The New One ➳ The Selection trilogy sequel [discontinued]

» Chapter Five

"Maxine Alexandra." 

"Maxine Eternity!" 

"Maxine... Hayley?" 

"Hayley is such an.. informal name!" 

Maxon and I are sitting on our bed in our pajamas, arguing over what to name our child. Two days have passed since I gave birth to our child, and still we haven't settled on a name. We had agreed on Maxine as her first name, but her second name was yet to be decided on. I opted for Alexandra and Hayley, and Maxon had been pushing Eternity. 

"Fine, no Hayley, then," I huff, blowing a lock of hair away from my face. "But Maxine Alexandra is staying." "My opt for Maxine Eternity still stands." Maxon reminds me as he lays on his back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling of our four-poster king bed. "Definitely not! I am not naming our child Maxine Eternity, Maxon Schreave." I protest, leaning against one of the posts of our bed, a sketchbook propped up on my bent leg and a pencil in my hand. 

I'm sketching a portrait of Maxon, basing it off one of the photos from our wedding photoshoot in which Maxon is leaning against a white wall in his black tuxedo (looking absolutely ravishing, of course, but I would never admit that out loud). I had touched up on my art skills during the weeks that I was pregnant, on days that I would get extremely bored to the point that I just wanted to search for the nearest cliff and leap off, and I'd say that I had improved. What used to be messy, mediocre sketches that I worked hard on had evolved into detailed pictures full of color and the careful streaks of my pencils and brushes. 

"Why not? I think Maxine Eternity would be a lovely name for a little girl." Maxon retorts, gesturing with his hands as he lies down. "Oh, honey," I tell him, sketching his eye carefully, "You're a boy, Maxon, honey. I'm a girl - I know how to do names. And Maxine Eternity, sweetie, just doesn't fit. You know what fits, though? Maxine Alexandra. Now, that's a name that clicks. Don't you agree?" I stare at the eye I just sketched before nodding in approval and starting to sketch Maxon's second eye. Maxon let out a long, drawn-out sigh. "Did I even have a chance at winning this argument when it began?" I grin evilly. "No, you absolutely did not -" I start to say when a sudden flash of inspiration blinded me. 

Well, maybe I was exaggerating, but if I said so myself, my idea was pretty darn superb. 

"Kayla!" I cry, slapping my sketchbook shut, my pencil trapped inside it. Maxon sits up, confused. "What?" "That's it, Maxon, that's it! Kayla. It's the perfect name, don't you think?" I say, slapping the bed in my excitement. "It is, Mer, but.." Maxon hesitates. "But what?" "I thought you were sticking to Alexandra." "I am, you foolish little king." I retort. "It's the second and middle names I'm thinking about - wouldn't Maxine Kayla-Alexandra Schreave sound darling?"

Maxon pauses for a moment, thinking, before nodding slowly. "It.. yeah, it sounds like a pretty great name," he admits reluctantly. I pump my fist in the air in triumph and woot in victory. 

"So that's final, then? Maxine Kayla-Alexandra Schreave's the name we're going for?" Maxon asks, taking out our child's birth certificate (which was tucked in the back of my sketchbook). I bob my head enthusiastically. "Alright, then," Maxon says, taking a pen from the night stand beside him and writing 'Maxine Kayla-Alexandra Schreave' in careful print. He slips the birth certificate back in my sketchpad. "We've got to give that to Lucas tomorrow - he's been asking for it since Maxine was born! And the people are getting restless - two days have passed, and the royal baby still has no name!" Maxon laughs, making his voice high-pitched in a mocking imitation of our people's worries. I chuckle and glance at the grandfather clock standing in the corner of our bedroom. "It's 10:27," I tell Maxon. "We have a lot to do tomorrow - we need to get some sleep." 

Maxon glances at the clock and shrugs. "I guess so." He stands up, throwing off the covers, and crosses to the side of the room, flicking the light switch so that the room is enveloped in darkness. I pull the chain on the lamp on our night stand and place my sketchbook beside it, crawling underneath the covers as I do. Maxon gets in beside me, and I pull the lamp's chain again, vanquishing its light. I snuggle up to Maxon, pulling the covers up to my chin as a sudden chill washes over the room. 

"Good night, Maxon."

"Good night, America." 

Before all else, I would like to say that I, Wendy, was the only one who wrote this entire chapter and that no, Riley did not help in any way (at all). 

Has anyone here watched Step Up: All In? I was first introduced to Step Up a few years ago, and I loved it, so watched Step Up All In when it first came out last year, and I sank into the fangirling tar pit even more :( I've only started going public with my love for the Step Up franchise recently, though. Briana Evigan and Alyson Stoner for life!

xoxoxo,
Wendy