Chapter 9

“Davey” David.

Wednesday : March 5th 2025

After a shower, and a change of clothes, Ruby was ready to head towards David's house for her babysitting duties. She hadn't really thought out how ridiculous of a scene this would be. Rolling up to her friend's home in a Lamborghini to babysit, but whatever… It was too late to do anything about it and that was a problem for future Ruby.

Heading out from the locker room, she quickly noticed a handful of people posing and taking pictures with the car. She didn't really know how to react? She had done the same thing several times in her life, but now, with this car being her responsibility, she suddenly understood how stress inducing it was for the owner. Part of her wanted to go out there and shoo them away but the other half of her just decided to wait until they were done. As soon as the coast was clear, she scampered back to the car. 

After navigating the speed bump once more, and annoying a few more people with stalls, stutters, and the occasional inappropriate rev of the engine, Ruby finally found herself in the suburbs of Northern Melbourne. It was a nice neighborhood, not super high class, but also out of the range of most usual home buyers. It was the sort of place where cars like the Land Rover, BMW, and Audi were the usual vehicles versus the more usual Holdens, Honda, and Fords. Still, the Lamborghini stuck out like a sore thumb but Ruby was sort of getting used to that. 

Arriving at the modest two story home, Ruby thought about how she was going to explain the car. Would she even have too? Maybe it would just go unnoticed, one of those seen but not spoken about things. However with a “thump” she got her answer, as a ten year old's face smashed itself into the passenger side window as if it was fly. Peering through the darkened glass, the normally quite shy David was suddenly a ball of energy. He was desperate to learn why a supercar had just pulled up outside his house.

“Ruby is that you?!” He didn't even take his face off the window as he spoke. Ruby just sort of laughed awkwardly, and realized she needed to get out before David became one with the car door. Meanwhile his mother, still trying to get ready for her evening adventure. Hair dryer in her hand, she paused it as she yelled out the door to her unusually hyper kid.

“David, get back in here! Don't just run up to a stranger's car!”

“It's Ruby mom, it's Ruby! She got a cool new car!” As Ruby opened the door and stepped out, David's mother dropped the hair dryer in disbelief.

“Ruby? What the hell? Where did you get a car like that!?” 

“It's a really long story, but eh, I'm just borrowing it.” Ruby said, blushing with embarrassment. Meanwhile David was acting like he had died and gone to heaven. 

“It's a Lamborghini! Oh my goodness it's so cool!”

“David, get back in here and act your age! Good lord, it's like your seven again!”

“But mom, look at this thing!” David protested but his mom was having none of it.

“Enough David, now!” As if a switch had been flipped, all the enthusiasm and energy that was just on display disappeared, and David was back to being his shy, almost robotic self. Head hung, he sadly turned to Ruby and said.

“Sorry Ruby, I got too excited…”

“Hehe, it's okay! Come on, let's play along for now.” Ruby replied with a wink. A little life returned to David's eyes, and the pair headed inside. As Ruby recounted the story of how her Holden stuck inside the Phillip Island race track and how she ended up with a Lamborghini as a replacement, David's mom was only half listening. As a photographer, she was a perfectionist by nature, especially in regards to makeup. Her name was Victoria, although Ruby always just called her Vicky. 

“So yeah, it's been a really long day already for me. I don't know how people drive cars like that everyday.” Ruby said with a sigh, David listening quietly but intently but Vicky less so. 

“They don't…” Vicky started to say, but stopped to apply some eye liner.

“Huh?” 

“They don't drive them everyday. They're weekend toys for playboys more or less.” Vicky explained. That kinda made sense, McClaire very much was the jet setting playboy type, at least on the surface. 

“Well, whatever, I guess it's my responsibility for the evening, as are you big D. How old are you now, eleven?”

“In a couple of weeks.” David replied.

“Well in case I don't see you then, happy early birthday!” Ruby said enthusiastically in her normal chipper voice. 

“Thank you!” Meanwhile, Vicky got a phone call. As she started tacking, Ruby took the opportunity to check her social media quickly. As she expected, she had a ton of mentions and tags, but one immediately caught her eye. The post was… well… It was a super zoomed in, close up, of her jeans hugging her curves, while she was checking the clearance of the Lambo's nose.

Seriously? Perverts, it's not like you don't have all sorts of pictures of my ass anyway… Ruby thought to herself. Part of her wanted to block the man, but… he said she was a “10” so… Whatever, just a normal annoyance for an idol. 

The rest of the posts at a glance weren't that much better anyway, most of them being from when she stalled in the middle of Melbourne. People laughing at her, cursing at her, and everything in between. 

“LOL women drivers! Dumb bitch can't drive a stick.”

“This is why I was stuck in traffic for 20 minutes?”

“Is that @Ruby_Starfire?”

On the plus side, she did have 1000 new followers since she last checked. If this had been a publicity stunt, she could consider it a success! 

“Okay, I'm heading out. David, you behave, be in bed by ten, and leave Ruby’s car alone. Ruby, I’ll see you around midnight.” 

“Got it, see you Vicky!” Ruby replied with a smile.

“Bye mom!” David replied without one. As soon as the door shut behind her though, David immediately asked the question.

“Can you take me for a ride, please?”

“Is your homework done?” Ruby said with a mischievous smirk and David nodded excitedly. 

“Good, okay we'll go get something to eat later. Let your mom get out of town first!” David, now beaming, had his life restored to his body. As excitement pulsed through the young man's veins, Ruby realized now would probably be a good time to report into Revz and let him know she and more importantly the car were still in one piece.

“Hello?” 

“Hey Revz, it's Ruby! Just wanted to let you know…” However, on the other side of the phone something was happening. Before Ruby could finish her thought, McClaire’s voice piped up in the speaker.

“Ruby! You're filling up timelines again on X!” McClaire said giggling wildly. In the background you could hear Revz.

“Give me back my phone McClaire!” Ruby just laughed, not trying to brush the comment off but also not knowing where this conversation was going.

“Uh, yeah, sorry about that.” Ruby replied nervously.

“No, no, it's fine! I appreciate you having the wherewithal to stop and look to see if you were going to scrape the nose, instead of just monster trucking over it like some of my employees do…” Once again, Revz's voice piped up in the background.

“That was the C8 and it was supposed to auto lift the nose, that wasn't my fault!”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. You know how to turn a wrench Ruby? You want Revz’ job?” McClaire said with a healthy dose of sarcasm, before another struggle for the phone commenced. Eventually voices returned, now distant. 

“Ow, ow, ow, ow… uncle, uncle!” Revz cried out, from afar before McClaire’s voice piped up again. 

“Sorry about that, Revz doesn't like loaning me his phone. Anyway, are you having fun with it? It's a blast of a car, one of the last old school analog Lamborghini’s!”

“Uh, fun isn't the word I would use, more stress inducing and anxiety maxing.” Ruby admitted.

“Hahaha! Well, that tells me you're being responsible and that you care about that car Ruby, and I appreciate that…”

Well not like I have a choice. Is what Ruby wanted to say, but instead she stayed quiet. 

“Any idea when you'll be back?” McClaire went on.

“Uh, like 2am or 3am?” Ruby sighed.

“Okay, no worries! We'll bring your car back over to the resort, and you can crash on the couch again whenever you get back” Ruby giggled nervously to herself. “Crash” isn’t the word I would have used McClaire.

“Okay, and thank you so much McClaire. You’re crazy for loaning a stranger a Lamborghini!”

“I’ve done worse, trust me. Anyway, see you tomorrow, here’s Revz!” With that, McClaire finally forfeited the phone back to her mechanic.

“I hate when she does that.” 

“Hehe, happens a lot?” Ruby giggled

“You have no idea… Anyway, do you need anything from me?” Revz asked.

“Yeah, I assume this thing takes some sort of special jet fuel?”

“Highest octane you can find that has as little ethanol as possible, we haven’t E85’ed it yet. If there’s a Shell station nearby, go there.” Revz instructed. Quickly Ruby did a google search and found a few nearby.

“Got it, thanks Revzy!” With that Ruby hung up and turned her attention towards David who was looking on with a keen excitement. For him, this was going to be the coolest night ever, with the coolest babysitter ever!