This is a single POV story which deals with Jaune's first term at Beacon. Jaune and the majority of students are aged eighteen rather than 16 and Vale has some resemblances to the UK. In particular drinking is legal at eighteen and there is a college bar. I intend this to be reasonably light hearted.

The formal written letter showing that he had a place at Beacon had now been received at the hotel Jaune and his older sister Amber were staying at in Vale. Big sis had insisted that the word of Professors Ozpin and Port and the message of congratulation on his scroll was sufficient proof but until he had something physical in his hand Jaune had refused to believe that it was true. He was now willing to believe that it was actually happening and had gone out to celebrate and discuss the implications with her.

Amber had first taken him to what passed for a Mistralian restaurant in Vale. All Jaune could say that if this was Mistralian food then the restaurateurs of Ansel had been fooling everyone for the whole of his life. True the portions in Vale were smaller than he was used to, but the tastes were subtler and the ingredients fresher. He had found himself slowing down and savouring each bite. Admittedly Amber had ordered for him and had not let him see the prices, but as she said it was not everyday she could celebrate with her younger brother his acceptance into Beacon.

Amber was known by the proprietor and if this was somewhere she was a regular, it was clear that the pay for a huntress who had been a semi-finalist and a losing finalist at her two Vytal festivals was very good indeed.

After the first toast and after savouring the amuse bouche and buttering the bread rolls, she had handed him a separate letter from Beacon. He opened it and found it was from the deputy headmistress who was called Goodwitch. There was a rather pro forma sentence congratulating him on being admitted to Beacon. The bulk of the letter set out the extra classes that he would need to take to reflect the fact that he had missed all but one term of combat school. Most of these he would be taking with the mustang students and other students with unorthodox backgrounds.

Generally, mustangs were in their early twenties and had served as guards, soldiers or escorts. Most had left school at 14 or 16 and taken security jobs. Often their aura had been unlocked involuntarily or by a hunter when the convoy they were in had been under threat. It gave them a chance to learn the theory and to have a better standard of living. Graduate hunters and huntresses earned a lot more respect and money than security guards. Most head of security positions at SDC, Atlas Gold and the multi-Kingdoms were filled by Mustang graduates of the Academies.

Amber said, "Your time with mother at the Ansel LGDF will be useful in your second and third years and this year you will find the basic Grimm classes simplistic. You should expect the other mustangs to catch up quicker than you do. They are generally offered places six months in advance and most employers allow them time off for studies against a promise of working for them in the school holidays."

Jaune gulped. He knew that even Lavender after two years at Ansel Combat school knew a lot of things that he did not. He also knew that she occasionally complained that the teachers hushed her when she started raising practical points which she had learnt listening to mom, dad and Amber discussing things at breakfast and dinner.

Amber

She had then taken him to a night club called Junior's Club Mistralian. She had chosen a balcony table and ordered a bottle of wine. She had pointed out two girls who were apparently the youngest daughters of one of Mistral's most notorious crime bosses and who seemed to be acting as a combination of hostess and bouncer. He wondered what she was trying to show him. He doubted that she was trying to hint to him that she was as wild as the twins and guessed that she was trying to hint to him that there were lots of misconceptions about Mistral in Vale. Certainly, the night club had a vibe of gangster chic.

Whatever she had been up to, clearly things turned out differently to how she had expected. First, she had been distracted when she had seen a man dressed in a white jacket with a distinctive hat talking to the proprietor of the club. She had eventually shaken her head and muttered something along the lines that it must be a superficial resemblance.

Five minutes later she had stared as a young blonde woman had stridden across the ground floor and engaged the large man in conversation. Suddenly she had drained her glass of wine, grabbed Jaune and told him that they should leave. She clearly had spotted something, as within two minutes of leaving it sounded as though an all-out battle had broken out behind him. She picked up her scroll and seconds later said, "Qrow, someone who looks like your niece had just started a bar fight at Junior's. I think you will need Lee and Glynda to sort out the mess."

A few minutes later her scroll buzzed, and she answered it. Jaune could see the screen and he saw an angry looking woman with glasses. Amber had said that she had left because she did not want her parents to know that Jaune had been in a night club and that as her family was from Mistral she was not going to interfere in a disagreement involving the daughters of the spider and the blackbird but had warned Qrow as a courtesy. The woman had grimaced and said that she would be there shortly.

It amused him slightly as Amber had always said when she came back to Ansel that Vale was a safer and more law abiding than Mistral City. This was only compounded when twenty minutes later, as they were approaching the hotel, they saw in the sky a few blocks away fireballs and ice missiles being exchanged and finally saw a badly dented bullhead breaking all conceivable regulations flying low towards the east of Vale.

At this point Amber proved her basic humanity by bursting into laughter. "OK, normally Vale is more law abiding than Mistral City. I am tempted to blame this on the semblance of a friend of mine who I know is in town."

They got back to the hotel and shared a bottle of wine at the hotel bar before going to bed.

Next morning, he showered and packed his bags. Annoyingly, he spilled his coffee on his pyjamas. Still, he did have the jokey gift from Lavender to wear and tonight he would go to the bathroom before changing into his night clothes.

He joined Amber at breakfast where she had ordered them both full Vale breakfasts. This seemed much the same as a full Mistralian except that there was a sliver of something called black pudding and potatoes rather than hash browns.

He struggled to do justice to his breakfast. He was nervous about meeting the other students and whether they would look down on him for not having been to combat school or served a full apprenticeship to be a mustang. He was also worried about initiation and what he would tell his parents.

Luckily Amber was a dutiful sister and tried to pre-empt his concerns. She said to him, "I want you concentrated on initiation and settling in at Beacon. I will deal with the family. We still have three days before they expect you back home in Ansel. If you let me know when you have passed initiation and that you are on a team, I will contact mother at work. She will be OK about it, and she can tell Dad and Lavender. Dad is used to being annoyed with me and let's allow him to blame me for hijacking you and calling in favours at Beacon. I will also tell Saphron about things, but only after I have spoken to mother. I think we rely on Lavender and Mother sending the rest of your clothes and weapons on."

Jaune nodded. "Thanks, big sis. I owe you."

She laughed, "Fine, pay me back by surviving initiation." She reached under her chair and handed Jaune something which looked like a rucksack.

"My friend Qrow warned me that the stories about initiation at beacon are not exaggerated. While for jumping out of bullheads, your tactic of burning up part of your ludicrously excessive aura is fine, they catapult you off a cliff to disorientate you. Here is a parachute. I have checked it myself and it is not an Atlas Gold or White Fang special."

Jaune grimaced at the reference but responded by hugging his sister. "You're the best. Thanks for everything."

She then explained how the parachute worked which took up most of the rest of breakfast. The distraction helped his appetite, and he finished his plate.

An hour later they were in a taxi to Pharos Combat School. For some reason the shuttles to Beacon were leaving from there rather than the main airport. They were nearly there when police cars with sirens blaring overtook them with three black cars being escorted by them in between the cars.

The taxi driver said, "Sorry about that. Atlas diplomatic plates. Must be some bigwig in there who thinks the White Fang have a real presence here or is just waving his willy."

Amber sniggered. She was not a fan of the Atlas military or multi-Kingdoms. She dropped him off at the gate and paid the taxi off.

She turned to him after looking around. She said, "I won't do what dad did when he first dropped me off at Haven ten years ago. I am not going to check that you have no smudges on your cheek and that your zip is not flying at half-mast. You can do that for yourself. We have already double checked that you have your documentation and Crocea Murs."

He laughed and shook her hand. He picked up his luggage and walked towards the gates. Pharos Combat School was an impressive building. Apparently it was the best endowed Combat school in Vale and only the Argus and Mistral City combat schools rivalled it in Mistral. The old cliché about ivy covered walls and spacious green sports fields appeared true.

There were a couple of huntsmen at the gate who nodded him through to a table where two students were sitting. At least he assumed that they were students as they were dressed in the school uniform. They checked his ID and ticked his name off on the list. They told him that he was on the second flight. They then gave him an orientation pack, a ticket for the flight and a receipt for his case and parachute. They forbear asking why he had so little luggage on him or querying the parachute. It was not until he had left them that he realised that one of the students had been blind and was clearly from the desert region of Vacuo. The man apologised for there being no list of students in the orientation pack but apparently the names had only been finalised a few hours ago and would be handed out after the headmaster's welcome speech when they would receive their weapon locker numbers.

He then realised that he had left his travel sickness pills back at the hotel. Still, it was only a short flight. He should be able to hold out for ten minutes.

A young woman perhaps around five foot four came up to him. She was dressed demurely and wore baggy trousers. "My name is Anne Harker. I am in the same boat as you Jaune. We are two of Ozpin's wild cards. I come from Vale. Bart – Dr Oobleck suggested that we could help each other introduce ourselves to the other students."

The voice was polite and educated but there was the sense that the woman was speaking carefully. He wondered whether she had perhaps had extensive elocution lessons. This often happened when young people from Ansel province went to Mistral City to have careers in government and business. They tried to lose their local accents which they felt were looked down in the capital. Jaune had never had a strong local accent mainly because his mother had come from Mistral City herself and had taught him and his sisters how to talk. While Saphron had been bullied at school, after Amber had gone through the system the people of Ansel had learnt that the inevitable retribution meant that the rest of the sisters were safe. Lavender had apparently mastered the art of speaking with a different accent at school and home

Jaune asked, "Wild cards?"

"Ozpin is allowed to choose up to four students a year who do not come through the Combat school or Mustang entry routes. He left it late for three of them this year including you."

Jaune nodded at this. "Welcome fellow wild card. Do you know who the others are?"

Anne pointed towards a girl dressed in black and white who was reading a book and drinking coffee. She oddly had a black bow on her head. She took Jaune over to her. "Blair Nightshade, meet Jaune Arc. He is one of the other two jokers in the pack. He is also from Mistral."

Jaune bowed and put out his hand. "My name is jaune. It is good to meet you. Dad always says that strangers are only friends whom you haven't met." Blair looked up at him and he could have sworn the bow twitched.

She said, "Good to meet you Jaune Arc. I am afraid I have a headache at the moment and would prefer to be left alone for the time being." She then returned to the book.

Anne led him away. "I'm afraid she keeps herself to herself. As of last night, there was not a fourth, but Professor Goodwitch told me that the vacancy has now been filled. She did not seem very pleased."

"Do you know many of the other students?"

"Not really. I know of some of the ones from Vale and I have listened in on the conversations of some of the groups. I am told that one of the reasons they do their best to randomise the teams is to reduce the temptation for old cliques to stay together."

He had his first look at his fellow students. Many were clustered in groups.

He said, "What can you tell me about them?"

"Obviously the majority of students come from Vale. These tend to be flocking around their friends or at least people they know from the same Combat school."

One group surrounded a muscular, confident looking man of his own age with a mace on his back and a slightly smaller man who clearly hung on the bigger person's words. The group was mostly male and there were no Faunus among them. Jaune could sense the testosterone from twenty yards. He looked at his companion who said, "That's one clique of students from Pharos. The only ones who I know of are Cardin Winchester and Dove Bronzewing who are at the centre of the group. Cardin was head boy there last year. Their fathers are politicians. Cardin's wider family is wealthy."

She paused, "That's all in the public domain." Jaune got the sense that the woman did not like what she had heard about them but was not going to repeat gossip. Just then he saw a man in the Academy uniform join the group.

Anne whispered to him. "Two of the second-year teams have come back early to help with initiation. Six of them are down here for the moment."

Another group mostly consisting of women surrounded another of the second-year students, but the loudest member was a tall blonde girl who reminded him of the twins. The new students and indeed the second-year chaperone were shaking their heads with disbelief at some story she was telling them. He heard the words, "Oh. My. Gods. Yang, only you could get in detention before you even started at Beacon." Now the girl definitely reminded him of the twins, and he realised that he had seen her last night at the club. He noted that there were a few Faunus amongst the crowd surrounding her. The blonde laughed and said, "Luckily dad was distracted by the fact that Ruby was taken to the police station for being at the scene of a crime." The second year said, "Ruby committing a crime? No way, Yang. You are yanking my chain."

"I never said she committed the crime. She tried to stop it by fighting six goons and Roman Torchwick. I owe her one for distracting dad and Goodbitch."

Another chorus of "Oh. My. Gods." Whether this was because of the story or the use of an obviously rude nickname.

Anne whispered to him. "They are all from Signal. The loudest one is Yang Xiao Long." She paused, "Her father is a teacher at Signal and was also a member of a two-time Vytal Festival winning team. I have been warned not to ask about her mother"

A third group was centred on a tall brunette who was wearing trousers, a tweed jacket and a waistcoat and carrying what looked like a golf bag. The group was around one third Faunus and this fact seemed to encourage unattached Faunus to hover around the group. What really took him aback was that there was a human girl and a Faunus boy holding hands together. He could tell that he was not in Mistral anymore. Well at least not in Ansel and certainly not Kulsa. He whispered to Anne. "Where do they come from?"

"Pharos as well. The tall brunette is called Lydia Travers. She is Cardin's cousin."

Jaune noted that the two Pharos groups were standing as far as they could from each other

There was another group who clearly consisted of Mustangs. They were older than the rest of them and looked like the sort of people his mother would employ in the Ansel Local Grimm Defence Force for routine patrol duties or would consult with at the mines, airports, and weapon factories. He did not recognise any of them. He had been told that Beacon had the largest proportion of Mustangs of any academy.

There was a very odd group of three by themselves. There was a young man with a ridiculous haircut and wearing clothing which clearly marked him out as coming from Vacuo. His companions were a tall, slim man of the same age as Jaune who was impeccably dressed and who wore a monocle. He looked like he had wandered in off the set of an old movie. The third man was a few years older and to judge from the ears was a feline Faunus of some description. Apart from the white linen suit and tie he looked from his bronzed complexion as though he also came from Vacuo. Presumably, a mustang of some description.

Jaune tried to weave a story around how the three of them knew each other. He gave up and nudged Anne. "Any idea about those three?"

Anne laughed. "One is a celebrity of sorts. The Honourable Brede Campion from one of the Atlas elite families. The other two are from Vacuo. The one with the hair is from the Mohawk tribe and the other is a mustang who to judge by the accent worked with the Atlas military."

Anne looked around and said, "Do you want to say hello to some of your fellow Mistralians?" She pointed to a group of three people standing together. One was clearly from the far west of Mistral and had a dignified look about him. A second was a short and hyperactive girl who seemed to be speaking constantly. A third had dark blue hair and was dressed smartly in what Jaune could identify as the latest Mistral City fashions.

He nodded walked towards the group and once he was certain that they were Mistralian strode up to the quiet looking man. "Hello, my name is Jaune Arc. I come from Ansel. I'm glad to meet you. This is our fellow student Anne Harker from Vale."

The quiet man bowed, "Lie Ren. This is my friend Nora." He did not mention his hometown and Jaune knew better than to pry. So much of western Mistral was now controlled by the Grimm or the Branwen tribe and this was not a fact which anyone in polite society liked to mention.

The small active girl said, "It's good to meet you, Jaune. I'm Nora Valkyrie. I'm with Ren. Not with/with, but we have been best friends for ten years and were at the orphanage together."

He sensed the girl behind him react to this. Nora then continued," Is Claire Arc any relation?"

Jaune was taken aback. He was used to people mentioning other family members, but it was normally dad, Amber, or the twins who people knew. "Yes, she's my mother. How do you know her?"

The girl said, "She gave a talk to our combat school last year about working for the Ansel LGDF. She made it sound exciting and worthwhile. She stressed that they are the first line of defence against the Grimm and the work they do keeping Grimm numbers under control."

Ren said, "She was impressive."

Jaune smiled at this, "I have worked with her for two years and she really believes in the LGDF."

The blue haired student offered his hand. "Sky Lark from Mistral. I don't remember meeting you at the Combat School championships and you look a little young to be a Mustang."

Jaune knew that this question was going to come up and had prepared an answer. "I didn't attend combat school. My aura was not unlocked until six months ago."

Sky reddened. "Sorry, that was a crass question. I did not mean to imply that you should not be here. I was simply curious. Perhaps we can talk about those things when we get to know each other better."

"No problem, Sky. No doubt all of us will be asked why we are not attending Haven over the next few days."

Sky said, "Avoiding been beaten up on a regular basis by Pyrrha is the reason I am going to give."

Nora said, "Don't worry, I am around to break your legs instead."

"At least it will be a new experience for me."

Ren looked at Jaune and gave a wry half-smile. "Don't worry. She's joking."

Sky Lark said, "Not entirely. She is certainly capable of it. Best to call quits just before your aura hits 15% when fighting these two. They were the Mistral Combat Schools doubles champions."

Jaune looked at the two with more respect.

Sky asked, "Do you know why we are setting out from Pharos and not the main airport?"

Anne Harker said "Security concerns. It is known that Adam Taurus has moved his base of operations to Vale. There are some wild rumours about the identity of some of our fellow students which if true would make an attack on the transports very tempting to him."

Jaune scowled at this. Adam Taurus was one of the three most notorious terrorists who belonged to the White Fang. Adam Taurus was the most ruthless and feared and had specialised in attacks on mines, infrastructure, police stations, and distribution networks in Mistral. His only rival as public enemy number one was called the Sandman whose forte was kidnappings and assassinations. Ironically one of his or her more outrageous attacks had indirectly resulted in Jaune being about to become a student at Beacon.

Nora said, "Wild rumours are the best. Can you share them?"

Anne checked her scroll. "I think I can now as they have closed the gates. The first is that Pyrrha Nikos is coming here rather than Haven. The other is that Weiss Schnee is also enrolling."

Jaune felt that he should know the first name, but the second one was instantly recognisable. Lavender played the three Weiss Schnee albums constantly and eventually Jaune had got to share her enthusiasm. She was also the sister of Winter Schnee who had defeated Amber in both of her Vytal festivals.

Amber was touchy on the subject of Winter Schnee. It boiled down to the fact that they respected each other as fighters but could not stand each other as people. Dad's theory was that Winter had hoped to become Vytal Festival champion without using her semblance in battle and Amber was the only fighter good enough to force her to do so. Amber had been embarrassed by her reaction to Winter bringing out the Manticore as lip readers throughout Remnant had claimed that her reaction had been "You have got to be fracking kidding me." Mother's theory was that Amber had never held back in her opinion that the SDC and the other multi-Kingdoms were criminal organisations and that Winter had resented being blamed for the acts of her father.

Sky said, "That would account for it. There has been a lot of security around the Atlas embassy for the last few days. Weiss Schnee would be a prime assassination or kidnap target for the White Fang."

Anne said, "There were a lot of men in dark suits wearing earpieces and dark glasses around this morning, so I suppose that it makes sense."

There was an announcement that the first shuttle was ready for boarding. Anne nodded at them and said, "Time to leave for my flight. It was good to meet you all. See you at Beacon."

Jaune was amused to see that the predominantly male and totally human Pharos group were all on the first flight and that none of the mixed group was. He wondered whether it was deliberate or not and if so how bad the cliques were. When the twins had been at Ansel Combat School they had insisted on analysing to an unbelievable degree the in-fighting among the students and their own role in stirring up trouble, but it had never been the case that the factions had totally ignored each other. The two students who had processed them were on the first flight. He checked with his fellow Mistralians, and they were on the third shuttle.

Just then there was loud yelp from the Signal group. The blonde had shouted "Rubes, what are you doing here?"

Jaune had looked round and saw that a small girl with black hair was being grappled by the blonde. The girl looked to be around the same height as Lavender and was dressed in a mixture of black and red. He could not hear the girl's response, but it was easy to work out what it must have been as the blonde announced that she was delighted to be going to Beacon with her sister.

Nora remarked that it was good to see that at least one student would be as short as her. Sky said something along the lines that he had always thought it was unfair that she had not been allowed to compete in the Mistral Regionals because she was allegedly too short. The two friends did not respond to the comment, but instead watched (as did most of the rest of those waiting for the shuttles) as the embarrassed smaller sister fought for air.

Jaune wondered if the girl weaponised her cuddles in the same way as the twins had done. There were downsides to being the only boy in the family and his twin sisters pushing his head into their chests had been one of the more soul scarring memories. They were four years older than him and had both been tall and well developed when they reached fifteen and he was eleven.

At this stage a tall man wearing the Academy uniform joined the group. He was obviously from West Mistral and the four of them greeted him. He introduced himself. "Hello, my name is Yatsuhashi Daichi. Welcome to Beacon. It's a great academy, but two words of warning. The attitudes towards Faunus are very different from Mistral and it is easy to get it wrong here. There will also be an assumption amongst Faunus students that if you come from Mistral you are going to talk about the good old days, call them boy or gal and sing Misty at any opportunity."

Jaune nodded. Amber had warned him about the same thing. He hoped that his time with the Ansel LGDF meant that he would not make the mistakes which the man was warning them about, but the warning that he might also be prejudged was worth hearing.

Sky ignored the advice but asked Yatsuhashi "Are the rumours about Pyrrha Nikos and Weiss Schnee true?"

The man hummed and hawed, and used the formula, "I know of nothing to suggest that the rumours are incorrect, but let's see."

Just then an announcement was made that the second shuttle would be boarding in a few minutes. Jaune prepared for boarding and as he said his "See you soon" to the other three, Yatsuhashi said that he was joining the shuttle as escort.

As they approached the shuttle, the man discretely passed him some paper bags. "I know your sister from home. She asked me to make certain that you had these to hand and to make certain that you knew where the toilets were."

The man smiled. "Motion sickness is nothing to be ashamed of. Dr Tsune recommends a treatment of hypnosis and it certainly worked for a couple of the students in my year."

Some of you may recognise some of the world building from my earlier stories under the Muskrat 2 name, but I will be changing details. In addition, some events in those stories will not become known to Jaune or he will get the wrong end of the stick. Jaune's view will be honest but unreliable because of ignorance. There is no need to have read those other stories to enjoy this.