Author's Note

Hey guys! Here's the next chapter of this story. I've actually gotten a few chapters written already so all I have to do is just edit it. For those of you who read Amnesiac, the next chapter should be out sometime this week. Anyway, thanks for reading this story. I know a lot of you were looking forward to it. I also see some familiar users who like the story and I'd like to say it's nice to see that you look forward to reading this as well. Thanks also to those of you who favorited, followed, and reviewed. I really appreciate it.

After you're done reading this chapter, why don't you leave a review a let me know what you think of it. Enjoy!

(Commentary: I won't put all my review answers here and just answer the rest of you privately, but since you guys are the first people who reviewed, I might as well post them.)

RatedRSuperStar: Thanks, I hope you continue to like it.

Mvderek: Alright that made me laugh actually.

Derpitay: Yep, Pyrrha and Blake will be in it. I don't know about Nora yet. She's in the story, but I will see where I go with this story for me to add her or not.

.1: Yea, I didn't really want to start with main characters in this story because I felt like trying something new. They're definitely in there though. As for the drama, you'll just have to keep reading ;)

YandereKyuubi: I'm not going to have every girl in the harem, but I'll see where it goes and you can always ask if you want someone to be in it. I already know who's going to be a part of the harem so far, but a few more won't hurt. Glad I've got you interested.

THB4: Yang will not be in the school, but there will be mentions of her. I kind of have her character based on how she'll probably be in volume 4 and how she was at the end of the last episode in volume 3. There will be bits and pieces of what happened that made Ruby have to go a new school and I hope you continue to read this story to find out.

A Wraith: Thanks! You'll actually see who she meets next right now :)

spirit117: Hey Spirit, I'm glad to hear that you were looking forward to this story. I haven't really read a story with the volume 3 characters in it except May and Winter. Even though most of the new characters haven't spoken much or at all, I try to fit their personality with how they acted in volume 3 basically. I hope you look forward to more in this story.

Reaper Whisper: Don't worry there will barely be girls fighting over Ruby. I find it pretty annoying when people do that in stories not just in the RWBY category. There is fighting but not exactly over Ruby.

Color Me Once

Chapter 2

The next day of school was a bit weird for her. She had the same classes, saw the same students, but the morning was different.

Arriving to school, she was headed to her locker when suddenly she heard a click and her vision became slight blurry.

Wha…

When her vision came back, she was met with big, brown eyes. The girl in front of her had long, brown hair and was holding a camera in her hand along with a bag hanging off her shoulder.

"Sorry about that," the girl said. "My name is Velvet Scarletina and I run the Beacon Academy Newspaper. Both from the girls and boys school. I just take pictures of the new students for your ID cards. And you must be Ruby."

"ID cards?" Ruby asked, arching an eyebrow at her, ignoring her small greet.

"Yea, every student gets one," she told her. "It's just to make sure we don't have any strangers coming in. I know that's weird but it has happened in the past."

Ruby nodded, understanding, then said with a smile, "Well, you could at least take a better picture of me. I probably look a mess."

Velvet looked down at the camera and winced a little. Judging by the way she reacted, Ruby guess that she did indeed look a mess. The girl looked up from her camera and gave her a nervous smile.

"Yea," she started, "let's redo that."

She raised up her camera and Ruby smiled at it. Another click and a slight flash; she almost lost her vision again.

"Whoa…" she whispered in a daze after the girl put down her camera.

"That's better," Velvet said, looking at the camera before showing the other girl.

"Yea, that looks good," she replied, staring at her smile picture.

"Well I have to get going now." Velvet put the camera in her bag. "It was nice meeting you Ruby."

"You too!" She watched the other girl leave then went to her locker.

In class, before the teacher came in, Reese and May told her more about the journalist. Reese was a lot less cranky for some reason.

"She's a third year," she told her. "You can get her newspapers in the student counseling office. Almost everyone gets them. She also runs the journaling club so she doesn't make all the stories from the schools on her own."

"She's a pretty rad girl and you'll most likely find her hanging out with Coco," said May. "One time, some girl made a rumor that they were dating and everybody believed it. Coco had to break the bad news to them."

Another thing is that the school, well, a lot of only girls schools in Remnant, is that everyone is basically comfortable with their sexuality. It's not really something uncommon in Remnant, but Ruby's been noticing it a lot in Beacon than her old school. It's most likely the same way with the boys' school too.

Her own sexuality didn't go amiss when she went to her old school she had a girlfriend. It didn't really last long because of family problems and the girl didn't want to get involved with that.

May was still talking and Ruby barely noticed. She had stopped talking about Velvet and Coco and was talking about what she did last night.

"So then I shot the dude in this amazing hiding spot I had and he was fuming," she finished.

Ruby blinked.

"You're such a fucking dork," Reese mumbled before facing the board, and taking out her phone.

She scowled at the other girl even though her back was turned, before whining. "Am not!"

She turned to Ruby with a look of desperation.

"You don't think I'm a dork, right Ruby?" she asked.

What was she talking about anyway? The brunette wondered. Shooting someone?

Realization came to her face as she found out that she was talking about a videogame.

"Not at all May," she said finally.

May beamed then smirked at Reese once she turned back around, her attention away from her phone.

"See that?" she snickered. "Ruby doesn't think I'm a dork."

Reese rolled her eyes before mumbling, "Of course she doesn't."

She stuck a piece of gum in her mouth.

"She's probably a dork too. You know, dorks stick together."

This time it was Ruby's turn to scowl at her. Reese just smirked at her as she rested her head in her hand and leaned her elbow on her desk.

"I'm not a dork!" Ruby cried. "You're so mean Reese."

She pouted—pouted at her. Reese's smirk dropped as her eyebrows rose. Her face turned into that bored expression she'd always have as a cover up before she quickly turned back to the front. May just stared at her with utter confusion before looking back at Ruby. The brunette just shrugged.

What they didn't notice was that the other girl's face had started to form a small blush. Luckily, her hood was up and her phone was close to her face.

Damn new girl, she thought.

When Ruby was on her way outside to meet up with Reese and May for lunch, she was stopped by yet another girl. This time there were no pictures. She actually bumped into the girl since she was too busy fast-forwarding a song on her Walkman.

"Oops, sorry," she said after stumbling back.

The other girl gave her a look that could've killed her. It was worse than Reese's angry look and scarier than the Malachite Twins. Icy, blue eyes pierced right through her skull. It was like a laser was on her. The girl had snow white hair, tied to a side pony tail and a noticeable scar on her left eye. She stomped towards the brunette and stabbed her finger at her chest. Ruby squeaked.

"Were you even looking where you were going?" she asked, glaring right at her.

"Duh…I, uh…" Ruby couldn't even for a single sentence.

"That's obviously a no. You were too busy looking at—" Her eyes trailed down to the Walkman the other girl was holding. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before looking back up at her. "—that thing."

She leaned back away from her and crossed her arms, waiting for an answered.

Ruby just stared.

"You obviously don't even know who I am," she mumbled. "You must be new here. Are you a first year? Only a first year would act so foolish."

Ruby couldn't tell if she was either insulting only her or just the first years.

"No," she finally spoke, "I'm…a second year."

Her expression changed from annoyance to shock then back to annoyance as she shook her head.

"Unbelievable."

She reached into her purse, pulled out a pamphlet, and held it out to her.

"Uh what's thi—"

"It's everything you need to know about this school. Read this and don't ever talk to me." She shoved it into the girl's hand and then stomped away.

Ruby looked back and watched her leave for a moment before looking down at the paper.

Student Council? She thought as she starting walking to lunch.

"Damn kid," said Reese, watching Ruby approach her and May. "What took you so long?"

She showed them the paper once she sat at the bench.

"So you ran into the Ice Queen, huh?" asked May.

Ruby looked at her incredulously.

"She means Weiss Schnee," Reese corrected. "She's a second year like us and is the Vice President of the student council."

"And she's a major bitch," added May.

Ruby winced at the word. She didn't like hearing that word from anybody. It just didn't sound right.

"She's not that bad," Reese grunted.

"That's because you're friends with her!" May cried. "Come on though, she even insults you sometimes."

She shrugged, "As do you. It's not anything hurtful anyway."

"Arslan is nicer than her and she isn't even mean!"

She smirked, "You're just mad because she rejected you when you asked her out."

"In the meanest way!" May whined and lied her head down on the table.

That caught Ruby's attention.

"Wait, what?" she asked.

Reese turned to her and explained, "May had this big ole' crush on Weiss last year and asked her out one day. Weiss just turned away from her and said 'no'."

"It was cruel!" May mumbled into the table.

"You'd think a girl like her is straight but I heard from Coco that she's picky with her lovers. That's why I never asked her out." Reese sighed before taking a sip of her coke. "I mean she's gorgeous. Who wouldn't be into her?"

Ruby had to agree with that but she didn't say anything. You can be attracted to someone's looks but not their personality. She thought about May again and wondered if the girl just went for looks.

"At least she likes you," said May as she picked her head up.

Reese just snickered at her before looking back at Ruby. She arched an eyebrow when she finally noticed her Walkman.

"Isn't the year a bit too late for those things?" She asked, eyeing it carefully. "You can listen to music on your phone y'know."

May's eyes followed to what Reese was looking at. The same expression was pasted on her face.

"Do people still even use those?" She looked up at the brunette.

Ruby gave them both a pointed look.

"It's my mom's," she told them.

They didn't get the idea.

"Aaand?" Reese pressed.

"She's…not really here anymore…" Ruby trailed off, looking down.

They still didn't get it until realization dawned on their faces. They began to panic.

"Oh shit!" Reese cried. "Oh shit, oh shit! I'm so sorry Ruby I didn't—"

"What the hell Reese?!" May snapped at her. "Why did you have to make her say that?!"

"I didn't mean to. I—"

"Guys," Ruby called, causing them to stop. "It's okay. Really. It happened a long time ago."

She put her Walkman and headphones in her bag.

"Oh," said Reese, now calming down. "Okay. I really didn't mean to push you like that."

"Yea, same," said May.

"Guys, it's really okay. I'm not upset or anything." She smiled at them, making the two feel a lot better.

She decided to change the subject as she looked back down at the paper.

"Soo," she started smoothly, "what's the Student Council all about?"

May blinked before answering, "The Student Council is basically like a club that sets up school events and all that mess. You can go and sign up but there's a slight chance that they'll accept you. Think of it as presidency. You already know that Weiss is VP. Pyrrha, who's a third year, is the President of the Student Council. Almost everybody is in love with her, including Weiss."

So Weiss did actually have someone she liked, Ruby thought.

May looked at Reese and asked, "You think if I joined the Student Council, Weiss'd be into me?"

She arched an eyebrow at her and gave her a looked that said, "You've got to be kidding me." The other girl laughed.

"I was just playing." May cleared her throat. "Anyway, Weiss probably gave you that as a way to shut you up or something. It happened to me."

Ruby wanted to know more, but by the time lunch was over, they moved onto a new subject.

For P.E., they had to run the track. Everyone ran except for Reese, and May had a hard time keeping up. She ended up puking on the grass, and Reese just laughed and told Ruby that, that happened often.

In her art class they were either finishing the drawing portion of their floral art or started painting it. Ruby was never really good with painting. Either it was oil, acrylic, or watercolor, she was terrible at it. They were doing acrylic. Their teacher, Ms. Peach, would always walk around and watch the students paint. She stopped at Ruby and just said, "Try a little harder." That was all. She didn't give her any tips, any suggestions. Nothing.

Before Ruby could even get anymore frustrated, Pyrrha, who was sitting next to her, scooted a little towards her and leaned in to her attempted painting to get a good look at it.

"You should use a thinner brush for small strokes," she told her then looked down at her paint bowl. "Also, take a dab of the paint or it will run and you'll see all those little bubbles there."

She pointed up at the painting and Ruby noticed what she was talking about. She turned towards the other girl and saw that she was a little close. It didn't make her uncomfortable, but her heart sped up a bit. Pyrrha looked over, noticing that she was staring and just smiled.

Quickly turning away, the girl mumbled, "Thanks."

"No problem," she replied then scooted away from her to go back to her painting.

I can see why a lot of people like her, Ruby thought before leaning over a bit to get a good look at the older girl's.

Amazing, was the only word Ruby could think of. The girl obviously knew what she was talking about when she helped her out. She had the urge to ask Pyrrha how she could paint so well.

She felt a lot better than earlier now that she helped her out.

When school was over again, Ruby said goodbye to Reese and May. This time, May suggested that they should exchange numbers with each other.

"In case we ever want to hang out or need help with homework," she explained.

Reese shrugged before they both gave Ruby her number along with her giving them hers. After that, they left. Ruby decided to get a look at all the clubs while the students were setting up.

There was a few interesting ones. They had a cooking club, journalism club(Like Reese told her), book club, music club, art club(Ruby seemed slightly interested though the teacher running it was Ms. Peach), theater club, and a few others. Out of all the clubs, there was only one that she found strange.

She looked into the classroom and saw Neon, Penny, and another girl with orange hair. It was just those three. No one else was in the classroom. They noticed her standing there at the doorway.

"Hello friend!" Penny greeted.

Ruby opened her mouth to say hi but was cut off when the one girl, whose name she didn't know, shouted, "Gingers only!"

She blinked.

"Sorry Ruby," said Neon with a cat-like smile.

No wonder why May calls her by her last name, she thought.

"But Nora's right," the cat girl continued. "You can join if you come back with orange hair."

Shaking her head, she backed away from the room.

"No thanks," she said.

This was something she had to ask the others about.

May: so u stumbled upon Katt's club, huh?

When she got home, she changed out of her uniform and into her regular clothes before she texted May about what she saw.

Ruby: wats it all about?

When she didn't answer right away, Ruby pulled out her homework from her book bag and started working on it.

About a minute later, her phone vibrated.

May: its rlly nothing honestly. all they do is just sit around and discuss random noise or play their portable gaming systems. they only let people with orange hair join. i don't know why honestly. the club formed last week when u weren't here.

She chuckled about the whole thing. She couldn't believe the principal really allowed a club like that. It wasn't even a club anyway.

May: so wat r u doing? :)

Ruby: homework

May: right! i need to work on that! i'll talk to you later

Ruby: ok bye

She placed her phone on her dresser and continued to work on her homework. Once she was done, she texted May again, but about other stuff instead.

Later on, she went downstairs and ate dinner with Amber. They were eating spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. She told her about school and about her friends. Then, Amber told her about work and how her day went.

"And then when I showed him the needle, the kid started screaming," the woman told her, chuckling.

Amber worked as a pediatric, so she only checked up on children and adolescences. She always told Ruby stories about some of her young patients. It was either good or bad or crazy, like the one she was just telling her.

"What happened after you stuck the needle in him?" Ruby asked.

"He made this small noise but after that, he just laughed," she answered. "And then he shouted 'Look, I'm a big boy now!'"

Ruby laughed, "That's cute."

"By the way," she started, wiping her mouth with a napkin, "I washed your scarf. Do you want to wear it to school?"

The girl nodded.

"Thank you."

After dinner, the two watched a TV series together before heading to bed.

The next day Ruby came to school, both May and Reese stared at her incredulously as she took her seat. Reese looked more irritated than yesterday.

"What's with the new get up?" she questioned. "Is the theater club hosting a play?"

May leaned over and gabbed her in the arm.

"Ah! Fuck!" she cried.

"Don't be mean," May commanded.

Rubbing her arm, she shot her a glare.

"I wasn't," she told her. "I was just curious."

"I just wanted to wear it," Ruby explained, not wanting a bigger conflict to happen. "I'm not even in a club."

They both just accepted it, not asking any further questions. It seemed like they didn't want to go through the same thing that happened yesterday. She was glad for that.

"Arslan is really being a pain in my ass," said Reese, changing the subject. "She kicked me out the room for an hour yesterday. It was only because I forgot to clean my side of the room up. So, then ice cream girl offered to let me sit in her room for the hour."

"Ice cream girl…?" Ruby asked.

May gave a Reese a panicked look before making a slicing motion on her neck with her hand and shaking her head.

"She has to know sooner or later," Reese told her then turned to Ruby and leaned in, whispering, "Her real name is Neo, but everyone calls her ice cream girl because of her hair color and her fucking eyes. She's a third year but she's really supposed to be graduated by now. She's like a monster and shit if you get on her bad side. No one really talks about her because she's scary as hell."

Ruby's eyes widened and stuttered, "W-Was she in th-that big fight l-last year?"

She nodded, continuing, "Yea. She sent someone to the hospital after beating them up so bad. It's a real surprise that she was still able to go to this school. She just got held back and went to this program for the summer. She can't talk but that doesn't mean she isn't creepy. And she's not even the worst of them all. Last year—"

"Sorry I'm late everyone!" came the teacher as she strutted in the class room.

Reese grunted and leaned back to face the teacher. Ruby was curious as to what she was about to tell her. It scared her that someone like the girl Reese was talking about was in this school. She wondered why the other girl didn't turn down the offer to go into her room. Was she scared of her?

At lunch they never continued on with the story. Not even when Ruby asked.

"It's best if we don't mention them at all," May had told her.

She had a nervous look on her face, like whenever something bad happened. It only made the brunette more curious but she didn't push anything.

Reese only shrugged as if she didn't care either way.

During the rest of the lunch period, they talked about other things while they ate.

Ruby caught sight of the Malachite Twins again, when school was over. This time, they weren't standing at her bike. They were hanging near the fountain in front of the school, talking. When they saw her, they just smiled. Something about their smiles, though, seemed off. She didn't like it at all, but she was glad they didn't approach her.

She rode her bike home like always, listening to the music on her Walkman and enjoying the small breeze as her scarf blew along with it. Taking off her headphones and resting them on her shoulders, she spotted Amber talking to the neighbors outside the house, once she got home.

The woman was talking to an old man, whose job was running a local corner store out the development. Ruby had only talked to him a couple times. Once when they just moved in and a few times when she picked a few groceries up from the corner store. He was a really nice man, who enjoyed conversations.

"Hey Amber," Ruby greeted the woman as she walked across the law. She made sure to give a wave to the man that was talking to her.

"Hello Ruby," Amber replied with a smile. "There's a package for you on the kitchen table."

The girl brightened and ran into the house. She dropped her bag and looked at the small box sitting on the table, once she got into the kitchen.

Dad, she thought. I can't believe it got here so fast. Did he mail it off before he told me about it?

She took the box to her room, leaving her bag in the kitchen, and opened it up on her bed. Out came some cassettes like her dad told her. They were pretty old but looked clean. There were no scratches or dirt on them. She took out the cassette that was currently in Walkman and put in one of the new ones. After that, she pulled her headphones on and fell back into the bed with a sigh.

She didn't care if people judged her about listening to music on something so old. This was one of the few pieces she had left of her mom. It was one of the only things that made her feel like her mom was with her. Her dad knew that and would always give her cassettes whenever he found some. He knew this would always make her happy whenever she felt depressed.

The songs on the cassette that she was currently listening to were old slow songs. It was probably something she'd always hear her dad sing or hear it play at the corner store sometimes.

Amber came back in the house and called her from the kitchen. Taking off her headphones, she got up and went downstairs.

"What did our neighbor want?" she asked.

"We were just having a friendly conversation," the woman answered. "What was in the package?"

"Oh, Dad got me some more cassettes," she told her. "So now I have like six of them."

Amber smiled before taking out her cellphone.

"Do you want pizza for dinner?" She started dialing the number before Ruby answered.

"Yea, that's alright." She took a seat at the table and pulled her bag over.

She worked on her homework while Amber watched TV until the pizza arrived.

Ruby woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. When she came back into her room, she heard a strange noise coming from outside. It sounded like a small rumbling sound.

She approached her window and gave a good peek. Nothing. Curiosity getting the best of her, she opened up the window and leaned forward, looking around the corner.

It sounded like a skateboard.

She blinked.

It couldn't be, she thought, could it?

Finally she saw a small figure slowly drifting down the street. To her surprise, she saw a familiar, purple sweatshirt even though it was pretty dark out and the only light that was outside were the street lamps.

"Reese?" she whispered to herself. "What's she doing out so late?" She blinked again. "Why is she even here for the matter?"

Reese was swerving left to right on her skateboard, curving in an easy type of way. Ruby noticed something hanging from the girl's mouth as she got closer. Her eyebrows furrowed when she couldn't make it out.

She had the urge to call out to the girl and ask her what she was doing out so late but decided not to. Instead, she continued to watch her. As she got closer to her house, she noticed that Reese wasn't wearing her uniform. She still had the sweatshirt on, but it was zipped all the way up, and was wearing jeans.

She probably looked like a creep, watching the other girl, but she was just generally curious. She hoped the girl wouldn't see her.

Her chances of even calling the girl's name was cut short because she was now passing her window. Biting her lip, Ruby already began to gauge when she should start to move to leave while Reese's back was turned. But, in the middle of her thinking, her head turned, and just like that, her gaze went straight to the brunette's window.

She surprised her, actually, she probably gave her a heart attack.

"Shit!" the other girl cried.

Ruby couldn't see her expression because it was dark, but she did see the girl wobble and fall off her board because she was going faster than in the beginning and she managed to throw her off. It wasn't graceful. Actually, Ruby's heart dropped when she saw her make the fall. She was suddenly feeling the need to jump off the roof to see if Reese was ok. Before Ruby could think of a much smarter way down, though, she hopped up and cursed to herself.

"Fucking hell," she heard the girl say, "I knew it was a bad idea to come here on a school night."

She watched as Reese dusted off her knees. Then, she picked up her board and walked over towards her house. She pulled what looked like earbuds out from her ears. With a look around, she spotted Ruby's head peeked out the window. Jumping a little, startled, she swatted whatever she had in her mouth away and crushed it on the ground with her foot.

"Ruby?" she called out. "The hell are you doing peeking out the window?"

Heat rose to the brunette's cheeks in embarrassment. She was glad that it was dark out and that she was a bit far away from the girl so she couldn't see how stupid she looked.

"I…uh…" she started nervously, "I heard something coming from outside and wanted to see what all the noise was."

"Oh," was all Reese said.

"Are you alright?" she asked, still worried about the hard fall she took.

"Yea, it's alright." The other girl came a little closer and Ruby could see a small smile on her face. "This isn't the first time I took a hard fall like that."

There was a small sigh of relief that came from her. Then, she asked, "What are you doing out here?"

She decided not to question why the girl was out so late, just in case that would annoy her.

Pulling down her hood, Reese ran a hand through her hair as she answered, "I was just over a friend's house. He lives around here."

"Oh, okay." There was silence for a moment. "You should…probably get going. It's kinda late."

"Yea—" Reese paused. "—I should do that. I'll…see you in school."

Dropping her board, she hopped back on it and rode off. Once she was totally gone and Ruby could only hear the sound of the board gliding across the rode, she closed up her window and went back to bed.

She dreamed of her mom and sweet roses.

Ruby never once mentioned about Reese skating late at night in school, and during the upcoming Friday, May invited them both to her place.

"I have nothing to do really," she told them, "and it's going to be boring as hell being all alone."

"Can't," said Reese. "I have something to do."

May shrugged and turned to Ruby.

"I hope you won't leave me hanging," she said, rubbing the back of her neck.

Reese just sucked her teeth at the comment and sat her feet on her desk.

"I don't have anything to do so I think I'll be able to," she replied. "I'll text you."

May nodded, smiling.

The teacher came in soon after and shouted at Reese for having her feet on the desk.

Author's Note

Well that's about it. Feel free to leave a review to let me know what you think or if you have any questions.

Till next time!