Hi everyone! Sorry about the short chapter, I'm new at this, and I'm not the greatest computer expert!

Thank you CateCassidy, Queen Zeena, and Prnamber3909 for being my first reviewers!

The phone rings, I jump up to get it and a familiar voice is on the other end.

"Hey Cassie." A voice says sounding very strained. "Are you still coming over this weekend?" My sister asks.

"Yeah sure, Mrs. Scott," I say loudly for my mother's benefit. I half run half trip up to my room. "What are you thinking, calling when mom's home."

"Sorry." She says sounding tired. "I just need some help with the baby, it's hard."

Instantly I feel guilty. Of course she needs help, poor girl. See, my sister, Alexa, is 21 and she is a five. She got pregnant a year ago so naturally she had to get married to the father, (who she really did love) before it showed that she was carrying a kid, or else, because of Illea's law that you have to be married before you have kids, she'd be put in jail. When my mother found out that Alexa married a five she disowned her and Alexa literally had to survive from the wages of her musician of a husband. Because Alexa is my sister and I love her no matter her caste, I secretly visit her on the weekends, when my mother thinks I'm with a friend or at the library. I help her take care of her baby and give her some extra money from the writing contests that I win. So when she called me just now my heart melted because she sounded so tired from working late at night and then taking care of her little baby.

"Of course I'm coming," I said forcing myself to sound upbeat and not like I was sorry for her. Although Alexa is in a low caste now, she's still really strong and she hates when people feel sorry for her. She is her mother's daughter after all, disowned or not.

"Ok, great, I'll see you then. Hey did you get a letter for the selection, all of my piano students were crowing about how they were going to win." She lets a trickle of amusement seep into her voice.

"Yeah, I got mine, hey! We could fill it out together this weekend!" I say enthusiastically.

"Cassie, you're going to have to tell mom." Alexa says.

"I can't, I'm probably not going to get picked anyway, so no harm done. Can you imagine her reaction? You're going to apply for some silly contest to be the princess. Yeah right, you can barely walk in heels, you hate dresses, and you'll miss out on so much school and you'll fall behind. Besides, you! Ha! You couldn't even be elected president of the student council, there's no way you're going to be picked."

I tried to imitate mother's voice perfectly, but when Alexa laughs I know I didn't succeed.

"Cassie," Mom yells, "Dinner's ready!"

"Oops, I gotta go, I'll see you soon! Bye!"

I walk down the stairs for the second time this hour and think that although my life wasn't exactly posh, maybe, just maybe that was all about to change.

"Ok, so name: Cassandra Morris, Age: 16." I say. I'm sitting at the kitchen table of Alexa's house, filling in the application.

"Ooh, languages. Well, for once I have to thank mom for making me learn an extra two: Spanish and Russian!" Alexa and I giggle, but that stops when the baby starts crying.

"Here, got you a pacifier for him." I give it to Alexa and she immediately puts it in little Matthew's mouth.

"Ok, cool, next, special skills. Um, I can sing and play the violin; anything else?"

"Oh, Cassie, you can do lot's of things: Gymnastics, dance, not to mention you're a genius at school and you correct the teachers all of the time." She says with a little laugh at how much I downplay my strengths.

"All right," I say writing it all down.

Alexa gets up and goes to the window, "Dad's here." She gives me a big hug, and whispers "good luck."

I get up, grab my bag and get in the car. It's only 3:00 but the province office already has a line.

"Remind me again, why I have to drive you." Dad asks skeptically.

"Because mom wouldn't let me, just don't tell her and everything will be fine." I sigh and take out a book from my bag. Just as I'm up to a good part, dad interrupts, "Cass, hey, did you know that they're taking pictures!" He asks me a little panicked.

"What! No, oh no that's just great!"

Ring! Ring!

I grab my phone, mom cell, says the caller ID. I'm mystified, what does she want?

"Hi mom."

"Don't hi me, why did I get a phone call from the province office telling me to tell my daughter that they're taking pictures for the selection lottery?" She asks sounding very terse and mad.

"Because I'm signing up for the selection." I admit in defeat.

"What!" She yells.

Uh-Oh!

"Oh that's great, why didn't you tell me, oh, imagine if you win, oh, of course you will, you're so beautiful and smart!" She remarks.

"Wait, what! You're not mad!"

"Mad, of course not! Actually-"

I cut her off, "Mom, I'm next, gotta go see ya!"

"What happened." Dad asks, eyebrows furrowed.

I just stare at my phone, she wasn't mad, all this worry for nothing! Oh my god, all of this sneaking around when she actually wanted me to enter. I don't understand, she said no when I asked her at home when the report first mentioned it, what changed her mind?

"Dad, did you do something to change her mind?" I asked.

"Oh, look, it's your turn Cass, go ahead!" He said sounding way to upbeat.

I sign in at the desk confirming that everything was true that I wrote and took my picture. As I smiled I thought of mom saying yes, and my amazing big sister Alexa, and I smiled even bigger.

The night of the report!

Mom turns it on. My younger brothers just look at me, "You're not going to win!" Says Joseph, the baby of the family, he's on 6. "You're to smart for the prince." He laughs like a maniac. "Oh, don't listen to him," my other brother, Daniel says, he's 13. "If you get picked I'm sure the prince will like you."

"Hush, both of you, I'm nervous enough as it is!" I say twisting my hands around together, a nervous habit of mine that mom's always nagging me about.

Then Gavin Fermont starts announcing the girls. Cynthia Rose from Clermont, 2. The prince's eyes widen, I don't blame him, she's really pretty. Dang! Ashley Laru from Carolina, 4. The prince smiles happily. Cassandra Morris from Kent, 3. I stare in shock at the screen. The prince whispers something to his mother. My phone starts ringing, the house phone starts ringing, my mother starts screaming, Joseph starts yelling. Oh, my gosh, I'm, going, to, the, palace. I'm going to the palace to compete for Prince Jacob, what if he doesn't like me! I snap out of my reverie and pick up my cell phone. Uh-oh, it's James, I forgot about him in all of the excitement.