Andrew awoke the following morning earlier than all the students and had a quick stretch, even though he had slept on bedding it was still not the most comfortable of places to sleep. Suddenly he realised that he had fallen asleep…with no problems what so ever and on top of that with no dreams. He sighed
"You were right Glynda." He said to himself, acknowledging her advice. He was so worked up on the students he manged to sleep on a bad day. After that he started to tidy up his bedding and then put it to one side so he could put it away later when all the students were up. He then walked down the stairs and very quietly made his way through the sleeping students and out the door, as he closed the door he took out his scroll to see the time was 05:39.
"I've got time to get a shower and some breakfast before I'm needed at the emerald forest." He then felt his left shoulder crack out and then into place because of how he had been sleeping on it. It was a fleeting pain which only confirmed that a nice warm shower was needed to relieve his aching joints.
A few hours later he was cleaned up and prepared for the first exam with the new students so when he left his flat, he almost appeared to be a different man. As he was walking through the courtyard, he saw that many students were now up and about, hopefully getting ready for the day ahead. Some of the students passing by even said good morning to him which he replied in kind.
Soon he was at Glynda's office and was about to knock on the door but it instead opened with Ozpin and Glynda on the other side.
"Good morning Andrew, I trust you slept well?" Ozpin asked
"Yeah, pretty well actually. Thank you and thank you Glynda." Glynda smiled back at him
"Think nothing of it. I hope the students did not keep you up to late." She said
"Not at all, after stopping a certain number of students from starting a shouting match everything was then remarkably peaceful." He saw Ozpin raze and eyebrow and sip his coffee at the same time.
"Indeed. Very well if you are ready then shall we proceed to the cliff side for the Exam?" Andrew nodded so Ozpin continued "Glynda, would you mind calling all of the first years to the exam site please"
"Very well" she said and headed off to the broadcast room.
"I'm glad you slept well my friend, I was worried about you after yesterday. Again, I must apologise for…" before Ozpin could finish Andrew interrupted him by holding his hand up.
"No apologies necessary sir, I can assure you I'm fine. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how today's events will unfold. I'm very interested to see if there are any individuals that might make me take note." Then together they both went off to the cliff side and would await the arrival of the potential first years.
When all the students had gathered on the cliff side, Ozpin, Glynda and Andrew were standing ready to begin the exam. Ozpin started to go through the rules of the exam followed by Glynda's explanation of the teams and how partners would be formed which definitely made Ruby scream out in panic. As Ozpin finished his explanation that ended on the question section, Andrew released a remote from his cybernetic arm and it shot straight into the hand of the same arm.
"I hope you are all ready for this, there's no turning back now." He said with a wicked glint in his eye and pressed the button which started the catapults that all the students were standing on. As each one was being fired there was one young boy who hadn't grasped the fact that Ozpin's question section was more of a joke than anything else. When it was his turn to be fired, Andrew waited till he was in the middle of a question before sending him on his way.
"So, what exactly is this landing stra…" and then Andrew pressed the button, sending him flying. Glynda and Ozpin both looked straight at Andrew who just chuckled back to which they then watched the students fly towards the forest.
"How much would you bet that boy doesn't make it back." He said
"Andrew!" Glynda shouted
"What, you were both thinking it" The three of them then began watching different feeds from the forest and the students as they began to pair up. There was only one person that Andrew was interested in and she wasn't fairing so well.
"Miss Rose and Miss Schnee. I didn't know that was Winters sister that I scolded last night." He said
"What did you say?" asked Glynda
"Oh, just that Ruby and a girl called Yang got into an argument with Schnee last night. If I had known who she was then I would have made a more lasting impression." Ozpin turned to Andrew
"You also failed to notice that Yang is the daughter of Taiyang Xiao Long." Andrew was shocked hearing this.
"No way! Shows how long it's been since I last saw him. She was just a little sprog, time does fly by when you're not paying attention."
"Indeed" Ozpin remarked
Just then the camera feed showed Ruby and Weiss fighting several Beowolf's, Weiss was trying to treat the fight as a form of fencing battle just as Ruby abruptly charged in and almost got herself hit with her partner's attack. Not only was Andrew severally unimpressed by both their actions but he was also becoming angry over the fact that this was Ruby's chance to make a good impression on him and she was failing, badly.
If you make Ozpin look bad, then I will throw you out of Beacon from the cliff myself Andrew thought as he kept watching. This was just what he didn't want to happen, between Ozpin or himself being proven wrong in any situation he would always prefer it to be himself.
He continued watching the pair as they argued and bickered over their current situation and showed no signs of achieving their objective. Now he was not only disappointed with Ruby but Weiss was doing little better so was also in trouble of a long walk of a short cliff. During this time, Ozpin took notice of how Andrew was feeling
"Have you already decided their fate before they have finished their exam?" He asked. Andrew looked up from his scroll before answering
"I doubt they will ever finish the exam at the rate they're going. Looks like Ruby wasn't the only one who wasn't ready for this."
"And your exam went that much better?" Ozpin laughed and this made Andrew remember his entrance exam. Thinking about it he had to admit that Ozpin had a point but still he was doing better by this time in the test.
After a while all the students had paired up and Andrew was starting to look at them all in turn, some were good partners and had chosen well. Others were not so good, in particular Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos. While Pyrrha was an accomplished fighter with several tournaments wins under her belt, Jaune was showing that he had not one ounce of skill to his name thus making the pair far less effective and running the risk of both being killed as a consequence. Andrew then brought up the transfer papers for Jaune to see what they said. Per what was written he graduated Signal and was a fairly average student with nothing marking him down but just as equally nothing razing him from the others. Andrew decided that if Jaune passed the exam then he would consider it further as there was no guarantee that he was going to survive the day.
Sometime later after a few artefacts had been taken from the shine, Andrew switched back to Ruby and Weiss to see how well they were doing and was shocked to find them hanging from a Nevermore.
"What the hell? When did this happen?" he said aloud to which Ozpin just quietly watched the situation unfold. Realising he wasn't going to get a response he looked back at his scroll to find that Ruby was now falling from the sky, leaving her partner alone and still clutching on to the Grimm.
A fine way to treat your partner he thought while disapprovingly shaking his head. The chaos that followed between four sets of pairs made him almost cringe as none of the eight students seemed to know what was going on.
"This is a joke! It has to be! Ozpin sir, you must see this now! I admit that I was focused on Ruby but now I can see that none of these students seem to know what's going on! This is going to be the highest casualty rate in the history of this school!" Even after all his shouting, Ozpin just watched and took a quick sip of his coffee. Glynda however did take notice of his attitude.
"Come now Andrew, they all passed the entrance test so they wouldn't be here if they couldn't handle this. They will pull themselves together, just wait and see."
"Or they won't." Andrew shot back and went on watching the exam.
All of a sudden it was like a switch had been flipped as the eight students were forced into a fight with a huge Nevermore and a Deathstalker. The two Grimm caused the eight to split into two teams of four and Andrew watched on as they dealt with the new threat. The Deathstalker was killed by using its own stinger against it and he was slightly impressed at the ingenuity of the four. The Nevermore was then killed by a planned team effort led by Ruby using something from each member of the four.
"Are you impressed yet?" Andrew heard Glynda say. He snorted before he replied
"Not yet but they are on the right lines. Let's see them when they're with their true teams." Glynda laughed at the fact that Andrew would not except he might be wrong, let alone that he would be impressed by anyone.
"That's more then you were giving them yesterday so I think I will take that as a positive." Ozpin said while looking towards Glynda and joining her laugh with a smile of his own.
"I'm glad I can offer you some amusement." Andrew retorted deciding that the exam was as good as done and would just needed to wait for the students to return to the cliff so they could be assigned teams.
Within the hour all the pairs started to arrive and once the last pair reach the top Ozpin announced
"Congratulations to all of you for finishing the exam and retrieving the Artefacts from the forest temple. Now find the other pair that have the same piece as yourselves then we will return to the main hall where the other years will be waiting for you to be given your team names."
There was some hubbub as all the students found their new team mates and somehow Andrew wasn't surprised to see that the two teams he had spent most of the exam watching were now officially teams at Beacon. Once it was all done the group started to make their way to the school apart from Andrew who held back a little so as to walk behind the students. He saw Ruby look at him for a moment and he simply stared back at her, only for a few seconds and then turned to look out over the cliff side. She then lowered her head and turned towards her friends while they walked on towards the main hall.
"I hope you are ready for what's to come next Miss Rose." He said to himself. After a couple of minutes, he then started to walk in the direction of the main hall but kept an eye out for any students that had fallen behind. He'd lost track of time when he reached the main hall and he saw that the naming ceremony was well under way.
"Oops. Guess I was slower than I thought." He then watched as a team walked on stage.
"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white ruck pieces, from this day forward you will work together as team JNPR. Led by Jaune Arc." Andrew had to keep his jaw from hitting the floor in utter disbelief.
"Ozpin, you must be joking! Out of all of them you choose him!" Andrew was beginning to believe that Ozpin was doing all this on purpose with the students this year. Was he trying to make him go mad or was he trying to elicit a more human response from him? Even though this wasn't his first choice he still applauded the team, all be it not as vigorously as he should have done.
"And finally, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward you shall work together as team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose."
"Now that one proves it." Andrew said and didn't bother staying for the end of the ceremony as he walked out of the hall. He was feeling extremely tired, after the previous night's uncomfortable sleep and today's excitement. He was really looking forward to sleeping in his own bed and writing this day off as a prank set up by Ozpin and Glynda.