In the space of about ten days, you've more or less grown accustomed to life here in Vale. After your introductory period, you spent your time training with your new (old) sword, part timing for Ozpin's, and spending time figuring out that Remnant's internet is much like the one you remember, with all the let's plays, online games, and social sites you could hope for. Now that you've finally grown accustomed to your new life and body, it was time to shake things up by starting your first semester at school!

What you didn't expect was that your first day of orientation would start with an explosion right outside your window. The loud boom instantly wakes you up, throwing you out of bed, ready for action. Upon looking out your window, you see a bunch of people casually walking around, wandering towards orientation and completely unconcerned with the explosion. You shrug and guess it was something else. Today, you would be joining people your age as they prepared for classes. The fact that they were here meant that you woke up late; the giant airship that had delivered them was scheduled to drop them off at 3, so you REALLY went overboard on web surfing last night. You quickly throw on clothes and your beanie and join the confused crowds of people.

It takes you a moment to remember why everyone that makes eye contact with you takes a bizarre second glance. You still had a pretty nasty black eye from those racist thugs you met the other day, so people probably made their own assumptions. Still, it was nice to be around a bunch of people your age; you've spent the past week hanging around with Ozpin, and your lack of transport limited your time outside Beacon. Plus, seeing as these were students coming to a new school, they didn't know anybody, just like you! It's a perfect chance for a fresh start.

You spend a bit aimlessly wandering around Beacon, following the blob of future students until you're all led to the dining room. The confusion shared by everyone meant that nobody was really receptive to talking, so you don't make any friends just yet. Soon, though, you form a messy line and collect trays of pizza and lemonade, the linchpin of any young adult catering; you find yourself sitting next to several strangers, all of which wore completely different styles, colors, and aesthetics. Something that had yet to sink in was that fashion was CRAZY here in Vale, with armor being worn along with jeans, and medieval knight gauntlets being paired with biker jackets.

You introduce yourself to a barrel-chested man that somehow had a full-on Viking beard at 20, a pink-haired woman half your size, a douchey-looking guy with a green Mohawk, and an excitable blonde with a scarf and jacket. Most of your conversation is drowned out by the massive crowd surrounding you, but you think that most of them are pretty cool. The Mohawk guy is the only standout, as you can't help but think that his dumb blank face looks a lot like the guys that gave you your black eye. The rest (try to) talk about what school they came from and why they chose Beacon, and they all ask about your eye; seeing as they can barely hear you any play, you brush it off as nothing.

Everyone finishes their early dinner and the orientation proceeds. You all flock to the auditorium and form clumps as Ozpin prepares a speech welcoming everyone to Beacon. You end up next to the Viking guy and the pink girl, but the blonde seemingly recognizes a small girl with a cape and goes off on her own. You listen to Oz's somewhat hollow speech about protecting people and seeking knowledge; he sounded completely detached from his usual self that you've been hanging around with as if he were speaking to no one. You write it off and are soon dismissed by Pr. Goodwitch, who prompts you to gather in the ballroom to spend the rest of the night.

The throngs of people filter out of the auditorium and enter their sleeping quarters for the night. You find it odd, but rather than shacking up in a multitude of empty rooms remaining, Oz had decided that everyone would be spending the first night in a giant sleepover; close to 200 hundred students line the floors in sleeping bags, filling the ballroom with ceaseless chatter. Lucky for you, you have your own room, so you can hang with new people and then go to bed… on a bed. Sleeping on the floor surrounded by countless people sounds… less than fun, especially considering the likelihood of your beanie falling off while you sleep.

For now, you have the night to try and make friends. As you look for friendly people to talk to, your social anxiety kicks in as you realize there are a million people around you and nobody knows anybody. Theoretically, there was nothing stopping you from leaving right now and going back to your room; you'd make friends eventually, and this IS another situation where everybody is talking and nobody is listening. To be honest, the heat was uncomfortable, as was the prospect of talking to a million people.

Just as you decide to call it quits, you hear a voice clearly directed towards you. "Oh, hey!" You turn and see the blonde girl you sat next to at dinner earlier wave at you. The girl with the cape panics and tries to do something to stop the blonde but is easily stopped by an outstretched arm. Giving a mental shrug, you head over towards the two, slipping past the crowd. The blonde definitely makes an imprint, her bright yellow hair a glowing beacon amidst the crowd, so you easily track her down.

Looking at the girl in red, the blonde introduces you. "Ruby, this is Eye Guy, the one I was telling you about!" She looks at you and smiles. "Hi, Eye Guy!" The red girl admits defeat and sheepishly waves.

"Eye Guy?" You remember that your most defining characteristic right now is the fact that you have a black eye. "Oh, right. Hi!" you say, foolishly deciding to touch your eye. You ignore the stinging pain and outstretch a hand to shake the blonde girl's welcoming grasp. "Briar. Briar…" you take a second to remember your last name is, "Redfield."

"Yang! Yang Xiao Long!" Yang's firm grasp informs that, in addition to being a social butterfly, she was also very, very strong. She nods to the girl in red. "And this is my sister! See? I told you you'd like him! He's Briar, you're Rose! It's like destiny or something!"

The girl in red whispers something before Yang elbows her. "I'm Ruby Rose," she says, forcing herself to look at you. It's pretty obvious that Ruby is shy as the day is long, clearly out of her element in this overpopulated ballroom. It's also obvious that she's noticeably smaller than just about everyone; even though the pink girl was tiny, she looked like an adult, but Ruby still had a youth around her face that everyone was lacking. She looked young, and also nothing like her sister.

"Sorry about her. Ruby's more used to talking to swords than people."

"Hey!"

"You are, though."

"Don't tell people! They'll think I'm weird!"

"You ARE weird, sis."

"Yang!"

You can already tell that Yang is a fun person to be around. Lucky you sat next to her! Her sister… well, she wasn't into socializing, but she's cute and shy. You hope that should you become friends and there aren't so many people around, she'll be a bit more talkative.

"So, Eye Guy– er, Briar, this is Ruby! She's bad at making friends, so I'm helping!" Yang gives you a big smile.

Ruby violently shakes her hands, trying to stop her sister. "You are NOT helping! Everyone's gonna think I'm weird and no ones gonna like me!"

You laugh at the sisters' antics. "I dunno, I'm kind of warming up to you."

As Ruby turns scarlet and hides her face in her cape, Yang gives you a painful smack on the back. "See? Your big sis has got you covered!"

"So she's your sister? You're not twins, are you?" You say that but Remnant may have weird twin rules; maybe twins could be born with radically different hair/eyes/heights/everything else.

Yang sort of shrugs. "Technically half-sister, but yep. We've been together since she was born, so who cares about the specifics?"

Trying to not sound rude, you ask, "Since she was born?" You look at the young-looking, round-faced Ruby. "How old are you?"

"She's 17!" Yang answers, expecting Ruby to continue hiding.

"Really?" That was odd. Ozpin had told you that most Beacon students start at 19, 18 being the youngest. For her to be a whole two years behind seems a bit crazy.

"Ye–" Ruby starts.

"Yeah!" Yang puts an arm around her sister and starts teasing her, cutting her off. Pride flows from her voice as she explains, "My little hero here got in on recommendation! She stopped a robbery all but herself and the headmaster let her in early!"

You remember Ozpin talking about somebody that was already better at fighting than most seniors despite being younger. It could only be Ruby! "Wow! Oz told me about you, actually!"

Ruby perks up, suddenly a bit more confident. "He did?"

Yang, also confused, asks, "He did?" as well. "When? Wait, you call him Oz? Do you know Pr. Ozpin?"

Whoops. Accidentally spoiled that secret. Oh, well, it's not that huge. "Yeah, long story short, I've been living here at Beacon the last few weeks. I'm Oz's… Well, I guess I'm his secretary."

"Huh." Yang inspects you a bit, though you don't know what she expects to find. "Cool!"

"Yeah, he mentioned someone that was really young, but already has a great handle on their weapon. Must be you, Ruby."

Ruby lights up like a Christ– er, wait, what was the holiday again? Ruby lights up at the mention of a weapon. "Oh, yeah! Crescent Rose is like my baby!"

"I told you she's better at talking to swords."

"Crescent Rose is a High Velocity Sniper Scythe! She's SO MUCH cooler than a boring sword!"

You try not to let the fact that your weapon is a (comparatively) boring sword show on your face. The fact that your weapon is a (comparatively) boring sword totally shows on your face.

Ruby picks up on your sheepish face and gets the message that she unintentionally said something offensive. "N-n-not that swords are bad or anything! J-just that… uh… uh…" She stumbles for words for a moment but finds nothing.

"I think what she's trying to say is that she'd love to take a look at your weapon," Yang says, covering for her sister. "She's a tinker at heart, plus she MIGHT be a bit better at talking to weapons than people."

"Both of these are true," Ruby says, relenting and staring at the ground.

You've been getting used to your sword over the past few days. You think you've pretty much gotten the hang of the weight and extra length, plus you've learned how to properly activate the Fire Dust trigger at good times during an attack. That said, you haven't seen anybody else fight save some stuff you saw online; even novice Huntsman could do all sorts of flips and tricks in a fight, usually paired with their unique weapon transformations, which you lack. Maybe letting Ruby take a look at your weapon and suggesting some new add-ons would be helpful. Heck, you need to start getting some combat training in with a real person; up until this point, you've only been training using dummies, so you're probably at a plateau until you get a living person to spar with. Hopefully, you'll be able to get some friends who will spar with you, but you also need to do that when you can use Aura since you're still Eye Guy for the time being.

"Maybe you could look at my weapon once classes start." You see Ruby's eyes widen; tinkering seems to be way more her speed, which was good. You consider for a moment before saying it, but you mention, "I've kinda been running with a hand-me-down, so it could use a tune-up." You neglect to mention that you've had your weapon for less than two weeks, and that, "hand-me-down," doesn't mean it was an heirloom; you still feel like keeping your whole situation secret, at least until you're closer friends. "Hit me up once you're settled in! I'd be happy to let you take a look at it." You consider something for a second. "Actually, I could show you right now. Like I said, I've been living here for a bit, so I already have my room set up; if you want to get away from the crowd, I could show you and you could take a look at my sword."

"A bold one!" Yang laughs. "We only just met and you're inviting us back to your room? What would dad say?"

"Yang!" Ruby whines, grossed out. "I was gonna say yes!"

"Well, that's… half a surprise, I guess. You really do hate crowds if you want to go to a boy's room." Proving her sister's point, Yang bumps into somebody, apologizes, then backs up into a different person. "You know, I could actually go for a little space. C'mon, Ruby, get your bag and we can duck out for a bit."

"Oh, thank gosh," Ruby says, breathing out.

Both Ruby and Yang grab their backpacks full of their overnight stuff. The three of you wind in between everyone until you reach the halls, where you lead them to your room. All of you are glad to get away from the crowds and noise, and you're pretty happy that you get to spend time with two nice, quirky girls rather than make small talk with a bunch of people you'll probably never talk to again. It's definitely a nice start to the semester.