Character Information
Basics:
Full Name: Ruby Lana Sykes.
Nicknames: Rube(s), Rue, Ruber McGruber.
Hometown: Anaheim, California.
Age and Birthday: Fifteen [July 24th].
House and Year: Shenandoah [Sophomore].
Boggart: Dementors grabbing her, scabby rotten hands and all.
Riddikulus: Mars and Le step up to protect her with patronus charms.
Patronus and Why: Wolf, the same as Emma's house mascot.

School Information:

Wand: Unyielding elm with a core of manticore hair, ten and a half inches.
Electives: Literature I & Ancient Runes.
Extracirriculars: Dueling Club, Cooking Club, Debate Team, Yearbook.
Strongest Subject: History of Magic.
Weakest Subject: Herbology.
Animagus: N/A.

Family and Relationships
Parents: William Sykes [Father] & Joanne Sykes née Porter [Mother].
Siblings: Marney Sykes [Sister] & Leland Rivera Sykes [Half-Brother].
Extended Family: Eddie Rivera Sykes [Niece].
Familiar: Ferret named President Snow. She frequently dresses him up.
Sexuality: Bisexual.

Appearance:
PB: Kaya Scodelario.
Physical Description:
Much like her older sister, Ruby can be more than a little hung up on aesthetics. She likes to look good, and she likes people who look good. She isn't the tallest, standing at five feet and six inches. She has always wanted to be a much taller girl, but genetics betrayed her and that's what heels are for. She's rather thin, with slightly gangly limbs that don't totally match her shorter stature. She has absolutely no ass, and curves are something else that sort of escaped her, but she doesn't mind. She has a pale complexion, and a slightly angular face with a small nose. She has somewhat large front teeth, which she doesn't care for.

Ruby's eyes are a gray-blue color, and her hair is naturally dark brown. It's long and slightly curly, though she often charms it straighter or pulls it back. She has a fondness for braids, and she has a bad habit of twisting her hair around her wand. She has used the muggle method of dying her hair a few times, after Emma showed her how, but she much prefers her natural color.

Loving a casual style, Ruby is content to lounge around with friends in sweats, shorts, and haggard looking t-shirts. When no one is around, she'll really wear whatever, so long as it covers her and it isn't filthy. But when she's actually trying to look good for something or someone, she knows how to pull it off. She loves dresses, leather jackets, boots, and lace. She loves to doll herself up, and she has more make-up and dresses for special occasions than she has special occasions. She prefers designers and brand names, and is willing to spend the little extra to make sure her clothes are genuine. She can be a bit of a shopaholic, but it's good to look good. She loves heels, the higher the better, and has mastered the art of maneuvering around in them. It's a skill she is quite proud of.

Personality:
Likes: Making money, being right, being rich, her siblings [mostly], Emma, learning new spells, succeeding, learning & reading, spending money, treasures, ticking Mars off, her library at home, independence, standing out, Shenandoah, being clever, speaking her mind, the idea of ending up rich(er), popsicles, romantic muggle movies, playing video games with Emma, coffee & toast, being the big spoon, traveling, cooking & baking, swearing.
Dislikes: Milk, getting her hands dirty, Quidditch & Quodpot, storms [particularly thunder], being broke, being told 'no' or that she's wrong, getting shown up, sleeping in too late and feeling groggy/gross, her ex, Emma's ex, macho guys, headaches, losing money, getting in trouble, being bored, wasting money [though she does her fair share of that], extreme violence, mucking up an exam, fake people, blood purists.

Quirks:
- Constantly playing with her hair, twisting it around her wand or braiding it or whatever. She loves to mess with Emma's hair too, if she'll sit still.
- Loves the Hunger Games, pretty much obsessively. It's basically the coolest muggle thing Emma ever showed her, besides video games and pirating music.
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Secrets:
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Amortentia Smells Like: Ocean, black coffee, & surf wax.
Strengths: Intelligent/logical, well-read, articulate, not afraid to speak her mind, takes tests well, always loyal to those close to her, brave under pressure, excellent cook, great at solving puzzles, writes a mean essay/report, sympathetic [depending on the situation/person], tidy, seriously really good at Tetris, excels in Ancient Runes & Arithmancy as well as Charms lessons.
Weaknesses: Loud-mouthed, arrogant, hates to be corrected, can be quite mean-spirited, fickle, a little judgmental, weak at Astronomy & Herbology, doesn't know when to back down, gets cranky easily, hates not being taken seriously/treated like a child, can be quite a brat, greedy, likes to get her way, can't bake a properly raised soufflé no matter how hard or how many times she tries [suspects Emma is just being too loud].
Detailed Personality:
How one would view the personality of Ruby Sykes would depend a lot on how Ruby Sykes views you. She is a very kind girl at heart, who can be incredibly sweet to those close to her, but if someone plans to cross her, then they had best look out. She is little but feisty. Her temper is quick to ignite, and she tends to hold grudges and speak before she thinks, something that has gotten her into trouble many times in the past. She even likes to correct professors, her siblings, her folks, or other authority figures now and again. In contrast to her extremely laid back best friend, Emma, she's quite a little spitfire.

She has been an extremely opinionated girl pretty much all of her life, and she doesn't shy away from saying much of what she thinks, whether it's negative or positive. Ruby has a thought or opinion or something to say about pretty much everything, whether it's her business or it isn't. Sometimes it may seem like her mental filter between brain and mouth must be broken, but mostly Ruby just doesn't care. She has a bit of a fat-head, and almost always thinks that she's correct anyway, even when she isn't. In turn, she hates to be corrected. She rarely backs down, and can even be more than a bit rude at times. Being told off or being spoken to condescendingly is something she abhors. It's like a slap in the face or something!

But so far as she's concerned, if people don't like what she has to say, then they can either suck it up or move on all together. Though her sometimes thoughtless words and actions can cause drama, she rarely wants to actually be involved in the drama.

Knowing what it is that she wants from life is something that Ruby has always sort of known. She always loved excitement, and has always had a craving for it. But like any good student however, not to mention one with her own personal library in her house, Ruby has always loved to learn, study, and especially to read. Even to teach; she has surprising patience when trying to explain things to Emma, for example. She can get lost in books for hours, and dedicates herself heartily to keep up good marks during Blue Ridge. Her tutors taught her to read young, and she has always loved it since. She has quite an imagination, in fact mostly in thanks to her best friend's early influence. Imagination aside, however, she is an extremely logical thinker. She loves puzzles and brain-teasers, and anything that takes a lot of thought. She decided, shortly after starting her first year at Blue Ridge, that she wanted to be a curse-breaker someday upon graduation. She found herself with quite an affinity to their kind of magic. She has an extreme dedication and focus on what she wants, and can man up and be serious at the drop of a hat if she needs to be. She adores the satisfaction of a good mark, and always makes up for lost time if she allows herself any slacking off time.

Ruby can be quite greedy, free travel and more money being her truly sole motivation behind wanting to grow up to be a curse-breaker for example, but she does have a soft spot for others and she does like to share with the right people. She'll always be there for her friends when they need her, even if it costs cash, so much as it stings to spend. Being the youngest, and a little extra spoiled because of it, the thinking of everything as 'mine' phase was something she got away with a little more than she should have. She's been keeping her own piggybank and collecting change on her own since she was four years old. She likes money, to make it, to spend it, to just have lots of it. Her future plans include making it big and rolling in cash, her own money rather than her father's, but she has every intention to share her wealth. Despite being more than a little selfish in a lot of little ways, Ruby plans to make sure that her important people, like her sister and Emma, would be taken care of once she's famous and loaded.

She can get a bit easily frustrated with people sometimes, though she tries her hardest to be patient and calm. Correcting people and interjecting her opinion whenever she sees an opening hasn't exactly won her the friend-of-the-year award with most of the people that she grew up and went to school with, but she did always have a select few closer friends that made her feel all right being herself, Emma included. Opinionated and bossy just.. happen to be herself. When she isn't in class, she can let her hair down a bit. Being best friends with a notorious party girl has had benefits over the years.

In her downtime, Ruby does loves to attend parties, and can sometimes get a bit wild. It also makes her brain-to-mouth filter even more transparent. She's come to regret it in the morning, but nothing beats whiskey, good laughs, and getting blunted with her friends, even if she has class the next day. She's funny and witty once you get to know her, even if she thinks she knows everything. She likes to goof off and play videogames, especially a good puzzle game. She considers herself some kind of Tetris & Columns champion. Even Emma can't beat her, and she owns the damn things. Because she enjoys herself so much when she just lets loose, she is actually rather easily swayed into pissing off and partying, even more so now that she's growing up and Emma is selling all of the time, but she makes sure that she always gets her life back together once she's sober again. She would never want partying to jeopardize her future, or her future wealth, and she would give it up in a heartbeat if she had to. She just doesn't want to.

Somewhat weird about relationships, Ruby has never really had a great one, until Emma. She had a serious boyfriend that was disasterous, and left her with a lot of emotional baggage and insecurities. She tends to fall for people quickly in the heat of the moment, and then fall out just as quickly. She is extremely nitpicky anyway. She sees no reason why she shouldn't be selective, and doesn't mind shooting people down with ease, though she does try to let then down somewhat gently. She can be a bit neurotic, and she tends to find tiny foolish things wrong with her dates to focus on and stress about, and eventually break up with them over it. Anything from weird hair, chews too loud, bad breath that one time, leaned on me too much during the movie, didn't cheer for Shenandoah enough, one eye isn't proportional to the other.. the list goes on and on, but she always finds something that ends up bugging her, one little flaw like a little fly buzzing in her ear. She tends to do the same thing to the love interests of friends, picking apart and dismissing them readily, and can never really grasp why everyone doesn't see people like she does and just agree with her. Emma has been ideal and perfect for her, though Ruby holds a lot of guilt about not telling her friend her feelings sooner, and letting her get hurt.

Despite all of the protest that she throws up about being the youngest in her family, and being treated like a borderline child as a result, she does sort of like it. She can be tough and mouthy when she wants, but there is a softer and more whiny side to her that almost likes being babied. She feels better knowing that her brother and sister are there for her, even when they treat her like a kid, and she knows that she can depend on them for anything they can give her. She forced herself to get over her homesickness when she came to live at Blue Ridge, but she still has bouts of it sometimes and she cried the entire first two weeks in her dorm by herself. She tries not to cry in front of other people, but she can get quite emotional especially with her temper, so it does sometimes happen. It's not uncommon for her to shed tears of frustration when she doesn't get her way either.

Personal History
Ruby was a happy baby, and a somewhat spoiled little girl, who never particularly wanted for anything besides attention. Born four years after her older sister, Ruby was a bit of a surprise child for her parents, who hadn't even really tried to have Mars let alone a second daughter, but they managed to make it work. They lived in a lavish house, with a posh lifestyle. From a young age, Ruby was pretty much taught that there wasn't much that money couldn't buy or supply, and her parents proved that to her. Even while bringing up their children, neither Joanne nor William needed to lift a finger, there was help staff for that. Practically raised single-handedly by nannies and tutors, the way any proper young lady would be, Ruby was well educated at a young age and showed promise of being extremely bright, even as a toddler. She preferred calmly being read to each day, as compared to running around and making a mess like her sister. She and Marney were both bright, their parents were assured of that, but it seemed that she had a much stronger love for the knowledge.

Young life was just a mish-mash of learning, playing with Mars, traveling, and wanting her mother and father's approval. Every tutor that came into the Sykes house seemed determined that Ruby, already showing signs of her magic before the age of five, had all of the makings of some sort of intellectual prodigy. But it meant nothing to Ruby, when neither her mom or dad could take five minutes to recognize it. They were too caught up in themselves, and everything going on in their personal lives and affairs, to really seem to care. They had plenty of sweet words to say about how great she and Marney were, and money to spoil the girls with, but very little time to actually spend with them. It was at age five, that for the first time, Ruby remembers her mother saying that daddy wasn't coming to breakfast because he was still out with one of 'his whores'.

Each day was the same routine, studying and reading in the garden. Unlike her sister in another way, Ruby had never done well with making friends. She wanted to make friends, but her attitude didn't so much to help her. Even when she was trying to be nice, she would always end up running her mouth first. Children didn't like being told they were wrong anymore than adults did, and it was extremely hard for Ruby not to criticize other people, a habit she had learned from so many years of just watching others play, excluding her. Most of her time was spent playing alone, studying instead, and trying to ignore how much her parents seemed to fight more and more as she got older.

Things changed drastically when Ruby turned six. It was the year that two big things changed in her life; the Sykes family bought a beach house in Summerland, and for her birthday that summer, her father had a library constructed on their property at home. Ruby lost hours and hours in there, and still hasn't found a way to read everything yet. It was better than any tutor, and before long, she was trying to teach herself. The beach house was great, but ended up just another place to study and read. Mars was ten, and seemed to have no desire to have her dopey six year old sister trailing on her heels. It was that same first summer, as she was laying the sand with about a dozen books piled up all around her towel, that she met Emma Thompson for the first time.

"You know that you've got sand all in your hair," were the first words she ever spoke to her best friend, unable to hold back even that simple criticism. The girl looked like she had just rolled her way up the beach, didn't she care that she looked like some sort of beach bum? But things worked out in the end, after she spent the next hour helping the other girl wash off by swimming around in the ocean, and then walking along the pier with her all of that afternoon, and then the next afternoon, and the next, and so on. Emma was sweet, and she didn't seem to really care that Ruby spoke her mind, or that she liked to just do boring things like read books or study things. Emma didn't seem to care or worry about much, which was nice. Emma quickly found ways to make her let loose and do some fun stuff now and again too. She showed her exciting little muggle gadgets that no one in her family had ever bothered to introduce her to, and they wasted hours in front of Emma's playstation.

She didn't care that Ruby was rich and kind of spoiled, or that her sister was an asshole who kept making jokes about the two of them. She didn't ask Ruby why her mom and dad were always shouting at each other.. well, when her dad even bothered to join them at the beach at all. She was content to read or play a gameboy, while Emma surfed or did whatever. They just worked. Emma didn't seem to care about anything besides making her best friend smile, and Ruby quickly began to feel the same way. Particularly venomous toward anyone who tried to mess with them, Ruby was dedicated. They were best friends practically the minute they met, but she was in love with the blonde and her live-and-let-live attitude before she even really knew or understood what being in love was.

It didn't take long for summer vacation on the ocean with Emma to become tradition, something Ruby looked forward to each year, and by the time they were eleven, September rolling around each summer had become almost painful. It was hard to have a best friend that she only got to see for three months or so out of the year. When the air on the beach started getting colder, they both knew what it meant, until next June anyway. They could write, or email, but it wasn't really the same. Emma had visited their house in Anaheim all of once, but Mars had embarrassed her so badly that Ruby hadn't invited her friend back. The summer when they were eleven was particularly hard, as Ruby knew what was coming for her after the summer ended. She was going to start Blue Ridge, just like Mars had done ages ago and it hadn't changed her, but what if it changed Ruby? It was a boarding school, she'd have to be away from home all year, and it suddenly made the next summer seem even further away. What was she going to do by herself, away at school all of that time? What if she made new friends, or she didn't have time for friends at all because she had so much homework? She didn't know what to expect, outside of her sister's warning that lower academy was hellish anyway.

She had all but hidden her magical ability from Emma, on the insistence of her family, which was easy to do when they only spent a few months together out of the year. But with school always drawing nearer and nearer, Ruby still had no idea who to talk to about it. Her parents didn't have time, and Mars would probably just pick on her. It was just school and she was supposed to be good at school! On her last night in Summerland before she had to go back to Anaheim, Ruby did the best she could to try to explain the situation to Emma, that she had to go away to boarding school and she didn't really want to at all, she'd rather just stay and go to a regular junior high with Emma or something but she had to go, it was family tradition. She didn't really get a choice. She wished Emma could come with her, but it was really no use. What were the chances of that? Emma was about as muggle as a muggle got. But just being able to talk to her friend, to voice how worried she felt, was enough. To know that Emma would come with her if she could. She left the beach that summer feeling rather bummed out, but there was still almost a month before school was in and she needed to prepare.

Throwing herself into the library at home, Ruby worked herself to the bone until September officially came around, and it was finally time for her to join Marney at Blue Ridge. Both of her parents, surprising her with their sudden presence, were there to see the two of them off that year, and it remains the only year Ruby can think of where they both bothered to show up. Ruby was a nervous wreck all of the way to the campus, just trying to read and ignore everything. When she had to go her own way to be sorted with the other first year kids, she held her head high, not about to let them know how intimidated she was. She was brilliant, and she deserved to be there, and like hell if she wasn't going to show any weakness to them. While she stood shuffling in line though, waiting her turn to be sorted into her house, Ruby took notice of a head of messy blonde hair a few kids behind that, that simply could not be.

It wasn't until she was sitting at the Shenandoah table among her new housemates, that she realized it could be no one else. Emma Thompson, Appalachia house, taking her seat with everyone else. She was flabbergasted, no idea how this was happening, but she could already see Emma grinning at her from several tables over, and she felt immediately elated. Her best friend, at school with her, for absolute real. It couldn't get better than that.

Just the idea of Emma being a muggleborn witch, being able to go to school with her and experience the world with her, had been too much to hope for. Ruby hadn't even allowed herself to consider it. There had always been something special about Emma, but she had been sure she would only get let down if she kept hoping they could be together, especially after their goodbye in the summer, tinged with finality. She had been ready to attend school totally alone. But here Emma was, toally a member of the wrong house but here with her just the same, and Ruby couldn't have been happier. She must have gotten her letter in August, after Ruby had already gone home to Anaheim. Or had she been trying to surprise her? Had she known Ruby was different all along? She had no idea, and frankly didn't care.

Ruby felt loads better about lower academy with her best friend beside her, and even if Ruby didn't totally like the other friends Emma made on her own, mostly they weren't so bad, just goofy. Emma was fun and popular, and Ruby was right there with her the whole way. She even made a point of sitting at the Appalachia cafeteria a couple of nights a week, so Emma could tell her about her day over dinner. It was easy to make friends when Emma was her best friend, even if she kept most of them at a distance. Like when she had been growing up, Ruby's attitude was never most people's cup of tea, and a lot of people got offended at her off-handed comments and unwarranted criticism of others. She never did mean any harm by it, not really, but it didn't help her much in favor of being liked. Opening her big mouth was one of her hugest flaws. Having Emma was enough for her, no other friends really compared, so it was sort of irrelevant. No one else let her be herself so much, and being someone else had never been an option. If people didn't like her for how she was, rudeness and all, then that was their problem.

Dating was never a big part of Ruby's life at Blue Ridge, until she became a bit older. She focused mostly on studying to be top of the class and hanging out with Emma in her down time, rather than chasing boys. Or girls, which she had deduced she was also into, just after her thirteenth birthday. Mars seemed to like girls too, and Emma definitely liked girls, so Ruby had never seen the scandal in it. She never had a girlfriend of her own, though she detested most of the ones Emma had and brought around, but she had her own first serious boyfriend at fourteen. She had gone on dates before, dismissing most of the people she dated for silly trivial reasons like bad breath and ugly shirts, but it was immediately different this time. He was charming, a junior while she was still just a freshman, and he wanted her.

Perhaps, she realized too late, he wanted her a little too much. Emma was busy with her own girlfriend, one which Ruby really didn't like being around, so they were both kept at a small distance. It was easy to get lost in the bliss of the first few months of dating her new boyfriend. Things were good, albeit not perfect, but Ruby didn't really see reason to complain for once. Within three months, however, things had changed. She found herself fighting with her boyfriend almost constantly, verbal spars occurring every other day as he grew more and more tired of her running her mouth. But if he wasn't such an asshole, she decided, she wouldn't need to run her mouth at him. People 'in love' screaming at each other felt pretty standard to her, William and Joanne had been screaming at each other forever, probably long before she had even been born, so she didn't really question it. People fought, or so she convinced herself. She had spent the majority of their relationship fighting off his sexual advances, telling him time and time again that she wasn't ready for that kind of thing with him, and the argument was eventually the straw that broke the back in their relationship. After drinking too much at a summer party between her freshmen and sophomore year at school, Ruby allowed herself to be carried upstairs by her boyfriend, but she did the walk of shame downstairs alone the next morning.

She hadn't really wanted to sleep with him, she had made that pretty clear. But it had happened, and he was still her boyfriend, and the idea of going home and crying rape.. well, would her parents even take her seriously? It was sort of her fault, she decided, for letting it get that far, for getting drunk. She knew that was what everyone else would say, so there was no sense in arguing it. Disgusted with herself, and too scared to even tell Mars, Ruby went to the one place where she knew she wouldn't be judged, heading to Emma's house in Summerland. It only took her a matter of moments to explain to her friend what had happened, how sick she felt about it, how stupid. Emma was always one of the few people to ever see her cry, and that June afternoon was no exception. She cried harder than ever before, deciding that it was done, that she didn't need a boyfriend anyway. But things weren't really that simple. Her dad liked her boyfriend quite a bit, and appearances were always important. Emma still had her terrible girlfriend as well and if she just broke up with her boyfriend, who would she spend her time with?

That problem began to resolve itself, however, when classes resumed the following fall. She had spent her entire summer by the ocean again after the night of that party, not even leaving Emma's side until they needed to go and buy school supplies and things for September. But the wheels were already turning and, Ruby with her horrible boyfriend and Emma with her horrible girlfriend, were already falling for each other despite who they were with officially. Generally speaking, Ruby was completely against cheating, something that she hated about the marriage her mother and father had. Sleeping around on each other without any shame was just ridiculous. But her boyfriend probably did it to her anyway, she was almost sure of it. She doubted she was the only girl he had ever forced himself on. And Emma was.. Emma. She had already decided it was different, and once they had kissed for the first time that same summer, things couldn't be undone. She began her sophomore year dating her boyfriend, but her eyes were really for Emma all along. Every kiss, every touch, every time that she had to sleep with him, everything became better when she just thought of Emma instead. Her best friend, so much kinder and more perfect than her oaf of a boyfriend could ever dream to be. It was hard to be with him and only want her the entire time, but the convenience of being best friends came to help. She could escape and go spend time with Emma as much as she wanted without raising any suspicion. Especially with her boyfriend beginning his senior year, distracted by academics but more so by whether or not he'd make the house Quodpot team this year.

School remained run of the mill, studying and reading and forcing her way through kissing a boy that she really wasn't interested in anymore, a boy that she could barely stand after what he had done to her. Sneaking off with Emma made things easier, relieved some stress, but it wasn't enough. She hated sneaking around, hiding. She hated him, and she hated Emma's girlfriend just as much, had come close to beating the girl to a pulp numerous times after over-hearing how she spoke to Emma when they thought they were alone. But that wouldn't do any good to any of them, if she got suspended for beating up some girl or Emma got in trouble for messing with her boyfriend, and Ruby decided just after Christmas that things needed to be set right. She saw no reason to explain herself, but every reason to get out, when she told her boyfriend that they were breaking up for good. And that by the way, his car smelled like cheese and he needed to do laundry more often, if he expected to get a new girlfriend. Losing him was like a weight lifted off of her back, though she still felt on edge and incredibly weak after what he done to her, how he had taken advantage of her, but he was gone. Several rude words and some shouting later, he was gone, out of her life.

Things only improved further when Emma agreed to leave her girlfriend, with Ruby's help, and Ruby realized that the sneaking around, the shitty treatment for them was over. She could be a bitch, but she would never hurt Emma or put her down the way that other girl had, and she knew Emma felt the same for her. She couldn't even contain herself when they saw each other later that day, free of everything, and she found herself practically jumping into the blonde's arms, her girlfriend's arms.

Life at Blue Ridge after that quickly returned to normal, with Ruby studying hard and Emma slacking off right beside her. Even if the other girl can make Ruby herself act like quite a slacker, something she normally hates, she has never been as happy as she's been since dating Emma. Shortly after beginning dating Emma, Ruby recently found out over parents weekend about an older brother she never knew she had. Marney was the first to tell her about Leland, a product of her father's infidelity and irresponsibility. She isn't sure how she feels about him yet, but does want to get to know him. His little girl goes a long way in winning Ruby over, she really likes the idea of being an auntie, even if she isn't totally sure how to take care of kids or interact with them or whatever. He has to be hopefully less crazy than Mars, if nothing else, but she feels he is sort of off-putting with his bad attitude and rude exterior. Maybe a little similar Ruby herself, a fact that doesn't escape her entirely.

She's glad to have Emma with her, to help her deal with the situations in her family and relationships and to just generally deal with life. She wishes the girl would try a little harder with her education, but Ruby finds it rather irrelevant to everything else. Emma is selling herself short, and she does some things Ruby doesn't condone all of the time, but they have each other, and she has every intention of taking care of the other girl for as long as she can. Like Emma did for her on the day she came looking for last summer, and almost every day before that since she has met her best friend.