The song bird's flower 

Chapter 1 crushes, exes the selection

"Lily get in the kitchen please" I can hear my mothers voice calling from the other side of the house, and it takes all of me to get up and not just stay laying in bed strumming my guitar crying. I get up and go over to the crack mirror leaned up against my desk. My eyes are red and there's a bit bloodshot, but there's not much I can do about that so I just pat my hair down and wipe off the bit of makeup I had left on my face that hadn't been rubbed off by my tears and stumbling my way into the kitchen. Where my mom is getting dinner ready. It's a Friday night which means it's the one night out of the week where we eat dinner on the couch as we watch İlyas weekly report where our Prime Minister talks about public funding and boring stuff as the royal family sits behind him and it's the only real reason anyone under the age of 25 watches it. All of the older women talk about the queen's dress, and all of the young girls talk about how cute prince Ivan looked. Prince Ivan, oh prince Ivan, it's a running joke that every girl 20 and younger's first crush was prince Ivan. I don't know how true it is, considering I would always deny that I liked his handsome face, because I wasn't going to fall for the fantasy. I played music and painted. I was the cool girl. I didn't care about some fluffy prince of Ilya, although I may never admit it out loud, but deep deep down, I do have a bit of a crush on him, I don't know maybe it's some thing with his curly blonde hair or with his pond colored eyes never truly blue never truly green something about it does it for me. But I never admit it. I'll just roll my eyes when all my friends talk about how cute he is. patting them on the back in disappointment that they will probably never get to meet him before we go back to our math homework. That's when my little sister runs up and hugs me. "Finally the gremlin has left her bedroom" she says sarcastically, and I have the urge to punch her. Lovingly, of course. She looks very similar to me. She has the same auburn wavy hair and the same brown eyes with the little green lines in them, making them hazel, although she is about 3 inches shorter than me, and about three and a half years younger than me.I often look a little different from her, considering I usually straighten my hair, I've dyed the underside of it a bright, Bluey, purple, indigo, color, and chopped it short so that it's only about an inch  longer from shorter length. My sister also has thick, tortoiseshell rimmed glasses, and it makes her look like some kind of librarian and I wear contacts. I know in a couple years boys will be all over her just trying to get a look at her. "I heard rumors that they're going to have a big announcement tonight, maybe they're going to announce a selection," she says as she breaks away from the hug. You see,I love Eleanor. She is my only sister and she's only annoying 75% of the time but she does not get how the royal family works. I don't fully get it either but one thing that I know for a fact is that a selection happens the summer after the first child of the king and queens turns 18. When they do the selection they pick one person from each of the provinces of Ilya from the ages of 16 to 20 to become a daughter or son of Ilya, and they do this little competition where someone tries to win the infections of the prince or princess. Usually there's one selection each generation, and it's always a big deal. I've been kind of interested in the winners and how they won the love of a royal but it doesn't matter, considering we have at least a year until the selection because prince Ivan is freshly 17 so there will not be a selection until next year. My mother over here is our little conversation and chimes in as she places down plates of cooked beans, mashed potatoes, and chicken on a coffee table. "Well even if there is a selection they'll probably keep the ages 16 till 20 which means both of you will not be able to sign up for it". and it's true I am 15 my birthday is in about four months and Eleanor is 13 so she'll probably never be able to sign up for a selection which I know is very disappointing for her But she'll find someone she'll love one day I know if it. and for me well if the selection happens next year, I will be able to sign up for it. I never thought I would because of Jack. Oh Jack, my now ex-boyfriend, who decided to cheat on me because I didn't want to kiss him in the first three months of us dating. I know very little about other countries outside of Ilya. I've heard they're more open about affection and it doesn't matter who lips you've touched and why you've touched them.but it's very precious here in Ilya,You don't kiss somebody to kiss them. You kiss them because you love them and you especially don't kiss them when you've been dating for a couple of months and you definitely don't kiss them after you find him making out with another girl in his treehouse, no our treehouse. And because I had a boyfriend and I was blindly in love with him and when people started talking about the pending selection,I thought he'd be mine forever. I would never sign up because that would be cheating on him. Turns out he was not beyond cheating on me though. and thinking about him I can feel the tears start filling in my eyes, and I want to run back to my room back to my pillow back to my guitars and ukuleles and piano and play and sing my feelings but the news report starts, and I decide I can't spend forever in my room because I need to eat to survive.