Hey, so this is Dante here. And yesterday I was reading fanfiction(as one is apt to do on this website) when I found Paper Cuts. And I was surprised that it was so popular for such a short story. Well its not that popular. More popular than mine that's for sure. So I did some research and found out that it used to be a lot longer than what he has posted. So I asked Just a dude what happened and he said that he just couldn't write it anymore.

So I asked if I could have the story.

He said yes. For those of you who will be mad he said it would be on his profile or something. And then he sent me the link to this google doc with all the chapters in it. So I'm just gonna post them as is for now, and mess with them later. And I also need Kegi Springfield to give me the okay to use his picture for this story. (He gave the okay btw.)

(Also I edited this recently. 4/23/17)

My parents had a special type of job. Normally I called them doctors to not confuse people, but they were more like medical archaeologists. They would go and explore ancient ruins looking for any medicine and other things that could be used to further our own knowledge of the subject. But that being said, they had to leave me alone at the house for days, maybe even weeks so they could do their job.

Just recently however they had gotten permission from the four nations to study Menagerie, an area that until recently was declared off limits due to cultural issues. Because of the large amount of ancient cites and native plant life they had to spend almost four years there. Well three years and six months but what's the difference.

Right now in the early hours of the morning we were packing the rest of the things into the taxi that would take them to the airport. As I finished putting the rest of my dad's things in the trunk of the car when my dad came up to me. We stood there for a second when he ruffled my hair with his hand, one of his signs of affection towards me. My father was a true Arc, a man with a full head of blonde hair who stood at a towering 6' 7" and blue eyes that were as deep as the sea. I looked a lot like him, but there were differences. I wasn't over half a foot shorter than him, and my face was nowhere near as masculine. My eyes weren't the ocean blue that his were, instead a much lighter sky blue. "Jaune, the bank should have everything settled so if anything goes wrong then call them."

As he said this I saw his eyes were shining with unshed tears. "Do you really have to go?" I asked.

"This... This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We've been begging the nations to let us go to Menagerie for years, and we have to use all the time we have because we don't know if they'll let us back in again."

My mom walked up to us at this point and wrapped me in a hug. She was a lot more emotional than my dad, some tears already flowing down her face. "Just make sure that you stay safe." She pulled away from me held me by my shoulders. "We'll write as often as we can okay. Make sure that you write back. And here's this," She reached into her purse and pulled out a small plastic card, "This is yours. We won't need any of it while we're there so almost all of the money that we should be making will be yours to spend. Don't do anything crazy alright?"

"I promise."

As I said this I the taxi driver honked his horn in impatience. Both my parents parents hugged me goodbye and told me they loved me as they go into the car. I stood there for a few minutes watching the taxi until it went turned a corner and made I lost sight of it.

I walked back into my house to get ready for the school bus, and then walked back to the sidewalk at the end of my street to wait for the bus. I was waiting for my friend Pyrrha, who lived right beside me, but she still didn't show up by the time the bus came. That wasn't that strange as she was an athlete for most of the girls' sports in the school, so she probably went early so she could sign up for them this year. I got on the bus and found an empty seat that was in the front of the bus.

When we got to the school, some of the students from my old school greeted me, and asked about Pyrrha. I was used to this though, as I had been her friend since before we started school. I was never really known for being anything more than Pyrrha's friend because she was always one of the most beautiful girls in our class. Well other guys would say hot, but I think the word is insulting to girls. It only says things about them physically. I say beautiful when talking about Pyrrha because she is a great person, and because I have had a crush on her since the 7th grade.

I avoided the crowded lunch room where most of the students gathered. I had never been one for socializing as I turned out to be a bit overbearing when I first met new people. I just pulled my hoodie around me a bit tighter and went to Mr. Port's English room, as it was my homeroom.

Inside of the room I found a fairly large man that was my height telling the few other students in the room about a time when he snuck backstage at a Kiss concert when he was younger, and then proceeded to travel with them for 3 years.

I just ignored the man and fell asleep waiting for class to start. I didn't wake up until a boy with almost shoulder-length black hair with a pink stripe in it woke me up after the bell to leave first period rung. "Thanks, he was just so boring," I said, to which he just nodded in understanding. "My name is Jaune Arc, what's yours?" I asked as we walked out of the room.

"My name is Lie Ren, but I would prefer it if you called me Ren," was all he said as he took a turn to a different part of the wing where I knew I wasn't going. I just walked the rest of the way to my science class by myself. Inside I saw Pyrrha sitting with a white haired girl that looked very pretty. My red-headed friend waved me over with a small smile on her face as she was talking to the girl with the snowy-white hair.

"Hey Jaune, this is Weiss. She moved here from Atlas," she said as I sat down beside them, on Pyrrha's left. I waved at Weiss who gave a polite smile back.

"So you're the boy that Pyrrha told me about. She speaks quite highly of you. Do you play any sports as well." She asked.

"Do video games count?" I asked jokingly, making her frown slightly. As I said this as the teacher, a short woman that looked like she could pass as 17, walked in the room. She had long dirty blonde hair that reached below her shoulder blades.

"Hello class, I'm Ms. Mason and I'll be your science teacher for the next 4 years. How things work here is that all your current teachers will follow you as you move up through the grades. It's supposed to help make you feel more comfortable with us, as we will be a more permanent piece of your school life." After this, she handed out a syllabus explaining what we were going to do for the class, along with a safety contract that said the school would not be responsible for any injuries that may occur during any labs and activities. That ended up taking most of the class, so with 5 minutes left she let us just talk among ourselves since we didn't have time to really learn anything.

I turned to Pyrrha as she was sorting her newly acquired papers. "Hey, are you still coming to hang out tonight? We could go to the movies or something if we get bored enough," I asked hoping that she would. I was planning on asking her to be my girlfriend that night. I had thought about it for a while, and I realized that while I cared about our friendship, I was not afraid to risk it if it meant that I could be with Pyrrha.

She looked at me with an excited look in her eye, "Can we postpone that? Weiss and another girl invited me to hang out with them and their friend." She said, giving me a hopeful, puppy-eyed look.

"Sure, why not? We always hang out anyway," I said as I put a smile on my face, but on the inside I had to swallow down my sadness. Pyrrha would normally always spend the night with me on the first night my parents left for a trip.

I decided to walk home at the end of the day, due to my house not being that far away from the school and the bus normally being too loud in the evenings. I was walking along the sidewalk at an even pace, about to reach a park that was almost halfway between the school and my own house. As I walked past the entrance, I saw a dark-haired girl wearing a red T-shirt and black track pants running along the path. She looked to be about 12 or 13. Our eyes met, and she smiled and waved at me as she went by. I smiled and waved back at her before continuing on.

I made it home a little before dark, and made myself some dinner. I was a bit lonely, but I was used to it… After all, I had spent plenty of nights like this before.

Skip 3 Months

I was in my 7th period History class, taught by Mr. Oobleck, doing nothing but writing in the notebook my mom gave me. I had started to carry it around with me everywhere for the past few months, because I had almost no one else to "talk" to. Pyrrha was almost never around as much as she used to be, and all of the other people the normally talked to me all seemed to stop one day when they realized that I wasn't Pyrrha's best friend anymore. That spot was filled by Weiss, the snowy-haired girl sitting beside Pyrrha on the first day, Blake, a girl with long raven-black hair who always wore a large black ribbon in her hair regardless of her outfit and was always reading a book, and Yang, the blonde captain of the boxing team.

Right now, Yang was sitting beside me and trying to start a conversation, but I was trying to study so I found it rather distracting. "So Jaune, are you going to be at the track meet today? Pyrrha seems really excited about it." She asked offhandedly, making my mind grind to a halt. I had completely forgotten about Pyrrha's track meet, mostly because she hadn't been bringing it up every 30 minutes to me like she used to do. I didn't think I could go, I was currently cramming for tomorrow's History test which I had also forgotten about for the same reason. Pyrrha kept me focused on lots of things in school, and now that she wasn't talking to me nearly as much it really showed.

"I..." I paused, thinking of how close I was to Yang before I told her this,"I don't think that I'll go to this one." Yang looked shocked at my answer, but before she could say anything I continued, "It's just that me and Pyrrha aren't as close as we used to be, and I'm tired of being the only one that's trying." I told the blonde and feeling rather embarrassed. Yang gave me an incredulous look as if I were a pig learning to fly.

Before Yang could drag an answer out of me, I was thankfully saved by the bell. I hurriedly made my way out of class, briefly stopping by my locker to pick up my black hoodie for my usual walk home. I also left my book bag in my locker, making sure to grab what few materials I needed and putting them in a smaller bag that was easier to carry around.

I was now walking down the road on the way home, watching the cars drive by and make a slight breeze that was quite refreshing. I walked past the park like I did every day, and just like every other day the dark-haired girl was there, today she was wearing a red jacket over a black corset. Like always, she seemed to know I was there, turning to look at me and waving her hand wildly above her head. I just smiled at her and returned a small wave before she went out of sight.

I reached home at 4 o'clock and went inside to make myself a sandwich before I started cramming for the History test tomorrow. Right as I picked up the bread, I heard a knock on my door so I went to see who it was, I heard the door being knocked again as I walked through my house and reached the entrance. When I opened the door, I found Pyrrha dressed in her track uniform standing outside with her mom parked in front of my house.

"Hey Jaune, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the meet early with me? Or are you just gonna walk there later?" She asked with a smile on her face.

I sighed and told her the truth. "I don't think I can make it this time Pyrr. I have to study for Oobleck's test tomorrow," I said, wincing inwardly as the smile fell off her face.

"But you always-,"

"Yeah, I know. I always go," I cut her off in mid-sentence.

Pyrrha was giving me a pleading look with a few tears forming in her eyes, and I felt my defenses crumble. "It starts at like 5:30 right?" She nodded at me as her mom honked the horn, "Well I think that I should be able to finish studying and get there in time to watch. You wanna come hang out here when it's over?"

Her tears instantly disappeared and she beamed at me, "I can't wait to see you there, and sure," Pyrrha said, giving me a hug before she ran back to her mom's car.

About forty-five minutes later, I decided that I wasn't going to fail my test so I shrugged on my jacket and left the house. On the way, I passed by the park again, noticing that nobody was there. I didn't feel like being later than I already was so I didn't spend any time looking for the dark-haired girl.

I finally reached the school at 5:40 and headed straight for the field. I didn't really know anyone there besides Blake, Weiss, Yang and Pyrrha's mom, since Pyrrha was the only person from our old school who made the team, and I still wasn't really all that comfortable around the girls either. Weiss had starting to act like I didn't even deserve to be in the same room as her, Yang was naturally loud and confidant in such a way that made me uncomfortable, and while Blake was pretty nice, all I ever saw her do was read.

Not seeing anybody else I recognized, and not wanting to sit with the girls and put up with Weiss' cold comments, I decided to sit by myself at one corner and watched as Pyrrha broke almost every record that was in place in the school, only missing the 100 meter record by 0.2 seconds. The only event that Pyrrha didn't participate in was the shot putt, as she never really considered that a track sport in her mind. Whenever it wasn't her turn to participate, she would turn around and scan through the stands, but her attention was always drawn to her family and friends with Yang cheering her on loudly. I would wave and try to get her attention each time, but it was in vain, she never noticed me.

After the meet ended, I tried to search for Pyrrha to let her know that I was there, but when I finally found her she was already inside her mom's car with the other girls and driving away from the school. I had left my scroll at home, so I had no way of letting her know I was there. In the end, I just decided to walk back to my house and hope that she was at hers.

I was walking back along my normal route, but it was a pretty warm night so I took off my jacket and threw it over my shoulder while holding on to it with one hand. As I passed the park, a strong gust of wind snatched my hoodie away from me and sent it into the park. I was annoyed, but didn't want to waste time going after it since it was old and I would need a new one soon anyway.

When I finally made it back to my house, I went straight to my room to get my scroll, only to see several missed calls from Pyrrha. I called her back and on the fourth ring she answered. "What do you want Jaune?" she asked, sounding rather upset.

"Well, I was calling to let you know that you did really well at the meet today-," I started saying while trying to sound casual, but she cut me off.

"Jaune, just because we haven't been hanging out as much doesn't mean that you have to lie about being at my games." she said disbelievingly. "No one else saw you there and neither did I."

"No, wait, I was there-," I stopped, realizing that Pyrrha had already hung up on me, and sagged on my bed. Pyrrha had never hung up on me before.

Eventually, I just went to sleep, hoping that it would all blow over by tomorrow.