Disclaimer- the characters belong to Tamora Pierce.

A/N Cringes in anticipation for whatever will be thrown at me I know it's been a while since my last update, thanks to AJ-lover for pointing out the fact, I hadn't thought it had been over a month since the last update. I've been doing a lot of writing for scholarships so, yeah, hopefully my updates will be back to normal soon.

Kel's POV

I walked along side Sir Raoul as we headed for where the King was. I was worrying about what the King wanted. It was most likely about the relationship, by now, Roald probably told him. I looked up to see Raoul looking at me, "Don't worry, it's probably nothing. Maybe a few more questions about the school and whatnot."

"It's the questions about the whatnot that's worrying me."

We stopped outside the same room we had returned to when we came home to Tortall. Raoul knocked on the door, and then waited for it to be opened. Alanna opened the door and let us in. King Jon was sitting at the table, his back towards me, meaning I couldn't read his expression. Without turning around his motioned for us sit across from him.

I was nervous; I took a breath and fixed the expression on my face. I took my spot. King Jon looked at me; his face was practiced, showing no emotion. Nothing was said; we sat around the table looking no one else in the eyes. Finally King Jon began to speak, "I have heard about the relationship between you and my son while you were gone."

He knew, I knew that he knew, but hearing it like this made everything harder. Especially since I had learnt about the engagement yesterday, and only received a promise to help me get over this today. Yet I couldn't lie, could act ignorant to what he was saying, I had to answer, even though I would rather not. "Yes it is true."

"Are the two of you still in a relationship?"

"No sir."

"Do you plan on telling anyone about your relationship?"

"No sir."

"You'll not disrupt the engagement?"

"No sir."

"Okay, remember what you let slip may hurt Roald. Raoul, I need you to stay a while longer, give Kel any orders you have."

"Enjoy your day, although I do suggest you work on the list slightly. Joren is probably worrying about you right now."

"You must have some good friends Kel." said the King.

"Yes my newest friend is quite nice right now."

I bowed and left the room. I hurried back to the practice room where I had left Joren. He wasn't there. From there I headed to his room. Knocking twice with no answer, I decided to check and see if he was in the mess hall. The room itself was empty. I gave up on the search and headed towards my own room to check that Jump and the Sparrows had enough food for know, and work on the list a little.

When I reached the hallway that led to my room I saw something on the floor against my door. I hurried down the hallway to find out what it was. It turned out not to be something but someone. Joren was sitting outside my door, and had apparently fallen asleep. I leant over and shook his shoulder slightly. "What do you want?" he muttered.

"To get into my room. Come on let's get you something better to sit on."

I unlocked my door and walked in, Joren following me. Jump growled slightly as Joren came into the room. "It's okay Jump, he's a friend."

Jump backed off, but kept his eyes on Joren. I grabbed the list out of my desk and sat on my bed. I opened to the page I had marked and began writing. I kept my eyes on my page, not looking around. I could feel Joren's eyes on me, and I knew that he wasn't about to stop looking anytime soon. "What did they want?"

"To talk."

"You don't want to talk about it do you?"

"Do I really seem that bad? Enough that they need me to promise not to say anything, not to do anything?"

I felt the mattress shift underneath me, just before an arm wrapped around me. "Your fine the way you are. It's not your fault that they don't trust you. Although it may have something to do with you being strong, and opposing, kind of like Alanna. They don't know how to deal with you. You're only the second female knight they've had to deal with this century."

"True, but still."

I continued on the list, names we're appearing on both lists more frequently. "What are you working on?"

"A mystery. The people in this book have disappeared from here, and landed in the same place I did."

"So that place, what was it like?"

"No magic, but I gained some, it was different, suddenly having magic. Of course coming back here caused me to loss it. We actually landed in a place called, School. It's a learning facility, much like the university, but everyone there is about our age, and none had reached a university level, they had trouble believing the fact that Neal had gone through university."

"How about knights, were there any?"

"None, other than Raoul and Alanna when they came, but there were teachers passing on knowledge, and some of their classes were the same, but with really weird names of the greatest discovery. They have Note's catapult theory, but they call it the Pythagorean Theorem."

"Anything else?"

"The clothes they wore were quite different. Go out into the hall for half a second and I'll show you what they looked like. We were allowed to keep the few items of clothing we were to wear to class."

With Joren outside, I pulled out the uniform. I never thought I would do this, but I pulled it on, only this time I didn't touch the skirt or put on any face paints. "Okay come in quickly, I don't really want anyone to see this."

"You don't have to show me."

"You don't get the full effect unless it's on. Even the queen asked me to show her how to wear the outfit."

Joren quickly came into the room and looked at me. I gave a slight spin carefully holding the skirt down. "So girls actually walked around in skirts that short?"

"Shorter, most rolled them up."

"Did the guys have to wear the same outfit?"

Joren looked ready to laugh. "No they didn't. The guys wore outfits quite similar to our uniforms."

"That's boring."

I laughed. Joren sat down on my bed. "I was planning on pulling my own clothes on again."

"You said those were your clothes. Anyways it's only the two of us in here. Jut wears it for a bit."

I grabbed my books of the bed and sat at the dresser. "Fine but please don't bug me. I have work to do."

"Can I help?"

"Not really there's only one copy of each book."

I heard a loud thud. I turned around to see what had happened. Joren was sitting on the floor motioning for Jump to come towards him. I turned back to my work. It seemed that Joren really had changed, and maybe it was for the better.

I didn't stop working until I heard the bell and realized it was suppertime. Joren had been quiet the entire time I was working. It didn't surprise me to see Joren leaning against my bed, fast asleep. I walked over to him and shook his shoulder. "You sleep way too much. It's suppertime. Now get out so I can change."

"Promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Wear a dress tonight to supper. You haven't done that in a while and it will surprise everyone."

"Get out of my room then."

Joren jumped up and left. I grabbed one of my dresses and changed out of my uniform and into it. Joren was right it had been a while since I last pulled on a dress even though my mom had given me a new one when I got back. I was lucky it fit properly. I used some of my face paints. I left the room and locked my door. Joren was sitting down across from my door, with a look of awe on his face. "I should go change shouldn't I?"

"No, this is perfect. Let's go."

Joren to my hand and held it as we walked through the halls and into the mess hall. I spotted Roald sitting at one of the tables. I squeezed Joren's hand. He pulled me a little closer. We sat down at a table away from Roald, where Neal and the others were sitting. I saw a couple different expressions cross the guys' faces as I sat down. "Its fine guys, he's with me."

"Wait you two are?" started Merric.

"No, were only friends, but still you must be nice."

I joined the guys in eating supper, trying hard to act normal. It wasn't hard to do. The random emptiness of the guys' conversation had me laughing. Again as always Neal put his fork down without touching his vegetables. "Neal for as much as you hoped, Kel hasn't changed that much. She looks ready to literally smack some sense into you." said Merric.

Neal looked up at my face and picked up his forks and quickly ate his vegetables. "Better Kel?"

I smiled and nodded my head. Roald had crossed my line of vision again. I felt someone take my hand and squeeze it. "Remember Kel, your strong, you'll make it through this. If you want I can take you back to your room."

"I'll go myself. You stay and have fun."

I stood up and left the room. Never had I expected anyone to follow me. Especially not the one whom, I recognized from the yelling of "Hey Kel."

A/N There you go, a quick update, Kel working at getting over her sorrow. Hoped you enjoyed it.