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Post by thatch on May 10, 2011 16:12:12 GMT 10
CHARACTERS
thatcher ace jones
ruby grace honeycutt
PLOT
When successful businessman Danny Jones returned from a very extended business trip with a new wife and six year old son in tow, there were an abundance of unkind whispers over the new additions to his family. Despite that, any housewarming party for a Shoreline Heights estate was bound to be a good party, so all the little gossipers and freeloaders came with their fake smiles and saran wrapped desserts. They judged the lovely woman Danny had brought home...they even judged the brightly smiling little boy wriggling around by her knees, restrained by the firm grip on his collar. But both mother and son were given a bit of a break when the Honeycutt family stepped up to welcome them to Capeside, dragging a troop of kids behind them: two older boys and one quiet little girl.
It was the first time Thatcher Jones ever saw Ruby Honeycutt and five seconds was all he needed to decide that she was the best girl in the whole wide world--pretty big decision for a six year old. With the blessing of chatting mothers to "go play", the children were allowed their freedom and Thatcher wasted no time in gluing himself to Ruby's side. As a manly six year old to her five, he did all the talking and he showed her the funny shaped jello people had brought over, bragged about how he'd poked a jellyfish the other day with a stick, and then told her that her dress was weird...but he liked it anyways. Possibly overwhelmed by the most energetic boy she'd ever met in her short life, Ruby eventually tripped, banged her knee, and started crying.
She probably did not expect her new friend to fish a packet of band-aids out of the nice pants his mother had made him wear, drop to the floor, and then put a Hot Wheels band-aid over her knee with all the seriousness a six year old could muster. Then he smiled, took her hand, and said: "Let's go eat the funny jello."
Both the Honeycutt family and the Jones family fondly look back on that housewarming party as the start of a good friendship between them. Thatcher was Ruby's unflagging best friend as each year passed and there were additions to both families, heartache, tears, good times...Whenever the Honeycutt family needed help, the Jones were there. Whenever Ruby needed him, Thatcher was always there. It was a bit of a surprise, of course, that the only one who didn't realize that Thatcher was in love with Ruby was Ruby herself.
Thatcher was willing to wait, however, Ruby would know eventually how he felt about her. That was when Bradley 'Brad' Strachan came to Capeside, stole Ruby's heart, and introduced Thatcher to a type of pain he'd only heard about in country songs. In just a few months, Brad had managed to get Ruby to fall madly in love with him, something Thatcher hadn't been able to do in 12 years. But Thatcher knows that Brad doesn't deserve Ruby and he's the first to tell her to stop letting Brad hurt her. He hates what this doomed relationship is doing to her and he wishes that she could see that there is someone who's been in front of her all along who loves her the way Brad never could. Some part of him realizes that Ruby is never going to love him the way he loves her, but Thatcher is still going to wait...even if watching this play out is slowly killing him inside.
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