Hey guys! Guess what! Ten inches of snow and no school! That means another chapter. Two chapters in two days, I'm on a roll! Don't get used to it though. Thanks to all of these lovely people who reviewed last chapter: ThousandSplendidSuns, ApolloSerenity, Cookiedoodles168, XOStarbrightXO (x2), .just. , LadyAnj, 4Love4Love4, and SolarisEclipse77.
This chapter is some sibling action at the palace and what they think of the girls and just some background info in general. Next ones will be plane rides, hope you like it.
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Brandon continued staring at the picture of the blonde girl for a minute before throwing himself down on his bed with a growl of frustration.
"I don't know!" He exclaimed.
"Yes you do, Brandon. Come on, there's not that many blonde girls in your Selection."
"Miami, Grayson, Taylor, Azura." He spit out the names of all the blonde girls he could think of.
Ryan sighed at him, "It's Aurora."
Brandon studied the picture again. He should have known it was Aurora. She had curly hair that not many of the other girls had, but he'd been studying the girls so long that some of them had started to blur together.
Ryan started, "She's Aurora Bennett-"
"I know," Brandon interrupted, "A Three from Carolina who's a novelist."
"That's actually right," Ryan sounded surprised.
"I know their jobs and provinces, I just can't remember their names and faces. Why are they so similar?" He moaned. "Kennedy and Kadence, Everly and Elody. How am I supposed to keep them straight? And don't even get me started on the "A" names. Anya, Aurora, Azura, Aria, Amaretta, Adela." He rattled the names off, having them memorized but having no clue as to what the girls looked like. "They're so similar I just know I'll get them mixed up. And then they'll get mad and hate me! How did Matthew do this?"
"You just need to calm down," Ryan told him.
Brandon scoffed, "That's easy for you to say, you never had to deal with this!"
Ryan's face darkened and Brandon instantly wished he could take the words back.
"Ryan I-" he started to say.
"No! You're right, Brandon." he exploded. "I have no idea what you're going through! But at lest you have people who do. Matthew and Dad both went through what you are, so how about you get one of them to help you," Ryan jumped to his feet and started toward the door. When he got there he turned around and glared at Brandon, "You want to talk about no one understanding what you're going through? Try getting your heart broken by the one person you cared about. Having the one person you'd do anything for take your heart and smash it into a million tiny pieces. And because of that person you let down your whole family, and not just your family but the whole country. You become the disappointment. The prince that everyone wishes would just grow up and leave already. You get a reputation that's not even true and you live up to it, because what else can you do?" His voice broke on the last word.
Brandon opened his mouth to apologize again but Ryan angrily cut him off, "So yes Brandon, I never had to deal with a Selection, but what I dealt with was so much worse. You think no one understands you, Brandon? Hardly. Every prince in the history of Illéa knows what you're going through. The one who's misunderstood is me." Ryan turned quickly and left the room, slamming the door behind him. It echoed in the silence after Ryan's outburst.
Brandon flung himself onto his bed, filled with self-loathing. What kind of a brother was he? He knew Ryan's past and how much he'd been hurt. Brandon knew the real reason Ryan didn't have a Selection, so why did he tease him about it? Brandon thought about what had happened to Ryan and tried to imagine how it would have been if it had happened to him instead. It was hard though, Brandon didn't know what it was like to be in love, Ryan did.
Ryan had been in love with one girl his whole life. They'd grown up together, only one year apart. They were the only kids the same age at diplomatic affairs so naturally they'd grown close, always dancing together at every ball, escaping the boring negotiations to go outside and climb trees. Ryan and Annika had been inseparable. The Prince of Illéa and the Crown Princess of Swendway. They'd grown up as friends, but Ryan had always thought of her as more, though he never admitted it; not even to himself. Everyone else saw it before Ryan did, but once he admitted his feelings he fell hard.
When he was sixteen he finally told Annika how he felt, and was overjoyed when she felt the same way. Matthew and Brandon could easily tell once it happened. Their devil-may-care brother had transformed into a smiling, joking, head-over-heels in love guy, and they were happy for him. Annika and Ryan began seeing each other as much as they could. Every diplomatic mission to Swendway Ryan attended, and Annika was in the Illéan palace at least once a month. They were constantly writing letters to each other and Annika was all Ryan talked about. Ryan and Annika didn't tell anyone about their feelings, keeping it a secret as long as they could. Neither of their parents found out, as they were too busy running their countries to pay attention to how much time their children had spent together. When Ryan turned nineteen, all three boys knew he wouldn't be having a Selection, he'd already found the girl he wanted to marry. Ryan told their parents that he wasn't going to have a Selection, but he didn't tell them why. A few months passed and Ryan hadn't heard anything from Annika. He was upset about it but not too surprised, she was the Crown Princess and had a country to run after all. When Annika's birthday came around, Ryan flew to Swendway to surprise her. After he greeted her, he got down on one knee and proposed on the spot. Annika started to cry and Ryan kissed her tears away. When he asked what was wrong Annika said that she'd told her parents about them and they didn't approve. Since Swendway and Illéa were already allies, they had nothing to gain by Annika marrying Ryan. There was a bit of unrest going on in Swendway and the King and Queen wanted Annika to marry the son of a popular Swendish family, to raise public approval. Ryan didn't care. He was willing to do whatever it took to be with Annika. He offered to give up his crown, move to Swendway, whatever she wanted as long as they could be together. All Annika wanted was for him to leave. She wasn't willing to give up what she'd worked her whole life for, her country was more important than her heart.
Ryan left immediately. He flew back to Illéa, where he spent weeks in his room, not coming out for anything. He grew depressed and only thought of Annika. It wasn't until the royal family received an invitation to her wedding that Brandon and Matthew finally understood what had happened. They went up to his room and got the story out of him. Then they forced him to shower, shave, and change into something presentable before dragging him downstairs to face the rest of the family. When he got there, Ryan pretended like nothing had changed. He acted like he hadn't spent the past three weeks in his room, pining for Annika. Ryan still couldn't explain to his parents why he hadn't wanted a Selection, so he had to show them. He began to start seeing other girls, a different one almost every night, trying to get over Annika, but he just couldn't forget her. Her bright blonde hair and lively green eyes stayed with him despite his best efforts. Soon he stopped seeing the girls, he realized that none of them were Annika and being with them just made him more depressed. Although he stopped, he already had the reputation, and when the media upheld it Ryan did nothing to stop them. He accepted it, using it as his reason for avoiding the Selection.
Now, two years later and Ryan still wasn't over Annika. He'd loved her his whole life and even though she stopped loving him, he never stopped loving her. Brandon knew all of that and he knew how upset Ryan was about it. He and Matthew were the only ones who knew, so why had he brought it up? Just because he was stressed didn't mean he had to make Ryan upset too. What kind of brother was he?
Brandon launched himself off the bed and practically ran over to the door. He needed to find Ryan and apologize for what he said. Ryan was completely right, Brandon had absolutely no idea what he'd gone through. Brandon had never even come close to being in love.
Brandon threw the door open and jumped back when he saw Natalie standing on the other side, her hand raised to knock.
She smiled at him, "Hey, Bran."
"Oh, hey Nat," he said, "What're you doing here?"
She smiled ruefully, "Well I heard the door slam and saw Ryan storming across the hall so I thought you might need some help."
"You thought right. We were going over the Selected. I'm trying to memorize them so I won't make a fool out of myself when they get here next week. There's only a few that I can actually remember."
"That's all you were doing?" Natalie sounded skeptical, "You weren't comparing them or talking about their looks?"
Brandon grinned sheepishly, "Maybe a little."
He thought Natalie would chastise him so he was surprised when she smiled and said, "Good, Brandon. I know that seems shallow, but for you that's good. You can't reason your way through your Selection. Those girls aren't just lists of facts that you can memorize. You can't just use your head and expect to get through this, you're going to have to use your heart, starting now," Nat walked into his room and grabbed the stack of papers off of his desk before turning, walking across the room, and sitting on the edge of his bed, "We're going to go through all of these forms and you're going to pick out the girls who stick out to you," she leveled him with a hard stare, "And not all of them are going to, so don't lie and pretend they do."
"Deal," Brandon said.
Nat picked up the stack and grabbed the top form from it, "First up is Miss Adela Hargrove, a Two and a professional horse jockey," Nat stopped talking and studied the picture, "She's pretty."
Brandon nodded, Adela was pretty with her tan skin, dark hair and blue eyes, but Brandon just didn't feel anything when he looked at her, not like he did with some of the other girls.
"Yeah, but I just don't know about her."
"Okay," Nat put Adela's form on the left side of the bed, away from Brandon, "What about Amaretta Foster?"
Brandon smiled at her strange appearance. She wasn't necessarily pretty, with her dark freckles and strange, piercing eyes, but Brandon liked her.
"She's intriguing," he told Nat, "I know she's not pretty, but I just feel drawn to her." It was hard to tear his gaze away from hers, and this was just the picture. How would he manage when he actually met her?
"Well, it's your Selection," Nat said, then took her form and put it on the opposite side of the bed from Adela's, before she pulled out the next one, "Anya Emerson, an Eight."
The two siblings studied her for a minute then made their judgements.
"She's pretty enough," Brandon said.
"For an Eight," Nat amended. Neither of them had much experience with the lower castes, other than the maids, since they'd spent their whole lives in the palace.
Brandon nodded and Anya's form was placed in the middle of the bed.
"Aria Benoit," Nat announced, "She looks a lot like one of the other girls."
"Kadence," Brandon said. She was one of the few that he remembered, and when he'd seen Aria just now he'd thought that Nat had her form.
Brandon grabbed the stack of papers from Nat and dug through them until he found Kadence's form. He picked it out and placed it right next to Aria's. The resemblance was startling. If he didn't know better, he'd swear they were sisters.
Both girls had deep chocolate brown hair and the same warm brown eyes. Aria's hair was a few inches longer than Kadence's, falling below where the picture ended, whereas Kadence's stopped a bit past her shoulders. Aria's smile was bigger too, showing off her perfect teeth and dimples, while Kadence's was shy and close mouthed. Brandon really had to look hard to find the differences between them. If they weren't side by side he knew that he'd never be able to tell them apart, they were practically identical.
"I like them," Brandon said, then put both of their forms on top of Amaretta's, closest to him.
Aurora, Brandon already knew, she went in the middle of the bed, along with Azura and Blaise.
Callista was very pretty, she joined Kadence and Amaretta at the front.
Colleen and Cosmina looked similar, with their dark hair and blue eyes, but neither was a standout. Brandon placed them between Adela and Anya.
Elody was pretty with her grey-green eyes and brown hair, Brandon placed her in the pile with the other Eight, Anya.
"Ooh, it's that singer," Nat exclaimed, "Ember Quinn," both siblings looked at the stunning redhead and her face full of freckles, she was quite pretty. "Brook loves her," Nat added.
"Who do I love?" Brook asked, poking her head in the open door, as if the mention of her name had drawn her to them.
Once Brook saw what they were doing she squealed in excitement and ran over to join her sister on the bed, "I want to help!"
Brandon rolled his eyes at Brook but didn't say anything. He looked at Ember again and had Nat put her form next to Amaretta's.
Brook grabbed the next paper from Nat and announced, "Everly Castle, a Three from Hundson."
"Ehh," Nat said.
Brandon agreed. Her strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes were pretty but her round face made her look a bit childish. Nat put her next to Adela on the far side of the bed.
Flara Blakes was really pretty, and Brandon still felt connected to her and that he should know her. He wasn't sure whether he liked her or the mystery she presented. He put her in the middle pile.
"Next is Ginger Bell, a Six," Nat said.
Before Brandon could respond about her, Ryan reappeared in the doorway. He opened his mouth to say something to Brandon, but then caught sight of his sisters and stopped.
Brook looked up and saw him, "Ryan," she called, "do you want to come help us? We're looking through Brandon's girlfriends."
Ryan smiled at his youngest sister, "Sure, Brookie," he teased then walked in the room and sat down next to her.
Brandon wasn't that surprised that Ryan was back. That's how he was. He exploded then he'd go and cool down for a while before coming back and acting like nothing had happened. Hardly anything ever stuck with him, but Brandon wasn't like that and he still felt bad about what had happened between them.
Brandon tried to catch Ryan's eye, but Ryan avoided his gaze. He returned his attention to Ginger and her form. She was pretty, but nothing special so he instructed Nat to put her in the middle.
The next girl had long blonde hair and ice blue eyes.
"Whoa, she's hot," Ryan stated, "Definitely the best looking so far. Solid ten out of ten."
"Oh yeah," Brook smirked, "What's her name?"
"Does it matter?" Ryan sounded incredulous.
"That's. . ." Brandon struggled for a minute before he came up with it, "Grayson Chandler."
"Yeah," Nat said, "she is really pretty."
Brandon agreed, but he didn't feel as drawn to her as he was some of the others. He put her next to the top pile.
Jane Parker was next, she was pretty but average. Even Ryan didn't have anything to say about her.
Juliet O'Shea brought a smile to Brandon's face. There was just something about her that Brandon liked. Maybe it was her smile or her eyes. At first he's thought they were light green, but now that he looked closer he saw that they were more of an amber color. Whatever it was, Brandon liked her and put her in the top pile.
"Really?" Ryan said, "she's not even that pretty she's-"
"Well she's not in your Selection is she? And I like her," Brandon countered.
Nat put Juliet in the top pile like Brandon said then grabbed the next form, Kennedy O'Brian.
"Ehh, she's okay," Ryan put in.
Brandon nodded.
"She has pretty eyes," Brook said, which was true, but her blue eyes were the most remarkable thing about her.
Natalie put her form near the bottom.
"London Banks," Ryan said as he snagged the form from Brook, "She's attractive," he added.
"I love her vlogs," Brook said, "she knows everything about everything," she turned to Brandon, "You have to keep her, I can't wait to meet her!"
Brandon smiled at Brook. He wasn't sure if he liked London or just how excited Brook seemed about her. Regardless, he put her near the top pile.
Miami Melrose was next. Again she was pretty in the average way. Nobody had much to say about her but they all agreed to put her in the middle pile.
Natalie pulled out the next form, Monica Hamilton, a Five.
"Ugh," Brook said.
"Just get rid of her now," Ryan added.
Even Natalie, who always had something nice to say, was at a loss for words.
Brandon had to agree, there was no other way to put it. Monica was ugly.
"Maybe she has a good personality," Nat suggested.
"Or not," Ryan said.
She went in the last pile.
Phoebe wasn't any better, with her grease stained clothes and unkept appearance, she joined Monica at the bottom.
A familiar face greeted them next, Priya Prepenstone. All of them had known Priya for years and Brandon wasn't sure what he thought of her being in the Selection.
"Umm, put her in the middle," he decided.
"What?" Ryan demanded, "You know Priya's prettier than a lot of these girls, right?"
"Yeah, but it's Priya," Brandon said, his tone implying the duh, "besides you're the one who whistled at her, not me."
Ryan grinned proudly at that, "Yeah, I knew it would drive her crazy. She's gonna be hopping mad next time she sees me."
Brandon had no doubt of that, in fact he would pay to see what Priya would do the next time she saw Ryan. She would be furious that he embarrassed her on national television.
Natalie settled the debate and put Priya one pile ahead of the middle.
"Sage Masters is next."
"She's gorgeous," Ryan said, "total babe."
Sage was pretty, there was no denying it, but Brandon couldn't shake the nervous feeling he had about her. Girls who looked like that usually meant trouble. Much to Ryan's disagreement, Brandon put Sage just slightly above the middle.
Scarlet Drapeau was next. Another redhead, Brandon thought. It seemed like there were a lot of them. Scarlet didn't stick out like the others did and with her hazel eyes she was slightly plain. She went towards the bottom pile.
Natalie pulled out Seraphina Casteel's form. Seraphina was extremely pretty, especially for being a Seven. Her brown hair and bright blue eyes stuck out to Brandon and he put her in the top pile. Even Ryan didn't argue that one.
Brook squealed when she saw the next form and Brandon knew without looking who it was, Shevonne Ellington. He told Nat to put her in the middle pile.
"What?" Brook said, "it's Shevonne Ellington. She should be in her own pile, she's so cool. Don't put her there."
"Brook, this is how I feel about them, not you. And I want her in the middle."
Brook stuck her tongue out at him but didn't say anything else.
"Oh my gosh!" Brook shrieked. She'd been doing that a lot lately. It was starting to get on Brandon's nerves a bit.
"It's Taylor Lawrence!"
"Who's Taylor Lawrence?" Brandon asked.
"How do you not know who Taylor Lawrence is?" Brook asked, "she's on this TV show and she's just horrible. She's always causing drama and being a jerk to everyone."
"Oh," Brandon said. Taylor didn't look like the kind of girl who'd do that. She had a sweet smile and looked a lot like Grayson with her long blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Maybe she's just a really good actress and she's actually a nice person. Maybe she entered the Selection so that she could show everyone her real personality," Nat suggested.
Brandon liked that explanation. He didn't know if it was true, but he hoped that the girls had entered because of him and not the crown.
Tristyn Westfall was pretty, and different from the other girls with her raven hair and green eyes. Brandon wasn't sure how he felt about her so she went in the middle pile.
Vanessa Waltaz was the only girl in the Selection with dark skin, but there was something about the intensity of her gaze. Her ebony eyes seemed to say that she's seen things, and Brandon felt like he was being examined under a microscope from her gaze. She went towards the middle and bottom piles, she just made Brandon feel too nervous.
"How many more are there?" Ryan drawled, it was clear he was becoming bored and restless.
"Three, think you can make it?" Nat asked teasingly.
"I suppose. Who's next?"
"Vivian Thompson, a Four from Bonita," Brook read out.
Vivian was quite pretty and they unanimously agreed to put her right below the top pile.
Yorra Weston, a Seven was next. While she wasn't drop dead gorgeous, she was pretty, especially for her caste. She was even prettier than some girls from higher castes, like Monica. Yorra was put slightly above the middle.
By this point Brandon was ready to be done as well. There was only one girl left and Brandon was ready to put her in the middle and leave, but Natalie gave him such a look when he stood up that he quickly sat back down.
The last girl was a Six, Zinnia Larrson.
Brandon had been ready to leave, but that changed when he saw Zinnia. She was extremely pretty with dark, chocolate brown hair and brown eyes. Her tan skin and warm smile made her seem sweet and friendly. Brandon felt instantly drawn to her, like he could tell her anything.
He smiled, "Definitely the top pile."
"What?" Ryan cried indignantly, "She's not even that pretty. She should go in the middle, at best."
"It's my Selection," Brandon said, "and I like her."
Ryan rolled his eyes, "Whatever, bro."
"That's the last one," Nat said. She grabbed the piles from the bed and criss-crossed them, putting Brandon's favorites at the top and the others below.
She handed the pile to Brandon, "Here you go, hope that helped."
Brandon smiled at his sister, "It did. Thanks." Now Brandon had at least some idea of what he was expecting from the girls, and seven that stood out to him.
She gave Brandon one last smile before leaving the room, Brook not far behind.
It was just Brandon and Ryan in the room, and Brandon felt the tension instantly.
"Ryan-" he started.
"Don't. It doesn't matter, Brandon. Just forget about it." Ryan still wouldn't look at him and Brandon felt guilty at the look on his face, "I have to go," he said then turned and left, leaving Brandon alone.
Brandon sighed. He couldn't handle the Selection now, and the girls hadn't even arrived yet. How was he going to do this?
He put the forms down on his desk and left his room to go find Matthew and get some brotherly advice from the one person who could understand and help him.
...
Alright, so not my best work but it's still a long chapter. Let me know what you guys thought of this chapter and what you'd like to see coming up. I'll probably do two plane ride chapters so those'll be next. Thanks for sticking with me through this, you guys are the best!
~Jen