Infinite

Beautifully

∾ 𝄞 ∾
I know you think there's
So much you don't know
But I've seen all you can be
All you need to do is grow
Capture the light inside you
There's a life inside you
There's a life inside that's
Beautifully yours
∾ 𝄞 ∾

The next morning, Julie woke up at nine, or so it said on her alarm clock. She had fallen asleep at midnight, after her mother said she'd give her some privacy. Both of her roommates had fallen asleep an hour before so they'd be ready for orientation. Julie couldn't because she knew someone was watching her, and her mother left after realizing that. Now, with a full day of activities ahead, she would not have a half hour to herself, much less enough time to help her mother.

"I'm proud of you, Julie." She couldn't believe what she just heard. It was her mother, but she hadn't realized her mom was already in the room. "I just wanted you to know that. Now, you should go get breakfast and get ready for the activities." Her mother winked, then let her be to change and get food.

This year was about to be weird.

Julie, looking at her phone, realized that her birthday was only a handful of days away. Maybe her mom would be able to say happy birthday one last time. That would certainly be a perk of having her ghost down from heaven.

"So, Julie, do we want to come up with a list of rules before the semester starts? Kim and I were just thinking that we might want to set quiet hours and compare schedules before classes begin." Julie had to agree with both of them. Setting ground rules was important, especially if she didn't want to see her roommates with guys (or, you know, with guys, or girls for that matter).

"Yeah. What were you guys thinking?" She asked, launching Jessica into her list of rules. There were only a few, such as their own set lights-out and quiet hours. They also agreed that, if they want to take a romantic partner into the room, to clear it with the other two girls first. Cleaning their room would happen each Saturday morning, just to ensure their bedroom and bathroom never got too messy.

"And, of course, there's the obvious one, lock the door behind you if you're leaving unless there's someone else in the room." They all had their own key—Julie secretly wondered how hard it would be to replicate that key in case she lost it—and needed to keep their valuables safe.

"I think that's good as is. Oh, and if any of us have to practice, to give each other a head's up." Jessica and Kim had to agree with that. They didn't want to be disturbed while attempting to perfect a song, or write one from scratch.

"Definitely. I'm going to create our GroupMe now just so we can keep in contact with each other. What's your phone number?" Jessica asked both of them. Kim gave hers first, allowing Jessica to type it in, and Julie was second. "Perfect. I'll put the rules in the group chat subject section. What do we want the picture to be?" Julie took a bite of her breakfast, almost completely forgetting that she was supposed to be eating. She always ate a pretty large breakfast, and she knew it would be a while and a half until they got lunch.

"I think we can figure that out later. We might get a good picture of the three of us during orientation." Kim suggested. "Also, we don't know each other very well."

"True. But, I think they're about to call us for orientation. We can use the GroupMe whenever we have a few free minutes." Julie could do that easily. But, Jessica was right, they were gathering all the TABTs and student leaders for the official start of orientation week. That would have to come later.

"Welcome to Berklee College of Music! We have an amazing orientation week planned for all of you, so prepare yourself for seven days of chaos and excitement. I am Wyatt, the head of TABT—the student leadership group on campus. Alongside me are the other seven members of the TABT Leaders, along with several other of our student life leaders." Although they couldn't see a single sign they were using microphones, all the freshmen were sure that they were using them, since their voices seemed far too clear. "In your emails, you should have all been sent a color. It was just sent, so we'll give you all a few minutes to ensure it's in your inboxes. The eight TABT Leaders will all be holding a different color. If you didn't get this email for whatever reason, we can also direct you to the corresponding TABT Leader." Julie looked down at her phone and saw the email.

It was simple, short, and kept to the point. Or, rather, entirely avoided the point. All she saw was her name and a cute image that someone had clearly put a lot of thought into and told her the color she had been assigned.

"I'm in blue. What are you guys?" Jessica asked, showing off her image. It had a Victorian print in navy and the remaining background was a lighter blue and the word "BLUE" in elegant cursive centered on the image.

"I'm orange." Kim's image had flowers at the bottom and the word "ORANGE" in a bold, all-caps, san-serif font, slightly covered by the flowers.

"I'm black." Julie's had a marbled black and grey background, with the word "BLACK" in a similar font to Kim's orange. "Well, I guess we'll see each other later then."

"Remember to text a little intro!" Julie could hear Jessica yell as she walked towards the man that held up the image she saw in her email. The eight images were so distinct and beautiful and she loved each one.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Wyatt." Julie held back a little smile, standing towards the back of the group. There were, if she had to guess, around 200 people in her group, but she noticed the assistants standing directly behind Wyatt. "I'm the TABT Leader for the Black Group. Behind me are the student life leaders, Winch, Lincoln, Josie, Kiara, Hardy, and Simmy. If you didn't notice, there is a little number in the corner that indicates which of the seven groups you are in. I'm one, Winch is two, Lincoln three, Josie four, and so on." She examined her picture, noticing the little "1" in the corner. She joined the little group of thirty or so students in front of Wyatt.

"Follow me. We're going to a special, secret spot people don't usually find until their second year." Wyatt smirked, exciting Julie. She couldn't wait to find out all the little things this school offered that couldn't be found perusing a website.

"Where exactly are we going?" Three lefts, two rights, and a half hour walk later (though Julie was sure she saw the same place more than once), they arrived at the Secret Practice Room. It had been named that by someone more than a century earlier, though no one knew who specifically named it. "Oh, this is cool." A kid she didn't recognize said something else, though he was the only one to say anything. Everyone else was too stunned by the room.

In the center of the room, hanging from the ceiling, was a beautiful glass and silver chandelier, glittering from the LEDs and the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Each wall of the room held pictures of musicians, gracefully playing their instruments. The north wall, adorned with a picture of a woman with dark hair playing the violin, had string instruments hanging on it or leaning on stands directly in front of it. The west wall had a set of drums and a few other percussion instruments under the man who held his drumsticks in the air. She could feel exactly how the man was feeling in her bones—exhilarated and ready to give the crowd what they begged for. On the east wall was a beautiful white baby grand piano, surrounded by a few smaller instruments and underneath a picture of someone she knew. Someone she'd known for a long, long time.

She had no idea her mother went to Berklee. Or, at the very least, performed at Berklee and made enough of an impression to be anointed in the Secret Practice Room. She had to ask her what that was all about.

"This is the Secret Practice Room. Every Berklee student knows about this room. The instruments here were purchased and donated by past students and maintained by current students. No one outside of current students and alumni may know about this room. Even current faculty do not know about this room if they did not attend." Julie hadn't heard much of what Wyatt just said, but knew it was probably important. That being said, she still couldn't bring herself to look away from her mother's picture. She'd definitely be back in there, even if it was only to see that picture.

Author's Note: I totally forgot to post this yesterday, so here you go! Finals week is crazy (I have two take home exams and I spent six hours trying to figure out how to answer two problems on one of them). I'll keep this short, though, because they're not due until Friday. Just make sure to vote and let me know what you think in the comments. All the best, MistyRider921.