Hello, hello! I hope everyone had a lovely mother's day! Mine ended up being kinda busy, so I couldn't get this out until today. This story is once again based off of my college experience, so hopefully y'all enjoy the shenanigans. Enjoy!
"Yeah, so I've got a question," came a rather loud voice from the back of the room.
400 heads swiveled around to look at the speaker, curious as to who would be so bold as to interrupt their professor who was in the middle of a tirade. Professor Jacques Schnee was known to go off on rather aggressive rants when it came to the ethics and legality of certain business practices, and when he began, everyone figured it would just be safer to shut up and pretend they didn't exist.
The girl who spoke however, a rather well-muscled blonde, seemed to not give a shit about her professor's anger.
Professor Schnee coughed into his hand, smoothing out the lines of his suit with the other. "And what might that question be, Miss…?" he nearly growled.
"Xiao Long, sir," she said promptly, though the drawl at the title made it clear she was only feigning respect.
"Very well, Miss Xiao Long. What is your question?"
"Why are you such an asshole?"
There was a brief moment of silence before the lecture hall erupted with everything from gasps of shock and horror to raucous laughter. Professor Schnee on the other hand looked like someone had spit in his face and then proceeded to piss on his floor. The vein that tended to bulge when he was angered had reached a new height; his face a shade of red that would make a tomato jealous.
He was absolutely livid.
The next thing Yang knew, she was sitting in the dean's office explaining why she'd "taken complete leave of her senses" as they had put it. The president, a spectacled man with a cane, seemed amused with her actions, but the dean herself, a similarly bespectacled woman, was far less than amused. If Yang had to put a name to the emotion the woman was emanating, it would probably be "pissed."
"What do you have to say for yourself, Miss Xiao Long?" Ms. Goodwitch asked, her eyes narrowed, promising a swift and brutal punishment should the answer be less than satisfactory.
Yang shrugged. "He was talking about slave labor as if it was a viable business practice. It didn't sit right with me, so I spoke up."
"Be that as it may," the president said, stepping in before Ms. Goodwitch could respond, "there are better ways to go about it than picking a fight in the middle of the lecture."
"He wouldn't have listened to me if I'd talked to him during his office hours. I figured it was the best way to get his attention," Yang said, shrugging again.
President Ozpin chuckled, taking a sip from the mug in his hand. "It certainly was effective. Still, I must advise you not to do so again, lest we be forced to put you under academic probation."
"As for your punishment," he said, trailing off and handing the reins back to Ms. Goodwitch.
"You'll be moved to a different lecture and you are to write a 5-page apology letter to him," the woman said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
"I'm not going to apologize for saying what everyone was thinking. Shouldn't he be in trouble for saying that stuff about slave labor?" Yang grunted, her arms folding defiantly.
"We've had several other students report the same issues and we are looking into it now. In the meantime, I suggest you swallow your pride and take the generous punishment President Ozpin decided on for you. If it were up to me, you'd already be on academic probation," Ms. Goodwitch said, her tone positively icy.
When Yang looked to President Ozpin, the man lowered his mug, fixing a gentle but stern gaze on her. "You had best do as she says."
Sensing that negotiations were off the table, Yang sighed and nodded. "Fine. I'll write the letter."
"Excellent. You are free to leave," the older man said, gliding over to the door and holding it open for her.
With a slight nod of her head, Yang left the room, shutting the door behind her and leaning against it. While she hated the thought of writing an apology letter to that prick of a professor, she'd actually gotten off pretty easily when she thought about it. When she'd spoken up, she had been prepared to be tossed out of the university without so much as a second glance; maybe the allegations and complaints filed against him had given her a bit of leeway.
The letter was still going to be a pain in the ass though.
Nobody said I had to be sincere about it.
She'd just make some shit up and run with it; no sense in giving herself a headache over it.
She sighed, pushing off of the dark wood of the dean's door and heading back to her dorm. While she walked, she swore she could hear people whispering around her, though she decided she was just being paranoid; news traveled fast at Beacon University, but not that fast.
When she arrived back at her room, she stormed in, slammed the door shut behind her, and flopped down on her bed; she was done for the day.
I'll deal with it tomorrow.
Despite what Yang had thought, news really did travel that fast. On her way to breakfast, she was followed by the whispers and poorly-concealed pointing of her fellow students. She was stopped by no less than 5 people on her way to classes asking her if she had really called Professor Schnee an asshole.
A quick, irritated phone call to Blake had told her that somebody had recorded the whole incident and posted it online. Naturally, the damn thing spread like wildfire.
Even worse, she began to get messages and phone calls constantly, including emails from some trashy "news" sites. She'd been forced to turn off her phone completely after the seventh call she'd gotten in the middle of a calculus lecture.
The whole incident had gone out of control, and a very small part of her almost wished she hadn't said anything, but she brushed the thought off. She'd do it again in a heartbeat; slave labor was never acceptable, and a bit of annoyance on her part was a small price to pay for sending the asshole on his way to getting fired.
The look on his face was a pretty good reward too.
"Have you written that apology letter yet?" Blake asked a few days later, curled up on her friend's bed with the latest book in some series she was reading.
Yang snorted. "Nope. They didn't give me a due date, so I'm gonna ignore it for a while."
Blake lowered her book just enough so her unamused amber eyes peeked over the top. "I dislike him as much as the next person, but you have to do it sometime, Yang. You know Goodwitch won't let you get away with not doing it."
"I know, I know. I just can't think of anything to say. Five pages of fake apologies is pretty hard to write," Yang said, twirling her pencil in her fingers. She'd stared at the same blank piece of paper for hours, willing herself to write something; anything, but nothing good had come to her. Every time she thought of something, she'd have to scrap it because it ended up sounding too sarcastic.
What a pain in the ass.
"Hello, Weiss! Have you seen the video that's going around?" Pyrrha Nikos said, taking a seat across from her ivory-haired friend, who looked up from her textbook briefly to grace her with a smile.
"You know I'm never in the loop for things like that. What is it?" Weiss said, setting her pencil down and stretching for a brief moment. She'd been in the library for a couple of hours, so now was as good of a time for a break as any.
The athlete shifted awkwardly in her seat before clearing her throat. "It actually… concerns your father."
Weiss sighed. "What's he done now?"
"That's the thing… He wasn't the one to do something. It was a girl in one of his lectures," Pyrrha said with a cough.
The certainly piqued the other girl's interest. "What happened? It's pretty rare for someone to do something to him."
Pyrrha looked even more uncomfortable now, her gaze locked on a particularly interesting spot on the floor. "The girl called him –pardon my language—an 'asshole,'"
There was a brief moment where nothing happened, before Weiss suddenly exploded into laughter, collapsing on top of her books and gasping for air.
Pyrrha blinked. She had expected anger rather than laughter, especially laughter that was causing tears to stream down Weiss's cheeks.
A librarian had come by to tell them to quiet down, but upon seeing Weiss Schnee, the most respectful patron in the library, laughing so hard she was nearly choking, she decided to leave them be. She'd likely quiet down soon, either by her own will or by lack of oxygen.
At the sight of the librarian, Pyrrha's brain jumpstarted into action again. "Um… Weiss? Are you alright?"
It took Weiss another minute to calm herself before she wiped her tears away.
"Show me the video."
Yang was on her way to class when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She'd been able to turn it back on after a few days now that the world wasn't intent on harassing her anymore.
She breathed an audible sigh of relief when she saw Pyrrha's name on the screen.
P: Are you busy at the moment?
Y: Omw 2 class. Y?
P: Can you meet me in front of the library for a moment? There's something I want to discuss.
Y: Can do. C u in 2 min
P: Thank you!
She locked the screen before veering off to her right to swing by the library. Despite what many people would have guessed, she actually did know where the library was. She hadn't been inside, but she knew where it was and that was enough.
As promised, Yang arrived in front of the library, though to her slight confusion, Pyrrha was nowhere to be found. She looked around the area a bit, but her exercise partner didn't appear. She went to pull out her phone, but a sharp, clear voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Are you Yang Xiao Long?"
Yang looked up from her phone to see a beautiful girl with snow-white hair and the bluest eyes she had ever seen standing before her, a scowl marring her features.
"I am," Yang nodded. "What's up? You need something?"
"My name is Weiss Schnee, and I'm the youngest daughter of Jacques Schnee."
Yang winced. Was the girl here to chew her out for what she said about her father? If that was the case, she'd apologize for offending the girl but stand firm in what she said; he definitely was an asshole.
To her surprise, the girl –much shorter than herself—stuck a hand out, prompted Yang to take it, then gave it a firm shake. "I wanted to thank you for what you said about my father. He really is an asshole."
"What?" Yang blurted, her mind unable to catch up with her mouth. "I must be going insane because it sounded like you just thanked me for insulting your dad."
Weiss huffed a laugh. "You're not going insane. I really did thank you for insulting him. He's condoned slave labor and other questionable business practices for longer than I've been alive, and I wanted to thank the person who finally called him out on what an ass he is for it."
"You're… welcome? I guess?" Yang said, not fully understanding what was happening.
"To properly thank you, I'd love to take you out to lunch. Are you busy at the moment?" Weiss said, a rather smug smirk on her face.
Technically, Yang had a class that started in five minutes, but that didn't matter to her when a beautiful girl was asking her out. "Nope. Where were you thinking of going?"
"I heard from Pyrrha that you like Romano's Pizza downtown. How does that sound?"
"You know Pyrrha?" Yang asked, unable to ignore her curiosity.
Weiss nodded. "We share several classes and we often study together. She was the one who showed me the video, actually." She readjusted her purse. "So is Romano's fine with you?"
I owe you one, Pyrrha.
"Totally," Yang cheered with a grin. She extended her arm out, giving an exaggerated bow. "After you, my lady."
With a giggle, Weiss took Yang's hand and headed off for downtown.
Even though she'd gotten punished with writing an apology letter, her honesty had managed to get her a date.
I guess honesty really is the best policy.
And that's the end! While there was no professor that condoned slavery as a business practice, a student at my university really did stand up and call a professor an asshole, though it was during biology. The professor was scolding us about something and I guess the dude got fed up with it. It made for some great material. I can't be the only one that thinks Yang would text like that. I just can't see her using full sentences. Hopefully it wasn't too annoying to read. Until next time~!