"Just so you know, most people at Beacon aren't like Cardin and his friends," Ruby said, parking herself across from Weiss. Weiss had sat down at the bench near the building where she had her first class. "He's just a jerk no one else talks to."
"Well I would hope so," Weiss said.
"Everyone just normally keeps to themselves, at least that's what I've seen."
Perhaps that is not such a good thing with people like that buffoon lurking about, Weiss thought. She took another look at the other girl who didn't seem at all phased about talking to Weiss, perhaps she didn't know who she was, that would be nice.
"You mentioned your sister is normally with you and she keeps, what did you call him? Cardin? Away."
"Yeah, she likes to keep watch over me, even though I don't really need her to," Ruby folded her arms.
"I'm sure," Weiss replied. "Now I should get going if I'm going to be early enough for my first class."
"Oh yeah I need to get going too," Ruby unlocked her chair, "See you around Weiss and sorry again about earlier."
Weiss and Ruby split up to get to class. Ruby took an elevator while Weiss's first class was on the first floor. The door to her class was already open and the teacher, Mr. Port was already writing on the board, a couple of other students were already present.
"Ah Miss Schnee was it? Welcome to Beacon," Mr. Port said. Weiss internally relaxed when the name garnered no reaction from any of the students.
"Thank you, Mr. Port," she smiled.
"Take a seat, anywhere now would be good, we have very flexible seating in my class."
Weiss nodded, taking a seat near the front of the class and getting her English text-book out. As more students filled in she noticed that the back seats were the first to be filled and no one besides herself chose the front row.
The bell rang and Mr. Port stepped in front of the board. "Well another day has come and with it another day for another good story to be read. But before that we have a new face to welcome to our campfire of knowledge. Miss Schnee, please stand and introduce yourself."
Weiss slumped a little in her seat. "I'd rather not sir."
"Now, now, no need to be shy," He said jovially.
Weiss looked around at the other students, most looked bored and disinterested, none of them seemed to know who she was but she still wanted to keep a low profile if possible. "Well I-"
The door opened, cutting Weiss off as another student entered, tall long blonde hair, and violet eyes. She was dressed like she was going for a motorcycle ride instead of school she gave Mr. Port a cocky grin.
Mr. Port turned his attention to her, he spoke in a tone that was casual, ruffling his large mustache. "Miss Xiao-Long, so kind of you to show."
The girl shrugged. "Sorry Port, I had to help out a friend."
"That is good of you then but perhaps next time knock before entering, otherwise we might think a monster is bearing down on us," He laughed, no one else did, then cleared his throat. "Why don't you take a seat next to Miss Schnee, perhaps she can help you focus in class."
"She can try but your stories are so relaxing it's hard to stay awake," The blonde sat down next to Weiss. "Yang Xiao-Long."
"Weiss Schnee," Weiss replied, opening her textbook.
"You won't need to use that much," Yang pointed at the book.
Weiss raised her unscared eye, "What do you mean?"
"Port here doesn't really take much from the textbook, he prefers to do his own dramatic style of plays," Yang explained.
"Dramatic Style?"
"How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in it!" Mr. Port bellowed, pulling out a long wooden staff from behind his desk.
"Oh yes dramatic style," Weiss closed her book.
One hour and several long verses of poetry followed by discussions on the meaning of such poetry and the class was over. Yang, despite her words earlier, had remained awake the entire time which was some relief to Weiss. She'd rather not be stuck sitting next to someone who slept through class, though she didn't take any notes either which irked Weiss a little.
Her next class was a biology class with Ms. Peach, where she was partnered with a tall red-headed woman wearing glasses that looked vaguely familiar to Weiss but she couldn't put her finger on where she'd seen her before.
Her lab partner, Pyrrha, was polite and didn't speak much unless spoken to so Weiss wasn't able to get much out of her. She also cleared through their shared assignment so fast Weiss was barely able to contribute before it was finished. Pyrrha didn't seem to mind doing so much of the work, if anything she was smiling by the time they finished. When class finished she hurried off like she was going to be late for something, and like was going to run into someone with how she kept her head down as she moved.
After her second class she had lunch so Weiss made her way to the cafeteria, it was packed full of people and there was a long line waiting to get their food. Winter had asked Weiss if she wanted to make her lunch but Weiss said no at the time, a little curious on what school lunches were like and not wanting to put even more work on her sister. Nearly ten minutes of waiting later and Weiss was starting to wish she had said otherwise, the food itself didn't look bad, a lot cheaper than what father would have prepared for her, but it all looked edible. Grabbing a burger, a salad, and a drink of juice she paid and started looking for a table to sit at.
With how packed the cafeteria was though there was not a single table that didn't have someone already sitting out it, many were sitting with their friend groups just like the courtyard in the morning. Just as she was considering heading outside the cafeteria and taking her chances in the courtyard a voice called out her name.
"Hey Weiss, do you not have anywhere to sit!" Ruby called out several tables down waving her hand in the air. "You can sit with us if you want!"
Blushing a little at the loud call and how people turned their heads to look at her as she walked over to the table. Ruby wasn't alone, next to her on the table bench was Yang picking at a soup, she looked up when Weiss sat down.
"So she's the one who helped you this morning?" Yang asked Ruby.
"Yep, she helped me get back up and told off Cardin right to his face, he looked like he was going to explode," Ruby said.
"Well then thanks for helping my sister, Weiss," Yang said before her eyes darkened and her hands clenched. "Those guys never seem to learn to leave her alone."
"Yang, I'm fine, don't get in trouble because of them," Ruby tugged at Yang's jacket sleeve. "Besides I think Weiss' words did more to them than them pushing did to me."
"Yeah, yeah I won't start trouble, but only for you Rubes," Yang sighed and leaned back. "So Weiss, what's your story, don't see too many transfers a month into the school year. What? You get kicked out of your old school?"
"Yang!" Ruby protested.
"What, I'm just curious."
"It's fine, really," Weiss said before the sisters, who really looked nothing alike besides the slight tan to their skin, could start arguing. "It's nothing too special, I've been homeschooled since I was ten and recently moved in with my older sister and I decided to start at a new school."
It was mostly true but it did leave out a few details she didn't want to tell them about. "And I've never been to a public school before, even one as well funded as I've heard Beacon is."
"Well, I hope the transition to regular school is okay for you, I know homeschool is a bit different," Ruby said.
"You were homeschooled?"
Yang nodded. "Yeah, she was homeschooled for about a year when she was thirteen, our dad's a teacher so that helped."
"Why exactly were you homeschooled? Or is that something you don't wish to talk about."
"It's kind of personal really… Hey, it's Blake! Blake, over here!" Ruby suddenly called out, Weiss turned in her seat to see another girl approach.
Blake looked about the same age as Yang and Weiss, her skin was a bit dark, darker than the sisters, and bright amber-yellow eyes. She wore a white blouse under a purple vest, black jeans, dark combat boots, and a purple headscarf with floral patterns that covered her hair. She sat down across from Yang and next to Weiss, casting a glance in her direction before looking at the blonde.
"I see we have someone new with us," She commented dryly.
"Yes I am-"
"Weiss Schnee, yeah I know you," Blake rolled her eyes and poked at her food.
"You do?" Ruby asked.
Weiss felt her already fair skin pale even further as Blake glanced in her direction, Blake shrugged. "Yeah, a friend of mine's family works for her dad. I did research on the family for a project once."
"Oh so your dad runs a business then?" Ruby asked.
Weiss nodded, relaxing a little. "Yes it's mostly based back home in Atlas, I don't really have any connection to it."
"I wouldn't be sitting next to you if you did," Blake said, and Yang and Ruby gave her a look. "It's nothing, I know you don't work with your dad so just forget about what I just said."
There was a lull of silence after that as the four girls ate their lunch and Weiss relaxed that Blake wasn't going to tell them about her, because she was certain Blake knew more than just her family. She had been a relatively well-known singer but most of her stuff was under an assumed name, but she was pretty well known in Atlas. Part of why she chose to come to Vale was that her music hadn't reached too far and it was all under her alias.
She was worried that if her past came out, either her family's business, or her previous career it would mark her and everyone would immediately have their own opinion of her.
The silence was broken when Ruby spoke up. "So Blake was everything okay this morning?"
Weiss saw Blake stiffen before answering. "Like I told Yang this morning I'm fine really, I just got into an argument yesterday. Nothing big really."
"Didn't seem like nothing when you called last night," Yang muttered loud enough for everyone to hear but Blake didn't look.
"It got a little heated but everything's fine, he apologized before I came to school, so really everything's fine. Sorry if I made you worry."
"It's fine, we're glad you're feeling better," Ruby said, Yang nodded but Weiss thought the other girl didn't look convinced by Blake's words.
When lunch ended she checked her schedule, history with Mr. Oobleck in Building 3, second floor. Mr. Oobleck was a very jittery man, sipping on a large thermos filled with coffee and he looked like a mad scientist out of an old story.
"Ah Miss Schnee good, good, I was told you were our new student you picked a good time to transfer yes. Perhaps you could sit by… Ah Miss Rose, would you mind sitting with our new arrival?"
"Sure Mr. Oobleck," Ruby said, rolling up behind Weiss with a big grin on her face, Weiss followed her to the front row of the class. "We share a class, isn't this great?"
"It is nice sharing a class with someone I know," Weiss agreed. "Do you know what Mr. Oobleck meant when he said I joined at the perfect time?"
Ruby shrugged. "Not sure, guess you'll find out."
Mr. Oobleck started class without any further acknowledgment of Weiss, jumping straight into a lesson on the Great War, zooming from fact to fact at a speed far faster than Weiss had ever learned at before. She tried to keep up with her notes as fast as possible but when she looked down at them half of what was written was ineligible to her in her rush to keep up. Looking around she noticed most of the other students weren't even taking notes, the only other was… Ruby.
The red-head seemed to match the teacher's pace without any trouble and while from a quick glance Weiss could see they weren't the neatest she could still make out the words.
"Ruby," Weiss whispered a little embarrassed by what she was about to ask, "Could I get a look at your notes later?"
"Sure," Ruby said, still writing at speed. "I do the same for Yang all the time. She never keeps up with note-taking in any class."
That might not be a speed problem, Weiss thought, remembering her first class with the blonde sister.
"Alright class now I will announce the project of this month," Oobleck proclaimed, getting a few groans from the students. "Now-now it's not too difficult for you all. Rather simple really, just pick an event on the Great War or its prelude, a leader, a battle, an agreement, anything then create a presentation on its impact on the great war itself. You may work with a partner and we will present at the end of the month. Now back to the lesson!"
By the end of the lesson, Weiss' wrist ached from trying, and horribly failing, to keep up with Mr. Oobleck's lesson.
"Hey Weiss," Ruby spoke as Weiss put her things away. "I was wondering if you wanted to partner up for the project?"
"Are you certain you want to work with me?" Weiss asked. "I of course know about the Great War but I am still new to this class and might not know what is correct for it. Wouldn't it be easier to work with someone else?"
She wasn't sure why she said that, of all the people in the class working with Ruby seemed to be the best option for her.
Ruby nodded. "Yeah, if that's okay with you that is."
"It is fine with me," Weiss replied. "We can schedule a meeting to figure out what topic we can research."
"Great, see you soon then Weiss," Ruby waved rolling off.
Weiss slung her backpack over her shoulder and thought that maybe she would have an easier time socializing than she thought.