To An End

Day 1

Ruby quietly sipped her glass of water, staring at the green carpet through rippling liquid.

Unbeknownst to the headmaster sitting across the large mahogany table, Ruby was on the verge of tears, almost cracking under the pressure of his gaze. If she met his eyes, as is expected of one in civil discussions, she would certainly break down. A teacher's presence often heavily blanketed her in dejection, fear, sometimes even depression.

No, perhaps it was not the 'presence' of the teachers. After consideration, Ruby came to the conclusion that it was their constant expectations of her.

Are you gaining work experience? Have you applied for any part-time jobs? How about apprenticeships? Or further education? Are you using your free time efficiently?

In reality, all of these questions were one and the same:

'What are you doing after you leave college?'

Something about this question made Ruby weak in the knees. The thought of life after education forced despair to fizzle in her heart, to break out in a cold sweat and close her eyes in an effort to forget the question.

It was not the teacher's fault that she felt this way. They were only doing their job. Bring out the best in students and prepare them for adulthood. This did not stop Ruby from resenting them for their constant pressure, something she should probably feel guilty about. However, to Ruby, teachers were just harbingers of the end, agents who made it their mission to bring about the conclusion of her school life. The only life she had ever known.

Ruby breathed out. She hated teachers. Even Ozpin, one of the kindest people she had ever known. It may have been unfair, but it was her emotion on the subject, nonetheless.

On Ozpin's mahogany desk sat several papers relating to Ruby. Classroom assessments, last year's exam papers and results, reports and recommendations from her past schools, and more. A coffee mug sat on the only space not being occupied in the mess of paper, next to a lamp serving as the room's only light source.

Very few negatives were mixed into the paper jumble. Some teachers had reported that she did not pay enough attention in class, but this was offset by her remarkable grades. She also had trouble socialising with others in class, unless they happened to involve her friends, and this brought with it concerns that she would have difficulty entering a work environment after college. But these were only trivial concerns.

Her exam results were fantastic. Ozpin shifted through each of them on the table with a single hand, inspecting her grades from last year's exams, sliding the pages apart. A, A*, A, B.

"If I may say, Ms. Rose…"

Ozpin brought her out of her reverie. She still continued to look at the ground.

"Yes?" Ruby made sure to eliminate all traces of venom from her mumble. There was nothing to be gained from letting antagonism prevail.

"When I accepted England's top performing Mechanics student into Beacon, I expected her to be somewhat focused on her goals and future. However, your subjects of choice left me rather… confused."

"What do you mean?" Ruby answered on auto-pilot. She was good at using generic responses.

Ozpin spread out her exam papers.

"Aside from Mechanical Engineering, you are also studying Art and Design, AS-level Japanese, and Food Studies. Strange choices, wouldn't you agree? They're rather specialised, and the crossover between them is rather strained or non-existent. They lack the generalisation of English or Mathematics. It's clear that you had no set goal in mind."

"Hmm." Ruby acknowledged his words.

Ozpin eyed her carefully. He was covered in shadow, despite being closest to the lamp, but Ruby could see his normal green and grey attire from the corner of her eye. She wore Beacon's uniform, as well as her red scarf that dangled loosely over her front.

"Please don't misunderstand me. Your grades are exemplary nonetheless, and you no doubt have a bright future ahead of you. I just found it curious."

If he was hoping for an explanation, he would be disappointed. She just felt like taking those courses.

This brief talk about her subjects was actually a divergence from the conversation they were having a minute ago, although the exchange was very much one-sided.

The headmaster leaned forward, engaging 'serious' mode as some teachers liked to do.

"Ms. Rose, I'm not asking you to make a decision now. I'm not even asking you to choose a career path. Just take some time to think about what you would like to do. Perhaps you enjoy art more than mechanics, or you would like to pursue Japanese studies abroad. We will help you to the best of our abilities."

For the first time, Ruby felt like responding outside of her usual bracket of one-word answers.

"I still have a year."

Ozpin chuckled and leaned back, chair creaking.

"Yes, you do. And in this last year of your education, it is a necessity that you consider your options."

Why did everybody sound like a broken record? Ruby silently grit her teeth. Ozpin may or may not have noticed her distress.

"That is all, Ms. Rose. I hope you take my words to heart."

"I will, Sir." Ruby lied and stood from her chair as Ozpin gestured to the door in the pitch blackness.

Ruby patted down her uniform and straightened her scarf, trying to look as normal as possible, and walked quickly without another word to Ozpin.

"Oh, and happy birthday, Ms. Rose." Ozpin called out to her just as she reached the door.

Ruby stopped with her hand on the doorframe. It was only natural to say something in response, but her mind was a mess.

"I, that, than… Okay."

Okay was not a valid response to somebody wishing a happy birthday, and Ruby could feel Ozpin giving a confused stare into the back of her head. However, caring less was impossible, and she walked out, into a dimly lit corridor.

One last year at college, then Ruby would be forced into the outside world, full of fear and uncertainty. One last year at college to live the life she loved with her friends. One last year of this easy and carefree life.

No, she needed to think more positively.

A year was a long time! Innumerable hours lay in wait. Hundreds of thousands of minutes beckoned her call. Millions of seconds begged Ruby to cast aside her fears and enjoy life. College was far from over, and it would be nothing short of wasteful to spend this time in terror.

Why live in fear? Life would continue as normal.

With this mindset, Ruby took some deep breaths to slow down her heart and allay her fears.

In spite of her own quasi pep talk, Ruby had to stop at the back of the track shed and cry for a few minutes, just to expunge her emotions. Her tears were not that of relief or despair, but just a strangely therapeutic method of cleansing her heart. Anybody who saw her may have thought that she was in distress, but Ruby actually felt much happier afterwards. There was nothing quite like a good cry, she thought.

Ruby breathed out, hoisted her red and black backpack and donned a bright, honest smile. Time to continue life as before.

Lunch had arrived, though Ozpin's office gave the impression of nightfall. She had spent the morning in the dark office, pretending to listen to his ramblings about life after college. Now, she could continue with her day. Her only remaining lesson was Art, a lesson she shared with Blake.

The back of the shed faced a sea of trees that cast short shadows over the track and field, occupied by several students playing football with makeshift goalposts comprised of their crumpled jackets. Ruby calmly walked over a grassy knoll overlooking the track and field, sun overhead, wind blowing and ruffling her red scarf and uniform. Autumn had snatched Beacon in its gusty grasp. Even with the clear sun, a crisp cold overtook the college, turning grass brittle, crunching beneath Ruby's feet. Temperatures dropped, leaves fell and night descended earlier. Some may have considered it the end of summer, but Ruby just thought of it as the start of winter, with summer break now over and the school year starting anew.

Several girls sat on a mound, unperturbed by the bitter cold. At this point in the year, students wore additional layers over their Beacon uniforms, whether they be jackets or scarves and gloves. They sat or kneeled in a circle, their excitable chatter filling the field.

Ruby recognised one of the girls as Velvet, long brown hair topped with a woolly hat, complete with knitted rabbit ears. Being made of thin fabric, the ears dangled wildly with every slight breeze.

"Coco, please give it a try!"

Velvet lifted a book titled 'I May Fall.' She enthusiastically bounced up and down, almost shoving the book in her friends' face. Ruby failed to recall when she last saw Velvet this cheery, though they had hardly interacted in almost a year.

Coco looked at it over the rim of her large shades, unamused.

"This thing? Why is this series even so popular?"

"Because it's just incredible." Velvet barely answered the question. "And everybody is saying this is her best book yet.'

Coco sighed and took the thick book. The cover of I May Fall featured a bed in a field of flowers, set in the backdrop of an orange sky, Ruby saw as she walked by. Coco dropped it into a handbag.

"I'll gloss over it. Personally, I'm more interested in the four new students I've heard so much about." Coco clearly did not intend to read the book.

"Four new students?" A girl with a black beanie spoke. "Isn't it weird for students to join a college in the second year?"

"Somewhat. It gets even weirder when you learn that one of them is famous."

Velvet jumped to her knees, eager to know more. She happened to be a gossip, like a journalist vying for information.

But as Ruby passed them, Velvet's eyes landed on her. She fell silent quickly, and her friends did not notice as they continued to engage in banter.

Ruby glanced back at Velvet, who then looked away nervously. Ruby did the same, not quite racking up the courage to say anything to her ex-girlfriend.

When Ruby and Velvet broke up last year, they told each other that they would remain friends. Ruby rapidly discovered this was a formality. They never went out of their way to speak to each other again, bar a few occasions in which they needed to work together on an assignment.

Being her first girlfriend and considering the circumstances of their breakup, Ruby lacked the resolve to try and befriend the brunette again. Mistakes were made and lessons were learned. And if Ruby ever happened to find herself in another relationship, she refused to ever say something so stupid ever again.

Sighing inwardly at the thought of that messy night, full of shouting and crying, Ruby walked away from her ex-girlfriend without a word.

Leaving behind the cheers of those playing sports, Ruby started to cross the courtyard, heading towards the large cream-coloured dormitories visible over a fountain and through several dying trees. Four large square patches of grass with gravel paths in-between them formed the courtyard, with the fountain dropped in the centre. Gushing water accompanied the sound of chirping birds, creating a tranquil aether not found in other areas of Beacon.

Ruby was not alone. Come lunchtime or after-school, many students milled in the courtyard and sat on the grass, studying in groups. However, it was evening. Everybody would be either in their dormitories or heading into town to find entertainment for the night.

Contrary to this, a girl with pink and brown hair sat at the fountain's edge.

Ruby spent a few seconds watching her from a distance while continuing to proceed to her dormitory. Short, pretty, pale skin, wearing the typical Beacon uniform for girls without leggings, engrossed in reading something on a tablet device. They were the only details Ruby could make out without staring like a stalker. Her path took her next to the fountain, directly in the girl's line of sight, and Ruby quickly turned her gaze forward, pretending not to be interested in her.

Even as Ruby passed in front of the girl, she had to try as hard as possible to avert her eyes. She walked by other students every day, but not unfamiliar students. Ruby often tried, and generally failed, to interact with other students in her year group, and she would certainly remember this girl with strange ice cream coloured hair. She must have been a new student.

The girl did not look up at Ruby, nor did Ruby look down at her. Boot continued to strike gravel without a difference in speed. In turn, the girl continued to swipe her finger across the tablet.

Within seconds, Ruby had taken several steps away from her. Within a few more, Ruby stood under a tree, looking up at the multi-floored dormitory block. Several rose bushes lined the building, planted by Ruby herself in ignorance of the rules and regulations of changing the college's aesthetics, lending some colour to the environment.

She looked back, over her left shoulder, and brushed her hair aside. The girl had not moved. As expected. She did nothing unique. The pretty girl just sat still, reading, all alone.

She could only have been a new student, which were quite rare at this stage in education, like one of Velvet's friends said a minute ago. Of course, that was assuming she was even in the same year. However, it would be impossible to guess the age of somebody in college who happened to be even shorter than Ruby.

Ruby bit her lip. All of her thoughts over the past minute after seeing the girl were the culmination of her trying to figure out if the moment was convenient for beginning a conversation, and if the answer was yes, her trying to gather some conversation starters.

Well, the girl was obviously free, but would she care for being disturbed? It was difficult to-

"Ruby, just go talk to her!"

Ruby's strangely lengthy thought process and considerations that started since entering the courtyard crashed like a car into a brick wall.

The source of disturbance came from above, where a golden-haired individual leaned out of a window on the second floor. Red curtains flapped outside along with her, caught in the wind, serving as a light contrast to the bland cream walls of the building.

Naturally, the only person indiscreet enough to have a conversation with somebody by shouting at them through a window was Yang. She also wore her school uniform, and her tangled mane of golden locks flowed freely in the rushing wind.

"What? Are you drunk?" Ruby pointed up at her in an accusation with a pout.

"Not yet, birthday girl." Yang's loud voice may have been heard by everybody in the dormitory block. "Actually, letting her know it's your birthday is a pretty good conversation starter, don't you think?"

Yang had unsurprisingly started speaking as though Ruby had already made the decision to speak with the girl, which was not at all appreciated.

"Then I'm sure you'll use it as a pick-up line on your next birthday." Ruby frowned.

She twirled her scarf around a finger and was about to enter the dormitory when Yang called out again.

"C'mon, what's the problem?" Yang crossed her arms on the window ledge.

"There's no problem. I just don't want to talk to her." Ruby stopped to give her answer, content in saying anything that allowed her to end this conversation.

Ruby wasn't lying, per se. Though she did want to speak with the mystery girl, seeing Velvet for a brief moment brought up a curious feeling of gloom. As ridiculous as it may be to let a relationship that ended a year ago affect her actions, Ruby just wanted to spend some time with her friends. It had nothing to do with still having feelings for Velvet. That had long passed, so much so that Ruby flirted with Blake and Weiss on a regular basis (Though she did that during her relationship, too. Velvet knew she was joking.).

The girl was a student here; Ruby could encounter her anytime. She just wanted some quality time with the people closest to her.

Ruby had no plans to tell this to Yang. If there was something just as silly as pondering on a past relationship, it was telling her sister that very thought. This was according to Ruby's own logic, anyway.

Yang naturally had no indication of this, and spent a few seconds in contemplation, casting her gaze to the sky.

"Oh, I get it. You were taking off her clothes in your head, then you lost your nerve."

Yang's statement was so casual that it took a second for Ruby to digest it. It did not help that Yang's voice was so loud that the girl probably heard her.

"Sh-Shut up!" Ruby squeaked, suddenly leaning forward with fearful eyes as though trying to force the retort in Yang's face, belied by the open distance between them.

"Say no more, Rubes. She's probably out of your league, anyway."

In reality, if Ruby now swallowed her pride and simply pretended to accept Yang's declaration, she would be able to end this conversation and carry on with her life without speaking to the girl. Unfortunately, it was Yang who made the declaration.

"No she's not!" Ruby put hands to waist in her best attempt at looking courageous.

"Then go for it." Yang dared, baring a mischievous grin.

"I…will. Watch." Ruby swallowed a lump in her throat.

And just like that, Ruby had been forced to put her thoughts of Velvet aside.

Turning around and stomping back, Ruby considered the fact that the girl must have heard everything just now. She would have to be nothing short of deaf or completely entranced in her tablet to be ignorant of their talk.

Now Ruby had a reason to be embarrassed. In terms of talking to/flirting with attractive girls, this could be a boon or a hindrance, Ruby knew. Maybe the other person would take pity on her and find it adorable, or they would just outright not bother with the conversation.

Ruby's pace slowed to a crawl as she got closer. She enjoyed social interaction and flirting with others, but she couldn't really do it too often. Not many people in Beacon enjoyed breaking from their social circle, and the ones willing to do so were not fond of her personality. As such, she in turn hardly deviated from her own group of lifelong friends and roommates, consisting of Yang, Blake and Weiss.

She took a moment to examine the girl completely. She only now noticed the white streaks in the pink half of the girl's hair, along with her chocolate brown eyes. Her uniform had no unique adjustments to it, lending credence to Ruby's theory that she was a new student, though a white and pink umbrella rested next to her pale legs, perhaps her own touch to look different from the crowd. Amusingly, she also wore high-heeled boots, in white, most likely not a part of the school uniform. Perhaps she was self-conscious enough about her height to flout the school regulations in exchange for another couple of inches.

Ruby promptly dubbed her 'Ice Cream' until further notice. And something that struck Ruby immediately was that Ice Cream sat in exactly the same way, still focused on her tablet in exactly the same way, just as before Yang made wild statements for all of Beacon to hear, pretending to have not noticed Ruby approaching.

Ruby stood to her side, just out of view, and breathed in.

"Hey there." Ruby said with confidence, a key trait.

Ice Cream said nothing.

Unexpected, Ruby thought. She rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, pushing her fingertips together with a sideways glance.

"So…" Ruby struggled to think of a topic not involving her birthday, as she did not want to use Yang's recommendation. "What are you reading?" It was a limp and simple choice of topic, but it would work nonetheless.

Ice Cream did nothing.

"Yup, I understand completely." Ruby sighed. "This is kinda pathetic, huh?"

Ice Cream acknowledged nothing.

As much as Ruby enjoyed talking to girls, the other person actually needed to be involved in the conversation. This was a first. Incredibly rarely, Ruby and the other person would speak with each other. Mostly, she would be told to go away, or the person would leave of their own accord. She had never been completely ignored.

Ruby was silent for ten seconds. The conversation had clearly run its course, as short as it was. At least, if this even classified as a conversation.

One last attempt.

"Can I see what model that is? I'm thinking about buying a new tablet."

This time, Ruby leaned down slightly, so that she could see the back of Ice Cream's tablet.

Ice Cream reacted.

And it was quite an unexpected reaction. As soon as Ruby's head came into view, Ice Cream silently gasped in surprise and jumped back, eyes wide.

However, only water sat behind her, and she would have fallen into it, if not for Ruby hastily grabbing her wrists. Ice Cream was suspended over the fountain, hair tips hovering on the water's surface.

Both Ruby and Ice Cream breathed in relief at the same time. In fact, Ruby almost wanted to laugh. Was this girl really so absorbed in her own world that she missed Ruby's blatant attempts at conversation? Her absolute obliviousness to the world around her, if this was the case, may have been a stroke of luck for Ruby.

Ice Cream was pulled to her feet before the unwritten time limit of touching somebody could pass and be considered weird.

"Sorry about that." Ruby cutely giggled, staring at the ground and shuffling her feet. "I thought you knew I was here."

Ice Cream rolled her eyes, with a curiously dejected expression.

But even so, Ruby noticed that she always wore a casual smile. It certainly suited such a pretty girl. And now that they were both standing, Ruby estimated that Ice Cream was maybe two or three inches shorter than herself, even with the heels. So, Weiss and Ruby were not the only girls who experienced bad luck with their height growth.

"Did you get your tablet wet?" Ruby asked.

In response, Ice Cream just twirled a strand of pink hair while staring into her. Did she even acknowledge the question?

"Um, okay…" Ruby trailed off, unsure of how to proceed. "So-" She was interrupted.

Ice Cream randomly pointed at her pink bag, sitting on the fountain's ledge behind Ruby.

"Oh, you want your bag? Sure!" Ruby happily exclaimed. She started to reach for its handle. "I was kinda worried about talking to you, you know? I sort of believe in Murphy's law-"

Splash.

Ruby needed a moment absorbed the onomatopoeia. While trying not to stumble over her words, she misjudged the bag's distance and shoved it into the fountain.

Ice Cream's bag dropped heavily, sprinkling water on Ruby's face. The realisation had not set in for a few seconds, but rather, Ruby was considering what exactly was in the bag. This was the first day of the school year, so there would be at most a morning's worth of work. There would also be any textbooks she needed for classes, and perhaps even assignments vital to securing grades. Oh, and possibly a phone. The bag itself was rather nice, though not a 'high-class' bag, so maybe the phone was not all that expensive, either.

Well, everything was wet.

"Tch…!" Ice Cream made a single audible noise of surprise and annoyance.

Ruby stammered in an effort to combine 'sorry' with 'please don't drown me.' She looked back at Ice Cream for a split second, but it was not long enough to take in her expression, and she decided to focus on the flooding bag.

Ruby hurled after the bag, almost falling in as well, leaning precariously on the edge. As she snatched the bag and several sheets of paper floating on the surface, she briefly wondered if Ice Cream would kick her in as penance. Fortunately, she remained mostly dry by the time she retrieved it all. Now, she turned to face Ice Cream.

Her facial expression was not one of burning fury, Ruby gladly saw. Instead, it was a blatantly unamused expression, with pouted lips and narrowed eyes, hands on hips and foot tapping loudly on the gravel. Ruby would have considered it cute, if not for the fact that she caused the look.

Ice Cream very calmly and almost intimidatingly took her possessions, never losing her countenance. Slowly, she took out a small number of books, inspecting them. Ruined. Then a textbook that, fittingly, may have related to law. Destroyed. Then a paperback novel titled 'I May Fall.' Of course it was devastated.

Finally, there was a small notebook, with a brown leather cover. It must have opened up while in the fountain, because the pages had turned to mush. Interestingly, Ruby saw no writing or anything resembling an inky substance within the pages, meaning it was probably completely new and had not been written in yet. Despite this, Ice Cream stared longingly at it, as though this was her biggest loss.

Ruby bowed down.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry! I'll pay for all those books and anything else-"

Ice Cream was walking away. But not before shooting once last unamused glare that may have said 'I think you're the drunk one.' Or maybe it was as simple as 'You're stupid. Stop talking at me.' Regardless, she left with mildly loud footsteps, tablet and umbrella in one hand and soaking bag in the other.

Ruby felt a bit more miserable than she should have. After all, she lost nothing, unless Ice Cream found her and demanded compensation, and they were already strangers to one another. Heck, she never said a single word throughout the entire exchange. This just meant one less potential friend when Ruby had only attempted to make one more at her sister's beckoning.

…It was one less potential cute friend, though.

At least this had taken her mind off of Velvet. Trying to push aside feelings of defeat, Ruby retreated back to the dormitory.

Yang apparently saw the entire ordeal from her vantage point.

"Smooth moves, champ." Yang cheered.

Ruby just responded with an eye roll and an 'ugh.'

"Well, better luck next-" Yang started.

Ruby was about to round the corner when a nearly incomprehensible scream came from their room.

'That's not how it works, you pea-haired pillock!'

The sisters looked at each other, followed by Yang throwing her head towards the room.

"Was that Weiss?" Ruby inquired, scratching her head. Yang looked down at her again.

"Oh, yeah. Weiss made a new friend, wouldn't you know? They're just having a nice, quiet, civil discussion inside our room-"

'Wait a minute, me and this petulant princess are NOT friends! Sorry, did you think you were the only who could make insults through alliteration? Are you okay after that fall from your high horse?' Came a new voice.

"Sorry, Rubes, I better take care of this."

A worried looking Yang signed off the conversation by closing the windows,.

Even through the large stretch of painting-lined corridors, even through the cream walls that were supposed to be sound-proof, and even through the multiple floors spread with thick, sound dampening carpet, the argument between Weiss and her supposed friend shook the entire dormitory block.

'White is a terrible colour for a presentation, it has no ability to grab an audience's attention!'

'You chose vomit green, everybody's going to look away from the damn screen in disgust!'

'You're actively trying to dismantle my choice instead of justifying your own, showing that you know your colour is worthless!'

'You're not a psychologist, stop pretending to be one just because you aced it at your last college!'

How many times had Ruby sighed or heavily breathed out already today? She lost count, but she just added another sigh to the number.

She had just climbed a set of stairs when the topic had shifted at a blistering pace. Ruby barely even noticed the change.

"Wrong again, Schnee, the Scottish Militia Bill was refused assent in 1707! How can I trust you with handling the colour scheme when you can't even get the basic facts correct?'

'You Neanderthal, it was 1708!'

'1707!'

'1708!'

Ruby parked in front of her dormitory door, wondering what awaited her on the other side. She was picturing a knife fight, or them loading pistols in preparation a firefight, but whatever it was, Yang had clearly failed in rectifying the situation.

Ruby hesitantly opened the door, hoping that cheery optimism would be able to defuse the argument.

"Hey, everyone!" Ruby beamed.

She should have stayed outside.

In the fairly cramped room, four sets of eyes locked onto her from various points in the room. Weiss stood on the right, at the foot of Blake's bed, partially standing on a cardboard box to try and gain some height and authority. Yang sat crossed leg in between the bunk beds, under the window, ruffling the carpet with her finger for lack of something more productive to do. Ruby had almost missed Blake lying on her bed, wearing a pair of cat ear shaped headphones and listening to music while reading the ever familiar book titled 'I May Fall.' Everybody wore their school uniform, as they still had lessons later in the day. This happened to be a rare time of the week where the four friends had a block free of classes within their typical school days.

Their room was a mess. Having been forced to switch to a new dormitory for the final year of college, the four girls were still in the process of organising their possessions, explaining the presence of several cardboard boxes scattered on the floor. The only thing resembling tidiness happened to be their bunkbeds, but even they were rather haphazard contraptions, comprised of ropes and stacked books.

Ruby had entered expecting a newcomer, and was not disappointed. To her left, opposite Weiss, stood a young woman in Beacon's uniform without leggings. Tanned skin, fierce red eyes, and neat, light green hair. She looked furious, for lack of a stronger word in Ruby's mind.

"Pay attention, Ruby!"

Weiss snapped her fingers, bringing the small girl to attention. She looked just as furious, shooting ice cold daggers into Ruby. German born, yet her English was perfect. Her accent gave the impression that she came from neither of these countries, though, maybe forged from spending time in both.

"Yeah?" Ruby drew out in exasperation under the glare.

"You heard our argument. 1707 or 1708?"

What were they screaming about, again? It sounded law related. Both girls were holding a small whiteboard, both filled to the brim with important-looking work. They seemed to be planning an assignment of sorts, Emerald twirling her marker pen.

Just as Ruby was about to mumble about not knowing the answer, the mystery girl spoke up.

"Hold it. Ruby, right? Do you even study law? And I'm Emerald, by the way." She carried a distinctly non-English accent. She was probably American.

"It's nice to meet-" Ruby raised her hand as a pleasantry, but was stopped.

"I don't care, answer the question!" Emerald's impatience grew every second. This girl was making no effort to even seem friendly.

"No, I don't study law…" Ruby scratched her hair.

This satisfied Emerald, who crossed her arms with a strong sense of authority and a smirk. Her red eyes met Weiss' blue eyes, the contrast and intensity powerful enough to freeze the room.

"As I suspected, Weiss is just trying to garner support from the people around her to compensate for her lack of factual basis and confidence in her answer, which helps her to continue to keep up the lie in spite of being aware of how idiotic she sounds. She's basically a politician!"

Weiss evidently took severe umbrage to this accusation, stabbing her marker pen in Emerald's direction.

"I don't need to hear this from some ersatz psychologist. I'm leaving!"

Weiss was about to storm out, hand on the door. She threw her whiteboard and pen on the floor.

Yang quickly raised an objection.

"Weiss, this is our room."

The heiress stopped in her tracks.

"Oh, right. Emerald, you're leaving!" She swiftly fired her steely gaze at her new rival.

Emerald chuckled, playing with one of her long locks of hair.

"Fine. I knew I couldn't rely on you for this assignment. I'll just do it myself."

"And obtain all of the credit? I think not! Meet me tomorrow after first period."

"After lunch."

Weiss uncharacteristically growled with anger, which Emerald took as a cue to leave.

Emerald could have taken a few seconds to say goodbye to Ruby, Blake and Yang, but Weiss in turn could have blown a gasket. Erring on the side of caution, she tossed her whiteboard and marker pen on Weiss' bed, slinked out of the room, and slid shut the sole exit.

Calm washed over the room. All tension dissipated as though it was vacuumed out with Emerald's departure. Only tranquillity remained, allowing the four girls to breathe easy.

At least, all but Weiss. She paced around for a full minute in total silence, proving to be somewhat unnerving. It was only now that Blake decided to make a contribution, or even make her presence evident.

"She seemed nice." Blake daringly uttered, hopefully as a joke to toy with Weiss.

Blake removed her black cat ear shaped headphones and let them hang around her neck. She kneeled on her bed's pillow, skirt over her knees, I May Fall in hardback on her lap. She had not taken her eyes away from the book, nor so much as flinched when Weiss leaned into her face.

"There is nothing nice about her. And I'm going to borrow that book when you're done with it." Weiss leaned back and folded her arms. Then, she suddenly turned to Ruby. "And you, missy."

Ruby pointed at herself. Weiss must have been annoyed that she took nobody's side in the argument.

"Um…" She tried to think of an excuse.

"Happy. Birthday."

Weiss would have smiled, but she practically had to force the words out through her gritted teeth at this moment in time. Still, at least she was not so focused on seeing red that she was unable to dispense pleasantries.

"Aw, thanks." Ruby smiled with a cute blush.

"And this is from all three of us."

Weiss plastered an envelope on Ruby's face, wiping away the smile in exchange for a splutter. The white haired girl sat on the foot of Blake's bed.

Ruby peeled away the small package from her forehead and opened it. From inside, she took out four tickets to a tour of a chocolate factory.

Ruby let out a bright laugh and swept up Weiss and Blake in a sudden hug, dropping the tickets, and Blake in turn dropped her book with a clatter. Somehow, Ruby was able to bear hug them while keeping them suspended off the ground.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Ruby cheered.

"Ah, Ruby…" Blake squirmed with faint pink filling her cheeks. "I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with your head so close to my chest…"

"I can't help our natural height difference, Blake." Ruby excused herself, still not putting her friends down.

"Hmph, this pervert will use any excuse for a quick feel." Weiss affirmed, glad that she was at Ruby's height.

"No, I wouldn't." Ruby declared.

Yes, I would, Ruby thought.

Although Weiss claimed that the tickets came from all three of the girls, Ruby suspected that they were purchased exclusively by the sophisticated girl, the daughter of the owner of a technology company. Ruby suspected even further that Weiss wanted this kind of reaction from her; not the suggestive hug, but the reaction of glee. In typical tsundere fashion, as all who knew her likened her to, Weiss liked looking after her friends and had the means to do so, but would never admit to it.

A snap alerted them to the presence of Yang. The three turned to the centre of the room, where the blonde stood with a camera and smirk.

When exactly did Yang obtain a camera? Nobody knew.

"That was so adorable! I just had to capture the moment." Yang winked.

Ruby dropped Blake and Weiss, just in time for the black haired girl to lunge at Yang.

"Give me that camera." Blake gravely said. Yang had stepped to the side, dodging Blake, but the lithe girl tried again, desperately attempting to snatch the camera.

"Woah, what's brought this on?" Yang amusedly grabbed Blake's wrist, trying to fend off the assault.

"Nothing, I just want to look at it." Blake spoke in as flat a tone as possible, trying to mask any emotion.

Yang pushed her away with ease, then snapped another shot of her. Instantly, Blake gasped and raised her hands over her face.

"Are you prone to seizures?" Weiss asked, the only one of the other three concerned with Blake's desire to hide her face.

"I don't think that's it, Snowy." Yang slung an arm around Blake, who looked despairingly at the camera in Yang's other hand. "Blake's camera-shy!" She almost sang.

"No, not at all, it's just…"

Blake stopped talking to steal the camera with one swift motion. Yang tried to grab it again, but Blake had proven to be too quick, climbing onto Ruby's suspended bed. There, she continued her sentence.

"Seeing as I'm in the Art and Design course, it's only natural that I use the camera, as photography is a potential method for a student to fill in their portfolio."

Blake barely finished trying to mask her camera-shy nature when she yelped, eyes wide, as Yang grabbed her by the ankle and pulled, nearly taking off her sock. Blake was dragged from the top of the bed bunk and into Yang's inviting arms.

"You told me you're using acrylic paintings to fill in your portfolio." Yang teased. "So, you don't need the camera at all!"

The two were locked in a momentary struggle, with the blonde brawler wrapping her arms around Blake, who kept the camera close to her body in a tight grip. Even Yang and her sheer brute strength failed to pry away Blake's hands.

Their struggle brought them to the floor, with Blake curling into a defensive ball, knees to chest. Even so, Yang was able to force an arm across Blake's stomach, bringing her other arm around Blake's legs, and brought her close. She held the ball of Blake in a cast iron grip, their bodies wrapped in an adorable mix of black and gold. Both of them lay sideways on the floor.

"What is with you people and constantly groping me?" Blake muttered. "Weiss, are Yang's actions illegal?"

"Well, you've technically committed theft, in a sense…" The law student responded. "So you're in no position to talk about legality.

"That's… That's a good point." Blake conceded.

"At least, it'll stop being theft if you just return the camera." Weiss played with her earring.

Yang's eyes lit up. She put her chin on Blake's shoulder.

"You hear that Blake? You don't want to be a law breaker, do you?"

Blake gave no answer, leaving the three to wonder if her anxiety regarding photographs was so bad that she would rather go to prison that be in a picture. Of course, nobody was going to report her or anything too extreme, but Yang had seen this as an opportunity to both tease and torment her friend.

"Unfortunately, Blake, as your friend, I can't let you commit a criminal act. Therefore, I'm keeping you pinned down like this until you give back my camera."

It would be more accurate to say that Yang was cuddling Blake into submission rather than pinning her.

"Then so be it." Blake relaxed to an extent, accepting her fate to be held in Yang's arms until the end of time. There were worse fates, after all.

Weiss and Ruby had taken to sitting on their respective beds in the meantime, watching the pair. A minute passed in total silence, as they all wondered if Yang and Blake were serious in their statements. Seeing as neither moved a muscle, it seemed they were.

"Anyway…" Ruby put a finger to her chin. "Sis, why did you decide to start taking photos?"

Yang cranked her head around to try and look at Ruby.

"'Cause it's our last year, you know? This is as good a year as any to start making some memorabilia for the future."

Ruby jumped down from her bed, casually strolling to the window.

"Uh huh…"

"Ten years from now," Yang continued with glee, "We're gonna take a look at all the photos I've taken and reminisce about all the good times-"

Ruby loudly gasped, staring out of the window, looking at the fountain where she and Ice Cream had the disastrous encounter.

"Sis, you didn't take a picture of me talking to that girl, did you?"

"Huh? No, I didn't think of that at the time." Yang waved it off. "Anyway, when we're done with college, we oughta celebrate-"

"Maybe that's for the best." Ruby impeded Yang again. "I don't exactly want a picture of me shoving her work into the fountain."

Weiss, who had been cleaning her nails, looked up at her.

"You did what?" She asked with concern.

Ruby, glad that somebody else started to follow her attempt to start a new conversation, turned on her heels.

"It wasn't on purpose, it just sort of happened."

"Only with you could something like that just be another normal event." Weiss put her nail file in a drawer. "Who was the girl in question?"

"I dunno." Ruby shrugged. "I was trying to make her acquaintance, thanks to Yang."

"Trying to make her acquaintance in an amicable kind of way or in a hug-giving kind of way?"

"You really think there'd be a difference?"

Weiss tilted her head.

"A fair point."

A loud bell rang through the dormitory.

It indicated the end of one period and the start of the next, as most school bells are want to do, but Ruby failed to internalise this concept for ten seconds as she thought about Ice Cream. During that time, Weiss had already moved to the door.

And, also during that time, Blake and Yang had not moved at all.

"Uh-oh, Blake. Looks like you're not making it to class." Yang gently twirled some strands of Blake's hair with her mocking tone.

"Neither are you." Blake wore a slightly smug expression.

"Of course I'm not. Hell, I don't have a class right now. I dropped a subject this year."

Blake grunted in annoyance. She seemed to be fine with missing class if Yang happened to do so, too. However, Yang was now taking less classes this year, and had no current obligations to attend anything for the next hour.

"…Damn." Blake grimaced.

"Yup, I'm free to take a nap for an hour, and you're very welcome to join me, Ms. Belladonna. It's not like your first Art and Design class of the year is important or anything, right?"

Blake closed her eyes, and when she opened them, their gold pupils were marred with defeat.

"…You can have the camera back." She sighed.

"Aw, I actually wanted the nap."

Yang pulled her arms off of Blake, who uncurled from her foetal position. The camera was hoisted into the air, but just as Yang reached for it, Blake pulled it down.

"But please, no pictures of me." Blake begged in sincerity. Just to add to the effect, Blake turned her head to Yang, large yellow orbs boring into lilac orbs, and donned a sad, fearful appearance.

"Alright, I promise. God, that injured kitten look gets me every time."

Yang took the camera, feigning annoyance. By now, Weiss had left the room, and Blake slipped on her boots to join Ruby.

Ruby and Blake strolled through the courtyard, crunching leaves under foot, intent on attending their art class by means of punctuality.

"Ruby." Blake began.

"Yup?" Ruby skipped alongside her.

"What was that earlier?"

Ruby slid in front of her, looking up with confusion.

"What was what?"

"You kept cutting off Yang when she was talking about the future, when you were the one who asked her about that damned camera."

"Oh, that…" Ruby almost followed up, but her mind turned blank. Instead, she just coyly smiled, dragging her foot in an arc.

"Ruby, you would tell us if you were worried about something, right?" Blake bore down on her with narrowed eyes.

"Of course I would." Ruby said in her regular, nonchalant voice.

And it was the truth. Ruby could say anything to Weiss, Blake and Yang without fear them ridiculing her or spreading her concerns to other people. Probably.

However, Ruby had nothing to worry about. If she didn't face the problem and her anxiety, then there was no need to worry at all.

They approached the outside entrance of their classroom, a glass door wedged between a pair of large windows embedded in the white brick wall. Blake pivoted in front of Ruby just before entering.

"I'll believe you." Responded Blake, as though she had an option. "This cliché is as old as time, but the three of us are here for you. If you wanted, you can just unload on me when we're alone. I'll listen."

"That's so sweet of you…" Ruby murmured.

She then threw herself onto Blake in her typical windup to a hug. This time, however, Blake lifted Ruby off the floor, so that Ruby's head rested on her shoulder instead of her chest. For a moment, they were quite comfortable in their embrace, but as with most physical contact involving Ruby, it did not last.

"Cute, kind and a teensy bit shy. Can I have you all to myself, Blake?"

A giggling Ruby lightly nuzzled Blake's neck. The taller girl gulped, and for a moment, could only respond with a sharp 'ah!' She quickly recovered, and pushed Ruby away, before holding her by the underarms and lifting her like a puppy.

"Ruby, you need a girlfriend." Blake declared.

"Are you offering?" Ruby sweetly and seductively smiled.

"No." Blake said without a modicum of consideration.

"Spoilsport." Ruby acted as though they had not had similar conversations in the past.

"You know, Ruby…" Blake continued to look into her eyes. "I'm not advocating for you to practically molest everybody you speak to, but maybe if you took your deceptively flirtatious nature and used it to socialise with others, your range of friends would expand beyond two and your sister."

"What? Come on, Blake, I try. But you know that there's only two people in the world other than my family who can put up with me." Ruby tried to stop herself from looking pathetic, putting on a smile, but was belied by her softened expression and dancing eyes.

"I…" Blake put Ruby down, somewhat looking saddened on behalf of Ruby. "Just give it another try. You can practice on the girl glaring holes into the back of your skull right now."

Only at Blake's word did Ruby feel somebody ominous behind her, and turned to see them.

"Ack!" Ruby bounced back in panic.

Ice Cream stood behind her, sharp, brown eyes like slits.

Ruby generally was not startled by the presence of others, but Ice Cream's unique colours stood out against the gravel and grass, providing an eye-popping contrast that caught the slightly taller girl off guard. That, and Ruby felt somewhat embarrassed that somebody saw her horse around with Blake.

Though now was a bad time to say it to her, Ruby found Ice Cream's annoyed, pouting face to be adorable rather than daunting. All things considered, Ice Cream did not seem all too angry. Her bag probably contained quite little in terms of work, bring the first day of college, and her notebook was empty anyway. She seemed annoyed in a teasing kind of way, Ruby would describe it. There was even something of a smile on her lips.

"So, I guess we meet again, huh?"

Ice Cream did not verbally respond, but instead held a hand towards her, holding a timetable.

Ruby leaned forward to inspect it, and Ice Cream pointed a finger to a certain block. Her light pink nail designated the current day and time on her timetable, which read 'Art and Design- Room 14.' She most likely wanted to know where room 14 in question was located.

"We've got the same class." Ruby spoke. She noticed that Ice Cream focused intently on her face. "That's quite a coinkidink, don't you think? Our room is right here, and our teacher is…"

Ruby pointed to the glass door, and this was the only thing that grabbed Ice Cream's attention. Not staying for the end of Ruby's sentence, she entered, leaving the other girl with exasperation.

Ruby followed Ice Cream into their classroom, who then approached their teacher, parasol tapping on the ground.

The room was as exciting and ordinary as an art room could possibly be. Fine art had been placed in the four corners, impressive and detailed drawings and paintings neatly arranged along the walls. Some had even been placed in the large windows, showing off their splendour to those passing by. Nothing in the room felt particularly unique, even the smell of paint and glue could be conceived as familiar to anybody who entered any art room.

Large red tables that could fit four people each had been arranged as though the one who placed them had been playing a real version of Tetris. They were positioned to maximise space and fit as many students as possible. Blake had chosen a table cast off to the room's side, which would make her less likely to be in the teacher's line of sight, a discreet act of convenience.

Ruby dropped into the seat next to Blake, used to the cheap, plastic chairs that were a hallmark of every class in Beacon. She set her backpack down next to her.

"How did it go?" Blake asked, though she had only left Ruby with Ice Cream one minute ago.

"We didn't even talk to each other. She just wanted to know where this class was, and I pointed at it."

"Baby steps."

A bored looking Blake occupied herself with a smudge on her sleeve, and Ruby observed the front of the class.

Their teacher today was a man with a peach coloured afro, promptly named Professor Peach. Wearing an apron over his untidy shirt, he seemed like a teacher who spent the majority of their time within the walls of their classroom. As of this moment, he sat at the front of his classroom, typing at a computer.

He was not alone at the front. In addition to Ice Cream, there was one more unfamiliar face.

The third new girl Ruby had seen today happened to be the tallest, and with a scorching, unapproachable aura around her. Charcoal grey hair fell over her left shoulder and eye, her right eye burning with a captivating force that stole the beholder's breath.

"Woah…" Ruby exhaled. "She's beautiful."

Blake took interest and looked up. Her golden eyes travelled up the young woman's slim, bare legs, then her slender body hugged by the Beacon uniform, then to her face carrying a dark, seductive smile.

Then Blake suddenly looked away in shock.

"Oh my God." She said in a monotone voice.

Ruby tapped her chin.

"Oh, so you like taller girls, huh? Now it all makes sense."

"No, no Ruby… Yes, but no, it's not that." Blake breathed heavily. "Do you have any idea who that is?"

Ruby glanced at the new student again. Still unfamiliar.

"Nope."

"That's Cinder Fall. Well, that's her pseudonym, anyway. She's penned three critically acclaimed novels within the past two years, and she's not even out of college." Blake's voice became a whisper, so as to not draw attention.

Blake was not the only one murmuring; other students in the class were dropping rumours and gossip into each other's ears.

"What kind of books are they? In terms of genre, I mean?"

At this, Blake coughed and pulled at her collar, an action typically brought about by nervousness.

"I'll… let you borrow one when I'm done. In fact, they're probably exactly your kind of books, when I think about it."

What did that mean? Ruby cast it aside, as Professor Peach finished typing and stood, his barely secured afro rocking back and forth.

The class fell silent as Peach took his place, standing in front of Ice Cream and Cinder, facing his students. Then, he clasped his hands together, rubbing them like he was preparing for a challenge.

"Alright, alright class, are we all, uh, settled down?" He spoke in a soft, measured and ultimately soothing voice. "Good, good, it's good to see all of my young promising students again after those long, long holidays. I, uh, do hope you've all been well.

"As you can all see, we've got a couple of fresh new faces joining the family right here today. It's a bit, ah, unorthodox for students to join in during the second year of a course, but they've just moved into Beacon after finishing the course's first year at another college. They're on the same, you know, ah, theoretical portfolio page as everybody else.

"So, please, welcome to our family Cinder and Neopolitan, by all means."

Normally, new students at a college would not be introduced by the teacher, or even be given the time of day by other students in an introduction when everybody preferred to count the seconds left in the lesson. But contrarily, everybody clapped and cheered for Cinder, a famous face.

And Neopolitan? A pretty name, Ruby thought. Definitely a line she needed to drop on her at some point.

Peach continued to talk before letting the two students sit down, which visibly annoyed Cinder, indicated by the faint glint in her eye.

"Now, we don't have much on the, uh, old agenda today. Everybody should get their portfolios organised today, plan out what you want to do with them, arrange your finished works thus far, and at the end of the lesson, I'll take you through the plan for the rest of year."

At this moment, Neopolitan tapped Cinder's arm, which she took as a cue to brandish a miniscule notebook and scribble into it. Cinder then brought it to Neopolitan's eye level, and whatever was written seemed to satisfy her.

Cinder said nothing throughout the introduction, though perhaps she had no need to, as everybody already knew her. Neopolitan, similarly, said nothing, period. They were allowed to take seats somewhere, at Peach's beckoning.

Neopolitan watched Cinder's movements before doing anything, then started to follow. Ruby took note of this, because there were a variety of empty seats in the class, but she actively sought to be by Cinder's side. Maybe the pair were friends.

And other people seemed to share that thought, as they now noticed that Neopolitan even existed next to the latest champion of the written medium.

Blake abruptly needed to start controlling her breathing.

"Oh God, she's coming to sit with us. I'm about to sit at the same table as Cinder Fall, I repeat, I'm about to sit at the same table-"

Blake stopped when they came within earshot. Although her voice had not risen over a whisper, her face said much more about her increasingly panicked state. Eyes darting back and forth, beads of sweat forming on her face's contours, a tiny twitch of the nose; meeting Cinder today was a great honour for her, and a nerve wracking one at that.

Neopolitan gracefully sat opposite Ruby, placing her parasol against the table, whereas Cinder dropped into the seat opposite Blake, shoulders sagging. She may have worn a smile, but she wore it the same way that a miscreant smiled when breaking the rules. Overall, in terms of presence, Cinder had not met a single expectation one may have had for a well renowned writer.

The class bustled to life as Peach sat down, each student setting out to organise their portfolio. Some gathered paintings they left in class at the end of last year, others set off in search of a camera, and some just sat down with a folder to search through.

Ruby had become more and more fascinated by the pair in front of her as minutes passed by. She had expected Blake to strike up a conversation, but the black haired girl twiddled her fingers, unable to look anywhere near Cinder. Apparently, it was up to Ruby to say something.

Ruby was fairly positive that any question directed at Neopolitan would be met with silence, so instead, she turned to Cinder.

"How do you like Beacon so far?" Ruby asked the first generic question that came to mind.

Neopolitan absorbed herself in a thick pink binder, presumably filled with her work. In the meantime, Cinder put an elbow on the table, leaning on it with chin in hand.

"It's tolerable. Somewhat… lacking, shall we say, in the entertainment department. I suppose I should have accepted earlier that one of the best colleges in terms of giving an education would be equal parts boring."

"Heh, I guess." Ruby had never actually considered Beacon to be a boring place, though she felt a strange compulsion to agree with everything Cinder said. "Blake, thoughts?"

Blake turned to Ruby, then Cinder, then to the table.

"Yes." Blake gave a monotone answer that Ruby considered quite high on the list of invalid responses.

"Is she okay?" Cinder asked Ruby. It seemed an innocent question, but she was pointing at her brain.

"Yeah, she's fine. She's kinda nervous, I think." Ruby only responded on the basis that she had never seen Blake's equivalent of fangirl-ism. At least she wasn't squeeing and begging for an autograph, which Ruby admitted would be both weird and magical.

"Oh. She's a fan, then." Cinder sighed and rolled her eyes, which also doubled as the first time her mouth was in a shape other than a smile, now resembling a straight line.

This triggered a thought in Ruby's mind. Cinder must have been a very successful and likely rich individual. Somebody writing three novels at a young age only happened once in a blue moon. She would be set for life, surely.

So why was she attending college?

Ruby wanted to ask, but feared it would be a rude invasion of privacy. She had her own reasons for being in college, just as everybody else.

"A fan? Me? No, I mean, only a little," Blake stammered, her hands drumming the desk, "you know, barely a fan at all. Just a tiny speck on the cosmos that is your fanbase."

Blake clearly intended to keep going, but her voice cracked, bringing the conversation to a stand-still. Cinder and Ruby's eyes met in a brief glance, telling each other that they should drop this line of conversation, lest Blake crack under the pressure of needing to speak.

Instead, Ruby turned her attention to Neopolitan, who continued to rifle through a folder. Ruby nervously tapped her fingertips together, trying to think of something to say. After destroying her work and other books, an apology was first and foremost in order.

"Hey, Neopolitan? I'm really sorry about what happened earlier."

And Neopolitan did not notice Ruby speak. Cinder did it on her behalf, tapping the small girl on the shoulder. Pink and brown strands of hair bounced up as her attention was raised. Cinder was about to explain what Ruby had said, but a thought then struck her.

"Oh, wait a minute, you must be the 'injudicious shortcake' Neo mentioned earlier." Cinder darkly chuckled. Everything she spoke had a cool, seductive tone attached. Like Emerald, she also sounded American.

"Shortcake?" Ruby tried to make sense of the word. "Is she calling me short? Pot, the kettle called."

"Indeed, if her boots were up any higher, Neo would be blind."

That may have been a bit excessive. Neo brooked no offence, fortunately, first looking at Ruby, then at Cinder, waiting to be addressed directly.

Ruby then realised that she had failed to introduce herself to the pair. Weiss would have chided her for the lack of manners by now.

"I'm Ruby by the way, and this is Blake." Ruby held out her hand.

"Enchanté. I go by my pseudonym Cinder, and Neopolitan prefers Neo. It's easier to articulate during communication."

An interesting choice of words, Ruby thought.

Ruby shook hands with Cinder first, then Neo offered her hand and a smile as well, which surprised Ruby. Affirming Ruby's suspicions, she had no hard feelings about their encounter earlier. Perhaps Neo appreciated that she felt horrible about destroying the bag. Regardless, they both shook hands.

Then, Neo extended her hand to Blake. They shook, and Cinder did the same. This time, Blake stopped herself, looking at Cinder's hand for a second. The taller woman rolled her eyes.

"I'm not at the centre of any kind of cosmos, by the way. You can shake my hand without being sucked into a black hole."

"Right…" Blake breathed out. She limply accepted Cinder's hand, though retained the unworthiness etched on her face.

When all was said and done, the four began their work. They set about accomplishing their own tasks.

Neopolitan pulled out a sheet of thick paper covered in calligraphy. Ruby gazed at it, noting the stunning penmanship, observing how the words and letterings fashioned sleek shapes in the form of flowers and other flora. There existed a strange sense of irony that the girl who never spoke a word had chosen calligraphy as her main art form. Her style was incredible. Striking, captivating, beautiful, not unlike Neopolitan herself, something that Ruby wanted to say to her right now, but knew it would be pointless.

However, Neopolitan looked at her artwork with an expression bearing dissatisfaction. She must have thought that it could be improved upon somehow.

Upon seeing Neopolitan's art, Ruby felt her art would be classed as inferior in comparison. She preferred acrylic paints, similar to Blake, and anybody would consider the two styles too different to compare. This did not stop Ruby from looking at her up-close painting of a rose, finished just before the end of the last school year, and contemplating how it could be amended. The shading was off. The stem was too large for the rose. And the longer she stared at it, the more she started to dislike the shade of red. Not to mention It utilised no techniques from artists they had studied.

Now she hated the painting. What a strange, disgusting feeling. Ruby thought this painting was her magnum opus, but how could it be such a thing when so much was wrong with it?

Nothing for it but to redo the whole image. She could start again today, beginning with an outline, and get into the painting itself at a later date. For now, she just needed a new canvas and suitable pencil.

The classroom's storage closet sat to their right, white door plastered with Peach's professional drawings of fruit. Several students had already entered and left, leaving the door half open.

Ruby and Blake rose from their seat together, the latter having her own motive to enter the storage closet, an unfinished canvas sitting on her side of the table. It appeared to be of a strange, burning monster, humanoid in appearance and swathed in flames, trying to jump into an ocean while flanked by fields of flowers, mainly featuring violets and marigolds. Ruby tried again to take in all of its details and contradictions, but gave up.

Cinder also stood, leaving her chair haphazardly between the thin passages separating the tables. Peach should have warned her that this was a health and safety hazard in such close confines, but Cinder's unapproachable aura turned him away without her needing to say anything.

Blake entered first, followed by Ruby, then Cinder. The storage closet had no space to spare, stocked to the brim with various shelves and cabinets stocked on art resources, but the trio were able to fit. Blake fumbled around the top shelf for black paint bottles, Ruby tried to pull a new canvas out of a messy pile, and Cinder dug into a box of miscellaneous items next to Blake.

It occurred to Ruby that if Cinder and Neo were friends, and Cinder was on a nickname basis with the silent girl, their association may have begun before entering Beacon. Then they might know Emerald and the fourth, unseen new student, too.

"Cinder, do you know a girl called Emerald?" Ruby felt no need to be pedantic about the question.

"That I do, she's a friend of mine." Cinder answered in an equal manner. "You've met?"

Ruby heaved to yank a canvas free, staggering back. She held it in both hands, looking over its top at Cinder.

"Kind of. She was having a shouting match with my friend."

Cinder wrenched an empty jar out of the box, though Ruby had no idea what she would use it for. She set the jar down and dove back in.

"Emerald likes to believe she can get into anybody's head. Ironically, this leads to her butting heads with-"

Blake, on her toes, gasped and stumbled while reaching for the top shelf, and dropped a bottle of black paint onto-

Cinder caught Blake and held her close with one hand and snatched the paint bottle with the other.

It happened so quickly that Ruby had to play the moment over in her mind. Blake barely grasped the paint bottle above her while standing on her toes, she slipped and knocked the bottle over as the lid came loose, Cinder immediately grasped them both.

And now, Ruby was treated to the adorable sight of Blake being grasped by yet another young woman, heavily blushing and nervously squirming with Cinder's hand on her stomach. Cinder clearly found great amusement in this, just as Yang would and Ruby currently did.

"I'm sorry Blake, but we're not at the point in our relationship where we can have matching hair shades." Cinder mocked, comparing her ashen hair to Blake's own.

Blake put more effort into wrestling away than she needed to, as Cinder lowered her arms. Blake adopted an anxious giggle as she turned to face Cinder. She was about to say something, opening and closing her mouth repeatedly like a fish, but then faced the door and darted outside, having cracked under the pressure and choosing to flee.

"That happened." Ruby commented, unsure of how to proceed.

In her retreat, Blake had forgotten to obtain the black paint from Cinder. The tall woman handed it to Ruby instead.

"It would seem my tease scared her off." Cinder unapologetically said. "Is she socially anxious?"

Cinder now held a pair of empty jars, while Ruby held the black paint in one hand and dragged the new canvas along her left with the other. They both left the storage room, heading back to their table. Blake was already sitting at the table, pretending to be busy and acting as though nothing happened.

"A tiny bit. Mainly, she doesn't like attention. I think she's more glad that she didn't throw paint all over you-"

Ruby tripped over Cinder's chair with a clatter and doused Neo in black paint.

"Ah…!" Neo's audible, hoarse gasp was all Ruby could hear as she fell.

And when Ruby connected with the floor, the next noise she heard was that of her own groan. A groan that combined pain and regret. Pain from her chin hitting the floor, making her bite her tongue. Regret as any reparations she had made with Neo up to this point had now vanished. On her way down, Ruby saw the expression on Neo's face, containing shock and trace amounts of anger.

Silence enveloped the room. After the initial racket of the chair colliding with the floor followed by Ruby falling, she decided to just close her eyes and pretend that she was alone, away from prying eyes, away from Neo, away from any and all embarrassment. Annoyingly, the universe did not see fit to grant Ruby powers of invisibility.

A hand touched on her back. This brought her back to reality, allowing Ruby to fully comprehend the pain shooting through her tongue and the taste of metal. She sharply whined, putting a hand over her mouth. Ruby got to her knees to see who was consoling her.

Surprisingly, most of all to Ruby, it was Neo. The girl's left cheek was splattered with black paint, but her clothing suffered the most damage, almost completely covering her left side.

Neo's expression took a moment to understand. Eyes slightly narrowed in a display of both irritation and concern. Mouth twisted in the corners in admission as if to say 'You're in worse shape than me right now.' Only then Ruby noticed a small trickle of blood on her own lips. Really, although Ruby was certainly in pain, she probably looked worse off than she felt.

Neo fired a glare at Cinder, who stood to their side. Cinder generally gave off an air of being somebody who only cared about self-interest, but when Ruby snuck a glance at her, she appeared genuinely remorseful. It would seem Neo was blaming Cinder, who adopted a straight face and could not make eye contact.

"I'm sorry. I left my chair out like an idiot." Cinder accepted the blame.

"It's alright." Ruby mumbled as best she could, partially through gritted teeth as she could barely talk.

Neo swung her head away with a flippant nostril flair, condemning Cinder in a quirky fashion. Ruby failed to tell if Neo allowed Cinder to finish the sentence, as she gave the impression that she relied more on instinct than any sense.

Ruby allowed herself to be helped up by Neo. Neo lacked physique, but she was able to pull Ruby to her feet, if only because Ruby was also a small individual. By now, Peach had given them permission to leave, and together, the pair exited the classroom.

Some time shortly after, Neo and Ruby stood in a bathroom, amending their respective blemishes. Ruby swashed cold water in her mouth, numbing the pain, and washed the blood from her mouth. Neo scrubbed a wet paper towel against her cheek before setting about wiping down her clothes before the paint dried; the damage had already been done, leaving a giant black smudge on her uniform, but they were at least salvageable by acting now.

There was nothing unique about the bathroom. Several mirrors and faucets were embedded in the cream walls, with toilet stalls opposite them. Ruby and Neo were side by side, Neo closest to the door.

Ruby watched Neo from the corner of her eye. She had expected frustration or neutrality from Neo, but not kindness. She had actually been taken aback, somewhat. Of course, Neo needed to use the bathroom too, but the way she was first to offer assistance struck Ruby as rather thoughtful.

A bell rang throughout the college, signifying the end of class. Ruby barely felt the past hour go by.

Ruby tapped Neo on the shoulder. They faced each other, the latter with her typical smile. In that moment, Ruby was unsure of what to say. Or rather, how to say it. She tapped her fingers together, then decided to just say it.

"Thank you for helping me back there."

Neo watched Ruby's lips, then cocked her head with a bright grin.

"And," Ruby continued, "if there's anyway I can repay you for that and your books this morning, just ask."

Neo turned her head and put a finger to her cheek, smirking more enticingly and with eyes like thin fissures.

Was she asking for a kiss on the cheek? That was exactly the kind of thing that Ruby would ask of Weiss or Blake, in this position. Neo was not even remotely trying to hide her glee, as everything about her demeanour right now dared Ruby to kiss her.

Ruby was only surprised for a single second, making sure that she had not misunderstood Neo's intentions. If Neo was actually asking her to check her hair for paint spots, this would end up rather embarrassing. But no, Ruby understood the situation.

Ruby shrugged. Sometimes, you just have to do what the lady tells you to do. If Neo wanted a kiss as compensation, who was Ruby to complain? This was a compliment crossed with flirtation.

Closing the distance, Ruby leaned forward without hesitation.

The door opened as Ruby's lips were an inch from Neo's cheek. Ruby froze first, and when Neo noticed that something was amiss, she turned towards the door. Neo looked highly disappointed that she did not get the peck.

Cinder stood in the doorframe, a green corridor behind her, staring at the two. She held Ruby's bag in her left hand.

"Well, your relationship escalated quickly. Another hour, and I may have found you both in the toilet stall."

Ruby pulled back, coy.

"I was just thanking Neo for the help."

As Cinder responded, she put Ruby's bag on her wrist to free her hand, then made several gestures with her hands; sign language. Ruby could not recall Cinder doing this during class.

"She asked for the kiss as a reward or something similar, didn't she?" Cinder paused her signing. Her movements were slow and full of hesitations, suggesting she was not completely fluent in the language.

"Um, yeah…"

Next to Ruby, Neo modestly took her brown hair in hand and coiled it.

"Neo is quite the promiscuous little rogue. She'll take advantage of any opportunity to steal a kiss or an embrace from a girl." Cinder spoke and signed at once.

For a second, Ruby's mind turned blank. Weiss, Blake or Yang could replace the name Neo with Ruby in that statement and they would not be liars.

Neo took exception to Cinder's signing, and reciprocated with her own barrage of gestures. Ruby had no clue as to what she said.

Whatever was Neo's response, it made Cinder laugh.

"Huh?" Ruby tried to stay in the loop, addressing Cinder.

"Nothing, Ruby. You should be flattered, is all."

If Ruby had to guess, she would say that Neo either gave a compliment, or bragged about having high standards, which Ruby must have met.

"Anyway, did you come looking for us?" Ruby asked.

Cinder also signed Ruby's question, acting as a medium for the pair.

"We did. The least I could do after being responsible for your fall is bringing you your bag."

Cinder slung Ruby's bag from her wrist at her, caught with both hands.

"Thanks!" Ruby smiled and put the bag over her shoulders. "And did you just say we?"

"I did. Blake is insistent on staying three steps behind me."

"Hi Ruby." Blake's voice could be heard from the corridor.

Neo signed, and Cinder nodded. The tall girl stepped away from the door, and Blake came in, carrying Neo's parasol. The exchange occurred, and Neo leaned on her parasol like a cane.

Deciding to exit the bathroom, all four girls now stood in a square in the green corridor, a part of the art department, reflected with artwork from students no longer in the college. Ruby stood between Blake and Neo, trailing her foot in an arc.

"So, what are you two doing now?" Ruby inquired towards Cinder and Neo, as the next period of the day had already begun. Cinder still signed as much of the conversation as possible.

"Nothing. That was our last lesson of the day." Cinder nonchalantly responded. "I imagine that we're just going to tour the college for the rest of the day."

Neo nodded in affirmation. Ruby and Blake found it strange that they were not familiar with Beacon's layout. Did the four new students really enter Beacon without even inspecting it beforehand?

Neo then made several gestures.

"Neo said that she would welcome your company. I too, if you're not busy." Cinder translated.

Blake shied away, gawking at Ruby first, then her feet. She wanted Ruby to decide.

Of course Ruby was going to say yes. How could she refuse when Neo wanted her companionship? And Cinder may be a little impolite, but she was a nice person at heart. Plus, seeing Blake fluster during every interaction with her favourite writer had a certain adorableness that Ruby wanted to witness some more.

"It'd be our pleasure." Ruby politely bowed.

Neo grinned, then twirled her parasol to shoulder-level, opening it. She appeared to be ready to leave this moment, and signed, even with the parasol in hand.

"Let us be off, said Neo." Cinder beckoned them as well.

But before anybody could move a step, the doors at the other end of the corridor, behind Neo and Cinder, were thrown open. Cold wind pressed against them as the two had to whip around to look. The doors caused quite a loud noise upon being flung apart, like the ones who opened them were competing to make the biggest bang, and ultimately shook the corridor.

"Ruby, Blake!" Came one voice.

"Cinder, Neo!" Came another.

Weiss and Emerald ran side by side, rushing towards the four. They were both out of breath, likely having searched the school to find them. The two approached their respective friends.

"Hey, Weiss. What's up?" Ruby asked, as it was rare that Weiss appeared genuinely concerned.

"Emerald? Is something wrong?" Cinder had the same thoughts of her own friend. She put her hands on hips in patience.

Weiss started first.

"Ruby, some dim-witted donkey just challenged your sister to a fight!"

Then Emerald followed up.

"Cinder, some blonde bimbo just forced Mercury to fight her!"

After Weiss and Emerald said their piece, there was a moment of silence, while they comprehended both statements. Cinder broke it, standing between them.

"Somebody here is telling a porky pie." Cinder ridiculed.

Weiss pointed her finger at Emerald.

"Obviously, Emerald is lying. Yang would never be so brash as to pick fights with random strangers." She scowled.

"Want to spend some of your daddy's cash betting on that?" Emerald retorted.

"I beg your pardon? What are you implying…?" Weiss staggered, her voice weakening.

"What, are you saying a pampered princess like you doesn't throw around her family's funds all willy-nilly?"

Weiss' face dropped, losing anger in exchange for melancholy.

"I, I hate…" It was remarkable how quickly Weiss started to crumble when her family was brought into a conversation. Her narrow eyes became large, like a deer in the headlights, visibly wounded by the thought of her relatives.

Emerald knew in an instant that she had said something unfair. She made an 'um,' surprised that her new rival had emotions beyond irritation and anger, and they happened to be brought out in the topic of family. Emerald looked Weiss in the eye as she tried to look away, her own eyes softening, and clearly welled with regret.

"Never mind, forget what I said." This was the closest Emerald could come to an apology, and decided to drop the topic. "Anyway, Mercury doesn't go around actively engaging people in fights for fun. Something that barbaric must be a trait exclusive to your blonde friend." Emerald claimed, putting her foot down.

This time, it was Blake who stepped up to argue with Emerald. She had forgotten that she had been nothing but shy while Cinder was present, and only now decided to speak up.

"Yang is not barbaric." Blake asserted with a cold tone. "She's the kindest person you'll ever know in your life."

"It definitely wasn't Mercury who chose the engagement." Emerald crossed her arms. "He literally doesn't care enough about anything to start fights, so your brute of a friend is to blame."

Blake fired a perilous scowl at Emerald.

Blake would have stepped towards Emerald if not for Cinder putting her arms between them. Neo, also worried about incoming sparks, stepped next to Ruby and signed Cinder.

"Yes." Cinder agreed with Neo without explaining. "Let us go find Yang and Mercury now. We can talk things through later."

Blake and Emerald retained their harsh expressions, but stepped apart nonetheless.

"Fine." Weiss followed Neo's example, and stood by Ruby. "They're at the gym. Let's not waste time talking to this trog-"

Ruby put her hand over Weiss' mouth before she said something stupid, resulting in muffled yelps.

"Let's get going." Ruby spoke over Weiss, nervously smiling.

Yang slipped on her black boxing gloves and clenched her fist.

In the gym's confines, a small array of people had gathered, eager to watch Beacon's best athlete face off against a new kid on the block. Humidity enveloped the gym; the people watching were those who had been using the gym up to this point.

'Yang, Yang, Yang, Yang!'

They all cheered Yang's name from the outskirts of the boxing ring, directly in the gym's centre. Just over the red ropes, Yang could see exercise equipment scattered around the large, square room. It was lit entirely by several lights, with no windows, bar the glass door serving as the entrance and exit. A storage room had been opened, where a pair of students were pulling out benches to stand on for a better view. Everybody moved in some way, whether it be waving and cheering or climbing over one another. Everybody except the ring's two occupants.

Yang, in a yellow tank top and black shorts only, examined her opponent.

Mercury leaned on the ropes, a tall, well-built boy, silver haired and perpetually smirking. He only wore loose fitting silver shorts and padded foot guards, exposing his upper body and lower legs. Despite the crowd being on Yang's side, Mercury was unfazed and practically laughing in the face of adversity.

Between Yang's boxing gloves and Mercury's padded foot guards, they only wore the bare minimum in safety gear, not bothering with body or head protection. This was by no means a sanctioned fight, something they would need to finish before a teacher arrived.

Over the crowd's cries, Yang heard the door swing open, and saw Ruby, Blake and Weiss arrive with the other three new students. Yang waved at them, grinning.

"Aw, you guys came to cheerlead for me! Blake, I want you at front and centre."

They pushed their way to the ring, Blake saying something inaudible. She might have told Yang to shut up.

"Sis, what's happening here is kinda obvious, but I still have to ask. Why?" Ruby raised her voice to be heard.

Yang shrugged.

"There's no need for why. We're just sparring."

"Without protective gear? Somebody's gonna leave the ring with a broken jaw."

"It's not going to be me, so who cares?"

Mercury casually inspected his fingernails, not affected by her taunt. He stood when Emerald approached his side.

"Merc," Emerald began, "please do me a favour and put Yang away, if only to wipe away Weiss' attitude."

Did Mercury already know Weiss? Ruby couldn't remember Weiss mention him earlier.

"You didn't have to tell me that." Mercury cracked his knuckles, speaking in a sly yet deceptively arrogant tone, and like his friends, in an American accent.

"Yang!" Weiss called out. "Bury him and silence Emerald right now!"

"Yeesh, calm down, princess." Yang stuck out her tongue. "We know how this is gonna end."

Blake stood behind Weiss, and caught Yang's attention.

"Yang, if it doesn't end with him lying in a pool of his blood, you'll disappoint me." Blake growled. Yang stammered, taken by surprise by her desire for bloodshed.

"Sure… Um, whatever you say, kitty."

Emerald laughed.

"Of course you primates want to settle things with violence. How could you morons know any better?"

"What the frick?" Weiss spluttered. "You were just urging on Merc-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Emerald waved her away. "Are these two going to fight, or what?"

Mercury and Yang stared at each other, wondering if it was ethical to fight each other for the sake of settling differences between their friends. However, Mercury cracked his neck and smiled.

"Let's get this other with." He stepped forward, assuming his fighting stance. Mercury had not verbally spoken much up to this point, but his stance said so much more; he was not interested in fighting for his friends' feud. He wanted to fight Yang for his own reasons. Boredom? Challenge? Intrigue? Ruby couldn't tell.

"Yeah." Yang shared the same sentiments. She readied her stance and closed in.

They opposed each other in the ring's centre. People whistled and chanted Yang's name.

"Remember Merc," Emerald shouted, "it's not just about winning. It's also about how many teeth you can knock out while you're winning."

"Pfft." Mercury chuckled.

Mercury and Yang marched towards each other, and bumped their fists together. A pleasant sign of respect. Then, they both breathed out. Neither started. But they shuffled around each other.

They made slight steps closer.

And closer.

Closer still.

Nobody breathed.

All watched.

Their hands touched.

Yang threw a wide haymaker for her opening gambit, he ducked, she brought her hands up, then hopped forward with an uppercut, he dodged. Bouncing on her feet, Yang continued to close in on Mercury. When he gave ground to avoid an attack, she covered it again, unrelenting in her attack. Jab forward, missed, duck in and straight punch, he leaned to the side. Growling, Yang launched a fist that audibly cut the air. He simply ducked, her fist catching his hair. A grey strand came loose, slowly falling, then being blown aside as Mercury rose with a twist kick that sprayed dust from the floor.

Yang blocked, but his kick contained such force that she staggered back in shock. He almost lazily continued his attack. Leg overhead, he swung down, catching her arm, slamming the floor. He twisted his body to follow up, she weaved, barely leaning away in time to dodge a head-aimed kick. He was vulnerable, she swung at his body, landed. He wheezed and staggered, falling backwards, the crowd cheered, she continued, lightly swinging a fist to put him down.

Mercury flipped when his hands connected with the floor, almost catching Yang in the jaw during her swing, and landed on his feet again. He stopped moving for a second, eyes focused on Yang, calming his respiration. The punch she landed had an effect. He already looked far more serious now than at the start of their fight.

Yang dashed in, left hook, right hook, he dipped under one, deflected the other, their clashing limbs echoing in the gym. Mercury rose his knee, making her flinch defensively, then snatched her arm, pulling her around and delivering a jump kick to her gut. She coughed upon hitting the floor, audience gasping, and slammed her fist down in anger. She jumped up.

Mercury hopped forward mid-run up to her, aiming a strong axe kick. She caught his leg with both gloved hands and hurled him into a corner, the boy grunting and rolling to stay on his feet. He stood in time to brush aside a fierce swipe, back to the corner post, face wrought with pressure as Yang trapped him, the crowd lauding for her again. Just as she reeled back for a heavy handed punch, Mercury kicked off the post and grabbed her shoulders, heaving himself up and vaulting over her, landing on all fours.

An overtly ridiculous manoeuvre in any situation, yet Mercury made it look natural, even smirking as looked back at Yang before rising. Yang, contrastingly, looked furious, eyes burning with rage and baring her teeth. He was running rings around her.

Yang lunged forward, but he kept her at range with a forward kick, blocked, and a left kick, pushing her to the side. This just infuriated her further, but a right kick prevented her from getting closer. He seemed to be enjoying her annoyance as he practically taunted her with a feint, then lifted his leg up. Instead of slamming it down as she raised her guard, he brought it back and stepped forward, jumping and twisting in preparation for a spin kick.

Mercury saw the threat far too late. So sick of his antics was Yang that she decided to throw caution to the wind and launch an all-out offence. Roaring, she stamped her foot forward and hurled a vicious, air-cracking straight punch, just as he was launching his spin kick.

Timed slowed as their attacks came close.

Closer.

Closer still.

Nobody breathed.

All watched.

And Mercury and Yang slammed their limbs into each other's faces.

There was nothing ceremonious about the finale. Mercury wobbled for a moment. Then he flopped over, unconscious. Yang fared slightly better, if it was any consolation. She stumbled onto the ropes, then fell halfway through them, also unconscious.

Ruby was pretty sure she saw a tooth fly, but had no idea who it belonged to. She happened to be occupied watching the two fighters fail to resolve the conflict in their new stupor.

The gym fell silent. Double knockouts were rare, and nobody expected to see one today, let alone when it involved the jewel of Beacon's athletes. What kind of response was the average student supposed to have here?

Roughly thirty seconds passed, by Ruby's estimation. Blake moved first, jumping into the ring. She heaved Yang off the ropes, lying her down, upper body in her arms. Blake did not bother shouting for her to wake up; it was perfectly clear that Yang would spend some time asleep.

Emerald was first to Mercury's side, rolling him on his back.

"I think we should call this a draw."

Weiss crawled into the ring.

"Technically, Yang was standing a second longer, so-"

"Give it a rest, you pompous pipsqueak." Emerald continued to manufacture insults from alliteration. "Our friends are hurt." She added with a touch of venom, silencing Weiss. Ruby liked to think that Emerald was being caring of her friend as opposed to using it as an excuse to shut Weiss up.

Cinder leaned on the ring's edge, facing into it.

"Neither of them will be happy when they wake up, Hell, I hope they try to kill each other. I want to be there when it happens." Cinder had no reservations about her last statement. "But until then, they need to go to the infirmary."

The prying students around them started murmuring amongst themselves.

'Let's get outta here.'

'Yeah, our professors'll ask about why there was an unsupervised fight.'

'Does this mean Yang's win streak is broken?'

'Dunno. Does this even count as a loss?'

'Let's just pretend this never happened, like Donald Trump's campaign.'

The audience filed out of the gym at a rapid rate. By the minute, only eight people remained, Ruby, Neo and their friends.

Those very eight people later found themselves in the infirmary, Mercury and Yang still sleeping peacefully with bruised jaws, and joined by an unpleased professor.

"At this point in their school lives, you would think that they'd act more like adults. How ludicrous." Professor Goodwitch irately stomped back and forth.

The infirmary only contained one bed, given to Yang, so Mercury was laid out on a series of chairs. There were very few unique features in the cramped room. A table against a wall, educational pictures of diagrams, complicated machinery and a faucet by the bed, a model skeleton by the door, even the walls were a generic shade of white. It barely had enough room for seven standing individuals, let alone when one constantly moved around.

Neo sat on Mercury's chest. This started a brief signed conversation between herself and Cinder, resulting in the former smiling gleefully and the latter deciding it was not worth arguing against. Ruby considered that Mercury was not able to complain.

Goodwitch scratched at a clipboard in one hand with a slender pen.

"How did this fight even begin? Why would they fight with such reckless abandon?"

"C'est la vie for Mercury." Cinder commented, leaning on the wall.

"Yeah, say a V for Yang, too." Ruby was sure she mimicked the saying correctly, whatever it meant.

Grimacing, Goodwitch stopped in front of the door.

"I would like to give them a stern reminder of the rules and regulations of Beacon pertaining to our safety conduct, but I suppose I'll have to wait for them to awaken before I can have my fun." Goodwitch menacingly swiped at her clipboard. "Until later, then."

Without bothering to say goodbye, the professor walked out.

Everybody waited momentarily, wondering if somebody would make a decision as to what to do next. Neo made the first move.

But it was not an expected move. She turned to Mercury's head while still sitting on his chest and poked his neck several times.

Ruby, at first, had no idea why Neo was doing this. The best thing she could think of was that Neo had an OCD for trying to stab holes through unconscious people. To her surprise, there was actually a reason to this action.

Mercury stirred.

"Damnit Neo, how'd you know I was awake?" He groaned and swatted away her hand.

Neo hopped off his chest, letting Mercury move to a seating position. Everybody else looked surprised that he was no longer in a slumber. The boy sniffed, head hanging low and movements slow, hair dishevelled and arms limp in his lap.

Cinder stood off the wall, arms behind her head.

"How long have you been awake, then?" She inquired, faint hint of teasing in her voice.

"Long enough to know I should avoid Goodwitch for a while." Mercury tried to stand, but ended up staggering back down. "Yeah, I'm gonna need a couple of minutes here. Yang's got one hell of a right arm."

He rubbed his chin, grunting.

Blake then jolted, struck by inspiration, eyes wide.

She turned to the bed, where Yang lay, and approached it. Everybody knew where this was going.

Blake jabbed a finger into Yang's rib.

"…You caught me."

Yang opened her eyes, lilac orbs set on Blake. She then grabbed Blake by the waist and pulled her onto the bed, ignoring her yelp.

"Y-Yang…" Blake muttered as she was forced into Yang's surprise grasp, arms flailing.

"Were you worried about me, Blake? Were you gonna spend the night tossing and turning in bed, scared for my life?" Yang tightly squeezed Blake, not caring about the company of others.

"I'm more scared for my sleep schedule now that you're awake…"

Yang giggled and rested her head on Blake's neck, even as her prey futilely tried to push away. Everybody, sans Ruby and Neo, were visibly queasy by the blatantly sweet display.

"Get a room, you two." Weiss pretended to gag.

Neo signed, and only Mercury saw.

"Only you would benefit, Neo." He responded, speaking and signing. Whatever Neo kept saying to her friends, it made Ruby want to learn sign language.

Blake gave up struggling, just as she did in their dormitory earlier. She deeply sighed, and let herself be cuddled, deciding to at least get comfortable.

Mercury managed to rise from his seat this time, holding his jaw in one hand. He stepped forward, nobody speaking.

"Hey, Yang." He called her.

"Yup?" She cunningly looked at him, everybody wondering if he was about to start another fight after being unsatisfied with the outcome of the match.

"Nice fight." He offered his fist.

"Hear hear." Yang leaned over Blake and bumped it.

Mercury used the bed-side faucet to pour water into a pair of glasses.

"Here's to a whole year of trying to kill each other over simple contests." Mercury calmly gave Yang a glass.

"I could get used to that." They tapped the glasses together and started drinking.

They drank slowly.

And they watched each other through the water.

They sped up with each passing second.

And Yang brought her glass down first, just as Mercury finished.

"Damnit, rematch!" Mercury spouted in frustration.

Mercury started to refill their glasses.

In the meantime, Weiss and Emerald started a conversation of their own. Ruby had only just started listening in. Apparently, they were continuing their argument from the gym.

"If we're going to decide the winner of their match based on time spent unconscious, then obviously Mercury is the winner, as expected. He woke up first." Emerald rapidly gushed.

"We don't know that, they were both pretending to sleep for a disproportionate amount of time to avoid Goodwitch. Yang could have woken first for all we know." Weiss tersely responded, standing up to Emerald as much as her height would allow.

"Fine, let's ask them. Mercury!" Emerald snapped to the boy like a machine.

"What?" He operated the faucet without turning to them.

"How long have you been awake, in seconds? Answer me now!"

"Yang, you too!" Weiss shouted, pointing at her.

Both Mercury and Yang shrugged. Ruby doubted that they cared at all.

"God, they're useless." Emerald decided.

"Then we'll decide their match based on who fell unconscious last. Obviously, this was Yang, making her the winner."

"Hold it, she fell last, but that just means it took slightly longer for her motor functions to cease. Her mind could have gone blank before she even began to fall, whereas Mercury could have fallen asleep after hitting the ground."

Everybody left them to their civil discussion.

Meanwhile, Cinder had questions of her own, specifically for Blake. And now that Ruby was watching Blake and Yang interact, something occurred to her as well.

Ruby and Cinder stood over Blake and Yang together.

"Hey, Sis?" Ruby felt embarrassed about asking this. "Are you and Blake a couple? 'Cause if you are, I'm gonna feel really awkward about coming on to Blake earlier."

Ruby only asked because Yang was putting on more public displays of adoration for Blake than usual.

Yang laughed and squeezed Blake against her.

"Only if she wants us to be a couple. Don't worry, she's not off-limits yet."

Ruby breathed out in relief.

Cinder adopted a sly smile, eyeing Blake.

"Oh, I see how it is, Blake."

Blake, panicked, glanced up at Cinder.

"C-Cinder? What are you saying?"

Cinder toyed with her earring, feigning injury.

"Honestly, did our chance meeting in the closet mean nothing to you? Were you just leading me on?" Cinder's tone smacked of frivolity.

Of course Cinder merely joked around, though Blake failed to see the humour.

"What, but that, that never…" Blake whimpered and found herself unable to control her anguish, eyes scurrying.

Yang, contrastingly, saw plenty of humour. Ruby saw the glint in her eye, though; Yang did well to hide it, but she showed relief, hiding it partially behind Blake's shoulder. It took a mere unrecognisable split second for Yang to continue with a laugh.

"Blake, did you dig your claws in a new lover when I wasn't looking? You sly little minx." Yang cooed into her ear. "I guess this means I have competition. What does it take to win your affection?"

Cinder sat on the bed, near Blake's head, hands in lap.

"Do tell, Blake."

Cinder and Yang fawned over the nervous, squirming Blake.

"Why can't people leave me alone…?" Blake mewled.

"Is she complaining that people like her?" Mercury mumbled to himself.

While this was happening, Weiss and Emerald's discussion escalated to a various degree. Ruby hardly paid attention, but the focus now rested upon outlining the rules for a fencing match. Emerald then declared that they could fight right now using a pair of bones from the model skeleton. Just before they could rip it apart, Mercury stood between them and tried to argue that there was a time and a place for fighting, resulting in even louder protests. During this, Cinder and Yang started openly debating which part of Blake they liked more, making the girl in the middle sink further into the bed as though trying to leave by melding her way out of the room.

Ruby deeply sighed and left.

What a strange birthday.

By now, the moon had risen, casting away all natural light in the courtyard, last streaks of orange dissipating behind the dormitories. As Ruby entered the open air, there was nothing but darkness for a few moments, until automatic lighting activated. Two lights in all four corners of the square courtyard, followed by a single large lamp becoming active over the fountain, water still churning, beautifully sparkling like a pool of diamonds.

Wind rustled trees, students laughed and talked audibly through open windows in the dormitories, and gravel crunched under Ruby's heels as she walked towards the fountain. All of it was white noise to Ruby; soothing, like rain to an artist or writer, something that could put her in a state of focus.

Ruby sat on the fountain's edge, legs stretched across the surface, staring at stars in the sky.

Today had not felt like her birthday at all. Instead of celebrations and parties with her family and friends, Ruby had regular lessons and a couple of gifts. As an even younger child, she could hardly sleep on the prior night, quivering in anticipation, contemplating the risk of sneaking into the living room of her house and counting her presents. Days long past, Ruby thought. Now? She slept normally, woke up normally, attended classes normally, interacted with her friends normally, and would repeat it all normally, like any other day.

Ruby noticed this last year. Waking up, she secretly wanted her friends to make a big deal of it, as she always did for them. They offered the regular citations of happy birthday, gave their gift (A basket of various candies.), and went on with their day. A far cry from her expectations.

It must have been selfish to expect more, and Ruby knew it. They were in college. They were in their late teenage years. They had become too mature for childish celebrations, and Ruby was forced to accept that birthdays were just another day.

Just like by the end of the school year, Ruby would be forced into the world of adult responsibilities.

The thought crept into her mind again like a poison.

No more waking up to the presence of her friends, in their warm and cozy dormitory. No more wiling the day away on college work before bouncing into her hobbies or horsing around with her friends. No more of her easy and carefree life. And what was it all being replaced with? Ruby had no idea. She had no idea what she wanted to do for a living. She never wanted to think that far.

How did one rent property? How did one pay bills? What about managing expenses, and obtaining basics like heating and internet? Who would she have to talk to? What kind of information would she need on hand? What if she didn't have or know that information? What would happen to her free time? How could she enjoy life with all of these responsibilities?

Ruby had countless more questions clouding her mind. All of them were just roundabout ways of addressing her main fear, mere consequences of the key distress that gripped her heart.

Ruby was scared of leaving her life behind. Leaving behind education, leaving behind her environment, leaving behind everything she knew about living.

The cold hand of fear caressed Ruby's spine, catching her mind in a state of confusion, creating the need to cry as she cracked under the pressure of confronting her incoming future.

Footsteps.

Ruby hurriedly buried her emotions. Nobody needed to see her like this.

Equipping a casual and amicable facial expression, Ruby swivelled from her sitting position. She now faced the person drawing near.

Neo. She still walked in darkness, coming towards the light, but her hair could be recognised anywhere, as well as the graceful air with which she carried herself. Parasol in hand and smile on face, Neo came to a stop in front of Ruby. The fountain's light stretched her shadow across the courtyard.

Both girls stared at each other. Neo gave an amicable wave, which Ruby reciprocated.

Then, an awkward silence.

Ruby tapped her heels together, shifting uncomfortably. Neo twirled her parasol, casting a sideways glance. This scenario played out differently compared to their visit to the bathroom earlier. There was no starting context with which they could have an extended conversation based on lip-reading and gestures.

Ruby chided herself. It would be ludicrous to not speak with Neo just because of a difference in communication methods. She could converse with Neo just like she did with anybody else. The channel of speech simply did not involve their voices, is all.

Ruby rose and raised a finger at Neo, the universal gesture of 'wait here.' Neo complied, confused, as Ruby dashed towards her dormitory.

Within a minute, Ruby returned, holding a pair of small whiteboards, marker pens and cloths. Neo now sat on the fountain edge, and jumped slightly when one of each was thrown into her lap. In that brief instance, Neo's face became unreadable. Was she pleased? Annoyed? Saddened? Ruby failed to decipher her mood.

Regardless, Neo accepted the whiteboard and pen as Ruby sat next to her, on her knees, tips of her shoes dangling over the water. Ruby flicked off her pen lid and caught it again in an unnecessary flourish. Both whiteboards were lined with law notes, having been used by Weiss and Emerald to plan an assignment earlier. They probably weren't important.

Ruby wiped it off and wrote first.

'I think our friends got off on the wrong foot.'

With the fountain light behind them, Ruby displayed her whiteboard in a more candid manner than necessary. Neo started writing.

'It's not so much getting off on the wrong foot as it was having their legs sawn off and their bodies attached to epileptic dogs at a disco.'

This was not a sentence Ruby expected to see from Neo. It was made stranger by how Neo kept her regular smiling face in check the entire time she wrote it.

'I guess? I just hope that they dont try to kill each other or something.' Ruby replied with a shrug.

'On the contrary. If this year doesn't end with at least 1 stabbing, I'll be disappointed.'

"Um…" Ruby audibly said, taken off-guard.

Neo then burst into laughter, but kept it silent, hands over mouth. This made Ruby feel less awkward, knowing that Neo had only written in jest. Though, for some strange reason, Ruby was ready to believe Neo's statement.

There was something incredibly satisfying to Ruby about this. After a day of being unable to talk directly to Neo, she was now able to find out more about the girl. She just wasn't expecting those lines as Neo's first sentences to her.

'I'm kidding. I want 2-' Neo suddenly stopped writing and wiped down her white board. 'Now I'm kidding. I'm sure they'll get along just fine in time.'

From their sitting positions, they could see each other's writing before they actually displayed their boards.

'At least we can get along.'

'In a sense. May I have the honor of your name?' Neo beamed at Ruby. It would seem Cinder and her company did not give the names of Ruby or her friends. Quite an oversight on their part, Ruby thought, mildly annoyed at them.

'Ruby Rose. Enshantay.' Ruby tried to write down the French word she heard Cinder use in their Art class in an effort to sound cultured.

Neo's reaction ceased Ruby's thought process.

Up to this point, Neo had quickly read Ruby's sentences, wearing her smile, then immediately wrote her response. But this time, Neo spent almost ten seconds looking at Ruby's name. Her mouth was slightly open. Her hands went limp in her lap. Frosty breath escaped her lips, shivering.

Then Neo started to write, hands shaking, eyes trying to stay focused. A lump slid down her thin throat. Her entire pleasant demeanour had shifted, not into something angry, and not into something sad.

In fact, Ruby could have sworn Neo's atmosphere exhibited fear.

Neo lifted her whiteboard.

'That's a very pretty name.'

Ruby looked from the whiteboard to Neo's face; any trace of her fearful expression vanished, swapped for her typical smile once again. It was as though nothing had ever happened.

How surreal. Ruby knew what she saw, and could not forget it. She contemplated pressing the point, but what if she tread on ground best left untouched? It was definitely Ruby's name that triggered the change, unless she had a fear for immaculate French spelling.

Ruby would just ask Cinder or her friends. There was no point in rocking the boat when they were just getting to know each other. Instead, Ruby just wrote on her whiteboard.

'Thank you! Neopolitan is a nice name, too.'

And Neo continued, possibly unaware that she had acted strangely at all.

'Enchanté. Is Ruby Rose a common name in England?'

Ruby blinked. Was there something odd about how that sentence was written? She passed it off as a trick of the light and continued.

'I dont think so. Besides, I'm American.'

This visibly surprised Neo, not that Ruby could blame her.

'That's unexpected. I would never guess.'

Very few could guess that Ruby was American. Somebody once predicted Ruby's origins from her voice, but for Neo specifically, she would never be able to hear Ruby's voice, which lacked the distinctive English tone.

'Almost no one does.'

Neo was struck with a thought, and wrote like she needed an immediate answer.

'Tell me, fellow American. Is it improper of me to use American names for objects while living in England?'

Neo was American as well? Ruby should have expected that, considering Cinder, Emerald and Mercury all had American accents.

'I dont know. I can never decide if I want to use American or English terms, like faucet and tap or candy and sweet, or if I should put the u in color, so I keep switching between them.'

'I see. I suspect I'll end up with the same indecisiveness.

'If I'm not prying too much, can I ask why you reside in England?'

Ruby nodded. She had no problems in talking about it.

'My mom died when I was 8. I had to move to England and live with my dad and sister.'

Neo danced her pen across her whiteboard.

o(╥﹏╥)o

Was it necessary for Neo to scribble an emoji? Not at all, considering Neo was generally rather expressive in terms of her outward appearance. This must have been more of Neo's odd and varied kind of humour.

And it worked. Ruby giggled, not that she intended to hide it.

'Its fine. Im not sad anymore.'

Ruby had no issue with discussing her mother, but others generally felt uncomfortable about discussing somebody else's dead relatives. That being thought, Ruby wanted to explore a topic surrounding Neo and her friends.

'Your friends are American too, right?'

'That's right. Did they tell you?'

'No. I just knew from their voices.'

Ruby wondered if it was politically correct to talk about voices to a deaf person, but Neo continued without hesitation.

'You might be wondering if there's something weird about us. Four new students, all of whom are American, coming to an English college, and they are all friends as well.'

'It doesnt happen very often.'

Ruby certainly wondered what kind of explanation could exist. Whatever it was, Neo gave it with a steady hand.

'First of all, we were all raised in the same orphanage. We've been friends our entire lives.'

This escalated quickly. And just as Ruby thought that Neo might not be comfortable in discussing dead relatives, Ruby now struggled to decide if she should drop the topic. She had no choice in the matter, as Neo wiped down her board and proceeded.

'Without going into details, the four of us agreed on a goal to work towards, together. In order to accomplish this goal, we need certain qualifications, hence us coming to college.'

'Why did it have to be an English college?'

'It didn't. We just wanted to leave America. Too many bad memories.'

Ruby felt conflicted. Never before had she wanted to pry so badly, yet knew that she should respect Neo's privacy. She stared at Neo's whiteboard, thinking. Without realising it, Neo was writing again.

'Want to know more?'

Neo had practically read her mind. It was almost scary. Either Ruby could be read like an open book, or Neo was frighteningly perceptive, and Ruby did not know which she preferred. She decided to believe it was the latter.

'Ive just got 2 questions.'

Ruby decided to reach the middle ground of her protecting Neo's privacy and satisfying her curiosity. Two simple questions would be enough.

'How did you move to England? Did you apply to Beacon while you still lived in America, and Ozpin accepted you and moved you over here?'

'Not quite. The order was different.'

'?'

'We moved to England first, before we applied to Beacon.'

'How could 4 teenage orphans just move into a new country like that?'

Ruby pondered that her choice of words was not exactly tactful, but Neo took no offence.

'Cinder.'

The single name was all the response that Ruby needed. She had forgotten that Cinder was considered a writing genius, somebody who had accumulated legions of fans with her works of fiction. Neo must have implied that Cinder's success as a writer allowed them the funds they needed to move to England, to say the least of the amount of money that Cinder probably owns.

Ruby was about to respond, but Neo raised a finger, thinking to herself. She then wrote.

'I should explain a bit more.

'A couple of years ago, me, Em and Merc were sitting in our orphanage's front room, talking about which college we should attend. We already decided to continue with our education. We had to if we wanted to achieve our aims.'

Neo wiped down the whiteboard, with it being too small for the whole explanation.

'We weren't entirely sure of where to go. Wherever it was, we wanted to be together. Splitting up there and then was a last resort.

'At that point, Cinder walked in, standing in the doorway, wind flapping at her clothes, with an announcement. She had become a published writer. This was quite a surprise to us.'

Another wipe.

'We had no idea that Cinder had an interest in writing, let alone that she had been writing a book at all. Nobody said anything. We were all shocked. Her declaration came out of nowhere.

'We asked her where this all came from. She never answered in a proper fashion. Instead, she just said 'Get ready to leave this hellhole within the month.' Cinder already had an advance payment from her publisher.'

How interesting that this was Cinder's first thought. Were their lives in America that bad for them? Maybe this was Cinder's motivation for becoming a writer, and not telling her friends about it; if Cinder succeeded, she could take care of her friends. If Cinder failed to become successful, her friends would be crushed.

'You said you wanted to leave because of bad memories right?'

Ruby wanted to explore this some more, but Neo internally debated expanding on their past lives. The smaller girl started to write something, but immediately wiped it away. She repeated this process twice, able to hide inner anguish, but could not repeal her false starts from Ruby's eyes. Eventually, Ruby made a quick statement.

'You dont have to explain that.'

Neo nodded.

'I'd like to keep it that way.' If such a sentence was verbalised, the speaker may have carried some venom in their tone. As such, Ruby would never know if Neo wrote this spitefully, too. Neo seemed as pleasant as always, not dropping her casual smile.

'Anyway, at that time, Cinder declared that her name had changed to, well, Cinder. We didn't question it. We owed her too much to question anything.

'The rest is nothing special. We moved to England, found a college that accepted all four of us, and spent a year there. We left that college after the first year because Mercury got into some trouble and was kicked out.' Neo squeezed the letters into place.

'Then you got accepted into Beacon.'

'Correct. This is the ultra simplified version of our little tale.'

What exactly could Ruby say to this? They had lived very different kinds of lives, yet ended up talking together in the same college in a country in which neither had been born. Life could be odd, sometimes.

Something else that bore in Ruby's mind involved their motivation to leave America. If their place of origin was an awful place to live, could they not just leave their state? Why leave America entirely? Then again, Ruby hardly knew what was entailed by 'bad memories.' Everybody placed different values and meanings on different things. If Neo and her friends' experiences as children were horrific, Ruby was in no position to question their actions.

Even with this in mind, Ruby had to wonder why they wanted to attend college. She thought of this earlier, after seeing Cinder for the first time. If Cinder is a renowned writer, why would she need to attend college? Being famous and with three books under her belt, she could probably afford to take care of herself and her three friends for life.

Ruby failed to notice that she was staring straight at Neo while thinking. Her cheeks flushed red upon realising that Neo was staring back. She hated these kind of awkward moments, but had to admit, Neo was certainly a very captivating girl.

'I can't blame you for staring.' Neo wrote and winked.

Ruby's shaky laughter tumbled out as she meekly shuffled in her seat, looking as cute as possible. Moments when other people flirted with Ruby were non-existent. She enjoyed delivering one-sided romantic implications unto others, but when others reciprocated, she always made it a point to showcase her adorability, aware that it was her greatest asset. It worked on Velvet in the past, and it could work now.

Her lovable charm did indeed work on Neo, as the smaller girl audibly giggled, resembling a mouse squeak. This may have been involuntary, as Ruby noticed that Neo put effort into hiding noises.

'You had a second question for me?'

Neo brought them back on topic. Ruby almost forgot her question.

'You said that you and your friends have a goal, and you wanted to do it together. What is it?'

The odds were high that their goal related to them coming to college.

Neo did not respond instantly. She scribbled.

'It's a secret!'

Neo then playfully tapped Ruby on the nose, as though scorning a pet. Neo may have said that it was a secret, but in a toying sense, lacking seriousness. She treated this 'secret' as a joke, a carrot she could use to tease Ruby.

Ruby adopted her saddest expression, eyes large and watery, lips pouted, and leaned in on Neo. She would have made a whining noise, too, for anybody else. Weaponizing her cuteness, Ruby enacted operation 'guilt-trip.' Bombard the target with hurt looks and lovability until success is achieved. The prize, Neo giving up her secret. Up to this evening, Ruby had only ever performed this on Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Velvet, so this was a new experience.

Ruby put her hands on either side of Neo, on the surface behind her, and almost pressed their noses together. Neo did not back down, staring Ruby directly in her large eyes. The next phase occurred. Ruby hands 'slipped' and she fell forwards, directly into Neo with an ineffectual whimper.

"Eh…?" Neo had been taken by surprise, sharply respiring. This forced them into physical contact, with Neo falling backwards across the fountain's surface, holding Ruby on top of her in both arms.

They both lay still for a moment. Ruby physically shivered, putting on a pretence of vulnerability, as she buried her face in Neo's shoulder. Ruby loved this part, forcing the target into cuddling her and sharing in each other's warmth. She let a few seconds pass before raising her head, looking up into Neo's worried eyes once more. This time, Ruby let a tear fall, the finishing blow of her manoeuvre. She always felt her target hold her more tightly at this stage, whether they noticed it or not, and Neo was no exception.

However, Neo managed to resist for a moment, a first for the technique. She closed her eyes and tilted her head away. It then occurred to Ruby just how dangerous this could be if pressed further; Neo could throw Ruby into the fountain and call it a day. But she had come too far to give up. Time to improvise.

Ruby pawed at Neo's shoulder, like a kitten trying to gain its owner's attention. She also placed a leg over Neo's own and huddled closer, snuggling into her grasp, pressuring her with as much physical contact as possible. Fortunately, nobody ever walked across the courtyard at this time of night, so nobody would question their display.

At no point throughout this did Neo lose her smile, like it was fixed to her face. Rather impressive, Ruby supposed. Everybody else she did this to always started sweating nervously.

Neo opened her eyes again when Ruby touched her shoulder, and accidentally gazed into Ruby's hypnotic eyes. This broke her once and for all. Neo's eyes rolled and she silently chuckled.

A slyly amused Neo pushed a pleased Ruby off of her and they both sat upright.

'Dammit, why are you so cute!? You look like a puppy I stood on once!'

(｡'‿'｡)

Neo looked to be a cross between vexed and content, like somebody who refused to admit they enjoyed themselves after an embarrassing event.

'So youll tell me what you guys want to do?'

'Nope. Just a hint.'

Ruby could hardly complain, considering that Neo had no need to tell her anything.

'Me, Em, Merc and Cinder are all studying specific subjects. We'll almost certainly go to university after college to continue these studies, because we need particular knowledge for our goal.'

This told Ruby so much, yet so little. How could she make a calculated guess from such limited knowledge? Ruby puffed her cheeks and glared at Neo.

'What? I dont know what you all study!'

Neo calmly rocked back and forth.

'I guess you're going to have to hang around me and my friends to find out.'

How deceptively devilish. Neo hung the fruit over her, leading her into further friendship.

At the same time, how pointlessly silly.

'I wanted to do that anyway. You dont have to lead me on. Were going to be friends anyway, whether you like it or not. Though I think youd like it.'

It would have been a good time for a written smiley face, if Ruby had not already presented her whiteboard. She settled for an actual smile.

'You sweet talker. We'll get along like horrific pain and popcorn.'

More of her strange humour. Ruby hoped so, at any rate.

They breathed out, and moved next to each other on the fountain, still cross-legged. Ruby felt a cramp in her knees, and stretched out her legs, hearing a crack. Neo gazed upwards, taking in her surroundings, slowly turning her head around the sparsely lit courtyard. Having been in Beacon for only a day, Neo likely still had a poor grasp on the layout. In Ruby's mind, it would be a good excuse to take her around the college tomorrow.

Neo then perked her head up, as if reminded of something. She scribbled away.

'Did Cinder tell you I was deaf? Or did you notice at some point?'

Ruby thought back. She had no grand revelation, per se, she just misunderstood Neo and her supposed lack of attention for a while.

'I just puzzled it out eventually. Cinder didnt tell you my name earlier, did she? She left quite a lot out of our introduction.'

At this, Neo visibly winced.

Ruby panicked that she said something wrong. Looking at her whiteboard again and checking her statement, there was nothing egregious written on it.

Neo, frustrated, slashed at her own whiteboard.

'Oh my God.'

Ruby wasn't sure of what to say.

'Whats up?'

'You're doing that on purpose, right?'

'Im not doing anything.'

'You have to be. You're not stupid enough to miss the hints I'm giving.'

'Im seriously stupid enough to not get what youre saying.'

What followed was not raging anger, but more akin to overblown irritation. Neo seemed to lack the capacity for true fury, unintentionally striking Ruby as sweet as she jumped up, eyes as slits.

'USE YOUR FLIPPING APOSTROPHES!'

┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

Ruby could feel the aggravation behind every stroke of the emoji.

She didn't even notice her lack of apostrophes. Was it really that annoying? Ruby audibly stammered out an 'oh.'

'Oops.' Ruby had nothing to offer Neo other than her normal cute demeanour. She hoped it would be enough to seduce Neo into not being too annoyed. Of course, Neo was not really annoyed, evidenced by the time she took on the emoji and her ever playful attitude.

'Honestly. How do you plan on impressing a classy lady like me with such sloppy punctuation?'

Neo entwined her legs while standing in front of the sitting Ruby, at home in giving herself compliments.

'Please, you don't know that I'm trying to impress girls at all.'

'? You like/are attracted to girls too, aren't you?'

Ruby had no intention to deny her sexuality, but wanted to know how Neo could be so certain of herself.

'You can't know that for sure.'

Neo then lazily raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'seriously?'

'I saw the way you hugged your black haired friend earlier. You don't hug somebody like that unless they're your girlfriend, or she was about to die unless she was nuzzled like a girl next door in a lesbian porn movie.

'Also, the way you manipulated me into telling you about my friends' aim was strangely physical in nature.'

Ruby chortled and rubbed the back of her head.

'You caught me rose handed. Yup, I am indeed gay.'

'Shocking.' Neo pursed her lips in sarcasm.

'I'm glad I didn't get the wrong idea. Here's to belonging to the 4%! Like almost everybody we know in a strange and convenient twist of fate!'

For lack of glasses to clink, they gave each other a high five.

Neo pondered something, still standing before Ruby. A minute passed before she removed the finger from her chin, twirling her pen.

'What were we talking about again? Your crappy punctuation distracted me.'

Ruby needed to think first. She recalled the sentence that triggered Neo's obsession with perfect punctuation.

'You being deaf. Cinder never told me about it, I just noticed as the day went on.'

'Ah, that's right. Yes, Cinder is far from the most considerate person on Earth. Don't tell her I said that, though, she really is quite nice.'

Ruby was not about to doubt that. She remembered Cinder's remorseful expression in their class. She also remembered causing the black streaks on Neo's uniform.

'I forgot to tell you. Sorry about your work and uniform.' Ruby looked genuinely sorry instead of showcasing her cute appearance.

'Don't worry about the uniform. It was just a happy little accident, in case nobody made a Bob Ross joke yet. We can attribute this to Cinder being careless with her chair.

'But my work and books? Yeah, you're going to pay for setting me back a morning's worth of work.'

Neo glared at her, malevolence in her eyes. All of a sudden, Neo would not be out of place with a white cat and an evil, if silent, laugh.

'Okay. I can pay for it all.' Ruby hurriedly wrote, welling up with bad feelings.

'Damn straight. But how, oh how, will I decide on your method of retribution?'

Ruby could think of a pleasant way of paying her back. At this point, a date would be acceptable, she supposed. However, Neo seemed to be thinking in terms not related to money. She wanted entertainment.

This struck a fearful cord in Ruby. Neo's desire for entertainment could entail anything.

'Go easy on me. Just do whatever makes us even.'

'Funny. When we were thirteen, Mercury dropped our shared phone in a river. He said the exact same thing as you.'

'What did you do to him then?'

'I pushed him in the river, too.'

"Oh no…"

At this particular moment, Ruby knew exactly what was about to happen. She tried to scrawl 'Wait, was everything in your bag worth as much as that phone?' She barely succeeded in passing 'wait.' Besides, was Neo going to care?

Grunting, Neo shoved Ruby in the fountain. There was no opportunity for resistance as Ruby dropped with a heavy splash, overcome in freezing water that stole her breath. Droplets scattered in a wide, long arc when Ruby connected, back first, with the fountain's bottom, the structure being thankfully shallow. Her face contorted in a loud squeal, cut off when her head was submerged for a second.

Coughing out water, Ruby shot up into a sitting position, the water around her elbow. She brought her arms around her chest, shivering.

"You maniac!" Ruby verbalised her current thoughts. Neo understood enough, and promptly laughed in silence while hunched, like any good sociopath would.

'The pervy jokes I can make here are ENDLESS!' Neo wrote in shaky, laugh induced strokes.

Ruby glared at Neo, trembling in the cold water and dripping wet. Her hair clung to her face, and her uniform soaked through in an instant. Was potential pneumonia meant to be Neo's answer to any of her belongings being destroyed? Or just a single technique in her library of torture methods?

After Neo's laughing fit was over, the smaller girl stepped forward and extended an arm towards Ruby.

Ruby carefully considered her options. This morning, Ruby saved Neo from falling into this fountain when she jumped back in surprise. Granted, Ruby was the cause of that surprise, but she helped Neo nonetheless. In a way, they were already even for Neo's bag being destroyed. And yet, she had seen fit to shove Ruby in the fountain without due consideration of this-

-Ruby stopped thinking. She just wanted an excuse to throw Neo in the fountain, too, like it was needed at this point. Two wrongs could probably make a right if you crammed them together hard enough.

Grabbing Neo's arm, she hauled the girl forward, making her trip over the fountain's edge.

"Ah!" Neo involuntarily and piercingly squawked.

It was every bit as satisfying as Ruby hoped. Neo flopped face first, drenching herself and splashing Ruby in a loud drop, before flipping around, arms flailing. She jumped upright, arms close, unsteadily breathing out through her mouth. Rivulets of water fell from her hair and face. Her clothes now matched Ruby's in terms of being drenched, bar the fact that Neo did not wear leggings.

They both sat in the water, shivering uncontrollably. Neo looked completely stunned. She had not expected this turn of events.

Ruby grabbed a whiteboard and pen that fell on the edge.

'I found a way to pay you back. I saved you money on your cleaning bill!'

Not that the water had any effect on Neo's black paint stain, but it was rather moot.

Neo kept a straight face as she took the other whiteboard. Her hands shook, either from anger or the cold.

'Ruby, what you just did was completely out of line and unfathomably twisted.

'It was awesome and you're hanging out with me every day from now on.'

ヘ(^_^ヘ)

They giggled to themselves. It had been too long since Ruby had made a new friend so easily, let alone was able to do something like drop them into a fountain without them getting angry.

'Of course I will. And I swear its not just because youre pretty.'

For some reason, Neo kicked water at and flinched her, but returned a grin.

'Riiiiiight. Don't forget that we might need to stop our friends from killing each other. That being said, it'll be fun to watch if it happened.'

Ruby and Neo clambered out of the fountain, quaking in their soaked clothes. They probably could have done so earlier, but the damage was already done.

Inundated with water and moonlight, they stood before one another. By now, the sounds of students in their dormitories had long ceased, suggesting that it had become late. For all they knew, their friends were already back at their dormitories. Or already dead, in which case, Neo would be disappointed.

The light winds did little to dry their clothes, and simply added to the chills shooting through them. Time to separate and call it a night.

Neo had one last thing to say.

'Are you feeling better now?'

Ruby had to blink twice. What was Neo referring to?

'?'

Neo shrugged.

'Never mind.'

Odd. Ruby passed it off as nothing.

'Time to say goodnight. Where does the time go?'

'I don't know, Ruby Rose. But I'm glad that it's carrying us into a new day full of adventures.'

There was something strange in Neo's writing. Ruby had to blink to make sure she wasn't hallucinating from the cold. After double checking, something was definitely wrong.

This entire time, Neo had used slanted, neat and affable handwriting, but the way she wrote 'Rose' broke this trend. It was unnaturally straight, almost tensely written, as though Neo had clenched her hand around the pen for this single noun.

Ruby recalled her reaction to reading 'Ruby Rose' earlier. The abject instance of fear that became apparent on Neo's countenance for mere seconds was still fresh in Ruby's mind. All she could think of was that Neo had a bad experience with somebody else bearing the same last name, who happened to not be a part of Ruby's family. That was the hope, anyway. If Neo had nothing to say about the name Rose, directly to Ruby, then it couldn't have been relevant.

But could life ever be that simple?

Ruby needed to respond.

'Yeah. I'll take you around the college tomorrow.'

'It's a date. Figuratively.' Neo beamed.

'Goodnight, Ruby.'

'Goodnight, Neo.'

Neo took up her parasol and walked backwards for the first few steps, waving, before turning around, taking the whiteboard with her. She had to stop to avoid a tree she failed to notice, and turn left. After a moment, she realised she was walking the wrong way and went right. She would probably find her dormitory block at some point tonight.

Watching Neo leave, Ruby breathed out.

There were terrible ways to start a new year in education, but today was not one of them. In fact, in spite of every mishap, spillage and unconscious person, today had been a good day. And with somebody like Neo around, they would only get more interesting.

Coughing out one last puddle of water and dripping more behind her, Ruby strolled to her dormitory to bring her first day of her last year of college to an end.

A/N- I made a Donald Trump joke. AM I COOL YET?

Anyways, I'm kickstarting this fanfiction with an egregiously long opening chapter. I'm afraid to say that future chapters aren't going to be as big as Mr. T's gold collection.