A Game Called Life

Ever since Ruby had given Noah the friendship bracelet, she had felt better about their friendship. Even though she was weird and wacky, she was herself and she was glad that Noah accepted her for who she was. She was so used to scaring people off with her antics but not her dear sweet Noah. She had sent him letters over the summer, which was fun. Germany was further away from France than she had thought, but once she was back in Beauxbatons she felt like she was at home again. The first thing she did was send a note to her friend and inviting him to the student commons to catch up.

Over the summer she had dyed her hair a bright red after much begging. She just had to show it off to her friend and get his opinion on it, she also had a new toy for him and her to play with. A muggle game that her papa had given to her, but sadly he had not made this one. But he said that she would love it anyways, so she set up the game for them to play.

It was a card game with cute little cartoon animals printed on the cards and numbers. It was called War and it was all about beating the other by having a bigger number. The animals were a nice touch to the card, her papa knew her so well.

Noah enjoyed his summer. It was nice being with his whole family again. he had never been away from them for so long before starting school at Beauxbatons the year before. He was glad to be back though. The school had become like a second home to him, and he was starting to get homesick. The boy missed his crazy friend, Ruby. They had wrote letters back and forth over the summer, but it just wasn't the same as talking face to face.

Almost immediately after returning to the school, Ruby sent a letter to Noah telling him to meet up with her in the student commons. He was excited as he walked down the hall to see his friend for the first time after a long summer. The boy grinned ear to ear as he walked, holding the small box with the gift he had for her.

Once he reached the student commons, Noah hid the box behind his back, holding it with both hands as to not look suspicious. He casually walked up to his friend. "Heelllllooooo..."

The cards fell from her hand as soon as she saw her friend. She hurried to get up and rushed toward him, pulling him into a hug. "Noah! Oh how I missed you!" She giggled and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Hello," she replied to his greeting. "How are you? We have so much to talk about! Like what we did over the summer and all that!" She let go over her friend and bounced on her feet. "I'm so happy!"

Upon seeing Noah, she had forgot all about her problems and how her real parents were alive and had a son. Noah wasn't the only one she had wrote over the summer. She raised an eyebrow and pointed to his arm. "What's behind your back?" she asked suspiciously.

Before he knew what was happening, Noah was pulled into a tight hug. He quickly hugged his friend back, hoping he moved his arms fast enough so that she wouldn't see the box in his left hand. "I missed you too." As soon as his friend released him, he quickly pulled his arms back behind his back. "We have a lot we need to catch up on. Letters don't do the justice that talking face to face does."

Noah moved his fingers along the edges of his box, anxious to give the items inside to their new owner. He had saved up his money and bought her four buttons. Three were pictures and phrases from his favorite cartoon, movie, and book. The fourth was plain blue, Noah's favorite shade of blue, to which he took a marker to and wrote the word 'Best' on in his best handwriting. "Oh my dear Ruby, I can't sneak anything past you, can I?" He smiled and held out the box to his friend. "Here this is for you."

"Talking face to face is better, if you only talk to someone through letters you can forget what they sound like." Letters were fun but she loved to talk to people face to face. There was something about seeing facial expressions and tone that made talking to people so great. "I agree, face to face is better."

"I think I'll become a journalist someday, I'm so good at these things." Like when she made stories about the people in the pub, it was so fun to come up with things. 'Do you think I'd be a good journalist? Or maybe a detective!" She grinned and opened the box. "Oh my goodness! Noah! They're great! Thank you!" She threw her arms around him again.

"I completely agree. Plus it's kind of hard to have a good back and forth conversation through letters. After you send yours, you have to wait several days to get the reply back." Noah thought about Ruby becoming a journalist or detective one day. She certainly was good at using clues to figure things out. "I think you would be absolutely fantastic at either of those jobs. I'm not sure what I want to do yet."

The boy hugged his best friend back, happy that she liked her gift. "These are some of my favorite things." He pointed each of them out as he spoke. "That one's my favorite cartoon, that's a quote from my favorite book, here's a scene from my favorite movie, and the last one," he said pointing to the electric blue colored one, "is my favorite color. Now you can think of me when you wear them." Noah gave his cheekiest smile. "But... there's more." He put his index finger up to his mouth as to share a secret. The boy turned the inside of his outer robes outward, revealing a second electric blue pin. Instead of writing Best, like the other one, he wrote the word Friends. "This one is mine. See, they're a pair. You can hide yours on the inside of your robe and I'll keep mine inside my robe." Noah liked his idea.

Ruby had a collection of buttons that she loved to wear and she was happy with the new additions. She listened carefully to Noah explain the meaning to each button. Now that she knew the meanings behind them, she loved them even more. "Noah! They're so pretty!" She picked up the blue button and studied it. "Thank you so much." She pulled her friend into another hug and kissed his cheek.

"Okay, so my papa made some cards for me and I was thinking we could play a game." But now the cards were all over the place and needed to be picked up. "After we play 52 Pick Up, we can played another game." She giggled.