I was walking around the city of Vale seeing all the decorations for the Vytal Festival set up. I was here to meet a friend since her dad had messaged me on my scroll that she was coming for the Vytal Festival's battle tournament. My family was closely related to her father after supplying him with the parts he needed for an important project. The Atlesian Military also helped him by sponsoring the project.

"Salutations!" I heard a cheery voice behind me.

Grinning, I turned to face my close orangette friend, "Penny!" I was quickly grabbed into a spine-crushing hug.

"Oh, I've missed you so, my good friend!"

"Yes, yes, I've missed you too, Penny," I gritted out. Trust me, she has a really strong grip. "Could you, uh, possibly let go? I think one of my lungs is gonna collapse."

"Sure!" She happily released and I bent over with my hands on my knees, wheezing.

I straightened up, "So I hear you're entering the battle tournament. Are you excited for it?"

"Absolutely!"

I grinned at the cheery teen, "Sweet, I'll be sure to be there!"

Light green eyes widened in excitement, "You really mean it?!"

I gave a laugh, "Of course!" Penny was pretty much always happy and cheerful.

She's absolutely precious.

Before Penny could get too pumped, I slung my arm around her shoulder and grinned, "Since it's your first time in Vale and everything, we should totally go sightseeing!"

My old friend clapped her hands happily, "That's a wonderful idea!"

I tossed my arms in the air, "Awesome!" I nabbed Penny's hand and ran ahead, "Then let's get going! Vale is a pretty big place you know!"

It's been about half an hour since Penny and I started our tour of Vale. In that time we had visited a few stores and were now walking in Downtown Vale.

"Ya know, I'm really glad we were able to hang out like this," I said after a pause in our previous conversation.

Penny nodded with a smile and a hum, "I am, too! It's been awhile since we were able to properly 'hang out'!" The ginger added in air quotes where they were appropriate.

I laughed while shaking my head, "Did you really use air quotes just for the term 'hang out'? Gees, you're such an old lady, Penny."

Said girl tilted her head, "An old lady? But I'm still really young, Diana!"

I facepalmed at my friend's obliviousness when I heard running footsteps. We both looked on as a tanned blonde teen ran past us with two other guys chasing after him.

Wait, did he just wink at me?

I watched the running trio when I heard an "Oomph!" at my side. Looking to where Penny was, I had to look down since she was apparently no longer standing.

"Ugh, he got away!" a certain white-haired heiress whined.

"Weiss?" I questioned my fellow classmate who was still crouched beside my orange-haired friend.

"Diana?" Icy orbs stared into mine in surprise.

"Uh, Weiss," Yang, who I just now realized was also here along with the rest of team RWBY, spoke and gestured to my still lying down friend.

Penny gave a wide grin while Weiss jumped back in shock. "Salutations!" the girl said in her usual greeting.

"Um, hello," Ruby spoke, mildly awkward. I see her social skills have improved since the beginning of the school year.

Wonderful.

"Um," the blonde of our rag-tag group started, "are you okay?"

"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking!" Penny spoke not sarcastically. Trust me, she's never been sarcastic. Penny just doesn't do sarcasm.

"Do you...wanna get up?" Yang asked slowly after seeing my companion was still lain upon the street.

Apparently Penny needed to think on this, "Yes!"

She still didn't get off the ground.

"Penny, for the love of dust, please stand up," I spoke in exasperation. I love her, really I do, but sometimes I just can't handle her quirkiness.

"All righty!" The orangette then rolled most of her weight back onto her hands and launched herself back to her feet. Team RWBY proceeded to take a synchronized step back away from her. Oh, c'mon, I know Penny's a bit strange but the step thing wasn't needed.

My friends can be so rude.

"My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" My fellow green-eyed companion spoke, followed by the other girls' introductions.

"Hi, Penny, my name's Ruby."

"I'm Weiss."

"Blake."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Yang questioned before she received an elbow in the side, courtesy of Blake. Yang glanced to the ebonette before realizing she hadn't introduced herself, "Oh, I'm Yang."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny repeated cheerfully.

"You already said that," the heiress said with a weirded out look on her face.

"She can be a bit ditzy now and again," I commented as my friend thought back on her words.

"You seem really close to her, 'Ana," Ruby said with a curious look.

"You bet me and her are close!" I tossed my arm around Penny's shoulders, "I've known Penny all her life."

All four of the team seemed really shocked at this. Wonder why?

"Well," Weiss spoke after an awkward moment of silence, "sorry for running into you." The team all turned and started to leave.

"Take care, friend," Ruby said with a gesture of goodbye.

Oh Ruby, you sweet innocent child, you have no clue what you've just done.

In an instant, Penny was gone from my side and stood in front of the group, "What did you call me?"

Yang mistook her question as her being offended to something the blonde said while Weiss just looked straight up broken trying to figure out how Penny was able to get in front.

"No, not you," Penny said after Yang's apologetic ramblings. Penny walked to stand directly in front of Ruby while I made my way to the group, "You."

"Me?!" the black-haired teen squeaked. "I don't know, I-I, uh—"

"You just called me 'friend'!" The orange-haired bow wearing teen stared at Ruby, "Am I really your friend?"

"Um," Ruby stalled, glancing back to her teammates who were STRONGLY suggesting her to say "no". I gave them a blank look that borderlined on glaring. Despite her team's warnings, Ruby answered with, "Y-yeah, sure! Why not!"

The rest of the young girl's team collapsed while Penny gave an excited laugh, "Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"

I gave a sigh and clapped the orangette on her shoulder, "I already told you, Penny, not all girl friends do that kinda stuff. I mean, we sure don't."

"Oh, but maybe she will, Diana!" the excitable teen cried, lightly bouncing in her place. I shook my head at her excitement of a generalization of how girl friends were.

"Sooo what're you doing in Vale?" Yang questioned curiously after she and the other two teens dusted themselves off.

"Penny here plans on fighting in the tournament," I replied, patting said girl on her shoulder.

"Wait," Weiss started, "you're fighting in the tournament?"

"I'm combat ready!" Penny said with a salute.

"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part."

"Says the girl/one wearing a dress," Blake and I spoke in unison. I winked at my fellow ebonette as she chuckled.

"It's a combat skirt," Weiss defended.

"Yeah," Ruby agreed after using her semblance to reach her partner's side. Taking it a step further, the two low-fived each other.

"Dorks," I snorted with a grin while shaking my head.

"Wait a minute," our local heiress stepped forward and grabbed Penny by her shoulders, "does that mean you know that monkey-tailed rapscallion?!"

I shared a confused look with Penny, "The who?" we spoke.

Weiss pulled a horribly drawn picture of who she was apparently looking for, "That filthy faunus from the boat!"

Before either me or Penny could say anything, Blake cut in, "Why do you keep saying that?!"

"Huh?!"

"Stop calling him a rapscallion, stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!" Blake defended, apparently feeling very strongly about the topic.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Weiss spoke, not apologetic in the least, "would you like me to stop referring to the trashcan as a trashcan?" Penny and I glanced to each other from the corner of our eyes. I dunno how she's feelin' in this situation, but I feel awkward as all get out at the dispute both the teens were having. "Or this lamppost as a lamppost?!"

"Stop it!"

"Stop what?! He clearly broke the law; give him time, he'll probably join up with the other faunus in the White Fang." I noticed Blake's hand ball into a fist.

"Ugh, you ignorant, little brat!" With that, the bow wearing ebonette stalked away.

"How dare you talk to me like that!" Weiss cried at Blake's retreating figure. "I am your teammate!"

"You are a judgmental little girl."

"What in the world makes you say that?!"

Yang sidled up to where me, Penny, Ruby were standing, "Uh, I think we should go..."

"Go where?" my innocent lil friend asked, totally unaffected by the spat between the two teammates.

"Welp, I dunno how you two can get away from this... situation," I commented to the sisters before grabbing Penny's wrist, "but what I do know is that me and Penny are going to walk away before this escalates anymore than I would like while I'm in the vicinity. Okay? All right."

On that note, I started dragging Penny away while she waved to the four we were abandoning, still not at all disturbed by the falling out that was happening in front of her, "Bye, Ruby and Yang! I hope to see you all again very soon!"

A/N: All righty, I hope this chapter pleased everyone! If you didn't read the notice I put up yesterday (bc ya know the site didn't say I updated the fic which is BULLSHIT) I editied the story to fit with my OC's new profile (if you're an older reader you may have noticed her name is now Diana rather than Exnira)

Now, I'm not guaranteeing when I'll get the next chapter out cuz god bless I won't follow through; the only thing I'm ABSOLUTELY positive of is that I will be finishing Vol.1 in the next chapter.

Also, if I have a fight scene written for that chapter, don't judge it too hard aight? I've only ever written a fight scene in one fanfic and that's my Kekkaishi one so ya know, have some mercy.

Thank you for reading! ^^