Disclaimer: World belongs to Gail Carson Levine

Our plan was simple enough. We'd try to act like we were able to tolerate one another in front of others to show that we were going to deal with the hand we were dealt with. Privately, we were going to destroy it at every moment.

I was going to slowly start insulting him in front of others, and not really him as much as his country. I knew how to subtly insult and demean others, it was the part of my schooling, and I was going to use it to my advantage at last. He was going to react with his usual charming smile while glaring at me at the same time, which is actually harder than it sounds. Eventually, over this long, long course of a year he was going to "cheat" on me with one of the girls. He wasn't fond of this plan, as it made him out to be the jerk of the situation but I dismissed his worries. I knew my own parents wouldn't care about him cheating on me (my mother had warned me a few nights after I came back that it would definitely happen), but his family would, well, destroy him for a lack of a better word and wouldn't let him get married to me as I handle the situation with poise, grace, and "private" fake tears.

Which was another reason he eyed the idea with disgust. He didn't want his own family to hate him but he knew it would be practically impossible for me to cheat on him. Mostly because I had never really known any of the boys my age (other than the idiotic Darius) and now that I was getting married to Orlando, they were even less eager to know me. So, it really wasn't much of a choice.

But he wasn't fond of the idea of cheating at all, "There has to be another way to do this," he argued while plastering a gleaming grin on his face as we passed by several over-powdered women who smiled slyly back at him.

I held onto his arm, pursing my lips and having a growing need to roll my eyes, "There isn't another way, unless somebody declares war on each other or some other nonsense, and we can't have that. The people will suffer," I motioned out to the forest.

He gave me a dubious look, "If by people you mean animals, I'm sure they would be fine." I huffed but he held up a hand and interrupted my train of thought, "But, you're right, there really isn't another way that I can think of to get through this mess."

It wasn't long until we spotted our target. Olivia Smeltings was a simple merchant's daughter who paraded around with a mess of red curls tucked underneath her chin while bragging about her latest dress.

Orlando may have wondered at first why I picked her, but he didn't after he saw the sneaky upstart smack her servant. Then he didn't wonder anymore. He did look slightly ill that he'd have to kiss that creature.

But, as I pointed out to him as we danced together, it wasn't like we had much of a choice.

He was still disgruntled, "That's not true. I seem to have lots of choices. I can choose not to go along with this, I can figure out another way, hell, I could just marry you," he hissed as he picked me up for the final twirl.

Our dancing instructor, who had been promised tears, whining, and kicks from the two of us was delighted (and a little shocked) that we had completed the dance. His eyes were dazed anyway and that was enough proof for me that we were succeeding in, well, the first part of this plan. The hardest part in my opinion.

Orlando and I smiled tersely at the instructor as he fawned over our newfound skill but inside I was raging. He can't change the plan now. We've been trying to figure out this whole thing since the beginning!

As soon as I could get out of his arms I did. I could hear his footsteps behind me, maybe he was going to fight with me, maybe he was going to apologize, or maybe he was just going to come and see if I was all right but I didn't want him too. I knew the forest would probably be the first place he or anyone else who knew me would go to, so I opted for someplace different.

My room.

My chambermaids' mouths dropped when they saw me enter. I suppose I understood their shock, it was a beautiful day and yet I was picking the indoors to mope. They exchanged looks quickly but I didn't care what they thought of me. I just slid on top of my bed and covered my face with a pillow and screamed.

I could not, would not, should not marry him. I didn't want to think about birthing babies and being queenly and oh dear, birthing babies, and duties to my husband (blech) and ugh, Orlando. Why is he so fickle about this?

Who cares if we're using some girl? She's practically evil anyway and she'd probably be delighted to oblige Orlando with some "creature comforts" since his mean fiance won't. Oh let me kiss you Orlando, I know Arianna won't touch you, she's such a wicked princess, I mean, why, you deserve something better than her. Ugh.

If he won't help me I really don't know what I'm going to do.

Author's Note: Uh... sorry? *shameful look at desk* This year has been really busy and crazy. I had a bunch of tough classes all year in which I barely even read fanfiction, let alone think about writing it, also, I was stuck on what to do for like ever. Plus, I moved to another country for study abroad (which is where I'm sitting writing this down now =D) so as you can see, I've been pretty busy (just like all of you but I'm much worse at handling my time than most people, I really need to learn how to do it before I "grow up"). This is a filler chapter, btw, in case you think it y'know sucks. (cause it kind of does =/) The next chapter should have more dialogue in it too and witty banter. It's... well, it's a lot better than this chapter I can say that much.

I hope you don't hate me too much and I completely understand if you're like haha, reviewing?, in your dreams. But, I feel it's the obligatory author thing to ask for reviews, so, ah, please? Thanks for reading and, once again, I'm sorry I took, literally, a year off. IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN. (at least for this story, and hopefully not for any other ones).