Chapter 13: Jaundice

A few weeks passed since team RWBY and team JNPR adopted me. I love being a part of their family. They take very good care of me and love me as their own child. They are not too strict thankfully, but I do have a couple that are strict/overprotective.

Ruby is the fun/lenient parent, Weiss is the strict parent, Blake is lenient, and Yang is overprotective of me.

Jaune is lenient, Nora is also the fun/lenient parent, Pyrrha is lenient, and Ren is the quiet one/lenient.

I also forgot to mention, I have been working on my semblance with team RWBY. I got stronger, but I still have not been able to unlock it yet. I hope to unlock it soon. I was able to unlock my Aura, so I am getting closer. Any day now I am feeling it.

"Don't worry, Lana. I am sure we will unlock your semblance any day now." Ruby said when we finished practicing for the day.

"I hope so," I said.

Weiss woke me up this morning for class. "Lana. Wake up, time for class." Weiss said, shaking me a bit.

"Five more minutes, Mother." I groaned.

Weiss sighed. "Fine but I want you out of bed in five minutes," Weiss said. I nodded and turned over to go back to sleep.

Before I knew it the five minutes were up. I got out of bed and got dressed. I put on my Taylor Swift shirt with my black leggings. Today was sparring class, something I have been looking forward to since I started school. We haven't done sparring class, so this was the first one of the year.

When we got to class, I took my seat next to Pyrrha. After a few matches, it was now Jaune's turn. Jaune was versing Cardin Winchester, one of the bullies in the school.

Cardin Winchester had his weapon called The Executioner perched on his shoulder and Jaune opposite him with his sword drawn, leaning on his weapon exhausted, in the spotlight shining on the Beacon Acadamy auditorium stage.

He looks at Cardin who laughs at Jaune's tiredness. Jaune gathers his strength to charge forward and swing his blade at Cardin, only for him to jump out of the way. Jaune looks back, surprised, as The Executioner sends Jaune's shield- and himself- flying back. Now only armed with his sword, Jaune continued to try and attack but is blocked by the mace's hilt. Their weapons locked, Cardin forces himself up, towering over a struggling Jaune.

"This is the part where you lose," Cardin said.

"Over my dead-!"

Jaune is cut short as Cardin knees him in the gut, making Jaune drop his sword and fall to the ground in pain.

"Come on Daddy, get him!" I whispered as I watched the two.

Cardin raises his mace and is about to slam it down on a worried Jaune just when the buzzer rings, the lights come back on. Glynda Goodwitch speaks, causing Cardin to stop.

"Cardin, that's enough!" Glynda said.

Cardin relents and walks away as she comes onto the stage, tapping her tablet, and starts speaking again. "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and the official may call the match."

Jaune is still lying on the floor in defeat. Pyrrha looks sad. Glynda turns her head to look at the losing warrior as he pulls out a smaller tablet with his low, blinking stats and that of his entire team.

"Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf now, would we?" Glynda said.

"Speak for yourself..." Cardin said while hoisting his weapon on his shoulder. Glynda turns to the rest of us.

"Remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away! It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!" As Glynda is saying this, Yang punches the air in anticipation; Weiss shakes her fists with an excited smile; and Ruby shakes her entire body with enthusiastic energy while squealing softly.

I jumped up and down in my seat. I too am excited for the Vital Festival tournament. The bell rings and the students start leaving. Pyrrha continues to frown sadly. Jaune is still sitting on the floor and hangs his head down in shame.

"Mom? Are you okay?" I asked Pyrrha.

"Yeah, sweetie. I'm just worried about him." Pyrrha said, looking at Jaune.

"I'm sure Daddy will be okay," I said. I looked at Glynda who motioned me to come onto the stage. "I have to go."

"Okay. We will meet you at lunch." Pyrrha said. I walked up to the stage and met Glynda. Glynda had me stay behind so we could work on unlocking my semblance.

After about an hour of sparring, I still have not unlocked my semblance. I am getting frustrated. I slammed my sword down on the ground in frustration.

"That's not how a huntress is supposed to act, now is it?" Glynda said as she observed me.

I sighed. "No... it's just frustrating. It's been weeks and my semblance just won't go through." I said.

"These kinds of things take time. With enough patience and practice, you will get there." Glynda said. I picked up my sword and tried again. After 30 minutes, I still got nothing.

Glynda dismissed me and I was able to go to lunch with my parents. I got my lunch and sat down next to Blake and Weiss. Nora was entertaining us with one of her stories and I was listening with interest.

"So! There we were, in the middle of the night..." Nora said dramatically.

"It was day." Ren chimed in.

Nora turns to Blake, who is paying no attention as she is lost in her book, and Yang is hanging on her every word with her hands cupping her face. "We were surrounded by Ursai..."

"They were Beowolves," Ren said as he was holding his cup of coffee.

"Dozens of them!" Nora screamed while she stood on the table. This caused me to be startled. Weiss is ignoring Nora and filing her nails, Ruby and Pyrrha are listening politely, and Jaune is messing with his food.

"Two of 'em." Ren corrected her again. Ruby, Pyrrha, and I now look at Jaune with concern as he continues to pick at his food.

Nora continues her story. "But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"

Ren sighs with annoyance. "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." He said.

Pyrrha looks at Jaune. "Jaune? Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune snaps out of it and turns back towards them.

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Why?" Jaune asked.

"It's just that you seem a little... not okay..." Ruby said, pointing her fingers at him. The others stop in their distractions and stare at him.

"Guys, I'm fine. Seriously! Look!" Jaune said. He holds up a thumb while laughing nervously. I didn't seem too convinced, though.

"Are you sure, Daddy?" I said. I kept looking at him with concern until our attention was focused on the members of Team CRDL, standing around a girl with brown rabbit ears jutting from her hair as Cardin laughed at her and Sky held up his hands to his head in a mock interpretation of her unusual features.

"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you and Lana since the first week of school!" Pyrrha exclaimed. Yeah, Cardin bullies me too. Cardin bullies me because I don't have a semblance and because of my disability too.

"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah... He just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!" Jaune said.

"He's a bully. Do you realize he is bullying both you and Lana?" Ruby said with a serious look on her face.

Jaune scoffed. "Oh, please! Name one time he's 'bullied' us." Jaune said, making quotation marks.

"Remember the time he knocked books out of our hands?" I said.

*Mini Flashback*

Jaune and I are on our way to class as Cardin is going the other way down the hall. When we passed each other, Cardin knocked his arms into mine and Jaune's and makes us drop our books, then continued on his way with his hands out as if daring anyone to challenge him.

"Ah, come on!" Jaune shouted.

On Tuesday, Jaune, Cardin, and I are about to pass through a doorway, but Cardin clicks on Jaune's sheath and extends it into its shield form as he's going out, causing him to run into his own defense and have it block the exit.

Jaune grunts in frustration as he tries to lift his shield back out. "Come on...!" Jaune shouted again. As I went to help Jaune, Cardin put his foot out in my direction and purposely tripped me, making me land smack on my face on the hard floor.

"Dude!" I yelled in annoyance. Cardin just kept walking away.

On Wednesday, Glynda is in the locker room with several students gesturing at the devices.

"Each of you will be assigned one rocket-propelled locker to store your weapons and extra armor. Additionally, your locker can be sent to a custom location based on a six-digit code." Glynda explained.

Hearing this, Cardin looks at Jaune- standing between him and the only open locker in the room- and the cliche plays itself out as Cardin quickly pushes a shocked Jaune into the small dark space and closes the door on him, pressing random buttons on the pad right after that.

"What?! No, wait, wait! You've gotta get me out of here! Please! Don't! Don't! Don't do it! Lana help!" Jaune cried. I tried to save Jaune, but Cardin pushed me out of the way.

It's too late to protest when the locker scrunches down and launches up with a burst of blue fire coming from its base. Cardin watches as the locker slowly soars across the sky.

"Ahhh, coooome ooooooon!" Jaune screamed, still heard from within the locker.

"Daddy!" I shouted. I turned to glare at Cardin. "Dude what the hell did you do that for?!" I yelled.

"He is a freak, and so are you!" Cardin said. Cardin roughly pushed me to the ground, making me land hard on my butt.

*End of Mini Flashback*

The others look at us, totally focused on me and Jaune now. Jaune attempts to laugh it off. "I didn't land far from the school!"

"Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask," Pyrrha said.

"Oooh!" Nora yells while getting up from the table and presents her diabolical plan with a not-entirely-sane grin. "We'll break his legs!"

"Guys, really, it's fine! Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone." Jaune said.

We all look over as the laughing grows louder, mixed in with cries of pain from the rabbit girl when one of her ears are tugged on by Cardin.

"Ow! That hurts!" The rabbit girl cried. She stops struggling and grimaces as she says: "Please stop."

Cardin continues laughing as he turns to his cronies. "I told you it was real!" Cardin said.

"What a freak!" Russell said as he is still guffawing with his teammates.

"Atrocious. I can't stand people like him." Pyrrha said.

"Mean either," I said.

"He's not the only one..." Blake said.

Yang is leaning her head on her hand. "It must be hard to be a Faunus," Yang said. I nodded my head, agreeing with Yang.

I watched team CRDL continuing to pick on the poor rabbit girl. I felt my blood boiling. I have had enough. I stood up from the table.

"Uh, Lana. What are you doing?" Ruby said. I ignored her and made my way over to team CRDL.

"Leave her alone!" I yelled. Cardin looked up at me with a grin.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the semblencles and disabled freak. Come to join the fun?" Cardin said.

"No. I want you to leave the rabbit girl alone!" I shouted.

"I don't think so," Cardin said as he tugged on the rabbit girl's ears harder.

"I'm warning you... if you do not leave her alone..." I threatened.

"What? You'll tell on me? Ooh I'm so scared!" Cardin said mockingly. The rest of his team laughed.

"No, but I will do this!" I said. I grabbed a glass of water and splashed it all over him, making him let go of the rabbit girl. Cardin stood up and glared at me.

"That's it! You're dead, kid!" Cardin shouted. Cardin roughly grabbed me by the shoulders and lifted me up. My parents rushed over to me.

"Lana!" Yang shouted.

Cardin was getting ready to punch but I was one step ahead of him. I kicked Cardin hard in the balls. Cardin bent over and screamed in pain. I leaped up and punched at him in the face continuously. Yang, Pyrrha, Ren, and Blake pulled me off of Cardin. They restrained me to prevent me from fighting.

"Let me go!" I yelled.

"Calm down!" Pyrrha said worriedly.

"You're gonna get in trouble if you don't stop," Blake warned.

"Speaking of trouble..." Yang said when Glynda walked up to us. My parents let go of me. I controlled myself because Glynda was there.

"Lana! Cardin! Why are you two fighting?" Glynda demanded as she harshly glared at us.

"Professor, Cardin was picking on the girl over there!" I said, pointing at the rabbit girl.

"Is this true?" Glynda asked the rabbit girl.

"Yeah. Cardin was pulling on my ears." The rabbit girl said.

"Very well. Cardin you will be in detention." Glynda said. Glynda looked at me. "And as for you, Lana..."

She was about to continue when Weiss intervened. "I will deal with her. You don't need to give her any punishments." Weiss said.

"Okay then," Glynda said. Glynda walked away. Cardin roughly grabbed my shoulders.

"You will pay for this..." Cardin threatened before releasing me and walking away. I took a moment to catch my breath before turning my attention back to Weiss.

"You have got to be more careful," Weiss said.

"I know, Mother," I said.

"No more fighting from now on. You are grounded for a week. I appreciate you standing up for her, but next time handle it more maturely and don't be so reckless." Weiss said. I sighed, accepting my punishment. There was no point in arguing with her. I was about to leave the cafeteria when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see the rabbit girl standing behind me.

"Hey. I just wanted to say thank you for standing up for me." She said.

"No problem. Stay away from Cardin, he's a real asshole." I said. The rabbit girl nodded and giggled.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"I'm Lana," I said.

"I'm Velvet." She said.

"Nice to meet you, Velvet," I said. I looked at Vevlet's bunny ears. "Can I feel them? I won't hurt them, I just wanna feel."

"Sure," Velvet said. I reached up and gently felt her ears. They were so soft and cute!

"Your ears are so cute!" I said.

Velvet blushed and said, "Thank you."

Velvet and I parted ways. I looked at Jaune who looked at the rest of Team RWBY and JNPR. I went back to the dorms with him, not knowing Cardin who was giving us an evil smirk. My spider senses went off to warn me about him. I had a feeling Cardin was up to no good.