Chapter 1

Friends

I do not own RWBY or any music or pop culture references I may make in this story.

Legume Elementary, Vale, Texas, 2003

Weiss

'How could Sarah let me attend this filthy school?' I asked myself internally. It was my first day at Legume Elementary, and I hated it already. It was noisey, the other children were annoying, let alone disgusting (one blonde boy picked his nose, had he no shame?), and there was no order. All the children were running around playing. This is supposed to be a school, shouldn't we be learning? We were all at the tender age of five, we should be learning all of life's skills!

"Weiss, you need to make friends in life," my nanny Sarah had told me before. "How can you be 'proper' if you don't know how to talk to people?" I didn't need people in my life! I had father, and Winter, and Reginald the butler! They were all I'd ever need! Besides, how could I be friends with children that disgusted me? I sat suffering for a while, until I heard singing. 'Someone who sings? I sing. Maybe at least one person with a common interest wouldn't be that bad?' I looked for the source of the melody, whom eventually turned out to be a little girl with raven black hair that led into red tips. She was singing a song while drawing. 'She draws, too? Hm, maybe I could actually make a friend here. Maybe if I do that, Sarah will pull me out of here and convince father to bring us back to Atlas.' As i made my way over to the girl, I started to hear more of what she was singing. The melody was nothing like I ever heard before. It was fast, upbeat. Nothing like the music that my mentor always made me practice. It may have sounded nice, if the girl would sing on key. As I drew closer, I started to make out lyrics:

Have I waited too long?

Have I found that someone?

Have I waited too long

to see you?

What do these mean? Found what someone? See who? I needed to get to the bottom of this song.

"Hey, you!" I said commandingly as I approached. The girl stopped singing and looked up from her drawing, a confused look in her face, that quickly turned into a cheery smile as she registered me.

"Hi, friend!" the girl said in the happiest tone I've ever heard. "My name's Ruby! What's yours?"

"Why did you call me friend if you didn't even know my name?" I asked her, completely dumbfounded at how familiar she was acting toward a complete stranger.

"You look like someone who could be my friend, so now you are!" said the girl, now known as Ruby, with the biggest smile I've ever seen. She hadn't known me for more than a minute, how could she want to be my friend already? She was already too much for my taste.

"I'm not your friend," I told her harshly, to no significant reaction, much to my chagrin. She was hopeless, I will ask my questions and leave before she gets any wrong ideas. "What song were you singing?"

"Hit or Miss by New Found Glory," Ruby said, still smiling. New Found Glory? Strange name for a composer.

"Who's New Found Glory?" I asked her.

"They're a band," she answered. A band?

"What kind of music do they play?" I ask. I had to know if Winter had ever heard of them, she knows more about lesser known classical groups.

"Punk," Ruby said. What is punk?

"What is punk?" I ask, vocalizing my thoughts.

"You've never heard of punk?" Ruby said, her smile morphing into confusion. "Bands like Blink-182, Green Day?" My confusion only worsened.

"Who?" I ask. Are these well known artists? Am I missing something that is common knowledge?

"Okay, well you know rock music, right?" Ruby asked. Oh no. Of course. This explains everything. I would never listen to that talentless noise.

"You mean that garbage that poor people listen too? As if I'd listen to that," I say, slightly annoyed. Why am I talking to her anymore? She's obviously from a completely different world.

"We should play together sometime! I can show you some really good bands! Do you play video games?" Ruby asked. That's it.

"Absolutely not, and no, I will never spend time with you," I answer. How dare she try to expose me to these indecent things? I'm a Schnee, why would I do anything that commoners would take part in? I need to get away from this girl, I want nothing to do with her anymore. But as I turn to walk away, she catches my attention once more.

"Wait, you never told me your name!" Ruby said, smile returning. She must be really dense.

"Weiss," I say to her after a short pause. Thank god that was over, I can't believe she wanted to be my friend.

Vale, Texas, 2016

"FUCK YOU AND YOUR BLUE SHELL, RUBY!" I yell at my best friend as she steals my win, laughing her ass off. That's three times in a row now, I must be off today. I wish Blake would get here already so we can end this slaughter.

"Aww c'mon Weiss!" Ruby said, still chuckling. "You forget who taught you how to play Mario Kart in the first place." The smug-ass grin on her face made me want to stab her. Taiyang wouldn't mind, he loves me more anyway, I'd still keep my basement room. Hell, he'd probably help me hide the body.

Ruby's phone vibrating pulled me out of my murder plans. "Anyone ever tell you that you're too competitive?" she said as she pulled out her phone, she must've noticed me glaring at her. She looked at the text message and smiled more, "Blake's just around the corner!" she said excitedly.

"Did you get any new songs for tonight?" I asked her. It was Friday night, and every Friday night, Blake comes over and we all play Rock Band. Ruby figured out how to add custom songs to the game, and Blake figured out how to make custom songs. Once they figured everything out, we all decided to play every week. I was always on vocals, with Blake doing harmonies, Ruby would play guitar, and Blake would play bass, just like we all did in real life. It was the closest we could all come to being in an actual band. We tried to form one, but we just couldn't find a drummer that fit well with the group.

"Yup!" replied Ruby. "Blake and I got Right Back at it Again for you, I got Dear Maria, Count Me In, and Blake got Tear in My Heart!" They knew me so well. How could I not be happy when they added an A Day to Remember song to the game? They got songs from their favorite bands too, this was going to be a good night.

"What about Tear in My Heart?" Blake asked as she walked in.

"I was just telling Weiss what songs we put in the week," Ruby replied happily. I went over and turned the Xbox on while they got the instruments and microphones all set up.

"What are we going to play first?" asked the Faunus.

"We can play Twenty One Pilots first if you'd like," I told her. "It'd be a nice warmup for me." She smiled and started scrolling through the song list to Twenty One Pilots, and chose Tear in My Heart. The three of us all selected Expert, and our virtual band appeared on screen. With smiles on our faces, Blake and Ruby both played the first few measures, leading into my cue:

Sometimes you gotta bleed to know

That you're alive and have a soul!

Hey everyone! This is my first fic, and it could go for a while, there's a lot of thing I wanna do with this story! Please let me know what you think! To clarify, this story is set in the real world, with locations and other things from Remnant being translated into the real world. I have Vale set in Texas for several reasons, mostly because RT is based there, Atlas is in Wisconsin, because the climates match and I'm from Wisconsin, Vacuo is in Nevada because desert, and Mistral is in South Carolina. The girls are all fans of real life bands, movies, video games, etc.