Please go back and read the author's note for the last chapter. Go. Do it. Please.

Prince Luke's POV

Luke was, by some miracle, less jittery than he had been earlier. It might have been the fact that they were already halfway through with the selecting, or that he had seen some of the faces of the girls who could end up being his future wife, but whatever it was, it was helping.

Turning to crane his neck and look over at the screen showing the Illea Capitol Report, he spotted Sam, looking like someone had just told him that being an idiot was illegal. He looked completely, utterly flabbergasted.

It must have been the last girl, Pandora. Maybe she looked familiar to Sam, or he had known her before? It didn't exactly concern Luke, but he would have to make sure to ask Sam who she was, if Sam didn't attempt to destroy him first.

Luke looked down at his hands, which were currently trying to pull his left pinkie finger off. It was a habit he often did when he was nervous, but not to the point of expressing it directly, like he had earlier. He mentally scolded himself, because one of these days he was actually going to lose a finger, and looked back at the screen to see how his mother was holding up on the report.

Her green silk dress was still draped over her as she sat on the chair that had been brought over to her, and it appeared like the people behind the report were trying to imitate a talk show, with his mother as the special guest. She was calm, serene, perfectly at ease, but he could still tell that she was tired, and wasn't feeling well. The circles under her eyes were covered up with makeup, which made her look almost normal. The makeup artists at the palace and who worked for the report were skilled, and he wondered what magic they would work on the girls.

Jadie had said something about them arriving in a week, and had also said something about having some sort of collection of the girls' applications ready for them to look at after the lottery was over. While he may not have shown it well, Luke was actually thankful for the hard work that Jadie put into everything for the selection, and was sure that the three would have been doomed if not for her. At the present, Jadie was rushing around, directly Celeste and Natalie to the next province, then making sure that the last girl had her name called on the report.

The way his mother and Royce were doing it, they would wait for a girl's name to pop up, then would read it aloud to Illea, the picture showing up on the screen behind them for the viewers to see. The two would make some remarks about the girl, Royce might have said something to make the audience laugh, and then it would be time to repeat the cycle. Meanwhile, on his end, after the princes had seen the girls and their names, Jadie would signal a technician to send it over to the report, and everything would go well.

As he waited for the first girl from Midston to be drawn, he played the game he had been playing in his head the entire time, about what the provinces were like. A large part of Midston used to be called Texas back when Illea was North America, and was in the country of the United States of America. The climate was supposed to be fairly warm. It was up against the Indigo Gulf, what had formerly been called the Gulf of Mexico. Luke thought that the name had bee switched after an oil company with the name of Indigo had set up oil rigs their, but he wasn't sure, since he didn't even know what an oil rig looked like. Learning was difficult.

"The first girl from Midston. Jillian Oxford, a three," Celeste read the name to the room, and he watched Jadie signal the technician before looking at Jillian's picture. She had hooded brown eyes, set in a pale face. Her dark brown hair was a shade close to black, and it was pulled back in a neatly done braid. Another girl who could be his future love, another girl that Katelin might try to injure in some way.

Katelin had been on Luke's mind all day, mainly because he kept worrying what she might do to each of the girls if he got closer to them. Truth be told, even when they had first met, Luke had thought she was a little messed up in the head, but he never mentioned it to her.

He should have been thinking about Jillian, since he wanted to remember everyone's name for when he first met them, but Katelin was distracting.

"The second girl from Midston! Atlantis Washington, a three," Natalie read and Luke stared at the screen, waiting for the picture to show up, seeing Jadie's signal out of the corner of his eye.

When it did show up, Luke could tell that she would work well with Fitz. She looked like a three, with prominent cheekbones and an face that looked like it had come out of some old movie, with the grace of a Hollywood movie star. Luke liked watching old movies, so he knew what that was. Her eyes were defined, and a bright sea-green. He could see Fitz looking a bit more energetic at the sight of her, which was a good thing.

"Luke. Can I talk to you for a second?" Sam whispered, appearing to his right and startling him. This had to be important, if Sam was risking Jadie's wrath.

Scrunching up his face and giving Sam a "Make it quick, you idiot," look, he nodded, but made sure to still watch the next girls being called.

"It's about Mom," He said, and Luke was surprised. Sam, showing concern for another human being other? It was an all-out miracle. Luke quickly poked his head over so he could see her on the screen, then withdrew himself so he could see what Sam wanted.

"What about her?" Luke whispered back, careful that Jadie was still ordering people around and hadn't seen them. Sam rolled his eyes, and gestured at the screen.

"She looks sick or something," He whispered, more of an edge to his voice now. Before he could reply, Jadie descended upon them and Sam scattered, Jadie following him over to the other side of the room and scolding him. Luke had to keep from laughing, then watched Celeste draw the next girl.

"The first girl from Paloma. Stella Writer, a three," Celeste was starting to get bored, and it was obvious from her flat tone of voice.

Stella was a black haired girl with sapphire blue eyes, and Luke found it hard to watch her picture with Sam being chastised by Jadie. She had began to gesture with her clipboard, and Sam was staring at it with his hands slightly raised, defending himself from if it went forward and whacked him square on the nose. Somehow, Jadie managed to signal the technicians while she did it, and he wondered if waving her clipboard around was her signal. She did it often enough for it to be true.

Going back to his province game, he tried to remember where Paloma was. It could have been in the south, the larger province that was where the country called Mexico used to be, or it could have been near Waverly. No, south sounded right. If so, it was one of the larger provinces, and many of the people in it would be of a different ethnicity than Stella. Would they be mad about her getting in, or would they not care? It also, judging from the recent province finance reports, was one of the poorer provinces. He actually listened to them, no matter what Fitz might have thought, and found it interesting.

The next province on the list happened to be Panama, the other p country, and it had merely changed from a country to a province when Illea was formed. It was home to the famous Panama canal, though the canal had to have some work done on it a few years ago.

"The first girl from Panama. Dakota Winters, a three," Celeste read it in a monotone voice, like she couldn't believe how boring this was, or had turned into a robot. She reminded him a bit of one of the cats that would sometimes find its wall into the garden, acting completely bored with the world after acting like they owned it. The felines would just show up in the garden and hiss at the guards, then would leap up onto a bench and roll around it before sitting on top of it like a throne. The guards had names for them, and he would have to tell them to name one Celeste when he escaped from the room.

Dakota had icy blue eyes, which was odd considering the rest of her appearance. Her skin was a pale tannish-brown, the color you get when you dump milk into your hot cocoa to make it drinkable without burning your tongue. Her hair was similar to Jadie's, but was even more curly, tendrils swirling down to a few inches below her shoulders. When he looked closer, he could see that the corner of her right eye had brown in it.

Thinking about Dakota, and how her name was the same as one of the provinces, he realized that Dakota was right next to Sota, and Sota was coming up on the list. Sota was Katelin's province.

His mind went back to the subject of Katelin, and started down the path of worrying about how she might act. She wouldn't just waltz in and pull him off to somewhere for the remainder of the selection, she was too smart for that. She'd probably wait a few weeks, then would attach herself to him, all while she threatened and/or fatally injured the other girls.

Celeste walked over to the Sota container, and didn't hesitate to reach in and pull out a slip of paper. Jadie would have told her beforehand that Katelin had gotten into the selection, but he didn't know how she would read out the name. He watched as she subtly handed the paper to Natalie, who closed her fist around it, probably going to pretend that it had been the one she would draw out. He saw Celeste slip another piece of paper out as she pretended to have a coughing fit, and she read the name off of that one.

"The first girl from Sota. Katelin Lee, a two," Celeste smiled at everyone around the room, warning the few technicians who were looking as if they wanted to say something to Jadie that they needed to keep quiet. Jadie, of course, already knew, but no one had told the technicians that.

Katelin's picture showed up on the screen, smiling and looking perfectly normal, like she hadn't jumped off a balcony to get into the selection. Her cinnamon brown hair was straight and combed to perfection, though he knew that she must have worked for hours to keep the curls from coming back. A little known fact was that Katelin had her mother's curly hair, which was weird for someone like Katelin, and it made her look like the main character from that animated Scottish princess movie she had made Luke watch with her in the movie theater over a year ago.

Natalie, unfolding the slip of paper Celeste had handed her, pretended to fish it out of the container, and gave everyone an even larger smile than Celeste had when she read the name.

"The second girl from Sota! Isa Johnson, a two," Natalie said, and they were back to reading names like nothing had ever happened. Celeste even tried to appear disgruntled about being cheated out of getting a two to read, then realized that Katelin was two and went back to her normal expression.

Isa was a blonde, which was a nice change considering that the past few girls had all had darker hair, though the shade of blonde was leaning towards a light brown. She had freckles and brown eyes, and her cheeks had a slight rosy tint to them. Her name sounded familiar, and it wasn't until he looked closer at her picture that he realized she danced for the IBT, the Illean Ballet Theatre. He had remembered her because, though it was hard to tell when she danced, Isa had a prosthetic leg.

Celeste was reading off the name of a girl from St. George when he remembered to be paying attention so Jadie wouldn't swoop down and chastise him.

He only heard the "Poppy O'Hare, a six," when he snapped to attention, wincing when he realized that Jadie had seen him and was giving him a pointed look. Oops. He looked back at Poppy's picture, noticing that the girl had red hair, and gave Jadie a worried half-smile. She nodded, then turned back to the technicians, waving her clipboard around.

Sumner's container was closer to his side of the room, and Natalie gave him a tiny wave as she walked past. He raised his hand in acknowledgement, but focused more on watching Celeste draw the name of Ianthe Delacroix, a three. Her name was certainly a mouthful, though it had a nice ring to it. Because he felt obliged to look at the features of each girl, he noted that she had brown hair. Mission accomplished, he could see colors.

Natalie picked out Kinsey Crawford, another ginger, though Kinsey's hair was lighter than Poppy's was. Much like Poppy, she was a six. Kinsey had a large smile on in the picture, and looked happy to be where she was.

Tammins required Celeste and Natalie to cross the room once again, and Luke guessed that it was because the people who had set up the containers had run out of space. He had to squint to see Celeste pick the first name out of the container, and hoped that it was because of the long day. If he was going blind, he might have to have a chat with whatever higher power was watching over them.

The girl from Tammins, another six by the name of Scarlet Bronzine, was beaming so much in her picture, it looked like the sun had condensed into a girl. Her blonde hair wasn't helping play down that image, but it might have just been because of her desperation to get into the selection. If not, it might be hard to have someone around who was always kind and happy. A person like that couldn't exist.

Celeste nearly had to jog to get to Waverly's container, it being as far away from the last one as possible in the room.

"The first girl from Waverly. Alexis Kingsley, a four," Celeste scowled at Jadie, who in turn pointed her clipboard at Celeste in a menacing way. The amount of fours selected had been slim, and Luke was relived to see that the caste would be more represented. Alexis was another blue eyed blonde, but looked like an acceptable human being.

Natalie, to Celeste's annoyance, chose another two. Luke didn't recognize the name or face of Kayleigh Hayes, a girl with light brown hair and dark blue eyes. She was probably famous for something, and Luke knew that Jadie's notes would include whatever he needed to know.

Jadie would probably include as much information as possible as each girl, and he wouldn't be surprised if she found old yearbook photos or birth certificates for them. At times like that, when Jadie got intense, it was a little easier to see the similarities between mother and daughter. However, with Jadie, it was easier to be in the same room as her, since she didn't make death threats when she got mad, or attack people with iron frying pans.

Whites produced another four, Flavia Beaufort. She had silky blonde hair, and hazel eyes, which was a combination that had been scarce that day. Remembering that he should have been seeing what his brothers thought of the girls, he looked over at Fitz, who looked like he had been frozen or turned to stone. Luke wasn't sure if he was breathing or not, but he wasn't about to go over there and wave a hand in front of his face. Sam was already taking care of that.

Whites also produced the second seven of the selection, Larkin Thatcher. Larkin had platinum blonde hair, and looked like she belonged in Whites. From what he knew of the province, it was supposed to be cold, and Larkin had pale skin with blue eyes. He thought that people from Swendaway often looked like that, and it was a northern country, but he had no idea whether that was related.

Yukon, whose container was still across the room and was making Celeste look like she was about to burst, gave them Alette Salem, which was a nice change after having so many blondes. Alette had dark, curly hair and olive toned skin, and looked like she was Indian in heritage.

The other girl from Yukon, Averian Dunbar, a five, whose eyes were a grayish-bluish green color that made his head hurt.

The last girl, and at this point he wanted to collapse into a heap and stay on the floor forever without hearing another girl's name again, was from Zuni, and was named Lisbeth Stewart. She was another six, an appropriate end to a selecting that had been full of the caste, and had beautiful black hair.

The second Lisbeth's picture was up on the screen, he was running out of the room, past the guards near the closest door, and dashing outside. He stopped a few feet outside the door, taking a deep breath, and realized that it was raining and his suit was now soaked.

Author's note: Hello. I'm keeping this brief, because my computer hates me, keeps disconnecting me from the internet, which requires me to restart my computer, which loses the writing that I hadn't saved yet, and makes me have to rewrite the last few paragraphs. By the time I've noticed the Wi-Fi is gone, it's too late. Therefore, I officially took forever releasing this chapter. Yep, my brain is dead!

For everyone who submitted a character, I need you to PM me with the responses to some questions I have up on my profile. I want to get your character's correct, and want to have some practice writing them the way you want them to be written before I try to do it on my own. Send me the responses In a PM because I don't want to clog up the review section with things not pertaining to whether my story is horrible or not. Those who can't do that, at least say what you liked/disliked about the last few chapters when you answer the questions, and that's only for guests. I'm looking at a few people in particular when I say this, so send me a PM!

I make no promises, but be on the lookout for more chapters this weekend. I'm going to do a chapter where the boys look at the girl's information that Jadie gives them, but it shouldn't take very long to write.