"You'd be surprised…" Cassie muttered under her breath. Her childhood best friend, Henry, was a guard in the palace and he always told her about secret rooms and hiding spots. She had yet to see him during her stay but she knew he was here.
Beatriz gasped in mock shock. "I thought I was the only one who did that. You stole my main personality flaw! I'm pretty sure you can get arrested for that!"
"You also didn't grow up with six older sisters as competition for, well, everything," Zaera countered him calmly after listening to the other girls, "Anything can be a hiding spot if you try hard enough, I think. And you two were allowed to skip lessons? Or got away with it at the very least."
She added the last part on as an after thought, the words simply tumbling out of her mouth. She had never gotten away with missing one of her lessons, even if she had successfully hidden herself. It only meant she had delayed her lesson and earned a punishment for trying to miss in the first place. She had assumed most higher caste families were like that, and it was one of the reasons she would've loved to have been born into a lower caste.
"At least you had lessons." Being born a Six was rough and she hated it when higher castes tried to make their lives seem harder than the ones below them. Cassie had been forced to learn a lot of things at a very young age and was forced to drop out of school at 5 years old to do so, which her mother didn't appreciate. So yeah, she knew a thing or two about pain.
"Yeah, music lessons," Beatriz muttered ruefully. "24/7."
"Again, at least you had lessons. Of any kind." She tried to bite back her bitter tone but it didn't completely work, giving her words a slight bite to them.
"So sorry, I wasn't aware that you were in need of sympathy. I'll try to work on that," Beatriz shot back, then gasped. "I didn't - I'm sorry," Beatriz said, turning away for a moment to hide her tears. You're just like those idiots from Caste 4.
Her jaw tightened, had she been home and heard that, she would've turned around and decked her. "I don't need sympathy. I need you to see that there are bigger problems than your own." To say she was a firecracker was an understatement.
Lillian chose this moment to appear next to the girls, "Let this be a lesson, you can never be sure of what the background of the people you deal with when you're Queen, we must choose words carefully and hold back our less flattering words." She commented, "Come on girls every one in the parlor."
Cassie took a deep breath, trying to cool her temper before heading down to the parlor. Even though she knew she'd probably go home within the next week because of her inability to shut her mouth when she needed to, she wasn't going to make that time come any earlier than it needed to. Not when her family was already struggling so much.
"I'm not - " Beatriz cut herself off with a deep breath, closing her eyes. Her throat felt tight, as it always did when she tried to hold back tears. You're not stupid. She's stupid. You're not. You're not a stupid rich girl. She just doesn't understand, she told herself, then shook her head. On second thought, it would probably be better for everyone if I had fallen out of a much higher window.
Zaera looked to the queen who had appeared from seemingly no where. She had chosen to remain quiet since she had no clue as to how to contribute without coming off as a pompous brat. She let out a quiet nod before making her way after Cassie to the parlor. There was nothing to help or hurt the situation, at least in her eyes.
Who was she to tell me anything about sympathy? None of these girls here even know the definition of the word stress until they've walked a mile in my shoes. Come on Cassandra, you might be the lowest caste representation here but you're not the lowest quality. That was her motto for this place, she was the lowest caste representation here but she wasn't the lowest quality. Sure, she didn't have riches or fame or even have a basic education but she didn't need that to make her shine.
Lillian could feel the resentment resonating off of the girls, she inwardly shook her head. They were already at each others throats, "No one persons burdens make others any less, A man may break his arm but that does not mean the sting of another mans sunburn is any less." She looked pointedly at all of the girls, "That is a lesson all of you need to learn, until you realize that the man who lost his prize cow is validated in feeling sorrow even when a mother has just lost her only child you are unfit to rule." Lillian stormed ahead of the other girls her skirts billowing after her. She entered the parlor and sat in the chair reserved for her holding her head high.
Beatriz had started to have a mental breakdown, her thoughts a swirling mess of anger, self-hatred, sorrow, pity, and whatever else was stuck in the cobwebs in the corners. "I never was fit to rule, and I never will be. I just - " her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. "I need to go home. Please," she said, looking at the floor with her head in her hands.
Cassie frowned slightly, fighting an eye roll. She never said that the other girls couldn't feel burdened, she just said that other people had problems too. But once again, her intentions came off as vicious when they weren't. Because that's what people did. Always assumed the worst.
Zia was quiet for a while, following Lillian and the others to the room. She bit her lip, and put a hand on Beatriz's shoulder. "Hey, hey, it's okay." she said quietly. "You can't quit just because of a conflict with someone. If I've learned anything in my life, it's that you can't quit just because you're upset at someone else's words. Trust me. My sister can be vicious. She's my TWIN, for crying out loud. And you know what? I've cried because of things she has said. But in the end, she's just another person, and most of the time, other people's opinions shouldn't matter so much. Don't quit the Selection just because of anyone else's words." she said gently. She hoped she wasn't being too forward or anything. She didn't know Beatriz well, but was just trying to reassure her and help.
"No, I don't - " she shook her head. "I can't - I can't handle this. It's not just her, I'm legitimately useless in every way. I'm fairly certain that I'm going to embarrass myself and everyone in the palace, and I'd really rather avoid that, and the one shred of confidence I have is based off of something completely useless in 99% of scenarios. Otherwise I'm a useless mess. Like now. This is just proof. I just… can't."
Zia sighed. "Hey, I already embarrassed myself, Beatriz. I literally ran into the prince, and then called him huge. Okay? That's embarrassing. Plus, I mean…look what I'm wearing!" she gestured to the hiking gear. "And my only real skill, which is hiking, is useless here." she shrugged. "We're in the same boat. Everything is going to be fine." she said gently.
"I. Fell. Out. Of. A. Window. Is it even possible to be stupider than that? Anxiety isn't a great trait for a queen to have, which is why it would be best if I just leave now, before I fail all the lessons and Talin sends me home out of sheer disappointment. Which I was expecting to have happened by now. I'd really rather be sent home of my own free will," Beatriz explained. "Talin is a giant, though, and no one can argue with that," she added quietly.
She sighed softly. "If you really want to leave, no one is going to stop you. But…please give the Selection a chance?" she said gently. "Just a little one. Give it a few more days. What about playing hide and go seek? Stay for that, at least." she looked at Beatriz carefully. "But if you want to leave, you can."
Beatriz muttered, "I think I'm going to be sick," but nodded. "I'm going to end up falling out of another window. Or end up on the roof somehow. And fall down a chimney. Or maybe I'll just fall of the roof. With my luck, I'll land in another bush and won't even die, I'll just break my arm and melt into the floor out of embarrassment," she mumbled to herself.
Zia nodded, biting her lower lip slightly. "I'm sure you won't fall again. And if you want, and it would make you feel better, I'll tell you a story about how I fell off a cliff while guiding people through the mountains." she said with a shrug, a small smile flickering across her face.
Beatriz briefly looked up in confusion. "That sounds like a terrible idea," she said, then paused. "But please do."
Zia laughed. "Alright. See, back in my hometown, the lines between the Castes are a bit blurred, so a lot of us just kind of do whatever we want to. Since I hike through the mountains a lot, I'll sometimes take groups up them and show them places. So I had taken this group up, and they wanted their picture taken. I was backing up so I could get them all in the photo, and I fell backwards off a cliff. Luckily, it was only a small one, and I didn't break anything except my pride." she laughed softly, and shrugged a bit. "But yeah. That's my story."