I'm on my guard for the rest of the world
But with you I know it's no good
- "Sparks Fly", Taylor Swift
.o0*0o.
Devery Elaine Everard was exhausted from her first day in the palace.
Firstly, she had been woken up at six to prep for the day. Even though Shanna had promised them until seven a.m., her maids insisted that the early time was for the best. Even so, Dev had been annoyed throughout her prep. They had woken her up early just so that they could put her in a simple pink and white polka dot dress? Don't get her wrong, the dress was cute with the little jacket and simple heels they gave her. But it was not worth waking up early. If they had done something to hair hair other than straighten the short blonde locks, she might have forgiven them. As it was, she was in nude makeup with straight hair and a simple outfit. Not worth waking up early to prepare it.
Once she arrived down at breakfast, she saw that her entire table was in varying degrees of formal. Nyla was in a pretty magenta dress with golden embellishments and sparkly heels. Greer wore a more laid-back watercolor dress with chunky white heels, whereas Rowenia was in a casual dress with a striped top and peach skirt. When Dev checked, she saw the Rowenia wore sandals. Athena was in a tight black dress with a lace cutout on the side that was entirely too revealing for the morning, especially with nobody to impress around. Lee was in a nude dress covered with a blue lace pattern that had a structured bustier and puffed out skirt paired with silver heels. To end off the table, Winter wore a black dress with a lace back and gold belt to match her black and gold heels while Faylinn was in a part pink and light blue, part black and white dress with pastel heels.
She had made a noise in the back of her throat and the only girl she really talked to, Faylinn, looked up from her plate of gourmet French toast to smile at her. When she sat down, Dev was immediately brought her own plate. Looking down at it, Dev was satisfied with the choice she had made last night when a menu had been brought to her. The dark chocolate raspberry French toast in front off her looked infinitely better to her than Faylinn's strawberry cheesecake, Nyla's caramel banana, and the other five's lemon blueberry French toast. The orange juice she'd chosen had also been delicious, and Dev had missed it when they had been herded into the "History of the Selection" lesson.
Shanna held them captive for two hours as she explained what Dev guessed everybody knew. The Selection was a time honored tradition that had gone on for all of Illea's history. The only time one was not held was during the reign of Queen Eadlyn and her Prince Consort Kile Woodwork when their daughter, Princess Witney, chose instead to marry her childhood love. After that, the Selection continued to be held for the Prince or Princess inheriting the throne. Some of the greatest Queens Illea had ever known- Queen Amberly Schreave, Queen America Schreave, and of course the dearly departed Queen Kathleen Illea- had all been girls who had won their respective Selections. In the entirety of its course, only two girls had ever been tried for treason for fornicating with someone who was not their Prince- Marlee Carter and Heidi Sutton. Dev thought she saw a girl tense in the corner of her eye, but the lesson had moved past that part before she could investigate. Shanna seemed to be done when she told them the Selection they were currently in was the Twentieth Selection, and therefore a grand honor. Dev had almost cried in relief when they had been released for lunch.
Unlike their breakfast, the entire table was served the same meal like the previous night. The meal, which had to be once again gourmet, consisted of curried apple cranberry chicken salad lettuce wraps and a bowl of gazpacho. The meal had some of the lower caste girls at her table poking at the food until the others had first taken a bite. Dev wanted to roll her eyes, but Faylinn was among those girls and she seemed pretty decent to Dev. The entire table made light talk over their glasses of iced honey mint green tea which bored her almost as bad as the lessons. The only redeemer up to that point had been the dessert at lunch- an over sized orange almond cupcake.
After lunch, Dev had chosen to retreat to her room versus go to the Women's Room, and that was where she currently was. Her maids were currently designing her gown for the Report tomorrow night, or at least they were supposed to be. Idris and Ivory seemed to be fighting with Monica playing referee. Sighing, Dev put down her journal of ideas to expand her business to go overlook what they were creating for her. When she got there, she saw that Idris was pushing pieces of her platinum blonde hair that fell out of the messy bun from her eyes as Ivory touched up her perfect braid. Monica looked up from her sketchpad to smile at Devery while she noticeably stepped in between the twins. "Good afternoon, Lady Devery. What can we help you with?"
She gave her maids a look before speaking. "I wish to see what you're designing for tomorrow night. I want to make sure the gown I select my Prince in is perfect." Monica gave her the pad and Dev returned to her perch on the bed. The sketch was no where near completion, yet she could tell what direction they were heading in. She motioned for Monica to take the sketchpad back before she stretched and asked, "What time is it? I'm growing exponentially bored."
Ivory replied with a fast, "Four forty-five," before she looked up to take in Dev's appearance. "Would you like to change before the evening meal, madame?"
Dev took in her dress. She had tossed the jacket as soon as returning earlier, and the skirt had multiple wrinkles in it. She smiled at her waiting maids and sweetly replied, "Please. If you don't mind, bring me something darker. I would like too make a different impression tonight." Tonight would be the last dinner of not having to impress the Royals and Selected. Plus, there had been talk that afternoon at lunch to make tonight's dinner formal. Her day outfit had been cute, but Dev wanted to make her first formal look fierce. Dev smiled at her maid while they went to find her long dress. Tonight, she would shine.
.o0*0o.
Elsie Gisella Lorenia Oliverat had been having the best day.
True, the two fast friends were not seated with each other. That didn't stop them from prepping for the dinner together, however. Hayden had been the one to suggest her lavender chiffon dress, and Elsie was in love with how soft it was against her skin. As she sat and let Becka arrange her hair into an up do, Elsie thought over the day. The breakfast had been delicious- strawberry cheesecake French toast forever- and Hayden had kept the boredom away during their lesson. The lunch had been interesting yet delicious, and she had spent the afternoon in the Women's Room becoming friends with other girls. Now, as she watched who she considered her best friend get ready, Elsie went into la la land.
She was snapped out of it soon enough, and after gazing in awe at the mirror, went downstairs. The dining room was full of girls in finery and Elsie looked at her table. Scarlett wore an elaborate mermaid dress with her hair in a ponytail, while Marsden rocked an edgy black call gown with her hair in a cool half do. Persephone was in a sweet pink silk dress with a cute up do while chatting with Sammy in a draped blue dress and another half do. Emery wore a tight black dress with a white lace black while her silver hair was up, whereas Kacelyn wore a sexy red dress with her hair partially braided back. Elsie had only said goodbye to Hayden and headed towards her group when she saw Reiza. The girl was in a metallic dress with loose waves and Elsie felt pride. When discussing going formal that afternoon, Reiza had been incredulous. Now, she looked like a dark angel. She wanted to see why Reiza had turned around, however, she was stopped by Shanna's calling for dinner to begin.
Seated, the girls awaited their food. Elsie took a sip of the drink as Marsden read the menu aloud, saying, "We will be served pear and brie crostinis for the appetizer. The entree is blackberry hoisin ginger pork tenderloin with asparagus amandine and potato stacks. Then the dessert is mini chocolate peanut butter cheesecakes. Our drinks are blackberry sage coolers." Everybody at the table seemed at least a bit impressed at the menu except for Kacelyn. She just looked like somebody had told her to bomb an elementary school.
"This is horrible. Like, are they trying to make me fat?" Kacelyn not so subtly passed her cooler off to a waiters and took a tiny bite of a crostini. It was in that moment that one of the photographers came by to request they smile. Elsie tried to hold back her laugh as Kacelyn picked up a napkin to spit the bite back into. She gave the photographer a practiced smile and even Reiza smiled at how bratty she was being.
She seemed to be upset once the photo was taken and reviewed, so Persephone asked her, "What's wrong, Kacelyn? I mean, besides the food."
By this point, the plates had been picked up and their entree delivered. She poked at the pork before abruptly standing up. "I don't want this to sound mean, but if any of you want this, you can have it. I need to go write my agent and see if she can make the palace understand I have a strict diet to adhere to." She had only made it to the door before Marsden let loose a, "Thanks. Nobody wanted you here anyways." Kacelyn turned around to give them an evil eye and Elsie honestly thought that a fight was about to begin. Luckily, though, a guard appeared to escort her away. Elsie let out a breath of relief and watched as Marsden took Kacelyn's abandoned plate. Persephone looked at Marsden tiredly, yet Marsden simply took a bite of the pork. "What?" she asked Seph after some more staring. "She's wasting food that could be feeding orphans in Clermont right now."
The rest of dinner was uneventful as the remaining seven ate their food. Upon finishing her dessert, Elsie rang for another mini cheesecake to be sent to her room and she left the other Selected. It wasn't that she didn't feel like socializing so much so as that her feet were on fire from constantly wearing heels and that her hair do was giving her a migraine. Leaving the dining room, Elsie saw Hayden stand up to join her, but Elsie gave her a sad smile in return. Hayden seemed to be having fun and she did not want to ruin that.
On her walk back, Elsie took the long way and skipped going up the main staircase. Diana, another one of her maids, had showed her a servant's staircase that morning when she was running late, and she would rather take it. The stairs were not opulent like the main staircase, yet they took her by the music room which she loved. While she may not play any instruments herself, the piano reminded her of her old teacher, Melissa. Maybe if she stayed in the Selection long enough, she would be able to convince- fingers crossed- Prince Liam to find her a piano teacher. Then she could at least learn the simple songs Melissa would hum around the classroom.
Upon passing the door, Elsie saw that the lights were on, something she had yet to see. She walked towards the crack in the door, and what she saw shocked her. Seated on the piano bench was Prince Noah playing what she guessed to be a scale. For a moment she considered walking into the room to compliment him, yet something made her turn from the door and return her trek to the back staircase. He looked so unlike what was publicized in the news that she wondered if she had ever seen him at all. How was the boy she saw giving himself up to music the same as the one infamous for his romantic trysts with the palace staff?
Elsie debated this until she walked into her room and slipped out of her shoes. Her hairdo was already ruined, so she tossed the Bobbi pins in her hand aside and fell onto her bed. The maids had left her a similar sheet to the last night with choices for breakfast, and after Elsie circled what she wanted, she set it onto the bedside table. Rosalynn slipped out of her adjourning room and started her evening bath. Elsie smiled at the woman who reminded her so much of Melissa before she walked to the bathroom and slipped out the dress. She was ready to fall asleep and start another day in the competition.
.o0*0o.
Hi :) So this is a lot closer to my promised schedule than it has been in a while. Thanks to Artemis' hunters and MaybeIt'sJustNotThatEasy for creating Dev and Elsie, respectively.
Good news! The drawings are going to be in either the next chapter or the following, so yay! Also, sad news. This chapter was the last of introducing girls, and the ones used for POVs will be the main ones until the Elite. The pairs they are in will change, but not the girls.
Thank you so much to my new followers and favoriters, or wait, I didn't get any. Oh well :/ Reviewers who get a fresh, amazing pizza- MTJAS, TheImaginatore x2, Guest, BellaRosa17, MissAmeliaYoung, Cookiedoodles168, and Artemis' hunters.
Remember to check out the Pinterest boards and the tumblr for TMH, TMH- 2tmh . tumblr . com :) It has the outfits and starting now the meals too because food porn. Also, my ask is open on it so you can totally drop questions about anything! There has already been hints dropped in response to who will be eliminated first ;)
Xoxo,
fivesauce'n'YAbooks