Royal 2 (Book two in my Selection series)

Chapter 6

On the plane, three girls sat in seats facing each other. I made my way to a seat trying not to be noticed, but one girl looks at me and smiles.

"Come sit with us." She says to me. I smile gratefully and move over to them. They all look up from the magazine they admired and smiled at me. "I'm Violet, what's your name?" The same girl asks.

"I'm Autumn. Autumn Meadows." I return the smile to her.

"I'm Samantha and this is Brianna." The girl across from me says. "So are you excited to meet the prince?" She asks.

"Yes, very." I say. A women with a cart comes over to us and offers us drinks. I take water, since I'd never heard of most of the other drinks they offered but the other girls took alcoholic beverages. They drank them with ease, but I'd never even tried them before.

"Did you all have hard farewells?" Asks the girl named Brianna.

"My little sister cried at my feet. My mother had to pull her off of me. It was awful." Samantha says, looking away. I was confused. Everyone had been happy for me, though we were all sad. Nobody tried to keep me from going.

"My father is worried. He doesn't want me getting my heart broken." Violet says. "It's just the two of us and I'm his baby girl so it's very hard on him."

One upon a time I was my fathers baby girl. I was wrapped around his finger and what I thought was the center of his world. I was fourteen when he left and I never saw him again. A part of me wants to see him again, but another part of me never wants to see him again.

"What about you Autumn? What's your family like?" Samantha asks me.

"It's only my mother and brother. He's three." I say simply and plainly. They all nod but continue on with their conversation over wine and liquor.

It takes probably six hours until I watch the plane land at another airport.

"Isn't it so cool how many people love to just see us because we are part of this?" Brianna asks.

"Yeah." I nod and push my cheek to the window. The sky was beautiful and clear here. A few guards meet us outside the plane and escort us to the same sleek cars that took us to the last airport. We each get into a separate car and drive to the palace.

The drive was short, less than ten minutes, and we were pulling around the large circular driveway of the palace. The palace towered nearly five stories above us and was as beautiful as I'd seen on TV.

"Woah." I mutter and step out of the car and look at the kingdom. I look behind me and the rest of the cars were just pulling in. The windows were beautiful and were made of stained glass. Guards escort me into the building and through the hallway into a large room. About three girls race around me and pull me into a seat.

"Hello honey, so what should we do with your hair? You have dead ends." The woman clicks her tongue disapprovingly.

"You could cut it. I won't mind." I tell the girl honestly.

"Okay wonderful. We'll cut it about four inches below your shoulders." The women says and pulls out scissors and a comb. I hear the snipping of my hair and hold my breath. As one girl brushes my hair and starts to style it. She starts to curl the edges and braids back two small strips and pins them to the back of my head.

Another girl starts covering my face in a thick layer of foundation and rose colored eyeshadow and blush. They helped me into a huge ball gown like dress that was a light pink. I didn't like the color.

I stepped into the dress anyway and let them lace my corset back. The top was sleeveless and had a silky bottom. I felt like a cliche princess doll and I hated it.

I follow the women to the other side of the room where they position me for photographs.

I see flashes of the camera and people move to bend my limbs and try and make me look more attractive.

It was a long day.

I got to go to my room after hours of prepping and photo shoots. I was led to my room by the same women who helped me dress and do my makeup.

"Your maids will be waiting for you inside." They said and left. I step inside my room and look around. The bed was bigger than my entire room in the trailer I lived in and the wardrobe was taller than my old ceiling. It was beautiful.

"Hello!" One voice piped up in the room. I looked towards it and saw three women, all varying in size standing in my room.

"You must be my maids?" I ask.

"Yes dear." One says happily. "We are here to make you look your best whenever you are in the presence of any royals."

"Oh. Okay." I say smiling awkwardly.

"Well you have lunch in a few hours with the prince so we better get working on you. We saw the pictures they took of you downstairs and we don't like them. With your complexion they never should've put you in pink, that's just disastrous. We were thinking warmer colors like gold for tonight?" The last one asks with a mischievous smile.

"Whatever you think looks best." I say smiling, more confidently this time. I try to hide my excitement at the color gold though.