Beta: Abizeau

Chapter 3

The drive to the Airport was quiet. Romina hated it but she hated small talk more. She didn't know what to say to the driver, didn't want to ask a stupid question and appear silly. So she stared out the window, pulling at her fingers as she watched the world go by. Her stomach hurt, the nerves settling in, and finally, the weight of the Selection hit her.

Oh God, she felt like throwing up. She couldn't do this and start over like this. What if she got there and none of the girls liked her and she was utterly alone for the whole thing? Purposely throwing the Selection didn't mean that she wanted to be alone, it just meant that she didn't want to be on the Prince's radar. Romina pressed her forehead against the window and let out a shaky breath. She would be fine, she had to be. These girls were in the same situation as she was, they had to be approachable… right?

Her first test would be the plane ride with the Allens' Selected. Unfortunately, she could not remember the face or name of the other girl. The queasy feeling came back at this thought. Fuck, she wasn't even out of the car and she was already messing up. How could she be a disaster in the first hour? Hopefully, whoever was listening would give her an understanding girl. A friendly one that knew how to talk through awkwardness and keep things light.

"I hate this so much," Romina whispered at the glass. "God, I'm not built for this."

"Miss?"

Romina turned her head slightly, to see that the driver was looking through the mirror at her. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"Everything will be fine." He said. "Sometimes you just got to dive in head first and you'll come out better than before."

She blinked at this advice and felt a tug of a smile on her lips. The words had worked on her, and though her stomach still ached with nerves, it lessened with the man's philosophy.

"Thank you, sir."

He gave her a quick nod before turning his attention back to the road. Romina stared at the back of his head for a little longer, before she turned her attention back to the world outside of the glass. It would turn out alright, she just had to take that first step and keep going with it. Don't turn back until she could successfully say that it worked.

Girl from Allens, Romina thought. You're going to be my first friend, whether you like it or not.

Of course, when the car pulled to the airport, all that courage left Romina, and the girl briefly wondered if she could track star run herself home. Still, she cursed herself for being so timid at the thought of meeting someone new. She knew it was a necessity but it scared her so much that she tried to avoid it. Now with her new situation, she could no longer do this. She wouldn't have her sisters around the corner for her to fill that lonely space, and it was entirely up to her to make friends.

The driver opened the door for Romina and told her that she didn't need to worry about her luggage and that she just needed to head to the plane. She nodded and did as told, but couldn't help but think "Rich people privileges start now." She walked up the stairs and felt her breath get stolen from her.

If she was being honest, she had never been inside of a plane but she thought that she had a good understanding of what they looked like. Or maybe she had the right idea of what the inside of an average plane looked like and not a Royally approved plane. The inside was a sleek white that she could have sworn that she saw her reflection in the interior. There were only four chairs that sat opposite each other and two large tables. And there was a lot of space to walk in between and head to the back to lay on a daybed.

"This is way too much," Romina whispered.

She hated to say it but she was in awe.

"Um, are you going to move or… ?"

Romina jumped out of her skin as she turned around to stare at the Allens Selected. She was pretty with long, curly brown and dark brown eyes. They were around the same height, Romina had a few inches on her and still, she felt intimidated by the other girl.

"Sorry, I just never seen the inside of a plane before."

The girl raised an eyebrow and Romina briefly wondered if this girl was what was considered a Two back in the day. If so, she was in big trouble because she already showed how average– how poor she was.

"I haven't either," The girl said.

Romina sighed in relief.

"It's a bit much right?"

"Yeah."

Romina smiled but the girl didn't offer her anything. Instead, she walked further into the plane and sat on the left. Confusion settled inside of Romina as she sat in front of the girl.

"Well, my name is Romina Lu-Garcia and yours?"

"Juniper Gadina."

"Oh, um, what do you like to do?"

Juniper looked away from the window to stare at Romina, and Romina couldn't tell if she said the wrong thing or not. She wondered if the other girl was thinking to herself 'I wish that she would leave me alone'. And she didn't want to appear annoying but if she was going to keep trying, giving up on the first time around wasn't an option. Though as Juniper stared at her probably either deciding if she should talk to her or tell her to fuck off, Romina decided to look at the other girl more closely.

Juniper didn't give off a rude attitude nor did she come off as snooty. She reminded Romina of a girl that was used to people walking away or ignoring her because of her awkward personality. Her heart was still in her throat but she relaxed considerably once she was able to recognize that the look that Juniper was giving her wasn't a look of disdain but rather a look of surprise. It was a very subtle look with the way her eyes widened just a tad, along with the slight raise of her eyebrows and the curve of her lips…

Romina flushed as she looked away. She was blatantly staring down this girl like an idiot, and for what? To be a practised detective or psychiatrist? If the girl didn't want to talk to her that was fine, it wasn't really up to her to analyze her. That was weird in itself.

"I like art and gardening. It's my job, being a Gardener." Juniper spoke up, taking Romina out of her spiral of panic.

"Oh cool! I'm in college, majoring in English!" Romina said. "I draw in my free time, take a lot of pictures."

As soon as the words escaped her mouth, Romina groaned. Juniper stared at her quizzically with interested.

"Of course I forgot my camera and my sketchbook!" Romina explained, shaking her head. "I'm going to be bored out of my mind."

Juniper's lips turned up, amused. "I'm pretty sure they'll have us busy at the castle."

"Psh, but that's boring." Romina said, "Drawing and taking pictures? That's a way better pastime."

"I think so, too," Juniper said. "I love drawing and painting nature and landscapes, but I have a hard time drawing faces."

"You might hate this but… practice makes things look better," Romina said. "I use to hate hearing that all the time but I grudgingly listened to that advice and I'm really good at it, now. And besides, any art is good art. It's up to people's interpretation, anyway."

"I always wanted to learn how to draw a face… would you mind teaching me?"

If Romina could smile any wider, she was pretty sure that she would break her face. She nodded and quickly looked around for pieces of paper and pencils to use.

"Is there anything that you need, Miss?"

Romina looked behind her and looked at the flight attendant. She was dressed like a businesswoman with her hair in a tight bun, and a white button-up shirt and plaid skirt and black heels.

"Oh, yes, um, could we have some paper and two pencils?" Romina asked, timid. "Oh, and something to drink if you don't mind."

"What would you like?"

"Um, do you have lemonade?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Then that please."

"And would you like anything, Miss?" The flight attendant turned to Juniper.

"Sweet tea."

The flight attendant nodded once and left them alone. Romina turned to Juniper with wide eyes, an awkward smile on her face.

"This is going to take some getting used to."

"Yes, it will." Juniper sighed, looking back out of the window. "This is our lives for the next couple of months."

"Maybe weeks," Romina muttered. "But hey! Let's enjoy it while we can."

Juniper nodded and Romina sank into her seat.

This was it. The finality of it all took place as the flight attendant told them that the plane was taking off and that they would be in Angeles in a few hours. She also left the pieces of paper and pencils for the girls to use while they waited. It was easy to forget that she was heading to a life-changing event as she showed Juniper how to draw a face.

Somewhere during the ride, Romina had switched seats and sat with Juniper as they continued to draw. Most of their talk was about drawing skills and advice. Occasionally, Romina asked about Juniper's life and learned about her friends and parents. Juniper returned the same questions and Romina told her about her siblings and her favorite shows and such.

"I've noticed that you haven't talked about your friends," Juniper said.

"I don't have any," Romina said, before realizing what she said.

"Really?"

"Uh, no, I mean. I did have friends but not anymore, we, um had a falling out."

A.K.A Romina had a dumb drunk moment and made out with her best friend, Charlie. She claimed it was fine and that drunk moments happened all the time but almost every day, Romina felt like Charlie and the rest of their friends were laughing at her behind her back, and that they knew her secret. And on top of that, it was awkward to be around Charlie after that incident, especially when all she could think about was kissing her again.

She did talk with other people but she never got close to them. Romina didn't know what to say or do around new people. She always had a constant anxiety attack on trying to be friendly. Sometimes suffering through introductions and talks went well in the end and others a disaster, a Russian Roulette that she, unfortunately, had to play.

But with Juniper, Romina was pretty sure that this was a success until she opened her big, stupid mouth.

"Oh," Juniper frowned, thinking on how to continue the conversation.

There wasn't much to say with an unexpected bomb drop like that.

"I think you got a good start with drawing faces," Romina said, changing the subject.

Romina continued to ramble about Juniper's techniques and how much she improved over the last hour. She felt herself get hot and nervous, and she started to stumble over her words a lot.

"Well, that's another good thing about the Selection," Juniper said.

"Huh?"

"You can gain new friends there," she continued. "Since you no longer have any, well this is a great opportunity to start over again."

And the words lifted a weight off her chest and she turned to Juniper and smiled. She couldn't help but agree. At least she had that going for her.

A/N: And that's chapter three! I hope you guys enjoyed Juniper and I can't wait to write the rest of the Selected at the Castle. Also, wink wink. The Royal family is coming. Another thing that I want to mention before I let you go is that SYOC is up until July 11th, which also means that I won't be posting until then. So people with reserves and others that are interested, come on, come on. There's plenty of room for you! Until then, though. . .

Bye!