dusk until dawn (the selection)

and they were childhood friends!

"Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with you."

"What?" Dawn glanced up from her picture book. It was calm in the palace library. Very few selected were there. Most of them still hung around the common room or hallways. Dawn was happy her friend didn't participate in the hunt-the-prince culture.

Macy had been mostly quiet this afternoon. It was the day after the interviews. An entire group of selected had practically declared war on Dawn and anyone who defended her. Kaia was their ringleader. Of course. And Isa gladly told her to fuck off whenever Kaia tried to say something negative about Dawn. Time stretched out in the palace. The past twelve hours had felt like an eternity. The girls lived entire lifetimes in 6 hours time.

Macy laid down her book and stared into her eyes. "You're generally quiet, you eat like a dog, but you do extraordinary well in etiquette class and during your first interview you drop the Caste bomb on live television." she said. "That's weird." ..caste bomb.

"I guess." Dawn considered it as she bit the inside of her cheek. Did she really eat like a dog? Why had no one ever told her that? "But you're weird too." she looked back at her friend. It was the only comeback she could come up with, anything to divert Macy's attention away from her.

Macy laughed lightly and flipped her hair back over her shoulders. It was wavy today, "I'm so not weird, I'm like, the—"

"GUYS!" Somebody ran into the library. Dawn and Macy both looked at her, a little offended to suddenly be interrupted. The girl in the door opening looked like she was about to burst. Through the open doors of the library, Dawn saw that there were selected hurrying past in the hallway carrying their heavy dresses and lipglosses.

The four selected in the library stood up worriedly. The girl in the door opening caught her breath and started rambling, "Ollie claims Nadia said she saw Jessica and prince Helios talking in the common room." she spoke so fast, Dawn could barely register who she was talking about. Or what. What the hell?

"No way," a girl at a table next to Dawn said. They seemed to understand what was happening.

The girl by the doors nodded in confirmation. "I just saw Nadia. Said he's still there."

Dawn and Macy looked at eachother. Chairs shuffled behind them. The other two girls behind them left all their books open and unguarded to take a sprint after the girl in the door opening, who had disappeared by now.

Once it was  just the two of them, she spoke up. "Should we like, go?" Dawn asked uncertainly. She didn't really want to go see the prince. She hoped Macy would say no.

"You think he'd appreciate that?"

Mobbed by thirty-five selected. Of course not. "No."

"Then why would we?"

Both of them sat down again. Without another word, Macy went back to reading her giant book with the world pictured on the cover, and Dawn went back to drawing in her little diary feeling particularly relieved. Neither of them were very bothered by the idea of prince Helios finally coming out of hiding. Dawn didn't want to face him anyways. It would probably be awkward.

But not even a proper minute later, a few girls ran past the library, in the opposite direction as earlier, making a lot of noise. And by that I mean, they were screaming. At eachother.

"Where is he?" They sounded pretty desperate. They must have really wanted to talk to the prince.

And he must not have been in the common room anymore.

Further down the hallway, more girls were screaming. "Try that way!" Dawn heard. She looked over at Macy, who was frowning in the direction of the doors.