Chapter 10: Text boxes

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By some miracle Jaune actually made it to the cafeteria before breakfast ended and was able to get some of the coveted pancakes. Unfortunately, most of the toppings had already been used up by the rest of the school, so all that was left were raspberries and rainbow sprinkles.

Still, pancakes were pancakes, and he was lucky to even get any in the first place.

By now a few of the other students had finished eating, so he didn't have as much trouble finding a place to sit as last time. Unfortunately, he still didn't see the rest of his team; he felt they hadn't really hung out together since the Initiation.

I wonder where Kyu is? he thought, tucking into his warm breakfast, It's weird that she's not around to bug me. That last statement was, in and if it itself, rather weird, but the irony was lost on him as he let himself make into the savory, pancakey goodness before him.

However, he couldn't stop thinking about Coco and her quest to find the guy who hung out with Velvet yesterday. Forgetting some of the more colorful scenarios that went through his mind (manacles, heavy chains, and tomatoes may have been involved…) he was worried about what the older girl would think of him the next time they met; he hadn't been dishonest when they spoke, at least not deliberately, and she'd hadn't used Velvet's name until she was already walking away….

Then again, the phrase "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" kept replaying for him.

He hung his head, careful not to get his hair in the syrup as he moped.

"Jaune! Hey, Jaune!"

He looked back upon hearing his name called, spotting a familiar, red cloaked figure waving at him from a few tables over.

"Hey Ruby!" he called, waving back at the petite Huntress. She then picked her tray up and made her way over to where he sat, plopping down in the seat next to him. "So...what's up?"

Ruby shrugged. "Not much, just saw you sitting here and thought I'd join you." She took a bite of her own pancakes, which were piled high with strawberries and chocolate chips. "Fo what'f up wife you?"

"I dunno," he said, spreading the syrup around with his fork, "I guess I'm just thinking about what it's like getting caught between stick and a hard place."

"...wait, aren't those just the same thing?" she wondered, gathering more pancake for a second bite.

"It's just...someone asked me to help them with something, and I said yes," he explained. "The thing is...if I help them they're gonna hate me, and if I don't help them they'll still hate me, but for different reasons!" He hung his head again, "I don't want them to hate me, but I can't think of a way where that won't happen…."

Ruby chewed thoughtfully. "...why not just tell this person you can't help them anymore?" she asked. "Then you won't have to do the thing that'll make them hate you."

Jaune was about to respond that things weren't that simple when his Scroll buzzed. Ruby's buzzed as well, and they both reached for their devices at the same time.

On the screens was a blinking icon of Beacon's crest, which they both pressed in sync.

"'Reminder for team leaders'," Ruby read aloud, "'The Team Leader Preporatory Review will be your first class of the day. Attendance is mandatory.'" And that was all the message said, save the the time the class started. "Crap!" she exclaimed, "I totally forgot that was today!"

Jaune grimaced, equally as guilty of the same crime.

She quickly gobbled up the rest of her breakfast, washing it down with a glass of milk. "We gotta hurry!" she insisted, grabbed Jaune by the arm and pulling him after her right as he was about to take another bite of his own food, leaving the fork suspended in midair for a moment. "I've already been late a couple times before, and I can NOT miss this class!"

...well, Jaue thought as he was pulled along, at least this time it makes sense. I hope this'll be an easy class, at any rate…

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Jaune could not have been more wrong about how easy this class would be. He and Ruby only just made it to the classroom before the tardy bell rang, and the teacher, Dr. Oobleck, had launched right into things with only a brief "Everyone, take your seats" beforehand. After that he began zipping around from student to student (in no particular order), handing each of them a small bundle of papers.

"This will allow us to adjust each of your curriculums accordingly to help take full advantage of your potential and make you into the best possible team leaders!" the hyperactive teacher stated as he zipped form desk to desk. "You will have an hour to complete this test, so please be sure to fill it in as completely as possible." With that said he zipped over to his own desk, took a sip from his thermos (Jaune could only imagine what was in it), and sat down, writing notes faster than anyone could properly make out.

Jaune stared at the test in front of him, not for the first time wondering why he was still on this school; all the questions seemed to blur together in his mind, and for all he knew they could have just been gibberish. He hadn't gotten into Beacon like everyone else had, with good grades and prodigious fighting prowess, he got in because he faked his transcripts!

He wondered if he should just give up in his dreams (both of being a Huntsman and of getting a girlfriend) and leave now before he made a bigger fool of himself than he already had.

It had worked out that he and Ruby ended up sitting next to exact other for this class, so he glanced over at her, hoping to catch a glimpse at what her answers looked like. He wasn't trying to cheat, but he was a fairly quick study, and he figure that if he saw what some of the answers were he could figure out the rest in his own reasonably-

None of Ruby's answers were filled in either. Instead, she was doodling a caricature of Dr. Oobleck with cartoonishly large breasts in the margins, the words "Doktor Booblek" scribbled above it.

Ruby was also snickering uncontrollably as she worked on her masterpiece.

Was she five years old or something?

Though…that did explain why she liked cookies so much….

"Uh...Ruby?" he whispered, "Shouldn't you be filling in the test?"

"Yeah…," she chuckled, "...but isn't this hilarious!" She looked up from her "work", "Don't tell me you weren't thinking it too."

Jaune didn't want to admit it, but the visual gag was a little bit funny. (She certainly drew better than he did, at any rate.) However, sence overrode his funny bone in this instance, and he tried to think of something to say to get his younger peer to focus. "I don't think that's the answer to No. 3" would probably elicit more laughter and draw the attention of Dr. Oobleck, and he didn't want to jinx things by saying "He gonna notice if you keep that up".

No, different measures needed to be taken, and he had an idea of what that would be.

"That sounds like something your sister would say," he commented; he knew Yang liked to make horrible puns, she'd made a few during their "date" yesterday, and he figured that, like him, Ruby wouldn't want to be compared to her sister, especially with something so cringe worthy.

The results were immediate: Ruby froze in place for a couple seconds, then hurriedly erased the drawing and began filling in the answers on the test.

...huh, she must really not like her sister's puns.

With his immediate goal accomplished Jaune refocused on his own test, actually taking the time to read his test properly and start filling it in. While still a little above his head, he found that he could at least understand all the words in them, and with a little bit of time he thought he could solve all the questions without too much trouble.

"45 minutes left!" Oobleck called from his desk.

He quickly began scribbling down answers, trying to make up for lost time.

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"Phew!" Jaune sighed as he and Ruby trudged out of the classroom, "That was brutal!"

"Tell me about it!" Ruby exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "I mean, when am I ever gonna need to know how to tell if someone's a bad guy by looking at their eyes; if they're a good person, they wouldn't be doing bad things in the first place, right?"

Jaune merely nodded, too spent from the test to properly articulate the tiny flaw in Ruby's logic. (Or to feel guilty that he technically fell under Ruby's definition of "bad person".)

"At least it's over now, and it's just normal classes after this," he pointed out, Ruby nodding in agreement before adopting a quizzical look.

"Back there you said that my doodle reminded you of Yang," she said, tilting her head slightly, "so does that mean you know my sister? Like, before you came here?"

Jaune figured this question was probably coming; after all, you don't drop that you're familiar with the eccentricities of the sister of a person you only recently met without a healthy smidgen of suspicion.

"I sorta ran into her yesterday," he explained, "and she made a lot of bad puns while we talked." He decided to skip the part where the two of them went on a date into the city, and that the reason they did was because he'd hung out with her first. Instead he went a different route. "I always hated getting compared to my sisters when I was younger, so I figured that you'd probably feel the same way about it."

The petite Huntress in training stared at him for a moment, then her inquisitive look morphed onto one of satisfaction.

"Okay!" she said cheerfully, "I was wondering cause our teams haven't really hung out since Initiation." Then she rubbed the back of her head, "Actually, in kinda glad you got me to focus like that."

He raised a surprised eyebrow. "...really?"

"Yeah; Weiss has been in my case about paying attention in class, so now I can rub it in her smug face that I was totally focused without her here bugging me!"

"...good for you?" he congratulated her, a little uncertainly. He liked Ruby, she was a good person...but he was also learning that she was a little eccentric to boot, and in a way different than his sisters were.

"In fact, I'm gonna go tell her right now!" she announced, zipping off down the hall.

Two seconds later she zipped right back, have him a brief handshake, stated "We should spar again sometime, OK?", and zipped off once again.

Jaune just stood there watching the hooded girl vanish in a trail of rose petals.

Well, he thought, better go find Kyu now. It was now well after breakfast, and the Love Fairy still hadn't made her presence known; he was starting to wonder what she could be up to.

Given her propensity for innuendos, he wouldn't put it past her message from earlier to have some kind of double meaning.

He'd frankly be more surprised if it didn't.

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Kyu's Naughty Confessions blog })i({

Hey there, Internet! Kyu})i({ here, with Round 2 of Jauney-boy's Dating Extravaganza!

So this time our lovable protagonist was just minding his own business, having some alone time with a stack of pancakes (the rainbow sprinkles were a nice touch, by the way XD). He wasn't alone for very long, though, because who should notice him but that adorable little grim reaper, Ruby!

(Still waiting for those cosplay pics, blu_gurl, BTDubs.)

So they talk for a bit, the Playa laying out his woes with "the second GF dilemma", with the whole weight of such a problem lost on her. However, their Scroll things decided to be a bitch an go off, preventing further, meaningful discussion; apparently they both had some kind of special class or something they needed to attend, and it was starting yesterday. So they hightailed it outta the caf' and ran off like a boyfriend who found out he's gonna be a dad.

Anyway, I don't remember what the actual class was about, just that it wasn't sex ed. (T_T) But I do remember that the Teach passed out a bunch of papers and everyone started looking glum, so it was probably some kind of pop quiz.

Getting back to our boy, he looked like he was regretting some life choices when he took a gander at the quiz. (Not that I blame him; Fairy School was a colossal bore!) And he probably would have had a coronary if Little Red Pipsqueak next to him wasn't doodling. Which...got a chuckle out of me, I won't lie.

What can I say? I get a kick out of guys with huge knockers.

And like any good artist she wanted to know what he thought of her masterpiece, to which he responded with "that reminds me of your sister". Dude, really? That is the #1 way to get a girl to hate you, man! What were you thinking?

Well, whatever he was thinking must have been brilliant, because after the class let out she told him she'd want to hang out again and headed off to find her friend or something. Regardless, it still counts as a win for him. (Ruby hearts = x3).

Now let's get on with those delicious, throbbing comments! \(^o^)/

Hawt4teacher says "Daaaaamn, is everyone at this school a model or something, and if they are, where can I sign up?" I know, right? Like, I haven't seen a single student here that didn't look like they could be on the cover of a magazine! (Or the centerfold in some cases…! |-D

Well, except for that one teacher with the mustache...

Beli_Dancer says "This might turn sour if Jaune doesn't come clean to Coco about dating Velvet the other day; secret relationships never end well." Well, that's a tricky bit of business we've got there. But hey, things could turn out good if the Playa plays his cards right!

wlfmanjack says "Is it just me or is anyone else getting a strong lesbian vibe from Coco. Maybe Jaune could get both her and Velvet at the same time, the three of them in bed together would be so magical. Something tells me Coco is more than "just concern" of her friend getting her heart broken." Oh? You noticed that too, huh? Yeah, I don't know which way Coco swings, but if she is Lily Tribe then that makes the threesome you mentioned even hotter! I'm sure we'll run into her again, so we'll find out, don't worry!

BAB_Audrey420SWAG says "Brown, really? That's the color she decides to wear? Like, who's she trying to impress, the [censor]ing Amish? Jane (or whatever the [censor] your name is, I don't care), don't bother with this one." Gurl, don't be jelly! Besides, I hear brown is the new aquamarine!

THEMistypeaks says "This is sounding like the plot to a movie I was in called Ménage a Trio where this guy was trying to date two friends who were in the same orchestra together and didn't know what the other was doing; they all 'made peace' by the end." Ooh, I haven't seen that one yet, but it sounds like a classic! (I think I just found what I'm doing tonight!)

IDRF says "Jauney boy is going to die... pfft hahahaha! Coco is going to kill him once she realises it was him whom was around Velvet. And I do believe I spotted a hint of jealousy from our favourite femme fatale. Can't wait to see how long until Jaune screws up. On a side note, despite the chances of a Yandere, have Jauney boy run away, don't want him dying or the other hunies dying because of him not being loyal to the Yandere babe. Tell him I say good luck if he ever does run into one, will ya'?" Dude, if he runs into a Yandere and she turns into a problem, that's an immediate Code Purple! I know they say the crazy ones are dynamite in the sack, but the trade offs are just not worth it! So don't worry, I'll tell the Playa to tread cautiously if he ever encounters one.

As for your other point, yeah, Vomit Boy's totally boned! XD He's gonna need to be Prima ballerina levels of graceful to get out of this one with the possibility of future children intact!

Whatshakinbacon20 says "Aw!~ That's so sweet that Coco cares for her friend like that! It really is great when your friends care about you. *cough*Audrey!*cough*" ...wow, you must be the only person here who doesn't think Miss Diva wants some of that sweet Bunnygirl action for herself. Not sure if cute or sad….

XBossLadyX says "My my, this is a surprising development. That makes...9 girls now? Mr. Arc is certainly turning into an interesting case." Yi-yah he is! I wouldn't be surprised if he got up to 12 Hunies if he keeps this progress up!

(not that)_blu_gurl says "...does Coco really want to help out the bunny girl from later time, or is she just possessive?" That's the 64 dollar question this round, girlfriend. (That's still a relevant phrase, right?) Can't really answer that, but one of those options is definitely sexier, giggity!

HotBabyMama says "Another sexy mamacita talkin to our boy? This kid's like the Dos Equis man or something!" Aw, you noticed my handiwork!~ Thank you! But seriously, I'll get they boy laid yet!

Anyway, I'ma tail Jaune's Boy more and see who he runs into next, and also because that lady date was a close call and I wanna be able to intervene if need be. See you sexy people later!

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