Don't you think nineteen's too young
To be played by your dark, twisted games?

~ "Dear John", Taylor Swift

.o0*0o.

To say that the next 24 hours were not going to be stressful was considered a feat to Liam as he looked out the window.

In his hand was a master list with 40 names, one of them belonging to his future wife. Trying to wipe exhaustion from his eyes, Liam walked towards the couch in the center of a sort of common room for the Royal Family. Scattered around the room, his older younger brother was looking through the written portion of these forms as Poppy and Ethan commented on the attached pictures. He had given Poppy pink sticky notes and Ethan blue to keep them from writing anything on them while Mason placed anything he thought on green ones. It was a system that was working as gray clouds gathered over the Angeles skies. It was, in all honesty, a butt ugly day to be arriving in the province for the first time as thirty-eight or so girls were.

Liam sighed as he smiled at Poppy's not quite perfect handwriting was on the completed forms and said simply Her eyes are pretty with a heart and She looks mean. Ethan's were along the same lines and Mason's were over really just his feeling from reading about them. His had She looks hot but she's also a socialite, so be careful about trusting her; Smart, on a full scholarship to one of the best law schools in the country; or, She is a triplet and apparently comes from old money. Dad is going to push you if you get her to keep her in longer. Liam smiled as he read through these. It helped to have three fresh opinions on forms that seemed to blur if he reread them. The overall facts he knew however where that 12 Twos, 14 Threes, 10 Fours, and 4 Fives had been Selected. Fifteen of them were blonde, sixteen were brunette, four had red hair, three had black hair, one had white hair, and the last had grey hair. He hadn't started counting eye colors but the pictures seemed to be a majority of brown or green eyes.

His anxiety about the girls had been escalating as the days had passed and now here he was, watching his siblings comment on the girls as he gave final approval to the rooming chart. He was just taking a drink of his water when one of the butlers came in to inform him that the first two planes had touched down. "Sir, the Selected from Whites, Yukon, Atlin, and St. George are in a helicopter en route here right now. Those from Lakedon, Labrador, Hansport, and Waverly are just now touching down at the Angeles International Airfield."

Just after Liam requested that news be sent when they actually arrived there and more planes returned, his attention turned to his sister cutting through the room in bikinis and a tiny cover-up. "Oi," he called out to them. Sidney stopped first and Willow reluctantly followed as they turned to face him. He saw just how skimpy their bikinis were and he demanded, "Where in the bloody hell are you going in that?"

Willow spoke to him as Sidney curled the ends of her ponytail. "Liam, we're just going to Noah's party. It's a pool party, so obviously we have to wear our swimsuits." Sidney caught onto whatever they were trying to convey as she added in, "I mean, who wears a ballgown in a hot tub?" The two smiled at him and Liam inspected them further. Willow had braided her brown hair back into pigtails and Sidney was fiddling with her dyed blonde locks. Besides the bikinis, which seemed less revealing the longer he saw them on the twins, they looked like they normally did. He sighed and told them, "I really don't want you at any party Noah hosts."

The twins gave him a look of abject horror refuting his claims with, "We're almost fifteen, Liam! Plus, it's only a bunch of Twos and ambassadors's children there. It's not like the media will be there to watch us."

Liam sighed and shook his head as they left the room. Poppy giggled and he smiled at the youngest princess. She had finished inspecting the girls as a butler informed them that the first helicopter was on grounds and the Selection was officially in the palace with makeovers starting. Now, Poppy was up and messing with Ethan over some toy or another. Upon closer inspection, it was because he was trying to push her away but he gave up. There were smiles on their faces as she played with dolls in a miniature castle he was inspecting to add stuff into and onto. As more and more news was brought of girls getting makeovers, Liam had an idea.

"Poppy," he called to his sister, "I need you to do me a favor." She smiled at him as he asked her, "Will you please go see the Selected for me? I personally can't, but if you do, they might let you have a makeover too." Poppy agreed hurriedly and ran from the room, pink gown streaming out behind her and bare feet running. He found it adorable that his little sister never wore real shoes around the Palace. It made the Palace almost seem like more of a home than a gilded cage. Just as he thought she was already down the three flights of stairs, Liam heard a little squeal of delight come from far away. Huh, she must have been stopped by the maids for a bit. Sometimes they were worse than the nannies when it came to protecting her.

He voiced this thought aloud and he heard Ethan agree. Ethan had scoffed at Poppy's squeal and Mason laughed at the youngest brother. He asked the little boy, "Would you like to go join Poppy? Or are you too old for spying?" Ethan looked as if he thought about it for a minute and told them he was "definitely too old. Spying was for little kids" and that he was ten years old for a reason. They both laughed at Ethan, and upon stopping, Mason approached Liam. "Hey, here are the rest of your forms. I hate to abandon you but I have a call scheduled in thirty minutes with AmeliƩ. Do you mind watching over Ethan for the rest of the afternoon? The nannies are off on holiday for the next two weeks until the Selection settles down a bit."

Liam wanted to take on the watching duty but he felt bad telling Mason, "I can't, Mason. I would love too but I have another stupid propriety meeting with your mother for when I meet the Selected. So does Noah, in fact. My best guess for you is to wait until Eleanor breaks up his party and the twin are free."

Mason shrugged and smiled ruefully. "Liam, we all know how horrible Sidney and Willow are at babysitting. Remember the last time they were left with Ethan and Poppy? Both of them were covered in glitter and makeup by the time someone came to collect them. With Poppy it was okay, but I still don't think Ethan has gotten over his hatred for the stuff yet." Liam laughed and agreed with Mason on that point before setting the forms down. He bid his brothers goodbye before he made his way to the Queen's office.

.o0*0o.

"May the booze be ever flowing, my friends," Noah bellowed as he popped the cork from a bottle of champagne.

Fellow cheers rang out around him in the pool house. He chugged the fizzy liquid from the bottle so that when he belched everybody else joined in with him. He had decided the night that he had announced the Selected that he would throw a final party before the girls arrived, and it was. He had ordered a plethora of alcohol, snacks, and most importantly, drugs. He grabbed a random pill, most likely ecstasy, and finished the bottle of champagne. Surrounding him were the cream of the crop his age- a mixture of the elite Twos and sons of foreign ambassadors visiting before the Selection commenced. It was perfect as these guys all had to leave at the end of the party to go home seeing as his grand dad had forbidden anyone from influencing the Selected against the Princes.

The guys around him, nobody with anything more than swim trunks on, all jumped in the pool or chatted through a drugged haze. He himself had grown tired of standing around chugging alcohol and chatting so he decided randomly to jump on the Russian boy Alexei and push themselves into the deep end of the pool. When he emerged from the crisp water, Alexei was goodhearted as he was swearing in Russian while they tread water. "So, friend," he asked, "when will the beautiful girls arrive?"

A guy with curly blonde hair and greyish blues eyes swam over to the two. He told Alexei, "Why does it matter to you, buddy? We can't talk to them anyways." Belatedly Noah realized the guy was Ayden Devonshire, a musician or something. Noah gave him a nod of his head to thank the dude for shooting down the almost diplomat, well, diplomatically.

Noah asked him aside, and the two got out of the pool and headed for the food. "I know who you are, yet how do I know you?" he inquired of the Two. Ayden laughed and told the prince of his connection to one of the Selected, a Maya or something, and that he had attended many charity galas. Noah smiled at the dude but he couldn't care less about the Selection in that moment. His drugs were kicking in and he just wanted to party. The buzz he had going strengthened as he continued to go hard. He had been about to go down the water slide when he heard something that made his blood go cold.

It was a girl's laugh. He looked over at the hot tub, where he could have sworn it came from, and he saw her. Grace. Any effect the substances made on him evaporated as she sat there flirting with the other guys. She looked younger than the last time he saw her, with cheeks that were more rounded and eyes that were bigger. "Hey, Noah," she called out to him. Confused, he went down the slide and swam towards the ghost. When he got there however, he was filled with disappointed. Who he thought to be Grace was actually just his annoying sister. Sidney was in her place, a flirty smile on her face as she chatted with the celebrities around her. Now pissed at himself for getting hopeful, Noah grabbed Sidney's wrist and started pulling her out of the tub. She cried in pain and he loosened his grip but still continued to pull her out of the tub. After a certain point the guys in the tub stopped staring at the action and now tried to look anywhere but at the siblings. Embarrassed and seeing that she wouldn't get to stay in the water, Sidney stepped out and into a towel. Quietly she asked him, "What was that for? I can't sit in the hot tub anymore?"

Noah huffed at her and they started towards an outside patio. He wasn't buzzed enough to think that having a fight with his younger sister would be any better than people knowing about the parties he threw yet he still did not want to have to deal with losing his buzz buddies. Once the door to the inside was closed, he turned to her and demanded to know why she was there. Looking back inside to make sure nobody was looking, she replied, "I'm allowed to swim whenever I want. And I wanted to." He didn't buy her story, even more so when she kept her eyes on one of the younger guys inside.

"Sidney, get out now. And take Willow with you, because I know that you two never go anywhere alone. Crash one of my parties again and I swear I will have Eleanor send you to a European all girls boarding school." Looking part heartbroken and part humiliated, she screamed "I hate you!" at him before going inside From his point of view he could see her go to Willow, tell her what was happening, and both looked bummed as they left. Even when he went inside, he couldn't help but think of his sister's face. He knew that the twins idolized him, who knew why, but he couldn't stand the way they followed him around like he was their white knight. Didn't they know that he was screwed up?

Inside, the party just wasn't the same to him. When he noticed Eleanor walking towards the building, he remembered that there was a propriety lesson this afternoon that he must have missed. Suddenly exhausted, he told everybody to leave. By the time they noticed most of them had their queen coming towards their intoxicated state, they all left through the back door quickly. He sighed and grabbed a couple of potato chips as Eleanor's heels clicked on the floor walking towards him. How she managed to do so in heels on slick tiles was beyond his knowledge.

"Noah Daniels Illea, what do you think you're doing?" Her face was pink from the anger radiated at him.

Wanting to be funny, Noah replied, "Having a party for one, of course." Eleanor, obviously not in the mood, slapped him hard across his left cheek.

She backed up from him and gestured to the mess left over. "This is ridiculous! You're high and drunk and who knows what else on the day that your future wife will be arriving!" Noah rubbed his cheek and tried to see what point she was making. After all, if he was going to be honest with his future wife, shouldn't he throw a party today? When he asked Eleanor this, she snorted. "You idiot. I'm trying to help you as your mother-"

He let her get no further by shouting, "You're not my mother, Eleanor! You are just a sorry, sad replacement for the woman my father loves! You were picked from a batch of Twos who were young and pretty and easy to manipulate! Everybody knows about how you weren't even picked for his Selection so you resented my mom, a lowly Four who became a One!" Shocked, Eleanor could not respond much further then shaking her head.

When she recovered, Eleanor simply told him, "Your father loves me enough, Noah. And I tried to be a mother for you even when you didn't deserve one," before she left the building. Noah watched her walk out and then rage overtook. He flipped the table with the refreshments on it over. Lounge chairs were thrown into the pool. A small table was thrown through, breaking, a window. He hated that woman. He hated the Selection. Most of all, he hated himself.

.o0*0o.

So before I get asked any questions about it, Grace is the daughter of the Illean Ambassador to Russia and Alexei is the son of the Russian Ambassador to Illea. They are kind of like opposites.

Anyways, here are a quick update on how the Royal Family is doing! If you can't tell, I wrote this more to go a bit deeper on who each Royal is and what they are like more so than any plot advancing stuff. Tell me what you think in th review section :)

For the next update, it will probably be on Sunday instead of Saturday because I have a competition this Friday and won't be home until Saturday afternoon/night. Just wanted to let you guys know.

Quick shout out to BellaRosa17, Deeptha13, and Morgenstar for following, Deeptha13 and MABubbles for favoriting, and my lovely reviewers: wolfofstark, MTJAS (sorry for being lazy and not typing out your name but the periods always make formatting weird), Cookiedoodles168, Artemis' hunters, MissAmeliaYoung, BellaRosa17, Angel Princess 31, jenhen48 x2, 4Love4Love4, orangerosey32, Max merica, and UltimateMaxmericaShipper.

Xoxo,

a very busy fivesauce'n'YAbooks