A couple of weeks had gone by and things were starting to look better for everyone. Jaune felt like his talk with Weiss had been for the best, seeing as though she had calmed down a bit. She still had her haughty attitude, but she was at least trying to be a good teammate. Ruby seemed to be a good leader just like he thought, and the others were getting along so life was good. Jaune was getting along with his team as well but there was something bothering him, his relationship with Pyrrha.
It was no doubt that Jaune liked Pyrrha and if he was being honest, he felt that the feeling was mutual. And that should be great, being with a girl like Pyrrha would be a dream come true. However, part of Jaune wondered if he should be in a Pyrrha considering the fact the two were partners. What happened if they broke up and she would hate him, therefore ruining the team dynamic? He would have to figure out a solution later, one that was both beneficial to he and Pyrrha.
For now though, he and his team were in the middle of a history class with Dr. Oobleck. Normally, Jaune would be enticed by a lecture such as this, as he found the history of Remnant to be remarkably interesting and engaging. However, there was one main problem that he, his team, and a lot of other students had with Oobleck's class. It was the fact that the man had talked at about 1000 miles per hour. Seriously, it was physically impossible to take notes because he talked so fast and the man changed topics frequently. Ren had the idea of recording these lectures and the rest of Team JNPR greatly welcomed it.
Oobleck was rambling through his lecture about Faunus and the Great War and asked the class what advantage the Faunus had in the war, that much Jaune got. He was still processing what Oobleck had asked when he felt something hit him in the back of the head. It wasn't a spitball, but it was a piece of paper that hit the back of his head and Jaune got annoyed and turned his head. There he was Cardin Winchester the guy whose ass he kicked and was constantly getting annoyed by him.
"Hey!" Jaune growled at Cardin only to have his Professor get in his face.
" ! Finally contributing to the class, this is excellent! Excellent! Well what is the answer?" Oobleck asked Jaune with a smile on his face. Thankfully, Jaune knew the answer as it was not a hard question.
"Oh, it's night vision." Jaune said simply.
"Correct!" Doctor Oobleck said as he nodded his head and smiled. Then he heard a frustrated growl come from another row and saw Cardin Winchester.
"Mr. Winchester do you have some thoughts on the subject?" He asked the boy who just scoffed and put his feet on his desk.
"Well, I believe that it is easier to train an animal than a soldier." Cardin said cockily as he put his feet on his desk. Oobleck and everyone else in the room glared at him. Pyrrha looked pissed and decided to speak up.
"You aren't the most open minded of individuals, are you Cardin?" Pyrrha asked with an eyebrow raised, she looked very unimpressed.
"What? You got a problem?" Cardin growled as he got up and glared at Pyrrha.
"Cardin, I wish you would…" Jaune said as he turned to Cardin and narrowed his eyes at the jackass.
Pyrrha looked at Jaune and smiled at the fact that he was defending her, even though he knew full well that she could take care of herself with Cardin. Cardin was pissed that Jaune was completely unintimidated by him, their match in combat class kept running through his mind. A lot of the girls saw how protective Jaune was of Pyrrha and got jealous as they found him attractive. Oobleck soon got control of the situation.
"That is enough! Mr. Winchester I will not accept racism or this kind of behavior in this classroom. Is that clear? Now then Miss Nikos, did you have some things to say about the subject?" Oobleck said.
"Yes Doctor I did, General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured. Maybe if he paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as a such as a failure." Pyrrha said as she looked at Cardin who was growling at her.
"Gimme some" Jaune said as he held out his fist and Pyrrha bumped it with hers. Cardin stared at the two with hate, both would pay.
"Excellent point Miss Nikos! Now moving on!" Oobleck said as he continued with the lecture at his natural fast pace.
About a half hour later the lecture was over, and the students were left for their free time. Cardin was asked to stay back Doctor Oobleck to go over addition readings, which he was pissed about. Jaune was walking away to meet his team but his instincts told him to dodge and he did. Cardin tried to push him to the ground but Jaune got out of the way leading Cardin to fall down the stairs. Everyone else laughed and Jaune just shook his head and headed out the door to meet his team. He saw Pyrrha waiting for him as the others probably didn't want to wait to get food.
"Hey, what was the laughing about?" Pyrrha questioned.
"Oh, Cardin tried to push me, but I got out of the way, leading him to fall down the stairs like the idiot he is." Jaune stated matter-of-factly as Pyrrha just shook her head and then smiled.
"You know Jaune, I really will break his legs." Pyrrha said seriously and Jaune just laughed.
"Break them? Hell, if he keeps this crap up I might cut them off." Jaune said as Pyrrha laughed out loud.
"Anyway, let's not worry about Cardin and go get some food, I am starving." Jaune said dramatically and Pyrrha just nodded in agreement.
The two walked side by side to the cafeteria, but Jaune noticed that some people were staring at them as they walked. He also noticed that they were whispering among another and based on his experience at Kingsglaive, he knew what that meant. It meant rumors, something that Jaune particularly hated about school in general. Everyone just saw something and immediately thought they knew exactly what it was. Now Jaune and Pyrrha would have to hear these rumors about them dating in the background, which they weren't. Sure, they liked each other but they hadn't done anything at all.
Jaune and Pyrrha finally made it to the cafeteria and got their food, and they saw their team and Team RWBY waiting for them at their usual table. When they got there and sat down, Jaune noticed Yang giving the two of them a weird look. He didn't know what it was about but apparently Pyrrha did as she was giving Yang a similar look. The rest of the girls at the table were staring at the two of them until Nora decided to break the tension.
"So, what took you two so long?" Nora asked to break off the stare down between Pyrrha and Yang.
"Oh, Pyrrha was waiting for me outside and I let the some of the crowd go so I would not get caught up. Cardin tried to push me to the ground, but I got out of the way and he fell down the stairs." Jaune said while laughing and his friends laughed too.
"Seriously though Jaune, what is that guy's problem with you? It seems like every day he tries something to embarrass you and fails miserably." Ren asked as he was curious why the bully had a problem with his leader so much.
"I honestly have no idea, maybe it's because I beat him combat class? But hell, it's not my fault that the guy swings that mace of his with no precision. Or maybe it is because mom is the professor?" Jaune wondered and the others wondered as well.
It was clear that Cardin was a bully to everyone, but there was something about Jaune Goodwitch that really pissed him off for some reason. It can't just be the fact that Jaune beat Cardin in combat class, for crying out loud it was one match and it was the beginning of the year. Cardin's ego could not be so big that it could not stand one loss to someone who was particularly strong. Then there was also the fact that he tried to talk down on Jaune but Jaune did not flinch and Cardin felt the venom of his mother, who was also his professor, spat on him. Then in class, Cardin tried again only to have Jaune be completely unintimidated and get the question right.
"I think it is just the fact that you don't fear him." Weiss said which caused everyone to look at her.
"What do you mean Weiss?" Jaune asked curiously, wanting to know where Weiss was going with this.
"What I mean is that he is a bully, and he likes when people get embarrassed by him and fear him. But you have done none of those things, you beat him in combat class and you didn't back down from him when he was threatening you. In his mind, he won't be satisfied until you fear him like everyone else he bullies, which is why he won't leave you alone." Weiss said matter-of-factly which made everyone think about what she said and they thought she was right. They were also impressed with how much nicer she was.
Jaune thought about what Weiss said, and he figured that she was right. Back at Kingsglaive he didn't really have to deal with this though. Yeah there were bullies but none of them messed with Jaune, why would they? He was tall, good with a sword, not to mention his mother was the Deputy Headmistress at Beacon Academy. Even though his mom didn't really get involved at Kingsglaive with the drama that went on, no one wanted to the problem of getting on Glynda Goodwitch's bad side. He wondered how he was going to handle this Cardin problem.
He was about to give his thoughts when and his friends heard something, it was a cry for help. They all looked at a table behind them and saw Cardin Winchester and his team were harassing a girl who was a rabbit faunus. That bastard Cardin was pulling on the poor girls' ears and it looked like it hurt a lot, something that Team JNPR and RWBY were appalled by. Jaune was the most disgusted by this, he never understood why Faunus got so much hate, yeah they had animal traits so what? They were still people and did not deserve to be discriminated, yet no one did anything about it. Well, he would now.
"Atrocious, I can't state people like him." Pyrrha snarled.
"You and me both." Jaune said as he got up and walked toward Cardin's table. Ruby tried to stop him but Pyrrha just waved her down, telling her to trust Jaune.
"Ha! I told you they were real!" Cardin laughed with his team as pulled on the girl's ears some more.
"What a freak!" His teammate Russel laughed, they then noticed Jaune come up to them.
"Hahaha! Yeah Cardin that is funny that she has Rabbit ears and you don't! You have a breakable wrist though…" Jaune said slowly.
Before anyone could ask what he was talking about, he grabbed Cardin's arm releasing his grip on the girl's ears and wrapped around his back. Then he took his other hand and put it behind Cardin's head pushing it down on the table. The girl stepped back glad to have that over with, but the remainder of Team CRDL looked ready to help out their leader until Jaune gave them a fierce glare and they sat back down.
"Grr…Let go of me Goodwitch!" Cardin said angrily but Jaune didn't let up.
"You know Cardin, I can tolerate you trying to bully me and believe me the word is, "TRY", because every time you have tried you have failed. First it was you thinking that beating me in combat class was gonna be easy, until you found out it was the opposite and lost. Then we have earlier when you tried to push me to the ground only to result in you falling down the stairs. I can deal with your crap, but when you do some racist stuff like that, I can't abide that nor can anyone on my team." Jaune said angrily as Cardin just struggled.
"Look Jauney-Boy, let me go or I swear to God…" Cardin tried to threaten but Jaune wasn't having any of it.
"What are you gonna do? Call daddy?" Jaune said as he saw Cardin's eyes widen. Jaune noticed the whole cafeteria was watching but he didn't care.
"Yeah…didn't think I knew, did you? Norman Winchester, a councilman for the city of Atlas and Grade-A prick just like his pride and joy. It explains your behavior Cardin, you think that you can bully people and have things go your way with no consequence at all. Reason why? Because your daddy is rich, and you think he can play ball with the higher ups at Beacon. Well, I'm here to tell you that is not the case. You try any of that racist crap again, and not even Daddy will be able to save you, understand?" Jaune said as he added more pressure to Cardin's neck.
"Listen to me Goodwitch – agh!" Cardin tried as Jaune twisted his hand some more.
"That was a yes or a no question…" Jaune growled.
"Yes…" Cardin squeezed out.
"Good." Jaune let him go as Cardin grabbed his hand and glared at Jaune who didn't move an inch. Cardin stormed out of the cafeteria with his cronies behind him. Jaune knew that might come back to bite him but he didn't care. He couldn't just let that girl get bullied for being who she was, that wasn't fair. Speaking of which he turned to the girl, he had to make sure that she was alright and hopefully that idiot Cardin didn't hurt her ears to bad.
"Hey, you ok? Sorry about that, that guy's a jackass." Jaune said calmly as the girl just blushed.
"Um yes, thank you so much for your help! My name is Velvet Scarletina!" The girl now known as Velvet held out her hand that Jaune gladly took.
"Jaune Goodwitch and it's no problem, you take care and try to stay away from those morons." Jaune said as he walked back to his friends, not noticing the blush that was on Velvet's face as she found another table to sit at.
As Jaune was walking back to the table where his friends were at, he noticed people smiling at him and some girls winking at him. To be honest, he never experienced this while back at Kingsglaive, as he only had a few friends and he wasn't popular by any means. Yeah girls found him to be attractive but seeing how anti-social he was girls would move on from him. He dated one girl, her name was Talia, but they had a bad experience. It wasn't even dating; it was just them doing all the stuff she liked to do and it was lights out. Never doing what he wanted to do, and he had enough of it and they broke up. She did it over text and hadn't talked to him since, but he didn't care that much.
When he finally got to the table, he saw most of his friends smiling at him, but he noticed Blake and Weiss looking at him with unquestionable looks on their faces. He wondered what that was about, did they think that he should not have helped that girl? He could guess what Weiss thought of Faunus since the White Fang and the Schnee Dust Company were practically mortal enemies. Though Jaune did wonder how true that rumor of mistreatment of Faunus at the SDC was…anyway he made it to the table and sat down.
"And that my friends, is how it is done." Jaune said with a smile as he finished off his food.
"Jaune that was awesome! You really showed Cardin who he should not mess with!" Nora cheered as Jaune just chuckled and saw Ren give him a proud nod.
"Very well done Jaune, to help that girl in her time of need." Ren said.
"That was very brave of you partner, I am glad you showed those troublemakers what happens when something racist goes down in our presence." Pyrrha said as she kissed Jaune on the cheek, she really was falling for him.
"But…why?" Asked Blake as they all looked her.
"Why what?" Jaune asked her.
"Why did you help that girl? People rarely help Faunus when they are discriminated like that, so why did you?" Blake asked curiously and Jaune just looked at her blandly.
"Um, because that douchebag was pulling on her ears just for being different. Look, Faunus may have some animal traits, but they are human just like the rest of us. They walk like normal humans, eat like normal humans, and even speak like normal humans. The only difference is that they may have a tail or another set of ears, and they can see in the dark. Other than that, they are just like us plain and simple." Jaune stated and Blake looked at him dumbfounded by his answer, so did Weiss.
The others just smiled at him again, they thought that he was a really good guy and Professor Goodwitch clearly raised him well. Yeah he could be a bit blunt and kind of anti-social sometimes, but he had a good heart and his mind was in the right place. Not to mention he could fight well and had an incredible semblance to match, yet he wasn't cocky in the slightest. He really believed that he was just like everyone else, and they loved that about him.
Jaune was about to put his earphones in and watch this new episode of Attack on Titan but it looked like his mother had texted him. He wondered what it was about, did something happen back at the house? Or God forbid there was some banquet happening and she was going to drag him with her. Nevertheless, he clicked on her contact and saw the message when his heart nearly stopped.
"Come to my office now, we need to talk about the stunt you pulled with Mr. Winchester." His mother's message read.
Jaune couldn't figure it out, how did she know what he did to Cardin? Cardin couldn't possibly have been dumb enough to go tell Jaune's mom what happened could he? I mean it was a very low chance that Glynda would take Cardin's side. Or maybe it was the fact that Cardin was so pissed about what Jaune did that he told a professor who told his mother. Either way he proceeded to get up but was called out by his partner.
"Hey, where are you going?" Pyrrha asked as Jaune who sighed.
"Mom wants to talk about what just happened; don't worry I will be fine." Jaune tried to reassure his partner and his friends who looked concerned. He waved them off and headed towards his mom's office.
He knocked on the door to his mom's office and she told him to come in. He walked in and saw that his mom was doing paperwork until she saw him and pushed it to the side. She gave him one of her famous glares and motioned him to sit down in the chair in front of her. He had to resist the urge to swallow the gulp that was building in his throat, of all the things that scared him his mother's glare was in the top three. He got to the seat and sat down.
"You wanted to see me Professor Goodwitch?" Jaune said in his professional manner so that she wouldn't scold him otherwise.
"When it is just you and me, you can call me Mom like you have your whole life." Glynda reassured her son who let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh, thank GOD." Jaune said in relief, but his mother still wore that glare.
"Don't be thanking him just yet, what exactly were you thinking Jaune? Putting Mr. Winchester's arm behind his back and slamming his head on the table like you were in a crime movie?" Glynda asked her son angrily.
"What was I supposed to do? Keep letting him harass Velvet just because she is a Faunus?" Jaune asked his mother with an eyebrow raised.
"You could have done something that did not involve violence. Jaune you can't just do what you did to Cardin, there is protocol. You could have released his grip from Velvet and walked her away, or you could have gotten a teacher to stop Mr. Winchester's antics. I mean really Jaune – what were you thinking -" Glynda scolded her son only to have him interrupt.
"Are you kidding me?!" Jaune interrupted his mother who just knocked back as her son never raised his voice at her.
"Cardin has been doing this crap since day one! He has been trying to bully everyone here in beacon and he thinks he can get away with it because of his councilman dad. So, was I really supposed to just let him pull on that girl's ears like she was a stuffed animal? He would really think that could be a racist and get away with it so screw protocol Mom, I did what had to be done." Jaune said as his mom looked at him with an unreadable expression.
Glynda looked at her son and thought about what he had said, and she knew that he was right. Cardin Winchester would never have stopped his ways if Jaune had spoken peacefully to him or went to get to get a teacher. Still, this was Beacon academy and they had a reputation to uphold. At this school, the only fighting that could happen was in her combat class. Any other fighting was prohibited, and she needed to let Jaune know that.
"I understand why you did it Jaune, and I am proud of you for sticking up for that faunus girl. But you have to understand son, this is not like Kingsglaive. This is Beacon Academy, where people come to learn and to leave as equals. The only fighting that should happen is in combat class, and every other fight in this institution is prohibited and will invite consequences, do you understand?" Glynda asked her son sternly.
"Yeah mom, I understand." Jaune said reluctantly, he didn't agree with what she said but he didn't want to argue with her.
"Good." Glynda said pleased as she saw Jaune get up and turned to leave.
"Excuse me, you are not leaving this office without giving your mother a hug." Glynda said sternly as Jaune rolled his eyes and went to hug his mother who gladly accepted.
"Love you mama." Jaune said calmly.
"I love you too son, but don't do that again!" Glynda said as she hit Jaune on the head with her wand.
"God Mom!" Jaune yelped as he rubbed his head and Glynda just gave him a satisfied smile.
"By the way, how did you know about the Cardin thing if you were here the whole time? Did someone come and tell you about it?" Jaune couldn't help but ask.
"We have cameras everywhere on this campus Jaune, I saw it from my desk. Unless it is your dorm room, there is a camera." Glynda explained and Jaune nodded in acknowledgement, but a thought ran across his mind.
"You…wouldn't happen to have any of these cameras at home would you." Jaune was hoping to God she said no.
"Of course not…why do you ask?" Glynda asked as she narrowed her eyes.
"Uh no reason!" Jaune said as he power walked to the door.
"Jaune!" Glynda said threateningly.
"Already out the door bye!" Jaune told his mom as he sprinted out the door.
"Great…now I have to get cameras for the house." Glynda said as she shook her head at her son's antics.
Jaune walked away from his mom's office, still a bit angry about getting scolded for what he did to Cardin, but he let it go. He caught up with his teammates before they had another class with Professor Peach and he could tell they were worried about him. Pyrrha especially, they hoped that he wasn't in trouble for what he did. What Jaune did needed to be done, or else Cardin would have just gotten away with a very racist act.
"Hey, what happened? You aren't in trouble are you?" Pyrrha asked with worry and worry was on Nora and Ren's faces too.
"Nah I'm good, she just told me that it can't happen again and part of me agrees with her. This is Beacon, we can't just go around using violence to solve problems. But a lot of me is disagreeing because if I hadn't done that, Cardin would have felt like he really could do anything and get away with it. There is nothing we can do about it now though, let's just go to Peach's class." Jaune said as he motioned the others to follow.
The rest of JNPR nodded at their leader and followed him to class, but they also thought about what his mother told him. Glynda Goodwitch had a good point, Beacon Academy was known as the most renown huntsman academy in Remnant. Students of that academy could not solve their problems with only violence, it was not among the values Beacon taught. At the same time though, what happens when those values are not enough to solve a problem? Using peace with Cardin wasn't going to do anything they knew that.
The rest of the day went without a hitch and before they knew it the next day came. The first years took a field trip to Forever Fall to collect tree sap for Professor Peach's class, they didn't know what they were going to use it for though. Jaune thought it was really stupid, why couldn't Professor Peach just import jars of sap from a factor or something? Why did they have to waste their time getting it for her? Well, at least they didn't have to sit in the classroom…
Jaune's mom also came with them as it was her job to make sure that the students got their tree sap and didn't get killed doing it. Though secretly, Glynda voted to be the chaperone as she didn't want her son to get involved in anymore nonsense concerning Cardin Winchester. It wasn't that she didn't trust Jaune, it was more the fact that she didn't trust Cardin to behave himself. And Glynda had the eyes of a hawk, she would know if something went down and she would be ready.
"Alright Students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here for sight-seeing, Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I 'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so. You have one hour, so get it done." Glynda ordered and the students broke apart.
"Alright you three, let's get this done and get out of here." Jaune told his team as they nodded and followed him into the forest.
They found some trees that were untouched and began getting the sap out of them. The process was fairly easy as all they were doing was extracting sap from out of a tree, it also didn't take that long. The only problem was that Nora was trying to eat it instead of putting it into a jar. Jaune wanted to laugh but knew as a leader he had to put a stop to it.
"Hey Nora, Professor Peach said to extract the sap not eat it." Jaune said causing Nora to pout and the others to laugh at her. Pyrrha stopped laughing as her eyes widened.
"Jaune look out!" Pyrrha yelled and Jaune turned to see a jar flying straight at him and dodged out of the way.
"What the hell?! What even is this, tree sap? I would ask who did this, but I think I know…" Jaune said darkly as his friends shared the same thought.
They all looked around until Jaune set his and their sights on a certain spot, and there they were Team CRDL. They had a wagon that seemed to be filled with jars of sap and bags that had something in them. All of Team JNPR was pissed about this, when were they going to be left alone. Jaune really was thinking of letting Nora break Cardin's legs, but he couldn't do that. He was the leader, so he had to do what he had to do alone, and not drag them into this. With that Jaune started walking to the spot where CRDL was but was stopped by Pyrrha.
"Wait Jaune! You know what happened last time you put Cardin in place, your mom condoned you and she will again if you do this. Let us take a shot so you don't get in trouble again." Pyrrha said with concern and the others agreed.
"Look guys, I appreciate it but things won't be as violent as last time and besides it's me who he has the problem with, I don't wanna drag you guys into it too. Trust me guys, I will let you know if I need back up." Jaune assured his team, who looked like they wanted to object but let him go showing that they trusted him.
Jaune made his way to the side of the spot so that Team CRDL couldn't see him and when he got close, he made a bubble. He wasn't going to hurt Team CRDL but he was going to ruin their plans.
"Hey what's with this green bubble?" Sky asked his team and they looked very confused.
"I have no id- whoa!" Cardin tried to speak but saw a rock structure come out of the ground and destroyed the wagon, causing the sap to spill out of the jars and the bags to fly out of the way. Team CRDL looked pissed and was trying to figure out what just happened until they heard a voice.
"I'm sorry did I get in your way?" Jaune said as he was approaching the group with one hand in his pocket and the other holding Kikoku.
"YOU!" Cardin said angrily as his team got angry as well. Jaune just rolled his eyes.
"Yeah me, look maybe I wasn't clear about this, but I do not care if you try to bully me. But if you EVER, try to hurt my team you will pay dearly." Jaune said in anger.
"Hah! Oh yeah and what are you gonna do Jauney-Boy?" Cardin laughed and the others started laughing as well.
"Well you know how I kicked your ass in combat class? It's gonna be like that, but it will hurt a lot more and you may not recover quickly." Jaune said simply, and Team CRDL got angry.
"GET HIM!" Cardin yelled and the others dashed at Jaune trying to rush him, but this was Jaune Goodwitch they were talking about. He dodged every attempt they tried to make at him, and he never lifted a finger. In fact, the only thing that Jaune actually did was trip Cardin and Sky a few times. This had been going on for about five minutes and Jaune wasn't even touched. Team CRDL were trying to catch their breath and Jaune wanted this to be over.
"Are you all done?" Jaune asked a bit bored. Team CRDL glared at him.
"You wish!" Cardin said as they planned to attack again until they heard growling.
"Wh-what is that?" Sky asked scared, and a seconds later they all saw an Ursa Major approaching them.
"Woah! That is a big Ursa, let's get out of here!" Russel said as Cardin's teammates ran, he wanted to join them but the Ursa smelled the sap on his armor and crawled towards him. Cardin tried to kill it with his mace but the Ursa knocked it away easily. It was about to put its' claws in Cardin's chest but was knocked away by a sword.
"Wha- Jaune?" Cardin said surprisingly as Jaune got in front of him.
"Don't get used to it Cardin, just make yourself useful and go get my mom. I can hold it off." Jaune ordered him and Cardin nodded rushing off to get help.
"Ok Fido, you wanna play? Let's play!" Jaune said as he pointed Kikoku at the Ursa Major who roared back.
Author Notes:
Hey y'all another chapter for you, here we see Jaune handling business with Cardin and growing closer to Pyrrha. It may be a bit before the next chapter cuz I am going on vacation, but I will do my best to get it to you guys. Oh also, I wanted to let you know that in this fic Jaune is his own person, he doesn't have to resemble Glynda in every way just because she is his mom. Anyway, review and like thanks!