It's early in the afternoon in Professor Oobleck's class as the professor goes through his daily lecture, zipping and zooming across the room at an unbelievable speed as he takes an occasional pause to take a sip of his coffee.
While team SAPR is sitting together, paying attention for the most part, team RWBY is a bit split, sitting far apart from one another. Ruby and Yang are sleeping through the lecture while Weiss and Blake both watch attentively.
Most of team JNPR is wide awake for the lecture with the only exception being Jaune, who's sleeping with his head partially down, only managing to stay up thanks to his stiff arm propping it up.
Next to the sleeping huntsman, Velvet is sitting slightly on edge, since right behind her is her most recent tormentor; Cardin Winchester, with his legs propped up on the long desk before him and his arms behind his head comfortably.
After taking a sip from his Beacon mug, Oobleck continues on with his lecture, saying, "Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the 'Faunus War,' Human kind was quite quite adamant about centralizing the Faunus population in Menagerie.", as he points to the smallest continent on the southern part of his giant map at the front of the class. The Doctor takes another quick sip from his mug before speeding in front of his desk and saying, "Now, while this might all seem like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember these are still relatively recent events." "Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day.", he says before zipping in front of Velvet in a flash. As he stands in front of the somewhat shaking girl, he looks to his students and asks, "Now, have any of you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"
Velvet sheepishly raises her hand and Persi does the same, quickly followed by all of the other Faunus students in the room.
The emerald blur looks to them all with a slight frown before shaking his head no and saying, "Dreadful, simply dreadful. Remember students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence.", before taking yet another sip from his mug. "I mean, I mean, just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now, pop quiz time!", Oobleck blurts out as he zips to the center of his little lecturing area.
This is met with a combined groan from the class, earning a slight chuckle from the Professor.
"Come on now, I know one of you must have the answer to this one. What do most theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?", Oobleck continues and to his delight, Weiss' hand shoots up almost instantly. Noticing the heiress' enthusiasm, the Professor points to her and says, "Yes, Miss Schnee! Lay it on me!", causing the girl to give him a smug grin as she lowers her hand.
"The battle at Fort Castle.", Weiss replies confidently, causing the professor to zip behind his desk and exclaim, "Exactly! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagoon's forces?"
As he asks this, Cardin flicks a paper football right at the back of Jaune's head, causing the blonde to jet awake in a panic. Jaune looks around nervously, and as Oobleck suddenly appears before him and happily exclaims, "Ah, Mister Arc! Finally contributing to class! Excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?", he realizes his hand shot up when Cardin woke him up.
Jaune is clearly tired, barely able to keep his eyes open or form basic words as he says, "The...answer...the advantage...the Faunus had...over..the other...guys...with the eyes...not glasses... ummmmmmm..." Almost as if a lightbulb suddenly turned on, Jaune courageously spouts the answer, "Binoculars!", causing most of the class to burst out into laughter, with the exception of his team-mates, team RWBY, and team SAPR.
Oobleck, however isn't amused by this answer and simply takes a deep gulp from his mug before letting out a heavy sigh as Cardin bangs on his desk as he continues to laugh at Jaune's expense. "Very funny, Mister Arc. Cardin! It seems you have more energy than usual today. Perhaps you would like to share your thoughts on the subject?", Oobleck says after zooming behind his desk.
Cardin leans back in his chair as he props his feet back up on the desk and boldly says, "Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier.", earning the boy a disappointed scowl from the professor.
"You're not the most open minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?", Pyrrha asks the boy before Persi adds, "He will be after I put a few slugs through that thick skull of his."
Cardin glares over at the duo and asks, "What? We have a problem?", to which Pyrrha replies, "No, I have the answer. It's night vision." "Many Faunus are known to have perfect night vision in the dark.", Pyrrha explains, causing Cardin to growl.
Reginald snickers at the bully's expense before adding, "General Lagoon was nothing but a complete joke and made the horrible mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His army ended up getting out-played and in the end he got himself captured." "If only he paid more attention in class, then maybe he wouldn't have been a complete and utter disappointment in history. Wait, complete and utter disappointment? Hey, that sounds just like you Cardin! Are you two related or something?", Reginald adds, firing a shot at the bully and causing Cardin to stand up from his seat with his fist clenched into a ball, ready to fight, but Oobleck isn't allowing any of that.
Oobleck restores order as he says, "Mister Winchester, please take your seat. We have only a few more minutes of class, and I'd like to finish my lecture without incident."
As Jaune snickers to himself at Cardin's expense, Oobleck speeds over in front of the blonde, causing him to jump in shock before telling the class, "You and Mister Arc can both see me after class for additional readings.", causing Jaune to slouch in his seat with a groan.
When class finally finishes and the other students escape the professor's lair, Oobleck stands before Jaune and Cardin as they sit in seats in the front row so he can be sure to maintain their attention. "Now, you two have been struggling in my class since day one. I don't know if it's a lack of interest or your stubborn natures getting the better of you, but whatever it is-", the Doctor begins to say before pausing to take another sip from his mug and putting it down on his desk dramatically. As the mug makes a glass-like clank against his wooden desk, he finishes his statement, saying, "-it stops now."
The emerald haired man walks away from his mug and towards the two boys as he says, "You two have both worked very hard to gain entrance to this school and we only accept the best of the best, so I expect you two to act like it.", and as he says this, Jaune avoids eye contact with the professor. As he turns away from the boys, Oobleck walks back over to his desk while saying, "History is important, gentlemen. If you can't learn from it-", and pauses dramatically as he stands in front of his desk. Taking his glasses off, the calm, calculated teacher looks back to the boys with his light green eyes and says, "-you're doomed to repeat it."
The teacher follows this up by snatching his mug from his desk and quickly ordering, "Pages fifty one to ninety one, I want an essay on my desk by next class! Now, run along.", before speeding out the door with his mug.
With the green blur gone, Jaune tries to leave the room, but before he can make his escape, Cardin grabs him by the back of his shirt and growls, "Where do ya think you're going, Jauny-boy?"
Jaune looks back at Cardin, terrified to see an evil smirk on the boy's face. "I don't exactly have time to be writing that essay. You know how busy I am with my workout routine and dealing with those idiots. So how about you do your bestie Cardin a favor and handle that one for me too, okay?", Cardin says to the boy, causing Jaune to gulp in fear.
Cardin locks Jaune in a headlock before giving him a quick noogie as he says, "I knew my little buddy would understand. You're a real life saver, Jaune. I'm expecting that and those questions Port assigned us today by the end of the night, alright? Gonna have to go over them a bit to make sure they look like they're mine. And to make sure you're not trying to pull some shit on me, but you wouldn't do that, would you Jaune? Because we're 'friends' now!" As he says this, Cardin lets go of Jaune, leaving for his next class as he gives Jaune a quick wack to the head for good measure.
"I'll see ya in our next class, Jauny-boy. And don't be late, or somebody might think something happened to you.", Cardin says as he waves back at Jaune like they're childhood friends. Jaune only growls at this, but gives in to his demands, unsure what to do other than submit to the bully's iron rule.
Later that day, teams JNPR, SAPR, and RWBY are all eating lunch together, but Ruby, Weiss and Jaune are all absent from the table. As Yang takes a bite of her salad, the blonde looks over to Nora and asks, "So, where's Jaune?"
"He said he was going to start on his homework early tonight and that he'd eat later.", Nora replies without a moment of hesitation, earning a confused look from the blonde.
Yang shifts her gaze to Pyrrha and asks, "And you're not the least bit concerned about Jaune? His grades pretty much took a nose dive recently."
"I'm certain our leader knows exactly what he's doing.", Pyrrha growls back with a slight glare, causing Yang to reel back a bit in surprise.
"Damn, no need to get all pissy about it. Just askin a question. It hasn't even been a single semester and this whole table is full of drama out the ass.", Yang groans to the crimson gladiator, earning only an annoyed roll of the eyes before Pyrrha returns to her own salad.
Sapphire looks to Yang and suggests, "Maybe we should all talk to Jaune about this? We could see if he wants to study together or something, right?"
This only earns a disapproving glare from Pyrrha as she says, "Trust me, he doesn't want our help. Besides, trying to get involved will only complicate things for him. If he wants to do this on his own, you can't change his mind. None of us can."
"People can change, Pyrrha. Maybe if we show Jaune how much his grades have dropped and what will happen if he doesn't get his work in order, he might just realize we can help him. Right Blake?", Yang says before turning to her partner for support only to find Blake wasn't even paying attention, instead the dusk colored girl is focused on something across the room. Yang follows Blake's gaze to see Cardin humiliating Velvet in front of his team as he continues to pull on the bunny girl's ears for a cheap laugh.
Persi and Blake are both glaring daggers at Cardin, but know they really can't get involved without risking expulsion.
"Can he be any more terrible? Velvet doesn't even do anything? He's such an asshole.", Yang says with a growl as she stabs into a tomato with her fork.
Pyrrha nods in agreement with the blonde and says, "People like him are nothing more than trash. But there's nothing any of us can really do."
Nora's eyes widen and a cheeky smile comes across her crazy face as she stands up from her seat and says, "I know! We'll break his legs!"
"That would only get us kicked out of Beacon.", Pyrrha quickly replies and Yang adds, with part of the tomato in her mouth, "Or arrested.", which causes Nora to sit down in defeat.
Blake, however, quickly bites back, asking, "Why exactly is stopping harassment a bad thing anyways?", in a somewhat threatening tone.
They're all surprised when they hear a familiar voice say to them, "Honestly, I'm surprised she's even allowed here." When they all turn to see who said that, they see it was Weiss, who just walked in with her lunch.
"What did you just say?", Sapphire asks the heiress with a slight glare.
Weiss sets her tray down next to Pyrrha and answers the azure warrior's question, saying, "What? I'm just saying that having Faunus in a school for professional Huntsmen and Huntresses is a bit odd. Usually you'd only give such a role to those who can be trusted with the position's power, but I guess Vale is just that much more different than Atlas."
"So you're saying that Faunus shouldn't be allowed to become Huntsmen? That's...", Nora begins to say before two people try to finish her sentence for her all at once. Reginald says, "Stupid.", as Weiss says, "Logical."
And as they say this, Reginald and Weiss both notice what the other said and glare at one another.
"How exactly is not wanting the White Fang to have trained and armed soldiers a 'stupid' thing?", Weiss hastily asks the silver boy with a scowl, earning a glare from Blake and Persi.
Persi quickly fires back with a question of his own, growling, "And how exactly is alienating all Faunus and disarming them going to keep the White Fang from stealing weapons and training their own soldiers?"
"Most Faunus turn and join the White Fang after graduation. But, who would expect you to know that, you're a Faunus after all.", Weiss confidently replies as she glares over at the mountain sized bear, which earns her a growl from the boy.
"Weiss, you do realize that's discrimination, right? You can't just-", Yang begins to say before Weiss cuts her off by saying, "Oh Yang, you lovable goof. I doubt you'd be able to grasp this concept in its entirety. Just let the higher ups do the talking, okay?"
This only earns her a slightly irritated glare from the blonde however, but she manages to cool herself off before letting loose on the heiress, taking a deep breath before turning her attention back to her food.
Blake however isn't letting Weiss go so easily. "Don't talk down to her like that! She's your team-mate!", the ribboned girl growls, scolding the girl, but Weiss doesn't seem phased by her yelling.
Weiss simply replies with, "I'm just saving her from herself. If she were to say something that was clearly wrong because she wasn't fully aware of the situation, she'd just embarrass herself." "And on a more important note, why do you care so much, Blake? What are you, some Faunus lover or something? Do you really believe the delusional that we can make peace with those murderers and psychos in the White Fang?", Weiss bites back, cause Blake to reel back a bit before preparing to tear into Weiss.
Before Blake has the chance to completely lay into the ignorant heiress however, they all hear another voice say, "Hey, is..is something going on?" They all turn to see Ruby standing there with a brown paper bag in her hand with her name written in black marker.
When the crimson speedster's eyes meet her partner's, they share a short glare at each other before Weiss stands up from the table, leaving her food behind as she leaves the cafeteria. As she leaves, the heiress huffs and says, "I don't have to deal with this ignorance. I'll go where my intelligence is more respected."
When the ice queen's cold aura finally fades from the table, Ruby takes her place at the lunch table, sitting next to Pyrrha as she opens her paper bag.
Yang quickly moves Weiss' tray out of her sister's way, moving her now empty tray under Weiss' before asking, "So, what's up Ruby? Finally finish that level you couldn't beat earlier?"
Ruby only nods her head yes before opening a small plastic bowl and poking at the cold spaghetti inside.
"Ruby...are you okay? This is a new level of antisocial, even for you.", Sapphire notes with a concerned look on her face, earning a saddened sigh from the little girl in red.
The hooded girl puts down her fork and replies with a sad, "No.", before cupping her chin in one hand and propping her elbow against the table to hold her head up. "I heard Weiss calling Professor Peach for help with transferring teams. Apparently if two teachers sign off on the decision you can be put on another team after a week.", Ruby explains, earning mixed looks of both confusion and glee from the table.
Yang smiles at her sister's response and says, "That's good, right? Once she's gone, she'll be out of our hair and we'll have somebody with hopefully less of a superiority complex."
"Yeah...but when Weiss and I worked together, when we were really in sync, we were really good together, you know? There's more to Weiss than this, I know it. I just have to get through to her somehow.", Ruby laments as she looks to her food in slight disappointment. Before anyone can say anything else to her, Ruby stands up from the table and says, "I'm not really that hungry anymore." The crimson child goes to leave, but before she does, Ruby looks back to Blake and asks her, "Oh right, Blake, we're still going into Vale for those supplies tomorrow, right?"
Blake simply nods to Ruby, earning a slight smile from her leader before she finally leaves while saying, "If you need me, I'll be on the final level of Mega Slide Girl."
As Ruby leaves her team behind, Yang looks to everyone and asks, "So, who all wants to go hangout with me and Ash tonight? We're going clubbing!"
"Clubbing? I never thought of you as the clubbing type, Ash.", Ren notes as he looks up from his tea to the wrapped ninja sitting a few seats away from him, steam still rising from his warm cup.
Ash nods to the stoic boy and says, "That is correct. Before coming here, I wasn't aware of what dancing was. Yang taught me a few moves, but says that seeing them for myself will be better than her explanations."
"Come on, who wants to join? There'll be booze~", Yang adds, but this doesn't really gain anyone's attention except for Reginald.
The silver tongued devil puts his finger to his chin and mutters to himself, "A busty blonde asking me to go out and have drinks with her at a night club? How could I ever turn such a perfect idea down?"
Pulling the silver boy back to reality, Sapphire quickly wacks him in the back of the head before telling Reginald, "By remembering that you have to be up bright and early tomorrow morning, that's how."
"Gods damn it! What the hell do you mean by that!", Reginald shouts as he rubs the back of his head, trying to relax the throbbing lump forming on the back of his skull.
The azure warrior glares at the boy before getting right in his face as she points at him and says, "You and I are supposed to go into town and get our supplies for Professor Peach's trip, remember? Or did you get distracted again?"
"What about Ash? Why does he get to go!?", Reginald complains, to which Persi replies with, "Because he got her permission first and she asked me to study all day for Grimm Studies. If you paid more attention when we had our group talks rather than trying to watch girls out the window, maybe you would've known that."
"Hey! That girl had a rockin ass, and you know it!", Reginald shouts, causing Yang to start laughing uncontrollably.
"Ah, sucks to be you then, Regi. Any other takers? Nora? I bet you'd love Peppermint Schnapps.", Yang says as she turns her attention to Nora, causing her ears to perk up.
Nora puts a finger to her chin and thinks out loud, saying, "Well, I'm not much of a dancer, or a drinker for that matter, but with a name like Schnapps, how could it be bad, right?" She quickly stands up and begins to accept, saying, "I'm i-", but before she can, Ren pulls her back into her seat and says, "out."
The redhead looks over to her partner, who shakes his head no and says, "You'll thank me later.", which earns him a reluctant, but understanding sigh from the girl.
"Aw, come on! Pyrrha? You're in, right? I bet you could hold your liquor pretty well~", Yang quickly begs the redhead, but instantly gets a conflicted look from the warrior girl.
Pyrrha nervously taps the table with her fingers as she says, "Well, I'd love to, really. But..I have to go into the city tomorrow with Jaune. And you know, I'd just be bringing down the mood. Sorry."
Turned down by everyone else at the table, Yang lets out a defeated sigh before looking to her partner to see Blake still has her eyes glued on Cardin and his goons. The blonde only rolls her eyes before saying, "It's your loss then. Come on, Ash. Let's get going. We have a lot of dancing and drinking ahead of us tonight~" Yang quickly gets up from the table and grabs Ash by the hand before dragging him off with her as she leaves the cafeteria.
Seeing the blonde's now red eyes, Sapphire lets out a worried groan before saying, "That poor boy, he doesn't even know what he's gotten himself into."