Elaine rolled her eyes and sighed. Being homeschooled her entire life, she had forgotten how idiotic and cringe girls her age could be.

Just as she opened her mouth to tell her that her chances were very slim and that being a noble was not as great as they made it out to be, the line started shifting. They were letting the next batch of people in.

Hannah’s eyes lit up. “C’mon, C’mon!” she said, grabbing Elaine wrist and dragging her along. Elaine glanced around, looking for her mom. She had said she was going to the restroom earlier. Now, where could she be…

Not able to spot her in the ever thickening crowd and hastening people in the line, she gave up and allowed Hannah to lead the way.

The inside of the town hall was cool. The higher of the classes and government controlled places were able to easily get their hands on a heater or air conditioner. The poorer classes didn’t. They kept themselves warm by huddling together in the winter and fanning each other in the summer. Elaine was glad she wasn’t at that level. Her parents were neither rich nor poor. They had an adequate amount of money. Just enough to keep them going each and every day with several pleasant gifts on special occasions.

Blinking out of her thoughts, Elaine allowed her eyes to wander around the hall once again. It was...extravagant. Elaine nearly laughed at her own stupidity at that exact moment. Of course it was extravagant. It was the king’s property after all and both the king and queen were prodigal money spenders. They would spend millions of dollars on an extravagant ball and hundreds of thousands on fine dresses and dining. The only issue was that it was getting paid for by the hard working citizens. It was tax money they were wasting away. Maybe that was the reason so many rebellions were on the rise nowadays.

The line slowly descended to a stop as they neared the desk. She was now within the frame where she could hear the conversations between the people sitting behind the desk and the excited candidates signing up for a chance to become a noble.

Elaine took a quick glance around. All the girls eligible in her town were probably all here. Who wouldn’t be? After all, it was a great opportunity to rapidly raise one’s social status. Every fifty years, the government would hold a competition. All girls aged 15 to 20 were eligible to sign up to participate however considering it applied to the entire nation, only around one in 35,714 were chosen per gender. Elaine did the math. That meant she had a .0028% chance of getting accepted. She grinned. Her chances were VERY slim. She wasn’t interested anyways.The candidates would be trained rigorously and tested after 9 months.The goal of the competition was to ultimately find a candidate who would be suitable as a noble. One male and one female. They would represent the country in all important events, especially the overseas ones and would live the rest of their lives in comfort. Elaine figured the reason this competition took place was to keep the lower classes from rebelling. If they were able to see one of their own in the upper classes , the king would gain their respect. It also gave hope to all the lower classes and convinced them to have more children. It was a genius plan made by the king’s court.

Within minutes, Elaine had reached the front of the line.

“Name.” the lady asked, sounding like she wanted to go home.

“Elaine Celeste.” she answered confidently.

“Age?”

“17.”

The woman clicked several buttons on the monitor.

“Class?”

“U-M.”

“You may proceed to room 6.” she said as she handed Elaine a sticker with all her information.

“Ok.”

“Next.”

Elaine scooted out of the way, allowing the person behind her to move up. Hannah had gone first, probably forgetting about her in all the excitement. She walked down the hallway, glancing at the numbers labeled on each door. When she found the door labeled six, she inhaled a breath, turned the knob and stepped in. The door opened. A dagger was flying straight at her.