The Selection of Princess America

(2)

  I'm finally finished with my giant stacks of papers. Standing up from my comfortable chair, I make my way over to the door. I open it, almost stumbling into the newly appointed, officer Kelson.
"I'm sorry princess, I wasn't watching where I was going." He stutters bowing discreetly. I could see his blush from a mile away. "I'm new."
"It's quite alright Kelson."
He looks like he's seen a ghost. "How did you know your highness?!" He asks bewildered. "I make it my business to know who enters my home. A pleasure it was Kelson."
He shyly steps away, and bows walking off the opposite direction from which he came.
Getting back to what I was doing, I open my fathers office door, strolling in and plopping all my papers down on his desk, scaring the wits out of him.
"America Rose Schreave!" He shouts at the top of his lungs. "This is not how a queen should act, much less a princess! See me later for a lecture!" He shouts even louder.
"Yes father." I say through gritted teeth. I take careful steps out of his office so that he doesn't get even more mad because I could have possibly been loud.
I know what his lectures mean, and boy do I hate them. I instantly teared up at the thought of his lectures. They made you feel so vulnerable and horrible that you couldn't help but feel nothing.
  I head off towards the women's room hoping to find my mother working. If she was, I would let's say, take a nap.
  The door was slightly ajar and I could hear Sylvia ranting again. A pause in her sentence signaled my time to enter.
"Mom? Mrs. Sylvia? I don't feel all that well, I think I'll go take a nap." I say feigning sickness.
"Yes, yes, alright dear," my mother says with worry in her eyes. "Will you be able to come for dinner, and the report?"
"I think I'll have my maids send it up, but I can make it to the report, thank you."
She nods silently looking back to her work. As I'm leaving I catch a glimpse of Sylvia stealing peeks at me. My mother glances at me once more before I disappear out the door.
My mother is often sick. She passed the gene along to me, so quite often I felt under the weather.
However, I am not sick. Nor will I be taking a mere nap. My maids are the only ones who knew I snuck out. This time I was planning on staying out all night. For this I would have to rest for a few hours.
The door to my room is open, so I know my maids are inside.
"Girls right to work." They jump not expecting my presence so early. "I'll go out again. I need a bit of rest and my clothes."
They frown right away. They always feared for me when I left the castle alone, but that's how it had been since I was four. I started by just walking a couple blocks from the castle, to gazing at the stars a few cities over.
Tonight I was planning to just sit in Angeles. My sitting place would be the rooftop of a noble family.
I decided to head to my fathers office now for the lecture.
I sighed in front of his doors. Raising my hand up to grasp the latch, I banged it against the door several times. A booming voice from the other side said, "come in."
I did as I was told, and slid in the room quietly. "Read that book for a bit, then I'll start."
——————
Maxon POV

  I sat chilling at the table, the remote in hand. I was watching an old show called Sponge bob when suddenly the TV screen went black.
"Maxon Singer what did I tell you about saving our power money. We only use the TV for birthdays, and the Capital Report!" My mother scolded holding the plug. "Speaking of, there is a special announcement tonight."
  Hello, my name is Maxon Singer! My family of fives and I live in Angeles, and we're really poor. Making just enough money to get by, and sometimes a bit more to enjoy small luxuries.
  That's how we lived in Illea. A cast country full of unfairness. The reigning monarchs at the current time are King Clarkson, Queen Amberly, and Princess America Schreave.
  Fives were artists, so naturally I gravitated towards photography and painting.
  My father paints, and my eldest sister is now a four after she married a man who was a four. A few months ago she became pregnant with her first child. My eldest brother, Kota is a sculptor. Years ago when he was sixteen, one of his pieces sold for lots of money, helping him move up in the castes. We thought we would flourish with his support, but Kota was selfish and greedy, keeping it all to himself. My youngest sister May was a painter and at fourteen her pieces were beautiful, then my youngest brother Gerad didn't know what to do yet. He was so into sports, but couldn't play them professionally. It made us all upset but that's how it was.
"Maxon! Dinner," my mother called. The two eldest children had already move out of the house, so it was my duty to help with dinner and make sure the little ones weren't getting into trouble.
  It was all basic tonight. My mother who was a singer, was chopping potatoes with the water boiling. I plucked the green beans from their bundles and chopped off each end, dumping them into the vat of boiling water beside me.
  My mother added the potatoes and a broth, topping it off with a smelly sauce. The lid went over the top keeping the crazy popping of the boiling bubbles inside.
"Go on, get Gerad, I'll get May."
  I opened up the backyard window and shouted to Gerad that dinner was ready. He immediately stopped kicking his soccer ball against the house, bounding towards the back door.
  May was beside me in an instant grabbing the tableware from the drawer. Dad's head popped in a minute later. His hair had sticky yellow paint in it, and he forgot to take off his apron. "Dad, apron."
"Ugh, Shalom go clean up! I have to play the piano and sing at that nobles party tonight and everyone is coming.
"Relax mom!" May shouted from the table. "We have to watch the report first!" With that we all raced towards the dining room. However, I walked uninterested towards the table.
May had grabbed the best seat, the one that sat right in front of the TV. My mother huffed in frustration. Instead she took the seat to the left of May. I placed down a glass of water to the right of her leaving Gerad and dad to fight over the last two. Once we were all seated my mother pressed the button on the remote.
A blue screen appeared that had a countdown on it. 6:32 seconds left before the report aired. The air was still and quiet, being filled with the scraping of utensils against plates.
The countdown read 1:48 seconds. I was taking a sip of my water when I noticed May. She hadn't taken a bite of her food, and I knew if she didn't now, I would take it for myself.
Before I could do anything she caught me and pushed her uneaten food towards me, only picking at the refried beans.
She gasped as the countdown got to ten seconds. When it got to five she counted.

"5"
"4"
"3"
"2"
"1"