p class="MsoNormal"When Naomi's lesson on politeness and manners ended, I felt a lot more educated in the proper usage of forks and knives that I probably needed to be. Before we'd walked into the dining room and were shown the seats that we would take when the real dinner began, I thought all I needed to know was that you use a knife to cut the food, a fork to eat it, and a spoon if said food goes right through the gapes in the fork./p
p class="MsoNormal"Sitting in front of us in the dining room, however, were more than just a single fork, spoon and knife. There was an entire cutlery drawer surrounding the empty plate that sat in front of me. There were three spoons and two forks and two knives, and even if they were different sizes, I didn't see how that mattered./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi spent almost an hour showing us which utensil to use on which occasion, and how to hold a steak knife without looking like a serial killer. During every moment of her lesson, I would have much rather have been doing anything else, but my prayers went unanswered until the watch she wore on her wrist beeped, and she was abruptly forced to stop talking about napkins./p
p class="MsoNormal"She waved for us all to follow her as she left the room and that's exactly what we did, leaving in the same two neat lines that we'd came in in. The room was arranged with two long tables across the lengths of the room, and one shorter one at the far end of them—it made a sort of U, though none of the tables actually touched each other./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi had told us that the Royal family would sit at the smaller table, and that none of us were supposed to speak to them unless one of them spoke to us first. That meant that if I thought the King had a rad bow-tie, I couldn't tell him unless he asked me how is bow-tie looked—though Naomi had also asked us to avoid words that could be categorized as slang./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi led us back through the hallways towards the drawing room, and I realized I was beginning to memorize certain paths through the palace. I could remember how to get from the drawing room to my room easily enough—there was only two turns and two a single flight of stairs to worry about. And if I tried really hard, I could probably figure out my way from the entrance to the drawing room, though it might be a trial and error approach./p
p class="MsoNormal"When we filed into the room, Tamara found me easily enough, and we both took a seat next to the window, watching all of the others come in and find their seats. We didn't know how long we'd be in there for, but we did know what would be happening when we left—we'd go into the dining room yet again, only then, we would meet the Royal family./p
p class="MsoNormal"Tamara turned and looked at me, touching at her hair, "is anything out of place? Does it look okay?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""You still look beautiful," I told her, laughing. I didn't bother asking her about my own hair—partly because I wasn't looking for the Prince's approval, and partly because I'd seen my reflection in a window while we'd been walking./p
p class="MsoNormal"I recognised Ashley when she wandered into the room, and I watched her beeline towards a girl who sat in the corner. Ashley seemed nice enough, though she'd been quiet and hadn't spoke much to Tamara or I on the flight here. I didn't know what to make of Sierra—she had been kind of rude before, but she hadn't been trying very hard to make any friends here, either. I figured she was just very into the competition, and so I took no offense to her brush off at the airport./p
p class="MsoNormal"One girl came into the room and sat alone on one of the chairs, and when the door closed, signalling that everyone was in here, she stayed that way. I'd never considered myself a friendly person—I'd always been more of a stick-to-the-shadows kind of girl, actually—but something about the Selection had given me a confidence that I actually really enjoyed. I figured it'd came with the fact that everyone I'd known back home had begun treating me like royalty, but that didn't matter to me right then. I told Tamara I'd be right back, and then I stood and walked over to the girl on the chair./p
p class="MsoNormal"She had dark brown skin that the blue dress she wore complimented great, and when I stopped in front of her, she looked up at me and blinked, surprised. I held out my hand for her to shake, smiling. "Hi. I'm Noah."/p
p class="MsoNormal"She smiled back, shaking my outstretched hand. "I'm Yvette."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Do you want to come sit with us?" I asked, pointing back to Tamara, who still sat beside the window. When she saw us looking over, she smiled and waved./p
p class="MsoNormal"Yvette hesitated, but eventually nodded. I made my way back over to sit beside Tamara, and Yvette stood beside us, leaning against the wall despite the fact there was room on the other side of me. She swallowed, looking over at Tamara, "You're Tamara French, right?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yep," she said, smiling, "and you're Yvette Lewis."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Yvette nodded, not offering much else. I opened my mouth to try and initiate an actual conversation, but Naomi came back into the room just then and ushered everybody back into a line. Tamara went and stood between the two girls she would sit beside in the dining hall, and I did as well. I hadn't yet learnt their names, but one of them had seemed overly focused on Naomi's cutlery lesson while we were down there, and the other had seemed entirely too focused on biting her nails. That was about the extent of what I knew about them./p
p class="MsoNormal"We made our way back downstairs and stood against the wall just outside the dining hall, watching as Naomi went and pulled the doors opened, dropping into a light bow. I heard her words just barely, considering I was so far down the line. "Your majesties, might I present to you the ladies of Prince Roman's Selection."/p
p class="MsoNormal"That was the cue that Naomi had rehearsed with us, and one by one, we filed into the room, everyone curtseying when they got just inside the doorway. By the time it got down to me, I was surprised I didn't so much as stumble as I made my was down the room towards my seat. I didn't tempt fate by looking up at the Royal family just yet, though—I waited until I was sitting down and unable to trip over my feet./p
p class="MsoNormal"I was sitting only six or so people down from them, but even that felt too close. Closest to our table was the Princess Olivia Séear, who seemed to be looking at us just as curiously as we were all looking at them. She was barely twelve, but from what I'd read, she packed as much sass as any of the girls at the table I sat at, if not more. Just beside her was her older brother, the man of the hour./p
p class="MsoNormal"Even I had to admit that Prince Roman Séear looked good, but I wasn't surprised. He looked good on my tiny television screen at home, but in person, he looked so much better. Unlike the rest of his family, he was standing, smiling down at the 35 guests before him. His jaw was sharp, and his hair, like his sisters, was jet black, though it didn't tone down the tanned skin whatsoever. Their mother had moved to Allens from Panama when she was just a young girl, and that heritage showed through on his children's skin well. People from Panama usually had tanned skin./p
p class="MsoNormal"Still, something in the way he stood made me quiver. He stood with power and presence, and all of the girls at the tables before him looked fragile in comparison. I felt sick again, thinking about all of the things that could go wrong during this competition, thinking about the man that'd told me not to say no./p
p class="MsoNormal""I'd like to personally welcome you all to the palace," he said, "we're very grateful that you've all come to join us, and I'm looking forward to meeting you all. Enjoy your dinner this evening."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Food was brought out on plates by waiters that seemed to move completely in sync with one another. The Royal family was served first, and then all of the selected. When a plate was put in front of my, I felt my mouth water at the sight of it. Some kind of fish fillet had but put on top of salad in a way the mimicked art, and it looked delicious./p
p class="MsoNormal"Dinner seemed to pass quickly, but it hadn't been the four-course meal I'd ben expecting. All that came after the salad and fish was desert, but I wasn't completely disappointed about it, either—I was full enough even without the sorbet. But in the end, I ate every last bite./p
p class="MsoNormal"When I was shoving the last bit of it into my mouth, I watched as a person shuffled their way in front of me, and I looked up to see Prince Roman, watching me. I swallowed, feeling what felt like every drop of blood my body had draining. He'd come from my left, and I realized he must have been making rounds around the tables, and I'd been too absorbed in the desert to notice. To my right, the girl who'd been biting her nails in Naomi's lesson stifled a laugh./p
p class="MsoNormal""Enjoying the food?" Roman remarked, smiling himself./p
p class="MsoNormal"I swallowed again, only this time all I had in my mouth was air. After a second or two of gathering my wits, I'd come up with a response, deciding I wasn't about to stumble around him like an idiot. I was sure all of these other girls would be talking to him as though he was a dream, incorporating big, smart words into their sentences and trying very hard to impress him. I decided not to do that. "I dreamed of ice cream, but I honestly never thought this was how it would taste."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You've never had ice cream?" He said, frowning./p
p class="MsoNormal"I shook my head, "I have not."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He hesitated, looking down at my plate and laughing. "Could it really be so much worse than what you imagined if you ate all of it, thought?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I frowned, "It's actually a lot better than I thought it'd be."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, good," he said, looking over at the girl who sat on the other side of me. "Before I move on I feel like I should let you know there's a bit of ice cream on your chin."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I looked up at him and frowned, picking the napkin up off of the table and wiping at across my chin. When I pulled it away, there was a cream-coloured stain on it's surface. I frowned, "I feel like that's the kind of thing you say when you first step over, not after you've finished talking to someone."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He shuffled over so he was standing in front of the girl beside me, but he was still talking to me when he said, "but that's so much less funny."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Prince Roman made his way down our table, and then onto the next, and by the time he stepped away from the last girl at the table across from us, I sighed with relief. The girl beside me who'd been biting her nails leaned over and told me that 'sighing' wasn't very lady like, and I did nothing but give her a look./p
p class="MsoNormal"When Naomi came back into the room and waved for us all to leave the room, everyone stood as a bunch and dropped into a curtsey before following our respective lines out the door. Once again, I kept my eyes on my feet to be sure I didn't trip over the bottom of my dress, but unlike when we'd come in, I felt a desire to look up at Prince Roman when we left. In the end, I didn't do it, but while we were walking down the hallway towards wherever Naomi was leading us to, I couldn't help but wish I had./p
p class="MsoNormal"I still felt anger and all of those other negative emotions when I thought of the prince, thinking of how good he's had it all his life, and how much he takes it for granted. But I hadn't thought someone raised like he'd been would have had a sense of humor, and considering what I'd seen so far, he did. It was either that or he was a bully who enjoyed making fun of me, but for some reason I didn't think it was that./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi led us down the maze of hallways into a corridor I hadn't seen before—I knew it was a new one because it suddenly got five feet wider than all of the others, and there was only one single door to the left, and it was as tall as three of me would have been, and made entirely of chizzled glass. I couldn't see what was going on on the other side of it, but I could hear voices./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi pushed open the doors and stepped aside so we could head in. There were tens of rows of chairs set up in front of a stage, all of which except for two rows at the front were occupied. On the stage, there was nothing but an arm chair and a two-person couch, and sitting in the arm chair was Gavril, the host of the Report./p
p class="MsoNormal"Tamara came up beside me and let out a breath, "this is so cool. Everyone is going to be so jealous back home."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I snorted, "Everyone back home probably started being jealous the moment your name was announced on this show, and I doubt anyone's stopped since."/p
p class="MsoNormal""True," Tamara said, laughing./p
p class="MsoNormal"One by one, we claimed our seats at the front of the audience, only to rise to our feet again when Prince Roman and his sister walked in the room from the same doors we'd come in through only moments before. Their parents weren't with them this time, but I knew they'd probably be watching from a television somewhere in the castle, just like I knew my mom was watching from home./p
p class="MsoNormal"Roman took a seat on one half of the couch, and his sister sat down in the audience, taking an empty seat next to one of the girls in the Selection. I don't think Olivia noticed how much the girl seemed to be freaking out knowing the Princess was sitting beside her./p
p class="MsoNormal"Gavril said some words to the Prince, but he piped shut pretty quickly when the director at the back of the room began counting down from 5. When he yelled one and went quiet, Gavril spoke up only a second after, "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to this very special episode of the Capitol Report. I've bene bragging about this day for weeks, because I have sitting before me the 35 girls who have become Illéa's dearest—well, after Princess Olivia, of course."/p
p class="MsoNormal"There was laughing from the audience behind me, but I felt too many nerves prickling at my skin to laugh./p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm also joined by Prince Roman," Gavril continued, looking over at the boy who sat on the couch, "now, tell me Roman, how's the turn out looking so far?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Roman laughed, "I think it looks good. They all seem really nice, and they're definitely all gorgeous girls, so I'm a lucky guy."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Tamara let out a breath that sounded more like a squeak, "I think I might faint."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Do it after they call you up," I told her, and she nodded./p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, I bet," Gavril laughed. "Nothing interesting to tell Illéa so far?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"The Prince clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "We're only a few hours into this thing, and nothing bizarre or really worth mentioning had happened."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Well," Gavril said, crossing one leg over the other, "we might as well just get right into this then, shouldn't we? Let's start the evening off with a lady that's come all the way from the north—Miss Caroline Garetts of Whites."/p
p class="MsoNormal"A girl who sat somewhere in the middle of the group stood, making her way up onto the stage and taking a seat next to Prince Roman. The Prince smiled at her while she sat down, and she smiled back, but that was the extent of their interaction before they both turned their attention towards Gavril./p
p class="MsoNormal""You look stunning, Caroline. I can see what this boy was talking about before," Gavril laughed, as did the audience. "Tell me, have you seen your room? Is it to die for?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Caroline gushed about her room and the palace, and about how lucky she felt to be here, as did the five girls that were called up right after her. Gavril picked new questions each time, but much like outside in the gardens earlier, they were all pretty much the same. When I heard my name called, I moved up onto the stage confidently, despite my screw up on camera from earlier that day./p
p class="MsoNormal""Noah," Gavril said, leaning forwards in his chair, "you seem like a confident girl, you've got a powerful name, so tell me, is any of this intimidating to you? This new home, these new clothes—this Prince Charming over here."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I smiled, looking over at Prince Roman, who was looking right back at me. I met his eyes an saw the smirk behind them, and I wondered if he was thinking about me with ice cream on my chin. "It is a little bit—more the attention than anything else though."/p
p class="MsoNormal""The attention?" Gavril said, pausing to look down at the notebook he kept on the arm of the chair, "That's right—you come from a family of Sixed don't you? So that transition must be really tough."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I nodded slowly, only slightly beginning to get irritated by all of the chat about my being a Six. I felt like they were saying it just to rank me below the others. Still, I took a breath and responded, "It's actually a lot easier than I thought it'd be. Who knew it'd be easy to wear nice clothes and eat good food?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Prince Roman let out a small, almost undetectable laugh from beside me, but he stayed quiet for the most part. Gavril spared a glance his way, but nothing more. He laughed, "That's true. Noah, can you tell me a bit about your life back home in Allens?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""I..." I paused, frowning, "I live with my mom, it's just me and her, and I work as a maid for a family of three's that live across town. There's not really a whole lot else."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Just you and your mom?" Gavril said, and my frown deepened. I wasn't sure how much my mom would be comfortable with me saying on live T.V. about her and having children, and I wasn't sure how comfortable I'd have been if he brought up the subject. "Don't Six families usually have a lot more kids in them then that? And your father, where's he?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I swallowed, toying with my thumbs on my lab. "I guess I was just too much to handle as a kid. And my dad… he died when I was two."/p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm sorry to hear that, Noah," Gavril said, shaking his head. He turned back to look at his notebook and continued, "while, thank you for talking with me today it'd been lovely meeting you."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You as well," I said, climbing down the stage while he called up another girl./p
p class="MsoNormal"When I sat down next to Tamara again, I had tears of frustration in my eyes. I'd never seen myself as a weak individual, and yet I was beginning to feel like that was all these T.V. shows were portraying me as. I closed my eyes, squeezing them tightly as if it would block the tears from spilling. When I opened them again, I looked up at the stage and saw that Roman was paying no attention to the girl on his left, he was staring at me./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Sitting in front of us in the dining room, however, were more than just a single fork, spoon and knife. There was an entire cutlery drawer surrounding the empty plate that sat in front of me. There were three spoons and two forks and two knives, and even if they were different sizes, I didn't see how that mattered./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi spent almost an hour showing us which utensil to use on which occasion, and how to hold a steak knife without looking like a serial killer. During every moment of her lesson, I would have much rather have been doing anything else, but my prayers went unanswered until the watch she wore on her wrist beeped, and she was abruptly forced to stop talking about napkins./p
p class="MsoNormal"She waved for us all to follow her as she left the room and that's exactly what we did, leaving in the same two neat lines that we'd came in in. The room was arranged with two long tables across the lengths of the room, and one shorter one at the far end of them—it made a sort of U, though none of the tables actually touched each other./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi had told us that the Royal family would sit at the smaller table, and that none of us were supposed to speak to them unless one of them spoke to us first. That meant that if I thought the King had a rad bow-tie, I couldn't tell him unless he asked me how is bow-tie looked—though Naomi had also asked us to avoid words that could be categorized as slang./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi led us back through the hallways towards the drawing room, and I realized I was beginning to memorize certain paths through the palace. I could remember how to get from the drawing room to my room easily enough—there was only two turns and two a single flight of stairs to worry about. And if I tried really hard, I could probably figure out my way from the entrance to the drawing room, though it might be a trial and error approach./p
p class="MsoNormal"When we filed into the room, Tamara found me easily enough, and we both took a seat next to the window, watching all of the others come in and find their seats. We didn't know how long we'd be in there for, but we did know what would be happening when we left—we'd go into the dining room yet again, only then, we would meet the Royal family./p
p class="MsoNormal"Tamara turned and looked at me, touching at her hair, "is anything out of place? Does it look okay?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""You still look beautiful," I told her, laughing. I didn't bother asking her about my own hair—partly because I wasn't looking for the Prince's approval, and partly because I'd seen my reflection in a window while we'd been walking./p
p class="MsoNormal"I recognised Ashley when she wandered into the room, and I watched her beeline towards a girl who sat in the corner. Ashley seemed nice enough, though she'd been quiet and hadn't spoke much to Tamara or I on the flight here. I didn't know what to make of Sierra—she had been kind of rude before, but she hadn't been trying very hard to make any friends here, either. I figured she was just very into the competition, and so I took no offense to her brush off at the airport./p
p class="MsoNormal"One girl came into the room and sat alone on one of the chairs, and when the door closed, signalling that everyone was in here, she stayed that way. I'd never considered myself a friendly person—I'd always been more of a stick-to-the-shadows kind of girl, actually—but something about the Selection had given me a confidence that I actually really enjoyed. I figured it'd came with the fact that everyone I'd known back home had begun treating me like royalty, but that didn't matter to me right then. I told Tamara I'd be right back, and then I stood and walked over to the girl on the chair./p
p class="MsoNormal"She had dark brown skin that the blue dress she wore complimented great, and when I stopped in front of her, she looked up at me and blinked, surprised. I held out my hand for her to shake, smiling. "Hi. I'm Noah."/p
p class="MsoNormal"She smiled back, shaking my outstretched hand. "I'm Yvette."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Do you want to come sit with us?" I asked, pointing back to Tamara, who still sat beside the window. When she saw us looking over, she smiled and waved./p
p class="MsoNormal"Yvette hesitated, but eventually nodded. I made my way back over to sit beside Tamara, and Yvette stood beside us, leaning against the wall despite the fact there was room on the other side of me. She swallowed, looking over at Tamara, "You're Tamara French, right?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yep," she said, smiling, "and you're Yvette Lewis."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Yvette nodded, not offering much else. I opened my mouth to try and initiate an actual conversation, but Naomi came back into the room just then and ushered everybody back into a line. Tamara went and stood between the two girls she would sit beside in the dining hall, and I did as well. I hadn't yet learnt their names, but one of them had seemed overly focused on Naomi's cutlery lesson while we were down there, and the other had seemed entirely too focused on biting her nails. That was about the extent of what I knew about them./p
p class="MsoNormal"We made our way back downstairs and stood against the wall just outside the dining hall, watching as Naomi went and pulled the doors opened, dropping into a light bow. I heard her words just barely, considering I was so far down the line. "Your majesties, might I present to you the ladies of Prince Roman's Selection."/p
p class="MsoNormal"That was the cue that Naomi had rehearsed with us, and one by one, we filed into the room, everyone curtseying when they got just inside the doorway. By the time it got down to me, I was surprised I didn't so much as stumble as I made my was down the room towards my seat. I didn't tempt fate by looking up at the Royal family just yet, though—I waited until I was sitting down and unable to trip over my feet./p
p class="MsoNormal"I was sitting only six or so people down from them, but even that felt too close. Closest to our table was the Princess Olivia Séear, who seemed to be looking at us just as curiously as we were all looking at them. She was barely twelve, but from what I'd read, she packed as much sass as any of the girls at the table I sat at, if not more. Just beside her was her older brother, the man of the hour./p
p class="MsoNormal"Even I had to admit that Prince Roman Séear looked good, but I wasn't surprised. He looked good on my tiny television screen at home, but in person, he looked so much better. Unlike the rest of his family, he was standing, smiling down at the 35 guests before him. His jaw was sharp, and his hair, like his sisters, was jet black, though it didn't tone down the tanned skin whatsoever. Their mother had moved to Allens from Panama when she was just a young girl, and that heritage showed through on his children's skin well. People from Panama usually had tanned skin./p
p class="MsoNormal"Still, something in the way he stood made me quiver. He stood with power and presence, and all of the girls at the tables before him looked fragile in comparison. I felt sick again, thinking about all of the things that could go wrong during this competition, thinking about the man that'd told me not to say no./p
p class="MsoNormal""I'd like to personally welcome you all to the palace," he said, "we're very grateful that you've all come to join us, and I'm looking forward to meeting you all. Enjoy your dinner this evening."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Food was brought out on plates by waiters that seemed to move completely in sync with one another. The Royal family was served first, and then all of the selected. When a plate was put in front of my, I felt my mouth water at the sight of it. Some kind of fish fillet had but put on top of salad in a way the mimicked art, and it looked delicious./p
p class="MsoNormal"Dinner seemed to pass quickly, but it hadn't been the four-course meal I'd ben expecting. All that came after the salad and fish was desert, but I wasn't completely disappointed about it, either—I was full enough even without the sorbet. But in the end, I ate every last bite./p
p class="MsoNormal"When I was shoving the last bit of it into my mouth, I watched as a person shuffled their way in front of me, and I looked up to see Prince Roman, watching me. I swallowed, feeling what felt like every drop of blood my body had draining. He'd come from my left, and I realized he must have been making rounds around the tables, and I'd been too absorbed in the desert to notice. To my right, the girl who'd been biting her nails in Naomi's lesson stifled a laugh./p
p class="MsoNormal""Enjoying the food?" Roman remarked, smiling himself./p
p class="MsoNormal"I swallowed again, only this time all I had in my mouth was air. After a second or two of gathering my wits, I'd come up with a response, deciding I wasn't about to stumble around him like an idiot. I was sure all of these other girls would be talking to him as though he was a dream, incorporating big, smart words into their sentences and trying very hard to impress him. I decided not to do that. "I dreamed of ice cream, but I honestly never thought this was how it would taste."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You've never had ice cream?" He said, frowning./p
p class="MsoNormal"I shook my head, "I have not."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He hesitated, looking down at my plate and laughing. "Could it really be so much worse than what you imagined if you ate all of it, thought?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I frowned, "It's actually a lot better than I thought it'd be."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, good," he said, looking over at the girl who sat on the other side of me. "Before I move on I feel like I should let you know there's a bit of ice cream on your chin."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I looked up at him and frowned, picking the napkin up off of the table and wiping at across my chin. When I pulled it away, there was a cream-coloured stain on it's surface. I frowned, "I feel like that's the kind of thing you say when you first step over, not after you've finished talking to someone."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He shuffled over so he was standing in front of the girl beside me, but he was still talking to me when he said, "but that's so much less funny."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Prince Roman made his way down our table, and then onto the next, and by the time he stepped away from the last girl at the table across from us, I sighed with relief. The girl beside me who'd been biting her nails leaned over and told me that 'sighing' wasn't very lady like, and I did nothing but give her a look./p
p class="MsoNormal"When Naomi came back into the room and waved for us all to leave the room, everyone stood as a bunch and dropped into a curtsey before following our respective lines out the door. Once again, I kept my eyes on my feet to be sure I didn't trip over the bottom of my dress, but unlike when we'd come in, I felt a desire to look up at Prince Roman when we left. In the end, I didn't do it, but while we were walking down the hallway towards wherever Naomi was leading us to, I couldn't help but wish I had./p
p class="MsoNormal"I still felt anger and all of those other negative emotions when I thought of the prince, thinking of how good he's had it all his life, and how much he takes it for granted. But I hadn't thought someone raised like he'd been would have had a sense of humor, and considering what I'd seen so far, he did. It was either that or he was a bully who enjoyed making fun of me, but for some reason I didn't think it was that./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi led us down the maze of hallways into a corridor I hadn't seen before—I knew it was a new one because it suddenly got five feet wider than all of the others, and there was only one single door to the left, and it was as tall as three of me would have been, and made entirely of chizzled glass. I couldn't see what was going on on the other side of it, but I could hear voices./p
p class="MsoNormal"Naomi pushed open the doors and stepped aside so we could head in. There were tens of rows of chairs set up in front of a stage, all of which except for two rows at the front were occupied. On the stage, there was nothing but an arm chair and a two-person couch, and sitting in the arm chair was Gavril, the host of the Report./p
p class="MsoNormal"Tamara came up beside me and let out a breath, "this is so cool. Everyone is going to be so jealous back home."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I snorted, "Everyone back home probably started being jealous the moment your name was announced on this show, and I doubt anyone's stopped since."/p
p class="MsoNormal""True," Tamara said, laughing./p
p class="MsoNormal"One by one, we claimed our seats at the front of the audience, only to rise to our feet again when Prince Roman and his sister walked in the room from the same doors we'd come in through only moments before. Their parents weren't with them this time, but I knew they'd probably be watching from a television somewhere in the castle, just like I knew my mom was watching from home./p
p class="MsoNormal"Roman took a seat on one half of the couch, and his sister sat down in the audience, taking an empty seat next to one of the girls in the Selection. I don't think Olivia noticed how much the girl seemed to be freaking out knowing the Princess was sitting beside her./p
p class="MsoNormal"Gavril said some words to the Prince, but he piped shut pretty quickly when the director at the back of the room began counting down from 5. When he yelled one and went quiet, Gavril spoke up only a second after, "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to this very special episode of the Capitol Report. I've bene bragging about this day for weeks, because I have sitting before me the 35 girls who have become Illéa's dearest—well, after Princess Olivia, of course."/p
p class="MsoNormal"There was laughing from the audience behind me, but I felt too many nerves prickling at my skin to laugh./p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm also joined by Prince Roman," Gavril continued, looking over at the boy who sat on the couch, "now, tell me Roman, how's the turn out looking so far?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Roman laughed, "I think it looks good. They all seem really nice, and they're definitely all gorgeous girls, so I'm a lucky guy."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Tamara let out a breath that sounded more like a squeak, "I think I might faint."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Do it after they call you up," I told her, and she nodded./p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, I bet," Gavril laughed. "Nothing interesting to tell Illéa so far?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"The Prince clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "We're only a few hours into this thing, and nothing bizarre or really worth mentioning had happened."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Well," Gavril said, crossing one leg over the other, "we might as well just get right into this then, shouldn't we? Let's start the evening off with a lady that's come all the way from the north—Miss Caroline Garetts of Whites."/p
p class="MsoNormal"A girl who sat somewhere in the middle of the group stood, making her way up onto the stage and taking a seat next to Prince Roman. The Prince smiled at her while she sat down, and she smiled back, but that was the extent of their interaction before they both turned their attention towards Gavril./p
p class="MsoNormal""You look stunning, Caroline. I can see what this boy was talking about before," Gavril laughed, as did the audience. "Tell me, have you seen your room? Is it to die for?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Caroline gushed about her room and the palace, and about how lucky she felt to be here, as did the five girls that were called up right after her. Gavril picked new questions each time, but much like outside in the gardens earlier, they were all pretty much the same. When I heard my name called, I moved up onto the stage confidently, despite my screw up on camera from earlier that day./p
p class="MsoNormal""Noah," Gavril said, leaning forwards in his chair, "you seem like a confident girl, you've got a powerful name, so tell me, is any of this intimidating to you? This new home, these new clothes—this Prince Charming over here."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I smiled, looking over at Prince Roman, who was looking right back at me. I met his eyes an saw the smirk behind them, and I wondered if he was thinking about me with ice cream on my chin. "It is a little bit—more the attention than anything else though."/p
p class="MsoNormal""The attention?" Gavril said, pausing to look down at the notebook he kept on the arm of the chair, "That's right—you come from a family of Sixed don't you? So that transition must be really tough."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I nodded slowly, only slightly beginning to get irritated by all of the chat about my being a Six. I felt like they were saying it just to rank me below the others. Still, I took a breath and responded, "It's actually a lot easier than I thought it'd be. Who knew it'd be easy to wear nice clothes and eat good food?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Prince Roman let out a small, almost undetectable laugh from beside me, but he stayed quiet for the most part. Gavril spared a glance his way, but nothing more. He laughed, "That's true. Noah, can you tell me a bit about your life back home in Allens?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""I..." I paused, frowning, "I live with my mom, it's just me and her, and I work as a maid for a family of three's that live across town. There's not really a whole lot else."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Just you and your mom?" Gavril said, and my frown deepened. I wasn't sure how much my mom would be comfortable with me saying on live T.V. about her and having children, and I wasn't sure how comfortable I'd have been if he brought up the subject. "Don't Six families usually have a lot more kids in them then that? And your father, where's he?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I swallowed, toying with my thumbs on my lab. "I guess I was just too much to handle as a kid. And my dad… he died when I was two."/p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm sorry to hear that, Noah," Gavril said, shaking his head. He turned back to look at his notebook and continued, "while, thank you for talking with me today it'd been lovely meeting you."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You as well," I said, climbing down the stage while he called up another girl./p
p class="MsoNormal"When I sat down next to Tamara again, I had tears of frustration in my eyes. I'd never seen myself as a weak individual, and yet I was beginning to feel like that was all these T.V. shows were portraying me as. I closed my eyes, squeezing them tightly as if it would block the tears from spilling. When I opened them again, I looked up at the stage and saw that Roman was paying no attention to the girl on his left, he was staring at me./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" /p