Oh, What a Spectacle!
Chapter 3
All Eyes on You
*BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING*
*BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING*
*BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING*
*BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-* *BANG*
And just like that, Blake lost another 50 lien alarm clock. All because Yang couldn't give less of a fuck about the damn snooze button, but still had the time to grab Ember Celica and shoot the damn thing. Her smaller teammates both shot up in alarm, with Weiss insulting Yang in such flowery prose even Blake would have to crack open a dictionary to comprehend all of it.
The things she did for lo- lots of mutual respect and valuable friendships that she wouldn't trade for the world! Not that other word, no sir! Blake didn't other-word anybody, nuh-uh, abso-positively-lutely did NOT. Not at all, not a single bit.
While Yang look confused at her mentally-incapacitated teammate, the younger sister hopped off of her bed, stretching out. "Good morning!"
"Good morning, my backside! Yang nearly blew a hole in the wall!" Weiss shrieked.
"'Ey, what'ver works, right?" Yang slurred, still half asleep, despite having enough energy to get up and blow up a nice clock. "I turn'd it off, didn't I?"
"Yes, but was shooting the clock the best course of action?" Blake inquired, folding her arms after she managed to refocus her thoughts.
"Yup."
"Then there is no reasoning with you."
The rest of the team went about their morning rituals, while Ruby got first dibs on dressing. Throwing her uniform on, not worrying about wrinkles or creases like the rest of her team, she started looking around to make sure she hadn't missed anything. Brushed teeth? She grinned, and her teeth gleamed back at her in the mirror. Check. Hair combed? A small sprig of hair defiantly popped up, which she answered by licking her hands and patting it down. Check. Glasses?
She grabbed the articles of eyewear from their little case, putting them on and giving herself a once over.
Cha-cha-cha-CHECK!
She walked out, a little kick in her step as she walked back into the bunk room.
Two hours earlier.
JNPR's waking routine was a lot more unusual than their friends'.
At 4:00 every morning- save for times she accidentally overslept- Pyrrha would run two laps around the campus, which was also her time for introspection and cleaning out her mind for the day, and return for a quick, quiet shower at 5:30. At 4:01, Ren would hear her getting ready, and wake up, spending precious quiet time studying for any classes he had that day. Nora would wake up at about 6:00, while Jaune, without fail, always woke up at 6:04 and 32 seconds on the dot. As of yet, none of them were able to figure out exactly why.
However, today was an unusual day.
At 2:30, Pyrrha had a bad dream and woke up, and would not go back to sleep. She spent a few minutes trying to draw, but gave up, and decided to take her run early. Ren heard her get up, but had immediately fallen back to sleep, and, due to the sudden wrecking of his routine, was acting unusually outgoing. Nora woke up at 2:45 due to feeling the 'ill vibes, brah' and refused to go back to sleep, instead going to look for Pyrrha, who, by that point, was half the campus away. Jaune woke up at about 3:13 and 53 seconds, and, upon waking, said something about treadmills. Pyrrha, feeling wired due to her nightmare, didn't want to stay out all morning, and cut her run short at 3:00, making it back to the dorm at 3:13:54. Nora got lost, and didn't make it back until 4:00.
So, here they were, at 4 sharp, wide awake. Pyrrha was wearing a sports bra and boy shorts, with her hair still in a messy cascade down to the middle of her back. Nora's return was heralded by the energetic carrot-top throwing open the door wearing nothing but a t-shirt and sloth-print boxers so loose she almost flashed Team AQUA's Asher Maddox whenever he came to see what the commotion was. Ren, as per the usual, was wearing the heart onesie that Nora insisted on getting him for his birthday.
"Why was I born..." Nora asked, flopping onto her bed.
"So, you had a nightmare?" Ren asked Pyrrha, who sat guilt-ridden on her bed.
"It was a dream, and I let it get the best of me. I apologize for waking you."
"Pyrrha, you are my alarm clock. You would have woken me no matter what time you got up, there's no harm done."
"... am I really that loud?"
Ren weighed his words. When she was tired, her semblance acted up, and the first time she had ever gone through her routine, he was awakened by the sound of a frying pan sticking to her ass. That was not an anecdote he wanted to share, as much as he loved embarrassing stories.
"...it's not you, so much as the room itself." Good answer, Ren. Leave it to Jaune to speak well of her posterior... if he ever fucking noticed.
"Wait, so... Pyrrha had a bad dream, then Ren woke up, then Nora ran around the school?" Jaune asked, eyes half shut, hair in a mess, and down to his boxers -he had shed the onesie and switched after it got too hot in the room-. "Is there something I'm missing?"
Pyrrha looked over at him, trying to focus on his face and NOTHING. ELSE. "That's... the long and short of it."
"Well, crap. We gonna try and sleep again?"
"NO." Nora suddenly growled from her place on the bed. "I'M WOKE, AND I'M STAYIN' WOKE."
"I really don't think I'll be able to wake up in time for class if I go back to sleep," Ren explained. "Unlike the rest of you, I have a second-year class, and I can't afford to miss."
"I've already had my morning run... I might as well stay up and study," Pyrrha said, blinking rapidly to try and clear the sleep out of her eyes.
"I'm gonna try and go back to sleep..." Jaune said, laying back down on his bed.
"Sleep well, then," his partner bade, smiling.
Ren sighed, cracking open his Advanced Combat Techniques textbook, and turning to a page he dog-eared. Nora simply rolled on the bed a few times.
"Oh, by the way," Jaune suddenly spoke up, drowsily looking over at his partner. "You should wear your hair down sometimes, Pyr. It suits you."
Thank all of the Gods that the lights were off, lest anyone see that Pyrrha's face was redder than her hair. Ren was shocked at the sudden, sleepy outburst from his 'bro', and his eyebrows shot up so high they were almost merging with his scalp. Nora bit the comforter of her bed to avoid jumping out of her bed and throwing him through the wall into team AQUA's room screaming 'JUST DO IT!', which would have probably ended with JNPR's room flooding and Maddox getting a bloody nose.
Pyrrha's mental deluge of 'ohfuckshitpissgoddamnshitcrapsonofabitchfuckme' evidently translated to 'Allow me to attempt to court you by imitating a tea kettle' in Mistralian.
"Does anyone hear a mouse?" Ren asked, wondering where that high-pitched squeal was coming from.
"Goodnighteveryonesleepwell!" Pyrrha squeaked, before burying herself in her bedsheets.
Ren sighed, looking back at his book. "Good night, I suppose. I'll wake you at six."
Now
Pyrrha, against her better judgement, hand ended up putting her hair in its usual high tail that morning.
Team JNPR was normally there slightly before RWBY, to be fair, but they had been a bit longer than expected. Hell, even the perpetually tardy LPLZ was on time, which was a surprise in and of itself. So surprising, in fact, that Goodwitch actually spit out her onto Port's coat, which got a rise out of all the students who could see the disciplinarian's mortified expression. However, said distraction was pulled from JNPR's mind by the sound of four seats across from them being taken. They turned to greet their friends, expecting to see four pairs of eyes.
Instead, they got six. Well, they're glasses, but you get the point.
"Ruby?" Ren asked, "you went and bought glasses?"
"Yep!" Ruby popped the 'p', and pointed at her big sister. "Yang took me out yesterday, and she decided to get some too!"
Yang gave a nervous smile at JNPR, waving. "Yeah... big ol' glasses."
"Oh. My. Oum. You. Two. Look. ADORABLE! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"
Ruby shut her eyes and put on her best smile, while Yang seemed shocked. "W-wait, you guys like them?" She thought this was supposed to make Ruby look cute, not her. Yang wasn't stupid, but she was no whiz kid, either, and it was taking all of her brain power not used on breathing, looking bomb as fuck, or simply governing her heartbeat to try and comprehend why these bullet-blockers apparently looked good on her.
"Hey, nerd chic never hurt anybody," Jaune agreed, smiling. "What, you thought we were gonna laugh at you?"
"A little..."
"Oh ye of little faith!" he dramatically shouted, holding his hand over his heart.
Pyrrha noticed in her drowsy state that the nearest teams were staring at them. Ah, well.
"Pyrrha, whaddya think?" Yang asked, beaming.
"... w-wha-wha?"
"Paging Doctor Pyrrha! Paging Doctor Pyrrha!" Nora droned.
"You should grab that!" Lancaster Raine shouted.
"Shut up, Lancaster, nobody wants you!" someone in the back of the room shouted.
"I have a cannon!"
While the two extras continued their debate, Pyrrha attempted to figure out what was going on. "What did you say?"
"Yang asked if you liked her glasses!" Nora restated.
"Yeah, they look nice..."
"Pyrrha, if you need a pick-me-up, I can go fix you an energy drink," Ren offered.
"No..." Pyrrha muttered.
"Suit yourself... by the way, you have that Geography test in a few minutes."
"Oh, great," Yang said. "I forgot to study!" The unstated attachment to that was 'so I'm gonna sit next to Pyrrha and nonchalantly copy her answers and hope Port doesn't notice.'
"I'm ready, I guess!" Ruby said. "It shouldn't be that-"
"-TERRIBLE!" Yang shouted. "35 percent?"
"Maybe you shouldn't have copied Pyrrha's answers, then," Blake chided her.
"But she always aces everything! What the hell!?"
"Did you not see how tired she was? She probably B.S.'d her way through the whole test."
"I B.S.'d my way through that whole test," Pyrrha lamented as she stood with the rest of her Advanced Semblance Utilties class -Maddox, his partner Quincy, Lancaster, Nora, Cardin, and a transfer student named Mercury . "Stupid nightmare..."
Maddox patted her on the back. "Hey, it coulda been worse! You coulda... you coulda... ah, yeah, it's bad. But hey, I failed too. Stupid mouse."
"A mouse?" she asked, looking confused.
"Yeah, there was some mouse in the wall between our room and yours. It was making all kinds of racket, kinda ruined my sleep."
"... I don't know of any mouse... I'll be sure to... look for one..." Pyrrha blushed, looking away from him. Maddox sighed, rolling his eyes.
"You usually cut this class, why did you show up today?" Lancaster asked from the other side of him.
"I normally go training with- Oh gods, you're right! Cover for me!" With that, she ran out of the room, leaving Maddox reaching for her, and Lancaster staring at the empty space where she used to be standing.
"The fuck's her problem?" Mercury asked.
"I have no idea," Maddox admitted. "I think she was late for something."
Lancaster is a walking joke, and when someone figures it out, please let me know in a message. I'll give you a virtual cookie.
Anyway, the OC's are mainly showing up just to diversify the cast. Here's the info.
AQUA- Asher Maddox, Quincy Ecro, Umber Kidd, and Andres Teale.
LPLZ (LaPis Lazuli, or, as they will jokingly be called, lolplease/lolplz)- Leif Littleby, Pepper Nicros, Lancaster Raine, Zebulon Raine
