The Women's Room, The Palace, Angeles, July 6th, 1:00pm
Nefertiti Gamel, 3, Zuni
Nefera browsed through a rack of dresses in her size, searching for something to wear for her after makeover pictures and interview. She had begged her maids, and they had allowed her to look for her own dress, since she had experience dressing herself for similar things.
Several maids were nearby, browsing other racks for dresses for the other Selected. There were only a few Selected left who hadn't been interviewed. They seemed to be going in order of whoever's makeovers had been done first.
The remaining Selected sat on couches, waiting. Nefera knew all their names, thanks to her job with the Zuni Broadcasting Company. She had talked about all the Selected on her show before she had come to the palace. Florida Smith was on one couch, and Violet Harper and Kendall Gibbs, from Dominica, were waiting patiently for dresses on another couch. Zenya Laventis was still having her hair done.
A maid found a dress, and hurried over to give it to Violet, who headed into a changing stall to put it on. The dress was long, floaty, and light pink, with pink flowers.
Nefera turned back to the rack to search for her own dress. There didn't seem to be anything neon colored on the rack, so she settled on a red mermaid style dress with a high slit up one side.
She headed over to change. A maid brought her a pair of heels, and she slipped them on and headed over to sit on the couch next to Florida.
Florida immediately held out a hand. "Hi! I'm Flo. What's your name?"
"I'm Nefera." She shook Flo's hand politely.
"Where are you from? What's your caste?"
"I'm from Zuni, and I'm a three."
Flo looked at her analytically for a moment, as if she was trying to decide something. She apparently decided that Nefera was alright, because she nodded to herself, and said, "What do you do?"
"I'm a journalist."
"Oh, that's what I was going to study this fall, but I entered the Selection instead. I want to write to educate people, and open their eyes to the truth."
Maybe she and Flo could be friends. They obviously had similar interests. Maybe they could have some good intellectual discussions. Flo was young, but that wouldn't matter, if she had something good to say.
"The people need to be warned. We're always being controlled, always being watched. They're spraying chemicals on us from airplanes, and they're lying to us in the schools about the moon landing and the earth being round."
It only took a few sentences for Nefera to realize that she had been very very wrong about Flo. She rolled her eyes. "Sure, and there are aliens in the desert," she said sarcastically.
"Oh, but there are. You're from Zuni, surely you ought to know. Usually the UFOs are invisible, but sometimes the invisibility fails and you can see them, or they crash," Flo said firmly, as if there was absolutely no question about the matter.
Flo's name was called before Nefera could give her another snarky answer, and she hurried off for her interview, leaving Nefera alone.
While she had some time by herself, Nefera pulled out her journal to write down the details of her arrival at the palace. She had come by car from Zuni, and as soon as she had arrived, she had been whisked off for makeovers. She also made a note about Flo, out of habit from spending so much time interviewing people for her work.
Flo - Crazy conspiracy theorist.
After a few more minutes it was Nefera's turn to get her after-makeover photos. She smiled and posed as instructed, and then it was time for her interview.
The interviewer was waiting in a small room with a cell phone open to a voice recording app, and a notepad in front of. She smiled at Nefera as she stepped into the room. "Have a seat, Lady Nefertiti. I'm Grace, from Highlight Magazine."
Nefera sat down, as instructed, and smiled at Grace, not even a little bit nervous. She had done this time and time before, although on the other side. She knew how to answer to make a good story, but also tell the truth. She would not pretend to be something she wasn't.
"I just have a few questions for you. Why did you sign up for the Selection?"
"I've always dreamed of having an epic love story, something fit for a novel, so I thought I'd give the Selection a shot."
Grace raised her eyebrows. "So you're looking for your fairytale romance?" She made a note in her notebook.
Nefera nodded. "You could say that, I suppose." She smiled again.
"I bet you're really excited to meet Prince Elijah tomorrow."
"I'm really excited to meet him and start getting to know him. I want to find out if this will be my love story."
"I'm sure you've heard that Prince Elijah seems to be a little bit less than Prince Charming. How do you feel about that? Do you think it's true?"
Nefera thought about it for a moment. "I think that people are never quite what they seem on the surface, so it's not fair to judge someone on a first glance. I want to find out what he's really like in person, and get to know who he really is."
Grace smiled. "That'll be all, Lady Nefertiti. Thank you."
The Selected's Wing, The Palace, Angeles, July 6th, 3:16pm
Wilhelmina von Schmidt, 2, Labrador
Wilhelmina hadn't paid any attention when they had been given a tour of the palace. She hadn't needed to. She had practically grown up there, after all, during the years when her parents had been trying to arrange her brother's marriage to Jenn.
After the tour, the Selected had been told they could spend time in their rooms, or wander the halls nearby, until five o'clock, when it would be time to get ready for dinner.
Wilhelmina took the time to walk the familiar halls. Even though she knew almost every inch of the palace like the back of her hand, she stuck to the approved area. There was no sense in doing something that could get her kicked out so early on in the Selection. Even though it had been her aunt's idea for her to enter the Selection, she really did want to see Eli again. It had been more than five years since she had seen him last. The last time she had seen him, she had only been seventeen. Now she was twenty-three.
The idea of seeing Jenn again was considerably more nerve-wracking, although she hid her nerves easily. Was five years long enough that Jenn was angry anymore? Would she be willing to believe Wilhelmina when she said that she hadn't known about the attempted arranged marriage ahead of time?
Wilhelmina had absolutely no idea. She continued wandering through the halls, taking in the familiar sights. She stopped at a window that overlooked the carefully manicured gardens. She and Jenn had spent hours outdoors in the gardens, accidentally messing up the landscaping and getting disapproving looks from the gardeners.
She smiled as she spotted a young girl who had to be Mel sprinting across the tidy green grass, with no regard for the dress she was wearing. She was being chased by an older woman that Wilhelmina recognized as having been Jenn's nanny when she was young. Mel had just been a baby when she had left the palace. She had gotten so big in the years that had passed since.
Wilhelmina turned away from the window, heels clicking against the marble floor as she walked. She half-hoped that she would just run into Jenn while wandering, and get it over with, but that was unlikely. She knew the entire royal family would be staying far away from the Selected's wing today.
If she left the Selected's wing, her chances of running into Jenn would vastly increase, but again, she didn't want to chance getting kicked out on the first day. That would be stupid of her. So she just continued wandering, no particular destination in mind, just looking around and remember all the fond memories of her childhood. She and Jenn had been partners in crime. They had done pretty much everything together, including plan retaliation for the elaborate schemes Eli and Micah had come up with to torment them.
She smiled fondly at the memory. She had hated Eli as a young child, although looking back it had probably been mostly one-sided. There had been no malice behind the things Eli and Micah had done to annoy her, it had been mostly just for the fun of making her angry.
That had all ended just before Eli had turned fourteen. Something changed, and all of a sudden Evelyn and King William were getting a divorce, and Eli had been sent off to boarding school for a school year. When he got back, he was different, quieter. He had always been quiet, but after that year, he had been quiet in a different way. He and Micah had quickly become far more interested in alcohol and girls than in irritating her, and after he had gone to college, she hardly saw him.
She wondered what she should say to him tomorrow, when they would see each other for the first time in more than five years. Hopefully he would have recognized her. If he didn't recognize her, tomorrow was going to be very awkward. She had lived in the palace for nine years, he had better recognize her.
Wilhelmina knew perfectly well that there was a chance he might just eliminate her right away, but she hoped he wouldn't. She really wanted to give a romantic relationship with Eli a shot. And she really wanted to have a chance to apologize properly to Jenn, and finally get her to believe that she hadn't know about the plan to marry her off to Ernest.
Hopefully she would get the chance to do both of those things.
The Dining Room, The Palace, Angeles, July 6th, 6:42pm
Helena Tomas, 2, Calgary
The royal family wasn't at dinner. That was deeply disappointing. Lena had hoped to get a glimpse of Prince Elijah. Oh well. She didn't have long to wait anyway, since they'd be meeting the Prince tomorrow.
She surveyed the other girls at the table. She already had a plan for Prince Elijah. Men were simple, and usually only wanted one thing, so she would catch his attention easily enough. It was a simple matter of sex appeal, and figuring out how to get him alone. And if that failed, there was always his father, or his younger brother. She'd get what she wanted, she was sure of it. But keeping any of the other girls from outshining her would be more difficult.
She had done research on them before the Selection began, of course. She needed to know her competition. Some of them wouldn't need any special effort. The Sixes would take themselves out of the competition easily enough, with their lack of class, and some of the girls were just plain unremarkable. The other Twos would be the most difficult.
Lena took stock of the budding friendships all along the table. Violet and Isla, a Five and a Two, seemed like an unusual friendship to Lena, but she supposed they were both artists, so it made sense. Adelynn, a Six, Lydie, a Four, and Thea, another Four, were chatting enthusiastically. Brielle and Angelique, two actresses, were talking quietly at one end of the table. Cassandra wasn't speaking to anyone, just eating quietly with perfect manners.
Florida was talking loudly about how the earth was flat to Lennox, who didn't look convinced. Lena didn't think much of that. Florida was a Two, she was supposed to be better educated than that. Lennox clearly didn't believe that nonsense, and she was a Six. She was at the mercy of the public school system, and not even the good part of it, where the fours and fives were educated.
Ixchel, the law student, was talking to Nefertiti, who worked for the Zuni Broadcasting Company, and Ixchel's twin sister Yunuen was seated as far away from her sister as she could possibly get. The deaf girl, Zenya, wasn't talking to anyone either, but she wouldn't be any kind of threat.
Gemma hadn't drunk any of the wine that had been placed in front of her. Neither had Cassandra, for that matter. That was interesting. It might mean something, it might not. She'd have to keep watching to find out if that was a weakness she could exploit. To Lena's right, Elaine was talking to Marlee, and to Lena's left, Wilhelmina was sitting. Lena briefly considered striking up a conversation with her, in the hopes that she might get some inside information on Prince Elijah, but she thought it was highly unlikely that Wilhelmina would run the risk of giving up her advantage, so she didn't bother. She'd have to find her weakness quickly. A prior connection could take Wilhelmina far, if Lena didn't find something.
Marlee was distracted by another girl, and Elaine turned to Lena. "Hey. My name's Lainey. I heard that you're a dancer? I am too. Not professionally, of course, just for fun."
Lena turned and smiled politely. She couldn't show her true colors this early in the Selection. She needed to be sweet to everyone until she had this in the bag. It would be easier to collect information if no one hated her. "I am a dancer, that's right. My name is Lena." She held out a hand. "It's nice to meet you." She already knew Elaine's name, and quite a bit about her, but she didn't say that. "I'm in the Royal Dance Company. I've been dancing since I was little." All throughout the remainder of the meal, she chatted with Elaine about dance. She needed to at least pretend to make friends among the Selected.
The Women's Room, The Palace, Angeles, July 6th, 8:30pm
Elaine Walton, 3, Carolina
It was only the first day, and already trouble was brewing in the Women's Room. Cassandra seemed to take personal issue with the fact that Wilhelmina had previously known Prince Elijah rather well. She was glaring at her from across the room, as if she couldn't stand the fact that someone else had an advantage she didn't. Lainey thought that Cassandra had thought that she was the only one with any previous connection to the palace, and she hated that she had been wrong.
Lainey knew that if Cassandra knew that her stepmother was friends with the Queen, she would be on the receiving end of that same jealous glare, which made her nervous. She didn't like arguments, and she didn't want to be involved in any drama.
There was a knock on the door, and a maid stepped into the room. "Lady Elaine?"
Lainey stood up, smoothing out her skirt. "Yes?"
"The Queen would like to see you in her private sitting room."
Well, apparently her wish to stay out of any drama had not been granted. She followed the maid out of the room, trying not to hear the other girls whispering, wondering why she was being summoned to see the Queen on the very first day. She had wanted to be friends with everyone, but that seemed unlikely to happen now.
She followed the maid through the palace, up to the Queen's private sitting room. There were guards standing right outside the door, and Lainey couldn't help the twinge of sadness she felt upon seeing them. Jonas, her ex-boyfriend, was off somewhere, wearing a uniform like that.
Melissa smiled widely as she walked through the door. "Elaine! I'm so glad you're here! I've been looking forward to having you in the palace since your name was announced." She gestured towards the empty seats. "Have a seat, please."
Lainey sat down. "Thank you. I'm really happy to be here." She wasn't terribly happy to be there, since she hadn't particularly wanted to enter the Selection in the first place, but she wasn't going to tell Melissa that, since she seemed to be absolutely thrilled that Lainey was there.
"How is Caelynn? I need to have her to the palace sometime soon, or pay her a visit. How is your father?"
"Dad and Caelynn are good. I'm sure she would love to see you, she told me to say hello if I got the chance to see you. How are you? How is Mel?"
A fleeting expression of sadness crossed Melissa's face before she said, "I'm wonderful." Her smile at those words seemed a little bit frozen. "Mel is doing well. She's giving her nanny quite the hard time."
Lainey laughed. "I can imagine. Bet she's a handful."
"She's really excited to see you. She's getting ready for bed now, but if she was allowed she'd be in here and all over you. I'd expect to see her sometime tomorrow afternoon, she's talked constantly about you since the Selected were announced."
They talked for a while about nothing, a conversation full of frozen half smiles and half answers to questions on Melissa's part. Lainey tried more than once to wrap up the conversation so she could return to the Women's Room, which was where she was technically supposed to be, but Melissa just continued talking. Unwilling to point out the fact that this meeting was very much against protocol for the Selection, Lainey stayed and talked for nearly an hour.
When she returned to the Women's Room, some of the Selected had already gone to bed, but Cassandra was already there, staring at her. "What did the Queen want?" Someone asked.
"She just wanted to talk," Lainey answered, hoping that maybe, just maybe, that answer would save her from further confrontation.
"Why did she want to talk to you?"
Another one of the Selected asked, "Isn't that a breach of the Selection rules?"
Lainey shrugged helplessly, not liking any of the jealous stares she was getting.
"Hey, Lainey." She turned towards the other person calling out to her, and saw Brielle patting the seat next to her, on the loveseat next to her, close to the chair Wilhelmina was sitting in.
Lainey gratefully made her way across the room to sit down next to her, glad that at least someone was still willing to speak to her.
She turned towards Wilhelmina, who had been initially cold when Lainey had tried to introduce herself earlier. But maybe now that Lainey was in the same boat, she'd be friendlier. "It sucks, doesn't it? That they hate us already."
Wilhelmina glanced around the room, taking in the jealous stares. "I suppose it does. I haven't seen Eli in five years, and we didn't get along terribly well before, I might even be at a disadvantage, even though I have inside knowledge."
Lainey nodded. "I've only met Eli once, and he probably doesn't even remember me. My stepmother knew the Queen before she became the Queen, but that's not a reason to hate me."
Wilhelmina shrugged delicately. "It is what it is. Let them hate. Their opinion isn't what matters, after all."
The Women's Room, The Palace, Angeles, July 6th, 9:33pm
Yunuen Hamilton, 3, Tammins
Yunuen sat with a group of girls, discussing why exactly the Queen might have wanted to see Elaine. She didn't know their castes, and she knew she ought to be attempting to make friends among the higher caste girls, but gossip about the Queen was too good to resist. Even though she wasn't the rightful Queen, knowing what the rumor mill was saying about her could be useful later on down the line.
The person she really ought to be making friends with was Wilhelmina. Insider information would be just want Yunuen needed to get what she wanted, to make herself a One, and prove that she did belong in high society, no matter what anyone said about her. That would be the ultimate sign of acceptance, to reach the very top of the ladder.
There was just one problem. Ixchel was here too. And Yunuen always came in second place to Ixchel. Ixchel was Mama's favorite, and before Dad stopped being a public defender, Ixchel had been his favorite too. Even now that Ixchel had stopped speaking to him, Yunuen suspected that if she did, she'd be Dad's favorite again in a heartbeat.
Since Ixchel was everyone else's favorite, it only made sense that she'd be the Prince's favorite too. And then Yunuen's one chance to be a one would go right down the drain. There were plenty of rich twos, of course, there always were, but there was only one Prince Elijah, only one ultimate prize. And if he liked Ixchel better, Yunuen wouldn't be able to stand it.
Out of the corner of her eye, Yunuen spotted Ixchel standing up and leaving the room. Better to get the reunion over with sooner rather than later. Yunuen excused herself from the group she was with, and followed Ixchel out of the Women's Room.
Ixchel was halfway down the hall when Yunuen caught up to her. "Ixchel."
She turned. "Yunuen. What do you want?"
Now that she was talking to her, Yunuen didn't know what she wanted to say. It seemed stupid to warn her sister to stay away from the Prince, to tell her not to take this away from her. To tell her to let her be good enough for once in her life. But that would just give Ixchel one more reason to believe she was better than Yunuen. She already believed that, Yunuen didn't need to add fuel to the fire. "Why'd you even sign up?"
"Mama wanted me to."
Of course Ixchel was only in this for someone else. Ixchel thought she was so perfect, and she thought that Yunuen was such a disgrace for trying so desperately to be good enough, to look and act like a two, so that nobody would look at her and assume she was a six anymore. "Good luck," Yunuen said begrudgingly. She didn't mean it, of course. She fully intended to do whatever she could to make sure that Ixchel wasn't the favorite in this too.
Down the hall, Yunuen heard the sound of a door opening. She glanced down the hall to see Lydie stepping into her room and closing the door behind her. Ixchel just turned away and headed for her own room without saying anything in response to Yunuen, visibly annoyed.
Calista's Room, The Palace, Angeles, July 7th, 8:19am
Calista Matapang, 3, Hudson
Cali took a deep breath, and gave herself one last once over in the mirror. Her maids had chosen a long grey dress, with three-quarter length sleeves and silver detailing on the upper portion for the dress she would wear the first time she met Prince Elijah, and she hoped it wouldn't be too similar to another girl's dress. She didn't want anyone to think she was trying to sabotage them or something.
She took another deep breath, and met the eyes of her mirror self. "You've got this, Cali. It's all going to be okay. There's absolutely no reason to worry." She paused for a moment before continuing. "But what if it's not all okay? What if there is a reason to worry? What if I dump food on my dress at breakfast? What if I trip?"
She could have continued with the what ifs forever, but there was a knock on the door, and a voice she recognized as Lindsey's spoke. "Time to head down to breakfast, Lady Calista."
Cali took another deep breath, and stepped away from the mirror, heading for the door. She joined the group of girls in similarly fancy dresses, waiting to head down to breakfast. The other girls were chatting, but she was too nervous to join in.
A blonde girl made her way over to her, and stuck out her hand. "Hi! I'm Addie. I don't think we've met yet. What's your name?"
Cali smiled back, relieved that someone was talking to her, sparing her from having to start a conversation herself. "I'm Cali." She accepted Addie's hand. "It's nice to meet you."
Addie nodded. "It's nice to meet you too. Where are you from?"
"Hudson. What about you?"
"Clermont. I'm a flight attendant and a lifeguard. What do you do?"
"I'm a nurse."
"Oh, that's cool. You should come and meet Thea and Lydie and Marlee. They're really fun." Addie gestured towards a group of girls clustered together off to one side. They were all laughing together. "Come on."
Cali wasn't a fan of big groups, but still, she followed Addie over. She didn't want to disappoint her. Addie introduced her to the group, and Cali hovered silently on the edge of their conversation, unsure of what to say, until Lindsey clapped her hands to draw their attention.
"Alright, ladies. We're getting ready to head down to breakfast now. After breakfast, we're going to have a brief protocol lesson, before you get your chance to meet the Prince." A flurry of whispers broke out among the Selected, but Cali stayed quiet, wondering one thing. Would he like her?
AN: The characters introduced in this chapter are Nefertiti Gamel by Nikt Wazny, Wilhelmina von Schmidt by bumblebea30, Helena Tomas by NewKind, Elaine Walton by RosemaryAlysse, Yunuen Hamilton by harrisens, and Calista Matapang by Angeley. Let me know how I did with your girls!
I've gotten some questions about this, so Ixchel is pronounced ee-SHELL, and Yunuen is pronounced yoon-WEN.
Kendall doesn't belong to anyone, she's just a throwaway name.
