Lie Ren of team JNPR awoke early this morning to go to the supermarket. The refrigerator was almost empty, and it was his turn to do the shopping. The night before, his teammates made a list of things to buy, as well as placed their money into a jar for young to use to purchase what was needed. The jar sat on a table at the end of the room, right next to the bathroom.

Ren looked to his left and saw the alarm clock by his bed. "3:53 am" the alarm clock read. The alarm was set to go off at 4:00 that morning. Ren sighed in relief that he awoke early, as the alarm might have awoken his teammates, and he did not want to make them angry by disturbing their peaceful sleep. So he quietly turned his alarm off as he crept out of bed, trying to make as little noise as possible as he moved to his closet.

The closet was filled with numerous clothes and other such attire, including an apron, a full-body bathing suit, and suit reserved for formal occasions. The last time he wore this suit was when he went to a dance with his friends. Jaune, his team leader, left the dance early and returned in a dress. Ren chuckled silently to himself as he remembered that night.

He grabbed his clothes for the day and headed for the bathroom. As he entered, he set the clothes by the sink before facing the laundry hamper and undressing, discarding the old clothes into the hamper before stepping into the shower. As he was showering, he was unaware that he grabbed the honey-scented shampoo that his childhood friend, Nora, always uses. She claims it helps bring sloths to her, though this claim had yet to be proven.

Upon finishing in the shower by washing away the suds and turning the shower knob to off, Ren dried himself off, put on deodorant, and got dressed. He then proceeded to brush his teeth. He scrubbed and scrubbed, front and back, until his smile was as white as pearly milk, although he rarely smiles so widely. As he walked out, he looked over his team.

Jaune, their "fearless" leader was sleeping contently in his blue onesie with a white rabbit on the front. Pyrrha slept on her side and tightly gripped her pillow. Ren had a few ideas as to why, but he kept them to himself. Nora, his best friend since their childhood, snored as loudly as ever. Ren knew that this was the most delicate situation to be in. Nora was dreaming about being an extremely light sleeper bear right now, and if woken up, she could and most likely would destroy the entire room in her half-sleep state of mind. So Ren crept quietly to the Lien for the day on the nightstand and made his way out the door silently.

Ren made his way down the halls and to the elevators. He could have taken the stairs, but he might have run into someone and he was not in a social mood today. He simply wanted to get in and get out of the store as quickly as possible. With the ring of a bell, the elevators doors opened to an occupant already inside. Inside was an older girl with chestnut brown bunny ears sprouting from her chestnut brown hair, someone Ren recognized as Velvet Scarletina, a second year student at Beacon academy.

"Hello." Velvet said softly.

Not wanting to be rude, Ren replied.

"Hello."

"Um, going down?" she asked, showing total lack of confidence.

Ren simply nodded and entered the elevator. It was cozy, in its' own way. The room was entirely gray, with only a dark brown for the floor to add a splash of color. Everything else was some form of gray. Chrome handlebars, silver walls, and an iron-alloy ceiling made up the room. The buttons were black numbers on a white background. Ren noticed that the star button was already pressed. Velvet was also heading toward the lobby.

Ren, for whatever reason he couldn't find decided to engage in small talk. Since this was Velvet, the only reason that made logical sense to him was to make the trip faster. Ren was more of a listener than a talker, but that didn't mean he couldn't strike up a conversation. So, stuck up.

"How have you been?" Ren asked with sincerity, but he was not prepared for what happened next.

"Oh, this past week has been just the worst!" Velvet sobbed out to the lad. "First, Cardin, that big bully, pulls on my ears for no reason again, and when I went to my team leader about it, she just said, "Velv, you need to stand up for yourself"-!" Ren took a moment to pause at how accurate Velvet's impersonation of her fashionista leader was. It wasn't, not even close. "Then I lost Yatsuhashi's stress ball when I borrowed it and now I can't find it anywhere. I took my eyes off of it for three whole minutes to make a wish in the school fountain, only for Fox to sneak up behind me and point out that the fountain wasn't meant for making wishes and that I should make my wishes come true on my own, but I don't know how!" Velvet stopped to take a very deep breath, making Ren question his decision of getting out of bed this morning. He could have sent someone else to pick up the groceries. Perhaps he could have coaxed Nora with the promise of sloth-shaped pancakes. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Velvet began again.

"So now Yatsuhashi wants his stress ball back today and I'm leaving early to go buy a replacement at the market before we see each other again, and I'm worried that everything will just go wrong!" She sobbed harder than before. She then sniffed and look at Ren with teary eyes. "So," she began, "how have you been?"

Ren was silent for a few moments before answering.

"I've been better."

The elevator door slowly opened and Velvet took off like a bullet towards the Bullheads, rapidly squeaking "I'm sorry to hear that" to Ren as she sped past him. Ren merely stood dumbstruck. He looked up at the clock tower across the courtyard and saw the current time. The massive tower of stone and gears read the time with big metal hands on its glass face.

"4:15," Ren repeated to himself, "not even half an hour after waking up and I'm already regretting this decision."