Time Warp: Don't Touch That [Sapphire]

[Ruby Parker]

It was a beautiful day in 2009. The birds were singing, the sun was shining and the flowers were blooming. Green grass laid across the Parker house's lawn speckled with dandelions and ladybugs. The second story windows were open to encourage a cool breeze to flow through the house. All and all, it was a fantastic day outside.

Ruby rejected the notion of sunlight and instead spent her weekend inside working on her computer.

The girl loved her computer like it was a personal friend, a treasure she built together with her dad. She had managed to customize her screensaver, sounds and pretty much every aspect of her computer to fit her Final Fantasy XIII obsession. The only thing left to do was download the soundtrack from Limewire.

That reminded Ruby... Her sister had recently gotten into Rascal Flatts. Now, Ruby was a good girl and hated stealing, but pirating wasn't stealing in her book. She'd download things to try them and then ask her parents for them for her birthday if she really liked them.

Her sister, however, was not as technologically savvy as she was. She didn't even have a custom desktop wallpaper, let alone anything as fancy as peer to peer sharing. That would never do. This was the new millennium after all, and it was time to get her sister up to date! She'd thank her later, she knew it.

Ruby stood and crept across the hallway, away from her room covered in posters of boys, bands and games, to Sapphire's room. Like a fox, she slowly opened the door and peeked in, making sure her sister wasn't paying attention before trying to sneak behind her to the laptop on her desk.

[Deleted]

The 14-year-old was in the middle of practicing when Ruby decided to come into her room. Sapphire’s first day of high school was mere weeks away, and she was determined to get onto the cheer squad. They would be having tryouts the first week, or so she had heard, and Sapphire had to make sure that she was the most prepared she could ever be for it. More prepared than she could have been for anything else in her entire life!

She didn’t have a cheer outfit yet, she wouldn’t get that until after she actually made the team, so she was substituting that with a halter top and pleated mini-skirt. With shorts underneath, of course. She didn’t want to flash anyone unsuspectingly. Sapphire stood up sharply, putting her hands on her hips, and with a sharp nod, she bounced on her bed spreading her legs outwards as she did and reaching out with her fingers to try and touch her toes. Then she landed on the heels of her feet…which slipped on the blanket, causing the skinny girl to tip over backwards and tumble clear off the bed, ending up with her back on the floor and her legs bent over the edge of the bed. Oops.

“Damn!” she cursed. Luckily her mom wasn’t around to hear it, but…Ruby? It was at that point that she saw Ruby sitting up at Sapphire’s computer, about ready to do who knows what with it. “Hey! You little turd! What do you think you’re doing!?” Sapphire twisted herself around, trying to blow the hair of her pigtails out of her face, though she ended up eating it instead. She scrambled up, spitting the hair out, and grabbing the back of her rolling desk-chair to spin it around and stare down at her bratty little sister. “Wellllll??” she pressed, crossing her arms over her chest.

[Ruby Parker]

Ruby froze with her fingers hovering over the keyboard, glancing around to find a convenient excuse. Missing doll? No, Sapphire never played with her in her room. Message from mom? She'd get caught if Sapphire asked their mom about it. How about a lost book? Scratch that, Ruby hated physical books and everyone knew it.

"Um..." The red-head lowered her eyes, deciding that the truth would be the best shield in this situation. "I was going to update your computer, get you a real music program. You'll love it when you try it!"

A big smile full of sweetness and deception filled Ruby's face.

[Deleted]

The only reason Sapphire could think of for why Ruby was in her room was so that she could be a pest. So she could bug her big sister by doing something she knew she wasn’t supposed to. Clearly, the prospering writer didn’t know how to read the ‘keep out! and that means you!’ sign posted on the front of her bedroom door.

So Sapphire glared down at the red-head as she interrogated the little brat, prepared to counter any pathetic excuse she had with physical force if she didn’t like it enough. “Suuure, you were,” Sapphire said suspiciously, not believing a word of it. “You were gonna update it and…what? Completely ruin it again, that’s what! Remember what happened last time you played with my computer!? You messed it all up and it took me forever to get the settings back to where I could actually use it again!” And who knows what other stuff Ruby was doing to it? One wrong move, and no doubt the thing would go kablooey!! on her next she started it up!