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This chapter is introducing more of the other girls—Adele, Felicity and Gracie.

…

Adele Roxanne Warren frowned at the mirror. Everything was going wrong tonight. First, she had tripped in the last dress rehearsal they had before opening night-tonight- and although she told everyone she was fine, her ankle hurt, and she could barely walk in her dance shoes now. Now, as she prepared to do her stage makeup, she discovered she was breaking out again. To top it all off, her hair was still too short to look good.

"Why did I ever cut my hair?" She moaned to her friend and fellow actress, Felicity Weaver. The auburn haired girl smiled.

"You said you wanted to look like Cordelia Whitney in that movie." Felicity said, leaning close to the mirror to apply mascara.

"Yeah, I thought she actually cut her hair. I didn't know she just wore a wig." Adele moaned. "Do you have any more of the acne medicine? I'm breaking out. Again."

"Yeah, in my purse." Felicity said, nudging it in Adele's direction. "Are you nervous about tonight?"

"Not really. You?" Adele smeared the medicine on her skin.

"Yeah. I know I'm only in the ensemble, but still." Felicity said. "I don't know how you do it."

"Hey, I'm right there in the back with you most of the time." Adele corrected, reaching for her foundation. The endless cycle of heavy stage makeup always made her breakout, which had to be covered up with makeup, which made her breakout over and over again.

"Yeah, in large productions. But you told me you always get the lead in the small productions back at home." Felicity finished with her mascara. While both girls were Fives, live theatre actresses, and seventeen, their similarities ended there. Whereas Adele sported short dark blondish curls, Felicity had longer deep red hair, and blue eyes to Adele's brown. Felicity was tall and thin, and Adele was shorter and petite. Adele, though, was loud, plucky, overly dramatic, sassy, and almost superficial, but she seemed friendly. In contrast, Felicity was quiet and a good listener, but came alive on stage. Adele, on the other hand, always seemed to be acting, even in real life. Adele had four siblings, and often stayed after performances to clean up for extra cash. She often worked in two shows at once, usually as a background dancer/singer in a large production, and the lead in a small community theatre productions. Ironically, she was paid much more to be in the ensemble. Felicity usually scored a small lead role in the larger productions, with a handful of lines. However, Felicity only had one sister still at home, and her family was pretty well off-at least for Fives.

Adele finished caking her face with the liquid foundation, and quickly pressed powder over it to set. She brushed her checks with blush, and dusted a little on her collarbone before moving to hot pink eye shadow on her lids to match her costume. She had to wear lots of makeup like everyone else in the production company, so their faces would be more visible to the audience, and the lights wouldn't wash them out. Overtime, Adele had gotten used to it. Tonight was opening night for their newest show, a huge undertaking to transform Cinderella from imagination to stage. Felicity and Adele both served as attenders of the ball. Adele finished the eye shadow and reached for a thick liquid eye liner.

"So, did you watch the Report the other night?" She asked Felicity as her friend rolled her long hair into the curling iron.

"Yeah. It's a shame about Yukon. I'm glad we weren't touring there."

"I've never been there." Adele said, sticking in her false eyelashes.

"Me neither." Felicity admitted.

"Do theaters even tour up there? It's just a bunch of snow and mountains and igloos, isn't it?" Adele applied mascara heavily to the false eyelashes, and set to work pinning her short curls into a cheesy up-do.

"I have no idea." Felicity said.

"Are you going to enter the Selection?" Adele asked.

"Maybe." Felicity covered her new curls in a cloud of hairspray.

"I wonder if the royals ever got inspiration from Cinderella." Adele mused, jabbing a pin into her hair.

"I'll keep that in mind while I'm preforming tonight!" A new voice behind them interrupted. "Hurry, girls. Curtin's up in fifteen minutes." Bianca White-Cinderella herself-said. She had befriended Felicity when the girl played in the orchestra and helped her get into the ensemble. In turn, she met Adele. Adele studied the older woman. Bianca seemed to be in her mid twenties, and had scored every female lead in this company since Adele could remember.

"Did you enter Prince Andrew's Selection?" Adele asked, figuring Bianca was old enough to have been in Ethan's older brother's Selection, about three years ago.

"I sure did, Dellie, honey." Bianca said. "But I didn't get picked. I didn't have my face on in the picture." She gestured to her dramatic make up. "But Princess Christine lived on the same street I did."

"Did you know her?" Felicity said, standing up and taking her costume off the hook by her spot in the woman's communal dressing room.

"I did." Bianca said fondly. "Of course, I was a Five and play actress, and she was a Two and a ballerina, but she helped me with an audition routine once. I had to dance."

"So, do you think we should enter?" Adele asked.

"Of course, Dellie! You have nothing to lose and ever thing to gain. Now you won't become Queen unless Andrew and Christine die childless, but still, Princess is just as good."

"What if Prince Ethan doesn't find anyone he loves?" Felicity said.

"Oh, trust me, he will. It's always happened. Even in Cinderella, the most unlikely girl was chosen by the Prince. So you never know who it may be." Bianca gave a wistful sigh, and Adele found herself dreaming of falling in love, something she had only experienced as an actress and a character. Sure, she had dated her way up in the company before, but it was just to get better parts and better pay.

"Now, you girls get in your costumes, and hurry! I have to go, but promise me you'll at least enter the Selection." Bianca said.

"I will." Felicity said.

"Me too. See you at the ball." Adele teased. Bianca made a hasty exit, and Adele quickly stepped out of her dressing gown and into her costume, a gaudy, cheesy hot pink gown.
Who knows? She thought. Maybe I'll get my fairy tale ending someday.

…

Gracie Luna inhaled her favorite smell in the world besides horses. The sweet smell of baking cake filled the room as the cupcakes reached their halfway point. Although her official job as a Three was a teacher's assistant, she still loved to bake. Her mother, though, was a professional pastry chef specializing in wedding cakes, and the newest order requested four dozen matching cupcakes to go along with a three tier cake. The order would be good for them, since Dad had been laid off from the school where he taught for about a year now. Gracie smirked. They couldn't afford to hire her father, a historian, but they could afford to keep her little sixteen year old, five foot three inch self on in the kindergarten classroom for the Sixes and Sevens? Sometimes, Illea's government was weird.

Even though Gracie and her family were Threes, they didn't have much money. In fact, Gracie knew several Fours who owned small businesses and were wealthier than her own family. Besides, now that Chase was in medical school, funds were even tighter.

Gracie went to the fridge to get the cream cheese for the frosting. The cake order would be delicious-vanilla bean cake, cream cheese raspberry buttercream and chocolate ganache filling. Gracie had already heated the cream and melted the chocolate into it, and the ganache was now cooling. She snagged the cream cheese and went back to the mixer, unwrapping it as she went. She tossed it in, next to the already softened butter, and turned the mixer on. While they creamed together, she took the raspberry puree she had made earlier and ran it through the strainer to get rid of the seeds. When that was done, she slowly added it to the butter/cream cheese mixture. She then got powdered sugar, and poured some into the mixing bowl, but too much and the air filled with a delicious cloud of sugar for a second. Gracie giggled. She was in a wonderful mood. She had spent the morning at the riding stable down the street, first mucking out stalls and cleaning the tack room. She didn't mind, of course. Next, she got to ride. In the past, she had taken riding lessons, but she didn't really need them anymore. It was just a privilege to ride. She had taken out Zanzibar, a high strung black colt who had an attitude around everyone but Gracie. When people walked by his stall, he would try to nip them. When others tried to saddle him, he would pitch such a fit in the crossties that it took nearly thirty minutes. Riding him was a disaster, for all he did was buck and fight for his head.

But around Gracie, he nickered when he saw her coming or heard her voice, and rubbed on her when she entered his stall. He would act like a perfect gentlemen when she led him or saddled him, and obeyed her perfectly. She had taken him jumping before finishing with a gallop in the far paddock and then walking back to cool him down. When she had arrived back home, she had spent the afternoon making cupcakes. She added more powdered sugar to the pale pink frosting, and it began to take shape. When it was thick and creamy, she added a little dash of vanilla and turned off the mixer. She checked the timer for the cupcakes, finding they still had several minutes left to bake, but were rising nicely. She left the frosting where it was, and went into the living room.

Her letter for the Selection had come today. There was no doubt about whether she should enter or not. Chase's college bills weren't going to pay themselves, and if you got in, the family was generously compensated. Besides, out of all the girls in Atlin, it was doubtful that Gracie would be chosen, but still, it was worth a try, and well, why not? I'm not that ugly! Gracie mused. Sure, I'm tiny, but I'm blonde. That's got to count for something. She had light golden blonde wavy hair, and blue eyes-the perfect 'Barbie Doll' look. It wasn't exotic or supermodel, but still, she was pretty.

Gracie sat on the floor, leaning against the couch, and ran her fingers over the envelope on the coffee table. She had opened it and read it last night, but had only gotten so far as her name when Chase had called, and she had spent the next several hours talking on the phone to her favorite-and only- brother. Since she had a few minutes, she might as well work on it.

Name: Gracelyn Elisabeth Luna

Age: 16

Gracie stopped again. Was sixteen old enough to get married? Sure, she was almost seventeen, but Prince Ethan was almost twenty. Do I even have a chance? Gracie wondered, distractedly drawing a tiny horse in the margin. Shaking herself, she quickly moved to erase the doodle, but realized she was using a pen, so she scribbled over it.

Province: Atlin

Caste: Three

Occupation: Teacher's Assistant at Atlin Central Elementary School

Hair color: light golden blonde.

Gracie stopped again. Was that too much information? Did they just want blonde, or what? They were taking her picture anyway, so she left it.

Eye color: ocean blue

Skin tone: pale, but fair

Height: 5'3

Weight: 117 pounds

Gracie wrote down her schooling information, and address and contact information, but was interrupted when the oven timer went off. She abandoned the letter, and scurried into the kitchen, to take out the two double dozen cupcake pans, the delicious vanilla bean wafting through the air as she opened the oven and took them out with an oven mitt. She set them on the stove top to cool, and went back to the living room to keep working.

Languages spoken: fluent English, passable French, and some Russian

Hobbies: horseback riding, baking, singing.

Gracie poised her pencil, trying to think of other things to write down. The Prince didn't want someone boring, did he? She added 'reading' to the list, then 'spending time with family' and 'working with little kids and horses' and left it at that. She quickly finished the rest of the questions, and folded the form up and slipped it back into the envelope. Mom was at an appointment with a client to discuss their wedding, and her dad was at the bank, trying to get another loan for Chase's schooling. I have to get into the Selection to help him. Gracie resolved, heading back into the kitchen. Once I finish these, I'll go get my picture taken.

She dumped the baking pans over to dislodge the cupcakes, and piled them onto a tray, and stuck them in the freezer to cool a bit more. She got out a pastry bag, and fitted it with a large open star tip, and spatula-d the frosting into it. She folded it up, and twisted it shut, and laid it on the counter. She got out the now cooled and thickened ganache and a container of fresh raspberries before getting the cupcakes back out. She hollowed out the middles, refusing the temptations to eat the cores, and spooned with delicious ganache into them before putting the cores back on top for less mess. She steadied the piping bag over the first cupcake, and piped a neat swirl, moving quickly. When each scrumptious bite was covered with a layer of light pink, and filled with the best substance on earth, Gracie garnished each top with a fresh raspberry and drizzled a little more ganache on top and then added some sugar pearls for good measure. It was fora wedding. After she had loaded them into one of the cake boxes and put them into the refrigerator, she ran upstairs to her room.

She changed into a nice pair of khaki pedal pushers and a lavender blouse with a white sweater open to reveal her necklace-sliver pendant in the shape of a music note with a diamond in the middle. She took her hair down from her customary ponytail, and after a quick brushing, she side parted it and slipped a bobby pin into it to keep it out of her eyes. She dabbed a little perfume on for good measure, and some concealer. She decided she should put on some makeup for good measure, and put on some light brown eye shadow and a little brown eyeliner. Gracie slipped on her favorite shoes, a low pair of tan colored heeled sandals, and headed down stairs. Mom had just arrived home and was inspecting Gracie's work in the kitchen.

"These are lovely. Are you sure you don't want to become a baker?" Her mother said. Gracie gave a firm nod.

"I love little kids too much. It'll always be a hobby, though." She resisted the temptation to rub her eyes. Makeup was not a daily thing for her.

"What are you all gussied up for?"

"I want to go get my picture taken and turn in my form for the Selection. Can you take me?" Gracie's mom nodded, and they headed to the car.