Disclaimer: Anything recognizable goes to Mr. Oum. Original characters are mine.

"Look! You can see Signal from up here!"

I chuckled a moment when I heard that. I looked in the direction the voice came from to see a younger red haired girl with a significantly taller and more muscled blonde. Longtime friends, I imagined. Still smiling, slightly, I looked back out the window across the open sky. 'Such a magnificent view,' I thought. 'Huh. I can see Signal Academy.'

I stood there in a moment of reverie, until I was knocked about by another passenger making retching sounds on his way to the toilet. I watched him as he continued on, and noticed he was staggering about slightly. It looked like he was airsick. Much as I love flying, I know it doesn't agree with everyone.

"Oh, Yang, gross! You have puke on your shoe!" I heard the same voice from earlier yell out. I looked over, and the tall blonde, Yang, did indeed have vomit on her shoe.

I smiled and laughed quietly, making sure I was facing away, when they started freaking out at the vomit speckled shoe.

A few minutes later, the orni-shuttle settled to dock alongside the grounds of Beacon, and I heard someone racing to the door. I noticed that it was the same boy who got airsick, earlier.

I stepped out of the orni-shuttle, and took in my first proper view of Beacon Academy. Truly, I had to admit that it was a grand, magnificent structure. Appraising all points that I could see, and resolving to explore the grounds further when I had the opportunity, I walked along with the crowd, to what I presumed was the main entrance.

It was scarcely two minutes later when I heard an explosion go off back by the shuttle. I stopped to look back and saw a pair of soot blackened figures, and the shorter of which actually looked rather nervous, judging by the way she was poking her fingers together. After a few seconds passed by, and it became apparent that neither of the two was truly harmed, I turned around once more to proceed into the school.

As I walked through the main doors, I wished that actually had friends going into Beacon. I felt lonely at that moment. Yet, in keeping with own perception of self, I simply maintained an impassive expression, and continued into the main hall proper.

I wandered about as people filed into the main hall, and wound up being by the entrance once again when the doors were closed nearly an hour later. I assumed this meant that everyone needed was here, so I turned my attention to the raised platform at the back of the large room.

Headmaster Ozpin stepped out onto the stage and coughed slightly into the microphone, quickly gaining the attention of all the students gathered in the main hall. "I'll…keep this brief," he said, adjusting his glasses by the bridge. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But, I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose…direction." My mood soured at his statement, and I frowned slightly. "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

I continued to frown as he stepped aside. I knew all of this already. Knowledge meant nothing alone. It had to be applied, in order to be given meaning.

My mental ranting was cut short as Ms. Goodwitch stepped up to the microphone, and announced, "You will gather in the ball room tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready." I furrowed my brow at the last statement, detecting a fair bit of a warning in the tone she gave it. "You are dismissed."

"Quite the introduction…" I muttered to myself, trailing off to avoid being seen talking to myself in public. Shaking my head, I walked out of a side door, following the tide of students to the ball room, hopefully.

Eventually, the body of students I was following did arrive at the ball room. Most people were gravitating towards certain sleeping bags, gathering a few things, and moving about to be with their friends. I found my baggage, and I quickly took stock of it, making sure everything was there. Once I was satisfied that nothing was missing, I grabbed my things and headed to the nearest locker room to change.

Many lockers were wide open, so I took my pick, and put everything in it. I grabbed some sleeping pants and a shirt, and walked to the restroom area. Once I was in a stall (I preferred that extra measure of privacy), I removed the harness that held my sword, Fenghuang, before stripping down to my underwear. First I put on my pants, a light blue with black vertical stripes, followed by my shirt, plain and black. I gathered my clothing and Fenghuang's harness and stepped out of the stall. Stopping by a mirror, I looked at myself, wondering how my time here at Beacon would change me. I saw a rather baby-faced young man, slightly fair in appearance. Impaired vision was made apparent by the glasses I wore on my face (which I adjusted by gripping the frame between my index finger and thumb, and pushing on the bridge with my middle finger once I saw that they were slightly skewed). Blue-green eyes burned with fantastic ideals, yet were tempered by knowing the truth of humanity's potential for cruelty. I loosed my hair, which had been tied into a ponytail that fell to the middle of my back. I chuckled slightly, thinking that I was probably fair enough to be mistaken for female.

"Hey, what are you doing in here?" I was asked. "This is the men's room! Get out!" Closing my eyes, I rolled them under their lids, before turning to face my interrogator. He was well developed, and rather fit, but not overly muscly. Admittedly, he was a good looking young man. I quirked an eyebrow at him, questioning the validity of his demand. "The women's room is on the other side of the ball room."

"I am well aware," I said, inwardly cursing how my voice sounded. Just as androgynous as I looked, apparently. "There's this lovely phrase about assumptions, though. I think it goes something like, 'Never assume, for it only makes an ass out of you and me.'" I tilted my head as I continued looking at him. "You know, I could easily prove that I'm in the correct restroom, but I'd rather not expose myself to a stranger. Seems a bit forward for a first meeting." I paused a moment, briefly losing myself in thought before continuing with, "And I don't really want to run the risk of either of us developing inadequacy issues. That would be embarrassing."

He was flushed red, though whether it was from shock, anger or embarrassment I couldn't tell. Capitalizing on the opportunity, I made my way out, saying, "I think I'll just leave now. Nice to meet you."

On my way to the sleeping bag all my belongings were by, I noticed the tall, muscly blonde and the short redhead girls were trying to engage in conversation with a black haired girl who was trying to read a book. The black haired one was wearing a ribbon atop her head that seemed to clash sharply with her style of dress and demeanor. I swore I saw the ribbon twitch, though, which focused my attention on her even more. A few minutes passed without the twitch I thought I saw, and my focus eventually drifted back to getting to my designated sleeping bag. I noticed that almost everyone else was already lying down, trying to go to sleep. It seemed I had stopped entirely when the ribbon caught my attention.

"Dammit," I hissed under my breath once I saw who one of my nearest neighbors was. He turned to face me, and sure enough, it was the same guy who thought I was female when he first saw me.

"What's the matter?" He asked. "Worried about developing inadequacy issues?" The second question was asked with a wry smirk on his face.

"Not really, considering you're in a sleeping bag and I'm clothed. I was just hoping to not have to deal with further awkward situations tonight."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Hey, sorry for assuming you're a girl. Kinda just jumped to that one, 'cause of your hair."

He sounded sincere in his apology, so I smiled in thanks, saying, "You're not the first one. I've been getting it for years. I'm certain you won't be the last."

He laughed for a moment, before extending his hand up to me. "I'm Giovanni. Nice to meet you."

I took his hand in a firm shake. "Name's Nero."

A loud argument soon broke out, and we both turned to look. I observed the blonde and the redhead I kept noticing earlier in the day fighting rather vigorously, while a girl with white hair was storming her way over. I suspected that it was to tell them off, judging by the irate expression she was wearing, and that suspicion was confirmed by the tirade she launched into. Giovanni and I heard it clearly where we were, and so did several others, considering they were rustling about in their sleeping bags to glare at the ranting girl. The redhead and the blonde soon countered, but all arguing was effectively silence by the girl with black hair blowing out the candles she had been reading by.

'Thank you!' I thought, once silence had swiftly descended. It was then that I noticed the white haired girl was moving towards me. My face fell from the relief I had been feeling, to show mild horror on my part. 'Oh, son of a bitch!' I was thinking. She was my other neighbor for the night.

She must have seen me watching her, because she harshly whispered, "Try anything, and I'll make sure you regret it."

I removed my glasses to bury my face in my hands. When I pulled my hands away, I saw that she was looking at me uncomfortably intently. "Don't worry," I said, hoping to placate her. "I'm a bit too interested in sleep at the moment," I added sarcastically. "So, unless you have another rant you need to voice, goodnight."

She glared at me for a moment, before huffing in distaste and turning over to look away from me.

'I just wanted a peaceful first night, really. I guess that was too much to ask.'

A/N: Here we go. First night at Beacon. If you haven't guessed already, the main cast for the series will be periphery characters, so if you're hoping to see more of Team RWBY, then you might want to follow another fic. Thanks for reading!