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Chapter Text

The Dam: Bullworth, New England 
7:49 AM

The Dam of Bullworth was there, in all its faded glory. The sounds of the continuous river stream hit Dudley’s ears as he stared at the view of Bullworth. Cigarette in mouth, he took a long drag before-

SMASH

A glass bottle was smashed. Dudley was mildly annoyed and turned to see his companion, Dee, smashing another glass bottle with his baseball bat. Dee threw up another bottle in the air, his eyes now containing a focused glint as he swung the bat. The glass bottle broke immediately upon impact.

“Heh, get fucked,” said Dee, a grin on his face as he twirled the bat in his hands.

“Very mature, so cool, wow,” clapped Dudley, very impressed with Dee’s immense skills.

Dee flipped him off as he loaded up another bottle in his hand. Dudley put out the cigarette with his cowboy boots as he walked over and laid on the dam’s railings as Dee swung into another bottle.

“You know,” began Dee, wiping the sweat off his forehead, “I still can’t believe Shay is having us patrol around here. It’s a fucking dam. I mean, this isn’t a place I would want to hang out at. How else am I gonna fuck a fat bitch here?” 

Dudley only shook his head at his friend's immaturity.

“Come on, bro. You have to think about the bigger picture, not..." He trailed off, looking at Dee as he thought of the proper words. "Your preferences. Besides territorial politics, there are new batches of freshies at that academy. New kids equal larger numbers,” explained Dudley.

“Okay? That means I can introduce them to this bad boy,” said Dee, holding out his signature baseball bat in the air, as if it were King Arthur’s Excalibur. 

“Even if you did, you seem to forget: the Greasers are on our ass. Shay hates that animal, Taurus, and if they get more members, then the next big rumble is not gonna go in our favor,” replied Dudley, his face becoming much more serious. "Especially after what happened to him... Taurus is going to be on the warpath."

Dee snorted as he plopped next to Dudley. “Yeah? Not like we’re gonna get anybody in this shit town all excited to join our crew... especially a group of dropouts like us.”

Dudley sighed. “Ya know, I miss the old days.”

“What, back at the academy?”

“Yeah, like... not the people there. Fuck those faggots. I missed doing Chemistry, man… I was good at that,” opined Dudley. He looked down at the rushing water with a pensive look on his face.

Dee nodded in agreement. “Oh yeah, you were. Really stood out amongst those geeks you hung out with. Too bad they were sneaky pieces of shit when you got expelled.”

“I oughta stick my boot up Nolan’s ass. Motherfucker sold me out and stole credit for my invention.”

“Right, right he did that, which one was it again?”

“The Spud Gun," Dudley began. "That was my magnum opus… but I did perfect the Stink Bomb as well. Got extra credit for weaponizing a friendly version of tear gas,” explained Dudley, a small look of nostalgia in his features.

“Yeah, you were always the best at that kinda stuff,” admitted Dee. He rubbed Dudley's back in a show of support.

Dudley looked at him with appreciation, giving him a small smile.

“You were also good at baseball, back then,” said Dudley. "One of the best sluggers in the New England area."

Dee scoffed.

“Yeah, was. Now I’m just here, wasting it away because of that bitch,” growled Dee.

Dudley didn’t say anything, but he pulled out his pack of cigarettes and offered it to Dee. Dee decided to take one.

Dee wasn’t normally a smoker, but sometimes when stressful times like these happened, he would enjoy it occasionally with his friend. 

When they were attending Bullworth Academy, Dee was a jock and Dudley was a nerd. Based on the school’s hierarchy system, you think these two would never get along as they do now. However, due to the machinations involving “She Who Must Not Be Named,” their current predicament landed them here. Watching over a dam... with no one else for company but each other.

Despite their complete differences, the two got along well when they both looked past their clique days. Besides, they were accepted by a much better clique, one that accepts the dregs and rejects of this town. In a way, Dee and Dudley were able to find themselves in this town that is Bullworth, amongst the ones rejected by the “Other.”

8:01 PM
New Coventry, Bullworth

The grey skies cast over New Coventry like a blanket, but it didn’t provide warmth to its citizens living there. Blue-collar workers woke up to go to work, while one Adam Taurus walked down the street. 
He was a slightly tall young man with sunglasses on his stern face. He seemed to have remnants of burn marks on the right side but they were covered up by said sunglasses. His hair was red with black streaks and the leather jacket he wore was also black, but underneath was the standard uniform for Bullworth Academy. What stood out about him was the bull horns that protruded out of his head. They stood proud as if Adam had nothing to hide about them. 

The Faunus wasn’t alone, as he was surrounded by other leather jacket-wearing students of his age. One particularly pretty girl stood out on his right side, holding his hand. Her hair was black and long enough to reach her back. She had piercing amber eyes and a pair of cat ears on top of her head. She wore a leather jacket too, but with the Bullworth uniform slightly modified. She wore black leather pants, as well as black flats for shoes.

Adam let out a frustrated sigh. "It's bullshit, Blake. We have to sit here, living in the garbage can of Bullworth, while those stuck-up Preps live in their fancy houses. Their ivory towers..." He growled to himself. "It's not fair and you know it."

Blake looked down at the ground for a moment, contemplating how to respond. She took a deep breath to try and compose herself, before looking up at her boyfriend.

"I know you're frustrated, Adam, but are you really sure this is the best idea?"

Adam stopped in front of the Tenements, the Greaser hideout in New Coventry. Pulling away from the rest of the clique members, he stepped into an alleyway, motioning for Blake to follow him. Blake obliged, watching as Adam approach a window on the side of the derelict building. He opened the window to climb inside, turning around to offer Blake a hand. As she climbed through, Blake quietly thanked him, before Adam closed the window behind them. 

As the two stood in the dilapidated wooden building, Adam leaned against a wooden beam with his arms crossed. He looked at Blake, his sunglasses hiding the look of disdain behind his eyes.

"You don't get it, Blake. Those rich assholes took everything from me, starting with the Schnee Shipping Company. You know this."

"I do... Adam, I do." Blake let out a sigh. "Listen, Adam, I don't like them either. But... are you sure this is the right decision? An all-out war against the Preps?"

Adam shrugged. "Why not? We're stronger than those trust fund pussies. I have no doubt that we could take them. They're nothing without their trust funds."

Blake looked around nervously for a moment, hoping that another Greaser would come through to cut a line through the growing tension in the room. To her misfortune, however, no such thing occurred.

"Adam... I just don't think this is the right call. Not this early in the semester, at least... couldn't we prepare a bit more, first?"

Adam shook his head. "No can do, Blake. You know as well as I do that this battle is inevitable. Better to get rid of those snobbish pricks sooner rather than later. Besides, it's not like we're declaring war against the entire academy. As long as the astronomy dorks and the roid heads stay out of our way, then they'll have nothing to worry about."

He paused for a moment before he let out a defeated sigh. "Besides, Blake... I think this is the only choice we have."

Her eyes widened for a moment. She noticed Adam's shoulders slump slightly as some of the rigidity of his posture faded. Feeling a bit more confident, Blake stepped closer to him, reaching out to gently place a hand on his arm. He looked up, the glasses on his face hiding the fear in his eyes.

"Adam... is this about what happened? Because that wasn't your fault. You were just trying to help us."

"I know it's not!" Adam pulled away from her, stomping away a few feet. "Maybe I was trying to do the right thing, maybe I wasn't. It doesn't matter, Blake! It doesn't take the pain away."

Blake's eyes widened at the anger in his voice, as she reached to hug her left arm to her body. She hated when Adam got emotional like this. However, in this case, she at least understood why.

"Adam. You never talked about what happened."

He chuckled darkly to himself. "What's to talk about, Blake? Those punks in Blue Skies took something from me. Something I can never get back. All because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

He grumbled under his breath before he yelled and slammed his fist against the wall. Blake jumped slightly as his fist went directly through the wall's cheap drywall, punching a hole through it.

"But what makes them so special? They're just like us! Outcasts, rejects, castaways! Yet they treat us as the enemy, too! And, and..."

He felt his lip trembling against his will. It was at that moment that he was extremely glad that he was facing away from Blake.

"This is the only choice we have, Blake. You have to understand that! We can't move into Blue Skies. Those Townies are way too dangerous. The only option right now is to take on the Preps, and then see what happens from there."

Blake stayed quiet as Adam ranted. She wasn't entirely sure what to do; when Adam made up his mind like this, it was difficult to persuade him to change it. However, Blake knew that what he was planning was dangerous. An open war between the Preps and Greasers would not go well, especially this early in the semester. The last Rumble in New Coventry got a lot of people hurt on both sides. Blake had no love lost for those Aquaberry sweater-wearing snobs herself, but she knew this wasn't the right call.

Her resolve to protect her other clique members ultimately forced her to take action. So, she stepped towards Adam and, with an assertiveness she wasn't used to, reached out to tightly grip his arm.

"Adam," she said in a firm tone. "You need to show me."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do. I'm your girlfriend. If I can't help you through this, no one can." She stayed quiet for a few moments as Adam's body began to slightly shake. He let out a quiet sob, which made her eyebrows raise slightly in concern.

"Adam... please. I'm not going to judge you. It wasn't your fault."

He cried for a moment more, before he let out a shaky sigh. He slowly turned around to face her. Adam's hand was shaking wildly as he hesitantly reached up. He was half convinced he was going to accidentally snap the frames in half as he went to pull the sunglasses off his face. When he did, what Blake saw made her audibly gasp in surprise. Her amber eyes widened as her heart threatened to burst out of her chest.

Blake knew Adam had suffered damage to his left eye but she didn't know how severe it actually was. Where Adam's eye once was, there was a dark red burn mark that scarred his face. Where there was once a fully functioning blue iris, there was now an incinerated mess, a dark red scar with black bruise marks. Blake thought she had been prepared for what she would see but she hadn't been prepared to see such blatant facial mutilation.

Adam's eye was completely gone, and his face was irreparably damaged for the rest of his life. His right eye, still perfectly healthy, closed in shame. However, that did not stop some residual tears from coming through anyway.

"Adam... what did the Townies do to you? This is..." she put a hand over her mouth as she resisted the urge to retch. She didn't want to make Adam feel more ashamed than he already was but the viscera was enough to elicit a physical reaction. "T-this is horrible!"

Adam took a few more seconds to try and regain his composure. Now that Blake saw him for who he truly was, there was nothing left to hide. He bit his lip as he went to sit on a dusty crate. Cobwebs stuck to his pants but he didn't even remotely care.

"Blake. You remember the mission, right?"

She nodded immediately. "Yes. You went into Blue Skies to see if we could try and take over some more territory. New Coventry is not only poor and run-down but it's rapidly becoming overpopulated. You thought that looking elsewhere for expansion would be the right way to expand our influence."

He nodded slowly. "Yes... I did. But I was wrong, Blake. I was so wrong." He rubbed his forehead for a moment, his body still slightly shaking.

"Adam, it's okay to feel emotional about this. This is a serious matter."

"Yeah, well, that doesn't mean I need to cry like a fucking pussy!" He grit his teeth as he looked at her. He wasn't mad at Blake herself; rather, he felt a murderous rage towards those who had robbed him of a part of himself.

"You're not a pussy, Adam. I would be very concerned if you didn't feel strong negative emotions towards those who attacked you. Even hatred."

She walked towards him, leaning down slightly to get on his level. She stared intently into his eyes... er, eye. She gently gripped his chin with her hand, forcing him to look at her.

"I hate them too, Adam. Whoever did this to you... they will pay, in due time. I promise you that."

Adam looked at her for a moment, a bit surprised. Then, without thinking, he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into a tight embrace. Blake let out a small gasp of surprise. It wasn't like Adam to be so physically intimate. However, the fact that Adam started crying loudly into her shoulder told her that this was no ordinary occasion.

She returned the hug, wrapping her arms around his back as he broke down. Every now and then, she would gently rub the hair on the back of his head or rub circles on his back to try and calm him down.

"Adam... it's alright. Whatever those men did to you, they can't and won't do it again. You're safe here. Safe with me."

He continued to cry, sobbing audibly. It was then that Blake once again noticed the emptiness of the Tenements; however, this time, she was glad no one was there to see Adam in his current state. She knew that his pride would not let him live with such a public display of emotion.

She continued to hold him for a few more moments, before pulling back to look at him again. Her nervousness and hesitation from earlier had faded as she looked at Adam intensely.

"What did they do, Adam?"

He gulped, staying silent for a moment.

"It was dark... I didn't see how many Townies there were, but there were a lot. At least five guys. They surrounded me, said I was trespassing on their turf. They were right, of course. I knew that going in. I was ready to fight but... they were too much. They surrounded me and knocked me unconscious."

He stood up from the box, turning away for a moment. Even though he knew that Blake now saw the real him, he still felt a tinge of shame at his disfigurement. He didn't want Blake to see him as the incomplete person he felt he was.

"When I came to, I was chained to a post in the old Schnee Shipping warehouse." He chuckled to himself. "Ironic, isn't it, Blake? The warehouse belonging to the same company that fucked over my father and my entire life. Where else would something else utterly horrible happen to me?"

The Schnee Shipping Company... Just hearing the name made Blake growl under her breath. She had her own gripes with the "SSC," as it was commonly abbreviated to. However, she knew that Adam hated them even more than she did. While Blake hated many of their practices and their CEO, Jacques Schnee, Adam had a personal vendetta against them. Granted, she didn't know all the details.

She shook her head. Their animosity towards the SSC was not important right now. What was important was hearing the truth.

"And then what did the Townies do?" As soon as she asked the question, Blake hesitated a moment, feeling she should say more. "Y-you don't have to tell me the graphic details if you don't want, Adam. Whatever you feel comfortable wi-"

"Branding iron."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "W-what?"

"It was a branding iron," he nodded, more to himself than to Blake. "That was what they used. They knew I couldn't escape and wanted to teach me a lesson. Not just because I go to Bullworth but because I crossed a line with them. A line that should never be crossed."

Blake was spared the gory details, but she at least knew enough now to have a pretty good idea of what happened. 

"Well, thank god that they didn't do more, or kill you! I still hate how they just... just left you there like garbage! You could have died!"

She clenched her fists and grit her teeth. She hated them... hated them for what they did to Adam. She thought to herself then and there that her pledge to get revenge was not an empty one. She would do anything she could to make those dropout fuckers pay for that what they did to him. That was a promise to not just Adam, but also herself.

Despite her growing rage, Adam didn't seem affected, instead laughing to himself. "Yeah, well... I guess I should be used to that at this point. Faunus, Greaser, and now scarred... the hits just keep stacking against me, Blake."

He turned around, rubbing away some lingering moisture on his face with his elbow, before giving her a resolute nod.

"Which is why going against the Townies is the wrong call. I think we're much better off trying to expand into Old Bullworth Vale instead... which means that we need to fight the Preps."

"Okay, Adam... I hear you," she answered truthfully. She did agree that the Preps would eventually be their target. "But... could we wait a bit more to plan this out? I'm sorry what happened to you but I think your anger is clouding your judgment."

"So you want us to just... wait? Not do anything while those inbred fuckers have everything we can only dream of having?"

She shook her head. "No, Adam. We're not going to do nothing. We're going to play the long game."

"The long game..." Adam clicked his tongue in annoyance. "You know, that reminds me a bit of what that bitch said to me at Bullworth a few weeks back."

Blake's brows raised. "What bitch?"

"Ah, nothing," Adam waved her off. "Some crazy chick came to me a few weeks ago, talking about some plot she had to take over the school. But... get this: she was a Prep." He laughed. "Wasn't hard for me to tell her to fuck off. I mean, how stupid of a bitch do you have to be to think a Prep and a Greaser could ever work together? Hell has a greater chance of freezing over than that bullshit ever happening."

Blake opened her mouth to respond but stopped. To be honest, she had no idea what to say. A Prep approaching a Greaser for an alliance made about as much sense as a wooden firefighter suit. They had been hated rivals as long as Blake could ever remember; if any plan was formed, it would be a plan like Adam was considering: one to take down the other clique.

"That makes no sense, Adam."

"I agree, but that's why I told that girl to piss off. Luckily, the little princess was smart enough to take the message."

He stayed quiet for a moment, before letting out a defeated sigh. He reached down towards the crate to pick up his sunglasses, putting them back on. He slowly nodded at Blake.

"Alright. I don't like it... but I hear you. We'll hold off on the fight with the Preps for right now... but when we do go after them, there will be hell to pay."

Blake let out a relieved sigh, before she smiled softly at him. "Thank you, Adam."

He nodded, before approaching her and taking her hand in his again. "Now, we should probably get to school. I personally couldn't give a shit about it but Neil has a new car he wants me to work on in the shop today. That'll be interesting, at least. Can't have the boys worrying too much about us, either."

The two of them went to exit the Tenements. Adam opened up the window, and after a few more seconds, the two of them were outside once more, walking down the streets of New Coventry. Once again, the handful of Greasers fell in line behind Adam and Blake.

"Well, Adam, I hope you have a good day today," Blake said honestly to her boyfriend.

Just as Adam opened his mouth to respond, a white limousine zoomed past them. Unfortunately, in doing so, it kicked up a massive puddle of water from the rainstorm earlier that day. Blake yelped in panic, releasing Adam's hand before she dodged back, not wanting to get her clothes wet.

Adam, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. He found himself drenched in water. He let out an irritated growl, as he heard cursing from his crew behind him.

"You know what, Blake? I changed my mind. Fuck going to school today."

Blake watched the limousine as it disappeared like a white snowflake in the distance. She looked in the opposite direction for a moment to see where it came from.

"Hmm... looks like it came from Blue Skies, but there's not really many wealthy people from there. I wonder who it could be?"

"Whoever it is," Adam started impatiently, "they better hope I don't find out."

The Limousine

The Limousine was, well, “very fancy” to put it. The seats were rich, expensive full-grain leather with a white steel interior that felt cold and lifeless. One Willow Schnee held a margarita in one hand as she callously ranted in front of her two children sitting across from her.

“Your father’s a pig,” said Willow, sipping on what could be her third margarita.

Whitley was a young fifteen-year-old boy with a pale disposition, with white hair neatly combed, and pale blue eyes. He wore the Bullworth Academy Uniform, which consisted of the standard blue vest. He also wore a rather expensive pink shirt underneath, buttoned up with a blackened tie, aquaberry khaki slacks, and black dress shoes that were clearly shined to perfection. He almost looked like one of those porcelain dolls meant to be shown off rather than someone seen as his own individual.

Whitley was uncomfortable but didn’t dare show it on his features. That would be a sign of weakness, and his mother would chew him up horribly if he even showed a sign of displeasurement. Instead, he let his eyes turn to look at his older sister next to him.

Weiss Schnee didn’t look like she wanted to be here. Her arms and legs were crossed, showing her current mood of having to deal with their drunken mother this early in the morning. Weiss had the same white hair and eyes but wore her hair in a ponytail.

Unlike her brother's more humble clothes, Weiss preferred to wear top-of-the-line material. She wore an Aquaberry sweater vest, the brand's trademark look of alternating diamonds of light and dark blue shades standing out. Beneath it, she wore a white blouse, as well as a skirt which matched her top. She wore light blue loafers with white socks that reached a few inches above her ankles. Around her neck was a silver necklace in the shape of an apple.

She let out an annoyed sigh. "Mother, could you please at least try not to be totally wasted on our way to the academy?"

Her mother let out a chuckle; despite sitting across from the two of them, the smell of alcohol on her breath was potent enough to reach them. Willow shook her head.

"My apologies, Weiss, but this is... my way of relaxing." She took another sip of her drink. "It helps to take my mind off of that stupid oaf of a father you have."

Whitley looked down at the floor for a moment. "But... you're still mentioning him."

"I'm sorry?" The Schnee matriarch looked at her son inquisitively.

He avoided his mother's questioning gaze, finding a strange interest in the floor of the limo. "N-nothing, Mother."

Weiss looked at her brother with a familiar look of disdain, before she facepalmed. "Honestly, Whitley. You need to grow up. If you're scared to stand up to Mother, what hope do you have of ever becoming a man yourself? Of ever becoming more than a miniature version of Father?"

When her little brother did not respond, Weiss let out another annoyed sigh. "Typical. Just typical. Leave it to me to be the only person with the capability of improving this tarnished legacy of ours."

Willow hummed for a moment. "Hmm... I don't know, Weiss. Winter seems to be doing rather well for herself. Apparently, she has a nice setup in Vice City, working in the military for that Ironwood fellow. I hope she's doing well since she abandone-"

Willow trailed off before she could finish her sentence, instead opting to trace the rim of her glass with her finger. "Have you called her recently, Weiss?"

"No," Weiss answered in a short tone. "I haven't had time to. I've been too busy studying. The Bullworth entrance exams are rather difficult, you know. Especially if you want to be the best, like I am."

Weiss looked out the window as the limo passed under the bridge of New Coventry, driving through Bullworth Town proper. "Not that you would know anything about that, Mother. That would require you to take an interest in my life."

Despite the harsh words, her mother didn't seem to be perturbed in the slightest, as she took another sip of her concoction. "Well... your own husband telling you that he doesn't care about you whatsoever can put a damper on a person's spirits. I just hope that, in spite of that and all your grievances with me, you too can make something of yourself."

The Schnee siblings seemed a bit surprised by that, as Weiss' defensive posture faded for a moment and Whitley's eyes widened in surprise. However, that moment evaporated just as quickly as it began, as their mother slammed down the glass. It shattered against the cupholder next to her, shards of glass tumbling down into the cupholder and the seat itself.

Whitley and Weiss jumped in surprise at the sound, before their mother continued ranting. Her hand was now slightly bleeding from a small cut from the glass, yet she either didn't notice or didn't care.

"You don't understand. Everything is your father's fault! You don't want to admit it, do you? Why do you think he was so willing to let the two of you go to Bullworth?" 

She stayed silent for a moment. When neither of the two answered, she pressed the issue. "Whitley."

The boy gulped nervously as her mother looked at him. "Yes, M-mother?"

"I asked you a question. Why do you think your father, being the controlling and overbearing jerk that he is, was so keen to let the two of you go to Bullworth?"

Whitley thought about her question for a moment. She was right; it didn't make much sense to him. It would be far more logical for him to keep them under close watch back at Schnee Shipping Company headquarters, grooming the two of them to take over the company in the future. Instead, the two of them were on their way to one of the most famous (or, depending on who you asked, infamous) boarding schools in the country.

"I don't know, Mother. It doesn't make sense to me."

Willow frowned at her son before turning to Weiss. "Weiss? Do you have any idea?"

She scoffed as if the answer was obvious. "Of course, Mother. Obviously, in preparation of us taking over the company, Father thought it was best to send the two of us to Bullworth. An academy which has a notorious reputation for being difficult, both academically and on a day-to-day basis. Toughening us up into strong men and women, that will be able to handle the difficulties of the world easily. Or, at least... making one of us stronger. It seems rather logical to me."

She snuck a glance at her brother, who she noticed had retreated into his shell again, twiddling with his fingers absentmindedly as he stared out the window. "Of course, this might not be as obvious to those who are... less qualified than me."

Willow nodded her head, and after a moment, she did something that not even Weiss expected. She laughed.

"M-mother?" Weiss started, her eyebrows raising in surprise at the strange response. Yet their mother continued to laugh as if she had just heard a rather funny joke.

She took a few deep breaths to calm down before she shook her head. "Oh, amazing. All of that preparation and studying for the two of you, yet you both couldn't be more wrong if you tried." She looked at Weiss for a moment. "Actually, at least your brother is wise enough to admit when he doesn't know something. You, on the other hand, enjoy claiming to be right even though you're just as clueless as he is."

"Excuse me, what is that supposed to mean?" Weiss glared at her mother. "It's easy to say that Whitley is wrong, since he always is, but who do you think you're talking to saying that to me? I am the true heir to the Schnee legacy. The only one capable of salvaging something from the mess that Father has made. You dare insult me?"

"No," Willow responded, in a calmer tone than Weiss expected, considering the fact that their mother was currently in the middle of one of her raving drunk moments. "It is not an insult. It is merely the truth. The reason for your father's decision is not what you think."

Whitley looked up at her, hesitantly. "Then... why? Why would he send us here?"

"The same reason he said what he said to me on Weiss' tenth birthday," Willow crossed her hands, resting them on her knee as she leaned forward slightly. As she did so, the limo all of a sudden felt rather claustrophobic to the two teenagers. Whitley retreated into his seat slightly, as Weiss stared at Willow, uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry to tell you this but I feel it's important that I be honest with you two. Your father isn't sending you here for your own benefit. Your father is sending you here because you are objects. Everything you accomplish and learn here is just another pedigree to add to his docket. Another prize to be won. You two are not his children but rather his greatest assets. Your successes are his successes. Everything you accomplish here comes under his directive and control."

Willow shook her head, leaning back again. She let out a defeated sigh, looking away momentarily with a glazed look in her eyes.

"None of us are anything to him. We are merely assets to his business, tools to use for his own legacy. The sooner you two accept that, the better you'll be."

The ensuing awkward silence stretched for about half a minute. The two siblings said nothing. Like plenty of their family dinners and shared gatherings over the years, silence was something they were used to. An uncomfortable feeling of tension and apprehension filled the air, as all three of them didn't want to look at the other two sitting in close proximity to them.

After about a minute, Weiss finally scoffed. "That's ridiculous, Mother. You're clearly drunk."

"Am I?" Willow chuckled. "You know what, you're right. I am drunk, and I plan to get even drunker." She pressed a button on a nearby console, pulling down the window separating the passengers from the driver of the limo. "Oh, Klein?"

"Yes, Madam Schnee?" A strong, male voice returned earnestly, as Weiss managed to sneak a view of the butler in the front. He wore a grey bowler hat on the top of his head, and a black vest over a white button-up shirt. The hat covered what little remained of the man's hair, yet his large ginger mustache could still be seen in the mirror.

"I broke another glass again," Willow whined, in a tone not too dissimilar to a child. "We need to stop by Yum-Yum Market after we drop the kids up to pick up some more booze." She looked at the blood on her hand for a moment. "Oh, and maybe some bandages, too," she added in a strangely calm tone. "I guess I lost my temper again."

The man stayed silent for a moment. Weiss may have been mistaken but she could've sworn she saw the man's eyes dart up to the mirror for a moment, seeming to look at her for a moment, before shifting to look at her brother. However, if Whitley noticed, he showed no indications that he had.

Then, Klein looked back down at the wheel as if nothing had happened. "...understood," he answered hesitantly. "It's as you command, madam."

"Thank you, Klein," she responded, smiling smugly to herself before she pressed the button to raise the window back up. Before she knew it, the sight of one of the only people Weiss felt she could trust was once again obscured.

"Isn't it great? To have someone like Klein, I mean," Willow began. "No matter how fucked up I am, mentally, emotionally, and physically, he's still as loyal as ever!" She laughed. "No wonder Father was such close friends with him."

"Your father."

Weiss looked to her left in surprise, seeing that Whitley had spoken up. He was looking directly at their mother, with an intensity that was not like him.

"What was he like, Mother? Before he passed away."

Willow stayed quiet for a few seconds, before she closed her eyes.

"He was a good man. A man who always tried to do the right thing. He wasn't the best businessman but he had the best interests of the common person at heart. He founded the Schnee Shipping Company to help provide goods at a reasonable price to all, and pushed for reasonable wages and working conditions. Not the best business practices, of course, but he didn't seem to care about that."

However, just as quickly as her vulnerability appeared, Willow's eyebrows furrowed down in anger as she scowled.

"At least, he was a good man before he made the biggest mistake of his life! Trusting that selfish son of a bitch to take over the company after he passed, because he was a good businessman!"

Willow gripped the seat cushion with her hands, her digits whitening from the intensity.

"Jacques," she said the name with pure venom, as if it were a slur. "That asshole. He stole my rightful inheritance right from under me. And that stupid, ignorant old man let him do it."

As Weiss heard her mother speak of her father with open hatred, and her grandfather with resentment, she felt rather grateful as she looked out the window, and saw water below the bridge. Once the limo passed over the bridge, she could barely see the sight in the distance of a giant black gate, in between brick walls. The walls might've been red at an earlier time but due to age, they instead seemed to be a more faded orange color. 

Still, she knew from all the catalogues and her campus visit where they were.

"Bullworth," she said before letting out a sigh of relief. "Thank god."

"Oh, finally!" Willow clapped her hands together in silence, as if her rant had never occurred. "I was wondering when we would arrive. Make sure you two get all your stuff out of the limo. You wouldn't want to leave any of your precious materials, now would you?"

Weiss ignored her mother as the limo slowly ground to a stop in front of the academy. Without another word, Weiss immediately opened the door to exit the limo. She headed towards the back of the vehicle, popping the trunk to get her belongings out.

As she did so, Whitley remained in the car for a moment longer. He gave his mother a hesitant look. He reached for the door handle but before he opened it, he stopped. His hand gripped the handle but he couldn't bring himself to leave just yet. Instead, he cleared his throat before looking at his mother.

"Mother... I know this isn't who you really are. You used to be different. Kind, caring... loving. You don't have to be this... distraught forever. There's still time to change."

Willow let out a disappointed sigh as she shrugged her shoulders, shaking off his words like they were nothing. "Whitley, I was broken a long time ago. The least you two can do is not let your sperm donor do the same to you."

She reached forward to place a hand on his shoulder. Whitley enjoyed the gesture, although his mother's palm was cold to the touch, and the scent of alcohol wafting over his face was so strong that it almost made him gag. Despite that, he resisted the urge to do so, simply for the fact that he enjoyed the attention she was giving him, since it wasn't something he was used to.

"Go, Whitley. Don't worry about me. I was broken a long time ago... but you haven't. You can still do something with your life." She squeezed a bit tighter. "So do it. Become something. Both of you. You and your sister are the only hope left in my life, but you shouldn't do it for me or for your father. Do it for yourself."

Whitley gasped in surprise at her words. Despite the fact she was inebriated beyond belief, there was a clarity in his mother's eyes and words which was unlike her. Or rather... unlike who she had been for years. It reminded him of who she used to be.

Whitley nodded. "I will, Mother. I, um... I love you."

The drunk woman smiled, leaning back in her seat. "I love you too, son. Now, go ahead." She smirked. "And, try not to let your sister's... prickliness get to you too much."

Whitley opened the door to step out of the limo. As he did, he heard the sound of Weiss and Klein talking with each other. He stuck his hands in his pockets as he approached the back of the vehicle. Klein was helping Weiss unload her belongings, which consisted of a handful of giant, white suitcases. Whitley had no clue why his sister needed so many things to go to school. It looked like she was going on a massive business trip instead of going to school.

Yet, in spite of that, he had always admired his sister's resolve and dedication. She seemed entirely focused on the matter at hand, directing Klein with the luggage as if it was a life or death matter, because to her... it probably was.

Whitley slipped past the two of them for a moment, reaching in to grab his backpack. He packed very light compared to his sister, grabbing the dark blue sack and pulling his arms through the straps to rest it snugly on his back. He then walked towards the entrance of the school, waiting patiently on the sidewalk. He looked up at the faded walls in quiet contemplation.

When the last of Weiss' luggage was unloaded, Klein shut the trunk and carried the giant suitcases to the sidewalk. Weiss followed slowly behind him, her hands clasped in front of her skirt in a dainty gesture. 

"Thank you, Klein," she said, a small and (very rare) genuine smile on her face. "Your help is appreciated as always."

The man laughed. "Nonsense, Miss Schnee. I'm merely doing my job."

"You say that," Whitley interjected, turning around to approach the man. "But you know that it means much more to us than that, considering..." he looked at the limo. "Well, considering."

The man placed a hand on each teen's shoulder, one on Weiss' left shoulder and the other on Whitley's right. He smiled warmly down at them.

"It is my pleasure."

"Klein?"

"Yes, Miss Schnee?"

Weiss looked back towards the limo for a moment, swallowing an unexpected lump in her throat. "Can you... will you look after her, please?"

"Of course," Klein answered with unshakable resolve, a serious look in her eyes. "My loyalty has always been to the Schnee family, first and foremost. The true Schnees, not those who claim to be. I watched your mother grow up from when she was a young child, after myself and your grandfather served in the war together." A nostalgic look fell over his face.

"She is like a daughter to me. I would never dare to abandon her." He looked back at Weiss with a smile. "You know, you remind me of her. How she was when she was your age."

Weiss' mouth was agape at his words, but Klein didn't notice as he turned to look at Whitley. "And you, Master Whitley. You have much more in common with your grandfather than you might believe."   

Whitley's eyes widened in surprise at the words. He was always used to being compared, rather unfavorably, to his father. To hear someone compare him to Nicholas was rather flattering... especially coming from Klein.

"The point being," Klein continued, "is to not let the expectations of the Schnee name defeat you. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the two of you are destined for great things... both here at Bullworth and beyond. Not because of your last name, as your father would have you believe, but because of who the two of you are as individuals."

Saying nothing more, Klein wrapped his arms around the two, pulling them into a tight embrace as if they were children of his own. The two returned the gesture, each burying their head into one of his shoulders as they wrapped their arms around his torso. It was an amazing feeling... one they weren't used to. One that the two of them wished could last a lifetime.

However, time was not such a forgiving mistress, and after about a minute, Klein slowly pulled away from the two of them.

"Now," he continued, business as usual, before he looked at Weiss. "Miss Schnee, this luggage is set for Marigold House, correct?"

"That's right," she nodded. "Would you be so kind as to assist me, Klein?"

"Of course. It would be my pleasure, miss." He gripped the handles of two of the suitcases as he approached the gate. On cue, a man approached the gates from behind. He had brown hair, fairly bushy eyebrows, and light blue eyes. He was dressed in a dark blue prefect jacket, with a white dress shirt under it. A blood red tie was nestled between the collar of the white shirt, barely visible due to the vest. He wore dark brown pants, and black shoes.

"Greetings, sir. I am Clover Ebi, head prefect of Bullworth Academy. Allow me to show you to your destination."

Weiss went to follow Klein and Clover, but before she could, she was stopped by the sound of her brother's voice.

"Weiss."

She let out an irritated groan, turning around to face him. "What, Whitley? Can't you see that I'm busy?"

"You think the Preps would let me into their clique with you?"

Weiss stared at him in disbelief for a moment, blinking her eyes in confusion. Then, she smiled, before letting out an amused laugh.

"You? Of all people?" She shook her head, throwing her ponytail over her shoulder in a haughty gesture before looking down (figuratively) at her brother. "Are you serious? What would make you think they'd take you in?"

"Well, I am a Schnee." His cheeks began to burn a bright red as he saw his sister look at him with barely disguised disdain, as if he were beneath her. "Surely that has to count for something."

She rolled her eyes, placing her hands on her hips. "Whitley, Marigold House and the Preps only accept the best of the best. How can you expect to be the best when you're not even the best in your own family?"

She shook her head, either not registering the humiliation she was giving to her brother or simply not caring. "Let's face it. You'll never match up to me. I'm smarter, more talented, and unlike you, I'm not a loyal dog that follows Father around like a newborn pup."

She turned around, not even willing to look at him anymore.

"Face it, Whitley. You're not ready for that type of privilege. You're probably not even ready for Bullworth. I know Klein believes in you, but..." She shook her head, letting out a disappointed sigh. "Well, he's too nice. He sees the best in you but he overlooks your weakness. The best thing you can do here is not get yourself killed. With how weak and timid you are, you should consider that a victory."

Then, she sauntered past the remaining luggage on the sidewalk to head towards the gate. Before she passed through them, however, she turned around to glare at her brother once more.

"And Whitley?"

"Yes, Weiss?"

She looked him over from head to toe one last time, before staring straight into his eyes. Her ice blue orbs pierced right through his skull, as if she was looking through him rather than at him.

"Stay out of my way."

Then, without another word, she walked calmly through the gates and out of Whitley's sight.

He sighed, approaching the brick wall and leaning against it. In the past, such vitriol might have gotten to him. However, over the years, he had gotten used to it. He had a neglectful mother, a manipulative father, one sister who left them the first chance she got, and another who couldn't see him as anything more than an imitation of their father. The feelings of isolation were familiar to him, even though he wished they weren't.

In most families, the firstborn son was a sign of status, especially for a family as prestigious and wealthy as the Schnees. However, Whitley had quickly learned over fifteen years of life that he was instead just the black sheep of a tarnished dynasty.

He let out a tired sigh, resting his head on the back of his hand. He hadn't even gotten to his dorm, and he already hated it here.

JOCK’S CLUBHOUSE

The Jock clubhouse was occupied by Ted Thompson, who diligently worked out by himself. His eyes squinted as he bench-pressed with a focus only a dedicated athlete would display. 

Ted was so engrossed in his workout that he failed to notice two individuals entering the clubhouse. They waited idly while the jock finished his reps. Ted finally set the weight bar back in its place as he got up from the bench seat. As he looked around, he finally noticed the other two students in his room.

“Oh, it's you two,” sighed Ted, as he got up to grab his towel and wiped the sweat off his brow.

“Is that any way to greet a friend?” said the girl in a sardonic tone, while the girl next to her slightly squinted her eyes at Ted.

Ted sighed again and turned to look at the two girls. Both were pretty in their own ways. The one with the mocking tone was slim and dark-haired. Her eyes were the color of amber, like flames that kept spreading everywhere. She wore an aquaberry sweater vest with a white buttoned shirt underneath with a tartan skirt and black stockings with brown flats. The other one was dark skinned but had minty green hair styled in a bob and red eyes that glared into Ted’s baby blues. She wore the standard Bullworth uniform but her sweater sleeves were rolled up, while white athletic sneakers completed her outfit.

“Ugh, uh huh, sorry, Cinder.” Though Ted didn’t sound too sorry for not giving Cinder the proper greeting, the girl next to her stepped up a bit and gave Ted a withering glare.

“Is that any way to speak to her? You give her the proper respect she deserves, you muscle-headed thug,” barked out the girl.

“Emerald… please. Ted was working out, and we interrupted him. You know he takes this very seriously,” said Cinder. While her face looked calm, her eyes told a different story, and Emerald stopped herself as she stepped away from Ted.

“Y-yes, sorry Cinder,” Emerald said, looking down to avoid Cinder’s burning stare. Cinder turned to look at Ted with a plastered look of false friendliness.

“So Ted, how have you been? It’s our first day of senior year-” began Cinder.

“Cut the crap, will you? It’s obvious you need something from me,” interrupted Ted, taking off his workout shirt, revealing a tank top that showed off his impressive physique, wiping off more sweat as Cinder looked rather hurt by his statement.

“Why, Theodore, I would never ever ask you for anything? Aren’t we friends? Friends would never speak to each other with that tone of voice,” pouted Cinder, but Ted didn’t fall for it.

“If we’re such good friends, I don’t think I ever remember getting so much as a hello from you from all the years I’ve known you,” rebutted Ted, as he picked up a clean t-shirt. "And don't call me Theodore. I'm not one of those fucking nerds."

Cinder walked up to him, mischief in her eyes. 

“Oh, Ted…” said Cinder, as Ted turned to look at her as she got close to him. Her manicured nail started tracing his chin slowly. “You want to be on the top of the school, but at the same time, you can’t think about your friends? Don’t friends look out for each other?”

Cinder’s fingers started to trail off slowly to Ted’s chest. The jock moved slightly as he was getting uncomfortable. Emerald was lapping up the sight of Ted Thompson, leader of the Jocks and one of the toughest kids in the academy… now reduced to being uncomfortable by the slightest bit of touching from Cinder. She felt a tinge of jealousy, although she wasn't entirely sure why.

Cinder then used her fingers to move Ted’s tank top, which revealed small but visible scarring as if someone had thrown a bottle at his chest.

“Oof, see what they did to you?” Cinder’s voice was now a whisper. “Besides, it’s only one small favor I ask of you. You act as if you're sacrificing an arm for me,” quipped Cinder. Her finger still playfully traced around Ted’s chest, who quickly regained his tough exterior as he grabbed her fingers. 

“That’s enough, I get it,” growled Ted. He wasn’t in the mood for Cinder’s mind games. “What is it you need from me now?” 

Ted let go of Cinder, who looked surprised at first but went back to her usual alluring self. Emerald, on the other hand, looked rather unpleasant at seeing Ted “manhandle” Cinder and went to grab a nearby small dumbbell-

Then, a large hand stopped Emerald from picking it up. She stopped to look and saw Damon West glaring at her.

“I think you overstayed your welcome,” said Damon calmly, as he hoisted up Emerald by her arm. Emerald squealed unconsciously.

“L-let go of me, y-you!” struggled Emerald.

Cinder had a look of amusement on her face while Ted walked past her as he approached Damon.

“Alright, alright, let her go-” began Ted.

Emerald immediately reacted; she hoisted her left leg and kicked Damon in the face, causing him to let go to reach for his chin. Emerald backflipped off him and landed like a ninja. 

Damon only rubbed his chin and gave Emerald a glare. He then began to walk over, but Ted stood in his way.

Cinder snapped her fingers, and Emerald stood still as Cinder walked over and grabbed her by her collar.

“I apologize… Emerald is a little too loyal for her own good. We can discuss this another time, perhaps?” said Cinder, as she held Emerald like a child who was caught doing something they weren’t supposed to.

Emerald looked scared but didn’t say a word as the two exited the clubhouse. Damon only crossed his arms as he leaned on a nearby wall.

“Whatever she has on you cannot be this bad. You can’t let this bitch be up on your shit like that,” said Damon, watching Ted putting on his letterman jacket. "You sure everything is okay, bro?"

“It’s whatever. I’m not that scared of her. Besides, I get some kind of reward outta this,” said Ted before swinging his backpack onto his shoulder. He went to exit the gym, as Damon followed close behind.

It was the first day of Bullworth Academy, and it was already evident that the year would certainly be interesting.

Chapter Text

NOW ENTERING BULLWORTH, NEW ENGLAND - POPULATION 128,000

A blue 2002 Subaru Outback drove through the bridge, entering into the town of Old Bullworth Vale. The skies were a muggy gray from the rain which had recently subsided. Jaune Arc was absorbing the sights of the new town that he’d be staying in for the whole year. He was seventeen, tall, wiry, and somewhat athletic. His choices of clothing were simplistic, as he wore a coffee brown jacket with a white long sleeved undershirt with blue jeans and white sneakers that had seen better days. 

He looked at the passing town, every building and business shop in different varieties as Jaune tried to absorb every little detail he could muster. He didn't know how he would describe Bullworth but it was… “something.” 

Then, the cries of his younger cousin, Adrian, sounded out as Jaune turned his head and saw that the toy airplane had fallen out of his chubby hands. Jaune immediately reacted and went to grab his cousin's toy before he could cry. The looks of silent relief on both of the other occupants’ faces were telling enough, as the one driving finally spoke up.

“Here we are, Bullworth. Quite a town, huh?” said the driver. She had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes like Jaune but looked older. She wore a dark blue rain jacket with a grey blouse, tan trousers and boots; it was his eldest sister Saphron. A ring was on her left hand indicating her marriage to the other woman next to her, who had a light brown complexion with short black hair. She wore a teal windbreaker jacket, a black t-shirt underneath, along with grey jeans and sneakers. Terra was her name and her hand reached to clasp the driver’s hand in a reassuring manner.

“Yeah,” said Jaune dismissively, staring out the window. 

“Quite a town, don’t you think?” asked Terra, trying to initiate a conversation with Jaune, though Jaune looked too focused on staring out the window, his eyes soaking up every detail of the town that is Bullworth. He spotted many things: various businesses ranging from newspaper stands, fast food restaurants, bike shops, and comic book stores. 

Though the comic book store looked interesting, he did need to pick up a couple of new things for himself. Princess Robot Bubblegum Volume 5 had just dropped, and it was calling out to him like a box of unhealthy cereal. 

“Jaune!” said Saphron.

Jaune turned. A look of annoyance from the rearview mirror stared into Jaune as he realized he wasn’t paying attention.

“Oh, uh y-yeah sure, real interesting, quite a place!” said Jaune weakly, a sheepish grin on his face as Saphron rolled her eyes while Terra chuckled.

“Ah, here we are, baby bro, Bullworth Academy,” said Saphron, as Terra and Jaune then looked to see the oncoming academy in view.

Jaune could see it: the school, or if you could call it a school, looked larger than life. It looked like a castle with a neo-Gothic vibe to him. Jaune saw the many buildings visible around the location, and he guessed the two large buildings to the sides would have to be the dorms while the large one in the middle was the main building.

“Quite a school, it doesn’t feel like it’s the toughest school in the country though,” Jaune thinks to himself, before he gets out of the car. He turns to Adrian, who is now staring at him with big ol’ eyes filled with curiosity.

“Well, this is it, end of the road, huh?” said Jaune.

Adrian responded with baby sounds that sounded like confusion.

“Hmm, I know, right? I already screwed things up back in Texas, so I’m hoping maybe, just maybe… this could be a new reset for me? A new second chance, even if I think I don’t deserve it,” said Jaune, doubt lingering in his voice.

And Adrian, in a way, as if he understood Jaune’s despondent mood, reached out with his chubby little toddler hand and went to grab yellow strands of hair.

Jaune was surprised by this and chuckled, getting Adrian’s little hand away from his hair, a grin now replacing the suffering look on his face.

“You sure know how to lighten up the mood, huh, Adrian?” Jaune said, getting out of his sister’s car and slinging his backpack on one shoulder. Jaune stepped onto the sidewalk, staring right at the gates that stood between him and the academy. Nervousness swelled inside of him, but he pushed it down, breathing in and exhaling as he picked up the rest of his luggage.

As Jaune set down his suitcase and guitar, he turned to see Saphron and Terra walking to him, their expressions worried.

“Jaune, this is a new school. It's a fresh new opportunity.” Saphron began, Terra nodding along.

“Yeah, I know,” said Jaune.

“So like, just focus on your studies, don't get into too much trouble, okay?” said Saphron, with a concerned expression on her face.

Amazing motivation from the eldest sister as usual.

Jaune nodded, promising the couple silently. Then, both Saphron and Terra hugged him.

“Just...just that you're so far away and this is the first, you know! A whole year away from home, it’s gonna be different without you around!” exclaimed Saphron, who only held Jaune tighter, as if he were to disappear the moment she let go.

Jaune awkwardly patted her back as best as he could. Saphron didn’t let go until Terra had to pry her off of Jaune. They all said their goodbyes.

Jaune knew this wouldn’tbe the last time he’d see them, but at the same time, it was going to be a year, after all.  

Saphron finally drove off, Terra waving goodbye from the car window. Jaune watched as the car drove away, standing on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. He looked down at the ground. 

"So... last chance, Jaune," he muttered to himself. "Try not to screw it up, yeah?"

"So, you must be Mr. Jaune Arc."

The sound of a female voice made Jaune almost jump out of his skin as he quickly turned around. When he did, he saw a middle-aged woman. She had blonde hair tied back in a bun, with a curl of hair running down the right side of her face. Her eyes were brighter than shining emeralds, and she had on a pair of glasses. She had light blue earrings and a pendant around her neck.

She wore a white, long-sleeved blouse and a black pencil skirt with bronze buttons. She also wore brown stockings, as well as black boots with bronze heels at the bottom. Curiously enough, she also seemed to wear some type of cape on her back, which Jaune thought was unusual. On her right wrist was a golden wristwatch.

Her eyes seemed to pierce through Jaune's skull as she looked at him.

"Um, hello, ma'am," Jaune said, a bit unsure. He wasn't sure why but he got the feeling that this wasn't a woman he wanted to tick off.

The woman barely registered his reply, before holding her hands out, motioning to the now open gate. "We've been expecting you, Mr. Arc. Welcome to Bullworth Academy. I'm sure you'll be very happy here, very happy, indeed."

Jaune didn't know what to reply with, so he simply walked towards the gate. The woman walked in front of him, her heels clicking as she walked down the grey, stony path.

Jaune saw a large school building in the distance, at the top of two sets of stairs. Just a bit ahead of him was a walkway which was divided into three paths, with the school building straight ahead. As he followed behind the woman, he saw three young boys standing in the middle of the path, where the paths divided.

They all seemed to be wearing white polo shirts with the Bullworth logo on the top left, as well as light blue jeans. One of the boys had grey hair, while another had auburn hair. The other, shorter than the other two, seemed to have a blonde mohawk of sorts, which Jaune noted was a very interesting choice.

The woman stopped in front of the three boys. "Russel. Dove. Sky." She looked at each of the boys as she said their names. "What are you doing here?"

"Sorry, Miss Goodwitch," the boy with auburn hair, who seemed to be named Dove, replied. He had a smirk on his face which Jaune instantly found to be slightly irritating. "We just heard that a new student was coming in today."

"We wanted to give him a warm welcome," the one with grey hair, named Sky, added.

"Nothing wrong with that, right, Miss?" The third boy, the one with the mohawk named Russel, asked.

Miss Goodwitch, as she was called, did not seem amused in the slightest. Jaune stood beside her and looked forward to seeing a stern complexion on her face, one which Jaune guessed was her normal expression.

"You have better things to do than antagonize the new students, gentlemen." She cleared her throat. "Especially after your exam performances from last semester."

The three boys seemed dumbfounded at her response, as they blinked rapidly. 

"Ah, come on, Miss Goodwitch!" Sky whined. "Everyone knows that Dr. Oobleck is basically impossible to understand!"

"And Professor Port drones on and on about what he did back in his own Bullworth days!" Dove added.

"Yeah," Russel agreed. "It's not fair of you to hold that against us."

Jaune remained quiet. He didn't want to speak out of turn; he didn't particularly care if he answered these boys, but he figured it would be best to let Miss Goodwitch do all the talking, lest he become a target of her own ire.

"That's enough of your whining and excuses. Run along to the dorms, now."

The three boys complained for a minute, but ultimately, they walked past Miss Goodwitch. Jaune watched as they took one of the paths, heading towards a giant stone archway. Jaune saw what looked to be the old dorm building beyond the arch, a one-floor building that would be to the left of the main gates as you entered. Jaune couldn't make out all the details, other than the fact it seemed to be made of old brick and appeared to be rather dirty from the inside.

As he examined the dorm, he noticed the boys give him a quick glance, seeming to analyze him. Jaune ignored it, however. He knew he couldn't afford to get into trouble here. Especially not after what happened last time...

"Mr. Arc," Miss Goodwitch said impatiently, breaking him out of his thoughts. Jaune looked at her to see her staring at him with a cool expression.

"Oh, sorry... Miss Goodwitch, was it?"

She nodded. "That's correct. Come along. We wouldn't want to keep Headmaster Ozpin waiting." Without waiting for a response, she turned to continue heading for the school building.

Jaune followed her, squeezing between the crowds of students. He saw several different types of uniforms: in addition to those with the white polos, he noted students which had on green vests, blue sweater vests, dark black leather jackets, and what seemed to be dark blue letterman jackets. He walked as one of the students in a letterman jacket, a blonde girl with bright yellow hair, grabbed one of the students in a green vest, a girl with red and black hair, and gave her a noogie.

He also heard yelling as he walked by, and turned to see a dark-skinned man in a dark blue vest and beige pants chasing after one of the boys in a leather jacket. 

"Get back here right now, evildoer!" Jaune heard the man shout, as he chased after the student.

"Who was that?" Jaune asked curiously.

"That was one of our prefects. There are five of them in total on campus..." she sighed. "A rather low number for the amount of ruffians here."

Jaune didn't say more as she followed Goodwitch up the sets of stairs and approached the double doors that marked the entrance to the school. He wasn't sure why, but he had a feeling that he was about to be in for an uncomfortable conversation.

Jaune waited in the lobby, sitting on a bench. The lobby was rather nice: it had light beige wooden floors, and multiple seats in the waiting room. In the middle of the room was a large brown atrium, which Miss Goodwitch stood behind. This seemed to be her normal post, as she seemed to be sorting through paperwork of some kind, barely paying Jaune any attention after leading him here and sitting him down to wait for the headmaster. There was a set of brown double doors in the back of the room, behind a few sets of dark brown wooden tables and chairs, which seemed to lead to the headmaster's office.

Jaune twiddled with his thumbs awkwardly as he waited. He had no idea what type of conversation was awaiting, or what this headmaster was like. However, if Bullworth was as difficult of a school as the rumors said, then he had a feeling that this headmaster would be no pushover.

Jaune pulled out his phone, scrolling aimlessly through his contacts. He would miss his parents, Saph, Terra, and Adrian the most, but he was excited to get a chance to expand his horizons elsewhere. He had seen enough corn fields and tractors for a lifetime: New England was a strange but welcome change for him.

He just wished the reason for this change was better.

The sound of the double doors in the back opening snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see a curious figure. Jaune had expected an intimidating man of large stature, akin to a military general, based on what he knew about Bullworth. However, the man who appeared to be the headmaster was rather strange.

He had white hair, for a start, which seemed rather unusual because the man did not appear to be old since his skin was rather smooth. He also wore sunglasses which almost completely obscured his eyes. He wore a brown suit, with a white collared button up and a red tie underneath. He wore dark brown pants and similarly colored dress shoes. He also held a silver-colored cane in his left hand. The cane served as a metronome, sounding against the wooden floor gently as the man approached Jaune. He gave Goodwitch a nod and a smile as he passed by here. In response, the woman gave him a slight bow of respect.

"Greetings, Mr. Arc," the man greeted with a smile which surprised Jaune. "I am Headmaster Ozpin, the leader of Bullworth Academy. I hope you are excited for your time here." The man held out a hand to Jaune.

Jaune quickly stood up, taking the man's hand and giving it a firm shake. First impressions were everything, and Jaune wanted to make a good one. "Greetings, headmaster. Thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here."

Ozpin nodded, before he withdrew his hand and clasped both his hands behind his back in a formal posture. "Come along, Jaune. We have much to discuss," Ozpin said, before turning around to head back through the double doors.

Despite the man's friendliness, Jaune felt nervous as he followed him into the headmaster's study. Miss Goodwitch followed behind him, and once Jaune entered the study with Ozpin, she closed the double doors behind the two of them.

Jaune looked around in amazement at the study. It had dark brown wooden floors, and walls lined with bookcases. There was a large window in the back which reached from the floor to almost the very top of the ceiling, not too dissimilar from those found in the churches from Jaune's hometown. On the left wall as Jaune entered, were some old portraits of people in business attire. One stood out to him: a woman with blonde hair and green eyes. Unlike Miss Goodwitch, however, her hair was longer, reaching down to rest gently on her shoulders.

Opposite the portraits, Ozpin took a seat behind his dark brown desk, which was stacked with paperwork. In front of the desk were two chairs.

Ozpin motioned to them. "Please make yourself comfortable, Mr. Arc. There are a few things I want to discuss with you."

Unconsciously, Jaune swallowed nervously, but obeyed as he took a seat in the right chair. He twiddled with his fingers some more as Ozpin picked up a few pieces of paper, flipping through them as he scanned the material.

"Jaune Arc... seventeen years old. Born in Texas, I see?"

"That's right," Jaune affirmed with a nod. "Grew up on a farm, with my parents and my... well, seven sisters."

Ozpin let out a small chuckle. "I see. That must have been rather entertaining, then. Never a dull moment, I'm sure."

Jaune shifted in the chair. He didn't know why but this guy gave him mixed signals. Despite the friendly words coming from his mouth, something seemed off. As if he knew much more than he was letting on, as if he had much more experience than his physical appearance would suggest...

Jaune shook his head. No, he was just nervous and overthinking things.

"I see," Ozpin remarked mostly to himself, as he continued scanning the papers. "Looks like you were an... average student in the past, is that correct?"

"Yeah," Jaune rubbed the back of his head awkwardly at the honest admission. "I mean, I tried my best, don't get me wrong. Academics have just never been my thing, really. I'm not good at homework, or studying, and I hate taking tests. Way too much pressure."

"Hmm," Ozpin grunted, continuing to look over the documents. "Very interesting. No matter, Mr. Arc. Bullworth will make a fine man of you; of that, I am certain."

Ozpin flipped to another page. As he read the paper, his eyes widened slightly behind his darkened frames, before his expression relaxed just as quickly.

"I see. So that's why you transferred here, Mr. Arc."

Jaune felt his heart rate accelerate at the man's words. He knew this topic would come up eventually but that didn't prepare him for it any better. He swallowed a lump in his throat.

"P-please, I can ex-" however, before Jaune could finish his retort, he was interrupted by Ozpin raising a hand, seeming to motion for him to stop.

"It doesn't matter, Mr. Arc," Ozpin remarked in an even tone. "You are not the first student to come to Bullworth with a difficult past, and you will certainly not be the last." He looked over the documents once more, slightly nodding to himself. "This is... certainly a concerning incident. To say otherwise would be incorrect. However, Bullworth has a history of creating diamonds from great pressure, forging fine men and women from all different walks of life."

He set the papers back down, reaching a hand up towards his face. He took off his sunglasses, laying them on his desk, as he looked at Jaune directly. Jaune noted that his eyes were brown.

"Your past is not what defines you, Mr. Arc. What defines you is what lessons you learn from the past, and what those lessons push you to do in the future." He leaned back in his chair with a seemingly nostalgic smile on his face. "Believe me... if making major mistakes condemned us to a life of failure with no hope of redemption, I would not be where I am now. For I have made more mistakes than any other person on this planet."

Jaune's eyes widened a bit at the man's words. To be perfectly honest, he had expected condemnation from the headmaster for the incident which got him expelled from his last school, yet the man seemed rather understanding. He wasn't dismissive of the incident but also seemed to understand that it was a mistake... not intentional.

At least one person understood that.

"I... thank you sir," Jaune said with genuine gratitude. "It means a lot to hear that. I'll try not to let you down."

Ozpin shook his head. "No, Mr. Arc," he chided, "that should not be your motivation here. My approval or disapproval is not important. What is important is for every student here to become the best they can be. So long as you put in the time and effort to improve yourself, you can accomplish great things here."

The man stood up, using his cane for support as he walked around the desk. As he did, the doors opened up once more as Miss Goodwitch walked in, carrying a silver platter with some bright, white fine china on it. "I got your tea as you requested, headmaster."

"Thank you." Ozpin nodded with a warm smile. "You are good to me, Miss Goodwitch."

"No more than you deserve, headmaster." If Jaune wasn't crazy, he could've sworn there was a bit of affection behind those words, but Miss Goodwitch always had the same stern expression, so he wasn't entirely sure.

"Miss Goodwitch, please take our friend Mr. Arc here," Ozpin began, motioning to Jaune in the chair. "Get him properly introduced and take him to the boys' dorm."

"Certainly, headmaster." Goodwitch looked at Jaune, motioning for him to follow her. "Come along, Mr. Arc. We haven't got all day."

"R-right!" Jaune quickly stood up, going to follow Miss Goodwitch out of the study.

"And, Mr. Arc," Ozpin said as Jaune walked by him. Jaune turned to look at the man, who looked down at him with an even gaze.

"Yes, sir?"

"Keep your head down... and good luck." Ozpin gave him a small smile.

Jaune nodded, giving him a grateful smile of his own, before turning to follow Goodwitch out of the study and the building.

Jaune followed Miss Goodwitch back towards the gate, reaching the point where they had met the three boys from earlier. She stopped, and turned around to face Jaune. She pointed to the right, towards the building which Jaune had noted earlier.

"That, Mr. Arc, is where you will be staying for the semester." She reached into her skirt, pulling out what appeared to be a small key, handing it to Jaune.

"This will be your dorm key. Your room will be the first door on the right side of the first floor, closest to the entrance."

Jaune nodded. "Got it. Thank you for the help, Miss Goodwitch."

The woman gave him a curt nod. "Just doing my job. Welcome to Bullworth, Mr. Arc."

Jaune watched as the woman stepped past him, heading back towards the school building. He stuffed the key in his right jean pocket, before turning to look back towards the boys' dorm. He let out a tired sigh before walking slowly toward the dorm. He put his hands in his pocket as he walked toward the stony arch. He passed under it, continuing along the white, stony walkway toward the boys' dorm.

As he passed the arch, however, he heard a strange sound, like feet shuffling behind him. He turned around to see multiple boys in white vests, including two of the ones from before, blocking the path which he had just come from. It seemed they had been hiding behind the walls, waiting for Jaune to pass through.

His eyes widened in surprise, before he heard the sound of a door opening.

It was one of the boys from before, the mohawk one, who had a shit eating grin on his face as he gestures wildly.

“Guess what time it is? YUP! Time for a beat down!”

You gotta be kidding me…

“Get the new kid! Beat him down!” said one of the boys in the background.

“Guess talking it out isn’t an option huh-” Before Jaune could finish his thoughts, the mohawk student began charging at Jaune with a war cry, enticing more cheers from the other bullies, as Jaune is forced to react in the nick of time. He barely dodged the incoming haymaker, nearly clipping his lip.

Jaune had tried to take off his backpack, but Mohawk recovered easily as he rushed at Jaune again to throw a series of sloppy punches at the new kid, who brought up his backpack to use as a shield.

“Stop blocking, pussy, take that!” cried Mohawk, as he charged up a haymaker and threw it as hard as he could at the backpack. Jaune then slipped the backpack away and threw a returning cross right into his jaw.

A loud crack could be heard, and sounds of ooohs and ahhhs could be heard from the surrounding bullies as Mohawk nearly stumbled to the concrete ground. Jaune wasn’t finished as he twerked his body a bit and threw a punishing left hook, his fist crashing into Mohawk’s nose. 

Mohawk laid on the ground, unconscious as Jaune stood over him, breathing heavily. The other bullies stayed quiet, their faces full of shock; nobody had ever beaten one of their own like that.

Jaune didn’t gloat; he only started his time at Bullworth and felt nothing but a storm of emotions. Why did he have to fight again… why? It was only the first day, for god's sake.

“Well, this can’t get any worse,” Jaune thought to himself.

Then, the dorm’s entrance opened and out stepped another student. Jaune looked and froze at the sight of him. He was big, way too big and muscle-y to be a student. He wore the same outfit as the other students surrounding him, a white uniform shirt with the sleeves rolled up revealing his gorilla-like arms, as well as dark denim jeans with grey dress shoes.

Judging from the displeased look on his face, Jaune safely assumed he wasn’t happy with what he was looking at.

“God damn Russel, you let yourself get punked on by a new kid like that?” said this hulking behemoth of a student, who slowly walked down the steps. Each step might have felt like a miniature earthquake to Jaune as he slowly approached and crouched near the now identified Russel to inspect him.   

“U-uh, he cheated with his backpack?” said Russel.

“To be fair, you guys surrounded me with no escape, so like, I had to improvise,” said Jaune sheepishly, chuckling under his breath. However, the giant didn’t look happy with how Jaune had to explain himself.  

“For fuck’s sake, guys, you had a perfect opportunity to jump his ass! What the fuck did you guys do? Watch?” growled the giant, causing all the other bullies to froze in place, as they all stammered out weak excuses.

“W-w-well, Cardin, when you put it like that-” began Dove.

“Shut the fuck up,” said Cardin. All the bullies quieted down as he stepped over Russel and went to Jaune, nearly towering over him.

“Guess I have to teach everyone here a remedial lesson in bullying…” threatened Cardin.

“O-oh, I didn’t know they taught that here,” said Jaune nervously, though he did prepare for whatever Cardin would throw at him.

“Don’t worry, it's a flexible course,” quipped Cardin, before he suddenly swung.

Jaune blocked in the nick of time but the sudden overhand had thrown him back a bit. The sheer force of power and speed from someone of Cardin’s size had shocked Jaune.

“FUCK, it’s like getting hit with a mace!” Jaune panicked internally, while Cardin also looked surprised that Jaune even blocked a punch like that.

“Not bad… you must be pretty fucking tough, huh, newbie?” grinned Cardin, as Jaune got into his basic boxing stance, trying to control his nerves.

“Strength and speed. He’s probably got good defense too but I can’t tell how he fights. I gotta keep my distance and see what else he’ll do,” thought Jaune, shifting his legs in case Cardin charged.

“Alright, let's see if you can handle this one, bitch!” yelled Cardin, charging up another haymaker-

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!” yelled a voice, causing everyone to freeze as two nicely dressed students approached. One of them was a dark-skinned faunus with a tail, while the other was taller, pale and had a buzzcut.

“Fuck, its the mutt…” whispered one of the bullies.

“I heard that and that’ll be two weeks detention, Davis,” said the dog faunus as he walked up to Cardin.

“Tch, I didn’t do nothing, by the way.” said Cardin, though his excuse was rather lame.

“Riiiight, sure you were. Let me guess, a “friendly fist bump” as usual, Mr. Winchester?” said the dog faunus sarcastically, his hands on his hips. The pale one had gestured the other bullies to scram, but Sky secretly fiddled with a slingshot as he hid behind Dove.

Cardin shrugged. His face didn’t hide his disdain at the dog faunus, who then focused on staring right back, showing his defiance at the much larger student.

Sky placed a pebble in the slingshot. He took aim and fired right at the dog faunus's head. Jaune saw this and opened his mouth to warn him but it was too late-

FWUP

The rock didn’t hit the prefect. Instead, the paler prefect caught the pebble with two fingers, before he crushed it without any difficulty. He glared at Sky, while the dog faunus turned around in the nick of time and looked at the offender, anger now flashing in his eyes.

“Marrow, it seems Mr. Lark had forgotten the many rules of the school involving weaponry in student hands,” said the pale one, who began to walk slowly to Sky, who now looked scared.

“I concur, Vine. I think a bit of “talking” is in order,” growled Marrow. However, before the two prefects could do anything, Sky turned around and bolted down the path.

“HEY! COME BACK HERE! Suspect is running to the parking lot-” said Marrow, now running after Sky. Vine then turned to look at Jaune with critical eyes.

“I believe school uniform is mandatory, Mr. Arc. Do try to follow that rule,” said Vine, as he turned to run after Marrow.

Jaune didn’t know what to say now. The fight… it all felt like a blur. Plus, the fact the kids here even tried to shoot at one of the prefects with a fucking slingshot of all things just proved to Jaune the school had a reputation for a reason.

“Great, just what I need. So here I am, probably in the worst school in the country, with students fighting prefects, and it doesn’t help that I’m the new kid. Wow Jaune, what a fresh fucking start for you.”

“Wait a minute,” Jaune said to himself, scratching his head. “How did that prefect know my name?”

The thought confused him for a moment, before he shrugged it off. Jaune kicked a rock away, sighing in frustration before he turned to walk inside the boy’s dorm. As he did so, he was unaware of the unseen participant looking at him with every waking moment.  

As Jaune walked through the double doors, he was instantly greeted with a foul stench he couldn't recognize. Whatever it was, his nose reacted faster than anything else, wrinkling in disgust at the smell. He stood by the entrance as the doors closed behind him, examining the hallway. On the left wall was a green bulletin board with white chalk writing on it, while a water fountain was on the right wall. The fountain had clearly seen better days, as the once stainless porcelain white had faded from age, looking dusty and faded. He stepped forward to the main hallway. As he looked to the left and right, he noticed a blue rug running down the entire length of the floor. The dorm appeared to only be one floor, which surprised Jaune considering how many students the academy had.

The hallway, however, was rather long, with dozens of doors leading to dorm rooms present. At the end of the hallway was a dark green sofa. Even from a distance, Jaune could tell that such furniture was also rather old, with the backs being covered in thick layers of dust. The hallway was rather dark, with no windows to be found, other than the ones on the main door. What light could be found came from a room in the back.

Jaune walked forward through a small archway into what appeared to be the common room. Unlike the faded dark brown coloring of the carpet in the main hallway, the common room had a grimy white tile floor. However, unlike the rest of the dorm, the common room felt more welcoming, as the many windows on the back wall allowed plenty of sunlight to shine through. In the back left corner was what appeared to be an old poker table, with two dark green metallic foldout chairs situated on opposite sides of it. Next to the poker table in the other left-side corner was an old arcade machine. Curious, Jaune approached it, noting the futuristic vehicle on the main screen.

"Future Street Racer... really?" Jaune let out a sigh. "That game is about thirty years old at this point. Then again, that's probably still younger than most of the other items in this school."

Jaune scanned the rest of the room quickly. There was another sofa in the middle of the room, in front of an old box TV. Jaune hadn't seen a TV that looked like that since his early childhood, as flatscreen or high-definition televisions had become the norm for most people. The TV was currently off, and while Jaune felt he could use a break, the thought of watching TV didn't appeal to him at that moment.

Next to the TV on the back wall, between the windows were what appeared to be portraits. They seemed to be officials from the school, as Jaune quickly noticed the image of Headmaster Ozpin, smiling softly at the photographer. Jaune recognized the image of the headmaster's office study as the background, while he wore an outfit almost identical to the one Jaune had seen him in earlier.

Separated by a window, however, was another portrait to the left. This time, it was of a woman that Jaune didn't know, but had seen a picture of in Ozpin's office. A young woman, probably in her late 20s or early 30s, had blonde hair and emerald eyes. She wore a bright white dress and gold, dangling earrings. She also seemed to reside in the same type of office that Ozpin did, but Jaune noticed a few differences. While Ozpin's study was stacked with bookshelves and documents, this woman's space appeared much more minimalist in nature, with a desk and a few shelves being the main items of note.

The woman was smiling like Ozpin, yet Jaune felt a chill run down her spine as he looked at her. Unlike Ozpin, the woman's smile unsettled him, as if there was a certain malice or spite behind it that Ozpin lacked. He approached the photo to read the small gold plated label under the photo.

"Headmaster... Salem?"

"The first and best headmaster of Bullworth Academy."

Jaune quickly turned around. To his surprise, he saw a young girl standing before him, leaning back against the wall with a smirk on her face. She had raven black hair and striking amber eyes, which shined brightly like a raging inferno. She wore fancy clothing which Jaune didn't recognize, other than the fact that it was mostly bright blue and had tartan patterns. 

"What the... what are you doing here?" Jaune asked curiously. "You must be lost... I think the girl's dorm is the other building."

The girl continued smirking at him, shaking her head as if he had just told a silly joke. "Look at you... the new kid in town, and you're already getting used to where things are. Very impressive, handsome."

Jaune blinked a few times in confusion at the compliment. "How do you know I'm the new kid?"

The girl scoffed, as if he had asked the stupidest question. "Please. It comes with the territory. When you have as much influence as I do, you start to see and hear things others don't." She pushed off the wall, sauntering towards Jaune.

"Besides..." she stopped right in front of Jaune, looking up at him intensely. "When you have as much power as I do, you can do... pretty much anything you want." She chuckled. "Even being able to go into places you otherwise wouldn't be allowed to."

"I see," Jaune said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. While he had grown up with seven sisters, he wasn't used to interacting with women from outside his family. His father had grown up with a macho man type of attitude.

"Remember, Jaune, confidence is what matters the most when talking to a woman."

Jaune quickly cleared his throat. "S-so, uh... you come here often?"

Jaune internally slapped himself the moment he finished his sentence. "U-uh, I mean, of course you do, you go to school here! What a silly question! What I meant is do you come to the boy's dorm often, to, uh... do things?" He shrugged unsurely, as the girl's smile faded. She looked at him with an even expression, and it was then that Jaune noticed just how intense her expression was.

Nice, Jaune. So much for confidence. The first girl he had talked to at Bullworth, and he had already made a total ass of himself.

After a few seconds of agonizing silence, however, the girl smiled at him while shaking her head. "You don't talk to girls that much, do you?"

"Uh... wow, is it really that obvious?"

"Yes," the girl admitted honestly. "You know, it's rather curious. You appear to be lacking in confidence, with a weak disposition."

"Ouch." Jaune chuckled. "Way to not sugarcoat it."

"However," the girl continued, barely registering that he had spoken. "You were also able to beat that boy in a fight like it was nothing, and you were ready to stand up to Cardin himself. Perhaps there is a certain... strength there. A dormant power, which just needs to be awakened."

Then, to Jaune's surprise, the girl reached a hand up, gently running it down the side of Jaune's face. He gasped in surprise, and wanted to pull away, but the nervous churning in his gut froze him to the spot.

"Tell me, handsome. What's your name?"

He gulped nervously. It was one thing to talk to girls but to talk with one that seemed to be showing a certain kind of interest in him was another matter entirely.

"J-Jaune. My name is Jaune Arc."

"Jaune Arc," the woman said, clicking her tongue as if she were testing out the name. "Interesting. It reminds me of the old hero, Jeanne d'Arc."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Jaune admitted with a small shrug. "To be honest, it's just a major coincidence that the names sound the same."

The girl chuckled, pulling her hand away from him. "I see. Well, Jaune... try not to play with fire too much, hmm? You wouldn't want to get burned."

"I'll keep that in mind. Granted, it doesn't help when some maniacs try to attack you five minutes into your first day at the new school."

"You'll get used to it," she admitted bluntly. She spoke of getting attacked by a student that looked like a gorilla as if it were a normal, everyday occurrence. "Don'y worry too much about Cardin. He talks a big game but he's not who you have to worry about around here."

Oh, great. The guy already looked like a character straight out of a comic book but apparently there were people even more dangerous around. Jaune sighed internally to himself, wondering what kind of luck he had in a past life to get sent to a school like this. All he wanted was to just keep to himself and stay out of trouble.

"Um..." Jaune began, still feeling incredibly nervous in front of the pretty girl. "I'm sorry but I never asked for your name."

"Oh, don't worry about it, handsome," the girl said with a small chuckle. "My name is Cinder Fall. I am the heiress to the Fall Family's fortune. Perhaps you've heard of us?"

"Nope," Jaune answered. "Doesn't ring a bell."

Cinder's eyes widened momentarily in surprise, before her expression returned to normal. She continued smirking at Jaune. "Well... aren't you full of surprises, Jaune? Have you been living under a rock for most of your life."

"No. Just Texas."

"I see," the girl frowned. "Well, then, perhaps living under a rock would be preferable."

"Hey!" Jaune said with exaggerated outrage. "I'll have you know that I resent that implication and... stuff."

The girl chuckled again, which made Jaune smile.

"Fine, my apologies," Cinder replied. "In all seriousness, though..." Cinder's smile faded again, as she examined Jaune with a calculating gaze. "What exactly is a Texan bumpkin like you doing in a place like Bullworth?"

"It's a... long story." Jaune answered with a half truth. He didn't exactly want to revisit the reason he had to leave his last school. Discussing it vaguely with Ozpin had already been an uncomfortable situation for him; discussing it with someone he barely knew, no matter how friendly they seemed, was out of the question."

"Well, Jaune, in a place like this, you're going to need friends. How about you be mine?"

"What? You want to be friends with a nobody like me?"

"Why not?" Cinder shrugged, her posture relaxed. "I've always made sure to be... charitable to those less fortunate than me. You may not want to fight anyone here but such is merely an eventuality around Bullworth. When the time comes, you will want someone with power and resources by your side."

She looked him over once more, before smiling again. "Plus, why would I not want to help a dashing young man such as yourself?"

Jaune felt a stinging sensation in his cheeks as he blushed. "Oh, uh, well..." he cleared his throat awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck, which felt rather chilly. "I mean, I won't force you to do anything like that but I won't lie and say I couldn't use the help."

"Then it's decided," Cinder affirmed, holding a hand out to him. "From this day forward, you and I will work together."

Jaune had no idea what she meant about working together but he was excited to make his first friend. He quickly wiped the sweat of his palms on his pants, hoping that Cinder wouldn't notice, before shaking her hand gently. Her skin was smooth and her hand small against his, yet she returned the gesture with a firm grip which surprised him as they shook hands.

As Jaune looked past her, his eyes widened in surprise as he noticed something he hadn't before.

"No way! They have a soda machine in here?!"

Cinder's eyes widened in shock at his excitement as she pulled away, looking behind herself at the machine behind the couch. A bright blue machine with the words "Beam Cola" sat there, stocked full of soda. 

"They do, although I've never had any carbonated beverages myself." Cinder watched as Jaune walked towards the machine, reaching into his pants pocket to pull out his wallet.

However, as Jaune opened the wallet and reached inside, he was surprised to find that he had no money left. He and his family had to pool everything together to afford the tuition and supplies to head to Bullworth. He was lucky that Saph and Terra has moved to Bullworth a few years back, or else he couldn't have even afforded a cab fare to school.

"Ah man..." Jaune said, feeling deflated. "I forgot I spent my last few bucks at the airport."

"Here," Jaune heard Cinder say, and as he turned around, he saw her holding out a dollar bill to him. Jaune's mouth widened slightly in surprise. He looked at the green bill for a moment before looking up at Cinder tentatively.

"A-are you sure?"

"Yes," Cinder answered confidently, smiling at him. "Go on. Consider it a... token of our new friendship."

Jaune hesitated for another moment, before taking the dollar from her. He smiled and nodded at her. "Thanks, Cinder. I appreciate it."

Cinder nodded at him, before Jaune turned towards the machine again, before he knelt down to slot the dollar into the machine. He heard a loud clanking sound as a can fell to the bottom of the machine. Jaune reached through the black slot to pull out the can. He popped it open with a loud fizzing sound, taking a drink of the beverage. It was a brightly colored drink, and Jaune instantly fell in love with the lemon-lime flavor as he swallowed it. He felt a surge of energy and excitement rush through him at the taste.

"Oh man, Cinder, this is amaz-" 

As Jaune turned around, he stopped in surprise. Cinder was gone, and he was the only person left standing in the common room.

"Huh... guess she had somewhere to get to. Still, I wonder why she left without saying goodbye."

He shrugged to himself before he took another sip. Whatever it was, he was sure Cinder had a good reason. He walked towards the TV, hitting one of the buttons on the front which sparked the TV set to life. He walked towards the sofa and sat down on it, watching a news program that came on.

He sat there and continued enjoying his drink. Despite the monotonous voice of the woman on the newscast, Jaune felt at ease for the first time since he arrived. He had gotten into his first fight but he had also made his first friend. Perhaps times were finally looking up for him.

She stood behind the dorm, next to a dark green dumpster that was overflowing with discarded materials. To some, the sight of a girl in such expensive clothing in such a filthy area would be surprising to most people.

However, Cinder was never someone who fit into expectations. The shadows were where she felt most comfortable... where she preferred to be.

"Jaune Arc," she smiled to herself as she said the boy's name. "He seemed genuine, albeit a bit slow on the uptake. Still... he has a certain craftiness and power that could prove very useful."

Cinder recalled the fight which she had seen while hiding behind the dorm, peeking out to examine the new kid. Despite his nervousness, Cinder had watched him expertly defend against the attacks levied against him, before countering with a strength and efficiency that didn't seem to match his demeanor.

"That's not someone who’s a clueless greenhorn," Cinder nodded to herself. "That's someone who's been in their fair share of fights. Yet, he doesn't seem like the type to want to fight if he can avoid it."

She thought to herself in silence for a few moments as she tried to work out the puzzle in her head.

"Jaune Arc... you are a curious case, indeed. Well... playing with fire can certainly be dangerous." 

She chuckled to herself as she pushed off the wall, crossing her arms. "But what's life without a little bit of danger?"

She slowly walked away from the dumpster to head back to the girl's dorm. As she did, she reached into her skirt to pull out a photo of a young woman. A girl with bright blue eyes and vivid white hair, similar to the snow on a wintry Bullworth day, stared back at her. As Cinder looked at the photo, the smile on her face quickly faded, replaced by a scowl and a cold glint in her eyes.

"Speaking of danger... I have some planning to do."

Cinder pocketed the photo once more, heading back to her dorm as sunset approached. The sun in the distance was a bright yellow-orange color against the horizon, a ray of hope amidst an otherwise dreary atmosphere.

Cinder smiled to herself as the light began to fade. After all, the darkness was what she enjoyed the most.

Jaune walked through the door to head to his room. He quickly looked to his left to see a raggedy bed, with dark brown posts, and a rather small headboard. The sheets were a rather ugly grey, covered by a faded white blanket on the top. Jaune could tell that the materials were very old and probably even moth-eaten.

He placed his suitcase at the end of his bed before he sat down on the bed with a tired sigh, holding his head in his hands for a moment. He had only been here for about 30 minutes and he had already gotten into a fight. After what had happened at his last school, he had promised himself and his family that things would be different. He hadn't meant to get expelled last time, but it had happened. He had promised to be on his best behavior. Yet, even when he tried to keep his nose out of trouble, trouble seemed to find him anyway.

Trying to take his mind off the horrible day, he looked around at his room to examine the surroundings. There wasn't much of note to the right of the bed was a dark brown nightstand. He got up from the bed and reached forward to open the drawers. Dust flew out of the drawer like it hadn't been touched since the 1970s, eliciting a coughing fit from Jaune.

"Ah, crap! When was the last time someone used this thing?!"

He coughed a few more times, waiting for the dust to clear. Once it did, he looked inside. He didn't see much of note, save for a mass of cobwebs which seemed to be missing their arachnid inhabitant. If Jaune had to guess, the spider probably died decades ago and the faded cobwebs were the only sign that anything had once been there at all. 

He knelt down to open the second drawer. Learning his lesson from last time, he covered his nostrils and his mouth as well as he could with his left elbow, while he opened the drawer with his right hand. Sure enough, more dust came out, but luckily, Jaune's decision to barricade himself prevented him from nearly dying of coughing up a lung again. Even though he knew it was a waste in time, he looked in the bottom drawer to see if anything had been left behind. To no one's surprise, the drawer was just as empty as the first, filled with its own share of cobwebs.

He shut the drawer. Jaune thought to himself that he would definitely have to go to the store when he got a chance to buy some cleaning supplies. There was absolutely no freaking way he was going to put anything in those drawers before doing a good scrubbing.

He stood up once more, looking on top of the nightstand. He saw an old alarm clock, one which had no digital face or buttons, but instead a classic analog style with alarms which hit each other from vibrations on top. He picked it up, looking on the back to find what he needed. He wound the time to the desired destination for seven in the morning, before setting the clock back down.

He walked to the foot of the bed, looking down to notice a blue circular rug which was stuck under the footposts. Jaune then did a quick scan of the room and noticed that most of the walls were covered with bookcases. As he approached one of them (there were about a handful), he leaned forward to look at the sleeves of the books which filled them. These were also dusty, and despite squinting his eyes, Jaune could barely make out more than a few letters at best for most of them.

"Alright... guess I'm going to need much more than just a bottle of Clorox."

He turned away from the bookshelf, instead looking at the wall opposite the footposts of his bed. There, he saw a mahogany desk nestled in the corner of the room, with a cheap puke green foldout chair nestled in front of it.

To the right of the desk, right in front of the window, was an old chemistry set nestled on top of a small dresser. He recognized an Erlenmeyer flask, a beaker, a vial... and tons of other things he didn't recognize. Jaune didn't know a thing about chemistry, so he figured he would leave that alone for now.

Last but not least, he looked to the left of the desk. In the middle of the wall farthest from the door was a dresser. He approached it, noted that the dark brown wood was once again dusty. He ignored it as he reached forward to open it. The hinges loudly creaked as he did so. He looked inside to see an iron bar on the top of the dresser, which seemed to be for hangers. He scanned the main compartment of the dresser for anything else of note but found nothing else besides a broken hanger on the bottom.

He closed the doors to open the drawers, kneeling down to do so. He opened the top drawer first, and to his surprise, he was not greeted by a cloud of dust as he did. Even more surprising to him was the fact that he found something inside.

He reached in to pick up the item: a dark, navy blue vest. As he lifted it up for examination, it unfolded seamlessly. He could also smell a slight scent coming from it but to his surprise, it was a pleasant one, as if it had just been recently washed.

He looked over the vest. It was rather simple: a golden V-neck was at the top, while thin black lines, barely visible, ran down the length of the vest vertically. What was of note, however, was the logo in the top left.

The logo was blue and gold, a rather regal combination. The most prominent element of the logo was the bull's head at the top. Its horns jutted out at the top, while a large circular nose ring was present as well. Below the bull's head was what appeared to be a shield, which was surrounded on the sides by holly leaves. Within the shield were four logos.

In the top left was an image of a fist. In the top right was the picture of a snake, with its fangs bared and ready to strike. In the bottom left was the rather disturbing image of a rat, with a long windy tail, whiskers, and small buck teeth. In the bottom right was a skull, which had a small crack running down its left side which stopped about an inch above where the left eye would be.

Below the shield was text. The first segment was of blue lettering on a gold ribbon background, reading "Bullworth Academy". Below it was a much smaller ribbon, of blue color. It had gold lettering, and words that Jaune had never seen before.

"Canis... canem edit? What does that mean?"

"Dog eat dog."

The sound of a voice causes Jaune to drop the vest and jump upright in an instant. He quickly swiveled around to look towards his door. As he did, he saw a young boy, leaning against the door with his arms crossed. His appearance surprised Jaune; compared to the others he had seen, this boy was well kept. He had snow white hair, combed to the left side neatly, and light blue eyes. He was already wearing the vest Jaune had just examined, but underneath it was a bright pink, long-sleeved dress shirt. Dark brown slacks and black shoes completed his outfit.

"What?" Jaune said in confusion.

"That's what 'canis canem edit' means. It means 'dog eat dog'." The boy chuckled under his breath. "Rather fitting, wouldn't you say?"

"Uh... yeah. I guess so. I already got into a fight with somebody."

The boy nodded, looking over Jaune from head to toe. "I'm not surprised. And yet..." the boy smirked. "You look none the worse from wear. That means you know your way around a fight."

Jaune sighed. "Listen, buddy, I don't want to fight you if that's what you're looking for."

To Jaune's surprise, and relief, the boy's eyes widened as he put his hands up in a defensive posture. "No, no, not at all! That's not what I'm here for, if that's what you think! It's just that I heard you making noise in here and decided to see what was going on. Your room is across from mine, after all."

Jaune looked over the boy once more. He looked harmless enough, although he had learned in the past that looks could be deceiving. Still, he didn't see any point in trying to prepare for a conflict which probably wasn't there.

He relaxed his posture before setting down the vest in the drawer once more, beside a white dress shirt and brown slacks similar to the ones the new boy was wearing. Then, he turned to approach the boy.

"Did you just move in too?" Jaune asked curiously.

The boy nodded. "That's correct. My mother dropped me off a few days ago." The boy reached out his right hand towards Jaune in a friendly gesture. "My name is Whitley Schnee. Perhaps you've heard the name before?"

Jaune smiled at the boy, accepting his hand with a firm shake. He shook his head as he did so. "Nope, never heard of you in my life... but nice to meet you, Whitley. My name is Jaune. Jaune Arc."

Whitley's eyes widened for a moment in surprise at the boy's words, before he gave Jaune a small smile. "Well, that is a bit surprising... but a welcome one at that. Most people aren't particularly fond of my family."

Jaune pulled his hand away from Whitley, resting his arms at his sides once more. "Why? Are they criminals or something?" Jaune joked with a jovial tone and a small chuckle.

"No. Well..." Whitley rubbed the back of his head for a moment. "I don't think so, but I guess depending on who you ask... maybe?"

Jaune's curiosity peaked at that, but he knew better than to delve into his new acquaintance's life story two minutes after meeting him. He shrugged and instead turned to walk over to his bed and sit down once more.

"So, Whitley, is this place really as bad as everyone says?"

Whitley cupped his chin for a moment with a thoughtful expression. "Well... I haven't been here for very long, myself, but from the little bit I have seen so far, I think it is fitting to classify Bullworth as..." he trailed off for a moment. "Oh, what's the word? Dump. Yeah, dump works."

Jaune chuckled. "Great." He stood up to walk towards one of the bookcases. 

"I was expelled from my last school. I was hoping this place would be better but I guess that was too much to hope for."

"Awww... is someone a bad boy?"

Jaune turned around to see the amber eyes of Cinder, as she gave him a wide smirk. She walked past Whitley like he didn't exist and approached Jaune.

"Got expelled, did you? I'm so sorry to hear that... is everything alright?" Cinder reached a hand up to reach on his left shoulder.

Jaune's heart raced a bit faster at the strange gesture, rubbing the back of his head nervously as he stepped back a bit. "Uh... well, it used to suck really bad for a while, but things are better now. Well, other than those guys in the white shirts trying to kick my butt."

"Right, Cardin and his bullies." She let out an annoyed growl. "Those assholes make me sick. Picking on the weak and innocent like they're nothing." However, her anger disappeared just as quickly as it arrived, as she smiled at Jaune once more. "But you would never do something like that, would you, handsome?"

"No," Jaune answered resolutely. "I'm not a bully. I just want to get through my time here without getting expelled again, make some decent grades, and hopefully find a career path that doesn't involve me flipping burgers for the rest of my life."

"You could be my butler," Whitley jokes. Jaune looked at him with an exaggerated glare before rolling his eyes.

However, Cinder seemed to acknowledge Whitley's presence for the first time, as her smile faded. She turned around to approach the boy.

"You would like that, wouldn't you, Schnee?"

"I'm sorry?" Whitley looked at Cinder in confusion.

"No, you're not," Cinder replied evenly, as she stopped in front of Whitley with her arms crossed. "Your family is not the kind of family to apologize. That's part of the Schnee family lineage: win at any costs, is it not?"

He scoffed. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh..." Cinder shook her head, chuckling under her breath as she did so. "Oh, but I think you do. Your father is a ruthless businessman, one who would do anything he possibly could to get ahead in life. That's the type of resolve and drive which I have to admire." She stepped back from Whitley, scanning her amber eyes over him from head to toe with barely disguised disdain. "But you... does someone like you have the willingness to be as powerful as that? As forceful? I'm not so sure."

"Listen, miss, I don't know who you are," Whitley began in an impatient tone, "but I don't want to be like my father. I hate to break it to you, but if I wanted to be like him, I wouldn't be at Bullworth in the first place."

Cinder sighed. "How... plebeian of you. It's ironic that Jaune here worries about his future, yet your own desire for normalcy has you destined for a lifetime of mediocrity."

Whitley grit his teeth. "What was that?!"

Jaune stepped forward, placing an arm between the two of them. "That's enough." He turned to look at Cinder. "Cinder, don't you have something better to do than antagonizing him?"

Cinder's eyes widened in shock at Jaune's firm tone, seeming to wither under his stare. She swallowed, before looking down at the ground in shame.

"My apologies, Jaune. I would never want to do something to hurt you... or any of your acquaintances."

Jaune felt his resolve crumble a bit at the girl's vulnerability, and he let out a tired sigh. "Look... I have to unpack. Would you mind giving me a moment?" He motioned towards the door.

Cinder nodded, turning to exit the room. As she did, Jaune failed to notice the smirk on her face.

Jaune looked at Whitley, who still seemed irritated. "Sorry about that. I think she has a thing for getting on people's nerves. Not sure why."

Whitley took a deep breath, before looking at Jaune with a small smile. "Don't worry about it. I'm used to things like that. In fact, compared to some of the things other people have said to me, that was nothing."

Jaune blinked a few times in rapid succession, registering the boy's words. It seemed there was much more to the young boy than met the eye, but Jaune decided not to press the issue.

"Well, just try not to let her or anyone else get to you while you're here, alright?"

Whitley nodded. "I'll make sure to keep that in mind. Thanks, Jaune."

"You got it, buddy," Jaune said, patting him on the right shoulder supportively, before letting out a tired breath. "Now, I wasn't lying when I said I had to unpack. I'd love to keep talking, bu-" However, before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the sight of Whitley putting his right hand up.

"No need. I completely understand. This is your first day here, so you should take the time to get acquainted with everyone else. Classes start tomorrow morning, so you should take the time to relax while you can."

Whitley turned toward the door to exit, but as he went to pass the doorframe, he stopped. He looked over his shoulder at Jaune with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Jaune. I hope we can be friends."

Jaune smiled at the boy, nodding. "I don't doubt that we will be, Whitley."

With a happy nod, Whitley turned back around, heading across the hallway towards his own room. Jaune heard of the sound of his door shutting as he moved forward to shut his own. Once he did, he sat down on his bed once more. He swung his legs up, choosing to lie down on the bed with his arms tucked behind his head, as he stared at the ceiling in contemplation.

He was going to miss Saph and Adrian, but there was no point in regret. He regretted what he had done but no amount of regret could change the past. What was important to him now was making the most of his new opportunity at Bullworth. No matter how painful or annoying it would be, Jaune was determined to do the most he could in the time he had here.

With a newfound sense of resolve, he practically leaped off the bed towards the dresser. He reached down into the drawer once more,pulling out the white dress shirt. He began to slip off his old clothes, slowly slipping into the dress shirt. He took a minute to button it up, before pulling the blue vest over his head and over the shirt. It fit perfectly... also strangely so, as if it were a natural event for him to wear it. He then kicked off his jeans and tennis shoes toward the corner of the room, before pulling on the dark brown slacks. Once he did, he reached into his suitcase to pull out a black belt, quickly sliding it through the rings on the waist and tightening it.

Finally, he approached the dresser once more, kneeling down to open the bottom drawer. He saw a dark brown pair of shoes inside, pulling them out. He slipped them onto his feet before taking a moment to tie the laces. After a few more seconds, he was fully decked out in his brand new uniform, ready to take on the new realm of school life at Bullworth.

"Alright, Jaune," he said to himself. "Let's see how this thing goes."

Chapter Text

JOCK’S POV

After the fight between Russel and Jaune, two older students had watched the entire thing and discussed their opinions on what had transpired.

“He looks new, doesn't he?” piped up Damon.

A “hmm” could be heard from Ted, his bright blue eyes looking at the new kid for a brief moment. Ted could see that he was slightly tall, scraggly, and awkward looking, with yellow hair at an appropriate length and dark blue eyes. He wore casual clothes, but even then, they looked a little bit ill-fitting on him. 

God, this place will tear him apart, Ted thought to himself.

“Well,” started Damon, trying to continue the conversation. “He doesn’t look like he’s a part of any clique. Though he looks geeky, he ain’t got the green vest like them Nerds, nor does he seem to wear anything expensive. Doesn't look like he's rebelling against the system, and he definitely doesn't look athletic either. Just a Non-Member,” analyzed Damon. Despite his hulkish appearance, Damon is surprisingly insightful at times, something that Ted needs considering the clique he has to run.

Ted listened to Damon’s words, contemplating as he quietly nodded his head.

“Well, for a non-clique, he sure beat that guy's ass like it was not nothing,” Ted admitted.

“True, but that guy was a squirt. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Besides, if he causes too much trouble for us, I can take care of him.”

“Like you took care of that Emerald girl?” Ted quipped with a smirk.

“Hey, that was a surprise attack, man! Doesn't count!” Damon crossed his arms, an annoyed look on his face. “You know I could've handled that squirt if I really wanted to.”

“Right,” Ted agreed with a roll of his eyes, before looking back at the spot where the blonde boy had fought the student with the mohawk. “Regardless, looks can be deceiving, and even if he looks like a Nerd, he definitely fights better than one.”

“So what should we do?”

Ted thought for a moment before pushing himself off the wall. “Nothing, we'll just keep an eye out for now.” Ted went to walk away from the dorm, Damon following closely behind him.

“And Cinder?”

Ted stopped for a moment, looking over his shoulder.

“Not worried about her at the moment. I need to start focusing on the campaign against that dork, Earnest.”

“Nothing a little roughing up won't fix.” Damon cracked his knuckles with a smile on his face.

“True,” Ted said with a chuckle. “But anyway… we've wasted enough time here for now. Let's get back to the clubhouse and start working out.”

“Right,” Damon quickly agrees, the two Jocks heading towards the football field.

JAUNE’S POV

After taking some time to unpack his stuff, Jaune looked around at the room. It still wasn't exactly what he would call homey due to the age and condition of the room. However, it was where he was meant to be staying for the next year, so he was determined to make the most of it.

Luckily for him, while he was digging around in his suitcase unpacking, he had found his wallet in another set of pants. The young man had no clue how he had managed to take off a pair of pants without noticing the giant lump in his pocket, but he guessed it had to do with his general anxiety about going to Bullworth. He already had some bad feelings about the academy... and he knew this would probably be his last chance before he had to do something like join the military.

He thought back to the people he had met on his first day: some were friendly, and some were not. He knew he had to figure out who was trustworthy and who was out to take advantage of him.

Jaune pondered on his future for a moment as he took off his uniform to switch into his pajamas. He just wanted to make sure it fit for his first day tomorrow, more than anything; growing up with seven sisters had taught him the negative side of hand-me-downs. Having something of his own felt both liberating and intimidating to him. He took no time at all to switch into his favorite light blue onesie, with the picture of a rabbit on the front.

"Oh, Pumpkin Pete, what would I do without you?" He smiled to himself as he leaned back on his bed, staring up at the faded white ceiling. He had a feeling that if most people saw him at that moment, they would burst out laughing and start bullying him. However, in the privacy of his dorm room, he was free to do whatever he pleased.

He sighed, closing his eyes. Before he knew it, exhaustion took him over, and he fell into a troubled sleep.

The sound of the alarm rang in his ears as pale morning light streamed in through the cracks of the blinds of the windows. He groaned in disappointment as he reached over to slam his hand down on the top of the clock, causing it to cease its commotion.

After a few seconds of dread and general nervousness, he let out a deep breath before he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He rubbed his eyes with his hand before blinking a few times to try and get some of the tiredness out of his vision. His first day at Bullworth... he hoped it would go alright for him.

He stood up, taking a moment to stretch his arms and legs. Jaune let out an involuntary shiver as he felt a chill run down his spine. He ran his hands over his arms, which were forming goosebumps. It was a cold autumn day in New England, and clearly the shelter of the dorm did little to help that.

"Makes sense," Jaune muttered. "This dorm looks like a place from a 1960s horror movie. It would be expecting way too much to think the heating would work."

He shrugged it off as he got up to change back into his uniform. Little did he know that his first day would be a total mess.

Jaune walked out of the dorm and headed towards the center of the entrance pathway, where he had met those three bullies from yesterday. The shorter one with the mohawk, Russel, had even tried to fight him later that day. He absolutely hated getting into fights, but he also wasn't above defending himself if needed. He hoped that the ineffective assault from the other boy would be enough to persuade him to leave Jaune alone for the time being.

"Yeah," Jaune chuckled to himself as he walked down the path with his hands in his pockets. "What are the chances of that? Probably slim to none."

He took a left turn at the intersection to head towards the main school building. The main building of the Academy looked so grand to him, as if it were larger than life. The gargoyles gave it a rather distinct look, as if its carved stone eyes followed all of the students’ every waking move. As he walked some more, Jaune looked around to see everyone in an excited state. Some were walking around normally but other things managed to catch Jaune's eye. Some students were openly fighting; he saw a blond boy in a blue letterman jacket tangled in a fight with a girl with silver hair in a black jacket.

"Huh..." He turned his head and watched as another student, a girl in a green vest and a flannel green skirt, ran away from a young woman chasing her. The woman seemed to be a prefect, and chased the student as if her life depended on it. Jaune couldn't notice much about the young girl fleeing, other than the fact that she had black hair with red highlights, and seemed to be carrying some type of red stick in her hands.

Despite his curiosity, Jaune did his best to try and keep his gaze forward as he climbed the stairs to head towards the double doors of the entrance. Bullworth may have been a free-for-all or a playground for delinquents, but he had promised Saph and Terra that he would do his best to stay out of trouble. It was a promise he desperately wanted to keep.

He opened the double doors, and as he did, he re-entered the large atrium he had only seen once before. The main building, to its credit, seemed in much better shape than the boy's dorm. The tiles seemed fairly new, sporting a faded golden color. Blue lockers hugged the walls on both sides, while a set of dark brown stairs led up to the second floor. He was somewhat familiar with the second floor, because that was where he had visited Headmaster Ozpin the day before. The rest of the school, however, was largely unfamiliar to him. However, the giant Bullworth logo in the middle of the atrium, the same one as the one on his uniform, stood out as particularly interesting.

The place was absolutely crowded with students and chatter, but as Jaune scanned the area, his eyes locked onto someone he recognized. Those amber eyes could stand out in the middle of any crowd. The girl smiled at him before approaching him.

"Hey, handsome," Cinder said, giving him her signature devilish smirk. "What a coincidence to run into you here. You look like a deer in the headlights."

Jaune felt his heart rate accelerate a bit. Was his cluelessness really that evident? No, of course not. It was just a lucky guess by her. Cinder seemed rather perceptive, after all.

"Yeah, good to see you, Cinder. What are you up to right now?"

She shrugged. "Not much. Just waiting for class. But now that you're here..." She reached a hand up, trailing a finger along his shoulder down the left side of his chest slowly. "How about I show you around this place?"

Jaune looked down at her hand with uncertainty, stepping back a bit. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he thought about her words.

"Yeah, I'm going to be honest with you, Cinder." He sighed. "I have no idea where I'm going right now, so that would probably be for the best."

She nodded. "Very well, then. Keep up!" Without another word, Cinder ran off running to the right, down the hall.

"Hey, wait up!" Jaune yelled before running after the girl. He wasn't sure what felt stranger to him: the fact that Cinder ran off at full speed like it was nothing, or the fact that this school was so bizarre that such behavior almost felt normal.

He watched as Cinder took a left down another hallway. He looked to the right to see glass windows, currently shuttered, with the words SCHOOL STORE in gold lettering on a blue background above the windows. He didn't pay much mind to it, however, as he focused on following Cinder. He took a left, and as he did, he gasped. He instantly stopped in his tracks next to Cinder, who had also stopped.

"That's Cardin's locker," she said, pointing to the tall boy standing in front of a locker with his arms crossed. "You know, the troglodyte who attacked you yesterday.”

“Maybe he won't notice me,” Jaune thought to himself, hoping that for once he would have a bit of luck.

Of course, to nobody's surprise, least of all his own, such a thought was fruitless. Cardin craned his head to the left, seeing someone out of the corner of his eye. He frowned as his eyes locked on Jaune, walking up to him and still towering over him in a terrifying manner as usual.

As he did, he gave Jaune a sickening smirk, getting into his personal space. Jaune was fairly tall himself, yet the boy still managed to look down on him by a few inches. 

"Hey, buddy," Cardin said. Unlike when Whitley had said the word to him the day before, he could tell that Cardin's words were anything but sincere. "Fancy running into you again, huh? It's such a small world."

"I guess," Jaune said, trying not to say anything that would set the boy off. Clearly, even self-defense was enough to piss people off in this school. He didn't want to take any chances if he could help it. "Your name is Cardin, right?"

"That's right." The boy said, nodding with a proud look on his face. "Cardin Winchester, more specifically." The boy puffed his chest out, as if he were some hotshot. Jaune had to admit the boy had some muscles and strength to him, as Jaune could make out the outline of pecks under his white polo shirt.

"Well, nice to meet you, Cardin. I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot yesterday. My name's Jaune. Jaune Arc." Jaune said this honestly, holding his hand out for Cardin to shake. Even though he really knew he had nothing to apologize for. It wasn't his fault that some dickhead decided to attack him for no reason, but he knew angering the boy and getting into another fight would just make things worse for him.

Cardin, however, shook his head, chuckling under his breath, ignoring the gesture. "Oh, Jauney-boy... I couldn't disagree more. I'd say we got off to a perfect start yesterday."

Jaune's eyes widened in surprise for a moment. “I'm sorry?”

“You should be,” Cardin said with a devilish smirk on his face. “I don't like the look of you, Arc. You have a dumb look on your face, and you walk around like you're hot shit.”

“Really?” Jaune chuckled nervously. “I never noticed that. I just kind of… walk around like I'm… average stuff.”

Cardin narrowed his eyes. “Really? Well, shrimp, ‘average’ doesn't go around beating up a guy like Russel like it’s nothing.”

“Who?”

The larger boy grit his teeth, an annoyed look in his eyes. “Russel! My bro that you beat up like a savage yesterday!”

Jaune scratched his head for a moment. “You mean the mohawk guy? He attacked me first.”

“Yeah, okay. Whatever you say! Use whatever bullshit semantics you want, you still did it. And you're going to pay for that. You're lucky it wasn't Russell who attacked you.”

“What?”

“Russell!”

“I thought you said Russel was the one who fought me?”

“He was, stupid!” Cardin looked down at him like he was a moron. “What's your point?”

“So why would I be worried about Russel attacking me when he already did?”

Cardin blinked his eyes in confusion for a moment, before realization dawned in his eyes. “Oh, I see…”

Jaune simply looked back at him, even more confused. “See what?”

Cardin chuckled. “Don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll be just fine around here, Jauney-boy. Nothing to worry about at all.”

“Uh… are we going to have problems? I don't really want to get into a fight right now.”

To his surprise, Cardin gave him a nod of agreement. “Nor do I.”

“Really?” Jaune chuckled. “Oh, that's good.”

“Too many people,” Cardin said, looking around at the bustling hallways. “Wouldn't want to attract too much attention, and I definitely wouldn't want to get someone like Harriet on my ass.”

“Who?”

Cardin shrugged, that stupid smirk still on his face. “Don't worry about it. Just someone else for you to worry about.”

“Right…” Jaune trailed off, a nervous fluttering in his stomach. “So, can I go now, Cardin?”

“Hmm…” Cardin cupped his chin, pretending to contemplate something he already knew the answer to. “No.”

Jaune sighed. “So then, what do you want?”

“I can't look past you beating up my boy, no matter what bullshit ‘self-defense’ excuse you use. So, give me all the money in your wallet right now, and I'll let you off easy for today.”

Jaune didn't feel the request was fair, especially considering he had done nothing wrong yesterday. However, as he looked at the tall boy in front of him, and the people around him, he reminded himself that he was trying to stay out of trouble. Plus, this school clearly didn’t care about what was fair or right, just who was strong enough to dictate what was “fair” or “right” to everyone else.

With a reluctant sigh, he pulled out his wallet. Before he could even open it, Cardin reached forward and snatched it out of his hands. Jaune wanted to protest, but he barely had time to before Cardin opened the wallet and looked in it with annoyance.

“Two bucks?!” He growled, giving Jaune an annoyed stare. “Are you fucking serious, bro?”

Jaune chuckled nervously, shrugging his shoulders. “Uh, sorry that mugging me isn't… up to your standards, I guess?”

“I don't like your tone, Arc. But since I'm such a nice guy…” he took the two bucks out of the wallet, before handing it back to him. “I'll let you off the hook just this once.”

Jaune took the wallet back and put it in his pocket. “Thanks. How generous of you, Cardin.”

If Cardin picked up on his sarcastic tone, he didn't show any signs of it. The boy simply pocketed the money. “Whatever. Just don't let it happen again, Arc.”

Without another word, Cardin turned around to walk away. Jaune gave him an annoyed glare as he watched Cardin turn around the corner and disappear out of sight.

“That guy was a jerk.” Jaune let out a tired sigh. Was this really what his first day was going to be like?

“Yeah.” Cinder stepped next to him. Jaune looked at her with surprise. For a moment, he had almost forgotten that the girl was even there.

“He thinks he's hot stuff,” Cinder continued, shaking her head. “But really, he's weak. You could probably take him, if you wanted to.”

“But I don't want to,” Jaune said honestly. “I just want to go to class, keep my head down, and survive until I get to go home.”

Cinder looked at him, shaking her head with a disappointed sigh. “Oh, Jaune… that type of attitude will get you killed around here. You need to learn to stand up for yourself.”

“I just don't see what fighting unnecessarily accomplishes. I mean, maybe that makes me a coward, but I'd rather resolve a situation with words instead of fighting, if I can help it.”

“Well, if you're not going to do something about that prick, I will.” Cinder stepped past him, walking towards Cardin's locker.

“Huh? What are you doing?”

She ignored him, instead reaching her dainty hands towards Cardin’s locker. She started turning the lock of the locker without a second thought.

“I'm going to break into it and steal something. That'll teach him.”

“W-what?!” Jaune said in shock. “Won't that get you in trouble?”

Cinder looked at him with a glare. “It won't if you keep your mouth shut! Why don't you say it a bit louder? I don't think the Nerds at the Observatory heard you.” She continued breaking into the locker, listening to the clicking sounds of the rotating lock intently.

Jaune stayed quiet after the scolding, but his fears were confirmed. Just as Cinder opened the locker and reached in to grab something, he heard a firm voice behind him.

“You there, what are you doing?! Let go of that immediately!”

Jaune turned around to see a monster. He thought Cardin was tall and strong, but the prefect in front of him showed that they could always be bigger and stronger. A woman with dark skin and a perfect uniform about twelve sizes too small towered before them, staring at Cinder with an aggressive glare and a scowl on her face.

“Oh, crap!” Cinder said with a level of panic most unlike her, snatching something Jaune didn't see from the locker, before turning tail to run around the corner.

“STOP! GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW, EVILDOER!” The large woman barreled after Cinder, brushing past Jaune and trucking him to the ground in the process. His left shoulder stung in pain as she did so, falling to the ground on his butt. If the prefect noticed, she didn't seem to care, as she spun around the corner to chase Cinder without a second glance towards Jaune.

“Ah… crap.” Jaune winced as he gripped his left shoulder with his right hand. “That smarts.”

“Need a hand?”

Jaune heard the sound of a familiar voice. He looked up to see Whitley in front of him, looking down at him with concern. He was offering a hand to Jaune.

Jaune smiled at Whitley before taking his hand, Whitley helping him up. “Thanks, bro. That prefect was like a bull in a china shop.”

“No problem,” Whitley said, giving him a nod. “Yeah, I've heard the prefects in this school are sometimes even more dangerous than the students themselves. You know the Stanford Prison Experiment, right?”

“The who say what now?” Jaune looked at him with a blank expression.

“Don't worry about the specifics, I suppose.” Whitley chuckled. “Main point is: those in positions of power are prone to abuse it against those they consider to be beneath them.”

“Oh,” Jaune replied. “Yeah… that makes sense. I guess in a place as chaotic as this, some extreme measures might be necessary.” 

Whitley nodded. “True, and everyone thinks they would act differently in such a position, but history doesn’t always support that idea. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, as they say.”

Quite frankly, Jaune wasn’t entirely sure what Whitley was talking about; he hadn’t even gotten to his first class yet, and already information was flying over his head. All he could think was that he hoped he would never get into a position where power would cause him to act differently. 

Whitley continued, not paying attention to Jaune’s contemplative look. “So what were you and Cinder doing?”

“She was just showing me around. I’m practically a headless chicken trying to make heads or tails around this place,” said Jaune, shrugging his shoulders as he and Whitley wandered near the lunchroom.

“Well, I happen to know the campus and its layout fairly well, and if you want, I can show you around? If you so desire?” Whitley said in a perfectly polite tone of voice, adding the last part almost hesitantly.

“Yeah, of course, I’d like that, man,” Jaune said with a smile, to which Whitley gestured for Jaune to come along.

Whitley had given Jaune a tour of the entire campus. 

It had been a bit overwhelming at first, due to the size of the campus, but Jaune had ultimately gotten the hang of things with Whitley's direction.

The main school building itself was rather simple; it was a two floor building. The cafeteria was on the bottom floor, behind the main staircase. The school store, as well as the classrooms for chemistry, biology, history and geography, and English were scattered about the hallways of the first floor. The second floor contained the classrooms for Art, Photography, Music, and Math. Both floors contained bathrooms for men and women, tucked into the far corners of the halls.

Jaune wasn't familiar with all the teachers just yet, and hoped that they would be easy to get along with. He had never been a particularly good student in the past; he didn't think he was dumb, but for some reason, there always seemed to be a disconnect between his thoughts and his execution. Perhaps he had performance anxiety of some sort. His family had always told him they believed he was smart, but he was more skeptical. For one, they were his family, so they were prone to bias, but also, his grades had never shown him to be anything more than just an average student.

He had heard that grades were not an accurate measure of intelligence, but rather how well someone was at taking tests. He certainly hoped that was the case.

The main building, while large, was mostly unspectacular. Where the academy gained its character was the rest of the campus, which could be divided into five major regions, each controlled by one of the five major cliques.

On the western side of the campus was the library, home territory of the Nerds. It was a two-floor building with bookshelves as far as the eye could see. The green vests of the Bullworth Astronomy Club separated the Nerds from the rest of the cliques. Many of them also wore glasses; some were underweight, while others were overweight. According to Whitley, they were considered to be the weakest physically, but the strongest intellectually. Jaune knew enough from his past to know that looks could truly be deceiving. Just because someone looked weak or harmless did not mean that was the case.

Next to the library was a dirt path hidden behind a partially broken stone wall. Traversing the path would take someone to the northwestern side of the campus, towards Marigold House. Marigold House, named after the prestigious Marigold Family, was the home of the Preps. The Preps stood out due to their blue tartan Aquaberry vests, as well as their massive wealth. Just because they were rich kids did not mean they were pushovers, however. Whitley informed him that several of them had experience in Asian martial arts due to them controlling a dojo in the wealthy part of town in Old Bullworth Vale. Most of the Preps also lived in the Vale, due to its high-class standards and extremely expensive housing.

For some reason, however, Jaune had noticed that Whitley was rather succinct when discussing the place. He seemed to want to describe it as fast as possible before moving on. Jaune had no idea why the boy had felt so antsy, but he figured he knew Whitley well enough already to know that he probably had a good reason for it, so he hadn't pressed the issue further.

Across from Marigold House, past a fountain in the center of the back side of the school, was the Autoshop on the eastern side of the campus. The Autoshop was home to shop class, but also the Greasers. With black leather jackets, blue jeans that looked straight out of the 1950s, and enough hair gel to put Elvis himself to shame, the Greasers were tough customers. With a rebellious attitude and boxing skills to match, they hated the Preps and the expectations of a society which looked down on people like them. The fact the two rivals were nestled just across from each other reminded Jaune of an old Shakespearean rivalry.

The Greasers also seemed to be predominantly made up of "Faunus," as they were called. Jaune wasn't overly familiar with the term; he knew who they were in a broad sense, but he had never encountered many while he was in Texas. According to Whitley, they were people with animal traits, such as cat ears or tails. They fit perfectly into the Greaser mindset, because they represented a minority part of society. What exactly that meant on a broader scale, however, was for someone way smarter and more socially aware than Jaune to figure out.

Again, Jaune had noticed that Whitley had seemed rather brief when discussing the Faunus, but he also didn't press the issue there.

Finally, on the far northern side of the campus was the gym, the football field, and the football team's clubhouse. This was the territory of the Jocks. Sporting their dark blue Bullworth Letterman jackets, athletic shorts, jeans, sweatpants, and tennis shoes, the Jocks had more muscle than they knew what to do with. Many of them were remarkably talented individuals chasing athletic scholarships at big universities. The gym was where Bullworth's final class took place. It was... gym. Who could have guessed?

Bullworth apparently supported multiple athletic teams. The most popular was the football team but it wasn't the only one. The school also had a fully sized basketball court with bleachers inside the gym, and when football wasn't in season, the football field at the very back part of the campus could be converted into soccer or baseball fields. The left side of the gym also contained a massive swimming pool for the swim team. The Jocks also frequented a hockey rink in Bullworth Town to play at the intramural level; why would any Jock in their right mind ever pass up the opportunity to hit or fight people as hard as they possibly could? The gym also contained equipment for dodgeball and wrestling, so there was no shortage of material for the athletically inclined to use.

Using their physical strength and size to their advantage, the Jocks were prone to taking it out on the Nerds. Curiously enough, there was an Observatory tucked behind the very back left corner of the football field, which Whitley had told him was controlled by the Nerds. Why the Nerds had set up a second base so close to their biggest rivals was anyone's guess, but a large black gate sealed off the building from the football field. According to Whitley, the Nerds knew a way to get to the Observatory that no one else did; not even he knew what it was.

Last but not least was the parking lot, on the eastern side of the campus. This was a hangout spot frequently visited by the Bullies. The Bullies weren't as organized a clique as the main four, so they didn't have their own building to organize in. However, they didn't particularly care; the signs of their white Bullworth polo shirts and light blue jeans was a sign to those wishing to avoid conflict to stay away from the parking lot. Jaune had noticed a broken-down school bus at the back of the parking lot, and on the western side of the lot appeared to be garages used for storage.

As Jaune looked at the school bus, he thought for a moment that he had seen a flicker of movement behind it. However, when the movement did not occur again, he simply dismissed it as a figment of his imagination.

That was the gist of campus, and it had been overwhelming for Jaune to see and learn so much in such a short time. He had barely gotten used to the gigantic main building and the dorm, but he figured that he would be able to learn the rest with enough time.

Jaune and Whitley headed back to the main school building. Classes were about to start in thirty minutes. Jaune felt his heart racing faster than he would like as he and his friend went through the double doors to reenter the building.

Jaune let out a tired sigh. "Hey, Whitley. Where were the bathrooms again?"

"For the men... it would be over there," Whitley said, before pointing down the left hallway.

He gave Whitley a small smile and a polite nod. "Thanks, Whitley. I'll be right back."

Jaune turned to walk down the hallway. As he did, he noticed a girl crying to the side, her head buried in her hands. She had short and straight brunette hair, wore a white blouse, a dark green plaid skirt, and seemed to be rather distraught.

Jaune wondered what was wrong; he wasn't necessarily surprised to see someone crying here, considering the school apparently had a horrible reputation of bullying. Regardless, just because he didn't feel surprised by seeing the act didn't mean that he felt okay with it. He decided to put his bathroom break on hold as he stopped in front of the girl.

"Hey there, what's wrong?" Jaune said in a gentle tone.

The girl looked up at him, tears running down her face as she looked at him with red eyes.

"He took my chocolate! Please get it back!"

"What? Who did?"

"I don't know, some boy!" The girl rubbed her eyes with her elbow. "He stole them from me and ran off! I think he went towards the boy's bathroom!"

Jaune internally let out a sigh of relief. Good. He could kill two birds with one stone: relieving this girl's stress and pain, while also relieving his bladder.

"Don't worry, I'll get those back for you...?"

"Eunice," the girl said, looking at him with surprise.

"Eunice. I'll get those back for you, Eunice." Jaune smiled at her before continuing to head down the hall.

As Jaune continued walking towards the bathroom, he heard the sound of running footsteps. He turned around, half expecting one of Cardin's guys to jump him, but luckily it was just Whitley.

"I saw that girl crying," Whitley began. "What's going on?"

"Apparently, some jackwagon stole her chocolate. I'm going to get it back for her. Seemed like the right thing to do."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Uh..." It was then that Jaune hesitated to answer. To be perfectly honest, he hadn't thought that far ahead. He had no money to bribe the guy with, and he really didn't want to get into a stupid fight over some chocolate.

He shrugged. "I'll figure something out."

Whitley looked at him skeptically. "Well, if things go sideways, I'll wait outside ready to help."

"Thanks, man. You've been a lifesaver today."
Jaune failed to notice the slight blush on Whitley's cheeks as they arrived at the bathroom. Jaune walked inside, and, sure enough, he saw a young boy in a dark green vest and khaki slacks chowing down on some chocolate. Whitley waited outside as he said he would.

First, Jaune decided to take care of his business, stepping into one of the stalls to relieve himself. As he did, he thought about his best course of action on how to handle the young boy. From the quick look he had seen of the boy, he seemed to have a rather scrawny build. Jaune knew that he would be able to easily best him in a fight if it came down to it… but he didn’t want to do that if possible. He let out a sigh; he couldn’t bribe the boy, either, so he ultimately decided on seeing if he could convince him to do the right thing.

Jaune stepped out of the stall to wash his hands. Once he had finished and dried off his hands with a paper towel, he turned towards the boy.

"Hey, did you happen to take those chocolates from a girl just a few minutes ago?"

The boy looked at him, utterly dumbfounded. "Huh? What's it to you?"

"You should give it back." Jaune crossed his arms as he glared at the boy. "What makes you think you have the right to take that from her?"

The boy set down the chocolates on a nearby sink, turning towards Jaune again. "What do you mean? I wanted some chocolate, I saw some, so I took it. It seems pretty logical to me!"

Jaune rubbed his forehead for a moment in frustration. "Okay, but that doesn't answer my question. That chocolate wasn't yours to take. It belongs to someone else."

"So?"

"So... I suggest you give it to me."

The boy's eyebrows furrowed downward in annoyance. "And I suggest you blow me!"

Jaune sighed. Of course he was one of these guys. He was quickly running out of options. He couldn't bribe him, he didn't want to fight him, and clearly taking a moral approach was not working.

As Jaune tried to decide what to do, a voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Now, listen here, you insufferable little cockroach!"

Jaune's eyes widened in surprise as he turned to see Whitley standing there with his arms crossed. Despite the boy's smaller stature, the cold glare in his icy blue eyes was so piercing that Jaune instinctively stepped out of the way. Whitley stepped towards the boy, staring him down with completely undisguised disdain.

"Huh? What is this, a clown show? Who the hell are you?" The boy said to Whitley.

"Who am I?" He let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head before the smile on his face disappeared just as quickly. "I'm someone with the ability to crush all your hopes and dreams into a fine powder. That's who."

"Excuse me?!" The boy clenched his fists, looking ready for a fight. "You want to scrap?!"

Whitley sighed, shaking his head in disappointment. "How typical. I would expect nothing less from a vagrant plebeian like you to resort to violence to solve all your problems."

"Pleb-what-now?" The boy looked at Whitley, dumbfounded.

"Never mind. I wouldn't expect you to understand. Such vocabulary is surely above your reading level."

"Oh, you're really asking for it now, you fucking pussy!" The boy raised his fists up, getting into a fighting stance.

Whitley simply held a finger up, as if scolding a child. "I highly advise against that course of action, sir."

"Oh, yeah?! Well, I highly advise you fuck off!" With this, the boy threw a punch towards Whitley's face. 

What Jaune saw next absolutely dumbfounded him.

He watched as Whitley sidestepped the punch easily, bobbing his head to the side as the boy's fist flew past his face harmlessly.

"That's unfortunate for you,” Whitley said, letting out a disappointed sigh. “You've now made this a case of self-defense... which allows me to do this with no regrets."
Without another word, Whitley grabbed the boy by the back of the head, gripping his hair tightly. He then swept a leg under the boy's own legs, causing him to stumble. As he did, Whitley elbowed him in the back of the head. The boy fell to the ground face first, letting out a yell of pain as both sides of his head now felt like he had just been hit by a baseball bat. Whitley stepped to the side, dusting himself off.

"OUGH! That hurt... so much..." The boy groaned in pain as he rolled around on the ground.

"I warned you," Whitley said, before walking towards the sink and picking up the chocolates. "You can't say I didn't. I told you that you would regret doing that, but no one ever listens to me. I guess I should be used to that..."

Jaune noticed Whitley's eyes drift off for a moment, before he shook his head to shake off the thought. "But alas..." Whitley stepped towards the boy, kneeling down next to him. "You know, I was even willing to bribe you for this, but you had to make a mistake. That's what happens when you cross a Schnee."

The boy groaned. "S-Schnee... you're a..."

"That's right. I don't like to throw that around often, but my name is Whitley Schnee. You'd do your best to remember your place next time."

The boy quickly got up, holding the back of his head in pain as he looked between Jaune and Whitley with panic. "You people are crazy! All this over some goddamn chocolate! I'm getting the fuck out of here!" The boy then ran out of the bathroom like an Olympic sprinter.

Jaune watched the boy exit before he turned to look at Whitley. He still didn't entirely understand what happened as he looked at his friend with wide eyes.

Whitley's confrontational aura had disappeared just as quickly as it arrived, as he blinked at Jaune in confusion. "What? You look like you've seen a ghost, Jaune."

"That was..." Jaune's voice trailed off for a moment, before he smiled at Whitley. "That was awesome, man."

Whitley's eyes widened in surprise at his words, as he blinked a few times in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"Yeah. You really showed that jerk what's what. You looked like something out of a ninja movie for a second there."

"Oh, well..." Whitley rubbed the back of his head for a moment, averting his eyes. Jaune wondered if the boy wasn't particularly used to receiving praise, but he didn't press the issue. 

"He attacked me first," Whitley explained hesitantly. "I just defended myself. And he was really weak... I'm sure against a lot of other students here, I would've gotten killed."

Jaune smiled at him. "Maybe, maybe not. That doesn't matter right now. What matters right now is what you did. You did the right thing, and you looked sick doing it! You should be proud of that."

Whitley looked at him with an agape expression, his mouth opened slightly and eyes slightly widened. Quite an expression had rarely been seen before on his aristocratic features, but he gathered himself quickly and cleared his throat.

“AHEM, y-yes, well… thank you, Jaune.” Whitley coughed out, clearing his throat as he handed the chocolates to Jaune.

“Alright. Let’s give these back to Eunice,” Jaune said, and Whitley gave him a quick nod of agreement. As Jaune went to walk out of the bathroom, he turned towards Whitley with a quizzical expression.

"Will that guy… be alright?" Jaune asked in an unsure tone.

"He's fine," Whitley responded with an even expression. "I didn't really hit him that hard."

“Could've fooled me.” Jaune thought to himself. However, he didn't want to waste any more time here than necessary and run the risk of another insane perfect finding them; his shoulder still ached slightly in pain from the last one. With that in mind, he and Whitley exited the bathroom and started heading back down the hall.

Jaune held the chocolates under his arm, quickly spotting Eunice in the same spot he had left her. The girl's face brightened when she noticed Jaune approaching, clasping her hands in front of her heart with a surprised look. As Jaune stopped in front of her, he offered the pink, heart-shaped chocolate box to her, which the girl accepted immediately.

"Thanks!" Eunice said happily. "Um... it's not often that people here do things like that, but I really appreciate it!" She smiled at Jaune.

"Oh, well..." He chuckled nervously. "Don't thank me too much," he said, before motioning towards Whitley beside him. "He did most of the work."

Eunice looked at the young boy, looking him up and down. Whitley rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous tic.

"I-it was nothing. Honestly." Whitley spoke in a quiet tone, seeming both unused to and uncomfortable with the praise and attention from a stranger. “That guy asked for it, that’s all.”

"Well, thank you both!" Eunice said, clearly unbothered as she gave the two an excited nod of her head. "I'll remember this forever!"

Eunice turned around to walk down the hallway, clutching her chocolates tightly to her chest. Jaune gave her a little wave before turning back towards Whitley. As he did, he felt a rumbling noise in his stomach. Jaune grimaced as he reached for his stomach, Whitley giving him an amused smirk as he did so.

"Hungry? Sounds like you could use something to eat." Whitley crossed his arms and shook his head, chuckling.

"Yeah... I guess so. You showing me around everywhere really took a lot out of me, I suppose."

The young Schnee nodded. "Very well. Then let’s head to the cafeteria..." He grimaced as he said the last word. "Although, perhaps you'll wish I didn't."

Jaune raised an eyebrow in confusion at the boy's words, but the growling from his stomach made him unwilling to question further. He followed behind Whitley as he went down the hall, taking a left turn once the two arrived back in the main atrium. When he did, he saw Whitley point to a small archway to the left of the main staircase, where a small set of stairs went down into another room.

"There's the cafeteria, but... I'd recommend just eating one of the apples or bananas for now, if you can help it. Probably better for you that way."

Whitley's statement confused Jaune, but he simply nodded, choosing to trust his new friend's judgment. He hadn't known the boy long at all, but Jaune felt he was a good judge of character. Therefore, he believed Whitley's words to be sincere.

Jaune went to walk towards the archway, but as he did, he saw someone walk by. His feet froze and his eyes widened, while he felt his heart skip a beat.

Walking past the entrance to the cafeteria was a young girl. If Jaune had to guess, she was around the same age as him. She clutched a book gently to her chest, and walked with an air of confidence and strength.

Jaune only got to see her for a few seconds, but that was enough: he noticed the strange color of her hair, a snowy white veil, neatly wrapped into a side ponytail. She had a silver tiara, which helped to keep the bun on top of her head intact. She had striking, ice blue eyes, as well as a sharp nose and a confident set to her jaw.

Her clothes also struck Jaune as very expensive: her skirt and her vest were the same color: predominantly light blue and dark blue diamonds in a tartan pattern, similar to the style Cinder wore.

She also wore black leggings, which started at her ankles and extended to just below the hemline of her skirt, terminating just above her knees. She also wore brown flats with white socks. Around her neck was a silver pendant, in a shape that Jaune could not make out from so far away.

"Whoa..." Jaune said, his jaw literally dropping at the young girl's beauty. She didn't notice him or anyone else, simply walking through the crowds of people unflinchingly, as if they weren’t there at all. She disappeared behind a wall and out of Jaune’s sight.

"Whitley, did you see he-" However, as Jaune turned to find his friend, he found that Whitley had disappeared.

"Huh?" Jaune looked around the atrium for a moment, and amidst the crowds of chattering students, he could find no signs of his friend.

"That's strange," Jaune remarked to himself, scratching his head in confusion. "He seemed really excited to show me the cafeteria, but then he just disappeared."

"That's because he's a coward."

Jaune almost jumped out of his skin, before he turned around. As he did, he saw Cinder, yet Cinder was not the girl who spoke. It was an unfamiliar voice, which seemed to belong to a girl that stood next to Cinder, with her arms crossed. She was a young girl with dark skin and light green hair. Her eyes were a striking red, and she wore an outfit similar to Cinder and the unknown girl, except her vest and skirt were black instead of blue.

"I'm sorry?" Jaune asked, genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?"

"That friend of yours," the girl said without hesitation. "He ran because he's a coward. The very sight of her made him want to turn and flee."

"Who?"

The girl opened her mouth to respond but before she could, Cinder raised a hand, silencing her.

"Forgive Emerald's outburst, Jaune," she said, giving Jaune an apologetic look. "She's not the best at putting her thoughts together. She assumed that poor Whitley was a spineless coward..."

Cinder smirked. "Yet his actions against that chocolate thief proved otherwise." She looked at the girl named Emerald with a stern gaze. "Isn't that right, Emerald?"

Emerald looked down at the ground in shame, like a scolded puppy. "Y-yes, Cinder."

"Wait a minute. How do you know about Eunice?" Jaune asked, his eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"Oh, that?" Cinder chuckled. "It's not hard to tell what that fat cow was crying about. You could spot a beluga whale like her a mile away."

Jaune blinked, once, then twice, registering Cinder's words, before he frowned. "Eunice?"

"Yes," Cinder looked at him, narrowing her eyes. "What, don't tell me that you didn't notice her disgusting fat rolls and her twelve chins?"

"I didn't," Jaune answered honestly, before he crossed his arms. "I don't look at people like that. All I saw was a nice girl who needed help. And you shouldn't talk about someone like that, Cinder. It's not nice."

Her eyes widened for a moment, and if Jaune didn't know it was impossible, he would've sworn he saw a flicker of fire flash through Cinder's amber eyes. However, her irritation faded just as fast as it came, before Cinder gave Jaune an apologetic smile. Then, she turned to Emerald.

"Emerald, would you give me and Jaune a moment, please?"

Emerald looked at Cinder nervously for a moment, then at Jaune. She stood still for a few seconds, before she slowly nodded.

"O... of course, Cinder. I need to get something from my lockers for class, anyway." With this, Emerald turned to head up the main staircase.

Cinder watched her go, waiting until she was out of earshot before turning back towards Jaune. She let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry, Jaune. I didn’t mean to say all that about that girl. I'm just… frustrated. Frustrated that you of all people seem to be willing to do less than even that Schnee boy."

"I don't understand what you mean."

"In the bathroom," Cinder said without a moment's delay. "That boy. You could have beaten him to a pulp to get back that chocolate, yet you hesitated. Tried to find another way first. Why?"

Jaune was confused as to how Cinder seemed to know everything that was going on, despite seemingly being nowhere in sight, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind.

"Well..." Jaune let out a sigh. "It's complicated. Let's just say I have a very good reason for not wanting to get into fights."

Cinder shook her head, seemingly unsatisfied with his answer. "Oh, Jaune... you poor ignorant, innocent soul. Do you happen to know the motto of this school? Canis Canem Edit. It’s Latin fo-”

“I know,” Jaune said, chuckling. “Dog-eat-dog. Whitley gave me the rundown when I met him yesterday.”

Cinder paused for a moment, narrowing her eyes as she let out an annoyed “tsk” sound. “Is that right?”

Jaune nodded. “Yeah, I get the idea. The strong and the powerful rule the school, correct?”

“That’s right,” Cinder nodded agreeably. “Not just the school, however; the entire world. Whether or not you want to fight is irrelevant. What matters is that you will have to fight, sooner or later. Schnee understood that and stood up for himself, while you stood by and watched."

Jaune felt a flicker of doubt run across his face at her words. Technically, she was right; Jaune's solution had utterly failed, and he had no other options... or at least no other good ones. Whitley had stepped in at the right time, but what if he hadn't been there to do so?

"Listen... it's not that I can't fight," Jaune admitted. "I know I can. I just really would like to do so as little as possible. That guy who jumped me yesterday gave me no choice, but if I ever have a choice, I want to try and take it."

"An honorable sentiment... albeit an utterly in vain and naïve one," Cinder admitted in an even tone. "But it doesn't matter. You will learn, perhaps much sooner than you expect, that such efforts are utterly fruitless. You will have to fight, or else you will never survive here."

An awkward silence hung between the two. Jaune looked down at the ground, avoiding her gaze for a moment, before Cinder let out a defeated sigh.

"My apologies, Jaune. I didn't mean to upset you. I'm just trying to warn you about these types of things before you get hurt."

Jaune looked at Cinder with surprise, seeing her looking at him with shame. Her amber eyes looked glazed over and her face downtrodden, like a kicked puppy. Jaune felt his resolve immediately break before he smiled at her.

"It's... it's okay, Cinder. I know you're just trying to help. Just take it a bit easier, yeah? I'd rather help stop this school's bullying problem than add to it."

Curiously enough, Jaune watched as Cinder's seemingly devastated look faded almost instantly, before she returned to her usual confidence, giving him a smug smirk.

"Well, Jaune, if you want to do that, the first step involves getting to know the places and the people. Would you like me to show you around the school?"

Jaune chuckled nervously before he shook his head. "Um... I'm sorry Cinder, but Whitley already showed me around the place."

"WHAT?!" Cinder's eyes narrowed, slightly gritting her teeth as she looked at Jaune with ferocity in her eyes. "What did you just say?!"

"Uh... that Whitley already showed me around the school? There's the library with the Nerds, the Marigold House with the Preps, th-"

Jaune stopped as Cinder put a hand up, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself. She ran her other hand through her raven hair, the small motion helping to ground her for a moment.

She finally stopped after about half a minute, her posture calm and her breathing even once more. She gave Jaune a small nod.

"I see. Very well. Then, would you like to accompany me to the cafeteria for lunch?"

Jaune smiled at the offer. "Sure. That sounds great."

Cinder gave him a satisfied nod before motioning towards the cafeteria. "After you."

Jaune nodded at her, moving to head towards the cafeteria. 

He didn't notice as Cinder hung back for a moment.

She watched him walk by with a frown on her face. When he was out of earshot, she quickly reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out her phone. She dialed a number in seconds and tapped her foot impatiently as she raised the phone to her ear, waiting for the dial tone to end.

When it did, Cinder heard a familiar voice on the other end. "Hello?"

"Finally," Cinder said, a fierce frown on her face. "That was almost ten seconds, Emerald. What makes you think that such delays are even slightly acceptable?"

"S-sorry, Cinder, I was getting my stuff from the lockers," Emerald replied, sounding ashamed.

"No matter. You have a new mission to focus on. We have a pest to deal with. Someone getting in the way of me and my... friend." Cinder let out a cruel chuckle at the final word.

Emerald stayed silent for a few seconds, far longer than Cinder was willing to tolerate.

"Emerald!" Cinder snapped.

"Y-yes, Cinder? Who... who is it?"

"That Schnee boy... he's an annoying little rodent." She wrinkled her nose in disgust just thinking of him. His stupid pink shirt, his stupid combover... even his stupid face. Whitley’s existence annoyed every fiber of her being. 

"I mean, all the Schnees are untrustworthy vagrants, undeserving of their status, but he annoys me in particular. Thinking he can tell and show Jaune things that I want to show him… what makes him so special?”

She shook her head. “No… he's a pussy who thinks he's much more important than he is, and he needs to learn his place here. Now."

"Okay..." Emerald responded hesitantly. "What do you want done?"

"I have a plan to get him out of our way... and I want to get started on it. Now. We need to speak to Cardin and Russell and..." She smirked. "Well, we can get them to see our point of view."

"Like with Ted?"

"Exactly like with Ted," Cinder agreed, chuckling. "We'll have those two oafs eating out of the palm of our hands in no time."

"...I'll see what I can do."

Without a word of thanks, Cinder hung up immediately. She then put her phone back in her pocket, reaching into another pocket to pull something else out.

She pulled out a family photo of five people, scanning over them. They all had white hair and light blue eyes, and Cinder felt a wave of nausea just looking at them. Their very existence made her sick; how a family as disgusting and vile as the Schnees managed to be better off than even her family was beyond her. They were undeserving. Inferior. Contemptible.

Her amber eyes locked onto the young boy on the very left of the photo, next to a slightly older girl who had an arm draped around his shoulder. They were a few years younger than the present, but Cinder recognized them all the same.

"You..." She briefly turned her gaze to the young girl next to the boy; she was smiling at the camera warmly with a side ponytail resting gently on her left shoulder. "You'll get what's coming to you soon, bitch."

She then turned her eyes back towards the young boy, who leaned into the girl's embrace with a happy smile on his face. He seemed ecstatic from the contact and attention of his older sister, as if he had once looked up to her.

The look on his face made Cinder want to strangle him.

"You, however," she said, eyeing the boy with barely disguised hatred. "You've just made a big mistake. It's going to be so much fun breaking you... breaking you to the point where such happiness is naught but an impossible memory."

Cinder chuckled to herself, before putting the photo back in her pocket. Then, as if nothing happened, she calmly walked toward the cafeteria, cruel thoughts already running through her mind.

The bells of Bullworth Academy rang, signaling that the first class of the new semester was just a few minutes from starting.

Chapter Text

Jaune and Whitley walked into the lunchroom, now filled to the brim with various students from different cliques. They were gathered to themselves, separated by the different colors of their vests. 

Jaune walked over to look at the contents of today's breakfast special: ham and cheese sandwiches with apple slices. Unfortunately, the image of the delectable sandwich Jaune desired wasn’t showing itself, as Jaune spotted what seemed to be moldy bread and something that could pass as ham and cheese.

“Uh… hey, Whitley, is there anything on the menu that looks… edible?” asked Jaune.

Whitley’s face blanched at what Jaune said.

“If you call this thing food, then no, I don’t believe so. Though, the fruit is okay enough to eat.” Whitley pointed out the fruit baskets standing on top of the cafeteria display counter. Jaune chose to pick an apple to munch on, whilst Whitley chose a banana. 

“Protein. It’s good for the body,” said Whitley.

‘Mhm, you got that right,” Jaune agreed, munching into his apple as he looked around the lunchroom. Everyone wore the vests indicating the cliques they were in. The Nerds in their green Astronomy Club vests sat down playing what seemed to be Grottos and Grimm, a game one of his sisters used to enjoy playing during middle school. He did see the familiar black- and red-haired girl who was running from a prefect earlier amongst them. Jaune took note of the strange color of her eyes: they seemed to be a rather sharp gray, almost silver.

“Who are you looking at?” Whitley asked, turning his head to briefly stare at the girl for a split second before turning back to Jaune. “You know her or something?”

“What?” Jaune blinked his eyes in confusion for a moment, before he shook his head. “Nah, I don’t know anything about her. I just saw her running from a prefect earlier today. I think she was carrying something in her hands… some kind of weapon, maybe?”

Whitley shrugged nonchalantly. “That’s not too surprising around here. In a place as chaotic as this, weapons would be common. Especially for a clique like the Nerds, who can’t rely on their physical abilities like the other Cliques.”

“Really?” Jaune thought for a moment on his friend’s words… dark memories flooding through his thoughts at the mention of weapons. “So… does that mean people will get badly hurt?”

Whitley shook his head. “No, not those types of weapons, luckily. Even a place like Bullworth has their limits. Deadly weapons aren’t going to be an issue around here, if that’s what you’re worried about. Just watch out, or you might find a pebble from a slingshot in your eye.”

“A slingshot?”

Whitley nodded. “Yeah, I think I saw something like that from one of the Bullies a few days ago. Luckily, they weren’t using it against me.”

Jaune thought on his words as he looked around at the other Cliques. He saw the Preps with their blue vests, sitting at another table. He noticed a blonde kid seemingly showing off to the rest of the students around him, as well as a young girl with straight black hair, and a few brunette boys.

“Hmm, she isn’t there,” Jaune remarked to himself.

“Who?” Whitley turned to look at the Preps.

“That girl I saw earlier… she seemed to be wearing something similar to them.”

Whitley turned back around, looking down at his lap to hide the grim expression on his face.

“Yeah, well, whoever you’re talking about, she’s probably busy. That’s what a lot of Preps are like: thinking their time is too valuable for those around them.” 

Jaune still felt there was something Whitley wasn’t telling him, as he could sense a hint of bitterness in the boy’s words. However, he decided not to push the issue for now. Instead, he craned his neck to look to the other side of the cafeteria, at those in black leather jackets and blue jeans. The Greasers.

Jaune took note of the members, and some of their distinct features. Namely, he took note of their animal-like features: one boy with sharp features, wearing sunglasses indoors with red hair, seemed to have what appeared to be bull horns protruding proudly from his head.

“Rather fitting for a Bullworth student,” Jaune noted to himself. He also noticed a girl with black hair and cat ears, another girl with cat ears who was ginger, as well as the silver-haired girl he had seen fighting earlier. He couldn’t notice any animal-like traits from a distance for her, however.

“Hey, Whitley, what do you know about these ‘Faunus’? I’ve heard the term, but I’ve never really interacted with them before.”

Whitley looked up, a bit surprised. However, he quickly cleared his throat to continue speaking.

“Faunus are… well, scientists don’t really know for sure how they came to exist. The most common theory is that genetic mutations in their DNA give them the unique traits they possess. However, they are still officially classified as Homo sapiens because scientists as of now do not believe there is enough variation between them and humans to create a new species.”

“Right, I think I get it,” Jaune answered. “So basically, they’re pretty much like humans. Unique enough to stand out in a crowd, but not different enough to be an entirely separate entity.”

“Biologically, yes,” Whitley nodded. “Evolution is an interesting phenomena… and one even the most expert scientists are still struggling to piece together. Until we have proof of some type of ‘Faunus ancestor,’ it will be difficult to create an entirely different species for Faunus.”

To be honest, Jaune wasn’t the most scientifically savvy, so he wasn’t familiar with all the nitty gritty details of biology, anthropology, or taxonomy. However, one thing Whitley said did stick out to him.

“Why did you say ‘biologically’?”

Whitley stared at him for a moment. “I’m sorry?”

“You said that Faunus are not distinct enough to be separated biologically. Does this mean they’re separated in other ways?”

Whitley stayed quiet for a moment. He looked down, playing with his hands nervously. 

“Well, yes…” Whitley answered honestly. “Some people look at the Faunus as inferior. Humans fear what seems different or unfamiliar to them. That’s why so many of them join the Greasers. It’s easy for them to resist a society that looks down on them for just being the way they are.”

Jaune frowned as he looked back at the group of Greasers. Jaune didn’t like that such prejudice still existed in the modern day, but knowing what he knew about human history, he couldn’t say he was too surprised.

Noticing that Whitley seemed quiet and slightly uncomfortable, Jaune piped up. “So…” Jaune began, looking at those wearing the blue Bullworth Letterman jackets. “The Jocks. What’s their deal?”

Whitley chuckled shakily, still a bit nervous but thankful for the opportunity to move on. He shrugged. “Simple, really. Muscles and sports. More power than they have common sense. Definitely avoid them, if you have the chance.”

Jaune examined the Jocks for a moment. He noticed the blonde boy he had seen earlier in the day, who seemed to be flexing to the students around him. He also noticed a blonde girl, with a long mane of hair and lilac eyes. He took note of a boy with brunette, clean-cut hair, as well as a very large African American student arm wrestling him.

“You know, I was thinking of joining one of the sports teams,” Jaune remarked.

“Really? I’ve never gotten the appeal of sports, myself.”

“They’re fun, but they’re also competitive. Back in Texas, sports were huge. Mainly football and baseball.”

“I see,” Whitley replied in an even tone. “Competition… yes. Everything seems to be competitive these days…”

His voice trailed off as he began to contemplate something. Just as Jaune was about to ask him what, he heard the sound of the bell ringing.

“Ah, crap,” Jaune sighed to himself. “Time for class already? I don’t know a single thing about Chemistry.” 

“Unfortunate,” Whitley said before standing up. “If I was in the same class with you, I’d be able to help. Sadly, I have English class first this morning.”

As Jaune went to stand up, he could barely hear himself think as everyone in the classroom did the same, talking like boisterous chatterboxes. Jaune turned to exit the cafeteria, and as he did, he ran into a familiar girl.

“Ah, there you are, Jaune.” He saw the familiar smirking form of Cinder approaching him. As he smiled at her, another student bumped into him. 

“MOVE, DILL WEED!” the boy said, but Jaune couldn’t even see who it was due to the massive number of students exiting the cafeteria. However, his line of sight being broken temporarily did cause him to miss the rather undisguised look of vitriol and disdain Cinder leveled at Whitley as he walked by.

“Crap!” Jaune exclaimed, trying to wade through the students without getting run over. “Sorry, Cinder, but I think we’ll have to talk another time!”

As Jaune headed for the exit, he failed to see the look of annoyance and irritation on Cinder’s face.

“Damn it… that Schnee boy beat me to the punch again. No matter. He’ll have a little surprise in store for him soon…”

She let out an evil chuckle, as she went to exit the cafeteria as well.

When things had settled a bit and more students had made their way to their classrooms for the day, Jaune found himself face to face with one of the prefects. It was one of the ones he had met from his first day. He had short, buzz cut blonde hair, and light blue eyes. He also seemed to have several piercings. If Jaune remembered correctly, his name was Vine.

“You’re here to learn,” Vine began calmly. “So it’s in your best interests to get to class.”

Without another word, Vine turned to walk down the hallway in the opposite direction. Despite his somewhat intimidating appearance, Jaune felt he was much more trustworthy than the ox which had almost separated his shoulder earlier that morning.

Instinctively, he reached for his slightly aching shoulder as he walked down the hallway to the left of the cafeteria. After about twenty paces, he found himself in front of the door to the Chemistry room.

“Finally,” Jaune said to himself as he reached forward to open the door. “Hopefully, nothing goes wrong this time.”

She sat very primly in her seat as she waited for the bell to ring. She knew that class wasn’t in session yet, but she had decided to be punctual as her father once told her that if someone wasn’t early, they were late. 

It was one of his lessons that stood out in her mind.

Weiss Schnee dug into her backpack, which rested snugly against one of the chairs of the lab tables, pulling out her Chemistry textbook. She set it down gently on the table before opening it to turn to the relevant section on dust reactions. She had already looked at the syllabus and knew they would be doing some type of experiment with dust today.

As Weiss looked over the pages listed on the syllabus, she smirked to herself smugly. Her eyes darted over the words, yet she took a few of them in, for everything she read, she already knew. She doubted she even needed the book at all, considering how much she knew about dust, the basis of most modern Chemistry in the world today.

“Too easy,” she chuckled to herself before closing the book. She leaned back in the chair, her hands folded daintily in her lap. “As long as I’m not partnered with a total buffoon, this will be the easiest 100 of my life.”

Weiss felt her heart rate accelerate a little bit as she heard the creak of the door opening. Just as quickly as she had relaxed mere seconds before, she stiffened up again. Appearances were everything, especially when addressing a superior. 

Just another lesson she had learned from her father.

She watched with earnest excitement as a woman with shoulder length, dark blonde hair stepped into the room. Her hair was a bit frazzled, with goggles resting on the top of her forehead. She wore white gloves, as well as a lab coat, which covered more of her body. She had dark blue eyes that shone with radiance. 

As she closed the door behind her, she instantly noticed the lone student in the room. Her eyes widened slightly, before she returned to an even expression.

“Miss Schnee,” the professor addressed her in a calm tone. “You’re here early.” The woman approached her desk, setting her purse and the books she was carrying down.

Weiss stood up, barely avoiding the urge to squeal in excitement as she came face to face with one of her heroes.

“Professor Peach, it’s an honor to meet you!” Weiss said with earnest excitement as she approached the woman. She held out her hand for the professor to shake, a happy smile on her face.

Professor Peach, as she was called, looked down at the student’s hand with a critical gaze for a moment, before looking up at Weiss. Her dark blue eyes pierced into Weiss’ own light blue ones, with a strength and intensity that Weiss would expect from a highly trained professional at an institution like Bullworth. 

“Thank you, Miss Schnee. The pleasure is all mine.” After a moment of silence, Professor Peach reached a hand forward to shake her hand with a polite smile. Weiss avoided the urge to let out a squeal of excitement from the gesture. One of her heroes… shaking her hand!?

“Oh, thank you, Professor Peach! I can't believe that I get to be in your class on the very first day! You know…” She smirked. “You were one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Bullworth in the first place.”

Professor Peach sat down behind her desk, sorting through her books, binders, and papers. She seemed focused on her work, not giving Weiss a second glance.

“That's interesting,” she said, not looking up at the young Schnee. “You know, Miss Schnee, I'm sure you're aware of this, but I worked with your grandfather decades ago.”

“I know!” She said, her smile and face beaming. “You and Grandfather were instrumental in bringing forth dust development for decades!”

Peach nodded. “We did. We came from two different fields after all. He began his work in West Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, while I was working over here in the States.”

Weiss stayed silent for a moment, looking back at the ground. She swallowed a lump in her throat, before she looked back up at the busy Peach.

“What was… what was he like? Grandfather, I mean.”

Peach continued arranging her desk, still not looking up at her. However, she responded immediately.

“Nicholas Schnee was a great man. Not the best businessman, to be sure, but one with the best interests of people in mind. He always believed in the ability of dust to revolutionize technology and industry. However, not everyone agreed with his ideas.”

Weiss blinked a few times rapidly, a bit irritated. “What do you mean?” She crossed her arms, letting out an annoyed tisk. “Who could do that to Grandfather!?”

“You have to understand: such is the nature of technological innovations. Humanity naturally fears that which is unknown to them. Things we see as commonplace today were once considered remarkable or even impossible.”

“And dust was like that?”

She nodded. “It is like that with everything. If you ask a man from a hundred years ago if humanity could reach the Moon, he might see such a feat as impossible. If you ask a man from the 18th century about creating a metal contraption that has wings like a bird and allows humanity to reach the skies, you would be considered mad. Such was the case for a man in the height of Cold War hysteria arguing for strange crystals that could do the jobs of many things. Yet… the chemistry of dust allows many things to be possible, within the right hands.”

Weiss listened to the woman's words intently, her eyes sparkling in awe. She still couldn't quite believe she was speaking to Professor Peach, let alone engaging in open conversation with her. It was a dream come true for her.

Just then, another student had nearly stumbled through the door. Weiss turned to look upon who it could be. Her eyes widened at the sight.

She saw a girl, probably a few years younger than her, with black hair. However, some of the tips in her hair had red highlights which stood out compared to the rest of her uniform, which was rather conservative in nature. She wore a white blouse top, which was nearly tucked into a green knee length skirt, which was held up by suspenders fastened firmly on her shoulders. She wore black socks which terminated a few inches above her ankle, as well as black flat shoes.

Weiss noted the strange silver eyes of the girl as she looked with uncertainty around the room, eyes locking on Weiss for a moment, as well as Professor Peach, who barely seemed to notice the presence of the girl.

“Ah, drat… looks like I read my schedule wrong again…” The new girl said, looking down at the ground sheepishly for a moment, before letting out a silly giggle as she shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh, well! It happens! Better to be early than late, after all.” She smiled to herself for a moment before her eyes locked on Weiss again. She looked at the girl inquisitively for a moment before stepping towards her. Weiss avoided the urge to let out a gasp of surprise as the girl seemed to bend her head down in front of her, running her eyes over Weiss' form curiously.

“What are you doing?” Weiss asked in a firm tone, stepping back slightly from the uncomfortable proximity.

The girl looked back up at her, cupping her chin in thought for a moment. “Hmm… you know, I get the feeling you seem familiar, for some reason.”

Weiss mentally slapped herself at the girl's words. Just great. Exactly what she needed, another creepy fan.

“Is that right?” Weiss asked in a forced calm tone, staring at the girl with annoyance. “And, where, do tell, have you seen me before, hmm?”

The girl stayed quiet for a moment, scanning her eyes over Weiss' body once more like she was a scientific specimen.

“Hmm…” The girl stayed quiet for a few more seconds, before she shrugged and laughed.

“I guess I was just mistaken. You don't look familiar at all. You look like any other normal girl.”

Weiss' mouth opened slightly in surprise, before her eyebrows furrowed downward in annoyance.

“Excuse me, what is that supposed to mean? I'll have you know I'm not any normal girl. I'm Weiss Schnee, the proper heiress to the Schnee estate and all its holdings. And you…” She looked over the girl's form for a moment with a calculating gaze. “What are those atrocious clothes?”

“Huh?” The girl's eyes widened in surprise. “What do you mean? Suspenders are very stylish, you know!”

“Yeah, right!” Weiss laughed. “Maybe if you're stuck in 1872!”

The girl smirked. “Hmm… ironic. You have a German name, yet you hate suspenders? What about lederhosen?”

Weiss scoffed. “Oh, please. Just because I have a German name, that doesn't mean I agree with that horrific outfit choice.”

The girl narrowed her eyes slightly. “Oh, yeah!? Well, you… you think just because you wear that fancy Aqua-whatever crap that you're better than me or something?!”

Weiss let out an annoyed huff as she crossed her arms. “It’s Aquaberry, thank you.” She smirked. “And you got one part of that wrong. I don't think I'm better than you. I know I'm better than you.”

The girl grumbled for a few seconds, before going to sit down at a nearby desk. She dumped her backpack on the desk, opening it to start pulling out her textbook, a binder, and a giant pencil box covered in an assortment of stickers.

“Just you wait,” the girl smiled up at Weiss. “I'll show you just how great I can be! I'm going to be the valedictorian of Bullworth!”

Weiss shook her head. “Oh, you poor, innocent soul. You actually don't know who I am. If you did, you'd know that I'm going to be the one who's valedictorian around here.”

“Nope.” The girl continued adjusting the things on her desk.

Weiss blinked in confusion a few times. “What?”

“Nope!”

Weiss grit her teeth in frustration. “What do you mean, ‘nope’?!”

“Nope!”

She clenched her fists, before stomping off to sit down at another desk. Whatever. She wasn't going to let some plebeian lure her into this petty argument anymore.

Weiss sat down primly in her seat, beginning to unpack her things. She got out her lab kit, containing a few dust crystals as well as standard safety material. She placed it gently against her textbooks, while she got out a binder full of paper and her writing utensils.

As she dug through her bookbag, she spotted something she had almost forgotten about. Well, technically two things. She got out a small food container, as well as a fancy book, and stood up once more.

She quietly approached Professor Peach’s desk, the book nestled firmly under her shoulder while she held the container with her hands. Weiss had gotten so distracted by her argument with that girl that she had almost forgotten Professor Peach was even there. Curiously, Weiss also noted that Peach had made absolutely no moves to break up their argument. Instead, she seemed focused on sorting through her own lab materials, using a magnifying glass to analyze a red dust crystal in her hands.

“Professor Peach?”

Peach examined the crystal for a few more moments, before setting it down and looking up at Weiss. She rested her hands gently on the desk as she looked at Weiss with an even expression, encouraging her to speak.

Weiss suddenly felt a bit nervous under the teacher's stare, but she scooted forward a few inches. She placed the container in front of the professor, to the side of the materials she was preparing.

“Um… I brought you these apple slices,” Weiss said, motioning to the sliced red apple in the container. “I know how hard you work, and how amazing you are. You're probably overworked, and haven't had proper time to eat, so I figured I would help you out.”

Weiss smiled at the woman, clasping her hands gently in front of her. As she waited for the professor's response, the other girl buried her face behind her book and rolled her eyes.

What a brown noser… she thought to herself, smirking unconsciously.

Processor Peach looked at the container for a moment. Then, she politely nodded at Weiss before turning back to her work.

“Thank you, Miss Schnee. I appreciate the thought.”

Weiss' heart skipped a beat at her words, avoiding the urge to scream in excitement as she smiled radiantly. Her idol had thanked her! This was one of the greatest days of her life!

She cleared her throat casually, trying to slickly avoid showing off her fangirl status. 

This was it: her big chance.

“Professor Peach?”

The professor continued twiddling with her things for a few moments, before setting them down again. If Peach was getting impatient with her, she was doing a great job of keeping her composure.

“Yes, Miss Schnee?” She asked, in a rather clipped tone. “What is it? I have to finish preparing our lab assignment for today, so please keep it brief.”

Weiss nodded curtly, not wanting to irritate the teacher. She reached under her shoulder to grab the book, her hands suddenly starting to shake slightly against her will at the question she was about to ask.

“U-uh-” She accidentally coughed from her panic, before clearing her throat once more. “Sorry. I must be feeling a bit under the weather.”

“Miss Schnee.”

“R- right!” Weiss nodded frantically, not wanting to make a fool of herself. “You remember the book you wrote on combustion dust? The one that helped to revolutionize the car industry?”

“Yes,” the professor nodded. “Although, saying the book was the cause of that advancement is erroneous. It was the result of years of research, multiple articles, and plenty of collaboration with the Geological Society of America, as well as the automotive companies. The book was… merely an effort to help educate the public about the research… and to help an overworked scientist make some much needed money.” The professor smiled softly at the last words.

“Um, right…” Weiss said, feeling a little embarrassed at the minor correction. “R- regardless… I have to say, it's one of my favorite works of yours! I have all your books at home, but I find this one particularly interesting. To see dust technology be applied to such a practical use is astonishing! It really does much to make dust feel more relatable to the average person.”

“Indeed,” the professor nodded. Seeming to realize that this conversation was not ending any time soon, Peach continued working with her materials, multitasking as she continued speaking. “Dust has always existed on Earth, but was too volatile and dangerous to utilize properly before the last fifty years. One wrong move trying to mine it, and a person can blow up, or cause a cave-in which can spell doom for countless others in the process. As I said before, humanity fears what they don't understand, especially if they believe such a thing to be dangerous. Yet… if you can harvest dust and convert it into a much more stable and usable form, the only issue you have then is convincing the public of its uses in the public domain.”

Weiss listened intently to her teacher's words. She wanted to absorb as much knowledge as she possibly could; since the death of her grandfather, she was now talking to the leading dust expert in the world. It wasn't an opportunity she took lightly.

“However,” the professor continued, snapping Weiss out of her thoughts. “Not to be rude, Miss Schnee, but class is about to begin in a few minutes, so I would request that you get to your point.”

“R- right, my apologies.” Weiss' heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest as she tentatively reached out, offering it to her professor. Peach looked up at the book, then at Weiss with a curious expression.

“Yes, Miss Schnee?”

“Would you… would you please sign my book?”

“No.”

Weiss gasped in surprise. The words were instant. There was absolutely no hesitation in the words, nor was there any shakiness or uncertainty in the gaze the professor gave her.

“N-no? Why not?”

Professor Peach sighed, standing up as she began to put on her safety equipment.

“My apologies, Miss Schnee, but I have to be fair to every student here. If I sign the book of a specific student here, and word gets out, it will make people think that I have a bias toward you. It's nothing personal against you, but I must politely decline your request because of that.”

Weiss stood in silence for a moment, before she lowered the book and tucked it back under her left shoulder. She gripped her left arm with her right hand, hugging it tightly to the side of her torso.

Her idol had rejected her. This was one of the worst days of her life…

“I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything like that. I'm just… really excited to meet someone like you.” She let out a deep breath. “Someone that I not only really admire, but also someone that worked so closely with Grandfather.”

Professor Peach stayed quiet for a moment at the young Schnee's words. Weiss looked down at the ground in shame and humiliation; even the young girl in the background was frowning at the scene in front of her, despite the fact she had been arguing with the girl mere minutes before.

After a few more moments of awkward silence, Professor Peach sighed quietly. “Very well. Then I shall make you a promise.”

Weiss' breath caught in her throat, as she looked up with wide eyes. She felt a surge of hope inside her.

“A-a promise? What type of promise?”

“I will sign your book at the end of the year, on one condition: if you prove yourself to the best of your abilities, work hard, and…” She trailed off for a moment as she smirks. “If you prove to me that part of your grandfather’s will and spirit lives on in you.”

Weiss felt her breath catch in her throat. To hear one of her heroes compare her to her grandfather in such a way… to believe that she even had a possibility of living up to his legacy…

It was a rather flattering feeling, and she felt a warmth in her chest from it, before she vigorously nodded back at the professor.

“Y-yes, I promise, Professor!” Weiss said vehemently and earnestly, now clutching her textbook firmly to her chest. “I’ll make you and Grandfather proud, I swear it!”

Professor Peach nodded. “Very well, then. I wish you the best of lu-”

However, her voice was cut off by the sound of the bell ringing. Professor Peach looked up at the clock. “Time already? Very well then…” She sat back down at her desk, making her final preparations for the first class of the year.

Sensing that the conversation was now over, Weiss walked back towards her seat and sat down. She still felt a bit disappointed that she had been rejected at first, but the thought of earning her professor’s trust and respect from her own merits, not just her last name, was a challenge she was looking forward to.

It's fine, Weiss thought to herself as the bell rang. I know I can do this.

Jaune opened the door to the Chemistry room, feeling nervous as he did so. He stepped into the room, hearing a loud clatter. He quickly scanned around the room, seeing that many students were already seated and talking to each other. He looked towards the front of the room, to see a middle-aged woman sitting behind a desk as she fiddled with some things Jaune didn’t recognize.

Jaune scanned the room for a moment; he saw all the seats were taken but one, and as he looked, his heart leapt in his chest.

The girl from before with the white hair and stunning blue eyes sat by herself, her head resting gently against his left palm as she looked lazily towards the right, away from the door. She seemed rather relaxed, almost bored, as she waited for class to officially start. Yet, Jaune couldn’t help but still find her mesmerising: her off-center ponytail that ran over her right shoulder and down her back was beautiful, its snowy color reminding him of the pale moonlight.

He gulped to himself as he stepped forward. He didn’t exactly have a choice of where to sit, but even if he did, he knew what he wanted to do. Jaune stepped forward to the side of the table, speaking up.

“E-excuse me… do you mind if I sit here? It seems all the other seats are taken.”

The girl slowly craned her neck to look at him, and Jaune almost jumped out of his skin. Her eyes, much like Whitley’s, were a light blue, yet her gaze was much more intense and intimidating. He stood still, almost paralyzed, as the girl looked over him from head to toe with a calculating gaze.

“You are… rather unimpressive,” she noted evenly as she looked at his face, bored. “However, if this seat is the only option for you, then I suppose you have no choice. Just please try not to annoy me too much.”

Jaune nodded, feeling excited as he sat down in the seat next to her. As he looked at the professor in the front of the classroom, he was too distracted and nervous to notice the girl consciously scooting her seat slightly away from him.

Jaune bent toward his bag he had dumped under the table, digging inside of it to get some things out. He reached inside to grab the textbook he had bought from the library earlier in the day.

As he lifted his head, he accidentally bumped it against the table in a clumsy manner, almost dropping the book as he did so.

“Ow! Son of a gun…” He scratched the back of his head in pain as he set the book on the table. He heard some snickering behind him but chose to ignore it. He didn’t want to get into any more arguments today.

What he could not ignore was the cutting voice next to him. “You should be more careful,” the girl said, and he looked towards her to see an annoyed look. “If you can’t even do something as basic as lifting a textbook without hurting yourself, what hope will you ever have when it comes to dust chemistry?”

Still rubbing his head, he let out a nervous chuckle. “S-sorry. Still getting used to this place. I’m a little on edge, that’s all.”

The girl stayed quiet for a moment before she closed her eyes and shook her head. “Hmph. Well, like I said, just try not to annoy me too much.”

Jaune didn’t respond, instead looking back towards the professor. Luckily for him, he saw the sight of the professor standing up and clearing her throat to speak.

“Good morning, class,” she began. “My name is Professor Thumbelina Peach, and I will be your Chemistry instructor this coming year.” The woman instinctively adjusted the goggles resting on her forehead before continuing.

“This class will be a mix of both lecture and lab. You will get 3 course credits for the main course, and 1 course credit for the lab portion of the course. We will meet every Monday for our labs, and Wednesday and Friday for lectures.”

Jaune looked down at his phone for a moment, noting that it was Monday, meaning that they would be doing some form of experiment today.

“As you might expect, most of our experiments will involve dust. Dust, as you might know, is the source of most of the energy on Earth today. While sources such as solar, nuclear, and wind energy still have their places in the world today, dust has been applauded for its mobility, versatility, and ease of use. Now then, can anyone tell me the five main types of dust?”

The girl next to Jaune immediately raised her hand, and the professor acknowledged her with a raised eyebrow. “Yes, Miss Schnee?”

“Fire, ice, electricity, wind, and gravity,” the girl answered immediately, each word flying off her tongue as if she knew them in her sleep.

“Very good, Miss Schnee,” the professor said, nodding. “That is correct.”

As the teacher continued droning on, saying a bunch of words he wouldn’t even pretend he knew, Jaune’s eyes widened for a moment. He snuck a glance over at the girl, recognizing her last name. However, he decided not to be rude to the instructor while she was speaking and continued listening to her words.

“We shall get into more of the fine details about dust later. For the purposes of our first experiment, we will be going over the basics: the five types of dust, and their uses. Now, if you would please, get out your lab kits, and your lab notebooks. We will begin in a few minutes. I’ll circle around the classroom for anyone that has questions.”

As the students began chattering again, Jaune stared blankly ahead for a moment in confusion. Lab kit? He had no idea what she was talking about.

Jaune looked to his side to see the girl next to him getting out what appeared to be a large, white rectangular box. She opened it, and began getting out what seemed to be a large white lab coat and a set of goggles. As she looked over the contents in the box, Jaune leaned forward awkwardly.

“Hey, uh, don’t read too much into this, but… what does she mean by a ‘lab kit’?”

The girl stopped rummaging through the box, and looked towards him with her mouth slightly agape. Then, she frowned as her eyebrows furrowed downwards.

“Are you serious? Did you even read the syllabus?”

“Okay, don’t read too much into this, either, but… what’s a syllabus?” Jaune said, chuckling awkwardly as he did so.

The girl let out a long, drawn out sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose as she did so. “The syllabus? It’s a document with a class schedule and everything you need to know for the class? Professor Peach emailed it to all of us!”

“Oh. I didn’t even know we got an email.”

The girl shook her head, before glaring at him. “Let me guess: you don’t even know what your school email is?”

“I don’t think you’re going to like the answer,” Jaune answered honestly.

She scoffed, before she reached down below her desk to pull out another white box. “Luckily for you, I just happened to get a spare in case I needed it.” She set it down in front of him, sighing as she did so. “I don’t even know why I’m deciding to help you, since you being woefully unprepared is your own fault, but whatever. You can pay me back for it later.”

Jaune looked at the box in surprise, before smiling at the girl. “Thanks for that. That’s very kind of you.”

The girl’s mouth opened slightly at his words for a moment, before she frowned again. She turned her head away, choosing to start going through her box once more instead of replying.

“Make sure to put your lab coat, goggles, and gloves on,” the professor said elsewhere in the classroom. “While this dust’s volatility has been mostly tempered and removed, dust is still not a substance to be taken lightly.”

Jaune opened the box to get out what he needed, and as he did, he gasped in surprise. He looked inside to see radiant crystals of differing colors: red, blue, yellow, green, purple, and many other variants. He couldn’t resist his jaw dropping as he looked them over, setting them gently to the side to get out his protective materials.

“Amazing, aren’t they?” The girl beside him said, and he looked over to see a smug smirk on her face. “Nicholas Schnee and Professor Peach were responsible for finding a way to convert dust into a usable form for humans. Quite impressive, isn’t it?”

“That’s right…” Jaune remarked as something clicked in his mind. “Nicholas Schnee, you say? Any relation to Whitley Schnee?”

The smile on the girl’s face faded immediately at his question, as she looked back down to begin putting on her gloves. She let out an annoyed huff as she seemed intent on ignoring Jaune’s confused gaze.

“That’s right,” she said. “He’s his grandfather.”

Jaune nodded; the young girl didn’t seem interested in speaking further. He didn’t know that Whitley’s grandpa was someone famous, so he decided to keep that information in the back of his mind to ask him about it later. He placed his arms into the armholes of the lab coat, wrapping it around his back as he reached forward to button it on the front. He then worked on putting his gloves and goggles on while Professor Peach stopped in front of her desk, picking up a red crystal as she did so.

“This is fire dust. As some of you may be aware, if you did your assigned textbook readings, dust is graded on a five point scale. Grade 5 Dust is the most volatile dust, representing the completely untempered crystals found in the mines. Dust was almost impossible to mine until the late 1970s, with the discovery of Hardlight Dust. Now, can anyone tell me what Hardlight Dust is?”

Jaune stared dumbfounded; he wasn’t even aware there had been an assigned reading, so he just sat quietly. He was beginning to think his ignorance would be the running theme of the day.

The girl next to him raised her hand once again, yet the professor called on another girl, the one with black hair and red highlights that Jaune had recognized in the cafeteria earlier.

“Yes, Miss Rose?”

“Hardlight Dust is the combination of fire, water, lightning, and wind dust! It is one of the rarest types of dust on the planet, and one of the most in demand.”

“Correct,” the professor nodded with a smile. Out of the corner of his eye, Jaune saw the girl next to him cross her arms, a small pout on her face at the fact she hadn’t been called on once more. However, a quick side glare from her was enough for Jaune to turn his head back towards the professor.

“Dust was impossible to mine for centuries, despite its existence being known. This is because naturally forming dust is remarkably volatile: when interacting with Grade 5 Dust without the proper equipment, severe injury and/or death are guaranteed. For example, imagine the mere idea of striking a pure Fire Dust crystal, just to be immolated in mere seconds. Frozen to death by ice dust, electrocuted to a crisp by lightning… such was the fate of many foolhardy miners over the years.”

The young professor cleared her throat. “My apologies. I got off topic for a moment there. As much as I would love continuing to explain the history of dust to you, that is a topic for Wednesday’s lecture. What you must know is the dust scale I mentioned. While the lethal form of pure dust I just mentioned is Grade 5, the dust you have in your kits represents Grade 2 Dust. This means that most of the volatility has been tempered, allowing you to hold and temper it with relative ease and safety. That said… just because this form of crystal is relatively safe, that does not mean we take it lightly. Getting complacent in the field of chemistry is a good way to get yourself hurt, so make sure all your safety gear is on. Follow the directions in your lab notebook to a tee, and do not hesitate to ask questions if you have them.”

Jaune finished buttoning up the front of his lab coat, and lowered his goggles over his eyes.

“The person you're seated next to shall be your lab partner for the rest of the semester. Now, without further delay, open your lab notebook to the section on Lab #1. Follow the instructions inside, and I'll circle around the classroom to assist or answer any questions you may have.”

He turned to the girl beside him, giving her a toothy grin. "You know, I never asked you your name. ‘Miss Schnee,’ was it?"

She looked at him, narrowing her eyes for a moment before she let out a defeated sigh. "My name is Weiss. But that doesn't matter!"

Without further delay, Weiss pointed a finger at his face with a glare. "What matters is that thanks to unfortunate circumstances and bad luck, you are my partner for this assignment. I will not let my grade suffer because of some ignoramus screwing something up. Do you understand?"

Jaune chuckled nervously. Lovely. Someone else who hated his guts already. He was beginning to wonder whether that was just something to do with Bullworth in general, or if he really had that effect on people.

"Yeah... I understand, Weiss. I can tell this means a lot to you, so I'll make sure to do my very best."

Weiss' eyes widened momentarily, before she looked back down at her notebook. She felt a slight stinging sensation in her cheeks that was both annoying and uninvited.

"Well... if you say so," Weiss said in a calm tone. "Like the professor said, these dust crystals have been heavily tempered, so as long as you follow exactly what I say closely, we should be fine."

Jaune nodded, shrugging lightly. "That's fine with me," he said, as he read over the lab notebook's words. He pulled out what appeared to be a medium sized wooden bowl, as well as a... white club shaped thingy.

"What the heck is this thing?" Jaune asked, holding the objects towards Weiss.

"These are a mortar and pestle. They're going to be used to crush and grind the dust crystals into a fine powder." To demonstrate, she set one of the fire dust crystals into the bowl, and used the pestle to slam down on it. Jaune watched as the crystal broke in half down the middle.

"Powdered dust is the most common form of dust used for cosmetic purposes," Weiss explained. "However, it can still be used for industrial purposes, such as blasting powder or the combustion dust used in cars."

"I see," Jaune answered. He didn't know entirely what she was talking about, so he scanned over the lab notebook. "And we're going to put the powder into a... flask?"

"An Erlenmeyer Flask, yes. We're going to use a Bunsen Burner to melt the dust powder into a liquid form."

Jaune nodded, pretending to understand what the hell she just said. He hadn't been very good at science back at his old schools, so he was glad he seemed to be partnered with someone who knew what she was talking about.

Jaune got to work crushing his red crystals into a powder form, and decided to do something to pass the time. "So... you seem very knowledgeable about this dust?"

"I am. One could say it runs in my family."

"Your family?"

"You don't need to worry about it," Weiss said, a bit snappy as she did so. "All that matters is completing this assignment, and knowing that I'll be the reason we do well on it."

Ouch, Jaune thought to himself. Clearly, Weiss didn't seem too interested in conversation, so he just continued grinding down the crystal for the next few seconds in silence.

Chapter Text

As she continued working in silence, Weiss' mind was racing a mile a minute. It wasn't because of the work in front of her; Weiss knew she could complete an assignment like this in her sleep. It was almost laughable to her that she had been relegated to such a basic task when she knew she was destined for greatness.

In fact, she could almost envision the sight of her father's smirking face, laughing at her internally in his mansion while she toiled away amidst commoners. The very thought of her father looking down on her made her grit her teeth for a moment before she took a breath to calm herself.

It was a burden to know that she was so superior to those around her. Her brilliance was something she was confident in but it was annoying to always feel like the smartest person in the room. She saw and understood things others failed to. Things that were clear to her felt unclear to others. She could link things together that others couldn’t even begin to understand.

She had wondered in the past why this was the case, and simply attributed it to the laws of life. While she was destined to be amazing, so too were others destined to be simple.

Speaking of simple, she thought to herself for a moment, before sneaking a glance at the young man beside her. She made sure to stand as far away from him as possible, while still working on her experiment. Most of her crystal had been crushed into a fine powder, but she still worked on crushing the final few pieces.

She had decided the man next to her was... decidedly simple. He seemed cordial enough, she'd admit; he wasn't rude like her father, or a snobby idiot trying to flirt with her like so many of her suitors back at home. He even seemed interested in some of what she explained to him.

Yet, as she eyed him pouring over his notebook, even quietly reading some of the words to himself under his breath in an attempt to understand, she resisted the urge to scoff under her breath. Once again, she was forced to work with someone so vastly inferior in intellect to her. She only hoped it would not hurt her lab grade.

Still, she knew there was something she didn't trust about him. Something that felt... off. As she thought about what it could be, her eyes widened. Her snowy eyebrows furrowed downward slightly in irritation as she remembered something the boy had said earlier. Something she knew automatically made him untrustworthy.

If this simpleton thinks he can pull one over on me, he's got another thing coming.

Wanting to get to the bottom of it, Weiss quietly cleared her throat before turning towards the boy with a fake smile on her face.

"So, I must apologize, but I appear to have forgotten to ask what your name is?"

He turned to her, his eyes widened in surprise. "O-oh, right! I'm sorry." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, and Weiss resisted the urge to scoff in annoyance.

She couldn't explain why, but there was something about him that felt incredibly irritating to her.

“My name is Jaune. Jaune Arc,” the boy said with a soft smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Weiss.”

She cleared her throat, multitasking with her experiment as she continued her line of questioning.

“Jaune. You know my brother Whitley, then?”

Jaune nodded. “That's right. He and I met my first day I was here. He was pretty much the first guy that didn't treat me like I was a threat.” He chuckled. “I got into a bit of a scuffle on my first day.”

She raised an eyebrow. “A scuffle, you say?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, a sheepish look on his face. “A couple of guys in polo shirts cornered me my first day. Then, some guy with a mohawk tried to beat me up. Luckily, I was able to defend myself.”

Weiss stayed quiet for a moment, crushing the final bits of crystal before putting it into her flask. Her nose wrinkled in disgust; it was not a reaction from her classwork, but rather from what she had just heard.

So… not only does he know Whitley, but he's also a brute. Just my luck…

She kept her disdain to herself, however, resolving in her mind that there was still more she wished to know. She plastered a fake smile on her face once more. It was an ability her father had taught her the importance of: using deception and trickery to one's advantage. Such a fact wasn't something she took great pride in, considering her relationship with her father, but she concluded such a tactic was useful in this case.

“Jaune, what do you think of Whitley?”

“I like him,” he replied, a smile on his face. “It always feels like he's holding something back, maybe… but I can tell that his heart is in the right place.”

As if Weiss needed more evidence that this young man was an utter simpleton! To call her brother of all people trustworthy… it was so laughable that she had to restrain the giggle that begged to jump out of her throat.

Then again, she couldn't be a hypocrite, either. Her brother too had learned the arts of deception from Jacques Schnee, and clearly he was doing something similar with this Jaune character.

“But, like I said, it always feels like he's holding something back.”

Jaune's voice snapped her out of her thoughts as she looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“Well…” he sighed, as he crushed the final pieces of his crystal. “I can tell there are things that he says which have a deeper meaning to them. Things that he wants to say, but doesn't feel he can. I'm not sure what it is, but I can tell something's bothering him at times. However, I also don't want to push him too much and ask about something he doesn't feel comfortable discussing. I like the guy, but we've still only known each other a few days. Feels like pushing some boundaries to beg for info on his personal life, you know?”

Weiss listened intently to his words, as she picked up her flask to take it to the counters against the walls. There, gas lines connected to Bunsen burners sat, ready to be used for the next phase of the experiment. It was a perfect distraction; she had absolutely no interest in listening to the ramblings of a man who supposedly sympathized with her brother.

She looked over her shoulder for a moment to glare at Jaune. “You need to get this ready soon, if you want any chance of finishing this lab on time.”

“O-oh, right!” He quickly grabbed his own flask filled with now pulverized flecks of crystal dust, and went towards her. He stood to her side as he eyed another one of the burners. Weiss scooted away a few steps, disliking the proximity. Especially since she now knew for certain this man knew Whitley.

She frowned to herself as she absentmindedly worked on setting her burner up. On her brother's first day, he somehow made a friend. That alone was remarkable, considering that she saw her brother as little more than a pale imitation of their father. A man not worth imitating in the slightest, yet one that Whitley still fell short of.

Yet, Jacques Schnee didn't make friends. He could act amicable, of course. He could give someone a big smile or a firm handshake, yet Weiss knew all these things were a lie. Ultimately, every kind act he did was done for his own benefit. If such behaviors extended to his own children, what hope did a common stranger have?

Of course, there was also a tinge of bitterness rumbling in her gut, at the thought that her brother had somehow made a friend before her. Why was it fair that he of all people could make friends, while she still felt all alone?

No. It can’t be true. There has to be something else to this. Whitley must be using him. Perhaps to spy on me?

As she thought to herself, the only other possibility was that her brother had made a friend in earnest, an option she immediately dismissed as ludicrous. He had never been one to have friends; she wouldn't even say that she and him were friends.

At least, not for a very long time…

She swallowed a lump in her throat that she hadn't realized was there, before she looked over to the side. She saw Jaune looking at the burner with a rather stupid look on his face.

“What are you doing?”

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head nervously as he looked at her. She could practically feel the naivety radiating off of his body.

“Uh, sorry. I just don't really know how to use this thing. Would you mind giving me a hand?”

She blinked a few times with a blank expression, before she let out a sigh. Of course, expecting a simpleton like him to know how to use even rudimentary equipment was too high of an expectation.

Regardless, she did feel a small hint of smugness in her chest at his question. He clearly acknowledged that she knew how to do something he didn't. She felt great pride when those lesser than her acknowledged the truth of her superiority.

She gave him a mocking smile as she stepped beside him. “Of course, Jaune. I would just love to help you.”

He stepped to the side, giving her a bright smile as he did so. “Thanks, Weiss. I owe you one for this!”

Weiss began adjusting his equipment for him, resisting the urge to vomit as she did so. His sincerity was so vibrant that it made her physically ill. In most cases, she could believe that he was telling the truth… that he was genuinely grateful to her. However, now that she knew he was close to someone she could not trust under any circumstances, he too was someone she had pinned as untrustworthy.

Not wanting him to know what she was saying, but her thoughts too clouded to keep them inside, she muttered under her breath in her family’s native tongue.

“Dieser Kerl... Ich bin mir sicher, dass er von meinem Vater oder Bruder geschickt wurde. Ich kann ihm nicht trauen, ganz egal wie unschuldig er tut.”

“Did you say something, Weiss?” Jaune asked curiously.

She looked at him with a calm expression, answering in an even tone. “Yes. I was just practicing some phrases for my German lessons. It's my mother tongue, so I'm trying to get better at it.”

She lied, almost as naturally as breathing. Another skill she had learned from her father. She had no reason to worry: she knew she was smarter and cleverer than this man. There was no way he could know she was already a native speaker. Deceiving him was something she knew she could do with ease.

To her lack of surprise, he gave her a nod. “Oh, that sounds cool. Good luck to you, then!”

Weiss smirked, chuckling under her breath before looking down once more. The burner began to slowly melt the crystal flakes inside the glass into a liquid. It was a process that would take a few minutes.

Despite the fact she didn't trust Jaune, she knew that making open enemies accomplished little, either. Rather, she felt entirely content with the current situation: using her intellect to her advantage, always remaining one step ahead of him. He couldn't hurt her if she always kept her defenses up.

He thinks he can spy on me? Get on my good side? How laughable… he's not going to fool me so easily.

As she eyed the concoction in his flask, she noticed something strange. Despite the fact the crystal was meant to create a red color of liquid, she watched as the liquid slowly turned to a dark brown color, almost black.

“How odd…” She peered at the substance curiously. “I wonder why it's doing this.” She stood back; her experience had taught her to treat everyone and everything with caution.

Jaune looked at the liquid, peering down into the flask from above. “What's wrong? This one looks a little different from yours.”

Her eyes widened as the truth clicked in her head.

“Look out!” She yelled, quickly pushing his face out of the way. Jaune stumbled and fell on the white tile floor with a loud thud, moments before the flask exploded, sending the hot black liquid into the air.

Weiss screamed as part of the concoction splattered into the air towards her face. She raised her arms in front of her face at the last moment, to prevent the scorching liquid from touching her skin directly. Some droplets managed to get through to her goggles, while the rest was blocked by her arms. She could feel an intense heat tug against her sleeves and her upper torso as the liquid threatened to sear through her coat and burn her. The rest of the liquid splattered into a cabinet above the counter where the flask once was, melting through the pale wood almost instantly, like a hot knife through butter.

Her common sense going out the window, she closed her eyes, tears streaming through her eyelids as she panicked. She didn't know what to do; in all her time doing experiments like these, she had never dealt with something like this. Her body froze; her ears didn't even register the frantic shouts of the students around her as they cowered away and ducked for cover. Some called out to her, yet she could not hear them. Nor did she see Jaune looking up at her with pure terror, desperately trying to get to his feet to help her.

Before Weiss knew what was going on, she felt a firm set of hands on her shoulders. She felt her body moving with the support; even though she couldn't register what was going on, her feet seemed to move. Her heart was pounding frantically and constantly, threatening to burst out of her chest. She and her guardian quickly headed for the back right corner of the room.

Weiss continued to let the figure guide her, before she stepped into what seemed like a cold area. Too scared to open her eyes despite the goggles protecting them from harm, all she could feel was a type of tile floor under her feet. She barely registered the figure’s words, before she heard the quiet sound of a door shutting.

She let out a frantic yelp as she suddenly felt ice cold water spraying at her at a high velocity, soaking her from head to toe. She continued crying, saline tears blending in with the water splashing against her face.

Weiss didn't know why such a thing had to happen to her in her very first class. Why she had to be paired with an ignoramus, or why said ignoramus tried to get himself badly hurt. 

Why did she have to risk herself to save him? It was as if a higher power had decided to make her suffer today, and was enjoying every second of it.

After another minute or so, she felt the heat on her arms and body fade away. All she felt was an ice cold sensation, as her body soaked with water. It continued to pelt her for a few more moments, before it slowly dissipated.

Weiss stood in the middle of the chemical shower, shivering from the cold. She hugged her arms to her body, trying to get as much warmth as she could. She sniffled before letting out a loud cough. She could barely see past her goggles due to the water droplets dripping down it, yet she didn't want to take them off. They had shielded her from the worst possible scenario, for she couldn't imagine what would've happened if such an explosion had reached her eyes.

Well, she could… she just didn't want to.

After another minute, she heard the sound of the door opening. Her ears perked up at the sound of a voice.

“Miss Schnee?”

Professor Peach's voice pierced through, a sudden sense of eerie calm falling over the scene. The commotion and panic from before had faded, replaced by an uncomfortable silence.

“Professor? I-I’m so cold,” she croaked, in a tone far shakier than she intended.

“I imagine so. These showers are designed for severe chemical accidents. You were lucky that your safety equipment protected you like it did.”

Weiss reached up with a shaky hand, slowly raising her goggles to rest on her forehead. She blinked away the tears in her eyes and the remaining shower water to look at her professor. Peach stood just outside of the shower, her arms crossed with a concerned look on her face.

Weiss quickly darted her eyes behind the professor, noticing the empty seats. “W-where is everyone else?”

“I instructed them to exit the classroom and head back to their dorms. Class is done for the day. I need time to clean up this horrific mess, and I cannot risk anyone else getting hurt from carelessness. Plus…” Her voice lowered in volume, as she spoke gently. “After something as terrifying as this, you deserve a moment to yourself.”

Weiss let out a shaky sigh, stepping out of the shower. The instant she was out, Peach closed the shower door behind her before wrapping a towel gently around her shoulders.

“Come, sit down,” Peach instructed firmly, helping her towards the nearest seat. Her soaking lab coat still clung uncomfortably to her skin, but she didn't care. All that mattered to her was that she was alright.

As Weiss looked up, she gasped. She saw where the explosion had shot up in the air, but she didn't see what had happened after. Above the exploding flask and corroded counter was the sight of a wooden cabinet above, now with a giant hole in the bottom of it. It had been used to carry extra textbooks and other reference materials, yet the liquid had seared through the wood like it wasn't even there. This turned the paper inside the cabinet into a white sludge, which dripped through the hole onto the counter below.

She gulped as she looked at it, before turning to Professor Peach. “I'm sorry, Professor… I didn't mean to cause an accident. It's… regrettable that some material was destroyed in the process.”

Peach scoffed, shaking her head. “Don't worry. As you can see, there are plenty of other books to use.” She motioned around the classroom, where cabinets similar to the destroyed one were nestled above each lab counter.

“And even if they weren't…” She knelt down in front of the student with a smile on her face. Weiss gasped as the teacher rested a hand on her right shoulder. She looked at her hand hesitantly for a moment, before looking into Peach's eyes.

“The safety of my students is much more important to me than any materials could ever be. Books and cabinets can be replaced, but your well-being is more valuable than any cost.”

Weiss stayed quiet, looking down at the ground. She felt shame, even though Peach told her she felt no reason to. She felt humiliated… humiliated that such a thing had happened to her in front of everyone else. She felt irritated at her lab partner for his carelessness.

Yet, above all else, she felt irritated at herself, for the fact that she hadn't noticed something was wrong until it was too late.

Despite this, she still felt a tingly sensation in her chest. The gentle care Professor Peach gave her was a nice feeling to have. It was an almost maternal feeling, one Weiss hadn’t experienced in many years.

However, Weiss’ logical side took over once as she reflected on what had just happened. She felt a hint of confusion which temporarily distracted her. Weiss raised her head to look at Peach once more, a curious look on her face. “I don't understand, Professor… how could something like that burn through wood so easily, yet something like this lab coat was able to protect me?”

Peach smiled. “Ah, so you noticed, did you?” She let out a chuckle. “Well, you're right. The lab coats in the kit from the library are specifically equipped with a very light layer of Hardlight Dust. So little that it is invisible to the naked eye, yet enough that it can protect against a disaster like this effectively.”

Weiss looked down at her slightly scorched sleeves in surprise, narrowing her eyes. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't see the protective layer that had saved her. Yet she wondered how much worse things could have been without it… if the corrosive material had been able to melt through the fabric to try and melt something else? Even with it, she had felt the heat threatening to hurt her.

She avoided the urge to shiver at the thought. “Hardlight Dust…”

“That's right. Ironic, isn't it? Even though he's no longer with us, your grandfather still finds a way to protect you.”

Weiss pondered the words for a moment. She didn't know what to say; she just felt incredibly thankful, knowing that things could've been so much worse. Thankful that the dust her grandfather had first discovered almost 40 years ago had helped her.

“Are you okay?” Peach asked, giving her shoulder a supportive squeeze.

“I-I'm fine,” Weiss answered, feeling incredibly small and weak under her gaze. “You saw what happened. The safety equipment and the chemical shower protected me.”

Peach shook her head, before giving her a stern look.

“I didn't ask if you were hurt. I asked if you were fine.”

Weiss remained still for a few seconds. Then, she felt her body beginning to shake silently against her will. A soft whimper escaped her lips before she could stop it, as tears ran down her face once more.

“I… I was so afraid.” She looked into her professor's eyes, her blue eyes shining with sadness. “I felt so helpless, so powerless…”

Before she could say anymore, Peach gently wrapped her arms around Weiss' back, pulling her in for a hug. Weiss gasped. She wasn't used to such intimate gestures being initiated towards her. Normally, such an act would be one that made her feel uncomfortable.

However, this time felt different. Peach's warmth felt inviting. She quickly melted into her professor's arms, wrapping her arms tightly around her. She buried her head into the professor's shoulder, letting out a pained sob as she did so.

“Don't worry,” Peach said quietly, raising one hand up to rest on the back of Weiss' head. “You're safe now. You're safe here.”

It was true that such open displays of emotion would normally make her feel weak and insignificant. Her father had made sure to tell her plenty of times that showing emotions so openly was a weakness, one that vultures would never hesitate to pounce on.

Yet, as she continued crying into her professor's embrace, Weiss found that no regrets tugged at her mind, but rather a sense of comfort that felt totally alien to her.

Jaune paced back and forth in his dorm room, unable to stand still. He wanted to do something, but his professor had ordered everyone to head back to their dorm rooms for the day to not make a scene.

“Dang it,” he sighed to himself, before sitting down on his bed. He gripped his forehead with his right hand, rubbing it in contemplation for a moment.

“I don't understand what happened. I followed everything the instructions said. I don't get why it blew up like that…”

He really wanted to thank Weiss; she had helped to prevent him from suffering a rather catastrophic facial injury with her quick reactions. If she hadn't done that…

Jaune shivered at the thought. The mere thought was one that made him feel uncomfortable. He knew he had to go check on her, even if he was disobeying Professor Peach’s orders. He would rather deal with the potential fallout from that than feeling ungrateful towards his newest friend.

He nodded resolutely to himself, standing up to exit his room and head for the dorm’s exit. Luckily, Whitley’s tour from earlier that day had told him where the nurse's office was; it was up the main staircase of the academy, to the left of the main entrance to the school.

Jaune went through the double doors of the dorm, heading down the stairs toward the sidewalk to start heading towards the main building. A slight wind ruffled his hair, the cool sensation causing him to let out an involuntary shiver.

Growing up in Texas, he couldn't say he was used to it being so cold in the fall. However, he simply resolved that it would be something he had to get used to, since he had an entire school year ahead of him here. Perhaps he would stop by the school store later on to buy a long sleeved uniform.

“Of course, that would require me to have money,” Jaune remarked, chuckling to himself in self deprecation. He was still annoyed that Cardin had taken his last few bucks earlier that morning.

Granted, he also recalled the giant raging bull of a woman who had almost dislocated his shoulder by total accident when she had been chasing Cinder, and concluded that he wouldn't want to know what might've happened to him if he had chosen to fight Cardin instead.

As Jaune approached the main staircase, he luckily found it not as crowded as earlier in the day. Most of the students were probably in either the main building, studying in the library, or in their dorms in the early afternoon.

Jaune pulled out his phone to look at the time. He saw that it was 12:30 PM, so he noted to himself that he had about thirty minutes before afternoon classes began. He had English, and he luckily remembered that the classroom was also on the first floor, but on the opposite side of the hallway from the Chemistry classroom.

As he reached the top of the main staircase and turned towards the left, his eyes widened in surprise at a figure he saw. He approached the boy standing to the side of the entrance to the nurse's office, holding a white flower in his hand.

“Whitley? What are you doing here?”

Whitley turned to look at Jaune, a slight look of surprise on his face. “Oh! Hey, Jaune…” He bit down on his lip for a moment, looking down at the ground. “I… I heard what happened in the Chemistry classroom earlier. Is she alright?”

Jaune hesitated for a moment, looking to the side with shame. “I'm not sure,” he admitted, letting out a defeated sigh. “I'm sorry, Whitley. It was all my fault. If it weren't for her, I could've gotten half my face melted off.”

Whitley shrugged his shoulders. “Don't worry about it. Accidents happen, especially in a field like Chemistry. The important thing is that it seems neither of you were badly hurt. Because if you were, everyone in the school would know by now.”

Whitley’s last sentence piqued Jaune's interest, and he looked up at Whitley. “Speaking of… how did you know she was here? Professor Peach told everyone to go back to the dorms so it wouldn't become a spectacle.”

“Sadly, when it comes to incidents involving a Schnee, there's only so many things you can do. Word will eventually get out, and I overheard a few students gossiping about it.”

Whitley looked down at the ground. “I just really hope she's alright. It was… rather horrible to overhear what had happened to her.”

“Speaking of… why are you out here and not in there?” Jaune looked down at the flower in the boy’s hand and smiled. “I mean, you're clearly prepared and everything.”

Whitley gasped. He felt a redness in his cheeks as he quickly hid the flower behind his back.

“I-it’s just a flower. A white lily, to be specific. It's her favorite, and I thought seeing it might make her feel a little better.”

Jaune nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense,” he began, before crossing his arms. “However, it still doesn't answer my question. Why aren't you in there with her?”

Whitley stayed quiet for a moment. He took a deep breath as he tried to gather his thoughts.

“Well… we don't really get along.”

“Really? That surprises me.” Jaune smirked. “She seems like someone with a very welcoming personality to me.”

Whitley smiled for a moment at his words, letting out a soft chuckle. “Yeah… she's not someone that's very welcoming to people she doesn't know. Or, in some cases, people she does know.”

An awkward silence fell between the two, as Whitley put his free hand in his pocket. Jaune had the feeling the boy was again holding something back, but he was unsure if he should press the issue.

No, he decided. If Whitley wanted to talk about it, he would. He didn't feel it was right to pressure his new friend, especially when they were still learning tons of things about each other. Instead, he decided that he would try to help in another way.

“I get it. What if you gave me the flower?”

Whitley’s jaw dropped at his words, his eyes squinting for a moment in confusion. “I'm sorry?”

“Yeah,” Jaune said, chuckling sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, it’s my fault she's in this situation anyway. Not only that, she helped to save my skin. I owe her not only an apology, but maybe something a little extra, too. That flower seems like a good start.”

Whitley let out a sigh. "I don't know... she's probably not going to be very happy to see you, if I know her like I think I do."

Jaune let out a chuckle, as he shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, come on. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Depends on how durable your eardrums are."

"What?"

Whitley let out a chuckle. "Nevermind." He held his hand out towards Jaune offering him the lily. "If you insist. You'd... you'd probably have better luck than me."

Jaune noticed that Whitley looked away after his statement, and Jaune felt the urge to question him once more. However, he decided to leave such a topic for later, instead opting to take the flower offered to him. He looked it over in his hand for a moment, the pure white flower looking angelic in between his fingers. He thought to himself that the flower's color reminded him once more of Weiss' hair.

As he looked up, he gasped when he saw that Whitley had vanished. He let out a groan of disappointment.

"Seriously? Why does everyone around here disappear like it's an anime? If I didn't know any better, I'd say these people had superpowers."

He chuckled to himself, realizing that such an idea was impossible. It was physically impossible for someone to vanish that quickly. It would require something like turning into a swarm of flower petals, or using a mobile platform to launch away at high speeds, and such things did not exist.

He put the meaningless thoughts in the back of my mind, trying to calm the racing of his heart and the sweatiness of his palms as he opened the door to step inside the infirmary.

She sat in the bed, letting out a sigh of disappointment. Weiss had been fortunate that she had not been harmed in the incident, nor had her outfit suffered any damage. However, as she found herself in a form of solitary confinement against her will, she had opted to switch into her blue nightgown for the time being. It was almost entirely light blue, except for a white neckline and hem.

Despite her irritation at being out of commission for the time being, she had decided to take the short time off to relax, unpinning the bun in her hair and removing her tiara, letting her long white mane of hair flow down her back. It pooled beneath her body like a silky, white blanket. She stared up at the white ceiling above her.

Weiss had needed a few hours to get over the incident. It had been scary at the time, but in hindsight, her logical side was able to take over. She had been very fortunate that neither her nor that dunderhead Jaune had gotten seriously hurt. Professor Peach had been very understanding about what had happened, and promised that she would have an opportunity to retake the lab at a later date with no penalty to her grade.

She let out a relieved sigh just thinking about it. Thank god. If her grade had been impacted by something that wasn't her fault, she didn't know what she would do.

Her eyebrows furrowed downward as she pondered the situation. As much as she wanted to (and did) blame Jaune for what happened, there was something about it that didn't sit quite right with her. No matter how much he could've possibly screwed up, there seemed to be no explicable reason as to why his dust crystals should've acted so differently compared to her own. It was an entirely different level of danger compared to Grade 2 dust.

"It's almost like... almost like it was a different grade?"

She thought to herself out loud, but as she did, she shook her head in confusion. "But that makes no sense... these are just standard chemistry kits sold by the school. For a crystal to react that violently in such a short amount of time, it would have to be a much higher grade. At least Grade 3, but most likely Grade 4."

While Grade 5 dust was dust in its most natural and dangerous state, Grade 4 was the most dangerous level of dust usable by mankind. It was usually only used in specific situations, such as advanced weapons manufacturing. Incendiary rounds from fire dust, grenades with specific elemental properties, and even coatings for weapons and bullets. All very powerful uses, but also very dangerous.

It was the type of thing that her father had begun investing time and money into researching, and regardless of her personal feelings on that matter, she could confidently conclude it was nothing that should be anywhere near a school.

She pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "No... there's no way that's right! You can only get dust of that level in very specific areas. Certainly nothing that would be accessible to average students..."

Weiss pouted to herself as she concluded her hypothesis was incorrect, pounding the sheets slightly with her dainty fists to throw a slight tantrum. "Damn it! I guess that Jaune boy really is just a special level of incompetent! To almost get his own face blown off from mere Grade 2 dust is... it's unconscionable!"

She crossed her arms as she looked to the side. "Hmph. Unbelievable. First, I have to deal with a rude brat. Then, there's the fact my brother is still spying on me. And, as if things couldn't possibly get any worse, I get paired with an ignoramus who could've gotten me severely hurt! Could things possibly get any worse?"

As if the gods themselves decided to answer, Weiss heard the quiet sound of the door to her room opening. She craned her neck to the right, her eyes widening as she let out a surprised gasp at the young man in front of her, standing in the doorway awkwardly.

Jaune stood there, clearly hesitating as he saw the surprise on her face. He chuckled to himself, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, while he seemed to be holding something behind his back with the other.

DU TOLLPATSCHIGER EINFALTSPINSEL! WEGEN DIR HÄTTE ICH MEIN AUGE VERLIEREN ODER NOCH SCHLIMMER VON DER SCHULE GEWORFEN WERDEN KÖNNEN!

She screamed to herself in her native tongue internally. Of all the people that could’ve chosen to visit her, it just had to be him. The man who could’ve gotten her hurt, or, even worse, in serious trouble with the administration. She was lucky that Professor Peach was one of the greatest women and professors on the planet; a lesser faculty member may have placed the blame for the incident on her, which could’ve gotten her in some hot water.

She wanted to scream at him; scream at him for almost getting his face melted off, scream at him for risking her own safety, scream at him for getting her caged in a room once again in her life, and scream at him for just being an all-around buffoon.

However, she ultimately concluded that such behavior would be unfitting of someone of her superior station, and it would do little to improve her situation. She took a deep breath to attempt to regain her composure, sitting up in her bed as she hugged the sheets tightly to her body. She hated feeling so bare in front of a stranger like him, but she refused to show weakness.

Another lesson her father had taught her: those that show weakness will be eaten alive by the strong. Emotions and feelings will always be used against you if you show them to the wrong people.

"Jaune," Weiss began calmly as she eyed him with an even expression. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Weiss." He looked down at the ground for a moment, unsure, before he looked up at her once more. "I just wanted to come by to check on you. See if you're alright."

"I'm fine. No thanks to you, of course. What were you thinking?"

He chuckled. "Well... good to see you too, I guess?"

Great. She was only about ten seconds into the conversation and she could already feel her irritation levels rapidly increasing. This was going to be much more difficult than she thought.

"The receptionist let you in, I see." She sighed. "Lovely. Next time I'll make sure to bribe her and tell her that I wish to have no visitors."

Jaune let out a sigh at her words, hesitantly stepping forward. Weiss continued eying him with a calculating gaze. She clenched her fists, gripping the sheets a bit tighter. Even in her current state, she wasn't going to take any shit from him. If he tried something funny, she would be ready.

However, he stopped after only a step or two, shaking his head.

"I understand why you feel that way. I suppose I was acting a bit stupid. I mean, clearly you knew much more about what we were doing than I did. If you knew something was wrong, I should've stood back and let you handle it. I apologize for that."

Weiss blinked once, then twice, continuing to look him over. She felt a hint of surprise, but she knew she could never show that to him.

"You apologize?" She scoffed. "Well. I suppose doing so is only natural after making such a massive mistake. Not that I can relate, of course, since I never make such mistakes."

He chuckled. "I guess so. It feels a bit different when you're used to screwing things up like I am, I suppose."

Her eyes widened for a moment, but Jaune quickly cleared his throat to continue. "A-anyway... that's not what I'm most sorry about. I can accept screwing up. After all, every mistake and failure is just a learning experience, right? A chance to do better in the future?"

Not really? She thought to herself. The very idea was absurd to her. Another lesson her father had taught her: you must always be perfect. Mistakes will be punished. Mistakes are unforgivable. Mistakes are for commoners, the lesser throngs of society. People at the top could not make mistakes. Schnees could not make mistakes.

The very idea of failure being a key instrument to success was one that was totally alien to her. However, if Jaune noticed the unamused look on her face, he didn't notice, as he continued.

"But, even if nothing bad happened, I can accept the fact I made a mistake. I can't accept the fact that my shortcomings put you in danger. The fact that they scared you. I may not know you well at all, sure, but the idea that I put another person in harm's way because I wasn't good enough..."

He paused. "Well, it just really doesn't sit right with me, and I would like to apologize for that. I'm glad you're okay, and I hope you can forgive me for my failure."

She pondered his words for a moment. It was again another concept unfamiliar to her: to her, failure was unforgivable. A shame that one must bear for the rest of their life. Something to be scrutinized and mocked by others, picked apart like vultures scavenging carrion. Weiss knew he deserved to be belittled and humiliated for a mistake, just as her father had always done to her and her family.

At least, that was what she had been taught to do. But something about Jaune here felt rather different; the way he apologized didn’t feel forced but somehow genuine. Jaune didn’t seem like the past men she had to deal with, suitors only looking for her connection to the Schnee name rather than herself. All her life, it was just her name only and not herself, as if she was a doll to be displayed. Jaune wasn’t looking at her like a doll; his eyes told a different story and it held some level of warmth, as if it welcomed her instead of bearing malicious intent. 

The last time Weiss had ever seen welcoming eyes like that, other than her butler Klein, was when her grandfather was alive.

Weiss was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice Jaune placing something next to her on the night stand.

“Uh…here ya go,” Jaune said, awkwardly clearing his throat as he did so. “Someone wanted me to give that to you,” said a grinning Jaune, rubbing his neck.

Weiss turned her eyes to stare at what Jaune had left there: a white lily. Weiss’s eyes widened when she laid her eyes upon that flower. It was her favorite, a fact which not many people knew. She felt her breath catch in her throat temporarily as she eyed it.

“Someone told me to give that to you, said you, uh… liked those kinds of flowers.” He chuckled awkwardly. “Hope you like it!”

After taking a moment to regain her composure, Weiss picked up the flower and stared at it blankly. She turned it over in her hands, analyzing it as if it were a troublesome weed rather than her favorite flower.

“Thank you,” Weiss said with an even expression, hoping an agreeable attitude would get rid of him sooner. “Your thoughtfulness is… commendable.”

Jaune smiled, giving her a nod. “No problem! Well… feel better, and… hopefully I see you around?” He shrugged nervously.

Weiss stared at him blankly, not wanting to give him the idea she was interested in that proposal. She merely looked down at the flower once more.

“We’ll see,” she said.

There were a few moments of awkward silence, before Jaune finally cleared his throat. “Alright. Well, feel better, and enjoy the flower!” Jaune said, before waving goodbye. He turned and exited the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

On the outside, Weiss looked completely still, unmoving like a statue. On the inside, however, her mind was brewing a storm of frosty rage.

“So… that’s how you want to play, brother? You dare trick this tall scraggly creature of chaos to send this flower? You couldn’t cut it as one of us, couldn’t cut it as a Schnee… and now you think you can play the long game with me through this blonde meat puppet? Don’t think I don’t know the game you and father are playing here. I will NOT lose!”

Her hands began to shake as she grit her teeth, looking down at the flower with disdain. No doubt, she told herself, this was some type of taunt from her brother. Not only had that twerp followed her to Bullworth, but now he seemed content to annoy her even when she was at a low point.

“Someone told me to give that to you.”

She scoffed as Jaune’s words replayed in her mind. “A likely story. It’s much more likely that it’s merely a jab from him to rub this setback in my face. He thinks he can come here at Father’s request? Spy on me? Use a gullible cute boy to try and get close to me and pry away secrets?”

Weiss shook her head, letting out a bitter laugh. No. That was not going to happen. If he wanted to play some type of game with her, she would make sure she won. How could she claim to be the best if she let her little brother hoodwink her so?

She wanted to crush it. Crush the flower in her palm and blow the remains away into the wind. Reject the gift of a boy less trustworthy than Judas Iscariot himself, and continue on as if she had never seen it at all.

Yet, as she continued to look at it, her gaze slowly softened. Even if the flower was from nefarious means, there was still a part of her that admired its beauty. It was a reminder of happier times from her childhood, when she and her mother would tend to the flowers together in the Schnee family garden.

Her mother had always told her the flower reminded her of Weiss, for it was very strong, very elegant, and very beautiful.

She let out a tired and defeated sigh, her grip on the stem softening. Reluctantly, she moved to place it down gently on her bedside table, before quickly rolling over on the bed to look away from it. She crossed her arms against her body as she stared at the white wall.

“Hmph. It’s lucky that I have an empty vase waiting for it. And that it is my favorite.”

Elsewhere in Bullworth Academy, two students had a meeting. 

Cinder sat down on a wooden box. The walls of the room were made of a dark gray tile. The walls were a faded gray, the paint peeling off the walls due to the fact that it hadn’t gotten a good recoat in probably half a century. Giant pipes stuck out of the walls and went into other areas, while dusty tombstones covered with cobwebs and faded orange pumpkins littered parts of the room, in preparation for the Halloween celebrations in a few months.

The only source of light in the room was the fires of a nearby furnace, where a young student held her hands out towards it, her body visibly shaking and shivering.

“Come on, Cinder,” Emerald whined. “Did we have to meet in the boiler room of all places?”

Cinder chuckled, as if Emerald had told a funny joke. “Of course, my dear Emerald,” she replied calmly. “Why, we can’t risk anyone overhearing us. Even if we attempt to be discrete elsewhere, there is always the possibility of someone hearing something they shouldn’t. If a prefect overheard our plans, that would be… particularly troublesome.”

Emerald turned around to face Cinder, looking at her for a moment before letting out a quiet sigh.

“Yes, Cinder,” she said in a subdued tone. “I understand.”

“Good,” Cinder replied, a sickening smirk on her face as she nodded. “Besides, there’s no reason for you to look so glum. You’ve done a great job, Emerald. Manipulating that Schnee bitch’s chemistry set was a gambit, to be sure, but one that worked out perfectly.”

“I mean, I just replaced the crystal in the box like you said,” Emerald shrugged. “You did most of the hard work, after all. Where did you even get a Grade 4 fire dust crystal from, anyway?”

“Oh, that?” Cinder chuckled. “That was child’s play. Let’s just say… I have a contact inside the Townies that has their own reasons for wanting to take the Schnees down. A few months ago, the Townies jacked a shipment from the Schnee Shipping Company, which included some rather high quality dust crystals.”

Emerald’s eyes widened. “What? But Grade 4 is military grade. That’s the type of stuff that…”

“That Jacques Schnee has been investing into, yes. He understands where the money is, of course. With fools like James Ironwood in Vice City, there’s no market shortage. Military contracts can be very expensive, and with things as they are overseas, Uncle Sam is looking for any advantage they can get.”

“I don’t know. That’s all above my paygrade.”

Cinder laughed. “Of course it is, Emerald. That’s why you have me. To do all the thinking and planning, while you’re out in the field.”

Emerald looked down at the ground. “Yeah.”

Cinder stood up, walking towards the girl. She placed a hand under Emerald’s chin, lifting it up to look into her eyes. Emerald let out a shocked gasp as she looked into Cinder’s eyes, her amber eyes piercing into Emerald’s red ones. Indoctrinating her… enthralling her.

“I appreciate you, Emerald. Without you, things would be very difficult for me. Please never forget that.”

Emerald gulped nervously, before she smiled and nodded her head. “Y-yes, Cinder, I understand.”

“Good,” Cinder said, releasing her chin before turning back around to sit on the box once more. “Long story short, that crystal served a great purpose. It showed that snow bitch that she isn’t untouchable. She isn’t perfect. Even now, I can just imagine the gears turning in her head. ‘How could this happen? To me of all people?’”

Cinder shook her head at the thought. “Foolish girl. She thinks she is above everyone else? Untouchable… superior? She is sorely mistaken.”

“I heard she got pretty shaken up from it, but she wasn’t hurt. Is that good?”

Cinder pondered the question for a moment, before she nodded her head. “Yes. The goal was never to hurt her severely. At least, not this early. We need to start planting the cracks in her mind, slowly but surely. Picking away at her shell of composure until she feels nothing but doubt and hesitation. Then, and only then, will we strike.”

Cinder sighed, as she stroked her chin in contemplation. “But first… we have a much more pressing issue to attend to. Are you ready to proceed with the plan later today?”

Emerald shuffled her feet nervously, as she looked to the side. “It just…” She sighed. “Are you really sure about this? What if I get caught? Ozpin will have me in detention for months on end. Nor do I want one of his insane prefects making it so I have to eat out of a straw for the rest of the semester.”

“You won’t get caught,” Cinder replied in an even tone. “I am confident of it. You will be doing this while class is in session, to minimize the chances of being seen by a student. Realistically, the only threat you will have to worry about is the prefects.”

“And you want me to do this… why?”

Cinder frowned, tisking audibly at the question. “Oh, Emerald… you still don’t get it, do you? Cardin and Ted were not what we hoped for, but this Jaune fellow?” 

Cinder sighed, a dreamy look on her face. “He’s amazing. He has power, but does not yet have the desire to wield it as well as he could. If he could be persuaded to use his abilities for my own ends, then he will be a most useful tool, indeed. You can tell how he hesitates… seems vulnerable. All he needs is someone to whisper in his ear about how everything will be alright, how he’ll be okay. Then, he’ll be putty in my hands.”

“And if he doesn’t fall in line with you?”

Cinder shrugged. “Then he can be put in his place like any other student. He may be strong, but he’s not the strongest. The way of Bullworth has always been about the strong ruling the weak. If he steps out of a line, then he must come face to face with someone stronger than him. Come to terms with his own weakness, and stay in his lane.”

She frowned to herself at the thought. “But that’s not going to happen, because I’m already working on getting him on my side. That’s why this next phase of the plan is so critical.”

“The Schnee boy?”

Cinder nodded. “He is a threat that needs to be put in his place. We can’t have someone like him getting in the way of things. It is… unfortunate that Jaune seems to have a positive relationship with him, when I should be the one garnering his affection. For that reason, I think it’s time that we begin working on breaking him.”

“And you believe we can?”

“Of course. That boy is weak. It’s plain as day. The way he pines after the affections of a sister who hates his guts? The way he clings onto his one friend so tightly, as if he’s scared he’ll disappear if he lets go? The only reason everyone doesn’t bully him mercilessly is because he’s a Schnee. That name, for better or worse, has status. Power. For us to strike the first blow against him and humiliate him, it will show that names are meaningless in Bullworth. Then, Whitley Schnee will simply become another student, another victim to be eaten alive by the strong. We will not have to worry about him, then.”

Emerald stayed quiet for a moment, before nodding. “Alright. Then I will do as you wish.”

Cinder smirked. “Good. Granted, it’s not as if you had any choice in the matter… yes?”

Emerald looked into Cinder’s eyes, the fiery gaze piercing back at her making her feel weak and small. She gulped once more before meekly continuing.

“Y-yes, Cinder…”

“Excellent,” Cinder said, before standing up to head towards the exit. However, just before she left the boiler room, she turned to look over her shoulder.

“I’m counting on you, Emerald. Please make sure you don’t fail. That would be… most unfortunate for you.”

Without another word, Cinder left, smiling sadistically to herself as she thought of the events to come.

Translation Notes:

1) “Dieser Kerl... Ich bin mir sicher, dass er von meinem Vater oder Bruder geschickt wurde. Ich kann ihm nicht trauen, ganz egal wie unschuldig er tut.”

The first line basically says "this man (Dieser Karl)... I'm sure he was sent by my father (Vater) or brother (Bruder). I can't trust him, no matter how innocent he acts."

2) DU TOLLPATSCHIGER EINFALTSPINSEL! WEGEN DIR HÄTTE ICH MEIN AUGE VERLIEREN ODER NOCH SCHLIMMER VON DER SCHULE GEWORFEN WERDEN KÖNNEN!

The second line says "YOU CLUMSY SIMPLETON! (literal translation of "DU TOLLPATSCHIGER EINFALTSPINSEL" is more like "person lacking in skill and intellect") BECAUSE OF YOU I COULD HAVE LOST MY EYE ("mein auge") OR EVEN WORSE, BEEN THROWN OUT OF SCHOOL!" (German way of saying expelled, very literal).

Chapter Text

After leaving the nurse’s office, Jaune headed back inside the main school building and decided a little bit of a stroll would clear his mind after what happened last class.

Jaune was going to be quite frank; he didn’t expect his first class to go the way it did. Of course, the fact he was initially paired with a very pretty girl that took his breath away at literal first sight was a great coincidence. He certainly wasn’t one to believe in cliches such as “love at first sight,” nor did he think he was in love. However, he had to admit that it was a rather great coincidence, and one he wasn’t going to complain about.

Weiss Schnee, as she was called, seemed similar to her brother in certain ways. More similar than she would care to admit, apparently. There seemed to be more behind the girl than met the eye. The way she held back certain things she wanted to say or admit did remind him of Whitley.

What did not remind him of Whitley, however, was her filter. Clearly, the filters she did have did not apply to some of her words, as she had a rather abrasive and cold attitude for the most part. He only hoped that his gesture within the nurse’s office had gotten through to her.

He sighed as he leaned back against a wall in the main atrium of the building, too engrossed in his thoughts to notice any of the bustle and chatter around him, as it was only mere minutes before afternoon classes started.

No, he thought, shaking his head to himself. I think she was probably just trying to get rid of me.

Of course, he couldn’t blame her too much, considering the fact he had almost gotten his face melted off. In hindsight, he understood that he had appeared foolish. While part of him knew there was no way he could’ve known such an accident could have happened, another part of him believed that such a level of ignorance was even more reason to be cautious.

However, despite all his worries for what could’ve happened to him, he was far more concerned about the fact that Weiss had been forced to save him. Forced to put herself in harm’s way because of his stupidity.

It always felt like others were sticking their neck out for him because he wasn’t good enough. Whether it was Cinder looking out for him and offering to be his friend, Whitley standing up to that kid in the locker room to get the chocolate back for Eunice, or Weiss putting her own safety on the line to help him, there was one common theme: some form of weakness or vulnerability held him back.

He grumbled softly to himself, putting his hands in his pockets as he walked down a hallway to the left. Focusing on such issues would do him no good at this point. He had an English class that was about to begin, and he knew he had to take it seriously. He didn’t want to get another tongue lashing from a strict teacher, like the one he had received from Peach about not utilizing proper lab safety.

“Man,” Jaune remarked pensively as he stopped and stood outside the door with a small “ENGLISH” sign next to it. “This really has been one of the worst first days of school I’ve had in a long time. Even worse than the one where Saph dared me to wear a dress to school.”

Yet, despite his nervousness, he felt a great desire to get class over with, and so, as soon as the bell rang, he walked past the classroom door.

As he looked around the room, he saw that it was totally empty. Yet, there was a slight sense of comfort from the loneliness, and the light shining through the windows from the afternoon sun was comfortable against his skin. He also smelled something strange in the air, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was.

He shrugged and discarded the thought for the time being. Not wanting to draw any more attention to himself, Jaune headed towards the very back right corner of the classroom. He lazily slung off his backpack before sitting down like an old lump in the chair. He rested his arms on the desk with graffiti on it before resting his head on it. He was exhausted, but he was going to try his best not to fall asleep in class.

Jaune ignored the sounds of students entering and chatting away, instead pulling out his phone to lazily scroll through it. The instant he opened the web browser on his phone, he saw something that instantly caught his eye on the front page.

“Interesting… some type of mayoral election. I wonder who the candidates are?”

Before Jaune could click on the article to find out more, he heard a chipper female voice.

“Uh, excuse me!? Are these seats taken by any chance!?”

Jaune almost jumped out of his seat from the hyper tone of the girl, practically banging his knees against the bottom of the desk as he did so. As soon as he did, the girl in front of him, a ginger with short hair and blue-green eyes, gasped in shock.

“Oh my god, I am so, so sorry! I didn’t realize you were busy on your phone or whatever! Are your legs okay? Do you need an ambulance!?”

As Jaune took a moment to recover from the surprise and the slight pounding of his throat in his chest, he looked up to look at the girl a bit closer. She wore a white blouse and a green skirt, similar to the one Eunice had worn. He guessed it was the uniform for any female students that weren’t part of a clique. She had white socks and black loafers.

Jaune chuckled as he looked at the girl’s frightened expression. It was so exaggerated, like something out of a cartoon. He knew within just a few seconds of knowing her that the girl was utterly harmless, albeit very excitable.

“I’m fine. You just snuck up on me, but it’s no big deal. I appreciate the concern.”

Before the girl could respond, Jaune heard a bored sigh. He watched as another student stepped up to stand beside the girl. He had black hair that was rather long, almost reaching the bottom of the back of his neck. His eyes were an interesting color; Jaune couldn’t tell for sure whether they were magenta or pink. Perhaps something in the middle?

He wore a green vest which was almost identical to Whitley’s besides its color, the Bullworth logo resting on the top left side of it. Under the vest was a white dress shirt, while he wore black business style slack pants. To complete the ensemble, he wore a set of black tennis shoes, which had some dark purple accents.

“Nora, please,” the boy said, shaking his head. “You almost scared him to death. We discussed this before. Can’t you talk with your inside voice?”

Nora, as she was apparently called, waved the boy off instantly, shrugging with a gigantic smile on her face. “Aw, what’s the big deal, Renny boy? He’s fiiiiiiiiiiiiine. You heard him!”

“Be that as it may, we still need to work on your etiquette a bit.” The boy then gave him an apologetic look and a small smile. “I apologize. Nora means well, but she doesn’t really have an… ‘off switch,’ if you know what I mean.”

“Ah, it’s honestly no big deal,” Jaune said with a smile. “Believe me, considering some of the jerks I’ve already dealt with up to this point, I’ll take her optimism seven days a week.”

The boy stayed quiet before sighing. “If you say so. Still, please don’t hesitate to let me know if she’s bothering you too much.”

Without any hesitation or need for invitation, Nora sat down in the seat in front of Jaune, leaning back in it casually. “Me, a bother? As if! I’m totally innocent, and I won’t tolerate these slanderous lies from you any longer!”

“It’s not slander if it’s true,” Ren quipped back immediately.

The boy named Ren turned to Jaune, offering him a hand. “My name is Lie Ren, and my rather rambunctious friend is named Nora Valkyrie. Pleased to meet you…?”

Jaune reached forward to shake the boy’s hand. “Jaune. Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you, Ren.” He turned his head to give the girl a small nod. “And the same to you, Nora.”

Nora just kept grinning as she let out a giggle. “Jaune, huh? Nice to meet ya! Don’t let Ren’s seriousness fool you! He’s really a big softie at heart.” She looked around the classroom, as if making sure no one else was listening, before she leaned on Jaune’s desk, covering the right side of her mouth with a hand as she whispered to him.

“Especially for me…” 

Jaune blinked in confusion for a few moments, as Ren sat in the desk beside him. Jaune didn’t even notice he was there until the boy spoke.

“She didn’t say any dirty jokes to you, did she?”

Jaune looked at the boy blankly before he shook his head. “Uh… no, actually. It wasn’t anything like that at all.”

Ren stared at him, but after a few seconds of awkward silence, he nodded. “That’s good. Well, I’ll just sit back here so I can keep an eye on her, if you don’t mind. I don’t want her to destroy another classroom.”

Jaune wasn’t sure what he should be more concerned about: the fact that Nora was a threat to destroy an entire room, or the fact that she apparently already accomplished such a feat. However, as he looked to the front of the classroom and the empty desk there, another thought distracted him from that train of thought.

“Wait a minute,” Jaune began in a confused tone. “Where’s the teacher?”

Ren sighed, looking at the clock on the wall above the door. “He must be late… again.”

“Again? You mean this is a common thing?”

Nora laughed. “A common thing? I’d say it’s more uncommon for him to show up on time than this.”

What the hell? Is a single person in this school even remotely normal? 

Jaune nodded at Nora’s answer, not saying what he really wanted to say. In truth, he supposed that Whitley, Ozpin, and Peach seemed fairly normal. Yet, this school’s nature was beginning to make him question if even they didn’t have some hidden quirks underneath.

As if on cue, Jaune heard the sound of the classroom door opening, and looked to the front of the room. The class quieted down as a middle-aged man stepped into the room.

Compared to the remarkably well dressed Professor Peach, this man looked rather unkempt by comparison. Even from the very back of the classroom, Jaune could see his ruggedness on both his face and his clothing. He had graying black spiky hair with faded red eyes and a slight stubble along his jawline. The professor wore a faded brown suit with a silver button up underneath, tucked in with a red tie. The tie had little patterns of crows, which were in a state of disarray, as if he rushed out of bed this morning. 

The professor set his bag down on the table, taking out a folder and turning to look at the board. Jaune had his notebook and pen ready to write, but he stopped to see what the professor was doing. As he did, Jaune swore he saw the teacher take a sip from a flask hidden inside of his suit jacket. However, he dismissed the idea as merely a figment of his imagination.

The professor mumbled to himself and grabbed a nearby piece of chalk to begin writing on the board. He then cleared his throat loudly.

“Alright. Let’s get this over with.” The professor jotted down a few letters on the board, before turning around to face the classroom. The students looked at him in silence as the professor wobbled on his feet slightly, a glazed look in his eyes.

“Hello, my name is Professor Qrow Branwen, and I’ll be your English instructor this semester. English, huh?” The man smirked, letting out a gravelly chuckle. “Well, you all speak English, so hopefully you don’t have too many issues. And, if you do, then whatever. It’s like you could be any worse of a screwup than someone like me.”

As he went to speak more, he unintentionally let out a rather loud belch. He covered his mouth after he did, letting out a disappointed sigh.

The classroom snickered lightly at Qrow’s burping but he recovered and spoke up.

“Oops. Sorry about that. Had a rather heavy lunch. Anyways… as I said, I am going to be your English teacher! For this semester, we will be diving into literature, language and the amount of ‘amazing’ words’ we are going to learn and write.” Professor Qrow spoke in a very sarcastic tone, sounding as if he lacked any enthusiasm in teaching this class.

Jaune had to admire the man’s openness. He was honest, to a fault, to show such little regard for his line of work. At the same time, Jaune blanched a little. Great, a possibly alcoholic English teacher. It’s like the jokes write themselves; if Jaune didn’t know any better, he’d think someone was playing a practical joke on him.

“Alright,” Professor Qrow began, picking up a stack of papers on his desk. He divided them up evenly, placing smaller stacks on the first deck of each row. “Please pass down the syllabus. I know how you students work. If I didn’t provide these for you myself, half of you would’ve forgotten these even exist. How do I know this? Well, I was also a student once.” The man chuckled.

Jaune avoided the urge to chuckle, as he recalled Weiss lecturing him earlier that day for not even knowing what a syllabus was. He had to concede, at least in his case, that Professor Branwen had a point. He waited a few moments before the papers reached the back of his row. He quietly thanked Nora as she passed him a small packet, a couple of pages stapled together.

As Jaune tried to scan over the course schedule, Professor Branwen continued. “Now, listen, I’m not really into that formal crap. You can call me whatever you want. Professor Branwen, Branwen… hell, even Qrow. I don’t care. Just don’t get myself or yourselves hurt or in trouble, and you can do whatever you want here. Within reason, of course.”

Qrow, as he was called, turned around and headed towards his desk. As he reached down, he grabbed a bunch of small chalkboard signs, as well as pieces of chalk, and began passing them around to the students in the class. Jaune waited a few more minutes until he finally got one, then awaited further instructions.

“Alright. Before I have you guys reading Shakespeare or Keats, I first need to make sure you’re literate. Here is your assignment.”

Qrow stepped out of the way and motioned towards the letters he had written on the board. Jaune looked to see the letters E, L, L, M, O, W on the board.

“The task is simple. Using the letters on the board, you are to write down as many words on your board as you can possibly think of. For the purposes of this assignment, if you can jot down 13 words in 3 minutes or less, you will receive a 100.”

The man shrugged. “That said, this is just a homework grade, which is only worth 1% of your grade, so if you can’t spell at all, it won’t screw you over today. Just make sure it doesn’t become a habit. I don’t want another student who thinks that an iambic pentameter is a poly-whatever with five sides.”

More students chuckled at the man’s words, and Jaune couldn’t help but smile. From his experience in Chemistry class this morning, he was beginning to wonder if every professor in this place would be super strict. Clearly, Qrow showed this was not the case.

Qrow cleared his throat before continuing. “Like I said, you will have three minutes. We will be doing these kinds of assignments occasionally throughout the semester. Think of them as a little game, so to speak. It will count towards your grade, but it’s also meant to be a fun test of your skills. Everyone ready?”

He waited a few seconds. When there was no response, he nodded, sitting behind his desk. He pulled out a classic white timer, reaching behind it to wind it into the proper position. 

“Good. Then your three minutes starts… now!”

He activated the timer, as students began scribbling on their boards as fast as they could. Qrow looked around with a smirk on his face. He leaned back casually in his chair, his hands behind his head.

Jaune suddenly realized he was wasting time and grabbed his chalk. His mind raced as he tried to form words inside his head.

“Okay. Okay, think Jaune! What are some words you know?” Jaune massaged his temple in thought for a few seconds, until a lightbulb went off in his head.

Jaune remembered a time where he and his sisters had often played Scrabble. While he may have had a rather unimpressive win-to-loss ratio against his siblings, he still gathered some impressive vocabulary acumen. He thought to himself, coaching himself mentally.

“Elm… that’s a specific type of tree. I don’t even know what it looks like, I just know it’s a tree. Low… like my chances of passing this class. Mow… I used to mow the lawn all the time back home, in that horrible Texan heat.” Jaune shuddered at the thought.

“Owe, as in I think I still owe Saphron twenty bucks, or I owe Weiss for saving my skin this morning. I hope Saph forgot about the twenty bucks…” He shook his head, knowing such a thing was highly unlikely. He gulped at the thought of his sister marching through the academy halls to collect a debt she had previously forgotten about.

“Okay, okay… there’s owl. Like the Rice Owls from back home. Woe? As in, ‘woe is me for being terrible at this’? Yeah, that counts. Okay, now for the hard part…” Jaune looked up at the timer on Professor Qrow's desk. He saw that there was a little over two minutes remaining.

Not bad. He still had time, so he began thinking to himself once more.

“Back to the nose grind. Uhhhhh… meow?” He nodded to himself as he wrote down the word. “Yeah, meow! What’s another word? Mole?” He wrote down the word, feeling satisfied with his progress. “That works too, but… was there any other versions of meow?” Jaune tapped the chalk in a fidgety way, trying to remember any other words for the assignment. 

“Well… wait, wait! WELL! Well well well, Jaune, you are smart!” He grinned as he wrote the word down. Jaune stopped to look around his surroundings a little. The only familiar faces Jaune knew were Nora and Ren; Ren seemed diligently focused on his work, setting down his piece of chalk as if he were already done. On the other hand, Nora seemed to be doodling on her board with a look of silent joy on her face, not a care in the world.

As he focused on them, a voice snapped him out of it. “Thirty seconds!”

Jaune’s eyes widened in panic as he looked towards Professor Qrow’s desk. He saw that the teacher’s words were correct, and that there was less than half a minute remaining. Jaune felt his heart rate accelerating and a small sweat forming on his brow as he looked down at his board once more. He had scribbled down nine words so far out of the thirteen required.

“Okay, there’s no way I can get them all,” Jaune resigned to himself. “But maybe I could try and get one more? What was that word? The one that means the same as ‘meow’ but is spelled slightly differently?”

He thought to himself intently for a few more seconds, before he let out a soft gasp as it came to him. He scribbled down the word ‘mew’ with a trembling hand.

Just as he finished writing the word, he heard a ringing sound from the front of the classroom. “TIME!” Qrow yelled out, just in case the annoying ringing wasn’t enough of a message. “Chalks down. Pass your boards up to the front. Make sure your name is on it before you turn it in.”

Jaune quickly scribbled his name in the top right corner of the board, before he passed it towards the waiting Nora. The students at the front gave the boards to Qrow one at a time, as he began setting them down on his desk. After a few minutes of waiting, all the boards had been retrieved and set down on the man’s desk.

Qrow sat down in his chair again, scanning over the small chalkboards. He nodded to himself. “Not bad. About what I expected. Some of you did really well. Some of you did… well, there’s always room for improvement.” He then crossed his arms as he squinted at one of the boards in particular.

“And one of you… drew a cat on your board? Oh, and I see you conveniently ‘forgot’ to put your name too, huh?” The man shook his head, a smile on his face. “I wonder which of you jokers did that?”

Jaune wasn’t a snitch, but he could see the way that Nora covered her mouth, her body slightly shaking from holding in her giggles. Ren let out a tired sigh behind him, but didn’t say anything because Qrow continued.

“Well, it’s not my grade, so whatever. Looks like most of you passed the first assignment. By the way, because this state has such incredibly low expectations for English students, a 60% is considered passing. But that’s fine; I like low expectations. So if you got at least eight of the thirteen words, congratulations. You pass.”

Jaune resisted the urge to chuckle at the man’s continued lack of enthusiasm, but he internally patted himself on the back. Not only had he passed the assignment, but he had done better than he had expected.

“Well,” Qrow continued, “now that I know most of you can at least read, we have a good basis to work on. That said, I’ve seen the test scores from under our previous instructor, Mr. Galloway, and… well. Let’s just say it doesn’t help to revisit the basics every now and then. For that reason, our first lesson will be on punctuation. Now, tell me: do any of you knuckleheads know what a run-on sentence is?”

LATER

Despite barely passing, Jaune considered getting a 76 on his first English assignment a great success. It was a silent victory for Jaune, in his honest opinion. Despite his English teacher being a borderline functioning alcoholic, he had to admit the man knew his stuff when it came to teaching. He couldn’t say he found the material itself particularly interesting, but at least Professor Branwen made the time pass by quickly.

Jaune felt a strange feeling, as if the knowledge he had gained from his first lesson had made him smarter in a way… better with his words. It was almost as if some invisible force had granted Jaune Arc the ability to apologize to anyone bullying him more effectively.

“Hey, Jaune! Wait!” yelled a voice. Jaune turned to see Nora jogging to catch up to him. He waited a moment for the girl, standing next to his locker as he did so. Ren followed behind Nora patiently as the two got to Jaune.

“I forgot to ask. You're like, new here, right? Like, new-new?” asked Nora.

“Uh, yeah, I am,” Jaune said, nodding.

“Hm, well, it's obvious that you didn’t grow up here at Bullworth. Did you move here by any chance?” asked Ren.

“Yeah,” Jaune confirmed with a slight nod. “I transferred in a few days ago. I’m actually from Texas… Killeen, specifically,” said Jaune. He was going to explain further, but Nora stifled some giggles with her hand.

“Texas? So you’re a cowboy, mistah? Y’all talkin’ like this down there?” said Nora, her voice a stereotypical Southern accent. Jaune avoided the urge to chuckle at the horribly exaggerated speech and simply shook his head.

“No, we don’t done talk like that,” replied Jaune, his Texan accent slipping out before he could stop himself. Realizing what had just come out of his mouth, he looked at both Ren and Nora’s reactions.

Ren had a smirk, as if he was trying to hold back his laughter, while Nora looked as if she was ready to laugh out loud.

Jaune only covered his mouth, his face burning red with embarrassment as the two laughed at the accent slip. It was rather embarrassing, but Jaune didn’t really mind. He actually felt like joining in with them, but before he could, Ren stopped laughing. He looked at Jaune with a smirk and a mirthful look in his eyes before he spoke.

“Sorry, sorry. You see, Nora’s only asking because we heard through the grapevine that a new kid easily beat one of the bullies outside of the boys' dorm-”

“Yeah! And the crazy explosion that happened downstairs! That was you, right?” interrupted Nora, wildly exaggerating the incident as Jaune reluctantly nodded. 

“Y-yeah. I was there when it happened, but I got saved by a girl. She was my lab partner, but she was like… really pretty. I think her name was Weiss. Do you guys know anything about her?” 

Jaune looked at his two new friends curiously, hoping that any kind of information about the snow angel could possibly help him in his endeavors to get to know her better. He still felt bad about what had happened earlier that day. He only hoped his mistake hadn’t made her totally hate his guts; he would settle for her just partially hating his guts. He was more used to that.

However, the looks of both Ren and Nora’s faces shifted immediately. Surprise was evident, and Jaune wanted to say more, but the duo stopped him there.

“Wait, as in Weiss Schnee? From the Schnee Shipping Company?” began Nora.

Jaune perked up at what the ginger had said. So, they did know something.

“Shipping Company?” 

“Jaune, what is it that you know about her so far?” asked Ren.

Jaune stopped to think, then he spoke up again. “Well, not much, to be honest. I only met her for the first time earlier today. She’s really smart. She knows things that I struggle to even begin to understand. She’s a bit short and to the point, but I don’t think she does it to be cruel. Brutally honest? Very pretty. She’s also someone who wears expensive stuff, so is she rich?”

“‘Is she rich’ is an understatement. Her family practically owns the fucking town,” quipped Nora. Jaune’s eyes widened a little at that statement, but he couldn’t say any more before Ren continued Nora’s line of thinking.

“The Schnee Shipping Company is one of the richest businesses in Bullworth, besides the Marigolds and their construction company. Not only that, but it’s also one of the largest corporations in the entire world. The Schnees are solely responsible for the entire conglomerate of dust being shipped around everywhere in the United States. Large parts of the rest of the world, too. In order to procure such dust, they built the mines you’ll see around this town, if you notice them. They weren’t created as a shipping company; they were originally a mining company, and the Schnees have been here in New England for a very, very long time. But before that, the SSC was founded in Germany under a different name: the Schnee Dust Company, or the SDC for short.”

Dust, huh? That crazy weird crystal stuff that almost melted my face off? Jaune pondered to himself. Now it made sense to him why Weiss seemed to be an expert in the subject.

He shook off the thought for now before responding to Ren. “I see. Now that you mention it, Weiss did say something about dust earlier that stuck out to me. Something about it running in her family? That would also explain why she seemed to know so much about it.”

Ren nodded. “That makes sense, yes. She is the heiress of the Schnee Shipping Company, after all. However, it doesn’t just stop with dust.”

Jaune raised an eyebrow in interest. “You mean they sell other things?”

“Since they got rich,” Ren continued, “they began to spread their influence around here. The SSC continued to grow in power; what once was a mining company became a massive corporation and an international superpower. As they continued expanding their shipping operations, they began delving into other enterprises. Then, the product placement began. Here at Bullworth in particular, the Schnees have had their products spread out everywhere in this town.”

Nora bumped in, slinging her arm around the boy with her usual grin.

“Renny means EVERYWHERE! Toothpaste, candy bars, cars, and even weapons from Ammu-Nation! Hehehe.” Nora giggled, gesturing as if she was holding a gun.

Ren looked at Nora, before turning back towards Jaune. “She’s right. It would be easier to say what fields the Schnees haven’t delved into than the ones they have. They’re everywhere. Dust is still their most important money maker, but it’s far from the only one. Besides Bullworth, they’re in all other parts of the United States. Liberty City, Vice City, Los Santos, Las Venturas, San Fierro, Carcer City… even North Yankton. And nobody ever goes to North Yankton.”

“Yeah that’s true. Maybe some people live in North Yankton. I certainly wouldn’t. Too cold for my taste,” Jaune agreed. “But wow, I didn’t even realize she was like… that loaded! I thought she would be rich, but this? She’s like…”

“Super, duper fucking omega rich?” piped up Nora, with a smile on her face. “Yeah. If you go to Old Bullworth Vale, you’ll see some tourist signs bragging about the Schnees and whatever little factoids they love to give to common peasants like us. They’re a big attraction around here.”

Jaune stayed quiet, processing her words. He didn’t think Nora had any resentment towards the Schnees, despite her words. That said, it made him wonder how many others did. He wasn’t into politics too much, but he knew enough to know that rich people weren’t always too popular with people.

As Jaune thought about the duo’s explanations, he looked up at them again with a new train of thought. “Ah, right. Since you guys asked me, I guess it’s only polite to ask you as well. Did you guys grow up here?”

“Me and Renny? Nah, I was born in Carcer, while Renny was born in Liberty City.”

“Oh, wow,” Jaune replied with a wide mouth. He would never have guessed that Ren and Nora were from such… dangerous places. He was particularly familiar with Carcer City, as his father had operated there for a long time. However, as he thought about that, something stuck out in his mind. Carcer City and Liberty City were almost ten hours apart from each other. Yet, from what Jaune had observed, Ren and Nora seemed to interact with each other as if they had known each other almost their entire lives.  

“So, then… how’d you two meet?” asked Jaune. However, as soon as he did so, he instantly noticed the mood drop a little, as the jovial looks on both students’ faces were replaced by looks of deep thought and pensiveness. Nora, in a move that stunned Jaune, seemed hesitant to speak as she remained silent. Ren moved to speak up instead.

“We’re orphans…” began Ren. Nora looked away, a blush on her face as if she was trying to hide shame. Jaune felt his throat become dry as he noted how uncomfortable she looked. He looked back at Ren to listen to him as he continued speaking.

“Nora… she was alone and by herself in Carcer. In case you’re not familiar, it’s one of the worst cities in America. The absolute lowest of the low rule that city, doing things… that do not need to be said.” Ren paused, a grim look on his face. He let out a shaky sigh.

“As for myself, I… lost my family in an accident. Wrong place at the wrong time, if you will. I had an uncle in Carcer City, but… he wasn’t exactly fit to be a guardian. Eventually, the system placed us in the same orphanage, and the rest is history.” 

Jaune noticed that Ren had begun slowly rubbing a hand along Nora’s back in an intimate gesture to calm her down. It seemed to work, at least slightly, as Nora finally bucked up the courage to look at Jaune.

“It wasn’t easy, but we had each other’s back no matter what,” Nora explained with a weak smile on her face. “It’s all we have, really. We’re all we have, pretty much. We’re lucky we got into this school, too,” said Nora, one hand rubbing her arm. However, her previous discomfort didn’t keep her down long. She playfully bumped her head into Ren’s, a small “boop” coming from her mouth.

“I’m… I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you two had to go through all that.” Jaune said. For a moment, he had forgotten that many people out there had it way worse than him. While he had gone through struggles of his own, hearing such harrowing accounts made him feel particularly grateful for the fact he still had a loving mom, several great sisters, and a very adorable nephew.

“Listen,” Jaune began nervously. “If I had known about that, I wouldn’t have ask-” However, before he could finish, he saw Ren put up a hand.

“It’s fine. Don’t apologize. It’s not like you had any way of knowing. Trust me, if you don’t want to talk to us after what I said, I wouldn’t fault you-”

“No!” Jaune said, in a louder tone than he had intended. He slapped himself mentally as he saw Ren’s eyes widen, while Nora looked at him in shock. Jaune awkwardly cleared his throat to attempt to resolve the situation.

“No… don’t apologize. You shouldn’t apologize for horrible things happening to you. Just because you told me this doesn’t mean I want to treat you any differently. That’s not what friends do to each other, and even though I haven’t known you two very long, I can already tell we’re going to be great friends.” 

Ren and Nora continued to look at him in surprise, as silence hung over them for a few moments. However, it seemed to be a different kind of surprise from before: a pleasant surprise that the two had finally found someone who wasn’t judgmental about their experiences. Someone who may not have understood their experiences like the two of them deeply understood each other, but someone who strove to remain empathetic anyway.

It was something that stunned them, because of how rare it was. Not only was it rare in the world in general, but it was even more rare in a place like Bullworth.

“Oh… okay then. Well, thank you for not insulting us like the others did here,” said Ren, a small smile gracing his lips. Nora looked at Jaune with a big look of joy all over her face.

“Yeah, you know, my mom once said strangers are friends you never met! You guys seem chill so do you two wan-” 

Unfortunately for him, Jaune couldn’t finish his sentence, as Nora had jumped at him for a “hug”, picking him up and practically spinning him around in the air. Jaune let out a gasp of surprise as he felt his back muscles ache and his ribs threatening to crack from the pure power of the affectionate gesture. He let out a small sound of whimpering pain, and if Nora noticed it, she showed no signs of doing so. However, after a few more moments, Nora slightly loosened her grip, allowing Jaune to breathe again and catch his breath.

“Wow, Renny! A new friend! Can’t you believe it? Christmas! Just a week away!” squealed Nora. Jaune was taken aback by the sheer strength Nora displayed, but used his remaining breath to laugh alongside Nora. Ren only shook his head at his close friend’s antics and smiled.

It felt nice, making friends in a place like Bullworth. The only regret Jaune had in that moment was that he wished Whitley was here, too. He knew the boy would love to have friends like these.

Chapter Text

“Well, this is a surprising turn of events…” said Headmaster Ozpin, his eyes staring right into the eyes of the other woman sitting in front of him.

He took a sip from his teacup, before setting it down gently on his desk. He steepled his fingers together, resting them softly on the dark brown wood of his desk as he slightly leaned forward, a curious look in his eyes.

"So, you wish to apply to become the art teacher of Bullworth Academy. Is that correct?"

The woman on the other side nodded. She had snowy white hair, and pale blue eyes. She had bags under her eyes which hinted to a tired, sluggish nature. However, her malaise was a stark contrast to her regal outfit; a white, pearly necklace rested gently against her neck, while she wore a dark blue dress and high heels of a similar color. She went to clear her throat before speaking.

"That... is correct," Willow Schnee began, almost hesitant when saying the words. "I assume you've looked over my credentials, Headmaster?"

Ozpin nodded, before picking up a stack of papers from his desk. "That is correct," Ozpin confirms, before scanning over her resume. "Hmm... your credentials speak for themselves, I see. Got your diplom from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the early 1990s. Decades of experience... and I've seen some photos of your art." He set the papers down before looking at Willow once more. "Tell me, is it true that you even have an exhibit in the Städel?"

She blushed a bit before slowly nodding. "Yes, that's correct. Have you seen it?"

"Not in person of course, but I've seen it in photographs. A rather curious work, however..." He moved some of his papers aside to view a photograph of Willow Schnee's leitmotif.

"A picture of a wilted white flower in the middle of a tundra... yet the tundra is surrounded by a wall of fire, as high up as the ice can see. It's a rather interesting paradox, as if Hell itself invaded a world that is its direct opposite in every way."

Willow stayed silent. She took another deep breath, swallowing a lump in her throat.

"Well... that's the beauty of art. Artists are able to portray whatever they wish. We are not restricted by the logic and limitations of the real world. We can display whatever it is our hearts or minds desire, and do so in as beautiful of ways as our minds and hands can make reality. That piece in particular is titled 'Schneeglöckchen,' named so after the white flower itself."

Ozpin let out a murmur of acknowledgement. "Yes, I thought I had heard the term before. It's a rather beautiful flower." He looked over the piece once more, analyzing it with narrowed eyes. "Although... It's rather tragic in a way. Such a beautiful flower, barely clinging to life, amidst a horrific landscape. I'm not certain what such a sight should make me feel."

"What do you mean?"

"One the one hand," Ozpin continued immediately, "it's rather depressing. The flower continues to live despite having seemingly no hope of escape. Even if it were somehow able to get up and escape its icy roots, what then of this ring of fire? Surely, it seems given the situation, some could argue the flower's death would be a mercy compared to living in such agony. Yet, the more I think about it, I do not see it this way."

Willow avoided the urge to gasp at his assessment; however, she felt her heart rate accelerate slightly as she gripped the hem of her dress tightly.

"Then... what is it that you see, Headmaster?"

"Some would say they see beauty. And, to be certain, this is a rather beautiful flower."

Willow blushed; however, if the Headmaster noticed, he showed no signs of doing so, as he continued.
"However, what I admire the most about this piece is the message of resilience. To the Schneeglöckchen, things may certainly seem hopeless. In spite of this, however, it continues to live on. It survives. Thanks to your work, not only does it survive, but it will continue to do so as long as such a work exists. That's the great thing about works such as these... they live in the past, with even their own creators. Yet, centuries later, when men such as da Vinci, Van Gogh, Beethoven, or Mozart have long met their end, their works survive and live on. As do their own legacies. No person is truly dead as long as their legacy continues to live on."

He cleared his throat after his long monologue, smiling apologetically. "My apologies, Miss Schnee. I seemed to have gotten carried away in my assessment. We are here to discuss your potential employment."

She looked away pensively, her pale skin doing little to hide the pink blush on her cheeks. "No... it's quite alright. It's rather moving and profound to hear someone talk about my work in such a way." She turned her head to look back at Ozpin once more, hesitating a moment before speaking again.

"So... you don't think the flower should just give up?"

"Of course not," Ozpin said, shaking his head. "I think it is important to remember that life isn't about going through life without any struggles. Struggle is a natural part of human existence; it is what pushes us, challenges us, and makes us come to terms with our lives themselves. Hope is not going through all of life with a smile on your face; rather, hope is facing your personal hells over and over again, yet somehow finding the will to live on anyway. To do so represents a strong individual, even if such individuals don't realize it themselves. These struggles may not always make us feel better in the end, but they are a necessary part of the human element, and overcoming them defines humanity at its very core.”

He leaned forward slightly, a knowing smile and a warm look on his face. "Do you understand my assessment of your work, Miss Schnee?"

She looked down at her hands folded primly in her lap. Her emotions threatened to overwhelm her, so she worked valiantly to put on a mask. Despite her best efforts, Willow was unable to resist letting out a shaky sigh.

"Y-yes... I suppose your interpretation is a fair one, even if I have a more... tragic view of my work."

Ozpin leaned back in his chair again, shifting back through the papers of her resume. "Well, that is one of the beauties of the arts. It is one of the fields where there is no right or wrong answer, but rather, differences in preference and style. Still, it’s fair to say that your talent speaks for itself. I think it’s very reasonable to say you would be a fine addition to our academy, Miss Schnee.”

Willow smiled softly to herself. She couldn’t believe her luck. Was she actually going to get a chance to get away from… him?

“Oh… well, thank you, Headmaster.”

“Just one question.”

“Yes?”

Ozpin looked down at her hand with a grave look on his face. “Where did you get that injury?”

Willow felt her blood run cold as she looked down at her hand. It was bandaged up and slightly bloodied, from when she had lashed out in her limo a few days before. She had done so in front of her children, scaring them, but also breaking her wine glass. Ultimately, she had let her emotions regarding her husband get the better of her and did something that hurt both her and her family.

Of course, it was a feeling the woman was rather used to. Almost everything she did was a mistake, and no matter how much she might have regretted her actions in hindsight, it never changed the fact that she did them. Nor did she feel like she was strong enough to change in the future. She was pathetic, and she knew that.

Part of her believed that her children were right to want to get away from her, while another part of her wanted desperately to get closer to them. Perhaps she was being selfish, and they would hate her for it. However, that was a risk she was willing to take, for no one could hate Willow Schnee more than herself.

Willow gulped to swallow a lump in her throat. She wanted to tell the truth; however, due to the fact that her very reason for coming here was based around a lie, she wasn’t sure telling the truth now would be helpful. The reasons for why she had hurt herself may have convinced Ozpin she was unfit for the position…

Even worse, such an assessment would be a fair one. She knew if she were in another position, she wouldn’t hire herself. She was a danger to those around her, and especially a danger to herself.

“I… had an accident while cooking the other day,” Willow said as evenly as she possibly could, raising her eyes to look into Ozpin’s own. “My butler was sick, so I took up the task of cooking for myself and my husband. He’s a rather picky eater, and I got stressed at the idea of displeasing him. So, while I was cutting up the vegetables, I got rather careless, and accidentally cut part of my palm open.”

Ozpin stayed eerily silent, looking into her eyes. Willow felt her heart threatening to burst out of her chest; if her rampant alcoholism wasn’t going to kill her, pure nervousness might’ve been what punched her ticket right then and there.

“I don’t… I don’t have a lot of experience with teaching,” Willow continued, trying desperately to fill the silence. “Not since I was tutoring some students back in Germany years ago. Most recently, I was trying to pass down some of what I knew to my children when they were kids. I know that isn’t a very appealing experience level. Some might even say I’m a screw up. But, I promise: I’ll do the absolute best I can. If you can give me this chance, I won’t let you down, Headmaster. I may not have the experience, but I love the arts, and I would never do anything to disrespect them.”

As she finished speaking, she felt surprised at herself. She wasn’t sure what made her feel stranger; the fact she had told the truth, and had believed what she said, or the fact that Ozpin didn’t immediately dismiss her as a crazy old bat.

He stayed quiet for a few more seconds after she finished, before he slowly nodded.

“Very well.”

She blinked once, then twice, sitting in her seat perfectly still.

“I’m sorry?” Willow said, dumbfounded.

Ozpin laughed at her reaction, shaking his head in amusement. “You are not the first strange character I’ve taken a chance on, Miss Schnee. If you saw the types of characters my predecessor hired, you would know that there are much worse things for a teacher to be than inexperienced. The previous administration had all types of bad characters. One teacher was verbally and physically abusive, using his position as the gym teacher to bully and humiliate those he considered weak. Another sacrificed all his integrity in a cheating scandal, leaking test answer sheets to his students to artificially boost his scores. Another was so distanced from reality itself that he began to hallucinate during class.”

He stood up, his hands behind his back as he turned around to approach his bookshelves, eyeing the books on the wooden cases absentmindedly.

“No matter what… vices you may have, there are more important things for a Headmaster to focus on. Ultimately, what matters is that you seem to have a good heart, and that is what this school could use more of. Plus, your self-deprecating nature displays more wisdom than you might believe. Such a nature represents the ability and potential to improve, but also, it represents a lack of ego. I would rather have someone who says ‘I don’t know’ in a humble manner than someone who claims to know all the answers when they don’t.”

He reached forward to pick up one of the old Bullworth yearbooks, flipping it open and scanning the pages.

“This academy has a long but troubled history. To even begin to work on rehabilitating its image, we need more teachers who care about what they teach. For whatever flaws you attribute to yourself, your passion and talent for what you teach are two factors I can tell are genuine.”

He gently put the book back on its shelf, before turning around to face her once more. “I’ll have the details on your salary and schedules soon. Until then, you best prepare for a busy semester, Miss Schnee.”

Willow sat in her chair, dumbfounded with her mouth agape. She wanted to both laugh and cry; by some miracle, the Headmaster of the biggest school in the state wanted her as part of his staff. She wasn’t entirely sure whether the man was the kindest soul on the planet, or the craziest.

Perhaps a bit of both.

She stood up, a giant smile on her face. She let out a happy laugh as she approached him, taking his right hand in between her own as she shook it passionately.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said, the desperation in her voice evident. “I promise, I won’t let you down! I’ll do good! I know I will!”

The confidence in her voice was evident, albeit played up. Internally, she still knew she was utterly unworthy of such a position, but she had somehow managed to convince the Headmaster to believe in her. She was going to be able to have a chance to actually do something productive with her time, instead of just being an utter failure.

Ozpin smiled as he returned her handshake. “No problem, Miss Schnee. As I said, I’ll be sure to contact you soon. I assume the phone number on your resume is still correct? As is the email?”

Realizing how forward she had been, she looked down at his hand crushed between hers. She gasped, stepping back with a blush on her face. She cleared her throat in a rather weak attempt to regain her composure.

“U-um, yes. They are, Headmaster. I look forward to hearing from you.”

He nodded. “You have a place to stay, I assume?”

“That’s right,” she nodded. “My manor is rather far away from the campus, so my husband arranged for me to have an apartment in Bullworth Town.”

“Very well. Then I suggest you retire there for the evening to get some rest. You’re going to need all your energy for when art classes begin. And… you need to take care of that wound of yours.”

His eyes trailed downward towards her hand, eyeing it with genuine concern. His gaze made her feel a hint of shame from the lie she had told, and she instinctively held it closer to her body.

“Y-yes, I can do that…” Willow said, knowing full well asking her to properly take care of herself was a rather tall task. “Thank you once again. I can’t put into words how much this means to me.”

As if she didn’t want to say something to risk screwing up her new opportunity, Willow turned around to leave the office. Ozpin made sure to give her a parting nod, as Glynda waited patiently in the main lobby to escort her to the campus exit.

Once she had left his study, Ozpin walked forward to pull the doors to his office shut, before walking down to his desk and sitting down. He exampled the stacks of paper in front of him once more, as well as some of the pieces of art the woman had worked on over the past couple of decades.

The woman’s talent was undeniable. Certainly, it was a greater talent of hers than her ability to lie.

He sighed and adjusted his glasses. To be fair to her, Ozpin was not above telling lies in the past. He had ultimately decided that, in some cases, telling the truth caused more harm than good. He pondered if the Schnee matriarch had come to the same conclusion, or if her lie came from another nature.

Ultimately, however, he knew that the decision to hire her, for better or worse, was his decision. Because of that, he would happily accept all responsibility for her future actions. Ozpin concluded to himself internally that taking such a risk on someone he believed to have good character was a much better alternative compared to some of his predecessor’s hiring practices.

He grimaced at the thought. Bullworth was no stranger to controversy throughout its history, yet Headmistress Salem’s time in charge was particularly horrific. It was almost as if the woman not only totally ignored the school’s issues but actively encouraged them. Ozpin could think of no other logical reason as to why so many issues could go unchanged for so long.

It was a calamity he was determined to resolve, but as with any reform, such things took time. He had only been in his position for a little over a year. Even in that relatively short time frame, he told himself that things now were better than they were when he first came in… even if that was an extremely low bar. However, it was difficult to create an equal learning environment in an academy which had encouraged the strong to devour the weak for decades.

“Social Darwinism at its finest,” he quipped to himself, as he picked up the papers from Willow’s application and stacked them neatly, before placing them inside a manila folder. He then opened his top left desk drawer and placed it inside. “Yet it is up to not only myself, but also my staff to try and change that. A goal that, no matter how difficult, must be done.”

He let out a tired sigh, taking off his glasses before leaning back in his chair. Eventually, Ozpin concluded that he needed some more coffee before he got a migraine.

OUTSIDE

“Very well, this is it,” Miss Goodwitch said while standing in front of the academy’s entrance gates. She turned to face Willow, motioning towards the exit as she did so. “Headmaster Ozpin should get back to you in regards to your employment relatively soon.”

Willow gave her a small nod. She clung her art portfolio close to her chest; her work meant a lot to her, and she was glad to share some copies with Ozpin. She was even more happy that Ozpin seemed to admire her works, not dismissing them as frivolous garbage.

Unlike one other man she knew.

As she went to step past Miss Goodwitch, Willow heard her voice again. “Just a minute, Miss Schnee.”

Willow’s eyes widened as she turned around towards the woman. Her emerald eyes were glazing at her, seemingly piercing through her soul. The look by itself was enough to make Willow unconsciously gulp.

“Y-yes?”

Miss Goodwitch looked her up and down, analyzing her like she was a troublesome specimen. “It is true that Ozpin trusts you, and I will respect his decision. That said, there is something about you that I can’t quite place. Something… suspicious.”

Willow felt her heart rate accelerate. She held her folder tighter against her chest, as if it was a shield protecting her. The palms of her hands began to lightly sweat from her nervousness.

Miss Goodwitch stared at her evenly for another moment. “Of course… if you did indeed tell him the truth, then you have nothing to worry about. Correct?”

Willow took a shallow, panicked breath. “W-what? I’m sorry. I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

The other woman let out a sigh. “Oh, never mind. It’s not my decision what happens to you. For better or worse, you’re going to be teaching here. So, please…”

The woman looked over at her for another moment, her gaze softening slightly as she did so. “Get some rest. That’s an order.”

Not even waiting for a reply, Goodwitch turned around to begin heading back towards the main building. Once she was out of earshot, Willow let out a sigh of relief she hadn’t realized she was holding in.

She did feel bad about lying to Ozpin, especially when the man seemed so kind and trusting. He actually treated her with dignity and respect, like her work but also her life mattered. To herself, she was little more than a washed up quack, but he didn’t see that in her. He saw potential, but also a human being.

While she was caught up in her thoughts, she barely even registered a nearby presence.

“What’s wrong? Goodwitch giving you a hard time?”

The sound of a man’s rugged voice almost caused her to jump out of her skin. She let out a scared yelp as she slightly jumped in the air. She pivoted on her heels, darting her eyes around to see who was speaking.

Willow’s pale blue eyes locked in on a strange man. A grizzled and rough man, who was leaning against the wall next to the gate with his arms crossed. He was middle aged, maybe around the same age as her, with arguably one of the gaudiest brown suits she’d ever seen. He had a silver button up which was… barely buttoned up properly. He also had a red tie with little crow patterns that looked so bad, it honestly fit the man and his ill suited appearance.

The man chuckled at her reaction. “Nervous, doll? Don’t worry, ya got no reason to. The name is Qrow… but I guess to Oz, it’s Professor Branwen.”

Her eyes widened slightly. This man… was one of the professors here? That surprised her. He looked like a street drunk… not that she was one to have any right to judge, of course.

If the man noticed her staring at him in confusion and a hint of skepticism, he either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He let out a loud yawn which he didn’t even bother to try and keep in.

“Man… I’m beat. Really does wear someone down teaching the joys of the English language.”

“You’re the English teacher?” She asked, dumbfounded.

He chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. “Is that so surprising? Nothing wrong with the arts.”

“Of course, I-I didn’t mean anything like that. I have a great appreciation for them, too. It’s just… surprising.”

He nodded. “Right, I get it. Bullworth is the biggest boarding school in the northeastern United States; that comes with a certain level of expectations. Apparently, the last English teacher had a sad story. Poor bastard who almost drunk himself to death. Luckily for him, I’ve heard he has a supportive girlfriend helping him through it.”

She stayed quiet, processing his words. “And you’re telling me this, because…?”

Qrow nodded. “Simple, really. This school may try to pass itself off like it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but reality is different. Oz is trying his best but Bullworth is no shining jewel or whatever other BS you’ve heard. It’s more like a golden turd: shiny on the outside, but there’s nothing but shit on the inside. Oz is just trying to be the air freshener. Or a plunger. Whatever you think fits better.”

“That’s a, um…” She cleared her throat nervously. “A very interesting metaphor.”

“Technically it’s a simile, since I said it was ‘like’ a turd and not actually one, but who cares? I’m not in class right now so it’s not for me to judge. As long as it gets the point across.”

Without realizing it, she gave him a small smile. The man was definitely weird, but despite his grizzled appearance, Willow had the impression that he seemed relatively harmless. She was used to the danger signs of a bad person. Someone that made her want to run away to protect herself. Yet this man didn’t seem like that. Or at least, she believed he wasn’t. Her experiences still taught her to exercise a healthy amount of caution and distance.

The man looked at her curiously, before sighing. “Oh, how could I forget? I never asked you what your name was, lady.”

“My name?” She bit her lip. Willow knew that telling others her family name was a double edged sword a lot of the time; it usually made people either suck up to her, or made them fear or resent her.

In spite of this, she told herself internally once more that the man didn’t seem threatening and decided to do something she wasn’t used to: tell the truth.

“My name is Willow Schnee. I am the matriarch of the Schnee family, and I was once the rightful heiress to the Schnee Shipping Company. Wife of… Jacques Schnee, and the mother to three beautiful children.”

The man looked her over once more, and for a moment, Willow wondered if she had made a mistake telling him who she was. Was he thinking about how to take advantage of her? She had to admit to herself that it would be easy to do against someone as pathetic as her. Or was he perhaps thinking about her with nothing but the most heavily disguised disdain?

Then, to her shock, the man simply laughed. He shook his head, as if he heard a funny joke.

“Another Ice Queen, huh? This school seems to get a lot of Schnees. First, that one that graduated here a few years ago, then joined the military. Then, the heiress herself, as well as her little brother. And now her mom shows up? Classic! Then again, I guess it makes sense. The Schnees have invested a lot into this dump ever since they set up shop in town.”

Curious. The man seemed to know who she and her family were, yet he didn’t instantly curse her out or get on his hands and knees to start begging for her approval. Rather, he spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. It surprised her, and she couldn’t remember the last time someone had spoken to her in such a candid fashion.

She cleared her throat. “Anyways, Professor Branwen… it was nice to meet you, and I look forward to working beside you as a colleague, but I’m waiting for my ride home.”

“Colleague?” His mouth widened slightly, before he returned to a neutral expression. “Damn. What subject material?”

“Art. It’s my passion, and my life’s work.”

“Hmm,” he said with a small nod. “Interesting. Funny coincidence: that English teacher I mentioned? His girlfriend was an old art teacher. Real pretty woman, I’ve heard, and one of the most popular teachers while she was here. Apparently, she was one of the few teachers under Salem’s rule that wasn’t a total jackass. Big shoes to fill for you. You think you’re up for the challenge?”

If she was being honest, she wasn’t. She still was processing the fact that Ozpin hadn’t immediately told her to screw off. While her work was genuine and worthy of merit, she couldn’t say the same for herself. Willow fought the urge to pinch herself to make sure this wasn’t all some kind of dream.

“I’ll do my best,” she answered honestly, looking at Qrow with a confident expression as best as she could fake. “That’s all I can do.”

“Makes sense,” he replied, with a smirk on his face. He stopped leaning on the wall, before opting to put his hands in his pockets. “Well, good luck, Ice Queen. Believe me, all the teachers here have their own quirks. Oz, too. I think you’ll fit in better than you might think.”

Without another word, he turned to head outside of the gates. He stopped next to a bike rack, where there was a rather hideous red bike. It was partially rusted in some places and looked like it was about five seconds away from falling apart completely.

Of course, it didn’t surprise her that such a contraption would belong to a man like him, as he sat down on the bike seat, reaching for the black and red helmet in its basket. He put it on his head and turned towards her one last time.

“Later.”

Then, the man began pedalling across the street like a dumbass. He almost ran directly into a car, which prompted the driver to honk his horn and let out a few choice expletives. However, the man didn’t even acknowledge it, instead simply biking his way down a dirt path across the street and out of her sight.

Willow stood in front of the gates in utter confusion at what she had just seen. That man definitely had a few screws loose. Then again, she couldn’t judge because she could also say she had a few screws loose.

She continued to clutch her portfolio to her chest. While she patiently waited for Klein to arrive and drive her back to her apartment, Willow felt a bit more relaxed than before. She had a new job, and apparently, she was also due to have some interesting coworkers.

Maybe things weren’t completely doomed. Just mostly.

The trio consisting of Jaune, Nora and Ren walked out of the main school building; already, their friendship was growing. It almost felt as if they’d been friends for the longest of times.

“And this one time, I had this ingenious idea to place a water balloon on top of Goodwitch’s chair, right? The kicker is, the balloon was filled with slime, the type that sticks!” Nora cackled. Ren shook his head but a smirk was still present as Jaune listened on, a goofier smile on his face.

“The moment I popped it with a slingshot, she let out this scream so loud, I thought all the windows would break, ahahaha!” laughed Nora. 

Jaune couldn't help but giggle at what the ginger girl said. To imagine someone as refined and strict as Goodwitch wailing like a banshee was just good material. He couldn’t even imagine it very well in his head, nor did he have the nerve to try and find out what the experience was like for himself.

“Mr. Arc.”

Jaune turned to see the Headmaster looking at him, a small smile on his lips as he approached the new kid. 

Nora and Ren froze at the sight of the headmaster, partially wondering if he had overheard what Nora had said.

“Miss Valkryie, Mr. Ren, you wouldn’t mind if I borrow Mr. Arc here for a few moments?” Ozpin asked, as the two hesitated but ultimately nodded. The two bid their goodbyes to their new friend and turned heel to leave. Just before the pair were out of earshot, the Headmaster spoke up.

“Oh, and Miss Valkyrie, do try to keep your nose clean of any future slime endeavors?” said Ozpin. Unbeknownst to the now embarrassed duo, Ozpin had a small smirk on his face. Nora turned around, giving him a fearful nod, before leaving to run off with Ren.

Jaune could see her face flush red in embarrassment before he turned to look at the Headmaster, who gestured to Jaune to walk along with him.

“How is your first day of school so far?” asked Ozpin, walking down the steps as Jaune trudged along, his hands in his pocket.

“Ah, well. A lot is what I can say but I’m fitting in so far.” Jaune hoped his optimistic tone would be enough to sate the Headmaster’s curiosity. However, he was very quickly proven incorrect.

“I see… I also hope you keep your nose out of trouble. The prefects did mention someone matching your physical description running away with another student,” he said, his brown eyes staring owlishly at Jaune.

“Uh, well, I mean the school can be rather… manic?” Jaune said weakly, a sheepish grin on his face.

“Oh, manic? Mr. Arc, I can assure you that is simply the school spirit of Bullworth Academy,” said Ozpin, a nostalgic look on his aged features, as if he was remembering his days as a young man.

Of course, the Headmaster knew he wasn’t telling the whole truth; indeed, while there was once a time where Bullworth’s hijinks were little more than harmless pranks, things had changed under Headmistress Salem. Despite his best efforts to change things, Jaune’s statement was a reminder to him that there was still plenty of work to be done.

Ozpin shook his head to dislodge the thought from his mind, giving Jaune a wistful look before looking away.

“Why do I remember the days where young men often got into high spirits and hijinks growing up as anything but manic? I don’t think anyone was that crazy around here back then. Why, I still remember that time that myself, James, Leonardo, and Theo pulled that big prank on that terrible prefect. That jerk was so annoyed when he stepped out of a classroom and the water bucket fell on his head! He was so mad, but he couldn’t catch us. Yes, things were certainly different back then. Better, even.”

Ozpin let out a defeated sigh. “Oh, well. I’m sure you have much better things to do than listen to an old man prattling on about the good old days.” He looked at Jaune with a neutral expression once more. “I must be going, Mr. Arc. I must get home to continue dealing with the application of a new teacher. Farewell.”

Ozpin gave him a small wave, before turning around to head towards the parking lot. Jaune let out a sigh of relief; he had half expected to be in for a bad lecture on his first day… well, another bad lecture after the one Professor Peach gave him. He was glad that the Headmaster had chosen not to do so.

He reminded himself that he would need to tell Cinder to be more careful this time, so that they wouldn’t get in trouble with the prefects in the future.

Jaune decided to head up the stairs, back into the main building for his locker until-

“Hey!” called out a voice. Jaune turned to see who it was.

It was one of the guys in white shirts… Lark, was it? He had dark blue hair, which was long and combed back. He stood there with an overly aggressive stance, fists clenched and chest puffed out in an attempt to look tough. However, Jaune simply thought he looked constipated.

“I saw you sucking up to Ozpin. You think that’ll protect you here? Huh?” Sky Lark barked.

Jaune only raised his hands.

“It was just a conversation man, chillax.” Jaune responded, but prepared himself in case Sky was going to do something.

“Tch… same fucking shit, what? You think just because you're new here you’re better than me?”

“W-where the heck did that come from? What do you want with me?”

“What do I want? Why do you wanna know? You think questioning my actions will deter me from shooting you with a slingshot?” said Sky, and for the first time, Jaune noticed a wooden slingshot in his hands, as well as a small bag on his belt. Jaune estimated they contained the projectiles used for such a weapon.

“Uh, yes? Of course I would prefer if you don’t shoot me with that slingshot,” said Jaune.

“Well, you're wrong! Do you think you can just play pacifist here and not get into fights?” Sky laughed, before reaching into his pouch. He pulled out a pebble and began toying with it in his hands.

“Dude, I don’t even want to get into fights in the first place! Why can’t you guys understand that some people don’t want to fight? I don’t want to fight you,” reasserted Jaune, trying to placate the bully. Unfortunately, Jaune’s reasonable words weren’t getting through to Sky. 

“Well that’s too bad, Jauney. You see… there’s this rule here: You have to fight, no matter WHAT!” declared Sky, aiming his slingshot at Jaune.

“Hey, you better no-” 

POW

Jaune yelped in pain. The pebble smacked straight into Jaune’s forehead before he doubled over in pain, his hands gripping his forehead. Sky started laughing at Jaune’s pain.

“How’d ya like a little slingshot? Huh, tough Guy?” mocked Sky, a huge grin on his face.

Jaune couldn’t think; his mind went blank and he felt his ears ring. He opened his eyes and all he could do was look at Sky. He felt his blood boil slowly. Jaune had never felt this kind of emotion before; he knew getting angry was not an option for him and the last time he let his anger dictate his actions, he got expelled from his last school.

But this… this punk, this absolute punk had just pelted him with a rock, with absolutely no respect at all. Not only that, but he clearly enjoyed it too, and that made his blood boil. Despite his best efforts to stay out of trouble, trouble always seemed to find him.

Well, if trouble was what this dickhead wanted, then he would get it. 

As Sky turned and ran away, running for a railing on the side of the main building’s entrance, Jaune’s hesitance and pacifism vanished in but a moment. He ran after Sky as fast as he could, gritting his teeth as his eyes widened in anger.

“GET BACK HERE!” Jaune screamed, all common sense gone. His anger only increased when he heard the boy let out another mocking laugh.

“Oh yeah? Come and get me!”