LTSV - Side Stories - 1 - Cecily's First Day at Breckenridge 3/4 (Patreon)

The room was nice, at least, with two narrow beds lining the walls and a large window opposite the door. There were two desks sitting side-by-side in front of the window for natural light, each with a magic lamp for when the sun set. There was room at the foot of each bed for one regulation-sized trunk and two locking wardrobes on either side of the door. Viola’s trunk had already been delivered and there was an older maid in unfamiliar livery already making up her bed. 

“Prudence!” Viola chirped upon seeing the maid. “Meet my roommate, Cecily Rousseau. When you have a moment, could you have the porters fetch her trunk up and then make up her bed? There’s been a mix up about rooms and I’m afraid they won’t put her things in the right place.”

“Of course, Miss,” Prudence said with a somber curtsey. “Shall I unpack her things as well?”

“Yes!” Viola said at the same time Cecily started to say, “That’s not necessary.”

“As you wish, Miss,” Prudence answered Viola and went to go find Cecily’s trunk. 

Just yesterday, Cecily had been looking forward to the inevitable peace and quiet of being an unknown entity in a new place. Had that been an unrealistic expectation?

Viola checked her pocketwatch again and sighed. “The day is going by so fast! We should start heading towards Breckenridge Hall again. They’re supposed to start announcing homeroom assignments soon.”

“Already?” Cecily asked, but the sun was getting lower now. They’d lost some time with all that confusion about the keys and Cecily’s room assignment. 

They made it back to Breckenridge Hall in time to see the Student Council setting up a bunch of free-standing announcement boards like the one in the front hall of the dormitory building. Cecily was disappointed to find that she and Viola wouldn’t be in the same class. She was in class 1-A and Viola was in 1-B.

“It’s my mana scores,” Viola explained sadly. “I didn’t get the Coventry mana reservoir or muscles. I made up for it a little bit with my academics, but Mama says that a lot of the homeroom activities are decided by the average mana level in the class so I could only fly so high. I’d be at risk of mana overexertion for some of the things class 1-A gets up to. You’ll have to tell me all about it in the evenings. I heard all the boys in 1-A are gorgeous.” She sighed wistfully, cupping her cheeks as her imagination turned inwards. 

“How do you know the boys are attractive if we just got the assignments?” Cecily asked.

“Pfft, it’s because the same families are always in the same classes, except for me this year,” Viola said, laughing. “I’ve known them all since I was a little girl, since we’d all get tossed in with the same nanny whenever our parents had to socialize. You’ll be in with Randall Zorander, Alan Greenwood, William Noir, and Bryn Havard. If Bryn is around then that means you’ll also get to see a lot of Prince Andrei. The Fourth Prince is the dreamiest of them all. Ah!” She started to lose focus again.

“Somebody’s got a crush,” Cecily chuckled, nudging Viola with her elbow.

“No!” Viola gasped, turning pink. “Well, maybe just a little one. Who wouldn’t? Still, it can’t go anywhere. He’s been engaged to my older sister, Violet, since they were in diapers. I hadn’t even been born yet. It’s a shame. He’s so unhappy about being with her, but the Prince Regent won’t hear a word of releasing him from the arrangement.”

Cecily could tell from the slight twist in her lips that Viola was a little more upset about the engagement than she was willing to let on. It had to be hard to see the object of your affection be tied to someone else, especially your own sister, and Cecily didn’t know if she’d handle that thorny problem any better. Viola at least seemed to be trying to find some generosity in her situation, which was about all anyone could ask of her.

Though, Cecily did find it a little odd that the Fourth Prince was in an arranged marriage in the first place. 

It was true that the Queens of Avenon rarely let their children marry however they liked. That freedom just wasn’t possible if they wanted to maintain the bloodline without dangerous interbreeding, but royal children rarely had marriages bestowed on them before adulthood and Cecily couldn’t think of many credible stories where they didn’t get to have at least some say in who their partner was. That said, Prince Andrei wasn’t a member of the royal bloodline so there was even less reason for him to have a royally mandated union. 

Well, it wasn’t her business. 

She turned her attention back to the homeroom assignment sheets and confirmed that, yes, she was going to be in a class with Randall and all the other boys that Viola had mentioned. There were some other stately names in her class, too; Morrowood, Lancaster, Belleforest, and—ah, no other Rousseaus. Fergie wasn’t in her class. She skimmed the roster until she found him in class 1-B. She was sure that he’d been in 1-A last year. He must have been busted down a level, due to his academic performance.

A chill raced down her spine. She was grateful to be spared having to share a classroom with her stepbrother, Fergie wasn’t going to be happy about being in a lower class level than her. It’d be best to avoid him for a little while.

The grand belltower tolled overhead five times and Viola clapped her hands. “Finally, they’re going to feed us!”

Oh, thank goodness. Half a sandwich was not the lunch she’d planned and Breckenridge Academy had a good reputation for the quality of the students’ meals. She was really looking forward to not eating her own cooking for a little while!

She and Viola made it in with the first wave of students. There were some Upperclassmen on hand to explain how the buffet worked, which was like any other canteen that Cecily had ever visited; you lined up with a tray and took a bit of whatever you wanted except you didn’t need to weigh your tray at the end. There was even a set of chalkboards dangling from the ceiling overhead to display what food was being served at which station. Cecily’s classmates, however, had probably never eaten outside their own dining room or a restaurant where the food was brought to you.

There was a similar restaurant in another part of the building, but it wouldn’t be open until classes began and you had to pay extra for that. Cecily was content with the dining hall fare, especially when they were serving delights such as venison slices with caramelized onion gravy, spring vegetable melange, and lemon blueberry sponge with custard.  

“How quaint,” Viola murmured as one of the dining hall cooks spooned a bit of mash onto her plate and then topped it with a ladle of beef strips and mushrooms in a cream sauce flecked with herbs and pepper. It looked delicious, but Viola grimaced at the ‘plop’ the sauce made as it hit the plate. “Mama purchased meal tickets for me at the salon and now I can see why.”

Cecily waited for the veal and was happy to see that they hadn’t run out. Her meal was served with steaming crusty bread and big pats of cultured butter molded into the school seal. She also got the spring vegetables and a slice of the lemon-blueberry sponge. The custard that came with the sponge was still warm and redolent of vanilla and nutmeg. When they went to sit down, she found there were huge dispensers of water, fruit tea, and lemonade at every table within reach of every diner. There was no way she was going to go hungry here!

The only sad part was that she couldn’t see Randall in the crowd. Next time they made plans to eat together, they’d have to arrange which table to meet at in advance!

They had a happy meal where Cecily set her entire mind onto eating until she slipped up and reached too far for the basket of napkins and her sleeve slide back to reveal the marks leftover from the day before yesterday. Viola’s eyes flew wide as she saw the unmistakable imprints of a man’s fingertips circling Cecily’s wrist. Cecily jerked her hand back and forced her sleeve down. Fortunately, Viola seemed to have been the only one to see and she didn’t say anything.

Still, she felt frozen for the rest of the meal, even through the headmaster’s welcome speech. It wasn’t until Viola grabbed her sleeve and dragged her attention outwards again that Cecily realized that the upperclassmen’s student representative had taken the podium.

He was tall with an athletic build. She couldn’t tell the color of his eyes at this distance, but he wore his brilliant blonde hair brushed back away from his face. He wore the boy’s uniform, which was a single breasted suit trimmed in gold with the school crest emblazoned on one side and a striped tie. He had an additional red half-cape that fastened diagonally across his chest, which marked him as a Prefect, specifically the one in charge of the First-Year Boys.

“Welcome, first years,” he greeted the room and when he smiled, Cecily could see why Viola would float off into the atmosphere at the mere thought of him. He was handsome enough, but his presence was something else entirely. “You’ve now begun your journey at the finest magical academy in the realm. Breckenridge Academy is a place where you’ll discover the true breadth of your abilities, and, if you’re particularly lucky, it’s a place where you won’t discover just how loudly a spell can backfire. If that does happen, don’t worry. Adversity builds character and we all build character here at Breckenridge, especially during exams.”

He cast his brilliant smile across the crowd and raised his hands. “You’ll be tested here; by your studies, your rivals, and occasionally by the library. If no one has already told you, the stacks rearrange themselves without warning. However, you should remember that you’ve all made it this far and so there’s something special in all of you. Work hard, choose your friends wisely, and if you find yourself in trouble—well, make sure the trouble is interesting. Nobody learned anything from being in calm waters all their lives. Next, I welcome the Prefect for Girls”

There was something about his tone when he closed his speech and Cecily realized what it was as soon as the next speaker stood up to approach the podium. It was Senior Coventry.

Prince Andrei stepped sharply away from her as she took the podium. He returned to his seat at the boys’ head table with a speed that wasn’t becoming for a man who was walking away from his own fiancee. For a second, his casual gaze swept past her and she could have sworn that he paused for a second where time felt like it had stopped before he moved on.