Iris's POV

"Wait...Shit!" Karen curses.

"What did you say?" I ask, trying to register whatever she just said.

"Never mind, let's go eat breakfast. The breakfast here is amazing. Once Kevin gets out, we'll dress and then go to the dining hall." Karen tells, walking across the room and into another door, which I am assuming is the closet.

Does Kevin have a crush on me? And he kissed me on the cheek. But, he did the same to Karen. I cuddled with him this morning. And he said that he pretended to be asleep so that he could hold me that way for long. Plus, he admitted that he was jealous of Karen too. God, it all makes sense.

I get up from the bed and take a look at my reflection in the mirror. What would he see in me? Firstly, I am so short and he is so tall. He must be at least six feet whereas I stand at the toddler size of five feet one. Ordinary brown hair, and acne scattered across my face, he could be crushing on so many other pretty girls at our school. Honestly, my eyes are the only parts that I love in my body. I am blessed to have my blue eyes. At least, one good part that I am actually proud of.

The only time that I actually managed to look pretty was Karen did my makeup and beauty touch up for homecoming last year. 

I groan and fall back into the bed when I hear the bathroom door click open.

"Yeah, I am done," Kevin announces as he stands there leaning against the door, staring at me.

I sigh and get up from the bed. I move towards the bathroom and notice Kevin is still standing there even after I reach the door and wait for him to move. Yeah, he is tall. Way too tall! He is towering over me.

"Your eyes are so mesmerizing!" he compliments even look up at him. I decide to be sassy with him until he admits what Karen said but I don't think that the heat in my cheeks will help in that case.

"I know, thanks. I love my eyes too. Now, please excuse me, I have to use the bathroom." I sass.

"All yours, milady," he says and steps aside, bowing to me.

"Good boy!" I pat his head and step inside the bathroom, shutting the door.

When I get inside the bathroom, I forget about all what happened outside and is met with the sight of the most luxurious bathroom I have ever seen in my entire life. No wonder, why Kevin took so long.

There is a huge bathtub to the right side which is plumbed with golden faucets and a statue of something on top of it. The wall adjacent to the tub is literally gold. A dressing area stands adjacent to the tub area. Three mirrors angle together for the dresser and a golden seat for sitting. 

What's with all the gold?

On the left side, I see a shower cubicle in which I bet the shower will be gold. Yes, the shower is also gold. Next to the cubicle stands a cabinet, full of towels of different sizes and other toiletries in fancy bottles. The entire sink is gold in color and is surrounded by a marble countertop. The toilet thankfully is not gold but is made of marble. I would have been pissed if that too was gold!

It would feel so weird peeing on a gold toilet! The palace people thankfully had the sense to not make the toilet gold.

I finish my morning rituals as slowly as possible. When I get out of the bathroom, I see Kevin getting ready in front of the mirror. 

Okay, I really should stop admiring him all the time.

"Come on, you guys have to change out of those clothes. You don't have breakfast in a palace in pajamas!" Karen announces and she takes me to the closet, where I almost trip at the vastness.

On one side there are amazing gowns, probably for parties, next side there is a rack of less grand but cute dresses. Opposite the dresses is a shoe rack, where the most gorgeous footwear I have ever seen sits. Next to that are drawers, where accessories and other stuff is kept. This closet looks like something which belongs to the Kardasians and I have no idea, why on earth I am here.

I pick a normal royal blue dress and Karen chooses matching shoes for me and then notice another section of the closet solely dedicated for Kevin. If we wore these dresses in the normal world, they are definitely only meant for special occasions. But here, these are normal dresses.

I get out, with Karen effortlessly walking around the room in those heels from her collection while I am still mastering the art. I admit I feel more confident in heels though since I would appear taller but the walking part is a little tough. Karen is wearing a beautiful red robe paired up with gold earrings, and as usual, she looks astonishingly pretty. It would make so much sense if Kevin fell in love with her.

And that's when I see Kevin. Sweet Jesus! He turns around, and his eyes fall on his us, precisely, at me. I move around the room trying not to make eye contact with him. But I check him out from the corner of my eyes.

He is wearing a fitting black shirt, with black tight trousers which show off his perfectly sculpted thighs. I swear I have never been so attracted to a guy before. It's so frustrating to have constant pressure on my head to look good around an insanely hot guy. But I feel his eyes on me the whole time I fix my hair in the mirror.

"Okay guys," Karen announces and we both turn to listen to her. "We'll go down for breakfast and then take a tour around the palace, and then see the garden and the lake. After that, we will have a meeting with the queen about what we should do next. Alright?" she lists and we nod in confirmation but then Kevin asks a question.

"We didn't say our parents that we would be gone for days. Shouldn't we like...inform them?" Kevin asks.

"Don't worry, time works very differently here in Eponine. I have been here for around seven to eight weeks now," states Karen. 

how can that be possible? She was gone for a week!

"But... you were gone only for like...6 days. How does that- " 

"Exactly, you guys came here yesterday, Eponian time."

"So, how long have we been gone for?" I ask.

"In our world, barely two minutes," she shrugs.

"What?!" 

"You came here at what time?" inquires Karen.

"At around 9 am," I state.

"And you guys planned to return home at?"

"4 pm, I guess" Kevin looks at me questioningly and I nod in confirmation.

"That means you can stay here for more than one week." she declares.

"Cool!" he voices. "We can have so much fun!"

Karen smiles. "We have some work to do, Kevin. As of now, the future of this nation is in our hands. My hands." 

"Why do you think so?" asks Kevin sitting on the bed.

"I believe every word the queen said," she begins. "Because the moment I stepped on to this place...I did feel something. Like something powerful inside me. That feeling when you go home after being away from it for so long. And the strangest thing is this." she says pointing to her eyes.

"What about your eyes?" Kevin asks.

"Remember those silver streaks the queen talked about?" she asks and we nod in unison. "Well, after coming to Eponine, I noticed something strange in my eyes. My eyes stang the first day and when I looked closer in the mirror, I saw gold streaks."

Gold comes again.

Kevin steps closer and grabs her face looking straight into her eyes.

"Holy shit, Iris look at this!" he beckons me. "How come I never noticed this before?"

As she said, there are beautiful golden streaks inside her chocolate brown eyes. And now that we know of it, it is quite noticeable too.

"I haven't told about this to anyone. But I might tell it to the queen today," says Karen.

"Then she'll have a claim on you," Kevin tells. "We can't lose you, Karen. We didn't come all the way here to lose you."

"But I don't belong there, Kevin. I belong here. This is where I am supposed to be." she argues.

I raise my hand. "We'll talk about this at the discussion with the Queen." 

"Till then, we have a whole day to have fun. So, let's just go have some fun!"    

******

A/N: If the writing sucks please do tell me!