The movie life
Chapter 2
We arrived at a café soon afterwards. Ordering the freshest pint of milk for Blake and some good old water for myself and Pyrrha, I carefully walked my way over to the small table. Pyrrha and Blake were sort of awkwardly ignoring each other. Come to think of it they don't actually talk to each other much.
Well, today is a day of firsts then because we can all hang out together.
"Jaune," Pyrrha greeted. "I assume you had no trouble?"
"No trouble on my end though the server looked at me funnily when I just ordered milk and water. He probably doesn't get that combination very often." I placed our drinks and Blake happily gulped her milk. She left a milk moustache behind which Pyrrha and I both noticed, and we struggled to keep our laughter in.
"What are you two laughing at?"
Oh Blake, your grumpy face doesn't suit with a milk moustache.
"Blake," I said. "You might want to wipe your mouth. You'll leave a stain if you leave it any longer."
She flushed obviously realising what transpired and hastily brought out her handkerchief.
"I didn't expect you to have a side like that, Blake." said Pyrrha. "Is milk really that good?"
"Any good?" Uh oh, I can feel the beginnings of a speech here. "Milk and tuna are the best you can have. Healthy and tasty. Just what I want."
She went on a rant about how superior milk is to our ordinary water. Pyrrha seemed out her depth here. I don't blame her. I never had someone go on an extensive list of the qualities of milk towards me either.
Well until now that is.
"...the texture is incomparable to any other liquid you would try in your entire life and-"
"OK OK, we get it. Milk is a good drink." I said amusingly. Blake huffed out.
"The best. And even better when it's free. Haven't you ever had those milk cartons they gave out in kindergarten. You wouldn't believe the amount of scrambling we did just to get one."
"I must confess I never did attend kindergarten." Pyrrha said. "I was raised to learn how to fight. Not that it was bad of course!" She raised her hands probably to convince us that she's telling the truth. "All our meals were already decided for us and milk was never on the menu. I think I first tried some when I was around 13. That was a good year. That was the first time I won the yearly Mistral regional tournament." She smiled fondly and I couldn't help but smile as well.
"So why did you move to Vale then anyway?" I asked curiously.
From what I remember of Mistal, it was culturally rich kingdom that was tied in with myths and legends. They're a mixture of modern and old, where weapons were designed more archaic than what you would find in Vale. I actually wanted to visit there because they're the most tourist friendly of the four kingdoms.
"Just wanted a change of pace and possibly meet new people." She played with the ring of the cup. "Say Jaune, what's your relationship with Blake? You seem to know her fairly well despite being on different teams."
Blake raised an eyebrow at that. To be fair to Pyrrha, she does raise a good point.
"Ah, that's because she's been helping me with my lines. There were some scenes that were pretty hard to practice on my own and Blake volunteered to help."
Blake shrugged. "Ruby would be upset if Jaune messed up."
"Oh so nothing more than that?"
"Just friends," replied Blake.
Pyrrha relaxed at that. I didn't realise how tense she was until she actually settled back. What's eating her? She's been like that ever since I started helping Ruby.
I decided I'll confront her later about it in a more private area.
It was then that the apple of my eye gracefully stepped through the entrance. Weiss, in her lovely white dress, swiveled her head searching for something before spotting us at the far side of the café.
I put on my game face as she approached. Now usually I might try out my killer lines but I'm feeling my inner detective Jaune leaking out. My killer lines don't exactly work as planned but I'm willing to try out a few new approaches. I settled on my newly invented suave Jaune.
Watch smooth talking Jaune work his way in to a fair ladies heart.
An exaggerated flick of my hair and a smile that puts celebrities to shame. Oh yeah, I'm ready.
"Weiss," I called. "have you seen the calendar? Because I see a date with you and me in it."
One of my better lines if I do say so myself. Heck even Blake and Pyrrha must had been impressed because they had a shocked look on their face.
Weiss gave me the ever classic glare she reserves only for me and I smiled deeper.
"I'm not here for you Jaune. Blake, Ruby wants you with something."
"Why didn't she just contact me on my scroll?
"Ruby, being the ditz she is, left it in our room. She had to send me over to come fetch you and her scroll."
Blake nodded and downed the rest of her milk. She very carefully wiped her mouth making sure it was milk free.
"Oh Jaune," said Blake. "You're denser than a brick."
What the? Why did Blake say that?
Well whatever she's gone now anyway.
I turned to Pyrrha about to say something before I noticed her sour face.
"Hey Pyrrha what's wrong?"
She sighed. "Nothing Jaune."
She's obviously not OK. Her back is hunched over and she looks more defeated than actually losing a training spar.
Damn, what can I do to cheer her up.
I didn't have much time to think on it because my scroll vibrated. It was a message from Yang. Filming was resuming.
That was quick.
I told Pyrrha we were filming. She nodded and we headed off to the stage.
Everyone was busy when we had arrived. Ruby was chatting to Nora excitedly with Ren hanging to the side while the rest of team RWBY bar Blake were talking amongst themselves.
"Hey guys!" I waved. "Did we miss anything?"
"Jaune!" Ruby made a dash for us. "I found out why some of our script changed. We're not the only team in Beacon that's entered the filming competition. Team CRDL and some others were filming as well and Cardin being the jerk he is messed with our script. Oh, if I can get my hands on him,"
She made some strangulation noises and clamped her hands on her own neck.
"What! Did you do anything about it?" I asked.
"Oh don't worry," Ruby smiled a glinting smile that looked entirely too intimidating on a 15 year old girl. "I've sent someone to...deal with it."
Note to self, never piss off Ruby.
"Oh OK, well everything is fixed now right?" I asked.
She nodded quickly "Totally! Blake isn't here yet so let's move onto the next big scene."
Yang while flicking through the script walked over to us.
"Hey sis?"
"What's up Yang?"
"It says in the script that I end up finding my mom. That's cool and all but who's playing her?"
"Isn't it obvious? You are!"
Yang frowned. "How's that going to work? Everyone already has their roles."
"Don't worry I thought this through. We pretty much finished all of your parts, so we're going to dye your hair black, then we'll record your lines. Do some editing magic and presto we have to two of the same people on the same screen."
"Yeah, no Ruby. My hair is too precious to just blacken like that. Do you know how long it will take to make it look this good again after dyeing it?"
"20 minutes?"
Yang stared at her blankly. "Remind me to give you more lessons on makeup. You know far too little. Heck, I bet Jaune knows more about makeup than you."
The funny thing was is that she's right. All those times back home with my sinister seven sisters caused me to know more than the average guy about make up. My mind flashed back, the pink lipstick, the horrible eyeliner and the purple nails, oh the evilness my sisters can inflict on me with those dreaded nail painters.
"Please, sis. We only got a few weeks. You got to do this, I won't bother you with homework again."
It's pretty amazing how effective Ruby can be when she's weaponizing her puppy eyes. I bet even Grimm would hesitate to attack her like that.
Yang faltered under her stare and I could see her begin to sweat.
Ha, even Yang's semblance can't take these hits.
After a tense silent battle, Yang slumped.
"OK OK, you win. But I expect no badgering from you and I'm dyeing my hair by myself. Who knows how badly you'll mess up if you helped. It might be like when you first met with Weiss. Can you imagine the explosion of colours?"
"Yay! Besty sister ever!" Ruby leaped and glomped onto Yang.
"Woah," Yang stumbled a bit from the force but returned her hug with equal force. "Alright I'll go dye my hair now. Be back whenever."
With that she strode off.
"What now?" I asked
"Filming of course! We need some shots of you jumping into trash."
"..."
"Jaune?"
I sighed.
I felt Pyrrha's hand on my shoulder and she gave me a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry Jaune. I'll grab a change of clothes."
"Thanks Pyrrha. You're the best." She smiled a real smile and I couldn't help but grin at her.
"Enough chit-chat, we got ourselves a film to make."
The next hour continued with me taking a swimmer's dives into piles of garbage. Thankfully Ruby had enough mercy to pick softer waste for me to go through. This included some leftover pies, mattresses and strangely enough something that looks suspicious similar to Cardin's jacket.
Well I'm not gonna mention that to him anyway. Let him discover it for himself.
Eventually Ruby called the whole thing off. "I think that's good enough," shouted Ruby. "Jaune, excellent job dumpster diving. I thought you were a real hobo there."
"That's not a compliment I want to hear."
"Tut tut Jaune, compliments depends on context as well."
Pyrrha, being the amazing girl she is, already had a wet towel and bottle of water ready for me. I can finally get that nasty gunk out of my mouth.
Ruby reached into her pockets and pulled out her scroll.
"Guys, I just got a message from Blake. She said she'll be back in 30 minutes. Everyone take a break until then! We'll resume in 30 minutes."
"Oh thank you. I needed a break." As it turns out, dumpster diving required a lot of effort to actually do.
I took off to a nearby shower room. At this hour, no one would be using them leaving me to have all the privacy I want.
I have to say it was the best shower in my life. Watching bits of pastry wash off me was like what a baby chick feels when it emerges from its egg.
I switched off the tap and reached for the towel.
Which I forget to bring with me.
Right, OK no problem. I'm soaking wet and I'm not wearing dirty clothes right after I washed myself. I obviously can't go to the public like this but I could contact Ren to fetch a towel for me for me.
Except his scroll is out for repairs.
OK, I call my other male friends...
I really need to get to know more guys. I have too many female companions.
Pyrrha, I'll contact her and get her to get Ren to get me a towel. Yes a foolproof plan. Nothing can go wrong.
Absolutely nothing at all.
AN: New chapter guys.
The image of Blake with a milk moustache will never leave you.