The Selection

Seating Plans

During breakfast the next day the pitiful glances turn to glares. Silently pick at my fruit I can feel their hot glares drill into my head.

"Umm... Grace?" I whisper making sure not to make a scene.

"Yes" she snaps surprising me with her angry tone.

"Why is everyone look like they want to kill me?" I continue to whisper, side glancing at everyone.

"You know why" she growl back, this time raising her voice so the girls nearest to us can hear.

"What do you mean?" I try to lower her voice but she's having none of it.

"Last night when Alice saw the prince in your room" Grace continues to raise her voice so now the whole table can hear.

"Nothing happened I promise" I hopelessly try to calm her down now seeing the royal family listening in.

"Oh yeah and apparently your legs were working pretty well all through the night", with that she abruptly pushes her chair back and storms out leaving my eyes full of tears. Seeing my impending emotional outburst Amber comes around to wheel me out. Once the doors close behind me I let the tears flow.

"Nothing even happened" I sob into Amber's shoulder as she says soothing words.

"She's just nervous about her date today and is taking it out at you" she calms me.

"Thank you".

"Anytime" she smiles down at me.

Sitting in the women's room was unbearable today as the constant sting of glares never ended. Having finally had enough I wheel myself out and towards Julia's office. Knocking a few times I push the door open when I hear a voice.

"Hello Emily. Oh, let me help you" Julia says and makes her way around the desk to push me through the doorway and towards her desk. "What's brought you here?" she asks, while going back to her pile of work.

"I was wondering wether you had anything I could help with" I hopefully ask wanting nothing more than to be distracted for the next couple of hours.

"Actually I do have a lot of work" she says gesturing towards the neat piles of papers on her desk. "You see the queens family are coming in a few days and I have yet to set the seating plan for the welcome dinner" she explains pushing a half done seating plan across the desk. Picking it up I start to scan through the names. "As you can see there will be four tables of five. If you could finish that off for me then that would be wonderful" she ends with smile passing me a pen.

"Are the royals sitting all together on one table?" I ask trying to get an idea of who to put next each other.

"No they specifically asked to be mixed with the selected so they could get to know all of you" she answers without looking up. Taking a closer look I can see that the queen and king are sat next to each other on one table, while Cayden, Avery and someone named Jake are all set on another. Alice and Grace are sat on the third table and the rest of the seats are blank. Starting to get to work I start off by putting Eva, Lilly and Elise on Grace's table. Finished with that table I go onto the one with the king and queen. Thinking for a minute I choose two of the selected I've seen talking to each other a lot and Sadie (who is extremely shy). Happy with the fit I move to the empty table and place the largest of the friendship groups there and am left with the last table. Looking through the list of names I find the only two names left; me and Amber. Perfect. Quickly scribing the names down on the empty squares I hand the now completed seating plan on the desk. As Julia skims over it my nerves start to build but soon disappear when I see her smile. "Perfect".

Later that night the girls try to convince me to go down for dinner but I can't bring myself to sit in front of everyone after what Grace said at breakfast.

"come on Emily it couldn't have been that bad" Lucy tries to argue with me.

"She insinuated that I had sex with the prince... In front of the royal family. Now everyone thinks I'm a slut" I grumble pushing my head into the pillow.

"Look, why don't you just try on the dress" Anne tries to convince me. I only groan in response.

"Ok we'll send word to the royals that you're not feeling well enough to attend" Anne says, walking out with the others. I wait for them return with my dinner then am left alone. Ignoring the food I lie on the bed staring up at the ceiling. Thinking back on all the glares and lie not only sent by Alice but by Grace, one of the people I trusted most here. Not wanting to hold in all my pent up emotions anymore I breakdown. Sobing so loud I'm not able to hear the knock on the door I continue my seemingly endless flow of tears. Catching my breath again I momentarily stop my eruption and hear A harsh knock.

"Lady Emily, may I come in" A very familiar deep voice asks through the door.
"Of course" I politely answer while trying to gather myself and while away the moisture pooling on my cheeks.
"I just heard you are not feeling well enough to come to dinner" the king explains as he enters the room.
"Yes my leg is hurting" I answer his unasked question. I shift on the bed to be fully turned towards the King.
"I heard what Grace said at breakfast" he nonchalantly claims, although I already knew this. 
"I promise nothing happened we were-" I ramble starting to panic
"I know, but it is nice hearing you say it" the king smiles down at me, sending a rush of relief to corse through me."I have come to offer you a seat at the royal table tonight if you feel well enough"he kindly suggests, making me smile for the first time today.
"Of course your majesty" I smile back at him, taking his offer despite the glares it will earn me. I've already spent too much time caring about other's opinions.
"Well we'll be waiting for you down stairs".

Sitting at the royal table is a completely different way to experience dinner; no gossiping, no glares and no jealous girls. In short it's peaceful. Sitting next to Avery (due to her constant begging) and with the queen to my other side I smile to myself. This is the closest feeling to family I've had since I left from home. 

"See you mustn't hide from those who billittle you, you must prove them to be wrong" the queen whispers to me, while giving me a knowing case. Smiling back at her my attention is redirected as Avery asks me yet another question.

"Do you have any sisters?" she asks while eating another mouthful of her strawberry cheesecake. 

"Yes and she's about the same age as you" I giggle at the mess of whip cream all over her face. Picking up my napkin I start to whip away the sweet cream. 

"I wish you were my sister" she wines looking up to me with her puppy dog eyes. 

"I would like that" I smile at her now clean face. I can tell Cayden has been listening intently to our conversation by I try my hardest to ignore his presence.

"You would be the best queen" Avery says as she goes back to her desert.