The Chosen

9

"Look who I found in the gardens!" Alkai tells a guard as we get inside, "And we need to get to the infirmary. Tell them that she was with me all night and to cancel the rest of her plans."

"Yes, your majesty." the guard says.

Alkai is still carrying me, on our way to the infirmary. So, once we get in, everyone looks up at us. There's not that many people in there, just a bunch of nurses, and it looks just like a small hospital. They are totally judging us, eyeing us dripping wet and muddy.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong?" they all ask.

"I'm fine, but this girl needs help, she did something to her foot." he says.

A nurse leads us to an empty bed with a curtain around it.

"Put her on the bed. I'll go get the doctor." she says.

He lays me down gently on the bed as if I might break if he puts me down harder.

"This is weird." I say.

"What's weird?"

"Everyone calls you Your Majesty."

"That's not weird."

"It is if you're not used it."

"I guess."

The doctor comes in and does some tests on my foot.

"Well, you definitely broke your foot. How did this happen? Do I want to know?" the doctor says eyeing Alkai and I.

I blush. "I was running and I tripped on a root and fell into a big mud puddle." I say.

"Oh, ok. I'll give you a cast that you can easily walk on and I'll be right back."

He gives me the cast -it's basically a brace- and Alkai and I leave.

By the time we've left, it's midnight. Great, I guess I'll be super tired tomorrow. Alkai leads me to my room -carrying me up every flight of stairs we get to.

"Here you are, M'lady." he tells me at the door.

"Don't call me that."

"As you are M'lady." he says, then smiles.

"Stop it!" I tell him, then shove him playfully.

I play with my door knob, then open it. I turn away from him, but he turns me back around.

"Okay," I say, "I guess I'm not going in then."

Then he kisses me, just a short, small kiss.

"Ok," he says, "you can go now. Make sure to rest that foot!"

I laugh and close the door.

~

"What is on your foot?!" Rhyliegh asks the next morning as we're getting ready to go downstairs.

"I broke it when I fell." I tell her.

"When did you fall?" Lindsey asks, joining the conversation.

"Yesterday. I was outside, and I tripped on a root, and fell."

"Ouch." Rhyliegh says, clearly not amused, and walks away.

"So, I heard you were with the prince all last night."

"Not really, I went outside to the apple orchard, and he saw me limping in the rain, and brought me to the infirmary."

I leave out the kissing part.

"Oh, actually that doesn't sound as fun as I thought it was. I'm going to think what happened in my mind was what happened."

I laugh and roll my eyes.

~

"YES! You finally got it figured out! That's how you're supposed to do it Foster!" Mrs. Brown tells me, "You're perfect at this! Even better than Rhyliegh!"

Rhyliegh hears this and stomps away.

"Yes! Good job Foster!" Penny says, giving me a high five.

"Mrs. Brown," I say, "may I be excused then?"

"Yes!" she says to me.

I close the door behind me. Walking up to my room, I hear a few voices in the hallway, so I duck behind something, figuring they'll just walk past.

"She's great. I love hanging out with her, but my father hates her." mysterious voice number 1 says.

"But she's had such a bad life, with her father dieing from this very same competition!" says mysterious voice number 2.

"I know!" says the first voice.

They must turn a corner, because I don't hear them anymore. I get to my feet, and try to get to my room as fast as possible.

Hey! Can't talk right now, see you later!