Chapter 15 - The Princess and the Pauper

One would expect that Ruby's first limousine ride would be a quite boisterous affair. But, sitting on those plush leather seats, surrounded by closed bottles of alcohol more expensive than the Xiao-Long house, it was eerily silent.

"Ruby, I refuse to look at you when you're making that face. Yang already warned me about the power pout." Blake admonished, licking a finger and flipping to the next page of her book.

To Blake, the silent car ride, minus the occasional bounce or turning signal blinker noise, was perfectly acceptable all things considered. To a certain girl who was hoping to force Yang's "girlfriend-but-not-a-girlfriend (she hasn't asked me yet!)" into submission, it was becoming a bit too quiet. Ruby did have to admit it. This girl was good. Almost worthy of a little-sister's seal of approval.

Rather than give up, Ruby scooched up closer to her sister's girlfriend and turned her puppy-dog eyes up to eleven. She even threw in a small whine and a tear for good measure. There was no way anybody would be immune to Ruby.

Blake's eyes continued to scan the pages of her book, her feline ear twitching in annoyance.

Ruby pressed herself into the girl, hand pushing into her thigh and face right up to Blake's cheek. The moment she saw Blake's eyes flicker towards her own, Ruby mentally cheered, knowing she had won.

"Ugh! Fine, you win." Blake closed her book, tossing it beside her. "I don't know how, but you managed to weaponize cuteness just as well as Weiss's glare."

"Yang says it's my superpower. That, and weapon-smithing." Ruby shrugged, finally returning to her own seat with a large smile plastered on her face.

"Are you really that good?"

"I don't know. I've never really met anybody who makes weapons before. My father said I was good. Yang, too. And I have that interview with Beacon University coming up super soon, but that's it."

"An interview for Beacon at your age is still an impressive feat." Blake replied.

After that, the conversation seemed to die down, neither knowing what to say next. Neither being the most talkative sort. Ruby looked out the window, watching as the scenery changed from the regular houses or tall office buildings to trees and meadow and back, as they passed by town and city after town and city. It did not take long for the houses to start getting much larger. Then much, much larger. Until, Ruby was unsure if the houses should be called houses or simply, castles. The word 'mansion' seemed way too small for places like these.

"Ten more minutes until we reach the estate, Miss Ruby. Miss Blake." Said the driver in a posh voice which made Ruby giggle.

She glanced at Blake, knowing her time was running out. She didn't do anything she needed to! She was supposed to ask Blake what her favourite colour was, and how much she liked Yang and even if she was willing to learn to bake cookies. All that preparation, down the drain.

"What's your favourite cookie colour?" Ruby let out, mixing up two questions.

Blake smirked at her. "Cookie colour? Probably brown?"

"I mean, what's your favourite cookie and then favourite colour."

"Sure Red. Definitely what you meant."

"Blake!" Ruby whined, crossing her arms and pouting that was eerily reminiscent of her elder sister.

"I enjoy purple. And chocolate-almond is my preferred cookie."

Ruby hummed in appreciation. Good choices. No extra bonus points for choosing red, but she didn't lose any for her choice in cookie. As Ruby opened her mouth to ask another series of questions, the driver grunted, turning her attention back to the limousine's windows.

Very fancy cars lined the street, leading up to what was most likely the biggest castle on the block. Their limo pulled up straight to the closed gate. After a minute of the driver talking to whomever was on the other side of the speaker, the gate opened inwards and the limo drove through.

Blake was leaning back in her seat, watching Ruby's reactions to the place she worked. The driveway was long, much longer than it truly needed to be, having been designed to zig-zag down the path, lined with statues and fountains and freshly mown green grass. The soft sounds of orchestral music was being played along the way, music coming from carefully placed and hidden speakers designed to look like stones.

Normally, the speakers would be silent, but this day being a festival of sorts, the atmosphere for wealth and sophistication was in full swing. Ruby felt completely underdressed. Taking in a big gulp of air, she bent down between her legs where her backpack was. Zipping open the largest section, she pulled out a hoodie. It was red, like so many others, and a little long on her just how she liked. Putting it on and rolling the sleeves up to her elbows, she frowned.

No matter how much she wanted, it wasn't her favourite hoodie. Her lucky hoodie. The driver opened up the door for her and she carefully stepped outside, following Blake. Looking around at the courtyard and all the people; all the fancily dressed people, she could only shudder.

She really needed some luck right about now. She gaze up into the clouds which lightly drifted through the sky. "Please, please give me some luck. I could really use it today," She silently pleaded with whatever higher powers there were.

"Miss Belladonna. It is so good you returned on time. This must be your girlfriend's younger sis-" The high-pitched, respectful tone immediately stopped.

Ruby had just enough time to pull her thoughts from the clouds and face the girl in front of her to realize why she had stopped.

Thanks a lot luck. No good rotten fate.

"Hey, it's you!" Ruby said, wide eyed and pointing at the frowning white haired girl. She remembered her from the marketplace all those weeks ago! they had bumped into each other and she missed out on buying her noise-maker. And of course, she spilt paint. On... her...

"Eep!" Ruby let out as the full memory returned to her. "I'm so sorry!"

"You!" Weiss shouted, glaring daggers at the girl across from her. "Do you know how long it took to remove red paint from me! Let alone my clothes. They are all garbage."

"I'm sorry. I didn't see you and I was running in one direction and you were running in the other and it was crowded and my mind was just so focused on buying something before someone else could get it and I didn't see you there!" A sudden thought broke through Ruby's ramblings. "Haven't we already yelled at each other about that already?"

Weiss scowled, "it looks like you could still us another scolding or two."

"Hey! I said I was sorry, princess."

"It's heiress actually" Blake chimed in helpfully.

"That's not helpful, right now, Blake." Ruby grumbled.

"Maybe next time you will learn to watch where you are going," Weiss nodded magnanimously.

"And maybe you will learn to not run with an open jar of paint!"

Blake could only barely catch herself before she broke into laughter. It did however not silence a snort which Weiss seemed to take offense to.

"Why, I- well... you... hmmph!" Weiss's stuttering ended with a stomp of her foot. "You're just lucky I already paid for your admissions."

With that, Weiss left in the direction she came from, leaving a stunned and confused Ruby in her wake.

"Was that..."

Blake nodded at Ruby's partial question. "That, Red, was Weiss Schnee. The person who set up this whole competition. And the girl who paid for your admission to compete and loaned you the limo to get here."

"She paid for my ticket?"

"She did."

"She didn't know who I was before offering to do that?"

"All she knew was that I'm dating your sister. Erm- I mean, going on dates with your sister," Blake backtracked, pink touching her cheeks.

"She doesn't like me very much, does she."

"Nope."

Ruby groaned. Loud enough that a few other guests and competitors glanced her way. This was not going the way she was hoping it would. She was hoping to make a good first impression! No, she wanted her first impression to Weiss, to be her amazingly perfect weapon she was going to make. Not... this. Of course, paint girl had to be Weiss Schnee. And even more than that, paint girl had to be Yang's girlfriend's best friend.

"Good job Ruby," she admonished.

Blake gave her a gentle pat on the back and a small push so that they started heading towards the mansion's side entrance, where all the competitors were using to reach the inner plaza and location of the actual event. "Don't worry Ruby. First impressions aren't everything. Neither are second impressions," Blake added.

"Yang always said to try and make a good first impression," Ruby mumbled, her eyes downcast, allowing Blake to guide her wherever.

"Weiss isn't that bad. A little annoyed that she missed out on the paint though. The clothes don't matter to much for her. Have you seen this place? Don't worry, she's not lacking for stuff."

Ruby giggled a little.

"You just need to keep apologizing until it sticks in that pretty little head of hers and she'll come around. She's much nicer than she lets on. Just impress her with your weapon-smithing skills and all will be forgiven. And if all else fails, just power pout and you're golden."

This brought the two girls to laughter.

"Thanks Blake, that really helped. I'm going to go check-in and set up. I'll apologize again when I eventually bump into her... again. Oh, and Blake? Ask Yang to be your girlfriend. She's been waiting for you to make the first move."