Notice Me, Ruby!

Chapter 11: A New Friend

Two days had passed since team RWBY's latest incident and the four members of said team were currently in class, listening to Oobleck's lecture on the history of Vale. The four members of RWBY were once again seated in a similar way that they had been for some time now, with Ruby staying as far away as possible from her teammates, while the three older girls were sitting next to each other.

While most members of team RWBY were trying their best to listen to Oobleck's lecture, one of the four girls wasn't. Yang's mind was too preoccupied with the current situation between herself and Ruby, which hadn't really gotten any better. Even if the blonde had kept her promise and gotten a good score on Port's last test, like Ruby had wanted, it hadn't really improved the relationship between the two girls. While the redhead seemed to have calmed down somewhat with her teammates, she was still being very distant towards them. In all honesty, Yang was slowly starting to lose hope on fixing this whole mess, as she couldn't think of anything to do that would help.

'I just don't know what to do anymore! I have tried everything I could, but all I've done is make things worse!' the brawler thought to herself desperately. 'There has to be something I can do, but what!? What can I do to make things right at this point!?'

Yang was suddenly brought out of her thoughts by Oobleck announcing that the class was over, along with giving her students their homework for the next lesson. The blonde began to put away her things, when the green-haired teacher suddenly spoke up again.

"Would the members of team RWBY mind and stay here for a while?" Oobleck asked the four girls. "There is something important I wish to discuss with you all."

The three older girls looked at each other in confusion, wondering what this was all about. They also looked at their team leader, hoping that she might know something, but saw that she was just as confused as they were.

The four members of team RWBY walked up to their teacher's desk and waited for the other students to leave. Once everyone else had left, Oobleck began to speak to them.

"Now, I'm sure you are all wondering why I needed you to stay here. The reason for that is because the teachers, including myself, want to make a small experiment of sorts," the caffeine addict began to explain. "This experiment especially concerns your team's leader, Ms. Rose."

The WBY went wide-eyed upon hearing what their teacher had said and looked at Ruby in surprise. The redhead herself seemed to be quite surprised as well.

"An experiment concerning me? What is that about?" Ruby asked. "Have I done something bad?"

"Oh heavens, of course not!" Oobleck quickly said. "In fact, you have been performing extremely well lately! So well that you have jumped far ahead of every other student that is on their first year here! To be honest, you are performing so good that we would like to put your skills on a special test!"

"Really?" the scythe-wielder wondered with a hint of excitement in her voice. "What is this test exactly?"

"That is something I would like to discuss with you as soon as another person I've called here arrives. This happens to concern her greatly as well," the green-haired man explained, before there was a sudden knock on the classroom door. "Speak of the devil! That must be her!"

Oobleck quickly went to the door and opened it, revealing a girl that was older than any of team RWBY's members. The girl was very tall, only about a head shorter than Yatsuhashi. She had long red hair that reached her back and bright green eyes. For her clothing, she was wearing a black jacket without sleeves, black elbow-length gloves, white pants and black high-heeled boots. On her head she was wearing a black hat with a very wide rim.

"Hello, Professor Oobleck," the girl greeted the teacher. "I'm sorry if I'm late. I got a bit hung up with my teammates."

"You are not late at all. I understand that your own schedule and other problems could delay your arrival," Oobleck said with a smile, as he let the red-haired girl into the room. "In fact, you came just at the right time! I just got to the part where I needed you to be present here!"

The professor walked up to team RWBY with the newly-arrived redhead. The four young students were all staring at this new person with curiosity, wondering who she was and why she was there.

"Ladies of team RWBY, I would like introduce you to Elaine Lambert. She is a third-year student here in Beacon and the leader of team LION," Oobleck said. "Ms. Lambert, these are the four members of team RWBY. The young girl in red is their team leader, Ruby Rose. The white-haired one is-"

"Hang on a second here!" Elaine suddenly said, cutting off the teacher. "Did you just say Ruby Rose? As in THE Ruby Rose?"

"The one and only," the green-haired man answered with a smile. "I believe you have heard quite a bit about her."

"Oh, I certainly have!" the older redhead said in an excited voice, before turning her attention to Ruby. Elaine had a big smile on her face, as she offered a hand to the younger team leader. "Hello, Ruby! It's great to finally get to meet you! I have heard A LOT about you!"

"Uhhh... Thank you," Ruby said awkwardly as she shook the older girl's hand. She was somewhat shocked by the way Elaine had reacted to finding about her identity.

Meanwhile, the scythe-wielder's teammates were looking at the two team leaders with both surprise and confusion. The way Elaine was acting was almost like Ruby was some sort of a celebrity.

"Any idea what this is about?" Blake asked her two teammates in confusion.

"Nope," Weiss answered. "But it seems like this Elaine person knows about Ruby without Ruby herself knowing about her."

Yang didn't say anything as she simply continued to stare at the two team leaders. On the outside, the blonde seemed to be completely calm, even if a bit confused, but the truth was completely different. On the inside, Yang had two emotions raging in her, trying to overcome the other one. On one hand, she felt happy that Ruby was apparently being recognized for her skills. However, the way Elaine was acting with the younger redhead was causing something similar to jealousy to bubble within the brawler. She guessed that this was simply because her relationship was no longer what it used to be with Ruby, but she couldn't help but feel that there was more to it.

"You have no idea how excited I am about this!" Elaine said happily to the younger team leader. "I can't wait for us to get to work together!"

"Wait, what? Work together?" Ruby asked and turned to look at Oobleck. "What is she talking about, Professor?"

"You see, Ms. Rose, the studies third and fourth-year students do here is quite different from first and second-years," the caffeine addict began to explain. "One of the things that is different is how they occasionally have to work with younger students like yourself. Depending on the situation, an older student might take a single younger student or an entire team under their wing for a short period of time. This is so the older students get experience in guiding others and being an influence to others, while the younger students get to observe more skilled students closer."

"Since Huntsmen and Huntresses are essentially some of the most influential people you can find, it's important for us to learn how to behave around those who might look up to us," Elaine explained further. "This whole experience also allows people like you to learn more in order to improve your own abilities further."

"I see... That does make sense," the younger team leader said. "However, could you explain what you mean by hearing a lot about me? I don't mean to sound rude, but I can't understand why a third-year student like yourself would know about me."

"That's actually quite simple! While we third and fourth-year students are completing our studies, we are fully aware of the fact that we have to eventually work with younger students at some point. Not only that, but our teachers keep sending us reports on the students that we will be working with in the future, so we know what to expect," the older team leader answered. "When the time comes for us to pick students or teams to work with, it becomes a "first come, first served" situation, where the fastest ones get the best students and teams. Out of all the first-year students, you're the one that everyone is talking about the most. I wouldn't be surprised if you even had a fan club or something."

"Huh!?" Ruby exclaimed in shock. "H-How is that possible!?"

"Why wouldn't it be possible?" Elaine said with a small grin. "You've made quite an impression on everyone by just how you got into this school! It takes some serious skills to get accepted here two years in advance, and after that you've just kept making a name for yourself. Not only have your grades been among some of the top students, despite you skipping two grades, but lately you've actually shot past every other first-year student! The only other person that was as known as you was Pyrrha Nikos, and we have heard that you absolutely wiped the floor with her in a match! You're pretty much a celebrity among us third and fourth-year students!"

The scythe-wielder could only stand still on shock at what she had just heard. Never before in her life had she ever considered herself to be popular in any way, as she was always more of a lonely geek among her peers. Yet not only was she now talking to someone that was excited simply by meeting her, but that person was also an older student and claimed that there were others like her, who admired Ruby. The young redhead had never believed that anything like this would ever be possible.

The sound of someone clearing their throat suddenly got the attention of the two redheads. They turned to look where the sound came and saw Weiss standing there, standing in a "proper" way that was most likely taught to her since childhood.

"Excuse me for interrupting your conversation, but might I ask if I'm also being talked about among the older students?" the heiress asked with a small smile, expecting to hear praise for her skills. "Seeing as how I'm Ruby's partner, I expect that I'm also mentioned quite often among third and fourth-year students, such as yourself."

"...Who are you again?" Elaine asked, shattering Weiss' expectations.

"I'm WEISS SCHNEE," the white-haired girl said while struggling to keep up her smile, hoping that emphasizing her name would jog the older girl's memory. "The heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. Partner of Ruby Rose and member of team RWBY."

The older redhead looked thoughtful for a moment, as she tried to remember hearing Weiss' name. She eventually seemed to remember something.

"Oh, that's right! Your name has been mentioned a few times!" Elaine exclaimed, causing Weiss to look hopeful. "I believe people have said that you're apparently a spoiled brat that only got here thanks to your father's influence, and that Ruby was very unfortunate for having someone like you drag her down."

While the heiress was fuming from anger and embarrassment, both Blake and Yang were snickering at their teammate's expense. They felt that it was good for someone to take down Weiss' ego a bit.

"I have heard some things about Ruby's other teammates as well," Elaine added, causing the snickering to stop. "I have heard that one of her teammates is an anti-social girl, who likes to read porn in the middle of class."

Ruby, Weiss and Yang turned to look at Blake, whose face was red from embarrassment. She had always thought that no one had seen her read her beloved "Ninjas of Love" books during class.

"And I have also heard that Ruby's last teammate is a destructive idiot, who causes nothing but trouble," the older team leader added, causing Yang to fume and Weiss to snicker.

Oobleck suddenly cleared his throat, getting the attention of his students again.

"As much as I hate to interrupt your conversation, I'm afraid that we should move on to discuss the reason I called you all here," the green-haired man said. "Now, I'm certain that you have at least some sort of an idea on what this whole meeting is about, Ms. Lambert?"

"I may have a good guess on what this is about," Elaine answered. "I'm guessing either Ruby or her whole team is going to be joining me and my team for some sort of an assignment, correct?"

"You're partially right," Oobleck replied. "While it is true that Ms. Rose is going to be working with you, it's not just any type of assignment that you'll be working on. In fact, she will be your partner in your latest history class assignment, and you will be working on it as equal partners."

"Wait, really?" the redheaded third-year asked. "I mean, I'm not really complaining or anything, but don't you think that's a bit risky? Ruby might be an extremely skilled prodigy and everything, but third-year assignments can be pretty dangerous."

"What's dangerous about a history class assignment?" Yang asked. "What could be so risky with going to the library to read a bunch of books?"

"That might be what history assignments are for the first two years in Beacon, but they're actually a lot different on the third and fourth years," Elaine began to explain. "Instead of simply doing research through reading books, we are tasked with going to actual historical areas to investigate them. However, the places we go are often crawling with Grimm, so they are very dangerous."

All color seemed to drain from the blonde's face upon hearing what Ruby would be getting into. There was no way that she was willing to let the young redhead get into something THAT dangerous. Not without her, at least.

"Professor Oobleck, I must protest this!" Yang exclaimed. "There is no way that Ruby can do this! At the very least I ask that she gets her team with her!"

"Ms. Rose will be in good hands, I can assure you that," Oobleck said calmly, not bothered by his student's protest at all. "Not only will Ms. Lambert be there with her, but the other members of team LION as well. With such a capable team with her, I am certain that there won't be any unfortunate accidents."

"B-But it's still too dangerous!" the brawler tried to argue. "You can't seriously expect me to-"

"I can expect you to accept this, as this was decided not just by me, but by ALL the other teachers," the caffeine-addicted man said sternly, clearly not in the mood for any arguing. "There is literally nothing you can say to change our minds on this subject, so I'd advice you to stop complaining, before you get yourself into any trouble. I'm certain you don't need that anymore."

As much as she still wanted to argue, Yang decided to keep her mouth shut. It was clear that there was nothing that could change the minds of every teacher in Beacon, so she couldn't do anything. She just had to accept the fact that Ruby would be in the care of total strangers, which she didn't like at all.

"Now that we have gotten over that, I think we can return back to the matter at hand," Oobleck said as he turned his attention back to Ruby and Elaine. "While I'm sure you two understand what you'll be doing for the most part, are there any questions either one of you two might have?"

"I personally don't really have anything to ask," Elaine answered with a shrug. "I already know what I need to be working on, so this is just getting a new teammate added to the mix. However, besides my work on my team's assignment, is there anything else you would like me to do, regarding Ruby?"

"Actually, there is," the teacher said with a small smile. "I would like you to keep an eye on how Ms. Rose performs during this little experiment of ours, Ms. Lambert. I wish to fully know how well she can perform with this level of work."

"So, I'll be evaluating her level of skill, huh?" the older team leader said with a smirk. "I'm sure I can handle that."

"That is good to hear," Oobleck said with a smile and turned to look at the younger of the two team leaders. "What about you, Ms. Rose? Do you have any questions?"

"Well, I do have one, actually. What exactly is the purpose of this whole thing?" Ruby asked. "I don't mean to sound rude, but since this is a special thing, I can't help but wonder what this is all about."

"There is a point to this, Ms. Rose. I'm afraid I can't tell you much yet, but let's just say that good things might be ahead of you in the future, if you perform well in all of this," the green-haired man answered. "However, if there are no more questions from either of you, I'll let you two get acquainted with each other and then start working on your project. Also, while I'm sure you won't need to be told this, please introduce your teammates to Ms. Rose as well, Ms. Lambert. That will help you out greatly, when you begin to work together."

"Oh, absolutely! I'm certain they'll like her just as much as I do!" Elaine said with a big smile, as she put her arm around the younger redhead's shoulders, causing Yang to glare at her a bit. However, the older redhead didn't notice the blonde's look at all and simply turned to look at her new partner. "Now that we're no longer needed here, what do you say we get started on our work right away? There are some things that need to be done right away."

"Ummm... Sure! I mean, that's what we are supposed to do, right? Get to work, since that's why we are paired up and all. Not that I wouldn't mind helping you, even if it wasn't an assignment- I'm just talking nonsense now, aren't I?" Ruby babbled, feeling nervous from being so close to the older team leader, who in turn couldn't help but giggle at the younger girl's antics.

"Hey, no need to be nervous, okay? It's not like I'm gonna bite or anything," Elaine said as she started to lead the younger girl out of the classroom. "Trust me on this. We are both going to enjoy this a lot."

As the two redheads left, the remaining members of team RWBY simply stared after the two. Once they were gone, Weiss and Blake turned their attention back to Oobleck.

"So, what is going to happen to our team now?" Blake asked. "Since Ruby will be working with that third-year team now, isn't it going to affect us as well?"

"There are going to be some difficulties ahead, I'm sure of that. However, all teachers are aware of this sudden change, so it will be taken into consideration, if anything happens," the green-haired man began to explain. "Ms. Rose won't most likely be joining you on your regular classes for the most part, as the project she'll be working on will most likely take up a good amount of her time. Luckily, the members of team LION can tutor her on all of her school subjects, so she won't be falling behind on anything. The only major problem is going to be deciding a temporary team leader for you three for now. Anyone willing to step up to the job?"

"I... would like to take up the job of team RWBY's leader," Weiss said with a small smile, happy to finally get a chance at being a leader.

"Now, why isn't that surprising at all?" Blake said sarcastically and rolled her eyes, angering the heiress.

"Now now, there's no need for that kind of hostility at all, okay?" Oobleck quickly said, stopping any argument from happening. "After all, this is only temporary, so there are no worries over any of you staying as the team leader. You just need to decide among yourselves, who is the most qualified to do this for now."

"In that case, I think we should hear the opinion of the whole team," the cat faunus said and turned her attention to her partner. "What do you think, Yang?"

Much to the surprise of everyone there, the blonde didn't give any kind of an answer. In fact, she wasn't even looking at them, as her eyes were still fixed on the classroom door that Ruby and Elaine had just walked through. Yang couldn't help but think about Ruby, and how close Elaine had been with her just now. Even if this was supposed to be only temporary, the brawler couldn't help but feel that something big might happen.

For some reason, she couldn't get rid of the feeling that she might lose Ruby for good.

Author's notes: Things are going to be a bit different now, as Ruby will be working with a third-year team. I'll still try my best to have both humor and drama in this story, so I hope you can give it a chance.

The reason I decided to make an OC team instead of using an existing team, like team CFVY, was because I wanted to have a team that team RWBY didn't know at all. I wanted there to be a surprise in having them meet a more experienced student, who actually admired Ruby. I didn't want to use any of the teams that were in the Vytal Festival either, as forcing them in wouldn't have felt right and I just don't think it would have worked in a way I would have wanted. I personally try not to use OC's too much, as I feel that the focus of a fanfic should be on the actual characters more. Hope you guys won't mind the team I made for this story.

In the next chapter, we will meet the rest of team LION and see Ruby interacting with them. I'll do my best to get it done as soon as possible.

Until next time.

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.