The Selection

Chapter 11

I SKIPPED BREAKFAST THAT MORNING. By the looks of it, all of us did as Silva came in to do a health check. "Three of your ladies and the prince has come down with a sickness. I have been instructed to  do a health check." Silva says motioning to my maids, who were trying so hard to stay professional. "Yes ma'am." Grace says, the others were too hungover to talk. "Have you three come down with it too? Celeste's maids have come down with it too, Celeste will be infected soon." Silva says rolling her eyes. "I need to check the others, tell me the results." Silva says to Grace and leaves. "Fuck silva will kill me if she finds out." I say as the maids clamour onto my bed. "God Hannah is going to kill us!" Grace says holding her head. "Who's Hannah?" I say opening my covers for them. "Head maid." Nicole says quickly. "God poppy how much did you drink?" I say as she mumbled something and falls asleep. "You have to join them in the woman's room." Grace says getting up, leaving the others to rest. As I take off my tattered nightgown a knock comes from the door. "It's open!" I call trying to wrap a robe over me. "Oh!" The guest says before diverting their eyes. "Oh Prince Maxon! Sorry I thought it was Celeste!" I say wrapping my robe on properly, well a prince has seen my boobs. "What brings you here." I say as Grace tries to hide her laugh. "Just wanted to see how you are." He says still not looking at me. "God, how are you not hungover!" I say rubbing my head. "I didn't drink as much as you. Do you remember last night?" He says laughing to himself. "No what did I say? Your laughing." I say going up to him. "Oh nothing, you were really drunk so I took you to your room. We had a little chat." He says trying to suppress his laugh. "Go on." I say going red. "I like the Prince, he has nice arms, and nice hair." Maxon says mimicking me. Grace burst out laughing. "Oh my god your joking." I say going bright red. Grace laughs even louder. "Shut up Grace!" I say and she can't stop laughing. "What else did I say!" "Well you mentioned becoming queen, and what you would do as a queen." He says sitting on my bed. "God what were my demands!" I say sitting next to him, head in hands. "You wanted to destroy the castes." He says and my head shoots up. "God don't kill me." I say looking at him seriously. "Oh please, that wasn't nearly as interesting as the other things!" He says and I lean go red again. "You started crying because you thought you got stabbed." He says laughing. "God, I'm never drinking again." I say laughing. "It was the pin at the back of your gown digging into you, you were hysterical! I can't deal with crying woman!" He says and I burst out laughing, head on his shoulder. "Oh god." I say as Grace renters with a dress. "I shall let you change. I have to meet America." He says before leaving.

Lunch was boring. Everyone was all over America when she returned. I stayed with Celeste. She handled her drink well. We were flipping through magazines, I never got any before, I've always wanted one, they seem fun. "Look Celeste it's you!" I say showing her a picture of her in the vogue magazine. "Oh that outfit was awful." She says flipping through hers, barely looking up. I looked over and saw every girl crowding America,  I didn't want to hear about what she was doing with him. "Why are you jealous, America is your friend."Celeste says, I didn't know how to answer.  But I was spared trying to form an answer by the confusing noises coming down the hallway. The shouts were strange. In my very short time at the palace, not a single sound had registered as anything close to loud. Beyond that, there was a kind of music to the click of the guards' shoes on the floor, the massive doors opening and closing, the forks touching the plates. This was complete and absolute mayhem.
The royal family seemed to understand it before the rest of us. "To the back of the room, ladies!" King Clarkson yelled, and ran over to a window. Girls, confused but not wanting to disobey, slowly moved toward the head table. The king was pulling down a shade, but it wasn't the typical light-filtering kind. It was metal and squealed into place. Beside him Maxon came and drew down another. And beside Maxon the lovely and delicate queen was racing to pull down the next. That was when the wave of guards made it into the dining hall. I saw a number of them lining up outside the room just before the monstrous doors were closed, bolted, and secured with bars. "They're inside the walls, Majesty, but we're holding them back. The ladies should leave, but we're so close to the door-" "Understood, Markson," the king replied, cutting off the sentence.
It didn't take more than that for me to comprehend. There were rebels inside the grounds. I'd figured it would come. This many guests in the palace, so many preparations going on. Surely someone would miss something somewhere and let our safety slip. And even if there were no easy way in, this would be an excellent time to mount a protest. At its barest of bones, the Selection was kind of disturbing. I was sure the rebels hated it along with everything else about Illea.

The first girl to get up was America, she dropped her chair and ran to the windows to pull the shades down, many girls copied. I went over to the big windows and closes the drapes, maybe they would think the room was empty. As I tried to get back to the group I tripped over Americas chair. Fuck that hurt. Maxon appeared immediately. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine." I said but that wasn't true, my leg was bent backwards. Gross."To the back of the room. Now!" he ordered as he helped me off the ground. He raced down the hall, snatching up girls who had begun to freeze up in fear and ushering them to the back corner. I couldn't move and fell back down instantly. He didn't notice that time. America did. She rushed over to me and helped me move, I was almost hysteric. We moved toward the clusters of girls huddled together. Some of them were weeping; others were staring into space in shock. Tiny had fainted. The most reassuring sight was King Clarkson talking intently to a guard along the back wall, just far away enough that the girls wouldn't hear. He had one arm wrapped protectively around the queen, who stood quietly and proudly beside him. How many times had she survived attacks now? We got reports that these happened several times a year. That had to be unnerving. The odds were getting slimmer and slimmer for her ... and her husband ... and her only child. Surely, eventually, the rebels would figure out the right alignment of circumstances to get what they wanted. Yet she stood there, her chin set, her still face wearing a quiet calm. I surveyed the girls. Did any of them have the strength it would take to be the queen? Tiny was still unconscious in someone's arms. Celeste and Bariel were making conversation. I knew what Celeste looked like at ease, and this wasn't it. Still, compared to the others, she hid her emotions well. Others were near hysterics, whimpering on their knees. Some had mentally shut down, blocking out the entire ordeal. Their faces were blank, and they absently wrung their hands, waiting for it to end. I had to look strong, a queen would look as ease, I pushed through the pain in my leg and tried to look Regal, America understood what I was doing and ran over to Marlee who was crying. Marlee copied me and I smiled.

Guards waited on edge by the massive doors as heavy things were thrown against wall and windows again and again. There wasn't a clock in here. I had no idea how long this attack was lasting, and that only made me more anxious. How would we know if they got inside? Would it only be once they started banging on the doors? Were they already inside and we just didn't know it? I couldn't take the worry. I stared at a vase of ornate flowers-none of which I knew the names of-and bit away at one of my perfectly manicured nails. Biting through the pain.I pretended that those flowers were all that mattered in the world. Eventually Maxon came by to check on me, as he had with the others. He stood above me and stared at the flowers, too. Neither of us really knew what to say. "Are you doing all right?" he finally asked. "Yeah, my legs broken though." I say moving my skirt out of the way showing my bleeding leg bent backwards. "Oh! Why didn't you say so?" He says quickly, Surveying my leg. "Doesn't matter, where's my maids? Are they ok?" I say using his shoulder to get up. "Your maids?" he asked in a tone that implied I was an idiot. "Yes, my maids." I was on the verge of tears. I didn't want them to come, and I was breathing rapidly trying to keep my emotions at bay. His arm was steadying me. He looked into my eyes and seemed to understand that I was only one step up from being a maid myself. That wasn't the reason for my worry, but it did seem strange that a lottery was the main difference between someone like Grace and me. "They should be hiding by now. The help have their own places to wait. The guards are very good about getting around quickly and alerting everyone. They ought to be fine. We usually have an alarm system, but the last time they came through, the rebels thoroughly dismantled it. They've been working on fixing it, but..." Maxon sighed. I nodded and he tried to help me walk, causing me to drop. "Shit!" I whisper before pulling my skirt up again to look at my leg. "You got a medical here?" I say and he nods. He grabs me bridal style and carries me to the nearest guard. "Take her to medical, be careful with her leg." He says walking away to check on America. Always second to America.