Practically every muscle in Astra's body was vibrating with pure excitement.
All of her 17 years waiting for this moment and now she was actually here! And not even at strict, stinky, old, faunus-discriminating Atlas, but beautiful, clean, mostly-accepting Beacon!
It already felt perfect and Astra had to stand there for a moment, taking everything in. The weather was perfect, the air was perfect, even the trees were perfect. Especially since there were actually trees. Greenery instead of all of Atlas' cold, grey manmade stuff!
It wasn't just at the school, either. She'd been living in Vale for two months now and still hadn't gotten used to seeing trees on every street, a bush here and there, grass in various areas. Sure, most plants probably wouldn't survive in Atlas, but they surely could've benefited from planting some pines or something.
She gasped as a shiny statue caught her eye and dragged her bags over to gaze at it in awe. She didn't know the man it depicted but she knew it'd stood her once before and had been destroyed during the Fall of Beacon. But then it had been rebuilt and now it was so clean and pretty. She squealed out loud and prayed that they'd make a statue of her someday. She'd surely do well enough her to deserve it. She'd even take a plaque of some kind. Whatever it was, she'd leave her mark here for sure.
As she bounced up and down on the spot, her tail waving in excitement, passing students gave her weird looks. She ignored them, of course. Her mother had always told her never to let boring people squash her enthusiasm and she'd taken that to heart. Unlike her mother though, Astra wasn't going to counter people's rudeness with some mean jab. Neon never meant any harm, but she could always be…insensitive. Astra, on the other hand, much preferred ignoring the haters and trumping their nasty attitudes with overwhelming positivity. Even if it was "annoying".
But none of that mattered! She was attending Beacon! She was going to be a Huntress! This was probably the best day of her life! And she'd had a lot of those.
It occurred to her that she had no idea where anything was. Or where she was supposed to go. Was there some kind of…assembly area? Should she find the dorms first? There was certainly a lot here that was new to her and she had no idea what to do next.
It was so exciting.
She scanned the array of people walking around until a tall blonde man who looked 40-ish caught her attention. Yeah, he looked like he was probably some kind of faculty member. She dragged her bags over to him.
"Yo!" She called. "Mr. uh…blonde sir? Could I get some help?"
The man turned to greet her with a friendly smile. "Sure thing! Guessing you need directions?"
"Ooh, how'd you know?"
The man chuckled. "I was just as confused my first day here. Just head that way and go inside for assembly." He nodded towards an entrance. "Main hall. It's where you'll be going for any assembly. You'll be shown where the dorms are afterward, but all first-years will be staying in the ballroom until teams are sorted."
Astra grinned. "Neat! Thanks, dude."
She turned around to start hauling the bags away, only for the man to add:
"Oh, you can call me Jaune, by the way."
Astra dropped her bags and whipped back around with a long gasp. "Holy shit." She darted up to look him full in the face, feeling like an idiot for not recognizing him sooner.
"You're Jaune Arc?" She gasped. "Leader of Team JNPR? One of the greatest teams to ever graduate any Huntsman Academy ever? You're a professor here!?"
Jaune looked slightly embarrassed. "Ah, I wouldn't call us the greatest. All teams achieve greatness in different ways; we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. But yes, I'm one of the combat teachers. I specialize in Aura."
"I can't believe I didn't know that…" Astra breathed in awe. She was in the presence of a literal legend and hadn't even noticed at first. Unbelievable. "Oh man, my mom says you were kind of a dork when she knew you but I don't agree at all. You're just…amazing!" She started bouncing, her tail straight up in the air.
Jaune looked her up and down. "You're Astra Katt, right?"
Astra gasped again. She didn't think her eyes could get any wider. He knows who I am!
"You know who I am!?"
"I checked your files when you applied." Jaune explained. "And you certainly resemble your mother."
"Wow…" Was there anything he didn't know?
"Well, I should get to helping other students." Jaune mentioned. "Assembly starts soon; you should get inside. Professor Goodwitch isn't known for her patience."
Astra's tail shot up. "Oh, right!" She'd almost forgotten where she even was, somehow. "Uh…sorry for the fangirling. I've just wanted to meet you and all the others for a really long time."
Jaune waved his hand. "Ah, don't worry about it. I'm not great at taking compliments but they're nice to hear anyway."
Astra picked her bags back up. "Okay, well bye! Thanks for the help!" She turned and hauled her bags towards the main hall as excitement bubbled up inside her even more.
This was going to be amazing.
This wasn't his first time seeing Beacon up close, but Cobalt found himself excited all the same. After all, his visits in the past had only been for a few hours and purely as visits. But now…now he was a student here. He'd get to do student things.
Of course, he appeared perfectly casual to everyone else. It wasn't on purpose or anything, it was just how he was. Cool-headed on the outside even if the inside of him threatened to boil over with joy, or anger, or sadness, any strong emotions rarely showing to the world. Well, except for Luna. Due to her Semblance, he'd always gotten along with her well. It was nice to have someone aside from his family who knew how he really felt at all times and equally nice to be around someone who wouldn't make his life too crazy.
But even though he looked cool for the most part, Cobalt still couldn't help but have a little bounce in his step as he and Luna unboarded from the airship. He hoped nobody noticed. Not because it would 'ruin his image', but because the last thing he needed on his first day was for someone to make any damned rabbit puns.
As he and Luna approached the main hall, Coco was already just outside. She'd clearly waited for him and he grinned as he hurried over to hug her, Luna following awkwardly behind.
"You excited?" Coco asked, ruffling the hair between his rabbit ears.
"He is." Luna piped up quietly. "He's been radiating it all morning."
"Hah," Coco chuckled. "That's fair. I was too. Don't tell people."
Cobalt smiled warmly. "And ruin your chill image? Wouldn't dream of it, Mom."
"That's my boy."
Velvet was Cobalt's biological mother, but that had never stopped him from seeing Coco as a second mother anyway. Really, the whole of Team CFVY had become his parents. They'd moved in after his father had died and raised him as a team and their family had only grown after Velvet and Coco had married and his younger sisters had come along. When Coco had started teaching at Beacon before becoming Glynda's right hand, Cobalt hadn't been able to spend as much time with her as he once had, so the fact they'd now be spending every weekday in the same place was yet another bonus to attending Beacon.
The three headed into the main hall, where students crowded together and waited expectantly for Glynda to begin the assembly. Cobalt noticed Luna tuck her tail around her leg and moved closer to her in comfort as Coco waved goodbye and hurried over to where the other school faculty gathered at the side of the room.
"Attention, all students."
The room fell silent as Glynda Goodwitch's stern voice rang out across the hall. Cobalt pricked his ears intently.
"Welcome, to all students new and retuning. Today, another year at Beacon begins. Almost 20 years ago, this school fell in a brutal attack, but since then, we've come back stronger than ever. That is one of the core traits you need to succeed as a Hunstman- the ability to come back even after failure. None of you are going to get everything exactly right and some of you may get very little right at all."
Cobalt glanced at Luna. Her face was creased with anxiety at Glynda's words, but a flash of determination still shone in her eyes.
"But what matters is that you pick yourself back up and keep trying anyway." Glynda continued. "Do the best you can to help others and to help yourself and you will graduate from this Academy as a fully licenced Huntsman."
As she stepped away from the microphone, students began to mill around again and the noise picked back up. Cobalt remained by Luna's side.
"You doing okay?" He asked.
It took a moment, but Luna nodded. "Yeah," She replied. "I'm just trying to prepare myself. You know, mentally."
Cobalt placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Take all the time you need; you've got this. Just let me know when you're ready for a tour."
Luna scoffed. "Showoff. You've been here before, what? Three times?"
Cobalt faked offence. "I'll have you know I've been here four times."
"Yeah, okay." Luna chuckled. "But I still don't trust you to know where you're going." She nudged hm. "Come on then, let's get our bags to the ballroom. My hands are cramped from the death grip I've had on them this whole time."
Cobalt glanced around. "Alrighty, the ballroom iisss…this way." He started in one direction before Luna's tug on his shirt stopped him.
"It's that way." She pointed in the opposite direction. "There's literally a sign."
"Ah." Cobalt looked where she was pointing. There sure was a sign. "Totally knew that."
