The Selection (#1)

One

I winced as my mom shoved a off-white colored envelope in my face. "What is that?" I asked even though I already knew the answer. "The Selection papers!" Mom answered excitedly, her eye practically glowing.

Of course. The Selection, the recurring tradition of having thirty-five girls sent off to the Illean palace for some stuck-up prince to choose a wife.

I could see the gears turning in her head of the possibilities if I won. But that would never happen, because I wouldn't even enter. I guess mom could see I was about to protest because she immediately spoke up, "Please Clotho. It would be a great opportunity! You could become a princess and then queen!"

"I'm not entering! The Selection is stupid. Plus I don't want to be princess, not now nor never." I said firmly. Mom sighed, "You have to try! You know since your father's gotten sick we have one less worker. If you make it in and you don't become princess you'll still have so many new opportunities after! You'll be able to help the family out more!"

I bit my bottom lip, it was true that since dad had fallen ill that we'd been getting less income. But I hated the spotlight, if I did make it in then there would be millions of eyes watching me for the rest of my life, weather I won or not. And I didn't know if I could handle that, no matter how much I wanted to help my family.

Right then Anna came barreling down the stairs, in one hand was a worn stuffed animal. "Why is mom yelling?" She asked out loud. "Noth-" Before I could finish mom started reading the letter, with every word I could see my sister's eyes shine brighter with excitement.

She turned to me when mom was finished, "You filled out the form right?" "N-" "Great! Now you'll get selected and you'll got to the castle, meet the prince, fall in love and get married!" The more she rambled the more annoyed I got u til I snapped, "I said NO! I am not entering!"

She frowned "but-" I shook my head, "But nothing. Even if I did fill out the form there would be thousands of other girls in the province signing up. I'll never be picked."

"Honey..." Mom began. "Stop! Why can't you respect my decisio? I don't want any part in it. Okay-?"
"Let me finish." She said. "If there's such a slim chance of you getting chosen, why don't you just fill out the form? Like you said, you probably don't have a chance anyway."

I thought about what she said, because it was true, I did say that. I guess she could see me thinking about it because she allowed me to take a break from helping with dinner to go to my room and think. And think I did, even after dinner in my sleep I still saw that dreaded form taunting me.