Chapter 1 ~ Kenny
I wake up to my younger sister tugging on my arm. Ellie practically pulls me out of bed just from her excitement. “Wake up Kenny! Wake up!” I sat up straight just so Ellie would stop trying to pull my arm off.
“What’s wrong Ellie?” I asked. She stopped pulling on my arms and put her tiny hands on her hips in a sassy manner. “Well it’s arrived!” She said.
I heard my younger brother stir in the bed above mine. “What’s arrived?” He asked before I could. “The letter! The letter arrived!” She shouted. I rubbed my eyes and stood, taking her hand. Jamie had climbed out of the bunk and was running out into the kitchen ahead of Ellie and I.
I tried to keep pace with my 7 year old sister as she ran out into the kitchen. Everyone was waiting huddled around our small dining table. “What is everyone so ex-” I didn’t get to finish as my mother shoved an envelope in my face.
“It’s addressed to you.” Whispered my older sister, Amy. I immediately saw my name in the middle of the envelope before checking the top corner to see who it was from.
I stumbled into the back of our couch. “Wha-what?” I stuttered. It was sent from the palace. And to- me?
I began to rip it open, curiosity getting the better of me. My family were all staring at me as I carefully opened the envelope, as curious as I was. I was a little surprised that they hadn’t ripped open the envelope themselves.
Dear Kenneth Murphy,
It read,
Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Helena is of age for the choosing. Since you are between the age of 16-24, you are invited to sign up for a chance to be one of the 5 in your province to compete for her highness’s hand. Sign up below and turn in the completed form at your local post office.
Name:
Age:
Date of Birth:
Talents:
Languages Spoken:
Province:
I skimmed over the rest of the form and questions about myself. “It’s a letter- for the Choosing” I stuttered to my family. “I know!” My mom said, standing up and running over to hug me.
“Isn’t that when a bunch of people go to the palace to like - seduce the heir?” My eldest sister asked me. “Yeah, I guess Kate.” I answered, turning over the paper to see if there was anything on the back.
“No!” My mom said. “The choosing is when the country gets to watch the heir fall in love. Its beautiful!” She corrected. Amy rolled her eyes and snatched the letter out of my hand. “Let me see that.” My mom snatched it back out of her hands. “If you rip this, then Kenny has no chance of even getting into the drawing.” Amy crossed her arms at mom’s scolding.
“How about I read it aloud?” She suggested. I saw my dad nod from the back of the room. “Great idea hun.” He said.
“Dear Kenneth Murphy,” My mom paused, glancing over at me and smiling. I swear, I saw her cry a little. For what? Who knows. “Her royal highness, Crown Princess Helena is of age for the choosing.” My mom said. She then proceeded to read the entire letter aloud to everyone minus the questions on the form.
“That’s it?” Amy asked. Mom and I nodded simultaneously. “Ugh ok.” She said, sitting down in mom’s spot. “My friends told me that the chosen’s families get paid!” Jamie said. “Is that true?” He said, with big glossy eyes.
I shrugged, “I dunno.” I answered, looking over at my mom. Surely she would know, since she was alive for the last choosing. “Well, last time the families did get paid, so they probably will this time.” Hearing this, my entire family looked over at me.
They all knew what that would mean. If I got chosen, then they would get extra funds. And those extra funds would most definitely help.
Our family wasn’t terribly wealthy. We lived in a small, cramped, 3 bedroom apartment. There was 1 bathroom, the 3 bedrooms, a kitchen/dining room, and a small living room. Kate, Ellie, and Amy all shared a room and Jamie and I shared a room. Sure, it was cramped, but it was also home. Just as long as I had my family, I was home.
But with extra funds, they could be sure that they ate every meal and maybe even had some money in savings so that we could get a real house to live in.
“So are you going to sign up?” My mom asked hopefully, and the rest of my family nodded along in agreement. I had a bad feeling about signing up for this. I mean, how did I know something terrible wasn’t going to happen there? And I didn’t want to leave my family for numerous months. I couldn’t go that long without seeing them.
“Kenny?” My mom asked again. I looked up, a bit startled. “Oh, um- yeah. I’ll sign up.” It was only a chance right? Nothing could absolutely guarantee that I got into the choosing. I took a breath as my mom gave me the form and a pen.
My family cleared the way so I could use the dining table as a surface to write on. I started with the first few questions.
Name: Kenneth Murphy
Age:16
Date of Birth: March 19th, 2000
Talents: Math, Soccer, Piano
Languages Spoken: English, Irish Gaelic
Province: Celestial
My mom filled out all the questions about my height, weight, etc, then handed the form back to me to fill out the last question.
A little bit about yourself:
I was unsure about how to answer this last question, but I did the best I could.
A little bit about yourself: I enjoy playing the piano, even though I’m not able to that often. I am a hard-worker and love my family.
I stopped at that, thinking that it was sufficient enough (hopefully). “You done?” Dad asked me. I nodded and carefully slipped the form back into its envelope.
“Let’s go to the post office and turn it in! Afterwards, we can go to the pizza place down the street and eat that for dinner!” My mom said very excitedly. Everyone’s ears perked up at that. “Really?” Ellie said, just as excitedly as my mom.
Mom nodded, and took Ellie’s hand. “Everyone go get your shoes and coats on!” Dad said. Jamie and I bounded down the hall to get our shoes and coats. Pizza for lunch!
We hardly ever ate out, so this was quite a treat. And pizza tasted so good. My mind wandered away from all my negative thoughts about the choosing and focused on my family and pizza!
I took Jamie’s hand and we stepped out into the cold October air.
We carefully went down the stairs that connected the ground and our apartment door. All seven of us stayed huddled together as we walked down the empty streets of Celestial’s suburbs.
My family was bubbling with excitement as we made our way to our local post office. The line was already so full, even at this early in the morning.
And they were taking pictures of all the men. Many of which were dressed up in tuxedos. I, however, was wearing pajama pants with a t-shirt that had the Palovian flag on it.
I sighed in disappointment. There wasn’t really anything I could do now, and I didn’t have much nicer clothes than this anyways. I looked up in front of me. I bet it would take us an hour, with everyone having to get their picture taken, printed, and then pasted onto the form.
I checked the time on the clock that was on the sign outside of the post office. It read: 10:05. I had only gotten up an hour ago and now, I was out and about turning in a form that had a chance to change my life. Today was Saturday, so I actually got to sleep in unlike all the weekdays when I had to get up early and walk to the grocery store with dad to restock shelves all day. So since I had a chance to sleep in, I did, even though I did miss our small breakfast.
Now my stomach rumbled a little bit, but I guess it was my fault alone. Hopefully we weren’t going to be standing here for too long.
An hour or so later, I was having my picture taken. I sat on the bench outside of the post office, shivering a bit because we had stood out in the cold for so long. “Smile!” The photographer said cheerfully, with a big poofy coat on. I envied him a little, because I had a small coat on.
Nevertheless, I put on my best smile as the photographer snapped a shot of my face. “One moment please.” He said as the printer next to him began printing.
After a few seconds, it was finished printing my face, and the photographer handed me a piece of tape. “Tape your photo to your form and hand it to the man just over there.”
There was another man sitting at a table set up outside, and my family and I walked over to him once I had stuck the photo onto my form.
“Here you go sir.” I said, as politely as possible. He nodded, not saying a word but taking my form and putting it in a half-full bin. “Thank you so much.” My mother said as we all began to walk away and back in the direction of home.
Unfortunately for us, the post office was in the opposite direction of the pizza place, so we had to walk all the way home and then to the pizza place.
By the time we arrived at the pizza place, I assumed it was about noon, but we didn’t have a watch to check for sure. “Yay! Pizza!” Ellie shouted. Ellie and Jamie ran inside ahead of us.
We personally knew the shop owner, so he stepped around to counter to give Ellie and Jamie a big hug. We walked in behind them. “Hey Marcello.” My dad said, walking up to Marcello and giving him a big bear hug.
“Hey Dave! Hey Kenny! And of course, Janette.” My mom blushed as Marcello kissing the top of her hand. “Where’s my hello?” Kate said jokingly as she walked forwards and gave Marcello a big hug. “Hello Kaitlyn, how are you?”
They pulled apart. Marcello was like a second father to my sister. “Good, and you?” Marcello chuckled. “I’m great. But what brings you all here today?” He asked. “Well,” mom started, putting her hands on my shoulder. “Kenneth just turned in his choosing form, and we came here to celebrate!”
Marcello laughed a hearty, belly laugh.
“Then a large pepperoni for the whole family?” He asked. He always knew what we all wanted. “Yes!” Ellie and Jamie said at the same time, practically on their knees begging for it. “Sure.” My mom said, a true smile on her face.
Then, unexpectedly, Marcello said, “Well, it’s on the house.” My mom looked up in shock, eyes wide. “You- you don’t have to.” She stuttered. It was very rarely that someone treated us to well- anything. “It’s nothing. Besides, I love you guys.” We all smiled. “Thanks Marcello!” We all said.
He gave a joyful grin. “I’ll be right out. You all take a seat at a table.” We nodded and went to the right side of the restaurant, taking our seats along the cushioned, connected seats.
“Are you excited to see who got chosen next week Kenny?” Mom asked me. I shrugged. “Aren’t they explaining the choosing on tonight’s report?” Amy asked. Mom nodded, “I think so.”
The report happened every Saturday at 6:30. It was important to watch because it explained all the current events, etc. It was operated at the palace by their newsman, Mr. Ko. He was a legend to every reporter in Palovia, and even to those who weren’t reporters. Mr. Ko was charismatic and got everything across in a neat and understandable way. I looked up to him a little bit. Heck, I looked up to Mr. Ko a lot.
“And here you go! Enjoy!” Marcello said, with a large, hot pizza on a tray. He set it down on the long table we were sitting at and laid plates out in front of each of us. “Thanks!” We said again, before digging in, showing the large pizza no mercy.
In the end, there was one last piece left. “I think you should get it.” I looked up at Kate. “Really?” Most of my family nodded, smiling. I smiled, devouring the delicious piece. “Thanks so much!” I said to Marcello one more time before we left.
He hugged me. “Good luck.” He whispered in my ear before embracing my parents and Kate. I wondered what he meant. Good luck for the choosing? Or something else? I didn’t have time to ask before we bid our goodbyes and walked back to our apartment.
After playing some games and hanging around all day, it was time for the report. We grabbed our plants and gathered around our small box TV, sitting on both the small couch and floor.
We chowed down on our food while the ads played. I felt both excitement and nervousness as the last ad ended and Mr. Ko’s voice said: “Welcome to the Saturday evening report!”
