Fake Or Real?

Arthur consoled himself but deep in his heart he knew Talia didn't even notice him there and he wondered what kind of tantrum she'll throw once she gets up.

But I must stay with her tonight!

In his deep contemplation, he looked at the windowsill and that's when he noticed the potted plant with a beautiful white lily flower. With the blinds of the window in dark green colour merging with the colour of the big oblong leaves and a black pot, he didn't notice it till then.

The spotlessly clean pot and beautiful leaves with no browning and the perfect white flower made him conclude that it is fake.

Also, like his Iris could keep anything alive and this healthy! She needs a horde of people to take care of her and she takes care of nothing!

He held a leaf with his fingers and oddly it felt natural.

'Has technology so developed they are making fake plants to feel like real ones?'

He smelled something pleasant and he bent and it seemed like it was the flower.

They make the flowers fragrant too?

Arthur was astonished by the care went to create such a masterpiece and he didn't even doubt that plant could be real.

If it was real, it would be dead!

Suddenly the doorbell rang and Arthur tightly clutching the leaf winced slightly as it was a weird chirping sound and he felt something in his hand. He looked at his hand and saw a little piece of the leaf in his hand and his heart stopped.

'Holy mother of all inventions! This plant is real!!! '

'If she maintained this plant this perfectly, she'd notice this torn leaf and would get angry! What should I do? What should I do?'

He tried to glue back the leaf together in its original place and as he placed it, the doorbell rang once more and the torn piece fell on the floor. He ran to the door fearing Talia would wake up.

Arthur looked through the peephole and it was Jordan McAllister with his luggage.

He opened the door and Jordan tried to enter in but was pushed out by that jealous man who didn't want anyone else to share the same space with him and his wife.

"Leave"

Arthur said and tried to close the door but Jordan was keen on getting in. He wanted to see the kind of life that infamous Princess is leading that is stopping her from even visiting her home country.

"Get lost! It's her private place and other men cannot enter. If you touch the doorbell once again and I will personally chop your fingers off!"

"Just like this? Not even a thank you?" Jordan said with a sigh as the door closed at his face.

'I brought this heavy luggage for him and he is not even inviting me in! What an ungrateful man! Do all married men become slaves to their wives? If so, it is better to stay single, isn't it?' Jordan left with dejection. But the thought that he could stay in that presidential suite of the seven star hotel, his mood got better.

Single life is the best!

Arthur didn't even care for Jordan who left mumbling and the military guy living in her floor who returned home, locked the door carefully and rolled his big luggage inside and kept it beside the PC.

He opened the bedroom carefully and Talia was still sleeping deeply and he sighed in relief. Even her sleeping posture was proper and she hasn't moved for a long time.

'How is she this perfect?' Arthur couldn't help but pat her head.

'Speaking of perfection... That leaf!!!'

Arthur screamed internally and tried his best to fix that leaf but he couldn't.

'I'm doomed' he thought, 'She'll definitely throw me out! But... How did my sweet Iris learn to take care of another life? ' he wondered and that thought brought a smile to his lips.

'It's better! She is getting better! She is learning now to take care of herself and started taking care of others too. It is better!'

Slowly his memory turned back to the day he met her in high school.

Back when he met her again in high school, he didn't have much feelings for her. She joined their class only after a month.

He was in his rebellious phase back then and wanted to escape from his family. Ever since he learnt that his family is responsible for 'Blue's' mother's death, he hated his family he's a part of.

So during middle school,he joined the basketball team and wanted to become a pro basketball player and leave his family and that country forever.

He joined this public high school in the capital city far from their town, that had the best basketball team for that reason. As far as public schools go, that school was the best in their country.

Their class always had an absentee student by the name Ann Whiteford who was the topper in the entrance exam and everyone thought that she had quit school.

He was the one feared by everyone in class since everyone knew he is Arthur Sinclair the third son of the President. He was tall and had a bad temper picking fights with everyone for any reason and had a bad reputation. Those times, he hated everything and everyone.

That day, as usual he came to school two hours late. But his usual seat by the window was occupied by someone with a short hair wearing a skirt. He almost grabbed that person by the hair and smash their face on the table but before he did anything, the teacher interfered,surprising him. Till then no one has stopped him.

He kicked the table and the girl who was sleeping woke up scrunching her face. Short hair, glasses and... Coloured contact lenses!

One of her iris was brown and the other was half brown and other half where the coloured lens was moved was blue... A beautiful blue he had seen on only one person.

'But she is two years younger than me. How could she be in my class? ' he wondered standing beside her looking in her eye that had the same colour as the Siberian irises his mother loved. Then he remembered the sudden appointment of Cyrus Lockhart in this school as a teacher and he had a difference name too.

This should be her!

She looked angry her sleep was disturbed and as soon as she saw him, she blinked her eyes and realising the lens has moved, she hurriedly fixed her lens and looked back at him. He felt guilty remembering the last time he met her. She was so worried for her mother and brother and his family had been the ones who took them both from her.

But she didn't look at him with spite. There was a small smile in her lips, like she had met an old acquaintance.

"Iris, " he couldn't help but smile back.

"You can sit here."

And that marked the start of the friendship between them. Cyrus was wary of him for sometime and later he stopped being annoying, surprisingly.

There were some other girls and boys who tried to befriend her. But she pushed them all away and would just stay alone. So he'd join her. She never revealed why she came back from the International boarding school in another country. But she looked sad whenever he asked about it and so he stopped asking about it.

Her grandfather had spent a lot on this school anonymously and the teachers were always polite with her since they knew of her identity.

Both of them will be sleeping through classes and no one would bother to disturb them. He was the President's son and she is an heiress. They were the untouchables and they stayed together all the time.

In the first year, with her short hair and don't-care-attitude, she was more like a boy and he felt she was different from the girl he met by the river. She was still polite but she never followed rules. She wore skirts and he wore pants and both had many similar views and so they got along together.

When he asked about her already in high school, she just shrugged.

" I was supposed to write the entrance exam for middle school admissions but I was late and in a hurry I entered the wrong room and wrote the exam for high school."

She said and he couldn't hold back his laughter. She entered the wrong room and wrote the exam for upper class and became the topper. What kind of mad genius is this Brunton? She was the one who helped him pass his first year. If she didn't let him cheat, he'd have had to repeat a year!

That girl is amazing!