Free Ruby Rising by Leah Cook

otherwise. “Oh and I suddenly have a craving to watch the Mickey Mouse and Friends show.” He laughed as I playfully smacked him on the arm and we drove down the pot hole filled road both smiling to ourselves.
     

CHAPTER 7
     
    I spent Saturday finishing an assignment and doing some study. Maths was definitely not my strongest subject so I needed to spend extra time on it than some of my easier subjects. My English assignment was already done. I’d already studied the book at my old school and I was able to recycle the assignment I had written. I’d tidied it up and added some more points, but it hadn’t been too time consuming. I’d spent hours putting it together last year and had received a good grade for it, so I wasn’t worried about turning it in for a second time.
    By early afternoon I’d had enough of being cooped up inside and Phoenix had been whining at me to play, when he wasn’t asleep on my feet. I scooped him up, grabbed my phone and headed outside. Surprised to find not just my mother, but my father tending to the growing veggie patch, and chatting easily together. Surprised, because my father never gardened, ever, it just wasn’t his thing, and also because he was supposed to be away for work. My not so green thumb had apparently been inherited from him, my mother’s extremely green thumb had kept us in home grown fruit and vegetables since I was little. She enjoyed the time pottering and tending to them, and loved cooking with her own produce. We often had an abundance of extra vegetables so she would box it all up and take it down to St Vinnie’s or the Salvo’s to go to people who in need of it. I think her garden was the hardest thing for her to leave when we left the city, but she hasn’t wasted any time in making use of the larger space she had to work with here. New fruit trees had been planted sometime during the week. They would take a couple of years to establish themselves but she would tend to them and give them everything they needed to supply us with a substantial haul in their first seasons of fruiting.
    “Hey”. I said as I sat down next to the raised beds and played with Phoenix.
    “Taking a break honey?” My mother sat back on her heels to study me.
    “I thought you were working until Monday?” I asked my father as he too sat up and looked at me.
    “I got six hours into the flight and the client cancelled and rescheduled, apparently completely forgetting that we were coming.” His gaze grew more intense. “It’s okay to have fun too you know, Ruby. Sometimes I wonder if you hide yourself in your books instead of going out and enjoying yourself.” My father’s words sounded nothing like what normally came out of his mouth. I floundered trying to find something to say in response but came up with nothing. I was relieved when he sensed my hesitation. “Your mother tells me she’s been letting you go out a bit more. I know I have been a little…well protective of you Ruby, but you know I mean well.”
    “Yeah, I know.” I avoided his eyes and roughed up Phoenix who was pulling on the bottom of my jeans.
    “But you’re not a child anymore, and your mother was right to give you some room to go out with your friends.” He came and sat down next to me and gave Phoenix a little pat on the head, a huge thing for someone that’s always hated dogs. “I don’t want you to come to a small town and not be able to make friends. There’s not that much here for teenagers and we’re here for the long haul. So I’d better get used to the fact that you’re not my little girl anymore.”
    “You’re not going to cry are you Dad?” I gently nudged him jokingly trying to put some humour into the conversation. I looked up to meet his gaze, I noticed that his eyes were in fact a little damp.
    “I haven’t been the best father to you Ruby, or the best husband to your mother. This move was not just about work. It’s also so that I don’t lose you or your mother to my job.