The Selection of Lindy Williams

Chapter 2

I hopped on the trolley as it left, grabbing the bar overhead to catch my balance.

"Lindy, did you fill out your application?" My friend Charisma bubbled with excitement.

"Of course! I got it in first thing Saturday." I grinned and took a seat. Charisma was my best friend since we were small. Her father was a Four whose parents had worked in factories, and her mother was a Five who married up. A dancer, who convinced her husband to open a dance studio. That's how Charisma and I met. She danced, hoping to run the studio if she married within the Caste, and I was sent there as a way to get me out of the way when my parents needed to work. It wasn't practical for them to pay for dance classes since we were already scrambling for money and nothing could come of it, we were Sixes not Fives, but once I started they couldn't stop me. I didn't take lessons anymore, but Charisma and I would spend a few hours each week in the studio, just playing around with jumps and tricks and spins. We made our own dances and performed them for our reflections.

"I went yesterday afternoon, you should've seen the line! It went from the Office all the way down to McNally's!" she grew animated, her face glowing. Her black curly hair bounced as she spoke and her smile could've reached her ears.

"I should've gone with you, we could've split a pastry while we waited."

"Oh Lindy, do we even stand a chance? Some of the girls there looked so sophisticated and... queenly"

"Queenly? Is that a word?" I snorted.

"If it's not it should be, because it describes them perfectly." I laughed as she wrinkled her nose at the thought. "They had makeup so thick it looked more like they were trying to frost a cake, and their jewelry! Lindy I can't even describe it."

"Let me guess, diamonds and rubies and pearls"

"And emeralds! They must be in style because almost every girl was wearing strings of green emeralds!"

"Well not every girl is as real as us" I said, then stuck out my pinkie. She grabbed it with hers and we smiled at our odd little gesture.

The trolley jolted to a stop and more people swarmed on as we neared downtown.

"Lindy, Charisma!" A gruff voice called out. Mason pushed past a couple of people blocking us and grinned when he caught sight of us.

"Mason Jameson!" Charisma giggled.

Mason was a year older and a Six, but one of the most popular guys in public school. It was no question that Charisma liked him, she had for years.

"Mind if I tag along?" he grunted as the trolley jostled him, almost into the lap of an elderly lady beside us.

"Unless you plan on skipping school you might want to, but I heard they're holding a special assembly to address the selection so you boys will probably have an extra forty minutes to slack off" She joked at him.

"This whole selection thing is a load of bull" he exclaimed.

"Mason!" Charisma and I both shushed him. The selection was seen as a patriotic event, and not supporting it was basically a slap in the face to the proud people of Illéa.

"I'm serious, why do all the girls of Illéa get so hot over a stick up prude in a crown."

I gave his ankle a little kick as a warning and Charisma gasped again.

"Honestly I think those rebels have the right idea."

Charisma gasped again and I kicked his ankle harder.

"Ow! Would you knock it off Lind? I'm allowed to have opinions, and I think the Selection is just a waste. Everyone thinks this Prince Holden is such a great guy, all noble and handsome, but he and his little family get to sit up on their high horse eating off plates more expensive than my house and dictating all of our lives. I work every day, sometimes instead of going to school, just so my family can eat, but he eats feasts for every meal as he talks about what they're going to do to stop anyone else from taking their power."

Charisma sat back speechless.

"Mason, if people hear you talking like that you'll get drafted and sent to a war zone."

Charisma looked at me with wide eyes.

"Mason, you know he's not really like that.. You don't even know him!" She finally spoke up.

"Neither do you! Yet you're the one who wants to compete to marry him. Honestly Char, I thought you were different, but every girl is the same aren't you. That's what they want. They make every girl the same, you all sit there all pretty and dream of Princes sweeping you away so you don't have to think about how much your life actually sucks, but they're the reason why your lives suck."

By the time he was done he looked so angry i was sure he'd explode if I touched him, but he continued speaking in a hushed voice, knowing that if people heard him speaking like this I'd be right.

"If you had any real decency you'd see that and withdraw from the selection. They don't want anything to change, they want the Sixes to stay Sixes and the Ones to stay Ones, and this little show is supposed to make it seem like they appreciate every Caste but it's a lie. I'd bet anything that no more that five of the Selected are lower that a Four. And I bet none of them will make it to the Elite."

Charisma looked ready to cry, and Masons words made me nothing but angry with him.

"Mason this Selection is the one way out for some of us. Those checks could keep my mother from working herself to death!"

"You wouldn't have to depend on a check you might not even get if they fixed the system. The rebels Lindy, are fighting for a better future. They're not rebels, they're.. they're martyrs."

"Well I don't want to be a martyr, I want to be a queen."

"Lindy you can be so shallow."

"I'm not the other one threatening to overthrow the government!" My voice rose to a slight whine.

"I never threatened to overthrow the government, just to... reform it."

I sighed and looked at my hands. They were dirty.

"I know you're right Mason, but the rebels can't just attack the palace a couple times a year and hope to fix everything."

"So what are they supposed to do? Knock on the door and ask them to change everything?"

"I don't know Mason. I'm not cut out for government reform, I'm a dancer."

"Then good luck being queen." He snarled. His voice became mean and any attraction I ever had for him disappeared.

Charisma on the other hand looked lost. She couldn't tear her eyes away from him as he pushed through the crowd and hopped off the back of the trolley.

"Lindy..."

"I don't know," I sighed, sensing her question, "I just don't think he's worth it.

"Did you know his father was laid off?" Her voice trembled. she had done her homework.

"No." I whispered.

"His sister makes the costumes for our dancers, she started charging more, because without their fathers income they can't feed everyone."

I shook my head as the trolley came to a stop in front of our school. We stood up, slinging our bags over our shoulders.

Mason Jameson wasn't in any of our classes that day, and we didn't bring him up.