The Spare: Prince Osten's Selection

Chapter 6

*I have decided to get back to this story after a fairly long hiatus. I am getting toward the end of my other story I am currently working on, Things I Almost Remember, which is about Kerttu Koskinen. Please check it out if you haven't! But, I felt like I wanted to pick this back up after having some writer's block over it. I have a better grasp of where it is going to go after. So let's get back to Zara!* :) 

It didn't matter. I wasn't even trying to win Prince Osten or marry him or whatever we were supposed to do in this stupid competition. I wanted to go to university, and this was the best opportunity I had to do that. That was why I was doing this. I was not actually interested in even dating someone as shallow as Prince Osten.

"Zara, it's time honey! We need to get going!" my mother's voice called, distracting me from my thoughts. 

I had been giving myself this same talk several times a day since I had met Prince Osten in the alley, when I hadn't even known who he was, when he acted like he maybe was even flirting with me. I had to keep telling myself this was a game to him, and that was how I was going to treat it. He probably decided to drop in on all the contestants to get a lay of the land. He probably wasn't even actually reading 1984. 

I went downstairs with my duffle bag. We were not allowed to bring much so I had brought my beloved red hoodie, a pair of jeans, a pair of sweatpants, my sneakers, a few tshirts, my three favorite books, stationery to write to my family, and my beloved stuffed hippo that no one was ever going to see. Not even my sisters knew I still had Harry the Hippo, but I needed a true friend at the palace. 

I went to meet my family outside our store where a stretch limo was waiting. Guards were there holding off the crowd of fans and reporters around our house. I gulped and smoothed out my dress. I was wearing a spring green sundress that I had been provided with, the first of my Selection dresses. Judith had told me that it would match my eyes and look good on camera. The one piece of myself I had on was my locket my parents had given me for my birthday. I had placed a photo of our family on the inside so that I could hold them close to me as I went on this journey.

This is all for them, I told myself. You are building a better future for them.

As soon as I stepped into the light I was pulled forward by a woman in a slick black dress to shake hands with our town mayor and his wife. The woman, whose name was Jessica, was my "handler." She apparently worked under Judith and was responsible in getting me to the palace without getting eaten by "savage media trolls." Judith's words, not mine.

As I was walking to shake hands with the mayor's wife, I stumbled a bit in my new nude pumps and almost fell into the photographer next to her. Jessica, like a ninja, swept in and pulled me upright.

"A lady always has good posture," she said through such a gritted smile that I wondered why she had never considered a career as a ventriloquist.

After I waved, smiled, and posed for a few shots, I had to do the hardest part, say goodbye to my family.

"Zawa, please don't leave," Briony said, her big brown eyes filling with tears.

"Don't worry Bri, I will be home as soon as I can," I said as I enveloped my youngest sister in a hug.

"You're going to be a princess!" Gemma shrieked jumping on top of me and joining the hug. Normally, I would've rolled my eyes, but today, I appreciated my sister's happy and infectious spirit. I also thought back to what she had said, that I would be a good princess because I was a hard worker and cared about other people, and it made me remember there was more to that statement than her just wanting me to marry royalty.

"Isla, you better get in here," I said, gesturing to my third sister. "It wouldn't be a Collins girls hug without you.

Isla smiled and came over to join us.