Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its anything! It all belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum!

Chapter 2: Close Call

"What is taking those four so long? They are the only ones who aren't here. Honestly, I expected better of you, Jaune." Glynda Goodwitch, who wore a black suit jacket, a white dress shirt, a black pencil skirt and a pair of black stiletto heels, mumbled to herself as she gazed at her students from her desk, watching those who have made it to class on time converse amongst themselves or indulge in their own devices. The majority of her students were presently in class and seated at their desks. However, only four were still unaccounted for. And those four happened to be Jaune, Pyrrha, Rin and Nora. With only a few minutes left before the morning bell would ring, she strongly hoped that they read her email and took it very seriously. Because once that morning bell goes off. Well, let's just say that upon arriving at the school entrance, they would be met with closed and tightly locked metal.

The desk set up for the students was rather typical; standing alone with slight distance between each other. There were five rows that each had five desks to them. However, in the back row, there was one desk in particular that was large enough to fit two people behind it. Though in reality, they were just two seperate desks pushed tightly together. The two people who occupied the slightly larger desk were none other than the lovely, but also mischievous, pair of twins, Melanie and Miltia Malachite. Because one knows how twins can be, especially these twins, as they do everything together.

Anyway, the seating arrangement went as follows!

In the front row, starting by the seat closest to the door and going towards the windows; there was Nebula Violette, Coco Adel, Jaune Arc, Cinder Fall and Ruby Rose.

In the second row; Dew Gayl, Velvet Scarlatina, Nora Valkyrie, Emerald Sustrai and Weiss Schnee.

The third row; Gwen Darcy, Arslan Altan, Pyrrha Nikos, Neo Politan and Blake Belladonna.

The fourth; Octavia Ember, Reese Chloris, Lie Rin, Ilia Amitola and Yang Xiao Long.

Then for the last row; Neon Katt, May Zedong, Melanie and Miltia Malachite, Ciel Soleil and Penny Polendina.

"You four better hurry up. I do not wish to explain things twice." Glynda whispered, almost hissing, as she eyed the column of empty desks. She then looked down at her watch concerningly, anxiously watching the seconds go by.

"Hmm, I wonder what's holding up JNPR. They usually aren't this late." Said Yang as she pointed a thumb over at the four empty desks, looking towards the three girls seated ahead of her, wondering about their thoughts on the matter.

Blake was the first one to speak up, her amber eyes dug deep into the novel that she had in her hands. "Not sure," She shrugged. "They hardly ever miss school, so I bet they'll be here eventually. Probably just got sidetracked somewhere along the way." She theorized.

"You really think so?" Yang inquired, a brow raised curiously as she rested her chin over her right palm.

"It happens.." Blake muttered as her face fought back the urge to blush, her mind recalling the times that she was almost late for school because she allowed herself to get distracted by a particular aisle at the supermarket.. She really couldn't help herself. Damn you tuna! Why must you be her greatest weakness?! She thought in distress, her feline ears deflating under her black bow while she maintained a calm exterior.

"Err.. I guess.." Yang replied, not sure on how to feel about the blackette's assumption as she shot her lilac eyes over to Jaune's desk.

"Well whatever is going on with them, Jaune better pick up the pace and get here soon." Weiss chimed in with a pout, sounding impatient as she stared at the young Arc's desk with a glare. 'If my future husband insists on getting tardy. Then like hell I'll forgive him!' She huffed internally.

While Weiss and Yang stared at the empty desks, the innocent young Rose of the group was busy looking out for Jaune and those who were with him from the window. Their classroom thankfully had a good view of the school's entrance. "Come on you guys.." She shot a glance over to the front of the class, her sights landing on the clock that was hanging over the dry erase board. The long hand was a couple minutes away from hitting the six number, the small hand someways past the eight. "You don't got much time left.." She murmured nervously. She could just feel that their friends were on the way. But now, she just prayed to Oum that they'd make it before they would have no choice but to be marked as absent for today.. and get a good scolding and punishment from their teacher. She shivered in fear upon thinking about the latter.

After a minute had passed, leaving just a minute left, Ruby's expression brightened when the four subjects of their concern finally came into view.

They were travelling with haste along the lengthy concrete pathway, which was surrounded by trees, that led up to the school, moving as if their lives depended on it. "Oh look, there they are!" She announced with high spirits, waving for her two friends and older half sister to look out the window, to which they did right away. Except for Blake as she simply gave the window a side glimpse.

"Told you." Smirked the faunus, looking back to her book.

Glynda caught wind of this as she gazed out the window as well, giving off a sigh of relief when she noticed JNPR along with them. "Oh thank Oum.." She whispered under her breath, bringing a hand to her calming chest.

"Come on, you guys! We got less than a minute before the gates close. Push it!" Nora shouted urgently as she sprinted up ahead of Jaune, Pyrrha and Rin, putting all the strength she had into her legs.

"Crap! Out of all the mornings that damn operator needed to stop to use the bathroom! Why did it have to be today!?" Jaune complained as he ran alongside Pyrrha and Rin. They would've already been at the academy ten minutes ago, but having a sudden case of bad luck, the lone train car operator just had to have too much coffee this morning as they stopped at the station before theirs so he can take a leak. A long one at that. Professionalism at its finest, ladies and gentlemen..

"Don't fret, my love. The situation could be much worst if you think about it." Rin said calmly between her panting, attempting to de-stress Jaune the best she can.

"She's right!" Pyrrha chirped. "The operator could've taken much longer to finish with the bathroom. If that happened, we wouldn't have been able to make it to school at all." She tiredly smiled at the blonde when he turned to face her.

"Yeah!" Nora concurred from up ahead, making the three who were falling behind look to her now. "Besides, we're getting a pretty good morning workout in, don't ya think?!" She chuckled as she gazed slightly over her shoulder at them.

"If we did some stretches beforehand, I would've been compelled to agree with you, Nora!" Jaune replied before shaking his head and emitting a frustrated groan. "Whatever. I shouldn't be crying over what's already been done. Let's just pick up the pace and get to class!" Ordered Jaune as he started to really put his back into the sprint, moving up ahead of Pyrrha and Rin to run alongside Nora a few moments later.

"Right!" The girls responded.

Pyrrha and Rin weren't left behind for too long as their own motivation, and panic, reached an all time high, aiding them in keeping up with the young Arc and Valkyrie.

Then with a few seconds to spare, they made it passed the gates. But that didn't mean they ceased their run as they continued on until making it to their classroom.

"And there's my cue to take roll call." Glynda scoffed as she watched Jaune and co. enter the building right when the morning bell rang, standing up from her desk with the class attendance book in hand. 'Now here's to hoping we time this right.' She thought as she walked up to stand in front of her chattering students, clearing her throat to gather their attention as she stood before a podium. "All right, settle down everyone. You've all heard the morning bell. So let's quiet down and proceed with the morning roll call, please and thank you." The woman uttered with a calm, yet authoritative, voice, speaking loud enough for the whole class to hear. After she spoke, she placed the attendance book down on the podium before opening it up to the page that was dated for today. Now, she had no clue how the other instructors did theirs. But Glynda had her own student roster done up in alphabetical order, based on the first names of her students.

Upon hearing her announcement, most of the present girls groaned and sighed in displeasure, reluctantly complying with the teacher's demand. However, there were some that complied without expressing any complaints. Heck, they were even some girls who were excited to get into today's lessons. Take Weiss for example as she was already prepped with a pen in hand and her notebook opened up to a clean page, eager to receive her daily dose of noteworthy information on any subject.

"You all know the drill. Once your name has been called, raise your hand and announce your presence. Okay, first off.." Before Glynda proceeded to the roll call, she briefly set her sights on the first person listed on the attendance sheet, taking out the purple pen she had balancing on her right ear. "Arslan Altan?" With each name she'd call, she would look out for the hand of the aforementioned student and mark them down as present. Sure, she knew all of her students well enough to memorize their identities. So doing roll call was pretty much a no brainer at this point. But within Beacon Academy's walls, roll calls were an important procedure. As is the case with any other school she imagined. So being the disciplined and organized instructor that she is, Glynda proudly thought of herself with a push of her glasses, she was quite the stickler for such things.

"Here." Arslan responded, yawning softly into the hand she raised just as she was putting it down.

"Blake Belladonna?"

"Present." Blake responded blankly, raising one hand while the other held up her book. Her eyes still swiftly scanning the pages.

"Oh, Blake.." Glynda sighed with a shake and slump of her head. "That's not the kind of book you're supposed to have out right now. So please, put that away and take out the ones necessary for this class." She ordered sternly, shooting the cat faunus a warning glare before getting back to the task at hand.

Blake didn't reply as she simply rolled her eyes and did as she was told, putting her novel back into her bag before taking out her notebook and pen.

"Now where was I..? Ciel Soleil?"

"Present, ma'am." Ciel responded with her usual professional, almost monotone, voice, sitting up with a proper posture and a hand raised high.

Before moving on, Glynda nodded at the teen as if to say "at ease, soldier."

Ciel mirrored the motion while lowering her arm.

"Cinder Fall?"

"Here." Cinder responded boredly, raising a hand slightly for only a second before lowering it. She leaned back against her chair with her arms crossed under her breast, tapping her right black polished fingers onto her left elbow impatiently.

"Coco Adel?"

"Here." The fashionista responded nonchalantly whilst in the middle of filing her nails, doing so with excellent precision. She blew on her nails as she took a moment to closely examine her work so far, and she was impressed with herself as she displayed a confident smirk upon coming to a solid conclusion. 'Ah~ Perfect.' She waved her fingers before putting away her file.

"Dew Gayl?"

"Huh? What?" When hearing her name, Dew perked up quickly and looked towards Glynda with a startled expression, having been distracted with the drawing she was doing on her sketchbook. It took her a second to realize what was going on. "O-Oh, here!" She finally responded appropriately with a short lived wave, sounding embarassed due to her initial tardiness.

"Put it away, Dew." Glynda demanded as she went on to name the next student after marking Dew present.

"Yes, Miss Goodwitch." Dew said as she got to doing just that, not about to argue with the woman. 'Dang it.. And I was almost finished with it too. Guess it'll have to wait till lunch.' The greenette whined in her mind, putting her sketchpad and pencil away while pouting to herself before taking her notebook out.

"Emerald Sustrai?"

"Here." Sharing a mood similar to Cinder's, Emerald raised a hand lazily while leaning her head sideways against her opposite fist, her elbow planted on the desk. After lowering her hand and in a wave motion, she repeatedly tapped her fingers lightly over her desk.

"Gwen Darcy?"

"Here, ma'am." Gwen responded, being one of the few who were patient and ready to commence with today's lessons.

"Ilia Amitola?"

"Here." Ilia replied. While she was ready to get to the learning as well, she wasn't all that enthused about it as she kept tapping the clicker end of her pen against her notebook.

Glynda smirked as the next person on the list was none other than her lone male student, going silent for a few seconds as that's when they heard the multiple pairs of footsteps rapidly approaching the classroom. The woman quirked a brow as she steered her sights over to the door, the younger females before her doing the same.

'Right on time..' Glynda thought before she proceeded to call out the next name, looking back to the book on the podium. "Jaune Arc?" She uttered louder than usual, wanting her fellow blonde to hear her voice.

As soon as she said his name, that's when Jaune flung the door wide open and made his attendance known, sounding out of breath. "I'm here! I'm here!" The sole boy panted as he stood heaving by the door, NPR standing right behind them. As they entered the large but mostly crowded room, it was hardly difficult for everyone to notice their exhaustion. Since Rin was the last one to enter, she shut the door behind them.

"Damn, looks like you guys had a fun morning." Nebula teased with a cheeky grin when seeing the current state of JNPR.

"Oh, we had a... a blast all right.." Jaune tiredly said as he walked by Nebula, flashing her a weak smile. "Y'all really missed out.." He joked.

"Ooh, I'm sure we did." Nebula remarked, not taking his words to heart in the slightest.

"Apologies for the late arrival, Miss Goodwitch." Pyrrha spoke as she took a moment to explain the situation to their instructor before going to her desk. Meanwhile, Jaune, Nora and Rin went to take their seats. The blonde boy groaned in relief the instant he planted his rear on his chair, smiling contently when the inevitable relaxation hit him. "Our train suffered an... issue this morning that caused us a bit of a delay."

"It is quite all right, Pyrrha." Glynda brushed off the redhead's worries calmly, waving a hand dismissively as her other hand marked down Jaune. "I'm sure that you four have a sensible reason for being slightly late. Honestly, I'm just glad that you made it in at all today and before I called your names. So I will overlook this incident for today. You're excused." Knowing Pyrrha well enough to know that she'd never lie, she was confident in her assumption and didn't doubt her explanation.

Pyrrha expressed relief as she took that as her cue to take her seat, but not before bowing gratefully to Glynda and saying. "Thank you for your understanding." Then she left for her desk.

"You're welcome." Glynda nodded, waiting patiently till the young Nikos sat down before continuing with the roll call. "Let's get back to business, ladies and gentleman. Next is... Lie Rin?"

"Here, ma'am." The blackette replied as her breath steadied.

Since their names have already been called, Cinder took it upon herself to engage in quiet conversation with Jaune. "So Jaune, do elaborate and tell us. What exactly happened that made you all nearly miss the gate?" The amber-eyed girl asked as she looked to Jaune with an inquisitive stare.

Jaune groaned in annoyance as just thinking back on that time pissed him off a great deal. But nevertheless, he powered through and gave the beauty an answer, one that was brief and saved her from the gross details. "Well Cinder, let's just say that like a damn idiot, the operator of our train had a bit too much to drink this morning." He grimaced.

While it wasn't too much of an elaborate response, that information was enough to paint Cinder a clear picture of what went down. And she was perfectly fine with that as she quickly wished not to hear anymore. "Ah, I see.." She muttered in disgust.

Butting into the conversation as she couldn't help but overhear them, Coco chimed in as she rolled her eyes under her aviator sunglasses and captured their attention. Yup, she wears sunglasses indoors. And since they all knew her so well, none of her classmates were baffled or surprised by it. "Now, you see, that's why you should never take public transportation, Jaune. I mean come on, not only are they... unsanitary. But they can also be very unreliable at times."

Jaune sighed at Coco's words, slouching briefly before turning to her. "While I admit that you do make some good points there, Coco. In case you have forgotten, not all of us are as wealthy as you are. So we don't exactly all have limos waiting to drive us wherever and whenever we want." He said with soft exasperation.

"All right, all right. You make a good point yourself." Coco replied, raising her hands by her shoulders in surrender.

"You know, Jaune. If you are ever in need of an easy ride to school. I don't mind taking a detour and picking you up along the way. All you gotta do is give me a call." Cinder, being the "generous" and rich individual she was as well, offered. If only Jaune knew of her true intentions as she, for a flash second, licked her lips with anticipation while subtly eyeing the young Arc up and down. 'I'm sure there are a lot of things we can do to keep ourselves occupied during the ride.' She inwardly smirked as her lewd imagination began to work its magic.

"Heh.. I'll keep that in mind, Cind. Thanks. But I don't know if I wanna cause you the trouble." Jaune responded, shrugging with uncertainty about Cinder's proposal as he rubbed at his head.

"Oh, but I insist, Jaune. It won't be of any trouble, I assure you." Cinder giggled softly as she shook her head, nonchalantly dismissing Jaune's words. "We'll always have time on our side anyway. With Watts behind the wheel, picking you up and making it to school will hardly be a lengthy drive. So you needn't worry about a thing, my sweet." She winked at the young Arc, hoping that she had managed to convince him to accept her kind offer.

Even more so now, Jaune considered taking up the tempting offer. However, he can't in good conscience do so without proposing a certain catch. One that was absolutely necessary to him. "Well, when you put it like that.." Jaune smiled as he emitted a defeated sigh. "Fine, I guess I can accept a ride tomorrow if you're so insistent." He chuckled.

Before Cinder could express even the slightest bit of elation, Jaune was not finished there.

"But I do have one request though. If you don't mind me making one." He said while raising an index finger.

"Oh? And what would that be?" Cinder asked.

Since she was willing to listen, Jaune ever so silently cleared his throat before revealing his single request. "I really don't wanna leave them hanging so... I was kinda hoping that you'd also give Pyrrha, Nora and Rin a ride too."

Upon hearing out Jaune's request, Cinder's joyous mood was fast to dissipate. She tried her damnedest not to show it, but she was less than thrilled to know that she wouldn't get to have any alone time with him. So, with great restraint, she calmly questioned. "Is that truly all you want, my sweet?"

"Eeyup." Jaune affirmed with a few nods, quite sure of his simple response. Ever since their days back in middle school, the foursome that is JNPR have always travelled to school together in one way or another. It was sort of like a daily tradition for them. When it came to school days that is. And if anyone were to ask them about it. No, not one of them would want that tradition to come to an end. Nor would they wanna break it, the girls especially.

Cinder was still apprehensive about accepting his "condition." However, in the end, she just didn't have it in her to say no to her thoughtful sweetheart. So, feeling as if she didn't have any other choice, she ultimately just went with the flow of things. "All right, I suppose picking up a few more passengers wouldn't hurt." She said whilst managing to crack a tiny smile. Oh poor Cindy, if only she could say the same thing to her hopes.

Jaune grinned at her reply, his expression nearly beaming as relief hit him with a surprising bit of force. "Awesome!" He spoke with an excited whisper. "Okay, as you already know, we do live pretty close to each other. So if your driver is as good as you say he is, picking us all up should be a piece of cake for him."

"Oh, I don't doubt that it will be." Cinder chuckled, standing by her earlier statement regarding her personal butler's "racing" talents.

Little did the conversing pair know, their instructor was listening in on their discussion intently while managing to keep on with the roll call, nearly finishing it up. Her lips were curved into a peculiar smirk due to the thought she presently had on her mind.

'Just you wait, Jaune. Should you choose to accept what I have to announce. You won't have to worry about being late for classes again.'

A/N: Heyo again, getting back to yet another story that I've haven't updated in awhile. Yeah, I'm so sorry 'bout that. I said plenty of times the reasons as to why I take long to update pretty much any of my fics nowadays. So I ain't gonna do it again. All I'll say is that I'm a very busy and tired dude. XD

Now, the harem hasn't changed as I still need to get into Volume 6 and 7 to see other ladies that have been introduced. I'm falling way behind I know. But I'll be honest, I'm one of the people who lost interest in the show after season 5. I imagine I'll get to it eventually, but there's just so much other stuff I'm watching currently. XD Lord, help me.

Okay, I don't got much else to say really. But once again, I apologize for the long wait. You may carry on with your day or night! I also want to apologize for the lack of promised lemons, but don't worry. They'll be here soon! :) I hope.

Follow, Favorite and Review if you would be so kind! It always greatly appreciated to know what you guys so far!

Until next chapter, whenever the hell that'll come out, deuces!