Welcome to Vale High - Ch. 3 (Patreon)

What began as an exciting morning quickly devolved into a typical first day of school.  There were new classes, new teachers, and the not-so-new attempt to teach on the first day.  Why did teachers insist on using every single second of class to teach something?  Didn’t they realize that almost every student was still stuck in vacation mode, which meant that their brains were about as spongy as rocks?  

Apparently, Yang’s teachers had more faith in her brain than she did, because she wasn’t at all ready to learn anything today.  The information literally bounced off of her instead of sinking in.  Sure, she scribbled a few notes when something looked important and collected enough handouts to last an entire year, but she was operating on autopilot by the time lunch rolled around.

Thankfully, some politician or parent or someone decided that kids needed to eat during the day.  Otherwise, Yang was pretty sure her teachers would just keep teaching.  Or, because they were pretty clever, they’d create some sort of lunch/learning hybrid period.  

Since that hadn’t happened (yet), Yang mentally checked out while following a steady stream of students towards the cafeteria.  She felt like an extra in a zombie movie, shuffling along with the rest of the ravenous horde. Once she made it to the lunchroom though - which was alive with laughter and happy energy - she sighed in relief. 

Finally.  For the next blissful thirty minutes, there would be no mention of homework, projects, or final exams.  There would be no class syllabus, required reading, or ‘problem sets.’ Nope. No more of that. Instead, Yang would find some friends and eat crappy cafeteria food while talking about things that actually mattered, like the most recent episode of their favorite TV shows or something.

Grabbing a tray and joining the line to get food, she glanced at the boy standing in front of her and shook her head.

“Thought the first day would be easy, right?” she asked, getting him to nod while sliding his tray along in front of hers.  “Who knew they had so much to teach us!”

“I have homework in all of my classes so far,” he lamented.

“No way - all of them??”

When he nodded, she let out a low whistle.  

“Sorry to hear that...”

“Complaining about schoolwork already?” one of the lunch ladies asked while piling macaroni onto their plates.

“You know it!” Yang answered with a grin.  “We can’t come back to school and have nothing to complain about.”

Chuckling at the (true) statement, the woman motioned Yang along the line to pay at one of the registers. 

“Telling jokes already, Yang?” the woman in charge of the register asked while Yang typed in her student number.

“Pretty sure I never stopped!”

Earning another laugh - and an amused expression from the girl standing behind her - Yang picked up her tray and stepped away from the line.  As soon as she left the hustle and bustle of the food area behind, she spotted a younger boy standing at the periphery of the sea of tables - a tray in his hands while he scanned the partially-filled room in front of him.  

To everyone else, he probably looked like a regular kid standing in the lunchroom.  But from the way he shifted his feet and looked incredibly uncomfortable, Yang felt uncomfortable just watching him.  She understood where that feeling came from though - lunch was both the best and the worst part of the day.  At least, it was when you didn’t know who to sit with.  Eating alone was always an option, but doing that was similar to eating with a spotlight trained right on you.

Except no one ate alone or looked lost at Vale High - not if Yang had anything to say about it.  If she noticed someone eating alone, she had no problem inviting them to sit with her and her friends.  Because nothing was worse than eating lunch alone when it seemed like everyone else had someone to sit with.

Walking over to the boy, Yang caught his attention with a smile and quick, “Hey, how’s it going?”

Although he seemed momentarily surprised that she spoke to him, he quickly looked towards the cafeteria again.  

“Good, I guess.”

“Good is good enough,” she joked.  “I’m Yang, by the way.” Normally she’d shake his hand or something, but they were both holding trays of food at the moment, so she nodded instead.  

“David,” he replied with a timid smile.  And, just like that, he relaxed a bit - mostly because he was focused on Yang instead of how uncomfortable he felt in a room full of strangers.

“Nice to meet you!  So...you looking for someplace to sit?”

“Oh, um, not really?”  When Yang arched a brow at the uncertain answer, he carried on.  “I mean, my friends should be here soon.”

The answer was a relief for Yang to hear, and she relaxed into another smile.

“Ah, they’re late?” she asked, receiving a nod in response.  “The teachers love to make us late, don’t they? But they hate it when we’re not in our seats on time.”

Giving Yang a real smile, he was about to reply when a group of late arrivals hurried into the lunchroom and joined the back of the line.  Included in that group were two boys, both of whom waved in their direction before grabbing trays.

“That must be them,” Yang concluded, noticing how her young friend relaxed knowing that company would soon arrive.  

“Yup.”  With a sideways glance, he spared her a quick smile.  “Thanks for waiting with me.”

And, just like that, Yang felt like a million and a half bucks.

“No problem!” she said with one last nod and smile before leaving her new friend behind.

She wouldn’t have anyone new to sit with today, but that was a good problem to have.  Now she just needed to find that red-headed girl she called her friend. Fortunately, finding Pyrrha amongst a sea of students was as easy as spotting a fire hydrant in the desert.  Her hair was flaming red, after all.

Sauntering over, Yang set her tray on the table with a soft clack announcing her arrival.

“What’s up, Pyrrha?” she asked while sitting across from her friend.

“Not much has changed since this morning,” Pyrrha replied before taking a bite of her macaroni.  “Did you make a new friend?”

When Pyrrha nodded over Yang’s left shoulder, Yang spun around and saw David and his friends claiming a few seats on the other side of the room.  Unsurprisingly, he looked really talkative now that he was together with his buddies. Either way, Yang was happy that he didn’t look lost anymore.

“Yup!” she answered, spinning back to Pyrrha and smiling.  “Although I don’t know if he’d call me his friend…”

“I’m sure he would.  You’re very friendly.”

“‘Friendly’ and ‘friends’ are different things, Pyrrha.”  Picking up her fork, Yang narrowed her eyes when Pyrrha merely shrugged at the differentiation.  “Which one do you consider us to be?”

Catching Yang’s gaze across the table, Pyrrha tried (and failed miserably) not to smile.

“You’re friendly,” she repeated, ducking to the side when Yang threw a plastic spoon at her.  “And I’m lucky to call you my friend,” Pyrrha added with a bright smile.

Even though Yang wanted to pretend she was sullen at the response, she couldn’t - not when Pyrrha used that bewitching smile against her!

“I’m lucky to be your friend too...” Yang grumbled before shaking her head.  “But before we get sap all over the place - how have your classes been?”

“You want to talk about school?” Pyrrha asked with a small laugh.  “Classes were ok, although I received quite a bit of homework already…”

“I know!  It’s so lame…” Yang bemoaned, taking a haphazard bite to eat while scanning the cafeteria, which steadily filled with students as the line emptied out.  Everyone seemed happily-accompanied today, so she ended her incessant scanning and waved to the two girls walking towards them.

“Yang!” Ruby called out, speeding over and grabbing the seat beside her.  Yang wrapped Ruby in a one-armed, sideways hug before turning to their fourth companion, who was setting her tray down and just about to take her seat.

“What’s up, Weiss?  Long time no see!”

“I assume you’re kidding,” Weiss responded dryly while sitting across from Ruby.  “We saw each other a few days ago.”

Shaking her head at the girl’s continued lack of a sense of humor, Yang decided that a few teases were in order.

“Oh, was that you?” she asked, pretending to be genuinely surprised by the knowledge.  “I thought Ruby made a new friend! She does that, ya know. She’s super friendly!”

Unamused, Weiss made a face at Yang before refocusing on Ruby, probably content to ignore Yang’s existence for the rest of lunch.

With long, perfectly-styled white hair and impeccable (i.e., expensive) clothes, Weiss looked the part of the richest girl in the school.  She acted the part, too. While not exactly ‘spoiled,’ she was demanding, hyper-competitive, and expected everything to go her way. And if people didn’t like how she acted...well, she really didn’t care - and she would say that right to your face.

The only person whose opinion seemed to matter to Weiss was Ruby’s, which was weird because Ruby wasn’t rich. She didn’t care how she dressed, she wasn’t at the top of her class, she didn’t study for a living, and she ate like someone who was half-human, half-vacuum cleaner.

They were Vale High’s most unlikely friends.  Polar opposites. Yet they ate lunch together and hung out over summer vacation?  Yang was just waiting for the day Ruby realized that Weiss was kind of a snob, but...that might not happen anytime soon.

Picking up the chocolate chip cookie that came with their pre-planned meal, Weiss reached across the table and dropped it onto Ruby’s tray, bringing Ruby’s total to three.

“Thanks, Weiss!” Ruby remarked, her eyes sparkling with delight while she bit into the cookie before eating anything else. 

When Ruby made a happy sound, Yang realized that she might be waiting a very long time before their strange, improbable friendship failed.  Because, as unlikely as it seemed, Weiss was different with Ruby.  She was kind, thoughtful, and almost...sweet.

As long as she was nice to Ruby, Yang had no complaints.  Well, almost no complaints...

“You know what they say, Ruby,” Yang said, spearing a forkful of macaroni and pointing it towards Ruby’s stack of cookies.  “Dessert before dinner, never been thinner!”

Giggling at the rhyme, Ruby shoved the rest of the cookie into her mouth as one huge bite.  

“I think it might be impossible for Ruby to gain weight,” Pyrrha commented from the other side of the table.  “She runs too much for that.”

“I agree with Pyrrha!” 

Laughing at Ruby’s reply, Yang knew that Pyrrha was probably right - Ruby expended way too much energy to ever have a problem with eating cookies.  In fact, the doctor usually recommended that she eat more, not less.  Something about growing and her bones and metabolism...Yang didn’t remember the exact reason.  She just remembered being super jealous that Ruby got to eat whatever she wanted all the time.

While Ruby set in on her second cookie, Yang stuck a bite of macaroni in her mouth and made a face.

“Glad they’re still committed to feeding us dull food…” she mumbled.  After pushing the macaroni around her plate, she took another bite anyway.

“You can always bring your lunch.”

“Thank you, Pyrrha, but that would require waking up earlier.  And we all know that’s not gonna happen.”

When Ruby giggled at the true statement, Yang smiled and took another bite of her lunch.  

The food wasn’t that bad, but cafeteria food was something she had to complain about.  Like homework or airport security or...something else that everyone complained about.  At least it was enough nourishment to get her through the day, which was good because she had boxing practice right after school.  Boxing on an empty stomach was not fun.

With lunch in full swing, the four of them ate for several moments in relative silence - as much silence as there could be in a cafeteria full of talking students.  It was a nice ambiance, with everyone talking excitedly at once, relieved to be away from teachers for a little bit or excited to see friends after the long break.

“Have you met the new girl?” Weiss asked to break the silence, still picking at her tray of food.  “From Menagerie?”

Normally, Yang discounted or ignored everything Weiss said, but that question got her full attention in a hurry.

“You mean Blake?” she asked, ignoring the knowing smirk she received from Pyrrha.  “You met her too?”

“She’s been in all of my classes so far,” Weiss answered, her annoyed tone suggesting that the scheduling miracle somehow wasn’t an amazing thing.  “I can’t believe they let her transfer her credits over...” she huffed, flipping her hair in indignation.  

For a second, Yang had no idea what Weiss meant.  Eventually, her mind grasped that Weiss was talking about the credits they earned each semester from classes, but she still didn’t understand why it was a big deal.

“Uh...what does that have to do with anything?” she ventured to ask, which earned her a heavy sigh.

“They let her transfer her grades, Yang,” Weiss explained, her tone suggesting that she was speaking to a child.  “And they’re using her grades to give her a ranking in our class - which happens to be the same as mine...”

From Weiss’ attitude, Yang knew that she should be affronted by this travesty.  This was, after all, yet another example of the school acting against their best interests, allowing intruders into their midst and assigning those intruders a number based on test scores!

That was way too difficult to be upset over.  Instead, Yang was just really impressed.

“Wow, she’s that smart?”

Weiss sighed again, but it was hard to tell whether she was annoyed by Yang’s questions or disgruntled by the situation as a whole.  

“She got perfect grades the first three years of school, so yes.  She’s either smart, or Menagerie’s curriculum is worse than I expected.  Considering her opinions on you, I’m inclined to believe the latter.”

The offhand putdown made Yang share a quick, confused glance with Pyrrha.

“What do you mean by her ‘opinions’ of Yang?” Pyrrha asked, saving Yang from having to ask herself.

“She’s strangely fond of you,” Weiss replied, looking at Yang as if trying to figure out why that might be.

“Really??”  

Even though Weiss made it sound vaguely insulting, Yang was ecstatic to hear the news.  Far happier than she should be, but…

Who was she kidding?  She loved it when she made a good impression on people she just met.  And the prettier the strangers were, the better!

“Yes,” Weiss replied with a roll of her eyes.  “People were talking about you - because that’s all they ever seem to do - and someone mentioned that you’re actually a hopeless fool, but she stood up for you.”

While the comment seemed innocent, Yang leveled Weiss with a glare.  

“Were you the one calling me a hopeless fool?”

“We’ll never know who it was,” Weiss retorted with a wave of one hand.  “But she said that the world needed more people like you.  Of course, I wholeheartedly disagreed. One of you is more than enough.”

“Two Yangs would be cool though! Then I’d have two sisters!” 

Ruby’s giddy remark drew Weiss’ attention (and consternation), during which time Yang shot a big grin Pyrrha’s way.  

Did Blake really think that she was nice? If so, that was awesome. Like really awesome.

“She must be pretty cool then,” Yang surmised, unable to lose her grin.  “I mean, anyone who thinks I’m nice is cool in my book.”

“In mine too!” Ruby immediately piped in. 

Raising her hand, Yang gave Ruby a high five.  But while the rest of them were various levels of happy about Vale High’s newest student, Weiss looked like she’d found a slice of lemon hidden in her lunch.

Seriously, she looked more than a little disgruntled by the sudden change in class pecking order.

“Come on, Weiss.  Don’t look so upset.  Who doesn’t like a good competition?” Yang teased, earning a scoff for her efforts.  

“It’s not a competition,” Weiss snapped before pursing her lips.  “It’s just...a very close matchup.”

Chuckling at Weiss’ hardly-concealed competitiveness, Yang scanned the lunch tables in hopes of spotting the girl they were talking about.  But...no luck.

“I wonder where she is...” she muttered mostly to herself, swiveling all the way around in her seat to check the tables behind them.

“I saw her in the library when I left,” Weiss replied before dropping her fork on her tray with a clatter.  “Wait...was she in the library studying? On the first day of school? I can’t let her get ahead of me like that!”

Without another word, Weiss abruptly stood from the table - her chair scraping across the cafeteria floor in her haste - before grabbing her bag and rushing out of the room.  

“Wait - Weiss!” Ruby called after the girl, who merely waved over her shoulder while disappearing into the hallway.  With their table of four suddenly down to three, Ruby leaned back in her seat and pouted. “But I like eating lunch with Weiss...”

“Looks like you’ll be eating in the library then,” Yang joked, lightly elbowing Ruby in the side to get her to smile again.  It worked - Ruby’s eyes lit up with an idea.

“She’ll probably let me sit with her, right??” Ruby asked, gathering her belongings before hearing a response.

“Uh...maybe?”  After sharing an amused glance with Pyrrha, Yang watched Ruby grab her backpack and sling it over her shoulders.  “You’re really going to eat in the library?”

“Yup!”  Picking up her tray, Ruby dutifully pushed in her chair before giving Yang and Pyrrha a big grin.  “See you after school!”

And with that, Ruby faithfully chased Weiss out of the cafeteria.  Her determination to spend a few more minutes together - even though Weiss would be furiously studying - was weird and quirky, but that was Ruby in a nutshell.

Chuckling at another bizarre episode involving the dynamic duo, Yang turned towards her sole remaining lunchmate.  

“What about you, Pyrrha?” she asked, waving her fork towards the hall.  “Have studying to do during lunch?”

“None that I’ve planned, but I’ll be training a few days each week now that track season is starting.”

“Again?” Yang asked in surprise.  “You said that was just a one-year thing!”

“I decided it would be beneficial to continue that routine this year,” Pyrrha replied with one of her A+ smiles.  “We can never practice too much, after all.”

While the news was disappointing, it wasn’t surprising that Pyrrha would put in extra work and be happy about it.  She was an extreme workaholic who somehow never seemed upset by how hard or often she trained. If Yang put that much effort into something...well, she’d better be the best in the entire world, or she’d quit!

Fortunately that mentality didn’t follow her to boxing, because Vale High’s boxing program was fledgling at best.  That’s kind of why they recruited her - to help get things rolling with some marquee wins and drum up more interest in the sport.

Their track and field team, however, was good.  Very, very good. Like state champions for all of history good.  The current team was basically unbeatable, and they hadn’t lost a meet in years.  It helped that Ruby was one of the best sprinters in the world, basically, but a juggernaut wasn’t built without having extremely dedicated athletes, like Pyrrha, who fit in workouts during lunch and still had the energy for a full practice after school.

Compared to the track team, the boxing club was amateur level. Though they were pretty successful in their own right!  It was still a work in progress, but they had a good training regimen to bring new members up to speed quickly. Yang’s years of experience prior to Vale High had helped her jump the learning curve and start mentoring others right away.  But even if they were pretty good, they didn’t have the history of dominance like the track and field team did.  All in good time though!

“How come Ruby never works out during lunch?” she asked while finishing the remainder of her food.

“Ruby is naturally gifted,” Pyrrha replied with an honest smile.  “We aren’t all as fortunate.”

“Oh please.  I’ve seen you throw a javelin over the school with your left hand.  You can’t possibly be saying that you’re not gifted.”  Squinting at Pyrrha like she could read her friend’s mind, Yang gasped when she noticed a soft shade of pink on Pyrrha’s cheeks.

“It’s Jaune, isn’t it?!” she shouted in disbelief.  Pyrrha immediately dove across the table to cover Yang’s mouth, and only let go when Yang stopped yelling muffled phrases like ‘oh my god!’ and ‘why didn’t you tell me?’

“I’m helping him with his form,” Pyrrha explained after releasing Yang, her cheeks flushing darker at the admission.

“Uh huh...his ‘form,’” Yang replied with air quotes and a smirk.  “What kind of form might that be, Pyrrha?”

“He needs help getting off the block quicker.”

Bursting into laughter, Yang waved both hands in front of her.  

“Ok, ok, I don’t need the details!” she teased.  “I just hope you have more luck with him than you did last year. And not just on the track, if you know what I mean.”

When Yang threw in a wink for good measure, Pyrrha’s cheeks grew redder.

“Hey, but you’re the javelin thrower,” Yang continued when another thought occurred to her.  “Wouldn’t it make more sense for one of the sprinters to help him with running form? Someone like, oh I dunno, Ruby?”  

Yang grinned while waiting for Pyrrha’s answer, which accompanied an even deeper shade of red.

“Ruby is obviously busy at lunch,” Pyrrha responded with a nonchalant wave of one hand.  “Plus, I’m capable of participating in any of the track events - they just aren’t my specialty.”

Chuckling at the diplomatic answer, Yang decided to give Pyrrha a break for now.  Her answer was right though - she was all-around talented at most of the events, but javelin was where she shone the brightest.  Combined with her natural abilities and otherworldly patience, she was a great teacher. 

And Pyrrha was probably the only person with a shot of helping Jaune improve.  Unless something had drastically changed since Yang watched him last, he was hardly capable of standing on his own two feet let alone running any type of timed race.  However, even though he wasn’t super talented, he spent the last three years as team manager in hopes of one day improving enough to compete. With Pyrrha’s help, who knew, maybe he’d actually get there.

But seriously, this massive crush had been growing ever since their freshman year, and nothing had come of it.  If something didn’t happen soon, Yang might need to intervene on Pyrrha’s behalf.  With Pyrrha’s permission, of course.

Glancing at the clock above one of the cafeteria’s exits, Yang sighed when she saw that lunch was nearly over.  Catching the look, Pyrrha smiled and asked, “Shall we go?”

Yang wanted to say ‘no.’  She wanted to suggest that they stick around for the second and third lunch periods instead of heading to their afternoon classes, but...she was a good student sometimes.  So instead of hanging out in the lunchroom like she wanted to, she nodded and gathered her things. On their way out of the cafeteria, she dumped her garbage into one of the many bins near the exit and ditched her empty tray on top.

“Why don’t they do half days for the first day of school?” she asked while the two of them made their way towards the classrooms.  When Pyrrha laughed, Yang smiled and shifted her backpack on her shoulder.

“They didn’t take any of your suggestions, did they?” Pyrrha teased while leading the way to their next class - which, thankfully, they had together.  That was about the only positive thing about this class though...

“I also suggested they remove Economics from everyone’s schedule, but they didn’t listen to that one either.”  Pyrrha’s laughter only encouraged Yang to continue her train of thought. “I mean, what is Economics anyway?  I bet it isn’t important at all.”

“I’m pretty sure it is…”

“But home economics is sewing and stuff, right?” Yang replied while they walked up a set of stairs.  “That means…”

Scrunching up her nose, Yang tried to figure out the correlation between the two classes.  Unfortunately, she hadn’t taken either so had no idea what she was getting into.

“Don’t hurt your brain before class starts,” Pyrrha recommended as they walked into the classroom with a few minutes to spare.

Their portly teacher was already standing at the front of the room, nodding to every student who walked in before waving them towards the seats.  Taking that as their cue to sit whatever they wanted, Yang and Pyrrha picked a pair of seats that were side-by-side (and in the back left corner - where else).

“If I fall asleep, you’ll wake me up, right?” Yang whispered while pulling out a pen and notebook.

“I can try…”

“That’s all I ask.”  When the bell rang and the teacher immediately moved to the middle of the room, Yang sighed and prepared for the inevitable - a long-winded spiel about a topic which would definitely not be interesting.

“Welcome, students!” the man said in a big, bellowing voice.  “I hope you have your thinking caps ready, because we have a lot to learn today!”

After sharing a glance with Pyrrha, Yang sighed again and opened her notebook.  Meanwhile, their teacher launched into his first and hopefully only rant about how amazing this class would be.  While he enlightened them on the wonders of economics, Yang wrote her name at the top of a blank page before drawing a slow spiral that grew bigger and bigger with each passing second.

It was the first day!  Would it really be so bad if they had an easy first day of school?  Maybe just some introductions and icebreaker games or something?

Resigned to her fate, she drew a variety of little shapes while tuning in every few minutes to see if she was missing anything vital.  She wasn’t. And the class was just as boring as she imagined it would be. It didn’t help that it was right after lunch, so her stomach was full and she was ready for a nap.  

All she had to do was survive a few more classes...just a few more classes and school would be over.  Then she could have some fun at practice. Then she could go home and be a sloth for as long as possible until she had to wake up and do this all over again.

When the teacher started drawing graphs on the board, Yang copied the various lines and curves in the midst of her growing page of shapes.  Then he started drawing arrows...and more graphs that were only a little bit different from the first ones...all while his voice never stopped bellowing at them from the front of the class.

It was all very riveting.

What felt like a lifetime later, the bell mercifully rang and freed them from the chains of supply and demand.  Flipping her notebook shut, Yang shoved it into her bag along with the handouts she somehow collected.

“At least nothing’s due tomorrow,” she told Pyrrha while they walked into the hall together.

“Silver lining.”  With a smile, Pyrrha gestured in the opposite direction that Yang needed to go.  “I’ll see you after school?”

“Of course!”

“Good.  Try to learn something today,” Pyrrha called over her shoulder while walking away.

“Unlikely!” Yang replied before chuckling to herself.  And at that moment, she caught a glimpse of Blake walking across the intersecting hallway nearby.  

It was nothing more than a flash, but it made Yang’s heart cartwheel in her chest.

Unfortunately, Pyrrha also noticed the chance passing.  Turning around, she raised her brow at Yang - clearly saying something along the lines of ‘uh huh, I saw that too.’  When Yang raised her hands in a ‘what did I do?’ type of way, Pyrrha laughed and continued towards her class. It took Yang another few seconds to shake off the unexpected encounter, but she finally spurred her feet into motion and hurried in the opposite direction.  

She wished Pyrrha didn’t know her so well!  That was a lie...but Pyrrha’s ability to read her mind was embarrassing at times like this.

Surprisingly, Yang’s energy was now fully restored, and her mind was no longer a pile of economics-induced mush.  Her thoughts were actually running quite fast at the moment, although most of them were focused upon a certain new student she hadn’t expected to meet this morning.

After arriving early for her next class - hopefully a somewhat-interesting world literature course - she repeated the routine she’d followed in every class so far.  Backpack open, notebook out, writing utensil out, quasi-listen to the teacher while also thinking about other things. Like how she had History of Vale after this, which was probably going to be the most bone-dry class ever.  Or how boxing practice would be the perfect end to this day.

But besides all those little thoughts, one important question stuck in the forefront of her mind.

How did princes flirt?  

She imagined they’d be super chivalrous - opening doors and helping ladies jump down from horses and stuff - but did they have any good lines that they used?  ‘Mighty fine corset you’re wearing - I also find it hard to breathe around you’? Or ‘This crown is a little too small - perhaps it will fit you?’

Replaying their interaction from this morning, Yang could still remember how pleased Blake was when she so readily played along with the joke.

Which Yang completely understood.  If she got a stranger to go along with something like that, she’d be pretty amused too.  Of course, she was nowhere near clever enough to trick someone into something like that...and maybe that’s why she found it difficult to steer her mind away from Blake.

If Blake had been trying to get Yang’s attention...well, she definitely succeeded.  Now Yang couldn’t wait until the moment they saw each other again, even if it was only a glimpse in the hall.