Enjoy, R&R. Suggestions and thoughts welcome.

As the unfortunate blonde boy emptied the contents of his stomach into a trashcan outside the airship, Ruby and Yang looked up in awe at Beacon academy. The large spire of Beacon tower was even more massive up close than in Vale. The courtyard around the spire was enormous, with pavilions, greenhouses, and sprawling areas that looked like no student could fully explore them in four years.

As Yang tore her gaze away from the landscape before her, she noticed that Ruby was practically drooling as she stared at the weapons being carried by their future classmates, drawing uncomfortable looks from the owners.

"Easy there, little sister, they're just weapons."

"Just weapons?!" Ruby turned to Yang as if offended, "They're extensions of ourselves! They're so cool!"

"Well, why don't you go up and ask some of them about their weapons?"

Ruby began to shuffle awkwardly at the suggestion.

"You're gonna have to make some new friends while you're here."

Ruby turned to her, hopefully, "But, why would I need friends when I have you?"

Yang groaned internally and turned to a nearby group of students she recognized from Signal.

"ActuallymyfriendsareoverthereGottagocatchupKayseeyabye!" She seized two members of the group and rushed off towards the academy.

"Wait, where are you going?! Are we supposed to go to our dorms? Where are our dorms? Do we have dorms?" Ruby groaned as Yang disappeared. "I don't know what I'm doing..."

She was so absorbed in her misery; she didn't see the cart full of luggage until it ran into her from behind.

"What are you doing?!"

Ruby turned frantically to see an angry girl with white hair scolding her "Uh, sorry!"

"Sorry?! Do you have any idea of the damage you could have caused?"

Ruby frantically began trying to gather the contents of the luggage that had fallen out, picking up a vial of red Dust, only to have it snatched out of her hand...

"Give me that! This is Dust - mined and purified from the Schnee quarry!"

"I… I"

The girl began waving the vial in Ruby's face.

"What are you, brain-dead? Dust! Fire, water, lightning, energy!"

"I... I know what it is…" Ruby started waving her hand in front of her as some of the Dust flew in her face.

"Are you even listening to me? Is any of this sinking in- uh oh!"

Ruby and the girl in white activated their aura just in time for the sneeze that ignited the Dust and caused an explosion right in the middle of the courtyard. The vial of Dust fell away from the pair.

As the explosion cleared, the girl shook soot off herself and continued her rant, "Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!"

"I'm really, really sorry!"

"What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon? This isn't your ordinary combat school. It's not just sparring and practice, you know! We're here to fight monsters, so... watch where you're going!"

Ruby finally lost her temper. "Hey, I said I was sorry, princess!"

"If you're going to lecture others about mishandling dust, maybe try following your own advice and don't blow yourself up."

Ruby jumped. The black-haired girl had come out of nowhere.

The girl in white fumed, "I know how to handle my dust, I'm…"

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." The girl in black's eyes narrowed, and her tone darkened. "The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business…"

She suddenly paused, her eyes darting around. "Look, just don't go blaming others for your own carelessness" she quickly shoved the bottle of Dust into Weiss's hands and hurried off.

Ruby expected the girl in white to lash out, but when she looked back at her, she seemed almost ashamed before she turned and stomped off.

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" Ruby called out feebly, before groaning and walking off, "Welcome to Beacon..."

As Ruby wandered, she was surprised to find herself outside of a chicken coop. She smiled at some of the chicks walking about and picked some feed from a bag near the entrance.

"Wonder what this is doing here." Ruby mused to herself as she fed the chicks.

"The academies have been adding infrastructure and farm work to their curriculum lately." She looked up to see Vomit Boy had joined her. "Huntsmen are expensive, and some of the towns outside the Kingdoms are reluctant to hire them if all they do is bodyguarding."

Ruby looked in surprise at the boy then began to giggle, "aren't you the boy who threw up?"

He looked at her with a raised brow "aren't you the girl who blew up in the courtyard?"

"Hey, that was an accident!"

"Well, I don't have any control over my motion sickness."

Ruby hanged her head. "I'm sorry."

The boy smiled, "its fine, Crater Face."

"Hey!"

"You gave me a nickname, so I have to give you one."

The girl pouted as he laughed. "My name is Ruby."

He smiled and offered her his hand. "I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc."

Yang apologized to the group she hijacked and headed off to Beacon's gym.

"Sorry, Ruby, but you can't rely on just me."

Yang was well into her workout routine when she noticed a girl in white approaching her.

"Pardon me." The girl approached her with a confident smile. "But are you Yang Xiao Long?"

"…Yeah."

"Great! I'm Weiss Schnee. Perhaps you've heard of me?"

Yang shrugged as she began a round of squats. "Rings a bell. You're related to the owners of the Schnee Dust Company?"

"I'm the heiress." Weiss nodded, "But more importantly, like you, I was top of my class in Atlas Primary Academy, just as you were top of your class at Signal Academy."

"Oh, good for you." Yang smiled though she felt slightly weirded out that this stranger knew her placement at Signal.

"Yes, and Pyrrha Nikos is also attending this Academy."

"Oh, cool!" Yang's eyes lit up at that. "She's the girl on the cereal boxes, right? I've always wanted to take her on. Find out if she's as good as they say."

"You don't win the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row if you're just a face. More importantly, she'd make a valuable teammate! And not only is she here, but I heard that the only son of Julius Arc is attending as well!"

"Arc, huh?" That name sounded familiar.

"The most famous family of huntsmen in history. He's so incredible the primary academies were beneath him!"

Yang wracked her brain to try and remember where she'd heard that name before. She'd heard it in history books, but she felt like she knew it from somewhere else.

"While we've been attending classes, he must have been apprenticed by his father. He probably spent years in the wilderness surviving on his wits alone, or in the mountains learning hidden family techniques, or outside the kingdoms defending the weak and helpless. He's probably years ahead of the rest of us!"

Yang shook away vague memories of a clumsy boy she'd fought at the Signal entrance exams four years ago. "I'm sure he's very impressive."

"All four of us are impressive! We're leagues ahead of the rest of our classmates! If the four of us teamed up, we'd be unstoppable!"

Yang shook her head. "Okay, Ice Queen, I'm gonna level with you. While I admit I'm pretty good in a fight, I only did that good in Signal because my dad and uncle were teachers there, and they made sure I did the stupid homework. So if you're looking to recruit a team elites, you've come to the wrong girl."

"You're just being modest."

"And last I checked, team selections aren't up to us. They're mostly random or determined by the academy staff. So you're probably gonna have to mingle with at least a few of those people you claim to be so much better than."

Weiss clammed up and glared at that comment as Yang walked away.

Ruby and Jaune continued to stroll through the courtyards of Beacon. Ruby began to feel a little awkward with the silence and pulled out Crescent Rose.

"So I've got this thing!"

"Whoa!" Jaune jumped at the suddenness of the reveal but leaned in to observe the weapon. "It's a scythe?"

"It's also a customizable, High-impact Sniper Rifle!"

"So… It's also a gun?"

Ruby giggled, "Right."

"Must've taken a lot of training to master that."

Ruby nodded. "I spent years training with my Uncle."

"Well, that's pretty cool!"

Ruby smiled, liking where this talk was going. "What about your weapon?"

Jaune suddenly became a little sheepish as he revealed his simple longsword, "Oh! I, uh... I got this sword!"

Ruby felt her interest begin to wane a little "Ooooohh!"

"Yeah, and I've got a shield, too!" He produced his scabbard and quickly expanded it to its shield form.

Ruby's curiosity continued to fade. "So, what do they do?"

Jaune detected the wavering interest and sighed, "honestly, not much. The shield doubles as a scabbard, which makes them easier to carry."

Ruby realized she must have been making him feel self-conscious. "Well, I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons, sooo... I guess I did go a little overboard with Crescent Rose. More style and a little less substance."

Jaune smiled. "Yeah, I might make some adjustments to Crocea Mors in the future, maybe add a side-arm when I get the time to practice my aim, but for now, it works for me. Plus, it's a family heirloom, so it'd be disrespectful not to use it."

Ruby felt her curiosity begin to spring up again. "An heirloom? So it's a classic?"

"Yeah, my Great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."

"And it's still usable?" Ruby squealed, her excitement back "That's amazing! What kind of steel is it? What kind of crafting process did they use? Is it damascene?!"

Jaune laughed as he began discussing his swords composition with the enthusiastic girl.

Half an hour later, the two entered the main hall of Beacon Academy for the orientation ceremony.

"Ruby! Over here!"

Ruby waved back and ran over to her. "That's my sister. I'll see you later, Jaune."

"Aww, where am I gonna find another nice quirky girl to talk to?"

Yang smiled as Ruby approached. "Looks like you and 'Vomit Boy' are getting along."

"His names Jaune, please don't call him that or he'll start calling me 'Crater Face.'"

"Crater Face?"

"Oh yeah, after you ditched me, I exploded!"

"Yikes! Meltdown already?"

"No, I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! And there was some fire, and I think some ice...?" She took a breath as another figure began to approach her from behind. "I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, and then I exploded, and then she yelled at me again, and I felt really, really bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me!"

"You!"

Weiss stood right behind Ruby, glaring at her furiously.

Ruby jumped into Yang's arms in a panic. "Oh Brothers, it's happening again!"

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!"

Yang looked at Ruby in shock, "Oh, wow, you really exploded."

"It was an accident. It was an accident!"

Yang took pity on her panicking little sister, "Look, Ice Queen, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?

Ruby perked up at that idea, "Yeah! Great idea, sis!" She cleared her throat and held out a friendly hand to Weiss. "Hello, Weiss! I'm Ruby! Wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!"

Weiss put on a false look of enthusiasm. "Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond, and scraggly over there!" She gestured behind her to Jaune, who perked up at the awkward praise.

"Wow, really?!"

Weiss deadpanned at the girl's inability to recognize sarcasm "No."

Yang glared at Weiss and prepared to tell her off when a voice from the podium cleared his throat. Professor Ozpin stood before the students.

"I'll... keep this brief. One hundred of you have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far."

Ruby frowned slightly at the admonition. "The number of students enrolling at this and other academies is rapidly dwindling. For many, this time of peace has led to complacency. For others, the risks and mortality rates that come with the work frighten them away. But rather than resist these dwindling numbers, the Huntsmen Academies have chosen to embrace it. We focus on the quality of our students rather than the quantity."

"Tomorrow, we will hold initiation. Of the hundred students in this room, less than half will continue down the path to be huntsmen. The rest will have to settle for careers in law enforcement and basic kingdom defenses. Those who pass will have a grueling and dangerous journey ahead of them."

Ruby's jaw fell at this news. She knew that lots of students who passed the entrance exams never actually became huntsmen, but she didn't think the culling would take place so quickly!

Glynda Goodwitch had replaced Ozpin at the podium. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

Yang turned to Ruby, who looked ready to puke. "You okay, sis?"

"I don't know if I can do this. Why did Ozpin accept me early if he was going to throw me right into a pass/fail situation right out the gate?"

"He must've thought you could handle it." Yang put a hand on her sister's shoulder, "Hey! Remember what Dad said. You have to pass this."

Weiss raised her brows at the conversation between the two sisters until Jaune leaned over.

"So you think I'm cute, huh?" he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as Weiss blushed and facepalmed.

"Seriously?" Jaune scowled as he observed the only sleepwear he could find in his bags and the note that came with it.

'Have a good time at Beacon Bro :P –Nav and Roy.'

"Everything okay?"

Jaune turned in surprise and paled as he came face to face with his opponent from the Entrance Exams, Lie Ren.

Ren raised his brow as he also recognized Jaune. "Oh. Jaune, right?"

Jaune scratched his head nervously. "Yep, that's me! Your name's… Lie Ren, yeah?"

"I go by Ren." The boy nodded. "So, you were accepted, huh?"

"Y-yeah, barely. I guess my other scores were enough to make them ignore our fight. S-sorry if I made you look bad too."

Ren shrugged politely. "Well, it looks like everything worked out. Were you having some sort of trouble over here?"

Jaune nodded, grateful for the change of subject. "No, just a prank, my sisters decided to pull on me."

Ren raised a brow as Jaune showed him the sleepwear they'd slipped into his bags. "That is unfortunate."

Jaune sighed in resignation. "Yeah, I figure I'd better just own it. That's usually all you can do in embarrassing situations like this."

Ren nodded with a slightly amused look on his face, "Probably your best bet. Good luck."

"It's like a big slumber party!" Yang plopped down next to Ruby enthusiastically.

"Don't think dad would approve of all the boys, though."

"I know I do." Yang grinned as she observed the boys, but raised a brow as Jaune walked past in a onesie, trying his hardest to look like it didn't bother him. "Yeesh, and I thought you were the biggest child here."

"Could you not make fun of the first friend I made here, Yang?"

Yang smiled and laughed, "aww, sticking up for your new bestie? That's so cute!"

Yang's cooing was quickly interrupted by a pillow.

"Shut up! I'm not good at making new friends like you! I can't just ditch my sister and immediately have new ones."

Yang grew a little more somber. "Hey, I'm sorry about earlier. But you can't just rely on me to be your only friend here. And you already made friends with Jaune! Assuming that onesie isn't a deal-breaker and you didn't scare him off nerding out over weapons." She ducked the second pillow.

"Jaune came up to me. And Weiss already hates me. I'm not a social butterfly like you."

Yang put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Look, I'll always have your back, but I can't always be there to protect you, even if we do team-up. That's why Beacon assigns us, teams of four, so you can find at least three more people to have your back. So somewhere in this room is at least one more friend for you! You just haven't met them yet!"

Ruby smiled hopefully at her sister's encouragement, then noticed candlelight in a corner. The black-haired girl with the bow sat in the corner reading a book.

"That girl..."

Yang looked to Ruby curiously, "You know her?"

"Not really. She saw what happened this morning and told off Weiss, but left before I could say anything."

Yang smiled and grabbed her sister by the hand. "Well, now's your chance!"

"Wait! What are you doing?!" Ruby quickly found herself dragged to her feet and over to the girl who looked up as the two approached.

"~Hel-looooo!~" Yang sang out as the two sisters approached, "I believe you two may know each other?"

"Aren't you... that girl that exploded?"

"Uh, yeah! My name's Ruby! But you can just call me Crater... Actually, you can just call me Ruby.

The girl shrugged and looked back to her book, "Okay."

"What are you doing?" Yang hissed to Ruby.

"I don't know - help me!"

Yang turned to Blake with another smile, "So... What's your name?"

The girl sighed as she looked back at the sisters, "Blake Bellamy."

"Well, Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister! I like your bow!"

Blake raised a brow briefly. "You two are sisters?"

"Half-sisters"

"The same dad, different moms."

The two responded almost in unison, having heard the question a million times before

"Right..."

Yang tried again to keep up the conversation, "Nice night, don't you think?"

"Yes - it's lovely! Almost as lovely as this book!... That I will continue to read…" She looked up, hoping the sisters would take the hint, "As soon as you leave!"

Yang turned to Ruby. "Okay, I think we're bothering her."

Ruby leaned in curiously, "What's it about?"

Blake looked up again, "Huh?"

"Your book. Does it have a name?"

"Well... i-it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body."

Yang shuddered, "Yeesh, that doesn't sound fun."

"I love books." Ruby offered happily, "Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters... They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress!"

Blake chuckled slightly, "And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?"

Ruby shrugged optimistically. "Well, I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books... Someone who fought for what was right and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!"

"That's... very ambitious for a child." Blake frowned slightly. "Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."

Ruby thought for a moment then smiled. "Well, that's why we're here! To make it better."

Blake's smile returned, and she nodded, "I suppose it is."

Yang suddenly scooped Ruby up in a bear hug. "I've never seen you this social before! I'm so proud of my baby sister."

"Cut it out!" Ruby whined as she struggled to get loose.

Blake laughed pleasantly at the duo's antics. "Well, Ruby, Yang, it's a pleasure to ha-"

"What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"

Blake scowled as Weiss Schnee approached.

"Oh, not you again!" Yang shouted at Weiss while Weiss shouted the same to Ruby.

Ruby tried to restore calm "Shh! Guys, she's right! People are trying to sleep!"

"Oh, now you're on my side?!"

Ruby threw her hands up in frustration "I was always on your side!"

Yang stepped up to Weiss. "Yeah, what's your problem with my sister? She's only trying to be nice!"

"She's a hazard to my health!"

Blake decided she wasn't getting any more reading done for the night and blew out her candle.