A/N

Hello, everyone! Thank you for all of your support! Sorry I haven't been able to respond to your comments. Life has been, um... weird. Currently stressing out about whether I should do college on-site or online. Also dreading to know my family trip will be cancelled, because that means I'll have to go to graduation, which is a Big No-No for me, because that means interacting with people I have to call friends, and...

Yeah.

CHAPTER 8

With a smile and a pain-inducing choice of words, Yang seals her fate. As Glynda arranges what they need to do, writing it all on a paper, Uncle Qrow, surprise-surprise, embarrasses her by leaning in close to her and whispering, "Is there any liquor store nearby?"

Problem is, he thinks he's whispering.

Yang's cheeks burn as she glares at him.

He blinks, then pats her shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll save some for you too."

Please. Kill me now.

Though she stares straight ahead, she doesn't miss the look Shadow and her dad gives each other. She's used to those kinds of looks from students. The "oh, wow, she's had such a rough life, hasn't she?" look. It irks her, but she can handle it, usually. But this is no mere student. This is her mortal enemy, the girl who stabbed her in the back as a repayment for saving her life.

To say Yang's humiliated would be to say Michael de Angelo is a mediocre sculpture.

Glynda then explains to them what they should do. To summarise, they have to make one big project which includes materials woven from every class they've taken. Meaning, she and Shadow will have to somehow fuse maths, biology, arts, and whatever other classes they take and make one giant, comprehensible mess.

I'll have to work together with her. During Glynda's explanation, Shadow pulls out a tiny notebook and scribbles pointers, raising Yang's eyebrow. Huh. At least I won't have to worry about her being a lazy-ass.

Wait, what is she saying? This is Shadow. The one who put her in a prison cell! After Yang saved her life!

Anger bubbles back.

As they work out the details, Shadow's father—Mister Belladonna—excuses himself, saying he has a business meeting to attend to. "Will you be alright coming home yourself?" he asks his daughter with a caring tone as if to a kitten, not knowing how much of a snake she really is.

"Yeah, Dad," she says, her face soft and her smile softer. "I can walk, no problem."

Even her own flesh and blood is fooled! No wonder Yang helped her! It must be a sort of dark magic. Hypnotism, maybe, considering this is Earth.

Why else would Yang save her from that Grimm worm?

Giving Shadow a short hug, Mister Belladonna leaves. Uncle Qrow mumbles a long "um" as he stares at Yang questioningly. "I guess I should, uh…"

What? Yang wants to snap at him. Do you have a business meeting too?

"Better start the car," he says, as if he'll be the one driving them home. Yang may be buzzed, but he's wasted.

He goes to her, then stands awkwardly. I swear, if he tries to hug me… Luckily, no. All he does is give her pats on the shoulder. Then he's off, stumbling his way through the hall, the opposite of dignified.

After five more minutes of standing around, saying "yes, ma'am" to whatever Glynda tells them, Yang storms off, not bothering to excuse herself. She waits outside the door, her back against the wall, and pushes herself off of it once Shadow comes out, too.

"What," Yang says, "are you—"

"Not here," Shadow hisses.

Yang tenses, noting the students loitering around the hall. All are openly staring at them, which means word's gotten out about what happened. Not that she's surprised. This is Beacon High, after all. Nothing's sacred.

Tersely nodding, Yang grabs her forearm, then drags her away out the back entrance of the school, near the parking lot. She tugs Shadow down two steps down, so she has to look up at Yang.

"Why are you here?" Shadow asks.

"Funny," Yang says with a scoff, "I was about to ask you the same thing."

Shadow grits her teeth. "I moved here."

Another scoff. "From where? Menagerie?"

"Chicago, you fool."

Huh. She actually sounds like she's telling the truth.

"And what about you?" She asks, her Remnant accent clashing against the Earth clothes she's wearing. Despite the height difference, she's somehow staring down at Yang. "Why are you here?"

Yang wants to throw a chair at her again. "I've lived here all of my life! This—" she gestures at the space around them "—is my school! My Earth! My territory! Mine! Mine, and mine only!"

"Apparently, not anymore." Shadow sighs, leaning against the railing. Yang's hands twitch with the need to throttle her, or tug her hair and clash her skull against Yang's knee. Shadow narrows her eyes at her. "I know what you're thinking, and you need to stop."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were a telepath."

A horrible thought grows on Yang; what if Shadow has powers here too? But no. That can't be. If she has powers, she would've used them when they fought. Instead of misty clones and double swords, Shadow's attacks featured the floor and a chair.

"We can't kill each other, not here," Shadow says, her voice lowering. "We can't even attack each other without people making a big deal out of it. Not unless you want to get expelled."

Damn it, she's right. This is Earth. No one knows how dangerous Shadow is. Even if they do, they're too much of a wuss to do anything about it. They'll make up an excuse, like how Shadow's a minor, and she has no official criminal records.

Plus, her dad's loaded. Which means that, were anything to happen, the school will pin the blame on Yang.

"So, what do we do, then?" Yang asks. "Just pretend we're all buddy-buddy?"

Shadow's jaw is tight. "Until we finish the project, yes." Yang inhales sharply, raking her nails against her hair. "This is not ideal for me, either."

Jesus, even when she's on Earth, she can't help sounding so formal. This will be a disaster. She should call it off. That's right. March up back to Glynda's office, then tell her she can't do it.

Then, what? Get expelled?

Yang can't do that. She may have no plans for the future in this world, but she knows that she'll need a high school diploma, if not to become successful, then to support Ruby on her way to become successful herself. God knows Qrow won't be able to afford it. Even with a full scholarship, they'll still need to pay for stuff; books, a decent laptop, food, an apartment. Anything and everything.

So, yeah. She won't have to be an "exemplary student" or whatever. All she has to do is not cause any trouble and do what she's told. Shouldn't be too hard.

If it involved anyone but Shadow.

"Alright," she says, her teeth grinding against each other so hard they'll break. "Fine. I'll just have to work with you for however long it takes to finish this project."

"The sooner, the better."

"Couldn't agree more, doll face."

Silence.

Shadow clears her throat. "I suppose I'll… see you in Remnant."

Oh, God. She will, won't she? Yang groans, rubbing her face. "This keeps getting worse and worse."

"Our luck is really ugly," Shadow says, which sounds weird, considering they're on Earth.

Without saying goodbye, Shadow leaves. Yang throws a finger at her direction, which she gracefully doesn't acknowledge. Yang slumps against the railing, cursing every curse word to ever curse, both Earth ones ("fuck" "shit" "sonovabitch") and Remnant ones ("kraz" "gol" "nyet").

At one point, she even mixes the two together. ("sonovakraz").

On the car ride home, with Yang on the wheel, Uncle Qrow tries to talk to her, toying with the seatbelt. "Look, Yang, I…" He leans on his seat. "I'm not sure how to do this."

Wow. A+ parenting, Uncle.

Yang extends her hand, making a gimme motion. He frowns at her. "Not sure that's a good idea, kiddo."

"It's really not." Yang's hand is still extended. Uncle Qrow sighs, but gives her the flask. "Thanks."

"Yeah, well," he says, "anything to keep you from throwing another chair." Yang snorts. "Did you actually do that, by the way?"

"I think so, yeah." The fight itself is a blur of anger and confusion. "Then again, she hit me with Glynda's nameplate."

"Shit, really?"

Yang takes a swig, the liquid burning her throat. "Yup."

"Dayum." She returns the flask to him, and he takes his own swig. Some of the droplet runs down his chin. "She's one feisty girl."

Oh, you have no idea.

As soon as the front door closes, Uncle Qrow crashes on the couch and snores. Yang wishes she could do the same. Her mind throbs, and she can't sleep it off. Well, she can, but that would mean waking up and possibly getting tortured.

She may be exhausted, but she's not sleepy. She refuses to get sleepy.

With nothing else to do, Yang pulls out her phone, which she's set to silent mode at one point during her walk to Glynda's office.

An onslaught of texts and missed calls assaults her.

Some from Nora. Others from Ren. There are many from other friends, most of whose contacts she doesn't even save.

Ruby called her 17 times and texted her 43 times.

Heart heavy, Yang opens the messages.

Ruby: They said you THREW A CHAIR AT THE NEW STUDENT.

Ruby: Or maybe the new student threw a chair at you?

Ruby: The throwing of chairs were involved, of that I'm sure

Ruby: You two fought

Ruby: Like, actually fought

Ruby: Yang, what is going on with you?

Ruby: Please, Yang.

Ruby: I know something's wrong.

Ruby: You don't need to protect me from the truth.

Ruby: I'm not a little girl anymore.

"Ruby…" Oh, how she wishes to tell her everything, like she did when they were kids. But she can't. She knows better. It would end in disaster.

She still remembers the way Uncle Qrow looked at her. She doesn't know what that look means, only that she didn't want him to have that look again. "You need to stop, Yang."

"Stop? Stop what?" Her small self never remembered doing anything wrong.

"Telling Ruby your parents are alive—"

"But they are!"

Uncle Qrow could snap at her. But he didn't. For all his faults, he never raised his voice nor his hand at either of them. He sucked in a breath, placed his hand on her shoulder, then squeezed. "You're only hurting her. She needs to move on."

Yang didn't understand the moving on part. She was a kid, after all. She didn't even understand how she was hurting Ruby, only that she was. And she didn't want to. Hurting Ruby was the last thing she ever intended to do. So she stopped. Years have passed since then. Yang hopes Ruby looks back to those crazy stories Yang told her as just that; stories. That is, if Ruby even remembers them.

She gives Ruby a brief text, telling her she's home already, asking if she wants Yang to save her pizzas.

Ruby calls her in less than five seconds. "Yang, are you alright?"

"Hey, Rubes. Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Uncle Qrow picked me up."

"What happened?"

"Ruby, it's—" Yang sighs. "It's complicated."

It's a cop-out. She knows this.

What else is she supposed to say, though?

"It's all everyone's been talking about," Ruby says. "A chair was just there. On the hallway. One leg broken."

"Must be quite the sight."

Silence.

"Well," Ruby says, voice low, "I guess that's it, then."

"I'm—"

"Class is about to start."

Yang bites her lip. "Right."

"Bye, Yang."

"Bye, Rubes." Good luck, she adds in her heart.

Yang presses her phone against her chest in a futile attempt to calm the raging storm inside. She glances at the clock. 1:47. That would make it early morning at Remnant, the space between the first and the second bell.

Tick, tock.

She should lay here and do nothing.

Tick, tock.

Yeah. That's it. Avoid Remnant at all costs.

Tick, tock.

Then again, if it's early morning, the chances of her getting interrogated should be slimmer, right? No one will bother her in her cell. If she wants to gather the strength to escape, now would be the perfect time.

Tick, tock.

Yang reaches for her drawer, and the bottle of Doxepin inside.

A/N

I think my favorite part about this is having Blake hiss at Yang "Chicago you fool." I don't know what it is about that sentence that's just hilariously weird. Also, lookie! Yang and Qrow interaction. And also Yang and Ruby interaction. What fun.