Hi, just an FYI, there's a very short "Mature" scene (with absolutely no graphics) toward the end of the chapter marked by 2 **M** in the beginning and end (it's only a couple of paragraphs) ;)

Chapter 20 – Nevaeh de Montignac

When Nevaeh accepted to coordinate the Selection, she hadn't expected to be the babysitter/teacher of the girls. But spending the whole morning with them trying to get them to understand how foreign affairs worked was not how she had planned her summer to go, at all. Only a few knew what she was talking about and those were: Yuna because one of her dads was one of the Queen's advisors; Ivy because her whole family was involved in Embassy things or Foreign Affairs either in Illéa or in Greece; and Mia who had some knowledge because of her being French nobility.

The others? Not so much. How do you explain years of forging alliances to young women who had no idea what Foreign Affairs actually meant? They knew both words, but those words put together were kind of scary. And there wasn't that much time to explain everything. Nevaeh even wondered it Nathan and Valerian knew exactly what their mother was doing…

Oh well. She'd just have to suck it up and go through everything. At least they'd know a tiny little bit more than when they arrived. The winners – whoever they might be – would have more lessons and catching up to do later, and she was not going to be their teacher, that she was sure of.

When her phone buzzed on the table, she sighed, relieved. "Lunchtime, ladies." She frowned as they jumped to their feet and started being loud. "In a ladylike fashion, please!" she called out. The Selected immediately toned down and filed out of the room without a noise. Nevaeh smiled: at least she still had some kind of authority over them.

"Hey, Yuna, are you alright?" she asked when she saw her friend still sitting at one of the tables. The brunette New Asian girl looked up and nodded, though her eyes said something totally different. When Nevaeh saw she had been doodling flowers all over the paper she had given out, she sat down on the chair next to her. "What's going on, sweetie?" she asked softly.

Yuna shrugged. Clearly, she was holding in something, and Nevaeh needed to know.

"Was it about your date yesterday with Silas?"

Yuna took in a sharp breath. "It was awful, Nev," she said. "I didn't think a heartbreak would be this painful, physically-" a sob broke away from her chest and she quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

Nevaeh quickly wrapped her arms around the young woman and she rocked gently back and forth like one would do trying to console a small child. "It will be okay, sweetheart," she whispered as Yuna sobbed into her shoulder. "It's going to be alright."

She could feel Yuna trying to stop crying, but each time she managed to hold back a sob, a more violent one overcame her and she shook against her friend. "I want to go home," she hiccupped. "I don't want to stay here anymore."

"Oh, sweetheart," Nevaeh said, rubbing Yuna's back. "You'll have to talk to Silas about that. I can't send you home."

"No," Yuna said, pulling away from Nevaeh and looking into her eyes. "I can't talk to him. I can't face him again."

The Duchess wiped her friend's wet cheeks. "What exactly happened yesterday?"

Yuna took a deep breath and told her what happened. Nevaeh knew she had skipped some details, but the main thing she understood was that Silas had clearly told her that he didn't have feelings for her. Yuna didn't even know if he still considered her his best friend or not.

"I shouldn't have signed up for this stupid Selection." Yuna angrily wiped her face. "I should have talked to him sooner or stayed silent forever."

"You couldn't have known you'd be selected," Nevaeh said. "It was one chance in a thousand, maybe even more in Angeles."

Yuna took a deep breath. "I know." She nodded and tried to smile. "I need to go freshen up before lunch." She chuckled sadly. "Pretty sure we're already late, anyway."

Nevaeh looked at the time on her phone. "Yes, we are." The two friends stood and hugged one last time before Yuna went to the ladies' room to freshen up and Nevaeh headed to the gardens, where lunch was served under the parasols on the terrace. She took her place next to Silas, as usual.

"How was your date with Yuna yesterday?" she asked as if she hadn't had a chat with the lady just moments ago.

"Fine," he answered. "Why?"

Nevaeh stared at her cousin. "How long are you planning to keep her here? Because you should have seen the state she was in this morning."

Silas just raised an inquiring eyebrow. Far be it from him to actually talk.

"She was in tears with her heart in a million pieces and she asked me if she could go home."

Silas pushed the food around his plate. "Can we talk about this later?"

"No, we cannot."

He sighed. "Even if I take her off of my list, she's still on Nathan's and Valerian's lists–"

"Which is ridiculous because none of them will consider her as a potential girlfriend." She paused, forking a leaf of salad. "You were her only option, but you threw that out of the window." Nevaeh snorted elegantly and started talking a bit louder. "And I distinctly remember you telling Jesse on the report after the Ball– wait. That was barely a week ago. You told him that you considered her, and I quote, 'not only your best friend'." She looked at Silas who was trying to look away from her and mumbling something about not talking too loudly. "What was that about? You gave her hope, and then you just took her heart she was offering and threw it on the ground. Then you stepped on it and made sure nothing was left when you buried those letters." She huffed and tried to calm down. "Care to explain?"

Silas stayed silent and continued to push the food around his plate. He sipped on his wine, but then he decided to down everything at once. "I don't know, okay?" He sighed heavily. "When I saw her at the ball, I was considering her as a Selection contestant like the others." He paused, swirling the last few drops of wine in his glass. "But yesterday? I freaked out. I realized that I couldn't love her the way she did."

"Why not?" she asked, softening up a little. When the Prince didn't answer and clenched his jaw instead, Nevaeh also sipped on her wine. "You already love someone else, don't you?"

Again, Silas didn't answer right away. "I don't know." He finished his wine

"I see…"

Silas shot her a glare and didn't pipe another word until the end of the meal, while Nevaeh talked with Marmee who was seated across from them. When dessert had come and gone, Silas stood without a word and headed back inside.

"Wait," Nevaeh said, practically running after him. Silas stopped in the middle of the hall but didn't turn around. He rubbed his eyes. "Are you going to talk to Yuna?"

"Can you please drop this?" he asked a little more sharply than he intended. "I need to think about this."

"Okay, fine." Nevaeh raised her hands in surrender. "Just don't take too long to think about it."

Silas took a deep breath to try to let it go and walked away, his dog still outside playing with the Selected. Nevaeh watched as her cousin walked away. Had she been too hard on him? No. Yuna was also her friend and she needed her to be okay. She needed them to fix things between them, even if it was just to make things clear and send her home. Why keep her in the Selection at all?

With all that episode with Silas, she hadn't noticed Valerian going inside until he came back in a Hawaiian shirt, flip-flops, and sunglasses, with four pink roses in his hand, ready to ask some girls on a group date.

"Val?"

"Yeah?" he replied before heading outside.

"How many one-on-one dates have you been on?"

"Uhm, two?" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"That's what I thought." She shook her head and took a couple of steps towards the prince. "You know, if you're going to fall in love with one of them, you have to go on dates with only one person at a time."

"I know, but I want to get to know them all first before doing that." He paused and fiddled with the roses in his hands. "I really didn't know what to do and talk about with the first two. So I figured if I got to know them a little in groups, it would be easier to do things one-on-one later…" he trailed off, suddenly not so sure about his method.

"Huh," Nevaeh said, nodding. "Makes sense, in a way." She motioned at the roses with her chin. "Who are you inviting this afternoon to the beach?"

"How'd you know we're going to the beach?"

She pointed at his swim trunks and his Hawaiian shirt with a smirk.

"Right." He chuckled and then walked outside, just on the terrace, to call out his four dates for the afternoon. "Uhm, can I have your attention, please?" he said to the girls still lingering at the tables, chatting, or playing with Doug. They all looked up and paid closer attention when they noticed the pink roses he was holding. "So, uhm, would Roni, Malia, Pallas, and Leigh like to come to the beach this afternoon with me?"

Nevaeh wanted to pinch his cheeks; he was way too cute for this world.

The four girls broke into smiles and came forward.

"Can you just give us five minutes to change?" Roni asked.

"Sure! I can even give you fifteen minutes," he said with a wink. He gave them all a pink rose and they ran off to their room to get changed and ready for the beach.

"Nice bunch you've got there," Nathan said, coming over and slapping his little brother's shoulder. "They all look good in bikinis."

Val shot him a look.

"I'm kidding!" Nathan said. "I'm just messing with you. Of course, you don't only care about their looks." He grinned slyly and Val swatted his arm.

"Shut up, man." He looked around, making sure none of the girls had overheard that part of the conversation but they were all occupied talking among themselves or having fun with the yellow dog. "I'll see you guys later," Nevaeh said, walking away from the two brothers to join her grandmother who was enjoying a cup of tea. She needed to be with civilized people right now.

-o-0-o-

Valerian was already seated in the car with the air conditioning, scrolling through his Instagram page and mentally kicking himself for not keeping up with it and responding to all the people who had wished him a happy birthday. So he decided to thank them through a story on Instagram.

He opened the live stream on Instagram and started filming himself in the car. "Hey everyone! I just wanted to pop by and say a huge thank you for all your birthday wishes!" by then, already 97 people were watching his live video and he waved to his viewers! "Hi! So, uhm, I was just saying thanks for the birthday wishes, and I have a few minutes right now before going on my next date!" He chuckled awkwardly and ran a hand through his silver hair. Questions from the viewers also started to show up.

"Ooh, good question: who is my date? Well, I'm doing a group date, again, and I'm going with–"

Just then, the door open and Leigh climbed into the car.

"Oh, hey, Leigh!" Val said, inviting her to sit next to him. "I'm doing a live video on Instagram." He offered her a sheepish smile. "Guys, you remember Leigh Altman," he said, going back to his video and making sure that they could also see Leigh.

"Hi!" Leigh said, waving.

"So yeah, Leigh is going to be one of them, and also–

Roni and Pallas arrived then, and Valerian filmed them as they climbed into the car.

"–Veronica and Pallas as well, and now we're just waiting for one more–"

The door opened again and the first thing that came in was a mermaid tail stuffed into a fabric bag, followed by a grinning Malia. "Sorry, I'm late!"

"–and here's Malia! You remember the mermaid?" he asked his audience. "Malia, say hi to the viewers!"

Malia waved and sat across from them while Val went back to his video. "Anyway, it was nice chatting with you all," – by that time there were more than five thousand people following his live video – "but now I have a cool date to go to, with amazing ladies! See you soon!" he waved, filmed the girls waving too and then stopped the video.

"Do you do that often?" Pallas asked. "I don't remember seeing you live on Instagram a lot before…"

Val shrugged and slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Not really, no," he said. But lots of people have been wishing me a happy birthday this past week on Instagram, and I didn't have time to make a fancy post or whatever, so I just did a live stream." He paused and chuckled. "I just didn't think there'd be that many viewers."

"Some people are glued to their phones," Leigh said.

"Hi, what did I miss?" Jesse said, climbing into the car with the group."

"Nothing," Val and Veronica said at the same time and everyone laughed.

"Hey, do you always get to do the fun stuff while Sydney and Otis stay back at the Palace with the others?" Pallas asked.

"I'm the Selection Reporter," Jesse replied. "Syd and Otis are just my assistants. They do what I tell them to do." He laughed and the others laughed as well just as the engines started and off they went to the same beach they had been to on Saturday.

"You can't get anywhere near water without your mermaid tail, can you?" Roni asked Malia, teasing her.

Malia grinned and shook her head. "Nope. You're not a mermaid if you don't mermaid all the time, right?"

Everyone laughed and continued chatting and bantering until they got to the beach, where they ran out of the car and just dropped all of their stuff – bags, clothes, flip-flops, and everything in between – before making a beeline for the water and splashing around.

Val stood at the edge of the water, the waves lapping at his feet, his hands in his pockets, and he sighed, content. He knew he wasn't necessarily expected to find love – his mother had said he'd just have to tag along if he wanted – and he wasn't in a hurry, especially after the last girl he dated in his first year of college, but he was glad he could just go on group dates and make new friends. He wasn't expecting much, to be honest, and he liked it. He was living in the moment and it was all that mattered.

"Val, are you coming or not?" Pallas called out, emerging from the water. Now, who was the mermaid?

"Yeah, I'm coming…" he walked a few steps into the water and then dived headfirst under the big wave crashing down on the shore. He came out behind it and smoothed his silver lock of hair back and grinned. "Who wants to race to that buoy over there?"

The four girls nodded, laughing, and dived in for a head start. Of course, Malia was the first one there because she was propelling herself with her mermaid tail and had to wait a few minutes for everyone to catch up with her.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Roni said, laughing. "We don't have mermaid tails."

"True," Pallas added. "But I think even without her tail she would outswim us."

"I'm with Pallas on this," Leigh said, laughing.

"Okay fine," Malia laughed. "I'll give you a few seconds and then I'll go. Race you back to the shore?"

Val nodded and flattened his silver lock on his head. "You got it. Give us a whole minute."

"Thirty seconds," Malia countered. "The distance is not that long."

"45," Leigh said.

"I'll give you 37 seconds and not one more, Malia decided, defiantly, but with a smirk curling her lips. "37, 36, 35…"

Val and the three others hurried to go back to the shore while Malia counted down the seconds. At exactly 0 seconds of her countdown, she started swimming and swam past them, arriving on the sand just a handful of seconds before Valerian with his powerful strokes.

"Hey, Malia, can I try on your tail?" Roni asked. "I've never tried it on."

"Sure!" Malia wiggled out of the tail and handed it to Roni, explaining how to put it on. Leigh also watched closely because she was second in line to try it on, too.

Valerian sat on the sand to watch and Pallas joined him after taking her large hat from the pile of stuff they had thrown on the ground.

"Are you going to start classes in September?" she asked the Prince, sitting down.

"Yeah," he replied. "I don't see why I can't to both – the Selection and college – at the same time." He paused, looking at the trio laughing in the water as Roni tried to wiggle into the fabric tail. "I remember you talking with Jesse during the Ball interviews about an MBA?"

Pallas smirked and nodded. "Yep." She fiddled with a small seashell she had just found in the sand. "I still have to contact the University to see if I can start the semester online…" she trailed off. "But I don't know how long I'm going to stay here, you know?"

"Yeah, I totally understand," Val replied covering his feet with some sand. "I have literally no idea how long this selection will last." He chuckled. "But there's no way I'm letting it stop me from starting my Master's Degree." He looked at the dark blonde girl next to him. "What are you going to do with an MBA?"

Pallas grinned. "I don't know if I can tell you," she said. "Not that I don't trust you. It's just– I haven't really told anyone about it, yet."

"Oh, that's okay, you don't have to tell me." He offered her a smile.

"What are you going to with your… what are you doing again?"

"Environmental Resource Management," he said proudly.

"Right." She chuckled. "And what exactly is that? I mean, as a Prince, how do you plan on using that?"

Valerian laughed. "That's a good question. But I think I can bring a lot to the table in the political and social aspects of the management and sustainability of the environment." He paused. "That's… a lot of big words," he conceded.

"That's pretty cool," Pallas said. "Are you going to specialize in anything? You've probably seen all the general aspects during your Bachelor's degree…"

"Yeah," Val said, nodding. "I was considering specializing in ecology and environmental geography. That will make me travel a bit over the whole country, and I can help Silas with all that. He probably doesn't need to think about ecology and such if someone else is there to think about it for him."

"True!" Pallas laughed. "What does he think about that?"

Val shrugged. "I haven't really talked about it with him, to be honest."

"Oh."

"Yeah." He sighed. "With an MBA, you could open up your own business, right?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah." Pallas smiled and looked at the horizon. "That's the plan. But that's all I'm giving you for now…" She made a small mound of sand next to her. "But if I do stay a while longer in the Selection, would you like to be study buddies?"

Val brightened at the idea. "That's actually a good idea," he said. "I think I'll need someone to help me focus on studying while everyone is just having fun, you know?"

Pallas nodded. "Do you think there would be others who'd start the Semester online, too?"

"I don't know, we can ask around, but I think Eve might be interested if she's still here? Aerospace engineering," he explained to Pallas' surprised look. "I think Ivy is in college, too, but I'm not sure. Roni might still be in school, too, but again, I'm not sure." He chuckled. "I'm going off what I remember from conversations and the application forms you all sent."

Pallas nodded. "We could start a study club."

Valerian nodded. "That would actually be really cool."

After a while, the three other girls joined Val and Pallas in their conversation and talked about their plans and dreams until it was time to head back home to be in time to change for dinner. But Valerian really enjoyed talking to these ladies, and he was really glad he'd brought them all to the beach, away from the Palace. Because for one afternoon, he had forgotten about the Selection, and just spent time with friends, talking about life and other stuff. He wished he could do that more often, but alas, the Selection was taking up all of the time.

He really wanted to take Pallas on her offer of starting a study club when the Semester started. He could also go to the Angeles University, but it wouldn't be fair to the Selected…

-o-0-o-

While Valerian was at the beach with the four girls he had invited on his group date and the rest of the girls lounged around the swimming pool with Nate – Silas was nowhere to be seen all afternoon –, Nevaeh had been content to stay inside and start preparing the next big event of the Selection, not counting the next three August birthdays: National Day on September fifth. And now that the girls knew a bit more about Palace life and that etiquette and dancing lessons were well underway, she could start teaching them how to prepare such an event. Of course, she knew some of them probably wouldn't be in the Selection by that time, but she thought it was important for all of them to get a head-start on that.

So she had spent the whole afternoon in her room with a tray next to her full of rosé and cookies – not too many, though because she was late in her morning workout routine – and had started to divide the event into sections for the girls to oversee, under her guidance.

There was a light knock on her door.

"Hm? Come in," she called out in the middle of the to-do list she was writing. She didn't look up but by the sound of the soft steps on the carpet, she knew it was Hanna. "Est-ce que c'est déja l'heure du souper?" she asked.

"Oui." Hanna chuckled. "I know time always goes by fast when you're working, but we only have twenty minutes to get you ready," she said in French because those two always talked in French together.

Nevaeh put her pen down and stretched like a cat in her chair. "Good, because I'm hungry." She looked at the empty plate of cookie next to her. "I think I'm putting on some weight, Hanna," Nevaeh said, wincing at the thought. Hanna didn't reply and continued going through the outfits in the closet. "I should really start running again." She sighed. "This Selection is making me fat. I feel like we're eating all the time."

Hanna chuckled lightly as she took out a couple of outfits for Nevaeh to choose from, and Nevaeh chose the beige largely pleated floor-length skirt with the sleeveless white top.

"Instead of going through your workout routine in the morning, you could do it in the afternoon," Hanna suggested.

"Way too warm. It's summertime in Los Angeles, Hanna." Nevaeh shook her head. "And there's no way I'm going that in front of everyone here. At least in the morning, people are still sleeping."

"Yes, you also need to sleep," Hanna countered. "You have a lot on your plate, right now, and I don't think you could take up a morning routine during the Selection."

Nevaeh sighed. Of course, Hanna was right. She was often right.

"What about the gym?" Hanna asked. "Where your cousin also does his own routine?"

"Silas? He's keeping up with his workout?"

"Yes," Hanna said. "At least I think he does."

Nevaeh thought about it as she stripped down her comfortable jumper and slipped on the outfit for dinner. Then she sat at the vanity and waited.

"Wait. You want me to do your hair?" Hanna asked. Nevaeh always did her own hair, except for special events.

"Yes," the Duchess replied. "I'm not in the mood to do my hair right now."

"Okay…" Hanna went to work on the lush, thick, blonde hair and created a half braided updo before working on fixing her natural makeup. "You're very far away, this evening," Hanna commented. "What are you thinking about?"

Nevaeh took a deep breath. "I don't know… it's just– it feels weird to see my three baby cousins dating, you know? I feel old."

"They're not that younger than you, Nevaeh," Hanna said. "Silas is only two years younger than you."

"I know," she said. "But still."

They were silent for a moment and Nevaeh relaxed under Hanna's professional touch. "Are you regretting your last relationship?" Hanna asked softly.

"No," Nevaeh replied without an ounce of hesitation. "That was a lousy relationship." She snorted. "Besides, I don't need a relationship to be someone." She sat up straighter. "I'm a strong, independent woman."

"That you are," Hanna said. "Okay, I'm done."

"Thanks." Nevaeh didn't even have to see the back of her head in the mirror to know that Hanna had done a great job. She headed downstairs and joined her aunt and her cousins at the table while the girls filed into the room in groups of two or three. Dinner went along well with no incident, and by the time dessert arrived, a footman brought in four orange roses.

Nevaeh silently wished the four girls good luck, because she knew a group date with Nathan would be something… Nathan thanked the footman and walked towards the girls' table to give out the four roses. From her seat, she noticed there was a small note attached to the stems and she hoped that Nathan hadn't written that himself: there could be three spelling mistakes in one sentence with him, if not more.

He gave the roses to Brandy, Morrigan, Abigail, and Anastasia, and Nevaeh wondered if she was going to flip Nate again like a pancake. Her respect for that girl had climbed up ten points when she had done that because Nathan needed to be flipped on his butt more often.

After dessert was done, Nathan and his four dates exited the dining room while the others stayed behind to chat and go in groups either in the gardens to sit in the cool evening breeze with wine or gather in the Women's Room for a movie. Neveah joined the wine drinkers outside.

-o-0-o-

On each of the notes, Nathan had written – with the help of his valet – a short note inviting the girls to a karaoke night in the cinema room. He had a maid prepare some snacks and fill the minibar and a footman look for a more recent karaoke program to download since he only had an old one he used to use when he was a kid. There was something he loved about karaoke, though he couldn't really sing. He sang in the shower most of the time when he wasn't sharing one with a lady, but that was pretty much it.

The group entered the cinema-room-turned-karaoke-room and he grinned.

"So, you've all already done karaoke, right?" Nathan asked, rubbing his hands.

The girls looked at each other. "Who hasn't?" Gail said.

Anastasia plonked down on a red velvet seat in the third row. "Don't count on me to sing," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Aw, come on, Ana," Nathan said, trying to sweet-talk her into participating. "Please don't flip me, but please can you do at least one song? Just for me?" He batted his eyelashes at her, and he felt victorious when she let out an amused snort.

"I won't flip you if you don't give me any reason to."

"Who wants a beer?" Gail said, looking into the minibar. "Or there's wine, Champagne, Martini…" she trailed off. "Pretty sure we'd all sing better with some alcohol."

"Very true," Brandy said, joining Gail by the fridge. "I'll have a beer." She took a bottle and popped it open. "Nate? What do you want?"

"Whatever you girls are having," Nate replied, opening the program on the computer. "What should we start with? Contemporary songs? Disney songs?"

"Oh, no. No Disney songs," Gail said, making a puking gesture.

"You should sing a Cinderella song," Brandy said teasing. But when Gail shot her the deadliest look she could muster, Brandy quickly backed off. "I was just kidding."

"What about you Mor?" Nate asked. "What songs are you into?" He looked at the blonde girl sitting in the first row. "Also, do you want a beer, too?"

Morrigan wrinkled her nose. "No thanks," she said. "Though I like Disney songs. But to avoid any kind of argument, I'm going to say Musicals?"

Gail handed a bottle of beer to Nate, and one to Ana, still sitting in the third row, alone. Everyone popped open their bottles and started to drink. Brandy handed a lemonade to Morrigan who was grateful for the understanding. She didn't particularly like alcoholic beverages – her mother never let her drink alcohol or anything sweet because of the calories, anyway – and she sipped on her drink.

"Okay, it's ready," Nate said. "Who wants to start?"

No one wanted to start so Nathan volunteered himself and sang – not so bad if he had to say so himself – with the song he knew best: 'I've got a woman' by Charles Ray. He gave it all his heart and the girls were surprised by his performance.

"Well, well, well," Gail said. "If fashion and 'prince-ing' don't suit you anymore, you could always drop an album."

"Really?" Nate wasn't so sure about that. But he'd take the compliment. "Who's next?"

"What the hell," Brandy said, putting aside her beer and walking toward the computer. "Lemme just–" she typed something on the keyboard. "There, found it." She grinned, climbed on the stage in front of the red curtains hiding the cinema screen, and waited for the music to kick it. As soon as the first notes resonated in the room, all the others groaned.

"Are you serious?" Gail said. "You're really going to sing 'Baby Shark' after Nate's masterpiece?"

Brandy nodded as she sang the first verse, laughing at the same time. The others suffered through the whole song as Brandy just half-giggled-half-sung the stupid song. When it was done, they all sighed, relieved.

"What?" Brandy said, walking down the stage. "It's the only song I know, okay?"

After her went Morrigan, and they were all awed by her voice. She sang 'Never Enough' from The Greatest Showman, and Nathan had to admit that he had goosebumps listening to her.

"Wow, oh, my God," Nathan said when the music stopped and Morrigan walked down the stage. "That was absolutely amazing! Where did you learn to sing like that?"

Morrigan's cheeks became a bit pink and she shrugged. "When you're an actress, you have to learn how to dance and sing and do many other things…"

"Wow…" Nathan said again. He sipped on his beer and tried to coax Ana into singing a song, too. She refused. And it took two beers to have her singing on that stage a song from Cinderella, namely 'Bibidi Bobidi Boo'. The girls and Nathan were getting drunker by the hour – all but Morrigan who decided to go to bed at some point because being the only sober person was no fun at all – and Gail danced to a song instead of sung.

Ana was the second one to go to bed – she knew a third beer would be fatal to her head in the morning and to her reputation as a cop – and Nathan was left with Brandy and Gail. They sang duets and just were silly. Until Brandy vomited on the red carpeting because she had had too much to drink and Nathan couldn't even walk straight to escort her back to her room. He called a maid who helped her back to bed.

"So, it's just you and me," he told Gail. They weren't completely outright drunk, but very close. "What do you say we go on where we started at the ball?" he asked, grinning slyly and coming over to the girl with the dark brown hair and the bright red lipstick.

She responded to his flirting. "Oh, and where would that be?" she asked.

He kissed her then and there. "Here, I think." He smirked. "Unless you want to tell me what the hell went on with your dad that night?"

**M** "Hell, no," she said. "I'd rather have sex right now."

"That's what I thought." He teased her again with a kiss. "But let's go to your room." His words were a tiny bit slurred but he could still kind of walk and they made their way, wobbling, to Gail's room. They didn't even notice if people saw them on their way there, but frankly? They didn't care.

It was quick, full of laughter and drunken giggles, and very unsteady, due to the alcohol in their veins. But afterward, they were both lying down on her bed, under the light summer covers, in the dark. She had her head on his shoulder and both were staring at the ceiling. The late evening breeze blew in through the open windows and the gauzy curtains moved in the starry light, like ghosts trapped, unable to go anywhere but dance in the same place.

Both had sobered up a little since the adrenaline of sex and alcohol had gone down a bit.**M**

"What really happened with your dad?" he asked, breaking the silence. "I mean, you don't have to tell me…" he trailed off.

She shrugged and snuggled closer. "I don't really want to talk about it. But long story short, my adopted dad is my biological father."

"What?" Nathan couldn't quite wrap his head around that information. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was just confusing in the first place. "Nevermind," he said. "I'm too drunk for this."

"I'm too sober for this," she countered.

They stayed like that in silence for some time, but then both fell asleep eventually. When Nathan woke up a few hours later because of a full bladder, he went back to his own bed to finish the night. He knew that if he stayed all night in a woman's bed, she expected more to come. He was not ready for that kind of commitment, even during his Selection.

-o-0-o-

The following week went by in a blur. Between continuing the lessons and figuring out how to have the selected organize the party and Ball for National Day, Nevaeh didn't see much of her cousins. Nathan continued to date the girls and sleep around – that was if she believed the rumors going around the Palace and considering they were about Nate, she did – while Valerian just continued to spend some fun time with the girls, either in the swimming pool, during game nights, or just by going with the flow. No one was eliminated on the next day on the Report, and that was kind of surprising since Selected had been eliminated every week…

After a week like that, Nevaeh needed to have a chat with Silas. She woke up early on Thursday morning, put on her workout clothes, and tied her hair in a tight ponytail on the top of her head. Everyone except the staff was still sleeping and she was glad she wouldn't see anyone going to the gym, below ground.

And sure enough, the Crown Prince was there, running on the treadmill as part of his warm-up. His headphones prevented him from hearing her walk in and she just climbed on the other treadmill, right next to him.

"Hey," she said loudly.

Silas was surprised to see her and he rested his headphones around his neck. "Good morning," he said, taking out his phone and pausing the music he was listening too. "What are you doing here?"

"I figured if I wanted to see you and talk to you, this was the best way." She shot him a look.

Silas looked away. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I noticed you didn't go on any date this week and you stayed away from the Selection." She looked at him sideways but then looked ahead of her and focused on running. She put the treadmill at a low pace because she still needed breath to talk to him.

"I had work to do."

"That didn't stop you from going on dates before," she said. "Silas, what's going on?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. After what happened with Yuna I just–" he stopped short and sighed. "It cut me in my momentum."

Nevaeh nodded. Maybe her little chat with him a few days ago had rattled him more than she thought.

"Have you decided what you were going to do about her?" she asked. She was already panting, mentally kicking herself to come run more often because she was completely out of shape.

"No."

"Okay." Nevaeh wasn't surprised by his short-answer replies. But she needed to know more. "Ximena won't have her crutches anymore, for tomorrow's Report," she said, changing the subject.

"I know."

Nevaeh wanted to shake him to get more than a couple of words from him. "Silas, what's going on? You've been avoiding everyone this week. You hide in your office, but I know for a fact that Auntie Lena took some of your work-load away so you could focus more on the Selection." She paused. "What is going on in that head of yours?"

Silas continued running in silence next to her. He even turned up the pace and started a sprint, ignoring her. He didn't go all the way to put back the headphones on his ears, but he ran.

"Fine, ignore me," Nevaeh said, still running. She was here for a workout and she would do it. She checked the monitor on the treadmill: only seven minutes left of running before she started the routine. They ran in silence for what felt like an eternity. She wanted to push him to get answers, but she knew it would only result in him clamming up even more. And she didn't want him close her out.

His treadmill slowed down and eventually stopped. He climbed down and took a towel, sponging his face and arms with it. He just stood there, not going on another machine in his routine, waiting for Nevaeh to finish. When she did, she also stepped down her treadmill and waited. Maybe he wanted to say something.

He didn't.

They went to the mats on the floor and started a floor routine. They had done that so many times in the past, it was coming naturally to them: Nevaeh held Silas' feet while he did sit-ups and then they exchanged roles. It went on like that in silence for some time. But still, Nevaeh didn't push him.

Thirty minutes into their workout, Silas finally broke the silence. "I have no idea what I'm doing," he blurted out. "With the Selection, I mean."

Nevaeh didn't comment on that.

"And I clearly have favorites, but I don't want to hurt anyone. And I've already hurt Yuna, my best friend, Nev. I lost her." He ran a hand in his hair. "I don't know what to do."

Neveah didn't answer right away and she drank some ice-cold water. "Do you want me to come up with a solution, or…?"

"Yes. Please."

Wow. That one was for the record books: Silas Schreave never asked for help. "Well, first of all," she started, sitting on the bench, "the girls know they signed up for a Selection, which means only one – well, here maybe three – will win. Meaning that they know some of them will have their hearts broken if feelings are involved." She paused, thinking carefully. She had never been in this situation before, but she could imagine. "I know it feels like an eternity since the Selection started, but it's only been five weeks."

"Only five?"

"Yes." She paused. "You've chosen a smaller pool of girls to focus on, and from what I understand, you want to go on four more dates, right?"

Silas nodded.

"Good. Then focus on those four before doing anything rash."

Silas nodded again. "There's just one tiny problem."

"And that is?"

"One of them has found her way in my head and I can't stop thinking about her. But every time I wanted to catch her eye or smile at her this week, she looked away. You said I was avoiding everyone, but she was avoiding me."

Nevaeh frowned. Who in their right mind would avoid the Prince? "That's weird."

"I know right? And I have no idea what I did wrong." He threw his hands in the air and let them fall back on his thighs. He took his phone from where he had put it down earlier. "I've also looked her up on Instagram and that didn't help with trying to push her away from my mind…"

Now Nevaeh was curious. "Since when do you have an Instagram account?"

"Not the point," he said, a slight pinkish color filling his cheeks under his dark stubble. "I mean look…" he handed her his phone. "Ever since Jesse mentioned it during his interview with her at the Ball and I heard her commenting it, I needed to see for myself." He looked away, not meeting his cousin's eyes.

Nevaeh smirked as she scrolled through the pictures – selfies, inspirational quotes, body positivity quotes, sexy photoshoots, and some of her drawings. "Well, she is hot."

Silas blushed even darker.

"Then why don't you go talk to her? I'm sure there's a reason why she's suddenly distant."

He nodded. "What do I even say to her? And wouldn't that be unfair to the four others I still have to go on dates with? Like–" he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then pushed up his glasses. Nevaeh knew he wasn't used to this much talking about his feelings at once. "Shouldn't I give them a chance, too?"

"Good point," she replied, continuing to scroll through the Selected's pictures. "But if you want to deepen your relationship with her at the same time as you're dating the others, you're free to do that as well. It's a Selection. Nothing is normal here, you can do pretty much whatever you want."

Silas snorted. "True."

"Wait a minute," she said frowning and looking at his phone.

"What?"

"You're a total stalker!"

"What? Of course not!"

"Uhm, yes." She went back to his Instagram page. "Your name is "s . caleb . s", there's no way to know it's you if we don't know your middle name, you have absolutely no followers and you follow no one, and you don't like any pictures. You're a stalker." She handed him back his phone, laughing.

"But-"

Nevaeh stood and wiped her face with her towel. "I'm going to take a shower, I'll see you at breakfast!"

"Wait!" he ran after her. "How do I- not- be a stalker?"

Nevaeh laughed. "Post a couple of pictures and make yourself known to the girl you're 'stalking'." She walked away chuckling. He really had no idea about social media, did he?

French Translation:

Est-ce que c'est déja l'heure du souper? = Is it dinner time already?

oui = yes

Hewo! thank you for reading! hope you enjoyed it!

What did you think of Val's and Nate's dates? And of how Nevaeh handled Silas? Was she too harsh on him or not? You can check out Silas' IG page on Pinterest, just for the lolz, because after Nev told him he was a stalker, he added some pics :eyes:...

Also, I have an exciting announcement: I am going to share with you the title of the Sequel, because why not? (also, I'm already so obsessed with it smh). SO, after 'Brothers' will logically come 'SISTERS'! yay! so yeah, it'll be a Male Selection/SYOC, the Princess is straight, and if you already want to start planning a dude (22-26 yo), you can! I will not be accepting more than 3 sons of former Selected (Pocket, Ana's son doesn't count in those 3 :eyes:) but the form will not be available until all the winner(s) of Brothers are revealed (because spoilers) though I may post the prologue before the end of 'Brothers'... :eyes:

I am not taking reservations as yet, but I'll let you know when I do ;)

Anyway... Thanks for your reviews, I can't wait to see what you thought of this chapter!

see you next week ;)