ROSES FOR RACHEL: EPISODES 1-10
Episode 4
I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of the announcer’s booming voice. “Introducing, the beautiful Miss. Rachel.” The voice echoed around me, sounding alien in my ears after a moment. Everyone began clapping to and I tried to wave and smile in return, but my hand wouldn’t come up, my body revolting against me like I feared it would, and I was pretty sure my stunned smile was probably coming off more creepy than diplomatic in the moment.
“You’re late.” Master Pedro whispered harshly into my ear as he walked up behind me. “Let’s go.” He muttered holding his arm out for me to take as he pulled me along to descend the staircase. The room was large, and almost seemed to glow with all of the thousands of candles lit in every corner and on every table. On one side of the room there was a long table, covered in foods, while on the other side of the room there were smaller round tables with white table cloths and gold chairs with beautifully dressed people sitting and laughing. Right at the bottom of the staircase was the large dancefloor; men and women twirling about elegantly. “I need to present you to the royal family, then you are free to enjoy the festivities.”
I know my gulp at the mention of the royal family was more than audible. “Oh, ok.” I choked out dryly.
We cut through the dancers and as we passed the food table I told it silently that I’d be coming right back. We weaved through the crowd until we were on the opposite side of the room and we approached a long golden table that was slightly elevated from all of the rest. There were only two men sitting there. The first man, who looked to be about forty, with tan skin and salt and pepper hair watched us coming, smiling warmly. Beside him was a younger man, 20 at least. I’d have known he was the prince even if he hadn’t been wearing a crown on top of his shaggy brown hair. Just like Fern had promised, he was dreadfully and disastrously handsome. Granted, I don’t have much, well, really any experience with boys, but he must be the most beautiful person in existence. I had trouble clawing my eyes away from his face as Pedro spoke.
“Your Majesties, this is Rachel.” Master Pedro introduced me formally. “Curtsy.” He whispered to me out of the side of his mouth and I quickly did as I was told.
The king nodded his head while his eyes roamed me, looking pleased, and I felt my cheeks flush at the attention. “A pleasure to meet you, Miss Rachel, you are very welcomed here. I’m King Gordo.” He said with an Irish accent. Even though I’ve been here since I was 10, I never did pick up it up. People always teased me that I was going to continue to sound like an American Yankee my whole life.
“It’s very nice to meet you as well, Sir.” I said curtly, only a small quiver in my voice giving my nerves away. “Or is it Your Highness?” I furrowed my brows. “Majesty?”
The king chuckled. “Any of the above will do fine.” He told me then cut his eyes to the prince, giving me a much wanted excuse to look back at him as well.
He was slumped back in his seat, arms crossed against his broad chest that his white button down shirt under his unbuttoned suit jacket was struggling against. I tried to smile at him, but he kept his shadowed eyes trained down at the table in front of him. The king cleared his throat and gave the prince a more pointed look. Finally he looked up to me, hardly meeting me gaze with his dark eyes. “I’m Prince Calvin, welcome.” He spat out, pushing his chair back away from the table with a screeching sound, then he stood from his chair and began to walk away.
“Cal!” The king said sternly. “You will not leave yet.” He snapped and Prince Calvin whipped around on his heels, talking over me.
“This is the last one, is it not?” He fired back to the king. I tried not to take it personally that he spoke of me as if I weren’t still standing here. My eyes swept over to the food table again and I wondered if I should use this moment to slip away, but Pedro caught my eyes and shook his head once.
“You are to dance with one of these girls, Cal. The people expect that of you, and you know it.” The king reminded Prince Calvin, crossing his arms and looking down his long slender nose sternly.
I stopped breathing as Calvin walked over to me with a hard look on his face. His beautiful face. His skin looked velvety smooth, and even without smiling he had dimples in his cheeks deep enough to stick coins in. I had to look up to see his eyes since he was about a foot taller than me, even in my heels. I was staring into his deep smoky blue eyes and marveling at the length of his black eyelashes when I noticed he was giving me a strange look, raising one thick eyebrow. I realized he must have said something and I hadn’t heard him. “I’m sorry, what?” I asked barbarically hating the breathy way my voice came out.
He rolled his eyes and titled his head back. “I said, let’s go get this over with.” He repeated, holding a hand out to me demandingly.
I glanced down at it, then back up to his face.”Oh, that’s ok.” I stammered. “You don’t have to pick me just because I’m the one standing here, I was just going to go over th-.” I was saying, pointing toward the buffet table when he cut me off.
He raised his eyebrows, a crease forming on his otherwise smooth forehead. “Are you trying to say you’d rather go have a chicken leg, or some cobbler, rather than dance with me?” He asked, a hint of shock in his Irish voice.
I started to disagree and apologize, but my mouth ran off on its own, my brain unable to stop me before the words tumbled out.
“There’s cobbler?” I asked stupidly.
His eyes widened and his lips twitched slightly as if he was holding back a smile. “Would you please just come dance with me for a moment so that I can get the hell out of this travesty?” He asked and I nodded quickly, not wanting to offend him further.
He grabbed my hand, shocking me for a moment at how icy his skin was, then he practically dragged me toward the dancefloor.
“Could you slow down a little, I can’t keep up in these shoes!” I called to him, but he just stomped on. “Seriously, my legs aren’t as long as yours.”
The music changed, soft and slow, as we grew closer to the center of the floor and the people parted away from us. When we reached the middle, Prince Calvin yanked my wrist hard, pulling my body right up to his and he slid his hands around my waist.
His hands were right at the parts of my dress with the cutouts on the side, so his hands were on my bare skin, and although his hands were chilled, my skin was practically burning under his touch. I tentatively placed my hands up on the tops of his shoulders and followed his lead as we twirled around the dancefloor gracefully. I tried to keep even breaths, but every time he’d glance down at me for the slightest of seconds, my head would spin all over again. The song felt eternally long, drowning on and on and on, and I could feel his annoyance rolling off of him like a palpable thing.
“We can stop if you want to.” I told him, trying to smile.
He cut his eyes down at me, and the look on his face made me drop the smile. “You don’t tell me what I can and cannot do.” He replied quickly.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” I didn’t know what else to say, so I just ducked my eyes.
“No.” He said curtly. “I’m sure you didn’t.” Then he sighed. “I just wish this damned song would end.”
“Me too.” I agreed without thinking, then bit my lip hard.
Prince Calvin shook his head as he spun me again, then pulled me back and lowered me into a deep dip. “Does my very presence offend you that much, or are you still only focusing on the dessert table?” He asked with a hint of humor slipping into his tone as he brought me up slowly.
“I think I’ll just stop speaking.” I whispered and he titled his head down slightly to look at me, but the second his eyes caught mine he looked away again, almost like he was nervous too.
“That may be a good idea for someone such as yourself.” He mumbled.
“Someone like me?” I asked.
This time he did slip a grin, quickly banishing it immediately after. “I thought you were done speaking?” He asked over my head.
I bit my lip again, thinking before I spoke this time. “Well, I am, but I do wonder what you meant by some such as me?” I tried to sound confident.
He glanced down at me briefly. “Someone such as you, who clearly has no control over her own mouth.” He said, his eyes dipping to my lips before he quickly looked away again, shaking his head. I pursed my lips to keep from speaking again.
The song finally came to an end, and the crowd cheered around us. “You’re lovely.” He said suddenly, and then without another word or glance, he released me like touching me was causing him pain and rushed up the stairs and out of the ballroom, leaving me standing alone in the center of the dancefloor with hundreds of eyes on me.
With the prince no longer in the room I seemed to take the first breath in what felt like ages.
“Rachel!” I heard my name being called from behind me and I swiveled around, still in a daze.
I maneuvered my way slowly through the throngs of people until I saw her. “Greer!” I shouted back over the music and I broke into as close to a sprint as possible in my shoes until I reached her, wrapping her in a hug. “Can you believe all of this? I’m so happy you’re alright.”
I caught the glares from three other girls sitting at the table behind Greer, but I ignored them and checked over my friend instead. I stepped back from her and looked her up and down, making sure she hadn’t been harmed in any way. “Wow, Greer.” I said lowly. “You look amazing.” She beamed with the praise and did a little twirl in her form fitted mermaid style dress. The light tan color played up her nice olive skin tone, and her makeup made her brown eyes look mesmerizing.
“Me?” She giggled with her hand on my shoulder. “Look at you! You look like a knockout!”
A sultry looking, platinum blonde girl at the table behind us rolled her eyes and laughed, whispering something to the petite brunette beside her. I was planning to ignore them, but I get a little testy when I’m hungry. “Is there something you want to say to me?” I demanded, taking a step towards the other girls. “Or would you like to stop staring and eavesdropping on our conversation?”
The blonde pouted her lips. “Someone’s a little jumpy.” She said in a condescending tone. “Bit conceited of you to assume we were talking about you, or that we care about what you and miss goody good have to talk about.”
“I’m sorry, what did you just call my friend?” Something about that girl’s attitude was making my blood boil. I can’t stand girls who think they are god’s gift to the world.
“Rachel!” Greer whispered at me urgently, then pulled at my arm, taking me away from the table. “What are you doing? Trying to get beat up on the first night here?”
I was looking past her, still glaring in the other direction and I shrugged which made Greer laugh. “Who are they anyway?”
Greer tilted her head back to the table. “The snippy blonde is Tessa.” She whispered even though we were far enough away that they couldn’t hear us. “The short brunette one beside her is Frankie, then the really tall girl on the end is Lexton, she seems sweet, but she doesn’t speak much.”
I nodded my head, saving their names away to my memory. “Where’s the 6th girl?”
Greer pinched up her nose and her forehead wrinkled, that face that telling me I was not going to like the answer. “It’s Regina.” She groaned dramatically.
“You’re kidding.” I gasped, but I had a feeling in my gut that she wasn’t. Apparently I only have bad luck, so my nemesis following me into this hellhole too wasn’t that far of a stretch for me to make.
“I wish, but no.” She frowned then pointed up to the royal table. “She’s already working on schmoozing the king.”
Sure enough, in all her glamorous beauty, she was just a chatting away with the king, making him smile and laugh over and over. Regina was from Drighten too. She arrived there a couple of months before Greer and me, but she had already made the place her own. Even at nine years old she was a demon. Regina had always been downright nasty to Greer and me, and I was sure she was just going to love Tessa. “I need something to eat.” I rolled my eyes and stomped over to the buffet table. Greer followed behind me while I piled my plate high with everything there was to offer. “I literally can’t believe this is all happening.” I sighed. “Did they tell you about Drighten being a feeder school?”
“Yeah.” She whispered sadly. “The whole time we thought we were being saved from the vampires, but we were being saved for the vampires instead. Did they tell you what happens if we lose?” I shudder at the thought, but nod. “The first elimination is a month from tonight.” She shook her head, her brown eyes looking distant.
Her words caused me to stop dead in my tracks. I practically slammed my plate on the buffet and turned to her. “What are you talking about, Greer? What elimination?”
Greer stepped in closer to me, looking around herself as she spoke. “The prince will pick someone to be eliminated at a grand ball on the last Friday of every month until there’s just one of us left.” She said with a shake in her voice. “I don’t think he liked me, Rachel. He hardly even looked at me. What if I’m the first one sent out and I get-.” She was slowly getting more and more anxious.
I reached out my hand and took hers firmly. “We can’t think like that, Greer. I’m sure he did like you, he’d be stupid not to. I bet he was like that with everyone.” I tried to assure her, but her eyes were still scared.
ROSES FOR RACHEL: EPISODES 1-10
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