Thank you to everyone who liked and followed the last chapter, I hope I can keep your attention with this and future ones. As always, please enjoy and let me know what you think.
Ruby continued as she had for the past hour and a half - slipping between the auditorium and the world of adventure and danger that her mind liked to travel to. She has tried to stay attentive at first, as always, but eventually the talk of schedules, extra-curriculars and other probably important things wore on her down.
And so here she was once again drifting back and hearing what seemed to be a conclusion to the orientation as the blonde woman who had been speaking shuffled her papers and looked around the room.
"Now, if you have any other questions please feel free to consult the student resource center located next to Scarlatina Hall." She began to move away from the podium but turned back, seeming to have forgotten something. "If you live in the dorm and didn't have the foresight to arrange a room before now, the Dormitory Leader's will be able to assign you one. They should be waiting for your arrival now."
With that said, the woman finished walking off and all of the students began to rise. Ruby joined them but reached under her seat to retrieve the suitcase that she had stashed before the orientation began.
Gripping it and struggling to pull it out from under the seat, Ruby cursed her past self for orchestrating this situation. The students around her gave passing glances, some good humored, others mocking, Ruby didn't care. She did her best to ignore them and continue with her efforts until it eventually popped out.
Ruby's arms flew upward as she continued to grip the handle and she quickly brought them down, a little conscious of how silly THAT actually looked.
With her baggage in tow, Ruby finally joined the procession of other first year students and began to make her way out of the auditorium.
"Here I go again." she muttered to herself as she scanned the myriad of directions her dorm could be in.
Having learned her lesson from the morning though, Ruby quickly found someone who seemed to know where they were going. A rather tall student with the weirdest pink streak in his hair was walking by her with enough determination in his eye that Ruby figured he had to know something...or at least have a real map. Jaune.
"Um, excuse me." Ruby stated, touching his arm.
The guy turned back around and Ruby took a small swallow, meeting new people wasn't the easiest of things for her.
"Could you tell me where building 1301 is?" she asked, her left hand fidgeting with the bottom of her shirt.
"Hm," he seemed to take a moment to process the question "Uh, yeah." His voice was quiet but seemed friendly enough to Ruby. "It's right over there by..."
He cut his answer short as a high pitched yell came towards their direction.
"Reeeeennnnnn!"
The guy cringed slightly as he glanced towards the direction of the call.
"We're gonna be late for the party!"
He sighed and muttered "It's not a party..." before looking back at Ruby. "Sorry, like I was saying, it's just past the fountain over there." He pointed in the distance towards Ruby's least favorite landmark. "Just make a left at the first turn in the walkway and you'll see the building with the number above the entrance."
"Thank you so much." Ruby returned, somehow excited that she actually knew where to go now.
"Yeah, no problem." he smiled back.
"Let's go! Go! Go!" the same voice called growing more excited, and his smile turned into a little smirk.
"I have to go." He said as he turned and began to walk towards the energy.
"Maybe this will all work out after all." Ruby said as she began the trek towards her future room and life.
"I don't think this is gonna work out after all." Professor Ozpin told her as he sipped his coffee across from Weiss in his office.
"Professor please," Weiss weighed in " I've been in two of your classes and have never been late to the class or with an assignment. I'm sure you realize my being late was just some freak occurrence."
She had been nearly forty minutes late in the end and the Professor had not exactly been pleased. Not that he was angry either, Weiss was quick to remind herself, she had never really seen Ozpin angry. He just projected that soul crushing aura of disappointment that parents had perfected millenia ago for their small children.
"I do realize that Miss Schnee." he responded "but we were talking about your schedule not your tardiness to our meeting."
Oh. Her little reunion had clearly affected her thinking if she couldn't even keep up with this conversation.
"I know it may seem a little clustered." she chimed in
"You are taking two more classes than a normal student would in your position," Ozpin was quick to add "along with your TA duties."
Weiss knew he had her there. Perhaps her schedule was a little...ambitious. But given the lack of social activity her first year, she figured the classes would be a good way to occupy herself. And avoid a trip or two home. But now she seemed to be caught and didn't want to admit her true reasons.
"I understand professor." she replied, adopting her polite but professional smile that she had learned early on in her household. "I'll drop a class but would like to continue being your TA."
Ozpin raised his eyebrow at this and took a sip of his coffee, seemingly contemplating her words.
"That will work." he stated as he set his cup down "But if I begin to sense too much stress on you or that you are underperforming, I will find a replacement."
"Thank you Professor, that's completely reasonable."
Weiss stood up and picked up her bag from beside her chair.
"I'll see in two days Miss Schnee." he stated, dismissing her.
"See you then Professor." she replied while exiting the office.
Weiss' short heals cracked down the hall as she made her way out of the building. It was a struggle for her to organize her thoughts as she did this, the events of the day thus far all clouding together.
First, she had woken up late, then ran into Ruby after nine whole years and now she had to figure out which class she would be dropping. All in all, this had been a rather unpleasant day thus far and it was only lunch time.
Lunch. Weiss' stomach grumbled at the idea.
Some take out from her favorite Chinese place was exactly what she needed to turn this day around. A small indulgence to be sure, but treating herself to unhealthy food was something Weiss always found uplifted her spirits.
The campus was relatively small and it had been faster to walk to Ozpin's office, but now she needed to go back towards her dorm and get her car if she wanted to eat.
And so Weiss continued towards the dorms on autopilot, her mind processing all that had happened this morning.
Running into Ruby had been the greatest surprise of the morning, and Weiss regretted her rudeness to her. She had been shocked and then hurt that she recognized Ruby right away but she had apparently forgotten her.
She had always used coldness and her words to keep people at arms distance, ever since her mother died at least. When the accident happened five years ago, any semblance of warmth in her household disappeared. Her father, who had always been mostly absent before, became overbearing in his efforts to compensate for their lost mother. Always demanding more from Weiss and her sister Winter but never being satisfied.
Between all of the schooling and lack of a social life outside of the parties filled with pretension, vultures and false flattery, Weiss had simply given up on other people. She could never tell if they were genuinely interested in her or her position before it was too late. So instead she began to focus on the more important things, like she should be doing now her inner voice chimed in.
All of this self-reflection couldn't be healthy she thought, I need to forget about Ruby and focus on normality- it seemed to have worked for her...
"If you were too stupid to get a room already then yes, you are at the right place."
Ruby stood in front of the makeshift sign in front of her destination and next to a a girl with a scroll who appeared to be a few years older than herself.
She sat with her left leg over her right as she swiped through whatever was on her scroll. She seemed to Ruby much like the white haired girl she had encountered earlier - confident and sophisticated with her fashionable orange shirt with a brown scarf and beret, corset and even sunglasses. Not to mention the various other accessories she seemed to be wearing. Did everyone at this school dress like they were in a freaking magazine Ruby thought to herself and she prepared to speak.
"Excuse me." she ventured quietly, too quietly as the girl was clearly focused on the screen of her scroll.
After a moment of silence, Ruby let out a loud cough that caught the girl's attention. She put down her scroll and lowered her sunglasses to glance up at Ruby.
"Are you stupid?" she questioned, but with a slight smile that betrayed her lack of animosity.
Ruby decided to play along.
"Going by your incredibly professional and well-made sign, yes I suppose I am."
"Great!" the girl replied as she stood up and turned the sign around to reveal the alternate message of "Busy. Come back when I'm not." She began to walk into the building and motioned Ruby to follow.
"I'm Coco, your dorm leader." she spoke while consulting her scroll "I'll be assigning your room and if you ever have issues in the dorms let me know." She handed Ruby a piece of paper that seemed to come from nowhere. "These are the basic rules of living in the dorms, I know you got something similar when you enrolled but these are my rules and breaking one of them will land your ass in a whole more trouble than the ones you got before."
Ruby simply nodded as she scanned the paper and tried to keep up with the increasing pace.
"Now," Coco continued "which room will you be getting?"
They continued to walk while Coco looked through a roster of available rooms before she stopped in front of a staircase.
"Oh yeah." she said as a catlike smile developed on her face "she definitely needs a roommate."
They began to walk up stairs and Coco addressed Ruby directly.
"You'll be on the second floor and I'm sure you'll get along just fine with your roommate."
She stopped abruptly and Ruby nearly tripped over herself trying not to bump into her.
"This is our room." she held out her hand "Scroll please."
Ruby complied and watched as the dorm leader tapped on both of their scrolls.
"This will serve as your room key." she said while handing it back "Now let's meet your new friend."
Ruby took the hint and waved her scroll in front of the door, she heard a click and pulled it open. The two of them entered and a barely audible "aw" came from Coco as they realized that the mystery roommate wasn't here.
"I was really hoping to see her reaction." she explained while turning back towards the door "Oh well, have fun this year and see you around." She walked out the door with her hand in the air in a lazy wave goodbye.
"Okay." Ruby spoke aloud to herself while looking around the room. It consisted of two beds on either side beneath the lone window, two desks in front of their respective beds, two closets and a single bathroom. Not bad at all.
She glanced over at the made bed as put her things onto the empty one. The sheets were pure white with a light blue blanket but looked to be made of the most comfortable material.
i would love to sleep in that, she thought to herself before going back to unpacking.
Ruby hadn't brought much herself since she had traveled by train and bus from her home,. The rest of her things had been sent ahead to Jaune who would bring it over when he got a chance.
For now, she had her lone suitcase and backpack to unload. unzipping them, Ruby set to work but began to wonder about her roommate as she went about mindlessly putting away the clothes. She would be Ruby's first new friend here.
Weiss entered her dorm with a bag of delicious oriental trans fats just waiting to be consumed. Her mouth had watered the entire drive back as the car was suffused with the smell. Her day was already on a positive climb with this and her decision on which class to drop, Humanities, had been another step upward.
She climbed the flight of stairs to her floor but immediately sensed something amiss. She couldn't place it right away, like when she entered her room back home and could always tell when something had been moved. It was simply her being sure that something was definitely different. Weiss made her way slowly down the hall, trying to figure out where this feeling was coming from. It wasn't until she saw the open door that she knew what had happened.
She had a new roommate.
Weiss was well aware that this was likely but still, why today? When nobody had moved in over the past couple of weeks when the large influx of new students arrived, Weiss had assumed she'd dodged the bullet for a while. She had been overly optimistic apparently.
As she proceeded down the hall , every horrible possibility began to pop into her head.
What if she snored?
Or was a slob?
There were too many variables.
Weiss approached the door, resigned to her fate.
Done with unpacking until Jaune brought the remainder of her things, Ruby sat her bed and decided to figure out her next step. Her resolve to do this disappeared, however, as soon as her attention drifted to the other side of the room.
It was so neat and organized with but with so little personalization.
The lone personal effect that Ruby could see was a small silver bracelet sitting in front of the bedside lamp. She sat up and began to approach it, a sense of something pushing on the back of her mind compelling her forward.
On closer examination it had a charm dangling from it, Ruby picked up the bracelet to get a better look at it and saw that it was a small white flower.
Her brow creased as she attempted to figure out the strange feeling that had overtaken her.
The sound of something hitting the floor behind her startled Ruby suddenly, and she dropped the bracelet back onto the nightstand.
She turned to face the source of the surprise and came to face the same white haired girl who had been so rude to her earlier that day. It didn't take either of them long to figure out what each others presence in the room meant.
"Oh no." came the their response to the conclusion in unison.
DunDunDuuuunnnnnn. Well, now that the setup is complete, I'm pretty excited to actually write interactions between the two. Thank you for reading this far, I hope to get an additional chapter out next week.