The Luna Choosing Game

I stared at Julian, disbelieving my ears. Did he really just ask me for a solo date?

Yet everyone in the whole ballroom was looking at us. Julian still held the microphone up to his mouth.

This was definitely happening. It wasn’t a dream.

Which meant that Julian was up to something.

“Why?” I asked, before I could think better of it.

A few girls around me gasped. Only then did I realize my mistake and covered my mouth.

Julian also looked shocked, his eyes going wide for a moment. But then, just as quickly, he burst out

laughing.

His good humor seemed to erase the surprise of the other onlookers. Everyone seemed to think I had

been telling a joke.

With the microphone lowered, he said to me, “I insist this request is genuine, Piper.”

I didn’t believe him.

Julian always played the angles. Asking me on a date had to be some kind of move for his benefit, but I

couldn’t begin to figure out how. I’d only scratched the surface of the inner politics of the royal family.

waited for my answer. Everyone

how, but I couldn’t exactly turn him down. He was a

a competition. I was

I said, “I

microphone,

nobles cheered. Most of the girls clapped politely. A few

no longer speaking

of the dance floor, Nicholas stood. His

stared straight at

I

heart ached. I wanted to tell him that this didn’t mean anything. Julian was only trying to

just for the

without publicly dismissing

an explanation anyway. We

anymore

triggered something inside of me, like a memory response.

of me screamed to soothe

meant nothing like that

when I looked at Nicholas now, that look had dimmed. Now he seemed

me and, even an hour later, had not sought

meanwhile, were positively charmed by Julian and his antics. Even after he had

they could not stop telling me how funny he