Fourteen years later

The phone rang, and the tall blonde woman picked it up curtly. "Glynda Goodwitch," she said.

"Glyn!" Yang Xiao Long exclaimed. "Where are you?"

Glynda relaxed. "I'll be there shortly. Have Nora and Ruby already arrived?"

"A while ago," Yang responded in a tone that said, 'and we're wondering why you haven't yet.' "We practiced 'Hey You,' but now we kinda want to go out for ice cream."

"Not right now. I'll be there in a minute."

There was silence at the other end of the line. Glynda was always unsure how Yang would take things like that. "We'll rehearse. Then we'll all get ice cream," the older woman clarified.

"Sounds great, see you soon, you're paying!"

A little 'click' ended the call, and Glynda sighed. Sometimes she wondered why she had decided to coach the three young women.

As she walked to the foyer of the house she shared with her adopted daughter, a picture caught her eye. The Summer Storm logo adorned the bottom of the photo, which caught the three very different young women holding microphones. Teenage Glynda was on the rightmost side, smiling a soft, but determined smile, and on the opposite side stood Cinder, smirking sexily, with her microphone so close to her lips she was practically licking it. It was, predictably, Summer who held the most attention, however. The small redhead wore a gigantic grin as she held the other two close. She was the only one with a headset rather than a traditional mic, likely due to the fact that her hands were occupied – she was hugging her two friends.

She was the reason. Glynda didn't know why she ever questioned it.

The thirty-four year old woman reached out and touched a finger to Summer's lips before exiting the house and locking the door.


Vale City Dance Academy's private practice room was a familiar, homey place to Glynda. She'd spent many days there over the course of many, many years, starting in her youth and going into her adulthood. Her first kiss had been on the same dance floor that she now used to coach the three girls who promised to carry on her legacy. She'd had picnics in that room, slumber parties, rehearsals that lasted until midnight, and even excited, forbidden sex in the attached dressing room. Apart from the house she shared with her daughter, no place made her feel more comfortable.

The room was also home to one of her two worst memories, but she was happy enough to ignore that one.

As she walked into the studio that had been exclusively dedicated to their rehearsals, Glynda caught sight of Yang draped over the piano bench, half asleep. Ruby leaned against the gigantic mirror that covered one wall, doing homework, and Nora, for some reason, was doing cartwheels all around the floor. "You're going to want to keep some of that energy, Nora," Glynda said. "We've got a long few hours ahead of us."

"Don't worry!" Nora chirped, landing on her feet and saluting. "I'm ready to go, captain!"

Yang raised a hand lazily. "Me too, in like, five minutes."

Ruby looked up from her book. "Is it true we're going for ice cream later?"

Glynda smiled, amused, and closed her eyes. "Only if all three of you give me a good rehearsal. If we're going to get anywhere, I need you to put in your all, and if not, you won't be reaping any rewards."

As Glynda's eyes reopened, she watched Ruby fistpump. "Alright! No problem, the Queens of the Castle are on it!"

"Have you heard what Velvet said the fan forums were doing with our name?" Yang asked. "They've been abbreviating it to QotC, pronounced 'cutesy.' I like it."

"Oooh, that's nice," Ruby agreed as Nora clapped her hands together in agreement.

"There won't be any fan forums if you girls don't get to work," Glynda threatened, and adjusted her glasses. "Let's take the tour set list from the top."


The Queens of the Castle were not, as the rumors said, a Summer Storm tribute band or second generation, though Glynda sometimes made the mistake of treating them as such. When Ruby had said she wanted to be in a girl group like her mother was, Glynda was more than happy to set it up... after all, she knew girl groups better than anyone else, and she knew that even with all the pain, the four years she spent in Summer Storm were the best years of her life. The dynamic was easy enough to recreate. Ruby was just like Summer, a frontwoman whose angle was pure kindness, someone whose enthusiasm could light up the stage on its own. Through auditions, she found Yang Xiao Long... Ruby's cousin, oddly enough... who took the role of bombshell immediately, and Nora Valkyrie, who became their third member.

The differences between Summer Storm and QotC were much more pronounced than the similarities, however. Ruby had more of a spotlight on her than Summer ever had, simply because of her dead popstar mother and status as the manager's adopted daughter. Yang, though sexy and flirty with an almost-dangerous tilt, was much more friendly and relaxed than Cinder ever was, as well as more of a tomboy. And while Glynda felt near-useless in Summer Storm, with no angle to speak of, Nora had immediately taken the role of the eccentric cutie.

Glynda couldn't help but circulate through four main emotions when she dealt with her girls. There was happiness, for recreating the best years of her life in such a way that her daughter could experience them too, and disappointment that it didn't work out absolutely perfectly. Jealousy that each girl in QotC had an angle and a chance to shine when Glynda had been almost always in the backseat to her groupmates. However, the single most prominent emotion was pride, especially during rehearsals like this one, where the girls sang and danced in perfect, happy harmony.


As soon as the rehearsal was over and the girls... Glynda included... were near collapsed on the studio floor, Ruby looked to her adoptive mother. "Mom, can I call Vel to come with us?"

"Of course," Glynda said, vaguely surprised that Ruby even asked about inviting her girlfriend. "She's part of QotC too, isn't she?"

Ruby's face lit up, and Glynda smiled. The last time she'd seen a couple as good as Ruby Rose and Velvet Scarlatina was... well, it was herself and Summer. Ruby and Velvet were natural. They were both seniors at Signal High School now, but they'd met in kindergarten, when the Scarlatina family moved in next door. The childhood friends had shared playdates, sleepovers, study sessions, and when Ruby was sixteen, she asked Velvet out on a date. For the last two years, the pair had been going strong.

When Queens of the Castle had formed a year ago, Glynda and Ruby had offered Velvet a spot. She had declined to be part of the group due to her shyness, but had still attended the auditions, many of the rehearsals, and all the shows and recording sessions she could. Being up close to the action and being friends with all the bandmates, she had slipped into the role of "amateur publicity coordinator" almost too easily. She kept up with the fansites, blogs, and fan forums and reported interesting news, critique, and praise back to the band, and more than once had passed the group's responses onto the internet as well. On occasion, she even interviewed the members for her own blog. Though real life fame didn't appeal to the brunette teen, internet fame seemed to suit her just fine.

Ruby dialed up her girlfriend, who answered in what seemed like no time at all. "Hey, Bunny!" Ruby greeted, using her pet name for the girl. "Wanna go out to ice cream with all of us?"

There was a pause, then Ruby put her hand over the speaker and mouthed "where are we going?"

"That new bookstore, coffee, and ice cream place on Hunter Street!" Yang decided before anyone else had even gotten a say. Glynda closed her eyes in exasperation, but let it slide.

"That new... oh, you heard Yang say it? Yeah, she is loud. Anyway, we'll meet you there in ten minutes then! I love you a whole lot! See you soon! Bye!" Ruby set the phone down and stood up. "Well, let's get going!" she said to the group.

Glynda shook her head. "Not so fast. Before we go, I want to get a picture."

"Oooh, selfie with Glyn?" Nora asked excitedly.

"No, Nora, a serious picture," Glynda clarified, getting out her phone and pulling up the camera app. "There's a specific pose. Ruby, can you stand right in the middle, with Yang on your right and Nora on your left?" The girls obliged. "Okay, now Ruby, please put your arms around the girls... just like that, thank you... Yang, give a flirty look, and Nora, just smile. You too, Ruby. Big smiles all around."

She had meant to pose them like that to recreate the famous Summer Storm picture, but Queens of the Castle was not Summer Storm. Yang blew a kiss at the camera with a wink and a cheeky grin, and Nora was all too enthusiastic, beaming like it was Christmas day. Only Ruby had it exactly right, and Glynda didn't know if it was because she automatically recognized that Glynda wanted to recreate the shot that hung in their foyer, or whether she was simply her mother's daughter.

I could show them how to do the pose correctly, but it isn't their pose. They aren't Summer Storm and they never will be,, and I could never be prouder of them, even if they were.

Even Ruby, though similar to her mother, is different. There will never be another Summer.

She took the photo with a "click."


The outside of the ice cream shop looked old, despite all of Yang's assurances that it was brand new. Upon inspection, Glynda realized that it was because they had barely changed the storefront from what it used to be... sure enough, if she squinted, she could still see a faint shadow of the words "Tukson's Book Trade" on the window, even through the new sign of "Ozpin's Copy and Cafe: Books, Ice Cream, Coffee."

Glynda sighed as she thought of her old friend Tukson. He'd moved to Vacuo Heights, California a year ago, leaving his old store painfully bare. He'd probably be happy to know that it had been turned into yet another bookstore, and she made a mental note to send him a message about it on Facebook.

Leaning against the window was a delicate-looking brunette with an overly-large hoodie that she seemed to almost sink into. The deep chocolate brown jacket was remarkable not just for its size, but also for the pair of rabbit ears that decorated the hood. They flopped over the girl's face, obscuring it from passerby, but still allowing their wearer to read the volume of manga that she held intently.

Ruby rushed over to her. "Sorry to keep you waiting!"

The manga closed, and the girl removed her hood. Her deep brown eyes lit up. "There you are," she said in her distinctive voice... soft, with a slight-but-obvious English accent. "It's only been a few minutes though, don't worry."

"I just don't like making you stand outside, Vel," Ruby said with a pout.

Velvet smiled reassuringly. "It's fine." She looked around. "Yang, Nora, Ms. Goodwitch... how are you?"

"Great!" Yang exclaimed, and Nora smiled and put her thumbs up happily. Glynda nodded politely. "So," Yang continued, "Let's not all hang out here, let's get inside, okay? I want some ice cream!"

"Yeah!" Ruby agreed, and she opened the door, holding it for everyone else. Glynda smiled a little bit. She'd definitely raised a polite daughter... Summer would have been proud.

The inside of the shop, unlike the outside, was completely changed. When Tukson owned the bookstore, only the ground floor was browseable, while the basement's books were limited to staff. Now, the entire ground floor had been converted into a cafe. Tables were placed where bookshelves used to be, and there were two cashier stations... one for books and coffee, one for ice cream. White boards with the menu hung on the walls behind the food preparation area, which was made to allow customers to walk down the stairs into the bookstore section of the shop.

The store was nearly devoid of people. Two cashiers, one for each section, studied text books. Glynda guessed that they were both Beacon University students taking the job for extra cash. At the table closest to one of the cashiers, a black-haired girl with a ribbon in her hair, another girl sat and studied as well, nursing a frappe and twirling her white-as-snow sidetail as she did.

The QotC girls ran up to the ice cream cashier, and the handsome blonde sat his book down and gave them a charming grin. "Hey, I'm Sun Wukong, and I'll be your ice cream man today. Any of you ladies care to try our daily special?"

"Ooh, what is it?" Nora asked.

Sun checked the white-board behind him. "Belladonna Black Cherry and Coffee Combo."

Ruby blinked. "Isn't belladonna... kinda poisonous?"

"Is it?" Sun asked, glancing over at his ravenette coworker.

She nodded. "Well, yeah. It's also my last name, though. Ozpin... uh, the owner... let us both pick an ice cream flavor to be sold here when we were hired, and then named them after us too. So, I'm Blake Belladonna, and I picked black cherry and coffee ice cream."

Yang clapped her hands together. "Sounds great, I'll take four scoops in a chocolate dipped waffle cone."

Glynda automatically checked the price for Yang's order and barely contained a groan.

"I'll just have chocolate," Ruby said. "Sugar cone, two scoops, please."

"Oooh, I want a sugar cone too!" Nora decided.

Sun paused for a few seconds, then prompted, "And what ice cream do you want in it?"

Nora thought. "Surprise me," she decided.

Ruby turned to her girlfriend. "What are you getting?"

Velvet didn't answer to Ruby, and went straight to Sun. "I was here a week or so ago, and you managed to get me some banana stuff because of my..."

"Lactose intolerance?" Sun prompted.

Velvet nodded.

"Oh no!" Ruby exclaimed. "Velvet, I forgot! I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine, Ruby," Velvet said. "They've got a really nice substitute here."

Sun nodded and went to a cabinet behind the counter. As he opened it, the group saw that it housed what seemed to be the largest collection of ice cream decorations in the world, ranging from crumbs of cake to traditional rainbow sprinkles. "Peanut butter... peanut butter," Sun murmured to himself. Upon apparently not finding any, he shut the door and walked over to the stairs. "Ozpin!" he called. "We have a Code L and no peanut butter!"

"I'll be there in a moment!" a kind-sounding male voice yelled back.

Sure enough, within seconds a grey-haired and bespectacled man walked up the steps, a jar of peanut butter in one hand and a mug of steaming hot coffee in the other. He set the peanut butter down at Sun's workstation. "Sun's Banana Rescue Mission is much more popular than I expected," he commented.

Sun smirked. "See, I told you. The way to charm customers is to present ice cream alternatives to lactose-intolerant people, and also to invest in a lot of bananas."

"I'm only slightly surprised to admit you may be right." From a giant freezer, Ozpin pulled out a bag of what seemed to be frozen bananas and poured them into a blender, adding a small amount of peanut butter to the mix and blending both ingredients together.

After a couple minutes, in which Sun served the rest of the girls up (Nora receiving a single scoop of superman with great happiness), something that looked like a banana soft serve was handed to Velvet. "One bowl of Sun's Banana Rescue Mission," said the blonde boy. "Enjoy."

"Just out of curiosity," Velvet asked, "could I get a recipe?"

As Sun looked around for a paper and a pen, Ozpin stepped up to the cash register. "What can I get for you, Miss... Goodwitch?"

Glynda took her debit card from her purse. "Nothing, I'm just paying," she said, not quite registering what the owner of the shop had said.

"You are Glynda Goodwitch, aren't you?" he asked.

She frowned. "Do I know you?"

"No, I'm afraid you don't, but I'm a fan," the man said.

Glynda handed him her card. "Of Summer Storm."

"Well, yes," he said, "but I really meant of you. You were a great dancer in your youth, and now you're training the next generation. I presume this is Queens of the Castle that you've taken for ice cream?"

"Yes," Glynda confirmed sharply. "What is it that you want, Mr. Ozpin?"

He seemed to be taken aback. "Nothing, now that you've paid for that ice cream."

She let out a huff. Nobody's ever a fan of me and only me, she thought. Nice try, Ozpin, but you definitely want something, even if it's just information.

He seemed to guess what she was thinking and gave a reassuring smile. "Your daughter looks very grown up now."

"She is," Glynda said. "Thank you for the ice cream. Girls, let's go."

"We aren't eating here?" Ruby asked, or really, almost whined.

"Let's go to the park," Glynda suggested. "It's a nice day."

"Awww, okay," Ruby said. "Nice to meet you all!"

"Yeah!" Yang agreed. "Nice to meet you!" Nora smiled and waved to them, and Velvet waved as well, more shyly than the carrot-topped Nora.

"Wait!"

Sun shot a paper airplane at them, and Yang caught it out of thin air and unfolded it. "Ooh!" she exclaimed, "You're having a special event tomorrow?"

"One free scoop and a mini concert," Ozpin confirmed. "I hope to see you all here."

Glynda frowned. "Maybe," she said, and she walked out the door, trusting her girls to follow.