Tunnel Vision

Chapter 1- Portals

"Okay, class, it's the moment you've all been waiting for," Mr. Peters said loudly to the huge group of teenagers standing in front of him. "Welcome to the Room of the Realms!" He looked as if he was trying to contain childish excitement as he gave the chatting group a giddy smile.
Rowan took in every bit of the room in awe, from the tall, ornate quartz pillars to the spotless sheet of glass that separated her from the wonder of all universes, The Platform In-between. She pulled her headphones off and placed her phone in the pocket of her neon yellow sweatshirt. To think that all of the connections to all of the different dimensions meet here, only 20 yards away.
"It's true. This place that you are witnessing before you is where all worlds meet," Mr. Peters continued as if reading Rowan's mind. "The actual location of all of the portals is The Platform In-Between. It gained this name because that is the only place where anyone is not in any world. Because it is in between universes."
"This is so cool, isn't it?" Rowan heard a quiet voice whisper. She turned to see Emilee next to her, her green eyes smiling.
"Observe the different portals," Mr. Peters continued, still beaming. "Portals have a magnetism of sorts so that when you stand near, you get pulled closer and closer until you are in. This pull, if you will, is difficult to escape which is why we are in the Room of the Realms which only allows you to view the portals rather than go through them. Also, look at the color, the liveliness of the portals. They say that the image you see reflects what that universe holds." Rowan turned to see several portals lining the Platform. They seemed to be taunting her with their swirling colors, just out of reach. And, oh, the beauty in their differences. One with blue and red swirls, another with gold and glitter, and yet another with dancing green waves. She looked to the center of the floor of the Platform to see one portal that particularly caught her attention. An odd portal in an odd place. It did not move and wink like the rest. It seemed almost as if it were just a mass of grey mist, a worthless patch of fog that would disappear as soon as the sun arose.
"I'd hate to get sucked into that one," she said, elbowing Emilee and motioning to it.
"Which one?" Emilee asked, straining to see what Rowan was talking about.
"That grey one, of course. That universe has to be pitifully dreadful."
"I don't see any grey por-" Emilee began to say as the loud whisper of Leslie overpowered Emilee's quiet voice.
"I know what's really pitifully dreadful. Emilee Iris." Leslie's voice dripped with sarcasm, her evil grin revealing fangs. Rowan's hot temper was immediately sparked.
"Don't you dare talk to my sister like that!"
"Rowan! Mr. Peters will hear," Emilee said, moving her hands in a flustered manner.
"Yeah, he'd better hear about this because I'm sick of this-" she turned to Leslie again, "girl talking trash about you all the time."
"Chill out, Rowan," Leslie said. "Emilee and I are friends. Right?" She turned to Emilee, everything about her sudden kindness fake and filled with mockery. Emilee smiled back.
Is she blind!?
Leslie continued, "She needs some influence from the cool people, not those of us who only care about grades."
The fuse was burning out fast. Rowan tried to take a deep breath, but failed due to not wanting to poison herself from intake of too much of Leslie's perfume. "I care about and enjoy getting good grades, yes, but that is not all I care about."
"Well you clearly don't care about your appearance. I mean, you look like a highlighter in that sweatshirt."
The fuse had burned out. "Oh yeah? Well I do care about my attitude because I don't go around like some people acting like a total- ouch!" Her last word was thrown off by the elbow she had just received in the ribs by Emilee.
"Calm down!" Emilee said.
Tell that to your fake friend.
Leslie smiled as she watched Rowan continue to rub the blow. "Come on, Emilee," she said. "Let her suffer alone." It took all of Rowan's self control not to spit on Leslie and try to knock some sense into her sister.
About ten minutes passed and Rowan continued to listen to Mr. Peters' lecture. It was then that the uneasy feeling hit her. She turned at the same time she heard a door slam to see Emilee out on the Platform In-Between. It looked as though she was drifting towards a portal. Emilee turned to try to get out of the grip of the gravitation, an invisible fist that kept dragging her ever closer, but it was too late. She was being sucked into another world. It took Rowan only a millisecond to observe this before charging towards the entrance, past a grinning Leslie, to the Platform, yelling, "Emilee!"
Rowan bolted out onto the Platform, ignoring the screams from classmates as well as Mr. Peters.
"Rowan!" Emilee cried loudly, "Help!"
"That's what I'm here to do! You're lucky our twin telepathy kicked in so I could get out of here!" Rowan responded. Rowan quickly thrust her hand out to Emilee who grabbed it gratefully in the same desperate manner. Rowan pulled on Emilee until she felt she might rip her sister's wrist off. She clenched her teeth and pulled until both their faces were twisted in agony. Finally, the gravitation of the portal gave in and released Emilee who went tumbling through the air. She felt her wrist fly out of Rowan's strong grip, and a thud sounded as she landed a few feet away from the door. Rowan was forced into a backwards tumble across the floor and to the center of the room. She felt her body stop and opened her eyes to see her sister sitting by the door. This moment of slight relief was short though, because before she knew it, Rowan was falling in total blackness.