En Garde! A RWBY White Rose Fanfiction

Chapter 30: Check Mate

"Oh, I can't believe my little sis is gonna lead the school fencing team in their first match!" Yang beamed, ruffling her sister's hair.

"Quit it, Yang," Ruby giggled, trying to fix her matted head of brunette hair.

"Tell you what," the giddy blonde continued. "Your team wins the first match, and I'll finally let you dye your hair red. But only the tips!"

Ruby squealed in joy and shot out of her room, taking her entire fencing duffel bag with her. "You're taking me to Weiss' house right now!" she shouted excitedly.

"Fine, fine," Yang chuckled.

•••

Ruby rang the doorbell about five times before a very annoyed butler finally answered.

"Miss Schnee, your... friend is here," the butler called.

A disheveled Weiss arrived promptly. "Ruby, I barely had time to change out of my pajamas! What's this about red hair?"

"I'll explain on the way!" Ruby replied, dragging the heiress and the duffel bag to the backyard.

"So basically, Yang is letting you dye your hair if you win your first match?" Weiss asked as she put her hair up in her signature ponytail.

Ruby nodded vigorously. "I've been wanting to for years."

"This is just like you," Weiss chuckled, shaking her head. "Your first match is in two weeks. But, I'm assuming you want another lesson? I don't have anything planned, at the moment...

"Tell you what." The heiress crossed her arms. "Let's play a game."

"Ooh! I love games," Ruby bubbled. "What're we playing?"

In response, Weiss motioned for her to come back inside. They walked through the pearly white halls for a few minutes before coming out to an elegant game room.

Three clean, shiny pool tables were lined up in the center of the room, and several pool stick racks lined the walls. Fancy-looking decks of cards sat neatly in their boxes on some of the tables on the other side of the room. There were also chessboards made of glass and expensive-looking checkerboards.

Weiss sat down at one of the chess tables. "Normally, I'd be a bit worried having you playing with glass pieces, but this will be a valuable experience. I assume you aren't too familiar with chess?"

Ruby shook her head. "I play a mean game of Yahtzee, though," she teased as she sat across from her friend. "All I know is that each of these pieces represent something different."

"Correct." Weiss delicately tapped one of the pieces on her side. "Do you know which one this is?"

"That's the tower-looking one," Ruby replied. Then, she started giggling. "I played with Nora once at a sleepover. She wouldn't stop yelling about being 'queen of the castle'."

Weiss simply looked annoyed. "It's not a tower, nor a castle. It's called a rook."

"Rook?" Ruby cocked her head.

"Although a rook is theoretically a castle," Weiss explained, "it is considered quite informal to use in a game of chess. The game is primarily played by nobles and other sophisticated groups of high social status."

"Jeez. You know I'm not fancy," Ruby said.

Weiss smirked. "That's why I bothered to teach you in the first place. How about this one?"

"That's easy!" Ruby exclaimed. "It's the horsie!"

"Oh, my," Weiss sighed exasperatedly. "This is going to be a while."