Alfred walked down the courtyard and looked at Beacon academy in awe. "Man, I could get used to a view like this" He said to himself.
He smiled to himself until he heard a crashing sound not too far from him. He looked to see a luggage car on the ground spilling white cases on the ground and a red hooded girl on the ground being yelled at by a white headed girl.
"Hmmm, cat fight already. Might as well watch" He said as he walked over to the scene.
He hid behind some bushes and watched the scene unfold.
"What are you doing?!" the white haired girl yelled.
The hooded girl quickly got up "Uhh, sorry"
Alfred was going to move closer to get a better view when he heard rustling near him. He looked to see a blond guy sneaking near him to watch as well.
"Psst, dude. Come here" he said to blond as he gestured for him to come to him.
The blond looked at Alfred and pointed at himself. He mouthed "me"
"Yes yes, come over here"
The blond quietly walked over to where Alfred was standing and stopped next to him. "Come to watch the action?" Alfred asked.
"I heard a crash, I got curious" The man said.
"Well looks like we are in for a show. I'm Alfred by the way"
"Jaune Arc"
Alfred nodded "Jaune Arc huh, smooth name, kind of rolls off the tongue" He noted.
Jaune raised his eyebrows "You really thinks so?"
"Yeah, the ladies are going to love it"
"How do you know, are you a ladies expert?" Jaune asked.
Alfred considered this as relationships in the past haven't exactly ended that well for him. "Common sense I guess. Here, out of these two, which one would you pick?"
Jaune examined the two girls as the white haired shook a vile of dust. "The white one"
"Really? Her? She's too controlling. If you went after her, she would be the man of the relationship"
"So you would pick the hooded girl" Jaune clarified.
"Out of those two yes. But she seems inexperienced, confused you can say. But she is the better of them. Here let's watch some more"
They watched as the white haired yelled at the red hooded one about what dust was.
"What are you brain-dead? Dust! Fire, Water, Lightning, Energy" the white yelled as she shook the vile more violently.
The red one started to choke, when Alfred looked closely he found out that it was because was directly breathing in Dust, a big don't do unless you want overload your systems and explode.
"I…I know" the red one tried to say but she started to cough from all the dust.
"Are you even listening to me? Is any of this sinking in? What do you got to say for yourself?" The white one was going to continue bombarding her with questions but was cut short when the Red one couldn't take anymore Dust and finally sneezed.
"ACHOO"
A big fireball appeared from her mouth which hit the White one in a fiery explosion of snow, fire, and electricity. Alfred barely contained himself from not laughing his ass off.
"Do you really find that funny?" Jaune asked
"Oh yes. I'm not sure whether because the white one was being a huge jerk and she deserved it or the placement of the blast but that was hilarious. Looks like she has earned herself a nickname. I'm thinking booger exploder."
"How about Crater Face?" Jaune said.
"That even better"
They watched some more as the White one's wrath increased tenfold. "UNBELIEVABLE. This is the exactly what I was talking about"
"I'm really, really sorry" The other apologized.
"Ugh, you complete Dolt. What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon"
This comment made Alfred stop laughing. He hated bullies, and this girl had all the telltale signs of one. He was about to step out and give her a piece of his mind when he heard steps. He looked over to see a girl dressed in black and white with a bow on her head walked towards them. Hmm, a new challenger enters the fray. How interesting.
"I'm sorry Princess" The red one said.
"It's Heiress, actually. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world" The black one explained.
Weiss Schnee, I knew she looked familiar.
"You see Jaune, I would pick the black one out of all of them" Alfred said examining her.
"Why? What makes her different from the others?"
"Well, she has bigger… personality"' Alfred replied.
Jaune looked at him confused, "What do you mean, you haven't met her yet"
"You know, there is more of her. More of her out there"
"I still don't know what you are talking about?"
Alfred gave up and just pointed.
"OHHH you mean she has bigger boobs. Why didn't you just say that?"
"I was trying to be classy ok. Looks like the fight is almost over" he said looking over the bushes.
Weiss had just stormed off and the black one walked away leaving the red one alone. She then promptly fell on her back and looked at the sky.
"Now's your chance, go over to here and talked to her" Alfred told Jaune.
"Me? Now? Why?" Jaune asked in rapid succession.
"Yeah, you're inexperienced. She's inexperienced. You guys are perfect"
"I don't know what even to do or say"
Alfred put his hand on Jaune's shoulder, "Just go to her, put out your hand and say "Hi, I'm Jaune."
Jaune nodded "Okay, you sure this is going to work?"
"I got complete confidence in you okay. I'm going to go to the black one and see what her story is. I'll see you at orientation okay. Good luck"
Alfred patted Jaune on the back before he got up and walked in the direction the girl in black went. He found her looking at a statue of two huntsmen standing over a defeated Ursa. He walked over till he was a couple of yards behind her. He took a deep breath and walked closer.
"That was quite performance back there" He said when he was a couple feet from her.
She turned around to face Alfred, "What are talking?" she asked.
"That confrontation back there. Not everyone has the guts to talk back to someone as powerful as the Schnee family"
"So you saw that whole ordeal" she replied.
"Yeah, it was quite an entertaining view from where I was standing by the bushes"
"And may I ask why you were spying on them?"
Alfred gave her a confused look, "Spying… I prefer the term secretly observing"
"Which is spying"
Alfred put up his finger and shook it no, "No, spying is for government agents and assassins. I was observing the scene very quietly so no one would notice me. Hence, secretly observing"
"Fine, who would be the one who was "Secretly Observing?"
He took off his hat, put it over his heart and bowed at her "Alfred Caponen. At your service"
"For a man who spy one women, you do know the proper way to introduce yourself to a girl"
"Secretly Observing. May I ask for your name?"
"Blake Belladonna. I would say nice to meet you. By you kind of creep me out"
Alfred gave her an offended look. "Creepy? Are you sure you don't mean nice"
"Sorry, but I have learned not to trust strangers, especially does who, how do you put it, secretly observe people" she said before turning around and walking away.
"Wow that was harsh" he said to himself.
He looked around to see everyone going inside the main building. He followed them into a large auditorium with a stage at the end that had a microphone stand. He walked to the middle of the room and took a seat on the floor.
He took off his hat and looked at it. He examined it until his eyes laid on an emblem etched into the side of it. It was an Ace of Diamonds playing card. It would be easy to miss if you weren't looking at it directly. "Well Mom, I did it. I finally made it. I hope I make you proud" He said out loud.
"I'm sure your hat is very proud of you" Jaune said behind him.
Alfred quickly got up "Hey Jaune, how did it did it go with little red back there"
Jaune nodded, "It went pretty well thanks to you. I introduced myself, she introduced herself as Ruby and we just walked around talking"
"Ruby, that's a nice name. You see. All you need is a little confidence and anything is possible. Well not everything, it didn't go as well for me with the woman in black. Her name is Blake by the way. She totally blew me off and called me a creeper"
"You were spying on them" Jaune reminded.
"Thanks Jaune, I nearly forgotten. So why aren't you talking to Ruby right now to try and "seal the deal?"
"She went to go sit near her sister and abandoned me"
"Ah, I'm sorry, there is always next time buddy" Alfred comforted.
Someone tapped the microphone to get everyone's attention. Alfred looked up to see two teachers, Glynda Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin. He has heard many rumors about Beacon's headmaster, including the fact that he is second in most coffee consumed, only next to Professor Oobleck.
"I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge- to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free of you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It's up to you to take the first step"
Alfred's scars started to tingle when Ozpin finished. He looked down at his right arm and rubbed it. Wasted energy huh, you have no idea Professor.
"You will all gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, you will start will initiation, be ready" Goodwitch said right after.
"Alright, Jaune I'm going to go down to the ballroom and set up early before all the good spaces are taken"
"What am I supposed to do?" He asked in return.
Alfred nudged his heads towards Ruby and Weiss, "Go finish the job, say something good about yourself"
Jaune smiled and patted him on the back before walking off towards the girls. Alfred turned around and started walking towards the ballroom.
4 Hours Later…
Alfred looked over the ballroom from an upstairs viewing platform. It was a nice space and as far as he knew, no else had found it yet. He set up his sleeping bag in a corner where he could look out the window and see the moon perfectly. He watched people fill in the large room and pick spaces to sleep. As he watched he remembered something his father once told him. You can always tell a lot about a man from the way to act Al. If they are hiding something or not. You just need to pay attention.
He looked around to see most people set up in the middle of the room. He saw Vladmira right in the middle with a group of girls, obviously trying to form her army already. Lance was also nearby but was just sitting there awkwardly. There were a few who set up away from everyone else, in corners or in the shadows, those were the people who had secrets, who had something to hide. He noticed Blake was one of those people who put themselves away. Hmm, what are you hiding Blake?
He continued to watch people until he heard steps behind him. He looked behind him to see two men talking behind them.
They were roughly the same height, about 5'11". The first one looked like an old west bounty hunter. He had on an old west bounty hunter hat that had what looked like a bite mark missing from the left side of the bill and tally marks on top of it. He was wearing a dusty brown trench coat with a satchel that had a sleeve missing on the right arm. That arm was covered in Black armor from the shoulder down, on the arm was a wolf and arrows crossing it.
The other one had blond hair similar to Jaune. He had bright eyes that seemed to change colors. He had a blue shirt with a white biker jacket and white pants. He seemed to not have to ability to keep still and kept moving something every moment. On the back of the jacket was an emblem of a shotgun shell with three knives stabbing it on both sides.
"Oh hello, we didn't know there was someone else up here. Mind if we stay up here?" the hunter asked.
Alfred shook his head, "I have no problem, make yourself at home. I'm Alfred by the way"
"I'm Vincent, this is my brother Nate" The hunter said.
"Brothers? You guys look so different"
"We are adopted brothers" Nate said stepping forward.
"Ahhh, well it's nice to meet you two"
The two nodded and started to set up on the opposite side of the platform. Alfred took off his hat, put where his stuff was and walked down stairs to the locker room to go get changed into his night clothes. He walked in the locker room and went to the corner where he couldn't be seen by other people. Once he was sure that no one was watching, he stripped off his vest and took off his shirt revealing various scars on his chest and back in patterns. On his chest, there was two scars that made an X in the middle and four scars that made a box around it. On his back was scars that looked like a tic-tac-toe game. He looked at his left arm and traced the scars with the right hand. There were similar scars on his legs too. One day, all these scars will be justified, all the memories will be replaced, and I will finally have peace.
He quickly finished changing into a normal white shirt with long-sleeve under-armor and a pair of boxers with under armor under it to cover his legs. When he got back upstairs. Nate and Vincent already changed their clothes. Nate had a blue sleeveless shirt and long gray pajama pants. Vincent was pretty simple, he just had on brown long johns and long sleeve shirt though his right arm was still covered by the black armor. They were playing chess. Just from watching them, Alfred could see what type of person they were. Vincent made calculated moves to try and take down his opponent as effectively as possible while Nate just winged it and made moves for no reason other than trying to be fast.
Alfred crawled into his sleeping bag and put his hat over his face to block out the lights. One day down, 3 years and 364 days to go. I hope I do you proud Mom. He thought to himself before drifting to sleep with thoughts of home.