Chapter 7: Day One

AN: Normal length chapter here. Warning ahead of time that next chapter might be on the short side. Kassidy tries (and fails) to get accustomed to her new life. Comments are appreciated as usual.

Also, still looking for ideas on small stories (i.e. a chapter apiece) to fill in a two week gap in the story.

(Perspective: K)

The first thing Kassidy noticed when she woke up was how comfortable she was. Been nice to sleep on a bed for a change. Don't have to deal with aches and cramps when I get up. Sitting up, her eyes still closed because of the sunlight… wait, sunlight? Taking a glance over at the alarm clock, she saw the time was 6:30. Holy crap! I haven't slept for nine hours since ever! Starting to slack off, can't let the edge get dull. Crossing the room and digging through her bag for her earpiece and iris cam to put them back in, Kass realized that she fell asleep so quickly that she forgot to take them out. No wonder my eye's itching.

"Hey Bob, you there?" She tapped on her earpiece and kept her voice low, so her slumbering teammates wouldn't rouse. Right, teammates. That's going to take some getting used to.

"Well good morning, sleeping beauty. I was wondering how much time you were planning to waste in that hard, cold, miserable bed."

"Alright, you can quit teasing now. Anything strange happen while I was out?"

"Yeah, you slept nearly three times as long as you usually do. How's your foot doing, by the way?"

Oh, right, my ankle was shattered. "I've been prancing around on it, so it can't be that bad. Shoulder feels nice too. Let me grab your toolbox and let's see what we can see."

Digging around for an X-ray scanner, Kassidy plugged it in and started unwrapping her foot. It looks alright, certainly feels alright. "Might not even need the scanner for this one. Feels fine to me."

"You also have a tendency to ignore feelings you don't want to deal with. Let's take a look."

Finding a spare wall outlet, she plugged the scanner in, which now made Bob look like a black, ugly box wired to another black, ugly box. Passing the scanner over first her foot, then her shoulder, Kass waited for Bob to render the images.

"Not perfect, but it'll do. They gave you that injection at what, five in the afternoon? Thirteen and a half hour recovery time. Impressive." Bob was obviously just as pleased as Kassidy was about the results. "Everything should be fully recovered by nine o clock, if you don't put more strain on things than you absolutely have to. I'd recommend postponing your workout until this afternoon."

"For once, I'm going to have to agree with that logic. Still need to find a way to be productive this morning, though. A good start would be some breakfast."

"Alright, I know you have a high metabolism, but six eggs? You killed off an entire turkey yesterday! Considering that part of my functionality is maintaining your health, and that we now have regular access to actual food, it might be wise to set up a meal plan for you."

Kassidy chuckled through a mouthful of food. "Bob, dude, I'm five nine and weigh a hundred fifteen pounds. I'm the last candidate on this campus for getting fat. Especially considering my metabolism." Stuffing in more food, she thought for a bit. "I suppose it can't hurt though. Managing my macronutrients and whatnot so my muscle mass can grow the quickest. Or whatever those health buzzwords are."

Her computer sighed next to her. "They're not just buzzwords. With as much punishment as you put yourself through, I really wish you'd put more care into how you treat your body. And could you try not eating as fast? It's not like anyone is gonna take your food out from under you."

She eyed her companion. "Do you remember the last time I had a solid meal before we got here? Neither do I. I'm going to eat like it's my last meal because there's no guarantee that it isn't."

"Sure there is!" Ruby suddenly came bounding up next to Kassidy, setting her own impressively loaded plate of eggs, fruit, and toast with way too much jelly on it. "I mean, why would they? The entire point of this school is training us to be the best fighters we can be. We can't do that if we go hungry."

Kassidy regarded her new team leader. Still dressed in her sleepwear, Ruby was busy digging into a bowl of strawberries. "Yeah, well, they wouldn't be the first people to say that without actually meaning it. And you know that much sugar can't possibly be good for you, right?"

"But it tastes so good!" Ruby's whining was almost as adorable as it was annoying. She instantly snapped out of it, thankfully. "Why would they say it if they didn't mean it? I mean, they're the good guys." Putting down a piece of toast, she looked at Kassidy. "Kass, where did you come from that makes you so suspicious of other people?"

I was afraid of this. Kassidy chewed on a load of hash browns while contemplating a wise answer. If I told the truth, she'd hate me. So only part of the truth. But would she able to understand that? Would she be too young to understand the ways of the world? She suddenly cringed. Does Yang have some sort of ground rules for what Ruby should and shouldn't be exposed to? But I'm a terrible liar anyway, and Ruby's shown in the past to see straight through it.

"Kass…" Ruby was practically pleading with her now.

Letting out a sigh, she elected for the path of least resistance. "There were no good guys where I come from. And if you don't mind, I'd rather not talk more about it than that."

Ruby looked at her plate for a bit. Head drooped, fork absentmindedly pushing around her eggs. I'm sorry kid, but that answer's a hell of a lot nicer than I could have made it. After about thirty seconds, the kid looked back up at her, silver eyes gleaming. Goddamnit, quit making pathetic faces. It's almost like she knows I'm a sucker for those. "When you do want to talk, I'll be here."

"Talk about what?" Yang had just sauntered up to the pair, chewing on a sausage link and settling down to a giant omelet. "Was Ruby trying to give you that puppy dog stare?"

Kassidy was about to answer when her pocket pinged at her. Ruby's and Yang's scrolls had pinged as well. Digging in her pocket, she pulled out her own device and found the following message:

"TEAM RWKY: YOUR UNIFORMS HAVE JUST BEEN DROPPED OFF AT YOUR DORMITORY. ATTACHED TO THIS MESSAGE IS YOUR CLASS SCHEDULE. DO NOT BE LATE."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they might not want us late for classes." Kassidy shoveled what was left of her food into her mouth, then regarded the classes she had been put in. "Hey, since this message was sent to the four of us, does this mean we share all the same classes?"

"Sure looks like it." Yang swiped through her schedule before snapping her scroll closed. "Looks like classes end at four. If we don't have too much homework, we should be able to have some fun this evening. And we'll be able to improve your mood some, grumpy pants."

Kass took the physical ribbing as well as she did the metaphorical, namely by ignoring it. "I hope combat training won't require too much shooting. I used most of my ammo yesterday and I forgot to restock last evening. So, uh, where's Weiss? She doesn't strike me as one who would skip breakfast."

"Oh, she's still sleeping." Bits of egg tumbled out as Yang talked.

The three girls looked at each other with mischievous eyes, then all blurted at once, "Not it!"

"Drat." Ruby pouted for a bit, then finished off her breakfast. Kassidy was busy inputting her schedule into Bob while Yang finished, then the three girls went up to the room. Outside the door were four cardboard boxes, each labelled for a different recipient.

"Hey, do you mind letting me rinse off a bit before you get Weiss up?" Kass creaked the door open and stepped inside. She knew a thing or two about being quiet.

"Sure, Rubes and I already took care of it." Kassidy picked up her uniform box, then headed into the showers for bathing that involved actual hot water.

"Hey, aren't you gonna let your hair down first?"

She looked up and found Yang regarding her from having torn her box open. Reaching up to fiddle with her bun a bit, she answered back, "Nah, it's been months since I've let it down. Takes forever to put back up and I'd rather not spend that kind of time today."

Ruby her head tilted to the side. "Don't you ever let your hair down? That knot seems really, really tight and it couldn't possibly be comfortable."

"It kind of isn't, but it needs to be up so it doesn't get in the way of anything."

"Okay, step one of improving your mood." Yang sprang up and started poking at her pun. "You need to relax, and letting your hair relax is a good starting point. You see this mane of mine?" She threw the golden carpet from off her shoulder. "This doesn't get in the way of anything, and I can guarantee that mine's bigger than yours."

"My hair doesn't need to relax, it needs to stay out of my face and not get caught on things." She fought with her partner for a bit before resigning herself to her fate. "You're not gonna let me out of this with my bun intact, are you?"

Popping the P, "Nope!" With a final tug, Yang made the whole thing unravel. Kassidy resolved to put it back up as soon as her partner wasn't looking.

"Alright, I'm gonna hop in the shower before you find anything else to mess with. I hope you're happy." Yang didn't even need to reply to give an answer. The smug grin told all.

After stepping out of the excessively long shower and drying off, Kass opened her box of uniforms, and her heart sank. Skirts, really? And is that a blouse? Like hell I'm wearing that! This is about as non-practical as it's possible to get! Cracking the bathroom door open just a hair, she stuck her head out and asked Ruby, "Hey, these uniforms aren't mandatory, are they?"

"Yeah, they are. What, you don't like them?" Kassidy swore under her breath, which the kid apparently picked up on. "Hey, watch your language!"

She ducked back into the bathroom, grumbling about what she'd give for a decent pair of pants. While not exactly a tomboy in her younger days, fragile fancy clothes were never her thing. After eventually figuring out how exactly everything was supposed to fit together, she stepped out. At least the socks are reasonable, if still fragile. I really hope I'll never have to throw down in this getup.

"Lookin' sharp, partner."

"The instant we're done with classes, I'm putting my hair back up and changing into my gear. Bob, time check."

"It's eight o clock."

"Sure you are." Yang had a grin on her face, which vanished once a groan emanated from Weiss. Backing up across the room, the two blondes watched Ruby pull out a whistle. A shrill blast left the heiress on the floor.

"Good morning Team RWKY!"

"What in the world is wrong with you?"

Kass and Yang snickered at the two smaller girls' antics.

"Now that you're awake, we can officially begin our first order of business."

"Decorating!" Yang hauled an armload of her stuff up. Kassidy decided to join in on the proceedings. "You guys still need to unpack." Picking up one of Ruby's bags that was on the floor next to her, it almost instantly flopped open and dumped its contents on the floor. "And clean. I'll help with that second bit."

Ruby blew another whistle at Weiss, who promptly fell over. "All right! Weiss, Kassidy, Yang, and their fearless leader Ruby have begun their first mission! Bonsai!"

"Bonsai!" Yang went to join her sister. Kass was content with chuckling for a second, before her partner grabbed her arm and drug her to the two sisters. She put up her own arm and let out a cry that was nowhere near as enthusiastic as her teammates.

"Good thing I brought my bedroll." The scene before them would have been comical if they didn't have to live with it. The beds were all in one big pile in the middle of the room. Even with only three kids' room decorations to deal with rather than all four, her teammates had way too much stuff. They could learn a thing or two from her about travelling light.

"This isn't going to work."

"Maybe we should ditch some of our stuff."

"Or we could ditch the beds…" Upon Ruby saying this, three sets of eyes went straight to her. After a moment's thought, her face lit up. "… and replace them with bunk beds!"

"Um, that sounds incredibly dangerous."

"And super awesome!"

Kassidy regarded the proceedings before her. "That does seem more efficient. I mean, we do have room for two of the beds. Stacking them should work if we can get them to stay where we put them."

"Well, I think we should put it to a vote." Weiss was obviously accustomed to getting her own way in things.

"I think we already did." With no further argument, the group set to work stacking beds on top of each other.

Kassidy was helping Yang stack their beds on top of each other, with the latter doing most of the actual lifting. The result looked nowhere near as stable as Kass would like. "If this falls and crushes me in the middle of the night, I'm haunting you for the rest of your life."

"Aww, my partner already has a *crush* on me! How cute!" Yang was having way too much fun. Kassidy was about to correct her when the sudden sounds of a power drill sounded from the other pair.

"Do I even want to know what your sister is doing with a power drill?"

"Hey, I'm drilling eye hooks into the ceiling! I need to tie the ropes off to something, you know."

"And I take it all back. I'm glad we're on this side of the room. Poor Weiss."

"I can hear you, you dolt!"

The four girls met back at the front of the room. Ruby was quite happy with how things ended up. "Objective complete!" She grabbed her scroll and jumped on Weiss' bed. "Our second order of business is… classes." The team leader flipped through their combined schedule. "Alright, our first class is at nine…"

"What! Did you say nine? Its 8:55 you dunce!"

Kassidy looked at the clock; sure enough, it was only five minutes before classes start. Thankful she had already stuffed her giant bag with textbooks, she threw Bob in and chased after Weiss. "So at what point were you planning on telling us when we should have been leaving?"

"Whenever you four stopped being entertaining."

The argument ended there as all four girls, plus JNPR as they caught up, engaged in a footrace with the clock. Fortunately, they all managed to get to their first class just in the nick of time. A large man with a larger mustache calling himself Port spent most of the class telling a story regarding the sheer quantity of testosterone in his bloodstream. Well, at least that's what Kassidy got out of it. She spent most of the hour trying to reproduce the notes and drawings on the board as faithfully as possible, before watching Weiss fight a Grimm boar (apparently called a Boarbatusk).

At 10:30, the eight teens found themselves in a history class, taught by one of the most hyperactive people Kassidy had ever met. Despite paying attention in earnest – because that was so hard given the professor – history was one of the few subjects Kassidy struggled with. Combine that with the fact that she was on a new planet, and she found herself helplessly lost and really not needing Bob to interrupt her focus.

"I wonder what that Oobleck guy puts in his coffee to get that kind of energy."

"Shut up, Bob."

Afterwards, the two teams found themselves with an hour and a half to kill. Combat training was at one and would last until 2:30, and they needed to change out of their uniforms, a task Kassidy was only so happy to perform. She would've had her hair back in its bun too, if Yang hadn't busted into their dorm room to catch her red handed (or dark blonde handed, in this case).

"Hey, you're being missed at the lunch table... oh no, we agreed. Your hair is taking a break today."

"We didn't agree. You picked at my hair until it fell apart, and I'm not stupid enough to get into a contest of strength with you." Kass sighed as Yang quickly obliterated what progress she had made. Throwing all her stuff into her pack, the pair quickly found themselves at the lunch room. JNPR, as well as Ruby and Weiss, were already helping themselves to some BLTs.

"I've been meaning to say, love the hair K!" Nora had bits of food tumbling out of her mouth.

"It's… nice, I guess?" Weiss had apparently dropped the overt hostility. "It'd look nicer if it didn't seem to have been cut by a hedge trimmer."

"Serrated knife, actually." Grabbing her own sandwich, Kassidy found herself at the end of the table. "What are those looks for? It's not like I had a barbershop to work with or something."

"It's our secret. Right, Rubes?" The two sisters of the team had smirks way too big for Kass to be comfortable. Seven of the eight people continued to have their conversation, while the dark blonde on the end of the table just took it all in. I know it's dangerous. Getting comfortable is what gets you killed. But a girl could get used to this.