Any semblance of hope that Platina had was stamped out when she tripped on her bootlace and faceplanted into the cold, hard concrete ground. After laying there for a while, feeling sorry for herself once again, she got to her hands and knees to get back up.
"Woah, you okay?" Tina heard a familiar voice say.
She lifted her head and saw a hand extended out to her. Looking past that, Platina found a girl who was taller than her and had wild, mint hair that was swept up. Below each of her green eyes, she had a black marking. In her other hand was a sleek, green hoverboard that had silver blades at either end.
"Reese?!" Platina exclaimed, pulling herself up using her old friend's hand.
"It has been way too long since we last talked, Tina." Reese said with her usual warm smile.
"I had no idea you got accepted into Haven, why didn't you tell me?" Platina whined.
Reese shrugged, "I thought I'd surprise you." She gave a short chuckle. "I mean like, it was so obvious you would be accepted; being top of the sparring class and all." She put an arm around Platina and snickered, "Too bad there weren't any 'how-not-to-be-socially-awkward' classes."
"Shut up, you jerk!" She demanded as she pushed Reese off, but no matter how mad she wanted to be, Platina couldn't keep herself from smiling. "God, I'm just glad you're here. I was afraid I wasn't going to have any friends!"
"Platina, that's ridiculous. You're nice and caring and selfless; who wouldn't want to be your friend? Besides, you're also shy, cute, and short." She winked at Platina after counting the reasons on her fingers, "Instant guy friends!" Tina socked Reese in the shoulder for that.
"I'm not looking for any attention from guys right now, Reese. I just want to get through the classes and not embarrass myself. You know I don't do well in social situations." She finished as she held her arm at her side.
"Tina, how are you supposed to be the world's greatest Huntress without making connections with people?" Reese asked.
Platina sighed at the question. "Yeah, I know that I need to break out of my shell. I'm just...afraid that I'll get close to some people and then...well, you know."
"You can't do it alone." Reese put a hand on Tina's shoulder, "You'll find people that you can trust. Just know that if you decide to run again, I'm running with you. We're in this together."
Reese's words relieved Platina of some of the weight on her shoulders.
"In any case, we should get to the rally. Probably don't want to miss that." She finished.
"Not everyone would agree with you on that, apparently." Platina thought to herself.
The two began to walk toward the entrance of the main building. They passed under a huge torii gateway, and they stopped at an open area with a large stage set up at the center. A sea of roughly a hundred people crowded around the stage; where two men overlooked the wave of new students. The first was the bird Faunus that had appeared as a hologram on the transport ship, Hawk Valenzuela. The second was a tanned old man with a wild beard, a lion's tail, and slicked back, graying dark-hazel hair.
"Look, it's Leonardo Lionheart!" Platina squealed as she pointed him out to Reese.
"Right...who was that again?" Reese's voice fell flat.
"Ugh, I can't with you." Platina sighed, "He was one of the greatest Huntsman of his time! Not to mention he's the Headmaster of the academy. He's the type of person who worked his way to the top of the Huntsman world, like I'm going to do!"
"Ahem, hello." He began, "I can tell that all of you have worked very hard to get here, and I can assure you that your effort will not be wasted so long as you continue to put that same effort into your training here. I imagine that one of two things brought you here. A search for knowledge, or a search for power. Both are equally important to a Huntsman, but keep in mind that only one of those things can be truly abused. The students here have a duty to defend the weak, and while you will surely do that here; it is important to continue to do so when your time here expires."
There was a somewhat cold vibe coming from him; not entirely like the hero that she envisioned. After Professor Lionheart stepped off and hurried away, Professor Valenzuela took his place at the front of the stage.
"Everyone will be spending tonight in one of two multipurpose rooms. After breakfast in the morning, the team selection process will take place. If you would all follow me, I can show you the way."
Reese and Platina shared a look that told each other they were both underwhelmed as everyone started heading towards the school entrance.
"That was a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be." Reese said with a sigh as she laid her board down. It began hovering just inches above the ground with a soft whir. She stepped up onto it and leaned slightly forward so that she was traveling at walking speed with Tina.
"Can you remind me again why you always ride that stupid thing instead of just walking for a change?" Platina smiled and shook her head at the answer she already knew was coming.
"Walking's too much effort."
Platina was lying on the blue sleeping bag she brought and reading her favorite book, A Man With Two Souls. She was wearing white pajama pants and an electric blue tank top that had her symbol; a navy blue circle with a crest cut out of it, wrapped around its left side. Suddenly and without warning, Reese flopped down next to her.
"So, who do you think is the most boyfriend material?" She teased.
"W-what?" Tina was caught off guard by the question.
"Well, there's the tall one over there..." She said, pointing across the room to a tan boy with long brown hair, "or there's the pink-haired one there..." She shifted her finger across the room. "He's a bit too scrawny for my taste though."
"I think the boys think you're weird for pointing at them from across the room." Platina replied while giving Reese her most smug grin.
Reese giggled, "Whatever, I could see you with Pinky over there." She laid down on her own sleeping bag and began clicking away at her scroll, likely texting her friends from Windpath.
"Hey, Reese," Platina turned away from her book and looked up towards the green-haired tomboy.
"Yeah?" Reese replied, not taking her eyes off of her scroll.
"Tomorrow, we have to make sure we're on a team together." Tina put a bookmark on the page she was on and sat up, leaning against the wall.
"You know it's most likely not up to us right?" Reese gave a short chuckle, "It's probably all luck-based, or maybe the teachers will make the teams themselves."
"Yeah, I know. It's just…" Platina looked away when Reese glanced in her direction, "I don't know if I'll be able to make it without you on my team. I mean, being alone with three total strangers would be an actual nightmare."
"Quit making it sound like we're never going to see each other again. We'll still have classes together, and we can still hang out after them."
Tina turned to Reese, "I just need at least one friend on my team, that's it."
Reese put her scroll away and gave her full attention to Platina, "So, are you telling me that you didn't meet anybody on the airship? Not one person came and said 'hi'?"
"You didn't even come and say 'hi'." Platina retorted. She sighed and put away her book, "Well, there was this one girl," she said as she wrapped her arms around her knees, "but she took off not long after I met her." There was a short silence between the two before Reese spoke up.
"Well? Are you gonna tell me anything about her?"
"Oh, well, uh...her name was May." Platina started. "She had pink hair and brownish eyes. She kind of reminded me of you."
"Well, there you go! If we get you, me, and May on a team then there will only be one stranger." Reese exclaimed optimistically.
"Yeah, but the odds of that happening are probably not great." Tina retorted, "I'm just nervous is all."
Across the room, there was a thud followed by a voice saying "Excuse me." Platina looked up in the direction the noises were coming from and saw the girl from earlier that she and May had run into. Platina squinted her eyes at her.
"It's rude to stare, Tinaaa. You know her or something?" Reese asked.
"I guess? She just dropped a bunch of her Dust in the yard. After May and I helped she took off; back to the ship to grab something." Platina sat and stared at the girl for a short time.
Reese grabbed Platina by the hand and pulled her up from the ground.
"Well? What are we waiting for?" Reese pulled Tina by her arm across the room to meet the girl, much to Platina's dismay. She pulled and grunted to get away from her, but Reese was persistent, and before she knew it she was nearly upon the girl.
"Hi!" Reese greeted her in her most chipper voice. The girl twirled around in an almost graceful manner.
"My friend here says she knows you?" Reese continued. The girl's gaze panned over to Platina's face and she quickly recognized her.
"Oh, you're the girl from earlier!" Her face lit up as she spoke.
"Yeah, I am...my name's Platina." She said as she rubbed the back of her head.
"I'm Tiffany. Thank you for your help."
"Oh, it's no big deal. You know how it is, 'treat others the way you want to be treated' and stuff." Platina shrugged and smiled awkwardly.
"I was raised the same way. What's your name?" Tiffany asked as she turned her attention to Reese.
"Reese Chloris, I was one of Platina's friends at our old school. Nice to meet you." Reese replied, smiling and giving a thumbs up.
"Are you two ready for tomorrow?" Tiffany asked the other two as she sat down on her sleeping bag. "I'm interested to see how they're going to decide the teams."
"Yeah, me too." Reese replied, "Actually, Platina and I wanted to know if you wanted to try and get on a team with us."
Tiffany smiled, "That would be nice."
There was a sudden thud on the main sliding door that the three girls were sitting next to that captured their attention. After a short moment of them staring in silence, there was another, louder thud. In an explosion of wood and fabric, the door gave way and burst down, and a pink-haired girl came crashing in and fell face-first on the ground.
"Oooow...jeez, why didn't that door open regularly?.." She moaned as she got to her knees and held her head.
"May?!" Platina exclaimed.
May looked over and vivaciously replied, "Oh, hey Tina!" She jumped up and brushed the dust off of her jacket. "Fancy seeing you here."
"This is the girl you were talking about?" Reese whispered and looked at Platina quizzically.
"May," a voice was heard from behind the door. A man with an eagle beak poked his head in, "I was going to tell you that you slide these kinds of doors." Professor Valenzuela said as he did just that. "I didn't think you would bust it down."
May rubbed the back of her head and chuckled, "Well, thanks for showing me the way, Hawk!"
"You kids get some rest," the professor said as he turned to the other three, "you have a big day ahead of you." He shut the door and walked away.
"You know the professor?" Platina asked as May turned back to them.
"Yeah, me and him go way back. He was one of my mom's teammates." She said as she dropped her bag and set her shotgun on the wall next to it.
"Oh, no way! That's so cool!" Platina exclaimed.
"Hey!" Someone called from behind Platina and Reese. The two turned around to see a boy walking towards them. He was around 6'1 and had long, straight black hair and dark eyes. He seemed upset, which made Tina tense up as he approached.
"Can you be quiet? I'm trying to get some rest!" He said in a rude manner; his voice clear and bassy.
Platina didn't know what, but something about this guy was a bit intimidating. "S...S-sorry." She found it hard to talk and the apology came out as a whisper.
"What was that?" He raised his head and eyed Platina in a kind of menacing way. Tina instinctively let out a quiet cry of fear and the blood ran out of her face. Like jumping in front of a bullet, May stepped between the two.
"Sorry, guy. We'll try to keep it down." She said.
For just another second, his stare loomed on Platina. She knew what he was thinking: "A runt that hides behind her friends, huh?" She lowered her head at that thought.
"Hey," May spoke up again, "come on, we apologized." She gave him a menacing glare of her own
"Right…" He sighed as he relaxed his stance. He turned and went back to his spot in the room. Platina felt like she could breathe again.
"Jeez, what's his deal?" Reese scoffed as he walked away.
"I don't know," May replied, shaking her head, "but he's right, we should probably get some sleep too."
"Yeah, probably. It was nice meeting you guys." Reese said as she and Platina walked back to their sleeping areas. "They seem nice. I think you chose some good friends."
"Yeah, I think so too." Tina agreed, laying down on her sleeping bag. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight Platina."
Character Notes #2 Reese Chloris; Platina's friend from Combat School. Reese is a laid-back skater girl who became a Huntress for the heck of it. Her thrill-seeker mindset throws her into the midst of trouble if her curious eye catches a glimpse of action. She combines work and pleasure with her hoverboard, which doubles as her weapon.