AN: Hehe…thanks reviewers and about the Neal thing Temptress: I absolutely hate Neal, and if I saw him, I'd kill him *evil grin* MUAHAHAHAH…but anyway hehe…we won't go into that…I hope you'll enjoy the next bits! :D btw, if you haven't noticed, I am obsessed (it worries my friends a lot) with Jon *sighs dreamily* but he's too old now, ah well, there's always Roald :D ! Here goes!

When the message came, I couldn't believe it. I was about to meet King Jon—the man I'd always thought to be my future-husband. I'd planned it out; Thayet would turn gay and run off with Verice—Numair's ex—so I'd get the King and I would turn him back into the sweet, loving Prince he'd been before Alanna had rejected him.

'Your Majesty requests you, Lady,' a messenger informed me when I'd answered the knock to the door.

I went ballistic; I shut the door and counted to ten, breathing in and out slowly, before I turned to the royal-blue dress on my bed. I threw off the beige dress and pulled on the other dress. Hayley and Serena had gone to meet some friends; I'd turned down the offer to meet them because I'd wanted a few hours to myself, to work out what I'd gotten myself into.

I took a deep breath before opening the door, basically running into the messenger. But it wasn't the messenger; it was the Prince.

'Hey,' I smiled cheerfully at him.

'I was just coming to get you, my father—'

'Yeah, the messenger told me. D'you know Jon's one of my favourite charac—I mean…ah, well you see—'

'I understand, your favourite character from the 'Tamora Pierce' books. We get that a lot. Please don't faint when you see the King, my father's had so many girls of your world faint at his feet he's beginning to carry salts around with him.'

'I'll try!'

The doors opened to the King's office quarters and I kept my eyes to the floor, wanting it to be a surprise. Maybe Jon's too old for me now, maybe he's greying and crinkly and—

'Holy Cow!'

Everyone in the room turned to look at me. I blushed. 'I mean, good day, your Majesty.' I did the best curtsy I could but I just ended up looking like an idiot.

He was even hotter than Roald. Even if he was older, he still took my breath away.

The King inclined his beautiful head and smiled kindly. 'You're another added mystery to the Girls from the Other World. But you are far more mysterious; we have yet to know your name.'

'Ah—Reem, your Majesty.' I replied, for once my voice was soft and shy.

'Reem? Only Reem?' he inquired with a raised eyebrow.

I gulped. What? I didn't have titles. And I was going to give my last name. 'Yeah, it's pretty complicated, I—'

'You don't need to explain to us,' he said, gesturing to the people around him. I didn't see Alanna anywhere… Was that Numair? No Daine. Myles! And was that Lord Wyldon? My eyes stopped to a marvellously beautiful woman, with full lips and kind, bright eyes.

And that was my 'rival', Thayet. Not likely she'll turn gay, I thought to myself.

Roald nudged my arm, hard, so I snapped back from my evil thoughts and turned to the King, who must have asked a question and was waiting patiently for an answer.

'I'm sorry, your Majesty?'

'Has a guide picked you yet? You need one, and if you don't, Roald has kindly offered to be your guide, we don't want you to get lost…again.'

So the whole kingdom knows the new girl from the 'Other World' got lost on her first day. Haven't others? My God. I'm famous.

'No, I don't have a guide your Majesty, thank you your Majesty, that's very nice of his Highness, Prince Roald.'

The King nodded and went back to his work with obvious dismissal.

Roald led me out of the room.

'See, I didn't faint,' I gloated to Roald, as he shut the door.

'Oh no, just the gaga eyes and the lost-in-dreams look on your face. That's all.'

I made a face and let him steer me back to my quarters.

When we were at my door, he stopped and leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest. 'I've been given a day off tomorrow, would you like to go riding with me? It's for your own sake, you know. You'll need to learn to ride, side-saddle is all you have to learn though.'

I raised an eyebrow, mock offended. 'Excuse me? Give me lessons and I'll ride better than the King himself! Side-saddle he says! Pfft.'

He laughed as he pushed himself away from the door. 'I find that hard to believe, but I'll take you up on that.'

I smiled triumphantly and unlocked the door with the key Hayley had given me before she'd left with Serena. 'Well, goodnight,' I said.

He nodded and wandered off, hands in pockets.

I changed into the nightgown I'd been given the day I woke in the cottage with Roald in a chair next to me. Funny how every memory I can think of is related to Roald.

I couldn't believe the day was over.

I couldn't believe this day ever happened!

And of course, I couldn't go to sleep; I tossed around in my bed, trying hopelessly to send myself off to sleep, but the buzz and excitement of the day troubled my sleep-deprived body as my mind recalled the events and conversations I'd had that day. In the end I just gave up stared up into the dark ceiling.

I wondered where Khalil was staying; Hayley had told me that he was the only guy from our world to ever turn up in their world. So where did that leave him? Where did he sleep? Where was his room? The poor guy, he's never read Tammy books, he doesn't know much about this world.

My thoughts switched to my mother and I quickly sat up in my bed, feeling guilty. How was she doing? I wondered. Was I really in a coma back there, or had I just disappeared? Did I have two bodies, one lying limp in the Other World and the one I was living in currently, in Tortall?

Tears threatened to overwhelm me as I thought of my weak, fragile mother. She still hadn't completely recovered, and now I practically die on her, what is she doing? Has she slipped back into depression? Who's going to manage the bills, take care of the house and most importantly, who's looking after her? Her pride wouldn't let her go to her mother or sisters and brothers and ask for help, she'd never asked me to help because she'd sunk too deep into her depression to notice there were bills to pay and things to look after. So who's going to help her now that I was gone?

In the end I exhausted myself to sleep with questions about the Other World and my mother.