Gifted and Talented

Chapter 4, The Others

Cara followed the man up several flights of stairs to the top of a tower. He opened a door to a living room, with several couches, a fireplace, and bookshelves. All the light in the room came from the fireplace and from the huge windows on either side of the circular room.

"This is your common room. Girls dormitories are to the left, boys are to the right." the man explained and left the room, probably to fetch another student.

There were already six people in the room with Cara, including Zach, Piper, Francesca, Brian, and two people Cara had never seen before. 

"How'd they sort you?" Piper asked.

"What do you mean?" Cara responded.

"Apparently, I have air powers. If I jumped out one of those windows right now, I'd float slowly to the ground." Explained Piper.

"Oh yeah, they told me I have fire powers."

"Show us! Show us!" They all chanted.

Cara walked over to the fireplace, and touched her hand to the coals, and kept it on for 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... seconds, she counted in her head. After that the heat became overwhelming, and she removed her hand.

"Well, let's see the damage." Said Piper.

Just like the past times, Cara's hand was fine.

"Cool!" The all exclaimed.

Cara sat down on the couch across from Brian and Zach and asked, "What can you guys do?" 

"I can withstand very cold temperatures." Brian said.

"What about you Zach?"

Zach didn't respond, and pretended to be engrossed in a magazine he had found on the coffee table.

Piper spoke up, "He wasn't sorted. He filled out everything in the test except for the role playing section his test didn't have one. He didn't even talk to the woman in the room, they took him straight here. He was also the first one to finish, so he was alone for about a half an hour before Julia came up," Piper gestured to a girl with frizzy blonde hair sitting in an over stuffed chair and reading a huge book.

Francesca put a hand on Zach's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll find out eventually."

The door opened and a boy who looked just like Julia stepped into the room. She dropped her book and ran over and hugged him. 

"James!" She squealed, "I knew you'd make it! How were you sorted?"

"Dark." James responded. 

"That's awesome! I'm in light!" Said Julia. 

Cara later learned from Francesca that James and Julia were twins with Elemancer parents. When Cara asked what an Elemancer was, Francesca rolled her eyes and handed her an old looking book titled, "Elemancers, A History." 

"I'm surprised you haven't read it already, there's a copy in your room," Francesca explained.

After a bit of reading Cara learned that she and the eleven others who had been accepted into Reed that day were Elemancers, humans with a limited capability to manipulate forces of nature. They were decedents of Elementals, beings of power and magic controlling and made up of the elements, fire, water, ice, earth, or others. They had disappeared thousands of years ago, but had bred with normal humans, creating Elemancers.

"We lived as equals with normal humans for thousands of years until they started to regard us as freaks, and used us as slaves in magic acts and carnivals," Julia explained over dinner, "After that we went into hiding, which is why the details on this school and test were very vague, we would not benefit if people in the outside world began learning of our existence."

After the hearty 4 course dinner, everyone was shown their rooms. The girls dormitory consisted of six rooms with five beds in each. Julia, Francesca, Piper, Cara and one other girl were each directed to a bed in the first room. Their luggage had been brought up and placed at the foot of their beds, along with several textbooks, a schedule, and a uniform with a black and blue tie which were the school colors. 

The titles of the books were:

"Elemancers, A History, By Alexander Zelenka." (That was the one Francesca had showed her.)

"Spells, Grade 1, By Fredenand Höfler."

"Fire Elemancers, a Surviaval Guide, By Julianne Trammell."

"Basic Runes, By Jae Maurer."

"10th Grade Math Textbook, By Mabel Ramirez."

The classes she was to be taking were Math, Harnessing Fire, Basic Elemacer Training, Orchestra, and gym.

The other girls plopped down on Cara's bed, schedules in hand. They had the same classes as Cara, all except for Harnessing Fire.

After putting on her black and blue complimentary school issued pajamas Cara crawled into bed, excitedly awaiting student orientation the next day.