Almost Royal (Book 2)

Chapter 1

        "Miss, it's time to wake up," Cecily says from somewhere in the room.

        "No, I just wanna sleep," I moan.

        "Come on, up," she says.

        "Miss, we need to bathe you and dry your hair and-"

        "I'm going to take a shower," I announce as I sit up.

        "But it's our job-"

        "I. Am. Bathing. Myself," I say and they reluctantly agree.

        I walk into the bathroom and look at the shelves lined with fancy shampoos, conditioners, and body washes. I pick three that look decent but Cecily stops me.

        "Those two hair products together would make your hair fall out. Use this," she hands me a different shampoo and takes the other.

        "Thanks," I say and go to the shower and turn the water on.

        The water is too hot. I stand as far away as I can from the water as I turn it down. Now it's too cold. I dance around on my feet as I try to put it in the middle. Finally the water is just right.

        I stand under the water and think. Daxton still hasn't talked to me since the eliminations. He hasn't even given spared me a glance. I've already forgave him. I know that it's part of the selection and I've excepted that. What hurts the most, though, is that he said I was going too slow. I'm not sorry that I wanted to secure my feelings for him. And this...experience has shown me that I do love him and I don't want to live without him. But I'm not going to be the one to apologize; not when I did nothing wrong.

        Alexa and James' wedding is tomorrow, so yay for them. I've helped Alexa a lot with planning it. James looks excited but bored. I think he just wants to go ahead and call her his wife already. Daxton wasn't really at a lot of those but Rose was. And where ever Rose seems to go Devon follows. I think he kind of likes her. I'm not very fond of him mostly because he seems arragont. But Rose's love life is none of my business.

        "Miss, you need to hurry up," Cecily's voice comes from outside the shower.

        "Okay, okay," I say and squirt shampoo into my hand.

        I lather it into my hair and scrub. It smells pretty good, kind of like a mix of green apple and flowers. I put my sudsy head under the water. While I'm standing there water starts to fall in my eye. And then the water starts burning. Not water. Not water. It's some of the shampoo.

        "Ow! Ow! That burns!" I yell and Cecily opens the shower door.

        "Miss, what's wrong?" she asks.

        "My eye! Soap! In eye!" I grit my teeth as my eye burns.

        "Oh dear," Cecily says.

        She grabs a washcloth and starts to scrub at my face . She scrubs until I feel like my eye is numb. Finally, the burning in my eye is gone. Cecily helps me finish taking a shower and by the time wer're done, wer're both wet.

        "Courtney, Josee, do her hair, makeup and dress. I have to get a dry set of clothes," Cecily says to them and they burst into giggles.

        "Miss, sit," Courntey says and I plop into the seat front of the mirror.

        "Your eye is going to be red and there's nothing we can do about it but we can put foundation underneath to hide some of the redness on your skin," Josee says and I nod in agreement.