She's a Kid. It's a Tree (Open)

[Deleted]

"Double Stripe!" Ruth yelled into the seemingly empty forest with a huge grin on her face as she pulled herself higher into the pine and farther from the ground. Her hands were sticky with the tree's oozing sap, stray twigs with browning needles nested in her blonde hair, and her jeans were now ripped in the knees as well as dirt, but this fifteen year old couldn't have cared less. In fact the state of her appearance was absolutely positively the last thing on her very active mind. She wasn't that kind of girl. She would rather die than be that kind of girl. She was far more concentrated on the challenge in front of her. Reaching the top of the tree without touching any trees labeled as "double striped." (That is the sticky ones covered the golden amber substance that somehow ended up on the breakfast tray.) Despite having obviously not succeeding in this challenge earlier, she still moved from branch to branch skillfully and nimbly. Almost like a monkey, but in reality it just came from practice. Though she wasn't going to tell anyone that. She liked being the best here, there wasn't all that much she was good at being designed to drive after all. 

She wasn't too far off the woodland path that lead from the dorms to the village. That way, in theory, she would have a decent warning to either get out of the tree or be really quiet if a teacher happened to pass by. They tended to frown on Villain sidekick's doing innocent childish things like climbing trees. That was for the royalty and their helpers. However that would kind of require Ruth to actually be paying attention to what was going on around her. Which of course she wasn't. After all she was designed --at least mentally-- to be ten years old forever or at least until Sugar Rush's plug got pulled. Then who knows what'll happen to this little glitch. Nobody knew what happened to people who were still in the game when the plug got pulled. Nothing good though. It was never good to have your plug pulled. 

However that was never going to happen, she mentally reassured herself. Sugar Rush is fun. Sugar Rush is popular. It's going to be a long time before the plug was pulled. 

While thinking of that dark possibility of becoming homeless, or even more terrifying dying, made Ruth grow sloppy and careless about where she was placing her hands. She realized how great of a mistake this was when her hands closed around a mother lode of sticky pine sap. Instantly her entire body froze, and only her arm moving, twitching forcefully enough to make her let go. This was the humanized version of her glitching. It normally didn't happen too often, only whenever Ruth got really emotional or she was faced with a substance that normally didn't exist in her world. Like the pine sap since the only trees back home were peppermint. Those didn't have sap. Her glitching was a side effect of not being designed by the programmers. Not even Felix could fix that. 

With her momentum suddenly being halted and not being able to hold a firm grip onto the tree for support during this touchy moment, Ruth's center of gravity began to tip and she did too. She finally unfroze, but it was too late. Ruth was falling. 

Out of the tree she tumbled, but she didn't scream. Only a startled yelp escaped her as she flew through the air and landed on the dead leaves below. For a moment she just stayed there completely convinced that she was hurt beyond recognition, but upon realizing she was okay. She laughed a high pitched laugh, one full of joy, and pulled herself to her feet. Sure she would have a couple of bruises, but they'll fade. No broken bones, and there was only a little bit of blood on her palms from the branches. She would be fine. 

Coming to this conclusion, she climbed once more into the tree determined to make it to the top without hitting a "double stripe." She was completely unaware of the fact that someone on the path may have seen her fall and may be concerned if this blonde was really as fine as she seemed to be. 

[Admiral]

Running was one of the few things that Admiral felt okay about liking as a boy human person thing. Most people would think it was weird if he decided to chase squirrels in the middle of the day. The squirrels didn't like it much themselves. But people also didn't like it when he jiggled his leg in class when he was trying to focus. It made other people not be able to focus and then they get mad at him. So running was the best option. And running outside was even better than running in the gym.

Admiral liked the feeling of the wind in his hair when he ran. And though he wasn't actually chasing squirrels, he could pretend he was chasing squirrels, which was pretty fun. So he was pretending to chase squirrels until a girl came crashing down through the trees. Admiral startled and slowed to a stop. He wasn't too worried because she was laughing and laughing was a good thing. It meant that the girl wasn't in any pain, which was good. Admiral didn't know how to tend broken bones.

Admiral watched as the girl started to climb the tree. Was she a squirrel? It could happen. After all, he was a dog. "What are you doing?" Admiral called, walking towards the girl in the tree. "Are you a squirrel?"

[Deleted]

When Ruth heard a voice, she suddenly halted out of sheer surprise of another person being nearby. The forest had given her a sense of seclusion, and this stranger shattered that. Though maybe in a good way, perhaps they like climbing trees too. None of the other Villain sidekicks liked tree climbing. Though with kids like Pizza face running around that was probably a good thing. He'd break all the branches and not understand the meaning of "Double Stripe."

She pulled herself up onto the closest sturdy branch and sat on it while clutching onto a branch just above it for support. Ruth swung her legs back and forth as she looked at the stranger. She just portrayed that classic little kid in a tree image, complete with the pink piece of bubblegum in her mouth. (How she didn't choke on it when she fell is a mystery to her.) It was boy, older than her with dark hair and bright, lively brown eyes. For some odd reason it made her think that if Vanellope had an older brother this boy would be it. Not to mention he was kinda cute... Though he probably had cooties. He was a boy after all. 

"I'm climbing a tree, Ouh-doy!" She said in typical Sugar Rush Racer fashion, childish language, but still designed to bug the target. Ruth giggled at this, remembering all the times Candlehead, Sour Pill, and all the others got frustrated with her actions. Sure it may not be nice, but it was fun sometimes to be the annoying brat. The question about her being a squirrel bugged her though. She wasn't one of those nasty little buggers that tried to steal her candy stashes if she tried to hide them anywhere. Thank goodness they didn't exist in her game. There would be no candy left!

"No. I'm Ruth. The best racer this place has ever seen!" Ruth exclaimed in protest, though it appeared to be her mostly bragging. Which was true. She was quite the showoff. The huge grin suddenly disappeared though when a strange thought appeared in her mind. She looked at the stranger suspiciously before asking, "Why? Are you a squirrel?" He seemed to be a squirrel. That seemed to be a kind of question a squirrel would ask. 

Not known for her attention span, Ruth quickly moved on, barely giving Admiral a chance to reply, "Do you like climbing trees, squirrel boy? Not too many people like it here." She was hoping he said yes, it would be fun to have a good old fashioned race to the top of the tree. 

[Admiral]

Admiral watched the girl with something like curious wonderment. She seemed like a lot of fun and a little bit like his sisters. She had the same energy level of his sisters. And watching her climb was mesmerizing, kind of like squirrels but human sized.

"What's a racer? What kind of racing do you do?" he asked happily. He didn't know what kind of racing she did, but it sounded fun. Admiral liked running and racing against someone was even better than just running by himself. He wondered briefly if Ruth would want to race with him. He would like that.

"No," he answered with a chuckle. He was most definitely not a squirrel. Squirrels were super fun and Admiral really liked to play with them, but he wasn't a squirrel. "I don't know how to climb trees," he told Ruth honestly. "Dogs don't know how to climb. I don't think people think that's too fun. They're too busy trying to do school work. Or maybe they don't know how," he added. If he didn't know how to climb, then it would probably make sense that other people didn't know how to climb either.

[Deleted]

Ruth looked at Admiral with an almost shocked expression on her face when he asked her what a racer was. How could he not know what the most amazing job in the entire universe was? After all there was nothing like feeling that rush of adrenaline when it hit your bloodstream or the sensation of of the wind beating your hair into your face. Or at least that was how Ruth viewed it, because racing was all she was designed to do, it was her purpose and never once did she question it. After all back home everyone was a racer too. There was no real variety, no need to question one's code.

"A racer is someone who races, you silly squirrel." She responded with an airy laugh before continuing, "Car Racing of course! It's the best kind of racing out there, especially back home where there's tons of tracks and challenges and it's so. much. fun. Though I will do any kind of racing, horse races, foot races, really anything that you can think of. I always win too, because I'm the best of the best. That's how I was designed you know, Felix took the best of the best from all the other racers. So that makes me the best!"  Ruth most certainly liked to talk and it's clear that at some point it turned from answering his question to just bragging. However it can't really be blamed on her now could it? After all she was a sugar crazed ten year old in a fifteen year old's body. She was nothing more than a overgrown child who shouldn't be trusted with a car under any circumstances.

She stopped though when Admiral stated he didn't know how to climb a tree, "You don't now how to climb a tree? Your childhood must have been awful then. Tree climbing is the only thing comparable to racing after all!" She exclaimed once she got her senses together again after that shock. Ruth didn't care about dogs or school work. Tree climbing was comparable to nothing in her mind and she was determined to show this dog the second best thing in the world.

"Hey why don't I teach ya then?" She asked as she snapped the piece of bubblegum in her mouth. 

[Admiral]

Admiral bounced excitedly. Talking about racing was very exciting! He wanted to race right now! Running was one of his favorite things to do. He raced with his sisters all the time. And it was the best thing ever. Sometimes he even let his sisters win just because it made them so happy. Sometimes he didn't. Sometimes they were just better than him. Usually, though, it devolved into a big game of tag. "That sounds fun!"

Admiral cocked his head to one side as he listened. "Is it?" he asked. He hadn't known that climbing was the only thing comparable to racing. "Jim Dear and Darling wanted us to be good puppies, so no climbing trees." He grinned at Ruth then. "Do you think you could teach me? That sounds fun."

[Deleted]

"Oh it is!" Ruth responded as she fidgeted on the branch she was balancing on. Just sitting here and talking like adults did was driving this hyperactive child crazy. She was in a tree, so she should climbing. However people didn't really like it all too much when you only paid half-attention to them. They seemed to find it rude for some strange reason. Which it wasn't, it just took a little more concentration sometimes to not glitch so Ruth couldn't be one hundred and ten percent invested in the conversation at hand, because you know she could fall out of the tree. 

Eyeing the upper branches of the tree, Ruth gave the typical kid deflection/response of a grunt that could be possibly translated as a "Yeah" when Admiral questioned her on the comparisons of racing to trees and back again. In reality though, or at least in Ruth's mind, was that nothing properly compared to racing. However when you're trapped at a school where there is no racetrack, and the horses crept you out, tree climbing was the next best thing. In fact it was the only next best thing Ruth could do as a villain's sidekick. On the Seacombe Halpworth social ladder according to the council, Ruth was the lowest of the low. Well not exactly. Pizza face was more hated by everyone. 

When the prospect of teaching Admiral, who insisted on calling himself a dog even though he two legs and thumbs, Ruth perked up a little bit. With a little skill, she jumped down from the branches, landing safely on the ground before popping herself up again like a Jack-in-the-Box. She had gotten pretty good at it in between both back home in Sugar Rush and here.

"Sure I can teach you. It's pretty simple actually." Ruth said as she explained how to climb from branch to branch without falling and then she showed how easy it really was by climbing the tree while reiterating her instructions. "See it's simple enough." She said as she plopped herself back on the branch she was on earlier. 

"Why don't you try now?" Ruth suggested as she looked down at the human/squirrel/puppy dog. 

[Admiral]

Watching Ruth climb down from the tree looked like a lot of fun. And it looked like even more fun when she showed him how to climb. He wanted to try that. If it was half as fun as Ruth said it was then he deifinitely wanted to do that. And then he could show his sisters and they could all climb trees together. They could have tree climbing races! How fun that would be!

"Okay," Admiral said happily to the request that he try now. He jumped and reached a tree branch, using all of his strength to lift himself onto the branch. Then he carefully stood and made his way to the next branch. And the next one after that.

He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. "This is tough." He was breathing a bit heavily. "But it's fun," he told Ruth with a smile, because it was fun. He'd never been so high off the ground before. He could see all around. And there were all kinds of different smells up here. Lots of squirrels and birds and other creatures.

[Deleted]

As Admiral started to climb the tree Ruth started clapping for him while saying like a child's war call, "Yeah you can do it!" She was only able to do this because she had somehow managed to balance herself on two different branches. She was seated on one with her feet and legs curled tightly around the one below it. That way she couldn't fall, unless of course Admiral shook the tree too badly or she glitched. However the odds of that were happening were very slim, judging by the speed the dog was climbing the tree and the lack of pine sap anywhere. 

"Well it'll get easier." Ruth said with a small shrug in response to Admiral's comment about the difficultly of climbing the tree. When he made it to a point where if he decided to just hang onto one of the branches he wouldn't touch the ground, Ruth climbed down from her perch with a small grin on her face and asked once she was eye level with him. "But you wanna know how to get better?" She had an idea in mind, and sure it was going to be unfair, but then again what did Ruth care. Underneath the playful exterior, she was just a selfish little brat. Everything was made for her and by god she was going to take advantage of it. 

"Let's race! First one to the bumpy branch wins!" She exclaimed as she pointed out a knot riddled branch up a little higher in the tree. It was pretty far up, almost to the top. Without waiting to see if Admiral agreed or understand she shouted, "Ready! Set! Go!"

And like a rocket, Ruth was off climbing and weaving her way through the branches. It was clear that she was going to win. It was an unfair race after all. 

[Admiral]

Admiral smiled happily at Ruth and nodded. He figured that the more he practiced the better he would get. His mother used to tell him something similar as well and he liked practicing things to get better at them. It was pretty fun. Climbing trees would be even more fun to practice.

He nodded excitedly at the question. He definitely wanted to know how to get better at climbing. And he was excited about the prospect of racing. "Okay," he agreed, but Ruth was already shouting go and climbing up the tree. Admiral just tried to follow as quickly as he could. It was pretty far up, but he enjoyed racing.

Admiral knew that Ruth was going to win. Of course she was. She was better and faster and had kind of cheated a little bit, but Admiral didn't mind. "Yay! You won!" He cried, smiling and tired, settling onto a branch a little bit below. "You're really fast."

[Deleted]

It really was an unfair race, but Ruth didn't care in the slightest bit. She sat on the branch proudly grinning as Admiral pulled himself up to the closest branch to her that would support his weight. Although he wouldn't have noticed it on his way up, Ruth was extremely nervous about sitting on this branch. What if she glitched again because of the pine sap? It was much higher up here than it was down there, and she was outside of her game. Sonic's PSA kept ringing through her mind. She can't regenerate outside of her game, if she hurt herself it was game over. Permanently. However that didn't faze her now, because the branch didn't have pine sap on it so no glitching. Yay for Ruth! 

"I know. I'm the best sugar rush racer ever after all." Ruth said smugly with an arrogant grin to match. Yes this sugar hyped fifteen year old was a show off and an inconsiderate one at that. She didn't care that she won by cheating. All that mattered was that she won, that she was the best, just like how it was supposed to be. Ruth was a winner and she didn't care about how she got that title. She would play dirty and bend the rules if she had to. It was all worth it in the end when she got to hold that trophy or medal in her hands and say that she was number one. Oh Ruth was so much like her mother.

Growing impatient, she started to swing her legs as she asked, "So hey, since you don't climb trees what do you do you do more fun?" Not that it actually compared to her favorite activities since those will always be the best, but still you've got to give her a golden star for asking. For once the narcissistic brat was letting somebody else talk about themselves for a change. 

This man-puppy better make the moment last while he can, because it sure isn't happening again. 

[Admiral]

Admiral nodded in agreement. He didn't know any other Sugar Racers so Ruth probably was the very best racer ever! "I bet you are!" he agreed with an easy smile. And there weren't too many people who could beat him in a race, so she must be pretty special where she came from.

"Oh, I like to run," he told Ruth cheerfully. "And sometimes I race with my sisters. And I like to go for walks after school because all that concentrating is hard sometimes." He nodded seriously, but then grinned again when he remembered something else. "Sometimes I sniff around to find things too. It's fun."

[Deleted]

"I am." Ruth smugly agreed again when Admiral affirmed that she was the best sugar racer. Or at least she was in her own mind which again was narcissistic, arrogant, and brattish down to it's very core. In fact there were other racers that were better than her, especially since she had fallen out of practice during the last few years she had been at this school. It would be a rude awakening for sure when she went home to the arcade and she could barely remember which pedal was the gas and which one was the brake! Even Gloyd (Her best friend back in the game) would laugh at her and Tafftya would have quite a field day making fun of the poor girl. However that wasn't for years to come and Ruth didn't even think that future would be possible. 

She listened to what he had to say, but Ruth interrupted him when he mentioned something that was of interest to Ruth, "Sisters? You have sisters here?" Ruth wanted to know because she wanted more friends like her, and she was a girl. Although her best friend back home may be a boy, nothing beat having girlfriend's in a ten year old's mind. No doubt they would have so much in common if they were like Admiral. "What are their names?" Ruth wanted to know, she wanted to have more friends, more best friends since Gloyd couldn't come to the school himself. (Ruth did try to get the school to let him come.) 

Ruth didn't bother to listen to the rest of what he had to say, instead she only absent mindedly nodded while she impatiently waited for Admiral to talk about his sisters. "That's cool. How old are your sisters? Are they my age?" She asked effectively ignoring his favorite activities even though she made him participate in hers. 

I warned you that Admiral wasn't going to have much time to talk about himself. 

[Admiral]

Admiral grinned. He loved talking about his sisters. They were his favorite dogs ever because they all just had a good time and played together. And they understood each other. They were all best friends. "No, my sisters are my age," he told Ruth proudly. "We're all from the same litter."

He tried to think about what else he could add since Ruth seemed to take such an interest in his sisters. "They're pretty fun," he told her cheerfully. "You'd probably like them too. And I know that they would like you for sure." He nodded happily, already thinking about introducing his sisters to his friend. "You'll have to meet them. They're pretty fun."

[Deleted]

Ruth frowned at the words he used. Litter? No one had litters. They just had kids. She was hopelessly confused and it reflected on her face. In truth she had forgotten that he was a dog, since after all the presence of two thumbs and a normal nose made it clear that at this moment he was human. Plus Ruth wasn't really paying attention when he said that he was a dog so there was no chance of her possibly recalling it now because honestly little kid's memories were bad enough, but hyperactive minds lead to worse recall. Well at least Ruth would never be using any of the classes here after she went back to Sugar Rush. The only type of education needed there would Driver's Ed and she had already passed that with flying colors. 

However these confusing thoughts were instantly wiped away from her mind when Admiral began to talk about his sisters. "Yeah that'll be fun." Ruth said with a wide grin, it would be nice to have more friends that were also girls. There weren't too many girl villain sidekicks, and the other ones weren't that fun anyway. They were all boring and they played too many mean tricks. (Yes as villains they were supposed to be mean, but they took it way too far.) She already knew that he wasn't a villain sidekick because Admiral was super nice so Ruth assumed that his sisters were like that too, which would be fun. "Do they like climbing trees and running around too? I hope so because that would be boring if they didn't and since they're related to you they don't seem to be boring." Ruth rambled as she thought about how fun it would be to have more climbing buddies. It was sometimes boring just climbing by himself. It would be nice to have a buddy to climb with. Then Ruth could race again and she missed racing more than anything else. She missed the racing track more than Meeko's when it closed, and she was heartbroken when she couldn't get more candy. 

Ruth let these kind of thoughts circle around her mind for a few more minutes before she realized something important. She felt so foolish about forgetting to ask it, because none of that would matter if Admiral did not answer her question right away. So with little thought behind it, she immediately blurted out, "When can I meet them? Now? How about now?" Sure she was imposing, but she didn't realize it because she didn't know what the word meant after all. In Ruth's world it was just about Ruth, she didn't care about what everyone else was doing and what their plans were. It was just Ruth, Ruth, Ruth. Everything else wasn't as important.