Hi! thanks for you reviews ;) it always makes me giddy to read them ;D
I'll REALLY be needing your forms FAST... PLEASE! I can't write without them... I've been continuing my Nanowrimo project yesterday since I couldn't write this story without the forms...I'll need all the girls before Friday, and all the boys before Monday... PLEASE?!
thanks ;) you can do it ;)
Chapter 4 – LOU
"Are you looking forward to the Selection?" Bell asked me. "After all, so many boys out there fantasize about you, sexiest woman in Illea for the past two years. If I were a boy in the right age group, I'd be putting in my own name. Or maybe it would be better to be on the other end of things, having twenty hot boys from all over Illea fight for my hand. Damn, I wish I could have my own Selection."
Everyone laughed, and she gave me the same box she gave Ben and I drew the twenty Provinces before selecting my boys. When that was done, the twenty bowls were brought out, and I could start my Selection. I elegantly dug my arm to the bottom of the first bowl – making sure my cleavage was presented to the world – and took out the first envelope, ripping out the paper dramatically and reading out the first name.
"From Waverly, Sir Ignacio Augustine Picasso, Caste 2." At least I started out the Selection with an upper Caste. A picture of a curly dark haired and mysterious young man appeared on the screen, with an angular jaw and a dimple on his chin. Yes, he looked good enough.
The screen went black and I walked to the next bowl, taking the first envelope on the top. "From Bonita, Sir Drake Wakefield, Caste 4." Ugh. Caste 4 was so low. But the see blue of his eyes caught my attention and I stared at the picture longer than was expected. When the screen went black, I started and gave my envelope to Carl, and got the next one, somewhere in the middle of the bowl.
"From Allens, Sir Calder Brett, Caste 3." I heard my mother gasp and turned around to look at her, curious. She blushed and covered her mouth, smiling. Dad whispered something in her ear, curiosity written all over his face. She answered something and he chuckled. Did she know that guy? But how could she? I had to admit he was very handsome. Too bad they hadn't taken the pictures shirtless.
"From Angeles," I continued, "Sir Devon Brett Thomas, Caste 3." His name was familiar, but I couldn't quite pinpoint where I had heard or read it. Oh. My. God. The guy on the screen was so sexy, I thought I would faint.
Get a hold, Lou. I almost thought it was mom talking, but it was just the small voice of my conscience.
A few names passed, and I concentrated on my smile, trying not to give away my emotions. So none of the names – or pictures – registered in my mind.
Until the guy from Sonage. "Cole David Reynolds, Caste 4." He had dark hair and dark eyes, and he looked like he could kill me with his eyes instantly. I liked mysteriousness. I gave the envelope to Carl, still staring at the picture on the screen until it went black and I had to call the next one. This was becoming tedious work.
"From Whites, Sir Michael Kendrick Abbott, Caste 2." The guy had extremely white skin. No wonder he was from Whites. But his smile was good enough. Damn. How was I ever going to choose? They were all sexy and dashing! Ugh.
"From Belcourt, Sir Jason Stone, Caste 3." I was much more luckier than Ben, because I had upper Caste Selected. A picture of a very handsome man with a light stubble and light grey eyes appeared on the screen. I was already so eager to have them all at the Palace. I wanted to jump up and down like little girl. But no, I was a Princess, and a grown up, and I had decorum.
The next names and faces all blurred together, and I just kept a regal face at all times.
Until the 3 last ones, that kind of stuck out to me.
"From Kent, Sir Leonardo Cornelius Fitzgerald, Caste 2." Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald. The name struck a chord in my mind, but I couldn't quite place it. But being a 2, he must have been famous or something. A blond guy with blue stormy eyes came up on the screen, the cliché hot guy you could find in magazines – mom didn't know Shelia bought me all kinds of people magazines – and I could already imagine what he would look like shirtless. I'm incorrigible, I know.
"From Columbia, Sir William Knox Webster, Caste 4." Oh. My. God. That was one sexy looking guy. His smile was really captivating and I found myself staring at his picture much longer than necessary.
Bell cleared her throat. "Um, Your Highness? I believe you have one more young man to select. Please don't make him wait any longer," she said playfully.
"Oh, of course, I'm sorry," I chuckled and took the last envelope from the last bowl, digging all the way down to the bottom.
"From Danbeigh, Sir Alexander Heathers, Caste 3." Heathers? Didn't Ben select a Heathers girl – yes I had been listening – before? Were they from the same family? Or was it only a coincidence? My jaw dropped when the picture came on screen. A young man with dark hair and clear – hazel? – eyes showed up, and I think my heart skipped a beat. Or did it? And he was the last one.
"Oh. My. God," Bell said in a loud whisper. "There you have it! Young Selected, you'll be having a visit from one of our Palace Staff during the week, to prepare you, before coming here next Thursday. The rest of you will meet the Selected on the next Report. Good night, everyone!" The musicians played the Anthem when Mr. Liner gave the signal, and it was over.
"Well, that's about it, right? There's nothing for it but to wait next week," Ben said, stretching on his chair like a cat.
"Yep. What are we going to do?"
"You could always re-do your wardrobe. I thought your dress was going to pop out with that cleavage of yours." He grinned slyly and walked away.
"Ha, ha. Very funny, Ben," I said, rolling my eyes at him and following him. We joined mom and dad and Tony in the dining room for Dinner. We all sat and waited for the footmen to serve the first dish.
"Enjoy your last week of silence and quiet," mom said. "Because once they'll be here, silence is only a memory until there's only one left.
Dad chuckled. "Really? We were that noisy?"
"Ugh, so much. I couldn't even concentrate on eating."
Dad burst out laughing. "We did have some great time in this room." He looked around with nostalgia in his eyes, and then chuckled. "Remember when Matt and Johnny pranked Roy with a huge plastic spider coming down from the ceiling?"
Mom laughed with a napkin over her mouth.
"They did that?" Ben asked, his eyes wide.
"What happened?" Tony signed, trying to follow on the conversation.
Dad signed him the scene and Tony laughed.
"Oh, they were already confirmed pranksters, I can assure you," mom said, still chuckling. "And Johnny ended up marrying one of Roy's sister… Small world, huh?"
I grinned, trying to imagine them. "How old were Uncle Matt and Uncle Johnny during your Selection, mom?"
"Nine years old. And they ran around the Palace all day long, finding pranks to do."
"Some of the Selected played their game, too," dad added, "and we pranked each other with the help of the Monster Twins – that's how we called them, back then – and we had really good laughs."
"And Lizy was the mascot of the whole Selection," mom said, gazing at dad, memories coming back at them.
"Who was Lizy?" I asked her.
Mom sighed, remembering. "She is James' daughter."
"James, as is in James Greene? One of your Selected?"
"Yep," dad said, "and one of my groomsmen. Lizy was our flower girl. You should have seen her on our wedding day: a cloud of tulle running around the ball room, and hiding under and behind the gowns dancing."
Mom smiled. "She was three years old, at the time, and sang a song at the Wedding Reception. It was the cutest thing ever."
"What did she look like?" Ben asked. He always loved kids, and drooled over their chubby, pink cheeks and wobbly legs.
"She had the most amazing dark brown eyes, almost too big for her face, and long dark brown curls that danced around her head when she ran or twirled."
"Funny thing," dad added, "she was very fond of one of the guys, Kaden, and he was really awkward with kids. But he found himself being her babysitter most of the time. She even fell asleep on his lap a few times. In the beginning, he had no idea what to do, and everyone laughed about it. But he eventually fell in love with Lizy – like everyone else, at that point – and it was really sweet to see him with her."
"Wait," Tony said – we had all signed as we talked, it was a habit of ours, to do both at the same time – frowning. "One of your Selected had a kid?"
Mom nodded. "His wife had died in childbirth."
Tony's mouth formed a surprised 'O'.
"I hope none of my Selected have kids already," I said. "That would be awkward."
"I wouldn't mind," Ben said softly, a small grin on his face.
We resumed our dinner, chattering of random things, how the Selected looked, and what there was to do in the coming week.
"Oh, and you know what?" mom said, mischievously, out of the blue. "When I married your dad, he didn't know how to French kiss."
I glanced at dad, who became scarlet. "Seriously, mon coeur? Did you have to say that?"
She nodded. "But it turned out he was really good at it when he was drunk." She burst out laughing.
"Well, if you must know," dad said, looking at us, his wits back, "I've learned a lot since then." He turned to mom and grabbed her face in his hands and started French-kissing her.
"Ugh, dad, mom! Stop it," I said. "Can you at least wait 'till we're out of here?"
Ben chuckled and Tony stared at his plate. For some reason, he always was kind of ill-at-ease when mom and dad displayed this kind of affection in front of us. I found it absolutely ridiculous and ignored them.
After what seemed like an eternity, they finally broke of their kiss and chuckled, gazing at each other lovingly. Ugh. I rolled my eyes, and pretended to eat
"Mom, I heard you gasp when I selected one of the boys. I can't remember his name, now. But do you know him?"
She giggled. "Not personally, no. But I've read all of his books, actually."
"He's an author?"
"Yes, Calder Brett is a great author. You should read one of his books, before the Selection starts."
"Um, how many books did he write?"
"Two."
Ugh. I hated reading. But maybe I would give it a try.
A few days later, after a week end of spa-ing and getting ready to meet all those handsome boys – and reading the book, mind you –, I sat on my plushy white carpet – in the middle of my room –, turned some music on, and I spread all the enveloped around me.
Shelia sat on a chair nearby, munching on an apple – there was a basket full of them for her in a corner of my room, since she loved them so much – and fiddled with a pen, a blank notebook on her lap.
"Are you going to design dresses?" I asked her.
She nodded. "M-hm." But her gaze was on the envelopes.
I rolled my eyes at her. "Oh, come on here."
She grinned and put her notebook and pen away, and sat on the floor across from me.
"You choose the first one, Shei'."
She looked at me, and then picked an envelope, handing it to me. I opened it and read the name. "Elijah Baskerville, from-"
"No, no, no, don't tell me." She looked at the ceiling, a finger on her chin. "Can you show me the picture?"
I chuckled and showed her the picture. "Pretty hot, huh?" I asked.
"Yes, yummy." She grinned. "I remember him being a 2. But other than that? Um… is he an actor?"
"Nope."
"A politician?"
"Nope."
She stared at me. "What is he?"
"Well, it says here that he is a Homicide Detective. But that's weird. How can he be a 2 and be a detective? He should be a 3, right?"
"Yeah. I bet he chose to be a homicide detective despite his Caste, because someone in his family – his fiancée maybe – was killed, and he promised her and himself that he would avenge her by finding the Killer? And since then, he has been looking for other killers, and just became a Homicide Detective just out of fate?"
I laughed. "Did you just come up with that?"
"Yep," she said, beaming.
I shook my head and chuckled, putting his form back on the envelope and taking another one. "Okay, what about this one?" I showed her the next picture.
"Um… redhead… There was a girl with the same name as him in Ben – I mean Prince Ben's – Selection… Um. Graves? It that it?"
I smiled. "You have a really good memory. His name is Lawrence Galen Graves, and he's from Zuni."
"Caste 6, right?" I nodded. "There weren't a lot of lower Caste boys. Okay, so he's a servant, obviously."
I checked the form. "Nope."
"What, not a servant? What is he, then? No, wait, don't tell me." She squinted her eyes, like she was trying to read through the paper.
I slyly hid the paper behind my back. "Don't cheat."
She laughed. "I don't have robot eyes. Um… Is he a taxi driver?"
"Nope."
She thought some more. "A cook?"
"Yes! How do you do that?"
She shrugged. "I like to guess – or invent, most of the time – romantic backstories to people I just met."
"Okay, what's his romantic backstory, then?" I asked, challenging her.
She thought for a few seconds. "He lives in a graveyard – since his name is Graves – and the love of his life is a young woman who comes every day to put fresh flowers on her dead husband's grave. He watches her from behind a tomb by day, and dreams about her by night."
I lifted an eyebrow and burst out laughing. "Oh my goodness. How am I ever going to take him seriously when I see him?" I dried a laughing tear that had wet the brim of my eyes.
"You'll have to, Your Highness," Shelia said. "Because you can't just dismiss him because of this stupid backstory I invented."
"Yeah, I know." I chuckled some more. "Did you put your name in the Selection, Shei'?"
She nodded, looking at her hands.
"I'm sorry you weren't picked." We went through a few more envelopes, inventing stories to the pictures we had, and laughing during the whole afternoon.
"Lou, have you ever fallen in love with someone you know you can't have?" Shelia asked out of the blue.
"Oh Shelia, don't tell me about that guard again! You must move on, or it will eat you away!"
"No, not the guard... someone of a much higher position."
"An advisor's son, then? I heard that Sir Loyd's son is single, and he's quite handsome, though his father is not a major advisor."
" No... Well, I don't feel like sharing it right now, actually."
"Okay. Anytime you do, though, I get to know first, okay?"
She nodded and went back to her dress drawing and designing. I gathered the envelopes and put them away. Three more days before the Selected arrived. I could hardly wait. I lay on my bed and took out the pictures again, staring at them longer – much longer – than necessary, until it was time to get ready for Dinner again.
What do you prefer until now? Ben's POV or Lou's POV? Do you like the Bast&Dora scenes? I can't get enough of them^^
I hope you liked this chapter! tell me what you think about it...
Don't forget to review ;) see ya on Friday for the first meeting with some of the girls!