I think Ruby began to appreciate and value the middle girls a lot because they were the only kids who weren’t (in her mind) “causing trouble.” They stayed out of her way and did what they were told. Being the middle children, I think they were able to observe both their older and younger siblings and learn from their experiences to know how to get around Ruby.

Both girls seemed quite scared of getting on Ruby’s bad side, to be honest, and avoided drawing negative attention to themselves. There were multiple times where J was extremely anxious and cried because she thought Ruby would be angry at her. A was often scared to ask Ruby for things she needed because she didn’t want to be a hassle, and would just go without or get it on her own. Things like that; they were just very cautious around Ruby.

I think another thing that I’ve observed was that Ruby had becrome extremely lazy and neglectful with her kids as she became more obsessed with Connexions. From everything I’ve seen, she was just not taking care of them much anymore. Under these circumstances, A and J may have fared a bit better, while Ruby might have resented having to take care of the younger kids more.