Alright. So here's the deal.

I'm leaving on another trip that I'm super excited about in less than a week. I came back from my school trip early because I have an autoimmune disease my doctors think is in the Lupus family. My updates, even though I have time, may be few, because the meds I'm on are making me super tired (they screw up my sleep,) and achey, which makes me spend more time trying to convince my knees that they are not, indeed, eighty. So my updates (the ones before I leave, anyways,) may be a bit shorter because of this.

Alright, but here's another chapter. Hope you guys like it!

Thanks to 4Love4Love and HestiaAbnegation11 for being great reviewers!

Noah's POV

Noah pushed open the door to the conference room-the big one. After the attack, almost all the advisors were present.

"Ah, we see you're finally here, Your Highness." Said one of the advisors in a condescending manner. He rubbed his eyes, not even bothering to respond. After the attack, he'd visited the girls, finding out that Grace had been safe in an air duct, and letting Hannah leave, because she was so shaken up by the attack, and then coming here. No coffee.

"Lay off, Reyes." Said his dad. Noah sat down, taking his place next to his dad, the seat next to him empty save a computer.

"Why's there a computer there?" He asked.

"Emmaline's going to be at the conference, though not in person." His mom said. True to his word, her face popped up on the screen.

"Hi." She said.

"Alright, since everybody's here, let's get started." Said Stavros. Everyone fell silent.

"We're here because after years of not attacking the palace, we've just had another rebel attack." He said, pausing. "So why now?" He asked them.

"They're displeased with how we're running things?" Came one suggestion.

"They want us to speed up caste removal?" Came another.

"It's a different sect, with different goals?" Came another. Stavros looked for that voice.

"Who said that?" He asked. Nobody raised their hand. Then he saw the face on the screen. If it hadn't been such a serious situation, they would have laughed.

"Yes, it's most likely that it is another group with a completely different focus in mind. Now, who would be doing it though?" He asked them.

"People opposed to caste destruction and Loyalists?" Noah asked. Stavros pointed at him.

"Precisely." He said.

"But who's leading them? A snake has to have a head." Asked America, thoughtful.

"That's what we're trying to figure out. However, we've definitely eliminated the Southerners as the source of the attack-none of the Southerners we have eyes on, which is most of them, were even in Angeles, and they've been approving of the way our country is moving. So we're fairly certain Loyalists are behind it, but we don't know exactly who is leading them." Said Stavros, going on one of his long-winded explanations.

"Well that's great. Just wonderful. Are the analysts working already?" Asked Emmaline. Stavros nodded curtly.

"Well, now we just need to work one clean-up." America said.

"The first floor sustained most of the damage, though parts of the second floor did take some."Aspen said. America nodded and stood, as did some of the advisors, and the computer screen went blank. He knew he was expected to stay, hoping that coffee would be brought in.

Once many of the people had left, they began again.

"So your Selection..." Said one of the advisors behind him.

"We want more picks in the Elite. We want four of them to be picked by us." Said Reyes. Noah'd never been much of a fan of Reyes.

"No." He said quietly, remembering what his sister had said about fighting it.

"Excuse me?" Said Reyes, unused to being challenged.

"No. I want to get at least eight of the picks. Just because there's a political side to it doesn't mean that I'm picking someone to be someone who I'm going to spend the rest of my life being with. I want at least eight." He said.

Reyes looked at the King, whose face remained relatively impassive.

"But you don't understand. Some of these Ladies are influential, and it would look good-"

"I don't give a damn what looks good!" He said, his voice getting louder.

"You can't possibly understand-"

"Why not? Because his brain is too small?" Asked his dad. Reyes looked down.

"The best we can do is keep you with eight." He said aloofly. Noah looked away and rolled his eyes.

"Alirght." He said, standing up to leave. He walked out of the conference room, another binder tucked under his arm. He shut the door behind him, and went up to his room.

Summer's POV

Despite their protests, Summer helped her maids. The rebels had made a pretty good mess of her room, and she insisted she would help them clean up. They found her an extra pair of thick rubber gloves, which were good for cleaning, and if there were any small shards should protect her.

It was mostly just stuff strewn all over the place, which she felt she should help with, because it was her stuff. She knew they had a particular way of organizing some things, so she put them into a pile, because she knew how annoying it could be when other people organized your stuff wrong.

After about an hour, the room looked pretty good. It was scrubbed down, and everything was back into its place. A breakfast tray had been brought up, and her maids were urging her to let them finish the last few things while she ate. She would have protested, but she had a hummingbird metabolism and was ravenous, and would start getting irritable without food very, very soon. She grabbed the tray and sat down on the bed, and started to eat her breakfast, feeling the absence of the other girls she'd started to get so accustomed to.

4Love4Love-Thanks! I've been stabbed a few too many times by people who think I can't do my own mascara to trust it. It gave me mascara trust issues.

HestiaAbnegation11-Fair enough.

RQOTD-What are you most looking forwards to doing this Summer (like, after school gets out. Or after June 21. Take your pick.)

Probably my trip to Europe that my family cashed in all of our airline miles to be able to go on, but I'm also really excited about going to Summer camp for three weeks with my best friend.