Blake had finally ended her last class for the day. Normally, she was attentive in class but this professor was the definition of boredom. Never in her life did Blake Belladonna yawn in class until today. Professor Port, as Blake knew, had quite the reputation and he was also the type of person who told stories of his great reputation, ever single time. Yang had warned her about the professors at breakfast, but she never realized that her description of Professor Port was going to be an understatement.
Blake walked out of the classroom with her book in hand and stretched her arms, not noticing that she had accidentally hit someone. "Sorry-" Blake turned around immediately but stopped in her tracks when she learned that the person that she had just hit was none other than Cardin Winchester.
"Watch where you're going there!" one of his companions sporting a green mohawk yelled at her. Blake hid the disgusted look on her face. Who on earth would sport a green mohawk? Was that even allowed or his natural hair color?
"Calm down Russel." Cardin gently gave him a push back. Blake noticed he seemed to be the leader of this group or sorts. "I'm sure it was an accident, am I correct...?" he held her hand gently, preferably to land a gentle kiss on the back of Blake's hand.
"Blake." she pulled back before he could. Blake could hear a little chuckle from a passerby. Cardin Winchester was just rejected by this newbie. Cardin stood upright and gave her a smirk.
"Like I was saying, I'm sure that it was just an accident."
"Sure, whatever." Blake responded casually. She wanted to avoid trouble as much as possible.
"See Russel?" Cardin glanced at his companion. "You just gotta treat the ladies nice."
This last statement of Cardin made Blake's blood boil. Earlier that day, she saw him pulling on the ears of another faunus. Blake was just lucky that she could hide her cat ears under her bow, but if he knew that she was faunus, would he have treated her any different?
"You-" Blake was about to give him a piece of her mind when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder.
"There you are Blakey." Sun gleamed. Blake rolled her eyes; him again. "We should get going, Ruby and the others were looking for you. 'Sup winchester?" he gave a nod to Cardin, which just earned Sun a scoff from the boy.
"Whatever faunus." Cardin walked away with his group. Once they were at a safe distance away, Blake pushed Sun away and glared at him. She wasn't comfortable with what had just happened.
"What was that?" Blake questioned; all the anger that she was going to pour on Cardin was now aimed towards Sun. Sun stepped back, a little confused at Blake.
"You mean saving you back there from the grimy hands of Cardin Winchester?" Sun spat back. "You're very welcome." he crossed his arms in front of his chest. Blake rolled her eyes (this seems to be a habit of hers), she didn't have time for pointless things like being saved from the likes of Cardin Winchester. Blake held back whatever she wanted to say to him; that feeling in the pit of her stomach came back again and she did not like it. She turned her back on the monkey faunus and walked away.
Sun noticed Blake walk away and the expression from his face dropped. Had he done anything to upset the raven-haired girl?
Blake decided to check out Beacon's library.
"Welcome." a young man by the desk greeted her. Blake glanced over to see a student by he desk. He had black hair that was tied into a low ponytail with a pink lock of hair by his bangs. Blake noticed the name tag he wore, 'Lie Ren'. "Are you new here?" he asked, his voice somewhat monotonous.
"Uhm, yeah." Blake responded. He must be some sort of library volunteer or something. "I was just going to check out the library."
"I see." he responded and looked back at the large book he was reading. Well, he was pretty... eccentric?
Blake looked around the huge library. Unlike her previous school, this library was huge! And the word huge even seemed like an understatement. She felt a small grin creep on her face as she made her way through the aisles, exploring the different variety of books the Beacon Library had to offer. She felt a small excitement surge right through her, this was the only time she'd get excited about anything.
"Let's see..." Blake muttered to herself, her index finger slowly guiding her eyes through the different titles. She had already read that one, that one, this one, that one. "Oh." a book caught Blake's attention. She gradually pulled out what seemed to be an old book. It's leather spine fragile to the touch and it's pages reeking of age. What perplexed Blake was that the title had already faded from the book.
Blake had decided to take a peek into the book but opening it there in the middle of the aisle wasn't the safest place. She walked to one of the empty tables and slowly opened the book. It was dusty, causing Blake to sneeze a bit. She wiped her nose a bit before proceeding to look skim through the pages of the book. It was old and fragile and had that old-leather book smell that she loved.
"Hey Blake." she heard his voice again. Blake turned around to see none other that Sun Wukong behind her. How long was he standing there? And why didn't Blake sense his presence. No matter what, Blake felt that annoying feeling again. "I'm sorry if I did anything back there to upset you."
Blake blinked for a second. In all honesty, he didn't do anything to upset her exactly. She just hated the feeling in her stomach whenever he was around. It made her feel uncomfortable and she hated that.
"Look," she looked up at him, quickly avoiding his gray eyes. "You did nothing wrong. I'm just not used to being around boys a lot." Blake explained, steering her attention back at the book that took her interest earlier. Sun grabbed the chair beside her and took a seat.
"I kinda noticed." he softly chuckled, watching Blake try to read the book. "So, you like books huh?" he asked, amused at how Blake had a somewhat of a scowl on her face. Blake on the other hand, still quite not used at his presence by her side, couldn't force him to go away. It would just be too impolite.
"I do." she responded, flipping the page. When was he ever going to leave?
"You know, I have a party this weekend. Yang's coming, maybe you'd like to come too." he smiled, that cocky (let's admit it Blake, sorta cute/sexy) smile on his face. Blake glanced at him, she didn't understand why he'd even still be there, let alone the fact that she had just been invited to a party. "And your other friends are coming as well."
"I don't know," she responded, trying to hide the slight nervousness she was feeling at the moment. "I've never been-"
"Hey Blake, Sun." she heard Yang approaching them. Blake was too caught up on 'why was Sun still hanging around' to even notice Yang's presence. What was going on with her?
"Hey Yang. I was just inviting Blake to the party this weekend." he gave Yang the usual high-five greeting they had. Yang grabbed the chair across from Blake and sat down.
"Cool, we can both go Blake." she smiled. "Sun's parties are always amazing. You'll never get bored." Yang reassured her. Blake wasn't too sure about attending. Parties weren't her crowd. She'd rather be alone in her dorm room reading a nice book, snuggled up in the warmth of her blanket with a nice cup of hot chocolate or coffee in hand.
"I don't think I'll be attending." Blake told her frankly. "Parties aren't... you know, my thing."
"Why not?" Sun questioned.
"It's just... not." Blake stood up with the book in-hand. "I'm going to go borrow this book." she said, walking away from the two. She wanted to leave before she say anything unnaturally 'Blake'. Yang looked at Sun, who seemed to be a bit disappointed that the raven haired girl turned down his invitation.
Yang sighed, she needed a way for Blake to come.
"Come on Blake." Yang whined, kneeling on the floor, begging for Blake to change her mind and come along. "Pleaaase, Weiss and Ruby wants you to go too!" she said, holding up her scroll towards Blake who was busy reading a book.
"Please Blake! We'd really want you to be there." Ruby's voice begged over the call. Blake closed her book and looked at Yang.
"I told you, I'm not interested." Blake told them, getting a groan from the sisters who kept on begging for her to come. "What's the big deal if I came?" Blake asked. "No one knows me, no one really should care about it and why would anyone throw a party on a weekend when there's class?" she questioned, trying to make a point; which obviously didn't pass on to Yang and Ruby.
"God you sound like Pyrrha." Yang complained, making Blake glare at her for a bit.
"Look Blake, Weiss is going and she hates Sun!" Ruby said over call. This was followed by an 'ow' and a few words from Weiss in the background that Yang or Blake couldn't make out.
"Even if I was going, I don't have anything to wear." Blake said, hoping that it would end the conversation. Yang's eyes sparkled and she looked at Blake, a wide smile plastered across her face.
"If clothes are the problem then you don't have to worry anymore!" Yang proudly stated. "Blake Belladonna, we are going shopping."
Blake dreaded the words that came out of Yang's mouth. Shopping? She wasn't a fan of shopping. She only shopped for clothes when she found her old clothes to be unwearable in public or if they weren't as comfortable as before. Yang seemed to be the person who would be interested in shopping for clothes all the time. Afterall, Yang took up 2/3 of their closet space.
"It'll be fun! Plus Ruby and Weiss could come along." she smiled.
"I'm-" Blake tried to decline the invitation.
"I'll take that as a yes!" Yang announced over the scroll, getting a yey from Ruby and Weiss stating that Blake didn't even agree yet. Blake wasn't too comfortable with Yang's decision. The only people she had gone shopping with was her mother and the people she was with during her stay in the orphanage. She had never gone out with friends before. Blake didn't notice that Yang had blabbered already to Weiss and Ruby over the scroll. She decided to keep silent and just go with whatever Yang had in store.
She never knew, maybe it would be fun.
Remember when Blake thought that it could be fun shopping with Yang? Try horror as the word to describe it. After class, Yang immediately pulled Blake along with Weiss and Ruby to go shopping for an outfit for Blake. It wasn't like Blake at all to agree to this, but if it made Yang shut up until the day of the party (where she planned to fake a cold or something) she'd happily obliged. Plus, it wasn't so bad hanging out with them outside of Beacon.
"What about this one?" Yang held up a black mini cocktail dress against Blake. Blake looked at her reflection in the mirror and found the dress to be too short for her liking. It was even shorter than the skirt of their uniform which was short enough.
"It's too short." Blake commented, looking at the three girls who were still rummaging around the store for her to wear. Blake wasn't much of a complainer but this was the fourth store they had been too. But she was pretty thankful that they were out of that lingerie store Yang had dragged them to earlier. "And isn't this a bit too, formal?" she noted.
"I've never been to a party that Sun threw that was formal." Weiss commented.
"That's true. I bet that this party will be in his house again." Ruby commented. "If that's the case, maybe we can get Blake some nice jeans or something?" she suggested, making her older half-sister scoff.
"Jeans? This is a party by Sun!" Yang exclaimed. "Anybody who's anybody will be there."
Blake pondered on that statement for a minute. Obviously, Yang would be there because she seemed to be a close friend of Sun and they got along well. She had only known Sun for a day and her acquaintance with Yang wasn't even a week strong. But she had to admit, that she never thought that she'd get this far in 3 days since her arrival at Beacon. She had met more friends than she ever had prior to her arrival, got invited to a party and now, she was out of school, after class with some of the friends she had met in the last 3 days, shopping? This was a huge change for Blake.
"Blake, are you okay?" Yang asked. Blake snapped back from her thoughts, a slight red hue coming to her face. How long was she thinking? Blake gave herself a mental slap on the face.
"I was just wondering..." she had to make up an excuse. Any would do. "... if, you guys are hungry...?"
"Thank god!" Yang sighed in relief. "I thought you'd never ask. I'm starving!"
"We can go try that new shake place." Ruby said excitingly. Weiss interjected with another location and then Yang joined the argument. Blake sighed, another fight about food. Blake found it somewhat weird that she was enjoying the company of others and slowly she was growing fond of them.
And of course, she found it amusing how those three could easily get into a heated argument about food.
Author's Notes: I don't know how I managed to write this chapter. I kinda had a feeling that this chapter would be a filler prior to Chapter 4, which I planned to be the chapter of Sun's party. Even though this was supposed to be a filler, it turned out to be quite long? I tried to make Cardin look like an ass here as well and I don't know if I've achieved it. If you guys have any suggestions for the story (I'm open to consider ideas to be honest), please let me know. Now I have to carefully type out Chapter 4.
Reviews are appreciated by the author greatly.