After dinner and washing dishes everyone settled into the living room. It had become their little ritual—after meals, they all gathered together with books or notebooks, ready to learn something new from Ruby. The rain outside tapped lightly on the windows, and the warm yellow glow of the lights made the room feel extra peaceful.
Julian was already placing a cushion on the floor to sit properly with his notebook. Adrian had his favorite pen ready, silently flipping through the pages of a book on economics Ruby had given him last week. Milo, sitting cross-legged on the rug, had a sketchbook half full of doodles and pretty lettering, and his fingers were already stained with ink. Karl, as usual, was last to sit—flopping beside Ruby with a yawn and stretching like a lazy cat.
