A Previous Selection

Chapter Ten

"Wren!" Addison exclaims as soon as I walk out of my room and into the hallway. Evelynn immediately gives her a look that quiets her some, but the excitement in her eyes doesn't diminish one bit.

"Good morning, Addison," I say, and she pulls me off to the side, away from the other girls.

"How was your date with the prince yesterday?" she asks, and I can't keep the small smile from appearing on my face.

"It was actually quite amazing." She squeals a little.

"So what did you guys do?"

"We just went for a walk through the gardens and then had a lunch picnic. And the whole time, we pretty much just talked. It was actually pretty relaxing," I tell her.

"And what did you guys do after that?" she asks, and I give her a confused look.

"What do you mean? That was all that we did."

"You guys weren't together for dinner?"

"No. Why would you think that?"

"Well, neither of you guys were at dinner last night, so we all just assumed that you two were still on your date," she says, and I let out a little sigh.

"No. We were only together for maybe two or three hours," I reply. "Prince Cameron had a meeting after our date, and he said that it was going to last late into the night. And when I got back to my room after the date, I got a massive headache, so I decided to have dinner in my room."

"Oh. Are you feeling better this morning?" 

I nod my head. 

"Much better. I just needed some rest." I pause for a minute. "Were the girls mad when they thought I was still out on a date with him?"

She surveys the girls that are now trickling out of their rooms, and when she looks back at me, I already know the answer.

"Well, most of them were just worried that their chances with the prince were already going down the drain, but yeah, a few of them were a little mad," she explains.

"Let me guess. One of them was London, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. Her and the three girls that she's somehow befriended."

Just at that moment, London walks out of her room, and when she sees me, she sends me the dirtiest look I've ever seen. She's not going to make my time here easy.

"That's the last girl, so let's go down to the dining hall for breakfast," Evelynn says.

We all make our way down the stairs, me and Addison in the back. We get to the dining hall and enter to find the whole royal family already here, King Harvey, Queen Kimberley, Cameron, and his little brother Oliver. All of us girls bow before sitting down in our seats at the table. As soon as we're served our food, I try not to immediately scarf it down. Seriously, how is every meal here so good? 

As I'm eating and making small talk, I notice that all of the girls keep glancing over at me.

Right. They think that I was with Cameron all day yesterday. Maybe I should tell them that I wasn't. But even if I did, would they actually believe me? Probably not.

"Are you ladies enjoying your breakfast this morning?" Cameron asks us all, and a chorus of "yes, your highness" is heard throughout the room.

"I am very glad that you all are enjoying the food so far, and I wanted to say that I'm sorry I couldn't make it to dinner last night. I was in a very important meeting that lasted very late," he explains, and I can almost see the tension in some of the girls' shoulders disappear.