Kaden | ✓

part eight ♚ anile

It turned out that Sasha was one of three girls that didn't want to be here, and they had all become friends. The other two girls were Autumn Sampsel and Esther Suoh, and on the third and fourth days I went on dates with them. I settled into an easy schedule with the girls--breakfast, a date, talk to Sasha, Autumn, and Esther, lunch, another date, try to find something to do, dinner, sleep. In the short bursts of time I had between those things, I worked through letters to reply to Emmaline, but I didn't get nearly as many as I could've out and back to her. It wasn't like I could--I was extremely busy, though I hated admitting that I was too busy for her.

It was a relief when the next Thursday came around. I woke up before dawn and couldn't fall back asleep, so I dressed and then busied myself with other things--reading over some budgets Eadlyn wanted my opinion on, going through the remaining girls, reading a book I'd half-finished before the girls came. I'd cut out three more girls--Lucia Farr, Diamond Reinhardt, and Theresa Cowen, which left me with twenty-four girls. An elimination right before the Report that they would get to be interviewed in. My father had laughed and jokingly called me cruel, but he told me I should cut at least one other girl. I'd let Breanna go later on that day, I decided.

A knock on my door made me all but fall out of my chair as I scrambled to get it.  On the other side stood Dustan and James, looking surprisingly not-normal in black suits. James made a face. "Horrible, right?"

I laughed. "Is it uncomfortable or something?"

He shook his head. "Not at all, which is surprising. It just feels wrong."

Dustan nodded in agreement. "I feel like I'm pretending to be royalty."

"You're not pretending to be anything but my friends." They laughed. "Stop standing in the hall like the idiots you are. Come on." I dragged them into my room and shut the door.

"Emmaline's still getting dressed." Dustan said. "Eadlyn's with her. She insisted on having her wear one of the dresses she designed, and they have to make it. She'll be a while."

"A while" ended up being until the sun came up. Three hard knocks on my door interrupted our conversation, and when I stood up, an irritated-looking Emmaline stood on the other side, clutching her violin. She looked beautiful--her hair was loose, and she was dressed in a silver gown that glittered and shined as it caught the light. Her skin and hair shined as well, and she didn't look like she came from this world.

"They made me wear makeup." She grumbled. Sure enough, they had--black eyeliner stretched across her eyelids, mascara coated her lashes, and her lips looked glossy and a different color from what I remembered.

James laughed. "But you look cute!"

"I do not feel cute. I feel like a walking freakshow. Why am I here, Kaden? I don't fit in with these girls. They'll all laugh at me." She looked seriously upset by this.

I rolled my eyes and pulled her into my room, shutting the door. "You don't need to fit in, and they won't laugh at you. If anyone gives you trouble, tell me and I'll kick them out."

"But--"

"What?"

"Why would you kick them out?" She looked horrified at the idea of her being the cause of someone being sent home.

"Because you're my friend. I plan on keeping you around for a long time, Emmaline. If they don't like you, that's too bad. I'm not going to deal with drama."

She smiled. "I didn't see it before," she says, "but now that I'm here, I do. You...you do act like a royal, just not outside of the palace."

"What?"

"It's not a bad thing." She rushed to assure me. "It's just strange. You're very...you know what you want. You're confident and commanding. I hadn't really noticed before. I don't think you acted that way."

"Kade prefers to act like a normal teenager when he goes out into Angeles." James said. "Even around us he tries to hide it, but it is there, isn't it?"

She shook her head and cleared her throat. "Well, anyway. I have something for you." She set down her violin case and pulled out a stack of papers. She handed them to me. "Nine and a half songs. I figured I'd give you your half."

I couldn't read sheet music at all, but I could tell that those songs weren't simple. Smiling, I handed them back to her. "Will you play them for me?"

"Now?"

"Yes."

She let out a sigh and set one aside. "Fine. But that one's for later. Eadlyn said she wanted me to play for everyone."

My mother had to come and get us for breakfast, we were all so distracted. She let Emmaline play the end of her song-the eighth-and she had a wistful look on her face as Emmaline finished. She hurried us down the hall and we entered, several minutes late.

Josie looked up and glared hard at Emmaline. Dustin took a seat beside her and engaged her in a conversation, hoping to distract her, I assumed. James and I took the seats on either side of Emmaline. I quietly introduced her to everyone in my family-blood or otherwise-and I saw the other girls leaning around each other, trying to get a look at my friends and this new girl. They'd been warned about my friends. They hadn't been told that one would be a girl.

After breakfast, introductions were made in the Great Room. Emmaline performed the ninth song, which the other girls sat in awe listening to, and was then engaged in long conversations with the other girls about it. They all seemed to enjoy the story of how Emmaline and I met.

Sasha, Autumn, and Esther took an interest in Dustan and James. The five of them conversed like old friends. I stood back and watched it all with a content feeling sitting in me, one that could only come from watching as everything in the world clicked together. It was nice knowing that whichever one of the girls in the room I chose, she would get along with James, Dustan, and-most importantly-Emmaline.

Emmaline turned to look at me over her shoulder and smiled brilliantly. Something in her eyes sparkled, and I found myself thinking how perfectly she fits in here-with my family, with my friends, with me.

I was startled to find myself thinking that and immediately shook those thoughts from my head. I looked around the room, but nobody seemed to have noticed where my thoughts had been headed. I straightened my spine and adjusted my suit, hoping nobody noticed.

Esther, noticing my discomfort, moved over to me. "She's pretty." She was looking at Emmaline, but she turned back to me. "You like her, don't you?"

"We're friends."

"If not for this, you two would've become more eventually." She said. "Why didn't you rig the competition?"

"I forgot about it." I said. "It was too late when I remembered."

"Maybe that's a good thing." Esther said. "All those girls are playing nice now because they think she's been friendzoned, so she's no competition. If she were in this, they'd tear her apart. Sabotage is not out of the equation for them. They'd be more than willing to screw with another girl if it seemed as though you had a favorite."

I shuddered.

"They won't be that way around you." She promised.

"I still have a problem." I said. "Each of the girls wants one of three things, maybe more than one. I have to determine what each wants, figure out which ones have pure intentions, and determine whether or not I actually like any of them."

"That's rough." She sighed. "But that's why Fate brought Sasha, Autumn, and I to you. We're your inside eyes."

"That would be nice."

"Should we go over those three things?"

"Probably." I said. "The four of us can talk about it tomorrow over lunch, if that's okay with all of you."

She grinned. "Your Highness, did you just casually ask three of you Selected on a date?"

"I happened to," I said. "And I'll be expecting your answer after dinner."

She laughed. "Oh, Your Highness. What are we going to do with you?"