Chapter 2: New teacher on the block

Next Day

Jaunes pov

Jaune had woken up to a message on his scroll. After the whole Grimm-Train tunnel incident, he was more aware of every message and call. This however was just a class notification saying to make sure he knew the rules of chess before tactics class. Huh, guess they had gotten someone new to teach the class over the weekend. Jaune wasn't worried. His father and grandfather had hammered the rules of the game into his head at a young age. It was the only time his father had been able to make for him growing. Jaune shook his head and decided to start getting ready for class. He grabbed a spare change of clothes and was first in the shower, because his team was still asleep.

That was something he hadn't expected. Leading a team certainly wasn't what he'd seen himself doing when he first came to Beacon. He often wondered if Ozpin had been doing drugs the day he made Jaune the leader of his own team, or if this was Ozpins idea of a joke at his expense or something. Probably the worst idea that came to Jaunes mind was that Ozpin had figured out his secret. Besides his fake transcripts Jaune had another secret, one that he hadn't told his team or anyone else. The deception tied into the fake transcripts thing, as it would be a dead giveaway, but after the truth about the transcripts came out he had kept this secret because, well, he thought it no longer mattered.

Suddenly there was a loud knock at the bathroom door that startled Jaune, causing him to jump.

"JAUNE! I NEED THE BATHROOM!" Nora shouted from the other side.

Jaune just sighed. He then finished his shower quickly, dried off and got dressed. Then he exited the bathroom to find Nora waiting outside the door. He stepped aside for her and after she bolted inside and slammed the door shut he turned to greet his other teammates who had also woken up while he was in the shower.

"Morning Pyrrha."

"Morning Jaune."

"Morning Ren."

"Morning Jaune."

After that they all went about getting ready for class. Forty-Five minutes later, after they had all gotten ready they left together for breakfast. Left the room together that is. They had not gotten more than five feet away when Nora had grabbed Ren by the arm and dragged him away as fast as she could, leaving Jaune and Pyrrha to walk together… alone… together…

Alright don't panic, Jaune thought to himself. In truth, he was already panicking. Him and Pyrrha had always been good friends, he had thought. At the dance they had pushed the boundaries of their friendship and Jaune had no idea where that had left them. Worse, he didn't know what to think about how Pyrrha had felt about it. Worse STILL, if that was even possible, was that he was nervous about asking her. The walk to the cafeteria together, alone together, was bringing these thoughts to the very front of his mind, fogging up his thoughts until Pyrrha finally snapped him out of it with a simple:

"So, do you think your tactics class has a new professor yet?"

"I think so, I mean," Jaune had never been so happy to participate in small talk. "I got a message this morning about the class saying to brush up on my chess knowledge, so maybe."

"Did you brush up?"

"No need, my dad and granddad played a lot of chess with me growing up. In fact it was the only time I saw my Dad outside of dinner time…" Jaune stopped abruptly, unsure of why he had even brought that last bit up.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Pyrrha said sympathetically. "That's the first time you've talked about your father or grandfather. Um… what are they like? If you don't mind that is, I'm sorry if I was prying or …"

"I don't mind," he assured her. "My dad is all business. He's serious about everything and always busy but when we really needed him he's always been there to talk or something. His duties had been keeping him busier than ever before when I left home. His father, my granddad, served in the Kings Army."

"Really?" Pyrrha looked surprised.

"Is that so shocking," Jaune said.

"Kind of." Pyrrha replied, she looked intrigued at the idea of Jaunes Granddad in the Kings Army. "The Royal family carries no power in Mistral. They certainly have no power to raise an army."

"Well its different here in Vale. The Valean King may have no political power and little say in what new laws come into existence, but he does have the responsibility of ensuring that the people of Vale are safe from enemy threats, like the Grimm or foreign invaders."

"So he keeps a standing army? And no one objects?" she asked, sounding a little skeptical.

"Yeah. Since Vales founding seven millennia ago the Kings of Vale have always served the peoples need for defense. Our current King, Roderique III, is also really loved by the people. Most people on the streets and most of the nobility agree with him over the council on many things. He's actually gotten the public opinion to overturn one of the councils past decisions."

"That's frightening, Jaune." Pyrrha looked shocked at what she had just heard. "That he can use a mob of people to usurp the government is just frightening."

"It's not like that. He's a great guy." Jaune corrected her, realizing how it sounded to her. "This happened like ten years ago and he stopped a catastrophe."

"How?"

"Well, my dad told me about how eleven years ago the council passed a new tax law. Everyone hated it because was financially destroying people left and right. The Council refused to repeal the law, however, and there was rioting over the decision. Before things could get further out of hand King Roderique and his wife, Queen Maylis, went before the people and Roderique was able to talk them down for the most part. Then the Queen convinced everyone to use peaceful demonstrations to protest the law. A lot of demonstrations in fact, to the point no one was at work and the kingdoms economy shut down, almost."

"That is correct Mr. Arc."

Jaune and Pyrrha both shouted and jumped apart to find Professor Oobleck behind them. He was drinking from his coffee mug and looking expectedly at Jaune.

"Glad to see you finally showing an aptitude for history, Mr. Arc. Please continue." Their history professor said and then hastily took huge sip of coffee.

"Uh well," Jaune was a bit nervous in front of Professor Oobleck but continued regardless "Then, when people started getting on board with this plan more and more the nobles started supporting peaceful demonstrations, because the people on their lands were suffering. After six months of protests under this new strategy the council caved and changed the law."

"Correct again, Mr. Arc. Good to know you'll pass that section when we get there. Please do pay attention during the next the sections." And with that Professor Oobleck sped off like a green and white blur, leaving Jaune still a little shocked while Pyrrha looked at him approvingly.

"I think I impressed him Pyrrha." Jaunes heart was still beating a mile a minute as he said it. Then the pair turned and saw that they were in front of the cafeteria.

"Let's go grab something," Pyrrha said and the two went to get food and join their friends.

Ruby Pov

"Chess sucks!" Ruby cried out after losing to Weiss for the tenth time. Weiss just looked at her crossly from across the table. "Well it does!"

Weiss had been teaching her to play after she received a message about learning the game for her tactics class. Ruby had originally thought that it'd be a fun game to play. Oh how wrong she'd been. Not only was the game difficult to learn but difficult to play. Memorizing which pieces could move in which patterns was difficult, everything about this game was difficult.

"Calm down, sis." Yang said. "You've only been at it for an hour. I'm sure you'll get it eventually."

"But class is in an hour, Yang!" Ruby cried out, throwing her arms in the air for dramatic effect. "There's no way I'll understand this game before then."

She slumped down in her seat, face first into the table thinking about how unfair this was. Why did her tactics class have to learn this? What did this have to do with strategy and leadership and stuff? She picked her head up and looked around the table. Her team, team SSSN and Ren and Nora were situated around her, having conversations and eating. Just as she was about to ask Weiss for another run through of the rules she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Having trouble Red Rubles?

Ruby turned around to see Aurelio Connors, leader of first year Team AAAN (Anne), standing right behind her, grinning and looking down at her with his arms folded. Even with a scar going straight across his neck and an eye path obscuring the upper corner right hand side of his face he looked very carefree. His blonde, messy hair was pulled back into a pony tail and his left eye glowed a light sky blue.

"The game of chess is being mean to me!" she cried doing another overly dramatic hand gesture. Then she pointed at him with her left hand at him. "And don't call me that."

"Heh heh, over the top as always. 'Sup, Sun. You're not cramming for class?"

Did he just say she was "over the top" then focus on someone else in the same breath? Ruby would not stand for that. In retaliation she stuck her tongue out at Aurelio and blew a raspberry at him. She was not happy when he responded by pat her head and messing up her hair. She was then mortified when everyone at the table laughed at the action. She scowled at him and nocked his hand away. Then she said through gritted teeth.

"Quit treating me like a child."

"Quit acting like one."

"Oh ha-ha, real original," Ruby replied, grinning and folding her arms.

"Ahem," Ruby looked to see Weiss glaring at her pointing at the chess board on the table between them. "I thought we were gonna get some work done for your class, not make small talk with scoundrels."

"Alright, Weiss. Let's get back to stupid chess," Ruby grimaced, not looking forward to class today.

Aurelio, who had sat down next to Ren, chimed in saying, "Why don't you ask Jaune for help with the rules of the game?" Weiss laughed openly at this.

"I think Jaune is gonna have a hard enough time learning from Pyrrha."

"Actually, Weiss, Jaune's been playing for years and I'll thank you to not insult my leader."

Pyrrha and Jaune had arrived with plates of food and were sitting down at the table. Pyrrha looked a little upset and was giving Weiss an irritated look. Ruby understood why. Pyrrha and Jaune had gotten pretty close at the dance, but Weiss hadn't really said anything that bad. Ruby decided to help her friend out.

"Weiss didn't mean anything bad, Pyrrha. I mean, so far none of us first leaders know chess."

"I know how to play," Aurelio said. "And I think Winchester knows how to play."

"How?" Blake asked, looking up from her book for the first time since she sat down.

"Because he comes from a noble family, like me."

Everyone did a double take accept Jaune, who just looked side to side. Yang spat out her drink, the spray hitting Blake who stared daggers and an apologetic Yang. Neptune was choking on a piece of pancake only to have Sage hit him on the back and restore breathing to him. Weiss's face was stuck I this open mouthed cocked eyebrow look. Everyone else just looked regular surprised. Ruby, sure her friend was joking, crossed her arms and grinned.

"If you're a noble, how come you act like a thug?" It was true that Aurelio often talked about his knowledge of the criminal underworld more than he should. Things like the Thieves Guild, the Assassins organizations, smugglers and pirates were all fair game with him. Ruby had always thought he was making things up, but Weiss had decided that he was a scoundrel. To be fair he was a scoundrel, they all knew it, but that only made the whole nobility thing hard to swallow in her opinion.

"Cause I didn't inherit nothing but my great-great-grandads lifestyle." Aurelio said, as if that answered everything. It answered somethings, but Ruby felt it could've answered more.

Before she could ask him what in the world his great-great-granddad did, the ten minute bell for first period rang.

"Time to go," Aurelio got up and made to leave before any of them could ask him any questions. "You guys better hurry if you want to get a look at the new teacher."

Ruby got up and followed after him shouting for him to wait for her.

A minute later the two of them walked into the classroom to find they were the first ones there. They saw the new professor sitting at his desk at the front of the room writing what Ruby assumed to be notes for class. Also sitting at the front of the room were professor Ozpin sitting in a chair against the wall and next to him was professor Goodwitch sitting with a clipboard in her hand. Trying to ignore them, Ruby went up to the new professor's desk to greet him.

"Hello, sir," she said, offering her hand to shake his. "My name is Ruby Rose and I'll be in your class."

The new professor looked up and it was then that she noticed the golden mask on his face. She thought it was cool and mysterious and went well with his white and black coat and blonde hair. He looked at her for a second during which she hopped he couldn't see through the confidence she was trying to fake. Then he took her hand with his and shook it.

"It's good to meet you, Ms. Rose," he said, his voice was deep, soft and smooth. "My name is Professor Gilded Arcadia. Welcome to my class. I hope you enjoy it. Now please take your seat."

Ruby smiled and nodded. She then turned to Aurelio and saw that he had this weird expression on his face. He was just squinting suspiciously at professor Arcadia and then looking over his shoulder, towards the hallways as if trying to see something, then looking at Ozpin.

"Is there something wrong," professor Arcadia stood up and addressed Aurelio. "If you need help you can talk to me. I keep an open door policy. We can even speak in private if you wish."

Ruby thought she heard him emphasize those last words a bit more than the others.

"I… thank you, sir." Aurelio finally answered. "I would like that."

With that Aurelio motioned for Ruby to head to their seats with him. When they sat down next to each other Ruby wanted to ask him what was wrong, but he gave a look that said not now. Then they just watched as their classmates walked into the classroom, some greeting professor Arcadia while others went straight to their seats. Finally the class was filled with first and second year team leaders. When the bell rang signaling the start of class professor Arcadia sat at his desk for ten seconds. When he got up to address the class everyone got quiet.

"Welcome to Tactics and Strategies. My name is Professor Gilded Arcadia." He looked from one side of the classroom to another. Then, in a somber tone he continued. "And I regret to inform you that sixty percent of you have just failed your first quiz in my class."