Hey guys! I'm sooo sorry for not updating, all my time has been taken up by my job! This chapter is where you will meet some of the other Selection girls, Portia's maids, and find out what Portia's room looks like. Also guys, there is a character naming contest on my profile page, Don't forget to check it out! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: All rights go to Kiara Cass

CHAPTER 7

*the palace*

A middle aged lady came rushing up to me as the photographer was taking my "after" picture.

"Hello Portia," she said "my name's Sylvia. I'm going to be the person who teaches you girls about how to act while you stay in the palace. You missed an etiquette lesson so I'll have to catch you up. To sum it up, sit straight, speak only when spoken to. The spoon on the left is for soup. The rest is fairly self explanatory."

"Auugghh" I groaned. I'd rather be back at home, with my family, and where we use the same spoon for soup as we do for fruit. I wanted to leave.

"Portia, please, act like a lady. Come, come, we are going to your room. I tried to follow her, but running upstairs in three inch heels was challenging, since back home I went barefoot most of the time. I stopped to pull of the shoes. I didn't want to break an ankle again. When I was 16 I broke my ankle in dance class, during a test to see if you were ready to move up to the next level. I didn't want to say anything, because I would have to take the class over again, for a third time. My ankle twisted and bent near the end of the dance we had to do to pass. I only had another minute of dancing, so I kept going, trying to make it until the end but I eventually passed out from the pain. All I remember after that was waking up with Porter holding my hand and my dad sitting on the end of the bed with Dawson in his lap.

Sylvia stopped at the top of the marble staircase to wait for me. "This hallway is where the Selection girls' rooms are. Never continue up this stair case unless you have permission from a member of the royal family, because that is where their rooms are located."

This is a huge hallway. Rooms for 35 girls, and I bet each room is bigger than my small house. Guards were standing at both sides of every door.

Sylvia led me toward the end of a hallway and pointed to the door on the left. One of the guard's nametag said Officer Ledger, and the other's said Officer Mac.

"This is your room. Your maids are waiting for you. You need to be at the Woman's Room in a half hour, before lunch."

I was still staring at the door when she was finished talking so I just nodded. I opened the solid oak door to see three other girls in my room. One was sitting at a sewing machine in the corner, the other two sweeping an already polished bathroom floor.

"Wha…" I mumbled in awe. This room was almost bigger than my house. There was a huge bed with the headboard against the center of the wall, the end of the bed sticking out in the center of the room. The room was carpeted, except for a corner near the bed was hard wood, I'm assuming for me to practice dance while I was here. Two pairs of ballet slippers hung on the wall above the hardwood floor. A pale green guitar was mounted on the wall, near a sliding glass door that opened to a balcony over the gardens.

"Hi" the oldest maid spoke up. The maids were all pretty young, this one looked about twenty five. "I'm Abbigail. The tiny blond is Amanda. She's my baby sister" Amanda looked about 16, and she was tiny. She waved shyly at me with a smile that appeared forced. "And over here," Abbigail gestured to a skinny Asian girl who'd moved from sweeping the polished bathroom floor to sweeping the hard wood dance floor "is Vicky"

"Hey," Having maids may be nice, but having someone watching me all the time, until I leave the room, is kind of creepy. "I'm Portia. It's nice to meet you, I guess." Amanda looked really hurt by my comment. "Oh guys, I'm really sorry that came out so rude. I'm just tired, stressed and upset."

"Yes, we heard what happened to your family a few days ago. What a birthday present, right?" Vicky said.

I sat with my hands cupped around my face, and my elbows on my knees and started sobbing. Amanda was the first to sit beside me. She put her arm around my shoulders and rested her head against my arm.

"I know how it feels to lose a twin. My twin sister Alyssa died of pneumonia when we were 13. We were sevens and couldn't afford anything to help her, not even a blanket to keep her warm. She suffered for almost two weeks. Abbigail and I came to the castle soon after Alyssa's death." Amanda said.

"I'm soo sorry guys. It's just so hard to leave my family right when I need them the most."

"We'll be your family for now" Abbigail offered.

"Aww… thanks guys" I sniffled.

"We'd better get you cleaned up for lunch." Vicky said, interrupting our emotional moment.

I was still in the before and after dress, so all they did was fix my hair and ruined makeup before they directed me to the Women's room.

When I finally found the room all the other 34 girls were already there. Everybody stared at me as I slowly walked in. I found Kaitlynn and sat down on the couch next to her.

"How do you like it here?" I asked her.

"It's amazing! Better than I imagined! Some of the girls are nice, we all hung out last night in the movie theater. Just try to stay away from Grace Millar and Erinn Renolds. They are both two's, and they're snobby and rude to anyone who isn't a two. They called me good-for-nothing scum last night when I tried to talk to them." Kaitlynn shrugged.

"Great" I sighed. "Just what we need. Two girls already hate us within the first two days of the Selection."

"They don't seem to pick on any of the other two's, but any 3's, 4's and 5's, they pick on. Like they're so much better than the rest of the girls."

"They look like they'd be stiff competition though. They can probably manipulate anyone into think they're the best. I'll bet you five bucks they both make it to the Elite."

"Oh, you're on!" Kaitlynn said with a smile. I laughed for the first time since Porter died. It felt good to laugh, like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

"Lets go meet people." I said "I need to meet some one. I don't know anyone here."

"Alright, lets find Anna and Emili first." Kaitlynn said as she started walking toward a girl with long auburn hair standing with a girl with shoulder length white-blond hair.

"Aren't they from a detective movie?" I questioned as we walked through the room towards them.

"Ya, but no one remembers it. It was when they were little, like 5 years ago."

"Hey Kaitlynn!" The auburn haired girl called, waving to us. She turned to me after greeting Kaitlynn. "I'm Anna Menzel. Sorry about your brother. He sounded like a nice guy."

"And he was hot with a capital H too." Elsa said.

"Wait… How'd you know about my brother?" I asked.

"Magazine" Elsa shrugged as she handed me a copy off the table. "they published an article on why they had to postpone the Selected meeting the prince."

"How did I not find out about this?"

"Well it was nice to meet you Portia. We should totally hang out more once we get used to being in the palace!" Anna said.

"Sounds good." Kaitlynn smiled. "Lets go Portia. Bye guys!" Kaitlynn ushered me over to a group of four girls. One girl I was friends with in grade school, until she moved, Jade Dencan. Jade's black hair was in a pixie cut with some elaborate barettes, it looked really cute on her. Her pale skin stuck out against the navy blue of her short dress. The other three girls I didn't recognize.

"Hey!" A short brunette said, obviously talking to Kaitlynn. "I'm Ashlaya Shepard" She said to me, sticking out a manicured hand to me

"Hi. I'm Portia Hughes." I said, shaking her hand.

"My name is Bethany Rickard" A tall girl with long, layered black hair greeted me.

"I'm Cassadee Morgans, but please just call me Cass" A girl with red-orange curls said while bouncing on her toes.

"Nervous Cass?" I joked.

"Extremely. Some people will go home today. During some Selections, the Prince eliminated more than 15 girls on the same day! I don't want to go back home. My maids and cooks aren't this good."

"Oh, so you're a two?" I asked.

"No, I'm a three. I model a lot for different clothing stores. Not many red heads are models, so I get more jobs because some places they like their model to be diverse."

"I'm also a three. I model a little, but I mostly act in small TV shows or movies for little kids" Bethany piped up.

"I'm a five" I said. "I sing, dance ballet and play guitar."

"I bet the prince will like you." Ashlaya said enviously.

"Ya" Jade said "The royal family is pretty musical since Queen America is a musician."

"I wonder if Prince Davison can sing like his mom…" Kaitlynn mused.

"Or if he can play guitar like his dad…" I said dreamily

"I guess we'll find out soon enough" Bethany said.

"We'll be meeting him after lunch" Jade said.

"I'm so nervous I'll throw up on him or say something really stupid." Cass muttered, still while bouncing on her toes.

"You'll do fine Cass" Kaitlynn reassured her.

"You'll go after Kaitlynn, Jade and I, if we go in alphabetical order, so we'll tell you what it's like, and how it goes. I'm sure it'll be like talking to a very sophisticated friend." I said.

"I sure hope so" Cass mumbled, switching from bouncing on her toes to constantly pulling a strand of loose red curls.

"Ladies!" Sylvia called "Quiet down!" She yelled louder than before. "I need to teach you girls some manners when we get the time. Lunch is served. Assemble yourselves in the dining hall. QUIETLY!"

"She seems peeved" Bethany whispered into my ear

"Was she like this yesterday?"

"No… It's probably because Prince Davison and Princess Amberley broke a vase or something. In a magazine article that I read it said Princess Amberley is really clumsy, and Prince Davison is always pranking her so she'll trip or fall into stuff"

"That's kind of rude. Being a prince shouldn't he be more mature about stuff like that?"

"Probably, but the magazine also said he can get himself out of trouble with the king and queen really easily."

"He probably ticks Sylvia off because she is in charge of teaching them manners and stuff. They probably get her into more trouble than they get into themselves" Jade said, eavesdropping on our conversation.

Not long after Jade commented, we entered a huge room (way bigger than my house) with a long oak table stretched through the middle. Already seated at the table, King Maxon and Queen America sat with her head on his shoulder. Queen America sighed blissfully as he whispered something into her ear. There was an empty chair next to the King, which was probably where Prince Davison sat. beside the empty chair sat 13 year old Prince Ian Gerad. By his side sat twelve year old Prince Jonathan Ray. Princess Mira Nicoletta, who is six, sat beside Queen America. 16 year old Princess Amberley May sat next to her baby sister. There were name cards all around the table telling everyone where to sit. I sat next to a girl of African descent, with curly black hair and a very pale girl with golden blond hair.

"Heyy!" The dark haired girl said. "My name's Renee Spencer, what's yours?"

"My name's Portia" I told her.

"Hey Portia, why were you late?" The blond girl questioned in a voice I had to strain to hear. "Oh, by the way, my name's Marissa Brosh."

"Umm…" I said, not really wanting to tell her about my brother. "I had to go to a really important funeral."

"Oh. I'm sorry for your loss." Marissa replied.

"It's alright." I sighed.

Just then about twenty cooks came in either pushing carts or holding trays with elegant silver lids. Whatever it was, it smelled good.

Alright guys! Hope you liked my chapter. Also I have some announcements that I didn't want to put at the top part. I may be uploading a one shot called I'm sorry Mer – Its gotta be you. If you are a directioner like I am, you'll get that. I also need some filler characters (they may go farther than being just a filler because I had an idea for Kaitlynn that completely changed what I originally had, so ya never know) and was wondering if some of you could give me some characters by doing an SYOC. I want at least ten girls, make them different than the girls in the above chapter. I will have a submission form in my profile soon, like later today. I WILL NOT accept them in the form of a review. Pm it to me. Thanks y'all!