Amber POV
I glanced around at the people gathered in what Anna had called the ballroom. Cali stood on my right, hands in her pockets and staring at her shoes. A girl with short red hair stood across from me, and next to her was a tall guy in a blue trench coat, and to him was a tall guy with blue and black hair. Moving down the line was a girl about my height with longer red hair and gray eyes, and a girl with pure white hair and blue eyes.
Anna patted my shoulder. "So this is my group of new friends." I looked up at her and she grinned. The red headed girl snorted.
"I've known you for a day. Hell, not even that long." Anna shrugged.
"Fine, acquaintances." She pointed to each person individually. "That's Skye Delacour, beside her is Spencer Stone," Spencer gave a little wave. "next to him is Date Kirimaru, next to him is Ruby Rose, and last but not least grumpy, Weiss 'Ice Princess' Schnee." I must have looked confused, because Cali stepped behind me and pointed over my shoulder.
"Skye, Spencer, Date, Ruby, Weiss." I nodded slowly, my brain working to associate names to faces. After a moment of awkward silence. One of the redheads, I think her name was Skye, said:
"What? Is that all?" Anna shrugged.
"Yeah, pretty much." Skye rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.
"Well thank you for wasting my time. If she is on our team, like you said, then I would have met her anyway, without having to walk all the way down to the single farthest place from our dorm." Date folded his arms.
"She has a point." Spencer shrugged.
"Unfortunately, she's right. I mainly came down here to see-"
"Hey guys! Sorry we're late!" We looked over at the door, watching a blonde and a girl with black hair approach. Spencer grinned.
"Never mind, Skye was wrong. Totally worth it." They arrived and the blonde smiled at me.
"This her?" Anna nodded.
"Her name is-"
"You know what pisses me off?" A voice floated down from above. I looked up and furrowed my brow. Where did that come from? "That I keep having to make these dramatic entrances because nobody invites me to anything." Anna sneered.
"It's because we hate you." She called back. The voice scoffed and a girl stepped into view on the ballroom's balcony. She stepped up onto the railing and looked down at us.
"No. You hate me. But no one gives a shit what you think anyway, so whatever." Skye snorted.
"No, we do actually hate you." The girl sighed and my chest seized in fear as leaned forward, letting herself fall. She flipped forward about halfway down and landed lightly on her feet. She's definitely Faunus. I thought, impressed.
"You know, Skye? I'm beginning to wish I'd impaled you when I had the chance in that parking lot." Skye shrugged.
"I wish I'd shot you, so I guess the feeling's mutual." The Faunus girl rolled her eyes and smiled at me.
"Immediately moving on, I'm going to guess that you're the reason everyone except me was invited here." I shrugged.
"I guess." She raised an eyebrow after a long pause and I flushed. "Oh! I'm Amber. Amber Drake." I held out my hand to shake hers, but when she took it, she turned it and kissed it.
"Enchanté, Mademoiselle Amber. The name is Dante Stryker, but my friends call me," She paused, then laughed. "Well, nothing since according to my 'friends', I don't have any friends." She lowered her voice suggestively. "Won't you be my first?" Her emphasis on the word 'first' suggested she didn't mean her first friend. My mouth flapped open and closed, nothing coming out, until Cali moved between us and pushed her back.
"You are the biggest pervert." Dante clutched her heart and feigned hurt.
"Oh not you too, Cali! I thought we were-" Cali interrupted her.
"Ever. . .Of all time." Dante grinned and shrugged.
"You're right, I'm almost as bad as Anna." Anna growled.
"No, you're way worse than I could ever-"
"But that's okay, because I make it work in my favor. Honestly, I provide most of the comic relief in the drama that is Beacon Academy." Her gaze shifted to me over Cali's shoulder and her eyes widened. "Holy shit." She stepped around her and bent down and gazed into my eyes. I almost turned away, but she followed up with: "That is the single coolest thing I have ever seen!" I blushed.
"Really? Most people consider it creepy." Dante snorted and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Amber, most people are idiots. Always remember that." I smiled shyly.
"I also have this." I opened my mouth and showed her my tongue. Her eyes lit up.
"Wow. You're something else, Amber. I have literally never met anyone remotely like you before." Cali giggled.
"You say that to everyone." Dante waved away her comment.
"Only to boost their tiny egos," She paused. "And mostly the girls. But Amber's different," She grinned at me. "She's obviously unique."
"So am I." Spencer said. "Not just everyone has wings you know." Dante glanced at him and her lips twitched.
"Of course." She said, nodding. "Your wings are also unique." I looked at him and watched as his eyes narrowed.
"Hold up. Did you say that to 'boost my tiny ego'?" Dante giggled and winked at me.
"Of course not, you're not a girl." Everyone laughed and the blonde girl who'd just walked in a minute ago stepped forward and peered at my face.
"She's right, that is cool. You give an entirely different, and admittedly better, meaning to snake eyes." Everyone groaned. The blonde girl grinned and shrugged. "How are your eyes and tongue like that?" I fidgeted a bit.
"I'm part snake Faunus." She grinned.
"Sweet! Oh, I almost forgot. I'm Sherlock Holmes, and this is my associate, Dr. Watson." She gestured to the black haired girl, who rolled her eyes.
"By that, she means she's Yang and I'm Blake." She's Faunus too! I realized with a start. I glanced around at the circle. So are Spencer and Date! Upon realizing this, I felt just a tiny bit more comfortable.
"It's nice to meet you." I said, and she smiled. Yang, however, pouted at her.
"I thought we'd agreed that I could introduce us however I wanted." Blake's golden eyes gleamed mischievously.
"We did. I just neglected to mention that I was going to correct you." Yang shook her head.
"You're so devious!" Blake smirked.
"But you love me anyway." Yang sighed.
"True. I am quite addicted to your body." Blake flushed.
"Yang!" Yang giggled.
"Oops, looks like the cat's out of the bag." Blake punched her arm and she winced. "Ow! Alright, alright, I'm sorry." Dante leaned on my back and crossed her arms over my chest.
"So," She said, resting her chin on my head. "I hear you got stuck with these guys." She said, gesturing to Spencer, Skye, and Date. "I wish you luck." I frowned.
"What? Why?" She chuckled.
"Let's just say that Skye could probably kill you with one punch, Date is quiet, which makes him mysteriously deadly, and if Spencer offers you a ride, no matter what, you decline." She chuckled quietly and seemed to grow heavier against me.
Her arms slipped from around me and her wait slid from my back.
THUD
I looked down, afraid of what I'd find. Dante lay facedown on the ground, not moving. No one moved for five long seconds, then Cali dropped to her knees next to her. She shook her gently. Ruby winced.
"You probably shouldn't move her." Cali looked like she might reply, but Dante groaned.
"Dante?" Cali rolled her over and Dante grimaced.
"Geez. I thought I'd stopped collapsing hours ago, when the sweating and nightmares stopped." Cali flicked her nose.
"Obviously not." Dante chuckled.
"I swear, Cal-Cal, you get really upset when I hurt myself."
"So stop hurting yourself." Cali grunted as she threw Dante's arm over her shoulder and dragged her to her feet, wrapping an arm around her waist. Dante laughed weakly.
"But your worried face is so cute." Cali snorted and inclined her head to me.
"Nice meeting you, Amber." I smiled and nodded, watching as she helped Dante limp toward the door. Anna watched them leave with a strange expression on her face. Before I could determine what it was, she shook her head and smiled at me.
"Do you know your way around?" I shook my head and she flashed me a thumbs up. "That's okay, I know someone who might be able to help you with that."
I followed Ms. Goodwitch as she led me down the hallway, talking about something that I wasn't really registering. What an interesting group of people. I thought absently. I was so immersed in my thoughts, I hadn't realized that Ms. Goodwitch had stopped until I ran into her.
"Oh, I-I'm sorry!" She nodded.
"Are you okay?" I nodded, my cheeks burning from embarrassment.
"Yeah, just a bit tired." That was a bit of an understatement. Her face softened.
"I understand, let's get you to your dorm room."
The walk to the room was a bit of a blur, but before I knew it, we'd stopped at a door. Ms. Goodwitch knocked, and when no one answered, she knocked again. After a minute or two, the door opened and Skye glared out.
"What? I'm trying to. . ." Her gaze went from me to Ms. Goodwitch, then back again. "Oh." Ms. Goodwitch put a hand on my shoulder.
"This is Amber. She'll be joining your team from now on." Skye looked unimpressed as she opened the door wider.
"Sure, come in or whatever." Then she disappeared back into the room, muttering about wasted time. What a warm reception. I thought as Ms. Goodwitch patted my shoulder once and pushed me gently toward the doorway.
"I have other things I need to do, so you go ahead and get some rest." I nodded and stepped into the room, closing the door behind me.
Unknown POV
I followed Glynda Goodwitch silently down the hallway, stepping in time with her to mask the light sound of my footsteps. She stopped suddenly and stood completely still. I floated gently up to the ceiling and blended in with the shadows. She turned and scanned the hallway with narrowed eyes.
"Hello?" I moved not a muscle, making absolutely sure that she couldn't see me. She shook her head and resumed her walk. I crawled after her soundlessly, following her for upwards of 20 minutes until she stopped in the middle of a hallway with very few doors. She stepped up to the wall and flipped up the glass on a fire alarm.
With one last glance around, she pressed the button.
I waited for the shrilling of bells, but was surprised by silence. As I watched, a section of the wall about 6 by 6 inches extended from the wall and flipped over, revealing a keypad with numbers and letters. I crawled along until I was just above her, crouched like Spider-Man or something, then peered up at the keys as she put in the code.
7-H-3-W-1-2-4-R-D
I closed my eyes for a moment and ingrained the numbers and letters into my memory. I opened my eyes and watched as she pressed her thumb to a small pad at the bottom, causing the keypad to flash green and beep.
"Welcome, Glynda." A computerized voice spoke as a door sized section of the wall slid smoothly and soundlessly to the side. Bright light spilled out, flooding the hallway and briefly blinding me.
I scrambled back and out of the light, causing a scuffling sound. Glynda whipped around and squinted up, searching for me.
But by the time her eyes adjusted, I was long gone.
Gah, my stomach hurts like a bitch. I'm so hungry I could eat my little brother (I'd grill him first, obviously). I'm staring at my cat and imagining him as steak. Mmmmm. . .steak. Aaanyway, as usual, I updated sooner than I expected, so yeah. What's going on with you guys? What do you think so far, etc, etc. Review, support, blah, blah, blah, my mind keeps wandering.
TWAD #3: I often get brilliant ideas for stuff that I want to happen later, so I ended up creating a whole separate folder just for them. And there they sit, waiting patiently for their turn. I feel like I'm practically writing the story backwards sometimes. I can't wait until I get to use some of them.