~Ruby's P.O.V~

I got off the school bus and ran to my house. I dropped my school bag by the door and ran passed my mommy and daddy yelling a quick "hi!" and bounded up the stairs to play in my room. When I peeked in to make sure he wasn't in there yet, he wasn't. I scurried into the room and hid under the bed, my best hiding spot, he would never find me

there.

The 'he' I was hiding from was my imaginary friend, Johnny B. Badd. We had a serious game of hide and seek going on for years and it was my turn to hide.

I heard Johnny come out of the toy box, that was his bed, I heard him yawn and stretch he walked around the bed and looked at my alarm clock.

"Three-thirty?" he wondered aloud "Hmm, why isn't Ruby home yet?" 

I put a hand over my mouth to suppress the giggles threatening to burst from my mouth.

"I haven't been played with in such a long time" he said "maybe she forgot about me. Oh no! She hates me! This is the untimely end of  Johnny B. Badd!" he started to cough violently and fell to the floor beside the bed.

I crawled out slowly form under the bed and sat beside him. I poked his cheek and stared at him sadly. 

"Oh no!" I said to myself "I killed him!"

I reached out to touch his face, but his hand shot up and grabbed my wrist. 

I screamed. "Hey! You tricked me!" I protested.

He smirked up at me.

"You're so bad!" I scowled. 

"That's why they call me Johnny B. Badd!" he said.

I stuck out my tongue at him, he did likewise then we hugged. Johnny and I were the best of friends and we wanted it to stay that way forever.

XxX

Johnny and I watched cartoons as mommy and daddy gave my big sister, Beth, the emergency numbers. She was going to be babysitting us tonight while my parents went out to dinner. Johnny and I had plans of our own for the night: to torment and torture my eighteen year old sister.

"Okay" said mommy finally "Goodbye Ruby" she kissed my cheek.

"Ahem!" I cleared my throat loudly.

"Oh right, goodbye Johnny B. Badd" she said to the couch.

"He's sitting there, mommy" I said pointing to the spot on the floor he was sitting on.

"Of course he is" she smiled rolling her eyes.

I giggled as Johnny mocked her.

"We better get going we have reservations" said daddy "bye munchkin."

"Bye" I waved.

They left and my sister turned to me and said "okay time for bed!"

"But it's only seven-thirty and I don't have school tomorrow!" I protested.

"Well, too bad Ricky's coming over!" she said.

"Your boyfriend!" I said.

"Icky Ricky!" Johnny said.

We both put pointed a finger in our mouth and gagged.

"Yes and we don't want a kid running around" she said "so get upstairs! He's going to be here any minute!"

Johnny and I reluctantly trudged up the stairs. When we got to my room we both flopped on my bed.

"So much for driving Beth looney!" I sighed.

Johnny's face lit up bright with an idea, an evil idea. "Who's to say we still can't drive her looney?" he asked.

"How?" I asked.

"Ruby, are you ready for the baddest, most trouble-making, bound to get us grounded idea ever!" he asked excited.

"Uh... can you repeat the question?"

"Just follow my lead" he said.

XxX

Beth came to check up on us, she looked in and saw-what she thought was- me in my bed. She closed the door and went back downstairs. Johnny and I came out of the linen closet in the hallway; we had stuffed pillows under the covers to make it look like I was sleeping in the bed.

We carefully tip-toed down at the stairs and hid behind the coach, where Beth was *GAG!* kissing Icky Ricky, in fact they were making out!

Johnny looked like he was about to puke.

"Ready..." I whispered to him.

"One..." he said

"Two..." I whispered.

"THREE!" we said together and jumped up and yelled "BOO!"

Beth screamed and fell off the couch. Two minutes later Icky Ricky left muttering about "little sister ruining the mood."

Beth stormed over to me but just as she was about to yell, the doorbell rang.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Saved by the bell! I thought.

When Beth answered the door, Johnny and I peeked over the couch to see it was a police man.

"It's the fuzz!" Johnny whispered to me "they know what we did!"

I didn't hear all of what they said I just heard them mention my parents and Beth put a hand to her mouth.

She walked over to me when the police man left and sat down beside me.

"Are mommy and daddy arrested?" I asked nervous.

Beth looked at me and for the first time in a really long time, she actually hugged me.

"No Ruby mom and dad didn't get arrested" she said softly "they-they aren't coming home!" she began to cry.

"Why not?" I asked, confused.

Beth took several shaking breaths and said "there was a car accident and mom and dad...they didn't make it."

Sadness washed over my face. "Oh" was all I could manage to say before I started to cry too.

XxX

That weekend we had a funeral for my mom and dad, there was a party afterwards, but nobody was celebrating. I didn't eat much at the party, instead I went up to my room and sat on my bed to think.

Johnny came out of his toy box. "Is the party over?" he asked.

"No" I said solemnly

"I still can't believe that Beth is going to be taking care of us" he said sitting on the bed with me.

"Yeah"

"Can you say more than one word?"

I shook my head

"C'mon, Red" he said, using the nickname he gave me. "You know you can talk to me."

"I know."

"See? That was two words" he smiled "I think?" he used his fingers to count.

"I do need to talk to you" I said.

"About what?" Johnny asked.

"Well, Beth and we're talking at the funeral" I said hesitant "she said that now that mom and dad are gone she has to act more like a grown up. And I have to be a bit like a grown up too."

"Really?" he said smiling "so does this mean we get to swear?"

"No Johnny, it means...I think we should stop hanging out..."

He looked at me with sad eyes. "What?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, but I have to grow up sometime and put away my toys" I told him.

"Oh" he said sadly, looking at his feet.

I took his hand and got up still holding his hand, we walked over to my toy chest and I helped him lay down in it. He looked up at me with sad eyes. I tried to avoid his gaze as I closed the lid. I pushed the toy box into the back of my closet and like my parent's death I tried to forget about it.

AN: okay so depressing beginning, but the humor is coming!