Surprise

[Alice]

OOC: Happens before the A Dinner From Hell thread

"Thanks, Kari," Alice said as she took her stack of mail from her roommate, who had neatly sorted the miscellaneous envelopes into two piles, and went to sit on her bed. Tucking her legs underneath her, a smile crossed Alice's face as she saw that, predictably, the envelope on top was from her pop. Ever since her mother had died nearly two years ago, her grandfather had taken up the habit of mailing her little notes. Nothing particularly special, at least to anyone else - just thoughts about his day and experiences he had had recently. But it gave Alice an immense amount of pleasure all the same. Deciding to save his letter for later, Alice sorted through the rest of her mail, one particular piece catching her interest immediately. It was a crisp white envelope and it had her name written quite elaborately in beautiful calligraphy across the front. Flipping it over, Alice sucked in her breath when she saw the crest - the royal family of Eraklyon's crest. Curious as to why they would be writing to her, Alice carefully broke the seal and pulled out a fine piece of stationary. Quickly skimming the letter's contents, Alice's mouth fell open slightly. The queen of Eraklyon had extended an invitation to dinner to her.

Glancing over at Karina, who was now quietly reading from a book of poetry, as per usual, Alice said softly, "Kare . . . Kare . . . you simply have to see this."

[Karina]

Making a mental note of the page number, Karina glanced up from her reading as she closed her book. Noticing the shocked look on Alice's face, Karina stood up and walked over to where she was sitting. As she plopped down next to her, Karina rested her chin on the palms of her hands as she asked with a broad smile, "So what's the fuss about?" Teasingly, she continued in a sing song voice, "Did some cute boy write you a love letter?"

[Alice]

"Haha, Karina, very funny" Alice replied lightly before she continued, "But I'm serious, take a look at this letter." At this, Alice handed her the paper and then sat silently as she waited for her friend to finish reading it. When Karina gave her back the letter, Alice raised her brows expectantly as she asked, "So? What do you make of it? Certainly you don't suppose that it's a joke, do you?"

[Karina]

"Well, if it is a joke, someone went to a whole lot of trouble to make this letter look as authentic as possible." Bringing the envelope closer to her eyes, Karina squinted as she examined the crest again. "But, I'd say this is 100 percent real - but don't hold me to that." Karina smiled as she finished, a twinkle in her eye, "After all, I'm not exactly what you'd call a crest expert. In fact, this may have been the first time I saw one up close and personal."

[Alice]

Biting her lip, Alice nodded as she said absently, her mind already flying through a list of things she now had to do, the first one being to write a letter of acceptance to the queen, "You're such a silly girl, Kari." Glancing up from the letter, which she had begun to reread, Alice patted Karina's knee as she said, "Don't you ever change."

Rising to her feet, Alice suddenly became brisk as she walked over to her desk, opened the top drawer, and pulled out her finest stationary and calligraphy pen. "Now then," she murmured, "what to write, what to write . . ."

[Karina]

As Alice's offhand comment echoed in her mind, Karina's shoulders sagged slightly. Don't ever change. With a sad smile, she whispered inaudibly, "Don't worry about that, Alice; there's no danger in little old me ever changing. I am and always will be the mouse. The meek little mouse who no one ever notices."

Standing up to go back over to her own bed, Karina paused as she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror on the opposite wall. For a long, hard moment, she stared at herself - her boring brown hair, dull hazel eyes, terrible posture . . .

Karina cringed inwardly as she cut off her train of thoughts, all the while knowing that she could easily fill a journal with a list of her flaws. Shaking her head, she plopped down on her bed and reopened her book of poetry and tried to focus her mind on the words on the page. It was pointless though; she was in one of those moods now. Self-loathing. And it didn't help matters that Alice, one of, if not the, most beautiful people she had ever met was currently sitting at her desk across the room. Looking elegant. Poised. Fabulous.

Surreptitiously eying her friend, Karina sighed. She couldn't help it. She was jealous. Jealous with a capital J. Alice was everything she had always wanted to be - cool, smart, beautiful, sophisticated. When Alice walked into a room, everyone noticed. When Alice spoke, everyone leaned in closer to listen. When Alice smiled, you couldn't look away. She was perfect.

And she wasn't. Karina knew that she would never be like Alice. She would never transform into that type of girl. And as superficial as it was, it hurt. Because she knew that she would never receive a letter from a queen, that she would never have the chance to travel to realms near and far, that she would eternally be stuck as Karina, that quiet, bookish girl.

Rolling over onto her side, Karina's eyes burned with tears. She was being childish; hadn't she done this a hundred times already? And what did it ever solve? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And yet here she was, at it again.

As the tears began to roll down over her cheeks, Karina nestled herself deeper down beneath her covers and allowed herself to finally find comfort in sleep.