'BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP' The sound that had woken everyone from their slumbers was none other than the default alarm clock sound. The room was a mix of groans, moans, curses, and someone falling out of their bed. The person wasn't even awake.
'BEEP-BEEP-BE- SLAM' An outstretched arm slammed down on the still beeping scroll, "Alright, we get it!" Orion was breathing heavier than he thought he would be from getting up and slamming down on a scroll right after sleeping.
Looking around the room, he noticed how everyone was getting up, or at least in some shape or form. Sky had terrible bed hair. Usually, his hair is slicked back behind his ears, but now? Orion did his best to cover his laughter. Sky's hair was sticking up at every angle and covering his eyes, which is why Orion burst out laughing when Sky bumped right into the wall, trying to get into the bathroom.
"Yeah, yeah, not everyone can wake up like they just went to the salon." After Sky entered the bathroom, Orion went over to the person on the floor, Dove. He was sprawled out, half his cover on the ground, with the other bit still on the bed, much like one of his legs.
Orion gently shook the other boy's shoulder, trying to cover up his own yawn. It was still early, but the team had all agreed to wake up earlier since it would be the first day, so they didn't want to tempt fate by sleeping in. Sky slowly opened his eyes towards Orion. He seemed to look around, confused for a second, before slowly getting up. He mumbled a tired, "Thanks." before he walked from the room.
Orion watched Dove walk into the tiny kitchen the dorms came with. He shrugged as he went to the last member of the team, their most important leader. He held back a small scoff. He honestly didn't expect it to be Alex. Sure, he didn't have a problem with it; he just didn't know how to feel taking orders from his cousin. Then again, he would probably feel that way with anyone.
His cousin was stretching and getting his new uniform ready, "You know you could have cut your own alarm off, right?" His cousin just gave him a small wave, smirking. "Yeah, maybe, but I knew I would probably just cut it off and go back to sleep, so with you doing it, you saved me the trouble of falling asleep, and since we let it ring for longer, it woke everyone up and helped me up more."
"Yeah, yeah, sure." Orion watched in curiosity as Alex played with his scroll; a pop-up appeared on the screen, causing his cousin to roll his eyes and close it again. "What was that?" Alex looked up before he cut off his scroll and put it next to him, "Some stupid alert telling me to connect my aura to it. I'm guessing most don't do this, but these were given to us from the school, so I guess they kinda expect us to have it."
Alex was lying back on his bed, half his body on the floor, arms spread out, "I really hope we don't have to use our scrolls like that for our classes." Orion thought about everything his cousin had talked about so far, trying to see if he'd mentioned anything like that, but he couldn't think of anything like that. "I don't know, but you'll be fine; what're they going to do, kick you out? They already let us both in."
"I don't know, maybe? Then again, they have some peculiar rules, and they bend them a lot." They both turned when they heard the bathroom dorm door open. Sky walked out, his hair looking better, and in his school uniform. "Alright, who's next?" Orion stood up, stretching and cracking his back. "Alright, I'm next."
Alex watched his cousin disappear into the bathroom. He waited a bit before he got off his bed. Then he looked around, noticing that Dove still wasn't back and Sky was playing on his scroll. He didn't really have anything else to do, plus he did need to get to know his team better, especially if he was going to be a leader. He just had to figure out how what to talk about.
"How much does a polar bear weigh?" Sky just stares at him, "Uh, I don't know what, uh, eight hundred pounds?" "Enough to-," Sky quickly interrupted him.
"Wait, no, that doesn't sound like it's enough; they're huge, right? So maybe like nine hundred or maybe a thousand pounds? That makes it a ton, right?"
"I, uh yeah, I think it does? I think it's actually like thirteen hundred. Look, I won't even lie, that was supposed to be like an ice breaker or something." Alex let out a small nervous laugh before trying to cover it up, "The actual answer is, 'enough to break the ice.' but I think you got pretty close to the actual weight; those guys are freakishly huge."
"Ooooh, I guess I'll have to remember that one for whenever we need an icebreaker, then? But yeah! Those things are huge! The Grimm that look like them are even worse! They're like three times as big!"
Alex's face morphed into one of pure terror. "There are polar bear Grimm?!" Polar bears were already terrifying. Even with his powers, he wouldn't want to fight one. Sure, he would probably win, but it's a polar bear!
"Oh, yeah, the things are huge, and apparently, they fight with the other Ursai in Atlas. The place must be horrible if you have to fight things like that!" Before either boy could continue the bear conversation, Dove returned to the room, holding four cups. "Coffee?"
"No, vodka." The sarcasm was about as strong as the coffee he handed them. Alex, not being much of a coffee person, took a sip anyway, only to immediately make a face. "Oh my god, what-,what creamer did you put in this?"
Dove looked at the other boy blankly, continuing to sip his coffee. "I didn't." Sky took one look at the cup of coffee and sat it down on the bedside table. "I'm just gonna let my coffee cool down."
Sky and Alex looked at each other before slowly standing up and heading towards the small kitchen they all had to share. It had the basics: a sink, fridge, stove, counter, and cabinets. The smell of coffee wafted around in the air; it smelled nice, but neither boy was paying any attention to it.
Alex opened the cabinets while Sky went through the fridge, both trying to find some type of creamer or filling to put into the coffee. "I found some sugar?" Alex grabbed a small container of sugar, he hoped it was just bought to fill up the rooms. "And I found some milk." Sky raised the jug high in the air, meaning neither of them had to deal with the sludge that was black coffee. "Good job! First mission done; fix the coffee."
The boys returned to the room they all slept in and grabbed their coffees. Once they returned to the kitchen, they would fill up their once-black tar and make it into less healthy black tar, but it tasted better.
Alex noticeably used a lot more sugar and milk than Sky. Both were soaking up all the coffee's 'nutrients' when they heard what sounded like someone coughing and gagging. Both slowly poked their heads out the door, seeing Orion, now dressed and out of the shower. He seemed to have tried the black sludge.
Alex quickly chugged the rest of the drink and then headed into the room, "Alright, I'm heading into the-" He was interrupted by Dove opening and closing the bathroom door. "Oh, come on! I know you heard me say something, Dove!" All he got in return was the sound of the shower cutting back on. Alex's thoughts were full of cold showers and cold food for Dove. "Here, I thought since I was a leader, you guys would listen to me."
"Eh, I mean, some things, yeah, but it's not like we're going to be your servants, know what I mean?" It was Dove. He had brought out the milk and sugar, giving them to Orion. "What? I didn't mean anything like that!"
"I know, man. I'm just saying we should probably get that settled first. I'm fine with you being the leader, and from what I can tell, the other two don't either, but we probably all have different limits, right? We just gotta make sure we find them." Orion nodded, drinking his coffee.
"I get that, and I don't plan on working with you guys like that. I'm the leader, yeah, but we're still going to be a team." Sky paused and looked him over. He almost seemed to be thinking about something. He reached out, his arm extended in a handshake. "Alright, put'er there, leader."
Alex laughed and shook his hand. "Alright, now, since we're waiting for Dove to get out and for me to get into the shower, do you guys want to decorate? Or put up some of your stuff?"
"Oh, crap, you're right. We didn't unpack much last night; we all just kinda got our stuff for today ready, then passed out." Following this, the boys started putting up their stuff, although most of the stuff came from Sky, Alex, and Orion, who obviously didn't have much to put up.
Alex placed a low-quality picture on the bedside table. On it was a younger version of himself with an older-looking man. The man looked like he was in his late twenties, and he looked almost identical to Alex now. He had a few stress wrinkles and was less built, but the similarities were unmistakable.
Alex already had the picture in his wallet before the universe jumped. He was able to get the picture upscaled during their travels in Mistral, but the quality was obviously worse. They could only do so much, but he took it at the time as a gracious gift. He had the same picture on his phone. He hoped one day they could get their stuff off them.
Orion had placed down an odd-looking blanket. It was obviously handmade, purple and black, with an owl symbol on it. He had bought it from one of the wandering traders, and with the help of some of the people from the caravan, he was able to change it to fit him better, mainly by adding his initials to the corner.
Besides the obvious, the two had one other thing: another picture. On it was everyone in the caravan. The most obvious in the photo were Nora, Ren, Orion, and Alex, all smiling wide and wielding their weapons. Nora had convinced them to show off for the picture.
Alex looked at their space; it was pretty bare on Orion and his side. Sky had a few things put up on his side, a picture small poster of, some girl? Not a scantily clad one, thankfully more like a fashion model; he had some books, just like Alex, with different titles but similar tastes.
"Man, you guys don't really have much, do you?" The cousins just shrugged, "Can't have much when you don't really have anything left to bring." Sky seemed to pause, his face changing between confusion, realization, and then sadness. He went to speak up but was interrupted. "I'm sorry-" "Don't, really I've heard a lot of them at this point; it sucks we're getting over it." Mostly, he added in his head. It still hurts a lot to think about, so he tries not to, but it upsets him and makes him angry.
Wait, Sky, do you have heterochromia?" Alex was brought out of his spiral when he heard Orion ask Sky the question. Quickly, Alex looked the other boy in the eyes, and he was right. Sky had one blue eye and one brown one. "Yeah, I'm surprised you guys just noticed it; usually, it's one of the first things people notice." The cousins both looked at each other. Alex raised his arm in the air and made a 'fwooshing' noise while partially using his powers. He had to focus on keeping the smoke down, but he barely did it, only allowing the fire to travel on his arm.
Orion uttered a loud cackle as he got what his cousin referenced. "What? Are you guys messing with me because of my eyes? Because if so, it's not cool. I just mentally made you our leader." There was some tinge of sarcasm and jokingness, but he had been serious for some part.
"No, don't worry, we're not picking on you; in fact, I wouldn't have a leg to stand on. I have eye problems too, or at least I did." He picked up the brown-tinged glasses and waved them around before putting them on. "When I unlocked my semblance, it healed my eyes, but I still have the small defect; if you look at my pupils, you'll notice it's a different shape than the other one; I basically have the worse version of your eye thing."
"Huh, neat." Sky glanced at the other boy's eyes. He had to squint a bit to see it, but he was right; one was a pure circle, and the other was an odd circle-like shape, with part of it being straight. Thankfully, Dove chose that moment to get out of the shower, not even saying anything; Alex quickly scooted into the bathroom. It took a while for him to get some hot water; he hated how the majority of his team had longer hair; they would take all the hot water! He made a mental note to start getting up earlier to get the first shower.
It didn't take long to shower. Once he was out, dried, and fully dressed, he left the bathroom and noticed that Dove had put some of his things around his area, much like the others. A picture, a small miniature sword? And a sizeable grey crystal? At first, Alex thought it would be some sort of dust, but it honestly just looked like something he would see at a museum on Earth.
"Alright, team, now that everyone is bathed, dressed, and decorated, it's time for the final thing before class: breakfast!" Quickly, the team exited their room. Before coming to a stop, "Wait, which way is it to the cafeteria? I haven't actually gone there yet." Dove let out a small sigh before he took his scroll out, typed a few things, and brought up a picture. "We're going to the right; just keep going straight and then down the next stairs on our left."
It took a few minutes and careful navigation. They totally didn't get turned around because Sky thought he found a shortcut to the cafeteria. Once inside, they realized just how good the school they were in was. The food there was amazing—such a wide variety of meats, vegetables, bread, grains, and even drinks! Obviously, they were all cooked, but that wouldn't stop them from stuffing their faces as much as possible.
The boys were all pretty quiet when watching. In fact, no one even really talked until after they had all finished eating. It was Sky who started first: "That's weird. I don't see any of the other first-year teams. Do you think they ate already?"
Alex had to do his best to hold his laughter in at what he remembered about what was happening. "I don't think so. We would have heard them leave. Team RWBY was pretty loud before they went to bed, after all. You'd think they would all be quiet and tired after yesterday, but nope, they immediately started arguing about being a leader and stuff."
Alex shook his head, still remembering trying to sleep while yelling a few inches from the walls. "Anyways, it looks like it's about time we head to class, yeah?" The team nodded along the table. They quickly disposed of their trays and any leftover food and headed towards their first class of the day: Ports.
The class was actually full of students, which Alex found odd; again, he didn't recognize any of the people as other first-years. Honestly, most of them looked a year or two older. Wait, was this class just filled up with students who were held back? God, if there were that many people who were retaking this class, would it be that hard?
He wouldn't get too much more into that thought when there was a loud BANG that echoed throughout the classroom; team JNPR and RWBY had arrived!
Team RWBY and JNPR had rushed into the classroom, slamming and possibly breaking the door simultaneously, "We made it!" was, of course, Ruby's response. Port cleared his throat before motioning with his head to the rest of the classroom, where the empty seats were. "If you would all take a seat, it would be greatly appreciated; then I can begin your exciting first day!"
Alex swore that Port's mustache turned into a smile when he watched the teams sit down, and of course, he would end up behind the only person he's upset so far. Thankfully, Jaune and JNPR sat down beside them. Port started the class off relatively quickly, giving them a brief intro to the Grimm and Huntsmen and Huntresses; he still did that weird teeth-clicking thing to Yang, which weirded him out a bit.
However, after this, he started talking about his time as a huntsman; it was amazing in Alex's eyes! He loved hearing people tell stories, talk about things they've done, or just tell him new things, so he loved the class so far. What made it even better was watching Ruby try and slightly mess around in class. He was never the best student, and he wasn't the class clown ever, but he enjoyed being around them; it made things better in his eyes.
He whispered a small "Go, Ruby, go." When he saw her drawing something on her paper, which, funnily enough, was a bit of a crude drawing of Port, Yang, Orion, and Sky did their best to hold in a small laugh, which was quickly interrupted by Port Clearing his throat at them. He straightened up and went back to paying attention.
Once again, Ruby entertained the peanut gallery by balancing things on her pencil. Alex may or may not have given her one of his pencils to balance when she was doing so, only to hear a harsh whisper in his ear. "Stop encouraging her!" Weiss and everyone else in the small group then had to straighten up when Port looked over at them. He noticed Weiss giving him a bit of a side-eye. He just wiggled his head at her. She let out a scoff and went back to listening to the lecture.
"Now, who here among you believes to be the embodiment of these traits?"
"I do!" "Me, sir!" the two people who voiced their opinions stared each other down. Weiss and Alex, both glaring at the other, said, "Well, well! Two volunteers? Who shall I pick?" Port quickly walked over, looking them both over as if trying to convince them he was pondering who he would pick. Alex, thinking that since he was actually changing things, he expected he would be picked, had a slight smirk on his face, expecting to hear the answer any minute now- "Miss Schnee would you please gather your needed equipment then come back here."
Weiss gave Alex a smirk as she left her seat; he just glared at her and sat back down. Orion raised his eyebrow at his cousin. "Are you okay, man?" Alex being the ever so friendly person he was, just huffed a bit before sighing. "Yeah, I'm fine; I just really wanted to do that, and to kinda get one over on Weiss." He winced, hearing his own words out loud. "Okay, that sounds pretty bad now that I said it."
"Maybe a bit. What's your grudge against her anyway, man? Sure, there was that thing on the plane, but she hasn't even so much as looked my way ever since I showed her my scroll." Alex paused before responding, trying to find the right thoughts and thinking about just how he should word this.
"Because she hasn't apologized, or anything for that matter, and she keeps giving me these glares—well, this one glare, but still! It's such a mix of annoying and petty that it's getting under my skin way more than it should be." Sure, Alex knew he said some mean things, but Weiss accused him and his cousin of way more, and they proved her wrong! Why should he be the one to apologize when she started it to begin with?
"Look, man, just, don't worry about her. Ignore it, alright?" Alex gave his cousin a reluctant nod, "Alright, but if she says anything smart, I make no promises about being snarky back."
Weiss returned to the room, looking confident and ready to battle. "Go, Weiss! Fight Well! Yeah, represent teeeeam RWBY!"
Instead of showing thanks to her teammates, she snapped at her leader, "Ruby! I am trying to focus." You'd think she would snap at all of them if she didn't like the encouragement. These were all the thoughts going through Alex's head. He muttered some curses to himself as he watched this, then turned to his own teammates. You guys would tell me if I'm being overbearing, right?" They all collectively nodded their heads. "Alright, thanks."
"Begin!" Alex's head snapped back to the middle of the room, having missed a few seconds of it while talking with his teammates. He watched how Weiss would immediately dodge out of the way from the charging Boarbatusk, her rapier bouncing off its armored side.
The Grimm was already changing directions when Weiss was getting in a defensive stance, "Haha! Weren't expecting that, were you!" Weiss's face scrunched up at the teacher's grating words. "Hang in there, Weiss." This turned into a full-on scowl. Her face seemed to set the Boarbatusk; Weiss matched its charge, hoping to slice into the half-armored face. Instead, the Grimm moved its head mid-charge, allowing her weapon to slide against the armor plating and enable it to get its tusks under her weapon, allowing it to try and yank it from her hands. Weiss tried to keep her advantage and tried to wrench her weapon from the Grimm's hold. "Bold new approach! I like it." Her fighting for her weapon grew more angrily, almost sporadically.
"Come on, Weiss, show it who's boss!" She turned to yell at her leader to be quiet, but the Grimm surprised her by digging its heels in and yanking the weapon from both her hold and its own. Seeing her surprise, it charged her, throwing her to the side on impact!
"Oh, Ho! Now, what will you do without your weapon?" Weiss was beginning to get up and shake off the tiny flash of pain when she saw the Boarbatusk try to charge her again. Thankfully, she was able to throw herself to the side, avoiding the charge, and making the Grimm hit the side of the protected seating area, allowing Weiss to rush ahead and grab her weapon.
"Weiss, go for it's belly! There's no armor there!" Weiss exploded, having enough of the backseating of her leader! "Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss's attention returned to the Grimm, who Alex noticed was doing an honest-to-god spin dash at her! Weiss, getting ready, got in a defensive stance once again and quickly summoned two Glyphs, one above her and one directly in front of her; the Grimm smashed into the one in front, allowing Weiss to jump up into the one floating over her, it turned a dark black before shooting her forward impaling the Grimm upon landing.
"Bravo, Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the midst of a true huntsmen in training." Weiss could barely hear him over her own heavy breathing, this was a horrible display on her part, but she blamed being put onto the backfoot by her 'leaders' voicing opinion and having to already of had to snatch this task from that annoying dolt from earlier. "I'm afraid that's all the time we had for today, be sure to cover the assigned readings, and stay vigilant; class dismissed."
Sky had watched the whole thing quietly. Sure, he didn't have any problems with his own leader, from what he could tell so far. Sure, he had some grudge against the Schnee girl, but that seemed to be from something before, if any of the whisperings from early had been anything to go by. So, seeing such a bold display of anger put him off, especially seeing the other girl be affected by it.
"Hey, Ruby, right?" Sky had gotten her attention when the class was beginning to leave, "Uhm, yeah, you're Sky, right? From Alex and Orion's team," He flashed her a smile, "Nice to know I left an impression." The worried girl seemed to backpedal a bit, "Well, you guys kinda came out the forest last, and looked pretty banged up too." Sky just coughed a bit before scratching his chin slightly, "Right, uh anyways look, we all kind of see how your other teammate is treating you, and we or at the very least I can say you haven't really done anything wrong yet, or at least not on purpose anyways, you were trying to help by giving her instructions during the fight right?" The smaller girl nodded, "Well, yeah, she was getting kind of surprised, so I thought I'd help, like how Professor Port was doing!"
"Ah, see, there ya go, you were doing the right thing, just maybe not at the right time; the yelling could be distracting, yeah? Even if Port was doing it, he wasn't fully talking to Weiss and yelling at her; he was more providing commentary and ideas to show the class and her." Ruby crossed her arms, hearing how he was telling her that what she was doing was wrong. "Not exactly helping me feel better now."
"Look, just when you want to help out your teammates by telling them something you know, try and tell them before, like before she fought the Grimm, you could have told her then; you can help her by giving her the information you know while still being helpful, anyways, I should probably go, you did look like you we're going to chase after her so maybe you should get on that, sorry for keeping you so long!" He quickly ran off to his waiting team, waving bye to her.
Ruby shouted a "Thank you!" as he walked away; now it was time to catch up with Weiss.
Alex paused, watching Ruby walk away. He honestly felt bad for her. Even if Sky did talk to cheer her up, he wished he had said something. Instead, he was busy watching the fight with Weiss. He could have tried to help Ruby feel better, but then she might not have gone after Weiss. Yet here's one of his own teammates doing that anyway, and she goes after her anyway! "Alex!" he snapped his head to the voice; it was Sky, "AH! Uh yeah? Sorry, I was stuck in my head for a second there; we were saying we wanted to try and get to the cafeteria to try and get there before everyone else does."
Sky's gaze shifted to where Alex had been looking; he raised an eyebrow, "Were you watching Ruby?' Alex cringed a bit when you put it that way. It sounded kinda creepy. "Kinda. I just felt terrible for her earlier and wanted to say something, but you caught her before I could; I kinda want to go and talk with her now." Sky rolled his eyes before shoving his leader down the hall, "Then go, try and make the girl feel better. We'll save you some lunch if you don't get back first."
Alex hesitated. He was hungry and wanted to spend his time with his team. "You guys sure?" The other two boys had been quietly watching, and Dove nodded. You were staring hard." That didn't make him feel any better, nor did it answer his question, "Dude, just go. You'll make us all late if you don't." This, of course, was from Orion. Finally, he nodded one more time before heading off, "Thanks, you guys."
Alex had been heading down the hall that Ruby had, he was trying to figure out which way she had gone when he saw her talking with Weiss already. Damn, he was too late; hearing Weiss just cut into the girl who was trying to help really didn't make him feel any better. "I'd be careful if I were you; I don't think Glynda would be pleased to hear someone had set off the sprinklers."
Alex froze. Slowly, he would turn. It was Ozpin, the man he knew way too much about. If he weren't careful, he would probably—well, he didn't know—interrogate him. Throw him in prison? Despite knowing so much about the man, he didn't know him. All he knew was to be careful around him and that he was powerful.
Alex tried to suck the smoke that had been flowing out of him back inside. "Uhm, sorry sir, my semblance sometimes plays off my emotions." he hoped it did anyway. That's what he assumed it did since it only really popped up when he was really emotional or angry; he really hoped it wasn't him actually leaking smoke, because if so, he didn't know what would be wrong with him.
"You'd be surprised by just how many people's semblances did that; it shows that they are very emotionally attached people." he took a small sip from his hot chocolate. "I assume this is from Miss Rose?" Alex tensed before nodding at the man. "Yes, sir, I saw how she was feeling and didn't say anything, but my teammate saw the same and actually talked with her." It's not the exact truth, but it's enough he can share without saying something he shouldn't.
"Well, you looked ready to do that now, correct?" he nodded, "Yes, sir."
"Then, I don't see the harm. You wished to try and comfort Miss Rose. It may not have been when you wanted, but you still allowed yourself to do it, even if you were late in your own eyes. It shows that you still are trying." Surprisingly enough, that did make him feel better. "Thank you, sir." He just gave the boy a small smile and nodded, walking towards Ruby. Looks like he might not be having that talk with Ruby, after all, or at least not right now; hopefully, the boys saved him some good lunch.
"So it was just me and Alex, Orion, and Ren. We're holding back the rest of the Grimm, there were four alpha beowolves, and I don't know how many more Grimm, but we were able to destroy all of them! Alex used his cool smoke powers to choke them out, and I smashed all their heads in with Magnhild!"
"Nora, there were like four regular beowolves, and once an alpha came out, you had us stay behind you guys." Alex had once again interrupted one of Nora's stories. JNPR had joined BOLD during breakfast, and Nora wanted to tell them one of her stories after it was revealed that she, Ren, Orion, and Alex had been together before Beacon.
"Aw, come on, Alex! You're being too humble! You guys did awesome!" He looked at her in disbelief and took a bite out of his breakfast burrito. If you could even call it that, it looked like a tortilla wrapped in just about everything there was in the cafeteria. "I still don't know how you can eat the way you do, man."
"Yeah, no offense, man, but you mixed like way too much into that burrito, and most of them don't even go together!" Alex glared at his two teammates, Sky and Orion, who would dare say his food choice was horrible. "I'll have you know this is delicious! Just because I mix everything together so I can taste it all and savor it does not mean it's a bad thing! You guys don't see me saying the way you guys eat is weird!" He held his 'Burrito' like it was a trophy. "You guys are just mad. I can see the food in a better way than you all can."
"I think if I saw food the way you do, I'd puke." He ignored his cousin in favor of eating more of his food and giving him a rather unique hand gesture. This made the rest of the group have a few laughs, or in Ren and Pyrrha's case, cover her mouth, trying to hide a smile, and Ren just gave them a slight smirk.
"Hey! We found you guys!" The seven of them turned to see who it was. Dove didn't turn, deciding his food was more important. The voice came from a rather happy-looking Ruby, the rest of her team following closely behind her. "Oh, Ruby, and RWBY." Jaune was waving them over towards the empty seats next to them. They would almost completely fill the tables out at this point.
Alex gave them a small bow, "Nice of you all to join us to eat."
"I don't think whatever you were doing would count as eating." He turned to see who said that but only caught a few smirks and 'innocent' faces. Right as he was about to respond, he was interrupted. "Oh my gods, what is on your plate?" This time, he could tell who said that it was Yang.
"Why is everyone so focused on my food today? And for your information, it's my breakfast burrito." He took a bite of it to prove his point. "Dude, that thing is almost as big as my arm!" He would just give Yang a glare. "Besides my eating habits, do you guys want to talk about something else."
"We have combat classes today, right? Are you guys excited for that?" Blake, who Alex realized he hadn't actually seen until now. He also noticed how some of the people in the group either wilted or sat up, looking excited; it honestly kind of scared Alex. The ones that wilted were Jaune and Pyrrha, while the ones that looked excited were Yang, Nora, Sky, Orion, Alex, and Ruby. Dove, Ren, and Weiss just straightened up, looking interested in the conversation.
"Honestly, I can't wait to see where Orion and I stand compared to you guys. Most of our combat training is against Ren and Nora." Yang, Jaune, and Ruby leaned in, curious just as to what that meant. "What do you guys mean? Like they were your only partners?" Alex shook his head. "Nope, Ren and Nora have basically been our teachers for what four almost five straight months of training?" Nora gave a hand motion, moving it side to side, "Give or take a few weeks." Ren spoke up
"Wait, so you're telling me you two have only been training for a few months? They let you in with that?" Surprisingly enough, it was Jaune who spoke up. "Yeah, we, of course, have continued our training, and we tried to train on our own before then, but they helped us tremendously."
"You guys must be pretty good if they accepted you guys with only four months of training. That or you got in like my special sister here." Yang quickly grabbed her sister and started giving her a small noogie, which quickly turned into a small fight that ended with the two sisters laughing. "That or they just wanted to show how not to be."
Alex's eyes snapped over to Weiss, who, of course, was the one to make the snarky comment, "Sure, like you have anything to stand on when talking about bad examples." Weiss glared back at the boy, scoffing. "What's that supposed to mean!"
"Trying to start a fight on the first day, physically throwing someone because they tried to calm you down, trying to say the person was being a creep, must I go on?" Alex's voice was obviously full of as much smartassery as he could pull. She wanted to get smart with him, but he was just trying to have a normal conversation. He could do the same. "Hey guys, why don't we just calm down a bit, yeah? I mean, I already forgave Weiss for throwing me, even if it did hurt a bit." Jaune, of course, was stepping between them; metaphorically, neither of them was really close to each other.
The two stared down at each other, waiting for the other to start the next barb; unfortunately for them and thankfully for the rest of them, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period and to start heading towards their next class. Alex was the first one to stand and dump his tray, wanting to just get class over with.
"Alright, class, I would like to introduce myself for those of whom may not know who I am; my name is Glynda Goodwitch. You may all refer to me as Professor, Goodwitch, or a combination of the two; this class will allow you to spar and prepare yourselves for enemies of your own kind, Huntsmen, bandits, terrorists, or criminals. My class won't always be sparring, nor will it only be paperwork. Still, I expect you all to learn something from my teaching, be it how to defend yourself against an unknown opponent, how to use your semblance more actively in battle, or just to get better in combat, plain and simple, now for today we will be doing things a bit differently to introduce you all to my class."
Glynda opened up her scroll; in doing so, the lights dimmed, and two blacked-out portions appeared on the screen. "We will have four matches, each picked randomly from our class list." She looked over to see if anyone had any questions. "These will be the four fights for today."
The wheel spins, and the first match is set, "Our first match will be, Sky Lark versus Blake Belladonna." The teams for the respecting students picked let out some small cheers and encouragements.
"Alright, and for our second match." Glynda quickly spun the wheel again; this time, it seemed to have the students in a new order. "Jaune Arc versus Dove Bronzewing." there was a small joke going around, something akin to 'Armor versus armor,' and if the armor was better with or without aura, at least it was before Glynda had to calm everyone down.
"For our third match, the students will be." Once again, the wheel had the students listed differently. Each one swapped quicker than the other. "Yang Xiao Long, versus Pyrrha Nikos." This chosen match had everyone quiet down as everyone heard the invincible girl's name be called. Most heads in the room turned to Pyrrha, who looked a bit embarrassed; this was interrupted by a shout, "Hey, where is my attention?" by Yang. The ones caught staring either looked at her next or stopped staring entirely.
"And the final match of the day is." The wheel spun quickly. Ruby Rose versus William Britt." Before many people could start talking, a hand quickly raised, "Yes, Miss Schnee?"
"My teammates and I were wondering if we could switch out with one another?" Weiss sounded rather excited and possibly dangerous, ready and wanting to switch with her leader.
"I'm sorry, Miss Schnee, but today we will not have any substitutes, volunteering, or before battle yields. I wish to show the basics of my class before we go into broader topics." Weiss looked a bit disgruntled but nodded. Thank you, Miss Goodwitch."
"Now, will our first fighters head to the locker rooms and begin to get ready for their matches."