A/N: Hey there true believers yet another update. A bit more of a delay, but rest assured that it is not due to my slowing down. Over the past month and a half, I have been writing like a man possessed and my updates have been frequent, if somewhat erratic. So in an attempt to keep myself from burning out and to keep from overwhelming those of you have stuck with me I plan on spacing out my chapter updates a little bit. I also have a wee bit of a surprise coming up that I'm pretty excited about, it's nothing major but I think some you will really enjoy it. Now with all the dull stuff out of the way, I will say as I always do. Hope you enjoy and be sure to let me know what you think.
The first day of classes had been about what Clark expected. A great deal of information was thrown at them about what was to come and what was expected of them. Clark scribbled down everything that every instructor had said and memorized as much as he possibly could. He was; and had always been, an apt pupil but he was at a marked disadvantage here.
The entirety of his schooling up until this point had been focused on general studies. History, math, science, and language so his grip on the Grimm, history of the huntsmen, warfare and everything else here at Beacon were rather wanting. He had tried his best to study up before he arrived but Ozpin had forgotten; or had chosen, to not tell him what he should have studied beforehand.
Clark was not terribly distressed, he knew he could catch up if he put his mind to it but he was behind for the first time in his life. In all honesty, he was kind of enjoying it, as odd as that may sound. He was always so far ahead that looking at those in front of him was oddly refreshing. But as they entered the final class of the day, Grimm Studies, he did find himself more nervous then he had been previously. The other classes had at least some overlap with what he had experienced at his old school, even if it was relatively small. His knowledge in the area of Grimm, however, was virtually nonexistent.
Sure he knew a lot of the basic stuff. Grimm were; despite all appearances to the contrary, not alive. They moved, ate, and seemed to have some rudimentary thought process but they were more akin to biological machines than anything else. They didn't seem to feel and even though they did eat, it did not appear to be a requirement of their existence. So Clark had never felt any guilt about destroying the beasts when that had happened to wander too near to Smallville.
He also knew that they were primally and instinctively drawn towards grief, sorrow, rage, melancholy, and other negative emotions. But even children knew that it was tantamount to learning fire is hot. It was just one of those things every child probably knew before they could actually remember.
But beyond that, he didn't know all that much about what he was training to hunt. He didn't know many of different classifications. His understanding of their behavior and habits did not extend beyond the most rudimentary. Proper techniques for combating and detaining were...well, Clark supposed that particular aspect wasn't all that important, at least not to him. But it still showed his lack of understanding of the subject.
So with equal parts trepidation and excitement, he entered the classroom of Professor Peter Port. Most of the class was already seated and he took note of his "current team" sitting down in front. Gingerly and clumsily he made his way to the open seat next to Ruby.
"Whew, the first day's almost done," Clark said merrily as took his seat and began to unload his books and notes.
"Yeah, super boring, I can wait to get to the good stuff," Ruby responded in an exasperated tone.
"Yeah it has been a bit dry, but we can't build a house with no foundation," he said jokingly but Ruby only looked confused.
"What does construction have to do with school work?" she asked seeming genuinely confused.
"It's well, I mean to say," Clark started sounding flabbergasted.
"It means you need to know the basics before advancing," Blake said calmly from her other side.
"Oh…OOOH, yeah, yeah that makes sense," she mumbled having caught on, her face flushing from embarrassment.
Clark could hear Yang and Blake snicker, but they did say anything. Weiss made a scoffing noise followed by a very nasty sounding "Wow" but she didn't comment on the situation either. Which Clark thought was for the best, Weiss was clearly the odd man out on the team and she needed to learn how to better temper herself.
"Good afternoon class!"
The loud voice of Professor Port boomed across the classroom and drew all their attention. He was a shorter than average man with the telltale signs of having a powerfully built body that was past its prime. He seemed to walk with a bit of swagger as he began his lesson.
Clark immediately began to take notes on everything he said, almost transcribing verbatim what he was saying. He was terribly excited to be learning about Grimm and was listening with rapt attention. After fifteen minutes of lecturing and old stories, however, Clark began to feel his excitement wane.
Professor Port was not exactly the most exciting of teachers. He droned on and on about himself and Grimm without ever giving any real information and he gave Yang, what Clark considered, a very inappropriate look and a wink. Clark was pretty sure it wasn't anything, but it was still not proper for an instructor to do such a thing. He could also tell it made Yang pretty uncomfortable as well, and that just irritated Clark all the more. It just wasn't proper.
But he didn't do anything else and went back to droning on. Every once in a while something useful would crop up in his anecdotes and Clark would jot it down but by and large, this class was a lot less interesting than Clark would have thought.
Having filled his third page of notes he turned the page of his pad as he opened his textbook hoping to glean some useful information from what Professor Port was saying. As he began to scan the text he heard a soft noise off to his side. A small snuffling sound followed by a tiny little snort, it was snoring.
Glancing over he sees that Ruby had fallen fast asleep with her head propped up on her hand. Her pencil had rolled out of her grip and sat over a doddle labeled "Professor Poops" that lay below the limited notes she had taken. Looking up at their teacher Clark saw he hadn't noticed Ruby foray into dreamland, or the rest of the classes lack if attention for that matter.
"Ruby," Clark whispered out of the corner of his mouth. When she didn't stir he raise his voice a small amount. "Ruby, wake up," he whispered again and she didn't stir at all. Okay, this wasn't working, he could speak any louder with drawing attention so instead, he just leaned over and prodded her gently with his elbow before whispering a final "Ruby."
The result was a fair bit more dramatic than Clark had been expecting. With a loud snort and a gasp as she jumped up in her seat and began to look around almost frantically.
"I'M AWAKE!" she practically shouted in terror. Yang snickered, Blake smiled, and Weiss scoffed.
"Glad to hear it, Miss Rose," Professor Port said in a tone that suggested he was excited about how her enthusiasm, he hadn't once noticed her dozing. "So do you have the spirit of a true Huntress?" he asked in jovial voice and Ruby looked thoroughly confused. She hadn't heard his little speech about the heart and character Huntsmen and Huntresses, luckily for her Weiss jumped on the opportunity as he hands shot up in the air.
"I do sir," she said with fire in eyes.
"Excellent, excellent Miss Schnee, I hope you're ready," he said cheerily as he walked over to a cover crate and lifted the veil. A snarl and snorting sound filled as the cage rattled and shook and beads of glowing red embers shone through the dark.
Weiss stood with purpose and conviction and gave a nod as she left to change and obtain her weapon. She returned in short order and struck her En-garde position in the center of the class. It was almost a mechanical and robotic how well she moved and readied herself for combat.
"Come on Weiss represent team RWBY!" Ruby yelled enthusiastically.
"Yeah, do it to it," Yang shouted.
"Ra, ra," Blake deadpanned as she waved a small makeshift pennant.
Clark decided that, despite how she had treated him, she was still a teammate and he'd support and cheer for her. So he stuck his fingers in his and blew a hard creating a near ear-splitting whistle and began to clap. When Weiss looked around and glowered at him he stopped immediately and slumped down in his seat.
"Get ready," Professor Port said as he stood by the cage as it seemed about ready to burst. "Begin," and the latch as released and the beast burst forth.
It looked like a boar, a boarbatusk? Clark wasn't sure if that was the right name but it sounded right. But the name didn't really matter as the Grimm charged Weiss and she stood unshaken.
With a clang, she deflected the tusks as they attempted to gore her as she sidestepped and delivered a sweeping strike to the beast's back. The edge of her rapier dug into the back but only just barely. It's back was too heavily armored and it's hide was too thick.
Weiss leaped back as its head swung around trying to slash at her. It charged again and Weiss met it her blade locking up with its tusks. The sound of steel scraping in bone made Clark cringe slightly, something about that sound just drove him crazy. The sound was soon drowned out by Ruby.
"Weiss, go for the underbelly, it's less armored!" she shouted.
"Shut up!" she yelled back but her lapse in concentration costed her as her blade was ripped from her hand and tossed across the room.
"Oops," Ruby muttered as Weiss dove out of the Grimm's reach and rolled to put some distance between her and her attacker.
"Oh, you've been disarmed, what will you do now?" Professor Port said with a clear sense of amusement in his voice.
Weiss unfurled from her roll and sprung up onto her knees just as the boar skull was upon her. On pure instinct, she summoned a shield glyph and deflected what was sure to a devastating strike. The boarbatusk was hurled backward and gave Weiss the room she needed to reclaim her weapon. One final time the beast charged but this time it found itself impaled through the stomach on Weiss' sword. The beast froze and took only a moment for the class to realize something was wrong. Clark could tell by her heartbeat, Weiss knew even before her blade had sunk in she had missed her mark.
She tried to withdraw her blade but as the Grimm began to thrash around her blade remained embedded and her grip was lost. It lashed out and its tusks met another of her glyphs but this one was smaller and didn't protect her anywhere near as much and she was knocked off balance. Flat on her back the boarbatusk pressed it's snout against her and began to snap its jaws.
Weiss gripped the tusks and forcibly kept it at bay as it's head whipped back and forth trying desperately to get at her. She pushed across the floor until she was press against the wall and Clark could hear her heartbeat begin to rise. He considered jumping over the desk and helping her but she didn't need it. Just as the jaws of the beast were about to close on her head she stuck her hand out and its teeth cracked on a glyph before she waved her hand and it expanded. With a wet pop, the boarbatusks head splayed open at the jaw and the beast fell limp before disintegrating.
Clark, without planning, without thinking jumped over his desk and ran to her side. Her attitude be damned she was still a lady and he had been raised to help a lady in distress. Running over to her he knelt down and reached out to aid her.
"Are you ok…" he began before she knocked his hand away.
"I'm fine hayseed Harry," she said with a lot of anger in her voice for it to be directed at someone how was just offering to help and Clark felt his ears start to burn at the insult.
"Very good, very good, this young lady has the heart of a true Huntress in training. Well, that's all the time we have today. Make sure you do all the assigned reading and complete essay on proper rules for Grimm engagement, Class dismissed," Professor Port said cheerily as the rest of the class began to gather their things and leave.
Weiss dusted herself off before stalking over to her desk and gathering her things and left the room rather abruptly. Yang and Blake came over towards him as Ruby chased after Weiss.
Yang clapped him on the shoulder as Blake gave him a sympathetic look.
"Don't worry Smallville, she'll come around, you know she's not all bad...not all the time at least, hehe," Yang said sagely before switching to a joking manner.
"She must switch personalities when she's not around me, she really seems to dislike me for some reason," Clark mumbled.
He honestly had no clue as to why she seemed to have such a chip on her shoulder about him. She seemed to get irritated with Ruby pretty often but that seemed to be derived from Ruby's position as leader of the team. As unfair as it was he could at least see the thought process behind it, her rage towards him had neither rhyme or reason.
As he walked back to his desk to gather his things, he thought about it and tried to assign some logic to it. Could it be because he had outperformed her at the entrance exam? Maybe, but no one else on the team seemed to take issue with it. Perhaps it was the perceived special treatment he had received. Well, to be fair, he had received special treatment but it's not like he was treated any better than any other student, it was just different. Letting a sigh out he began to pack up his things.
"Clark, don't let what she says affect you. I don't know what her problem is but it's not you," Blake said kindly as she walked up to him.
"Thanks, Blake, I guess I'm just not used to being so…"
"Rude?" Blake finished for him.
"Well...yeah, I was raised to treat everyone with a certain level of decency and I guess, well, I don't know," he finished lamely as he slung his bag over his shoulder.
"You are a bit too understanding Clark, and a little too kind for your own good," Blake said with a tiny teasing smirk, yes a smirk.
"I don't think being nice is a problem," Clark answered defensively.
"They say nice guys finish last," Yang offered with a grin as she walked up to them.
"At least they don't ever regret what they did to get there," Clark said back with a smile of his own causing Yang to let out an overdramatic sigh as she reached up and patted him lightly on his cheek.
"You're such a good boy," she cooed in a playful tone.
"Knock it off," he said as he knocked her hand away, but he laughed in spite of his attempt to seem serious.
"If you two are done flirting we should go find the others," Blake said in a monotone, but she couldn't hide the tiny smirk appearing on her face.
This caused Clark's face to turn scarlet.
"We aren't...I'm not...that's…" he stammered out as Yang burst out into boisterous laughter.
"You are just adorable," she said to him as she pinched his cheek. "Come on, Blake's right, we should find those two before they kill each other," she finished happily as she turned to leave and Clark was happy for the subject to change.
They didn't need to go far before they ran into an irate Weiss tromping her way back into the classroom. She pressed to pass them and they decided that it was best just to leave her be for a moment. When a melancholy-looking Ruby walking around the corner it was Yang who reached her first.
"Hey Rubes...what's wrong?" she asked her voice laced with concern.
"Huh?" she said seeming to come out of a revery "Oh, nothing, nothing, but say why don't we have a bit of a study party tonight? You get a jump start and bond as a team!" she said with a vigor and enthusiasm just a shade too intense to be entirely genuine.
"You feeling okay?" Yang said as she put her hand to her sister's forehead.
"Pffft, yeah, totally I just thought it'd be a good idea," she said with a broad grin on her face.
Yang exchanged a questioning look with Clark then Blake but didn't say anything about.
"I think it's a great idea, my Grimm Studies are a little on the shaky side. Some help would do me a lot of good," Clark offered encouragingly, causing Ruby's plastered on grin to change to a genuine beaming smile.
"Well, it's decided then, think I'll go order a pizza, what does everyone want?" Yang asked very matter of factly.
The words pineapple, mushrooms, and anchovies came from Ruby, Clark, and Blake in turn and they all looked at one another before pointed to herself and said bacon.
"Well...no one is going to say it won't be an interesting piece of work, we should be praying?" she said sounding a bit afraid but laughed all the same.
"New best pizza," Ruby said merrily as she took another bite leaving a long string of cheese smattered with the odd assortment of toppings running from her mouth to the slice as she chewed merrily on what Yang had dubbed 'The Beast'.
Seeing as there was no common consensus on toppings Yang had made the executive decision to opt for what she had called the 'Bizarre and Daring' and had brought back the odd creation before them. This had not been what they expected when she said: Don't worry, I got this. It was clearly her idea of kind of joke, but they had been brave and tried it and found themselves pleasantly surprised.
"Yeah, not bad," Yang agreed through a mouth full of dough "Didn't think I'd like the fish but when you're right, you're right," she said to Blake who smirked.
"There's a joke there," she said slyly causing Clark to let out a choking cough for a moment.
"Get stuffed," Yang said back with a laugh as she threw a pillow from her bed at Blake who just leaned out of the way to dodge it.
"Come guys let's get to studying, we've got to read the first chapter of Grimm Anthology, and write our essays," Ruby said in a serious tone that failed to carry any weight as she had pizza sauce smeared on her cheeks, but they decided to listen all the same.
"Should we save some for Weiss?" Clark asked looking into the Pizza box was that nearing empty.
"You snooze you lose, she should've been here," Yang said unconcernedly as she scooped up one of the last three sliced and taking a large bite.
"Agreed, if she wants to wander campus all hours of the night well…" Blake trailed off as she took one of the remaining two.
"Nothing worse than cold pizza," Ruby said in a light tone sounding like she was justifying herself. As she reached for it but stopped before she looked at Clark. "Did you want it Clark?" she asked almost timidly.
"Oh no, you go ahead," he said kindly with a smile.
With a grin, she scooped it up and stuffed it in her mouth before choking and gagging. Yang gave her a pat on the back.
"Slow down, your gonna get yourself killed," she said as Ruby's hacking subsided. "How about we get to work eh?"
"Yeah...sounds good," Ruby said between gasps as she picked up her textbook.
After a bit of joking and fooling around, they did finally manage to get to work. They finished the reading and set to the task of writing. Clark had to stop every once and a while asking a question or two, well a few, okay more than a few. Sure had read the text, but a lot of it was dependant on a preexisting knowledge he just simply didn't have.
"So, when Grimm swarm you corral?" Clark asked looking up from his book.
"Corral and contain, yes," Blake said not looking up from her essay.
"You really need to brush up on this stuff Smallville, you can fight but your book learning on Grimm is a little on the rough side," Yang told him with a grin.
"Well I did say I was shaky on the subject," Clark said a faux tone of offense.
"You'll get there, we all have things to improve," Ruby said encouragingly.
Looking down at his watch Clark was a little shocked to see what time it was. It certainly hadn't felt like they had been that long. They have been here for nearly four hours.
"Oh wow, it's almost eight thirty, I think it's about time we call it night," Clark said as he began to collect his things.
"Were you born thirty-five or something? It's not that late," Yang almost scoffed.
"Perhaps Clark is right, we do have classes tomorrow and maybe the first day isn't the best time to start the habit of unnecessarily late nights," Blake offered evenly.
"Ugh, fine, but we're getting crazy this weekend, total rager," Yang said in a tone that made the rest of them nervous.
"I'm not sure I like the sound of that," Clark said nervously.
"I have to agree with Clark, that sounds...intimidating," Blake said eyeing the blonde cautiously.
"You don't know the half of it, Yang goes totally nanners when she parties," Ruby in a conspiratorial tone.
"I do not go nanners," Yang said defensively.
"That's not what dad says," Ruby said in a singsong voice. "Why I remember him saying…" she began but was cut off.
"Ruby...don't," Yang growled in a warning tone.
"But our friends should know," she said with a sinister glint in her eye.
"Ruby Rose, I am warning you," Yang said dangerously.
"About that time dad caught you... AHHH," she began to elaborate before she sister tackled her to the floor shoving her hand over her mouth. A virtual cloud of chaos began to stir up as the two tussled around the room. Blake and Clark just watched as they as the brawl.
"This is normal right?" Clark asked.
"From what I have been able to gather yes, but I've only known them as long as you have," she responded calmly as she dodged a flying hairbrush.
"Right, seems like it's been longer," Clark said as he nonchalantly batted away a textbook. "Well, I'll leave you two to it. Good night, see you in the morning," Clark finished with a friendly wave and turn to leave.
"Good night Clark," Blake said in a formal, though kind, voice.
Mumbles and grumbles of "Good night," came from the tangled bedlam as it made its way around the room. With a small grin, he opened the door and exited. As he walked down the hall to his own room he thought to himself that, all in all, it had been a pretty good day.