My Selection

Leaving What I Know

"I'm gonna miss you so much." I whisper to Amph and Umben as I hug them tightly. I'm leaving today to go to the palace. I never even thought I would think those words in the same sentence.
"I'm never gonna let you go." Umben says, hugging the whole bunch of us tighter. I laugh, but a minute later he is still clinging to me.
"Wait... You were serious?" He nods his head. "Fine. I'm taking you to the palace. Prince Rhode will love you." He giggles at the thought. "Princess Umben!" I laugh, thinking of this. (heyimblu ... Sounds like a conversation we had a while back, huh?)
"No!!! I'm not going to be a princess!" He yells, hurting my ears. I immediately let him go.
"Ow. Now Prince Rhode will never love you." I joke, poking his side.
The Selection official here to escort me taps his watch, indicating that we have to go soon. I turn back to Umben.
"Love ya, Ben." He rolls his eyes. He hates that nickname. "Benny?" I try. Nope. "Ummy?" Still nothing. "Fine. Umben. You really don't have any good nicknames, don't you? While I'm at the palace, I promise I'll think of a good nickname."
"I love you, Caspie." He says, trying out a new nickname. I shake my head.
"Nope. Sounds too much like 'Cat's Pee'" I joke.
"Umm... How about Cass?" He asks and I nod my head.
"Perfect. Love ya, Umben. I'll miss you."
"Love you, too, Cass. I'm gonna miss you more."
I smile, knowing not to argue with him who loves who more. He always wins.
I turn toward Amphora.
"You. You have to promise to look after Umben. And make dad get out of that little garden." She nods her head and I lean in and whisper, "buy him a fully grown flower and plant is with the money you get sent. Then he'll finally leave the garden, satisfied with what he did."
She smiles and nods. "I promise."
I pull her into a really tight hug. "Never give up on them, Amph. They're counting on you to be there for them. They need you. But they'll be there when you need them."
"I know, I know. Now let go! I can't breathe!"
I laugh and let her go.
"I love ya, Amph."
"Love you too, Caspian."
Now I turn to my father.
"Dad, you have to get out of the garden and help. Now that both me and... Mom." I pause a minute. "Now that we are both not there, they need you more than ever. Okay?"
"Okay. I promise. I love you, Caspian."
"Love ya, too, dad."
I turn to the very impatient Selected official, who now has a scowl on his face. What? It didn't take that long.
"Take me away, Millode!" I say, reading his name tag and marching up to him. I hear my family trying to keep in their laughs. I do have a talent for getting people annoyed and being goofy.
"Let's go before you make an even bigger scene." He says, clearly exasperated.
First Hank the firefighter, now Millode. What do people have against me?
~time skip to airplane!~
Once I get on the airplane, I immediately notice the posse of disco balls. Cordelia, the lead and shiniest disco ball of them all walks up to me and sneers, "So sorry to hear about your poor mother, Caspian." Her voice is dripping with sarcasm. All I can think right now is, 'there is so much sarcasm dripping from her voice, I bet she has a leak in her brain. No wonder she hasn't noticed that her second-in-command, Annetta, just left her for the snacks on the plane.'
Pamala, her other follower, decides to say, "that was sarcastic. She really isn't sorry."
I put on the voice I only use on babies and animals and I say. "I know, sweetie. I passed the freaking first grade." And with that I walked away to the other end of the airplane where I saw the girl that was first in the Selected lineup.
"hey, you're Brighton, right?" I ask and she nods. I sit down next to the petite brunette girl.
"I heard you talking to Cordelia and her followers. 'I passed the freaking first grade'. Nice. That comeback was 10 out of 10." I laugh first at her mimicking me, and second when she says 10 out of 10.
I have a feeling that we'll be good friends.
~time skip again to when they land!~
Brighton and I talked the whole plane ride to the palace, with only minor interruptions from the disco balls.
When we land, we are quickly pushed through the crowd of people here to see us. I feel bad for them. They must've stayed out here a long time. Acting before thinking, I quickly turn around before being shoved into the palace and wave goodbye. "Bye everybody. Sorry I couldn't stay and talk." I see the crowd smile at my words before I am pushed in the palace and the door slams.
"Okay, everybody. We are way behind schedule. Brighton, go to station 2, Caspian to station 5, Pamala to station 6, Annetta to station 9, and Cordelia to station 10." I hear a high-pitched voice loudly say, somewhat nervous. I am guided to station 5 and sit down in the chair.
"What do you want to look like?" I hear a rude lady asks. It's like she doesn't even want to be here.
"Huh?" I ask, not knowing what she means.
"Sexy, innocent, royal, blonde hair, brown eyes. What is it?" She's really impatient.
'Just like Hank and Millode.' I think and giggle.
I quickly recover and say.
"I want to look like myself. Just a little bit of natural makeup. No highlights or anything. Don't even cut my hair more than half an inch." I say, looking at my reflection.
"Okay. This should be easy." She says and hurries up. My hair gets trimmed, light brown eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner, and light lipstick are applied.
"Thank you," I politely say before getting up and going over to get dressed.
The lady fits me into a pink dress covered in flowers. (Picture!)
"This looks stunning. Thank you." I say, before being rushed over to my interview.
"I see you didn't change much." The interview lady says to me.
"Yeah... I didn't want to change. What would looking different do for me, anyways? Plus, how would Prince Rhode even recognize me if I had blonde hair or green eyes or something like that?" I say and get a little chuckle from the interviewer.
"I love the dress. Tell me about it."
"Well," I answer, not really knowing what to say. "It's pink. And it has flowers on it. And that's about it, other than it is absolutely stunning." I say, slightly embarrassed.
"And that necklace?" She asks.
I touch the necklace with my mom's wedding ring on it. I would never take it off. "It was my mother's before she..." I can't seem to finish my sentence and the interviewer understands. She silently nods and says, "thank you for your time, you may go now."
I nod my head, thank her, and walk over to the area for the girls who finished.
Brighton is there and she hasn't changed much, though she did cut her long hair to just above her shoulders. She also has a little bit darker makeup than me, but she still looks natural.
"You look amazing." I say to her.
"You too." She answers back.
"But... I barely even changed."
"Exactly." She says with a smile and that's when I know we will be best friends for a long time.
I left what I knew and came into a wilderness of unknown. But at least I have a friend beside me.
Okay! Really long chapter! But I kinda wanted to get to Rhode... I have something planned. You'll see... :)