#thread:ruby02

[ellixxirr]

Gossip was a natural part of any social ecosystem, though Elli had forgotten how shitty it could feel being on the receiving end of it. During her time at Luxor, she'd mostly kept her head down and her nose buried in her textbooks. Still, the incident at the New Year's Eve celebration persisted in her mind. It wasn't Elli's concern, not really anyway, but the look of Ruby's face when she'd saw how upset Elli'd gotten stayed glued in her mind. "Oh, um...." Elli smiled tightly, clenching the straps of her backpack tighter. "Yeah, that was kinda the point, Ruby. Hope you don't mind but I thought we'd have a girls' day," she offered with a raise of her shoulders. She didn't need to know if what they said about Ruby had any shred of truth to it, she wanted to be the one to protect her from it anyway.

date: anytime post nye event

location: corridor

for: @luxorstarters​

It felt like ever since the stupid New Years party, whispers had followed Ruby everywhere she went. She wasn’t used to being the subject of rumours or exposes. If anything, she’d done her best to avoid her name ever being in anyone’s mouth for the majority of her academic career, and it was an unfamiliar and very much unwanted feeling to see people look at her and awkwardly turn away. Even more so when the looks were so obviously hostile. She’d hidden out in her room at first, of course, but she knew if she gave in and allowed her grades to slip, she’d only be proving everyone right. What she needed right now was to prove herself, more than ever before, more than she’d already been doing. Overwork wasn’t a word that applied to her at this moment in time. It was like she was playing catch up all over again. Maybe she always would be.

But it was incredibly difficult to play catch up when you couldn’t actually access your own books. And as much as she really wanted to never speak to anyone again, there was an obvious solution, so Ruby sighed slowly before crossing her arms to address the student, avoiding eye contact. “You’re standing in front of my locker,” she muttered quietly. “Could I … get in, please?”