw onto it. “See, he’s really good.”

“Incredible,” Mom murmured, shaking her head as if she couldn’t believe it.

She crept closer and came to kneel beside us, reaching her hand out to stroke his fur. I watched her face soften as her lips twitched up into a wide smile.

“I told you, Mom. He’s my dog and I’m keeping him,” I told her straight.

There was no way I was letting him go, and I could tell by the look on my mom’s face that she knew it too.

“Wolf, Ruby. He’s a wolf.” Mom corrected me, her eyes darting back and forth between me and Storm.

“Fine,” I shrugged. “Well then, he’s my wolf,” I replied, cuddling Storm.

I could see that she had softened. She had witnessed for herself how good he was behaving. Now Storm was growing on her too.

“Well,” Mom said with a breathy smile. “Welcome to the family, Storm.”