As the Bullhead descends from the sky and onto the landing zone, Cinder along with many other students exited through the hangar doors and onto the grounds of the prestigious academy.

As she walked ahead, she looked around the school and examined the layout of the school grounds.

'This looks so much better than that picture on the brochure. If this is the outside… I wonder what looks like on the inside.' She thought as she walked with her arms around her back. Looking around at the other students, she saw all the different outfits and weapons that they all had making her feel giddy inside.

"This place is going to be so much fun." She said to herself before something collided into her back.

"Mmph!" With a grunt she turned her head around and instantly became confused, she saw no one in front of her until she looked down.

Laying on the ground was a girl with dual hair wearing a white jacket with a pink interior, brown pants, black gloves, and black and white boots with high heels. Lying beside her was a pink umbrella with an open hole at the end.

"Are you okay?" Cinder asked the girl as she blinked twice and gazed upwards revealing her mismatched eyes. 'She has heterochromia.'

"Here let me help you up." Cinder offered her hand down to the girl as she accepted it. Now standing, Cinder got a good look at her and saw that the girl before her was shorter than her by… well a lot.

Picking up her umbrella, the girl quickly signed 'sorry' before she running off leaving Cinder behind.

"Well someone's in a rush." She said raising an eyebrow at the girl before she noticed something on the ground, it was a small bowler hat with a red outline. "I think that little girl dropped this when she bumped into me."

She picked the hat and inspected it, turning it 360 degrees and saw nothing interesting about it.

"I guess I should give this back to her."

"What are you doing with a boring hat?"

Hearing a voice from beside her, Cinder turned right and saw a silvery gray-haired teenage boy with gray eyes. He was wearing a slate gray and black jacket with a black undershirt underneath, along with black pants and black combat boots. He had sets of rerebraces and vambraces on his arms and a small pouch hanging off the single notched belt around his waist.

He was staring at Cinder with a bored look in his eyes.

"Huh?"

"I asked what're you doing with a boring old hat?" he asked repeating the same question. Cinder looked back at the hat with a curious expression on her face.

"I don't think it's boring."

"Oh really, then what does it do? Is it a weapon?"

"Well…" she paused looking at the hat one more time before shaking her head. "No it isn't. At least I don't think it is."

"Then it's consider boring." He replied shrugging his shoulders. "What's the point of bringing that thing if it doesn't do anything cool?"

"It isn't my hat." Cinder glared at him.

"Oh then I guess I'll take it." he said his hand reaching for it before amber-eyed girl pulled it back.

"No." she said firmly.

"You just said it wasn't yours." The silver teen retorted.

"It's not. It belongs to someone else, they dropped it after bumping into to me." Cinder said glaring at him. "I'm going to give it back."

"Uh, that's boring. You know the saying 'finders keepers, losers weepers', well they lost it, and it's now yours, keep it."

"You're rude you know that." She deadpanned at him as he shrugged his shoulders.

"As are you but you're the second chick that I've met so far that isn't a whining bitch, so no complaints." He said as he walked off behind waving at her. "See you later."

Cinder just stared at his disappearing form, glaring holes into the back of his head, and let out a small flame breath as she clicked her teeth. "What a jerk."

"So you met him too huh?" A voice called out to her. Turning around, Cinder was met with another female student only this time she was taller than the last girl. She had medium-brown skin with mint-green hair and dark red eyes with two long locks on the side of her head in the back. She was wearing and intricate white top and a cropped olive undershirt with white pants and brown chaps that end at her calves with high-heeled shoes.

"Yeah who was he?"

"Someone who's really annoying, I was literally going to pay him to shut up."

"Well even if you did pay him, I don't think that would even work." Cinder chuckled.

"Yeah with that mouth of his, I'm surprised he hasn't got in trouble yet." She laughed as well before holding her hand out. "The name's Emerald, Emerald Sustrai."

"Cinder Fall."

"So wanna walk with me?"

"Sure, it's not like I got anything else to do." "That's not your hat is it?"

"No, it's someone else's. I know who it belongs to but they ran off before I could hand it to them so I thought I'd give it back when I see them again."

"All right then." Emerald said shrugging her shoulders not really caring about the hat. It wasn't her problem so why she should she bother.

So, the two teenage girls ended up walking around the campus for a bit since they a little time to spare before ending up in the gathering hall where all the new students met. Cinder and Emerald were now standing on the side leaning against the wall of the hall as voices of other students filled the air.

'So many people, so cheerful and happy all the time… it's sickening.' Emerald thought, observing the crowd in the front of her before turning over to her acquaintance who was spinning the hat around with one finger.

"So how do you know that hat belongs to someone?"

"I know who it belongs to, but I don't know her name. Before you and the rude boy, I met this petite girl who from my opinion looked like she was too young to be here. She had this ice cream color appearance, dual hair, heterochromic eyes…" Cinder listed.

Emerald listened to her statement before looking behind her and her eyebrow raised in awareness. "Did she also have an umbrella with her?"

"Yeah, she did. Wait did you meet her too?" she asked only for the mint girl to shake her head and point behind her.

Cinder gave her a confused look before feeling a tug on her jacket, she turned and was met with the same mismatched pair of eyes.

"Oh, hey there. We were just talking about you, you forgot this." Cinder said as she held out the hat to the petite girl who eyes widened in shock before grabbing it and clutched it to her chest like a lifeline and was smiling happily.

Cinder smiled as well while Emerald turned her head away from them.

The petite girl looked up at her and signed thank you to Cinder as the said girl thought about the petite's girl sign language.

'Maybe she's mute.' She thought before speaking. "It was my pleasure. I'm Cinder and this is my friend Emerald." She motioned her hand towards Emerald as mismatched eyes followed and saw the mint girl weakly wave at her before returning her hand back to her chest.

The petite girl waved back at her happily before randomly taking out a sigh that said her own name. Reading it both Cinder and Emerald looked at the sign before looking back at the girl.

"Neopolitan… is that your name?" the flame girl asked as the petite nodded her head back and forth. "Huh, she really does resemble ice cream."

"Forget the ice cream, where the heck did she pull that sign from out of her ass?" All three turned their heads and saw a familiar figure approach them. "Or it could be magic, who knows?" he said looking at Neo before aiming his gaze as Cinder and Emerald.

"Great, it's lazy fowl mouth." The latter muttered.

"Nice to see you too." He said sarcastically as she let out a growl. "Looks like you were able to return the hat, congratulations. Never thought it would belong to a pint-size over here."

The said pint-size glared at him before kicking him in the shin. Hard.

*Whack*

"Ow!" he said wincing at the impact as Neo smiled in satisfaction at her revenge and Emerald let out a quiet laugh.

"You deserve it… still I would like for us to meet on friendly terms rather than be hostile towards one another." Cinder said with a calm expression on her face.

"Hm… eh why not? Name's Mercury Black, Slayer of Grimm, Wooer of women." He introduced himself to them. Emerald let out a scoff and rolled her eyes at him.

"Ahem."

Suddenly they heard a voice clear its throat and they all turned their heads to the stage up front where Salem was standing with her arms behind her back with a microphone before her and Hazel by her side with his arms crossed.

"I shall keep this brief and short. All you students have traveled from your homes to come here, each of you from different nations, in search of knowledge and experience. Honing your craft and obtaining new skills, dedicating your lives to protecting people. But right now, I see many minds full of energy needing purpose, direction, and guidance. Knowledge would only get you so far. In this world we live in, the first step to how you will achieve your goals is up to you." Salem announced to them before leaving the stage, an ominous feeling was left hanging in the air until Hazel stepped up and spoke into the microphone.

"Tonight, you will all sleep in the ballroom. Your initiation will begin tomorrow so come prepared and be ready. Dismissed." Finishing up, he followed Salem.

"Well… that was slightly depressing." Mercury commented.

"The way she talked… it sounded like a reminder." Emerald added. Cinder and Neo just stayed silent as they thought about their headmistress's words.

The students were all splayed out all over the ballroom in different sleeping bags provided by the staff, some were fast asleep while others remained awake talking to other peers. Cinder was among those awake, wearing her pajamas consisting of red pants and a zip up hoodie. She was currently writing something in a journal until she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Mind if we sleep here?" Turning her head, she saw Emerald and Neo in their pajamas, the former holding her pillow on the side of her hip while the latter was holding it close to her chest.

"Of course." She answered as they both collapsed. Emerald wearing white shorts and a shirt that showed her navel laid sat on her knees while Neo wearing a pink onesie with ice cream flavors all over (consisted of strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla), laid flat on her stomach with her hands on her cheeks and kicking her feet playfully in the air.

"So, what are you doing?"

"Writing. It was just something I did to help burn away my anger but eventually grew on me and became a hobby." Cinder said.

"Sounds like a real lifesaver." Emerald said rolling her eyes before she turned to Neo… who somehow was fast asleep. "How is she already asleep?"

"Must be a fast sleeper." Cinder said smiling softly at the petite girl. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"What do you—"

"Hello ladies." Both girls except Neo, turned their heads up and saw Mercury with a grin on his face. His pajamas were gray shorts and black short-sleeve shirt and he was carrying his pillow on his shoulder.

"Hello." Cinder replied while Emerald ignored his presence.

"Room for one more?"

"Go away." Emerald said before Cinder chastised her.

"Now, now, don't be rude Emerald. I did say I want all of us on good terms so why not start off with a friendly chat?"

"Didn't we do that earlier?" Emerald asked.

"No, you scoffed, and he acted like a jerk." Cinder said pointing to Emerald and then to Mercury.

"Fine."

"Ah that feels much better."

"Don't get use to it." Emerald said to him then turned to Cinder. "I wonder what the initiation will be like tomorrow."

"Who knows, all I know is that this place is going to get very interesting from now on. I wonder what the mission will be like?"

"Do you really think we're here for fun?" Emerald asked the silver-haired kid. "This place is supposed to prepare us for the world out there. It's not a fantasy like one of those hero stories, this is real life or death and you only get one chance."

"Geez, you're such a buzzkill. Still I admit that you're not wrong about the one chance thing."

"As do I." Cinder started as she closed her book. "The world is a cruel place after all. They are half of us out there like to live peacefully, some that want nothing but carnage and destruction, others that want to live in their own worlds."

"There is always going to be someone out there that will want to take away all that joy and happiness that we possess, rip away our hearts and filled it with despair and agony but that's why were here. We're not here to become heroes, we're here to become Hunters and Huntresses. Protect the weak and innocent from deadly Grimm and corrupted people. And it won't be easy, tough decisions and battles lie in wait and like the Salem said the first step is up to us." She explained.

Emerald let out a small smile play on her lips while Mercury chuckled in agreement and Neo who sometime woke up listened and nodded her head in agreement.

"I guess you're not as blind as I thought you were." The thief commented.

"Looks like we're all in total agreement with you on that. Everyone else may be blinded but we're not." Mercury added. Neo clapped her hands rapidly signaling that she agrees as well.

"Well thanks for you hearing me out." Cinder put her book aside and stretched her left arm over her head while pulling it with her right and yawned. "I think we should get some sleep."

"Agreed. Night ladies." Mercury waved at them, plopping backwards onto his pillow before letting sleep take him.

"Good night." Emerald said turning over her side before falling asleep. Cinder turned to Neo and saw that she was already out again laying in her previous position. She looked around the ballroom one last time before deciding to go to sleep herself.

Tomorrow's initiation will be unlike any other anyone's ever seen.