"And safe!" cheered Ruby as she and Oscar walked into the class just as the first bell for today rang.
Huffing behind her Oscar took a few deep breaths as he gave his friend a tired glare.
"Next time Ruby," the farm boy wheezed out. "Don't spend such a long time trying to get a snack from the school vending machine…"
The silver-eyed girl let out an embarrassed laugh as she gave her male friend an apologetic grin.
"Sorry~!" she said as they both made their way towards the back of the classroom where Neo was waiting for them. "But I missed breakfast back home and I needed something inside of me."
The young man went bug-eyed nearly tumbling out of the desk's seat he chose to sit in when he heard what Ruby had said and how it could be misinterpreted.
"Phrasing, Ruby!"
"What?" Ruby asked with an innocent look on her face as she blinked in confusion. Wondering why Oscar was blushing up a storm or why Neo was laughing… well, at least she looked like she was laughing. Kind of hard when all you could hear was at best, rapid heavy breathing.
Calming down Neo quickly signed out. 'You need to stop acting so cute when you say stuff like that.'
"You guys are weird," Ruby muttered at her two friends. When everything calmed down Ruby saw the teacher enter and begin taking roll call. She said "the teacher", because honestly, they were so boring that Ruby could barely remember anything about them, even after all this time. In her memories, she just saw a shadow person taking their place.
"Ok class," droned the man. Even his voice was boring as he started to drone on about today's lesson and also about any events going on. Honestly Ruby at this point was just writing down what she heard with barely any interest as she preferred to think about the strange dream.
'I wonder why it felt so real,' Ruby thought as she started to doodle what she saw in her dreams. Giving up on paying attention to the lecture. Not like she needed to. Her first class was math, something she was great at even the stuff that stumped her friends.
In fact, her talent in math, science, literature, and her grades track star could've allowed her to skip ahead in school. Lord knows her teachers and principal wanted one of their students to go to the prestigious Beacon college after they heard its headmaster was interested in her.
'That or they wanted to get rid of me…,' the young girl thought as her eyes dulled. While she was praised for her grades, she was also on every teacher's bad side with the mayhem she caused. Ether it being her making weapons in metal works or making something explode in science class while testing a mixture she thought up. Heck her only bad grade was history, which is a 'C' due to how bored she would get, she never cared for history, heck she barely thought of the future unless it involved her friends.
Though her downtrodden thoughts were interrupted when Neo nudged her to get her to pay attention, though Neo smiled and gave a Ruby complement through sign language. More likely about her drawing of the Velvet Room and Igor, which looked pretty well done. Oscar even gave her a thumbs up after he took a quick look at her drawing.
Smiling at her friends Ruby went back to drawing while paying some attention to the lecture.
'Besides,' Ruby thought. 'Why would I leave my friends behind just to be surrounded by people I barely know?'
With that thought, the young teen started to get into the daily routine of going through each class in the morning. Doing her work and ignoring everyone that wasn't her friend. Doing that help time fly and soon lunchtime for her class came around.
"Finally," Oscar sighed out as he and the rest of the merry band of misfits got in line for lunch. "I thought my brain was going to leave my head to go on vacation, that was so boring."
'Why are you complaining?' Neo sighed, annoyed. 'At least you didn't keep getting called by the teachers to answer questions."
The ice cream themed girl bared her teeth in anger as her fist clenched in barely contained rage. 'Those morons keep forgetting I'M FUCKING MUTE.'
"It's ok Neo," Ruby said soothingly as she rubbed Neo back to help calm down the other girl.
"At least the teacher thinks you're smart enough to answer the questions," the farm boy muttered while grabbing a tray and slowly sliding it across the countertop "The teachers still think I'm just some hick who don't know jack about some schoolin'!"
"You're going southern again," Ruby pointed out, causing the farmhand to let out a few curses under his breath as hurried forward to grab some lunch. All the while ignoring the snide remarks from the other students that heard his little outburst. Though they all stopped and turned away when they saw Neo give them a glare.
'Jerks,' the girl signed as she glared at the retreating students with her two different colored eyes. 'They act like having an accent is something to laugh at.'
"They're just jerks," Ruby said as she grabbed some of the lunch from the counter. Grimacing at the bland looking food. Why did cafeteria food have to suck so much?
Grabbing the last of the school slop, Oscar was about to make his way towards a table but was soon stopped when a foot was stuck out in front of the unaware farm boy. Causing the boy to fall over and land on his tray of food.
"Whoops! Need to watch where you step, country boy!" came a condescending voice, one the whole school recognized.
Looking upwards the country boy growled out through clenched teeth.
"Cardin."
Cardin Winchester, the school bully of Signal Academy. He made it his mission to make everyone who didn't lick his boots miserable. He acted like the school was his own kingdom and he, the prince of the kingdom. Even though he was more like an ogre covered in fake gold with how nasty his personality was. It didn't help that he was still probably mad at the fact he was held back from going to college with the rest of his class last year.
If he didn't spend so much of last year in suspension he might've passed. Honestly, if it wasn't for his rich dad he would have been kicked out a long time ago.
"Then again, I guess your inbred cross-eyes can only see so far, huh?" Cardin smirked, his posse laughing at his comment.
The rest of the students in the lunchroom ether laughed along with Cardin or just turned away. Not willing to laugh at the cruel display but not wanting to earn Cardin's wrath by calling him out.
'Cowards,' Ruby thought as she and Neo helped Oscar up, the second girl was also glaring daggers at the laughing teen. "Don't you have anything better to do Cardin?"
"Oh? Like what? Maybe… roughing you up a bit instead?" Cardin taunted.
Ruby felt her heart begin to grind, and her breath quicken, panic setting in. 'No. Not now,' she thought, trying to keep herself calm. Noticing this Neo's eyes grew even colder and she subtly moved behind Ruby. She shifted her hand in front of her, showing the plastic spork she had grabbed earlier. She snapped it with her thumb, making sure Cardin noticed as she changed her grip on the newly created shiv.
Cardin's grin seemed to falter for a moment before he just scoffed. "Whatever, I'm too hungry to deal with you losers anyway," he said before walking off to get his own food, his posse following. The other students followed suit now that they knew the fun was over, leaving the three friends to tend to their own. Neo meanwhile rested her arm on Ruby's shoulder, giving her support as her breathing calmed and her heart rate went down. "Thanks, Neo," she managed to whimper out.
"What an A-hole," Oscar muttered as he took a few cheap cafeteria napkins from Ruby and tried to clean himself off. "Man, this is the second time this week he's ruined a shirt of mine!"
'Don't you worry, Oscar. I'll make sure to buy you something pretty while it's in the wash.' Neo signed with a smirk.
"Oh ha ha ha!" Oscar mocked laughed in good nature. "At least I was smart enough to have a spare shirt and pants in my gym locker for this kind of crap."
It was sad how true that statement was. Cardin made it his mission to make everyone miserable and some students like Oscar had to bring some extra clothes in case of stuff like what happened just now. None of the faculty were brave enough to call him out on his endless bullying, let alone the students who he tormented.
"It's always good to be prepared Oscar," said a chipper voice from behind them. Turning around the group was greeted by a welcoming sight.
"Penny!" Ruby cheered as she rushed to her other friend.
Said girl had orange-colored hair held up by a dark green bow, she was wearing a white sundress with sleeves down to her wrists and the skirt down to her knees, with neon green trimmings at the edges. Around her hips was a back sash with a neon green ribbon tied at the front, and under the dress was a black form-fitting shirt with a neon green choker on her neck. Black stockings covered her legs, running up past her skirt, and on her feet were white shoes with black straps with neon green stripes. Hiding her hands were black gloves with a neon green insignia that looked like a computer's power symbol.
"It's good to see you too Ruby," one Penny Polendina said with a smile as she hugged her silver-eyed friend.
'Didn't think you would be in school today,' Neo signed with a smile. 'With you not showing up in class this morning and the others before lunch.'
"Oh well," Penny trailed off as she gently traced her finger over the palm of her gloved hand. A nervous habit she always had. "I just needed to do some early morning check-ups. There were some snags during the range of motion exercises."
"I hope it's not serious," Oscar said as he glanced at the orange-haired girl's gloved hands before looking away as not to make her feel uncomfortable. She didn't like too much focus on them.
"It was nothing serious," Penny said with a sweet smile. "It's sweet that you are worried though."
"N-No problem," Oscar said, turning to hide his blush. This action caused the green-eyed girl to blink in confusion at her friend's behavior.
Giggling at the interaction Ruby whispered to Neo. "Aww, it's still adorable to see them talk."
Letting out a few silent chuckles Neo signed. 'It's funny how she hasn't found out that he has a crush on her.'
"Honestly, I can't believe she can't see the obvious signs," Ruby laughed before noticing the blank stare that Neo was giving her. "What?"
'... Nothing sweety,' Neo signed with a flat look before walking towards the rest of their friends. Leaving a confused Ruby alone.
"Neo?" Ruby called out in confusion. "Neo? why did you just give such a pitying look just know? Neo~ why are you ignoring me like some lost cause?!"
As the silver-eyed girl whined out as she chased after her silent friend, some less than pleasant stuff was going on in another part of the school.
-(school hallway.)-
"Little freaking mute. Who the hell does she think she is?" Cardin mumbled, seething. "One of these days, she'll get hers."
"Didn't you try to teach her a lesson before?" one of his lackeys commented. "And you almost got a slit throat from that crazy bitch?"
"Not like the teachers did anything about it," another lackey scoffed. Both of these comments earned the two a swift punch to the jaw, the force behind the blows knocking the two flat.
"Shut it!" Cardin hissed out in anger as he glared at the two teens. Said teens rubbed their now bruised jaws in anger as they glared at Cardin. The bigger teen wasn't intimidated at all though as he a step towards them. "What's with the looks? Want to do something about it?"
This caused the two to quit glaring and get up without a word. Good, they knew their place.
But not Neo, that crazy bitch was a problem and even more of a sore spot was Ruby Rose, a constant reminder of her older sister. The blonde bimbo was one of the only people who ever laid him out in a straight fight, and he still never lived it down. Even worse was that he knew Ruby had been recommended to skip straight to college, but she still stuck around. He knew it was because she and her sister still wanted to screw with him, constantly reminding him that there was someone out there that could beat him to a pulp whenever she wanted.
'The little bitch,' Cardin said in anger. The very thought of that worthless little wallflower mocking him made his blood boil. It was the very reason he wanted to beat her down when she stood up to him earlier.
Cardin HATED the fact he had to walk away from that fight. But he knew if he kept it up, that pink and brown colored bitch would shank him with the sharp end of the broken spork. And while Cardin might like to push his luck but he wasn't going to risk getting killed by some mute bitch.
'Doesn't matter,' he thought as he tightens his fist, his lackeys keeping a good distance away, as to not be in reach of his fist if he decides to start swinging.
"There's always next time," Cardin said darkly as stormed off in anger. Not feeling like going to class. His group shuffling behind him not wanting to get the Ogre of Signal Academy angry at any of them.
As the group stomped through the halls, no one noticed the black ooze seeping out of the tiles wherever Cardin stepped.
And with each step, the black ooze like water would come out faster until small puddles of it would be seen all over the halls… if it could be seen that is.
Danger was looming over this school and a certain Silver eyed girl will soon take notice as her world would be turned upside down.
The black ocean is being called…
When Hate boils over the world will soon drown…
The wild card is needed yet again, to take down the pillars that bring the sea of hatred forth.
If not, then the world will be swallowed up…
Hurry now little rose…
You are needed.