The Girl - A The Selection Fan-Fiction |✔️|

Chapter Fourteen - The Sparrow

Flashback

I sat down on a bench in the park outside my house and admired the view. The trees were swaying in the breeze and the sweet scent of ice cream fluttered in the gentle wind. I smiled at all the young kids practically tackling each other to get to the ice cream truck first. My mother and father were leaning up against a tree and beaming at each other as always.
It didn't make sense that my parents both seemed so young and fragile, like they were entirely new to the feeling of love, when they had loved each other for what seemed like an eternity. I closed my eyes and dreamt of what it would be like to be in love. I had once been a close acquaintance with the feeling of love but it was so long ago I could remember. Or maybe it was that I didn't want to feel the pain of my past love.
A bird flapped its wings swiftly and settled next to me, perched on the bench. I had always had a thing for animals but not once had a bird ever dared to come so close to me. I reached out to it and to my surprise it didn't try to escape my touch. It's feathers matched the color of my jeans which were a deep, navy blue. Ironically the bird which I'd recognized as a sparrow, had eyes the color of my shirt which was black.
The sparrow hoped onto my finger and I brought it near my face. I smiled and stroked his soft feathers once more before letting him fly free. Something about the bird was uplifting. Maybe I didn't know yet but I was almost positive I would soon. Hopefully very soon.

End of flashback
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       I walked into the garden with a smile on my face.  Even in the night the air was still warm.  I walked over and sat on the bench, my long, light blue dress flowing down my legs.  I played with the tiara on my head, trying not to disturb my radiant hair.  A bird fluttered down from a nearby tree and perched itself next to me.  It looked exactly like the one from two years ago in the park.
       I looked at me with deep reason as if to will me to remember him.  I did.  I reached out my hand and scooped up the sparrow like I had so long before.  The bird had no reluctance when it came to letting me touch it.  I smoothed its ruffled feathers and set it free to live its life outside of the cage that was the palace. 
       There was something about seeing the bird again that made me have hope.  That bird had definitely been through tougher times than what I was going through right now.  At least I hadn't lost Caspan to royal fever.  If that bird had powered through all the tough times it had in its life, I could power through the tough ones in mine.  Being a bird was much harder than being a two living in a palace. 
       In that moment I finally realized what had been so uplifting about the sparrow the first time I'd seen it.  It was as if the bird was a metaphor, a representation of my life.  It stopped to rest for awhile but never for as long as it might need to stay on its feet.  Like me, the second I sat down it felt like I was back up again, being thrown around by my parents like I had tossed away the bird. 
       It wasn't that I didn't want it's company, I was that I didn't feel like I needed it with me even though I did.  I never had a real friend, a shoulder to rely on to help me through the hard times so I never felt like I needed one.  Except I did.  Everyone needs someone to put trust in, someone to laugh with, someone to cry with, and even someone to compete with. 
       For me that someone should have been Alexia but it never felt right being her friend.  Now that person I could put trust in, laugh with, cry with, and compete with was Caspan.  Although I had only been with Caspan consciously for three days it felt like she knew me better than anyone in the world, even Alexia.  It felt like I finally had a real friend.
       I stood up to walk inside, now content with myself.  Parting with the beauty of the garden made me sad but at least I could see it from the luxury of my balcony.  Walking into the palace usually would've gone something like this;  I would pass a guard or two, wave hi to one of the girls, go upstairs and go to sleep but it went entirely different. 
       As I walked into the palace I nearly tripped over something that when I saw what it was made me stop cold.  My face grew horror stricken and panicked as I realized the depth of the image in front of me.  I stepped back slowly, shouting for guards all the while trying not to pass out.  But the scene in front of me was just to much to handle.  I took one last look at an un-moving Queen America laying on the floor and tried not to gag at the blood stain on the bodice of her dress before sinking to the ground and into darkness' grasps.