VNCA

CH. 3

The amphitheater was loud, full of new-comer students that were either coming in just now, or wondering when the first orientation was going to begin. The huge, circle-shaped room was headed at the very back by a stage with a tower-like back on it. Man, this place really had a thing for tall buildings. The air was thick with anticipation and questions as Coby entered. On his first steps in, he nearly had to hold his ears closed at how loud it was. Noises bounced around harder and almost blurred his vision with how strong and numerous the sources were. With one hand over his ear, Coby moved through whatever gap he could find in the crowd, trying to find some place to rest. That's when he caught something, just barely hearing it over the commotion.
"Hey, hey bat boy!"
He stopped and looked around, trying to find out if someone were calling out for him, or some other bat boy.
"Yeah, you in the blue!"
When he could finally find the source, Coby lit up when he saw Artemis' familiar shape among the lake of heads. It was the first time he had seen her with an actual smile that wasn't some teasing smirk about him crushing on one of the Queenslayers.
"I have a name, you know," Coby chuckled as he came to the girl. In her hand was a long rifle case, with her bag of clothes and possessions on her back.
"Yeah, a name I forgot," she shrugged. "You still answered though."
"Next time, I'll answer if you use my name. It's Coby, okay?" he asked as his eyebrows raised and his bag lowered to the ground. With an exasperated breath, he groaned and bent back with a stretch. "So how'd you even get here before me? Didn't I get off the air ship first?"
"Well yeah, but, let's just say a little birdie told me where to go," Artemis snidely commented. Coby shook his head with a snicker. "Hey, it still wasn't easy for me," Artemis defended. "I mean, this campus is huge, I've never been some place like this before," she said while spreading her arms over her head. "Look at th-"
She paused for a second, and Coby raised his eyebrow, waiting for her to finish her realization.
"Uh, right, nevermind."
"Well, while you were out there exploring in a new place, I'm pissing people off and nearly bumping into everyone I see. Hell, I ran into one guy at the fountain statue out front and I thought he was going to rip my head off."
His hand circled on the side of his neck while Artemis' smile faded and she perked up her own brow this time with a curious demeanor. "I hope it's not an omen. If I came all the way from Anima just to have a crappy start I'm going to be mad," Coby groaned while his hand ran down the front of his face.
"Well maybe you pissed off the Gods and this is their way of getting back at you," the red head chided with a taunting smile and her hands to her waist. Coby looked back to her with a tired look. But still, he was surprised she could actually crack a joke like that, if it was a joke. It wasn't a very funny one, but it was enough to warrant a pity smirk from him.
"Well, if it is, they have a twisted sense of humor. Speaking of which, are the staff getting kicks out of making us wait for the orientation? What time is it?"
Artemis was about to fish out her Scroll to answer his question, but Coby already had his out in the blink of an eye, calling for the automated voice to give him the time: 3:59 pm.
"So, that's how you read your Scroll? It talks to you?"
"Well, I cant see the screen, so how else would I get what I needed?"
"Well at least you can do that with yours, half the time I don't even know how to work this stupid thing," Artemis groaned softly as she flashed the device to Coby.
"Your own Scroll? Really?"
"One time I set an alarm on this thing and I don't know how I did it. When it went off, I had to turn this thing off, then back on, to get it to shut up!"
Coby gave her a hearty laugh at the thought of the girl trying to force her device to stop, a laugh to which Artemis protested.
"Oh, come on. Now that, that's funny!"
There was a sudden feedback noise from the stage at the end of the room, catching Coby off guard. His hand shot to his ear as all eyes went to the stage, where stood the lady in the hologram earlier that day in front of a microphone. She cleared her throat, and eyed down to the students of the academy as though she were judging them already, sternly.
"Greetings, students. Please, help me in welcoming Beacon's headmaster, Professor Oscar Pine."
From behind the speaker, a younger man stepped up, cane in hand. A tanned complexion dressed his skin as though he spent most of his life in the sun before becoming headmaster. Short, black hair, hazel eyes, dressed in a white dress shirt, topped with an orange cloth tied around his neck. The long, pine-green coat covered him down to his dark brown pants and boots, clothes that looked as though they would belong more to a farmer than an esteemed educator. He looked to the crowd quietly, returning the gaze of the dozens of new students as he seemed to share his welcoming grin.
"Hello everyone," he spoke with the kindness of a man who knew many hardships, but had grown strong, and caring from them. "I must say, it warms my heart to see so many new faces here, so many eager souls so willing to risk their own safety to service of others." Coby didnt need to see to know how some people were reacting to that. The mutters between some of the new students in the small crowd made his heart drop. 
"You kidding? I'm just here to be famous."
"You got that right. It's safe enough in the world; I just want to be an awesome fighter."
Coby felt his teeth dragging against themselves. It never failed to frustrate him every time, thinking of people that only wanted to do this only for themselves. They werent doing this to try and continue the work of good people, they were just selfish.
"It's sights like these that continue to give me hope for the future," Headmaster Pine continued, "And for this era, and that is what you shall study for here; to give hope to those that need it. While our world is much safer, there will always be that danger in the shadows, so here, learning to become Huntsmen and Huntresses, you will be the light to blaze away those shadows, and keep Remnant bright. Welcome, all of you, to your first day as students of Beacon Academy!"
The applause that came from the crowd roared through the air as Headmaster Pine nodded, and waved to the crowd while he left from the microphone. Miss Goodwitch stepped back up from behind him.
"Thank you, Headmaster Pine," she nodded to him, then addressed the students. "You all will gather at the ballroom tonight at 7 pm, and be assigned dorm rooms after your initiation tomorrow morning. For now until 7, you all will have free movement over the campus. Feel free to explore any places you are allowed. You are dismissed."
The crowd started to disperse as Miss Goodwitch followed Professor Pine off of the stage. Coby looked over at Artemis and tilted his head towards the stage.
"Think he was the headmaster?" he asked. He laughed while he saw Artemis look confused for a second, which got him to release a short sigh, and explain it was a joke.
"You know, at some point, I'm going to teach you sarcasm. You really seem like you need it."
"Sarcasm? Is that like joking?" she asked, more curious than confused now. Coby lifted both of his hands to his face, trying to not groan to himself. Artemis' face went right back to confusion.
"Anyways!" Coby said when he came back up from hiding in his palms. "What do you want to do until we need to go to the ballroom? Maybe go out and explore the campus for a bit?" He shrugged to her. "Maybe we could find a locker to put our crap in for now? I don't want to be lugging my bag all day."
"I was just thinking that too," Artemis sounded almost tired at the idea of having to keep her luggage on her the whole day. "I think we passed by the building on the way here, I saw tons of lockers through the door."
"Thank goodness." Coby let out a grunt as he picked up his bag and let Artemis lead out from the rounded building. "Then after we dump our stuff, how about we get some food, huh? I'm starving."
-
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They did stop for food after unloading their stuff, and explored the campus for the remaining two hours they had until heading to the ballroom. There, dozens of sleeping bags had been set up, head to foot and shoulder to shoulder, to accommodate. After they changed to their nighttime clothes, Coby sat down with his book in hand after he and Artemis found eachother through the growing crowd of people. Artemis said she was surprised by the fact that not everyone had made it on time, as per Ms. Goodwitch's orders. Coby though, he just shrugged, and figured out loud that those people might be having too much fun to keep track.
"Have you ever done something like this before?" Artemis asked as she scanned around the room. Guys were roughhousing, girls were gossiping, some people were off by themselves, and some were already trying to get some sleep in preparation for tomorrow morning. "Slept with a bunch of other people around you?"
"Well, yeah, a few times." Coby's hands stopped scanning over the page he was on, and he sat up from his sleeping roll. He was wearing a neon pink t-shirt with a black arrow pointing to his chin, with the word 'Stoopid' on the chest. His pants were those comfy, cotton plaid ones, a mix of light and dark blue. "In the village I grew up in, sometimes all the kids and some of the adults would get together for what they called a 'Sleep Under the Stars' night. It was pretty fun," he said with a pause. He could always remember how he couldn't see much of the appeal of the stars part though. Everyone would always tell him how pretty they looked, but he could never see them himself. He could remember almost hating every night there was a sleepover, but he still had fun with the other kids, roasting food, telling stories and jokes. "But you though, not used to it?"
Artemis shook her head, holding her knees to her chest, pressing the green-and-brown t-shirt harder against her while her arms wrapped around her silk pajama pants. "Not really. The only person I really ever slept around was my brother back home." She sounded a little weary as she continued to gaze around slowly, trying to watch every movement all at once.
"Well hey, at least try to relax or you're not going to have a good sleep, alright? You'll need the rest for tomorrow."
"Yeah," she softly sighed. "I know, I'll try," she nodded to Coby's words. Her unamused look turned to a laughing grin that got his attention. "Okay, seriously, what is with that shirt?"
Coby exhaled through his nose to stop laughing with her. "It was from me losing a bet with my Uncle. And the worst part is: I don't even know what's on it! I mean, it's obviously something to make him and my aunt laugh," he shrugged, and turned his attention back to his book, pulling down the fabric bookmark that hung from the top of the tome before closing it between the pages. It was starting to get late, and he still had something to do. "I'll be right back," he said as
he jumped up and rested the book on his sleeping bag.
"Alright, don't get caught by the witch lady," she teased. Artemis' eyes followed Coby halfway to the door, before turning back to guard her own little slice of the ballroom.
Coby pushed out through the door to the chilled night air as he snatched his Scroll from his pocket. A flick of his wrist opened it up.
"Send voice message. Receivers: Mom, Dad, Uncle, Aunt," Coby said. There were four beeps from the device in his hand. "Begin voice message."
"Recording," the Scroll chirped in response to him. Coby cleared his throat and put on his best smile.
"Hey mom, hey dad, Auntie Aubrey; Uncle Royce. I, uh, don't know what time it is over in the village right now, but I wanted to send you this before I went off to bed." He stopped to organize his thoughts while he whetted his lips. "I made it to Beacon safe and sound, obviously, and I even, uh, made a few friends on the way too! One of them is a cool girl named Artemis—and tell Uncle Royce to wipe that smirk off his face already," he finished with a laugh. "And another friend of mine, big guy, he's uh, super nice. Apparently he's a fan of the Queenslayers story like me, so we kind of bonded over that," he shrugged. "This place, Beacon, it's huge, bigger than Palmora, but still, no problem for me."
He almost felt bad for lying to his family. His mom had always taught him that being honest was always the right thing to do, no matter what. But still, he didn't want them to worry, and he didn't want his dad to feel like he was right to say Coby couldn't handle this. "We also have our first test coming up tomorrow morning; some big thing, don't know what it is though. That'll be fun." He chuckled, and let himself lean back against the wooden door of the ballroom building. There was a moment of silence, and Coby crossed his arms. "I miss you guys. I mean, I-I know it's only been a day or so, yeah, but I just--"
The door that Coby leaned against suddenly jerked forward, nearly sending him face-first into the pavement. As soon as his feet gave him the stability he needed, he turned around to the one that nearly would have knocked out one of his teeth. Peeking out from the door was the one he met at the fountain earlier that day, the big guy with the big axe. He looked just as surprised to see Coby there, wide eyed, and certainly not as stone-faced as he was before.
Coby recognized him quickly. His ears leaned down in surprise as his eyebrows rose. "Oh, hey! Sorry, I'll be gone soon," he said, forcing up an awkward smile. The larger one's eyes went wide, and he opened his mouth to say something, but no noise came out while his hand lifted from around the door and shook at Coby, like to tell him that it was alright. It almost felt as awkward as walking into the bathroom to find it occupied.
"No, no, it's okay, I promise," Coby insisted. He turned his head back to where the Scroll was as the other student slowly moved out from behind the door, like he were uncertain of Coby's certainty.
"Hey guys, I'm gonna let you go now. If you're sleeping, sleep well. Love ya."
He pressed the button, and the Scroll chirped that the message was sent. Stuffing away the device, Coby turned back to the larger one, who nodded thankfully to him. He took a step to the door, but stopped just as his hand griped the cold, metal handle. It only took a second for his mind to run through what he wanted to say, and what might come of it. He didnt seem very angry right now, maybe it was a good time.
"Hey," he paused and turned. The big guy was busy taking his scroll from his pajama pants when he looked back at Coby. In the dying light, Coby's voice illuminated a line of what looked like scales going down the guy's back from his neck. They caught him off guard at first, not noticing them earlier. "I want to say sorry for earlier, today, back at the fountain and all. I didn't mean to run into you; make you angry."
The other student actually made a sound this time other than an annoyed-sounding grunt. He gasped softly and raised his hand again like last time, shaking it to tell him no. Coby's head tilted to the side, and an eyebrow raised as the other one worked quick to open his Scroll. The soft clicks and taps on the hardlight keypad lit up the air with noises that showed Coby that, this guy, he almost looked nervous now. Weird.
"Not angry," came the voice. It wasn't from the student though, but his Scroll. The realization hit Coby like a falling tree: this dude was mute!
"You weren't angry?" Coby asked, just to be sure. His ears perked back up a bit while the other one shook his head. He felt a weight lift from his shoulders with a pleased breath. "Alright, awesome!" Coby smiled. "Well, hey, maybe we can try this again? I'm Coby." He stepped forward, hand extended out, and a hopeful smile. The other one looked between where Coby's eyes would be, then to his hand, back to the eyes, back to the hand. There was more tapping on the keyboard. Coby was about to lower his hand in defeat, when the voice shattered the quiet around them.
"Nigel," the light, robotic voice chirped. Coby's hand was then grabbed, or rather, eclipsed by Nigel's grip, and he smiled back. Damn, his hand was strong, Coby thought his fingers might snap just from what could be a casual grasp! He squeezed back as hard as he could as the two shook, and when they released, Coby turned back to the door, taking the handle again.
"Nice shirt."
Coby looked back at Nigel, who was smirking at him before he turned back to his Scroll and began to type away at it. This time, Coby chuckled, and entered back to the ballroom, still wondering what this stupid shirt even said.