Here's to trying new things!

Credit to Kiera Cass for everything but the characters.

I looked at my watch for probably the hundredth time that day as the wind messed up my hair which had been perfectly set only hours earlier. The plane had been on the ground for nearly twenty minutes, but like always, my brother was taking his sweet time.

No one had spoken to me since we reached the airport, they knew how much pressure I had been under the last few weeks. It should have all been on Kit, but he had been off gallivanting across the globe. Chances are he'd never get the opportunity again, so I held little resentment, but I was ready to hand over the reins and let him have control over his Selection.

Really, I'd done the hard parts for him. I mean not only did I make sure the palace was ready for the arrival of thirty-five girls, but I also had the responsibility of selecting each girl through the lottery process. Then, yesterday morning, I greeted each and every one of them individually as they arrived at the palace. I wanted to make the experience as personal as possible for the girls; considering the fact that the Prince wasn't even in the country for their arrival.

Finally the aircraft door opened and I watched as among the guards and my brother, two young women exited the plane. My cousin Jules Hart was the first one. She'd been working for Kit since he was eighteen, just like her mother had worked for my mother.

The second woman I knew to be Sydney Carrington, one of the many who I considered to be an honorary cousin. Sydney had been raised in Illéa with her sister Hannah but had spent the last year in England as a guest of her Aunt, Queen Jane.

Our family did that quite often, hopped from country to country staying with aunts and uncles at our leisure. I spent a whole summer in Sweden when I was sixteen, and two Christmases in France years before that.

I had planned to do more travelling but then my parents had announced Kit's Selection, and I was forced to stay at home while he took in his last few breaths of freedom.

Watching Kit's smiling face as he came towards me, I realized that we hadn't celebrated our birthday. Being twins Kit and I had always shared a huge birthday celebration, but with him not home this year no one had bothered to plan it.

"Liv," Kit called out as he closed the three month gap between us. "I hate to admit it, but I missed you." He whispered into my ear as his arms closed tightly around me.

I smiled, "I missed you too. Well," I paused, "mostly. I didn't miss your smugness."

He released me mid laugh. "You wouldn't survive without my smugness. Now," he took my hand and together we walked towards the waiting cars. "Jules tried to keep my up to date, but even she was getting second-hand news. Tell me, what have I gotten myself into with this Selection?"

I took a brief moment to think over my words as we climbed into the backseat of one of the palace cars. "I only know what's on paper, and it is undeniably hard to judge thirty-five girls based on what a form tells me about their lives."

"Have you met them all?" A nervous stutter broke through Kit's usually stoic voice.

I nodded. "I greeted them all yesterday as they arrived. This morning I shared words with a few of the early risers, they're all incredibly excited to meet you."

He bit his lip, "do you have a favourite?"

I smirked as the car finally pulled off the tarmac. "Of course I do Kit, and so does the rest of the family, but no one's saying a word to you until you've met the girls for yourself."

"You're a terrible sister, you know that right?"

I rolled my eyes, "should I remind you who had to take control of the Selection while you were on vacation?"

He grinned, and I leaned my head against his shoulder. "I'm really glad you're back Kit, nothing was quite as enjoyable without you."

The drive home felt much shorter than the drive to the airport had been. It was just before lunch when we pulled up the drive to see Mom and Dad waiting. They had been avoiding the girls in order to have a proper introduction in the coming days. I thought it was kind of adorable that they wanted their son to personally introduce them to the girl he would marry; especially considering at this point no one knew which girl would become his bride.

Getting out of the car I moved to the side to allow my parents room to greet their son. As the second car pulled up I walked over to speak with my cousins.

"Welcome home ladies," I said smiling as I wrapped them both up in a hug.

"You look great Liv," Sydney said, noticeably exhausted from the long flight. "Twenty seems to be suiting you quite well."

"You know I figured everyone had forgotten that Kit and I were both twenty, what with only him having a Selection."

Sydney shrugged, "you're lucky. No Selection means you can marry anyone, or, you can marry no one."

Jules nodded in agreement. "Kit's not ready to be married yet, but he has no choice. We're all still so young and there is so much we have yet to experience, you'll see more of it than Kit ever will."

"He deserves a choice," I mumbled.

Jules smiled sadly. "I better go get to work, I have three months of paperwork waiting for me. Not to mention all the Selection details I've missed."

Once she was gone I turned to Sydney. "Well Hannah's still in school for a few more hours, and your dad is spending the week with your mom, so it appears you have no current engagements. Care to join me for lunch?"

"I'd love to," she said grinning. "You have no idea how much I've missed our chefs' cooking."

I laughed, "I'll meet you in your room in a bit. I think I'm going to join in on the family reunion," I said gesturing over to where Kit and my parents were.

"Liv," my mom said sweetly as she saw me approaching.

I smiled back at her. "Sorry I didn't come see you two this morning, they told me the flight was early and I didn't want to wake you."

"A wise decision," my dad said wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "You know what your mother is like without a full night's rest."

"It seems like nothing has changed since I left." Kit winked at me, "Liv is still sneaking out at all hours and no one is brave enough to come to mom before nine in the morning."

"Well," my dad said, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, "I can think of thirty-five changes."

"Callum!" My mom said whacking my dad on the arm. "He just got back, there will be plenty of time to discuss those matters later."

Kit's face had fallen and I slowly found myself backing away from my family. Everything was going to change, it had never been more apparent to me than in that moment. Even when the topic of Kit's Selection had first been broached, I embellished it. Now though, now that Kit was back, I knew for me, the Selection was going to be anything other than glamorous.

A/N

Hey guys! It felt so strange not updating a story in months so I finally just had to force myself to pick an idea and start writing. I was going to do up a SYOC form but instead I decided to just tell you guys to go for it. They're your character(s), you know them better than anyone else, so just tell me about them. I am requesting two things though, that you pick a faceclaim and give me some details about their family. Anything else I need to know I'll just PM you and we can discuss it. I know this chapter doesn't really tell you too much about Prince Kit so if you need more details about him before creating your character, feel free to message me. I am of course looking for thirty-five selected, but if you have ideas for other characters I'm open to those submissions as well. Lastly this story will have boards on my Pinterest (shaelynnsophia) so feel free to check them out (I do have personal boards on my Pinterest too, so feel free to unfollow them, but I'm not super active which is why I thought it would be a waste to make a new Pinterest just for this story's boards).

Shaelynn