Chapter 2: Better and better

Summer was frozen in place. All she could do was stare ahead with an empty gaze, while her brain tried desperately to rationalize what happened.

It didn't make any sense. There was no possible way this could happen. How could she be on the airship heading towards Beacon? Why would the criminals (or anyone for that matter) send her to Beacon? It didn't make any sense. The only thing that kept her from having a meltdown was the absurdity of the whole situation.

Eventually she managed to calm herself down. If this was real and they were in fact really on their way to Beacon, then all she had to do was talk to the Headmistress upon arriving and sort things out. Surely they wouldn't keep around someone who didn't even apply to their academy.

"We're gonna have so much fun!" Briar exclaimed, shaking Summer out of her thoughts. While she was busy trying not to have a mental breakdown, her sister continued talking.

"Yeah about that..." Summer trailed off nervously, avoiding her Briar's eyes. She knew this wasn't going to be easy. Briar would be upset, but she couldn't just dance around it either. "I'm not staying."

"What?" Briar looked at her with confusion.

"I don't even know how I got here." She admitted then explained everything from her fight to her awakening. Briar didn't say anything, just stared. After few minutes of awkward silence she finally spoke:

"So... You're telling me that you were kidnapped?" she clearly tried to be nice, but her voice carried an audible scepticism.

"Yes." Summer replied fully aware that her sister most likely didn't believe a word from what she'd said.

"And your kidnapper brought you here?"

"Yes."

"Summer don't think this is a little... far fetched?" she asked with a nervous chuckle. Summer opened her mouth to answer when she was abruptly cut off.

"Summer? Is that really you?" Summer felt her skin crawl at the sound of the familiar voice. No this couldn't be happening. She couldn't be THIS unlucky. Summer shut her eyes and prayed that her ears were messing with her. "Wow... The standards must've really dropped if you're here." No this was definitely real. She was about to quickly disappeare into the crowd and pretend nothing's happened, but suddenly Briar's hand clenched around her arm gripped her with the strength of an anacoda. Summer let defeated sigh and slowly truned around coming face to face with her cousin.

"Lia... What a joy..." she deadpanned. The ravenette looked at her with a similarly unhappy expression. Their relationship had never been very... friendly. Most of their interactions ended up devolving into either verbal or physical fights. So Lia wasn't someone Summer wanted to run into. Especially not when she already had problems to take care of.

"Hi Lia!" Briar exclaimed cheerfully. Lia glared at Summer with distaste in her eyes.

"Did they dig you out from the dirt?" she asked looking at her clothes. Summer's blue vest, skirt and her white shirt were all covered with dark patches of dirt and dust.

"Did you finally managed learn how what clothes are?" Summer shot back which earned her an annoyed scoff. The black tanktop, white undershirt, purple shorts and striped stockings seemed unusually modest. The last time Summer saw her she was dressed like someone who practiced the oldest profession.

"So how are Aran and Bee doing?" Briar chimped in, trying to soothe the nerves.

"Aran is here... somewhere..." Lia said looking around. "with his loser friends and Bee is doing great."

"That's cool. Are you excited about Beacon?"

Summer tried everything she could to get out of Briar's grip, but nothing worked so she was forced to stay and listen to her conversation with Lia. She was starting to consider the pros and cons of a lobotomy via her sword when the ship landed. Briar was distracted by people bumping into her so her hold loosened. Summer immediately took the chance to slip away and started to push her way throught the crowd towards the exit. People cussed and gave her angry looks, but she ignored them.

"There are other people here too!" someone shouted. Summer didn't pay much attention to it. She was about to leave the ship when someone yank her back by the arm.

"What the fuck?!" she cried out then angrily turned around to look at culprit. He was around Summer's age, somewhat taller than her, wearing a black leather coat. He had blonde hair and green eyes.

"The end of the line is over there." he motioned with his hands. Summer gave him a furious glare then pulled her arm away and tried to get through the crowd blocking the exit. The boy tried to cut in front of her, but unfortunately the doorway was too narrow for both of them plus the other people so they got stuck.

"I don't have time for this." Summer groaned.

"Neither do I Princess so why don't you just go back and wait for your turn?"

"What the hell is your problem? Are you always this obsessed with people cutting infront of you or it's just me?" Summer asked while trying to adjust her body.

"In your dreams..." he scoffed, but was interrupted when Summer accidentally elbowed him in the jaw. With her arm free she finally managed to start moving forward and eventually slipped out from between Coat boy and the doorframe. Summer looked at him smuggly with a large grin plastered on her face then turned around to walk away. "Stupid bitch..." he mumbled. Summer didn't turn back just raised her hand and gave him the finger as she left.

Getting through the orientation turned out to be a lot more difficult than Summer'd expected.

Normally she would've stayed in the back, away from the crowd, and kept herself occupied until the speech ends. Unfortunately if she wanted to speak to Headmistress anytime soon, she had to make her way through the crowd, while avoiding her cousin.

Most students tried to listen so they gave her weird looks when she walked past them, but didn't say anything. Summer was careful, not to bump into them. The last thing she needed was another drama queen like Coat boy.

Halfway through the crowd she suddenly cought a glimpse of Lia's signature cat ears. She immediately ducked and turned around to get away. Unfortunately while she was busy trying not to get noticed by Lia, she ended up crashing into someone.

"Woah. Are you okay?" asked a semi-concerned sounding voice. Summer, still rubbing her nose, looked up at the unlucky person, who she managed to run into. He was a head taller than Summer, wearing an orange shirt and gray waistcoat. The boy's clothes reminded Summer of her uncel, but something about them was... off... He looked less formal. His hair was light brown just like his eyes.

"Yeah, sorry." Summer managed to find her voice.

"No problem." the boy smiled. "A girl like you can bump into me as much as she wants to."

"Huh?" Summer didn't know how to reply. She wasn't really sure if this meant what she thought it meant. Luckily before she could answer someone decided to join the conversation:

"Leave the poor girl alone, Dave." a guy wearing a red coat walked up to them. He had brown eyes and long, dark hair. For some reason he looked familiar. However what cought Summer's attention was his heigth. Summer with her 160 cm (5'3") wasn't tall by any means, but the guy was even shorter than her.

"I'm Dave." the boy introduced himself and shook Summer's hand. "And the Garden Gnome here is Leel."

"Summer. " the candycane-haired girl muttered then looked at Leel again "Have I seen you somewhere? You look familiar?"

"On TV maybe?" the short boy guessed. "I've won the Mistral Regional Tournament last year." From most people's mouth this would've sounded like bragging, but Leel remained calm, like he didn't really care.

"Oh..." The last time she watched TV was back in Mistral so it made sense. "Yeah... That must be it... "

"Most people say they expected him to be taller." Dave added, earning an unimpressed look from his friend. "So where are you from?" asked Dave.

"Vale." Summer fidgeted nervously.

"Well that's great. You didn't have travel a lot."

"Yeah... I've slept through the whole ride." she replied. Technically not a lie...

The Headmistress finished her speech and a professor took the microphone.

" The dormitorys building is currently being expanded on so until it's finished some of the students will be assigned to a temporary accomodation... "

"Uhm... Sorry, but I have to go. Bye." Not even waiting for an answer Summer stormed off and quickly made her way through the crowd, running after the Headmistress.

"Headmistress Goodwitch! Headmistress Goodwitch!" she called out. The older woman stopped in her track and turned around to take a look at Summer.

"How can help you Miss?"

"My name is Summer Schnee." Summer saw a glint of recognition in her eyes. "There was a problem with my application."

"Miss Schnee if there would have been a problem with your application we would have notified you about it."

"No it's..." Summer tried to find the right words, but there wasn't any better way of putting it. "I didn't apply. I don't even know what I'm doing here. " Headmistress Goodwitch didn't seem convinced.

"Follow me. " she motioned and went to her office where she started searching through a drawer and after a minute pulled out a paper. "What is your full name?" the older woman asked looking at the paper.

"Summer Nefeleich Schnee."

"Birth date and place?"

"September 12, xxxx, Vale." Summer replied.

"Parents?"

"Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee."

"Then here is your application." the Headmistress held up the paper.

"That's not possible." Summer stated and took the paper to inspect it. It had everything, I.D. numbers, datas and on the bottom was the signature of her Mom. But that couldn't be.

"So the signature is not your mother's?" Summer looked at her feet quietly. Headmistress Goodwitch let out a deep sigh and said:

"Miss Schnee, if you changed your mind about wanting to attend Beacon Academy that is perfectly acceptable, but it is something you will have to arrange with your mother. I can not do anything until she gives me her written consent."

"But I..." Summer tried to argue, but her voice failed her. She left the office silently as she was once again left trying to rationalize what happened.

Summer let out a frustrated sigh as she leaned to the wall of the shower. She still felt like screaming. Even the cold shower wasn't enough to calm her nerves. The security was much thighter than she's anticipated. Every attempt she mad at escape ended up getting cut short. One guard in particular, she was pretty sure, had been following her around. She spent the rest of the day trying contact Julia, Matt's mother. Unfortunately their village was out in the boonies so the call didn't get through. Then she went looking for Matt, but couldn't find him.

It was around midnight, when Summer decided to give it a rest, take a shower and go to sleep. She was angry and frustrated, but too tired to come up with anything. So she stood in the shower trying to make sense of things.

She was enrolled into Beacon and kidnapped. Someone was obviously behind it, the question was: Who and why?

Whoever it was they had to be close to Summer's family. The most obvious suspect would be her Mom, but she would never do something, this sneaky. She's way too honest and emotional. Auntie Yang and Aunt Winter were both too forward for a scheme like this. They would both just call her Mom if they'd found out where Summer was. (Auntie Yang would possible smack her on the head. ) Auntie Blake and Uncle Whitley were sly enough, but Summer didn't see any reason why they would to through this elaborate plan, instead of simply calling her Mom. Lia was cunning enough to come up with something like this and skillful enough to execute it, but... There was a gaping hole in this. She was also at Beacon. Liana Belladonna-Xiao-Long was a lot of things, annoying, lazy and attention-seeking, but stupid wasn't one of them. She hated Summer just as much as Summer hated her. She wouldn't have gotten Summer into Beacon if she too was going to there. That only left...

Summer immediately scoffed at the idea. How did it even cross her mind? She couldn't care less about Summer. She was off, somewhere in Mistral, doing her own things.

Summer let out a deep sigh and stepped out of the shower. She didn't have a toothbrush or pajamas, only the towel Briar gave her. While her undershirt and panties served as the substitute for sleeping clothes.

Briar was waiting outside the bathroom in her nightgown. When she saw Summer her eyes went wide and she looked like she was going to choke.

"Thanks for the towel." Summer said with a half-raised eyebrow. After a few second the smaller girl finally managed to speak:

"S- Summer where are your clothes?"

"Here?" Summer gestured towards the clothes on her arm, not really understanding the question.

"Yeah... But why aren't you wearing them?"

"Oh..." Summer realized what her sister meant. "They're dirty, I'm not sleeping in them." Not that she didn't have experience with it, but she avoided sleeping in her clothes full of dirt and sweat.

"Where are your pajamas?" Briar insisted.

"I don't have any. You know... Because I was KIDNAPPED." Summer was starting to get annoyed.

"You could've asked me!"

"It doesn't matter!"

"Khm... " Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by someone. The two girls quickly turned their had towards him. To Summer's dismay, it was Coat boy, (Wearing his leather coat over his pjs.) looking at them impatiently like he was expecting them to do something. After few minutes of silence Summer spoke:

"What do you want?"

"Well... I want to use the restroom of that's okay for you." the boy had a sour expression and his voice was filled with distaste.

"Go past us." Summer replied gritting her teeth.

"Ot course I should've know that moving away half a meter would be too much of a effort for your highness."

"Oh cut the crap!" Summer snapped. "Your just salty that I cut in front of you in a line!"

Coat boy no doubt had a retort in mind, but was cut off when a familiar figure appeared in front of them. Lia with her hair loose, in her pajamas with a very angry expression on her face.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!" she yelled. "THE WHOLE FUCKIN' SCHOOL CAN HEAR YOU!"

"ENOUGH! Can we just avoid each other from now on?!" Summer asked turning towards Lia and Coat boy. "It's bad enough that I'm stuck here! I don't want ot deal with your shit!"

"Yeah because being stuck in this fuckin' prison camp was my dream!" the exasparted faunus cried.

"Wait... what?" Summer paused. "You don't want to be here either?

"Students!" came the Headmistress' voice from behind their back. The four teenagers snapped their head around so fast it gave them whiplash. They didn't even notice her walking up to them. The students all froze under her murderous glare. "It is past curfew, so please keep your voice down and go to sleep." she said in a calm but threatening tone, before leaving the four students in stunned silence.

Four men marched down the empty streets of Vale. It was 3 a.m. and the air was chilly. Normally Ciar would've been quite a bit annoyed, but after getting back from his mission, he was too furious to even think about it.

"So what will happen now, Boss?" asked Grey, breaking the silence. It took every ounce of self-control Ciar had in his body not snap at him.

"We're going to correct this." he stated with a shaky edge in his voice.

"What about Delilah?" Schwarz spoke.

"Don't you dare to tell her!" Ciar all but yelled then realized his mistake and tried to calm a bit down. "We'll talk inside." he said as they reached an old warehouse.

However upon entering they were greeted by an unexpected guest. A girl was sitting on the table, dangling her legs exaggeeatedly before hopping down.

"Well look who's back!" she exclaimed scornfully.

"What are you doing here?" Ciar nearly spit the words.

There were a lot of things he hated about Delilah, her methods, her behavior, the way she spoke, but they were nothing compared to her annoying, nosy little minios.

The girl had very pale skin and red hair with some black in it. She was wearing a red and black dress, red gloves and red boots. What was her name again? Eliza? Alice? Doesn't matter.

"The better question what are you doing? Don't you think?" she asked with a smug grin on her face that made Ciar want to punch her even more. "You're here... with no vigilante to show up... That means you got beaten by a teenager." she laughed.

"You're the one to talk..." Ciar grumbled. This seemed to have struck a sensitive spot. The girl's expression changed.

"I did my job!" she snapped.

"Yeah fantastically..." The girl's eyes narrowed at the biting remark and her hands clenched into fists.

"I wonder what would your boss say if I..." before she could finish it Ciar grabbed her by the arms.

"If you finish this sentence I'll kill you." he stated cold, with burning hate in his eyes as he towered over her. Despite the height difference the girl didn't cower. She looked at him with defiance and said:

"Get your hands of off me. Now." Ciar felt fabric of her gloves shift under his hand. He reluctant let her go, but the message his eyes sent was clear: Get out of here! The girl slowly backed away and gave him a last hateful glance before disappearing into the night.

Good now they can start doing their job.

So, this took a while to write.At first I only wanted to include the Beacon part, but then thought maybe we should take a look at our villains.

I may not have been very clear about it, but Summer's color is blue. Her middle name: Nefeleich, comes from the hungarian word nefelejcs, which is the name of the forget me not flower. I thought about using the english or german version, but nefelejcs just sounded nicer.

Lia's color is purple. Her full name is Liana, which means: to climb like a vine (there are a lot of vines with purple flowers, search for it on google) and her nickname 'Lia' sounds like the hungarian word for purple, lila. (Lee-la)

Briar's color is pink just like the sweetbriar. (And it's also fitting for Briar's sweet nature.)

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

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