Blueberries {an RWBY novel}

A Glance Into the Deeply Unhappy Teenage Experience

Slam!

It started in the middle of fourth period. The bare white walls of the large biology classroom felt, as they always did, like the walls of the prison. Eight 'lab tables,' which were just counters with sinks in the middle, sat in the back of the room. I think maybe some happy, giggly teacher that actually enjoyed their job might have put them to use once, but our current 'professor' (he makes us call him that, I don't know who he thinks he's fooling) has yet to do anything more interactive than a shitty PowerPoint presentation. Twenty eight desks sat at the front of the class in four rows of seven, facing the north wall. I was the third row, six desks back, as far away from the front as I could manage. Cardin Winchester sat first row, seven down, with a couple of his buddies that I never bothered to know the names of. They were laughing at something, paying no attention as the teacher droned on to the uninterested classroom. I'm pretty sure nobody was paying attention, I definitely wasn't.

Slam!

I don't actually have that much of a problem with Cardin. He was a cool jock, so he was never exactly my crowd, but I'd always made it my goal to try to ignore high school stereotypes, refusing to dismiss him as stupid or cruel. I'd only ever spoken to him once or twice, asking for a pencil or for help with a math question (I'd heard he's good at math, and judging by how he helped, he's probably better than me.) There was the time during our sixth grade formal that we were both dancing close to each other and he grabbed my ass, but all the sixth grade boys did stupid things to harass the girls, so I can't really use that incident to judge his character. What I do judge him by, however, is the day I walked into him scream crying in his car while I was trying to skip class. General rumors had floated around saying that him and some boy he'd been dating (Sky Lamb? Lark? I don't remember) had broken up.

I've seen a lot of breakups in my day. I've never seen anybody gets as torn up as Cardin did.

He's... unhappy.

Slam!

Cardin's group grew louder as time went on. I'd opted out on today's 'intro to cellular function' lecture in favor of one of my favorite books. They say that as you get older the school classes you take will get harder, but cellular function and biology have been taught in our program since we were ten. Ever heard the phrase 'the mitochondria is the power house of the cell.' Cellular function. That's it. I don't care to bug other people in my class, and I've never been the source of trouble for others, but I was trying to escape the jail-like classroom in return for Dr. Jekyll's manor, and Cardin was growing ever more disruptive, not just of the professor, but of my train of thought.

They were just getting so loud, it was pissing me off.

Slam!

Within minutes of my initial notice of the group, I could hear what they were saying.

"Yo, but what are you going to do about Velvet?" Voice number one. Did not belong to Cardin.

If they could be quiet, I could concentrate on my book.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do? Madame Coco got sent off with her, she's the only bitch with a big enough mouth to fight Velvet's folks." Voice number two. Also not Cardin.

"So what, you're going to pussy out?" Voice number three. Still not him.

"What other choice to I have?" Voice number two.

Perhaps the choice to shut up.

"Go and find out where they sent her," Cardin's voice, "then get up and rescue her."

Slam!

"You say that like it's so easy, I don't even know where she is." Voice number two.

"So find out." Cardin.