Author's Notes: Hey, guys! As promised, this chapter will be posted here on Friday. I hope you guys enjoy it! I got a few announcements at the end of this if you guys are interested.
The next day, Jaune was in Professor Oobleck's class.
The green-haired professor was zipping from one end of the board to another in front of the class, pointing out certain details and images to get his point across. With his movements and fast-paced talking, the students would have a hard time not paying attention.
However, despite this, Jaune was still spacing out. The message he received the day before was still on his mind. His eyes were fixated on the whiteboard yet none of the words being discussed was registering at all.
"AND... these are the major events that led to them being gifted the continent, Menagerie." The professor took a quick sip out of his mug, eyeing every student briefly. He quickly noticed Jaune staring blankly at seemingly the right side of the board and not on him. "Mister Arc."
Saying his name alone snapped him out immediately. "Uh... U-Uh... Faunus!"
The whole class was staring at the guy, a lot of them trying to hold in their laugh.
"I haven't given my question yet." He was talking at a normal pace this time.
"S-Sorry."
"But... you seem to have some idea of what we're talking about at least. I'd suggest reading the chapter in your textbook again. Am I clear?"
"Y-Yes, sir! I'll be sure to do that."
"You better." He then turned to the rest of the class. "And that goes to all of you. There will be a test coming up by next week and I expect all of you to pass, especially the ones who are falling behind."
Professor Oobleck eyed, not only Jaune but also the infamous bully in the school, Cardin Winchester. A former bully at this point, but a lot of people still don't trust him.
"Got it, teach." The guy, like always, was laid back and had both his feet rested on his. "I have a study plan." Afterward, he smirked and winked at Jaune.
"Do you, now?" The professor was skeptical but let it pass.
Jaune sighed after hearing this.
With Jaune's past with Cardin, flags were raised as his friends heard this.
Nora was eyeing the bully menacingly, audibly cracking her knuckles. Yang was doing something similar while the rest were simply concerned. Penny was the only one confused and ignorant of what's going on. Also, there was Ren who wasn't that concerned for some reason.
"Well then. That would be all from me. Class dismissed." And with that, Oobleck took a quick sip from his mug, fixed his glasses before zooming out of the room with blinding speed.
After leaving the classroom, the rest of team CRDL headed back to their dorm room while their leader, Cardin, immediately went to Jaune. "Dude? Could you please clear it up with your friends? I think they got the wrong idea."
His head turned to the others, literally just standing there a few paces behind him.
"This punk messin' with you again?" Yang was punching her fists together a few times, blue eyes already turning red.
Nora began cracking her neck. "Someone's legs gonna get broken today~"
"G-Guys! No need for all this! Cardin and I are buds now. Like, really! We just agreed to study together and hang out after lunch."
Weiss crossed her arms. "I still don't like the sound of that."
"Aw~ Even the Ice Queen is worried?~"
"Not in the mood, Yang."
"Don't worry. Ren's coming along. I'll be fine." Jaune said with a sheepish grin and a thumbs-up, not sure if that was enough to convince them.
"Ren?!" Pyrrha and Nora said in unison.
The boy in green simply nodded. "Yes."
"May I join in?"
All eyes were now on Penny.
"I'm great at study sessions! I saved Professor Oobleck's discussion and I'm able to replay it-"
"N-No, thanks! Sorry, Penny. This is kind of a 'guys only' type of thing. It's been a pretty long time since I've hung out with... just guys, you know? I hope you understand." The blonde placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Alright! I understand." Penny doesn't seem to mind the rejection and instead just gave him a cheerful smile.
"Thanks. We can always hang out next time." He began petting her.
This minor display of intimacy already slightly annoyed Ruby and decided to speak up. "What's wrong with hanging out with us in our room?"
"Yeah! Don't you have fun playing video games with us? Most guys like to be surrounded by smoking hot girls, ya know?~"
"Yang!" Ruby grabbed her sister's arms, shaking her, red-faced.
Weiss was just facepalming with disappointment, while Blake didn't pay too much attention. She was reading Yang's Diary again at the moment.
"Nothing's wrong with it, Rubes. Trust me on this. We can hang out and play after my time with the boys, 'kay?"
"Fine... but I'm not happy with it." Ruby puffed her cheeks.
"I trust you, Jaune. It's him that I do not." Pyrrha said, referring to Cardin.
Instead of getting angry, the man simply raised both his hands to shoulder level and backed off a few steps. "Completely understandable. Look, we're not up to something. If anything bad happens to the guy, just beat us up. Fair deal?"
"Oh, we will~" Yang threatened.
"Ooookay, sure. I better be going now. See you later, dude."
Before Cardin left, Jaune held out his fist out towards him.
In response, the tall man bumped fists with him. He then walked away afterward, hands in his pockets.
Most of them weren't impressed.
"We're not buying that."
"Oh come on... He doesn't have the best attitude but he has made improvements. Same with his teammates. I'll be fine."
"Yeah yeah... We got it. Just watch your back." Suddenly, Yang wrapped an arm around Jaune's neck. "You hanging out with us later afternoon. Capeesh? Party Game Fridays is a tradition we DO NOT break."
"I'll be there!"
"Good~ You're coming along too, Penny."
"Really?! Yay!~" The adorable robot girl clapped her hands.
"Everyone's always invited!" Ruby fist-pumped.
"Except team CRDL. I don't like those guys." Blake said.
Later that day...
"Alright. See you guys in a bit." Jaune said as he left off with Ren to team CRDL's room.
As they left and walked through the corridor, Ruby opened the door to take a quick peek outside of their room.
Ruby got startled as a few knocks came from the other side of the door. Opening it, she saw Nora and Pyrrha giving her a friendly wave.
She then nodded and let the two in.
"Jauney and Renny are off!" Nora called out.
Pyrrha simply chuckled. "A bit too loud, don' you think?"
"Got it! Okay, Pen. Do your stuff." Yang held out a thumbs up towards their robot friend.
Her backpack then suddenly opened. A spherical-shaped camera hovered out of the room. Pulling up her scroll, she gave a few taps on it, making it cloak itself and render it invisible as it tailed the two boys. "Is this really necessary?"
"It is," Weiss answered. She stood up from the desk where she normally sits to study and stand behind Penny, eyes on her scroll. "Team CRDL is infamous for being a bunch of insufferable, pea-brained, no good...!"
"Bullies..." Blake simply said. "We are doing this just as a precautionary measure."
"Yeah! And if those guys step outta line?" The blonde older sister of Ruby's began cracking her neck and knuckles. "We pay 'em a little visit~"
"If you say so. They don't seem that bad."
Pyrrha then spoke up. "Believe me, Penny. They could still be bad. They've blackmailed Jaune before."
"And they might even mess with Ren!" Nora had her fists clenched in front of her. "They better not do any funny business or their legs WILL... BE... BROKEN!"
"Eeeeasy there, tiger. You're gonna get us all in trouble." Ruby told her before sitting down on the floor, right in the middle of the room. She then motioned Penny to sit beside her.
With Jaune and Ren...
The blonde knocked on the door a few times. "Hey, guys. It's us. I got our mentor here with me too."
Ren didn't seem to react to that remark. He was currently holding a big history book, a pen, a notebook, and... "Jaune? Are these glasses necessary?"
"Totally. It makes you look cooler and smarter."
Before Ren could answer, the door opened in front of them. Cardin Winchester was there to greet them. "Sup. Get in and eat. Got snacks inside for us. Hope you like chips and soda."
As they went in, the two were surprised that the rest of the team were on each of their beds reading their history books.
Jaune had been in their room before and knew which bed was Cardin's. On it was also a textbook with a notebook beside it filled with seemingly two pages full of notes. "Wow. I didn't think you guys take this studying thing seriously."
"Are you kidding?!" Sky Lark, the guy with the long and combed back dark blue hair seemed to be the most stressed out of them. "We can NOT fail another test, dude. I am NOT going to repeat this history subject next year."
"Uuuugh... Same." Russel Thrush said. Out of his frustration, the slender man messed his light-green mohawk-shaved head with both hands and buried his face on his pillow. His voice was muffled as he spoke. "Why is history so hard?"
"Speak for yourselves." Dove Bronzewing, their squinted-eyed teammate with the light-brown hair, was somewhat relaxed. He kept his eyes on the textbook as he spoke. "I told you guys to study but nooooooo... You guys just wanted to slack off and rely on..." He then cleared his throat. "...Stock Knowledge." And then glared at his leader.
"Shut up, nerd. We get it." Cardin turned to Jaune. "You sure this guy can help us out?"
"Ren's a pretty darn good teacher and motivator. If he can get me and Nora to pass a bunch of Professor Oobleck's tests, then so could you guys." Jaune had a wide grin, patting his green-shirted teammate on the back.
"I try my best." Ren was as stoic as ever. "I will need everyone to cooperate though. If any of you fail, it's not on me."
"Yeah yeah. Not paying you to do this so we appreciate the help."
He nodded and took a moment to himself before standing before them all. Right now, he was acting like a teacher in front of his students.
"Now who among you thinks studying is hard? Raise your hands."
All of them raised their hands except for Dove.
"What if I told you that with the right approach, studying can be easy and potentially fun?"
"Bruh, you capping," Russel said.
"No, I am not 'capping'."
Jaune raised his hand.
"Yes? Question already?"
"What does capping mean?"
Ren sighed. "Slang for lying. Watch streams on the internet often and you'll encounter the word more."
"Okay, heh. Sorry."
He then cleared his throat and resumed his discussion. "There's a way to make studying simpler. You have to treat it a certain way."
Suddenly, Ren pointed his pen towards Cardin. "You... You memorized all the optimal equipment builds for the characters you play in that MOBA game you play."
"Heh, yeah. I'm one of the top 100 out of millions of players in Remnant. Of course, I would and should know a thing or two." The muscled and orange-haired man had a boastful look and a smug tone.
"Russel."
"Yeah?"
"You study frame data in fighting games which enabled you to reach the rank of Tekken God Omega recently, using a low tier character if I may add."
"Yoshimitsu players like me have it hard, dude. The 'cheese' they complain about my main isn't good and abusable. And to top it off, my character has arguably the lowest damage output in the game. I had to work my ass off trying to learn match-up knowledge against the game's bloated roster."
Ren finally pointed at Sky. "You're a novice at chess playing against Dove who happens to be a Grandmaster level player. You stopped getting checkmated in two to six moves consistently and decided to learn the game and even build your opening repertoire."
"Hey, just because I suck doesn't mean I can't enjoy the game. I only play it for fun and the memes since it's been blowing up online recently." Sky then took his notebook, flipped the pages at the very end, and then pointed at the notes. "I just study and memorize these lines so I don't lose the game before ten moves are played."
Dove smirked and took his squinted eyes off his reading material and told Ren, "You gotta hand it to him. The guy learned how to play Queen's Gambit with the white pieces, and the Pirc Defense as black."
"My point exactly." Ren was now slowly pacing back and forth. "Studying is best done when it's fun and competitive-"
"Wait, how do you even know these things? You've been stalkin' us or something?" Cardin asked.
"Jaune told me."
Back in team RWBY's room...
They have been watching for a while. One by one, they would start to leave, doing their own thing while Penny kept watching.
Weiss and Blake did their own fair share of studying. Yang was laying down on her bed, playing a video game on her scroll again. Nora dozed off on the floor with her head on Penny's lap. Same with Ruby, with her leaning against Penny's side. Pyrrha was sitting next to Penny, opposite Ruby, still watching.
The resident Ice Queen would constantly take look at Penny, and her scroll.
The sweet robot girl would smile and wave silently at her.
Weiss would awkwardly smile back. The message Penny sent to her scroll was still lingering in her mind.
In team CRDL's room...
An hour has passed and Ren's lecture seemed nearly finished.
"Okay. That seems about it. Any of you have any questions?"
Sky raised his hand. "Why are you wearing glasses?"
"Next question..."
Jaune and all the members of team CRDL looked at each other for a brief moment. Now all of them raised their hands almost at the same time.
Ren sighed. "Yes... you can all use the restroo-"
"Move it!" Cardin was the first one to burst towards the door, followed by Dove, Russel, and then Sky who tripped and fell.
The guy stood back up again and made a break for it! "Wait! My bladders are gonna blow! Fuuuuuc-!"
Meanwhile, Jaune was just there standing next to Ren.
He took off his glasses, wiped them a bit before pocketing them. "You're... not gonna go?"
"Nah, maybe later. I can hold it in."
"How?"
"Years of practice." Jaune crossed his arms with his chin up and a smug confident look on his face.
"Didn't you pee your pants last time in front of Pyrrha?"
"Ren... we do not talk about that."
Pyrrha and Penny began giggling, which got the rest of their friends' attention.
Ruby woke up and asked them. "W-Wha? What happened?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just the boys taking a bathroom break. It seems that they're done with their little study session." Pyrrha said.
After a while, they got back to their room. Jaune was done doing his business in the restroom and was the last to come in.
"Haaaah... Thank goodness. I thought I wouldn't make it." Sky said as he picked up some chips from the bowl and began to eat again.
"Did you wash your hands?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, I did. Now let me eat in peace."
"Guys? Are we done here? Cuz Ren and I have to hang out with team RWBY." Jaune was about to leave and head to the door with Ren...
...until Cardin stopped him, placing a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Already? Dude, we talked about this. We're supposed to like... hang out and have fun after studying, remember?"
"R-Right. Sorry. Kinda forgot about that part."
"And I got that covered." Sky then turned to Dove and gave him a knowing nod.
Nodding back, he got up from his bed and went to the computer on a nearby desk. He then pulled up a certain interface after booting it up.
On the left side of the screen were four-lettered rows starting from the letter "S" first and then followed by A, B, and then C. Under it was a lot of pictures of seemingly all females with names on them.
"Normally, we play video games around this time, but kinda got bored of it for doing it for two years now..." Sky said.
Jaune stood behind Dove, wondering what he was doing.
Ren followed along and remarked. "No wonder most of you have bad grades."
"Hey! Video games aren't bad themselves!" Russel said, still lying face down with his head turned to the side.
"I didn't say it's bad. Just balance your time. Boring as it is, studying is more important right now. It's our jobs as students to learn, after all."
"Enough nerd talk!" Cardin wrapped his arms around Jaune and Ren and brought them even closer.
Jaune was a bit uncomfortable and nervous but decided to ask anyway. "So what are we actually doing?"
Sky cleared his throat, with a closed fist in front of his mouth, before speaking with a proud voice. "I came up with the idea and the team decided that we're gonna make a tier list of all the best girls we know of in Beacon."
Author's notes: Regarding the chapter itself, I kinda figured that writing them shorter would kinda make it easier for me to update a bit faster. I still can't promise a consistent update schedule though. I've pretty much learned the hard way that it's a bad idea to set a specific date to get the reader's hopes up, only to be shot down in disappointment. I apologize for that...
Still, I try to balance it out. My goal is to try and post a new update by next week. Same time as I'm posting this maybe? But again, I can't promise it'll be out by then. But hey! Look at the bright side of things. Two chapters in two weeks back to back for the same story. That's an achievement, right? I hope I can keep up the streak.
You guys also may be thinking that this chapter, in particular, might seem out of place. I'll be honest, it certainly feels like that for me as well. This is the first chapter that doesn't actually involve the app itself despite just introducing it to the cast. You would expect to see it in action. The "waifu tier list" idea with team CRDL, Ren, and Jaune while the girls eavesdrop on them was originally planned to happen later, but after storyboarding this stuff in some old notebook I have, it made sense to me to put this scene early on since it might make less sense otherwise and possibly mess up certain events that will happen. Not gonna spoil you guys, of course. This chapter and the next is kind of a setup for what's to come.
Worst case scenario, I'm completely wrong with my judgment and should have put this in later in the story. Heh...
Few Announcements:
Chapter 5 is still in the works. Been a busy week for me trying to re-enroll my first semester in College despite being very late, so I had to delay writing the chapter for a bit. I have a draft of it posted publically (free to read) on my online tip jar platform I keep shamelessly plugging. xD
I'll try to update it regularly since the current draft itself I put out is kinda too short. Despite the dialogue in it, there is no indication of who is actually speaking yet. A reason why I like to post my drafts there is so that people can always check up on whether this story is still being worked on or not. It's pretty much a progress report.
Anyways, for those who are able and willing to support me, info on my tip jar is in my profile. It will keep me alive in the long run and I get to write stories for you guys!
Cheesy speech incoming. Sorry in advance.
I would like to THANK YOU ALL so much for the support this story is getting. I'm honored to know that most of you guys seem to enjoy this so far. What's mind-boggling to me is that I only have like three to four chapters in and already gaining like 850+ followers and 600+ favorites. I have read RWBY fanfiction a lot and noticed that most of the writers here are WAY more talented/skilled than I am in regards to writing. I could barely even write descriptively just to set up what a scene looks like. Yet somehow, I kinda amassed a lot of people to read this story of mine despite the writing quality. You guys are awesome and please keep being awesome! And safe... And healthy... Like seriously, I really hope you guys are okay. This pandemic thing is messing us all up.
Of course, thank you all so much for the reviews! The positivity keeps me going and makes me wanna write more for you guys. I hope you guys don't mind if I reply to each and every review you guys give. Well, unless you don't have an account on this platform, then it won't actually give me the option to reply.
And please don't be shy to leave a review providing constructive criticism. I actually appreciate those a tad bit more since I'm given an idea of what aspects of writing I can still and should improve on.
So yeah... Uh... That's all for now, I guess. Thank you guys for your time reading all this!