Author's Note: A few people have pointed out that Ruby is 15 while entering the middle of her first year in high school, and that this isn't abnormal for most high schoolers even though she skipped a grade. I realize that the age is off, but I didn't want the age gap between her and the rest of team RWBY (aged 16-17 in this fic, in their junior year) to be too large, as that will serve as an issue for later in the story. Thanks to everyone that's been reading :)

Ruby found a desk in the back corner of her first period classroom and settled down after introducing herself to the teacher. She busied herself with her phone, trying to distract herself from the awkward as the teacher left to refill his coffee. As if they had been waiting for Ruby to be alone, a cluster of three girls entered the room, prompting her to look up.

They wore uniforms similar to Ren's, but with skirts, a deeper V in the neck, and a strip of their midriff exposed, signs that indicated that hey must be cheerleaders. The leader of the three seemed to be a tall girl with long dark hair and piercing amber eyes. She walked with a strut, as if she owned whatever room she entered and that everyone there knew it. Beacon's cheer uniform hugged and accentuated her curves in all the right places, as compared to her more slender teammates accompanying her. The second one was hardly half a step behind the other, as if to challenge her authority. Her white bangs that escaped from her waist-length ponytail fell over her eyes as she looked at her phone, as if to say that she wasn't giving anyone, including her teammates, the honor of her respect. The third trailed behind them, as if she was trying to keep up with them, but just barely falling short. Her olive skin and green hair contrasted sharply with her red eyes, although they were not as intimidating as the leaders'.

The white-haired girl slowed after she entered the room, focusing all of her attention on whatever text she was composing on her scroll. Ruby panicked as the leader of the girls headed straight for her with her lackey in tow. The girl slammed her hand on Ruby's desk, using it to lean in close and stare intensely at Ruby. "You must be new here," She said, more like a statement than any sort of question. There seemed to be some sort of inherent threat behind the words, but Ruby wasn't yet sure what it was. The olive-skinned girl behind her stood with her hands on her hips, as if attempting to punctuate her friend's words with her own attitude.

"Y-yes, I just-"

She interjected Ruby's stuttering with venom, "Then you must have not known that this is my seat." Ruby shook her head violently, terrified by the confrontation, and began to gather her things in her shaking hands. She looked down at her belongings in an attempt to hide the tears quickly forming in her eyes.

"Cinder, you don't need to scare the kid. She didn't know." Came a haughty voice from the other side of the room. The leader swung her head to the white haired girl, angered by her comrade's insubordination. Her attention remained on her phone, making her seem disinterested in the confrontation she had just interrupted. Ruby froze, holding her things, unsure of what to do next. It seemed as if this girl was standing up for her, yet somehow getting her deeper in trouble with their leader, Cinder. The green haired girl stood in front of Ruby with her hands still on her hips, yet her eyes betrayed a hint of apprehension about the oncoming storm.

Cinder sneered at her teammate, "And you don't need to question my choices, Weiss." Instead of the animosity displayed in Cinder's voice when she spoke to Ruby, her voice was sickly sweet, yet betrayed her frustration.

Weiss finished her text and put her scroll in the designer bag slung across one of her shoulders. She looked Cinder in the eyes defiantly and started her sentence with a flip of her ponytail. "I'm not questioning you, I'm just letting you know I think picking on freshmen is beneath the cheer captain of Beacon High." Ruby could have sworn she saw Cinder's long nails etch lines into the wooden desk as her hand tightened in anger at Weiss's condescending tone. She had put extra emphasis on cheer captain in an attempt to mock the position.

"Whatever," Cinder muttered, pushing past both her friend and Ruby and seating herself at the desk under contention. "Just don't sit at my desk again." Her partner recovered from her previous state of fear and pushed past Ruby, mimicking Cinder, sitting down in the desk behind her captain with overly exaggerated confidence. Weiss glanced at Ruby for a brief moment before rolling her eyes and sitting down at another back-row desk on the opposite side of the room.

The momentary flash of eye contact was enough for Ruby to notice Weiss's striking beauty. Her face looked royal, her perfectly curving eyebrows framing elegant eyes that always looked slightly concerned or inconvenienced. Although pale like her own, Weiss's eyes were clear blue, like a cold sky or a frozen pond. Her small nose was situated above plump red lips that curved downwards into a minute frown. The only imperfection was a scar that marred the top of her left eyelid to the beginning of her cheekbone. In anyone else, it would diminish their beauty, but Ruby just felt compelled to stare longer and learn the story behind it.

She was startled out of her starstruck reverie by a flood of students immediately following the bell. Ruby still stood holding her things in the middle of the room, and she remained rooted to the center of the room as the students took up the available seats. Once all other students had taken their seats, Ruby noticed with horror that the only open seat was directly in front of Weiss. The cheerleader ignored Ruby as she sat down, but the girl placed in front of Ruby's new seat turned around with a friendly smile.

"You know Jaune, correct?" She asked, her friendly green eyes lighting up with a smile. Her red hair was so vibrant that it seemed to wash out the blue and white of the Beacon uniform she wore. Ruby noticed that it was similar to Nora's track uniform, yet not identical.

"Yeah, he showed me around school this morning," Ruby replied warily. Still wiping away the half-formed tears from her previous encounter, she reminded herself that associating with the wrong people could easily lead to others coming after her the way the cheerleaders had.

The girl's bright green eyes lit up and her ponytail bounced as she stuck out her hand. "I'm Pyrrha, nice to meet you. I was supposed to be part of the welcome committee with Jaune, Ren, and Nora, but I had some things to do for my team. How do you do?" Pyrrha's voice was kind, like her eyes, yet seemed somewhat formal.

"I'm okay, I guess. My name is Ruby," She answered, warming up to her new classmate. Before they could continue their conversation, the teacher entered the room and began class.

Ruby was able to relax and forget about her earlier troubles when the lesson began. Math was where she shone, and what she understood the most. The lesson was a breeze for her, but not as mind-numbingly easy as her previous middle school classes had been. She had been placed in a junior-level math class, that also held a few seniors. Ruby had held out hope that she might be put in Yang's math class, but she had no such luck.

Her heart sank as the bell rang, forcing her to leave math behind. On her way out the door, Pyrrha waved goodbye to her, then walked off to her next class. Ruby waved back, smiling, but the second Pyrrha was out of sight, she felt someone shoulder past her aggressively. "Oops… I guess you better stay out of my way next time, kid." Cinder sneered as she sent Ruby stumbling into the wall. She strutted away, followed by her friend, who gave Ruby a small chuckle as she tried to imitate Cinder's powerful stride. Ruby cowered, hugging the wall, until the swarm of students in the hallway concealed the cheerleaders from her view.

Just as she was about to head to her next class, Ruby felt a jolt of electricity as a hand lightly brushed her shoulder. "She's just being pissy today, it's not about you. Don't let her get to you." Weiss offered softly with a hint of a smile. And with that, she was off. Ruby couldn't decide if she was more stunned by Weiss's actions or Cinder's. More than that, she couldn't figure why Weiss's made her heart beat faster than when she was being physically threatened.