Chapter 3: The plan
It wasn't uncommon Briar to be up early. Between her and Summer she always had been the early bird. This time however it was different.
She spent the night pondering about the previous day. So much so that she didn't get practically any sleep. Not that she was tired. Just... torn.
She should've been happy. Going to Beacon was her dream ever since she was a child. That's what she spent most of her life training for. But here she was and all she could think about was Summer.
She felt guilty. The whole thing wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for her.
On the other hand, she couldn't help but be upset. She didn't want an apology, just wanted to know why her sister did what she did. But Summer refused to talk about it, quickly chaning the subject or outright avoiding Briar. Not only that, but she was already planing to leave. Again. Without even saying a word to their Mom. After being missing for more than two years...
Engrossed in her own thoughts, Briar entered the girl's bathroom, crashing into the girl trying to leave. The impact sent both of them to the ground.
"Oh my Gods. I-I'm so sorry." the girl stammered, trying to collect her things scattered all over the floor, while occasionally glacing at Briar like she was expecting to be executed on the spot.
"No problem. It was my fault, I wasn't paying attention." Briar gave her an awkward smile then got up and reached out to the girl. She looked at Briar, then her extended arm, then back to face with a confused expression, before tentatively taking her hand.
Now standing, Briar could see the girl was taller than her, though she couldn't determine how much 'cause she was huddled in on herself so much. Her long, pale blond hair was kept in a braid, tied with a blue-ish ribbon. She was wearing a blue vest over a light-blue off-shoulder shirt, shorts and white thigh-high boots with golden trimming.
"I-I'm truly sorry. " the girl mumbled, averting her eyes from Briar. Her voice was barely audible. If other people were there Briar wouldn't have heard a thing she said.
"It's okay. " Briar tried to reassure her, when suddenly an idea popped into her head. "You know what? I'll make it up for you. I'll buy you something. Meet me at the cafeteria in about half an hour." For a few seconds the girl just stared at Briar with wide eyes, then finally managed to stutter out an answer:
"O-okay. Uhm..." she trailed off. Briar quickly picked up and replied:
"Briar."
"O-Opal.
"Sorry!" Summer yelled to the guy she accidentally bumped into, while rushing towards the cafeteria.
She was late. It turned out the whole vigilante thing fucked her sleep schedule up more than she'd thought. By the time she woke up, some students were already gearing up. She didn't even care about the initiation, just didn't want to miss the free breakfast.
"Summer?!" the voice pulled her out of her thoughts with the force of a train. The abrubt stop made her nearly fall over.
"Matt?" she asked, trying not to sound too happy, but her face quickly fell, when she saw the boy. His clothes were disheleved, he had a few bruises on his cheeks and a black eye. "You like shit." she remarked, knowing well how hypocritical it sounds, but not caring.
"Kind as always..." Matt rolled his eyes.
"But seriously how did this to you?"
"It's nothing." he smiled as the bruises quickly faded away. "What happened to you? Mom was super worried? Why are you here?" For a brief moment Summer wanted to push him futher and ask more questions, but decided against it. (Not just because she herself doesn't like when people try to interrogate her.) Though she had her suspicions about Matt's presumable life at school, she only managed to get very few things out of him regarding the subject.
"I was going to the cafeteria. Come with me. I'll tell you what happened on the way." Matt nodded and followed her as she explained everything. By the time they reached the catefetria she was finished.
"So you're saying someone kidnapped you and somehow enrolled you here?" he looked quite confused and a bit sceptic.
"Do you really think I would ever set foot into this place willingly?" she asked back.
"Point taken."
"I've tried to call your mom, but it didn't go throught. Could you contact her for me?"
"Well I could write her a letter..."
"Seriously?"
"There's no internet and barely any reception. The only other way you could speak to her is through radio, but unless you have secret broadcasting station hidden away in your bag, I don't think you have any other options." Matt explained and Summer sighed. "Why do you ask?"
"I was planning on asking for her help, but it seems like I have to go with plan B."
"What is plan B?" Summer was about to answer, when she was abruptly cut off:
"Summer!" Briar was sitting at one of the tables with some blonde girl, waving at them with a huge smile on her face. They quickly made their way towards the small brunette and sat down opposite to her. "This is my sister, Summer." she explained to the blonde girl. "Summer, this is Opal." the girl mumbled something barely audible and gave Summer a shy wave.
"Hi..." Summer replied slowly. Briar was looking at her expectingly, but she didn't know what to do so she decided to just start eating. After a few minutes of awkward silence between them Briar spoke:
"So who's your friend?" she asked still smiling.
"He's not my friend." Summer mumbled. She was actually avoiding looking at Matt or Briar, strictly focusing on her food, so she couldn't see Matt's reaction, but it probably a bit of pouting with eye-rolling.
"My name is Matt."
"Goosie." Summer chimed in mockingly.
"Shut up!" he barked at her then turned back to Briar. "Matt Goose." he said as they shook hands.
"Briar Rose. Nice to meet you."
"Rose? Like in Ruby Rose?"
"Yes, she's our mom." Shit! Summer could feel Matt looking at her questioningly. She tried even harder to focus on her breakfast and block out everything else, but it was no use. She could practically feel Matt's eyes burning into her, waiting for a explanation.
"So... How was your first day?" she stuttered after a long silence, realizing that they won't move on to an other topic any time soon. "Mine sucked ass. Our obnoxious cousin, Lia, is also here. And when I tried to get away from her I ran into this asshole, who was wearing this stupid edgy coat made out of black leather. It was soo pathetic..."
"The name is Vic." a voice interrupted her trash talk and nearly made Summer choke on her food. "Victor Eil." as she turned around her gaze met with the pair of bright green eyes. "See you at the initiation. Princess." he said with a shit-eating plastered on face. Summer didn't even know what to say. The only thing she could come up with was 'Well fuck you!' but that wasn't really a smart comeback so decided to stay quiet.
After that no one said a word, just sat in silence, which was finally broken by the PA System:
"All first year students report to Beacon cliff for initiation."
"Better get our weapons." Briar mumbled.
"Yeah. Aha. " they all agreed, got up and went to their lockers.
Lia was the first to admit that she was no angel. Did she break rules often? Almost constantly. Did she do any risky/not-exactly-legal stuff? Sometimes. Did she deserve to be bumped in a glorified prison camp that some people call 'Huntsmen academy', by her moms? No!
But unfortunately, that was only the beginning. What little hope she had about her time in Beacon being moderately painless and passably boring was destoryed when her cousins showed up. Briar was generally tolerable, even if she was incapable of ever shutting up, but Summer was an unbearable, self-righteous, bitch, who would no doubt make her life here miserable. Well... Even more miserable.
And the worst thing was: She had no idea what to do. She tried to ask Briar to get her mom to talk to Lia's moms, but she's on mission, so that's that.
Lia hadn't even been at Beacon for one full day, but it was so excruciatingly boring, every second felt 10 years. She spent most of her time in quiet misery, trying to find something to occupy herself with. The thought of searching for Summer crossed her mind. Annoying her cousin was always one of her favourite activities. Sadly she had to scratch that because knowing Summer (and herself) it would no doubt end in a fight, which was one of last things she needed, if she ever wanted to get out of this shit hole.
Looking forward to the initiation was truly not something Lia ever expected She would do. But here she was, standing on the launching platform, waiting to be thrown into the woods, because that sounded at least a tiny bit less boring than anything else in this fuckin' school.
Whatever the Headmistress said turned into a faint buzz in the background, as Lia stared motionlessly at the forest ahead, desperately trying to ignore the strange feeling starting to bubble in her stomach. It was stupid, she told herself, she was just being paranoid. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't help but feel like she was being watched.
Lia was clenching her fists so hard her knuckles became white, her body was tense and it became hard to breath.
She gulped, trying to swallow the nervousness and carefully, started looking over her surroundings. Her gaze met a pair of green eyes, looking directly at her. They belong to a guy, standing not to far away from Lia. He had short blonde hair and was pretty well-built even if it was mostly covered by his black leather coat. Something about him seemed oddly familiar, but Lia couldn't quite put her finger on it. They stared at each other for a few tense minutes before she managed to tear her gaze away. This seemed to make him come to his sense, 'cause the next time she checked, he wasn't looking at her anymore.
Fortunately, Headmistress soon finished her speech so the guy didn't have the chance to start staring again. The students got ready, took their positions and got catapulted into the air.
Lia was still confused and tense, but tried to focus on the task at hand. She used her semblance to make a couple of jumps, before deciding to land (didn't want use too much aura).
She wasn't really trilled about the whole teaming up and partnering thing, but staying in the forest wasn't a likely option (no matter how tempting it was), so she headed north, hoping to find a partner who is at least semi-bearable.
Suddenly her ears picked up a noise as she was passing by a large pit. Lia draw her weapon and immediately pointed it at the source of the noise. She excepted a Beowulf or an Ursai, but instead was met with a pair of familiar silver eyes. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Lia turned away and used her semblance to get out of sight.
Oh hell no! There's no fuckin' way she'll ever be partners with Summer Schnee! No! Never! Never ever!
She would've been okay with anyone else! Briar? Great! Creepy guy? Tolerable! But Summer?!
Lia was shaken out off her thoughts by a loud roar, as she face to face with an Ursai. She immediately pointed her weapon at it and was about fire, when someone yanked her by the arm and dragged her away.
"WHAT?!" she screamed at her cousin.
"Hey... Calm down. I..." Summer tried to explain, but Lia didn't let her.
"NO! What the fuck is your problem?! What do you not understand?! What haven't I made clear?! What... "
"SHUT UP!" Summer cut her off. "JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR ONE SECOND" Lia was taken aback by the tone. Summer was... Different from what she remembered her to be. "So you don't want to be here either, right?" Lia nodded. "I have a plan."
"Listening." she mumbled.
"All we have to do" Summer whispered." is pretend to be stupid." That earned her a raised eyesbrow from Lia. "We have to fail the initiation and act like we're totally incompetent..."
"Shouldn't be too hard for you..." Lia commented. Summer just gave her an unimpressed look and continued:
"If they think we're complete imbeciles they won't keep us around. Are you in?"
Lia let out a deep sigh. This plan was seriously going to her ego, but:
"It's not like I have a choice." she muttered.
Suddenly a loud roar interrupted them. The Ursai they left behind was starting to catch up to them. The two girls looked into each others eyes and screamed:
"Oh no! An ursai!"
Hi everyone!
Sorry for not updating. It was my first semester in university and I had to sort things out. I'll try to update more frequently from now on.
I hope you liked this chapter. If you're interested you can check my instagram arabes_di_angelo or my tumblr arabesdiangelo, where I upload my fanarts and illustrations for this fic.