How It All Goes Down
- America is woken up at seven in the morning by good old Mama Singer. Not fun. To make things worse, America had just been dreaming of Aspen.
- Mama Singer has a proposition: if America applies for the Selection, she can keep half of the money from her gigs rather than giving it all to the family. That's a big deal.
- Knowing that this will help her and Aspen save enough money to get hitched, America happily agrees.
- Today's the day to drop off applications at the Services Office, however, so America pretties herself up quickly. She also fills out the paperwork, which asks a lot of detailed questions.
- Before she leaves, she stops by Gerad's room. Gerad is bummed because he isn't interested in art and music, even though he is legally bound to enter the creative fields because of their caste.
- America and her mom arrive at the Services Office. It's "packed with women" desperate to score the Prince's hand in marriage, many of whom are done up to the nines (3.73). This makes America a little insecure, but she reminds herself that she doesn't actually care about winning.
- America and her mom see Aspen's mom and her twin daughters, Celia and Kamber. Mrs. Leger and Mrs. Singer seem to know each other well.
- As they talk, Mrs. Leger offhandedly mentions that Aspen seems to be "putting money away" so he can get married, though she doesn't know the name of the lucky girl (3.108).
- America is ecstatic. She feels like she's floating on a cloud as she waits in line and gets a few pictures snapped for the application.