Alright, so finally here's an update. Hope you guys enjoy.
Thanks to Fangirling is Life, Alia Mehra, HestiaAbnegation11, and 4Love4Love for being amazing reviewers!
Noah's POV
"The public wants another elimination." He said, pacing as he did when he was nervous or stressed.
"Well isn't that wonderful." Emmaline replied, without looking up. He sighed, exasperated, and glared at her.
"Okay okay okay." She said, still not looking up. He resumed pacing.
"When do you need an elimination by?" She asked.
"The end of the week, tops, but better in the next three days." She told her, running his hand through his hair.
"Did dad or mom say you need to do it?" She asked.
"Yeah. They both are willing to let me do pretty much whatever with the Selection so I can actually find a girl I'll be happy with, but they said that sometimes I just need to do what the public wants me to do and keep them happy." He said. She nodded, mulling this over.
"So who are you thinking of sending away?" She asked. He shrugged.
"I don't know." He said. She sighed, pondering this for a moment.
"Who do you want to keep?" She asked him. He listed several names off of girls he wanted to keep and girls he had to keep for a bit longer. Then there was a few girls he wasn't so sure he wanted to keep, but were friends with girls he definitely wanted to keep. Finally, he had one girl he had to send home.'
"Now you go see if she bites while I take a nap." Emmaline told him. Noah rolled his eyes.
"Wow, thanks for the faith in me." He said, walking out of the room.
Anastasia's POV
Anastasia tried her best not to fall asleep in Sylvia's class. They only had five more minutes. Some of the classes with history involved weren't actually so bad, but this one wasn't about history. This one was about silverware, and acceptable dinner table topics, and a bunch of other boring stuff. She was thoroughly over it.
Sylvia clapped her hands.
"So girls! In ten days we will be going out on various charitable expeditions for various causes! You will each choose which one you are going on, and since it's high time, and to decide the order, we will be having a test on everything we have learned!" She told them, smiling. There were many looks of dread exchanged.
"In order to assist you, I've prepared all of you a study guide. Go ahead and pick one up on your way out, if you want." She said. She pulled a stack of them out from under her desk.
"Class is dismissed." She said. Anastasia walked to the front of the room to grab one, along with many of the other girls. It didn't help her confidence. It was huge. It had so much in it-mostly etiquette and all sorts of the princess-in training type things Sylvia had taught them. She sighed mentally, knowing Sylvia would chide her on it. She envied Anaya, who was out on a date and missing the lesson. Every time someone was out on a date during a lesson, all the other girls envied them both for getting a date, and for missing a lesson.
Anastasia walked back to the Women's Room, skimming through the packet. Once she was there, she curled up in a chair and started to read it through thoroughly. This was not going to be a fun test.
Grace's POV
"Where's Anaya?" She asked quietly to Sally, who was sitting next to her. There was an empty spot where her place card was next to Grace, because the cards were moved around every day. They were more than halfway through dinner, so she definitely wasn't going to show up.
"Gone." She replied quietly.
"Gone?" She asked.
"Gone." Sally replied.
"How do we know? And why?" Grace asked.
"I heard it from Bethany, who saw her leaving. Nobody knows why." She said. Grace went back to her food. That was often how it was. A girl would leave, and everyone wanted to know why, but in the end, nobody actually knew why they'd left.
Grace turned, startled, at a knock on her door. She went over to the door, still pulling pins out of her hair. She opened the door to see Noah standing behind it.
"Hi." She said, somewhat startled.
"Hey. I was wondering if you wanted to head for a walk in the gardens?" He asked her.
"Sure. Let me just grab a pair of shoes that won't kill my feet." She replied, gesturing to the very high heels she wore that didn't even make her break 5'5. She went over to where she'd left a pair of flats that happened to go nicely with her dress, and pulled the remaining pins from her hair, dropping them into the jar where her maids kept all of the pins they used on her hair, which quite a bit fancier than the bobby pins she used for dance that she'd brought from home. She slipped the flats on and headed back out, closing the door softly behind her.
"Are you going to want a sweater or something? It's sort of cold." He said. She smiled.
"Are you kidding? The weather here is so warm! Back in Tammins, this weather would be like a heat wave!" She exclaimed. He smiled.
Once they were outside, Grace slipped off her flats and spun in a circle, looking at the sky.
"It's so pretty! And the grass is so soft!" She said, laughing softly.
"Do you know any constellations?" He asked her.
"Yes! I love stargazing! Especially during the Perseids." She told him. She turned her head up towards the sky. "Do you like stargazing?" She asked him. He nodded.
"The sky here is pretty obscured by all the light though, so you can't see nearly as much." He told her.
"Light pollution." She said.
"What?" He said.
"Light pollution. Sometimes people call it photopollution. It's the excessive , misdirected, or obtrusive use of artificial lights. If a star isn't bright enough, it won't show in the sky because of it. It's much worse in cities, but when you get outside of them, sometimes it'll get better." She told him.
"Huh. Where'd you learn about it? I've never heard of it." He said.
"I read about it in an old book." She said.
"Do you like reading?" He asked her. She looked at him like he was crazy.
"Of course I love reading! Who doesn't? Reading is amazing!" She exclaimed. Then she looked at him. "Do you like reading?" She asked him. Now it was his turn to look at her like she was the dumb one.
"Of course I do! What's your favorite book?" He asked.
"It's so hard, there's so many good ones. What's yours?" She asked him.
"Same. Too many." He told her.
One of the guards walked up and said something quietly into Noah's ear. He nodded, suddenly looking much less happy than he had a minute ago.
"We'll be there in a minute or two." He said. The guard nodded and walked inside. Noah turned around, suddenly seeming to have had a weight placed on his shoulders.
"What was that?" She asked.
"They want us to head in because of the attack on the palace. They think it's likely to happen again." He said. She looked at him.
"Who attacked the palace?" She asked. He sighed.
"Right now, we're thinking that it was probably people who supported my grandfather's reign, and don't like the changes that my parents are making." He said. She thought for a moment.
"So basically a bunch of crazy conservatives." She said. He looked at her, and nodded.
"I hadn't thought of it that way, but yes, effectively, that's what they are. Do you have any ideas for dealing with them?" He asked, hopefully but not expecting any. She smiled sadly.
"I wish I did, but I don't." She said, her flats now clicking on the marble now that they were inside.
"Good night, L-Grace." He said.
"Good night." She said. She walked back up to her room slightly flustered. Going into this, she didn't think she would like the Prince at all. But now, she knew she really liked him, she thought maybe as more than a friend. But she was confused, and didn't know how much, or how much more she might end up liking him. She sighed, changed into her pajamas, and went to sleep.
Sorry for taking so long to update this, I had a case of writer's block. Hopefully it'll be gone by next chapter. But yeah. Hope you guys enjoyed!
HestiaAbnegation11-Thanks!
4Love4Love-Thanks! I have!
RQOTD:Skittles or M&Ms?
M&Ms. I hate skittles, and I'm not crazy about M&Ms, but they're waaaaaaaay better than skittles to me.