"Platina…"
She heard an echoed voice. Through the darkness, Tina searched for the source, but she couldn't see a thing. A long silence followed the voice. Maybe it was just her imagination.
"Platina…" The voice grew louder. It sounded a little familiar, and it came from all around, almost as if it was in her head.
"Platina!" She pried herself awake and was greeted by a blurry image of a girl with white hair with a single streak of green.
"Huh?.." She groggily tried to respond to the person hovering over her. Tina's vision began to clear and her new teammate's face came into focus.
"Come on, we have to get ready." Tiffany told her as she stood up.
Platina tried to push herself up and raise her head. She was in a room with wooden frames and thick canvas screens as walls, a smooth hardwood floor, and a sliding door just ahead. She looked to her left and saw that Lukas and Tiffany were both sitting on their beds wearing the school uniform - a black and light gray jacket with a white band around their left arm. Lukas was also wearing black pants and his cloak, whereas Tiffany had a checkered skirt and light gray, knee-high socks.
May came scrambling out of the bathroom wearing the skirt and a tank top - her toothbrush still in her mouth - and pulled a white t-shirt over her body. She hurried over to her bed to grab the jacket and put it on while she rushed back to the bathroom.
Seeing this, Tina sprung into action. She grabbed her set of folded school clothes and ran into the bathroom, narrowly dodging past May as she left it. She closed the door and quickly replaced her pajamas with the uniform, then she hurriedly brushed her teeth and rushed back out the door.
"All right, what's first?" She asked in a panicked voice as she made her way to her bed and began putting her shoes on.
"Why are you asking us?" Lukas said as he looked up at Platina. "You're the leader; you have the schedule."
"Oh, right…" She realized and reached around her bed for the piece of paper that she put there last night. "It, uh, says here that our first class is Grimm Studies with Professor Myrtle at 9:15, uh, what time is it now?" She asked timidly.
"It's 8:37, so we still have some time left." Tiffany answered her question with a smile.
"Whaaat?" May moaned from across the room, stretching her right arm into the air. "You made it sound like we were going to be late. I'm gonna catch some extra Z's." She flopped onto her bed with a light 'poof' and closed her eyes. A moment of silence passed between the team.
"Well, I'm going to unpack then." Tiffany spoke up as she rose from her bed. "Maybe, we can all unpack together?"
May let out a groan and thrust her body up, then let it fall forward back onto the bed.
"I don't wannaaaa..." She whined.
"Don't just laze around on the first day of school, May." Platina called from the other side of the room.
"Fine..." She struggled to rise from her bed again.
"Go ahead and unpack if you want." Lukas leaned back and closed his eyes. "I have nothing with me, so just let me know when you're done."
"Alright, let's get to it then." Tina gave a bright smile to the other two.
The three girls spent the next 30 minutes or so decorating their sides of the room. By the time they got done, they had a hamper at the foot of each of their beds, and there was a studying table in the corner of the room and a large TV across from their beds. May had a poster from a bizarre show on the wall closest to her, Tiffany had an art piece of a white flower with purple berries, and Platina had a picture of her and August from when they first met on her nightstand.
"Team PLTM's first mission: accomplished!" Platina beamed a toothy grin.
"It was hardly a mission." Tiffany giggled.
"Alright, Lukas, we're done." May called. A moment went by, but Lukas didn't react.
"Lukas?" Platina called over to him. The three girls stared at him for a moment until they heard his faint snoring.
"He fell asleep." Tiffany sighed. May suddenly jumped up.
"Perfect," She snickered as she pulled out a marker. Before she made it to his bed, both Platina and Tiffany grabbed an arm and held her back.
"Hey, come on, it'd be funny!" She grunted as she tried to wrestle herself free.
"Come on, May, no childish pranks right now!" Tiffany pleaded.
"Alright, alright." She backed down. "Go wake him up then."
There was a moment of pause before Tiffany and May glanced at Tina.
"What? Me?" She whispered. May nodded in response. "A-alright," Platina made her way over to Lukas' bed before freezing up.
"G-guys," she turned to the other two, "what if he gets mad I woke him up?"
"Platina, don't be redicu - actually, I could imagine that." Tiffany changed her response halfway through. "What if he's a delinquent that skips class?"
"Can one of you two do it?" Tina asked as she sat back down.
"It's not a big deal, just shake him." May urged.
"Why don't you?" Platina asked.
"Cause you're waaaay closer to him." May responded as she scooted into the corner of the room.
Platina looked up at her other roommate. She got up and leaned over Lukas for a moment before showing the same hesitation Platina had.
"I don't think I want to do it either." She sighed as she scratched her face.
"Here, then!" May suddenly exclaimed as she moved the study table to the center of the room. She sat down and placed her elbow on the table.
"We'll arm wrestle for it! You're up first, Tina." She grinned towards her. Platina stared at her for a moment, recalling her strength.
"I'll just give up with that." She shook her head. May shifted her grin to Tiffany.
"I-I think I'll forfeit, as well." She laughed. May struck a pose like she was a bodybuilder.
"Still undefeated!" She smiled to herself. Tina turned towards Tiffany.
"If it's just the two of us, how about a game of rock-paper-scissors?" She laughed.
"We'll let luck decide, then." Tiffany laughed back.
"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" May announced. Platina held out rock high over Tiffany's scissors.
"Round two! Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Tina's paper overshadowed Tiffany's rock.
"I guess I have no choice." Tiffany giggled.
"I should probably feel bad for that - since they don't know I can't be beaten at that game yet." She thought to herself. "I really am a total cheater; using Telepathy like that. A villain to my core."
Tiffany reached for Lukas' shoulder before hesitating again.
"So, um, do either of you think there's some way to do this indirectly? So he might not think it was me?"
May groaned. "Hold on a second," she mumbled as she started rummaging through her bag. She tore a piece of paper out of her notebook, then she began folding it into a triangle shape before handing it to Tiffany.
"Flick this at him."
She leaned on her nightstand and lined up the shot. She flicked the paper with expert precision, and it hit him square on his nose. It bounced up momentarily before falling to the ground. His eyes fluttered open and he sat up.
"Alright, Lukas, I think we're about done." Platina called while trying to act like she was putting things away.
"About time," He yawned. He got up and joined his team at the center of the room.
"Alright, we should get to class now. We don't want to be late after all." Tiffany stated.
The four teammates lined up at the door and May flung it open. They were met with a gust of wind as someone came blurring by. They all looked down the hallway, and with an expression of confusion, they examined the person for a brief moment. He was a man with parted black hair with white tips, wearing a black suit with a green dress shirt.
"Is that...Arsenic Myrtle?..." Lukas asked quizzically while he stared with squinted eyes.
"Yeah, that's him." Tiffany confirmed, her voice also filled with question. "But why...oh, shoot! We're two minutes late!" She exclaimed after looking down at her scroll, displaying 9:17 on the top. She began running towards the teacher and was soon followed by Platina, then Lukas, then May.
"Wait, you guys mean the legendary hero, Arsenic Myrtle?!" Tina asked excitedly as her face began to glow with awe and excitement. "I can't believe we're having him as a teacher!"
The professor whipped around to the right and down a staircase, so the team did the same. At the bottom, both the teacher and the students ran across the courtyard and entered the building on the other side. Professor Myrtle took a sharp right and sprinted up another flight of stairs. The four students did the same and followed him down another hallway.
He threw open a sliding door, and Team PLTM did their best to chase after him. He began to close the door, but just before he managed to do so, Platina, Tiffany, and May dived through the door just in time. The three toppled over each other in a tangled pile. They all glanced back to see Lukas still running down the hallway. Professor Myrtle shut the door practically in his face.
The three girls let out a collective, soft gasp. They got up and opened the door, but he wasn't there. They all turned around and realized that he was standing behind them. Tiffany and Platina were breathing heavily from the chase, but Lukas and May seemed unfazed.
"Sorry, students," The professor apologized as he dusted off his suit, "you'll have to forgive me. This is only my second year of teaching, and technically the first was only a half a year."
He made his way behind an oak wood desk that had various papers strewn about and a rifle laid across it. Team PLTM ambled over to four empty seats next to the newly formed Team ABRN.
"What took you guys so long?" Reese whispered over to Platina.
"We were trying to wake up Lukas." She replied to her friend.
"He's a heavy sleeper, huh?" Reese commented, "Hey, what's your guy's room like?"
"Um...pretty much just one big room?" Platina replied with a confused tone. "Like the rest, right?"
"Well, I guess most of the students actually have suites with single rooms. I'm just glad our team wasn't the only one who got shafted." She explained.
"What?" Platina gasped, "You mean I could've had my own room to myself?! Ugh, that is so unfair." She held her head in her hands for a moment. "I miss my privacy."
They both sat up and began paying attention to the Professor. Tina finally got a good look at him. Along with his black and white hair, he had bold silver eyes and a chiseled, handsome chin.
"Alright, welcome to Grimm Studies." Arsenic began. "I'm sure you all know what a Grimm is, so I won't bother explaining it in too much detail right now. Instead, I'm curious; who here has had any especially bad experiences with a Grimm?"
A silence fell over the room as he asked the question. Eventually, a hand full of students gathered the courage to raise their hands.
"I am sorry for whatever happened to you all. I know that things like that can be hard to talk about. That's why it's so important to understand the Grimm; their weaknesses, their strengths. To protect others."
The Professor began going on a speech; his voice never wavering away from a calm tone. Platina began to tune out from what he was saying because she was mesmerized by the fact that they had a Huntsman like Arsenic Myrtle as a teacher.
"Platina?" The calling of her name snapped her back to reality. "Is there a Platina here?" He asked the crowd of students.
"Uh, sorry! Here..." Her voice quivered slightly from the embarrassment.
"Steel, huh?" Arsenic muttered to himself, pondering her last name.
Before Tina knew it, the first bell rang and the class was over. The students began to pack up their things and funnel out of the room. Tina, May, and Lukas were just about to leave as well, but stopped at the door.
"Where's Tiffany?" May asked when she realized she wasn't with them. They turned back to the classroom and spotted her having a chat with the professor.
"I'm going on ahead, you two can wait for her." Lukas suggested to Tina and May.
He walked off, and the two Huntresses could do nothing but stare. They turned towards Tiffany and Professor Myrtle and began to approach them.
"I gotta say, Arsenic, you did well for the first day." She commended the Huntsman.
"I'd scold you for being late to my class, if I weren't late myself." The professor laughed.
"Hey, Tiff. Do you know the professor or something?" May asked the Huntress. Tiffany turned towards her teammates and gave them a short stare before answering.
"Oh, uh, yes. I do." She shifted her weight and took in a short, deep breath. "Platina, May, this is my cousin."
"Yo." He greeted the Huntresses blandly, giving a smile that was much more confident than anything Tiffany could pull off. There was a long, drawn-out silence between the three students and the teacher. Platina was the first to speak up.
"What?!" She exclaimed in a mixed tone of excitement and bewilderment. "You mean you're related to the legendary hero, Arsenic Myrtle?!" She pointed at Tiffany with one hand while holding her cheek with the other.
"Wait, what do you mean 'legendary hero?'" May asked as she looked back and forth from Tiffany to Platina with a confused expression.
"You don't know?" Her voice almost sounded like she was offended. "He's famous! He's completed countless S-ranked missions for things like protecting people from assassins! He once fought off more than 70 Beowolves from attacking a village!"
"It was around 100." He corrected with a bragging tone.
"I heard that one time, he literally killed two Nevermores with one stone!" Platina finished, staring at Arsenic with wide, excited eyes. May quickly whirled around and copied Platina's expression almost perfectly.
"Holy crap, is that true?!" She mimicked Platina's timbre.
"Every word." Tiffany sighed, "Arsenic was a big reason I became a Huntress instead of going into the family business."
"Family business?" May's attention shifted over to Tiffany as she stared at her in deep thought. "Myrtle, Myrtle...you don't mean, like, the Myrtle Clothing Company, do you?"
"That's exactly what I mean, actually." Tiffany confirmed with an awkward smile, "I'm the daughter of the founder."
"Wait, for real? No way, that's so cool! I got all my clothes from the fireproof line of stuff!" May exclaimed as she threw her arms around Tiffany, nearly knocking her over in the process. "Hey listen, can you please get me a discount on clothes?!"
"Ah, n-no, I can't!" Tiffany let out as she struggled to break free from May.
"Do you and Professor Myrtle go on adventures together?" Tina asked ecstatically, wrapping her arms around one of Tiffany's. "Oh please, you have to take me on one!"
"Hey now, kids," Arsenic put a hand on both Tiffany's and Platina's shoulder and tried to separate the two, "I know it's exciting and all, but you're overwhelming the poor kid."
Tina and May stopped for a second and looked up to a flustered Tiffany. They immediately backed up and gave an identical expression; a toothy grin and a hand rubbing the back of their tilted head.
"You girls should get to your next class." Professor Myrtle looked down at his cousin with a grin, which was met with a smile of her own.
"Okay, professor. Come on, let's go." May said as she signaled over to the door. She and Tina jogged out of the room. Tiffany stayed back, watching from behind with a smile.
"You know, it's kinda funny how flustered you get around them." Arsenic whispered loudly over to his cousin and while he crossed his arms.
She vented her frustration towards the comment by kicking him in the back of the leg, which knocked him to his knees. She hit him as hard as she could on the top of his head, sending a shock through his body and bringing a tear to his eye. She returned to her previous prissy expression and stature and started to chase after her teammates, leaving Arsenic behind to wilt in pain.
Character Notes #4 Tiffany Myrtle; A polite rich girl who was trained to be a Huntress by her cousin, Arsenic. She's the only daughter of the founder of the Myrtle Clothing Company, the largest clothing brand in all of Remnant. Because of her fragile Aura, she takes the role of a sniper and protects people from afar. She's typically calm and collected, but can become easily flustered if she's presented with a situation she's not familiar with.