I sat down nervously, waiting for someone. Anyone who wouldn’t make fun of my problems. I’m pale as a ghost, I have these ears, and I judge people based on the way they smell. How is someone like me going to fit into someplace like Bedoven?
Ozpin was still here, but he explained to me that it was a curse. I can’t really tell how living forever is a curse, but if you think about it, maybe it is sad. Leaving all that you love to die while you stay here, in this odd universe that has no end?
With a mind like this, how is an extrovert supposed to make friends? I’m not even sure what I am anymore. Extrovert or introvert wise. As far as personal wise goes, I think I’m Blair Nekomimi Berri who loves drawing and cats. I pretty sure I’m still half fanus and half skeleton, the youngest of three, daughter of Luana Howel and Maxwell Berri. If I were to look in the mirror, my mid-back light-blue hair with those small ears on the top.
I saw someone approaching from the corner of my eye and spotted the hood on their head. They sat next to me and looked down at the book they were holding. They took a quick look at me and sighed.
“I’m sorry, I’m not much of a talker.” They said. Their voice sounded deeper than if a girl were to trying to imitate a guy. I looked at his book and he looked at me again.
“What's your name?” I asked. He looked back down at his book and stayed silent.
“You look hot in that hood,” I said watching him start to blush and scoot away.
“I'm sorry! I'm into girls!” I said, blushing more. “T-that's not what I meant! I'm sorry!” Introvert for sure.
“I'm a guy, in case you couldn't tell.” I looked down and sighed. At least I was right.
We sat in silence for a few minutes after my smart comment, and the voice that broke the silence was Professor Ozpin. His voice was deep for someone who looked that young, but he looked a little older than Mom. He explained that every freshman should go out to the battlefield after getting our weapons out of our lockers.
I got up and cheerfully walked into the crowds of freshman and got to my locker. I opened my locker and got my sword out along with some fire dust to put in the dust cartridge. I was just about ready to leave when a nice girl stopped next to me. She took out a large paintbrush and pressed some buttons on it. Her weapon just turned into a spear!
“Hello! I’m Silver. Are you ready for our battle? You are a freshman aren’t you?” She said quickly. I hesitated for a moment but replied.
“I’m Blair, and yes I am. Both.” I laughed for some reason but she laughed with me. She stopped a gave me a smile.
“Maybe we could be on the same team. That’d be nice.” She slower and calmer. She looked surprised and looked at the middle of her paintbrush, then put it on her back.
“We should go, we might be late!” We laughed then ran to the field.
Everybody was already there, but we weren't late, either. Ozpin cleared his throat and a hush came over the entire crowd.
“Thank you. Everyone was assigned a number as they got off the plane. I’m going to go ahead and call out some numbers. If you are called, come up here to the front and choose a spring to bounce off of.” Then he stopped and looked around the exited, but quiet, group. He bent down and said the first four numbers. “Fourteen, sixteen, two, twenty.” A few murmurs could be heard as the students congratulated themselves and others. “The next four are fifteen, thirteen twenty-two, thirteen. Five, three, ten, twenty-one. And the last group: seven, four, eleven and seventeen.” As we all took our springs in the order we were called, I took the last one and Silver took the fifth one. I saw my brother not too far down from me and watched everyone draw their weapon.
“Excuse me, are we getting thrown?” I asked cautiously. I’m so scared, but I’m so excited, too.
“Yeah!” River yelled as he was thrown across the field. I pulled out my sword in a rush, and then I watched as the person next to me was thrown and prepared for a wave of regret.
As I was launched, I looked down and saw what this world calls Drin. Drin are evil creatures who grow stronger and smarter over time. I started to contemplate life when all of a sudden I felt a gust of wind pull me down. It was the Raven Drin. I shot the sword-shaped bullet down at its head to slow my fall, then I slashed my sword towards its stomach and hit. Its aura must have been large because it didn’t seem fazed at all. It picked me up in its feet and swung me around like I was a mace. The Raven threw me on the ground and I was face-to-face with another girl.
“I guess we’re partners then.” She said. She took out a Crossbow a shot out something that looked like a laser. The Drin looked down at the girl and screeched at her. She shot the Drin once more and I used my sword to boost me up and slashed at the Drin. It collapsed on itself and turned to dust once it was dead.
“Now that Raven Drin is out of the way, I’m Raven. Ironic, huh?” She laughed and then looked at me in expectation.
“Yeah.” I laughed a bit and then awkwardly looked at the ground. “I’m Blair. Nice to meet you. Let’s go this way.” I said walking towards the middle. If we can get to the middle, we can climb up some trees and scout out whatever we have to find.
“That’s a good idea. I wonder if there’s an empty space there, or maybe an opening for something.” She said it so calmly, maybe it’s her tone, or maybe it’s just her voice. She ambled slowly, almost as if she was looking around for something. I certainly smelled something, but it wasn’t a person, much less a Cidian.
Raven turned to me as a crunching noise came from behind the trees. It smelled like that last thing we fought, but with a twist. A crab?
“Blair there’s another one!” She yelled at me as another one jumped out. Not to my surprise, It was a Crab Drin. It snapped its claws at us and almost got Raven. She took the crossbow off of her hip again and shot at it with a fierce determination. She then switched over to the laser part of it and then started to zap it. As I started to move, Raven used herself as a distraction and got hit. I shot the sword-shaped ice-bullets and then fell to the ground, slashing at the Drin’s claw as I hit the ground. She looked a bit hurt and she stumbled backward and fell on a tree.
I looked at her with some fear struck in my eyes, but then I turned around and dashed at the Drin and slashed at it as hard as I could brace my tiny arms to go. I looked up as I fell to the ground again, breathing heavily.
I put my sword away and looked at the dust particles that looked so much like snow. I took a deep breath and turned around and saw Raven, propped up on the tree.
“I’m alright. I just felt a little exhausted from using up all of my aura.” She smiled at me and then I didn’t feel so scared.
We walked a bit farther and got to what looked like the center of the arena, and we saw several other groups also there. In a batch of trees in the distance, there was what looked like an altar, with people inside of it. I looked over at Raven and she was looking around, towards the east side of the arena, where another group was coming into the clearing.
“Raven, look! There’s an altar thing over there with some groups in it! Let’s go check it out!” She looked over to where I was pointing and squinted. She turned around again to face me and smiled lightly.
“I can’t see it, but I already trust you enough to go with what you say. Come on!” She yelled the last part, already running towards the trees and I was running close behind her.
“I can see it now! You can get the chess piece!” I was confused until I saw the chess-looking pieces and I picked up a golden horse piece.
“Good choice!” Raven said happily. She wandered over to a spot in the arena and stared. She looked at me, pointed at the trees and opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by none other than loudmouth himself.
“Blair! I found someone to work wi-” He was then toppled by another Drin, another crab. His partner easily killed it with some semblance of his. He got up with a surprised look on his face. He jumped up and grabbed a golden bishop piece and then turned around to face his partner.
“Aren’t you the girl from earlier?” His partner asked. River looked at me, then back at the guy from this morning. River jumped around again and put his left hand on his hip. He gave me his stupid ‘You know what I’m up to now’ smile and took in a breath to speak. Lucky me.
“You guys know each other?” River said quickly. His partner opened his mouth to protest, but River went on. “Blair this is Iris, Iris, this is my sister, Blair. She was a special snowflake and got in early. Isn’t that cool?” He finished with no breath left.
A voice came over the loudspeaker of the arena and everyone around the altar stopped. It was Ozpin. He cleared his throat and everyone looked up, except Raven and I. We looked at each other and smiled lightly, then we looked up at the speaking voice.
“We have been observing, and everyone is done. Come to the hall after you’ve washed up a bit and have put your weapons away. Wait a while, as you can have a small break while we put together the teams. Please wait patiently. Thank you and good luck.”
We all looked at each other, and then at the chess pieces in our hands. Raven was the first to speak up after we got through to the hallway doors.
“What if we’re all on the same team? How cool would that be?” She said. We walked and thought about that and Iris, the shy one, spoke up next.
“That would be nice. We already know each other, so it would be less awkward.” He said as we put our weapons away.
“If we get our own dorms, and we all live together, I call top bunk!” I said before we went to take showers. After we got into the bathroom, it seemed empty, except for Raven and I. She was really cute, I wonder if she sees it in herself.
“Alright, could you hand me my bag over there?” She asked. I tossed her bag over to her and got in the shower.
As I washed my hair and finished up in the shower, I thought about how the teams would be formatted. I didn’t even see Silver until the end of the fight, so I doubt I’ll be on her team. My brother took a bishop piece, so I might be on his team. I bet Raven will be on my team either way since she was my partner.
After we were all washed up, we got our weapons and sat by friends or our locker partners. I sat next to Silver and Raven and we ate our lunches and talked about books we have read or teams we would like to be on. Right before it was time to go, I asked Silver and Raven if they could be my new best friends, since I didn’t have any friends for this year yet, and I wanted people to talk to. They both said yes.
“Freshman of Bedoven Academy, report to the gymnasium for final results and teams,” Goodwitch said over the announcements. Silver, Raven and I stood up together and we sighed knowing that one of us won’t be in the team. We walked to the gym and we looked for our respective seats. As we sat down, the first team was called.
“Team SLVR, Silver Wood, Lilac Willow, Viridian Delom, and Rider Cane.” Applause was heard from the audience, and Raven and I cheered for Silver.
“She only has one guy in her group, I feel sorry for him. Living with three girls.” I said to Raven as we laughed at the thought. We drowned out most of the speech, but then the next group was called. We looked at each other in anticipation.
“Team FLEN. Fern Ginger, Leana Heaven, Eliza Ginger, and Nevada Poidian.” Raven looked disgusted at the names and then turned to me.
“Those are the drama queens of Draco High School. It’s surprising they even got into this school. They’re bullies and they don’t deserve to be here. Fern and Eliza are twins, and pretty soon they’re going to think they run this school. Ozpin won’t stand for that, right?” She said, slightly angry. I looked out into the crowd and saw them walking up in short skirts and dresses.
“I see.” We drowned out the speech again and listened for the next team name.
“Team BRRI. Blair Berri, Raven Sylvester, River Berri, and Iris Kanola.” We cheered and we ran up to the stage and got into our order. We still drowned out the speech, and we ran to our dorm room afterward. I put Raven and I’s beds together into bunk beds, and we set our stuff up into our dorm.
After the day we had put together some food, and shortly after we went to bed. I stayed up and wrote some things down. I was writing a letter to my mom a letter, she was way back in Cidal. It’s weird, how far you can go, and not even notice how close you actually are. Blue Music is only about two hours away by plane, but I can only ride a bike. It would probably take more than two hours then. Now it’s only my mom back down in Cidal, all by herself because dad lives in Detroit with his friends. They visit for a week every few months.
“Blair, why are you still up? It’s eleven thirty.” Raven said from behind me. I looked at the Loft game in front of me then turned around to her.
“Do you want to play Loft while we’re both up? We can talk then.” I said to her, now holding the game.
“Sure. What would you like to talk about?” She said sitting down and helping me set up the game. I sat down and then looked at my small blue car in front of me. I put a cat and a small pink peg in the front seats then set my car down on the college path.
“Well, I miss being home, but almost all of my family is here. My sister is a Junior and my brother joined me here as a freshman.” I explained.
“Is your brother your twin? How old is he?” She asked as she spun the wheel, landing on a six. She moved to a pet card and took two thousand Gingin from the bank.
“No, he’s eighteen. I’m sixteen and my sister’s twenty. I don’t see her that often, and honestly, it doesn’t feel like she’s my sister much anymore.” I spun the wheel and got a nine. I landed on an action space and drew a card from the pile.
“That’s like my brother, Alec. I never see him anymore since he moved to Hana, and my mom and dad live in Draco. I don’t have a sister to learn from, either, but I’m not sure how your sister treated you.” She said, spinning and then graduating Loft collage and got a video game designer card.
“She wasn’t a horrible sister, but the only thing she taught me how to do was how to put a gun into my sword. She actually just told me the basics of it, and I worked it into my semblance.” I spun again and caught up, getting the artist card.
We sat in silence until we both got to the “Get married” spot and chose our loved ones. I put my cat in the seat behind me, and Raven did the same with her dog. Oddly enough, we both chose pink pegs to share our car.
“It was a pretty hectic day, wasn’t it?” Raven said, breaking the awkward silence. I nodded and collected my payday.
“Yeah, odd and exciting, nervousness and anxiety. All weird feelings I’ve never felt together before. It was nerve-wracking, but we go and do the same thing tomorrow, just as a team. We were now in the middle of the board, and I had two more pink pegs in my car, while Raven only had one blue peg added.
“At least your car isn’t empty like River’s always is. Every game, he’s always lonely.” I looked over at the kitchen clock and got some leftovers from our dinner.
“It’s one o’ clock. Isn’t that nice?” We laughed and Raven got into a “Countryside Retirement Home”, while I got the “Millionaire Mansion”. I looked at her and smiled.
“Play again or no?” I asked pointing out her small sum of one million Gingin compared to my five million.
“Game on!” She said, laughing.
***
We played two more games until Raven finally won, but there really wasn’t time to sleep, as it was seven fifteen. Raven helped me make pancakes and we woke up the other two sleeping members of our team. We enjoyed our pancakes in peace, then we tried to put away the Loft game.
“Wait! Blair, wanna play? What about you guys?” River piped up, putting his hand on the box. Rave and I laughed but redundantly said yes. We all looked at Iris and he spoke up.
“I mean, it would help me get to know you guys better.” He said. For some reason, we all cheered and quickly cleaned up to get the game out.
After the game, we rushed to get ready and we ran out the door, and I raced River, and of course, he lost, but we bumped into a giant Drin on the bottom floor.
“T-this doesn’t look like something we can fight…” I said. Iris and Raven came soon after us, and we spotted Professor Goodwitch in the back with Professor Ozpin.
“Children! Get back! Go to the arena hall from yesterday!” Professor Ozpin yelled for our safety. River took his hammer and shot at the giant Cat Drin and then used one of his more powerful attacks on it. It exploded into dust and dropped a tear-shaped piece of dragon metal, one of the most powerful metals in Cidal. I picked it up, but then Raven and Iris grabbed us and shooed us into the hall. The hall doors closed just as Professor Ozpin got in.
“Alright students,” Professor Ozpin said, out of breath. “Let’s get started for the day.”
