And So It Goes

In every heart, there is a room

A sanctuary safe and strong,

To heal the wounds from lovers past,

Until a new one comes along.


Weiss never cried.

A Schnee never cries, that's what she's always been told. She was only ever allowed to cry once, the day of her mother's funeral. Truthfully, from her death until her funeral Weiss had yet to shed a single tear, not from a lack of emotion, but from an overload. She was so distraught that she simply couldn't cry, she was in shock, and still couldn't fully comprehend what was going on. Then the funeral, the speeches, paying respects, and the procession to the gravesite. Only as Weiss watched the pallbearers lower the casket into the grave did she finally break. Shaking uncontrollably as the emotions overtook her, she attempted to hide her tears from her father. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up, amazed to find tears rolling down his face as well. He knelt down and took her hands, looking her in the eyes he told her,

"Ten minutes. We get ten minutes, then never again."

He pulled her to him and they wept together, clinging on for fear of the other simply fading away. They cried without restraint for ten minutes, at which point they pulled back, and in that moment a pact was forged in their pain, Never Again. They would never again shed a tear, the only way they could move on, the only way they could stay sane. And they didn't, not on birthdays spent alone, not on holidays devoid of warmth, and especially not on that day.

But sadness is necessary, it shows us what it is to be unhappy, so that happiness is stronger. Without sadness, there is no happiness either, only an unfillable emptiness.

So Weiss, at the age of nine, learned to harden her heart, learned to build walls to protect herself, and it would be many years until those walls fell.


Five years later:

Weiss simply stood there as he walked out. Her now ex-boyfriend had just finished his final tirade of how Weiss was broken, how she couldn't feel anything, not even love, especially not love, Weiss thought bitterly as he walked to his parent's car. His words had hurt, but not severely enough to bring up much but anger in Weiss, she tried to feel, she really did. But for some reason, she could never laugh at his jokes, only chuckle lightly. She could never greet him with enthusiasm, her expression upon seeing him was, using his expressions, "only vague interest".

"Look at you!" He had shouted, "Your boyfriend of three months is standing here telling you you're broken, telling you he's leaving you, and all you can do is stand there and look at me as though I'm some kind of animal yapping at you! You aren't crying, you aren't laughing, you aren't fighting to keep me and you aren't pushing me away! Just show me something Weiss! Anything to prove that these last few months have meant anything to you other than simply titling a boy in your life!" She couldn't. And after a few moments he sighed. he took her hand, kissed it lightly, and said, "I hope you find yourself in there Weiss, I really do. I can see it. Fighting to break free, but I can't try to coax it out anymore. I'm sorry." And he had left with that.

"What does he know," Weiss thought aloud, "He has no idea what's inside me, how I really feel." Weiss called her father, and while she waited outside the restaurant where her date had been, she couldn't help but wondering what she did feel. Certainly there was hurt, not necessarily deep pain, but hurt nonetheless. Then she realized that the hurt did not stem from his leaving, even now the thought of no longer being with him did not affect her at all, it was that he had pegged her so well. Somehow he had, in fact, been able to see that Weiss was holding herself back. That her walls never lowered or even cracked. She was disturbed that she could be read so well, and even more so that he said he had tried to get through. Weiss looked down at her bracelet. It bore only one charm, a red snowflake. Red, her mother's favorite color, always seemed to calm her, made her able to think straight. Taking a deep breath she vowed at that point to not allow anyone else to see through her facade, lest someone actually damage her walls.


Three years later, the present day:

Weiss Schnee was a legend at Signal High. Everyone knew of the girl that was Heiress to her father's diamond company. She definitely stood out in the crowd, with her flowing white hair that fell to her lower back, tied in a high, off-centered ponytail. Her fashion sense was pretty vibrant too, always catching attention. Whether her shirt was white or blue, it was always covered with her white leather jacket, which was almost always zipped at least halfway, no matter what time of year it was. She always wore acid washed jeans, not tight but also not too loose. But what was always strange to everyone were her shoes, red sneakers with white laces. People learned a long time ago not to ask about her shoes. No one wanted to be victim to the glacial stare that would inevitably follow the question. And no one ever dared to ask about her scar, a thin, pink line, vertical on her left eye, contrasting to the vibrant blue of her irises. It was the only blemish on her otherwise flawless skin. Today she had covered it with makeup, deciding that she did not want the new freshmen to stare any more than they already would.

In the last three years Weiss had not dated anyone else. Not for a lack of asking, of course. Boys, and even several girls, had tried to get the so called "Ice Queen" to go out with them, but she turned them all down. In short, Weiss was an enigma that the student body of Signal was more than happy to just leave alone. Until today.

It was the first day of senior year and Weiss was wearing her trademark outfit complete with her high school class ring, Specially ordered by her father, the ring was platinum with a bright sapphire set into it, and Weiss was pleased by how well it went with her usual attire. Inlaid with obsidian was her graduation year, an eighth note to signify her years of choral classes, and a rapier to signify her fencing lessons. People marveled at how bright it was and how expensive it must have been, and Weiss smirked at that. Let them be jealous, she thought, pleased that the ring was another symbol of her superiority.

As she was walking to her locker, she spotted someone trying to put in the combo to the locker next to it. Weiss immediately scowled at the sight, the locker next to her's had always been vacant, and once assigned a locker at Signal, it didn't change for the time there, new students simply being put in the areas that the previous seniors had vacated, so for someone to be in this area meant they had to be in her class, which meant they had to be a transfer.

As Weiss stalked up to her locker, she took note of the girl standing next to her. She wore a red zippered hoodie over a simple black t-shirt, black jeans with a red leather belt, and, in contrast to everything else, silver sneakers with blue laces and faint sparkles of glitter. Her hair was a chocolate brown with red tips, and as she looked over to the approaching girl Weiss was intrigued to see that the girl's eyes were silver as well. Her face looked much too young to belong to a senior so Weiss walked up and said,

"Freshmen lockers are in the one hundred wing, this is the three hundred wing, only seniors have lockers here."

The girl looked up, a bit flushed at having been caught struggling with her locker and said, "But I am a senior. My family moved here last month and this school does testing to determine placement of all transfers, and they said I belonged with the senior class."

"Well what were you when you left your other school?" Weiss asked.

The girl looked a bit sheepish as she replied, "I was going to be a sophomore, they moved me up two years."

Two years! Weiss thought incredulously, She must be incredibly intelligent, even if she may be a bit childish looking. Weiss was still a little miffed that her personal space was now invaded by having someone in the neighboring locker, and she looked on curiously as the girl continued to flub her combination.

"Damn!" the girl said, "They had keypad locks back at Sanctum High, I've never used these before."

Weiss said, "Dunce, you have to do one full rotation left before you can do your second number."

She tried it, and it worked, the lock pulling open. "Thanks…"

"Weiss"

"Ah, Thanks Weiss! My name is Ruby, pleased to meet you!" She stuck out her right hand.

Weiss simply gave her a curt nod before closing her own locker and heading off to her own class.

"I guess I'll see you around!" Ruby called after her as Weiss turned the corner.