Chapter 5

How Did Ruby Fail Her First Test?

One afternoon the day after Initiation, in Beacon Academy's dormitory building, where there was more softness in the sheets and freshness in the air than anybody there deserved, in Team RWBY's dorm room, Yang went around hauling beds. It was an impressive display, too. Yang did not push and drag the beds to move them; she raised them over her head, walked, then put them back down. This is the reason why Ruby, Weiss, and Blake were sitting on the floor right now; their beds were under construction and there was nowhere to sit on. As for why Yang was hauling beds, the reason is long-winded.

Upon first entering the dorm room, Team RWBY's personal movers strongly discouraged Weiss from bringing with her all her belongings. "You carry too much," they explained gruffly, "the room does not have enough storage to store this much stuff. There are only so many cabinets and closets. Where are you going to keep all these clothes anyway? Yes, Beacon is known to give out extra furniture to accommodate students with special needs, but definitely not for reasons like 'I packed too much.' You should leave some stuff behind."

But Weiss retaliated by purchasing the cabinets and closets herself. With her own money of course. It was all then transported to Team RWBY's dorm room by the Schnee Shipping Company. Professional-looking movers arrived to Beacon's campus by plane bringing with them the furniture. Owned by the Schnee Family, their service was excellent. The package arrived to Beacon in under an hour.

But with all that extra furniture, it was somebody's job to rearrange the beds. Yang decided she was that somebody and went to work. Not that she minded; she was content putting herself to good use for her new team. Even as Weiss complained about "that insufferable noise" when Yang was dragging beds, Yang did not respond with her usual retorts. She responded instead by changing her method of hauling altogether. Instead of pushing and dragging beds, she began raising them over her head and putting them back down to move them. This is why Yang was lifting beds in the Team RWBY dorm room.

"More to the left," said Blake.

"Right here?" asked Yang, taking one step to the left.

"Mhm. Now put it back down," said Blake, and Yang followed.

Blake sat on the floor with her legs crossed and her chin rested on her knuckles. In contrast to her gloomy disposition, she showed remarkable interest in interior design. She went as far as to give commands on how things should be placed and where. "Move this here and that there," and other such instructions, all of which Yang followed to the letter.

Just beside Blake was Weiss sitting languidly against a wall. She listened with half an ear open to Ruby as she prattled on and on about nonsense in the news. Apparently, there was a picture of Ruby that went viral.

"They're calling me Birdrider." That was Ruby. She was on her Scroll reading article after article, forum after forum, blog after blog, anything that was discussing the picture of her on the Nevermore. "Birdrider, Weiss. Birdrider! Everybody saw how cool and awesome I was! Now they're giving me nicknames!"

"That cannot be good for your posture," said Weiss. Her eyes moved up and down Ruby's form, who leaned forward to an almost comic degree as she scrolled through news articles. "Yang. Tell your sister to sit properly."

"I sit the same way." Yang grunted her response out as she set the huge bed down off her shoulder to the floor. She shifted it to a better position.

"Looks good," said Blake.

"Is it?" asked Yang as she plopped herself down on the bed.

"It is. The room is done. Good work, Yang."

"Can you believe it, Weiss!" Ruby hopped up on her feet. "Ruby 'Birdrider' Rose. That's my name now! Ruby 'Birdrider' Rose. Hm. Birdrider… Rose… actually, no, it's kinda lame. How about just Rider? Ruby 'Rider' Rose. Oooh! Now that's a nickname!"

"I concede that it's impressive how you mounted the Nevermore in the first place, especially without any kind of help, but you do know you weren't actually involved in taking the Nevermore down, right?" Weiss turned her head to Yang. "The news should've honored Yang's accomplishments as well. She was the one to bring it down."

Ruby shook her head, chuckling. "The Rider has no care for such things as honor."

"I don't mind," said Yang, "And it's really 'cause Ruby also got admitted two years early isn't it? Wasn't there also some hype when she got pulled out Signal early?"

"There was?" asked Ruby, sitting back down to the floor, "Never heard anything about it."

"You have no obligation to keep up with sensational news. But no, you would not have heard of it. I, as well as Pyrrha Nikos, arrived to Beacon at the same time. Impressive it may have been, your admittance was overshadowed." Weiss stood up to have a look around the redecorated room. "They're digging up your 'graduated two years early' story to combine it with this one. It'll make for a better headline and makes you look like a prodigy. They want to turn you into a new celebrity. And my, Blake, you sure do know how to make a room look good."

There was a pause, and then "I'm gonna be a celebrity?!" "Ruby's gonna be a celebrity?!" "I appreciate the compliment." Knock! Knock! Knock!

There was a lot of noise from different sources that came all at once, and it was a bit difficult to hear, but there was indeed someone knocking at the door. There was too much going on however, so the knocking went unnoticed.

"Yes, at least for the moment. Mass media always wants more celebrities. It gives them more things to talk about even when nothing's happening. Like so, 'Breaking News: Ruby Rose Goes to the Mall'. 'Just In: Ruby Rose Shops for Groceries'. 'Watch as Ruby Rose Crosses the Road'. 'Ruby Rose Goes to a Concert?' See how easy it is? Headlines for days."

"Wait wait wait," said Ruby, shock in her eyes, "You're saying I'm gonna be so famous that there's gonna be paparazzies taking pictures of me everywhere I go? What if I go to the bathroom? Is it gonna be livestreamed to everyone in Vale?!"

"Yeah, sadly," grieved Yang.

"No. And don't listen to Yang. I'm just saying they want you to be. You and many others, but they usually fail. I promise you, in a month, you'll fade into just another Initiate at Beacon. Or maybe in two months, but that's stretching it. Really, Ruby, there's no need to take anything you see out there in the news so seriously. Even the ones writing don't take it seriously."

Knock! Knock! Knock! came from the door. This time, all four turned to look at it.

"I bet that's the paparazzies. Better start running, Ruby."

"Good one, Yang." Weiss, who was the only one currently standing, made to stand in front of the door. She swung it wide, smiling brightly and saying "Good afternoon!"

But nobody was behind the door. Across from Weiss was nothing more than an empty corridor. Bemused, Weiss stepped beyond the door to stand outside. She turned her head left. Nobody down that way. She turned her head right. Nobody down that way either. Weiss made up her mind after some thinking that it was a prank (that weird thing schoolkids her age were wont to do) and turned around to walk back inside the dorm room.

"It was a prank. Some lout knocked on the door and ran away," said Weiss, closing the door shut from behind her.

"No." It was Blake who spoke up. Surprising, given how inactive she has been so far in their banter. "Open it up again. The door. There's a piece of paper on it."

Weiss did as Blake said, swinging the door back open, and she was right. Just under the metal plating that had 'RWBY' engraved was a piece of paper. It was stuck to the door with scotch tape. Weiss grabbed the paper and read its contents.

"Hm. It's a link to a website. There's a password too. Here, Ruby, type this in your Scroll." Weiss walked over to Ruby and handed her the paper.

Ruby did as Weiss said. She typed the link in a browser which brought her to a webpage. It was official-looking and had a banner that said 'Beacon Academy's Website for Students'. It also had two login bars labelled 'Team Name' and 'Password'. Ruby typed in 'RWBY' for the first bar and the password for the second bar, looking back and forth between the paper and her Scroll as she did.

The site carried them over to a dashboard. It was a typical school page. There was a tab for contacting teachers, a tab for Team RWBY's current orders, a tab for news around the campus, a tab for the syllabus, and a tab for their schedule. The schedule was where they first went, but there was only one thing written. Apparently, every First-Year Initiate had to gather to 'Lecture Hall A' at fourteen hundred hours that day.

"Hold on," said Weiss, looking over Ruby's shoulder, "does that say fourteen hundred hours? Today?"

It was alarming. Especially given the fact that '2:00 p.m.' was what it said on Ruby's Scroll.

"Oh crap. We gotta run," Yang was already dashing out the dorm room but was soon overtaken by Ruby. Blake and Weiss followed just behind. Off they went through the corridor, down the stairs, past the front desk, out the building, through the plaza, into the main building, through the corridors, until they eventually arrived at their destination. It was a door labelled 'Lecture Hall A' which they meekly entered through.

"…Your town is your responsibility," came a voice. The lecture had already started.

The lecture hall itself was as large as a movie theater. It had to be, as it was currently housing every single First-Year Initiate in it. There were tables arranged in circular formation that surrounded the stage in front. The tables inclined upwards the further back they were, such that the tables in the rear were elevated highest. The tables were also wide enough to fit four seats, one table for each team.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang all ducked their heads as they claimed a table in the corner of the room furthest to the back. Professor Peach was the speaker, Ruby noted. She was the one standing in front.

Ruby expected the professor to chew them out for arriving late but she did not. This professor was actually known to be laid back. "Always quick to forgive," it was said about her, and she was. The professor made no mention of Team RWBY when they entered the lecture hall. She did not even cast them a glance.

Instead, Professor Peach continued speaking. "I will reiterate this so it is clear," (really, she was just reiterating for Team RWBY) "You do not make solutions. You take part in solutions. Take this as a rule, do as you are told. You may not overrule the mayor's decision. You may not argue with the mayor. You may not do anything the mayor has forbidden you to. Not only that, don't do anything without the mayor's express permission. That's important. If there is even a single report of an Initiate disobeying a mayor's orders, his or her team will probably be held back a year." She paused at that moment and her tone became grim. "That's right. The whole team. Held back a year."

"I heard," someone in front of Ruby muttered loud enough to hear, "that once, a town got swarmed by a pack of Grimm-wolves while the team was away. They were somewhere else under the mayor's orders. Because of it, they couldn't do anything to help. The town got swarmed, tons of people were killed, Beacon was told, and the team was blamed. They were kicked out of Beacon and nobody would even take them in as freelancers after. Wasn't even their fault and their careers were ruined."

Ruby pieced the whole thing together as she listened and slowly came to the realization. Defending a town outside Vale's Walls. That was to be their first mission.

"Your mission will begin tomorrow at ten hundred hours. That's ten in the morning. Wake up early. Eat breakfast quickly as well. Being late for missions is the most common problem we get here. Please don't be late for your missions, Initiates." Professor Peach did not look in Team RWBY's direction as she said this, but Ruby felt like she thought about it. "Don't be late. Please. Think about your pilots. They're waking up early too. You should already be at Beacon's runway by ten. Bullheads will be there, one for each team. There will also be Staff stationed at the runway to guide you to your respective Bullheads. Ask them for directions."

"What about lunch?" a student in the front loudly asked.

"Your assigned town should have lunch prepared for you when you land," Professor Peach responded.

"What if Grimm swarm the town while we're sleeping? Or what if the mayor dies? We don't have to ask the mayor for permission then, right?" another student asked.

"Yes to the first question. Defending the town is your mission after all. As for the second question, the town should elect a new mayor quickly. Whoever that is, that is who you should take orders from," Professor Peach responded to the other student.

"What if another town calls for aid? Not our town but, you know, a town nearby. Do we just refuse the call and stick to our town?"

"That's not going to happen. Beacon's already mapped out the whole area, so any town near you will have its own team assigned to it. But if a town does call for aid, that would imply that their assigned team has either died or deserted the town. In either case, don't assist the town. Contact Beacon Academy instead."

The questions came in fast, and Professor Peach answered them all patiently.

"Ruby," someone whispered sitting next to her. "Ruby, Ruby." Ruby looked in the direction of the voice and saw Jaune from the Airship. Her team sat directly next to his team.

"Oh, Jaune, it's you." She paused. "Wait, Jaune? Jaune!" Ruby spread her arms wide to hug the boy.

Jaune returned the hug. "Yeah, it's me. Hi Ruby. I missed you too. I, uh, saw your picture."

Ruby pulled back from the hug and grimaced. "Eaugh. No waaay! I looked so dumb in that picture." It was a strange change of opinion considering her attitude at the dorm room. 'Cool and awesome,' she called herself.

"What? No, Ruby, you looked out of this world! On the Nevermore? Over the forest? How cool was that? And everyone's been talking about you! They're all calling you awesome!" Jaune's eyes were shining with wonder and awe.

"Ahahah. Aw shucks, but really, it was nothing…" Ruby said, scratching the back of her head.

You might have noticed already how blatantly Ruby was fishing for compliments. Jaune noticed it too, so he quickly followed it up with an amusing remark.

"I also heard about how you cried."

"Wha—no! Where did you hear that? Whoever told you that is a liar! Or, well, actually, yes, I did cry. But that was only because there were people shooting at me! But not because I was scared. They had explosives. And you know how Dust smoke irritates the eyes or something like that? Like when you cut onions? That's why! I wasn't actually crying!"

That was wrong. Ruby actually did cry when she was slammed against the ice, but the move knocked her out almost instantly and the memory left her.

"Okay, okay," said Jaune, trying and failing to smother his chuckles, "I'm sorry I'm sorry. And yeah, I guess that makes sense. Dust smoke. I did hear about how there were a bunch of people flying around and shooting at you while you were on the Nevermore. There were?"

"Oh my gosh, yes! There were! And they were so dumb and so reckless! Shooting like I wasn't there… They didn't even stop to think hey, guys," Ruby assumed a low 'dumb-sounding' voice, "hey, maybe, uh, maybe we shouldn't shoot at the vulnerable-looking girl who could fall off the Nevermore at any moment and die. Something like that. Where was the consideration?"

"Oh, so it wasn't fun? Sorry. I'd always heard about how fun it looked."

"Definitely wasn't. It was like riding a plane by the wing while there was someone inside bombing it." Ruby turned back to pay attention to the lecture. It was just in time, too.

"…Team ONIKS will be assigned to Sandy Springs. Team RWBY will be assigned to Wildridge. Team SAJE will be assigned to South Bend…" Professor Peach continued, listing every town each team was assigned to.

"Wildridge," Ruby whispered. "Never heard of it."

"That's because it's far from the Walls. Really far. You would've never heard about these towns," Jaune explained.

"Really far… wait, how far? Aren't we just first-years? Why is this our first mission? First-years aren't prepared to defend a town."

"Actually," Yang piped up from Ruby's other side, "in Signal Academy, we were taught all about this. Stuff like a huntsman's duties in a town, huntsman's behavior in a town, how a huntsman defends a town, how to look for issues in a town, stuff like that. There were tests and everything. It was in the last two years though. You skipped it, so I guess you aren't ready." She chuckled.

Now that was pertinent information Ruby wished she had known before agreeing to skip two whole years of Signal. Ruby began to panic as she realized how woefully unprepared she was for the mission, and how much of a burden she would be to the team.

"Oh relax, Ruby. You'll be fine. I'll give you a crash course tonight. Also, who's this guy?" Yang leaned forward to get a good look at the boy across.

But Jaune was prepared for such questions. He straightened his back and gathered all his confidence, as he practiced, before introducing himself. "The name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies love it."

"What?"

Ruby dropped her face into her palms and whined out, "Oh my god, Jaune. I thought you said you weren't going to say that again…"

"But I practiced it this time! I swear!" Jaune defensively said.

"Jaune."

"Oh, fine." He turned to Yang then tried again. "My name's Jaune. What's yours?"

"No way." Yang said in disbelief, "No way this guy wooed my sister with a pickup line like that."

"What? No! It's not a pickup line. It's just a greeting. Tell her, Ruby! It's just a greeting!"

Ruby's face remained hidden in her hands, "Jaune. Don't listen to her. She's just joking. Also her name's Yang. She's my sister. Say hi."

Yang snickered. "Yeah, she's right. And I am just kidding, by the way. I didn't mean any offense by it. You're quite the looker, so I can see why Ruby—" "Yang…" Ruby cut her off, "Please… Stop making it so awkward…"

Jaune was flustered at the sudden complement, but he could also see what was happening here. An older sibling making fun of a younger sibling. It was a tale as old as time. He shook the embarrassment off and continued on with his introduction. "Jaune Arc. That's my full name. I met Ruby in the Airship and we played Ninjawarriors together in the cafeteria. Ruby didn't have games downloaded in her Scroll so she had to borrow mine."

"Wait wait wait. The Airship. The cafeteria," Yang leaned back, as if remembering something. "Yeah. Yeah, I know you! You're the guy who always threw up in the cafeteria! You're vomit boy!"

Ruby finally lifted her head to look at Jaune's face. He was mortified.

"Uh, well, ah, yeah, I guess people did call me vomit boy. I can, ah, I can see why you'd remember that."

Anger like boiling water suddenly flooded Ruby's head. "Yang, this is why I don't like introducing my friends to you. Just introduce yourself like a normal person. How hard is that? Why do you need to bully him? Why do you need to call him names? Look at him. Jaune's embarrassed. You just met and you're making him feel insecure? Why do you that? And can you stop?"

Yang paused. Well that was sudden. This was the angriest version of Ruby that Yang had ever seen. All for that nickname?

"Al—alright, alright," Yang stammered out. Seeing Ruby scowl like that made her too nervous to speak cleanly.

"Say you're sorry."

"Okay. Jaune. My bad. I appreciate that you kept my little sister company in the Airship. I wasn't really around to do that. And I also appreciate that you played games with Ruby. Sorry for calling you names. I won't do it again, promise. A friend of Ruby is a friend of mine."

That last sentence was a lie. This was the first time in Yang's life that she introduced herself to someone purely on the basis that that 'someone' was Ruby's friend. Jaune did not know this, so he smiled at the apologetic sister.

"It's fine. And anyway, I can take it. No hurt feelings. No need to worry. Right, Ruby?"

"Yeah," grumbled Ruby, "And maybe Yang can bully someone else."

"What are you guys talking about?" whispered another girl beside Jaune. A short, bubbly-looking girl with round cheeks and ginger hair. She gasped. "Jaune, I didn't know you knew another team."

"Oh, Nora." Jaune shifted back in his seat to give the girl a better look of Ruby. "This is the one you were just talking about. Birdrider, was it? Her real name's Ruby. I knew her from before Initiation."

"Oh, hi!" greeted Ruby, mood restored. She had to meet Jaune's team if she ever wanted to talk to Jaune regularly. She put her best smile on for the girl and introduced herself. "I'm Ruby. I'm Jaune's friend. Your name is Nora?"

Nora paused for a few seconds, looking up and down Ruby's figure in awe. "Woah. You actually rode the Nevermore. That was my dream."

"Nora's been going on and on about you. She was talking about how much wanted to talk to you and, uh, witness you, whatever that meant."

Yang stuck her head out from behind Ruby. "Looks like Ruby 'Rider' Rose got herself her first fan."

"How'd you do it? I mean, I always planned on blasting myself up to the sky and catching the thing by its feet," ("Talons, Nora," someone spoke up behind her) "but that thing was flying so high! No way I could do that! So how'd you do it?"

"Actually, yeah, that's a good question. You can't fly, can you?" asked Jaune, feeling curious himself.

"Would you two quiet down?" barked Weiss from behind Yang. "Who are you even talking to anyway? Also pay attention! Professor Peach is about to say something important!"

She was. Ruby, Yang, Jaune, and Nora cast a final glance at each other before they turned to pay attention to Professor Peach.

"And… done. You should all already have a map of your respective towns sent to you. All the buildings have already been drawn and labelled. Check your Scrolls right now. See if you have the map." All the Initiates in the lecture hall pulled out their Scrolls to check. "Did anybody not receive it? Make sure to check, everybody. Does everybody have their maps? Yes? Good. Study it, and study it well. We will have a fifteen-minute break. After the break, your memory of the map will be tested with a quiz."

So it was a quiz. A chorus of moans and whines rung out through the room as various Initiates slumped back in their chairs or threw their hands up in frustration. Professor Peach rolled her eyes at the display.

"That's right. A quiz. Also, anybody found looking at their Scrolls will be given an automatic score of zero."

This was how Ruby failed her first test. I hope this answers your question.

Next chapter is the mission.

This was a hard chapter to write, believe it or not. I spent most of my time planning and writing Team RWBY's mission. That was, after all, what I was interested in. The mission would have the cool monsters and heroism. But I knew that cutting from Initiation in one chapter to the mission in another chapter was too sudden, so I had to put in an in-between chapter. But I also didn't know what to put as an in-between chapter, so I just wrote about people talking. I tried to keep it entertaining, but I think it was obvious that I the writer wasn't too interested in their conversation. (The chapter is 4,000 words long. 6,000 words means I'm interested in what I'm writing.)

By the way, because this was an in-between chapter, this could have been literally anything else. I was thinking about having a mystery in Beacon. I was also thinking about having some weird creature tap on Team RWBY's dorm window, and the whole chapter would be them figuring out what it was (I decided to offload that to another future chapter). I was also thinking about Ruby having a deep conversation with Ozpin about how whether or not she was prepared for Beacon without the last two years of Signal. I was also thinking about having a short Combat Class with Glynda Goodwitch where they would each be assessed for their skills. I was also thinking about having a Grimm spotted crawling on the Beacon roof, and Team RWBY would be the ones to fight it (I also decided to offload that to another future chapter). I was even thinking about continuing where last chapter left off, and this chapter would be a recount of how Team RWBY climbed back up Red Tower.

I settled on keeping the chapter about light conversation, slight humor, and a sudden introduction to Nora. It would not do to have every chapter be about action. Or at least, that was the thought process. And as for Yang's behavior: in Volume 1, she was the one who first called Jaune 'vomit boy'. Maybe she didn't mean anything by it, but Yang being a natural bully is now canon to the story. Live with it.

I'm unsure of Nora's character. I always thought of her broadway personality as unconvincing and try-hard, like a teenage girl's first time trying to seem quirky or dorky. I hope I can tighten her up later.

Also: "…Team ONIKS will be assigned to Sandy Springs. Team RWBY will be assigned to Wildridge. Team SAJE will be assigned to South Bend…"

Sandy Springs, Wildridge, and South Bend are all real places in the US. I'm sorry if this breaks your immersion, but I just couldn't for the life of me think of convincing-sounding town names. And if I made up my own, it was often the case that there would be accidental references to other works of fiction. So why not just use real-world names? I have tried worldbuilding before. The hardest thing about it is definitely coming up with names.

Also, yes. For their first mission, Team RWBY goes to a town outside Vale's Walls to protect it. That's big. So far, the story was very strictly on-the-rails with RWBY Volume 1's general outline (with some slight variation here and there). But next chapter? Next chapter is where it goes off the rails very very quickly. You will hardly recognize it as RWBY anymore. Be prepared.

Next Update: 6/28/2022 (probably)