Hey guys! So, a little backstory, I love the Selection series, but was kind of disappointed with how the story of the Heir and the Crown unfolded. And so, in this story, I'm going to be changing some things around, creating new characters and some new plot ideas, but will still be keeping some of the newer characters from the two books in this story. I haven't read the Selection in quite some time, so I apologize if I get some information wrong. I'd also just like to say that I'm fairly new to writing so if anyone has any suggestions or critiques, by all means let me know, I'd be more than happy to learn ways to improve my writing! I will try to be updating as much as possible but haven't really established a schedule just yet so I'm not really sure how consistent I will be, so sorry in advance.
It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, birds were chirping, trees swaying, wind blowing, leaves rustling, it was just a perfect day. I longed to be anywhere but this budget meeting that feels like it's been going on for ages. Unfortunately and fortunately, this conference room had large windows that overlooked the palace garden. I was, more often than not, distracted by the beautiful flowers, trees or anything for that matter. Anything was more interesting at the moment than discussing how we were going to fund the army. I wasn't a big fan of meetings, especially not budget meetings, but I loved talking about other important issues like the castes, education system, public sector, maintenance of streets/cities, honestly anything except budget meetings. I understood the importance of them, but that didn't stop them from being so incredibly dull.
"Your Highness?"
Snapping me out of my little daydream, I turn dumbfoundedly to Stavros, the Head advisor, and I blush, completely unaware of what's going on. My blush completely giving away how little I was paying attention. Luckily for me, Stavros took pity on me and decided to end the meeting. As many of the advisors shuffled out of the room, Stavros asked me to stay behind so that him and I could have a little chat. I already knew where this was going, Stavros was very well aware of my dislike of budget meetings.
"Your Highness, I know you aren't a big fan of these budget meetings, believe me they're not the highlight of my day either. But soon you will have to be running these meetings yourself and it is very important that you pay attention now and reinforce good habits."
"I know, I'm really sorry Stavros. I'll try and start paying attention more, but as soon as someone mentions the yearly budget, I just feel myself drifting off to sleep."
He chuckled, "I know, me too. But, unfortunately, they're a necessary evil."
I smiled, "Yes unfortunately."
I'd known Stavros my whole life, he was very professional and always insisted on calling me by my title, but we were still very close. He was like an Uncle to me, he always helped me out in meetings and explained things to me that I didn't understand. In my first meeting ever, I was so scared to be in a room with a bunch of the scary advisors, but Stavros helped me by explaining funny things about each one to make me see that they weren't scary at all.
As I walked down the hallway, I decided that with no more meetings for the rest of the day, I would go down to the garden to clear my head and enjoy the beautiful day, before I had to get ready for the Report this evening. I would be doing the Report alone tonight since Mom and Dad had been visiting Daphne, the Queen of France, for about a month now and would only be returning later tonight.
When I got to my room, I looked around to see if there was a book that I hadn't got the chance to read yet. Examining my overflowing bookshelf I decided I was going to take-
When all of sudden my door burst open, startled, I turned to see who barged into my room and not surprisingly, Issadora came striding in.
"Issy! You really have to remember to knock, what if I'd been changing and just flashed all the guards!" I exclaimed, exasperated with my little sister's total unawareness of other people's privacy.
She giggled and shrugged. Telling me that it wouldn't be the last time. I made a mental note to always change in the bathroom, just in case.
I sighed, "So what is it that you need?"
"I don't need anything, I'm just really bored and wanted to know what you were up to."
"Well, I was on my way to read in the garden."
"That doesn't really sound like a fun thing for two people," that's because I was hoping to go alone, I thought, "why don't we go to the stables and ride around on our horses instead?"
As much as I wanted to just read in the garden, alone, it had been awhile since I last rode Lightning and I did miss her.
And so, we made our way to the stables. Lightning was a beautiful Camarillo White horse, she was strong and fast, but always gentle and friendly towards me. I remember when the stables just got her, she was very shy. When I was about four years old, after persistent begging and begging to learn how to ride, my parents finally caved and I fell in love with Lightning. At first she was very wary of me, and honestly I don't think she liked me all too much. But after a while, she really bonded to me and now I can't even imagine riding another horse.
Once Issy and I got our horses all prepped and ready to go, we decided to follow the trail instead of just riding around the grounds. I was so happy to be outside and enjoying the fresh air, lately it felt like I hadn't had the time to leave the palace for any length of time. I was only sixteen and very far away from becoming Queen, however I still had to learn the way things worked and shadow my Dad. Sometimes I envied my younger siblings, they didn't have a care in the world, although they were royalty just as much as I was, they didn't have that huge responsibility weighing on them like I did. I loved Illéa and would do anything for my people, sometimes I just wished that my decisions wouldn't gravely affect so many lives. It didn't really leave much room for failure, which really stressed me out.
Issadora was now humming, she had a beautiful voice, just like Mom. I too inherited Mom's musicality, from a very young age she taught me how to play the cello, the violin, the piano and the guitar. But I was more attached to the violin and piano, whenever I played them I could just forget everything that was going on and just play. I also inherited my mother's beautiful red hair, although my hair was more of a darker red than hers, and a bit of her eyes. My mother had beautiful blue eyes whereas I had a mixture of green and blue. Depending on the light or what I was wearing, my eyes would either be blue, green or a slight mixture of both. Although I had many similar physical traits as my mother, everyone always told me that there was no doubt I was my father's daughter. We did have similar attributes like his same goofy grin and his nose, but they more meant the way I held myself, the way I spoke and my personality as a whole.
After about an hour or so, we had made it back to the palace and I could tell that Issadora was getting bored, so we decided to return our horses and go and chat on a nearby bench.
"It's so gorgeous out right now, I wish it was always this sunny," I remarked.
"Yeah it's really nice out, you know I wish we could spend more time together. I know you have a lot of work to do and are almost always busy either being tutored or going to meetings with Dad and stuff but I miss hanging out with you more, you know like when we were younger."
"Hmm, we did use to have a lot of fun together, didn't we?"
"Yeah I miss it."
"Me too Issy, me too. You know it's not like we don't live together, Issy whenever you want to hang out just come and ask me, I love spending time with you."
"Ok, just as long as you promise not to get mad at me if I interrupt you during something that's important or whatever."
Smiling, I said, "I won't, don't worry."
I was so lucky to have such good siblings, yes they did get on my nerves sometimes, but I loved them to death, even if they never respected my privacy. Issadora and Elias were twins and were only about thirteen years old, and then there was Kye who was ten and little Aliya who was only seven. I loved having a big family, it made everything so much better and more fun. Not to mention that there was never a dull moment.
We sat there for a little while longer, just watching the sunset until it got dark once the palace lights turned on, we took that as our cue to go back inside. After all, we didn't have that much time before the Report was supposed to start.
Luckily I wasn't addressing the nation tonight but instead was going to have a little conversation with Gavril. When I got to my room, I decided that I wanted to wear one of my mom's old dresses that she wore during her Selection, it was absolutely gorgeous. It was a beautiful pale blue that had a bit of a V-neck while still being modest, it was tight at the bodice and flowed out ever so slightly at the hips and went all the way to my ankles. It truly was a beautiful dress and Mary had done an outstanding job on it. After I'd gotten dressed, put some jewelry on and grabbed some shoes, I made my way to the studio.
The Report this evening was kind of dull, but I think my talk with Gavril really helped liven things up a bit. Gavril always knew how to make things entertaining and to really captivate the audience.
After the Report, I made my way to the Dining Hall to start supper, when I made it into the hallway. The doors opened and Dad and Mom entered.
"Daddy!" I exclaimed and ran to go give my Dad a hug, we hadn't seen each other for a month after all.
Smiling as I ran over, he welcomed me into his arms and we stayed like that for quite some time until Mom jokingly said, "What am I, chopped liver?"
"Of course not!" I replied and gave her a great big hug as well, once we'd both let go, I asked "So, how was your trip?"
"Oh sweetie it was beautiful, France in the spring is always so wonderful, the weather was nice and warm, and the flowers were starting to bloom. You would have loved it," Mom said sweetly.
I'm guessing everyone heard all the commotion because suddenly all my siblings had joined me and were greeting our parents.
I was really close with both Mom and Dad and loved them both equally, but Dad and I always shared such a deep connection and bond. Not that I didn't have a strong bond with Mom, but simply that it was different with Dad. As Dad recounted to us all of the things they did in Paris, I noticed how similar Dad, Issy and Kye were. The three of them both had brown eyes, and practically the same facial features, although Issy and Kye both had brown hair instead of blond, but they still looked like the spitting image of him. Elias and Aliya on the other hand looked an awful lot like Mom. The three of them all had blue eyes and similar mouth and nose shapes, but neither of them had red hair like Mom and I. Which, honestly, made it that much more special. Instead, Aliya had golden blond hair, kind of like Dad's and Elias had dirty blonde.
"Raia?" said Dad, snapping me out of my internal dialogue and having me realize that everyone had left for dinner.
"Sorry, I couldn't help but notice how similar Issy, Kye and you look and how similar Elias, Aliya and Mom look. It's pretty uncanny. I wish I looked more like you guys."
He chuckled sweetly and responded, "Yes your siblings do resemble your mother and I, but so do you Raia. You have the same hair as your mother, almost the same eyes, and yes you may not share very many physical attributes with your mom and I, but we still share many traits and little quirks."
He always knew what to say, no matter what.
I nodded and he pulled me into his side and we joined everyone for supper.