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Part 2: Fall

5. Late August: Seed

For Blake, the only words that could be used to describe Friday were organized chaos.

There weren't any hitches or misplaced keys, there weren't any people coming in on the wrong day, and there weren't any real issues, much to the relief of the entire Beacon RA Staff. Yet, the flow of students checking in had been non-stop the entire day, from 7am to 5pm. Every single RA worked the entire time, with the exception of an hour long lunch break that was staggered across the late morning and early afternoon to ensure they had enough staff, while still giving everyone their fair break.

By the time 5pm rolled around, and things had finally begun to slow down, Drew dismissed everyone for dinner before they would have to round up their first years and bring them to the convocation ceremony.

Convocation, a concept foreign to Blake until she had gotten to UV, was like the opposite of graduation. The entire first year class, across all of the different colleges and schools the University of Vale had to offer, would get together for a ceremony celebrating the beginning of their college careers. It was truly the only time the entire class ever got together. Graduation was based on college, so the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences had a separate graduation ceremony from the School of Engineering, both of which had a separate ceremony from the School of Fine Arts, and so on.

RAs were required to go to convocation, regardless of whether or not they had first years. Those with first years would have to lead as many of them as they could gather to go to the ceremony. Most were pretty successful in doing so - it offered an activity for the evening to get to know the fellow floor members better. There would be a floor meeting right before they would head out, allowing for everyone to at least introduce themselves before going off to the massive ceremony.

Holding floor meetings was relatively easy for the RAs of Beacon Hall. The study lounges located on each floor weren't huge, and they probably broke a couple fire codes whenever more than three-fourths of the floor showed up, but each floor having its own lounge was very nice. It meant that there was no fighting for lounge space when it was time to have meetings, like it tended to be in other areas of campus.

Blake had hurried back to the dorm from the dining hall (which now she had options for and no longer had to go to a specific one, like she had during RA training, much to her relief) as soon as she had finished eating. Sun and Ilia hadn't quite finished yet, but she promised she'd find them at convocation as soon as she got her first years settled.

She'd spent a small amount of time in her room, stopping to pet Gambol for a few minutes, and drop off her bag. She changed part of her outfit - the khaki shorts she had been required to wear for check in were not staying for the rest of the night. The reslife t-shirt she wore, however, would have to stay. It had a giant RA on the back, making it easy for the first years to identify that she was an upperclassman, and should at least have some knowledge about what was going on, even if she couldn't answer some random questions that they had. She swapped the shorts for a pair of black skinny jeans, knowing it would likely get a little chilly at convocation. Once she felt comfortable again in something than those awful shorts, she gave Gambol a kiss on the head, right in between the ears, and headed out to sit in the lounge.

There was still some time before the meeting was scheduled to start - at least a half hour. She took the time to go over the roster she had added to her phone, this one including a list of specifically all the first years. She organized it by room number, but didn't keep any of the formatting that Drew had used to distinguish early arrivals. Early arrivals didn't matter any more, as the school year was officially underway.

Blake sat on one of the tables, kicking her legs as she read the list over and over. If there was anything she had been excited for all of training, it was to meet her residents. She'd been reserving her emotional energy for the last few days for this moment - she knew this meeting and convocation would take a lot out of her, but she didn't want these kids to start off their year with their depressed RA seeming miserable and uninterested.

Well, she was miserable. That was for sure. But there was no reason, in Blake's mind, that she should pass that attitude on to her residents, who had just finished moving in and were so excited to finally be at the University of Vale.

That's why, while she was still scrolling through the roster and kicking her legs on the edge of the table, she was taken aback when she heard the voices in the hallway.

"Yaaaaang! Come on, it'll be fun!" Ruby whined, standing in Yang's doorway.

"I'll pass," Yang replied, scrolling through her phone while she sat cross legged on her bed. "I've been before. It's not that interesting."

"Yaaang!" Ruby whined again, a bit softer this time. "You can't just hole yourself up in your room."

"I won't," Yang snapped, tossing her phone onto her bed. "It's literally just opening weekend. I've been to convocation before. I'll pass on going again. You go and have fun with Penny, don't worry about me."

Ruby was quiet, standing in the doorway. "Please?"

Yang shook her head. "I'm not interested." She stood up, heading towards the door. "Go have fun with Penny, I'll see you later tonight."

"But-"

The door closed in Ruby's face, as she was pushed back slightly, into the hallway and out of Yang's room.

"-I wanted to have fun with both Penny and you…" she whispered, staring at the closed door. She stared at the door decoration, an ice cream cone with the word "Yang" written on the scoop in neat handwriting. Ruby sighed, dropping her shoulders, and slowly turning around.

Blake was standing a few feet inside of the study lounge. She was heading to see if she could talk to Yang too, maybe convince her to come, but she had stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the door close and Ruby go quiet.

Blake paused, listening to Ruby sigh and shuffle just outside of the door. The study lounge was located directly between the only two singles on the floor, making it technically room 120, although almost no one referred to it that way. She had heard everything from the lounge, and knew that if she was going to do something, she should do it now.

Ruby was slightly startled when Blake stepped out of the lounge and into the hallway.

"Hi," Blake offered with a smile. "My name's Blake. I'm your RA."

Ruby glanced between Blake and Blake's door, which was only a few feet away. Blake's door was covered in door decs, which was typical. RAs usually made enough door decs for every resident on their floor, plus an additional one for each RA, to keep their doors covered in fun art, and distinguish their doors further as RA doors. There was also a rather nicely made "About Me" poster that was directly next to the door, which Ruby had already read when she had explored the floor yesterday afternoon.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, a smile spreading across her face. "It's nice to meet you! I'm Ruby, I live in 102!"

"It's nice to meet you too. Is everything okay?"

Ruby's face fell slightly. "I… I was hoping I could convince my sister to come to convocation, but I don't think she's going to."

"Your sister?" Blake asked, deciding that pretending that she hadn't researched their family was the best idea.

"Yang is my sister," Ruby said, pointing at room 122.

"Ohhh." She looked back and forth between Ruby and Yang's door a few times. Half of her brain told her to leave it, but the other half told her to go knock on Yang's door. She had to make a choice, here and now, and stick with it. She hummed, thinking.

"Why don't you head back to your room for now? I'll see you at the meeting in a bit, and with some luck, maybe she'll be there too," Blake replied, jerking her head in the direction of Yang's door.

A wide smile spread across Ruby's face as she nodded quickly. "Good luck! See you later, Blake!" she exclaimed before zipping off down the hall and around the corner.

Blake returned with a small smile towards the empty space that Ruby had left behind. With a sharp intake of air, she turned around, taking steps towards Yang's door.

Her stomach was doing flips. Why was she doing this, exactly? People skipped convocation every year. This was nothing new.

And yet, here she was, knocking on Yang's door.

Knock knock.

"Ruby, I told you I'm not coming," Yang called out.

Knock knock.

Blake knocked again. She was hoping that Yang would just come to the door, struggling to find the words.

"Go away Ruby."

"I'm… it's not Ruby," Blake replied, stumbling over her words.

"Oh," Yang replied softly. "Just a moment."

Blake took a step back, rocking on her heels. Just introduce yourself as her RA. Let the conversation flow from there.

Why was she so damn nerv-

The door swung open.

Blake blinked. Yang was tall, taller than she had expected. Her golden hair flowed perfectly, resting gently on her shoulders. Her lilac eyes avoided making eye contact with Blake, her cheeks slightly red. The pictures of her on Facebook didn't do her justice.

Wait, why did she just think th-?

"Sorry about that," Yang said softly, rubbing her upper right arm with her left hand. "I thought you were my sister."

"It's okay," Blake replied with a smile and a nod, trying to collect herself. "I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Blake, your RA. I'm just going around and introducing myself to everyone who I didn't get to check in today."

Yang returned the smile, eyes finally looking up. "Oh, you're Blake! I saw your name on the door down there. We're neighbors!"

Blake gave another nod. "I suppose so, although the lounge is in the middle."

Yang shrugged. "If no one lives there, that makes my neighbor the one who lives on the other side." She paused for a moment. "Oh, I never introduced myself. I'm Yang." She held out her left hand for a handshake.

Blake returned with her own left hand, but realized that she had never actually given a handshake with her left hand before. It was a little awkward and clumsy.

"Don't worry about the handshake, most people can't do a good handshake with their left hand. I'm not offended," Yang replied, moving her stump back and forth a bit to emphasize a point.

Blake blinked. She honestly had completely forgotten that Yang only had one arm. How, exactly, she wasn't sure, considering she'd been staring right at the girl, but it just hadn't registered.

After a moment, she smiled back at Yang again. "Well, I did want to personally invite you to come to convocation tonight."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "Did Ruby put you up to this?"

Blake shook her head. "No, I came by because I invited everyone else when they checked in. Since you were an early arrival, I didn't get a chance until now. You should come though. It'll be fun."

"I went last time," Yang replied with a shrug. "Wasn't that great."

"Last time?"

Yang wiggled her stump again. "I completed one semester here two years ago, and then I had to take a few off to deal with this. Now I'm back, and I don't really need to do all of the first semester stuff again."

"Ah, well, they have changed some stuff since two years ago. That was my first year too. I went again last year, being an RA, and I heard they've got a free ten ton ice cream sundae this year…" Blake trailed off, smirking slightly at Yang, hoping the ice cream could get her to go.

"I don't know. It just doesn't seem worth it."

"At the end of the day, it is your choice, but I think you should give it a shot. If you decide to go, we have a floor meeting in the lounge in…" Blake glanced at her phone before continuing. "...fifteen minutes or so. We'll be heading down afterwards. Plus, once you go, you can always leave if you don't want to stay beyond the free shirt and ice cream, or at any point, really."

"I'll think about it," Yang replied, giving a small nod. "It was nice to meet you."

"You too!" Blake said with a wide smile, before turning back towards the lounge. As soon as she heard the sound of the door close behind her, she dropped her shoulders with a silent sigh.

She returned to the lounge, taking her seat back on the table. She picked back up her phone, scrolling through her roster again. This time, however, she was unable to get any further than halfway down the list.

Yang Xiao Long.

Over the next fifteen minutes, first years began to trickle into the lounge. They had spent the afternoon settling in after moving in, and some of them had already seemed to try and form small groups and get to know each other. Blake handed everyone a name tag once they came in, which they filled out with some markers she kept in a small cup on the table next to her while she checked them off of her roster. She greeted everyone, doing her best to remain positive as she reintroduced herself to everyone.

She kept an eye on the door, keeping an eye out for any flashes of yellow. There were two blonde boys that came in and left her feeling disappointed, but she hoped that she would have been successful today.

Blake looked down at her phone. 6:00pm. Her eyes looked back up at the door. Nothing. She checked her roster. All of the first years were here, except for one.

Her shoulders dropped for just a moment, but she brought them back up, a smile plastering itself onto her face. This was a good attendance sheet. She should be happy that she was only missing one person.

Besides, Yang wasn't really a first year, only a freshman by credits, so in theory, Blake had 100% attendance.

But why wouldn't the knot in her stomach go away?

At 6:05, as everyone was going in a circle, introducing themselves to everyone else on the floor, Blake noticed someone slip into the room out of the corner of her eye. She turned, and saw Yang leaning against the wall near the door, her left arm tucked across her chest. Blake gave a small smile, before handing a blank name tag and pen to the girl to her right, whispering to tell her to pass it down to the blonde girl standing against the wall.

Blake spotted Ruby on the other end of the room, not even trying to hide the massive smile on her face at the sight of her sister showing up. She locked eyes with Blake for a moment, and her smile grew even wider. Blake returned with her own small smile, before finally returning her attention to the group introductions that were still ongoing.

It was a strange sensation building in Blake's chest. Pride, perhaps? It felt silly, to be proud of Yang for coming… but she still felt that way.

A solid thirty minutes later, and the floor was heading out to convocation, led by Blake at the front of the group. Almost all of her first years were interacting and laying the groundwork for budding friendships… except for one.

Yang walked closer to the front of the pack, but didn't really interact with anyone. She kept her left hand shoved in her pants pocket, hunched over, as if she were trying to hide. Blake felt a twinge of regret as she glanced over her shoulder. She clearly wasn't comfortable, and Blake was the one who had convinced her to go.

Still, she felt like she could be doing better, she should be doing better.

The group slowed to a crawl outside of the arch entrance to the large lawn behind the Student Union where convocation always took place. A large square stage sat in the middle of the lawn, surrounded by a massive crowd of students on every side. Three arches stood around the outside of the lawn, strategically placed to split the population of on-campus students into three groups, based on the location of their dorms.

Located at each arch were massive tables where volunteers handed out small, battery powered fake candles and t-shirts. Students were grabbing one of each as they headed through the small archways, leading to the traffic jam Blake found herself faced with.

As they got closer to the crowd, the group of students from Beacon South 1 got closer together. Yang was still towards the front of the group, looking around nervously. Her hand was no longer tucked into her pocket, but instead rubbing her upper right arm.

Blake frowned. She took a few steps towards Yang, weaving her way through a few other students.

"Hey," Blake asked softly, as soon as Yang was within earshot. "You okay?"

Yang nodded. "Yeah. It's just been a while since I've been around this many people."

Blake responded with a small nod of her own, and a gentle smile. "I get that. Usually having someone to talk to makes it a bit easier to not get wrapped up in the numbers."

"Yeah, it does." Yang gave a small smile back. "I'm sorry about earlier, by the way."

"For what?"

"Thinking you were my sister and telling you to go away."

"Oh, trust me, it's totally fine. I've had way worse as an RA."

Yang tilted her head slightly. "Really? Like what?"

"One time, last year, I had a guy try to recite the constitution at me when I shut down his party," Blake answered with a fond chuckle. "I say try because he was failing miserably. He was way too drunk for that."

Yang laughed. "Oh, that's funny. What was he trying to do, exactly?"

"Get me to come back with a warrant, I think. But we aren't the cops, and residence halls don't work like that," Blake replied, shaking her head. "So yeah, trust me, you're more than fine."

"Do you think we could start over then? With like, a proper introduction?"

Blake smiled. "Yes, of course."

Unfortunately, their conversation was cut short by the volunteers asking for their shirt sizes and practically forcing the fake candles into their hands to keep the crowd moving smoothly. Blake had to resume her RA duties for a minute, gathering up all of her first years and making sure they were sitting together on the lawn, waiting for the ceremony to start.

Once everyone was settled in, chatting, Blake found Yang again, sitting on the outskirts of the circle, alone. Blake plopped down next to her, a small smile on her face.

"Hi, I'm Blake. What's your name?"

Yang returned the smile with a small laugh. "I'm Yang. It's nice to meet you!"

"What are you majoring in?" Blake asked, dropping the classic college getting-to-know-you question.

"Undecided," Yang replied with a small shrug. "I've changed my mind like, a million times. You'd think with all that time away from school, I'd have a chance to figure something out, but nope, I only ended up more confused than my first semester here. All I know is that whatever I end up doing, I want to help people."

"That's very noble. Probably more noble than I'll ever be."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "What's your major?"

"I'm an English major, with a creative writing concentration."

"So you're an author then!"

Blake nodded. "I try my best. It's been a while since I've put out anything I'm really proud of, but the classes keep me writing consistently, at least."

"Don't sell yourself short. Do you know how many people turn to fiction as a way to escape whatever is going on in their lives? Books help people all the time, and authors are just as important as the people who help others professionally," Yang said.

Blake simply looked at Yang for a few moments. "Yeah, I suppose you're right."

"We all help people, just in different ways. Besides, you're already an RA. That's like, one of the classic jobs that everyone knows is all about helping other people."

Blake laughed. "You should try telling that to some of the residents when we do rounds. I've been called both a glorified hall monitor and a mall cop by the same person one night."

Yang returned with her own laugh. "The way you put it, you make it sound like all you do is deal with drunk freshmen."

"That's like, half the job in Beacon Hall," Blake replied, shaking her head. "We do get to do a lot of interpersonal stuff, for sure, but usually I can't tell stories about those because they're on the more confidential side."

"Makes sense. How long have you been an RA for?"

"This is my second year, but I've worked the past two summers too. I started right at the end of my freshman year."

"You're a junior then?" Yang asked.

Blake nodded.

"So we came to UV in the same class then! Where did you live your first year? Maybe I ran into you once or twice."

"Menagerie Quad," Blake answered. "What about you?"

"Oh, I lived in Beacon North," Yang replied with a frown. "We probably didn't then."

"Yeah, I didn't really interact a lot with other freshmen my first year anyway."

Suddenly, their attention was pulled away from the conversation as someone began to do a mic check on the large square stage in the center of the lawn. The ceremony was about to begin.

"Thanks for convincing me to come, by the way," Yang said quickly, before the MC fully began convocation. "I think I would have just been lonely in my room by myself."

Blake smiled. "No problem. I'm glad you decided to come."

"Me too."

And with that, the MC began to welcome everyone to convocation, and the two girls fell quiet as it began.