The Scarred Rebel (Book one of A Selection Fanfic)

Chapter 11

Dahlia's POV

The curtains were pulled open and light came streaming into the room. I groaned and pulled the blankets over my head. I didn't even want to know what time it is.

"Dahlia you need to get up." Ellie-Mae said softly.

"Nooooooo." I groaned back. Normally I was fine with getting up early, but I was up way to late last night. With Micah. With that thought a small smile appeared on my face.

 I dragged myself out of bed and washed myself in the bath my maids had prepared. I dried off and put on a sea foam colored dress. I sat in front of the vanity as Anne instructed and let them curl my hair. They applied a small amount of makeup and I combed my fingers through the loose curls. By the time they were done I looked slightly less exhausted. Less tired and more sleepy. Believe me I know the difference.

"You're ready to go Dahlia." Anne told me.

"Thank you guys so much. I would already be a mess without you."

"It's nothing really. We're happy to help you." Saffron replied.

"You're the kindest person we've served in a while!" Ellie-Mae chimed in.

"You guys are seriously the best!"

"Yes we know now get downstairs and tell Micah we say hello." Anne said ushering me out the door.

I was one of the first ones there other than a New Asian girl I recognized as Rita Chen. She turned to look at me as I approached.

"Rita right? I'm Dahlia!"

"I know who you are. There were so many people rooting for you!" Rita responded kindly.

"I was totally shocked! I mean I'm just an artist from Kent!"

"People love an underdog." She giggled. "Have you seen this place yet? It's absolutely gorgeous!"

"It really is! I've only seen a small part of it and I can't imagine it being anymore gorgeous!" I was glad that Rita was so kind.

"Just imagine the food!"

"Rita you're my soulmate. Well right after food."

"Food buddies!"

"Heck yeah!" I exclaimed and we high fived.

Soon enough all the girls were here and I was chatting with Rita, Faye, Mollie, and Nia.

"I'm so excited to meet the prince!" Faye whispered yelled.

"Me too! I hope he's nice!" Mollie responded also in a whisper yell.

"So do I, but if I'm the first to go at least I'll get some eye candy." Nia joked.

"Oh my goodness! Look at that statue!" Rita nudged me and pointed.

"It's gorgeous!" I whispered back.

I had learned Rita was an Artist like me except her family earned a lot more then we did. She told me they lived in a nice house and donated half of their profit to charity. The girl was an angel.

We all continued whispering and pointing at things until we arrived in the dining hall. I was sat next to Mollie with Rita across from me. Unfortunately Nia and Faye were at the other end of the table at the front of the room. Antonia led us through all the silverware and taught us how to act when the royal family entered the room. The royal family entered together with Maxon carrying both Amberley and Celeste. Amberley waves and Celeste blew us a kiss. Shalom stood as rigid as the guards until he saw me. When he did he grinned and waved. I waved back trying to smother a giggle. Micah told me last night how rare it was to get Shalom to grin. Maxon spotted me next and nodded with a smirk and America gave me a wink. That made me blush slightly. We all rose and greeted them properly.

"It's wonderful to see all you lovely young women and I hope you all slept well." Maxon started with a side glance at me. "You'll all have a few minutes to talk with Micah, but only after breakfast. My wife is insistent that breakfast should always come first."

"Thank you Queen America." I muttered to Mollie and Rita who both quietly laughed and nodded in agreement.

Food arrived quickly and we all dug in. The pancakes were one of the best things I had ever tasted, but the scones were even better.

"These scones are amazing!" Rita exclaimed softly saying what we were all thinking.

"I know right! I have good food at home but this is luxurious!" Mollie responded.

"Seriously. If I get kicked out I hope they can at least keep sending me food." I added.

"Preach sister!" Mollie chimed in then we all dug into our food again.

We made it through a good fifteen minutes without talking and just enjoying our meals until Prince Micah exclaimed quite loudly. "Oh! I nearly forgot!"

"Forgot what Micah?" Shalom asked.

Micah turned to me with a grin and looked me straight in the eyes. "Good morning Dahlia!"

"Good morning Micah!"

"Now that we've got the good mornings out of the way would you mind deleting the embarrassing photos I let you take of me last night?" He asked.

All the selected gasped clearly they had no idea of what went down last night.

"You mean the ones of you sitting on the trash bins? Not a chance!" I got out through laughter.

"How you wound me!" He jokingly responded. "I'm pretty sure you're in possession of the most embarrassing photo of me in existence!"

"How wonderful for me! How much do you think I could sell them for to the teenage girls back home?" I asked in what I tried to make sound innocent but couldn't.

Micah lost it then bursting into laughter. "Now that would be a great way to make money!"

"Exactly! Gotta keep my future in mind!" I tapped the side of my head as I said that.

Meanwhile Antonia looked appalled, Shalom was trying not to laugh, America and Maxon were looking at each other with bewildered expressions, and Celeste and Amberley were giggling and pointing at us. The other selected of course looked shocked and Micah and I just couldn't stop laughing.

It took awhile for everything to calm down but once it did I had to add one last thing. "We've officially lost it." I stated looking directly at Micah.

His smile seemed to soften. Or was that just my imagination?  "We most certainly have Dahlia."

"Let's blame the sleep deprivation."

"Agreed."

"I'm gonna blame it on the fact that you nearly ran me over!" Shalom exclaimed glaring at both of us.

"Oh calm down brother there wouldn't have been any real harm."

"Would you say that to my corpse! That's what you would be doing if I hadn't moved out of the way!" 

Shalom was clearly a bit dramatic in a joking way. The rest of the selected still seemed speechless but slowly resumed there whispering. This time a lot of fingers and glares were pointed at me. I didn't let that bother me. Their opinion wouldn't do anything to help me. This morning had already been chaotic and we hadn't even got to the one on one time with Micah.