If Weiss had to describe the way her summer went, she would say it was one of the better summers that she had. She managed to impress most of the team with her talent in their sport of choice, she made friends with Pyrrha, Blake, Yang and a few other members of the team, and in her spare time, she managed to read through three books that she had been looking to read for quite some time now. All in all, Weiss had a great summer given all that happened.
Despite that though, Weiss still had trouble with quite a few members of the team. She's attempted to work with them and compromise on most issues, but often times it doesn't end well and she's back to square one. Little by little though, she's managed to break through to most of the team and earn their respect, even if a few of them have their doubts about her.
During practice though, she's dead focused on the moment. She managed to learn that she works really well and often makes great plays with Pyrrha or Blake, and on defense, she helps make it easier for Neo to hold the line and keep everything from getting to Yang in the first place. While it doesn't always work out, every little bit helps the team in the end.
Everyone seemed to notice that too, especially Pyrrha. She realized that Weiss has inadvertently become a key player in their lineup, one that had a high standard set on herself more than anyone else. During practice, Pyrrha noticed the subtle expressions of frustration that Weiss made whenever she erred, or she would always push herself to the limit at every chance she got. It surprised her that Weiss put that much pressure on herself, but she realized that Weiss just had high standards for herself, and that she hated not reaching them.
It didn't seem that much of a surprise that Pyrrha almost didn't hear her own name get called by the coach. When she turned to address her, the coach waved her over. "We're ending practice early today, and I need to speak with you about a few things before I say who's officially starting," The coach said when Pyrrha reached her. "Let everyone know about this and then head to my office. Have Blake make sure that no one leaves until I give the ok to do so." With that, the coach started to walk towards the school. Since the coach was one of the teachers, she had a classroom that also acted like an office for when she needed to do speak with students who were on the soccer team as well.
Pyrrha turned out towards everyone and whistled to all of them. When she had enough people's attention, she waved for them to all gather around her. Pyrrha waited until they all had gotten comfortable enough and then began to speak. "So, coach is calling practice early," Pyrrha started, earning a bit of a cheer from her teammates. "However, she doesn't want anyone to leave just yet. I'm going to go talk to her about a few last minute details and then we'll be discussing the starting lineup for the season. So just sit tight while we go take care of that."
Pyrrha had already taken off her cleats and replaced them with her normal shoes while she waited for people to walk over. Making her way over to the school, she could hear multiple conversations going on behind her at the news that practice was ended. Everyone was excited and nervous about who would be starting for the season and rightfully so. Pyrrha knew that some players were guaranteed to start, like herself, Blake and Yang, but some didn't know if they were going to or not. Neo didn't know even though she was a great player, and Weiss definitely didn't believe that she was going to be starting because of the way some people on the team think of her.
As she walked into the building, Pyrrha realized that there was so much that could be different than what she believed should happen. She believed that Neo should get a starting position and she believed that Weiss should get a starting position as well. Whether or not the coach goes with it is another story, but thankfully she did have some say in the matter since she was one of the captains. No matter what though, it would be hard to convince her coach, Glynda Goodwitch, of allowing Weiss to start if she said no.
Upon arriving at Goodwitch's office, she moved a chair over to her desk and sat on the other side of it. "Well Pyrrha, we definitely have quite a season ahead of us," She said.
"Indeed we do, but I think we can go pretty far this year," Pyrrha responded.
"Yes, we do have quite a talented roster this year," Goodwitch said. "Speaking of which, I wanted to gather your opinion on one of the students, particularly one Weiss Schnee." Pyrrha had a sneaking suspicion that the conversation was about her from the start.
"Well, what do you want to talk about specifically?" Pyrrha asked.
Goodwitch stood up from her desk and walked over to the window. She stared out of it for a few moments before saying anything to Pyrrha at all. "Miss Schnee has definitely shown talent on the field, that is most certain, however I do have some concerns about her that I was hoping to gather your opinion on."
"Like what exactly?" Pyrrha asked yet again, turning in her chair so that she was facing Goodwitch.
"Specifically her attitude. She has often butted heads with many of the other players and while I have noticed an improvement over the summer, I feel as though this may cause some problems during an actual game," Goodwitch mentioned. "What I want to know, is your honest opinion of Miss Schnee, and how you feel about her being on the team."
"Well, if you were to ask me, I'd say that Weiss is one of the most talented players on this team, possibly even the most. While she sometimes butts heads with people, during a game or during a practice scrimmage, she's always focused on the game itself and never gets mad at anyone during the game. She keeps her comments off to the sideline and off the field during the moment and she says things in a way that is meant to help with improvement, even if the way she says it isn't the best," Pyrrha stated confidently.
"So you believe that Miss Schnee is a benefit to this team?"
Pyrrha nodded emphatically. "Yes, I do believe that she is a benefit to the team, and if you ask me, I believe that she be allowed one of the starting positions because of that."
Goodwitch stood there for a moment, thinking about what she just heard from her captain. "Very well then, thank you for your opinion on the matter, now I believe that it is time to inform the team of who is starting," Goodwitch said as she walked towards the door. "I believe this will be an interesting year no doubt." That part, she whispered to herself.
Outside on the field, Weiss sat mostly by herself while she waited for the coach to return. A few of the players passed a ball between them to pass the time, while most of the others had gotten out of their cleats and were just waiting to get going. Weiss however, decided to just lay down and relax for a bit.
"You enjoying yourself there Weiss?"
And there went Weiss relaxation by herself. She looked up to see Blake and Yang taking a seat next to her, looking in the mood to chat. "I was enjoying some peace and quiet thank you very much," Weiss said.
"Yeah, you seem to do that quite a bit if you ask me," Yang said.
Blake shook her head at the blonde's comment. "What my brutish friend here is trying to say, is that you seem to spend most of your time by yourself. You know that we're always willing to chat if you want," Blake said.
I'm well aware of that, I just like to be alone."
"Do you not like us or something?" Yang asked when Weiss said that.
That got Weiss to sit up. "Why on earth would you think that?"
"Because you just said you like to be alone. We figured if we're your friends then you would want to talk to us or hang out with us," Yang asked.
"Yang, sometimes you're too blunt for your own good," Blake said to Yang, before turning her attention to Weiss. "Look, we just want to know if we should keep trying to be your friends or not."
"Now who's being too blunt?" Yang said softly so that no one could hear her. Despite that, Blake still gave her a death glare.
Weiss watch the interaction between them with care. She had to admit that she had become friends with the blonde and black haired girls talking to her, though she never outright said anything about it. "If you must know, I do consider the two of you friends, it's just that I'm also not used to having many friends, so you'll forgive me if I act a certain way."
"Understandable," Blake said, nodding at Weiss' response. "I'm guessing the same goes for the rest of the team, you consider them friends, or at least acquaintances that you work with and tolerate."
Nodding, Weiss showed her opinion on the rest of the team. "Quite honestly, there is still a lot of room for improvement from the team. Everyone has faults of some kind, including myself."
Yang nodded at that statement. "Yeah, though you could go about showing it in a much nicer way."
Blake agreed with Yang on that. "I'm with Yang on this, directly telling them that something is wrong doesn't really solve anything if you ask me."
"I disagree," Weiss said. When Blake and Yang looked at her, she continued. "I know that I'm not going to be very liked over this, but I'm doing what's best for the team. The only way to improve anything, is to first admit that something is wrong."
Blake seemed to get what Weiss meant by that. "I guess you have a point on that one. In any case, you don't have to worry about being alone or quiet about things anymore, we're your friends after all."
Weiss was glad to admit that was true. "True enough," Weiss said. "Though I do have to admit, your friend Neo is much quieter than I am."
"Yeah, she never says anything at all, no matter how much we try to talk to her," Blake said.
"Doesn't stop her from being really friendly and cute though," Yang said back to her.
Blake could only shake her head at that. "You're still on about that Yang? How long have you had that damn crush on the girl now, 2 years?"
"Wait, what's going on?" Weiss asked.
"It's nothing important," Yang tried to say, hoping it would stop there.
"Yang has a crush on Neo, only problem is that because Neo never says anything, Yang feels like she can't say anything to her about it without things getting awkward between the two of them," Blake said.
"Hmm, well let me see if I can talk to her," Weiss said, an idea formulating in her head.
"Don't know much of what it'll do, but I figure that it doesn't hurt to try," Yang said. She turned towards Neo and gestured for her to come over.
Once she sat down, she said nothing, instead waiting for someone else to speak. Weiss however, didn't say anything, and instead made some gestures with her hands, ones that Neo seemed to understand completely. She returned the gestures with some of her own, and silently the two of them seemed to have a conversation.
Blake and Yang didn't have any idea what was happening, but the sudden giggling from Weiss and Neo seemed to indicate that something had worked. "Weiss, what the hell did you do?" Yang asked.
"Figured out why Neo never says anything. She's mute, meaning that she literally can't talk at all. Fortunately for you guys, I happen to know sign language, and so that's how I figured it out. We actually just had a lovely conversation. Right Neo?" Weiss asked.
-That's right,- Neo signed to Weiss.
"She can hear us just fine, it's just that she can't say anything back to us is where the problem lies," Weiss said. She turned her attention back to Neo and began to sign to her. -Some people just don't understand how complex and beautiful sign language is if you ask me.-
-I couldn't agree more,-
Before the conversation could go any further, Blake noticed that Pyrrha and Coach Goodwitch were returning. Standing up she called out to everyone to huddle up. Once everyone was there, Goodwitch spoke up.
"Thank you, Blake. Now ladies, as you all know, our first game of the season is on tuesday, which also happens to be the first day of school. Since we have a few days until then, take this opportunity to rest up and prepare for the game. On monday, we'll hold a very light practice so that no one forgets the what we went over during the summer," Goodwitch said.
"Also if anyone wants to do so, I'll be holding a get-together over the weekend so that we can have a day where we can all bond with each other, without having to worry about practice," Pyrrha cut in.
"That seems like an excellent idea, Pyrrha," Goodwitch responded. "Now, the main reason I had you all stick around was because I'm going to be announcing the starting lineup for our games. First and foremost, our starting goalkeeper, is Yang Xiao Long."
Upon hearing her name, Yang let out a strange cry of joy. After receiving some weird looks she rubbed the back of her head with her hand. "Hehe, sorry bout that," She said. Despite that, she managed to receive a chuckle from Neo, which put a smile on the blondes face.
"Anyway, our starting forwards are going to be Pyrrha Nikos on right forward, and Rebecca Amethyst on left forward," Goodwitch said. Pyrrha gave a smile upon hearing her name being called. "Our wings are going to be Blake Belladonna on right win, and Jade Ridout on left wing." When she heard her name, Blake held her fist out to Yang and the two of them bumped fists together.
"Now, defensively, our defense is going consist of, Taylor Myhrr on left, Meg Parsely on right, and Neopolitan Torchwick on center defense," Goodwitch continued. Upon hearing her name, Neo looked shocked that she was called to be one of the starters. Yang, who was sitting next to her, pulled Neo into a one armed hug and gave the girl a thumbs up, earning a blush from the multi-color-haired girl.
"Lastly, for our midfielders, we will be starting Hannah Parsely on left mid, Tamara Sage on right mid, and last but not least, Weiss Schnee in center mid."
That was the biggest shock of them all. Everyone except for Pyrrha didn't know whether she would be starting or not, and so they left it up to chance. While most of the team didn't mind it, a few players thought it was going to be a poor decision, though they were mostly first year students who worked hard to get a position only to come up with nothing.
"Thank you all for a wonderful summer, and I will see everyone on monday. You are dismissed," Goodwitch said, letting everyone go about their own way now.
"Congrats Weiss, and congrats to you too Neo. Glad to see all that hard work the two of you put in was worth it," Blake said.
"I'm quite surprised I'm even starting right now if you ask me. I figured my knack for getting on people's nerves would keep that from me," Weiss said.
Pyrrha walked over to Weiss and gave her a smile. "Weiss, you worked hard to get that position, so it shouldn't be a shock that you got it," She said to the white haired girl. "You of all people deserve that spot." Pyrrha gathered her things together and looked to head out, only to be stopped by Weiss before she could get to her car.
"Pyrrha, I," Weiss began, pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts. "Thanks, for helping make this summer a great time for me. I was hoping that maybe once school started up, we could start to hang out more often, you, me, Blake and Yang."
Pyrrha smiled and placed her hand on Weiss' shoulder. "Sure thing, you're more than welcome to join us. You'll have to meet the rest of the gang but I doubt that'll be an issue." Pyrrha climbed into her car and started the engine. "Anyway, I gotta get going, hopefully I'll see you on saturday, and if not then I'll see you on monday." Pyrrha said, waving goodbye to Weiss.
"See you later," Weiss said. Once she did, Pyrrha drove off towards home. Weiss walked over to meet with her father and climbed into her own car, ready to be whisked away by him so they could go home.
AN: Welp, now were going to be getting into the good stuff soon. First things first, I want to point out my theory on the Neo/Roman relationship. I seriously think that they're like father and daughter so that's why I put that as I did in here.
Also, those extra characters won't be included, but for a few of them, shout out to some of my OC's from other stories, and friends of mine.
Yes, I am including Baked Alaska into the story, I know, I have written one of the "Trash Ships" of RWBY, and honestly, I don't care that I did. It seemed appropriate here and I felt like doing so.
Anyway, this story has already done better than I thought it would for being the ship that it is, so props to you guys who loved the story so far. I promise that it'll get better and better.