Elliot Winsor stood in the middle of the entranceway, feeling every eye in the room on him. He had a feeling that people might be a little strange around him, everyone knows that his family isn't anything special anymore, they're just disgustingly wealthy. But he didn't expect this, he didn't expect animosity. His father's hand sat heavy on his shoulder, forcing him deeper into the belly of the beast.
He knew that he was the one who asked for this, he was the one who pushed to be here and not go to the prissy rich kid boarding school so he could inherit his father's business. he wanted to show he could be more than the CEO of some bank, show that he could be his own person and not need nepotism to get places, but right now he knows what everyone in the room thinks. He doesn't blame them for thinking it, he wonders himself if he only got into the Rocky Mountain Institute for the magical arts (RMIMA) because of his last name. If his father gave the school a large donation to humor him for a year so Elliot could have his fun and then go back to the world where he belonged.
He knows that for the first time in a long time he has a talent that's worth a damn, a talent that can change things, really change things. He also knows that to every other student here, he's just another Winsor, and all they can do is change the color of something. He came here to show that he's more than just the guy who prints all of the money, but if people keep looking at him like this, that might be what he becomes.
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Fredrick stands there, one hand on the tattered suitcase that holds their whole life, the other on the second-hand book bag given to them by the school cause they couldn't afford to buy one, and both eyes staring a hole into the back of that douche bag's, Elliott Winsor, head.
Freddy is a scholarship kid, they had to fight tooth and nail to reach a spot at the RMIMA and this asshole has the nerve to just waltz in here. His family is the reason Freddy's family was poor, they're the reason Freddy's family couch surfed for 8 years, and he has the nerve to parade around here, with his designer luggage, and daddy Winsor showing him off.
Everyone knows that for the past 150 years the Winsor family was little better than anyone else. But they were the ones that made all of the money, and they had been making the money for as long as any one can remember. The family was so deeply rooted in the government that if the Winsors' were to be removed, there would be almost nothing left over. Fredrick's talent was labeled dirty, one for crooks and cons, yet Elliot, someone little better than the average office worker, levitating papers across the room, gets to stand here with everyone else who completed the grueling additions process as if he belongs. Fredrick's eyes follow Elliott until he's up the stairs and out of sight before they resume the regular check-in process at RMIMA.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pheobe stands in the doorway, confused as to why the whole student body is stopped. She had dropped off her older brother for three years, and this has never happened. Normally there's a crushing wave forcing you into check-in. Everyone is excited to find out who's dorming with them, and who their teachers are going to be. The full stop of traffic is weird enough, but the crowd in front of her is silent. Normally the entranceway is booming with the noise of the incoming students hurrying through check-in trying to find their friends. This is jarring.
Soon the regular check-in commotion starts again but some things off, people are talking in hushed voices, the sharp hiss of whispers hitting her from all sides. Pheobe continues the slow descent into the entry hall and only understands what the oddity was about when she sees Richard Winsor walk past her, his towering frame sticking out the top of the crowd, and now everything makes sense.
Yet her reaction is vastly different from that of the majority of the student body, her family is well off and has connections. At a winter solstice party 5 years ago, she members seeing Elliott after crawling into a back room. Elliott hunched over a tray of cupcakes, she blinked and they were ice, then they were wood, then they were silver. A sharp call from his dad had him running out before he could turn them back to cupcakes. when she approached the cupcakes she knew that they were solid silver, they were no longer a carbon-based pastry, it was a cupcake, fully formed, but made entirely of silver. spongy silver cake and pipped silver frosting. She knew, like everyone else, that the Winsor's were nothing special. But this was special, he changed not only the color of the cupcake but what it was entirely. She knew what people thought of him, and she knew what people thought of her as " that weird metal freak". this was not going to be an easy year, and she knew it.
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Benjamin Bell came to Colorado, and RMINA more specifically to escape his podunk ass town. He hoped to leave the cruel nicknames behind. Being from the odd family and having a "gross" talent made him no friends, he hoped to change that here, coming to Colorado and being in a different environment. Unfortunately, that reality was quickly abandoned when he got to his room, the only open bed was right in between Elliott Winsor and some kid named Fredrick Barker. The room was so devoid of air that he didn't even notice the 2 other boys in the room, both picking beds in small out coves behind bookshelves, leaving everyone to fill in the middle.
Any attempt at conversation was either met with silence, one-word answers, or insults flung between Fredrick and Elliot. When Ben tried to show off his talent, being able to command the bugs in the area and harness their senses, someone thought up "Bug eyes" almost immediately. So bug eyes it was. No one cared to learn his name after that cause why would they? Ben became the wall between Freddy and Elliot for the rest of that week, after the two of them refused to talk to one another they both used "Bug Eyes" as their messenger fowl. Although he did make new friends at the school, he was stuck in the middle of the two feuding teenagers, and any hope that things would change quickly melted away.
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Jack Cooper showed up at the RMIMA with the hope to break the monotony of the everyday world. she wanted something more, something new. Everyone thought of her skill as little more than a party trick, they wanted to prove that they could be more.
Having a name for a pun crushes the hopes for a break from the norm. When people figure out your talent is called "jack of all trades" and your name is Jack Cooper you get the same responses. It's easy to plaster on a fake smile, give a small chuckle, then do some small trick they suggest, it's easy to fall into the same rut you've lived in all your life. Being good at everything, getting a "B" on life and no matter how hard you try you can't seem to be great at anything.
After almost committing suicide, but failing, cause your plan was "good just not good enough" it's hard to pick yourself back up again. Going to one of the most prestigious schools for magic is an attempt to find a new grove, and for once it seems like she might find something new. When she showed up in her room she found one other kid, they waited for another hour or so and no one showed up. Just the two of them, maybe a mistake, but not one they'd correct. Her roommate is quiet and observant, asking questions that aren't "Wait so you can do ___!?!". Jack shook her hand, exchanged names with the girl, Phoebe Nickels or something, and they both spent the rest of the time unpacking in silence, both wearing headphones, both in their own world. when it came time for them to go down for the freshman welcome assembly they walked together in comfortable silence. They half listened to the presenter and made their way down to the dining hall for the welcome dinner. They sat at a two-seater high table and made easy and non-intrusive conversation, then walked back to the dorms and went to bed, it would seem that for the first time in a long time jack was more than just some cool trinket that one looks at for five minutes before moving on to something more flashy. She was her own cool thing, and that was good enough for Jack to look forward to the upcoming semester.
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As the 5 teenagers settle into their new school, poking their fingers through the well-worn bed sheets on their four poster beds, a new prophecy would emerge, something that hadn't happened for 80 years, and considered an altogether discounted form of magic. It would warn of a deep betrayal, century-old secrets unearthed, and a world-shattering change coming towards them. But for now, they must settle in for their freshman year of high school.
YOU ARE READING
What Lies Behind the Door
FantasyIn a world where magic has been flourishing for centuries, we follow 5 teenagers on their path threw schooling. They need to navigate the pressures the worlds placed on them and their own prejudices to keep them all safe.
