*Beacon academy mess hall*
The redhead could not help but feel self conscious during the night, something understandable when most of the guys present could not decide whether to stare at her, at the guy that didn't give a shit about sporting wings, at the girl that looked like she wanted to flirt with everyone, and at Pyrrha Nikos.
Some of the students had already gone to sleep, the guy dressed in green and his hyper friend, for one, a big muscled guy, Alexander as well as Grant had already gone down. There were some that seemed like they would not go to sleep during the night, the girl with the black bow, for example, and some guy that looked like he had come out of a punk band.
"Just relax, no point on stressing over what will happen tomorrow," Leon, who had decided to stay by her, said, "Take a deep breath, and sleep"
"Let's see you do it," She mumbled under her breath, managing to do it quiet enough so that he wouldn't hear it.
Nonetheless she lay down on her mat and tried to sleep for a good thirty minutes, only glare at the ceiling when she realized that it would not come yet, and scowling when she realized that Leon HAD actually managed to fall asleep.
"You can't sleep either, huh?" She looked at the girl with the red pyjamas, "I'm too nervous about team placement."
"I'm more worried if I'm going to make the cut" she confessed to the younger girl, "Especially with the little control I have over my aura"
"At least you're not two years younger than everyone here," Red said, and she had to concede the point, "I feel like the kid that just transferred to a class where everyone is already advanced."
"You'll do fine, I think," It couldn't hurt to make friends with everyone she could, "Eleanor Burandt, pleased to meet you"
"Ruby Rose" Red, Ruby, introduced herself back, "When do you think we'll get our teams?"
"I don't know," She sighed, "Soon, I guess"
"Yeah," Silence fell, "Well, I'm going with my sister, good night Eleanor," Ruby started to walk away from her.
"Night, Ruby," Perhaps, if she tried hard enough, she could force sleep to come.
Sleep did come, eventually, and she did not remember whether she dreamt of something or not, but all too soon morning came, and with it, the order to go the locker room, where they would do the required calibrations to their assigned weapons locker. Setting up the link between their locker and their scroll, setting the six digit pass-code, and socializing.
"So, shotgun axes?" Leon asked her, "That must have been hard to work out, but then, I can't really talk, with a tonfa in an SMG"
"How does that work?" She asked, "Isn't the grip of the machine gun at the front?"
"Yes, my uncle ran into a lot of trouble, and we needed way too many prototypes," He pulled out the tonfa, and it did not show any inkling of being a gun, "The front grip goes back and folds into the body, while the back grip becomes the handle of the tonfa, though my trigger finger is my pinky in this mode"
"Mine are simple compared to yours," she spun the blades to their shotgun and their dual axe position, "All I have to do is turn them and I'm done, simple is best"
"Don't say they didn't take you time to perfect," Leon glared at her.
"Yes, three months and two tries," She smirked back, "And they've yet to fail me."
"Okay, fine, yours may be simpler.." he was stopped as the blond boy with motion sickness flew past them.
"Sorry!" they heard Pyrrha call out to him, so they looked over, where the champion stood along with a white themed female.
"So, you two ready for today?" Alexander joined them, his own locker on the other side of the room, "I hear we're going to the forest."
"How did you hear that?" Leon asked him, as she nodded to the question.
"The punk guy over there," Here he nodded at the guy hanging out with a man in bulky armour, "Said he saw Goodwitch heading over to the cliff, and the only thing over there is the forest."
"So you're going on what someone else saw?" Eleanor asked.
He shrugged, "It's way better than going in blind"
"You have a point, what do you think we'll have to do?" she asked.
"Search for something is a given," Leon said, "I wonder what for though."
"Don't care, I hope we get to kill some Grimm though, that would be great," Alexander grinned.
"As long as they aren't big, that's okay with me," She replied, because she really did not want to end up on the bad side of a high level Grimm, like a King Tut, or a Nevermore, or Death Stalker, or a Royal Beowolf, those were far out from her level, and no amount of pride would tell her otherwise.
"Come on, Professor Ozpin wouldn't let us fight something bigger than an Ursa," Leon paused, "Would he?"
"Well, that's going to be our job, so I wager he would," Alexander scratched his neck, "Though in a while, I suppose, since most of us are new to hunting Grimm."
"Most of us?" She asked, curious as to whom had not fought Grimm before.
"The kid that flew past us, he doesn't have a fighters feel," He looked around, "You can tell as well with some others, they way they clutch their weapons is wrong, or inexperienced, I've seen it a lot in my cousins"
"How many cousins are we talking about here?" She asked, curious as to the number of people in his family, "Can't be enough for you to know what to look for in newbies."
"It is, actually, my family is big," He leaned back and did maths on his head, "I think we're fifty, all together, from all ages."
"That is a lot, yes."
"Sometimes I joined when they were training, you pick up stuff watching a teacher correct others"
"Students, please report to the cliff for your initiation, please report to the cliff for your initiation," The loud speaker cut off their conversation, and so they left along with all other first years towards the cliff, where no doubt Ozpin and Goodwitch were already waiting.