While following the other students, Jaune and Ruby arrived at the auditorium. It was filled to the brim with new initiates, and among those initiates was a blonde woman who Ruby seemed to know since she was waving at her.
"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" the blondie shouted; she was waving at Ruby to make sure that she could be seen in the sea of students.
"Oh! Hey, I-I gotta go! I'll see you after the ceremony!" Ruby told Jaune. She was waving goodbye while heading in the direction of the blondie.
"Hey, wait! Ah, great. Where am I supposed to find another nice, quirky girl to talk to?!" Jaune said to himself. He looked around to see if there was any place he could stand that wasn't crowded while waiting for the headmaster's speech.
"How's your first day going, little sister?" blondie questioned cheerily; she then saw her sister cross her arms at her question.
"You mean since you ditched me and I exploded?" Ruby said in frustration. She was frustrated at the action of her sister.
"Yikes! Meltdown already?" blondie asked. She was now worried about Ruby.
Back with Jaune, he was looking around, but it was jam-packed with people no matter where he looked. There doesn't seem to be any place he can stand alone in peace, so he decided to go to the area he saw Ruby head to earlier.
When he spotted Ruby, she seemed to be confused, and in front of her was Weiss….at least he thinks that her name's Weiss since that's what he heard Blake call her. He continued watching Ruby interact with Weiss, she seemed to be struggling, and the blondie with her was not helping. So, he decided to approach and help Ruby.
"Uh…?" Ruby said in confusion, all she heard was some high-pitched noise coming from the crabby girl, and it was making her dizzy.
"You really wanna start making things up to me?" Weiss asked. She was staring at Ruby intensely while waiting for an answer.
"Absolutely?" Ruby said with doubt. She was not sure if answering the question would yield any positive resolve.
"Read this, and don't ever speak to me again," Weiss said. She then shoved the pamphlet on Ruby's face. She then stormed away.
"Wow, she is one crabby girl," Jaune said to Ruby. He got tired of looking for a place to stand, no matter where he looked. It was packed, so, he thought why not just approach Ruby and the person she was with? At least this way, he will be standing with someone he knows.
"Uhm? You are?" Yang questioned. She looked at Jaune intensely since he acted a bit too familiar with Ruby, and she's never seen him before.
"Name's Jaune Arc. I met Ruby earlier when she created a crater in front of Beacon," Jaune said. He was smiling at the thought of Ruby making a crater due to a sneeze.
"The name's Yang Xiao-Long. I'm Ruby's older sister," Yang said. She was inspecting Jaune. She saw that Jaune was wearing armour that seemed to be quite expensive-looking, it was silver in colour with some blue markings, and the clothing under it appeared to be a high-quality fabric. The right hand seemed to have some fur-like material on the inside.
"Jaune, I'm sorry that I ditched you when I saw my sister," Ruby apologised. She looked at the floor in shame since she realised she had ditched him just like how her sister ditched her.
Jaune would tell her that it was okay since family always comes first, but he couldn't since they heard the headmaster's voice coming from the speakers.
"I'll... keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to protecting the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction," the headmaster said, he looked at the students, and he saw them whispering about what the speech meant.
"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step," the headmaster continued. He also continued to look at the crowd of students. Among the students, in his eyes, not a single one seemed to understand what he meant until he saw Jaune smiling at his speech. This, in turn, brought a smile to his face. He then leaves the mic and heads down the stage.
'Knowledge can only carry you so far, that's true. Believing that what one is taught is all one would ever need to learn is stupid. That's just wrong and won't get you far. You need to take that knowledge and expand on it; you need to push yourself beyond what you are taught and use that knowledge in ways that would work for you,' Jaune thought. He found the speech remarkable. However, looking around, he realised that the students didn't seem to understand the headmaster's speech.
"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed," Glynda informed them in an authoritative voice. She, just like the headmaster, got down from the stage after making her announcement.
"He seemed kind of... off," Yang said. She put her hands in her ships and swayed side to side. She found the speech weird and not inspiring,
"It's almost like he wasn't even there," Ruby said. She was surprised since the headmaster didn't act this way when meeting her at the police station. Also, she didn't understand the headmaster's speech.
"You guys didn't understand the speech, did you?" Jaune asked. He saw that they were confused why the headmaster used such a speech.
"Uhm? Not really. It seemed very vague. I mean, what does he mean by knowledge will only get us so far?" Ruby said. She doesn't understand the meaning of the speech, all her life, people would say that knowledge would get her very far in life, but the headmaster said it could only get her so far.
"What the headmaster meant was…." Jaune explained to Yang and Ruby what he thought the headmaster speech meant.
"Oh! I get it now! He means that the knowledge we are taught isn't everything we need to learn. It is only a fraction. If we want to succeed in life, we need to take the lesson given to us and expand it in a way that works for us individually," Ruby said. She finally understood what the headmaster meant by his speech.
"I guess, if you think about it now, the speech is quite good," Yang said. She smiled, then folded her arms and nodded in understanding.
Later at night, students are splayed out in sleeping bags. Jaune came out of the locker room and headed into an area in the ballroom with a few people. It just so happens to be beside Blake. He saw that she was reading a book while using a candelabra to light her area and book.
"Hey, Blake. Nice night, don't you think?" Jaune greeted with a smile and asked in a low voice, and he knew that even if he spoke softly, Blake would be able to hear him since she was a Faunus.
"Hey to you too, Jaune. And yes, it is a nice night, great atmosphere to read a book," Blake said in a monotone voice. She still can't believe that Jaune could quickly figure out that she was a Faunus in a single glance when they first met. At first, she thought that he was sent by someone to eliminate her since he was too friendly towards a Faunus for a Human.
'Huh? Where did that come from? Just because he's Human doesn't mean he's the same as those scum that uses Faunus as slave labour. Not all Humans are the same,' Blake thought to herself. She then looked down at her book in shame as she realised that she was prejudiced.
While Jaune was talking to Blake, he saw that Yang was dragging Ruby in his and Blake's direction in the corner of his eyes. When they arrive, Ruby seems to be hiding behind her sister.
"Hello! ~," Yang said in a sing-song voice. She looked pretty cheerful, while behind her, Ruby seemed to be shying away.
"I believe you two may know each other?" Yang questioned, according to Ruby, that they had met earlier in the day.
"Aren't you... that girl that exploded?" Blake asked. She remembered Ruby quickly since no way anyone would ever forget a person causing an explosion on their first day.
"Uh, yeah! My name's Ruby!" Ruby happily introduced herself. She was finally no longer shying away behind Yang.
Ruby and Yang continue trying to make conversation with Blake, but Blake doesn't seem interested. While trying to make conversation, Ruby and Yang were making quite a bit of noise, and this caused a certain crabby girl to head in their direction.
"What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you realise some of us are trying to sleep? Oh, not you again!" Weiss complained, she was not having a good first day at Beacon. First, she was blown up by a child, then when it was time for bed. She was disturbed by said child.
This caused an argument. To stop it, Blake decided to blow out her candles and go to sleep. Meanwhile, while the argument was happening, Jaune was messaging someone on his scroll, but when he saw the place get darker after Blake blew out her candle, Jaune decided to tell the person that he was messaging that he needed to head to bed since he had a big day tomorrow.
Jaune waited for a message from the person he was conversing with to confirm that they understood why he was ending the conversation, and when he received that message, he went to bed. The profile picture of the person Jaune was talking to looked just like one of the girls making quite a stir earlier.