Sonage, Illéa

Serenity Weaver walked through the front door of her modest, two-storey home. She smiled at the smell of chicken cooking in the oven. Her mother was too good to her. Always watching her children whenever she worked, Serenity always told her that she didn't have to cook dinner too, but she always did. Serenity was eternally grateful, as being a single mother was harder than she could have ever imagined. As Serenity was closing the door, she smiled at the sound of approaching footsteps and shouts of mom!

"Mom, we helped grandma cook dinner!" Her son Christopher announced, a proud smile on the brunette's face.

"You did?" Serenity asked, a smile plastered on her face. She knew that at the ripe old age of eight he probably did very little to actually help with dinner, but she appreciated his effort nonetheless.

"And we made cookies for dessert, grandma said we weren't supposed to have any but Christopher snuck one!" Serena, Serenity's six-year-old daughter added.

Serenity chuckled and pulled her son and daughter in for a hug. Her children were her world and she would do anything for them.

"Well, I'm excited for dinner!" Serenity exclaimed. "Especially since you two made it, so why don't you go set the table while I say hi to grandma?"

"Okay!" Both of her children agreed in unison and ran off into the dining room.

Serenity sighed as she kicked off her shoes and put her bag away. She made her way to the kitchen where her mother, Kamilla, was just finishing up dinner.

"How was work?" Kamilla asked.

"Tiring," Serenity admitted with a sigh, tucking her brown hair behind her ear. "Thanks so much for helping with the kids, but seriously, you don't have to make dinner."

"Please, it's the least I can do, you do way too much at work," Kamilla insisted. She opened the kitchen drawer and pulled out an envelope, and Serenity sighed when she saw the seal of the royal palace on the back. "This came for you, I guess my question is, why haven't you opened it?"

"Because I'm not applying," Serenity said. "I mean, Queen Freya just died, there's no way King Edward could be ready to actually go through with a Selection."

"I do admit, it is rather soon for him to be moving on. However, he is a king, things are different for him. Besides, I think it's time that you took a break and did something for yourself, and the Selection is the perfect way to do all of that!" Kamilla said.

Serenity thought for a moment. Her mother was right, when was the last time she did something for herself? She supposed she could just apply, because, really, what were the chances of getting in. "Would you be willing to watch the kids? You know, on the off-chance I actually get in."

"I'd love to," Kamilla assured her daughter.

Serenity nodded as she grabbed the envelope out of her mother's hand, as well as a pen. She couldn't believe this. This was her second time applying to Edward Schreave's Selection. Serenity was glad she didn't make it the first time, or else she wouldn't have met Matthew and had her wonderful children. So, she didn't expect much applying the second time, she was sure she would be passed over and her life would continue unchanged.

Angeles, Illéa

Edward sighed as he entered the dining room for breakfast and saw that Tyler was nowhere to be seen. This was the third day in a row that the fifteen-year-old had refused to get out of bed, and Edward quite frankly had had enough.

"Where is he?" Edward asked Anna.

"His room," Anna replied.

"For crying out loud!" Edward exclaimed. This was getting ridiculous, he knew his kids were going through a lot, but Tyler had never been this defiant. He wondered what he was doing upstairs all day. Was he really just sleeping? Tyler couldn't be doing much, as Edward had taken all of his electronics away.

"Is Ty…okay?" Anna asked.

"I don't know what's going on with him, honestly. But I'll deal with him later, let's not ruin breakfast." Edward decided. It was Thursday, the weekend was just around the corner, it didn't really matter how much school Ty missed, they could always get him caught up or get him a tutor.

"All right," Anna said, then an eager smile crept onto her face. "So, I have big plans for mom's charity projects."

Edward smiled. "That's great. Tell me all about it."

"Well, first of all, we need the funds. Fundraising has significantly dropped, so I'm going to meet with the board of directors and propose a few fundraising projects," Anna said. "Then, well, we need to get to the root cause of homelessness, which is most likely poverty, but mental health could also play a role in it as well."

"Well, it sounds like you have your work cut out for you," Edward said. "Remember, you're only taking this on temporarily, when you're twenty you'll start shadowing me, all right?"

Anna nodded. "I know, it's just, I'm glad I can help out in some way."

"Thank you Anna, I appreciate it," Edward said. That was a relief to hear, at least Anna was trying to do her part. Edward understood that this would all be harder on Tyler than his sister, but still, that was no excuse for him to wallow in bed all day. He needed to try to adjust to everything.

After breakfast, Edward went straight to Tyler's room. He didn't bother knocking on the door, and instead just burst right in.

"Get. Up!" Edward snapped, ripping the blankets away from his son.

Tyler groaned in response. "No," He muttered. "Just leave me alone." He rolled onto his side, and Edward rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"You're not spending all day in bed anymore, this ends now. If your headaches are that bad then it's time to see a doctor." Edward huffed out.

Tyler ignored him. Edward rolled his eyes, he couldn't tell if there was something wrong or if Tyler was just being lazy and difficult.

"Get dressed then report to the hospital wing, this ends now," Edward ordered.

"Whatever." Tyler grumbled as he sat up in bed. "I'd rather go to school than see some stupid doctor."

"Good, shower, then go to school then. You've missed three days, it's about time you caught up." Edward said, then left the room, barely resisting the urge to slam the door behind him.