Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.
The morning came all too soon for the team, being awoken by a rather enthused Ruby shaking with excitement. Both Weiss and Blake found themselves rudely awakened by the sound of a whistle and the cheering of Ruby stating that they needed to get started with their first day of classes. While it had been an unspoken agreement that the team would get up a bit earlier than necessary to finish unpacking and establish some level of routine, the two older girls hadn't accounted for the unlimited energy of their fourth team member.
Despite the excessive noise Jaune still managed to awaken comparatively smoothly, rubbing his eyes a bit and stretching in an attempt to alleviate some of his tension. Looking over the view before him however had him transitioning from his slumber into laughter. He found Ruby dressed in her school uniform being held on the ground by Blake in her sleepwear from the previous night and Weiss similarly in her sleepwear was wrestling the whistle from the pinned girl's hands.
Six eyes turned their focus onto their team leader, the entire situation wasn't ideal for him to enter by laughing at them. As four of the eyes narrowed Jaune knew he'd need to act fast, glancing away for only a moment to acknowledge that laying on top of his luggage was the school uniform that he'd been given on the previous day. Moving quickly he jumped from his bed and dove for his clothes, as Weiss tried to dive after him in her anger one of her legs was pulled out from under her.
"Run Jaune, I'll hold them off!" The cliché line followed him as he slammed the door to the bathroom behind him. Thankful for the assistance of his first school friend, he locked the door. I sure hope hiding in here doesn't become a trend.
Resolving to shower and get dressed as slowly as possible to allow for things to calm down outside, he could hear more struggling and the yelling from several different feminine voices. Removing his sleepwear gingerly, his soreness finally catching up to him now that the previous days excitement had subsided. Looking over himself in the mirror; his skin was marred with several bruises, the most prominent of which was around the shoulder he'd dislocated.
Thinking back to the ordeal of getting Weiss to relocate his injury brought back so many of the frantic emotions from the day, the thought of her pressed against his chest when the two of them fell however was a very different emotion from the rest of the day. He let out a deep sigh at the embarrassment that she must have felt from the ordeal, she'd also been mad throughout the rest of the day but the trigger eluded him. Resolving to move forward he stepping into his shower.
A few minutes later he'd dried himself off and moved on to getting dressed. Looking over his uniform he removed it from the zipped bag and hanger it had been provided on. It was a relatively simple outfit consisting of black slacks, a white dress shirt, a blue sweater-vest, a plain red tie, and a blazer. The blazer had a bit more detailing than the rest of the outfit; featuring a golden trim along the whole outfit, as well as shoulder flaps which implied the Academy's connection on some level to the military more than academia.
Deciding he'd waiting long enough that things should have calmed down outside. Looking at himself in the mirror, he noticed it all fit him fairly well. This version of himself would be one he would be seeing a lot of; at the very least he looked the part. He tried his best not to get bogged down in thoughts of the previous day. Team Leader, how did I mess up this badly. However, his lamenting was cut short by a knock at the door followed by a familiar angry voice, "Hurry up in there Arc, the rest of us have a day ahead of us too." Another deep sigh escaped his lips, he gathered up his things and made his way out of the room.
The face that greeted him was the same face he'd seen several times the previous day, her mouth was in a line as usually was, she wasn't one to emote with her mouth or cheeks for the most part. However her eyes told him quite a bit about the mood he was facing, they were narrowed and focused entirely on his own. They didn't convey anger specifically, it felt like a much deeper revilement that didn't suit something as mundane as being in the bathroom for too long. Before he could really question her however, she pushed him aside and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind her stiffly.
Unsure of how to respond, Jaune decided to set about unpacking his belongings and placing them in whatever shelf space the girls had left for him. A relatively meager area in light of the number of books, trinkets, picture frames, and other boxes that had taken up the majority of the space available. It suited him however, as he hadn't brought much beyond his clothing; having left a bit of a hurry. Setting out a wide picture frame that featured himself and his large family, and a few fantasy novels and comic books that he'd brought with him just in case.
Deciding that he'd set out everything he needed, he'd been given the desk nearest to the bathroom, his textbooks and a set of writing tools were also set out on the table. The school having provided all the generic pens, pencils, and paper they might require while working on any assignments. While their scrolls also worked as portable computers and most of work could be completed without actually writing anything down, he figured some students might prefer a more tactile experience.
Nodding that everything was as he'd need it, he turned to look over the rest of the room, each of the girls having taken up whatever space they needed for their own plethora of things and personal work materials.
Ruby's area featuring several more stuffed animals and what he surmised was the sheet originally intended for her bed hanging above her bed from the ceiling. It provided significant cover from being seen from the rest of the room, but did look a bit like a child's blanket fort. Given her younger mind-set from the rest of the team, he felt it was a reasonable idea to not question her actions. Her desk was featured several pictures of herself and her sister, along with a colourful assortment of writing implements
Weiss' desk and bed were both in immaculate condition, leaving him to question if she had even slept in it. All of her books were aligned meticulously, with her desk arranged in much the same way. He spied a picture frame of herself and an older woman, he assumed was either her mother or an older sister. However, nothing to indicate the rest of her family, beyond the branded writing materials that seemed to be from the Schnee Dust Company.
Finally settling on the region of the room nearest him, Blake had many of her own books, but no pictures of a family, and not much in the way of work materials beyond the ones that the school provided. Considering her quiet nature, he felt it best not to press on the matter; however it didn't take a leap of thought to surmise she was coming from a background that lacked in love, money, or both.
Each of the girls took their turns preparing themselves for the day, each changing into their own school uniforms. Their costumes appearing to draw more influence from a student background than his own; having a red plaid skirt, a white dress shirt with a black rimmed collar, a small red ribbon tied in a bow along the collar as well, a brown vest, and a black jacket with a tan trim. Each of the girls still retained some elements of their usual outfits, Blake with her bow, Weiss with her hair clip, and Ruby retaining her red cloak. Both Blake and Weiss also seemed to wear tall black socks, as opposed to the black stocking that Ruby had decided on.
Deciding he'd spent enough time examining his female team-mates, Jaune decided it best to move along to something else, before he risked making any of them angry at him for staring. Looking at his watch under his left sleeve, he noted that it was 8:50am. In light of all that had happened this morning he noticed they had finished unpacking a bit later than he had planned. Pulling his scroll from it's holster on his belt, and opening his schedule he noted that their first class was with a Professor Port at 9am.
In the brief moment he'd taken to compile the information he'd just acquired, Weiss had noticed his actions and done the same. Seeing her copying him, his eyes locked with her in the moment she looked up. Her irises were smaller than normal, and her mouth opened slightly as if a realization had dawned on her. As he also pieced together their lapse in time management, her voice finally kicked in. "We have ten minutes to make it to class, you dolts." The statement featured a rather raised voice for the heiress, as well as an accompanying crack at it's peak.
The entire team stilled for a moment, taking in the magnitude of the situation before a blur of red, black, and white warped out their doorway leaving their leader behind. Jaune took a moment to blink at the turn of events, having been the first one to have a chance to get ready in the morning. He'd been so worried about succeeding as a leader that he had forgotten something as simple as paying attention to the time of day. Shaking his head, he tried to push away more of his self-conscious feelings and keep himself focused on the task at hand. Confidence. The more the word became his mantra, the more he annoyed himself by having to remind himself about it.
Deciding he'd dallied long enough, he broke into a run out of the room and toward the lecture hall for team AWBR's first class. On the way he did have time to consider the merits of a Grimm studies class, figuring some extra information about their anatomy and attack patterns would prove helpful for his future planning. Having something to look forward to helped him on his way, deciding it would be a good start in catching up to his peers, at least in theory.
Weiss' glare, eyes glimmering with a certain intense blue heat trained into his own visage. They seemed to distort and refract as he gazed into them, with each passing moment it became harder to see them clearly. Something about the light within them held an immense curiosity in his mind, bringing about questions of where she found that intensity and what it was that had aimed it at himself.
His musing was broken just a moment later by a male and somewhat elderly man clearing his throat, before continuing on a long and indiscernible tangent about his previous experiences with the Grimm and his expeditions in the past. He'd dozed off while trying to decipher any usable information about Grimm he could, his original hopes for the class dashed shortly after the lecture began.
He attempted to clear the sleep from his eyes, rubbing them with his knuckles and looking about the class to see how the rest of the students were fairing. Team PRNY seemed to have a bit of a spread; with Pyrrha taking notes intently, Yang asleep, and Nora also writing in her own notebook followed by showing whatever she'd made to Ren and giggling, Ren for his part seemed to remain stoic in the face of whatever doodling she'd formulated.
Looking at his own team, a similar dynamic had appeared with Ruby sleeping, Blake reading a book that she had placed onto of her notebook, and Weiss with her pen actually on her notebook. His partner however had a different task in mind, when his eyes finally rested on her face, his dream wrenched back into his mind as that same glare settled on his form again. While he hadn't been sure why she was angry in the past, it didn't take him much to piece together that she didn't take well to her team leader sleeping in their first class.
Before Jaune could offer her an apologetic smile, in a vain hope of shaking off some of the uncomfortable feeling of pressure he'd now had on his shoulders, the previously ignored lecture took a turn for the personal. The voice intonated an offer for a specific student to join him on stage in front of the class. Weiss' expression immediately turned into what she hoped was a cheerful looking smile, and she raised her hand determined to prove herself in front of her peers by completing whatever task the Professor required.
She had spent much of the night seething over the injustice of the situation she found herself in, and the morning's antics didn't provide her with any solace. Being stuck on a team with a child who's rambunctious way of waking them all in the morning did nothing to improve her mood. To then have their 'team leader' rush away without taking responsibility for the girl's actions, he then took quite a bit longer than necessary readying himself which only drew more of her ire. She just couldn't understand what everyone was seeing in that dolt's behavior to warrant all the recognition he'd been getting.
Even Blake, the only girl her own age on the team, had sided with him; choosing to take the place beside him in the room. Being willing to have her desk, and worse yet her bed next to his, it gave her a chill to think of what could have been going through his mind while they slept just a few feet away. She'd been so caught up in her suddenly growing negative image of the boy that she almost didn't notice when the professor actually picked her for the demonstration.
"You there miss, get changed into your combat gear and come to the stage as soon as possible." His finger pointing very obviously in her direction, she stood gracefully and nodded to the teacher.
"Yes sir, I will be back in just a moment." She stepped out of the room, exiting from the door on the lower part of the room and making the short walk to their locker rooms. All the while continuing to find herself deep in thought about ways she might improve the situation she found herself in, short of finding a way to have Jaune expelled from the school, there weren't really any opportunities for her to be able to take over the role. She'd taken some time to read up on the school's rule and regulation in the prior evening and found that their entire four year stay would be in the teams they were assigned, and beyond expulsion or death there were no ways for that to change.
The fact that the rule book had specified death as a possible reason for team re-arrangements was a sobering thought. While she knew the dangers of studying to become a huntress, the very real idea of another student dying during their stay wasn't something had truly given much thought before the words were place before her. As much as she had seethed about the outcome of their initiation, she had to admit to herself that Jaune had never done anything with a targeted animosity toward her. A chill ran down her spine at the possibility that she would have to take over as the teams leader in the unfortunate event of his demise.
Shaking her head to try to remove the encroaching anxiety, she looked up at the mirror in her locker to note that she had completed dressing in her battle attire. Giving a huff at the image before her, the short and frail looking girl that huffed back at her wasn't an encouraging sight. Her eyes betrayed the time she'd been kept up in the evening by her failures, the wrinkles under her eyes bringing all the more attention to the discoloration of the scar over her eyes. A pang of melancholy resounded through her body, as thoughts of its origin ran through her.
A buzz against her hip brought her back just far enough for her to be shaken back into the present, looking down at the scroll holstered on her waist. The face of a one Ruby Rose was present staring back at her; only an image however, for that she was grateful, as she looked at the message attached. 'Please hurry up, Prof. Port is about to start on another one of his stories again O_o'. Taking a moment to consider how or why the girl had her scroll number, she decided it best not to try to make a fuss over as she was already taking too long.
Weiss hurried back to the classroom, noting that there were still at least ten minutes left for them to finish whatever practical demonstration that she needed to do. As she arrived at the door, she noted that Port was speaking very animatedly to the class about a den of Beowolves he'd cleared in his youth. She considered waiting for him to finish before she simply stepped into the room, but after a brief moment of considering the man's prior ramblings she decided to interrupt.
Stepping into the room, the man's story died on his lips as he turned to the girl and instantly changed the subject. "Ah, Miss Schnee, we can begin the show I had prepared for the first day." His eyes twinkling in a way she found rather unsettling, while most older men staring at her with a look like that would have set off different alarm bells, this situation made her uncomfortable for a different reason. Said reason coming in the form of a large cage that had appeared in the room during her absence, one which her professor was now approaching with his axe brandished ready to open the door.
The whole class room seemed to quiet and stare intently as the scene unfolded before them, said silence was short-lived however as the voice of Ruby cut through. "Go, Weiss," the words were spoken as a cheer, Blake as well gave her a smile when her head snapped to regard the sudden noise. Her team leader gave her a wry smile himself, his eyes averting under her gaze however, causing her previous anger to well up again at his cowardice.
In that instant however another voice drew her attention, "Alright, let the match. Begin." As the final word was spoken the aforementioned axe sliced the door open and released a heavily armored Grimm, it was about four feet tall, and covered in bone-like protrusions. Two large tusks adorned its face, sitting above a large mouth filled with teeth. The creature stood on four legs, and used them to move quickly, a fact that became apparent almost instantly.
The Grimm led out a squeal as it rushed forward from the cage at her, brandishing its tusks in an attempt to impale her exposed abdomen. In response Weiss quickly dove to the side of the creature, landing to her leg and rolling back to her feet before readying Myrtenaster. She regarded the creature a bit closer and recognized it as a 'Boarbatusk', a medium-sized version of that variety of Grimm. While its body seemed to be heavily covered in a protective shell, its facial area most prominently, the underside of the creature's body was mostly exposed jet fur.
It prepared itself for a charge once again, forcing Weiss into action. She didn't have an effective way to get the Grimm off of its feet, so, she figured she could try to find a weak point between the armor plated body, as some gaps were visibly apparent. With a burst of speed both she and the Boarbatusk closed the distance between them, shifting her weight from one side to the other, she leaned to her right side turning her body sideways. With her rapier in front of her, she attempted to deflect the tusks and stab at the creature in passing, however it shifted the angle of attack and the tip of Myrtenaster's blade was caught on the inside of the tusks and angled in such a way to get caught between the two.
Her instinctive reaction to grip the hilt tightly and pull to free her sword from the locked position was the wrong one, as the creature bucked and lifted her off of her feet almost throwing her across the room. She held fast to the hilt, and managed to land back down on her feet, however the extreme difference in weight meant she stood no change in a tug-of-war with the Grimm. A voice cut through her focus, "Come on Weiss, show it who's boss". Another cheer from the juvenile member of her team threw more fuel onto the fire of frustration she was now kindling. In the brief moment that she took to regard the sudden intrusion, her grip loosened and the boar-Grimm threw it from her grasp and across the battleground.
The Grimm bucked its hind legs, and swiped at her. The tusks narrowly avoiding puncturing her body and instead they sent her skyward away from the monster as well as her weapon. "Oh ho, what will you do without your weapon." A rhetorical question from the teacher behind her followed her blunder, and threw her focus off further. She looked up quickly to the sound of hooves on concrete, tusks again bearing down on her.
Reacting as quickly as possible she rolled to her side out of the way of the attack, luckily for her; the Boarbatusk's ability to change direction while at full speed was lacking. She broke into a run and slide for Myrtenaster as she crossed the room, creating as much space as she could between her and the Grimm. Not having time to formulate much of a plan, she prepared her rapier for another attack and hoped to out-maneuver the creature.
As if sensing her uncertainty, her enemy jumped into the air and curled its body into a ball. Somehow creating a substantial amount of forward rotation during this action, enough that it began to spin along its spine at an intensely high speed. She knew that it would be coming at her much faster this time, in light of this development which left her with little ideas for how to avoid and counter-attack. Before a yell carried a different voice into her ears, "It's off its feet, stop it and attack now." The words weren't much in the way of a plan, but they triggered enough in her mind for her to react in a way that would win the fight.
She quickly orchestrated her hand movements to make two glyphs that would act as platforms for only a moment, it would take most of her aura to absorb the impact that was coming, but if she did it right she would only need the one time. One glyph appeared as a wall in front of her, the other at a fourty-five degree angle above her head, the moment they appeared the Grimm stuck. Accelerating forward immensely, but Weiss held firm in her plan, the Grimm's body impacted the glyph in front of her causing a huge drain on her aura but stopping its movement. She leapt into a back-flip and propelled herself off of the glyph above her in the moment that the boar-grimm's stomach was exposed, driving Myrtenaster deep into it, releasing a whimper and leaving the creature dead.
She leaned forward onto her blade and open palm, panting with exertion over the intense glyph work she had just performed. Attempting to catch her breath, she looked back into the crowd to find where the last yell had originated from, seeing her partner looking on with a worried expression the understanding set into her. He'd helped her again, in front of the entire class that she had hoped to leave an impression upon with a display of skill. No matter what the venue, she couldn't help but feel as though she was finding more and more ways to be seen as relying on his quick thinking.
A part of her mind knew that after all the things he'd done, she would have to thank him else she risk what dignity she had left in seeming ungrateful. However knowing that she'd come to Beacon to be able to stand on her own two feet, without the assistance of her family or another else; the whole situation left her with a bad taste in her mouth. The professor indicated that the lesson was over, and each of the students began to file out of the classroom. Her team waited a moment longer, Ruby to cheer her support, Jaune and Weiss to try to communicate non-verbally to one another in languages their opposite didn't understand, and Blake to watch the whole scene and contemplate the implications of it all.