My mom woke me up in the morning by shaking my shoulders furiously. My eyes jolted open after one or two good pushes, and I turned to give her a glare. I'd been expecting to see her standing at the side of my bed with a smile full of excitement and glee, but instead she only looked worried. I sat up and rubbed at my eyes.

"What?" I said, yawning. "What time is it?"

"A little after nine." She said, frowning, "but you need to start getting ready. They said they'll be here to pick you up at ten."

I scowled, "That's in a whole hour."

When I moved to crawl back under my blanket, she pulled it off of my bed, letting the cotton duvet drop to the floor. I frowned, staring down at it as though my dreams had been crushed. My mom put her hands on her hips and looked at me in a way that made my sit up a little straighter and lose my frown. "You want to go onto T.V. with no makeup and your hair as it is?"

I blinked, "they give us a makeover."

"They give you a makeover in Angeles," my mom groaned, "what about the 'clips of you saying goodbye to your family and friends'?"

I took only a second to let her words sink in before I swung my feet over the side of my bed and launched into action. My mom left my room only when she saw me digging my old mascara and lip gloss out from the bottoms of drawers in my dresser. As a kid, I'd begged for the stuff, and right then I was glad that I had.

I lathered my lips in a shade of pink that was closer to red, and then I changed out of my pyjama's and into the clothes that had been hanging from my closet door. The pants were a tight fit, but I felt like that was just how they'd been designed. Considering the seamstresses they'd sent had been overly thorough about my measurements, I couldn't see them being too small.

The shirt felt like water on my skin—it was white silk that I'd never once thought I'd wear. When I slipped the blazer they'd given me on over top, I was almost sad to cover the sleeves of it. Still, it wasn't as though the jacket was poor quality in comparison. When I looked in the mirror, I wondered why I'd ever hated dress up as a child.

My mother ushered me into the living room to do my hair for me when I was done, and I sat patiently on the floor in front of her while she braided my hair down my back. It ended somewhere near the bottom of my back, and my mom sighed when she finished, laughing at how much hair I had.

We spent the few minutes that we had left after that sipping at tea in the kitchen, and then there was a knock at the door. I looked over at my mom, and for a second, neither of us moved. It wasn't as though this was when we were to say goodbye—we'd have time for that in the town square—but it was the last moment I was going to be in the house for a while. I didn't even know how long 'a while' was going to be.

She reached out and put her hand on my shoulder, keeping it there for only a few seconds, before she went to answer the door. When she pulled it open, a woman stepped inside, the click of her stiletto heels on our carpet sounding almost foreign to my ears. She looked at me and smiled, "let's go, then, shall we?"

My mom and I moved out the door and followed the stranger down the stairs and out the front door of the apartment complex. The halls were empty, and the only sound I could hear in the whole building was that made by our shoes on the floor. I wondered if the other tenants had gone to see me off, as well.

The car outside wasn't really a car at all, but a limo. My mom and I climbed into the back of it, all giddy and smiling, and I was sure the woman who'd led us there thought we were both children. She climbed into the vehicle after us, knocking on the small glass pane that separated us from the driver. Not long after that, we began moving.

The woman cleared her throat, "I imagine this is all going to be very weird for you, so I'm telling you now that it is going to be loud, and there are going to be a lot of people in that square."

I nodded.

"I'm going to be with you until we get to the airport in Waverly," she said, looking down at her nails with disinterest, "and then you'll be on a plane with a few other girls on your way to Angeles. Any questions?"

"How many other girls?" I asked, and she took a moment to count on her fingers.

"Four of you in total." She said, "they didn't want to send 35 different planes to Angeles at once, so we've just put you all into little groups according to which provinces are closest to which national airports."

"Makes sense," I said, turning my head to look out the window.

The crowd became visible what had to be ten blocks from the train station, and I found myself staring at it the whole time we drove through it. The limo went slowly, honking at people that refused to get out of the way. It was almost ten thirty by the time it's engine turned off, and the woman we'd been riding with climbed out first.

She stood just beside the door, smiling at the people that were being held back by policemen while she waited for my mom and I to get out. When my foot hit the pavement, I heard the screams that came from the people that were only a few feet away from us, and I took a moment to stare in awe. There was a camera set up just a few feet to my left, pointed at an angle that probably let it get both my reaction, and that of the crowd.

My mom put her arm around my shoulders, leaning in close, "that's all for you."

I grinned, watching as the unnamed woman moved towards the stairs that led to the makeshift stage that'd been set up outside of the train station. The mayor stood up top of it, clapping next to a microphone, and I felt my face go white at the sight of it, hoping I wouldn't be expected to speak. My mom and I stood off to the side while the mayor leaned into the microphone, reading to talk, if it weren't for the roaring crowd in front of him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the lady of the hour, Miss Noah Carins!" The mayor said, clapping again. He faced me then, but he was careful to keep his mouth next to the mic so he could be heard, "Noah, all of Allens will be cheering you on, and we wish you the best of luck."

"Thank you," I said, but I wasn't sure if he could hear me.

Before I could protest, he reached forwards and pulled me towards the microphone, and suddenly I was standing in front of it. I had hundreds of eyes on me, and my mind went blank. I had nothing to say, and yet I had to say something. I cleared my throat, "thank you so much, and… just, thank you."

The mayor nodded, moving in to take his place back in front of the microphone, I stepped back and leaned into my mom, whispering, "that was so bad."

"It was fine," she said, but her laugh gave her away. The mayor spoke for only a few minutes longer, though I wasn't listening to what he was saying, the crowd must have been, for his words were followed by cheers.

The woman who'd led my mom and I up onto the stage tapped my shoulder soon after and told me to say goodbye, and I nodded. When I turned back to my mom, her arms were already outstretched, ready for me to hug her, which I did.

She spoke while I was trapped in her arms, "I'm going to miss you so much."

"I'll be back soon enough," I said, and she laughed. "Within the week."

"I'll bet money you're wrong," she said, pulling back. She held be at an arm's reach, looking over my face, "have a good time, Noah. I know it's going to be overwhelming and stressful, probably, but enjoy yourself."

I felt tears forming in my eyes, but I blinked them back. My mom, however, let hers flow freely down her cheeks. I sniffled, and the woman who'd been in the car with us tapped my shoulder again, telling me I needed to go. I spared one last look at my mother before I followed the unnamed woman into the train station behind me.

It was weird to hear the way the doors closing behind us cut off all of the screaming from outside. It was even weirder to see how empty the train station was, and I realized we were probably going to be the only people on the train as well.

I'd never been on a train before then, but when we stepped up into the compartment, it didn't seem as strange as I thought it would. When it started moving, I turned to watch the tracks go by through the window beside me.

It only took an hour to get to the airport in Waverly, and when we did, the crowds there were huge compared to the one back in Allens, which made sense. Why go see one girl off when you can see four?

We'd switched from the train into a car at the edge of the city, but that'd been two short of a ride to say much about. When I climbed out of the car at the airport, the woman I'd been travelling with up to date stayed in the comfort of the vehicle, instructing me to stay close behind the two guards that were waiting outside.

Blocked off by ropes tied to small silver poles, hundreds of people were standing outside the airports entrance screaming. A good chunk of them had signs, and while I was walking, I even saw one or two with my name scrawled across the board. It brought a warm, gooey feeling to my stomach, and I smiled while I walked, even giving off a wave or two while I did. I felt like a celebrity.

Inside, there was already one girl waiting outside the gate. She had blonde hair that fell down until it just barely brushed her shoulders, and though I recognised her face from the television programs, I had no idea what her name was. She stood when she saw me, smiling, and I was nearly taken aback by how white her teeth were.

"Hi!" She said, reaching out to pull me into a hug. I blinked, waiting until she loosened her grip and let me step back to respond.

"Hi," I said, "I'm Noah."

"Oh, I know," she said, pushing back a lock of her hair. She pushed the sunglasses she had over her eyes up so they sat on top of her head, "I'm Tamara. From Waverly. Here."

I smiled, moving to sit across from where she'd been sitting before. She sat down when I did, and I saw the magazine she had open beside her, flipped open to the page on the Selection. I saw five of the girls' photo's on that page, next to a small paragraph of information about them. Near the bottom, I saw my own.

Tamara must have seen me staring at it, because she picked it up and held it out to me. "I'm done with it anyways. Pretty much memorized the whole thing."

I laughed, grabbing it from her, "thanks."

I skimmed passed all of the other girls' sections and basically just read over my own, seeing how such a high end magazine would have portrayed me. If it had been a month ago, I would have laughed if anyone told me my photo would be on one of it's pages.

It didn't have much information on me, which I had expected. It wasn't as though there was a lot to know. I saw it'd taken some information form the Selection application, which made me slightly uncomfortable to know that they'd somehow gotten a hold of it.

When I was done, I handed it back to Tamara and she put it back on the seat beside her, grinning, "so, are you excited?"

"Yeah," I said, surprised when I meant it. As much as I couldn't stand for the idea of the selection and what it stood for, I couldn't deny the excitement I was feeling right then. Thousands of girls were envying me right then, which was a nice turn of events considering I used to be the girl doing the envying. "You?"

"I'm shaking I'm so excited," she said, holding her hand in front of her eyes to see. "We're going to meet the Prince today, I can't believe it."

"Yeah," I laughed, "I'm nervous, to be honest. We're going to be on live T.V. today."

Tamara gasped, "oh, I know! I'm so worried I'm going to mess up and, like, fall or something."

"Same," I said, laughing.

The click of heels on the floor behind me made me turn to get a look at who was there. Two more girls were making their ways towards us, accompanied by the same men who'd walked me here. Tamara stood, just like she'd done for me, but I did nothing more but turn my body towards the girls and smile.

One of them was short, with red hair and heels that matched it. She smiled at me and Tamara when she came up to us, looking almost as happy and giddy as Tamara did. The second girl was a brunette, but she didn't give either of us any kind of reaction. When she came over, she said nothing—I wondered if she'd even seen us.

"Alright, girls," a man said, coming out of the walkway that had been closed a moment before, "now that we're all here, I reckon we can be on our way."

"Yay," Tamara said, grabbing her magazine and grinning at me again. I followed her into the gate, leaving the other two to follow me.

I'd never been in a plane before, but I got the suspicion that ours was slightly fancier than what others might have looked like. There were only eight chairs in the passenger's part of it, each of which looked like a small version of a couch. I slid into one near the middle, and Tamara claimed the one across from me.

"Well, ladies, have a safe flight and enjoy yourselves," the pilot said, turning to head into the cockpit. He stopped just before he disappeared behind a curtain up front, "oh, and there's food in the fridge just up here if you girls get hungry. It'll be a while before we land."

The moment the pilot disappeared, Tamara leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh, "I'm so excited, I just can't stop being excited."

I laughed, my eyes drifting up to where the two other girls had chosen to sit. Both of them chose to sit far away from anyone else, and they had headphones on their heads, plugged into devices that hid in their pockets. I leaned towards Tamara, whispering, "what are their names?"

She nodded, "The red-head is Ashley Beers, and the other one is Sierra Michaels."

"Huh," I said nodding slowly, "they don't seem too friendly."

Tamara shrugged, "their parents probably told them the same thing mine told me. I'm supposed to see everyone here as competition."

I frowned, snorting. "I get that, but I also don't. You should enjoy yourself while we're there—how many times are you going to get to say you're living at the palace?"

"Well," Tamara winked, "whoever wins is going to be saying it for a long, long time."

I turned my attention to the window, peering out at the sky, watching as the buildings below us got smaller and smaller. I swallowed, feeling a bit of fear in the pit of my stomach, which only grew with the higher we got. Eventually it faded, and I could look out at the clouds that we passed with utter awe. It was a sight I'd never have thought I'd be able to see.

When the pilot had warned us that the flight would be a while, I hadn't realized he'd meant hours. When we got to Angeles, Tamara had to shake me awake—sometime between the third and fourth hour, I'd fallen asleep. The act had been more out of boredom than exhaustion, though, I was sure.

The crowds outside the Angeles airport were the biggest so far. I'd never seen so many people crowding one place in my life. There were even more signs then there'd been in Waverly, and it was nearly impossible to turn my head 10 degree's and not find one that said Noah written across it.

While we walked through the sectioned off area outside, I couldn't help but stop for a minute and stare at the people. Tamara slowed her pace to wait for me, smiling at how star struck I was. When I raced back over to her, and laughed, "It's a lot of people, right?"

"Yeah," I said, whistling, "I'll say."

We piled into a limo, and when I sat down, squished between Ashley and Tamara, I found that there was already a woman sitting across from us. Sierra had claimed the seat next to her, relishing in the space that the empty middle seat provided her.

The woman smiled at us, though she didn't say anything. When the car started moving, I turned my head to the window yet again and watched the city go by. The buildings seemed so much taller than the one's back home, and I could see the ocean hidden just behind them. Allens was right beside an ocean as well, but it was the Atlantic, and this was the Pacific.

I leaned over to Tamara, "I can't wait to tell my mom I just saw the Pacific ocean."

"Right?" Tamara laughed.

For the rest of the ride, I kept my head turned and my eyes out the window, but no matter how amazed I was by the things we passed on our route, it wasn't until we got to the palace that I was truly in awe.