When the ball started

Adam's POV

You can do this, I told myself. Just talk about Harry Potter. She's wearing the robes, so she's probably a fan. She looks nice. You can do this.

I took a deep breath, and exhaled. I tried to smile, and walked up to the girl. She was pretty short, shorter than Bree. The two girls did look similar, they both had blonde hair, except Bree's was longer than the Selected's.

The Selected was going around talking to other people. She looked like she was having fun, there was a goofy grin on her face.

I took another deep breath, and walked up to her. Be positive.

"G-good evening," I said, mentally kicking myself for stuttering.

She turned around, sugar cookie in hand. She saw me, and dropped into a slightly clumsy curtsy.

"Prince Adam," she said. She got out of the curtsy, and stuck her hand out. "I'm Joy Johnson. Call me Joy. Apparently there's this whole Lady title, but I think it's too proper."

"I agree with you, Joy. I get tired of being called Prince. Not blaming you for calling me that, I just don't like the title that much. Like you don't like the Lady title. And I'm rambling now, sorry."

Joy shrugged. "I ramble sometimes too. Especially about the stuff I like."

"Do you like Harry Potter?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

Her green eyes brightened with excitement and happiness. "Yeah! I love Harry Potter! It was one of my favorite book series when I was a child. Well, it's still one of my favorite series. My favorite character's Ginny, who's yours?"

"Neville. Ginny's awesome though. Are you dressed as a character, or just a Gryffindor?"

"Just a Gryffindor. I consider myself a Gryffindor Hufflepuff hybrid, but that costume would be really complicated. So I just decided I would dress as a Gryffindor. Do you like my costume?"

"I do, it's really cool. You look beautiful," I told her. She giggled, smiling.

"Thanks! Your costume is pretty cool, what is it?"

"Samwise Gamgee. From Lord of the Rings."

"Oh, that's cool. I'm not the biggest reader, but I like reading. Do you think I should read Lord of the Rings?"

"Oh, yeah! It's really good, lots of action and excitement. It's really original, although there aren't that many female characters, which is bad. But it's a good book," I answered.

She made a face, which was kind of cute. "Oh. I'll check it out then, though I'm not too excited about the lack of female characters."

There was an awkward moment of science.

"Talking to you was fun!" Joy piped up, grabbing more sugar cookies. I flinched slightly at the unexpected noise.

"Yeah. It was cool," I said quickly. "I, um, have to talk to others tonight. Sorry."

"Oh, okay. See you later then!"

Joy was a nice girl, and the interaction had gone better than expected. It gave me a bit of confidence I was lacking before.

"Adam!"

I immediately recognized Ella's voice, and turned around. She, Astrid, and one of the Selected ran over to me.

"This is Lilia. Her moms are friends of Aunt Brynn," Ella said.

Lilia had black hair, which framed her small face, and big brown eyes. She wouldn't meet my eye, and stumbled over her words.

"H-hi Your Highness," she stammered. "It's an honor."

She looked incredibly nervous, which was pretty much how I felt.

"Call me Adam," I said. "I don't like all of the proper titles."

Astrid and Ella left us alone, whispering madly. We just stood there for a minute, in a silence that I was all too familiar with.

"What do you do? What's your job?"

I usually wasn't the one starting the conversation, but I was desperate to stop the awkward silence.

"I'm a beautician," she said, her nervousness dissipating. "I do makeup! It's really fun, and I know a lot about it. I don't do hair though."

"Oh, that must make this whole Selection a lot easier. Because you are used to makeup. Others might not be, but you are. You can even fix your makeup. It's a useful skill, you'll definitely use it."

Before I could keep rambling like an idiot, Ella and Astrid ran back up to us.

"Come on Loom, I gotta introduce you to Bree," Ella exclaimed excitedly, grabbing her hand and pulling her along. Astrid waved at me, and ran after the other two. I smiled, happy my siblings were having fun.

Now I had to go talk to another Selected. I thought I should talk to someone social, and hope they do most of the talking. I noticed a blonde girl who had been talking to another Selected, and she was near me, so I decided to approach her.

"Hello," I said, a little too quietly. I couldn't tell if she hadn't heard me (or was just ignoring me, but she didn't seem the type to ignore someone), so I said the same thing, but loader. This time she turned around, looking curious.

"Hi, I'm Cecelia-" she started of, her voice dying in her throat. Half a second passed, and then she curtseyed. She was the girl who had talked to Astrid.

"Sorry Your Highness," she mumbled. "I didn't notice you were . . . you."

"It's fine. Please call me Adam though, I don't like titles. I would say more, but I would be babbling. And that's awkward. I'll stop now."

Cecelia tilted her head a bit, smiling a little. "Okay, I'll call you Adam then. You should call me Lia."

"Oh, okay," I said, playing with my cloak.

"Are you dressed as a Lord of the Rings character?"

"Y-yeah. No one's figured that out before," I mentioned, pleasantly surprised.

"Well, I love to read. Lord of the Rings is a really good book. Maybe I should have dressed as a book character," she wondered out loud. "I'm an angel, if you haven't noticed."

Cecelia wasn't talking about herself, she was talking about her costume. She was wearing a long white dress, with wings and a halo. Her blonde hair was half up (in some kind of braid) and half down.

"I did notice, yeah. You look great."

She giggled (which sounded really cute), doing a little twirl. It was impressive, since she was also wearing white heels that were at least one inch high.

"How can you walk in those shoes?"

It had been at least a second before I realized I had said that out loud.

"I'm a stage actress," she answered. "I have to walk and dance around in heels and dresses a lot. It's a good skill."

"Yeah, sounds like one. There's another Selected who has a skill like yours. Lilia. By that, I mean useful. She can do makeup. Makeup and being able to move in heels are both useful skills."

I internally screamed as Cecelia nodded. "Yeah, that seems like a good skill. Maybe I should talk to her, ask her some tips."

"She's with my sister, if you want to talk to her."

"Okay. I met your sister. She's really nice. You two seem very close."

"We are. My whole family is actually pretty close. I mean,my parents are busy people, but they make time," I told her.

"That's great! I'm really close to my mom and brother," she said enthusiastically, smiling.

"What about your dad?"

A flash of hurt appeared in her pretty brown eyes, and I cringed inwardly.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked that. I'm really sorry."

She shrugged, smiling, but still looked hurt. 'It's okay. You didn't know we aren't close."

I looked away from her, wrapping my hand in my cloak.

'I'll talk to you later, I guess," I eventually said, not meeting her eye. She still grinned anyway.

"Yeah. I look forward to it."

I doubted that.

I went to grab a glass of punch and some candy. I quickly downed the punch, and leaned against the table. I didn't like social interactions, and it was even worse when I was talking to girls I might marry. I would rather avoid this whole thing, and read a book, but I couldn't. It would be good if the Selected could introduce themselves to me, but I doubted that would happen.

"Adam, hey!"

I recognized the voice. It wasn't a Selected, but my cousin. Lena sauntered up to me, a champagne glass filled to the top in one hand. The other hand was on her hip.

"Whatcha doin?"

I shrugged, eating some of my candy. Lena leaned against the table with me.

"Aren't you supposed to be talking to the Selected?"

"Yeah. I'm taking a break," I said.

She bumped me with her shoulder, somehow making sure her drink didn't spill. "Come on, it can't be that bad. Just go say hi, ask a few questions, and do that over and over again. You'll really get to know them later, when you two are alone together."

"It's not that easy," I sighed. "You're social. I'm just not."

"You talked to a few girls, right? How did that go?"

I quickly ran the three experiences I had experienced through my head, cringing internally.

"The first one went okay. The second one was really awkward, and the third one was going well until I brought up another Selected and her father, who she isn't close to," I explained.

Lena actually did cringe. Outwardly. "Okay, maybe you haven't done that well yet. But I'm going to help you. I'm pretty good at flirting."

To help her argument, she winked at me and did finger guns.

"Just tell the girl who you're talking to hi, and then ask her how she's been. Tell her she's beautiful. Ask her what she likes to do, and then tell her it was nice talking to her. It's that simple."

"That's not simple!" I exclaimed, a bit louder then I expected.

Lena rolled her eyes playfully, and tapped her finger on her fake beard. I could almost hear the mechanics whirring in her head.

"Okay," she said slowly. "How about this. I'll introduce you to that girl over there."

She pointed to the other side of the ballroom. The girl had a pirate costume on, and was looking around the room. Her brown hair was curly, and spilling out of her hat. Her costume included a black coat, that was red inside, black gloves, and tall black boots. She looked really cool.

"She's really nice, come on!" Lena grabbed my hand, and pulled me across the ballroom. "Hey, Kenzie!"

The girl, who was probably Lady Mackenzie Stone, turned around. She smiled, and waved at us. I blushed.

"This is my cousin, Adam," she said.

"Adam. Nice to meet you, I'm Mackenzie," she stuck her hand out, and I took it.

I was pretty surprised she just called me Adam. Most people would tack on a title on the beginning, but she didn't. It was nice.

"N-nice to meet you," I echoed. "Do you like the castle?"

I saw Lena smile at me in the corner of my eye. I also saw Kenzie's smile widen, and her warm brown eyes brighten.

"Yeah! It's gorgeous, it must have taken so long to design and build. There's so much detail! The chandlers in this room are really pretty, and so are the towers I saw on the way here. I love 'em!"

Her little rambling about my home made me smile, for some reason I couldn't understand.

"I could show you around the castle sometime. To see the best places. Well, places that I like. If you don't want to, that would be okay to," I babbled. She beamed at me, which made my stomach leap into my throat.

"That would be really awesome! I would love to look at this beautiful place."

"Are you an architect?" I asked her.

She paused, her hand that were waving around in the air stopped moving.

"No. Farm hand."

"Oh," I said. "T-t-that's nice. You must get a lot of fresh air! And sun! Sounds fun."

I nodded, trying to smile and save myself.

"It is! I love being outside. I do love a nice building though," Kenzie stated.

"Hey, I know you must get this question a lot, but are you related to Natalia Ignacia? You two look alike, but you have different last names. And castes," Lena butted in. Kenzie's smile immediately disappeared.

"She's my twin," she answered flatly.

"You don't like her very much, do you?" I guessed. "Y-you stopped smiling."

She nodded, her eyes narrowing. "I hate her. She's manipulating, you shouldn't trust her. You'll want to, but don't. She's a liar and a horrible person."

I blinked in surprise. Kenzie had just been a nice, excited, sweet person. Lady Natalia must have been a pretty bad person.

"Okay. I'll remember that."

No one spoke for a moment, and then Lena elbowed me in the side.

"It was nice talking to you, K-kenzie."

"Great talking to you to, Adam."

Lena and I walked of. I quickly realized I was smiling, which surprised me.

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?"

"Yeah," I said. "That was actually really nice."

"I thought so," Lena agreed. "Ooh, there's someone else I want you to meet."

Lena's probably talked to more people at this ball then you would try to, a voice in the back of my head whispered. I pushed it down, and followed her over to another Selected.

"Adam, meet Lady Evadne!" Lena exclaimed.

Lady Evadne looked a lot like Lilia, though I doubted they were related. Her hair was dark brown, and curled, so it fell in waves. Even though she was from Hudson, her skin was tanned, and her eyes were dark brown. She was dressed as Wonder Woman, and her costume was really good. Whatever material her maids used to make the gold, red, and blue costume, it looked remarkably like metal. She wore tall boots, handguards, the golden tiara/headband thing, and a lasso hung from her hip. A sword was strapped to her back.

I faintly remembered she was from the Leventhorpe family, which apparently was huge. Nico knew more about the scandal than me, but from what he had told me a couple days ago, the family was behind big investment scams and corruption. Another thing that had popped into my head was her Instagram account. She volunteered at charities. She couldn't be a bad person if she volunteered at charities.

"My prince," she greeted respectively, doing a perfect little curtsy.

I shifted my weight from one foot to another, which she noticed.

"Would you rather me call you Adam?"

"Yeah, actually."

"Okay. Call me Vad."

Lena butted in for the second time that evening. "I'm going to go talk to Bree, and leave you two alone. See ya!"

She skipped away, leaving us in silence.

"Are you uncomfortable?" Vad asked me, one hand on her hip.

"Um, y-yeah. I guess that's not too hard to spot," I chuckled, scratching the back of my head. "I don't like big events like this. You seem nervous too."

"I do?"

"Yeah. I mean, you don't show it. But I can tell. Sorry if that sounds weird, I'm just good at reading people. Oh, that sounded like bragging. My friends tell me that I'm good at reading people. That's how I could tell," I rambled.

She nodded. "Some people tell me that to. That I'm good at reading people. And yes, you're right. I'm nervous."

"Can I ask why? You don't have to answer."

She shrugged. "I have nothing to hide. My family-well, my dad mostly-aren't good people. I'm usually lumped together with the rest of them. But I'm not evil. Well, I used to be a huge b*tch before. There's nothing like a good fall from grace and a family scandal to make you realize you were one."

I laughed at that point, which made her laugh. Vad was honest, I liked that.

"You aren't a bad person. You volunteer at charities," I said.

Her eyebrows raised. "You know about that."

"Uh, yeah. My cousin Bree, she knows your Instagram. She showed it to me. So I'm not a stalker."

She grinned at that comment. "You don't seem like a stalker. Can we just skip all of the pleasantries and stuff, and be friends?"

"Yeah! I mean, that sounds really cool."

She stuck out her hand, and looked up at me. I took her hand, and we shook. Her handguard was actually made of real metal.
"We'll talk later, right?"

"Yeah," I answered.

We parted ways. Lena appeared next to me yet again.

"She's great, isn't she? I thought you would like her."

"You were right," I said. "You're good at this."

"You'll get better," she began. "Besides, you're lucky. Most of the Selected I talked to are nice people. I mean, they could just be trying to suck up, but I've also seen them talk to others the same way they talked to me."

"Most of the Selected are really pretty too," she added, a mischievous grin on her face. "It's too bad I can't date any of them. They're cute."

I chuckled. My father had made it so if the Selected had a romantic relationship with someone else, they would just be eliminated. It was much better than the law beforehand, where they would be caned in public. The thought that that could happened to Uncle Tristan and Aunt Chrystal ran through my mind, and made me shudder.

Talking to Rosie Symmes was fun. I had met her before, so it was easier to talk to her then with the other Selected. She was a swimmer, and a really happy, sweet person. I was glad that someone I knew was in the Selection. Lady Alexis (who had told me to call her Alex) seemed a bit uncomfortable, but was overall pretty nice. I liked her.

I was looking around for Selected to talk to (and yet somehow still dreading talking to them, I didn't really know how that worked). I saw a girl who was wearing a black dress with a red cloak. Her face was covered by the hood, but when she looked up, I met her eyes. They were a stunning light green. I couldn't bring myself to look away.

I took a deep breath, and walked over to the girl. As I got closer, I saw that she had blonde hair, and her eyes were narrowed. I gulped. She was kind of scary.

"Good e-evening," I greeted her. "I'm Adam."

"I know."

I paused, not sure what to say to her. She seemed hostile, but I got the feeling she was more then that. She was definitely closed off.

"What's your name?" I asked uneasily.

"Olympia Archer. Pleasure," she said in a clipped tone.

"Do you like the ball?"

"Not particularly."

For some reason that made me want to laugh, even though I was kind of scared. She was bold.

"You have all these riches, why don't you use them to help people instead of throwing parties?" she added. "It's silly."

I shrugged, speechless for a minute. "Um, well, I guess people like watching us? You have a point, we should be helping more lower caste people with this money. I'm not that into politics. My brother is. And my dad. They are trying to help, although me saying that probably doesn't change your mind. I don't know how to help, I like to read, not discuss politics. I'm not going to be king either, I don't have that much of a say."

She met my eyes with those stunning green ones of her's. "Your a prince. You're a Schreave. Of course you have a say."

Yet again, I found myself speechless. I broke eye contact, looking at the floor. We stayed quiet for a few moments.

After I found my voice again, I spoke, "I suppose your right. I'll try harder. You should talk to my brother about this stuff. H-he loves politics, and talking about it. He can go on for hours with the right people. Not with me though. Like I said, I don't know much about the topic."

"I might talk to him then."

"Okay. That sounds good. For you, I mean. Fun," I mumbled. "Well, um, it was nice talking to you?"

She turned her head, looked me in the eye, and said, "You too." And I knew she meant it.

That had been a strange conversation. I hadn't expected it. I was pretty sure Olympia was a two, or just a high caste in general. But she cared about the poor. I mean, many high caste people cared about the poor, but many didn't. She was also bold, and had said things I didn't think the Selected would say. I got the feeling my twin would enjoy talking to her.

I glanced around the ballroom, wondering who I was going to talk to next. I quickly found Nico, talking to a girl with wine red hair. I couldn't find the rest of my family/friends.

I also spotted a girl who had to be one of the Selected. She was dressed in a red trench coat, and something like a red leotard underneath it. Her black boots were tall, and a yellow scarf hung from her neck. She held a silver briefcase, and her black hat was tipper downward. I couldn't see her face, but even so, she turned heads. Her costume was really cool, and I kind of wanted to talk to her.

I walked over to her slowly, not wanting to surprise her. Her eyes flicked over to me, and she curtseyed. She didn't miss a beat.

"Your highness," she said.

"Adam. C-call me Adam. Who are you?"

I wanted to cringe at how disrespectful I sounded, but she didn't seem to notice.

She came out of her curtsy, and adjusted her hat so I could see her face. Her skin was smooth and brown, like caramel.

"Selene Lucia. It's an honor," she murmured, sounding cold but polite.

"I like your costume. What are you dressed as?"

"Carmen Sandiego. She's from an old franchise, you probably haven't heard of her. What are you?" she answered, asking a question in the process.

"Samwise Gamgee. He's a character from one of my favorite books, Lord of the Rings. It's really old, you probably haven't heard of it either. It's really good though," I explained.

"I see. I might read it then."

Selene grabbed a piece of strawberry candy, and started to eat it. She seemed cold and aloof, but there was more to her then that. I could feel it. She also seemed hopeful, for some reason.

"What do you like to do?"

She looked up at me. Her brown eyes covered up her emotions well. "I like to act. And do yoga."

"Yoga sounds pretty relaxing. I've never tried it. I think my sister knows something about it though. I should ask her. . ." I shut my mouth before I could say any other stupid comment.

"It is relaxing," she got this look in her eye, almost bitter and kind of sad, but it disappeared quickly.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine. Why do you ask?"

"You just seemed mad for a second," I said, hoping I wasn't prying. "Sorry."

"I'm okay. Thanks for asking though."

I just stood there, not saying anything. Selene was intimidating, and commanded attention. I wasn't sure what to say.

"I-I have to talk to others. And do stuff. And some other things. This was fun?" I stammered awkwardly.

"It was a pleasure," she said, nodding.

That had been awkward. Selene had seemed icy, but I knew she was more then that. I wanted to talk to her, but didn't at the same time.

I was broke out of my train of thought when I saw a Selected in front of me. She was scowling, and it seemed like her blue dress was caught on something. I jogged up to her, knelt down, and fixed her dress.

"Thanks," she said. Our eyes met, and she curtseyed once she recognized who I was.

"Prince," she muttered, light sarcasm laced into her voice. "I'm Genevieve Lark."

"Oh, um, call me Adam," I said. I heard a slow song start to play, and decided to take a risk. "Would you like to dance?"

She said yes, although it seemed like she didn't want to. I took her hand, which was actually pretty rough, and we walked out onto the dance floor.

"What's your costume?" I asked her.

"Marie Curie," she said, no emotion in her voice.

"Oh, the scientist. A-are you interested in science?"

She nodded, but she definitely liked it more then she let on. She was a six, learning about science would be very hard, even for smart people.

"I'm not that interested in science, no offense. My sister is the one who likes it, really. She likes nature. I do to, but not as much as she does," I mentioned.

"You're dressed as Samwise Gamgee," she pointed out, probably trying to change the subject. I twirled her, her skirt fanning out beautifully.

"Yeah. I really like Lord of the Rings. What about you?"

"It is a good book."

Genevieve seemed cold, but like Selene, there was something behind it. They were both interesting people. I would have liked to get to know them both.

"Are you enjoying the palace? I know you haven't seen much of it though, so I guess you don't know much about it yet. What do you think?"

"It's beautiful," she replied stiffly. I could see disdain in her eyes, and I knew she wasn't telling me something. I didn't say anything, I didn't want to make Genevieve uncomfortable.

"I'm glad you like my house. Well, calling it a house is incorrect. It's bigger than most houses."

"Yeah, it is," she almost spat.

We spent the rest of the short dance in silence,and then left the dance floor.

"T-Thanks for the dance. It was fun," I said.

"Yeah, it was," she said, sounding a bit cold. I didn't know if she liked me that much.

With the way the Selection was going for me, I wasn't sure if it was going to be an amazing experience.


Hello! The Halloween ball is over, and there is a poll on my profile for Adam's first date! Please check that out and vote if you haven't already! Also, if I portrayed your characters incorrectly, please tell me so I can fix whatever I'm doing wrong.

Just a quick question, do you guys think I should do something for Thanksgiving, or would that be an extinct holiday in Illea? I just really like writing about holidays, so expect a Christmas one!

A big thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing, have a magnificent day!