The Russian Selection

Chapter 2

"Miss, you need to wake up." I groggily rubbed my eyes as I saw Mia standing over me. "You need to get ready for breakfast." She basically dragged me out of bed and in front of the vanity where Jill started working on my hair. Mia made the bed and then grabbed my dress from the closet. I wish I could pick out my own clothes; I did in Turkey.

Finally, after what felt like hours, I was deemed acceptable and ushered down to breakfast. Kirova was waiting outside the dining room. "You're late again Rose." Even though I hated it when people used titles around me, part of me wanted to correct her because I hated her.

Instead I just rolled my eyes and walked in. All of the girls were sitting down and I saw a spot open for me next to Delilah. Some of the girls were giving me the stink eye as I walked past them to my seat, especially Tasha.

"Morning Rose," Delilah chirped at me while I just took a sip of my coffee. On the other side of me was Sonya Karp from Austria. Unfortunately, across table a few seats down was Tasha and Camille Conta from Australia talking obnoxiously loud.

Breakfast was going well and when I ate my last bit of pancake, Kirova strutted in. "Ladies, if you follow me, we are going to the Great Hall where you will all meet the Prince." Most of the girls squealed as chairs scrapped the floor and girls' feet scurrying on the tile floor. Everyone wanted to be first to meet the Prince.

Delilah, Sonya, Natalie Dashkov from America, and I were content on walking near the back. I didn't want to be trampled to death. We all laughed when we entered the Hall and a lot of the girls had pouting faces on. There were 25 tables set up with nameplates on them. I went in search of my name and realized that they were by alphabetical order of our last name. And on my right, the famous Tasha Ozera. Was the place stupid? They have representatives of the two most conflicting countries sitting next to each other. It was bad enough that we were competing for the same guy.

At the least Isabella from Spain was sitting on my left and she seemed nice, except she was so shy and quiet. How did they allow her to enter? Before I could say anything to her, Kirova stood up on the podium. I was in the fourth row of five but I could still see her clearly. Also on the stage was two chairs facing each other.

Kirova starting talking about etiquette, as if she thought we never talked to a Prince before. I zoned out until the doors opened. All the girls turned around and saw Dimitri standing there. My hand sparked as if it remembered last night. Dimitri looked around the room as if he was looking for something, or someone, and smiled when his eyes fell upon me.

"I am sorry to interrupt Mrs. Kirova," He said diplomatically with his face become expressionless. "But I am very anxious to finally meet the girls."

"Of course your Highness." She stumbled and bowed when Dimitri made it up to the podium.

"Welcome ladies to the Royal Palace in Moscow, Russia. I hope your trips went well and you have all settled in nicely. If anything is to your distaste or discomfort, do not be afraid to say and we will replace it right away. I am very honored for you all to be here away from your family. The thought of one of you here will be my wife makes me very excited. Now, each of you will come up one at a time. We will talk and it gives us a good time to meet. We will start with Abby Badica from France." Dimitri ended his speech and held out his hand for Abby coming up the steps. They went over to the chairs and started talking.

I watched them converse for a while before I got bored and started doodling on my paper. Kirova had come over plenty of times to scold me but I continued anyway. I watched as Delilah, who was the last person in the second row; go up to talk to Dimitri. Immediately, they were laughing as if they knew each other for ages and just catching up. I felt happy for my cousin; I didn't want her to be eliminated early on.