I woke up the next morning to the silent chatter of my maids. I was starting to get used to this a little. I felt like something was going to happen today but I couldn't put my finger on it. After the strawberry tarts comes the… the date! Oh geez sorry Maxon you get kneed in the crotch but it's all for good a good story. I don't think that Kiera Cass knew that you were real.
"Lady Alex, it's time to get up"
"Amelia, Elizabeth, Sophia can you please not call me lady Alex, Alex will do just fine."
"Ok, but you still need to get up." Amelia giggled as she took off my covers and I face planted into my pillow.
"I'm getting up" I sat up and all the blood rushed to my head. Oh dear lord, my stomach hurt and my head hurts and everything hurts.
"Sophia I really don't feel good. Like at all." I wasn't lying my head was killing me. Sophia came over and took my temperature.
" Oh my!..Elizabeth, Amelia come over here."
"Sophia we need to get her down to the doctors now." Elizabeth looked stressed for the first time. Her usually calm demeanor was starting to fall.
"Alex can you stand up?' Amelia put a hand out to help me up and I grasped it while pulling myself up. Shit. My head was splitting open and my legs felt like jello but for some stupid ass reason I said that I could stand. No Alex you cannot stand. God I'm an idiot.
"Alex you can hold on to me were going to the hospital wing" Amelia pulled me out the door and down the stairs. We took our time but I could barley walk. I tried to walk normally even though it hurt like a bitch.
"I can get someone to carry you, can you walk?" Amelia asked me.
"Yes, yes I'm fine" No Alex you are anything but fine. We walked for a little more and then I started to see spots. Good god Alex why did you think you were fine. Are you really such an idiot. There were spots flashing in front of my eyes and off of the windows. I saw more and more, my head was now burning and it felt like tiny knives were stabbing into my skin. White, black, purple, red. Yes red. Why are the windows red. Why is the air red. Why is everything red. Also where am I walking? And who is this person next to me? My legs buckled and I came crashing down to the floor.
"Is she going to be ok?"
"Yes, we gave her an IV with some medicine and her fevers dropping."
"That's good."
With some effort I opened my eyes and looked around. I was on a bed with needles and tubes in my arm. This must be the hospital wing. Huh. I felt a little tired and also a little foggy. What on earth happened to me? All I remember was a shit load of pain and red. Yeah my vision turned everything red. Shit that must have been bad.
"Alex you're awake!" Amelia jumped up from the chair she was sitting in.
"How are you feeling, does your head hurt?"
"Amelia, I'm fine. A little foggy but fine. What happened?"
"Well you fainted then a guard carried you here. You had a huge feaver though, it was horrible and you have also been out for two days."
"TWO DAYS!" I sat up immediately but Amelia pushed me down.
"You need to lay down. That's what the doctor says." Oh shit oh shit. Stuff happened while I was out. I forgot if anything major has happened but I will need to check very soon. Like NOW.
"Amelia, can you do something for me. But you will need to keep it a complete secret and you can't tell anybody."
"Yes"
"Ok, I want you to go up to my room and get me one of my books. It is on the third shelf behind all the other books. Its cover is white but that because the cover is flipped. I want you to get me the one that is blue on the inside cover behind the paper cover."
"I can do that."
"You can't tell anybody though, and don't read the book. If anybody asks what's inside say it is my personal stuff." I hoped nobody would ask though and that Amelia didn't open it up. If anyone found out…
I watched Amelia leave then come back fifteen minutes later with my book.
"Here it is" she handed my the book then left. I looked around to make sure I was alone then opened it up. Ok, ok I missed the attack. Nothing that I really wanted to be there for and also Maxon and America have come up with tugging their ears. Ok tomorrow is the report but we don't have to do anything. Seems good, now on the report do I want to stand out..hmmm, America stood out but I don't want to steal her spotlight, she gets noticed by Maxon on the first report. But I didn't want to blend in too much with everyone else. The most popular colors were green and red, America wore blue/purple so those are out. Marlee wore yellow so thats out as well. I'm not wearing orange, but that's obvious. Lets see that leaves, pink, grey, black, white, brown or a nude color. I would go white or black but white is wedding dress and I absolutely cannot go there. I could go for another one my my maids dresses black and color dresses but I don't know, I want to change it up a little. Maybe I could go for a.. What the hell I'll just wear what my maids give me, their amazing at this sort of stuff. I put the book under a fold in the sheets and closed my eyes.
I felt someone shaking my shoulder.
"What's happening"
"We're moving you back to your room." I opened my eyes and Sophia was standing in front of me holding out her arm. I stood up carefully and surprisingly my head didn't hurt. We walked along in silence until we got to my door. Sophia pushed it open and I gasped. Inside Elizabeth and Amelia were putting the final touches on a light pink, cream colored dress that had long lace sleeves and a boat neckline. It was absolutely beautiful, just the right amount of different but doesn't stand out.
"It's beautiful.."
"This is your dress for the report tomorrow. You won't be doing anything but you will have to sit through the whole thing."
"That's fine, I'm not good at public speaking." I laughed it off, but really I was terrified of the next report where we would have to answer some questions. What would I say!?
I looked back at the dress, it was very mature. My maids put some finishing touches on it and then asked if I wanted to try it on.
"Sure, then you can make sure it fits right." It slipped over my head and Sophia buttoned up the back. I walked over to the mirror in the corner. I looked.. Older...more mature and regal. This is what America had feared, not looking like herself.
"Elizabeth am I wearing any makeup?"
"No," and I wasn't wearing any jewelry ether. I just didn't look like Alex. My body was long, willowy and frail. It looked as if one gust of wind could blow me away. My hair was lighter and longer than ever going past my shoulders in thin wavy strands. In the mirror my face was normal. I smirked and turned the corner of my mouth. My face suddenly transformed into Alex, I recognized myself. Alex was thirteen, a fangirl, ravenclaw, dauntless, slytherin, slightly insane. This person that I was looking at in the mirror wasn't Alex. I could call her Eleanor. She looks like a Eleanor.
My maids took of the dress and I sat down on the edge of my bed.
"Elizabeth, Amelia, Sophia? Can you make me some clothes?"
"Well, we are making your clothes. Like this dress." Amelia responded.
"No, I mean like not dresses. Can I draw up a picture of something and you make it? I won't wear it outside of my room. I promise."
"Yes, I think that would be fine."
"Thank you so much." I knew at once what I was going to have them make.
Once I was done I looked over my picture. It was almost exactly what I wore for the picture on my application. A white collar shirt with buttons and high waisted black skinny jeans. I also added a special touch of my own. This was a Alex outfit, not Eleanor. On corner of the end of the sleeves where it splits and you can roll it up, I put a tiny deathly hallows. It was one small addition but I loved it. I was going to do the three stars in the corner of the Harry Potter books but they looked to much like the star that the northern rebels use so that was out. I gave it to my maids and they said they would do their best.
The report was in half an hour. I slipped on my dress with the help of my maids and they started applying my makeup and getting out some jewelry. Once they were done getting me set up I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked like Eleanor. Then I saw it. It was absolutely tiny but, still it was there. On my ears were tiny deathly hallows earrings.
"How.. did you get these.."
"We saw the symbol on the drawing you gave us. It was a surprise." Elizabeth sounded worried
"Do you like them?" Sophia asked.
"I love them. Thank you guys so much." They were barely noticeable but it was a piece of Alex with me.
I arrived at the set of the report before many of the other girls had. There were people for putting on makeup and mixing hair, there were people for putting up the lights and making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be. I knew that putting on a tv program or show took a bunch of people but I didn't think that the report would take this many people. I was just about to sit down on one of the couches by the side when Silvia in all of her glory came over to usher us to the stands. As I expected (knew) girls had already filled up the bottom rows and like America I climbed up the stairs to the top rows and sat down. A little while America and then Marlee came up and sat next to me.
"What do you think of the report?" I asked them
"It's crazy, there are so many people here and I don't like people looking at me." America responded
"Yeah, I don't like being in front of the cameras."
"I like everyone's dress, but Olivia's dress is bright orange, don't you think that somebody should have intervened on her behalf. " Marlee said.
"Yeah, It's making her look kinda green" America added. I smiled knowing that it wasn't just the dress that was making her green and soon enough Olivia rushed over to the trashcan and threw up. Silvia rushed to mop her up and get her back in her seat before the report started. Once everything was in order the lights came on and people started talking. Gavril talked for a while and the King, he talked on and on about how the rebels where the cause of almost everything wrong with Illea. Sure. Because having a caste system where people are labeled from birth and confined to certain jobs and the lower castes are not a well treated and looked down upon. No that can't have any negative effect on anything. Since I knew what they were saying before they said It I blocked out most of the report, even to my own surprise even the part where Maxon talks about America scolding him. I was tired and just wanted to go to sleep, my head was droopy and had been Eleanor for the last hour. Being Eleanor involved very controlled soft movements, perfect posture and of course keeping my emotions deep, deep down inside me. I wasn't used to it so it was quite exhausting. I hope it will get easier.
After dinner I headed back to my room and sat down at the desk to write another letter to my friends. I just needed to talk to them.
Dear Ana Luna and Zia,
Hey, You remember how during the selection America's fear was that she would turn into someone that wasn't her and get covered in makeup and drown in jewelry and dresses . Well when I came to Illea I stayed thirteen in soul and mind but my body was my seventeen year old's body . When I first came here I dismissed that fact and never truly addressed it but recently I was sick and was out for two days. I woke up the day before the first time we go on the report and when I put on the dress that my maids gave me, I didn't look like Alex . I was wearing no makeup or jewelry at the time also . I just didn't look like myself . That girl that I saw in the mirror, I named her Eleanor . She was older, more mature, regal, calm . I've decided that when I'm not in my room, on my own or with Maxon I'm going to be Eleanor . I don't know why I'm not going to be Alex, It's just I don't look like Alex and in the palace under the eagle eye of Silvia, I can't be Alex . I'm not going to forget myself though . My maids are amazing, you'll never guess what they made me . So I gave them a drawing of an outfit that I wanted them to make for me and It had the deathly hallows on it . So as a surprise they made me deathly hallow earrings! They are amazing and also tiny so you can't really notice them . I don't want people asking what they mean .
It's crazy here . I still haven't gone on a date with Maxon but I think that he will ask me soon . I've decided that I will tell him where I'm from and all that but It's just so hard . I don't know how he will react . Fingers crossed it goes well . The dresses are amazing, Zia you would love it . Both you and Ana Luna would love the jewelry, clothes and makeup way more that I do . At least I have my books . How's it going back home . I'm not sure what the terms and conditions for this whole time, reality, book, world travel thing is . Like is time frozen at home or have I just like disappeared . Oh god I hope I haven't just disappeared, my parents would be so worried . Wait what if the whole time line changes and I never was born and have ceased to exist in 2017!? I miss you all so much . Swear a lot and don't forget me!
-Alex
END OF CHAPTER FOUR
Reply of O. Pen-Dragon's comment
Despite me not really liking Apsen, Alex will not punch Aspen. Many of my friends want me to make Alex punch him but I won't do it. Also Aspen comes to the palace before Maxon picks the Elite, but yes Alex will become an Elite. Also I didn't quite understand when you said "I would like to see your version of the story" so you can private message me to clarify of just comment again but I would like to hear your feedback. Thanks for reading.
-May Jone
