Author's Note: I goofed a bit with some numbers, as pointed out by a reviewer - high school kids normally start at 14, not 15. I updated the first chapter to reflect this change, as well as altering one or two other areas. The incident from Yang's past that got her held back, for example, I moved it to an earlier year.
Nearly everyone who goes through high school needs a good group of friends, am I right? Now it's time to meet Ruby and Weiss' friends. I went through several variations for this part of the story before finally settling on this one. Hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY in any way.
...
Ruby had always been a sucker for beautiful eyes. It didn't matter what color, size or shape they were; if she thought they were pretty, she loved them. The girl from her art class (who had introduced herself as Weiss) certainly had one of the prettiest eye colors the redhead had ever seen, but there seemed to be no shortage of stunning eyes all around her at this freakin' school. She was currently spying a pair of lovely amber-colored jewels. They were ignoring her, though, and had been buried in a large book for the past several minutes.
The owner of those eyes stood at least a foot taller than Ruby, seemingly higher with her hair taken into account. It was a gorgeous black that cascaded down her back like an ebony waterfall. She wore a white blouse with a frilly neckline and a nice pair of black trousers. Her black-and-blue sneakers were tucked beneath her knees as she sat cross-legged in the hallway with her book. Ruby sat across from the girl, her sketch book in her lap, trying to focus on what she had been drawing. It wasn't working.
Today was the fourth day of the week, known as Thursday. Also called Not Friday.
Starting yesterday and continuing into the foreseeable future, both Ruby and Yang were to be dropped off at the school by their dad (who went into work really early) nearly an hour before any classes started for the day. Luckily for Yang, she had a club that met before school that she could go to - but Ruby wasn't so lucky.
With nowhere to go, she found herself sitting on the floor in the hallway just outside the library. It was peaceful and had a nice fluorescent fixture just over her head where she sat, giving her a great light source. It turned out to be a perfect place for just killing time and doodling... but today she had company. This new girl definitely didn't seem pleased to see Ruby sitting in that spot, but chose not to say anything. Instead she simply took a seat across the hall and began reading. Ruby spied the name of the author, but couldn't make out how to pronounce it. Andre... Andrzej... Sap... kowski? The hell? She decided not to ask.
It had been almost fifteen minutes without any words.. This was getting awkward.
"Mornin' Blake. Early as usual I see..." A rather chipper voice called out. Ruby looked up and found the girl from her art class, the one with the cool brown hair, walking their way. She had on a lot of brown; her beret, pants and boots were all a dark brown, and her long-sleeved shirt was a lighter brown. The colors reminded Ruby of caramel and chocolate.
The girl suddenly stopped and placed one hand over her mouth in a grandiose fashion, proclaiming, "What is this I see? ...Blake? ...With a friend?!" The teenager gave a loud, theatrical gasp of surprise.
The girl called Blake didn't bat an eye, "Hardly. She just got here first," she said in a dry tone.
A new voice spoke up from behind them, this one of the male persuasion, "Really? But you're always the first one here..."
Ruby looked behind the girl in brown to find a tall, skinny boy with shaggy blonde hair and a thick pair of glasses. He had on what could only be described as standard nerd fashion: a plaid blue button-up shirt, khaki pants, and loafers. Also, his socks were showing. Very clearly.
"Hey, I know you... You're that kid in the art class, right?" the brown girl was leaning closer to get a better look at her redheaded target.
Ruby swallowed, then said, "Yeah. Name's Ruby."
The girl extended a hand which Ruby took, and they formally greeted each other. "I'm Coco. And that's Jaune," she motioned behind her with her free hand.
The boy nodded bashfully, "Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you."
Whoa, hold on a minute... "Jaune ...Arc? ...As in, vomit boy Jaune Arc?"
Needless to say, this got the attention of all three teens. Blake and Coco merely blinked, but Jaune had a look of shock. "How did you...?"
"The fourth of July picnic from ...uh, seven years ago. Remember?"
Jaune's blue eyes narrowed as he looked closer at Ruby's face, before they finally opened wide, "Crater face?!"
"Oh. My. God!" They said in unison, both pointing at each other.
"Okay, ...this ought to be good," Coco intoned with a grin. She walked over to where Blake sat and leaned against the wall. The sitting girl had bookmarked her spot so she could pay better attention.
Jaune started the story, "A while back our families took us to a big fourth of July picnic. It was hosted by the local church, but it was really a community event so everyone could come. It was all-you-could-eat, too."
Ruby poked in, "...and good ol' Jaune here tried to eat all the hot dogs."
Coco and Blake said, together, "All the hot dogs?"
The blonde scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "Heh heh, yeah pretty much. Couldn't help it. I ate so much I got sick..."
Ruby again, "Hence the nickname vomit boy."
Jaune whipped around and said, "Better than blowing myself up with fireworks!"
Brown and amber eyes locked onto the redhead, waiting for an explanation.
"We were playing with those ...popper things. The ones you throw down on the sidewalk and they pop, you know? Well I had a brilliant idea..."
"She tried to light the little string like it was a wick, but then she forgot to put it down..." Jaune continued.
"I didn't know it would blow up so fast..."
"She also didn't know that she had accidentally grabbed a larger version of a popper..."
"It definitely didn't 'pop,'" Ruby growled.
"She burned off one eyebrow and needed stitches. Wore an eyepatch for a month, as I heard it," Jaune chuckled, "hence the nickname crater face."
Ruby crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks in annoyance, but couldn't hide the smile that started creeping onto her face. Eventually, all four teens shared a good laugh at the mental image of the redhead getting a face full of bang.
...
After collecting herself, Coco said, "Well, we don't have any stories that fun, but Blake and I have been in the same class for several years now. She's actually supposed to be a junior this year but she got held-"
"I don't want to talk about that, okay?" the black-haired girl interrupted. She had a cross tone in her voice, effectively stamping out the good mood they had been sharing up 'til now. Ruby felt a wave of guilt wash over her - she never intended to bring up a bad memory simply by talking about the past.
And it was then that the melodic tones of the school's bell further interrupted any other attempts at conversation. Ruby staggered to her feet (which had fallen asleep by this point) and started off to her first class. The other three shared their goodbyes and did the same.
Coco saddled up next to Ruby and offered an apology. "Hey don't worry about her too much, okay? Blake's had a rough time since ...that happened."
"Was it something ...bad?" The redhead looked worried, hoping she hadn't inadvertently opened an old wound.
Coco nodded solemnly. "Yeah, it was. I'm not going to say anything else about it, since it'd be better for her to tell you on her own. Just don't pressure her into it, okay?"
This time it was Ruby who nodded. She knew good and well what it was like to have a memory that was a bit too painful to have someone else bring it up. The mental image of her mother's memorial stone near their family home was still bright and clear in her head.
Coco smiled and gave the shorter girl a hug... and Ruby smelled something similar to hot chocolate coming off of her. Perfume maybe? Would it be rude to ask?
The girl in brown released her grip and purred, "See you later, short stuff." She ruffled Ruby's hair with one hand before walking away, laughing as the shorter girl whined and batted at the offending appendage in irritation.
...
...
It was now Friday night. A whole weekend at home lay ahead of her.
Weiss never imagined she'd actually miss being at school.
As she sat down at her computer, Weiss adjusted the towel that was currently wrapped around her head. It was a chore to get her hair fully clean (especially since she was so meticulous about it), but it was always such a glorious feeling when she was done. Other than that towel, Weiss' evening attire consisted of a plain white t-shirt and a pair of sleep pants that were covered in repeated images of a small white dog lying atop a red doghouse. She had thought it was cute when she got it, but later found that she simply didn't want to part with it. Ever.
The young Schnee thought back to the events of the week, amazed that she could get through such ...odd tasks. Art class was foremost in her mind, mainly due to the redheaded girl she sat next to - Weiss had finally introduced herself to Ruby on Wednesday. Such a pretty name, too... Ruby Rose. Weiss found herself smiling at the thought. And she has such talent... I wonder how she'd do with a painting...?
This past week was quite the eye-opener for Weiss. Never before had she seen someone wield the humble pencil with such a skill as Ruby did. Monday saw her produce that near-perfect image of a fake potted plant, an act that still made Weiss go into a mild shock.
The rest of the week was almost as bad - Qrow didn't have anything for them again on Tuesday so he just ...took off his shoes and had them draw that. On Wednesday he was a bit more prepared, as he had brought in his old laptop computer as the subject for their sketch. Thursday was probably the worst, as the man simply couldn't be bothered to think and just had them all draw whatever they wanted. That might have been easy for the others, but choosing a subject was probably the single biggest challenge Weiss had to face each time she sat down to create anything.
By the time Friday rolled around, Weiss had produced a series of reasonably acceptable chicken-scratches that kinda looked like and old pair of shoes, a dusty old laptop, and a copy of a small world map that was hung just behind the teacher's desk.
And with each picture, Weiss had always looked over at Ruby to see what she had done for the day - each time feeling worse and worse about her own work.
Ruby's drawing of the shoes was not only highly detailed, but she had taken it a step further by adding things to the scene. Weiss was sure she could see a bunch of little ...gnome-like creatures scampering around the shoes, and it looked like they were cleaning and repairing them. She even spied one on top of a shoe with an electric floor buffer.
Her computer drawing looked like something straight out of a science-fiction movie - parts of the casing were drawn like they were see-through and the image on the screen was made to look like it was ...breaking out from the inside. It was incredible work.
The drawing that really made Weiss stare was Thursday's, as Ruby had selected a live subject - the girl with the neat brown hair from across the room. The quality was not photo-realistic as Weiss had expected, but it was still vastly superior to anything she would be able to do on her best day. Ruby had even drawn each freaking lace on the girl's boots. Thank God they didn't have anything assigned today, or Weiss would probably be unable to sleep from the shock... instead she had something else to ponder for the weekend.
Ice-blue eyes wandered over to the corner of her bedroom where a makeshift studio had been put together. She had an old easel set up close to the largest window in her room, with a medium-sized fluorescent light mounted to the side for evening work. Near that was a storage desk that held her supplies: brushes, various small tools, and of course, paints. She easily had three drawers full of the little aluminum tubes. Laying atop the desk was her palette, a round board made of bamboo where she mixed colors before applying them to the canvas. It wasn't a grand studio, but for a high school student who was bent on getting out of her father's shadow, it was basically perfect.
Sitting on the easel was a 9x12 canvas panel. It was blank. Before the weekend was over, it would hold her latest work.
The man called Qrow had been the substitute art teacher for the entire week, but he announced today that he was done. Starting Monday, their real teacher would return. This news caused no small amount of joy within the young Schnee, and several classmates seemed to share her enthusiasm. Ruby certainly looked relieved.
Then came the bombshell: Qrow had been in contact with Ms. Fall during the week and the teacher in question had made up some weekend homework. For each student. Each and every kid in her classes (every period, too) had a different project to do. How the woman could think up such things was quite a mystery, and Weiss had made up her mind to solve it. One of these days, anyway.
Weiss examined her paper, reading the handwritten message: Produce an image of The Beacon. Any size, any medium. Must be in color.
Which is why the girl was now googling lighthouse images, hoping to find at least one good photo of The Beacon and/or any other good picture of a lighthouse. The reference is what mattered, not the details. As she scrolled down the thumbnails, a window popped up with a ping in the corner of the screen. A chat icon.
...
[rabit-ears2000]: hey weiss you busy?
Weiss smiled, glad for the distraction. Wow, how long had it been since she'd been able to chat with her?
[fa11ingsn0w]: Good evening, Velvet. No, I'm simply researching material for my weekend homework.
[rabit-ears2000]: yeah that sounds like you
Weiss stuck out her tongue at the screen.
[fa11ingsn0w]: For your information, I'm looking up images of lighthouses. It's for my art class. I'm going to paint a picture of 'The Beacon.'
[rabit-ears2000]: the beacon? like, oum highs beacon?
[fa11ingsn0w]: You know of it?
[rabit-ears2000]: i should, i go there you know...
Wait, what? She goes there?!
[fa11ingsn0w]: You attend Oum High School? I haven't seen you there, and I started this year.
[rabit-ears2000]: seriously?! what classes? what schedule? WHERE R U?
Weiss snorted lightly as she found herself laughing out loud (so that's what the 'LOL' stands for).
The two old friends continued exchanging messages for about an hour. By the time they had finished, they had agreed to meet at the base of The Beacon first thing Monday morning. Weiss made sure Velvet knew it would have to be brief since she was also starting out in the track and field club that day, and they planned to meet up early in the day to run. It would be good exercise, and the young Schnee did not want to miss that.
Velvet was one of Weiss' only real friends and had been for many years. She didn't come from a rich background like Weiss, but that didn't stop them from getting along famously. They both shared a common love of old movies, fantasy novels, and trying on clothes they wouldn't buy. Store owners hated the two of them. Weiss giggled at the memory.
The painting would certainly happen, but for now Weiss was content with letting her good memories lull her to sleep. With what she remembered of Velvet and what she had recently learned of Ruby (which, to be honest, wasn't much), Weiss found herself looking forward to the day Ruby Rose and Velvet Scarlatina would meet.
...
A/N: Next time we will meet Cinder the art teacher. I promise.
Did you like the user names? I figured it was better than just 'V' and 'W.' I was trying to think of a good way to introduce a few extra characters so I could have a few side pairings to ...er, compliment the main one. I'll be bringing in Pyrrha pretty soon as well.
