Chapter 9
At the end of the flight, the plane landed at the airport in Angeles. The four girls walked along the airport, there was a large crowd there too.
An officer brought up a little girl who look about 5 years old. She shyly asked if she could have their autographs.
Holliday was happy to ablige. She took out a pen and signed a notebook the little girl had, then she handed her pen to Riley, then to Kemi and after she signed Kemi handed the pen to Michelle.
Michelle quietly signed the little girl's notebook and then the girl smiled gingerly and skipped off.
Michelle then followed the other girls to the car that would take them to the palace.
In the car Michelle sat next to Riley in the way they would ride forward in the car. As they drove Holliday was once again being talkative.
"You know," she said. "I think Kemi and I are completely wasting our times."
"What do you mean?" asked Riley crooking an eyebrow.
"Well queen Dinette was an eight," explained Holliday. "And when the selected ones were chosen, most of them are under fives, so all the twos, threes and fours in the selection are wasting their times, cause he'll pick you or Michelle from the moment we get there."
"Come on Holliday," retorted Michelle. "You're beautiful! You're so sweet and kind to everybody, and Kemi has the qualities a queen would have, she's so good with law. So odds are he might chose either of you."
Kemi gave a modest smile. "Thanks," she said. "But I've kind of always wanted to be a lawyer."
Michelle asked Holliday what some of her interests were besides acting.
"Well," said Holliday. "I have two houses next door to each other."
"Why?" asked Kemi.
"One's for my cats," explained Holliday. "I'm an animal lover you see, I have 50 cats. So my parents bought the house next door from our villa for them to live in. either me or one of our housekeepers goes over there to feed them everyday. I love dogs too don't get me wrong, but I love cats more."
"You seriously use a second house for all those cats!?" said Riley looking surprised.
"Well not all of them," admitted Holliday. "My two favourites Leslie and Burke live in my actual house." She then looked at Michelle. "What does your family do Michelle?"
"My parents are into gardening," said Michelle. "My dad's a gardener and my mom sells flowers."
"You know," said Holliday. "Your parents love story reminds me of my parents, my dad's a police officer, every night after work he'd hang out in this bar to watch my mom perform. My mom was a stage dancer for as you've probably read about me, she used to be a five. He was in love with her. My mom and dad just love to brag about each other, my mom jokes like this "I did not marry him for money because he was a two, I enjoyed the money I made as a five. But we took one look at each other and we fell in love."
The four girls laughed.
It was late afternoon when they saw the palace coming into view.
The palace looked extremely beautiful especially in the sunset. As the car parked Michelle looked up at the palace, it was like a fairy tale.
All four girls got out; Michelle was the last. She slowly walked towards the castle daydreaming.
"Come on Michelle!" called Riley.
Michelle snapped out of her thoughts and went to catch up with Riley, Kemi and Holliday. At the doorstep was a middle-aged women in dark brown curls stood there waiting for them wearing a dark grey lady's suit.
"Good evening," said the lady. "I am Elaine Canes, the royal planner. For your time in the selection I will be governing you and the other girls in preparation for the girl who will enter royal life."
Michelle and Riley being lower castes were a little nervous considering they'd be doing a lot of lessons which upper castes like Holliday and Kemi would be good.
"You four are the last to arrive, so let's get inside to join the others."
Elaine led the four inside a room.
She lead them to a room filled with mirrors and cameras. There were stylists going around in all directions and there were girls that didn't take Michelle long to realize they were selecteds. There were also some officers in the room clearly keeping an eye on things.
"Alright this is were the report pictures are being taken," instructed Elaine. She then turned to some crew members. "Take lady Kemi to station 7 and Riley to station 8, lady Holliday can go to station 5 and they've finished lady Whitney at station 1 so lady Michelle can go there.
Michelle was taken to a seat by a red-haired male stylist with the number one on the back of his shirt.
"Now," he began. "What would you like for your image?"
Michelle gave a breath thought. "My family's careers seems very close to the gardening career," she said thoughtfully, "So maybe I could have a garden theme?"
The man nodded in agreement.
"What color would you like your nails?" asked a lady in a Portuguese accent.
"Pink" answered Michelle.
Michelle was enjoying the palace. Not only was she far away from her enemies back in Belcourt, but she was in the royal and luxury life. She wondered if they were watching the report that night or not. As she had her makeover although she was enjoying she remembered what she had heard Emily say in the airport that she'd be sent home the next day.
However she soon forgot it when she heard a voice.
It came from an officer, holding his hand was a twelve-year-old girl. "I hope you don't mind Ms. Canes," said the officer. "Princess Marcella wanted to watch the selecteds get their pictures."
"Not at all Officer Turner" said Elaine.
Marcella let go of the officer's hand and looked around. Michelle went back to concentrating on her makeover. A few minutes later she looked over at station 2. She heard a little voice. "Hello."
When Michelle saw the girl Marcella was talking two she recognized her as Leanne Brown the eight from Clermont.
"Hello" said Leanne. She was getting her beautiful silver hair pulled up into a high bun as she looked at the gold haired princess.
"You must be lady Leanne?" said Marcella giving a curtsey. Leanne giggled at the princess.
"You can call me Leanne," said Leanne. "And I'm the one who should be curtseying to you, I'm just an eight."
"My mommy was an eight," said Marcella. "And she's the queen now."
Leanne and Marcella giggled.
After a while Michelle was soon finished. She wore a light green gown with yellow and white flowers along the train. Michelle looked at herself in the mirror she looked like a real princess and loved the pink nails the lady did. The stylists then brought a box of perfumes. Michelle chose strawberries.
Emily would have a heart attack if she's watching the report and sees me dressed like this thought Michelle.
Michelle gave the biggest smiles she could as her picture was being taken. When she was done she stepped aside to go talk to her fellow selectives.
She suddenly ran into an officer.
"Sorry" Michelle said first. When she looked up at the officer. He was a very young man with dark brown hair and violet eyes. He looked very familiar, but Michelle didn't get much time to think that as he spoke.
"It's alright, my dear princess" he spoke with a smug smile. Michelle giggled. "Aren't you a little young to be an officer?" she humored.
"And here you are under eighteen and could be the one to marry the prince" retorted the officer.
Michelle smiled even more. "And who do I owe the pleasure to?" she asked.
"I'm Ja-"the officer spoke then he quickly paused. "I'm Jay" he said simply.
"I'm Michelle" said Michelle.
Just then another officer came up. "Uh officer Jay," he said. "I do believe the royal family wanted you at the report tonight."
"Gotta go duty calls" said the officer.
Marcella and the two officers left.
"That went pretty well your highness" said the officer.
"I know," said James. "That girl from Belcourt looked very nice."
Back in the photo room Michelle was thinking about the officer. When suddenly two other girls came along.
"Better not get too flirty with the officers" teased one. Michelle saw Whitney Fokos of Fennley and Kasha Purvis of Bonita.
"Yeah," added Kasha. "You don't wanna risk getting executed or canned do you?"
Michelle laughed along. "I'm Michelle" she introduced. Kasha had brunette hair. Both girls wore 19th century gowns. Whitney's was a dark orange corset. The dark orange color was also present on the wrap of her skirt which was a brighter orange. Kasha's was dark pink and had puffed sleeves. Her skirt was a lighter pink. The wrap on her skirt was also dark pink.
"I'm Whitney," said Whitney. "This is Kasha."
"I'm a seven too" said Kasha.
"It's nice to know another seven" retorted Michelle.
Just then the three girls turned to see a girl walking through the room from station 10. It was Giselle Neilson. The daughter of the royal family's chief advisor. Her golden hair hung from her back in curls and she wore a reddish-pink gown with a white bodice and the collar of her dress, and the edge of the arm holes had lace around them.
"Looks like lady Giselle decided to go old fashioned too" teased Michelle.
"I don't blame her," said Whitney. "I'm quite fond of the 50s clothing, I make enough money as a stage dancer for my parents to afford a tailor to make my clothes in a 1950s style."
"I've heard rumors that Giselle is spoiled and snobby" muttered Kasha.
"You shouldn't judge her because she's a grand lady" said Michelle.
Kasha had to admit Michelle was right.
After the pictures and the tour were done, Michelle was taken to the room she'd be staying in. Kemi was walking with her.
"It's like a dream," said Michelle. "Emily would be so jealous."
"Who's Emily?" asked Kemi.
"Emily McShayne is a girl I go to school with," sighed Michelle. "She and her friends are fours; they make fun of my and all the castes under four."
"Weird how they're fours yet they act like a bunch of twos" huffed Kemi. Michelle and Kemi then both gave a laugh.
"Here's my room" said Michelle looking at a doorway. And to Michelle's delight, Kemi's was across the hall.
"I'll see you at dinner" said Michelle.
Kemi nodded then went to her own room.
Michelle opened the door to her own room; it was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen. The walls were painted in a sky-blue color and the bed was a panel bed with a quilt made with squares of pale pink, green and blue.
Three maids were scattered around the room doing different things, then they saw Michelle. Two of the maids looked like they were in their early 60s and the third was about 30.
"You must be lady Michelle," said one of the older two maids. She was a plump women and it didn't take Michelle long to realize she was the oldest. The other two were slim. The plump maid had reddish-brown hair like Holliday.
"Yes I am" said Michelle.
"I'm Chloe," said the plump maid. "This is Maci and Alexis."
Maci was on Chloe's left side she was about the same age as Chloe, she had short curly brown hair. Alexis was the youngest of the three, she was wavy blond hair.
"We'll be happy to unpack your things lady Michelle" said Maci.
"You go down for dinner" added Alexis.
Michelle thanked them. "But one thing," she said. She reached into her suitcase and pulled out her family picture of her as a baby. "Nobody touches this," she said as she placed it on the bedpost of her bed. "It's my favourite picture."
The maids nodded and then headed off.
Author's note; It seems Michelle has gotten settled into the palace and she's becoming best friends with Holliday and Riley and is getting aquatinted with Kemi, Whitney and Kasha too. She's also had her first meeting with the prince, but she hasn't realized it yet. How do you think Emily and the rest of the quartet is gonna react when/if they see Michelle's picture of her dressed like a one on tv.
