The Choice To Be Chosen (Book 1 of the CTBC Series)

The Choice To Be Chosen

I run through the flowers laughing as my mother follows behind. Smiles are spread across our faces as we look for all my favorite types of flowers to make me a special birthday girl crown. I pull some Acacia from the tree, Aster from the hill, along with some Buttercup, Chrysanthemum, Dahlia, and plenty more. Picking flowers of all shapes and colors. We were just poor Sevens but it didn't feel like it.

My mother always tried to make me feel like a One, like a princess. She did that with all her children. I am the second oldest of her 7 children. First there is Clarissa, then me. And then there's my twin brother Luke, our younger sister Abigail, and finally the triplets, Adam, Sabrina, and Tommy. It was all of us and our father living in a small cabin beside our green house.

My mother used to be a Five until she met my father. They were madly in love and though he never wanted to loose her, my father didn't want to make her life miserable as a Seven. My mother didn't care though, which is why she changed her name and caste from Roselyn Song, Caste 5, to Roselyn Stem, Caste 7.

My dark brown hair flew behind me as I rushed up the hill where my mother now sat finishing up my flower crown. I sat beside her as my ice blue eyes watched her hands twist and tie stems together. As soon as she was finished she put it on top of my head, the bright colors of the flowers popping against my simple, dull, burlap brown dress. She smiled at me before taking out a single rose from her satchel. But it wasn't just a normal rose, it was a hybrid rose my mother created at age 17. We call it the mint rose. It looks like a rose, yes, but it has the smell of mint along with a mint green color for its petals.

She placed the mint rose in the very middle of my flower crown and whispered "There, Like a true Princess." and that, was the best ninth birthday Ive ever had.

"Bray! Come down and help us move all your damn flowers!" I heard Luke call, snapping me back to reality. Today, I am 18 not 9, my birthday was 2 months ago, not today. No, no, today, I am visiting my old home it the heart of Kent to celebrate Clarissa's second wedding engagement. This time, marrying a Three. Im sure he is a good man, but this is my first time meeting him. And, my mother isn't here anymore...

Clarissa's last husband, a Four, cheated on her a week after their wedding, leaving Clarissa heart broken at 21. Three years later, she fell in love once again, making her, as well as everyone else, very happy.

"Im coming, Im coming! My god Luke, there are only 8 baskets down there!" I yell back as I make my way down the hall to the stairs. I roll my eyes as my bare feet patter against our old wooden steps.

"Where are the boys? Cant they help you move my flowers?" I complain as I pick up two of the baskets with ease as Luke struggles with just one. I try not to laugh.

"They are helping father carve stuff," he says adjusting the large basket in his arms.

I nod before leading the way outside to a wooden table facing the flower fields. I place the baskets on the bench before heading back to get more.

"Why did you have to bring so many flowers if we are just going to be facing more of them?" Luke says as he trudges back to the house behind me. I roll my eyes, he is always complaining, literally about everything.

"Its Clarissa's engagement party, Luke. She loves flowers."

"Yeah, I know that, but you're a Two now so why do you still do all this gardening crap?"

To think Luke is my twin brother. He thinks that just because I became a model three years ago that now Im this prissy little thing afraid to touch dirt or lift anything in fear of breaking a nail. Boys can be idiots sometimes, especially when you're related to them. I simply roll my eyes because I know he knows why I still do gardening and things like that. Because of mother...