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.

shows off a side of him people don’t get to see. I’m

publicity stunt. But even so, Nicholas was not the type of person to take advantage of that. He danced with Elva because he

said. “Hope you are enjoying yourself too, Piper. We all

gave her a polite smile but didn’t say anything. I knew I’d be gone soon as well

those guards headed this

looked up where the other girls were staring. True enough, a pair of guards was weaving their way through the crowd, coming right for

do you think

for them to go by,

“Miss Piper one asked

here for you,” whispered

me.” I told

watched me with blank expressions. These must have been

to the ones who had initially been kind to me. I hoped they

Follow me

other waited for me to follow