Celia
The next day we all gathered in the women's room after breakfast. I settled in a corner by myself and began writing a letter to my parents to describe everything that had happened so far at the palace.

Amelia sat at the other side of the room with her mother, Lucy and Queen America. Amelia had her face buried in her hands and I could see that Lucy was laughing and Marlee was smiling widely.

Queen America, however, seemed to be paying no attention to what was happening. She was looking at me with a small frown on her face. As soon as she realised I was looking back at her she immediately looked away, leaving me confused as to why she was looking at me in the first place. 

What was it about me that stuck out to her amongst all of these other girls?

I turned my attention back to my letter, trying to shove my confusion with the queen out of my mind. I tried to put all of my thoughts about the palace into writing to convey my joy and excitement to my parents.

I was overjoyed to be at the palace, it was stunning. All of the beautiful artwork and I couldn't even begin to explain how excited I was to venture into the gardens.

We didn't see either of the princes or the king that day apart from at mealtimes. Silvia arrived around half an hour later after I had finished writing my letter and we had several hours of history and etiquette lessons, during which I learned how I should properly greet dignitaries.

"That was a long lesson." Amelia had joined me back in my room after dinner for a while before we headed off to bed.

"Are lessons at the palace always like that?" I asked as we sat down in two of the armchairs in the corner of my room.

"Yes pretty much," Amelia laughed.

"Can I ask you something?" I said, Amelia nodded, "why are you being so nice to me? I mean hardly any of the other girls have even spoken to me."

"My mum and Queen America met on the first day of their selection, and the only advice that my mum gave me was that I should use this as an opportunity to find some friends as it's only ever really been me and the Princes here," Amelia paused and thought for a while, "I guess I just thought that you seemed nice..." she trailed off.

"And I kept bumping into you?"

"And that too," she laughed.

Her words hit rather close to home as although I hadn't been entirely isolated in the way that Amelia had been for her childhood, my isolation was more a product of me not putting myself out there and socialising with people at my school.

"Well, thank you for not letting me get hopelessly lost in this place!"

"No problem!"

********

We gathered in the women's room again the next morning. My maids had dressed me in green today and the dress had a sash patterned with daisies.

Amelia sat with me and we riffled through some magazines, Amelia pointed out outfits that she liked or that she thought would look good on me.

Around half an hour later a maid hurried over to the queen, muttering something in her ear. The queen nodded and the maid hurried back towards the door, pulling it open to let the King and both of the Princes into the women's room. It was funny to see the 'no boys allowed except with express permission of the Queen' in action.

The Royals' entrance had drawn all of the selected girls to their feet, many of the other girls curtsying.

"Hello ladies," the King smiled, "as you know, the selection traditionally involves events and challenges for you lovely ladies, and I'm here to kick off the first one! We thought that it would be both interesting and educational for all of us here at the palace to complete an ancestry test to determine each of our ancestors."

"That sounds quite fun!" I muttered to Amelia.

"DNA kits are getting passed around now, and we should have the results processed by tomorrow morning," said King Maxon. Maids began to circulate amongst the group, handing out little bags to everyone which contained the kits.

Amelia and I received ours and immediately began to read the instructions that went along with the kits.

Across the room, the four royals sat together. Upon glancing up, I saw that all four of them were looking right at me.