After makeovers, Mabel took all of the girls around the palace and showed us the essentials, such as the kitchen, the courtyard, and our rooms. My room was pretty central, and it was quite annoying that I was stuck next to Jani, but I was also put next to Dianna Wallace who's a Four from Honduragua. She didn't look too bad, so I was glad to have a potential friend next to me. Ginger was stationed in between Albany Lucas who is a Three, and Amber Belfort, who is a Seven. Neither of them looked bad either, and Ginger was already chatting poor Amber's ears off.
When I got inside my room, I expected to be alone, but when I heard the scurrying of feet across my floor, I knew that wasn't the case. I looked around to see where it was coming from and saw some shadows in my bathroom. I raised my eyebrows and walked to the bathroom door, leaning in the doorframe. Inside of the bathroom were my two maids. One didn't look older than 17, with long blonde hair that was pulled into a tight bun, and eyes as blue as ice. The other seemed to be 19 or older, and had dark brown hair that complimented her darker skin tone. I cleared my throat and they turned around quickly. The blonde started to shake a bit, and I gave her a small smile.
"Hello, I am Analeyah Salome, a Six like you two." I curtsied to them and they seemed surprised.
"Oh, dear, miss, you mustn't curtsy for us. You are our superior, Lady Analeyah, we are merely your maids." The dark haired girl said as she curtsied deeply to me. I chuckled, waving that comment away.
"Please don't think of me as a superior. I do the same thing as you do for a living." I then looked to the blonde, "What are your names?"
"My name is Fathom," the blonde spoke up, her voice high but quiet at the same time, "Fathom York."
"Nice to meet you, Fathom." I replied kindly, trying to keep my sadness inside.
"I'm Idris Mayor." The darker haired girl said, smiling.
"So, what's the plan for tonight?" I asked. Mabel hadn't exactly told us much about what was going to be happening in the next few hours, so I needed to be filled in.
"You'll have dinner in the Dining Hall, but after that you need to turn in for the night." Fathom said, "You'll be meeting the prince tomorrow."
"He's so dreamy!" Idris added with a sigh. I forced a giggle. If I wanted to seem interested, I needed to at least act like I agreed.
"Sounds good enough for me," I replied, "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to have some time alone." They both nodded and scurried out, leaving me alone to cry.
The palace's walls were apparently not thick enough to keep noise in, and I almost fell off of the bed when I heard a knock on my door around 4 in the afternoon. I rushed over to the door to open it, but it opened on its own. A tall figure of a man had opened the door quietly and closed it almost as fast as he had opened it.
"Um, I'll let you open it," his voice came from the other side of the door, "I don't want to be rude." I raised my eyebrows, confused as to who was at my door.
"Alright, then. Opening the door." I said, careful to keep my voice from breaking. When I did open the door, I found myself face-to-face with Prince Lionel. My heart stopped.
"Your Highness," I squeaked out, forcing myself into a sloppy curtsy. Oh, jeez. I thought to myself. The Prince probably thinks you're lazy.
"Lady Analeyah?" Lionel half-asked, raising an eyebrow. "I sincerely apologize if I am incorrect, there are just so many of you and it is so incredibly hard for me to memorize all of your names." He gave a shy smile, then asked, "May I come in?"
"Of course." I replied.
Once the Prince was inside of my room, he immediately headed for the balcony.
"You should come out here. It calms homesickness very well." He assured me, walking over to me and taking one of my hands, pulling me outside onto the balcony with him. I smiled a bit, taking in the gorgeous view.
"I suppose you're right, Your Highness," I replied quietly, "it's gorgeous out here." Lionel nodded in agreement.
"You should see the view from the third floor. From where my room is, you can almost see the town below." Lionel seemed so genuine I almost felt bad for not entering the Selection for him. That's when I realized…
"Wait a minute, why are you in here? I thought you weren't supposed to talk to any of the girls until tomorrow?" I asked, squinting my eyes and suddenly worried about how I looked.
The Prince started looking for something to reply with, but came up blank. He knit his eyebrows and looked off in the distance, trying to locate his train of thought. His eyes were gorgeously chocolate brown, and his sandy blonde hair complimented that. My heart fluttered a bit when I noticed this, and I looked down wishing I could find some sort of mirror to check whether or not I look alright.
"You look beautiful, my lady." Lionel assured me as if he were reading my mind. I looked up at him and blushed.
"Thank you, Your Highness." I mumbled, then looked back up to his face, "But you never did answer my question." Lionel knit his eyebrows together a bit more than they already were before.
"I don't know." He replied, scratching his head. His brown eyes focused down on the garden and I analyzed his face. His expression was thoughtful, yet distant at the same time. His mouth was twisted into a frown, and he had a scar just above his upper lip that wasn't very obvious. I wondered how he had gotten that scar, probably playing with one of his younger brothers as a child. He had rather long eyelashes for a guy, which made me giggle a little to myself since his personality could be pretty intimidating, yet he had the longest eyelashes I had seen in a while.
Lionel stopped thinking, then looked over to me, his lips curling into a smile.
"Well, I heard you crying and I wanted to make sure that you were alright." He cleared his throat, "It seems that you are, so I suppose I'll be on my way." He chuckled quietly, then headed for my door. He turned around once more, asking, "I'll see you at the meetup, then?" My heart fluttered and I nodded, ducking my head.
"Goodnight, Lady Analeyah." Lionel bowed to me gentlemanly, and I returned the gesture with a gracious curtsy. Lionel slipped out the door in a matter of seconds, leaving me speechless. That was so weird. I told myself. My heart was practically beating out of my chest… That's when it hit me. I had a crush on Prince Lionel, and I could do nothing at all to keep myself from feeling this way.
.~.~.~.
At dinner, we had assigned seating. I was in between Minzy Sellers, a Three, and Lori Hallow, a Two. I felt rather out of place at the large table, as most of them knew already how to use the fancy forks, spoons, and knives.
Thankfully, Mabel came to the rescue and gave us a quick lesson on which fork to use with which course, which spoon to use, and which knife was a butter knife and which was a regular knife. She also went over how to fold the napkin in our lap, and briefly brushed on table etiquette: keep your voices at a whisper, sit up straight, no slouching, and no talking out of turn in the presence of the royal family. Of course, the royal family wasn't joining us for dinner tonight, so we didn't have to worry about that one.
The food was remarkable. There was so much, that my evening gown-which was navy blue with a few gems sewn onto the top-started to get extremely tight. I wondered if it was going to bust and if I would have to add that to the list of embarrassing things that were waiting to happen at the palace. The girls weren't very talkative, most likely because Mabel was so intimidating and made everything sound like if you said the wrong thing you would get your head chopped off. Dinner was now over, and everyone stood, brushing off their dresses and making sure their makeup was pristine. I spotted Ginger and scurried over to her-in a ladylike way, of course-, eager to ask her about how her first day was.
"It was a mix between good and weird." Ginger admitted with a ghost of a laugh.
"Believe me, I know that feeling; though, my day is leaning a little more towards weird." I chuckled, and Ginger grabbed my arm, her eyes wide.
"I went out to explore the hallways, and this guy ran down the hall crying. I was so confused and asked him if he was alright, and all he said was, 'This is your fault! All of you!', of course, I was concerned for our safety, so I asked a guard about it, and he said that was one of King Ahren's advisors, and that he had gotten fired for insulting one of the Selected." I raised my eyebrows, but couldn't bring myself to say anything.
"What if he builds up an army of rebels and attacks us all?" Ginger asked, her hands beginning to tremble a bit. I shook my head.
"Not possible. And even if it was, the palace has excellent guards and they wouldn't make it inside of the walls." I gave her a small smile, and she piped up a bit.
"That's good to know." She said hopefully, then nodded towards the door. "I'm gonna go. I didn't sleep much last night, and a bit of rest will hopefully preserve my sanity." I chuckled and told her goodnight, turning away as she walked out.
.~.~.~.
My maids drew a bath full of lavender for me before bed, and gave me a light blue night gown that was rather soft to sleep in. They braided my hair and removed all of my makeup, leaving me back with what I was used to. Me. I smiled at my reflection, then turned to Idris and Fathom.
"You can go, thank you so much." I smiled at them as they curtsied to me and headed out of the room.
I flopped down onto my bed and pulled out a book that I had brought from home. It was a story that my own mother had written and had hoped to publish someday, and I had to admit; it was good. My dad always encouraged her to use their life savings to climb the castes and get to a Three so that she could pursue her life dream. Unfortunately, we had less than he thought and Mom refused to use any of it.
The palace was actually very comforting and easy to feel safe in. When I set my book down on the nightstand so I could close my eyes for a bit, I felt at home.
Once my eyes were closed, thoughts of Lionel flooded my mind. He was so kind, so thoughtful, and so dreamy. He would never even think of choosing a dirty Six. The thought got me a bit sad, but I knew it was true. I had to prepare myself not to be chosen, but at the same time, I needed to try to be chosen.