Rock 'n Roll (Patreon)

At least it was a nice day.

That’s what Ruby kept telling herself while offering flyers to students passing by, hoping that one of them showed some interest in joining a band.  Not just a band though - the coolest and most awesome band to have ever graced Vale University’s grungy music rooms.

“Hey, wanna join a band?” she asked the boy walking past.  “We need a vocalist!” she added while offering him a flyer.  He stopped and looked at the paper, but eventually shook his head and gave a quick “sorry, can’t sing” before hurrying off.

About what she expected, but she still tried.  Setting the flyer on top of a stack of them, she sat down on the folding table advertising their calling call for auditions and swung her feet through the air.

At least it was a nice day.

“What are you doing?”

As soon as Ruby turned towards the clipped voice, she popped back to her feet and smiled.  “Hey, wanna join a band?”  Again, she offered one of the flyers, but the girl standing in front of her - with hands on hips - gave it a disdainful look.

“Did you get permission to solicit club members here?” she asked instead.

“Uh…”

“Or permission to put a table out on school grounds?”

“You need permission for that??”

The girl scoffed as if Ruby wasn’t being serious.  Once she realized that Ruby was, in fact, being serious, she rolled her eyes instead.

“Ah - you’re new.”  Before Ruby decided if that was an insult or not - it sounded like an insult... - the girl shook her head.

“You need permission to hand out flyers, and to put out a table, and basically everything else you want to do around here,” she explained.  Then she crossed her arms over her chest and gave Ruby a judgmental look.  “What club are you in, anyway?”

“I’m not in club.”  Sensing another opportunity, Ruby re-offered flyer only for the girl to look at it and refuse to uncross her arms.  “I’m in a band,” Ruby explained, undeterred.  “I play guitar!  My sister’s drums and her girlfriend is bass - and we’re having tryouts for a lead singer.  So if you wanted to try out...”

“Are you serious?” Before Ruby nodded, the girl let out a derisive laugh.  “Who would want to join a college band?  We have enough work as it is, and - if you still felt so inclined to play that instrument of yours - we have a marching band, pep band, and multiple jazz bands.  Yet you want to form a...” the girl tilted her head to look at the flyer before scoffing again.  “A rock band?  Are you serious?  Who even listens to rock?”

The day was suddenly less nice.  

Actually, Ruby was a little annoyed now, because the hot girl with white hair turned out to be less hot and more frigidly cold.

“You know, you could just say you’re not interested,” Ruby replied, hearing just a bit of her annoyance slip into her tone.  “Or you could just walk away.  Or keep policing the school grounds.  There’s no need to be rude about it.”

She turned away then - because that was the polite thing to do when you didn’t want to talk to someone - but the girl huffed and stomped in front of her.

“I’m not being rude,” she said (in a pretty rude voice).  “I’m pointing out the obvious flaws in your plan.  And why are you hanging out by the pre-law buildings, of all places?  If you need a vocalist, why aren’t you over by the theater buildings?  Or, god forbid, the choir rooms?”

“Thanks for your input!  It’s greatly appreciated - will take under advisement.”  After flashing a fake smile at the pretty girl who was a bit like eating lemons to talk to, Ruby caught sight of Blake walking over and waved.  “Hey Blake.”

“Hey Ruby.”  Blake glanced at the girl, who still looked annoyed by their presence, before turning back to Ruby.  “How’s it going?”

“Got a few people interested.  Then I had the pleasure of meeting the meanest girl on campus.”  When Ruby motioned with her head towards the other girl, Blake’s brow rose in surprise.  The other girl, however, didn’t like being called mean.  Surprisingly.

“You call it mean, but I call it help,” she snapped.  “You didn’t make the best decisions, and that will impact your results.  If you need a singer -”

“Thanks again,” Ruby interrupted.  Standing right in front of the girl, Ruby smiled waved both hands through the air.  “But we don’t need your help.”

The girl didn’t like that either, as evidenced by her huff.  And Ruby actually smiled at the reaction, which was a little predictable.  And she could play with predictable.

“Aren’t you...Weiss Schnee?” Blake cut in then.  The name sounded vaguely familiar to Ruby, but it must have been correct, as evidenced by the (slightly adorable but also annoying) hair flip the girl did.

“Yes, I am.”

“Who’s Weiss Schnee?” Ruby asked, only to be leveled with a glare strong enough to freeze lava.

“I’m Weiss Schnee.  I literally just said that.”

“Well duh.”  It was a childish response, but Ruby wouldn’t claim she was the most mature person in the world.  “But you make it sound like it’s a big deal or something.”

“Uh...Ruby?”  When Ruby turned towards Blake, Blake shook her head.  “Her family owns about half of Vale.”

Suddenly, the hot girl, who was apparently super rich, looked pretty damn pleased with herself.  And Ruby couldn’t let her win like that.  Being rich wasn’t an excuse to be rude.

“Huh...”  After briefly considering the name, which she absolutely remembered now that she thought about it, Ruby shrugged.  “Never heard of it.”

The expression on Weiss’ face was priceless.

“You’ve never heard of it??”  She shot a look at Blake, as if searching for commiseration, before scoffing at Ruby.  “Schnee Industries is the backbone of Vale’s economy.  The name is on the tallest building downtown.  It’s giant - you literally couldn’t miss it unless you were the most unobservant person in existence.”

“Guess that’s me!” Ruby replied with a smile.  She’d gotten under Weiss’ skin now, and that felt pretty good.

“We run advertisements on TV, radio, billboards, online, newspaper - you would have to live under a rock to not notice those.”

“I mean...campus housing is pretty bad...” Ruby smiled at Blake with the response, who scoffed in agreement.  Hearing yet another scoff, however, she decided to end the conversation on her terms, with what one might call the solos of all solos.  A death jam of epic proportions.

“Hey, listen,” she said while turning back to Weiss.  “I think we’re going to decline your interest in joining our band.  Because it sounds like you can only sing your own praises.”

For the briefest moment, a look of surprise flashed through those icy-blue eyes.  The emotion disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared, however - replaced yet again by that haughty attitude.

“You think I can’t sing?”

“You could have the voice of an angel,” Ruby replied, taking a step forward so Weiss had to look up to meet her eyes.  “But your version of beauty comes with a lot of crazy attached.”

“If that’s the case, you must be certifiable.”

From the way Weiss glowered and refused to budge an inch, Ruby thought it was an insult.  It sounded like an insult.  It came across like an insult.  Yet...

“Did you just call me pretty?”

“Of course not.”  As soon as Weiss stepped away, Ruby’s eyes widened.  The soft blush on Weiss’ cheeks only gave her feelings away, and suddenly...this was much more interesting.

“Oh, I get it,” Ruby replied with a growing smile.  “That’s why you won’t leave.”

“I won’t leave because you’re infuriating and breaking school rules.”

“You won’t leave because you think I’m attractive,” Ruby restated.  Although she shouldn’t have restated it, because that only made her blush.  But she couldn’t lose this upper-hand so quickly!  Not by getting all bubbly over an attractive girl finding her attractive.  She had to power through and...still be snarky.

“We’re holding auditions Friday night,” she added.  Again, she held out one of the flyers.  Again, Weiss glared at it, but Ruby didn’t pull it away.  She was going to win this...whatever this was.  

“You know, I’m pretty sure lead guitar and vocals usually get together, right Blake?” Ruby glanced over her shoulder at Blake, who looked abundantly amused by the situation while shrugging.

“So if you think about it...” Pausing for dramatic effect, Ruby leaned closer and was pleasantly surprised when Weiss didn’t move away.  It meant Ruby got a nice inhale of her perfume before delivering that last blow.  “We’re really auditioning for my future partner.”

When Ruby pulled away, she winked - and Yang had taught her how to wink, so she knew she was good at it too.  That was confirmed as true when she spotted yet another blush on Weiss’ cheeks.

“And if you really think about it,” she added when she thought of something even better.  “This could actually be like, our first date.”

She found the idea particularly amusing - even more so when Weiss snatched the flyer from her hand and turned it around to read it.

“‘The Remnants?’” she read aloud before scoffing.  “That’s a horrible name.”

“Thanks,” Ruby replied with another smile.  “Came up with it myself.”

“Of course you did.  I wouldn’t expect anything more from you.”

And Ruby laughed at the insult.  She didn’t even know if it was supposed to sting anymore, because it really didn’t.  It was just funny.  Even Weiss seemed to think so, as evidenced by the tiny, begrudging smile that lifted the corner of her lips.

“Fine,” she suddenly said.  Folding the flyer up, she stuck it in her bag and flashed what could almost be a real smile.  “I’ll see you Friday night - don’t be late.”  When she turned to leave - flipping her hair over her shoulder in the process - Ruby’s jaw dropped in surprise.

“How could I be late to my own event?” she sputtered.

“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” Weiss threw over her shoulder without pause.

“Well am I supposed to bring you flowers or something?” Ruby called after her, but Weiss just waved over her shoulder and headed into the nearest building.  “Pain in the ass...” Ruby grumbled at the girl’s departure, but she couldn’t stop smiling.  What started as a horrible conversation had actually ended up being really fun.  How was that possible?

“Were you two just...flirting?”

When Ruby turned towards Blake, who looked both surprised and entertained by what just happened, she shook her head.  But she couldn’t stop smiling, so...

“Should I bring her flowers??” she asked, suddenly realizing she had no idea what Weiss expected from her next.  She mentioned the flowers thing as a joke, but what if Weiss took it seriously?  Then maybe Ruby shouldn’t bring flowers, just to piss her off?

Blake, however, chuckled and sat on the folding table - their unsanctioned folding table - and picked up a stack of their flyers - their unsanctioned flyers.

“What’re you going to do if she can actually sing?”

Ruby’s eyes widened at the thought, which hadn’t even occurred to her.  She’d enjoyed the catty banter so much, but what if Weiss actually had the voice of an angel?  What if she got up on stage and had the most beautiful voice Ruby had ever heard?

“Then I might be in trouble,” she admitted, but she still couldn’t stop smiling.  Why would she stop smiling?  Today was a fantastic day.

And Friday might be even better.