As the top lady and deputy head lady of their sixth type, Ruby Fuller and Jessie Ross joked that they might take the highest two roles in Downing Avenue in years to return.“We at all times stated one another can be higher at being prime minister,” says Jessie. “‘No, you go on, I’ll be deputy.’” They met in maths class at Constitution Faculty North Dulwich aged 13, and have become finest buddies. They sang Taylor Swift collectively, they made one another cry with laughter, they had been self-proclaimed “nerds”. It was a friendship marked by love, with all of the depth of adolescence.When Ruby turned sick with a uncommon blood most cancers aged 17, their relationship endured and deepened. They performed board video games in hospital and gossiped about college in between remedies. Ten months later, on Might 15 2020, Ruby died. Nearly three years later, Jessie, now 22, is making an attempt to articulate the loss she nonetheless carries. “It was an earth-shattering shock when she was identified. “If you’re shut with somebody, your relationship is one thing you carry collectively, and after they die you proceed to hold it on by your self, otherwise. Individuals suppose that you simply may transfer on from grief, however you’ll be able to’t – you be taught to stay with it.” We’re within the brilliant, heat kitchen of the household residence the place Ruby grew up, and Ruby’s mom, Emma Jones, can also be on the kitchen desk with Jessie. Photos of Ruby – alongside along with her youthful sister, Tabitha – are hung across the room, and caught by magnets to the fridge.Captured in her adolescence, she has clear, clean options, and an inquiring, barely quizzical expression.