STAMP OF APPROVAL - a selection story

a seed of doubt

C H A R L O T T E

written by animationchic/aOK706

round ten ||

March 25th

8:33am

"You slept in this morning?" I startle, almost spilling my coffee and spin around meeting Ambrose's smiling face. It drops a bit when he takes in my expression. "Charlotte, I'm sorry. I was—"

I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. "No, I'm sorry. I just haven't had coffee yet this morning."

"Oh, well in that case," Ambrose leans across me and pours an even larger cup of coffee than I was even planning on before.

"Leave some for the others," I tease, looking around to the other people in the room. The dining hall hasn't been this full since the start of the Selection and I both love it and find it exhausting. Four people stopped me on my way to get coffee, wanting to talk or say good morning. Don't get me wrong, I totally welcome their friendly faces, I just need coffee first.

"Eh, what good is it being the princess if you can't take as much of the coffee as you want?" Ambrose is teasing, trying to make up for our rocky start this morning so I choose to throw him a save.

"There are plenty of good things, but honestly none of them sound as good as that coffee does right now." I smile at him as he hands me my coffee, having fixed it just how I like it. "Thank you Ambrose."

"Of course, anytime I can help, I'm here for you, you know that," he seems sincere and I can't help but relax a bit more as I wrap my hands around the hot coffee. He shifts and looks around the room. "Can I ask a favor?"

He seems sheepish now, a little shy and it's a side of him I've never seen. It's cute. "What's up?"

"Sit with me?" He looks up at me as if he were pleading and I chuckle, shaking my head. He rushes to defend himself, "My friends all had to catch an early flight this morning, get back home for work today, leaving me stranded while everyone else still has their people. Come on Charlotte," he play pouts now and now I laugh. He's smiling too even as he continues to try to guilt me. "You can't leave me all by myself, not after I made you coffee."

"Fine," I huff another laugh and shake my head at him. "Let me make a plate and I'll join you."

"I can do that for you, go ahead and sit, relax, I'll be right there," Ambrose says and before I can object he's making his way over to the buffet table and is looking over the options.

I weave my way through the crowded room trying not to listen in on the conversations but one catches my attention as I pass.

"Crees que alguna vez aprenderá a hablar español?" It's Onyx and he's grinning broadly at Abri but seems to be speaking to Levi.

"Nah, ella lo intentó, nunca se dio cuenta," Levi responds in the same fluent Spanish. I almost stop at the sound of him speaking rapid spanish but then I hear what he adds. "Además, si no quieres que lo haga, entenderá lo que dices sobre el chico."

"Tengan cuidado muchachos," I say as I pass by, teasing them but serious all the same. "Nunca se sabe quién a su alrededor podría entender y no quieren que los atrapen diciendo algo que no deberían, verdad?"

Levi and Onyx both look at me then, a little surprised but Abri groans, "Not you too!"

The three of us chuckle and I shrug. "Most of my family is at least conversationally fluent in Spanish, we have to be able to speak to our people."