Chapter 3: Jealousy

"Jaune, you seem uneasy," the black haired boy with a pink stripe uttered, polishing his gun.

"Y-Yeah...I'm uneasy because you have a gun!"

Jaune trembled in fear as Lie Ren sharpened the edges of the bladed part of his gun. He clutched onto his pillow, waiting for the boy to finish. His eyes shifted from the weapon to his friend and back to the weapon in a repeating cycle of paranoia. Why did he have such a thing?

"It isn't real, it's for a cosplay," Ren defended.

"Nora?" the blond asked out of habit, calming down after hearing the fact.

"Yeah."

Jaune sat up, putting his pillow on his lap as he sat in an Indian sitting position, as if he were about to meditate. He let his elbows drop to the pillow, with his hands supporting his drooped face and looked over to his friend.

"Soooo, any progress?" he curiously asked.

Ren looked over at him, but did not respond, continuing to refine his weapons. Silence. Still wondering, Jaune decided to push it a bit and go a little deeper into his question.

"...You know, with Nora."

"Nora?" the brunet asked, once again diverting his attention to the boy. "Oh! You mean her cosplay."

"No, I mean, like do you like he-"

"Yeah, she finished it a while back. Can't keep up with her half the time, she's so upbeat," he finished, looking up to the ceiling as if there was something there.

Ren let out a smile. Maybe there was something there. Jaune nodded, somehow having his questioned answered in a different manner.

"Oh that reminds me!" the blond pluckily jumped out of his bed and reached for his scroll on top of the the bedside table.

"Hm?" Ren inquired, playing with his guns.

"I have to meet Goldilocks in a bit- Hey! Ever wonder why we were put into a room with the two girls?" Jaune asked, quickly trailing off.

"We drew the short end of the stick, I guess," the Asian answered, sighing to the question.

"Or the long end, if you ask me."


"So I've got a plan, pretty boy!" Yang said, looking out towards the night sky.

The two blondes stood on top of the dormitory roof, a place he frequented with Pyrrha, though they had only been in the academy for a short few days. It was definitely a gorgeous view and neither would say otherwise. Jaune waited for the mistress to say more, very curious to what she had envisioned.

"You like the rich girl, right?"

A straightforward jab.

"Uh-Uh, that's up in the air right now," he shrugged, cling onto his left elbow.

"What's the matter?" she asked, turning around and squeezing his cheeks. "I thought we met up here so you could have a confidante to spill all your deepest darkest secrets, hun!"

"Well...it's, I don't know."

Jaune paused, looking down at the floor before continuing.

"It seemed kinda forced."

"Huh? What did?" Yang asked, taken aback.

"Weiss's weird confession. It didn't seem like her at all."

"Oh, that. Yeah, we forced her to say that."

"Oh," Jaune let out, saddened.

"No no no, don't take it that way, pretty boy. She likes you. I guarantee! You just gotta let that cool boy self out, you know?" the blonde reassured the clearly defeated boy.

"How?"

Jaune desperately looked for an answer from the girl, but all she did was smile. For a while, he thought she had turned catatonic, eventually realizing the Goldilocks was smiling at someone behind him.

"You?" he questioned.


It was the next day… and boy was it going to get hectic. Just what did Yang have in store for the boy? Was she even trying to help him at all or just make it worse?

Yang was no airhead, though she may have looked like it at times. There was a plan and it was clearly thought out. She was an evil mastermind, to say the least. The only one who did recognize this, was of course, Blake.

"Yang, this isn't right," the bella complained.

"Shhh, hun. It's going to be fun!"

The devious girl reached for her scroll and immediately contacted her helpee, telling him all that was required for him was to walk down the class stairs slowly, once he had arrived late. He thought it was easy enough. He just had to wait until the bell rang. There's no way he could mess this one up.

On the way to class, Yang chuckled to herself, picturing exactly what was to come. What was going to happen? Only she knew, as she broke down to a giggle fit. Blake, accompanying her, only grew more irritated. She wanted to know how the blonde was going to ruin the poor boy's life. It was killing her inside.

The pair took a seat at their usual spot, next to Weiss and Ruby and looked across the class to find Ren and Pyrrha sitting next to each other.

"That's odd," Blake thought out loud. "Doesn't Nora usually sit next to Ren and Pyrrha?"

The beauty looked at the mischievous blonde, only to receive a smile and a small wink back.

"Oh no."

The bell rang and as predicted, Jaune was on cue, just a few second behind the bell. He walked slowly down the stairs, wary of the eyes he expected to stare at his tardiness. To his surprise, no one was eyeing him. A sigh of relief came after as he neared his seat, but it would all be broken in just a second. The door behind him bursted open as an orange haired girl jumped into the classroom, yelling.

"JAUUUNE!" Nora screamed, jumping on top of his back and giving him a slight peck on the cheek.

She hung on tight as he squealed. Everyone's eyes immediately gather at the two. They were clearly the center of attention and there were many faces not pleased.

Weiss was the first one to give off her thoughts through her face, bearing a condescending look as if she wanted to say something about keeping volume at a moderate temperature or reciting a rule from the school codebook that clearly no one read. It was jealousy. Anyone who was paying attention to her could clearly see. Luckily, it was only Yang.

Ruby, right after, yelped and immediately covered her eyes with her hands, leaving a slit between her fingers to peek like a child.

Pyrrha's reaction was a faint one, but even she couldn't hide it from the blonde mastermind. Already smiling, she tried to hold it there while giving off slight facial ticks to keep it up. Was she jealous or was it similar to the school codebook excuse?

But worst of all, it was Ren. He immediately turned red and stood up.

"NORA!" he yelled, uncharacteristically and father-like. "Get off him!"

"Babe, get off me for a bit," Jaune said slyly. "We're attracting too much attention."

Nora jumped off, immediately leading the blond to the front and taking their seats.

Blake's mouth gaped in response to different events occurring while her blonde friend laughed, slightly letting out some tears due to the intensity of her laughter.

"Classic."