Ruby Fry joined Waterloo Road as a teacher of Food Technology, when the school merged with John Fosters. Whilst Ruby showed she was passionate about food and cooking she was also quick to demonstrate her snobbery by looking down her nose at Waterloo Road pupils and staff alike.
Ruby was introduced at the start of Series 5 as a disgruntled and snobbish former John Fosters teacher who looked down upon the students and staff of Waterloo Road. She was a cheerleader of Executive Head Max Tyler in the staff room, often fighting with the likes of Tom Clarkson and Steph Haydock when they complained about his approach to leading the school. She was disgusted when the staff began a petition against Max and was fiercely loyal to him and the other John Fosters teachers, especially Helen Hopewell, but when it was revealed that Max physically assaulted Philip Ryan she washed her hands clean of him like the rest of the school.
In Series 5 Episode 5, Ruby is shown to be returning home after forgetting some ingredients for her meal that she is preparing for the parents day visits of both the Waterloo Road and John Fosters Parents. Arriving home, the Frys' house is on one of the most expensive yet beautiful estates in Rochdale. Arriving home in a Taxi, she finds her husband John's car in the driveway. Unknown to Ruby, the family business had gone into receivership two weeks prior after the market collapsed. At the sound of the doorbell, and her husband being home from work earlier, Mrs Fry put two and two together and came out with six. In shock, Ruby opens the door to what she thinks is John's mistress, but is in fact the bailiffs.
Throughout Series 5 Ruby really struggles to keep on the good side of Rachel Mason including making a move on Rachel's new fiancé Adam, as all her projects seem to go down the pan somehow. In the penultimate episode of the series, she spitefully destroys Adam and Rachel's wedding cake, which was intended for Rachel as a surprise. Amy Porter and Finn Sharkey are initially blamed. She is also on the 'pills' during Series 5 and her husband John files for divorce during this series. She also struggles with money issues, working briefly as a taxi driver to make ends meet until Steph and Jo Lipsett discovered her. In Series 6 Ruby warmed to the school and even brash secretary Janeece Bryant when she was in the process of adopting Janeece's unborn child. After Cheryl was born, Janeece changed her mind and whilst Ruby respected her wishes she took the loss hard. In Series 6 Episode 9 after witnessing Grantly Budgen's constant struggling to keep up with his work while taking care of his wife Fleur who had early-onset Alzheimer's, she convinced him (with the help of Steph, whom she called back to Waterloo Road) to put Fleur in a care home. She also stopped Grantly from being suspended for teaching the wrong A-level course by revealing Grantly's struggles to Karen Fisher after he had refused to inform anyone about his worries at home.
In the second half of Series 6 Ruby began growing closer to Grantly, helping him get back on his feet after putting Fleur in the home and making him meals to try to get him to take better care of himself. They began a book exchange with Ruby trying to get Grantly interested in contemporary novels while Grantly wanted her to appreciate the old classics, and they both discovered they enjoyed them. They also frequently went to theatre and ate lunch together, which caused Janeece to suspect they were having an affair which Ruby quickly dismissed as a rumour. In Series 6 Episode 14 pupils and staff alike turned on her when her expressing her views that Polish caretaker Lukas Wisniewski was 'stealing' work from the British resulted in Lukas facing a racist hate campaign led by Kyle Stack. She eventually apologised but initially didn't think her views were a problem, even after Adanna Lawal and Francesca Montoya complained to her about it.
Ruby resigned in Series 6 Episode 20, after publishing a book that received some positive attention. She dedicated the book to Grantly.
Trivia
- Ruby's food-tech classroom isn't featured much on the show since her departure, apart from a few scenes in Series 7 Episode 14, and later in Episode 19 and Episode 28, however in the latter episode these scenes only took place in the store cupboard of the classroom.
- Oddly enough her name was still on the door of the classroom despite her no longer working at the school.
- Ruby was the only former John Fosters staff member other than Chris Mead that continued working at Waterloo Road after Series 5.
Quotes
- "It's a health risk." (first line)
- Ruby: "Welcome?! I don't know about you, I'm wishing the term away already!"
- Steph: "Is she always this menopausal?"
- Chris: "Yes."
- Ruby: "She practically had Grantly in tears with her flute solo!"
- Chris: "What did she do, poke you in the eye with it?"
- "How do you expect me to be, John? Hurray! You've thrown it all away!"
- John: "Would you actually have preferred it if I had been having an affair, is that it?!"
- Ruby: "At least we could've got through that, John, and got back to normal! Because now I've got no choice whether I work in this dump or not! I'm trapped here, like the rest of them!"
- Ruby: "You know, and, my wages, they are spent even before I've earned them, I just don't know how I'm expected to cope."
- Steph: "Why don't you just stop being daft and go to the doctor?"
- Ruby: "Because I don't believe in pills!"
- "What were you doing? Was it some sort of swine liberation front?!"
- "Get to the cooler NOW!"
- "When you're quite ready!"
- Rachel: "You organised a school event so you could make money from the kids."
- Ruby: "No! No, it wasn't like that! I didn't even have the idea unt..."
- "It didn't-it didn't really work out as I'd planned with John, and he's kicked me out. I didn't wanna-I didn't wanna spoil your night, but I didn't know what else to do."
- "You...you've just been so lovely to me. No, you have. Just...everything you've...you've done, and...you know, what with the tablets, you've just been such a support to me. Thank you so much, I just think you're brilliant." (before trying to kiss Adam)
- Ruby: "You are so flamin' smug! You swan around here with your fiancé - hey, he's not so perfect. Did he tell you about all the times he covered for me?!"
- Rachel: "I will not discuss this here, Ruby."
- Ruby: "It was me who caused the fire in the kitchen, and he covered all of that up, even if it meant lying to you, and he's known about the pills, Rachel, for weeks!"
- "Okay. How about you enter this in your little log book - it is none of your business, okay? Or I will report you for invasion of privacy."
- "It isn't about what you need or Janeece needs, it's about what Cheryl needs. And she needs her mum."
- Charlie: "Hi, can I have a quick word with Harry, please?"
- Ruby: "Yes. Harry, go on. Leave your balls there."
- "I'd like to see you try to convince a room full of testosterone to bake a Queen's pudding."
- "I think you'll find my ovens are a little more sophisticated than the ones they have in Poland."
- Adanna: "You don't think Mr Wisniewski should work here because he's Polish."
- Ruby: "No, not cos he's Polish, because he's not British."
- "No, Grantly. In books, as in life, more is more."
- "Well, thankfully, some of us no longer have to put up with insipid classroom politics, because...as of this morning, I became a fully published author. I'm gonna hand in my notice, and I'm gonna pursue my new career!"
- "Yeah, well, you're not gonna get rid of me just yet, are you, you old bugger? I'm gonna need some help with all those sequels I've got to write." (final line)