A/N: Here's the 3rd chapter! Wheeee! Thanks for all the reviews guys ^-^ It feels great that a lot of y'all are actually thinking about the implications of having alchemy in the RWBYverse and well... hehe. It's gonna be a lot of fun exploring that.

'Nyways, Onwards!

"What do you think of bunk beds?" Nora asked excitedly, hopping from one foot to the other while looking at the other three members of her team. Three out of three team members looked incredibly dubious. They had been up for nearly an hour trying to figure out the layout of their room, but still couldn't settle on how to orient the beds.

"I… don't think that's a wise idea Nora." Ren said slowly. Jaune and Pyrrha nodded in agreement.

Who would be crazy enough to make bunk beds out of these heavy beds? Nora deflated and gave a small pout.

"Aw, you guys are no fun."

Jaune ignored the pout. Living with seven sisters did wonders for your pout-resistance, Jaune soon discovered. He had probably seen every major and minor variation of a pout that any girl could ever think of giving. Besides, he's had enough of bunk beds ever since he turned thirteen and got sick of living with three hormonal girls in the same room, especially with one on top of him.

In bunk beds, he meant.

A racket was heard in the room over, as many feet pounded around out the doorway. Jaune and company poked their heads around and saw Team RWBY rushing down the hallway, Weiss screaming that they were late in panic.

Team JNPR looked at each other before toppling down on top of each other. Soon after, they gathered themselves up and ran to catch up with Team RWBY, not really caring for an absence on the first day of school.

They arrived in Professor Port's class with barely a second to spare, trying to discreetly settle into the class without too much ruckus.

Professor Port waited for everyone to get into their seat before he started to talk.

And the instant he did, Jaune started to space out. Sure he was going to class. Even if he really didn't want to be here, that didn't mean he could just skip classes willy nilly. That would just cause more trouble than it would be worth, with the detentions taking away from the time that he could be deciphering the alchemical tomes. That didn't mean he needed to be great in classes. He would just get passable grades and finish what he was really doing here.

So he took the time in this class to spread out a few blank pages, trying to create new structures and theories on alchemy, figuring out how to further his knowledge. This went on until Jaune saw a movement far to his left and front as Weiss stood up.

Jaune raised his head up to watch as Weiss stood in front of a large cage as Professor Port struck the lock off the hinges.

Immediately a boarbatusk rushed out of the cage and tried to impale Weiss. A brief flurry of blows were exchanged before Ruby shouted out her support for Weiss, which she angrily rebuked her for. Jaune rose an eyebrow and turned to see Yang look a little pissed at Weiss as well as Blake staring intently at her teammates.

Finally, Weiss was able to flip over the boarbatusk and stab it in the stomach, killing it.

As Weiss stood up, Jaune returned to his drawing of a more compact, faster-acting transmutation circle that could be used for speedy surprise transmutations. He already saw enough of that to know that Team RWBY was heading off to a bad start. But he could see a glint of understanding underneath Professor Port's bushy eyebrows as well.

They were in good care.

Probably.

Either that or be talked to death.

Jaune shrugged. It wasn't really his problem to begin with.

Classes pretty much came and went that way, coming and going in a blur as Jaune really didn't pay attention to the lectures, knowing that the first day wouldn't really have anything substantial happening.

And so the day ended without a hitch and Jaune retreated back into the room, settling onto his bed and cracking open the book that he grabbed in Ozpin's office.

Les Secrets de L'alchimie

The Secrets of Alchemy, Jaune translated in his head. Apparently, the dead language of French was a frequently used language for alchemy. Jaune shook his head wistfully as he remembered the many months of struggling with his own tome trying to translate the language.

Luckily, after so many years of learning the language, it was practically his second go-to language, and Jaune was perfectly fluent in it.

A shadow loomed over the pages of L'alchimie, and Jaune rose his head to greet Pyrrha.

"Hello Jaune. I was hoping that we could maybe study together?" Pyrrha said hopefully. Jaune gave a soft smile.

"Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I'm not really much of a study-er, and it's just the first day. I'm pretty sure it can't be too much to study." Jaune gave a little chuckle.

"Oh. Okay." Pyrrha said reluctantly before parting with Jaune. Jaune's eyes trailed back to his pages and started to continue where he left off.

The day after that was pretty light, with Jaune only taking on two other classes, with one of them being a combat class with Professor Goodwitch. So with the same strategy in mind, Jaune spaced out in his first class where a speed demon with green hair rushed around the room trying to break the sound barrier with his words. It didn't take much for Jaune to ignore him.

Jaune had actually found a sound strategy that morning of taking several pictures of the pages in L'alchimie and just reading them on his scroll. He did that throughout the whole of his first class, lunchtime, and walking towards his combat class, which was another class with both teams RWBY and JNPR in it.

He settled down next to Pyrrha, strictly out of routine and comfort than because of camaraderie. Professor Goodwitch stepped up onto the arena and started to make a speech about teamwork and fighting and yadda yadda yadda that Jaune completely ignored as he scrolled through the pages. Jaune frowned at a paragraph which explained efficacy of circles and how any other geometric shape has unintended effects.

Jaune had never thought about that before. He's always drawn circles because… well, that was what his book showed him to do. And so, being the curious scientist type that he was, Jaune pulled out a sheet of paper and drew a standard transmutation circle, but instead of a circle, he enclosed everything in a triangle. Casting a critical eye over the shape, he made sure that everything was perfect besides the triangle. Nodding to himself, he press his finger onto the center of the triangle, which caused it to glow.

And literally explode in Jaune's face.

Note to self: Drawing a Transmutation Circle that isn't a circle will probably cause it to explode.

Jaune calmly opened his eyes and saw Professor Goodwitch glare at him. Jaune just gave a casual smile and tried to subtly put away the ruined piece of paper. Clearing her throat, Goodwitch decided to speak.

"And seeing as how Mr. Arc has volunteered himself to fight with Mr. Winchester, we'll get started right away."

Jaune shrugged internally. He'll take a fight over a detention any day. Well, except for every third Wednesday of every other month. Heh. Jokes.

Jaune shook off his slightly manic thoughts and stood up, ignoring the concerned stares of Pyrrha and Ruby.

Goodwitch looked carefully at the two fighters, one decked out in full body armor with a huge mace that looked like it could knock Jaune into another wall three walls behind another wall, and the other… Jaune.

Jaune was literally standing in a loose stance with Crocea Mors in his right hand, the sheath dropped onto the floor, wearing nothing but a black hoodie and his ragged jeans.

"Are the two of you ready?" Glynda asked, prompting a nod from each person. "Then begin."

Instantly, Cardin sprung into action, making use of an overhead arc to try and be a hammer to Jaune's nail. Jaune's nail being his head. With the force of a train behind him, Jaune would probably be in dire straits had he been hit, even with his aura. But seeing as how the mace was so telegraphed, Jaune just took a step backwards and let the mace slam down on the ground next to his feet.

The ground then proceeded to explode, sending Jaune flying.

As Jaune skipped like a rock on a pond, Cardin continued to follow up on the attack, smirking at the defenseless Jaune.

Gasping a breath, Jaune clapped his hands once and placed them on the floor, creating a pothole that Cardin tripped on. Jaune used that time to right himself, falling into a defensive position with his sword pulled back and parallel to the ground. Cardin pulled himself up and gave a growl that was almost as effective as a newborn Ursa, charging and swinging his mace. Jaune, now wise to the effects of the mace, jumped back and tried to gain as much distance as he could from Cardin.

The explosions seemed to be pretty small, so as long as Jaune stayed out of close range combat. He would be fine, having the advantage of range with his alchemy.

But of course, Fate giggled at Jaune's cute attempts of trying to stay uninjured and flipped him off.

Cardin hefted the mace high up again, this time aiming at the ground next to him. Jaune just stood there confused as to what Cardin was doing. The ground rumbled and a large portion of it rose up, making a small outcrop next to Cardin, which he swung at like a baseball. The rock exploded into hundreds of pieces, expelled like birdshot from a shotgun towards Jaune. With no time to react, Jaune just stood there and was hit full in the chest with stones, sending him flying again. Jaune spat a few stones that found their way into his mouth and glowered at Cardin.

Alright then. No more nice guy.

Jaune rose up and clapped his hands, placing them once again on the floor. Spikes weaved out from the ground like vines, striking Cardin all over the place, making him yelp and swing wildly at the stony tentacles.

Another clap n' slap let Jaune weaken the structure of the arena floor below Cardin, causing it to cave and drop Cardin waist deep into the floor. Only then did Jaune approach Cardin casually, transmutating the hole to close around and trap Cardin. Jaune put his foot on top of the mace, making sure that Cardin couldn't lift it up. Cardin glared at Jaune hatefully, silently promising an agonizing death. Jaune reached into his pocket and pulled out his handy dandy permanent marker, leaning forward and uncapping it.

With practiced hands that have drawn perfect circles thousands of times, Jaune made short work of Cardin.

When Jaune pulled away, he burst into giggles as Cardin started to curse at Jaune heatedly. Unfortunately, it was really hard to take Cardin seriously when he had a messy monocle and mustache penned onto his face.

The whole class erupted into laughter before Goodwitch stepped in to intervene.

"Alright, alright, that's enough." She said, trying not to smile or laugh. Whipping out her riding crop, she lifted Cardin out of his hole and placed him on the floor next to it.

"Mr. Winchester. Work on your overconfidence please, and always keep an eye out for surprises that the enemy have. And Mr. Arc." Professor Goodwitch turned to see Jaune with a smirk directed at her. "I would say the same for you. Your cockiness led to some very serious blunders that, if it hadn't been for your aura, would severely harm you. Do not make the mistake of underestimating your opponent again."

Jaune frowned, put off by the fact that he won but still got a lecture, but nodded and went back to his seat as Professor Goodwitch continued to talk about aura levels and how their scrolls could show the specific amount.

Settling into his seat, he pulled out his scroll again, reading the words on the screen carefully.

Unbeknownst to him, a pair of amber eyes, sharper than the rest, was also trained on his scroll.

A/N: If anyone's wondering why French is the language I chose...

Well, y'all are smart, I'm sure y'all can figure it out.

:)