Royal (A Selection Fan Fiction) (Book One in my Selection Series)

Chapter 17

"Can you come with me somewhere?" Addy asks me as she walks through the halls with me.

"Sure." You can't actually turn down the princess I don't think. "Now?"

"No. How about around two?" She asks. We were going to lunch now so I'd have a few hours to change if I needed to.

"That's perfect." I nod. "What will we be doing?"

"I want to figure out what the drawings on the ceilings mean." Addy confesses. "I have my own library and we only need the pictures so we can both do that and then I can read what they are."

It's embarrassing when a seven year old can read better than you.

"Okay I'll be... Where do you want me to meet you?" I ask.

"I'll come to your room." She says after a minute. "Oh and I meant to ask how your date with Alex went."

"It was alright though most of the time I thought I was going home." I say. "Could've ended better too."

"Have you guys kissed yet?" Everything but. I shake my head.

"Not yet."

"Darn it. Tell me when you do. And tell me about everything else he does with the other girls. I need to be on top of this competition." Addy demands with much higher authority than I could ever muster.

"Yes ma'am." I laugh and curtsy. We enter the Great Room together and I see Addy's posture straighten. She holds her head high with her tiny tiara testing in front of her bun.

"Remember two o' clock." She whispers and I laugh with a nod.

Nobody says anything before we eat so we all just dig in. I eat just a little and my main diet recently has been fruit and bread products.

"Have you got to see your dress yet for the party?" Rae asks. Most of the time we agree not to talk much because we are both busy eating. Her more so than I.

"No not yet. I'm sure my maids won't let me see till the very day. What about you?" I ask eating another strawberry.

"Nope. I'm supposed to see it tomorrow morning though. I'll come get you so we can both drool over it." She paused for a minute. "Hopefully."

I laugh and continue to eat. After lunch as I'm walking to my room Alex runs to catch up with me.

"I was wondering if you would be able to take a walk in the gardens with me around  two?" He says hopefully.

"I'm afraid I have a date with your sister." I laugh while smiling.

"What?"

"Your sister has called for my presence at two." I repeat.

"For what?"

"It's a secret." I decide. "She can tell you if she wants."

"Fine. What about you just find me when you are done?" He says and runs a hand through is hair.

"Okay." I nod and continue to my room.

•••

"Is this what we were looking at?" Addy asks as she flips through an old book with endless pages.

"No I don't think so." I say looking at the picture. "What does that say?" I ask pointing to a word.

"Viking." She started. "Vikings were the first ever humans to inhabit the earth..." She continued on and on and on.

"I didn't see anything about headdresses did you?" I ask.

"No." Addy says knitting her eyebrows together.

"I'll go look through some of these books." I say and go to a different shelf in her library. You wouldn't believe how many libraries are in this one palace.

"Wait Addy is this it?" I say calling her over. She runs to my side and looks in the book in my arms.

"That's it!" She says taking the book from me and sitting on the closest couch. "It says it's an Ind-I-an. Wait— no the pronunciation key says ˈindēən. Okay so it's an Indian."

"That says headdress right?" I ask and point to a word in the middle of the second paragraph.

"Yep." Addy says. "But is says something about a Columbus guy. He um..." She hesitates reading ahead to herself. "It says he thought he was in India and called them Indians but he was in America. What we used to be." Addy says using her own words and adding her own sentence at the end.

"That was forever ago." I say scrunching up my face trying to focus. "Where did you get these books?"

"This is an old library. Quite possibly the oldest room here. But not as old as the books here." She says flipping through the pages again. "Let's take this to your room." She says.

We had started in my room and we were still working on it now/ an hour later.

"Okay." I agree and carry the book to my room. I nearly run into someone but keep my head down.

"Alex!" Addy huffs. "Your hovering." I look up to see that-in fact- Alex was the one I'd run into.

"I'm not hovering! I'm just walking!" He claims. "But now that I'm here I have to ask what your reading." His eyes flutter almost accusingly to me but with a hint of humor.

"Don't show him, Charlie!" Addy screams running over to me. I hold the book to my chest with my fingers between the pages.

"Why not?" He asks.

"Run!" Addy screams dragging my hand through the hall. He doesn't try to run after us either. "Get in!"

It was like we were playing some sort of game which was kind of what it was. Just a game of sorts.

But it wasn't always.

Never will it always be just a game.