Ruby struggled to pay attention as their Advanced Strategy and Tactics teacher droned on about how an adult Ursa should be distracted from the front while another teammate flanks from the rear. But right about now all the words seemed to jumble together as Ruby shifted between barely paying attention to thinking about how she was going to pull off her "Friends with Weiss" charade around Yang and Blake. Blake had tried to talk to her about it on their way to class, but Ruby "remembered" that she let Jaune borrow her textbook a couple days ago. Well at least that's what she convinced Yang and Blake before she ran off down the hall looking for her fellow team leader.

Unfortunately Ruby never thought out the rest of her plan because as soon as the two girls arrived to class they were raising an assortment of questions that caught Ruby completely off guard. The one she struggled to answer was, "Why did you run off looking for Jaune if we have the same class as him?" Yang said as she pointed to Jaune sitting across the room waving at the first sign of recognition. Luckily the professor walked in just before Ruby could blurt out some ridiculous excuse.

'Okay if I tell them I wanted to get my textbook from Jaune without them because he was afraid Yang might be angry at him for that joke from earlier they'd believe that… Right?' Ruby quickly glanced between Jaune and Yang, and let out a deep sigh. 'Who am I kidding Yang doesn't hold grudges and Jaune probably wouldn't mind losing a tooth over that joke.'

"Ms. Rose! Would you mind answering my question?" Professor Chaux chimed, with a small amount of anger in her voice.

'Oh crap!' Ruby had almost forgotten that she was in the middle of class "Umm can you," She cleared her throat a little, before responding in a small voice "repeat the question?"

The professor let out an exhausted sigh, "What is the best way to assault multiple Ursa if you happen to be alone, Ms. Rose?"

Ruby felt like a complete fool everyone in class was staring at her and she was just sitting there clueless. 'Say something! Say what you would do.'

"Umm you should attack from above…" 'Please be right, please be right, please be right!'

Professor Chaux let out a small sigh, "Although that goes against my recommendation, I suppose that could work. But, Ms. Rose please pay attention." She said quickly before Ruby could internally celebrate her lucky guess.

Ruby hung her head in shame for a few moments before picking up a pencil and starting to write some notes.

'This situation with Weiss isn't helping me in class. I got to put it behind me or I'm going to start falling behind.' She looked up and saw Professor Chaux gesturing to weak points on a large stuffed Ursa. 'I should apologize to her after class, I was a little rude.' Ruby thought as she wrote down a few more notes.

The rest of class went rather quickly once Ruby started to write down notes and before she knew it class was dismissed. Ruby had about twenty minutes before her next class was going to start so she decided this was the best time to apologize.

"Hey Ruby, are you coming or what?" Yang shouted from the doorway.

"Go on ahead I'll catch up." Ruby responded quickly. Yang raised an eyebrow in curiosity but shrugged it off and started to walk towards their next class.

Now the only ones left in the class were Ruby, the professor, and a stuffed Ursa (But he probably couldn't hold a very lively conversation).

Professor Chaux sat at her desk and shuffled through a few papers, which Ruby assumed were essays. She had light green eyes and brown hair that complimented her rosy face nicely. She didn't look older than forty but she had an extremely somber face that lead Ruby to believe she might be older. She wore a lime green and silver dress and a pair of reading glasses. She looked up from an essay quickly and saw Ruby standing directly in front of her desk.

She let out a small sigh, "Yes, what is it?"

Ruby was taken back slightly by her tired reply, "I wanted to apologize for earlier." Professor Chaux looked up from a paper to meet Ruby's gaze. "I should have been paying attention."

The professor looked Ruby up and down before leaning back in her chair, "It's alright, but please pay attention and don't waste my time Miss Rose."

Ruby flinched a little and bowed her head, "Sorry." The professor just responded with a small warm smile. Her smile passed quickly though after Ruby stood up straight and began to get ready to leave.

"Is everything alright Miss Rose?"

"What do you mean?" Ruby said slightly confused.

"You seem… uneasy." She said as she removed her glasses.

"I'm fine, Professor Chaux."

She leaned forward on her desk and raised an eyebrow, but let it fall after a couple of moments. "If you say so."

At this Ruby began to walk towards the door, "Miss Rose," Ruby turned to see Professor Chaux reclined in her chair. "If you ever need to talk, my door is always open." She said as she gave Ruby a warm smile.

Ruby returned the smile and gave a nod in recognition, before walking out the door towards her next class.

Ruby's next class was Combat Practice with Professor Goodwitch so she was torn between being excited over a good fight and being nervous about sitting next to Weiss for the whole class.

Unfortunately the decision was pretty simple, because as soon as she arrived at the hall in her normal clothes she found Weiss and Yang in a heated argument about how Yang's clothes serve almost no purpose in a fight.

'She can't even go five minutes without starting a fight!' Ruby ranted internally.

"Oh so your little skirt and high heeled wedge boots have sooo much purpose in combat?"

"My combat skirt allows for mobility and boots give me stability during a fight."

"That's a load of crap and you know it.

"Well at least it has more purpose than your scanty top and extremely short shorts. Then again they probably have some purpose other than combat."

"What are you getting at?"

"I think you know what I'm getting at, and a majority of the guys probably know what you're putting out as well."

'Did she just?'

"I'm going to break every bone in your body you stuck up bitch!" Yang shouted as Ember Celica began to activate.

'Oh crap!' "Yang don't!" Ruby shouted as she sprang between Yang and her soon to be dead teammate.

"Ruby get out of the way!" Yang shouted furiously.

"No, she's not worth it." Ruby pleaded, as she imitated a wall.

Yang opened her mouth ready to shout at Ruby again, but Weiss began to walk off into the hall paying no attention to the two sisters. Yang grinded her teeth in rage and Ruby placed a hand on her shoulder to let her know she wasn't the only one who was irritated. Ruby stood there with Yang to allow her some time to calm down, but that was interrupted when they heard a loud thump come from inside the hall. They went inside to check and saw Weiss lying on the floor and Cardin scratching his head a few feet from her.

"Why don't you watch where you're going, you brainless ape?!" Weiss shouted indignantly at Cardin.

"Hey, you ran into me, princess." Cardin replied, with a bitter tone.

"As if, you were busy talking to your brain dead teammates when you came out of nowhere and knocked me over like some bumbling imbecile."

Cardin clenched his fists while Sky and Dove gave each other infuriated glances.

"Who you calling brain dead, Schnee?" Cardin replied holding back Russel with one hand.

"If I have to repeat myself then my first remark must have been accurate." Weiss said coldly before walking off towards team RWBY's usual spot.

Ruby let out a small sigh, 'What's her problem?! She's just starting fights now.' Ruby said internally, she stared at Weiss for a good few seconds and played the previous nights argument through her head again. 'You know what, it's not my problem. She can pick all the fights she wants now.' Ruby said defiantly.

It was only a few more minutes until Professor Goodwitch came into the hall and brought the students to order.

"Good morning students, we're going to get right into combat today. As usual the computer shall decide which two students will be in our first match." At that she began to press keys on her Scroll and two blank rosters appeared on the large monitor in the hall. Another key was pressed and faces began to quickly run faces through the blank rosters until it slowed and landed on two familiar faces that almost made Ruby gasp. The monitor read, "Cardin Winchester vs. Weiss Schnee" and the portraits helped confirm that it wasn't some other Weiss Schnee.

Ruby looked over to Cardin who was whispering something to Russel while wearing an evil smile. Ruby turned to Weiss to warn her about Cardin and wish her luck, but she decided against it at the last minute.

'She can handle herself. She doesn't need our help.' Ruby said to herself as Weiss took position at the center of the stage. Cardin casually sauntered onto the stage shortly after wearing a smug and suspicious smile.

Professor Goodwitch stepped forward midway between Weiss and Cardin, "Alright, the fight will begin on my mark. The use of Semblances and Dust are permitted. The fight ends when either of your auras reaches critically low. Good luck to the both of you." The professor walked a safe distance away from the two competitors and pulled out her Scroll, "Weapons draw!" At this Weiss unsheathed Myrtenaster and took an offensive position in a flash, while Cardin drew his mace gripped it with both hands and raised the handle above his head and the club part downward towards Weiss.

"Begin!"

Weiss lunged forward towards Cardin at her top speed. Cardin swung downward at the ground smashing the stone floor into chunks and dust that filled the air. Weiss ended up lunging right into the cloud of dirt and becoming suffocated as it filled her eyes and lungs. She began to make a glyph to jump out of the cloud, but was immediately stopped when a fist struck her on the back of the head knocking her to the ground.

'She'll be fine.' Ruby told herself as she saw Weiss' aura drop slightly. She couldn't see through the thick cloud of dirt but she knew that Cardin had the upper hand.

Weiss didn't expect Cardin to be so tactful and never expected that she'd have to roll her way to freedom. Weiss tried to think of her next move as she rolled over stone and debris to freedom. As soon as she got out of the cloud she sprang to her feet and pointed Myrtenaster at the cloud. She took a couple steps back and switched the Dust chamber on Myrtenaster to Freeze. She raised her blade to send a blast through the cloud, but multiple stones flew out of the cloud forcing her to dodge. Cardin suddenly burst out of the cloud and swung his mace at Weiss striking her blade and causing her to lose her balance. Just as she began to fall Cardin grabbed her wrist, lifted her into the air, and threw Weiss on her back. She pulled herself off the ground and shifted into a fighting position. 'I never thought I'd have to use this against someone like Cardin.' Weiss thought as she shifted her Dust chamber to Burn.

She gave him a brief glance and blasted the Dust at him. Cardin stared straight into the beam headed straight towards him, he raised his arm and struck the Dust out of the air.

"What?!" Ruby exclaimed confused by Cardin's actions.

"Neat trick, huh?" Russel said smugly. Ruby jumped slightly at this comment because she didn't notice he was kneeling right behind her. "Cardin's semblance almost completely nullifies the effects of Dust. Which means your friends weapon is almost completely useless right about now."

Ruby could only stare with a slight sense of panic about Weiss' current situation. 'You really shouldn't care, she'll be fine. And besides she probably wouldn't care if it were you up there.' Ruby said to herself trying to calm herself down.

Meanwhile Cardin decided to take advantage of Weiss' shocked nature, and advance on her in her current state. Weiss began to come out of shock to find Cardin was only a few feet away from her. She snapped out of it and stabbed at him with Myrtenaster only for it to become intercepted in the head of his mace. He spun his mace, twisting Weiss' arm until she was at the threshold of screaming. 'I need to hang on or I'll be defenseless.' Weiss pleaded to herself, but it was a useless plea because at that moment Cardin took a hand off his mace, punched Weiss in the cheek, sending her to the floor and her rapier across the stage.

Ruby dug her nails into the stone bench as Weiss fell to the floor. 'She'll be okay, she'll be okay, look her Aura is almost at critical. Professor Goodwitch will end the match any second now and she'll be fine.' She looked down at her Scroll and saw that Weiss had about fifteen percent of her Aura left, but the screen blacked out for a second before coming back on to reveal Weiss having THIRTY-FIVE PERCENT! She looked up in horror to see that it wasn't on her screen alone but on the main screen as well.

Weiss Stumbled onto her hands and knees and looked at Cardin with defiance. She pushed herself up with the last of her strength to rush forward and punch Cardin. But he got her fist with ease and jabbed her stomach with his knee, knocking Weiss to her limit, as she recoiled from his last move he threw a left hook, sending her to the ground with a small amount of blood coming out of her mouth.

Ruby wanted to scream. She could barely believe what she just saw. And now she was just sitting there staring blankly at her unconscious teammate.

"That's enough!" Shouted Professor Goodwitch, "I'm not quite sure what happened to our systems, but Miss Schnee is far past twenty-five percent!" She rushed forward and picked up Myrtenaster before kneeling at Weiss' side, "Cardin Winchester, report to Professor Ozpin's office at once!" She pointed Myrtenaster at the entrance at the hall to emphasize how serious she was.

Cardin jumped down from the stage and began to casually stroll off towards the entrance.

Ruby glanced at him furiously, 'That-that-that jackass! He could have seriously hurt her! How dare he even touch her!' Ruby couldn't take it anymore, she jumped out of her seat and sprinted onto the stage coming to kneel at Weiss' side across from Professor Goodwitch.

"Is she okay?" Ruby demanded, almost n the verge of tears.

"She's starting to come to, but she needs to be taken to the infirmary at once."

"I'll take her." Ruby said without hesitation.

Professor Goodwitch brought Weiss into a sitting position which caused her to cough up a little blood.

"Easy now, Miss Schnee. I'll inform the nurses you're on your way down there, be careful."

"Of course," Ruby said as she slung Weiss' arm over her neck and helped her into a standing position. She began to shuffle off the stage with Weiss leaning against her for support when Weiss almost tripped on some debris as they walked down the steps, but Ruby pulled her up and let Weiss' head rest against hers.

"Don't worry Weiss, I've got you."

'You know she probably wouldn't do this for you.' Ruby thought as she helped Weiss across the hall. 'It doesn't matter if she wouldn't help me. You know what, I don't care if she's not my friend. I'm her friend, whether she likes it or not.'

At this Ruby pulled Weiss in a little closer and gave her a one armed hug which caused Weiss to cringe.

"Sorry," Ruby said, innocently as they shuffled down the hall towards the infirmary.