The Luna Choosing Game

No, that was a foolish notion. He was kind to Elva because he was a kind person. At the end of the day, Elva and I were going to be eliminated from the competition.

We’d leave the palace, return to our little apartment with Anna, and never hear from Nicholas again, We’d probably see him on television sometimes, with updates on his new family.

It might hurt to see, but that was life.

Dreams were dreams. Reality was reality.

I couldn’t have both.

“It’s so nice of Prince Nicholas to spend so much time with you and your daughter,” said one of the other girls to me

“Looks good for the cameras, too,” said another girl, pointing as a cameraman came close to Elva.

Odd, I hadn’t really noticed them before.

Neither, apparently, had Nicholas. Because the moment he spotted the camera following Elva, he swung her the other way, out of the camera’s line of sight.

“You don’t think he’s doing it just for show?” said the first girl.

a side of him people don’t

Elva and I were only here as a publicity stunt. But even so, Nicholas was not the type of person to take advantage of that. He

to see while it lasts,” another girl said. “Hope you are enjoying yourself too, Piper. We all know you’ll be the first

knew I’d be gone soon as well as anyone, but it still hurt

those guards headed

looked up where the other girls were staring. True enough, a pair

you think

I waited for them to go by, but instead they stopped night in

“Miss Piper one asked

for you,” whispered one of the girls

me.” I told

expressions. These must have been more

like me. I wondered what happened to the ones who

Follow me

of the guards began to walk away. The other waited for me to follow the first,