*Author's Note**Yo, Dravyn here. As I said before, this chapter will be skipping ahead to the Jaunedice arc. Now, for those of you unaware, Jaunedice takes place about 2 months after Ruby and Weiss' little heart-to-heart. I think. If I'm wrong about this, please do let me know, okay? But anyhow, this chapter will be set 1 month after the previous chapter. This is to allow me some space to work in more about the main couple later, and also allow me some leeway for a few extra future chapters. Now, because my schedule's been hectic lately, and updating has been difficult, I'm releasing two chapters at once. So the next one will not have an author's note. It will, however, likely still have an afterword. This chapter will be from Jaune's PoV. Without further ado, I bring you chapters 9 and 10, Jaune's Dice*

"Ooooph!"

Jaune was breathing heavily. He had been fighting with Cardin Winchester, one of the largest among freshmen, and was having trouble. Winchester, using his large size to his advantage, was swinging around a heavy mace. Even with Jaune's shield protecting him, he could not handle taking too many of these blows. Giving it his all so far has proven difficult. Jaune had problems with attacking another human, so he was holding back his strikes. Cardin seemed to have no such qualms. Ducking another attempt at his head, Jaune rolled out of the way. Without missing a beat, Winchester swung his arm around, and his Jaune square in the chest with his unarmed hand. On the ground now, he came in for the final blow.

"This is the part where you lose, nerd."

"Over my dead body!"

Ever so happy to oblige, Cardin raised his mace above his head. Right as he was about to swing down on Jaune, he was stopped by Professor Goodwitch.

"Mister Winchester! That is enough!" Skulking off, Ms. Goodwitch addressed the students. "Pay attention students. As you can see, Mr. Arc's aura has dropped to the red. In a tournament style match, this would indicate that he is unable to continue, and that an official can call the match if so inclined." Turning to Jaune, she said, " Mr Arc. It has been weeks now. Please refer to your scroll and pay more attention to when you should attack or defend. We wouldn't want you being eaten by a Beowolf now, would we?"

"Speak for yourself," mumbled Cardin, out of earshot of Professor Goodwitch.

The bell rang, and students began to dissipate. The only ones remaining were Ruby and Pyrrha, both looking down on Jaune with a mixture of sympathy and pity. Ruby was Jaune's friend and leader, so her staying around wasn't unusual. But Pyrrha had been hanging around Jaune a lot more lately. In fact, she had been having lunch with him (and Ruby), walking to and from class with him (and Ruby), and overall just being nicer to him and his team. He chalked this up to her just being a nice person.

Holding her hand out, Jaune accepted Ruby's offer to help him up. Leaning on Ruby's shoulder, Jaune walked with her to the next class. Pyrrha followed them, looking concerned for Jaune.

Later on at dinner, the two teams, RAYR and NNWB, were sitting together and eating their food. In fact, nobody was really eating the same thing. Jaune was picking at some chicken nuggets, Weiss was eating a single apple, and Ruby. Well, she was eating cookies. For dinner. I repeat, cookies! Who eats cookies for dinner?! What kind of sweet tooth does this girl have?

Meanwhile, the hyper one from Noob, Nora, was recounting some tale.

"So, there we were in the middle of the night. . .," she began.

"It was day," interjected Ren.

"We were surrounded by Ursi. . ."

"They were Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!"

"Two of 'em."

"But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"

"She's been having this same dream for the past month." Seriously, how out-of-it is this girl if she can't even remember her own dreams? Her best friend knows her own dreams better than she does. But discounting her rather interesting story, the group seemed cheerful. All except for Jaune.

"Jaune," started Pyrrha, "are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! Why?"

"Well," began Ruby."It's just that you seem a little. . . not okay. . ."

"Guy's, I'm fine. Look, seriously."

"It's just that Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school." Said Cardin was currently picking on a poor faunus girl one table over. The girl, a rabbit-eared faunus by the name Velvet Scarletina, was currently having her ears pulled by Winchester. The rest of his gang of misfits, team CRDL, were busy with name-calling, jeering, and other childish taunts, all towards poor Velvet.

"Jaune, he bullies you."

"Name one time I've been bullied by him."

And so Ruby recounted to Jaune several instances, including Cardin knocking his books out of his hands, activating his shield/sheath to mess with him, and stuffing him into a rocket propelled locker and shooting him into the Emerald Forest. After which, Yang, Pyrrha, Ren, and Blake each gave another example of Cardin's bullying.

"Pssh, bullying! That's just him messing around."

"Jaune. If you need help we're here for you." And Ruby really was. She cared a great deal for her friend, and was troubled to see him go through all of this.

"Ohhhh! I know, I know! We'll break his legs!" With her cheshire grin covering her whole face, Nora jumped up and decided to interject with a rather tempting suggestion. You could almost see the gears turning in everybody's heads. Ruby especially, who looked almost downright diabolical. Jaune remembered Yang saying something about her being good at making weapons. Would that also extend to making explosives?

"Guys, really, it's fine! Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone." As if to prove his point, Cardin and his little gang began to redouble their efforts to cause Velvet as much problems as they could.

"Ugh. Well, my appetite's done for. I'm out."

"Well, this atmosphere is unpleasant. I shall also be leaving."

With this, Yang and Weiss had excused themselves from the table. Following suit were Ren, Nora, and Blake. Still at the table, Jaune was thinking real hard on something. His mind was a whirl of activity. On the outside, Ruby and Pyrrha looked on, worry in their eyes.

And later on that night, after walking with Ruby back to their dorm, Jaune laid down in bed, his mind in turmoil. His team, and his friends, all showing him their support. But to him, it hurt. It hurt that they felt they needed to protect him. It hurt that they felt they needed to help him. It all. Just. Hurt. And so, closing his eyes, he let sleep take him. His dreams were filled with shadows, and pain. And, as they had been for the past several weeks, roses.

*Chapter 9. Well, sorry there wasn't too much difference from the actual episode here. Aside from giving Jaune a better showing in his fight with Cardin, and a little commentary, there really wasn't too much done here. I plan to divide the next chapter into two parts. The first half, from Oobleck's lesson to the rooftop scene, will be from Jaune's PoV. The second half, from the hallway to the Ursa fight, will be from Ruby's PoV. I hope this doesn't confuse any of you. Again, sorry for the lack of deviance in this chapter. See you in chapter 10*