March 14th
7213 Iris Lane
Schnee Family Manor
City Of Atlas
Atlas
8:31 AM

"Eddie, am I driving you and Lana or not?" She asked her fourteen year old son as he continued to struggle with his blazer. "Damn it, it's too small isn't it?"

"I only got this a few months ago," He muttered. "How was I supposed to know that I'd grow significantly?"

Lana glared. "Shut up, no one wants to hear about how you get to be tall and I got to be 4'9''."

"I'm 4'9''," Cristal reminded her. "What's wrong with that?"

"Everyone's taller than me," The sixteen year old said, crossing her arms. "They already don't like me, I'd rather not be small enough to be shoved into a locker."

"If anyone shoves you into a locker," Cristal said slowly. "Then they'll know what it's like to have Cristal Annabelle Schnee at their throats."

Lana perked up. "Really?"

"Really," Cristal said, embracing her daughter tightly. "So, are we at least technically ready?"

Edward shrugged. "I'm just glad that I get to go to continue to go to a normal secondary school next year. Not the pre business thing that Lana's going to be doing the next two years before university."

Lana childishly stuck her tongue out at him. "At least I don't have to go to the same school as Whitley the shitley."

Cristal forced herself not to giggle. "Please don't tell me you call your cousin that to his face."

Lana and Edward shared sly looks but she shook her head. "Why would I do that?"

"I don't know, because you've heard the things I've said to Jacques's to his face?" Cristal suggested as she reached for her light, black leather jacket. "Or the things I've said in rebuking the slanderous things he enjoys saying about me?"

"No one believes what he says about you anymore," Ozpin said as he came down the stairs to where they were near the large dual doors that led out to the curved driveway. "And it's not usually our family that gets attacked in the media, it's your sister's."

Cristal sighed. "I know that...and I really ought to see her at some point this week...maybe a bit before I take Weiss to Beacon..."

Lana stared at her funny. "Mommy, I thought that you and Weiss have a...tendency to get at each other's throats."

"That's not fair, and it's also not true," Cristal said stubbornly, crossing her arms. "She and I are not at each other's throats and once she gets past her wall of pride she's perfectly open with me."

"Has that ever happened is the question, though," Edward interjected with a smirk, and she pointed towards the door.

"Both of you head out to the car, I'll be there in a minute," Cristal said as she turned back to Ozpin. "I'm glad you don't have to leave to oversee Beacon until tomorrow."

"I'll miss you," He pulled her in tightly. "But I'm glad I'll be able to see for at least a few hours the day before initiation."

"I have a few questions for you about that," She said with a half smile. "Glynda mentioned something to me about launching new students off the cliffs into the Emerald Forest for initiation?"

"It'll be fine," He said, kissing her cheek. "And we've done it before. It's quite useful, as it puts them in pairs and also, with the quote un quote relics, it makes putting teams together much easier."

"At Atlas Academy, initiation was simply two days of skills testing - both mental and physical," She rolled her eyes. "And it was fairly easy...although Cyan made so odd choices in her creation of teams that year. My team was one of the more...normal and functioning ones."

"Oh, Chrissy..." Ozpin smiled and kissed her, then holding her tightly in his arms for several long moments. "I'll see you when you get home."

She nodded as he released her and she pulled her car keys out of her purse and picked up her computer bag which she had set down earlier. "Alright. And, Oz? I love you."

He smiled again. "I love you too, Chrissy."

Cristal sighed as she walked out into the still slightly crisp air of early spring in Atlas. Not having to walk far to get to her car, she adjusted her bags on her shoulders and opened the trunk first to drop her computer bag and then slammed it shut. Sauntering over to the driver's side and opening the door, she set down her purse in between her and Lana who was in the passenger side and then locked herself in and shoved the key into the ignition. Lana glanced back at her brother who was reading a fantasy novel on his scroll and listening to music before turning to the stereo and smirking when she realised that This Will Be The Day was on. Humming to herself, she closed her eyes for several minutes while her mother continued to drive and adjusted her glasses every so often though her eyes snapped open and both her attention and Edward's were drawn forward upon Cristal slamming on the brakes.

"Damn you!" She shouted as a rather large pick up truck nearly scraped her convertible. "Honestly, people just don't know -"

"Mommy, are you alright?" Lana asked her, and she nodded.

"I hate driving," She muttered. "Why don't I pay someone to do it?"

"Feminist principle," Edward reminded her. "Every time you've brought up the idea, you've come back around to the fact that there are parts of the world in which women aren't allowed to drive so -"

"Thank you for reminding me, Eddie," Cristal said irritably. "Mind you, I shouldn't have been talking earlier when I told you and Lana you're not allowed to call your cousin Whitley by the nickname of Shitley but considering the things I'm likely going to say to Jacques when I stop by the SNIHI before work which include, but are not limited to the fact that he's a jackass."

"Mommy," Edward said slowly. "We don't have to be at our classes until ten thirty and we left at nine."

She sighed. "Well, then I guess I can deal with him a bit early since I'll be dropping the two of you off forty five minutes early. Just be glad that the two of you don't live on Patch and, along with Heather, don't have to be at your classes until ten. Caitlin has to be in her classes by nine fifteen."

Edward grimaced. "Vale makes them get up that early? That's horrible."

Cristal rolled her eyes. "Then be glad that you live in Atlas."

"I would give up sleep to attend classes with her," Lana said with a smile. "She and I are incredibly close, after all. We message every day and -"

"I know," Cristal bit her lip as they stopped. "Is it bad how worried I am about the Vytal Festival in the fall?"

Edward and Lana exchanged glances.

"No," He said. "Why are you worried?"

"Is something wrong?" Lana asked her.

"I just..." Cristal shook her head. "Nevermind, we can discuss this later."


Cristal all but slammed her scroll down in front of Jacques while it was on the interview in which he had suggested that, for not the first time, she was an alcoholic. "You wouldn't recognise that if it hit you in the face."

Jacques rolled his eyes. "What is it you want, Cristal? I happen to dealing with a rather major client this week, and -"

"This is slander!" She exclaimed angrily. "And this has been going on for years and not once have you an issued a retraction as you should!"

"I believe you attack me openly in the media all of the time," He silkily replied. "It's no wonder Weiss hates you, though her closeness with Winter is shocking to me considering that you stole her."

Cristal narrowed her eyes. "I did not steal Winter, I became her legal guardian and the things she has said about you to me over the years -"

"You were never meant to run the SDC, and yet you do," Jacques looked at her coldy as he went on. "I for one think that your success is on the downslope. All of those robberies…"

"I'm sorry, but at least the White Fang isn't out to destroy me and my family like they are you and the SNIHI," Cristal smirked. "And I for one can't blame them."

Jacques glared. "And why is that?"

"You are a racist, classist, douche - not to mention the fact that you're abusive to your wife and children," Cristal snapped. "Those traits have come to light more in recent years. You care only about winning and turning a profit - nothing else, not even your own wife and children - and you pay -"

"My PR team does their job very well," Jacques said snippily. "Now, why are you here?"

"I'm taking Weiss to Beacon," She informed him. "And whether or not you'll admit it, the only reason she's not going to Atlas Academy is because she's trying to get away from you. She's proud, but she still hates you. As she, frankly, should."

Jacques rolled his eyes. "You've become increasingly unhinged over the years, haven't you?"

Cristal picked her scroll back up and collapsed it. "Unhinged? Are you out of your mind?"

"Cristal," Jacques said slowly. "You still don't know what you did when you began your...quote un quote war with me."

She straightened herself haughtily. "At least I happen to be a decent person."

"Your downfall is that you lack ruthlessness," Jacques informed her. "Nicholas did too. Perhaps that, and his obvious favouritism of you, is why he couldn't bring himself to recognise that I'm the better businessman."

Cristal snorted. "All you do is manipulate and do whatever it takes to get your way no matter who you step on to make that happen. It's atrocious, that's what it is. I've said it once, but I'll say it again. You care about no one but your damn self."

Jacques stood up himself although his height - despite being much greater than hers - did not intimidate her. "Are you sure you're not delusional?"

"You're the one who is delusional if you think that you're a good person," Cristal shook her head. "I've never understood how you can be proud of yourself."

Jacques leaned towards her. "Says the woman who caused her father's death."

Cristal slapped him. "That's not true."

"And, of course," Jacques went on though he was glaring at her again. "You waste your time with people like Raven Branwen, the Adel's, and your husband is far beneath you. Not to mention the time you spend with General Ironwood and his wife."

Cristal bit back a scathing reply. "I'm taking Weiss to Beacon."

"I don't particularly care," Jacques said as he sat back down. "She is reliant on me regardless."

"One of these days," Cristal said as she left the room. "She - and Whitley too - will grow their own spines and they'll stand against you. I just wish that Willow could do the same."