"I can't believe you're still here. The maids were talking about what you did on the Report…it's a wonder you weren't hanged for treason!" Marlee exclaimed. She was sitting next to me on the floor of the princess's suite and she had all of the notes she could gather about the ball in front of me. As eager as she was to help, she also wanted to catch up.

I shook my head and pointed a finger to the door. "Maxon is right outside." I reminded her in a whisper. She nodded in understanding. "Okay," I sighed, "you want to help me or not?"

"These are what I could get. From what I can tell, she's trying to recreate the wedding menu with a few modifications. Some of the food contrasts with the guest list so there were some changes needed." She explained. "But other than that, I think if you just redo the decorations they had you'll be safe."

I nodded. "That's what I'm going to try to do but like you said, some changes are necessary." I informed her. "Marlee, how's Carter?"

"Oh…he's great! Oh America, even if you don't win, I hope you get married at some point. Even as palace servants it is a wonderful way of living. We almost have enough money so that both of us can have real rings." She told me excitedly. Then she looked sad. "I really do hope you win."

"Why?" I asked. "Sure, Celeste is a nightmare but Kriss isn't so bad."

She frowned. "You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"She apparently mistreats her maids. I heard them talking the other day. She is going crazy with trying to find ways to beat you. If a dress looks remotely like any of yours, she yells and screams at her maids. She hates being compared with you so she takes it out on her maids. It's awful, hearing some of the things she's done. She threw scissors at one of them." Marlee reported in hushed tones.

I sat there in shock. "What? Marlee…you have to tell Maxon."

"It's not my place anymore."

"It will always be your place, Marlee." I said, still in shock. "You were part of this Selection. You are just as much of a Three now as the rest of us."

"No, America, you don't understand." She was still shaking her head. "You have to tell Maxon. He trusts you, he has to hear from you."

I sighed, losing patience. "Marlee, I can't tell him something like that. He thinks so highly of her. If I screw up again, she is his only chance at being happy. I can't ruin that for him."

Her eyes grew soft and she looked at me with doe eyes. "You don't want to tell him…because you love him?"

I bowed my head and felt my cheeks warm. I was about to say something when the door burst open and Maxon ran in. It seemed like I kept getting interrupted. "My father is coming. Marlee, go back to the kitchens. America, we need to move."

I bolted to my feet and barely said goodbye to Marlee before Maxon pulled me out of the room and we started running down the hallway to the landing at the steps. The guards there looked anxious. "Thank you for the warning, gentlemen." Maxon said to them and they nodded their heads to us.

"Where's your dad?" I asked him, looking around frantically.

"He went up the back way." He answered. "Sorry your visit with Marlee was so brief. I hope you got everything you needed."

I smiled at him. "I could never tell you how thankful I am for keeping her here."

"Well you know why now. After knowing the kind of pain she endured, I could not bear to throw her out on the streets. The palace is much safer for them and they'll be much happier here."

I looped my arm through his and said, "So…our date?"

"Why don't you give your folders to a guard to take back to your room?" he suggested, taking them and waving a nearby guard over. He passed them off and the guard immediately started walking toward my room. "Now we can go on our date."

We were in the foyer, standing in front of the doors. Several guards came and opened the doors for us and for a few seconds the bright sunlight streamed through the doors, temporarily blinding both of us. When my eyes finally adjusted, I saw that sitting on the gravel drive in front of us was a car I had never seen before. It was blue and didn't have a roof. It looked really expensive.

"Please tell me we're not going in this." I said in awe.

"Sorry." He smiled brightly and wagged a key in front of my face. "Come on. This is my favorite car."

I gaped as he led me down the steps. "Favorite?" I repeated. "As in, you have more than one?"

He just laughed as he opened the door on the passenger side for me. The seats were white leather. He jogged over to the other side and pulled a pair of sunglasses out from the compartment between us. He smiled at me and started the car. The engine purred. Everything about this car seemed expensive. And he had more cars.

As he started to pull away, I looked around. "You don't need security?"

He shook his head. "But they'll be around. You just won't be able to tell."

"So where are we going?" I asked. The wind tossed my hair around my hair.

"That's a surprise. But first we have to make a costume change. Put on some normal clothes so we can blend in, correct?" He wagged his eyebrows and I couldn't help but laugh. I wasn't used to seeing him so easygoing.

"Do your parents know we're doing this?" I asked him.

He sighed and I could tell that behind his expensive-looking sunglasses he was rolling his eyes. "America, relax. A prince can't leave for several hours without going unnoticed. Which is why we're only going to be gone for several hours." He winked and I shook my head at him.

We pulled up to a small building made from brick. From the looks of it, we were in the back of it. He opened a wooden door in the back for me and let me in. We were in a room full of clothes for every occasion, every kind of weather, boy, girl, adult, child…any kind of clothing someone would ever need was in this room.

A young girl walked through, her heels clicking on the wooden floor. "Prince Maxon, Lady America…it's a pleasure to see you. What do you need?"

"Casual clothes." He said, rocking on his heels with his hands in his pockets.

She nodded. "Let me see what I can find. Prince Maxon, you can use that fitting room over there and Lady America, you can use the one next to it." She started folding clothes over her arms and I looked over at Maxon in confusion.

"We're technically not off palace grounds yet. In the event that a member of the royal family ever has to leave or go into hiding, we come here to get clothes that will allow us to blend in." He explained, walking over to the fitting room with his name on it.

I raised my eyebrows. "You can wear clothes that have been worn before?"

He laughed. "Of course not. These are all brand new and made to look worn."

I rolled my eyes and took the clothes the girl was handing to me. The bottom of the pile consisted of mostly jeans and I could not have been happier. I slid them on with a plaid shirt and tugged them inside a pair of leather boots. I poked my head out of the curtain to see Maxon standing in front of the full-length mirror adjusting his shirt. He was wearing jeans and sneakers with a plain black long-sleeve t-shirt. "Oh no." I laughed, stepping out from my fitting room. "You really aren't going to wear a black shirt, are you?"

He turned and his jaw dropped. "You look…" he stopped, at a loss of words.

I smiled and twirled for him. "Calm down. This is how I dressed on a daily basis back in Carolina." I folded my arms and appraised him. "Maxon, you can't wear black."

"Then what should I wear?"

I walked over to a rack of t-shirts like the one he had on and pulled out a white and blue baseball t-shirt. "Try this one." I tossed it to him and he held it out in front of him, inspecting it. "Just try it."

"Okay." He nodded and then pulled a pair of jean shorts from the rack next to him. "But you have to put these on."

I smiled coyly. "Fine."

We met in front of the full-length mirror again and I stood behind him, pointing out the pros and cons of the shirt I chose and the shirt he chose. "The blue and white softens your skin. You're already kind of pale and wearing black doesn't help."

"Well I like you in those shorts. The jeans made you look too mommy-ish." He informed me.

"Is that even a word?" I laughed, twisting in front of the mirror to look at myself from different angles. "I'm ready for the next part of our date."

He smiled and took my hand, pulling out the keys to the car. "Then let's go."

Sorry it was kind of dry. As soon as I post this I'm working on the next chapter so between that and the fact that school is over (I'm a SENIOR! Class of 2014!) it should be a fast update next. I'm warning y'all though, I'm taking AP English next year and I have to write two ten-page essays for summer reading and another essay that isn't quite that long but it's long enough so updates might be slow but I promise I won't abandon you guys!