You guys, I am so so so sorry for making you wait this long. I'm not even sure if anyone is still reading this, but any reviews are appreciated! I've honestly had this chapter written for so long, but just couldn't find the time. I'll try and upload another chapter soon, but I am really busy, so no promises. Hope you enjoy this one- the story is starting to kick off.
love,
how you make the color blue
Julian straightened his tie- again. "Stop fussing," Harper commented. "You look fine." It was easy for her to say, Julian thought. She looked good no matter what she wore. He wanted to tell her that, but was too afraid that if he opened his mouth, all that would come out was a stream of vomit.
"You do look good," Daniel said.
"Good isn't enough! I'm picking the names, on national television, today!" Julian could feel himself becoming slightly hysterical.
"Well, technically, Giselle is picking the names," Daniel pointed out, extremely unhelpfully.
"Ten minutes to airtime!" King Luke boomed as he strode over to them, clapping Julian on the shoulder. "How are you feeling, buddy?"
"Terrible." King Luke smiled.
"You'll be all right. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find your mother."
"Why did I ever agree to do this?" Julian whimpered.
"Come on, Julian," Harper said. "It's not like you even have to do anything but sit there and not make a face if one of the girls is ugly."
"I'm going to die. Or worse, some girl is going to have a really unfortunate name and I'm going to laugh at them in front of a billion people."
"There aren't even close to a billion people watching," Harper muttered. Julian could feel his patience wearing thin.
"You know what, Harper? I'm really nervous, and I don't want to hear any more of your comments." Harper pursed her lips and walked away without another word. Julian groaned.
"Five minutes to airtime!" This had come from Giselle, who was wearing an adorable blue dress and bouncing around. She spotted Julian and practically sprinted over to him.
"Julian! Julian! I'm so excited! Aren't you? I'm going to pick the names and then they're going to come here and then I'm going to have 35 new sisters and then you're going to marry one and we're all going to live happily ever after!"
"That's the plan, Giselle. Who did your hair?"
"Valentina! She said my hair would look really pretty in two dutch braids."
"She was right, and she did a great job."
"Places, everybody!" King Luke's voice cut through the air. Julian wanted to puke. But he forced himself to stride over to the chair he'd be sitting in. Giselle ran after him. Once everyone was settled, the little red light that meant they were live blinked on, and the Selection began. Julian tuned Michael out as he talked and talked, and then, before he was ready (would he ever be ready?) he heard the words he had been dreading.
"And now, our own princess, Giselle, will pick the names!" Giselle beamed and waved as she climbed up onto the stool that had been placed there especially for her, and jammed her small hand into the fishbowl holding the first province. Allens. She pulled out a slip of paper and looked at the name. Despite only being five, she could read quite well, and Julian was happy he'd let her pick the names.
"From Allens, I give you Krista Sandoval, Caste 4!" Giselle squealed. She wasn't nervous-she was loving the attention. Julian wished he could feel that way. He turned his head to look at her picture. Krista seemed to be a pleasant-looking girl, with deep brown eyes and a gigantic smile. There was applause, and Julian did his best to keep a smile on his face. Giselle moved right on to the next fishbowl.
"From Angeles, Drew Butler, Caste 3!" A blue-eyed girl with a white-blond pixie cut appeared.
"From Atlin, Jackie Shaw, Caste 3!" A dark-skinned girl with the whitest teeth Julian had ever seen popped up. After that, the names went by fairly fast. He did his best to remember names and faces, but he knew he was going to have to do some serious studying.
"From Belcourt, Evelyn Lovelace, Caste 3!" A flash of blond hair and green eyes, and they were moving on to the next girl.
"From Clermont, Star Willow, Caste 6!" Curly dark hair.
"From Columbia, Sabina Amulet, Caste 4!" Gigantic brown eyes. Julian was getting dizzy watching the names and faces pop up and then disappear.
"From Dakota, Harmony Adams, Caste 5!"
"From Kent, Adelina Price, Caste 7!" Julian saw some of the older dukes and duchesses looking at each other. He knew it was going to cause a stir to have people from such low castes here.
"From Labrador, Cosette Rhimes, Caste 3!"
"From Paloma, Persephone Ainsley, Caste 2!" Julian had heard of the last name but didn't recognize the face that popped up. He also noticed that she didn't seem to be smiling, unlike the other girls.
"From Waverly, Argentina Killana, Caste 2!" A very familiar face popped up on screen. Julian had heard of her music- everyone had. He was shocked she would apply for the Selection.
"From Whites, Tazlina Petrov, Caste 7!" A girl with two Dutch braids appeared. And with Zuni (Brooke Lombard, Caste 5!), they were done. Michael wrapped up, the light went off, and Julian slumped over, completely exhausted. Giselle skipped away, still a ball of energy even after everything.
"Good job!" Harper said, patting him on the back. "Don't worry, you still have a month before the girls get here."
That month ended up going by far quicker than Julian would have liked.
September 1st saw Julian sitting on his bed as the clock ticked ever nearer to 6 o'clock, where he would have to go downstairs, and during a casual buffet dinner, meet all the girls. Daniel was sitting next to him, fidgeting with his fingers.
"Listen, mate-" Daniel had spent one summer in Britain and still retained that one slang word, which he used all the time- "It's going to be fine. None of the girls are going to attack you. I'll be right there, and all you have to do is make small talk with them."
"What am I supposed to say?" Julian moaned.
"Just ask them what their favorite color is or something." Despite himself, Julian laughed.
"Daniel, I can't ask 35 different girls what their favorite colors are."
"Fine. I'm sure there'll be at least a couple that you hit it off with, though."
"I hope so." Julian was already starting to sweat, and he could feel it trickling down his neck. Gross.
"It's ten to five, Julian. I'm going to go find Harper. Put on your suit coat and meet us downstairs." Julian nodded. Words failed him. Daniel saluted before he disappeared out the door. The ten minutes flew by much too fast, and Julian was walking down the marble staircase far sooner than he would have liked. Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, he pushed open the door.
And walked into a sea of noise and color. Girls in dresses every color of the rainbow scurried around. Several were chatting to each other, but the noise slowly died down as they realized the prince was standing there. "Um." Julian tried, already feeling like an idiot. "Hello. I'm Prince Julian, but you can call me Julian." You sound like an idiot. I wouldn't be surprised if they all left. "I'm going to try to meet all of you tonight. If I'm not talking to you, please feel free to eat or mingle with the other girls. Thank you." He exhaled and made his way over to Daniel and Harper.
"That sounded pretty good!" Harper said. "A little nervous at first...but it got better." Her trademark smirk played over her features.
"Ready to mingle?" Daniel asked.
"I don't think I'll ever be, but better sooner than later, right?" Julian said. "Right." He squared his shoulders. "Wish me luck."
"Good luck!" Harper yelled as he walked off. Julian's eye caught on two girls talking to each other, and he decided to go over there first. One of them had red hair in a bob, and he remembered her- Natasha Garner from Midston. The other one had long, wavy black hair, and he couldn't place her.
"Hello," he said to the two girls, who immediately swept into curtsies when they saw him. "How are you?"
"I'm good!" the black-haired girl said immediately, her eyes shining. "And how are you? You must be a little nervous." Julian grinned despite himself. He really wished he could remember her name now. By some stroke of luck, though, she introduced herself first: "I'm Hallie, from Sumner."
"Nice to meet you, Hallie," he said, instantly feeling more at ease. Natasha had slunk away after the initial hello, leaving Hallie alone. "So...what's your favorite color?" He internally facepalmed and cursed Daniel for ever giving him that idea. Luckily, Hallie didn't seem to mind.
"Red. What about you?"
"Definitely purple. Why do you like red?" Hallie turned innocent eyes to him.
"Because it's the color of the flowers you're going to bring me when we go on our first date." Julian's mouth hung open for a second before he closed it with a snap. And then he bent over and began to laugh. He had not expected to enjoy himself so much tonight.
"I'll remember that. Unfortunately-" and he really did mean it- "I have to go attend to the other girls. I hope to speak with you more later." Hallie didn't look upset at all.
"Of course! Have fun!" Julian grinned as he walked away. Hopefully all the girls would be like that. However, the next four girls he talked to were not memorable. Julian figured he could cross all of them off his list. He finally saw a girl he remembered the name of- Adeline, and he made his way over to her. She was wearing heels that put her at only a couple of inches shorter than him, and she looked slightly uncomfortable.
"Hi. How are you?" She jumped and turned to him, blushing slightly.
"Good." Julian internally groaned. He hated when people couldn't carry on a conversation.
"Are you finding everything?"
"Yes."
"Well, I hope to speak with you more, Adeline. Have a wonderful night."
"Thank you. Good luck speaking to all the other girls- I know it's tough for you to have to talk to all of us." Julian sighed.
"Thank you." She nodded, and Julian kept going, skipping Argentina, who was surrounded by a throng of at least eight girls and wearing a dress that did not look appropriate for a dinner in the palace. All of a sudden, there was a loud crash, and Julian turned around to see a smallish girl with blond hair in a bob pick herself up off the ground. There was another girl- Drew, he remembered, standing over her, but not making any move to help her up. He immediately made his way over there.
"Lady..."
"Sabina," she said, beaming at him.
"Are you hurt?"
"Nope! I was just showing Drew my double backflip, and I slipped on the floor. It's hard to stick a landing in these heels! Mind if I take them off?" And to Julian's utter astonishment, she proceeded to pull her dark blue pumps off, leaving her barefoot.
"Um, Lady Sabina..."
"Just Sab, please. Sabina sounds so stuffy."
"Sabina-Sab, are you sure you want to take your shoes off?"
"Yeah! It's not a big deal. My dress covers my feet anyway. How are you?" She was talking to him like they'd known each other forever.
"Um, I'm good. How are you?"
"I'm amazing! Your palace is so nice! Hey, do you want to see my backflip? I'm sure I can stick it without heels." Julian was finding it hard to keep up with her rapid train of thought.
"Oh, no thanks, Sab."
"Okay!" Her smile was as bright as ever. "I won't keep you! Go mingle with the other girls!" Julian smiled at her and retraced his steps through the room. Ah, another face he recognized- Star Willow. Her hair was curling down the back of the bright red dress she was wearing.
"Hello, Lady Star," he said. She turned to him and gasped in delight.
"Your Highness! Such a pleasure!" Her voice was lilting, nothing like what he had expected.
"Is everything to your standards?"
"It's so much more than I ever could have asked for," she gushed. She seemed so sincere that Julian couldn't help but smile.
"It was nice to talk to you, Lady Star."
"Oh- do you mind calling me Lillian?" She blushed as she made this request.
"Not at all, Lillian." He gave her one last smile and backed away. His eye caught on a tiny girl with wavy, blond hair in a ballerina bun, drinking a glass of wine. As he watched her, she downed the glass and reached for another one. He shook his head to himself, deciding to mention that to someone later.
Julian had met several more girls by the time the night was over, including Argentina, who was actually very nice despite her reputation. He sighed as he walked down the hall, loosening his tie. He was so tired, and he couldn't wait to fall into bed and sleep for a year, but before he got there, the girl he had seen drinking wine earlier came flying around the corridor and fell right into him. They went over in a tangle of arms and legs, and Julian quickly righted himself before reaching a hand out to the girl, who was still lying there.
"Are you okay?" She finally stood up, wobbling as she did so, and dragged a hand over her mouth.
"I'm fine." Her words were slurred. She's drunk, Julian realized. As if proving his point, she turned around to the nearest potted plant and puked into it, and then promptly passed out at his feet. Julian fought the urge to scream out loud. This was the last thing he needed. He just wanted to go to sleep, for god's sake.
"Um, can I help you?" The girl did not respond. He sighed, and waved a passing maid over. "Please take her to her room, and bring her something for a hangover in the morning." The maid curtsied and Julian walked away, wanting nothing more than to lie down. Unfortunately, before he could do so, he bumped into something that very nearly made him lose his dinner.