Hi Readers! Yes, I have another chapter! This is the chapter we've all been waiting for….the meetings with the Prince! You have no idea how excited I am to write this! Also, I noticed that not many people read the previous chapter, so go ahead and read that if you haven't!
Inspiration song for this chapter is "Eyes Wide Open" by Sabrina Carpenter. By the way, I made a typo in the previous chapter. I forgot to put my inspiration song! It was "Try Everything" from Zootopia.
Also...Yay! Thank you Guest and Lily for the characters, they will be used! Also, to another Guest, you're right about the similarity! All of their names are connected to rome. Augusta - Augustus Caesar. Julia - Julius Caesar. Lavinia - Daughter of King Latinus. Romaine - French for woman of Rome! I am a history nerd, so make sure to pay attention to all of the characters names. Some are just names, but others have meaning. For Example, Adley's name means something, but the name of a soon-to-come-up guard, Cameron, means "crooked nose." The guard does not have a crooked nose, so this is just a name.
I hope that you all are enjoying this story. Some of you might not be seeing updates in time because I live on the West Coast of the US, so if you live in the East Coast, this update will reach you at 1:20 AM, your time! Anyhow, onto the chapter….
Lavinia
"There, sweetie," said the nurse. "Your arm should be fine now. I'm putting a bandage on just because the wound re-opened in the water, but the bullet only grazed your arm, so there's no major damage. You can take the bandage off by nighttime, and then you're free to do whatever you want."
"Thank you," I said, breathing a sigh of relief. I turned to Jackson.
"I should probably get a new uniform."
"Yeah, wouldn't want to slip again, break your leg, and then make me carry you to the infirmary, again," he mocked.
"Thanks again, Officer Clark," I mocked back. "Guess I won't trouble you anymore with injuries." I then fake-slipped on the marble floor. "Ouch!" I screamed.
Jackson immediately bent over and picked me up, calling after the nurse.
I wiggled out of his arms, standing with my arms crossed. "Gosh, you fall for everything." I quickly bursted into a full sprint towards the maid's quarters. It would be faster to take my route through the gardens. Jackson was faster than I was, but I knew the gardens better than anyone. As I neared the forest, I looked behind me to see Jackson a few yards away. I went across the bridge but stopped again at the little pond. It was still deep, but the shiny thing could be seen again. Jackson stopped besides me, clearly seeing that I was looking at something in the water. What he didn't know was that I had actually fallen into this pond, looking for the same thing and fooled by the pond's depth. I had a plan.
"Jackson, what's that shiny thing at the bottom?"
"I don't know."
"It's only, like, three feet down. Maybe you could try and get it."
"Well, it's worth a shot." Jackson bent down, reaching for the shiny object. Before he could realize that the pond was actually 12 feet deep, I pushed him into the water, soaking his uniform, while smirking. "See ya later!"
I knew that Jackson would be able to climb out, so I dashed to the servants quarters to change.
Romaine
After my bath, Augusta did my hair in loose curls again, and Lavinia pulled out what looked like Adley's dress from earlier, the light aqua one. "Yes, this is the same dress that Adley wore earlier, just fitted to you. Jennifer decided that we would be doing a dress trade thing, so Adley is wearing a different version of your green dress from earlier. We're only doing this tonight, just for fun, and also because we wanted to get a sense of everyone's best colors.
The maids helped me into the gorgeous dress, did my very light makeup, and pushed me out the door to head to dinner. But before they could, I asked them a question. "What do you girls do for dinner?"
Julia responded. "Well, that depends on the night. Sometimes we just have dinner by ourselves in our quarters, or we'll have a picnic in the gardens, some of us will have dates with guards and such, or sometimes we go out into the city to have dinner with friends. But it really depends."
"That sounds nice. Well, I should go off to dinner, but bye!"
The maids waved goodbye, and I went off to the dining room. In the hall coming towards the central room was a guard, trudging towards the hallway. His uniform was soaked. I gave him a questioning look, and he responded. "Ask your maid."
I was confused, but I decided to head off to dinner. I had to go down a few flights of stairs and halls, but I got to the dining room in time. I was actually early; the first one there!
I was in quite a bit of shock standing at the table. In front of me was the Queen, King, Prince Charles, and the rest of the royal family! I immediately dropped into a curtsy and addressed the royals. Queen Antaria immediately spoke up. "Well, good for you for being on time. I remember that in my Selection, all of the girls were late to everything."
I did not know how to respond to that. Thankfully I didn't have too. The king soon spoke up. "Well, dear, there was no competition to you in your Selection; timeliness would have made no difference." The couple shared a kiss. An eye roll was shared between the royal children and I, but, unfortunately, King Andrew saw it. "Now, children, let's not roll our eyes in the presence of a guest. I decided to speak up. "In their defense, your Majesty, I did roll my eyes too…"
I guess that I had assumed the King and Queen would be mad, but contrary to my thoughts, they weren't. The table burst into laughter, and I received a high-five from Prince Charles. The prince spoke up. "Well, I guess we could just do the interview now."
"Sure."
"I saw that one of your hobbies was writing."
"Yes, it is definitely my passion. I do everything from movie scripts, to romances, to political mysteries and-" The King cut me off.
"Political Mysteries?"
"Well, yes. About when America existed and there were so many countries that the embassies had to be in separate buildings. Or in alternate universes, where America lost the revolutionary war, so Democracy was never invented…"
"They sound interesting," said the prince. "Do you mind if I...read one?"
"You could definitely read one. I brought my journal with me."
"Lovely. If you're interested in politics, you might have to help me with some stuff…"
"Taking advantage of me?" I asked, playfully.
"Well, no...just making use of your abilities….."
"I'd love to."
"Yes! I've been dying to get those papers done." The table laughed.
"Actually, my favorite game is Risk...the game of military strategy. It's an actual board game, also an app."
"Ooh! I love that game," said the King. The queen rolled her eyes. "Sweetheart, you play a real life version."
"Oh. Right," responded the king.
"Well, your Majesty, I would be happy to play the game at any time, just the board game, though."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Soon enough, a girl came. Ugh. Veronica. She was the mean girl on the plane, and was wearing the most revealing outfit. It was black, VERY short, with a plummeting neckline. The King and Queen both looked disgusted. So did the prince. I was sitting right next to him, so he took his foot and stepped it on top of mine to get my attention. He raised a finger to his head and swirled it around. I stifled a giggle. This would be a long night.
Julia
I stepped into General Milo's office. He had wanted to see me, I didn't know why.
"General?" Milo looked up from his papers.
"Yes, you're Lady Romaine's head maid, correct?"
"Correct, sir."
"Well, if only my guards addressed me correctly like you do!" laughed Milo. "Anyhow, I had some concerns regarding Romaine. You see, I saw her when I was guarding her house. Gracie's house. You see...Romaine had a sister. Her name was Gracelyn. Gracelyn happened to be in training with me when we joined the Illéan military. We got to know each other over a few months, and in a while we were married. But one day, our plane was bombed. We were lucky enough to get out by parachute, but Gracie's Parachute was ripped. She didn't want to weigh me down….so she...so….she let go," the general said, a tear coming down his cheek. "She knew that I had to be their for our daughter, who Gracie actually named after Romaine."
I was speechless. "Well, what should we do?"
"That is why I've called you here. Romaine seems like a smart lady. She could figure this out. And she'd be devastated if she knew about exactly how Gracie died, so we have to keep this from her. Prevent things from getting out of hand. I've assigned a guard to help you with anything necessary. Cam!
A blonde guard came out.
"Cam, meet Julia, Julia, meet Cam."
We shook hands, and were then dismissed by General Milo.
Lavinia
I was in Romaine's room, sewing a gorgeous dress, when I heard a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" I called. No answer. I walked over to the bathroom, grabbing a metal hair pin jar, in case a rebel was at the door and needed to be fought with. Jar in hand, Kung fu stance ready, I slowly opened the door when a man stampeded into the room. Before looking, I bashed him in the head with a jar. "Ouch! Lavinia, why'd you-"
"Jackson!? Omigosh I'm so sorry I was just scared when nobody answered and I thought you were a rebel so I got the jar and then you ran in and then I was scared so I just hit you and then I realized that it was you so-"
"Please, just quit the blabber and get me some ice."
"Sure. sorry!" I dashed into the hall, around the corner, down the stairs, through the garden and into the kitchens. I should really ask for an ice machine in the hall. Getting a bag of ice from the kitchen, I ran back to the room. Handing over the ice to Jackson, I paced around the couch, in circles.
"Oh, no! You're soaked!"
"Wonder who pushed me into a pond."
"Okay, that was just payback."
Jackson laughed, taking the ice off of his apparently healed head.
"You know what else is payback for your acts of generosity?"
"What?"
"This."
What's the payback? Sorry to be cruel with the ending! The next update might be somewhat far away, (Two days) because I have to figure out the new characters to really get a sense of them. Also, Guest who figured out the name similarity, what should the "Queen's Fashion Week Report" dress be?
The next chapter is some more palace drama as always, some prince stuff, getting to know the selected girls, and the first assignment! It was mentioned in the chapter in Charles' POV. What do you think that it is? (Hint: May include royals from other countries!)
I hope you all are having lovely summers, and thanks for the reviews!
Hugs and Best Summertime Wishes,
Cbear :)
