Brilliancy

"The only thing I want to do, ever, is play chess." - Bobby Fischer

The first time he encountered the game, he was at the beach.

"Hey, Jaune. Come here."

The boy turned warily to his grandfather. Couldn't he see he was having fun in the sand? He liked the feel of it on his toes, and he liked picking up stones, and throwing them in the ocean. His dad taught him actually how to skip-

"Little one, come on!"

"Coming!" The little boy of only five years replied, a wide, innocent smile etched on to his face. He got up, dusted off the sand on his baggy shorts, and waddled on over to his grandfather. The old man's face crinkled in amusement as he came closer to the table. The little boy's eyes darted over to the checkered wooden board in front of his grandfather. He took notice the little toys that were on all placed peculiarly. He liked how the looked, for some reason.

"Hi, grandpa! Did you see me skip the rocks! Daddy taught me how!"

The old man guffawed, raising Jaune over his head, and then seating him on his right leg.

"Yeah, I did, little Jaune, you've gotten very good at it, too."

The little boy gave him another wide smile, before pointing at the wooden board in front of him.

"What's this?"

The old man's eyes widened, before they settled in a vague calmness.

"This is called a chess board. On it, you play the game of chess."

The little boy gave him a sound of understanding. The old man could easily predict his train of thought. The little boy's raised eyebrow was all he needed.

"….What's chess?"

The old man gave him a smile.

"Have you wanted to live in a castle, be a king, have royal subjects, and the like?"

The boy looked excited now.

"Only all the time! I'd slay dragons, fight baddies, and, best of all, I get to order people around!"

The little boy enunciated each of his fantasies with his hands, to which only the grandfather could adore in his head.

"Well, chess is just that! On this board, you can have that life. In a game of chess, this board becomes your world."

A look of wonder came to Jaune's face.

"Wow…sounds cool. What are these little toy things?"

The grandfather began to arrange the little toys.

"Not toys, Jaune, for they are your loyal subjects, bending to your very will. We call them pieces. In fact, you are right here."

He held up a crowned piece for Jaune to take. The little boy carefully took it in his hands, weighing it gently.

"This piece is called a king. He is the the most important piece of the chess board, but he is old and tired, so he's also the weakest."

His explanation made sense enough. He didn't understand how his grandpa could tell the piece's ago though. He gave him another piece to hold, this time a horse.

"This is called a Knight. He's one of your loyal subjects, and he packs quite a punch. He can single handedly save you in a pinch!"

The boy rubbed his thumb over the piece's carved eyes. It felt good in his hands.

"….Knights are cool. I wanna be a knight one day, too, grandpa."

"Don't say that too soon!", The old man exclaimed, lifting a pointed piece for him to hold. "What if you want to be a bishop instead? This piece can attack from afar, unlike a knight, whose range is quite limited."

Jaune studied the bishop curiously. He felt the point on the bishop's head, before a pained look came to his face. "Man….now I don't know what I wanna be…"

Next, the old man picked up the piece that looked like a castle. "Is this….", Jaune said the next few words in a high pitched tone, "…my castle?"

The old man gave a gravelly laugh; Jaune could feel the sound rumble in his stomach.

"Not quite, little one. This here is called a rook. He is a little bit stronger than both the bishop and the knight. He can attack in straight lines, in any direction."

After holding it in his hands, touching the little spikes on top of the piece, he turned to his grandfather with a harmless glare.

"Stop giving me so many good choices!"

The old man returned a dry smile."Well, if there's anything you can't want to be, its this." He picked up the piece standing steadily next to the king.

"This is called a Queen."

A look of disgust came to the young boy's face."Ugh… girls are gross. I head they have this thing called cooties."

The old man looked amused as he gave him a nod."The Queen is the strongest piece in the game, however. She is your symbol of power, your greatest weapon. She can attack in any direction, as far as she wants. No one is safe from her range, besides a Knight, who moves in an L-shape."

Jaune grimaced, a dramatic pout coming to his face."Man…why can't the king be the strongest piece? Aren't old people supposed to be strong, like you, grandpa?"

The old man was quick to smile, but Jaune didn't miss the unknown look that came before. He didn't like that one at all.

"Not always…Jaune. Eventually, we entrust our power to the future generation." This time, he picked up the smallest piece.

"This, Juane, is what you are, right now at least. This is a pawn, the weakest piece on the entire board. He can only attack diagonally for one square, and is often sacrificed for the sake of victory."

The boy's eyes narrowed, getting of his lap in an instant, arms barreled outward. "I'm no pawn. I'm strong and big. I'll have you know, I drink milk!"

The old burst out laughing, but then his expression settled down into a sincere smile. "But Jaune, although you may be weak now, you walk only forwards, not backwards. You are courageous, and one day, your courage will change you into something else…"

The old man then stood up slowly, his eyes boring into the little boy, who suddenly stiffened up. Jaune would never forget his next words.

"Remember, Jaune, you can do anything."

He snapped back to reality in an instant, realizing he was still on the bullhead towards Beacon Academy, one of the four great chess schools.

Hip hip, hooray.

The young man of 17 years glanced around him, eyeing the many clusters of students huddled around each other. He watched as they talked animatedly with each other. Some of the students had even started playing with each other. He could vaguely hear the click of the pieces as they hit the board.

He gave a long sigh. He didn't want to be a loner again. His fist pressed up against his cheek, as he sat in his seat next to the window, which seemed to be his only source of comfort. He liked the way the clouds look in the sky. That one right there looked like rhino. He then remember the time he went to the zoo with his dad. A lion had just come in from -

"Uh, Helllloooooo?"

He jumped out of his seat, standing up straight and tall. He came face to face with a beautiful, blond girl, whose clothes would've given any doting father a nightmare, and a smaller, black haired girl, whose eyes were strangely silver. He eyed the red tips of the little girls hair.

He thought they were kind of cute.

"Can I…Can I help you?" He said, hands rubbing against each other nervously. He felt a tight slap on his back, wincing in pain. The blond girl was laughing at him, while the other girl was peering dangerously at her friend.

"Why so serious? What's wrong; afraid of talking to a couple of girls?"

"No, I just shouldn't be near other people. I have air sickness. I vomit a lot ." He lied quickly, spewing out whatever came to his head. He grimaced internally. The truth was that he did have air sickness, but his mom gave him tablets to prevent that. Jaune himself, didn't know why he lied.

Real smooth, Jaune….

"Yang, he probably just doesn't want to talk to us." The young girl said, sensing his apparent discomfort. Yang was about to say , had he offended them? He had no trouble talking to anyone!…Maybe a little. But he didn't want them to know that! Oh god, he didn't want them to get the wrong idea.

"That's not true!" He exclaimed quickly, causing the two girls to jump suddenly in fright. He couldn't find himself to look at their faces, so his eyes found themselves downcast. "I like girls. W-Wait! I- uh- I mean - um, I like t-talking to girls! I mean like, I'm not a like a womanizer or anything but…I mean I didn't want to talk to you that way. Chivalry and all that. Not that I don't want to talk to you both that way! I mean… um…."

He looked up. The combination of their slightly amused expressions caused him to sharply look away. Well, there goes Jaune Arc, failing once again. His eyes scrunched up in pain; he couldn't believe he screwed up again! He started to get up, his back hunched over in apparent gloom.

"I'll leave you guys alone…."

He started to walk away, before a strong hand grasped his arm, halting him instantly. The girls were laughing at him, but their laughs weren't like….the ones before. Yang pulled him back to them, calming down a bit.

"You're a funny guy. What's your name?"

He stiffened up, trying to look into the girl's lilac eyes. He found himself focusing in on one of them. Wow, they were really pretty. Like the gems he found at the beach that one time. They were purple too.

He snapped back to reality, realizing five seconds had passed before her question was asked.

Crap!

He stood straight as a board, and saluted for some god forsaken reason.

"Good evening, Yang. My name is Jaune Arc, and I'm 17 years old. It's nice to meet you."

The two girls stared incredulously at him, before laughing again at his flustered greeting.

"Why - Why are you saluting?" The red haired girl said, her giggle baring into his head. He liked the sound of it. It made him feel weird inside.

A tinge of red came to his cheeks, becoming vaguely aware of the fact that he was still saluting. HIs hand shot downwards instantly, and he found himself looking away agin.

"No reason?"

"Where'd you come from, a military family?" The smile Yang gave him made his heart leap out of his chest. Her eyes, he swore, looked like stars. God, he needed to calm down. He breathed in deeply, and the out. He saw on TV one time this guy who said breathing in and out was a good way to calm down. He was eating macaroni at the time. The cheese was pretty good.

"N-NO! I just was recalling something I saw on TV. The guy was saluting the other guy, and he was like…", His voice became a tad bit lower, remembering quickly what it sounded like," Good evening, Marc, my name is Colonel Westrow. Don't what kind of name Colonel is. Never heard of it too."

The blond girl was now staring at him, an unreadable expression on her face.

He then suddenly remembered the next show he saw after that. It was a drama, and one of the girls didn't like the fact that a guy was using her first name in greeting. He realized in horror, he had been using Yang's name without her ever introducing herself to him. Oh god, he'd better fix this fast.

"Oh- um….Ya- Miss. Yang. Sorry f-for using your first name! I didn't mean to be rude…" He said quickly.

He smiled internally; he covered himself quite nicely. Now there is not way they would- They were laughing again, to his utter embarrassment. The blond girl was hunched over in hysterical laughter, while the other girl was trying to stifle hers into her fist.

He decided he should shut up now. The blond girl calmed down after a good thirty seconds. Thank god.

"You're alright, Jaune Arc. I like your attitude." She suddenly straightened out, her hand coming to her forehead in a mock salute. He didn't know what to make of that.

"Good Evening, Jaune Arc, I am Super President Badass Superstar McAwesomeville Yang Xiao Long. And this is my sister, the Under-Secretary Of Being Kind Of Okay, Ruby Rose."

The younger girl whacked her sister on the arm, before curtsying to him, a sly smile on her face. He remembered on a cartoon once a princess was curtsying to a prince, and the prince bowed back, so he quickly bowed in her direction as well. The girl narrowed her eyes in confusion, before giggling lightly. He didn't know if that was good or bad thing.

Super President Badass Superstar McAwesomeville, and Under-Secretary of Being Kind of Okay….WOW! He wondered what kind of jobs they had. Obviously they were students of their chess school. Already having jobs though, that was kind of impressive.

"Wow, I've never met a Super President Badass Superstar McAwesomeville and an Under-Secretary of Being Kind of Okay! Um, what do you both do exactly?"

They were staring at him funnily again. They exchanged a look between each other, before they turned to him with slightly amused looks. His hands found themselves burying in to his jacket pockets.

"You can call me Yang, Jaune. And you can also call Ruby, well, Ruby." The blond girl said, merriment in her eyes. Looks like the work they did stressed them out so much they didn't want to talk about it. Figures - having a job as a teenager sucks. He remembered he had to work the entire summer as the assistant at this paper company. He didn't do much, just read each number that went on the conveyer belt and write it down. He was good at that.

"So….do you guys lo -like chess, too?" He asked cautiously. Ruby gave him a raised eyebrow, gesturing around.

"What do you think?"

Realization dawned on his face soon after.

"Right, stupid question."

A woman suddenly appeared in the center of the room, her outline was tinged blue. He gasped in utter shock, his mind not understanding what he was seeing. How had the woman appeared out of nowhere? What sort of ability- wait a second. He recognized her now; she was Miss Glynda Goodwitch. He remembered back when he was eight she made a sandcastle with him as she talked to mom. She was smiling brightly at him then, but now she had a stern look on her face. But still, he couldn't understand how she had seemingly teleported into the room, so he found himself hiding behind Yang, his hands on her shoulders. She looked and felt strong.

"….Jaune? What are you doing?" Yang asked.

He could only stare at her in shock.

"How are you not freaking out right now? How did- What the-." He sputtered out, pointing viciously at the woman coated in blue. Confusion first came to their faces, snapping between him and Glynda.

After a few seconds, he could tell Ruby and Yang were trying really hard not to laugh.

"What?"

Ruby turned to him with a dry smile. "Jaune, its a hologram."

"A holo-what?"

"We'll explain it later, buddy, just pay attention to what she's saying." Ruby then turned back, listening intently to what the hologram was saying.

Jaune's heart hammered in his chest. Buddy. She called him buddy. He didn't want to believe it was true. Buddy was a synonym for friend, so that meant they were….

"Yeah, ok….friend." He tested warily, looking straight at the hologram of .

A second passed, and another passed.

She hadn't said anything back to him. He cheered wildly inside his mind.

He was no longer alone, he had a friend named Ruby Rose.

His world was suddenly a lot brighter now.

—

"Well, my friends are here, gotta go, Ruby, Jaune!" Yang exclaimed, running off into the distance with a crowd of people. Her sister spun around in a daze, muttering gibberish, before falling…into a bunch of white briefcases.

He was about to help her up, until he got interrupted by the shrill voice of a girl.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?"

He sharply turned around, getting ready with a string of apologies, until he found unable to speak. The silver haired girl in front of him was stunning. She would have been perfection if she didn't have that scar running down her eye. For some reason, he found that the scar served to accentuate her perfection, rather than damage it.

He then noticed her pale, blue eyes narrowing into a glare.

"….Why are you staring?"

"Sorry, you're really pretty, my name's Jaune, and wow, you're really pretty-"

He slapped a hand over his mouth in horror. The shock on her face did little to assuage his embarrassment.

"Why the nerve of some people! Have you no shame?"

He winced in pain, his heart constricting in his chest. Gosh, how was he supposed to explain himself. He knew he shouldn't think such things about people you don't know, but he couldn't help it.

"Hey, we're sorry. Jaune's a little weird, but he means no harm. I'm sorry I knocked over you suitcases." Ruby said quickly, trying to appease the girl in front of here, to no avail.

"And you,! Aren't you a little young to be here? Do you even know who I am?"

Now that she mentioned it….. Ruby did look a little young to be attending Beacon Academy. The girl looked like she was expecting an answer.

"Um, we don't know, who are you, fair mai- who are you?" Jaune asked.

"She's Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Chess Federation, one of the major governing bodies of the game.."

A black haired girl with a peculiar looking bow sauntered over to their little squabble. Jaune took note of her amber eyes, and her porcelain skin, and wondered how many beautiful girls he was going to meet today.

"Finally some recognition!"

"The same company currently accused of questionable business activity."

Questionable…business activity? He couldn't understand what the girl was saying, but it seemed to offend Weiss. The girl threw her hands up in defeat and stormed off. He heard Ruby's quiet sigh, relieved that the situation had been resolved.

"Hey thanks for…."

Her voice died in her throat as she saw the black haired girl walk away with no explanation. Seeing the dismal expression on her face, he panicked. His mom always said to make your friends happy, no matter what.

"Hey Ruby! What's say we go to orientation, ok!" He said, giving her a thumbs and a wide grin. The girl stared at him a for a few seconds, before giving him small smile.

"Lead the way."

Lead… the way?

"Uh…."

"You don't know where it is, do you?"

He gave no answer, looking down in shame. He failed to make his friend happy. The first thing his new friend asked him to do, and he messes up! Why couldn't he do anything right!

"Hey, don't look so sad!" She exclaimed, grabbing his right hand. A deep flush came to his face, startled at the sudden contact. Her silver eyes gleamed in the sun. "Follow me!"

He thought, for a second, that his time at Beacon Academy might not be so bad.