Chapter 3: Of Friends and Family
The hallways were so crowded that Alden had to keep a constant eye out on his new teammates to make sure he was still with them. They all filed out the Amphitheatre and through several corridors before entering into a large courtyard at the centre of the academy, there was a large fountain and several older students could be seen sitting by its base.
Glynda led the students into a large building on the side of the courtyard, they all squeezed through the double doors and fun themselves in a small entryway with hallways leading off in nearly every direction. Glynda stopped and faced the assembled group of students.
"This is your year's dormitories, treat them as your home… because they are. Each room is empty, the tags on the outside of each door can only be unlocked by the scroll of a member of the team the room is assigned to and any other person they wish to allow. The rooms are currently unassigned but can be claimed by a team leader's scroll. So chose one which fits your fancy and it will be your home while you are here at Beacon." She waved her hand in dismissal and the students swarmed into the hallways, keen to get a spot they liked.
"To the top!" Ruby called out and all of the members of teams RWBY, JNPR and MANA headed for their stairs nearby and raced to the top of the building. It was mostly empty up here for now as only a few other teams had the same idea. They kept going until they came to a dead end. A few of the rooms down here had already been claimed but there were more than enough for them. RWBY and MANA took two of the rooms on the left, next to each other. JNPR took one on the right, across the hall from RWBY.
Maya slid her scroll against the tag next to their door, it beeped and it clicked as it unlocked. She pushed the door open and they all walked into their new room. It was cosey but had plenty of space for all of them. There were several desks for studying on, shelves literally littered every wall of the room and in every corner was a bed.
In the centre of the wall facing out onto the courtyard was one very large arched window, providing plenty of light even in the late afternoon, however, there were still artificial lamps in the ceiling and each desk had a lamp.
They each walked to a bed: Alden went for the back right- by the window, Maya- the back left, Aegan- the front right and Nite- the front left. They sat down and silence filled the room. Apart from Alden and Aegan they had all just met that day and suddenly they were thrust into a life where they would have to live together. But they just fought through the emerald forest and faced Grimm, heights, and other horrible forms of death together.
They could make it work.
The room was suddenly filled with soft chuckles and giggles as they all came to grips of what had happened that day.
"We've gotten fired off a cliff, fell off a canyon, fought a massive swarm of Grimm and climbed another cliff as well as suddenly being put into a team where we'll have to live together for the next four years. And in all of that, we've never even had the time to introduce ourselves!" Nite howled with laughter, everyone joined it. As ridiculous as it sounded- she had a point. Alden thought like he had been with these people for years and yet he only knew their names and what weapons they had.
It took a few minutes for them to calm down. But when they were on their last few hiccups there was a knock on the door. Aegan got up and opened it, he looked around to see a team of people with a large trolley moving around the corridor leaving various bags by the doors, knocking and then moving on. He looked down and recognised his own luggage within the pile. He pulled them in and shut the door.
As everyone in the room came to realise what Aegan had brought in, they got up and collected their stuff before moving back to their beds.
"Anyway," Nike began, "So, I'm Nike Lakeire, I live in Vacuo but wanted to come to Beacon and so… here I am. I gotta feel sorry for you guys because you're the only people I know!" They all chuckled and began to open their bags and pulled out some clothes and other necessities for the night ahead. But Aegan kept up the trend.
"I'm Aegan Losaw, Wolf Faunus in case you haven't noticed. I live in Vale, near the outskirts." He said whilst unpacking some underwear and stuffing it in the drawer next to his bed.
"Maya Aletha," Alden noticed that she didn't even bother telling them what kind of Faunus she was, "I live just outside the centre of Vale," Maya said whilst taking out a toothbrush.
"Alden Cirq," Alden said when it was his turn. "I live in Patch," he turned to Nite "which is a small island just off the coast of Vale."
"Ah," Nite said, Alden realised that she hadn't heard of Patch before he had even finished his sentence.
They began to do some light unpacking, just enough that they wouldn't be hindered in the morning, they also explored a bit and checked out the bathrooms attached to their rooms. They were small but there were two in every dorm room just in case a mixed gender team inhabited them. Still, they contained everything they would need: a toilet, two sinks and mirrors as well as a small corner shower.
Time seemed to travel quickly as the newly assembled team made small talk and got to know each other better, Maya had sat on the chair by her desk, Nite was looking at the window down at the courtyard, Aegan had sprawled out across his bed looking at the ceiling but still contributing to the conversation, and Alden sat cross-legged on his bed with his back against the headboard.
Alden's ringtone sounded throughout the room from his pocket, he took it out, pushed in the yellow button and pulled it apart to see who was ringing him- it was Mary. He pressed the answer button and Mary's excited face filled the screen.
"Alden!" Mary said, excited to see him, "You didn't call last night, and you didn't seem like you were going to call today!"
Alden smiled at his sister. "Mary, I was in a hall with about a hundred other people last night so I didn't think you guys would appreciate that. As of today, I was thinking about calling you in a couple of minutes, but you beat me to it."
Alden saw the roof behind Mary change as she walked from the kitchen into the sitting room, she sat down on the sofa and two more faces appeared either side- his parents.
"Alden!" His mother began, "How are you?"
"Hey, guys! I'm good," Alden said as he settled back against the wall, he noticed the other members of MANA were watching his interactions with his family. "We went through initiation today…"
"Did you fight any Grimm?" Mary interrupted.
"Umm…" Alden said as the dorm room was filled with sniggers about the irony of the statement. "You could say so…"
"Who are the voices in the background?" His father asked.
"Hmm? Oh, those are my teammates." Alden said he pressed a button for to switch to the front camera and pointed it around the room.
"This is our room, that there is Aegan," he said pointing towards the corner, "That is Nite by the window, and sitting on the chair is Maya the team leader." All the members of MANA waved at the camera when he said their names.
"Oh! What's the team name?" Mary asked nearly jumping up and down on the sofa, like Ruby she could get overexcited about these things.
"MANA," he told her.
"Alden, is that your family?" Maya asked from the desk. Alden nodded.
"Ooh, make space." She told him. Alden turned sideways and shuffled up to the middle of the bed, Maya got up and sat beside him so she could see his scroll and waved at his family. The rest of MANA came to sit beside them and introductions were exchanged.
"So, have you got up to anything exciting?" Ogora asked.
"If you count saving your son's arse several times every couple of minutes then yes."
The Cirqs on the scroll erupted in laughter, Alden looked at Maya jokingly offended.
"When did you save my arse?" he asked her.
"When that Grimm pounced after we got to the other side of the Canyon."
"You didn't save me, you just killed it when it got near." Alden retaliated
"What were you going to do about it then?" Maya retorted
"Shoot it!"
"You were out of ammo!" Maya laughed.
"I had switched to lightning dust, I had plenty!"
The Cirqs heads moved left to right, tracing the tennis match of an argument but smiling nevertheless.
"Aww, I wished I could have been there…" Mary said with a wistful look in her eyes.
"Oh! And talking of such things… Ruby got accelerated into Beacon." Alden said.
"Really!? Typical… well, it explains why she wasn't at signal today." Mary huffed.
"Hey, you'll get your chance," Alden reassured her.
They kept talking for a bit longer but soon, the moon peeked over the top of another building.
"It's getting late, and we've got classes tomorrow so I'm going to have to say goodnight," Alden said after he yawned.
"Alright call again soon." His mother said. Alden nodded and rang off.
"Your family is really nice," Aegan said.
Alden nodded, "Could never ask for anyone better."
"Alright everyone lights out," Maya said. They got changed for the night, Aegan flicked the light and a small chorus of "goodnight" went around the room. They all then buried themselves under their covers and the room was silent.
An alarm sounded throughout the room. Thankfully Maya silenced it before it became too irritating. Alden yawned and sat up. He looked at the alarm clock: 7:00 AM. He groggily got to his feet and walked into the bathroom. Whilst he was absentmindedly brushing his teeth he noticed Aegan walk in and start doing the same, he too looked like a zombie. After he was finished he splashed some water on his face to help him wake up and turned back out the bathroom.
He opened the door to find Maya neatening the covers on the bed, she was humming to herself very quietly and her tail was slightly swishing from side to side. He closed the door behind him which caused Maya to look over her shoulder.
"Morning." She said, before turning back to what she was doing.
"Morning," Alden replied and cleaned his own part of the dorm room. Both Aegan and Nite soon joined them. Once they had cleaned the room they began the arduous process of unpacking. Mostly it was unpacking clothes and various other personal items such as the occasional poster and Alden placed the black stuffed dog toy on the nightstand, which he quickly had to explain it was a lucky charm from his parents to several pairs of raised eyebrows. Also, they unpacked lots of books, both personal and textbooks so that nearly all the shelves were filled but with some space left.
When they were finished they stood by the door and examined their handiwork. The dorm room finally looked like it was lived in, it was slightly cramped, but with their bags stuffed under the beds, there was plenty of room to walk around.
"There we go," Maya said. "Good work everyone." She walked over to the desk and opened a book to reveal a timetable. "Right so our first class is in half an hour so we better get ready for it and we can drop by the canteen on the way."
Aegan walked up to one of the wardrobes in the room. "Now if I remember correctly there should be…" He opened the door to reveal a few sets of black and red uniforms. "Yep, here we are!"
They all headed to their own respective wardrobes and took out their uniforms. In a few minutes they were changed, the uniforms were surprisingly comfortable- even though they looked itchy. As Alden was finishing his tie he looked over to Maya her to see her fiddling with her jacket at the back.
"Stupid… tail."
"Having fun?" Alden asked.
She turned and glared at him. "Don't laugh."
Alden held his hands up "I wasn't."
She sighed and then walked over to her bag and pulled out a knife.
"Are you seriously about to take a knife to the school uniform?" Nite asked.
"Well, they haven't exactly designed it to fit everyone," Maya said as she was looking over her shoulder and lining up the knife.
"That is not going to end well…" Aegan said suspiciously looking at the knife.
"Well, what else am I Supposed to do?" Maya replied.
"Hang on," Alden said and walked over. He took the knife from her hands and walked behind her. He pushed the jacket against her back to find the "bulge" of the base of her tail sticking out. He visualised a circle where her tail would fit before pulling her jacket back. Alden very gently cut out the fabric, he placed the discarded piece on the desk before reaching through the hole and very gently grabbed the base of her tail, he pulled it through the hole but he noticed Maya flinch.
"Are you OK?" he asked. All she did was nod but Alden could swear she looked nervous.
"There we go." He said and backed off, you couldn't even tell that a hole had been cut into the uniform.
"Thanks," Maya said, "That's much more comfortable."
"Right then," Nite began "I'm hungry." She said and walked out the door, the rest of MANA not far behind. They all headed down the stairs and out into the courtyard. It was much busier this time of morning as several teams had grabbed breakfast but then moved outside to enjoy a bit of the morning air before going to class.
They walked around the fountain and headed for the canteen. Inside there were even more teams milling around and eating breakfast. They walked up to the serving area and all grabbed various breakfasts: from pancakes to bacon and eggs. They all moved down to the back of the hall and sat at one of the only empty tables left. As they were walking he looked around to see if he could spot anyone from JNPR or RWBY but none of them were present.
"So, what have we got first?" Aegan asked, his mouth only slightly full with pancakes. Maya reached into her pocket and brought out her scroll. She expanded and tapped a few times to reveal a few pictures she had taken of their timetable.
"First is… History with a doctor Oobleck." Maya said.
Someone winced as they walked passed them, they looked like an older student but not by much- maybe the year above? She had long brown hair which ran down her back, nothing particularly out of the ordinary except the two rabbit ears sticking out of the top of her head.
"Doctor Oobleck can seem a bit… hyperactive at first, he probably isn't the best to have as your first lesson. But give him time." She said.
"Thanks for the heads up," Maya said smiling, before a look of recognition passed over her face. "Velvet!?"
The name caused the girl to look more closely and a similar expression appeared on her too.
"Maya!?" She sprinted around the table and Maya got up, the hugged in greeting.
"Oh, I haven't seen you in ages!" Maya said. She pulled back before turning to the rest of her team. "Guys, this is Velvet, a good friend of mine." The Faunus waved. "Velvet, these are my teammates: Aegan, Nite and Alden." They all waved in greeting.
"Nice to meet you." She said before turning back to Maya "We'll talk later." And then walked off to find her team.
They finished their breakfasts in relative silence. When they were done they all stood up and deposited their empty trays. They turned and headed for the exit. However, Alden did not fail to notice a group of boys- Team CRDL if he remembered correctly look at Maya and Aegan whilst whispering between themselves and sniggering with evil glints in their eyes. He couldn't help but clench his fists and walk on, hoping nothing will come of it.