The Chosen

4

We finally make it to the dining room, but before going inside, this lady leads us to another room.

"Hello, my name is Mrs. Brown. I'll be your instructor throughout this Chosen process. Our first lesson doesn't start until tomorrow, but here's a few things to know until then. Be polite. I'm sure you know this, but this is the royal family we're talking about. Don't be troublesome. That results in punishments. If the royal family wishes to speak to you, you talk to them. And lastly, no changing seats, got it? Now, we're going to stay in here for 5 minutes, for you girls to talk to each other." 

She leaves, and Rhyliegh steps up to the podium that Mrs. Brown was on.

"I'm the leader, and future queen, so if anyone wants to be my assistant, raise your hand."

One girl raises her hand, and announces herself as Julie.

"Let's make a note to avoid them." Lindsey says.

"Agreed!" I reply. 

The last girl comes up to us. 

"Um, hi. I'm Penny. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself before, but I'm super shy, so. Can I hang out with you? I don't like to hang out with girls like Rhyliegh."

"Sure!" Lindsey and I say at the same time, and we all laugh.

Mrs. Brown comes back in, and decides to add more to her speech.

"Okay, when we go in, there are name tags with your name on them. Find yours and sit there, no switching seats. Also, you didn't know this, because it was just added, but if the prince asks to do something with you, you do it - don't say no!"

She gathers us all up, and leads us -single file - into the dining room. There's a long table with 9 chairs around it and 5 place cards atop it. The royal family is in the corner on the left side of the room, observing, their own place cards in their hands. We all look around for our seats. I find mine first, and sit down, I'm close to the left side, where there aren't many place cards I steal a glance at the prince while the others file into their seats. The king is whispering something in his ear and he glances my way. I quickly glance back, but not quick enough. He saw me looking and smirks. Averting my eyes from them and making a note not to look their way like that again for at least this morning. Sitting next to me were Linsey on the right -thank god - and Rhyliegh on the left, ugh.

Finally, out of the corner of my eye, the royal family consisting of the King, Queen, Prince, and the youngest, Princess start heading towards the table, and Mrs. Brown leaves.

"Goodbye you all, and good luck!" she says.

The King and his wife take their rightful place at the front of the table, while the princess, Kayla, and Alkai, the prince stay standing.

"Sit down, kids." says the king, who's a little frustrated.

I see that same smirk from Alkai again, and suddenly get very worried. I look straight ahead, while the others look at him. I can see out of the corner of my eye, Alkai getting closer and closer towards me. Oh geese. Why couldn't I just have gone on the right day, instead of having to get dragged here later on.

Alkai's basically at Rhyliegh's shoulder. I see him tap it. 

"Excuse me," he says "but could I sit there?"

"Uh-I-uh-um-I," she stutters, "-sure."

And suddenly Rhyliegh's not sitting by me anymore, Alkai is. 

I stare strait ahead.

"Hey." Alkai says.

I continue to stare strait. He taps me on the shoulder.

"Hi!" he tries again.

I turn to look at him and immediately blush.

"Hi"

"I'm Alkai," he said.

"I'm Foster." 

He looks at me and smiles.

"I know."

Then we eat all the wonderful foods that the maids bring out for us to eat. Me sitting as still as possible. Trying to ignore the fact that every teenage girl's crush is sitting right next to me.

Every once in a while, I talk to Lindsey sitting right next to me. 

About halfway through the meal, Alkai tries again to create conversation.

"So, I know you have a brother, Liam, right? But do you have any other siblings?"

"Yeah," I reply "I have a little sister named Kalela. She not as close to me as Liam is, but I'm sure that not knowing what a Chosen is and what's happening is killing her."

His face goes from happy to a little like an I-feel-bad-for-you face, and I  immediately feel bad.

"That wasn't meant to make you feel bad, it's just- you just- you wanted to know my siblings, and I just told you, and now I'm regretting it, and now I'm sorry, so sorry."

He laughs. 

"Totally fine! I just wasn't thinking about what it must be like for the families of those who are Chosen."

"I didn't think about it either until a few weeks ago."

We both laugh.

~

"How was breakfast?" Neveni asks me.

He was waiting outside the door waiting for me as well as the other girl's guards for when we were done with breakfast, to go take us to our next task.

"It was good, the prince decided to sit by me, and it was awkward. I made him feel bad about something he shouldn't feel bad about."

He laughs. 

"Sounds like you."

"Yeah, but it all just made me realize that I'm probably not going to win, so why try?"

"Trust me, try."

Heyyyyy! How's it going? On my old account, I used to show the Taylor Swift song that was stuck in my head, so I'm going to try that. Today's song is Teardrops on My Guitar!! BBYYEE!