09/07/1999… The first day back at school.

Jaune, freshly out of the shower and dressed walked into the Kitchen being following the scent and the promise of a fresh cup of coffee. In his eyes, the first early start to the school year needed some assistance to get off on the right foot. The kind of assistance that only the biggest Mug in the house could resolve. After all the 11th Grade only comes once he might as well do it right.

As he walked into the Kitchen his mother, somewhere in the ballpark of eight months pregnant now, sat at the table eating some toast with Weiss. Jaune sighed out as he served himself up a cup of coffee and popped a pack of Pop-Tarts into the toaster to warm up. As he watched the two chat he mused over things.

"It's been almost a month and she's still not allowed back home... what happened to her sister getting them an apartment as well?" He thought waiting for his breakfast to pop with a mug with a small amount of creamer and sugar waiting for coffee to be poured into it. Jaune wanted to support his friends of course, he was happy for Weiss and Blake, if two people deserved happiness it was those two.

It didn't keep the whole thing from being freaking weird to him… But he was at least going to support them.

His attention was snapped back to reality by the sound of the toaster going off as he quickly pinched his breakfast onto a plate and poured a cup before sitting down. And listened to them talk.

"I mean if it comes out to brass tacks we can set up one of the air mattresses for you, I just don't know what to do once the baby pops out," Mina said putting a hand on her Weiss's shoulder.

"I'm saying I didn't plan on staying here forever Mina," Weiss said as she rubbed her legs. "It's not fair to you, or to Alan." She continued.

"That's great, but the idea of you sleeping on Neo's couch? Honey, I can feel your life being ruined by the mere idea of it. Especially now that Roman's out of Jail again." Mina said causing Jaune to almost choke on his coffee.

[Jesus wept, were you honestly thinking of that idea?] Jaune signed. [I'm fairly sure Ruby's folks would let you stay there well before you have to resort to that.]

"I know Jaune it's not the best idea I've ever had, but I'm getting a bit desperate here, I can't keep relying on your family to give me a place to sleep, not unless I start contributing," Weiss said shaking her head in frustration.

[Weiss you're our guest, and my friend, we're not going to kick you to the curb over this,] Jaune signed out.

"Exactly, I know that it is going to be rough once the baby comes but we'll make it work," Mina said to her.

Weiss sighed as she glanced at the time "Well we should get going soon, I'll call my sister tonight and see if she managed to find an apartment in the area that's not four towns over..."

Jaune slid her Walker to her and grabbed her bag while hand signing [I'm sure it's going to be fine. Were not in the habit of turning friends away.]

Weiss got up and walked off sighing in defeat which troubled him greatly.

Mina looked over at her son and scrunched her nose, changing the subject she asked. "When are you going to shave that scruff off your face?"

Jaune reached up and rubbed the thin stubble on his face with a self-satisfied smirk before signing, [I'm trying to see if I can pull off a beard.]

"Your dad was never able to pull a decent beard off, their's not much hope for you hon," Mina said with a pained smirk. "At least not at sixteen."

Jaune shrugged as he started walking to the car. [We still doing my drive text in a few weeks?]

"Yeah, I'll need you driving after your sister is born." Mina smiled as she walked her son to the car.

"The first days of school were always the most interesting…" he thought as he finished up his breakfast.


Jaune and Weiss walked into school to the sounds of students murmuring about the fact that they both arrived together, Jaune had no doubt that the rumors of Weiss being kicked out of her home must have made the rounds since she would have missed church for the last few weeks. It still left Jaune concerned for his friend as he knew all too well how much of a bunch of bastards his classmates could be.

As Weiss split off from Jaune to head for their table while Jaune went to find his new locker. Once he found his locker, he also noticed a rather unsettling sight. Not far away he noticed Ruby leaning against a locker being chatted up by Cardin. He quickly pulled his hood up and started to listen in to what was being said.

Jaune tried to play it off as fiddling with his locker as he listened to the pair chat. Cardin said something along the lines of "Hey like what you did with your hair, I heard you also got hearing aids now right?"

The only thing he could make out from Ruby was something along the lines of "Being flattered" as she played with her hair a bit.

"Oh goddammit, is he hitting on Ruby? Seriously, you had a chance now go fuck off!" Jaune thought as he struggled with his locker. The damn thing had a sticky latch on it. Trying to also ignore Ruby and Cardin while trying to remind himself he was likely getting the wrong impression he still heard them chatting behind him. Not the actual words but the tone of the conversation. Cardin was clearly trying to throw his mack down on Ruby and she was letting him.

He managed to finally get his locker open and hastily started setting extra school supplies in his locker before he closed it and turned to walk off. When he turned he didn't see Cardin or Ruby there anymore. apparently both having wandered off.

"The hell… did she even notice me here at all?" Jaune said as he, now feeling flustered and confused as to what he just saw started to head to their all too familiar table to sit with his friends.

Trying to put things out of his head he felt a creeping smile cross his face when he got close to the table. The first faces he saw were Blake and Weiss sitting together looking weird, followed by Yang and the often absent Neptune sitting arm and arm around each other. Even old Friends Ren and Nora were sitting at their table.

Six of his friends, all happy couples.

The only one missing was Ruby… A thought that barely was forced out of his thoughts when he sat down.

"Hey Jaune, where's your better half?" Nora said with a smile.

Jaune was about to sign out what he saw but paused. "Wait, I don't want them to think I'm spying on my girlfriend… That's… That's some Adam caliber crap Jaune…"

Jaune opted to keep it what he saw to himself as he signed out [I haven't seen her so far today.]

Ren nodded along with Nora as he said: "Alright well we'll keep an eye out for her if you want."

Jaune quickly waved it off [Uh, Nah it's okay, I'm sure if she's looking for me I'm easy enough to find.]

"That is true old friend," Ren said with a smile. "You are going to help point us in the direction of our first class right?"

Jaune glanced at their schedule and signed out [Right that's over in the Orange hall near room 104.] He said before adding [I'm headed that way I'll point it out to you.]

"We appreciate it buddy, hey we should get a game of Dungeon Fantasy going sometime after school, just like old times," Nora said

[We'd need to get someone to GM, and a couple extra players to make it fun.] Jaune signed before He felt a familiar hand on his neck that made him tense up for a second as he shot straight up in surprise.

The telltale "Eep" behind him announced it was Ruby who just grabbed his neck, Jaune turned and saw her smiling face as she sat down and gave him a quick hug that he returned. "I was seeing things, I know I was seeing things." Jaune thought as he looked over at Ruby.

[What's going on?] Ruby asked.

Ren signed out in reply [Not much, I was asking Jaune if he had seen you, he said he didn't so far.]

Ruby's face shifted slightly as she signed [Oh well I was over in blue hall trying to find Velvet.]

That bothered Jaune, his locker was in the White hall and he clearly saw Ruby there. Jaune thought "Why did she just lie about where she was? Don't tell me…. Fuck…" as his expression turned rigid as he signed out [Did you manage to find her?]

[Nah, I didn't, I'm sure I'll catch her another time maybe.] Ruby signed back with a soft look on her face. She was still lying to him and was doing a passing job of it.

Jaune forced a convincing-looking smile as he signed [I'm sure she's around somewhere right?]

Ruby nodded just as the bell rang out causing her to cover her ears and laugh [God damn how do you all put up with that bell?]

Jaune signed out [Guess we all had time to get used to it? See you later?]

Ruby smiled and lightly touched his arm [Yeah, of course, why wouldn't you?]

Jaune's feelings were all over the place and he couldn't really vocalize an answer so he just shrugged as he stood up and made a quick departure to his class with Ren and Nora, while she and the others went the other way.

His mind wouldn't find peace for some time after the group split up…


It was around lunchtime Jaune found himself headed to get food, normally he wouldn't be caught dead headed towards the lunchroom but as it turned out he focused so much on getting Weiss ready for school, he didn't get himself lunch. He queued up behind other students and found himself staring over the head of the girl in front of him.

Realizing he wasn't going anywhere for a minute he looked down at the girl ahead of him and sighed. The girl was short, haircut into a fluffy bob just above her ears and…

In her backpack, she had a third edition Dungeon Fantasy Core book. "Well that settles it, might as well introduce myself, Ren and Nora were looking for another player…"

With no hesitation, he tapped the girl on the shoulder causing her to turn. Jaune's head snapped back when he saw a pair of squarish glasses and wide eyes looking back at him. For a brief moment he thought it was one of his still infrequent hallucinations staring back at him if not for the fact she was clearly standing there.

Without thinking he signed [Hey I saw that you have a-] Stopping himself when she tilted her head at him.

"I'm deeply sorry sir I don't understand sign language." The girl said.

Jaune snapped his fingers and reached for a notepad realizing his error and wrote out a note 'Sorry I'm used to half my friends knowing enough sign language to get what I'm saying, anyways I saw your Dungeon Fantasy book, do you play at all?'

Jaune watched the girl cautiously read the note, He noted a certain guarded air about her, like someone that had been hurt one two many times and ended up overly cautious as a result. After what looked like her reading the note about four times she looked up and said with a wide grin on her face. "Oh my, you know about dungeon fantasy? That's great I've been hoping to meet people who-" The girl paused and she muttered slightly too loud to herself "Wait, it could be a joke… I better test him..." Before she put on an almost comically serious expression "Okay you, what's your favorite class?!" She said in a clear outdoor voice that turned heads.

Jaune leaned back in reaction to how loud she demanded an answer before writing out 'I honestly never gave third edition a chance, but I used to play Dark Knight in Second edition, right back at you, what's your class?'

The girl read the note before slapping it against her chest blushing and mumbling "Oh man what do I say, darn darn darn," Before she stopped and looked at him "I um, Well I like Beast Tamer myself, because they get the cool animal companions that they can call in battle and be like 'Rawr! Suck it bad guys, my Beowolf will maul you!' and be all cool and stuff, I mean wow right? You get it right?"

Jaune found the first genuine smile he's had slowly sneak onto his face all day as he passed her another note. 'Yeah I mean the way your selling it how can I not think that's awesome?'

The girl said "I know right, I mean, besides Beowolfs, they can tame Gryphons, and Boarbatusks and so many other monsters, I mean who wouldn't want to ride something like that to school one day right?" the girl overly excited said as she was clearly picturing herself doing just that.

Jaune smiled at the infectious enthusiasm this girl had for the game. He handed over another note 'What's your name by the way, Mine is Jaune, I'm a Junior.' As he grabbed two trays for both of them and quite intentionally paid for both of their lunches as a gesture of goodwill.

"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry, I'm kinda not used to talking to other people that much so I mess it up a lot." the girl said as she sat down in front of her a less than appealing looking burger and over-salted fries. The girl took a bite and paused to swallow her lunch "My name is Penny, Penny Polendina!" She said with gusto to the boy she already considered to be her new best friend.

Jaune wrote out chewing a large bite of his own burger 'It's nice to meet you Penny, actually I have a lot of friends I normally hang out in the morning, were all a bunch of misfits but I think you'd fit in well with them. A few other them are looking for someone to get a Dungeon Fantasy game going.'

The girl's face went pale when she read the note. "Actually, I don't do great with people, or loud crowds, I'm honestly kind of a wreak here in the cafeteria as it stands, can we eat somewhere quieter? Wait a second, who paid for my lunch?"

Jaune silently chuckled and stood up handing her a note. 'Hey, it's okay if your not a fan of crowds or big groups, I can introduce you to them over time if you want. Also I paid, it's your first day here so I wanted to be nice.'

Penny's eyes went wide and it looked like she was about to burst out in tears, "Oh man you're so cool, yeah I want to make friends here, I never really had friends before so… yeah." she stammered out nervously.

Jaune smiled unable to write but thinking "Kid, you are lucky you met me, this place would eat you alive." As the two of them walked somewhere quieter to eat. Jaune was refusing to admit how much she looked like a dead ringer for Pyrrha. But he couldn't deny it either way.

Already the new year was shaping up to be interesting. He just wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet.


And here we kick off another chapter and the start of a new school year, Okay, I can already feel you typing up notes as to how ruby would never cheat on Jaune, how i'm a bastard for even typing this in the first place.

Relax. I'm keeping things in character the best that I can. Remember this was a girl that had a running crush on him for years before the start of the story going all the way back to chapter three. As you might have noticed, the community's most hated character, well okay, one of the most hated characters Neptune is going to start playing a larger role in the story, as will Ren and Nora.

Also, Hey, Penny's finally in the story. So I'm taking a lot of queues from my own Son here when writing her. I decided early on to write her as being on the higher end of the autism spectrum, as well as having sensory processing disorder. Long story short, not nearly as many people were able to lock down an autism diagnosis back in 1999 than they do now and days. It'll make her interesting to write as she downright fixates on things and misses social queues like demonstrated in this chapter, but is otherwise quite smart.

So there was a lot of feedback in this chapter, so I'm not going to be able to tackle all of it. But I'll touch on a couple of items. Paulternative and Dragon lord Syed 101 glad you both liked how I mixed it up with Jaques and his wife, I've been playing around with a lot of characters in the story. I still get a bit of guff over Summer to this day.

N-Lorin, Believe me, not everyone is being super comfortable with Weiss and Blake coming out, but none of the circle will cut them off as they already are the sort of kids that didn't fit in other social groups at the school. Jaune in this chapter and discreetly last chapter showed hints of being weirded out by the idea. How that might play out will have to be seen.

Aim's comment had me thinking, I didn't strongly think about the idea of Jaune having schizophrenia until it was brought up. I had decided that he was misdiagnosed as just being severely depressed but it wouldn't be a retcon at this point given Jaune's demonstrated symptoms to say that he might have picked up a light case of it. We'll see if this plays out though as Jaune has come to terms, mostly, with the loss of Pyrrha.

In any rate, I do want to take the time to thank everyone as always for reading, and i'll talk to you all later.