((Okay so I had to write this completely on mobile so please don’t judge too hard on my formatting and how everything I want be italicized isn’t. Anyways, enjoy))
Everything was fine before the ball. If I hadn’t been stupid, if I hadn’t messed up, I wouldn’t be upset. I wouldn’t be worried about going home tomorrow, and I wouldn’t be worried about leaving my friends here. But, I was dumb.
Perhaps, I should back it up.
—-
I woke up to my maids gently shaking me. They were so sweet. Each of them had already been prepping for my bath, getting hair styling tools ready. They are really the best.
Today is the day of the ball, and boy am I excited.
My maids had me hop into the bath and put me in a simple dress so I could go down to breakfast. I sat with Emma, of course, she is my best friend here, and the girls in the hall over from ours. We all introduced ourselves, and ate to our heart’s content before we hurried back to our rooms to get ready for the ball.
When I walked into my room, my maids were holding up my dress excitedly. I squealed in excitement.
They held this beautiful gown. It was black on the bottom with a tool material. The tool was scattered with rhinestones that made it look like the night sky. The top was a shining, gold intricate design that connected to a sheer fabric. I was obsessed.
“It’s so beautiful! Thank you so much!” I exclaimed while feeling the fabric.
“You’re welcome. Delia made the design and me and Bailee made it,” Ginny explained.
“It’s seriously incredible. I can’t believe you guys made this! You are all so talented!”
I was truly shocked. The fact that they were able to made such an incredible dress was amazing to me.
“We’ll put it on after hair and makeup,” Bailee said.
Then they got to work. They pulled my hair into a formal up-do, which turned out to be beautiful. Next they did my make up. I let them take it a little more extravagant since it was the ball, after all.
It sounds crazy, but after the hair, makeup, nails, shoes, and finally putting my dress on, it had been three hours. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that was partly because my maids and I were jamming to music the whole time.
When we finished dancing around my room and I thanked my maids about twelve times I headed out of my room. I knocked on Emma’s door, but one of her maids answered and told me she had already gone down stairs.
I went down to the women’s room to find her with the girls we had sat with at breakfast. We all complimented each other on everyone’s outfits and chatted about our plans for the ball.
“Hey, Isabella,” I said some ways into the conversation. “Didn’t Dom say he enjoyed your conversation?”
“He said something like that, yes! But we kind of had a difficult talk,” Isabella replied.
Calista furrowed her eyebrows and said, “About your mother? I’ve heard how she is.”
“Oh gosh, you heard about her as well,” Isabella said.
My heart dropped as soon as she said it. Mothers were a sore topic for me ever since I lost my mom. I knew how hard it was and I was worried that Isabella was going through the same thing. I didn’t want that for her. I didn’t want that for anyone.
“Oh no, what’s the matter with your mother?” I asked as my face started to uncontrollably lose color.
Isabella looked at me suspiciously and said, “She doesn’t like the royals and organizes demonstrations against them and all that. I hope I convinced Dom that I don’t share her opinion!”
I sighed a breath of relief, thankful that Isabella didn’t have to lose her mother, “Oh, I see.”
However, it seemed as if everyone was now looking at me concerned, which I didn’t mean to happened. I just… hate having to see people go through losing a mother.
“Madelyn, are you alright? Would you like something to drink?” Isabella asked worriedly.
Although I appreciated the offer, I shook my head and insisted,“Oh, no, no. I’m fine! I was just worried for you, that’s all”
“Don’t worry, I am fine!”
Isabella smiled reassuringly.
“I heard she reacted badly to you being selected, Izzy. I’m surprised it wasn’t on the news.” Calista said, and then looked back and forth between me and Isabella.
“Mads, you don’t seem fine, what’s- oh your mother…”
I frowned. I didn’t want to make a big deal about it and I was kinda of shocked she knew. She must’ve really done her research.
“Yeah…” I trailed off trying to change the conversation.
Debbie looked worried. “What is it, Mads?” she asked
“I’m so sorry Mads. Debs, her mom is no longer around,” Cal said.
“Yeah, she passed away when I was 9”
I nodded and explained.
Suddenly, they were all hugging me, which I accepted but I ended it quickly. I didn’t want to this night to be just about me. But, it felt good to have people care about how I feel and really be there for me. It was nice and I appreciated my growing friendship with these girls.
Awhile later, after taking a group photo, we all went our separate ways and entered the ballroom. I was in awe. The decorations were beautifully strung up along the walls and ceilings. I had never seen anything like it. The floor was glittered and tons of guards and friends of the royal family were already enjoying the atmosphere.
The royals themselves had already made their entrance. I scanned the area and very quickly found Prince Dominic. He wasn’t dancing with anybody but he was in a group of people talking. I decided it was probably easiest to find him later.
The first royal I talked to was actually Princess Alina. I really wanted to introduce myself to her. She’d been the Illean favorite my whole life. I had looked up to her my whole life.
She was over by herself to the side of the room.
“Hi Princess Alina!” I said as I approached her.
I was shocked that she knew my name. But I guess if 35 girls were intruding in my home I’d want to know who is who.
“How are you? I wanted to finally introduce myself,” I spoke with a smile.
We went on to talk about how we felt about the ball it was a very simple conversation that was mostly small talk. She was really nice and I’m excited to become better friends with her in the future.
After that I mostly hung out with Emma and the girls from our squad and our breakfast group. We danced to a couple of fast paced songs and talk about who we had talked to so far.
Emma suddenly decided to take her chance to talk to Prince Dominic, so she left and I went to get some punch.
A guard with blonde hair came up to me and politely asked me to dance which I courteously agreed to.
He was very nice, but it was mostly small talk. I think his name was Kyle. Afterwards I danced with a few more guards, all of them very handsome and very nice. I was having a wonderful time to say the least.
After awhile I met back up with Emma.
“How was your dance with Dom?”
“It was a little awkward but it could’ve been worse,” She raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you thinking about asking him?”
“Yes….” I spoke cautiously. “And no. I can’t do it.”
“Please, Maddie. You completely can. It will be fun!”
“Noooo. It’ll be so awkward!” I remembered the last time I spoke to him. Oh gosh. That was so embarrassing.
“Only if you make it awkward. Just act natural, and you’ll be fine. Pretend he’s just another guy at a dance back home,” She said calmly.
“But Emma….last time I talked to him I was weird. What if we have nothing to talk about?” I asked.
“Well this time just refrain from talking about being able to sleep with your eyes open,” She laughed. “And just talk to him about anything. Likes, dislikes, you are getting to know him after all,”
Okay, okay. I can do that.
“Okay…give me a go to question,” I said.
I didn’t want to risk freezing up.
“If all else fails… ask him ‘If you could travel anywhere in the world, right now, where would you go?’”
I began to walk towards him, but I got scared and turn around and came back to Emma. “Oh no I can’t.”
Emma just laughed and turned me towards him and gave me a little push.
“Madelyn Knight, you can. Look, he just finished dancing with someone now’s your chance!”
Now’s your chance Maddie. Be bold, make Karina proud. I took a deep breath.
I nervously walked up to him, but when I got up to him I shook off my fear. I wanted to appear confident, even though there were butterflies flying around in my stomach.
“Hey! I know you’ve probably been asked this a million times tonight, but can you save the next dance for me?” I chirped.
“Of course.” He replied smoothly.
I smiled at him and said, “Great! So, how’s the ball going for you so far?”
“Pretty well. Plenty of beauty to please the eye.”
“Oh really?” I smiled. “That’s definitely good I guess!”
“It is very good,” He said with a smirk.
I was already getting stuck. What to say what to say.
“So, you getting dizzy from all the dancing with everyone yet?” I said followed by a laugh.
He wasn’t very talkative tonight, I could already tell. Which definitely isn’t good because I’m horrible at keeping a conversation going.
We talked about the decorations and how they were gorgeously designed by the queen. But then the conversation was getting boring and awkward, so I tried flirt a little bit.
“Though you being in it makes it even more lovely,” I smiled at him and blushed a little at my attempt to flirt.
“You handled that attempt at flirting pretty well, are you so used to women swooning over you that you have no humility?” I said teasingly with a wink.
“I am very used to women swooning, yes.”
The response itself was fine, but he just wasn’t getting into the conversation. It was a fine conversation, but a little awkward.
I raised an eyebrow at him and said, “Do you just..not feel like talking much? I thought you might be more talkative with the atmosphere of the Ball and everything.”
He shrugged. “What do you want to know about?”
I shrugged in reply. “I don’t know, anything. I want to get to know you better.”
We kind of went into a quickfire setting, with me asking questions and him answering.
“If you weren’t in the royal family…what would you be doing?” I asked.
“Either pro motorcycle rider or music producer.” He responded.
We started talking about music for a little before it got weird once again because we didn’t enjoy the same music. That was fine with me, I love discovering new music, but for him…He seemed a little on edge about it.
He learned that I’m the youngest in my family and that I two brothers that like the type of music he likes.
That’s when things got bad.
And I mean, bad.
“So what else?” Dom asked.
I thought for a second and my mind blanked. I didn’t know what to say, so i remembered Emma’s go to question and said that.
“If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?”
It really was an interesting question. The world is such a big place, and him being the prince means he’s done some traveling. Would he pick somewhere he’s been or somewhere he’s always wanted to go?
“My bedroom. Preferably with one of the Selected as company,” He said cheekily.
I knew he was joking in a way. But, I couldn’t help but to be a little disappointed.
Before I go on, you have to understand where I’m coming from. My entire life I’ve been thinking about the selection. It was this crazy opportunity far far away in my future. The possibility of me meeting the prince was a big deal, let alone, trying to get to know him. I had read the magazines, seen interviews, watched shows, heard rumors, of the cheeky prince at the castle. It had to be just this wall that he puts up for the public, right? Being like that all the time is just exhausting. I thought I was lucky. Lucky, because I have the chance to get to know him for who he really is.
“Really? I was kinda hoping you were a bit more real than you are in interviews,” I probably looked a little more disappointed than I should have.
And oh gosh. Why did I say that?!
“Excuse you?” He spoke looking offended.
“Sorry that came off a little ruder than I intended.” I tried to apologize, but I couldn’t help, but be curious. Was that all there really is to him? “But… I’m only being honest… is that what you really truly want?”
He shrugged, still annoyed. “I wouldn’t be opposed.”
“I just thought it was all an… an act I guess.” I stuttered out.
“You thought wrong.” He stated firmly.
“Well I’m sorry then. But, did I really think wrong? Be honest. If it helps, we could even play a game.”
I should’ve stopped pressing him. I’m so stupid. It only got worse and more awkward from here.
“What kind of game? A game where you mock my lifestyle some more?”
I cringed a little at his tone. He was really angry.
“No, a truth game. I’ll tell you something about me and then you can tell me something about you.”
I wanted to just clear the air. I wanted to try to get him to open up a little bit.
“I don’t know that I want to if you’re just going to groan about everything I say about myself.”
“Just trust me.” I said confidently.
“I’m not sure I do trust you.” He responded.
“Then let me earn it.” I said, not giving up.
“Fine. What’s your game?” He said giving in.
“Okay I’ll say something that’s true about me and then you’ll go, deal?” I asked.
“I guess.” Still looking annoyed and upset.
Alright, if I wanted him to open up, I had to open up first. Besides, what I am about to say I really do need advice on. It had been eating at me since I had been selected.
“Okay,” I began. “So, part of me is afraid I won’t be able to find something I love as a three. I feel my life could be ruined and made better at the same time just by coming here.”
I couldn’t believe I had just said that to him so blatantly. I took a deep breath and then said “Now your turn.”
He looked at me blankly and said, “I have a motorcycle that I like to ride.”
I gave him a flat look, “Dom.”
“What? It’s a true thing about me. That’s the rule of your "game” isn’t it?” He was sort of mocking me. I could see that he thought this game was pointless.
I raised my eyebrows and then responded with, “Fine. Fair enough. Here’s another truth about me: I have a camera that I like to take pictures with.”
Two could play at that game.
“I have a twin sister.” He said.
“I wish I had a twin sister.”
“I own a surfboard that I sometimes use to surf with my cousin.”
“I write a lot of poetry.”
Hold the phone.
Back it up, what did he just say?
“Pause game. Tell me why.” I said shocked.
“I don’t know, I just don’t. It’s pretty boring.” He responded.
I sighed. I didn’t know what do. This wasn’t working and he wasn’t budging anytime soon. I knew I had royally messed up. Big time.
“We’re not going to get anywhere if you won’t let us. It’s a simple conversation, not an interrogation,” I spoke softly.
“We don’t have to get anywhere if I don’t want to. And this conversation kind of seems to be going nowhere, so… maybe I should just go.” He responded harshly.
I just looked down. There wasn’t anything I could do.
“I can’t stop you. If that’s what you really want, who am I to oppose?”
“Okay, bye.” And with that, he turned around and walked away.
I was upset. Upset at myself, upset at Dominic, upset at siblings for putting so much hope in my heart for this stupid boy. I was left in the middle of the ballroom. Everyone around me was so happy and I felt like I was breaking inside.
Emma. I needed to find Emma.
Tears were swimming in my eyes but I was refusing to let them spillover, however, it was coming increasingly harder. Emma was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly, I saw Alec. I had seen Alec a couple of times throughout the night. I was waiting to see if he was going to ask Emma to dance, but he never did.
I wasn’t worried about that at the moment. I was embarrassed that someone was going to see me upset, almost about to cry, I hated crying in public.
He walks over smiling, but as soon as he sees my expression it turns into a worried look.
“Lady Madelyn, are you alright?” He asked looking genuinely concerned. In fact, I was shocked with how concerned he looked.
Just then my eyes decided to betray me and my tears spilled over and fell onto my cheeks. I feverishly wiped them away, trying to be discrete, but to no avail.
“Oh, Alec! Yes yes, I’m fine. I’m just…upset,” I responded.
He furrowed his eyebrows, continuing his look of concern.
“You don’t seem fine. What happened?”
I looked at his expression. Most people just shake it off as soon as I say I’m fine. But, Alec wasn’t having it, and I could tell.
I sighed, giving up. “It’s the prince.”
He crossed his arms suddenly looking angry. I cringed a little bit, I didn’t want anyone to be angry with me after what just happened.
“Did he hurt you?” He asked.
I was shocked once again by his concern. It was in that moment that I realized I could trust Alec. Like really trust him, and I wanted to be friends with him.
“No, no. But we kind of argued. He’s not exactly as charming as I originally thought.”
He calmed down after that and gave a sigh of relief.
I smiled a little bit at his over protectiveness for me, even though we had only spoken a couple times before.
“It’s disappointing. I think I was just over - expecting. If that makes any sense.” It felt good to talk about it, even just a little bit.
He nodded and said, “I understand. From what I’ve observed, this will definitely be an…interesting Selection. I’m sorry he wasn’t what you thought he was.” He sounded genuine, which I appreciated.
I already felt better, which was nice. I wanted to change the subject though, I was done being upset for now. I was still emotionally exhausted, but for now I wanted to enjoy the night.
“Thanks, but it’s not your fault. Speaking of interesting…” I smirked at him knowingly. “Anyone you got your eye on?”
It was pretty easy to tell that there was a connection between him and Emma. And I loved it.
He looked sharply over at me and tried to hide his nerves. “No… Why?”
I smiled, of course he could say all he wanted, but I knew he liked her.
“Oh, no reason. just if there was someone….you should probably consider talking and or dancing with her instead of watching her from across the room the whole night,” I spoke slyly.
I looked over across the room where I finally spotted emma standing near the punch table. He followed my gazed and raised an eyebrow.
“Who says I even want to talk and dance with whoever you’re referring to?”
I looked at him teasingly so he knew I was joking, “Well, as your designated favorite person…and the person I’m referring to’s favorite person… I can tell pretty well that there’s something there.”
I kinda had a habit of forcing people to say that I was their favorite person. I did it with Emma too. It just meant that I liked them and wanted to be friends with them.
He laughed at what I said, “Whatever that something is, it’s definitely not allowed.”
I laughed back and said, “oh come on, you aren’t going to let a silly rule like treason stop you, are you?”
“Treason, silly. I don’t think those two words go well together.” He smiled. But, finally he sighed and said, “At least come with me.”
I squealed in delight. I smiled and put my hands together. “Yay! Okay yes, let’s go.”
I lead the way there, practically pulling Alec behind me. I approached Emma and gave her a smirk.
“Emma! Look who I found!”
She looked over confused and startled.
“Alec was just about to ask you to dance, weren’t you Alec?” I looked at him and he looked at me and then at emma and stuttered out an “Uhhh-uh”
“Okay gotta go now, bye! Have fun you two!” I gave them both a knowing smile and then retreated quickly.
They’ll thank me someday.
—
I was alone for only about five minutes while they were dancing. I sneaked looks over to the various royal family members. I saw Princess Callie dancing in the middle, Evan was off to the side, ignoring everyone. I even saw the King and Queen sharing a dance on the ballroom floor. I looked around to see if I could see Prince Percy, but he was nowhere to be found. But, I couldn’t bring myself to introduce myself to any of them. I was too scared and embarrassed after talking to Prince Dominic. I knew I screwed up. There was no reason for meeting them, if I could be going home soon.
Emma made her way back over to me after her dance with Alec. We talked about her dance, and my conversation with Dominic. Afterwards we just decided to stick together and have a good time.
As the ball began to die down, me and Emma got bored. We decided to just hangout since we weren’t tired yet.
We started walking out of the ballroom when I stopped. “Wait! We should invite Alec!”
Emma looked at me with a flat look and said, “Haven’t we tortured him enough?”
Not only was this a great chance for Alec and Emma to get to know each other, I thought it might just be fun in general. Me and Alec were friends now, and it’d might be fun to hang out with both of them.
“Oh come on Ems, he’s fun! Besides… didn’t you have a good time dancing with him?” I smirked at her.
She sighed with a small smile and said, “Sure, but not the way you’re thinking of. And if I brought a boy back to my room, my maids would probably have an aneurysm,”
She eventually gave in to inviting him, but we decided to go to the gardens to avoid complications with her maids. We went and found Alec in the ginormous ballroom, and he instantly agreed when we asked him.
—————————
“I’m amazed at how easy it was to get out here.” I said when we got outside.
“me too, maddie,” Emma said.
Alec nodded and said, “Probably cause most of the selected are dancing with the guards right now.”
We all agreed that was probably it and found a place to sit in the grass.
Alec tucked his hands in his pockets. “So what did you ladies have in mind?”
“I don’t know man, this was Emma’s idea.” I responded to him.
Emma shrugged. “We both brought our cameras, so we could also take pictures. Although it was Maddie’s idea to invite you.”
Alec placed a hand over his heart
mockingly. “I’m wounded, Emma. Only Maddie wants me here?”
“Just figured I would hang out with my fans since I’m both of your guys’ favorite person,” I piped up jokingly.
Both Emma and Alec laughed.
“I guess you’re okay, Maddie.” Emma smiled.
After that I suggested that we play a game. Naturally, the game was truth or dare.
“Okay…uhhh…Emma truth or dare?” I began.
“I’ll start off with a truth.”
“Hmmm….who was your favorite person that you danced with tonight?”
Obviously trying to back her into a corner, because I’m her best friend of course.
She narrowed her eyes slightly and then smiled at me mischievously.
“Ughhh I meant slow dance. But fine fine. I know I’m awesome.” I responded sarcastically.
Emma then asked Alec who chose dare. He had to run a lap around the part of the gardens we were in with his shoes on the wrong feet. It was very entertaining.
“That was remarkably uncomfortable,” He said when he came back.
Alec asked me next, and I chose truth remembering what happened the last time I chose dare and ended up saying something really weird to Prince Percy.
“Who was your best kiss?”
Emma snickered at him.
“What?” He asked her.
“Odd question is all,” She responded to him. Those two.
Meanwhile, my face growing redder and redder as time went on.
“Um..well,” I started. “I haven’t exactly had my first kiss.”
It was really embarrassing for me, but they didn’t make a big deal which was cool.
“I mean I’ve had a couples boyfriends, but like they never got serious enough I guess.” I added and then rolled my eyes at them jokingly. “Okay anyways Alec back to you truth or dare?”
“I’ll do truth this time.”
“Okay…who was your favorite person that you slow danced with tonight?” I smirked at him knowingly.
Emma gave me a flat look while Alec smiled. “I would have to go with Emmalyn.”
Emma’s reaction was funny, she looked startled and then started blushing. Alec smiled at her. Awwwww they are cute.
“Ha! Knew it!” I said under my breath.
Alec just shook his head with a smile.
For the next one, Alec dared Emma and had me choose the dare. I told her to pretend like she’s the sound person who is being dubbed for a noisy kissing scene. I cracked myself because for some reason I thought that was the funniest thing in the world.
Something tells me we were all getting slap happy.
Alec thought it was equally funny and we both laughed even harder when she did it. It was a bit of a fail, but completely worth it. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time.
“All right Madelyn, truth or dare?” Emma asked.
“Hm what to do what to do? Let’s go with….dare.”
“ Hmm… I dare you to tell us your biggest fear,” She said. “And not spiders or anything.”
Okay so she wanted me to be deep? I thought about it for a second and my mind instantly went back to my conversation with Dominic. I wasn’t sure if I could say that again after embarrassing myself so badly with him. What if it was just stupid. I finally decided to just say it, if they thought it was dumb, I’d never mention it again.
“Alright I’ll tell you what I told Dominic,” I cringed slightly. “I guess I’m afraid that I’m not going to find something that makes me happy as a three. But I think it’s just a fear that my life could be ruined or bettered from coming here, you know?”
Alec really thought about what I said and nodded understandingly.
“I think no matter what happens, you will still have people around you who will support you no matter your life as a Three. You’ll be able to find your happiness some day knowing you’ll always people who care about you.”
Wow, dang Alec. Emma looked surprised by what he said as well.
She then turned to me and spoke kindly, “He’s right. You’ll definitely always have me cheering you on making sure that we both make the best of whatever happens after this.”
It felt so wonderful to have that sort of reaction. It was refreshing. I wasn’t expecting so much support from them, especially after what happened with Dominic. I suddenly became super grateful to have them as my friends.
I smiled at them, “Yeah you guys are totally right. As long as I have the people I love around me I’ll be okay.
“Good. After all, I’m going to need my photography buddy to stick around,” Emma smiled.
“Awwww we are goals!” I dragged it out funnily. “Alec are you jealous?”
He grinned and said, “Naturally.”
For the last round I asked Alec. He went with dare.
So I decided to bring it all home.
“I dare you to kiss emma,” I said with a smirk.
Emma turned her head sharply and looked at me. Hahahaha oops.
“Okay,” Alec said calmly.
Both me and Emma were shocked. Of course I wanted him to, I just didn’t think he would.
I watched as Alec leaned in slowly and Emma sat there in shock. He got close to her face and then kissed her on the cheek, then leaned back smiling.
Emma sat in silence not knowing what do.
I broke the silence by saying, “Awwwww cute!!!” and clapping.
I was smiling knowingly at the both of them and both Alec and Emma looked embarrassed which was great for me.
Suddenly Alec cleared his throat and said, “Well, I think that’s a good place to call it a night.”
We all agreed to call it a night. Alec stood up and held out a hand to Emma and helped her up and then me.
“Alright well, I’m going to go to bed. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” I said.
I looked at Alec and then pointed at emma making my fingers walk across my hand trying to indicate that he should walk her to her room. Emma didn’t even notice and Alec smiled and nodded his head.
They both said their goodbyes and then I practically ran to the room. For one, I didn’t want to awkwardly be right in front of them the whole time since Emma’s room was right next to mine and two, I wasn’t in the mood to bump into anyone.
When I got to my room, I told my maids I was fine to get ready for bed myself. I wanted to be alone. Tonight had been a whirlwind of a night. I was happy I got to spend time with Emma and Alec and I enjoyed seeing their friendship grow, but what happened with Dominic really bugged me. I was upset. And the only thing I could do was hope that he gives me a second chance.
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