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Julian gives me a flat look before running his fingers through his hair. "All of a sudden I'm the dumb one? Remind who got a 38 on his last test, and who doesn't even have one B."

"At least I knew how many bones are in the human skeleton. That was due today, you know."

"No sh*t."

The teacher, Mr. Herold, walks over to the front of the room and reminds us that we have to turn in our skeleton drawings today. He starts saying something else, but once I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket I check it and stop listening. It's Ruby. I automatically start sending corrections of her spelling, but it's not because I'm rude, she just thinks it helps a whole lot so I do it anyway.

*Trouble

Why?

Ruby, you can't start trouble with people just because they made you upset

Who was it? What happened

*Neither

I get you're frustrated but you can't do things like that, okay?

Why do you still have your phone

While I'm still typing my response, the teacher stops talking except for a, "Texting... 'Ruby,' huh? She started a fight?"

I immediately turn my phone away from his sight and look up at him from behind my shoulder. "Yeah, it's... a long story. I'm sorry, I'll put it away. Can I just respond to this last text?"

"I don't want you texting a girl in my class. Put it away or I take it. Your choice." With that, he paces back to the front of the room as if he had really shown control of the class and their evil phones.

F*ck you, I simply think, waiting till he finished waltzing to the front of the room to take it back out.

Thanks for letting me know. We need to put our phones away. We'll talk after school, do what you're supposed to and I'll pick you up again

With that, I put my phone back into my pocket. The situation goes unnoticed for only a few moments before Julian has to whisper from my right, "Ruby, huh? Is she hot?"

"No," I snap, whispering back. "Who cares, alright?"

✾

When I look outside the window and at Ruby, I'm shocked when I see a big red mark on her cheek. Naturally, the sight makes me furious.

As soon as she gets into the car, I fire questions at her. "Who is this boy? Did he hit you back? What's his name? What exactly did he say?"

"Relax," she tells me, buckling her seatbelt in the front seat right by me. Normally she sits in the back seat where the car seat is, but I guess she didn't feel like it today. I don't pay much attention towards the fact and don't even bother mentioning it. "His name is Dallas. He's the one who called me 'pizza-face.' He hit me after I hit him, so it's fine, mainly because I still hit him more times."

"Ruby, listen to what you're saying. If you have this attitude going into third grade you're going to get into lots of trouble and people are going to start being even more mean to you."

"Why should I care?" she pouts, crossing her arms. "By the time I was born you were ditching school. You were just like me. So were Mom and Dad."

"Don't compare us to him," I say with a low tone.

"Don't talk to me like that for being honest," she snaps back.

"He's not even your father, what does it matter? And thank God he isn't. I'm just telling you all this so you don't make the same mistakes I did, Ruby."

"That's what you keep saying but it hasn't stopped me yet. You're still in school, you still try, or else you wouldn't have a tutor. You wouldn't even be... raising me. What's the problem with turning out like you?"

I sigh, and while the answer comes to me easily, I refuse to really answer it. "There's a lot of them, okay? Just trust me. You don't have to get flawless grades, you don't have to always be perfect. But you need to watch your temper or things only get worse from here. I'm sorry for losing mine."

She doesn't respond, she just crosses her arms and looks away with a sour face. It's typical for a seven-year-old, but I don't mind since her reaction is, once again, pretty standard.

When we get out of the car, Iris has just turned down the block and looks up at the two of us. After we get inside, she knocks on my door just a few moments later.

"Hey, Princess," I greet her when I open the door for her to come in.

"Hi," she says back. "Hello, Ruby."

Ruby waves, not saying anything though.

"So," Iris says, "Today we'll be figuring out derivatives, okay? There are a lot of rules that come with it but they're not too hard once you actually take a look at them. They're easy to understand but they might be harder to memorize. When are you retaking the test?"

"No idea."

"Let me know when you figure that out. Email your teacher. If you retake it on Monday, we'll have plenty of time to study if I come over on weekends too. You'll do really good on it."

"Okay."

"Assuming you take it Monday, we should have enough time to cover everything we need to. At least to get you through this test. But since it's Friday, that would also include coming over Saturday and Sunday. So I don't know what you want to do."

"That works," I reply with boredom.

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Demons