CHAPTER 3

So hey guys! A lot of you have been telling me to write longer chapters, but I have like a rough draft written out in a note book so I may not have very long chapters. Bear with me though. This chapter is going to have a twist.❤️littlebitnerdy

*two weeks later*

Today is my 18th birthday so I have permission to skip dance lessons so I can help Porter and my dad decorate the ballroom in Jenna's huge mansion. We started decorating at 6 in the morning, and by lunchtime we were finished decorating the whole ballroom. "C'mon Portia" Jenna said "we're going to buy you a party dress."

"I am NOT wearing some poofy princess dress if that's what you were thinking Jenna" I said.

"Fine…but at least let me take you to my favorite boutique downtown"

"Alright" I sighed. We arrived 10 mins later at a small at a small shop on Main Street that I'd never been inside of, mainly because all my clothes came from thrift shops. Inside the shop was like something I'd never seen before. My best friend Kaitlynn Freall would be so jealous! Kaitlynn has been into princesses as long as we've been friends. She learned how to draw from my dad so she could go into a career in fashion, that's also how we met.

After looking around the store, I finally found something that I liked, but wasn't to fancy. A long aqua blue tunic with no sleeves, and a sparkly silver belt around the waist, with black leggings to go with it. The fabric was chiffon, and fit me perfectly. I could get used to this, if I got selected, but that would never happen to someone like me.

*later at the party*

Even though I helped decorate, at night the ballroom looked amazing at night. I was never really popular, and half the people at my party, I didn't even know. Kaitlynn was there and so was my best guy friend Andre Ledger. I requested not to receive and gifts, but there was still a table piled high with gifts for me and Porter.

At around 7 we all were settling down to eat when the huge double doors on opposite sides of the room banged open. It took everyone a few seconds to realize that we were being attacked by rebels! Then I heard gunshots "These must be Southern rebels" I thought. The ballroom was in complete chaos. I tried to run out of the side doors to get to a safe room with Porter right behind me. I turned around to see a rebel gun pointed right at Porter.

"Porter, DUCK!" I screamed, but it was too late. The gunman pulled the trigger and I felt like everything happened in slow motion. I tried to move but it seemed as if my feet were glued to the floor. Porter fell to the ground, shot but not dead. I dragged him as carefully as I could to the nearest safe room and I could tell that he was dying. The rebel had shot him in the lung.

I squeezed his hand, but there was no squeeze back. "Porter, Porter please don't die on me. No, Porter you can do it. Please Porter…" I sobbed. His breaths were short and ragged, and I knew that he would be dead within a minute or 2.

"Portia…I…"

"What Porter? What?" I cried between sobs

"I…want you…to win…the selection…for me…" Porter whispered in short breaths.

"I will Porter" I cried.

Then Porter's eyes drooped shut and his chest stopped rising and falling. I rested my head on his dead chest and cried for almost an hour, my tears soaked through his tee shirt and slid down his chest which was now cold. Eventually I heard Kaitlynn and Andre enter the safe room I was in. "Portia, I'm so sorry" Kaitlynn gasped when she saw Porter.

"Portia, the report is on we have to go up and watch." Andre said. Suddenly my dad came down out of nowhere and lifted Porter's body up and carried him up the steps. Jenna's dad met him at the top of the steps and helped carry Porter across the street to the funeral home. After that was over with we settled in to watch the report with sullen faces and an aching in our hearts.