Nobody had a clue as to why Weiss was so nervous. It was near the first day of school in their third year at Beacon, but all her friends thought it weird nonetheless as the usually calm and collected, if a bit irritable, heiress was now a wreck of nerves. She was pacing their team's bedroom, heels threatening to carve grooves in the floor.
"Weiss," Yang mumbled irritably from atop her bed, "Isn't it a little late for pacing?"
"Yeah, and isn't it a little too early to be worried about the first day of school?" Ruby chimed in from hers. All four girls were watching Weiss, her white hair all frazzled and currently chewing on her nails.
"Has she run out of fingernails yet?" Yang called from her bed again. Everyone paused and checked. Weiss hid her hands by crossing her arms and continued pacing.
"I'll have you know, I'm not nervous about academics in the slightest." Weiss finally spoke. Her hand went to her mouth again, and then she yelped as she unconsciously bit her finger. Everyone else jumped a bit, as Weiss went to go get a bandage.
"Well, what has you in such a fuss?" Blake inquired.
"It's my sister. She's visiting Beacon, because her childhood friend is attending school here."
"But isn't that an awesome thing? My little sister sees me at school every day!" Yang smiled as Ruby looked at her funny.
"It's not the same," Weiss explained, "I'm not like you or Ruby, my sister isn't that close to me…"
Weiss walked the length of the room again before running her hands through her hair. She then walked to the door and told everyone she was going to take a shower and go to bed. Everyone shrugged and got ready for bed too.
Winter Schnee was oddly quiet. She was usually quiet, but today she looked almost sad. Her best friends in the whole entire world were moving to Beacon Academy, a school in Vale that specializes in training the finest Huntsmen and Huntresses. It was sad watching her sister go to a school and risk her life to protect others, and now her only friends in the whole entire world are leaving too.
She sat in front of one of her said friends, Bonnie, a girl much like herself in that they were both daughters of very rich fathers. Bonnie however, had dark blue hair and stunningly blue eyes that contrasted Winter's pale complexion and hair. Bonnie's lightly tanned skin came from working in forges and outside, as her parents owned a steel manufacturing company. Bonnie sat fiddling with some paper, ignoring her tea, and talking about some ancient and foreign art of Origami.
"People back hundreds of years ago got so bored that all they did was train their bodies, work, or do art. This is one such art form," The excited girl continued, "With time patience and practice, the people made paper sculptures of different animals. Like this bunny!"
Bonnie held up a crude depiction of a rabbit, the folds were excitedly, and sloppily, made so the bunny looked a little sad. Or rugged, depending on how you looked at it. Though Winter paid little attention to the small sculpture and Bonnie, her mind was on her friends all leaving.
"Winter," Bonnie started in a sing-song voice, "You're pouting again!"
"I am not," Winter pouted, puffing up her cheeks before sighing and averting her gaze, "It's just…"
Bonnie frowned. What is wrong with her? She placed her little paper bunny on the table and picked up her tea-cup. She frowned deeper when she realized that her tea was cold. Bonnie sighed too and leaned against the table, propping her head up with her elbow on the table.
"Shall I fetch you another tea, Madame Blutarch?"
Bonnie straightened from her slumped over posture in shock, but turned to find her friend Elizabeth instead of another maid.
"Elizabeth! No need for such formalities, you are in the presence of peers. Also, I'm like your best buddy." Bonnie got up to hug the maid, and brought her to a corner to whisper: "I need help, why is Winter so glum today? I just can't seem to understand."
Bonnie and Elizabeth both peered over their shoulder to look at the white haired girl, who was sipping quietly at her tea.
"If I may say so, ma'am, I think she's glum because we're leaving. Haven't you already predicted this and decided to ensure that you and Winter would have fun this week in order to cheer her up?"
Bonnie stared at Elizabeth in thought for a moment before realization hit her like an Ursa.
"Oh yeah, I thought we were just partying…" She thought back on the moment when she told her mother, the current matriarch of the Blutarch Company, that she wished to attend Beacon. She had come up with many plans, bribed many people, and trained herself in order to ensure that her entry into Beacon was as easy as possible. However, here she was and she still had one loose end.
"Thank you, Elizabeth!" She talked loudly, startling both girls before her, "That'll be all, and remember to make it a milk tea with extra sugar."
Bonnie threw in a big wink, to which Elizabeth rolled her eyes, before returning to the table.
"So Winter…" Bonnie began, before she blanked out and paused.
"I heard what you were saying over there."
"I'm sorry, Winter, it's my dream now to become a Huntress. You know that my mother was famous for something, and her mother before her, and so on. I however, have nothing to my name yet, and I think that this is the path I should take. My Blutarch intuition tells me so."
Winter frowned a little bit. She should be happy for her friend; she was being selfish by being sad.
"I'm sorry for worrying you," Winter replied, "It's unbecoming of me to be mad at you for wanting to follow your dreams. It's just that I'll have no one to talk to…"
Bonnie slumped lower in her chair, relieved that her friend wasn't mad at her. Honestly she was the only friend that treated her normally, so Bonnie felt bad about leaving too. But then Bonnie's eyes lit up.
"What if?" She began, "I brought you with me to Beacon?!"
Weiss looked almost normal; she didn't look stressed to the untrained eye. However, to her friends it was unsettling how different she looked. Her usually immaculate image was marred by small signs of nerves. The stray hair here, the small dark rings under her eyes, the small chips along her nails, any of the small things made her seem off just a bit. This was Weiss, but it was off-Weiss.
And yes, Yang made that pun already.
"The ceremony is tomorrow, so don't the students come in today?" Jaune whispered to RBY of team RWBY. It was a little too loud, as Weiss uncharacteristically groaned, and uncharacteristically slammed her face into her breakfast. Needless to say, everyone was stunned.
"Yeah, I can't wait to see Weiss' little sister!" Yang exclaimed, "Come to think of it, it was only last week that we had heard of her."
"That's because it had never came up until last week…" everyone heard Weiss groan from her stack of pancakes.
"Oh, fair enough." Yang's excitement disappeared as the awkward situation of Weiss in despair made eating a bit awkward.
"I can't wait for friends my own age!" Ruby rejoiced, "Er… Not that I don't like you guys, no offense."
"None taken," Pyrrha assured her, "I understand that some of your friends from Signal academy are attending school here too?"
"Yup! I'm so excited!" But then Ruby turned to Weiss' pancakes and added, "I'm sorry I won't be able to meet your sister today, Weiss…"
"Don't remind me," Weiss' muffled voice came from the pancakes again. The conversation at the table started to come back again, and Weiss realized her back was hurting from slumping forward into her meal. So she excused herself to clean up, to which no one objected. In any other situation a syrup faced Weiss would have been the subject of laughter at the table, but when Weiss left everyone was worried again.
"Why is she so stressed out about her sister?" Yang whispered, "I don't care that my dork sister is her with me."
"Hey!"
"Maybe they just don't get along?" Ren offered.
"Or maybe, Weiss's sister is way more meaner than Weiss!" Gasped Nora, Ruby gasped at this too.
"Oh my god, I hope not!" Ruby groaned, "It was bad enough having to get along with one Weiss!"
"Not that I don't like Weiss," Ruby added quickly. Everyone paused to let that soak in, and shuddered at the thought of a smaller, more irritable Weiss. This would be the day they found out though, as it was almost time for the new students to arrive.