This is Kerttu's selection, she is a young, beautiful and graceful princess. Care isn't the person who the selected thought they had signed up for though. She isn't like her mother nor her grandmother, Care appears to be excited.
↝/ The Selection Se...
"Kerttu?!" Jaakob, my younger brother yelled as he snapped me away from my thoughts. "Did you even hear my question?"
"No, sorry," I said as I heard Jake's scoffs. Prince Jaakob Cynfael Koskinen-Schreave was only sixteen years old, four years younger than me and as often as we interact I find myself wondering if he even recognises that I'm the first heir, not him. Jake could be rude, bossy and overbearing at times but I didn't hate him, he is my little brother, how could I? And as much as I hate to attempt it, I respect Jaakob for his ability to do my job and be a prat at the same time.
"No it's not important," Jake shook his head as a couple of strands of his beach blond hair fell out of place. The more I look at Jake the more I realise how different we are, both personality-wise and appearance-wise. Jake has straight blond hair and brown eyes while I'm the opposite, I have soft curly brown hair with my dad's memorising light blue eyes, my face was covered with freckles while Jake had clear skin.
"Oh come on Jaakob, now I have to know!"
"You don't have to know, you want to know," he said correcting me.
"Same thing." As Jaakob looked at me I could see that clocks in his brain turning, he was definitely overthinking as he always was.
"The Selection, I was wondering what your opinion on it was, you are the only first heir to not compete in it." Jake knew my opinion on the Selection, I was in love with it! The Selection was how mother and father met, the Selection was how Nana and Pa met. The Selection, I exhale at the thought of having my own. "I guess you couldn't make it past the first elimination."
I felt my lips slowly slip into a frown, my little brother just told me that I would not be able to handle my dream. I shook my frown away, whether or not if Jaakob meant that to hurt me, I had to keep my disappointment to myself. "What is that meant to mean?"
"I am just saying that I know how..." he pause before he went to speak again, knowing that he had to tread carefully with his words, "How... indecisive you can be."
I wanted to believe he was just thinking that but I knew there was more he wanted to say. I'm too emotional, I'm too shy, I'm too... odd.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I walked into the ladies room looking for my mother, I was ready, I was ready to find my soulmate, just like how she did. I was relieved to see that she was sketching a design in her book, she looked so happy as her soft pencil lightly left marks on the paper.
I knew I was yet to be seen by her, all the more proof that she found joy in her designs. Though I wished I could just watch her draw with a smile on her face all day I had to catch her attention, so I cleared my throat, her turning towards me. "Kerttu dear, I'm sorry I didn't notice you."
I smiled, "It's fine, though we need to talk, about me having a Selection." To say mum was shocked would be an understatement, she closed her book as she turned her body, so that all of her attention was on me.
I'm almost twenty years old, no one in the past has had a selection after they were nineteen. I often wondered if I was one year too late. The selected's ages can be between sixteen and twenty, so why can a prince... or a princess not be on the later side of the spectrum. "I want to have a selection, like you! Like Pa! Like every Illèan prince before me, I want to have a chance at a fairytale love story."
"Care, are you sure?" She asked, wanting to be sure that this was not just a split-second decision on my behalf and to make sure that she wasn't hearing things. I just nodded, I wanted a selection more than anything, well not anything... but it is high up there.
Mum clapped her hands in joy "Oh Kerttu, I am so proud of you." I could see that she wanted to hug me but her title stopped her, I rolled my eyes with a giggle and gave my mum a huge bear-strangling hug.
