Children of Olympus: Selection.

Chapter 26*

I woke up feeling gross. I was hot, sweaty, and from looking in the mirror face was in pretty bad shape. I stretched out and sat up, noticing that my maids were finally here. All three were looking at me in pity. I turned away from them. "That bad is it?" I asked, my voice raspy from crying all night.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is," Paige said.

"But nothing we can't fix," Sarah added.

I smiled sadly as they helped me out of the dress that was stuck to me from all the sweat. "That was a good dress," Paige muttered as she tossed it to the side. "Too bad it now has bad memories to go with it.

After they got me out of the dress, they led me to the bath where they scrubbed my face clean of makeup and cleaned my body.

As Celeste and Sarah got to work on my hair and makeup, Paige went back to the room to change the sheets and pull out a dress. It ended up being a gray dress with light gray heels. The other girls had pulled my hair into a pretty updo with a gold leaf crown thing in the back.

I smiled at my reflection in the mirror. It was so much better than about an hour ago. "Thanks guys," I said.

"You're welcome. Next time, at least get the makeup off before crashing in bed." Celeste said.

"And your dress," Paige squeaked, already picking up the other one to discard it.

I nodded and left, laughing lightly to myself.

I made it to the dining hall and sat down next to Layla. "How are you doing?" Layla asked, finally talking to me.

"About time you talked to me. Life's going about as well as life can with everything that's going on," I answered.

She nodded. "That's expected. Sorry about yesterday. I got a bit caught up in some other stuff."

"Yeah, well it's really my fault so," I started, but stopped as the royals entered. Any trace of a smile on my face was gone in the split second it took for me to catch sight of the others. I didn't even look at Zagan. It was too much to even try to think of something nice that could be said. Not after last night.

I ate in silence after that, Layla seeming to notice my lack of eating anything of real substance handed me a blueberry pancake and watched to make sure I actually ate it.

As soon as breakfast was over, I headed to the library to do some 'research'. Honestly I was just going to make it look like I had tried and so that I wasn't surrounded by guards.

Only about three other girls were there. None of us were really friends, and they all ignored me, which meant I was left alone for a while. It didn't really bother me. I was used to being alone, and after everything that has happened, I'm probably not the best person to be friends with.

We all left the library around lunch time. I ate lunch without being told this time because I was seriously hungry. A maid ran up to me in the middle and handed me something. It was a sticky note written in a very familiar handwriting. "Thanks," I said, as my heart caught in my throat at the idea of who was writing to me.

Dear Victoria,

Last night was a little crazy, am I right. Look just meet me in your room. If it seems necessary, that's an order.

Prince Zagan.

I nearly rolled my eyes. The idea of him ordering me to go to my room was stupid. I almost ended up laughing, but was able to control myself.

I stood and left the dining hall, taking his note as a dismissal. Obviously, Mrs. Holloway did not see it this way. She came stalking over, and I thought to myself that the only good thing about being locked up for a week was not having to look at her smug smirk.