Author's Note:

Woops! Meant to post this yesterday to keep within a drabble-every-four-days schedule. Oh well! There'll just be less wait until the next chapter!

Since in the R.W.B.Y. timeline there's at least a month between 'Players and Pieces' and 'Jaundice', that leaves me with plenty of wiggle room to play around in...

Suggested by: Author's Original Creation

Drabble location in R.W.B.Y. timeline: Between Volume 1, Episode 10: The Badge and the Burden Part 2 and Episode 11: Jaundice Part 1

Basic Scenario: Nora tries her hand a naming teams

*BOOP*

For as long as she knew him -which was pretty much forever- Ren had been the shining example of a perfect student. As a result, Nora was surprised when Ren set down his pen and sighed during Professor Port's class.

Their mustachioed teacher had gone into another long-winded story about times past; not particularly relevant to the lesson he was currently teaching. It didn't help that it was one of their earlier classes in the day.

Glancing at the notes Ren had been taking and then back at her friend, she noticed the telltale bags under his magenta eyes. He hadn't slept well -again- after Goodwitch had put the freshmen class under an extended sparring session the previous afternoon.

He was still fairing better than others... Nora noted, looking a row below them to where Pyrrha and Jaune were seated. Their 'Fearless Leader' was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion, splitting Pyrrha's focus of being an attentive student with her concern for Jaune.

"Hey Ren," Nora smirked, elbowing him lightly and nodding at their teammates, "Bet you three whole lien that Pyrrha likes Jaune..."

Ren looked up from his notes, taking a moment to process what she had said. He glanced at their teammates and back to her, "Nora..." he raised an eyebrow, "I don't make bets that I can't win."

"Ha!" Nora exclaimed, though the interruption warranted a disapproved throat-clearing from their teacher and a couple of glares from their fellow students.

Waiting a moment, until Professor Port resumed his story, Nora whispered to Ren, "So... how long do you think it'll take?"

Ren sighed, rubbing his eyes in an effort to stay awake, "if it doesn't interfere with our team's performance, then it's not our business."

"You're no fun," Nora pouted, slumping further into her seat.

Ren gave her an odd-look and then his eyes darted to the scribbles on her notebook, "what are you doing?" he pulled it closer to his side of the desk.

"Oh yeah..." Nora straightened up with a smile and scooted next to Ren, "I was coming up with new team names," she pointed to the page with rearrangements of JNPR and RWBY written across it.

Ren blinked once, the strange look remaining on his face.

"Hey! You know I get bored if there isn't fighting or Professor Oobleck in class." Nora snorted, "I wonder if he has like quadruple espresso shots in his thermos..."

"What is this team supposed to be?" Ren tapped his pen at the first line under the Team JNPR rearrangements (PRNJ).

"Team Prune Juice," Nora giggled enthusiastically, "You know, when we're old but still kicking Grimm butt."

Ren face-palmed and bit back a groan; likely picturing the members of their team with white hair and wrinkles, battling Grimm while complaining about their bad backs.

Nora flipped to the next page, "and then I got to thinking... what if Jaune and Ruby took the other relics," she pointed to another column which had rearrangements of RWNR and BYJP.

Ren shook his head, but there was a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"I mean, think about it..." Nora tapped her pen on one of the combos (WNRR), "with Ruby and Weiss... we could've been Team Winner!"

"Two problems with that:" Ren pointed out, "one... I'm pretty sure Ozpin bases our team names off of colours."

"Winner could be a colour." Nora retorted, folding her arms over her chest.

Ren raised an eyebrow instead of answering.

"Gold." Nora stated, as if it were obvious.

Ren rolled his eyes, "And two..." he pointed at the W in WNRR, "with this set-up Weiss would be our leader."

Nora felt the blood drain from her face at the thought. Sure... Weiss was an excellent fighter, as she had demonstrated both during Initiation and in this classroom when Professor Port had matched her up against a Boarbatusk. But she was also... scary.

"Err... never mind then," Nora laughed nervously and forcefully scribbled the team formerly known as WNRR from her notebook.

After a pause, Ren pointed out, "you do realize that there are more possibilities..."

"I know..." Nora shrugged, "I could've added other teams like CRDL; except they're kinda jerks..."

"I mean..." Ren cut in, "if you split the partners up."

"Yeah, but..." Nora's heart sunk and she tried to swallow a lump in her throat, "then... we wouldn't be on a team together..." she ran her hand over the pages of her notebook, unable to look back up at her friend.

Her mind raced at the suggestion. Even if it had only been Ruby and Ren two switch -not even changing the team names- it would change everything! An unexpected feeling of jealousy spiked up at the thought of Ren being surrounded by three attractive girls 24/7.

Why was she feeling this way? Ren was certainly free to like anyone he wanted...

There was no argument as to whether he was handsome; she herself had admitted it on the morning of initiation, although she prayed that he had been still too sleepy to hear half of what she had said.

And it wasn't as if she had "called dibs" on him...

She didn't even remotely know if he had the same feelings for her as she did for him...

"It's a good thing that we had a secret signal," Ren interrupted Nora's train of thought.

Nora glanced back at him, seeing a half-smile on his face, and couldn't help but reciprocate. Reassured by his words she grabbed her pen and tapped on another team combo.

"Wanna know what this one is?" she pointed at Team PBJY.

Ren tilted his head and his eyebrows bunched together; trying to figure out a logical arrangement to the four letters.

Nora giggled, "PB and J... Yang-wich."

Ren groaned, sinking his face into his hands. Nora could tell from the slight shaking of his shoulders that he was fighting back a laugh. After all, he had the reputation as the perfect student to keep...

Author's Note:

Maybe Ozpin drinks so much coffee because he's up all night figuring out team names...