"There's that girl again…"
I did my best to be discreet about it, turning my head just slightly to the side as if I was thinking to myself or noticing something in the distance.
I took a quick glance out of the corner of my eye, and faced forward again as I ate my lunch.
She was staring at me. No doubt about it. The rabbit Faunus that sat two tables from mine.
For the past week, I'd been noticing her a lot lately. In class, in the hallways, in the lunchroom. You ever get that subconscious feeling to turn your head to a certain direction, only to find that someone has been staring at you? What was it called again…? Scopaesthesia, I think.
That was the feeling I'd been getting the past week, and everytime I turned to check who it was, it was always that Faunus girl. The one with the long brown hair, and big rabbit ears.
For the life of me, I couldn't figure out the reason why.
I had never met her before. I didn't think I had ever talked to her before either. I didn't believe she really had any reason to have an interest in me.
So why had she been staring at me for the past week?
Hm…
I wonder if I should try to get myself acquainted with her? It'd be nice, and rather easy as well. You know, if it weren't for the fact that she would freak out and try to hide from me whenever I so much as noticed her.
I took a risk and turned my head to look her way, wondering how she'd react.
I saw her ears stand up straight out of shock, before she faced towards her food tray and gorged her mouth full to try to act as casual as possible.
"Honestly, what gives?" I raised an eyebrow at her strange behavior.
Such a strange girl giving mixed signals.
"Whatever. Perhaps she'll just get bored and move on to staring at another person of interest in a few days or something." I muttered to myself, resuming to my lunch.
You'd think going to Beacon would mean that you'd be classmates with dedicated and hardworking professional students training to become the protectors of Remnant. Instead, you'd get to meet a rather substantial amount of strange and eccentric characters from around the world, each with their own quirks and qualities that set them out from the rest of the cast of unusual folk that go to this school.
Well, it would be hypocritical for me to judge. I was a pretty weird person myself.
Just… not "Beacon" weird.
What was Beacon weird, you must be asking? Well, I'd suppose I'd describe it as-
*BAM*
I was startled out of my thoughts when I heard a violent thud from a few tables away from me. I turned behind me to see Nora Valkyrie madly cackling as she stood with one foot on her table.
"AND THEN I SUPLEXED HIS GIGANTIC BUTT OUT THE WINDOW, AND HELD HIM DOWN UNTIL HE CALLED ME HIS UNCLE!"
"I had to force her off the poor man when the police officers finally arrived. We've been banned from that diner ever since." Lie Ren sighed next to her, looking as dull and lifeless as ever.
"But we ended up saving the day, and were paraded as heroes of justice to the citizens of Vale!" The ginger girl cheered as she finished recounting whatever fabricated story she had made to her friends.
"We ended up causing thousands of dollars in property damage, and had to be locked up in a holding cell for the rest of the night. I still, to this day, cannot figure out why no one has filed a lawsuit against us despite all that we've done." The Eastern boy corrected the delusions that his partner spouted.
"WEWEREAWESOEM!"
…
That was Beacon weird. That right there basically summed up whatever explanation I could have provided. In fact, you could say that the entire group of people sitting at that table was the prime example of Beacon weird.
The notorious team RWBYJNPR.
That wasn't actually their official team name. It was just a nickname combination, made from the names of team RWBY and JNPR. But since those two teams were constantly seen mingling with each other, it may as well be their names at this point.
Team RWBY… I've always had my eyes on the four people of this group during my time here...
Their team consisted of the following;
First, Ruby Rose. A rather famous student here, known for three things amongst the student body: the fact that she uses a unique and deadly hybrid weapon that acted as both a scythe and a long range sniper rifle, the fact that she was the leader of the top ranking Freshman team with the highest win rate in duels and team battles out of all the other first year teams combined, and the fact that she was only fifteen years old. That's right. She had managed to skip two entire years of her education and was able to attend Beacon, the most prestigious academy in the kingdom of Vale, at the age of fifteen. If that didn't showcase how much of a prodigy she was, I had no clue what else would.
Was it wrong to be attracted to someone of her age, if you were already seventeen? Who knows? Many have certainly tried to find out, only to be led to the infirmary rooms after dealing with her protective older sister. You'd never see the resemblance just by looking at those two together...
Second, Weiss Schnee. No, the name Schnee was not a coincidence. The cold ice queen, the teacher's pet, the Dust princess herself. She was the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. Rich, powerful, famous, her fencing skills were second to none, and her knowledge and manipulation of Dust surpassed all and any. Many men had tried to woo her in attempts to gain her interest. All had failed miserably and terribly.
There were still some desperate stragglers who never took the hint, determined to do whatever was necessary to win her heart. No matter who though, she knocked them down mercilessly with humiliation. Yet this did nothing to deter her suitors from their goal of winning her hand. To be quite honest, I felt that I could understand their dedication. Weiss Schnee was as beautiful as she was cold.
Third, Blake Belladonna. Mysterious was a word that comes to mind when you look at her. She was the quiet one of the group, and you never saw her without her nose in a book except when attending class or duking it out in the arena. No one knew much about her, as she never attended any combat schools in Vale prior to Beacon, so nobody knew where she came from. There have been tons of rumours floating around her. Rumours such as how she was a secret government agent, sent to keep watch of the students and look out for suspicious insiders. Or how she was a young ninja from an ancient ninja clan whose history was lost to time, and she came here to acquire more knowledge of the outside world to pass on when she returns to her ninja clan.
Far-fetched and exaggerated rumours aside, her mysterious nature didn't do anything at all to detract from her mystique. If anything, more men were attracted to her because of how mysterious she was. Didn't hurt that she was quite the attractive one to boot.
Fourth, Yang Xiao Long. The wild party animal and flirtatious tease that'd been in the minds of all who were even remotely attracted to the female form. She was outgoing, rambunctious, and she loved to pull and pluck the heartstrings of all the guys who adored her. But take heed, those who wish to have her, for she was not to be taken lightly. She would absolutely, if you may pardon my French here, fuck you up if you ever do something to piss her off. Fiercely loyal to her friends, and overly protective of her younger sister, Ruby Rose, should you do anything that causes you to get on her bad side, she would teach you the meaning of brutality from the end of both her fists. If you ever see her light up in flames, and her normal lilac eyes shining bright red…run.
But God, did she have the most heavenly body ever known to all of mankind. She knew it too, and fully used it to her advantage. Play your cards right, and you might end up coming to believe all of the cons that come with her will be well worth it. But she'd always have the better hand. She always does.
These four girls made up the legendary team RWBY. The most popular team of first years in Beacon, for good reason.
Top rankings.
Exceptionally skilled.
And also incredibly beautiful. Dear Monty Oum, were they beautiful.
I wasn't ashamed to admit that I had a slight infatuation for all of these girls. It might be a bit shallow of me, sure, since I was originally interested in them based on their looks. But I genuinely did want to get to know more about them. I wanted to get close to them somehow. Be a part of their clique. Become their friends.
Maybe, if I was to be lucky enough, actually fall in love with one of them.
…
But perhaps not... Heh, really, what was I thinking? An average person like me, trying to reach for the unattainable? I wasn't the most attractive man in Beacon. There wasn't anything unique or cool about me. I was actually quite shoddy at best when it came to dueling against another person.
No. I could never stand out amongst the crowd long enough for them to notice me. It would be unrealistic to think so. Even if I did, what then? Would that even be enough to get at least one of them interested in me? The answer was: most likely not.
If I could put it as an analogy, I'd probably compare it as if…
I was a faceless observer, reading an interesting collection of stories about others. I could read as many as I could possibly want, and admire the characters in these stories. But no matter what I tried, I would never be able to directly influence anything or interact with those I wished to meet. For I was just the faceless observer from the outside.
Or perhaps something equally as inane as that. Hmhmhm.
"Ow! Stop it!"
I was brought out of my thoughts once again, this time due to the cry of a distressed girl nearby.
I looked over to the source of the disturbance, surprised to find that it came from none other than the rabbit Faunus that has been staring at me these past few days.
She was currently being harassed by a group of men. Team CRDL, if I recalled. Hm, yes, this wasn't the first time this had happened. I distinctly remembered these guys picking on this very same Faunus girl a month ago, just as they were today.
"What is your problem?!" The girl screamed, tenderly holding her rabbit ears to avoid the bullies from pulling on it any further.
"Our problem? What's your problem?" The leader of the team chuckled with a smug grin, "All I've been doing is asking you how you've been, and all you've done was give me the cold shoulder. Ignoring someone when they're talking to you is considered rude, you know that?"
"You didn't have to pull my ears, though!"
The redhead leader dropped his pretentious smile, and directed a rather intimidating look at her in response, "Since when did you start learning to back-talk?"
Sheesh, such hostile behavior. What did the poor girl do to him to deserve this kind of treatment?
Hm…you know what? Perhaps I could use this to my advantage. If I were to help her out, I might finally figure out the reason she's been staring at me for the past week. At least, I would hope so. Surely, she'd be appreciative enough of my efforts to at least stop trying to run away from me whenever I got near her.
That settles it then, I was going to try to help this girl out.
Shouldn't be too difficult. All I had to do was ask them politely to leave the girl alone, and add in a few threats to alert a teacher in order to settle the matter if they didn't cease their misdemeanor.
I stood up from my seat and proceeded to walk over to the table where the Faunus girl sat. Then, I called for their attention. "Ahem, pardon me?"
Both of them turned their heads towards me, and each gave opposite reactions. The redhead gave me a confused, yet rather annoyed glare, as if I was the one who was disturbing his lunch instead of the other way around. The Faunus girl, however, became wide-eyed when she saw me. Her face glowed a pinkish hue, and she stopped her motions entirely like she was frozen in place.
"What the hell do you want?" The redhead asked in a gruff tone of voice.
I responded politely, "I'd rather much appreciate it if you and your team could please stop antagonizing this girl. I'm sure whatever she's done to provoke your ire, she clearly didn't mean to, and would only like to be left alone in peace."
He scoffed at my request, "And what are you, some sort of animal lover?"
Is that the reason why these guys were ganging up on her? Simply because of her Faunus heritage?
Ugh. Even in a prestigious school like this, there were still those that bully others for even the pettiest of reasons.
The redhead stepped towards me until he was directly in front of my face. "This isn't any of your business. I think you should leave us alone and go back to your seat."
"Very sound advice you have given me. Would you care to follow your own words as well? This would end up much easier on all of us."
"Don't tell me what to do." He spoke with a glare that could shoot daggers at me if it were physically possible.
I didn't let up though, adding an edge in my tone of voice, "I don't think you quite understand me, colleague. Bullying and harassment is a violation under the academy's rules. If you continue the path you're going, I will be forced to do my duty and alert a teacher to help settle the matter here."
"Are you threatening me?"
"I'm not the one making threats, boy." I crossed my arms and sternly stared him down. "If you do not return to your seats and leave this girl alone, there is a guaranteed chance that I will call for a teacher to swiftly deal with you. That is not so much a threat, but rather a simple fact."
Now I only needed to continue eye contact for a few more moments, before he would finally cave in and go away. Elementary.
No matter what school you're in, all bullies are the same. You just had to learn how to properly deal with them, not with violence, but with words.
At least, that was what I had believed a few moments ago before I felt myself being lifted into the air by my collar.
"Oh dear."
Raising a fist back, he spoke through gritted teeth, "This is the wrong day to piss me off, pal."
Ah yes, I must have forgotten to consider one very simple fact about him that I should have realized sooner.
He was a student in Beacon. In Beacon, everyone was Beacon weird.
I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the behemoth of a fist coming.
"NO, DON'T HURT HIM!"
Curious. The Faunus girl seemed to care for my well-being. Another subject to question her about, later when I had the cha-
*POW*
Ooh, this guy had a truck of a right hook. What in the world did this man eat? Metal bars for breakfast, and a bowl of nails without any milk?
Well that's strange. For some reason, I appear to be flying. I wonder how that managed to hap-
*THUD*
...ow.
I steadily pushed myself up, realizing that my face had landed in someone's pancakes. I looked up to see the surprised face of Ruby Rose.
Oh my, I must have been thrown across the room and landed right on top of team RWBYJNPR's table. This was quite embarrassing. I hoped this didn't sully my first impression for them. Although, considering the looks they were giving, I wouldn't be shocked if they thought lesser of me at this point.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to get my posterior off of their dining table, as it was getting in the way of their precious lunch.
I dragged myself off of the table and onto my feet. I wobbled a bit, losing my sense of gravity for a brief moment, before stabilizing myself upright. Dusting myself off, I faced back to the group and humbly bowed, "Pardon me." Then I went back to finish the business that I started.
I should try to utilize this to my advantage, somehow. Perhaps I could bluff him into intimidation? Have him think that his punches had no effect on me?
I did my best to walk in a straight line towards the bully, but I wasn't quite sure if I was accomplishing that optimally. "I expected better from such a man as large and muscle-bounded as yourself. That was nothing more than a pathetic whimper of a punch! As you can plainly see, I am completely unaffected-" I had to pause, as I nearly tripped in front of my own foot. Steadying myself again, I continued, "-unaffected despite the teardrop amount of weight you attempted to pull in your-"
This room has gotten quite wobbly since I've started walking, hasn't it? Was that just me?
Oh dear, I was starting to get a bit dizzy.
I fell onto my knees and held my mouth shut, doing my best to quell my stomach from emptying its contents onto the floor. I would much prefer if I didn't have to do something so adolescent in front of an audience of my peers.
I felt something kick me back, before my head collided against the floor of the lunchroom. The collision was definitely not helping me with my already possible concussion.
The redhead looked down on me, his head blocking out most of the lights on the ceiling. He didn't look too pleased with me. I wondered if it was possible to back off now, in order to prevent myself from any further injuries? "Would you forgive me if I explained that everything I've just said was a simple joke?" I weakly laughed, hoping that he took pity on my current state of health.
Assuming that the foot he was raising above me was not a peaceful declaration of friendship, most likely not.
"Quite the unlucky turn of events I ended up with." I muttered to myself. How did I even get myself into this situation in the first place?
I paused from my thoughts for a moment when I came across a peculiar sight.
Red rose petals fluttering in the wind around me, majestically falling with the grace of nature.
"HYAH!"
Have you ever had that moment in your life when you witness something so beautiful, the universe seems to slow itself down to a halt out of the kindness of its heart, just to allow you a moment to bask in the sight?
The beauty that I bore witness to took form of an image. An image of an adorable cartoon dog attached to the red panties of my savior.
May this sight be burned into my brain for the rest of my life, for I know I shall never witness something like it ever again.
The bully clutched his forehead as he stumbled back, shouting from the pain.
I could honestly say that I was not expecting Ruby Rose of team RWBY to come to my aid. Much less flinging herself to roundhouse kick the crap out of the bully's face like that. It was quite a sight to behold.
"That's enough, Cardin! You've gone too far this time!" The red reaper commanded, standing protectively in front of me with her arms out. "I don't know what your problem is today, but you better quit it right now!"
Cardin, as I've learned his name from Ruby, shook his head clear and was absolutely frothing at the mouth. "Don't get in my way, short stack!" He practically growled at her, looking as if he was ready to go rabid at any second.
But Ruby didn't even flinch, defiantly glaring back at Cardin while still using her body to shield me.
And she wasn't going to be alone.
From behind, the rest of her friends came up to stand beside her, in order to form a protective half circle in front of me.
"I was going to stay uninvolved, but that was before you threw a student at our table and caused a complete mess. You made me spill mustard on my clothes, and that itself is unforgivable." Weiss Schnee flung her hair nonchalantly, crossing her arms and tilting her head to the side.
"All this person did was politely ask you to stop bothering Velvet. If you really thought that warrants assaulting him, then you better think twice." Blake Belladonna stood by with an arm raised to her hip.
"Yeah, you jerk! You've been annoying before, but this is just taking the cake. I won't hold back from beating your face in anymore if you keep hurting other people like this!" Yang Xiao Long slammed her fists together with dramatic flair.
"This is unacceptable behavior, Cardin. You've gone much too far this time for this to be ignored. Leave them alone, right now." Pyrrha Nikos said in a mature and authoritative voice, standing guard right next to Ruby.
"But if you don't want to, then that's totally super okay! That just means we now have a valid excuse to BREAK YOUR LEGS! So go ahead, try your luck and make my day…" Nora Valkyrie giggled mischievously, acting none too unusual to how she normally behaved.
Lie Ren said absolutely nothing, but did it in a totally serious manner.
And lastly, J-... J-Jaaww? Jack? You know, the other blonde one of the group. He was the leader of JNPR and… Um… never really did anything significant? No wait, give me a moment… Gah, I swear, it was on the tip of my tongue just a second ago- Ahah! I remember now!
And lastly, John Ark. Uh, no comment about him as of yet.
With all eight people of team RWBYJNPR standing up for me, Cardin began having second thoughts and decided to silently back off, leaving me alone.
...
Was what I wanted to say. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what had gotten the man to become so livid, as he was actually getting angrier from seeing RWBYJNPR standing up to him. Like, he was shaking to the core, breathing erratically and actually starting to glow red with rage.
Everybody in the world has an off switch for certain situations that call for it. Yes, even Nora was not excluded from this fact. They stop when they realize they've gone too far, or when something more important pops up.
Cardin's off button was currently on the fritz.
It was unnatural, psychotic even. His actions were basically controlled by pure emotions now instead of any rational thought. It was like his mind was broken, and now he couldn't help but get more and more frustrated as he came across more tiny nuisances in his path.
Everyone was starting to get on edge when they realized that Cardin wasn't calming down in the slightest. Even his own teammates looked ready to hightail it out of here at a moment's notice.
Thankfully, the situation didn't escalate any further as a Professor of the academy had announced their arrival to the scene.
"Everyone, stand down immediately!"
Like breaking the trance of a spell, Cardin came to his senses and stepped back when he heard the stern voice of Glynda Goodwitch.
Professor Goodwitch was the deputy of the Headmaster, as well the combat teacher of the school. The strictest of all strict, she has seemingly no sense of humor and was a force to be reckoned with. Do not dare to defy her or be insubordinate to her authority, for she will make your life a living hell during your time in Beacon.
An important note, if you had any dreams or fantasies that involved romancing the dear Professor, squash those delusions out of your head as soon as you possibly could, for nothing awaits you other than the dead end of heartache. You would not believe the amount of "charming" boys who tried to seduce her, thinking their charismatic nature and good looks would guarantee success, only to find themselves at the end of her crop and terrible terrible nightmares of whatever she forced you to go through after.
She had no time for boys, and no time for men. Work came first, and any who tried to throw a wrench in that gets disciplinary action.
Marching straight up to Cardin, she menacingly pushed her glasses up before speaking in a clear voice, "Cardin Winchester, I must ask that you come with me to my office for a chat."
Cardin began stuttering, hoping to come up with some sort of valid excuse to explain his actions before the Professor raised her hand to silence him.
"Whatever it is you wish to explain, do so at my office. You are on thin ice as it is, Winchester, so do not test my patience." She stepped aside to allow the man to exit the lunchroom first, pointing towards the door. "Move."
Cardin began to wordlessly walk out of the room, all traces of his previous anger having disappeared as if it never existed in the first place. The Professor followed him right after, leaving the entire lunchroom in silence.
"Geez, something must have crawled up his butt and died." Nora tactlessly commented, disregarding whatever atmosphere had existed beforehand.
Just like that, everything went back to normal. Students went back to their lunch, gossiping about rumours and talking about their favorite topics.
I sighed in relief, glad for that hell to be over and done with. Today had been a rather stressful day for me.
I was about to get up from the floor, as I had been lying there since the start of the entire event, before being surprised to see a hand reaching out for me.
With an innocent and yet adorable smile, Ruby Rose calmly asked me, "Can you stand?"
Speechless of the spectacle, I could only nod aimlessly as I grabbed hold of her hand and pulled myself up to my feet.
I found it hard to believe that I was making contact with Ruby Rose herself. Touching her hand, even. In my pessimistic mind, I was sure that I would never be able to stand out long enough for any of the girls in team RWBY to notice me. And yet here I was, briefly holding their leader's hand. I couldn't help but feel like an anxious, adolescent child.
"Are you alright? Your head isn't injured, is it?" She asked me with a warm expression.
I nodded again, realizing that I was being rude for not acknowledging how grateful I was to her and her friends for the help they provided me.
So, I proceeded to transition it out smoothly and spoke the first thing in my mind. "You guys are so cool. Like, you're really, really cool."
Ruby blinked, not expecting the sudden compliment. She humbly scratched the back of her neck and said, "Oh, uh, thanks! I mean, we didn't really do that much, but I appreciate the-"
"Would you like to go out for coffee sometimes?"
She paused, taking the time needed to process what I just asked her. When she finally comprehended my words, she blushed a bit and stammered, "W-wait, what? You mean, like, uh-a date?!"
"I'm sorry, did I make that sound too forward?" I rewinded my steps to see where I went wrong, before figuring out the problem and clarifying, "Let me rephrase that. I wish to become friends with you people, as I have been fairly interested in you and your group for quite some time. I would like to get to know you all better, and find out if we have similar interests over certain topics that we can share."
"Oohh," Ruby calmed down, finally understanding what I meant. "Well if you put it like that, then sure! I don't mind!"
"Fantastic! So should I kindly arrange a date for us then?"
For some odd reason, she went back to stammering and blushing again, "W-What?!"
She was pulled aside before she could answer properly however, by none other than her older sister. "Nice try Fancy Boy, but you can't pull a fast one on me like that. My sister is off limits." Yang moved in between us, flashing me a carefree smile that was secretly hiding less-than-pure intentions underneath. "No boy is allowed to date her until she's in her twenties, and even then, you'd have to go through me and my dad to even come anywhere near her."
"Yang! Stop trying to scare him like that, it's embarrassing!" Ruby indignantly shouted behind her, doing her best to pummel her sister with her fists but having absolutely no effect whatsoever.
I looked towards the other two members of team RWBY to see how they reacted.
Weiss put her hands up, "Don't look at me. I personally don't really care whether you want to join our group or not."
Blake silently shrugged, before going back to the book she was previously reading, not even giving me a second glance.
I inwardly sighed, doing my best not to look downtrodden from their answers. It appeared that this event might be a one time deal after all. I was nothing more than a random classmate that was in need of rescue from a bully.
A pity, and I had gotten my hopes up too.
In the end, I should have realized this was the most realistic outcome. What was so special about me anyway? Until I could reach their ranks, I'd most likely never stand out enough for them to notice me.
"I see… Well, it's understandable." I politely bowed to them once more, "I am forever grateful for your assistance. Please, forgive my intrusion of your lunch. I will return back to my own table now, so may you all have a pleasant rest of the day."
Whether it was because I was too quiet, or because the tumbling between the two sisters had escalated enough to grab the attention of everyone else, my words had passed through unnoticed.
…
I took my leave, knowing my presence wasn't needed anymore.
Throughout this whole debacle, I had somehow managed to forget the entire reason for why I stood up to Cardin in the first place.
So I sat there by my lonesome self, finishing my lunch, and too depressed to realize that the Faunus girl I had originally wanted to talk to was staring sadly at me from two tables away.
Turning her head over to look at the cartoonish dust cloud forming over at team RWBYJNPR's table, that was when she had a bright idea pop up in her noggin.
Remember that analogy I made earlier, about how I felt like a faceless observer reading a collection of stories that I could enjoy as much as I wanted, but would never have any power to influence the direction of where the stories will go?
It appears that I'll soon come to realize I've somehow stumbled upon my own story. This time, it was for me to guide, and for me alone.
Romance. Humor. Lust.
