Disclaimer: RWBY and all affiliated characters/titles belong to Rooster Teeth, those wonderful geniuses.

Jaune pulled at the back of his shoes to make sure they were snug. New running shoes always took a while to break in, these weren't that bad but they still didn't sit quite right.

He glanced to his side and could see several other guys standing around, joking and talking with each other. Might as well try and make some friends.

He stood up and drew a little closer, trying to overhear their conversation and find a place to jump in.

"So then I just downed the whole bottle. No way was I gonna let some punk from Menagerie outdrink me. No way." The boy laughed and slapped a friend on the shoulder.

"That's pretty cool man, you went out to Menagerie to drink? I heard their drinking age is lower." Jaune slid into the circle of boys with a laugh and a smile. His smile always worked.

"What are you talking about? Why would I ever go there?" the other boy scoffed and took a step back from Jaune.

"Well I mean, to party right?" Jaune shrugged his shoulders. The drinking age in Vale was twenty-one and they weren't allowed to drink on campus anyways.

"Nah man, nah. We had a drinking party over summer."

"Yeah this kid from Menagerie tried to stop by, he had the accent and everything. We told him he couldn't come in unless he could outdrink Cardin." The first boy pounded a hand against his chest.

"Nobody out drinks me. Especially not some immigrant who can't even talk right."

"Yeah but does that really-" Jaune started to protest but was cut short.

The coach's whistle blew from outside, forcing them all to make their way to the track.

Jaune sighed and trotted out behind everyone else. They all laughed and carried on like he had never interrupted.

At least once they got on the track he could show his stuff and make an impression. No way were they gonna just blow him off once they knew how good he was.

Everyone lined up to start warm-ups. Jaune swung his foot up into his hand and flexed to stretch out his ankle, then switched legs. The last thing he needed was some stupid little injury holding him back now.

Coach hollered at them and they were off. No one was pushing too hard yet, just trotting lightly to warm their muscles before they got into the real exercises. Jaune could see a few people breaking out, leading the front of the pack but he didn't think much of it.

Wow, look at them, pushing that hard during warm-ups. Jaune chuckled under his breath and kept pace with most of the group. They finished a few laps around the track and came back to where Coach was waiting.

"Alright listen up. I know some of you didn't make it to the summer sessions but we don't go easy here, understand?" Coach bellowed out at the athletes, "Distance runners. You've got forty five minutes on the track to start. Don't push too hard but don't you dare slack. Go."

Coach tapped a timer on a board next to him as the runners started off again, then turned back to the remaining students.

"I suppose that means you all consider yourself sprinters. Alright, on the blocks in groups of eight. Come on." Jaune moved over with the rest of the remaining runners and lined up behind the blocks. Some of the guys who had obviously been here all summer lined up first but Jaune made sure he was in the second group. He wanted them all to see.

"See those cones?" Jaune followed Coach's extended hand and found several cones lined up along the side of the track. "I want you to explode and accelerate through to the first cone, then fly through the second and ride out to the third. Don't slow down, but keep your arms under control."

The lines of students replied with a communal 'Yes Coach' and the first row dropped into their crouches on the blocks.

The whistle blew and they were off, tearing down the first thirty meters of track. Jaune couldn't believe how fast they were. It seemed like they had barely started and already they were coasting through the last section.

"Come on, on the blocks." Coach snapped and Jaune shook his head. He glanced back and forth just to see his group already crouched and waiting. Jaune hurried into position and cleared his mind, just run he told himself, just run and everything else will come together.

The whistle blew and Jaune was off. He pumped his legs as hard as he could, swinging his arms in practiced lines at his sides. He wasn't out in front.

He looked with his eyes, not daring to turn his head and saw the first cone, he stopped pushing and kept pace like Coach had said. The other boys seemed to keep pulling away. Jaune passed the second cone and let his arms relax, he tried to keep up his speed but felt disheartened. It wasn't so much that he was tired as much as it was that he was shocked.

How in Remnant were they all so fast? It didn't make any sense. Jaune had been the fastest boy at his high school, in the whole county. Where did these other guys even come from?

They had to be seniors he decided. He was clearly running with upperclassmen and being outclassed by them shouldn't come as some huge surprise. Of course they would be faster, they had three extra years of training under their belts.

He slowed gradually as he finished the run and trotted up alongside one of the others who had run with him. The other boy was already done walking out and was headed back to the lines to go again.

"Hey man," Jaune tried to get his attention.

"Oh hey," he turned with a smile as Jaune caught up.

"So, how does the team split up events? Is there a travel team or does everyone go to away meets?" Jaune figured an upperclassman would be able to fill him in on the details, that way he would know who he had to try and beat to make sure he got to compete.

"I don't really know. We didn't discuss it during summer training."

"Are you a transfer? That sucks that you'll have to redshirt a whole year before you can compete again." Jaune was a little bummed that of all the people he could have asked, he had to ask someone who didn't know.

"Nah man, I'm a Freshman. All the upperclassmen get to take the first week off if they came to Summer sessions." The other boy shook his head and trotted off to the line he had been in before.

Jaune re-entered his own line and tried to process he had just been told.

None of the guys here were upperclassmen. If they were they had skipped out on the summer sessions too so those probably weren't even the top notch guys.

Jaune watched as another batch of runners took off and looked incredibly fast.

Jaune's lungs were burning as he tore down the track. He could see jerseys and bare backs in front of him, gaining distance. He knew there were a few behind him too but those didn't matter. All that mattered was catching the faster guys.

It was no use. They crossed the line before him.

Jaune eased out of the run after he crossed the line. A few others crossed after him but he was too busy trying to stay upright and steady his breathing. He paced back and forth, shaking out his legs as he slowly gained control of his lungs.

"That's enough for today. Hit the showers." Coach called out and Jaune would have jumped for joy, except that he couldn't jump right now no matter how much he wanted to.

It had been a hard practice but everyone seemed to be in high spirits. Some guys were dragging as they made their way to the lockers but most everyone was standing tall, joking around or discussing their plans for later that night.

Jaune tried his best to appear as if the practice hadn't gotten to him that much but the truth was, he was exhausted.

He had pushed all day, as hard as he could. Everyone here was so fast. He had to catch up and he couldn't slack off for a single day. That didn't mean he wanted to let it show though.

He grabbed a towel and headed for the shower.

After rinsing off Jaune threw on some street clothes and made his way out.

It was still just early afternoon. Practice had started early since there were no classes yet and they were done. At least it meant that he had the rest of the day in front of him to get ready for tomorrow.

Outside the locker rooms people were milling about, waiting for others to finish or talking with someone who had met them after practice. It all seemed pretty normal and Jaune wouldn't have been put off at all except that he didn't have anyone to talk to.

No one was waiting for him.

"Hi ya." Jaune started and whipped his head around.

Standing behind him, waving emphatically was a girl quite a bit shorter than him with bright red hair and freckles to match. She was smiling from ear to ear, turquoise eyes shining with glee.

"Uhh…" Jaune glanced around, looking for whoever it was she was talking to. He found no one else. "Hey?"

"Hey silly. My name's Nora Valkyrie." She extended her hand towards him.

Jaune carefully reached forward and shook her hand. She smiled happily.

"Hi. I'm Jaune." He paused and glanced around, expecting someone to be pointing and laughing at him. Again, he found no one. "Jaune Arc." He finished.

"Well hi there Jaune. I'm just waiting for my b- I mean my friend Ren to come out of practice. Was someone supposed to meet you? Is that why you keep looking around? I'm sure they're okay if they're not here, they probably just got caught up because they saw an adorable squirrel or something running around. Have you seen the squirrels here? They are so cute and fat. I think people feed them too much. I definitely haven't been feeding them every day since I got here." Nora finished her avalanche of ideas with a chuckle as she glanced off to the side.

"No, I wasn't waiting for anyone." Jaune was certain she was talking to him now but he wasn't sure that made him feel any more comfortable about this. "I guess I was just wondering why you said hi to me."

"Well duh, you looked like you were looking for someone and I was looking for someone too so we might as well find each other right? Did you meet Ren today during practice? He's just a little bit taller than me, but shorter than you and has black hair. He has this pink stripe in his hair too though. I think he added it because it's my favorite color and because I asked him to add it."

"I don't think I saw him." Jaune tried to think back and he couldn't be sure if he had seen someone like that. Then again he had spent all of practice with the sprints team so if Ren was a distance runner then he wouldn't have seen him at all.

"Well you two should definitely meet. I mean, you're both runners and you seem pretty nice and all so why not be friends, right? I don't think that-"

"Nora. Are you bothering someone?" Jaune turned to the new voice, a deep even tone.

"No, no she's not bothering me." Jaune laughed it off. She was a lot to deal with but he hadn't really minded. It was off-putting at first but you just had to try and keep up. "She was actually telling me all about you."

Jaune stuck out his hand for Ren to shake. At least he really hoped it was Ren because he matched Nora's description perfectly. He had long black hair pulled back in a ponytail with a single pink highlight hanging off to one side.

Ren reached out and shook Jaune's hand.

"I hope she didn't tell you anything about giant flying squirrels or us having a pet sloth." Ren laughed softly.

"Not quite, but close." Jaune laughed as well and Nora blushed slightly.

"Ren, come on. Don't go making him think I'm crazy." Nora swatted him on the arm and moved to his side.

"I'm Jaune by the way." Jaune introduced himself since he already had Ren's name.

"Lie Ren." Ren dipped his head just slightly and Nora giggled.

"Well Jaune, we were just headed over to the Commons to grab lunch. Do you wanna come? Ren is always super hungry after practice." Nora was bouncing on the balls of her feet, eager to be off.

"Oh no, I don't want to intrude or anything."

"It's really no problem at all." Ren cocked his head just slightly to the side and let a small smile crease his lips.

"Yeah come on, it's not like we're going on a date or something." Nora snorted dismissively and chuckled as she walked away, beckoning the two boys to follow behind her.

"So she's pretty much in charge huh?" Jaune waited until she was a few steps away to ask Ren.

"Oh yes, definitely." They both laughed a little and followed after Nora. Her bright pink skirt swinging on her hips as she skipped ahead of them.

"You really have seven sisters?" Nora nearly choked on a forkful of food.

"Please remember to chew Nora." Ren chided quietly from her side.

"Yeah, it wasn't really that bad. I mean, except for the bathroom situation." Jaune laughed and remembered sharing two bathrooms with nine other people. At least sharing the dorm bathrooms wouldn't be that big of a change for him.

"I can't imagine having a huge family like that. I mean I barely have any family at all so it would be so weird to have so many." Nora tried for her usual laugh but ended up sighing and staring down at her plate.

A moment passed has Jaune had no idea how to follow that. Talking about his family seemed to get to her so he wasn't sure he should keep going about them.

"So Jaune. What degree are you aiming for?" Ren asked after fully swallowing his last bite of food.

"I don't know really. I'm pretty set on being a runner though, I'm just not sure what degree to get to go with that. Something easy I think so I can focus on practice." Jaune pushed his now empty plate away from himself and leaned back in the bench.

"Oh wow, that's so cool. I wish we were good enough to just run for a living." Nora perked back up a little.

"You run too Nora?"

"Yeah, but I run cross country not track. I just never wanted to stop so I do the really long distance events." She beamed from ear to ear.

"So why don't you want to make it a career?" Jaune slung an arm over the bench behind himself.

"Well because silly, you have to be the absolute best of the best to do that. You must be really good if you think you can make it."

"He did seem to take the practice very well. Especially after not making it to summer sessions." Ren laid his fork and knife down on the table as he had also finished.

"So if you two aren't gonna keep running, what are you going to do?"

"I want to teach special education." Nora perked up even straighter than before. "Those kids need someone to look after them and care for them and I just know that's the job for me."

Jaune couldn't help but admire the readiness of her answer. She hadn't hesitated at all and seemed so sure of herself. Then again, she didn't appear to be one to ever doubt her own decisions, whether in her career choice or in feeding the local wildlife.

"What about you Ren?" Jaune was actually interested in what the quieter boy wanted to do with himself. If he wasn't going to keep running then what?

"I'm going to go to graduate school and become a professor either here or at one of the other Universities." Jaune's eyes went wide in amazement and Ren simply nodded his head in confirmation.

"He's basically the perfect student so it won't be hard for him." Nora teasingly bumped him with her shoulder, giggling all the while.

"So why are you two runners then? If that's not what you want to do forever?"

"Well it's not so much that we don't want to run forever. It's just that it would be really, really hard to make a living that way." Nora sighed and slumped back against the bench.

"And we would always run the risk of being injured and losing our livelihood. Being a professional athlete is very difficult and risky Jaune." Ren stared intently at him, evident concern in his eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be okay though. I just have to keep working harder and always be careful." Jaune laughed and smiled, brushing away their concern.

"Plus we kinda need the scholarship money." Nora laughed again, good naturedly this time. She clearly wasn't embarrassed about it, just stating a fact.

"Oh yeah, me too." Jaune sighed, "It's kind of hard to expect my parents to pay for much when they had eight of us. That's why I want to go pro too. I want to be able to give them back a little." He smiled contentedly, remembering his parents and family back home.

"I'm sure you'll do great at it Jaune. You've got a really good reason to keep trying." Nora smiled wide again, an idea forming in her devious brain. "So, do you wanna go see the squirrels? Or our pet sloth?"

Ren sighed and stood from the table to let Nora up. Jaune didn't know what they were about to go do but he couldn't say he really minded all that much.

A/N - Woooo! I love Nora. I love her so much. I hope you love her too. There will be lots of her. She may be my favorite. They should come out with a Three-Zero figure of Nora. I would probably buy two. Imagine that Magnhild replica!

Anyways, Fan Fiction...right. Okay so that was Jaune's intro chapter. What did you think? Who's missing? Not Nora, that's for sure. Jaune obviously has some intro left to go but that seemed like a good amount for one chapter. I hope you enjoyed.

Please remember to give me some critical reviews, either as a review on the chapter or just a PM. I try to respond to everything I get but college and work and writing and ugh...so many things. I try though. Speaking of which, I had a guest review and a review from a reader who doesn't take PMs. Thank you very much for your thoughts, both of you, though I am sorry that the guest did not like White Rose. There's lots else going on in the story though in case you're still interested.

Thanks so much for reading everyone. I hope this wasn't too short. They will all be up around the 4k word mark once we get going.

-Zach