Enchanted Ch2 - Try, Try Again

Here's the second chapter! I'm not introducing any selected girls yet, considering I only have two so far(other than Finley) but the next chapter will introduce the first girl, and possibly the second, depending on how many applications I receive. anyway, hope y'all like it, and please review!

Finley West

I slammed my pencil down against the desk in frustration, resting my elbows on my paper as I rubbed my forehead.

I had been attempting AP Chemistry all afternoon, but had only completed one page of the homework.

Looking at the mounting pile of books and sheets that I had yet to finished, I moaned.

While I loved reading and enjoying learning, the insurmountable heap of homework that came with it was less than pleasant.

Ever since the selection was announced, my mom had pressured me into doubling my academic progress.

In the past week, I had done the amount of work I would normally complete in a month, and I was exhausted.

"Finley!" My door was thrown open with a squeal, giving me a temporary break from the overload of homework. "Mom said we can sign up for the selection together!" Lila was waving around two pristine white envelopes with the royal seal on them, and she practically leaped over the stack of papers and binders that were settled on the floor.

"Already? Does she realize how much more work I still have?" I was a little incredulous, considering that my mom pressured me to speed up my schoolwork so I could have a better application for the selection.

"She said you probably had more education than most of the girls in Illéa," Lila scanned my room, seeming a little deflated by the sheer amount of books. "She did say to try and finish your unit in Advanced Molecular Biology, whatever the heck that is." She began shuffling through my papers, apparently forgetting that she was a grade below me and therefore no help.

"I can't figure this out, Lila. I've been working on it all afternoon, and I keep coming up with the wrong formula." At this point, I felt like crying because of the stress.

"Fin, it's okay," she soothed me, but it wasn't much reassurance. "What do you need help with?"

Though I appreciated Lila trying to help me sort through my homework, it was hopeless. She kept encouraging me with the phrase, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," but it took more than a couple tries to get it right.

"We did it! Now you're completely done and we can fill out our selection forms!" I refrained from pointing out that we had only finished one unit of chemistry, not all my schoolwork, but it was still a relief to be done.

Lila tore her form open, rapidly scribbling answers down, but I took my time.

"Name. Does that include middle name?" I wondered aloud as I skimmed the questions.

"Yep!" Lila was muttering under her breath as she worked, and I followed her example.

"Name: Finley Violet West... Age: 17..." I continued to write that I had curly, light brown hair that fell to my mid bicep, tan skin, and sea blue eyes.

"What languages do I speak?" At this point, we were both just asking rhetorical questions, and I wrote the answer down before Lila has a chance to respond. "Fluent English, Spanish, and French... a good amount of German... and some Italian." Even I was overwhelmed by how much I knew, and felt that whoever sorted through the forms would probably think I was lying.

"Does likes include charity?" I had already written down that I enjoyed reading, writing, painting, swimming, surfing, and multiple other things that Prince Wesley enjoyed, but my mom mentioned that it would look good if I could fit that I donated lots of my savings to charity somewhere on there.

"Sure. Finley, at this point, it won't even matter if you said you hated charity, you'd get picked anyway," Lila complained, comparing her sparse form to my detailed one.

"You could always sign up for Prince Kieran's selection," I offered, but I was really too focused on my form to pay attention to our conversation.

After we had finished perfecting our forms, Lila moved onto appearances. She insisted I use my deft hands to work magic in our hair, but she did the makeup, as she was much more talented in that area.

Lila also chose our outfits, much to my appreciation. Due to the warm weather, we both ended up in skirts, but while hers was a tight, black, pencil skirt, I was fitted into a light, flowery skirt, paired with a white blouse and cute light jean jacket, which was tied in a knot at my waist.

When we were finished, Lila observed her work, nodding in satisfaction as she dragged me out the door.

"Picture time!"

While we left the house with a happy frame of mind, my attitude dropped a bit when the line to the post office streamed halfway through the town and was moving at a snails pace.

Lila and I waited in line for what had to be close to an hour before we finally reached the front office.

"Next," the cameraman drawled, and I shoved Lila forward. I couldn't help but admire her as she gave a brilliant smile for her picture, hopped off the chair, and skipped back over to me.

My photo, however, wasn't so easy. The photographers seemed to have some uncanny knowing of my family, and insisted that I retake the photo 6 different times, adjusting my hair and posture for each one.

When they finally snapped the perfect picture, I was free to go, and Lila and I made our way painstakingly slow as the line condensed.

By the time we finally got home, the sun had set, leaving the house barely visible only by the faint glimmering of the stars.

Lila offered to go inside with me, but I opted out, deciding to spend a little time outside instead.

When I was younger, I loved being outside at night. Hearing the crickets chirp, the faint rustle of leaves from the wind, the shimmering stars, and the faint glow of the royal castle in the distance.

Now that I was older, I hadn't had the opportunity quite as much, and I hadn't been able to appreciate it.

Sinking down onto the bench on the front porch, I rested my chin in my hands, a very unladylike posture, but no one was here to see me.

Gazing at the distant outline of the castle, I wondered what it would be like to live there. Being on the beach everyday, living a life of luxury and ease... I supposed I already lived like that, but I wasn't really in a position to enjoy it. I spent most of my time indoors, only being permitted out to get my tan, because that was what my parents believed spending my time appropriately was.

If I was lucky, I would be at the palace in the next two weeks. All my hard work and vigorous studying would pay off, and I would actually have a chance to prove myself. Getting into the selection was the key to a happy life.

Of course, I would also have to win. The only way to help my parents was to win. But I wasn't too worried about that.

I had met Prince Wesley before, several times, and after spending my life observing him and shaping myself to be his dream girl, I was pretty confident.

Sighing, I stood up, ending my fantasy of living out a simple life in the palace, and headed inside. Maybe one day I could live without the pressure of my parents on my shoulders, but today was not that day.

Princess Laurel

Life in the palace was not the same as it was one week ago. Servants were scurrying back and forth, rushing to polish off girl's rooms, caterers were being hired, events were being planned, maids were rapidly threading dresses that needed to be made, and everything was hectic.

And, of course, Wesley was in the middle of it.

Because it was his selection, he had to be in the center of attention, and he seemed to be enjoying it. He was currently being interviewed about his preferences, doubtless for all the woman of Illéa to takes notes and swoon over, and he was being a less than helpful twin brother.

As much as I loved Wesley, he could be a royal pain in the butt.

"Princess Laurel?" I turned to face Sabrina, my head maid, who was playing with her tendrils of curls as she stood nearly a foot shorter than me at 4'9".

"Yes Sabrina?"

"Your presence is requested in the theater by his majesty," she told me with a graceful curtsy, and I almost laughed. Sabrina was new, and had recently moved from France to take the position as my head maid because Charity, my previous maid, had left on maternity leave.

Sabrina was, as you could say, a piece of work. She had an attitude that said 'I'm better than you', and she obviously thought she deserved to be treated like royalty. She acted like a perfect little princess around me and my siblings, but my other maids told me what a handful she was.

I had attempted to get her replaced, but seeing as that we were low on staff already, it was an unlikely option.

However, Sabrina seemed determined to be selected, and wasn't going to stop brown nosing me until she got what she wanted.

"Of course. Thank you Sabrina." I turned to walk in the direction of the throne room and had just turned the corner when I heard a high giggle that obviously came from Sabrina.

Curious and little reproachful, I peeked around the corner. I had never been very lady like anyway, and no one would no I was spying, so what was the harm?

I was quickly proven wrong when the boy Sabrina was flirting with was Tristan.

"I've always wanted to travel! Have you been to New Bejing?" Sabrina asked in her high, fake voice, and a course of anger shot through me.

She was flirting with my best friend!

"Yes, but I have to admit, I prefer New India. The food is much better," Tristan said matter-a-factly, but Sabrina giggled as if he had told a hilarious joke.

"I love Indian food! We should get together sometime, I know this great restaurant-" By this point, I'd had enough, and as politely as I could, I cleared my throat and brought the attention to myself.

"Princess Laurel!" The color temporarily left Sabrina's face, and she scurried for an explanation. "I was just, um, well, I ran into Tristan-" she looked to Tristan, obviously hoping he would help her out, but he just looked amused. "Well I- I'm needed in the laundry room." And with that, she darted off, and I felt a hint of satisfaction.

"You scared her away," Tristan complained, and I punched him in the arm.

"She was flirting with you!" I explained in protest, upset that he was taking this so lightly.

"Boys flirt with you all the time, and I don't swoop in and scare them away," he whined, and I looked at him with mock horror.

"Oh yeah? What about the time when Lord Caleb complimented me on my outfit and you told him he'd be charged with treason? Or when Prince Kristoff almost kissed me and you threatened him with beheading and punched him in the nose? Or when-"

"Okay, I get your point," Tristan conceded, and I smirked in triumph.

"As much as I would love to stay and chat, I was supposed to meet the king several minutes ago, and we both know he wouldn't be pleased if I was late," I reminded him reluctantly.

"Oh no, we wouldn't want that," he said seriously.

I nudged him playfully before taking off to see my dad. It wasn't very often that he wanted to talk with me, so I didn't plan to waste it.

🌷Enchanted🌷

Turns out, the meeting with my dad was just that: a meeting. I was there, along with 20 other advisors and all my siblings, discluding Wesley.

"So, how'd it go, lil Laurel?" Tristan seemingly appeared out of nowhere, which wasn't too unusual for him.

"You know, the usual. Business meetings. Talking about politics, rebels, the selection," I drawled, bored just talking about it. The meeting had taken almost an hour, and it almost bored me to sleep.

"Sucks for you," he teased.

Instead of berating him, I started meandering through the castle, not entirely sure where I was going. It was already late at night, and I was so tired I could hardly work up the effort to speak, let alone think about where I was going.

"Hey, Laurel," Tristan jogged to catch up to me, grabbing me by the elbow. "What's wrong?" Concern was evident in his voice, and I sighed. I couldn't get a thing past him.

"Just tired." It was a fruitless effort, and he saw right through it.

"Lil girl, you can tell me," Tristan said gently, pushing a hair out of my face.

I looked up helplessly at him, and remember how much he had done for me. Tristan had been my best friend for as long as I could remember, and he knew me better than anyone, not counting my jerk of a twin. It wasn't as much that I was hiding something from him as it was that I was honestly to tired to form coherent sentences.

So, instead, I collapsed into his arms and buried my face in the crook of his neck.

Being the good friend he was, Tristan didn't question it and instead scooped me up in his arms and began the journey back to my room.

I remembered breathing in the scent of his cologne, and the warm arms of my bed welcoming me into the comfort of sleep. As much as he annoyed the heck out of me, Tristan wasn't someone I could take for granted.

Sorry this update took so long! So much homework... aghh. anyway, here it is! chapter 2! I posted Finley's outfit for this chapter on the pinterest board for enchanted, so check that out! okay, now for the shoutouts:

thanks so much to all my awesome reviews: morethajustastory, UltimateMaxmericaShipper, drakel19088, .butterflies, and 3lovelies3! also a shoutout to morethanjustastory and jess120 for submitting awesome characters! but so far, those are the only two I've received... please submit guys! I have several provinces reserved, but the sooner you get your character into me, the sooner I can plan out their story line and how I'm going to right them!

anyway, please review and submit! happy creating!

~lexi