A Loophole (Percabeth Selection)

Epilouge

One Year Later

The warm, summer Angeles light filtered through the windows, warming my sleepy face. I slowly opened my eyes and looked out the window. What a beautiful day to get married.

The sky was as blue as I had ever seen it, white fluffy clouds dotted here and there. A bird flew past the window, singing its spectator melody. The warm breeze pushed the curtains into the bedroom and the smell of the trees and flowers from the garden wafted into the room.

I yawned and turned around to see Percy. I was surprised to find that where his body normally was, there was nothing. He had made his side of the bed and gone, leaving a note on the pillow with a single blue flower.

'I can't wait to marry you,

- Your Seaweed Brain'

I smiled at his messy handwriting scribbled across the card and picked up the flower, pressing it to my nose and breathing in the intoxicating fragrance.

It had been one year since Percy proposed, and today was the day that we would finally tie the knot.

Preparing and planning a royal wedding was nearly impossible. I had spent most of the last year planning everything from flowers to guests, to serviets and forks. It was a mammoth of a task, but I was lucky that I had the help of my bridesmaids and palace staff. And of course Sally.

In the past year I've also been planning what I'm going to do with the caste system. It took a few months after the proposal for the council to take me seriously and after that it still took forever to make them listen and help me plan. After I become queen later today, I'll put my education plan into place and in the next five years there will be cheap schooling for everyone in every province, no matter what caste they belong in.

I got out of bed and placed the flower on the desk along with the note. I looked out the window and waited patiently for my maids to arrive.

Out of all three of my original maids from the Selection, one remained.

Justine had stayed for six months after the proposal. She was one of my rocks. When it got too much she would sit me down and talk to me, listen to me and then tell me how she saw it. She rarely called me miss anymore as she had become a close friend. Six months ago she had saved enough money. She bought a house for herself in the city and moved out, away from me. She welcomed her little sister Sydney to live with her and their mother broke it off with Justine's abusive step-father. I met Sydney and she is the most sweetest girl in the whole world. A month ago Justine came back and asked if she could work here again as she was missing the work and me terribly. She's the only one left.

Hazel, after a week of staying at the palace after Percy's birthday last year, had gone back to New Asia with Frank. They're still dating and going strong. I was sure that they would already be married if not for their young age. I had no doubts that in the future we would be hearing wedding bells and flying to New Asia for Hazel and Franks wedding.

Alicia had the worst and best year that anyone could have asked for. She left three months after Justine had first left. She had enough money to move back home and feed her parents and four other siblings. She found a boy pretty quickly and they fell madly in love. Tyler was hilarious and humble, perfect for Alicia. A month after she left, ten months after the proposal, her little brother fell ill. They had enough money to take him to the doctors, and he was diagnosed with stage four leukaemia. He was rushed into therapy and they gave him everything they could. But it was no use. The boy of eight years was dying, so they decided to travel the country and show him as much as the world as they could. I personally helped pay for some of the expenses as a way to repay Alicia for everything she had done for me. Three days ago I got the terrible news that little Henry had passed away peacefully surrounded by his four older siblings and parents.