Huge. That was the first word that entered the girl's mind as she looked down the hallway for a moment and couldn't even see the end. Her bare feet (well, one of them anyway) walked across the soft, expensive carpet, in wonder as to how this could be. Curtains were drawn aside from the windows that were about three times the size of the girl herself. Vases and portraits lined the sides of the hallways, showing off how expensive this place really was. It was like...like what the royal castle would look like, the girl's mind put together. No, this place was better than what the royal castle might ever look like.

"I'll give you some privacy while you take a bath, alright?" Belle said with amusement in her tone, noticing how the girl was staring about the bathroom like it was the grandest thing in the world. At least Belle knew now, sort of, how the girl reminded her like herself. When she'd first come to the castle...well, she'd had that same unbelieving look on her features as well. After nine years of living within the royal castle though, Belle had come to get used to her surroundings...it gave her a certain sense of nostalgia to see the girl stare at everything like in wonder.

"Okay." Juliette breathed, staring at the bathroom in wonder. Bath. Room. There was an entire room just dedicated to a tub of soapy water, and a desk that had a mirror attached to it. Not to mention a rack holding clean towels, a cabinet like thing that was pretty big in itself...the girl could go on and on, describing how this one room looked. Back at the orphanage they hadn't had tubs. If you wanted to keep clean, you get some puddle water and splash it across your face, or if it rained, you ran outside into it. There was no soap. There were no bubbles. It was more of a want than anything.

The door shut softly, and the girl turn her head sharply to the sound, immediately stiffening as a reflex reaction. When she realized everything was fine, she let out a breath of relief she didn't know she'd been holding in. Warily looking at the door, the girl then looked back down at the nightgown she was wearing, and gingerly stepped out of it and into the tub.

After at least thirty minutes of thorough soaking and scrubbing, the girl finally thought herself clean enough. Drying herself slowly and silently with a towel, and then slipping into the dress that had been left considerately (and hopefully) for her on the vanity table, immediately noticing how the dress was almost too big for her. But she wasn't complaining. The girl ran her fingers through her dark brown, almost black curls, ignoring the brush and the mirror as she knew she had no need for them. For a moment, the girl studied the shoes that had been left out for her.

As wonderful as it was to have two shoes...the girl knew she would only be able to wear one. Her right foot had such a bad limp that if she wore such a nice shoe...well, it would be destroyed by the end of the day. No, the she couldn't do that. The girl's eyes shifted left to right for a moment, before giving a soft sigh of relief as she saw her old, too-big-boot kind of hidden behind the vanity. The girl made a note in her mind to thank whoever had left her old boot and a nice dress out for her, and tell them that next time, they really shouldn't go through any trouble just because of her.

Finally, when the girl thought she looked good enough (or good enough as she'd ever be), she carefully straightened up the bathroom, making it neat once again, before limping out the door.

The first sight she was met with was those same three children whom she'd seen on more than one occasion, when they managed to sneak into her room. From listening to them before, the girl had come to conclude that the blue eyed girl was the leader at eight years, with the name of Ara, the black haired girl was a year or so younger and was Gemma, and the little boy was only about four years of age, his name being Alex. The minute the children, who were slumped against the wall, saw the girl though, they immediately brightened up.

"Juliette!" Alex was the first to cry out. "Mama said that we couldn't go in 'cause you were-you was your bath time, but now that you're not we're gonna play!"

"Alex." Arabella rolled her eyes, showing signs already of a developing dry humor. "We're not going to go play. We're gonna show her everything." Arabella said, as Juliette blinked, wondering if she had an opinion or if she was just going to be spoken for.

"Where should we go first?" Gemma asked, putting a finger to her chin. Stealing a look up at the older girl in front of her. The dress she was wearing kept slipping off of one shoulder, exposing a nasty looking bruise.

"The nursery! The nursery!" Alex chimed in, chipper as a clam at getting his voice in. The nursery (well, his nursery) wasn't too far away from where the children were now, and on the plus side, he'd be able to show Juliette all his toys.

"The nursery is for babies." Arabella said snidely to her younger brother, who's face fell at just the thought of it.

"How about the bibliothèque, er, library?" Gemma chimed in hopefully, wondering if her idea would be shot down by her friend and hoping to goodness that it wasn't. She liked being friends with Ara, even if the girl was really bossy.

"Nuh-uh." Arabella swatted the idea of the library away, not noticing how Gemma's face fell. Juliette warily watched this, entirely silent as usual. She'd never been an outspoken child; actually, she liked to keep to herself. Suddenly, Arabella snapped her fingers, looking up happily. "I know where! We'll go to the library!" The little girl cried out loud, figuring out a place.

"But I just…je viens de...said that." Gemma said, blinking in confusion. The princess didn't seem to hear her though, because she immediately grabbed Juliette's hand, and started to lead the limping girl towards the library. Though the children noticed the girl's horrible limping, they said not a word about it. Belle had pre-warned them all with the story of 'the girl fell and hurt her leg a long time ago', and to not speak a word about it, upon penalty of a time-out. Needless to say, the children were keeping silent.

"See? This is the library! It's got lots and lots and lots of books to read! Mama even says she hasn't read all of them!" Alex said; chipper as he followed behind his sister and her best friend into the library. Juliette stared all around her at the gigantic room, her jaw nearly dropping to the floor.

When she been taken by the hand through the many different hallways and corridors, and seen many of the most likely servants in this place, the girl had come to the conclusion that the house she must be in must be at least twice the size of the orphanage. But that wasn't true, the girl realized now. Oh no. Just one room was twice the size of the orphanage. It was a grand room, with shelves upon shelves of books, and windows, furniture, and so much more…but the only impact it made on the orphan girl was just one word. Really?

This place…these people were so spoiled. They kept just one room full of books, one room. More than a hundred orphans could fit into this room to have a place to sleep, and more than a hundred with probable room to spare. Lots of room. Suddenly, Juliette was…angry. Hot tears burned her eyes as she realized one fact.

These people…didn't they know how bad it was out there? Didn't they know that while they had fancy book rooms, orphans were being squashed together to sleep in an uncomfortable, dirty, tiny, horribly bad room? How could they be so selfish? These fancy people lived in their nice homes, had nice hair, and nice clothes, while orphans had barely enough room to breathe, let alone sleep, their hair was always infested with lice, and their clothes were rags? Didn't they know how bad it was for them?

"Why are you crying?" Gemma asked, titling her black head of hair to the side in wonderment. Older kids didn't cry…well, 'cept Chip that one time when he broke his arm, but other than that…

"I-I'm…I've gotta…" Juliette limped as fast as she could out of that damned book room, wiping at her tears and trying to keep it all together. By the time the children realized that she was leaving them, and they ran after her, the girl was gone, somewhere deep within the castle now.


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