THE CHOSEN HYBRID

Claire comes into my room and opens my curtains; I groan and hide under my blankets, “Good morning, Princess.” She told me; I raised up and smiled at her,

“Morning.” She smiled and started picking up my room, “You don’t have to clean my room; I’m almost twenty. I can handle it.”. Claire gave me a small look,

“It’s my job.” She told me simply, “Your parents are downstairs in the dining hall; I believe they wanted to discuss the ball for your birthday on Saturday.” I nodded and got up, and began getting dressed, “Oh, and you have a dress fitting at midnight.” I mentally screamed,

“I have plenty of dresses; I can just wear something I already have,” I told her, but she went to make my bed and completely ignored me as she worked. I smiled and slipped on a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt. After brushing my teeth and putting on some makeup, I headed downstairs to meet with my parents.

It was dark out. My parents decided that it might be better for everyone if our ‘mornings’ were actually at night; that way, more people could come and not be killed by the sun. I entered the dining hall and smiled at my parents. They were talking amongst themselves; they looked so in love. “Good morning, sweetheart.” My father said; Mom turned and smiled at me,

“Morning.” I kissed Dad’s cheek before sitting across from my Mom, “Claire said that you wanted to talk to me about the ball?” I asked; they nodded,

“We wanted to know who you wanted to invite?” Mom asked, “I know you said that you wanted to invite everyone, but we were wondering if you had a more specific reason?” I shook my head,

“No, I just thought it would be fun to have everyone here. It’s a ball, not a council meeting.” I told them, though, not everything I told them was the truth, but they believed me anyways,

“Okay, well, good.” Dad said, “I’ll have the invitations sent out immediately.” Mom smiled at me and took my hand,

“What color is your dress?” She asked; I thought of the dress that I was going to be wearing and smiled,

“It’s dark red with black as an accent color.” I told her, “You’ll see it at the ball.” She huffed playfully before turning to my father,

“Don’t forget, my brothers and their families will be arriving tomorrow night.” Dad nodded and looked at his phone,

“Sorry, darling, I need to get to work.” He told her, “Douglas wants to go over a contract to form an alliance.” I raised an eyebrow,

“An alliance? We’re not even at war with anyone.” I stated,

“That may be, Selene,” Father said, “but it’s better to have allies for when trouble does come rather than be staring at the barrel of a gun.” He had a point. Dad kissed Mom and rubbed my head before heading to his office. I scarfed down my breakfast and got up,

“I’ve got to go too; I promised Amber that I’d show her a few dance moves,” I told my Mother while walking over to kiss her cheek. She grabbed my hand,

“If you want to talk, you know you can tell me anything.” She said; I smiled and nodded,

“I know, Mom.” I started for the door, “Love you!” I shouted as I headed to see my cousin.

Amber was in the dance hall, but we called it the room of mirrors, “Hey there, Am’s, you ready?” I shouted; she hugged me,

“You know it! I’ve already stretched and everything!” I smiled,

“Great!” I stood beside her as we watched ourselves in the mirror. We worked on a routine for months and wanted it to be perfect. Amber was having trouble with the middle into the end, so we agreed to work on all of it today. Before I knew it, we had it down and was about out of breath when Amy came in,

“Hi, Mom!” Amber shouted as the song ended; Amy clapped for us. We took a minute while I got some water, “What’s up?” Amber asked her,