*Volume Intro*

Snoring could be heard as Jaune was currently dozing off in the middle of lecture from Professor Oobleck. "Yes, yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution more popularly known as the Faunus War."

The teacher's station area was an absolute mess. In the back was a map of Remnant, with pieces of paper placed all across its surface. Connecting the papers were a very long string of red yarn. All over the professor's desk were a miscellaneous of items, but more specifically paperwork, tipped over coffee cups and books.

Weiss shudders immensely, she still thinks the man could really clean up his desk and make it a little bit more organized. Weiss swore the first time she came across his desk, she about felt she was going to have an aneurysm.

"Human kind was quite, quite, adamant about centralizing the faunus population in Menagerie." Coming onto the screen was the teacher himself, speeds challenging the speed of light.

The kids can't quite pin if his speed is from all the caffeine he consumes in one class period or if his semblance has something to do with speed.

"Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember these are relatively recent events." The students have to constantly turn their heads, just so they can face him directly as he goes on about his lesson. "Why the repercussions of the uprising could still be seen to this day."

"Now! Have any among you been subjected or discriminated because of your faunus heritage?"

Blake thinks back to her early days in the White Fang, when it hadn't become so corrupted. All they wanted was for Faunus to be treated just as equally as human. Was that really so much to ask?

Apparently, because now look where history is and what society thinks of us.

A black shadow in the room raised their hand, as well as Velvet but she was a lot more hesitant in doing so.

"The real world can be so cruel." Blake muttered with sorrow. "But you can't change it, no matter how much you want to."

"Deadful, simply dreadful. Remember students it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence! I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang. Now, which one of you young scholars can tell what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the year of the war?"

Weiss is the first to quickly raise her hand, having the answer. "The battle at Fort Castle."

"Precisely, and, who can tell me the advantage the faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" Jaune is resting his face, obviously not paying attention as he is seen sleeping. Cardin flicks a paper football at the back of his head, startling him awake.

"Jaune…" Pyrrha gives him a bit of a stern look. Something a mother would give their child when they're being scolded.

"Hey!"

Professor appears in his face, "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"

"Uhhhh… The answer… The advantage… of the faunus… had over that guy's stuff." Jaune pathetically tries to come up with an answer, having no knowledge of what happened during the lecture. Pyrrha helps him out along the way, but being real, Jaune has no clue what she is trying to tell him.

Y'know, a part of Pyrrha couldn't blame Jaune for his answer, because even then to her it looked a tad bit confusing. But, she was also helping him get to the answer of a history question, so she badly thinks he should have used a bit of common sense.

Jaune looks over Oobleck's shoulder trying to decipher the cryptic message Pyrrha is trying to send him with bodily gestures. She makes circles around her eyes, giving Jaune his supposed answer. "Um, b-binoculars!" He answers with a lot of confidence.

The slap of facepalms resounded all around the room.

The class erupts into laughter, Oobleck giving off silent disappointment. Pyrrha facepalms while Cardin is laughing the hardest, abusing the table by slamming his fist on it. "Very funny, Mr. Arc. Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject."

"Ha! Payback time!" Yang yells, pointing a finger at the screen.

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier."

Blake glares at the screen harshly. "We are not animals."

Pyrrha cut in after, not going to let him finish his statement. "You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?"

"What? You got a problem?"

"Yes, we have several with you," Nora says as if it was entirely obvious.

"No, I have the answer! It's night vision, many of the faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark." Cardin simply growls at her response, not like being shown up.

"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the faunus in their sleep."

"Ha! What a bunch of idiots." Nora laughed at the screen.

"His massive army was outmatched, and the General was captured." Oobleck nodded his head approvingly. "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Blake was evidently proud of herself, basically telling Cardin off. The others were too as they laughed at Cardin's expense.

Cardin got out of seat, looking like he was about to throw hands. "Mr. Winchester, please take your seat." But Oobleck just told him to sit his butt down.

Jaune snickered loudly, causing Oobleck to round on him. "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings." Jaune slumped in defeat, seeing as he celebrated too early. "Now, moving on!"

Team JNPR, except Jaune, walked out of the classroom. "You go on ahead. I'll wait for Jaune."

Oobleck took a sip of his coffee. "You two have been struggling in my class since day one! Now, I don't know if it's a lack of interest or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is- it stops now."

"You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and we only accept the best of the best."

Jaune lowered himself upon hearing about working hard to gain scholarship to the school. Pyrrha noticed this and tried to reassure him.

"So, I expect you to act like it. History is important, gentlemen! If you can't learn from it… you're destined to repeat it! Pages 51 to 91! I want an essay on my desk by next class! Now, run along/"

Oobleck quickly makes his way out of the classroom, Jaune and Cardin surprisingly not close behind.

A few people in the group asked how they even managed to keep up with him.

Jaune looked down in thought, "Time purposes?" No one questioned it, seeing that seemed like a reasonable explanation.

"Maybe they were already walking to the door while Professor Oobleck was grabbing his thing?" Ruby's theory was also one that made a lot more sense, more than the other one.

Cardin walks behind Jaune and bluntly shoves him to the ground. Pyrrha runs over and helps Jaune right himself. "You know, I really will break his legs." Jaune looks down and sighs. Pyrrha immediately lights back up.

"I have an idea! Here, come with me!" Pyrrha grabs Jaune by the arm and runs hastily around the corner. Turns out Pyrrha brought them up to the top of the roof.

"Pyrrha, I know I'm going through a hard time right now but I'm not THAT depressed."

The group had no idea whether to feel terrified at that comment or to completely burst out laughing because of all the things he could have said, that was what he chose to say in response to being taken to the roof.

"I can always be a farmer or something…"

"N-No!" Pyrrha screamed out in horror as she pushed the both of them farther away from the edge of the building. "That's not why I brought you up here! Jaune, I know you're having a difficult time in class."

Jaune gasped to himself as he noticed Cardin in the open window below. So that's how he found out.

Pyrrha, noticing Cardin as well, deeply frowned as she saw the man sit on the ledge.

"And that you're still not the strongest of fighters, so… I want to help you."

Jaune looked at her with a frown and voiced his confusion. "W-what?"

"We can train up here after class where no one can bother us!"

"You think I need help?" Jaune responded with a voice full of doubt.

"N-no!" Pyrrha tried to reassure him. "That's not what I meant."

"But, you just said it."

"You're getting the wrong idea!" Jaune yells at himself, "She's just wanting to help. Just take it you dummy!"

"Jaune, everybody needs a little push from time to time."

"It doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon, that speaks volumes of what you're capable of!"

Jaune turns around with a sigh. "Y-your wrong, I don't belong here…"

"That's a terrible thing to say, of course you do!"

Jaune turns around. "No I don't!"

Oh, boy, here it comes. Jaune thinks, bracing himself for the berate of responses.

Jaune sighs and Pyrrha gives Jaune a sorrowful look. "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon."

All the kids in the room sat there, speechless when hearing Jaune say this.

"You-" Jaune didn't give Weiss the chance to speak as he confirmed her question. Her face morphing to that of disbelief.

"Jaune!" She yelled. Jaune knew that out of all the people who would be the most upset, it would be Weiss.

Her family expected hardwork from her and for someone to just cheat their way into Beacon would anger anyone like that.

"That was in the past. I know it was wrong of me, but I'm training with an amazing teacher and now I feel like I could actually prove to be here. Weiss, I'm sorry, to all of you. You all have the right to be upset with me for what I've done."

The students didn't know what to say, they had no words and their minds were processing anything at the moment. So for the time being and the sake of finishing the episode, they all turned around, deeming that they would discuss this with him at a later point in time.

More specifically when the episode is over.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Pyrrha didn't understand what he meant by that.

"I mean, I didn't go to Combat School! I didn't pass any tests! I didn't earn my spot at this academy! I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied."

The room was frozen in silence. "Wow, never knew you liked to break rules, Jaune." This was Nora's way of trying to lighten the tension, but it wasn't working.

Jaune looked towards the ground and avoided any kind of eye contact with his friends around him.

Weiss stared at the ground, trying her best to wrap her head around the information that was just shoved in her face.

"Why? Why lie?" Ruby asks, wanting something.

"I was just trying to live up to what my family was." Jaune couldn't stand to look at his friends right now, not even bothering to see what everyone else in the room thought of this new revelation. Blocking them all out. He understood that was nowhere an acceptable reason.

"What? But, why?''

"'Cause, this is what I've always wanted to be! My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes!"

"Jaune, you didn't have to lie your way into Beacon to be called a hero." Yang tries to sound supportive, but she was still going through the shock of learning the truth, especially in a way such as this.

Jaune didn't want to give any indication of wanting to listen and gestured for the show to be unpaused.

"I wanted to be one too. I was just never good enough."

"Jaune you are good enough, just look at how much you've improved since we started training. You're more than capable of being a hero. You just need to see it yourself. See yourself the way I see you." Pyrrha couldn't take back her words the moment they were released. But, fortunately and unfortunately for her, Jaune didn't think anything of them.

"Then let me help you." Pyrrha reaches out a hand, showing to Jaune that he can open up to her, trust her.

"I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!"

"Jaune helping wouldn't make you a damsel in distress. Asking for help isn't something to be ashamed about. You can talk to us, we're your team," Pyrrha says, placing a hand on his shoulder.

It's okay for someone to ask for help from time to time.

"Jaune I-"

"I'm tired of being the loveable idiot, stuck in the while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand? If I can't do this on my own…then what good am I?"

Pryrrha tries to reach for him in an attempt to comfort him, but he just backs away as if he's been burnt.

Jaune… That might have happened in the past, but it hurts to see him back away from her as if she were a virus. And all she was trying to do was help.

"Just, leave me alone. Okay?"

Pyrrha lowers her head in defeat. "If that's what you think is best."

Cardin climbs his way up to the roof, laughing with cruel intentions. "Oh Jaune…"

Caught by surprise, Jaune swivels around to face the intruder. "Cardin!?"

The noise that came out of Nora resembled more of a growl than anything. "Cardin."

Pyrrha's emotions took a turn from sad to anger upon seeing the bully. "Jaune, what happened once I left?" Her voice came out cross, realizing this would reveal the reason for Jaune's constant absence.

Jaune, of course, hasn't ever seen Pyrrha so provoked before, he showed a lot of uneasiness. "Nothing happened, Cardin was just being a pal, no need to worry."

Pyrrha wanted to take Jaune's word, but she wasn't buying that 'nothing happened'. So, she might have appeared relaxed, but it was a completely different story on the inside.

"What does he want?" Yang's voice was filled with malice, as if she were to strike the boy at any moment.

"I couldn't help but overhear you two from my dorm room."

Ruby crossed her arms, brows furrowed. "That's just peachy!"

"So, you snuck into Beacon, huh? I've got to say Jaune, I've never expected you to be such a rebel."

"Please! Cardin, please, don't tell anyone!" Jaune pleads.

"Jaune, come one! I'd never rat out a friend like that!" Was Cardin's response as he makes his way closer to Jaune.

"Piece of shit." Yang muttered, irked.

"Uh… a friend?" Jaune stutters confused.

"Of course!" Cardin then brings Jaune into a tight headlock. Jaune's attempts to free himself were in vain as Cardin wouldn't let go. "We're friends now, Jauney-boy! And the way I see it, as long as you're there for me when I need you, we'll be friends for a long time." Once Jaune is freed the first thing he does is gasp for the air that was stolen from him.

"That being said… I really don't have time to do those extra readings Dr. Oobleck gave us today." Cardin continued, staring down at Jaune who still lay on the concrete. "Think you could take care of that for me? Buddy?"

Cardin ruffled up Jaune's hair. "That's what I thought. Don't worry Jaune; your secret's safe with me."

Cardin retreats back into his room. Jaune rubs his neck, showcasing a look of worry before the screen fades to black indicating the end of the episode.

The room exposed itself to dead silence. Not knowing what to make of the situation, seeing as it took a turn during this episode and not for the better.

Weiss and Jaune made eye contact, both knowing that this conversation needed to happen. It shouldn't be one to put off to the side.

Jaune let out a sigh, bracing himself.