Selected: Part 1 - Rags to Gowns

1. THE SEAMSTRESS

PRINCE ETHAN'S SELECTION WOULD BE announced in three days. I knew this because the palace staff gossips, and I've been listening very closely. However, young girls working in the palace would not receive invitations to participate in the Selection, something that I've always found incredibly unfair. That's why I had come up with a way to enter.

As a seamstress in the palace, I worked on the lower levels, where I was to be quiet and unseen. This proved to be perfect for the execution of my plan. Step one was relatively easy; I just had to steal an application form from the post office, which was right next to the seamstress' workshop. It's the steps that came after that were tricky. If, by some miracle, I was selected, I needed two things: a household to "live" in, and someone to replace me in the palace. The royal family did not care much for the faces or names of their workers, but they knew how many there were. If I found a young girl like me to take my place sewing gowns, no one but my close colleagues would ever notice.

I lucked out. One of my fellow seamstresses just so happened to have a younger sister living in Angeles with her mother, who she missed very much. Her sister could replace me and finally be reunited with her. The next step was to take a week off from my work. Each palace worker was allowed to one week off per year, and I had saved mine for this very moment. Tomorrow, I would travel to the Flynn household, where I would discuss with my colleague's sister, Lydia, and hope she would be willing to help. The rest of the week would give me time to fill out my application and bring it to Angeles's services office. I was pretty confident about it all, and I was determined.

I had dreamed to become a Lady of the Selection ever since the idea was brought up. After all, this was my only chance with Prince Ethan, who would never consider a lowly Six who sews his clothes otherwise. If I got in the Selection he could see me for me, and hopefully reciprocate my feelings.

I had fallen for Prince Ethan three years ago, when we bumped into each other on the first floor of the place. That day, I was given my first important task ever. Everyone in the post office was busy, so someone had asked me, me, to go drop off a pile of important documents to the king's office. I was ecstatic, but ever so clumsy as I ran into the prince, and dropped all of the meticulously organized papers I was carrying. Mortified, I hadn't even thought of curtsying to his highness and just dropped to the floor, anxiously trying to gather all the documents and apologizing profusely. "Your highness...! I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry... please don't fire me! I won't do it again, please forgive me, I'm so sorry..."

His reaction surprised me: he actually laughed, a warm, comforting sound. "Don't worry miss, it was an accident." He bent down and started helping me reorganizing all these papers. I was completely baffled by this, rendered speechless.

"My, you've made quite a mess, miss..." He lifted his head to look at me. "Liliana, your highness" I said, completing his sentence. "Liliana... what a beautiful name." Coming from him, it did sound so, so beautiful. We stared at each other then, a bit too long as I could feel my face getting warm.

"Oh... I'm so clumsy!" I moaned miserably. "I find it to be quite endearing, actually." And again, I was taken aback by his compliments. I'd always thought he was handsome, yet never knew he was this sweet.

As we were organizing, I picked up a large notebook, assuming it was part of the pile I was carrying. The prince stopped me, seeming almost embarrassed. "Oh no miss, I believe that's mine. It's um... my drawing pad. I draw portraits, you see."

I handed it to him, wishing so badly that I had seen inside, had a glimpse at his world, but I knew my boundaries. Nevertheless, I was glad to find this common interest with Prince Ethan: he drew portraits, and I drew dress designs.

He stayed there, helping me, for at least five minutes. It was the best five minutes of my entire life, and I still cherish them to this day. Even though he was the crowned prince, was busy, and had much more important than this, he took the time to help and talk to me. That's when I first fell for the prince, and had daydreamed about him, his tan skin, long brown hair and stormy gray eyes, ever since. Then with every public appearance he made, every glimpse of him I caught, I had slowly fallen more and more in love with him. There was no way I could let this opportunity pass.