Children of Olympus: Selection.

Chapter 19*

There was another elimination that weekend. We were now in the top 20. It was quite nerve wracking to be perfectly honest. Not only had I not had a real conversation with Zagan since last Friday, I also had his statement looming over my head.

Cause if you don't, just stop messing with me and say it so I don't get too attached.

What had he really meant by that? I kind of felt like I knew, but maybe I was wrong. I hoped I wasn't though.

I slowly made my way to my bathroom followed by my maids. They helped me take a quick bath and dried my hair. Celeste then took over doing my makeup, and Sarah started working on my hair, pulling it back into a loose braid that wrapped around my head and ended in a flat, messy bun type thing in the back of my head.

Once they were done, Paige pulled out a dark red dress that fell off my shoulder just slightly and had a lacy pattern above a fitted dark red fabric. She shoved a pair of the same color red shoes on my feet and that had little red ties in the front.

She smiled as they all shoved me out the door. I smiled slightly. I knew that I needed to have a conversation with Zagan at some point today, but that could wait till after breakfast. We would both be in better moods after we got some food in our stomachs.

I took a deep breath before making my way to the dining hall. Inside I quickly sat down and scooped a small portion of eggs onto my plate. Then I grabbed some sausage and bacon before the royal family entered.

We all stood and bowed our heads until Frank said, "You may all be seated and begin eating."

I knew that meant we could eat, but out of habit I waited until Frank had taken the first bite of his food to take the first bite of mine.

Before I finished eating, Zagan got my attention and mouthed for me to meet him in my room after breakfast. I felt myself breath out a little. At least he wanted to talk about what happened too.

I finished before he did and slipped out of the room and upstairs to mine. My maids were still inside, but I asked them to leave for a while. They seemed to understand and left quickly and quietly.

After a few minutes, there was a knock at my door. I called out for the person to open the door. He did and shut the door behind himself quietly. "Hey, V," He muttered, taking a seat at my desk.

"Hey," I muttered back. We sat in silence for a second before we both said, "I'm sorry."

We both turned away from each other. Any confidence we had before shattered, blushes growing across both of our cheeks. "You first," He said.

"No, you. It's your home after all," I responded.

"But, it's your room."

I decided to cut us off before we spent what little time we had arguing over who should go first. "I shouldn't have let her get under my skin. I should have stayed in that class and played dumb. I'm sorry that it doesn't seem like I'm taking this seriously."

He cut off my rambling, "You don't have anything to be sorry about. If anything, I should be the one who is sorry. I mean I made you think that I was mad at you, and I could never, ever stay mad at you or get mad at you for something so small.

I blushed and sighed, "You have to go now don't you."

He nodded sadly. "At least we got to talk while we did, right," He said, getting up from the chair and grabbing my hand.

"Yeah," I muttered, not making eye contact with him.

He got up to leave, and the rebel attack alarm sounded. "Zagan, get over here," I hissed, recognizing the sound of feet from outside.