The Selection: One of the Selected

17: The Questions

"May I ask," the queen said, after a deafening pause, "what you think you are doing?"

"Look, I can explain-" I started.

"Please do!" the queen said curtly. 

"She shoved me!" Celeste whimpered, over dramatising her injuries by putting the back of her hand to her forehead and falling back. People actually did that rather than just sarcastically?

"I was provoked by something she said about my...my friends," I hesitated with the word 'friend' in my mouth. Had we actually talked this out yet, or had we just settled into normal again? Which is better?

"I see..." Queen Amberly said, her eyes drifting over to Celeste.
"And what did you say?" she asked her.

"Nothing, I swear!" Celeste pleaded, but she barely got to the end of those three words before Kriss stood up.

"Sorry to interrupt," Kriss said looking directly at Amberly and not breaking eye contact, "But I believe everyone else in this room heard what she said, and she called both Ameri- Lady America and Lady Marlee unspeakable words."

Mumbles of agreement arose through the room, but Queen Amberly wasn't yet satisfied.

"And that was a worthy enough reason to throw her into a...table?" she didn't look at me, but instead watched the others with careful movements. 

"That part was an accident," I informed her truthfully, "and I am sorry if I hurt you, Celeste." That part was said not so truthfully.

 "It's fine," Celeste grumbled, now instead fixated on getting every hair on her head smoothed down again. 

The queen gave a small nod, "Well, well done for sorting it out girls, but Lady Celeste, I will take you to the Hospital Wing. Everyone else, you may go back to your rooms."

Her eyes lingered on mine for a moment, barely noticeable to anyone else but me, with an intent behind them. What that was, I couldn't tell. A question? An answer? 

She was gone, Celeste trailing behind her, before I could ask. 

A brief moment of silence hung in the air, before everyone got up and a bubble of chatter rose in the air, those who lost friends finding each other and forming bonds already. The group all went towards the stairs, but I hung back, letting them all pass me. I would find Marlee and America first. 

~ * ~

Endless searching, through one corridor and down another, all while keeping clear of guards or maids, yet I didn't find either of them. I checked their rooms, my room, and even considered going to Maxon's room, but I felt that might be pushing my luck. 

I had heard the library was a nice place to be, so I headed there.

The library was so huge, down shelf after shelf and past ladder after ladder, that I knew I would never be able to find anyone if they were in there. Nor them be able to find me, at that, so I took a chance to enjoy the quiet on a red bench-like seat, dotted with various cushions. 

I felt obliged to read a book, what with sitting in this vast space of them, but I could never find one I was interested in through all the range. As I sat, gently swinging my legs, I felt my shoe kick something and heard it slide across the floor, further back towards the wall. 

I was half expecting dust to be beneath me, as you would expect under such object as a chair, but after I reached below I realised the carpet was clean as if new. 

Of course. This isn't like at home, people endlessly clean every corner of this building as their job. 

Searching blindly for the object took a minute, but eventually my hand hit something. Pulling it out, I realised it was a book, but one different from the rest. The spine was cracked, and the pages were puffed out, making it seem bigger than it was. The cover was soft, leather perhaps, unlike most books in the room. It was clasped with a matching leather strap; however, the threads on it were broken, and it looked as if they were perhaps broken recently. 

I was about to see whatever was inside when the crash of the doors opening made me jump, and I hurriedly searched for somewhere to put it, out of view. I had only just put it on the chair and covered it with my skirts when Maxon came wandering down the aisle next to the one I was in: in view to me yet I was out of view to him. 

It was with horror that I noticed he was coming towards where I was, still not seeing me, so with speed like I never had used before, I grabbed the leather book and bolted out the library.

His muffled, "America?" was the last I heard before I was in my room with the door shut, and Lily and Rose were looking up at me with bemused expressions. 

A/n: hi to anyone reading this, this isn't much to do with the story so you can skip it if you want.
Sorry for not writing/updating this story much, it's for a number of reasons, one of which being that I am working on another story (I might post it after I finally finish this one) but another because my mental health has gone down the drain lmao and my motivation for stuff has been low. School and homework has been really overwhelming tbh but at least it's the summer soon :) 
My friend has told me to update this more, so I will, and thanks for reading!

If you skipped all that I'm basically just going to be trying to write this more :)

Also, 400 reads?? That's amazing to me, thank you so much.