The Heart's Never Alone

I was out on one of my walks during summer vacation in the back field with the dog. I lived in the suburbs in Kentucky and they do have areas surrounded by woods. When I was walking I ran into an older woman in what looked to be about in her mid 70's.She acted as though she knew me.
I stopped to talk to the woman, but all she said was "All the pieces will fit together in the end." I was confused. I asked her to tell me more but she shook her head no. As I started to turn away she handed me a box and said "Wait until supper and tell no one!" So, I set off to finish my walk, but stopped after a little ways and glanced over my shoulder but saw nothing. It was like she was never there. I scared me at first, but i tried to rid my mind of the thought.

****
After supper I headed to my favorite spot in the fields under a tree. I opened the box the woman gave me and the first thing I noticed was the dust. Ignoring it I opened it and found some notes and some colored stones with different pictures on them. I looked through the letters that had names signed on the top and found mine.
"Darkness has fallen and it is your job to make sure we stay safe from any danger. You will be assigned a mission to see if you are well. I have known you for a long time and have watched you grow from a toddler to a teenager. You are to become a Princess and it might seem hard to understand but you will. You will have 3 other members join you and you will you your magical powers to help another world become whole again. This might seem to much for you but when you get your friends there is a letter that might answer any of your questions. It might not but you will see me before your first task and I will explain."

It was not a very long letter, but i found names of three other people. One was my best friend Carrisa. However, the other two I did not know. So I continued to look over my letter when I noticed some words on the of each letter. They were addresses of each person. I would write them down when I got back to the house.
I looked over at the sun and it was setting. I t was to late to go anywhere now, so I headed home to think, knowing I was going to go in the morning.

***

Finally morning came and I got up early and left mom a note telling her I was going to my best friends house.
Carrisa was out in her field. I walked up to her and told her I needed to talk to her. She said okay and we went to her tree house. We climbed up and I handed her the magical note to read. She read hers and then looked at me with a weird look.
"I don't understand either."
She flipped the letter over to find her address. I told her about the other two that were suppose to join us. We sat there in silence starring down at the letters.
After a while, we both told each other that we had to find the other two. Therefore, we told Carrisa's mom we were going for a walk and started down the road. We wondered down the street when we came up upon Jason's house. Slowly approaching the house we rang the door bell and waited. At first no one answered but the blonde haired boy appeared in the doorway.
"Whatcha want?" he said
"Are you Jason?" I asked shyly.
"Yeah why?"
"Well we need you to come along. We have a letter that has your name on in."
He gave us a confused glance but reluctantly tagged along seeming like there wasn't anything better to do then follow two cute girls.
"Um, it might be hard to understand why we are here and that we know you." I said as we took off down the road. " But, we have another person we are trying to look for. Do you know him?" I gave him the address that and a boy named Chris on it.
"Yeah, That's my best friend. Why?' giving an even more confused look on his face.
"Well we have a letter that's for you and this Chris kid. So, we were wondering if you could show us where he lives."
Jason nodded his head and lead the way to a house not that far down from his. All three of us walked up to the house and Jason knocked on the door. A blonde haired boy, much like Jason, had answered the boy. He nodded his head to his friend and went to say something to him but stopped when he got a glimpse of us girls. Then his expression changed from an excited to lost look.
"Hi, I'm Jessica. Um, we have a letter that's for you and Jason. So, if we could go to the park we will give them to you."
"Uh, yeah sure." he mumbled while shooting his friend a look. But, Jason just shrugged his shoulders and followed the two girls.

When we got to the park Carrisa and I sat down on the swings while the boys leaned up against the posts. I handed them the letters that had their names. They gave confused expressions like when I had read my first letter.
"Ok, like I'm not trying to play any tricks on anyone." I mentioned to them letting them know this wasn't a joke.
"Yeah we believe you." they both sighed.
We all just sat there awhile in silence not knowing what to say. Once we relaxed and let the letters soak in, we finally started talking. I don't know why I had forgotten about the other letter, but I did. I told them about it and the boys sat down on the swings as I read it out loud.

"I know you are confused and probably will become close friends that way. I know you probably won't ever understand why you were chosen to do the things you are destined to do. I will talk to you later about other things once I figure out what I am able to tell you. But I can tell you this, you four are to become Princes and Princesses before your first mission. You are not related, just soon to be friends. My name is Amy and that is all you need to know."

I showed them the other things we had gotten along with the letters. The guys went over the box and agreed with me when I said it was old. "This hasn't been opened in a long time." Jason thought out loud.
I wondered why we were chosen and if we really had these powers. I certainly didn't feel like royalty.
After a while of deciding on what we were going to do we heard a growl. I looked around and saw Chris smiling.
"Was that your stomach?" I said trying to not to laughed.
"Yeah my stomach can tell me the time, especially if I missed breakfast and it's close to lunch." he answered kind of proud of his trait.
"I guess that can be your special power." I managed to say before bursting out in laughter and then everyone joined in. We laughed even harder when Chris's stomach did it again.
After we calmed down we headed to my house to grab some lunch. I knew my parents were going to be out of town so they wouldn't mind my friends to be raiding the fridge. I was an only child with a lot of friends.
We all grabbed some sandwiches and ate out in the livingroom. We were watching a bunch of t.v. shows when the t.v. flipped itself to a different channel. We all stopped talking and looked at the t.v. screen.
This is what happened...

It took place with a man who was dressed in black armor. We watched further and we saw him talking to a captain. They were discussing battle tactics. We watched further and saw him standing before an entire army.
the scene then switched to a mother saying good-bye to her son who was dressed in a blue armor . "So he must be going to war." Carrisa said aloud.
That must have been the danger the letters were talking about. I thought.
What were we suppose to do, we cannot to anything. We are just teenagers, we cannot save all those people from danger. We don't even have powers to defeat them with.
Then, the old woman appeared on the screen.

"It's ok, this hasn't happened yet but soon will. You cannot use your powers yet because you are not in the right world. Yes, I mean what I say. You must travel to another world. It is not much different from your own but it is just made up of five cities. You know about the elements and you own them. The abilities are inside of you, you just need to awaken them. You are probably wondering how you are suppose to get to the other world. Well, it's simply believing who you are. Also, by saying good-bye to your love ones. You have to trust your friends. Trust is a powerful word especially if you don't know anything about that person. It is the powers that brought you to your equal element. It couldn't bring you to your opposite element though that is something you had to do on your own. Earth's equal is Water that is why Jessica and Carrisa are friends. Fire and Air are equal and that is why Jason and Chris are friends. The opposite of Earth is Air and that is why you two didn't know each other before today. The opposite of Water is Fire. Tomorrow is a new day and your first task. You have to say good-bye to your families and except your fate. You have to leave and must give your parents an explanation. That is your first tasks and you don't have a time limit but the war will not wait. Your task starts tomorrow. Good- bye."

We all looked at each other in amazement as the t.v. went back to the normal channels. We were all speechless but less confused now. It all made sense why we were friends before.
Now how was I suppose to make my parents understand that I had to leave because I was to save another world? was the thought that crossed my mind and apparently I wasn't the only one why this thought.
"Well we can try but maybe we better leave out information that they don't need to know about." Chris whispered and we all agreed.
SO we stayed with each other, glad we weren't going to be alone on it. I told them that we had to tell our parents soon. I put it in my mind that I was going to tell them tomorrow when they got home.

Chapter Two:

The next morning I woke and tried to remember if what happened yesterday was a dream. But, as I sat up I saw the box and it soon reminded me of what I was going to have to do.
"Hey maybe they will take it better then I think they will." I said to myself. Even though I wished it was true I decided to save my guessing for after they made their decision.
I got up and got dressed, then headed downstairs for some breakfast.. I was totally surprised when I found my parents already discussing something. When I entered the room they fell silent and I knew it was about me. As, I looked at their faces hoping to be able to tell what they were feeling I saw nothing. Well, at least I did not seem to anger.
I made my way over to the cabinet for my cereal and found a letter setting on the table. I was afraid that they had found my element letter but as I looked harder I saw it had come from an envelope.
"What's wrong?" I asked them.
They stayed silent.
"What's the letter?"
"It's from your Great Aunt." my mom finally answered. See my grandparents died when I was young so I didn't even know I had a great anything. "And you and your friends will be going to a house in Mexico."
Mexico, I have an aunt in Mexico? I thought.
I shook my head and remembered Amy. OMG that's my great aunt!
"Oh, cool! I can't wait! When do we leave?" I asked mom in a relieved voice.
"You leave today." mom said.
"So, I can go, can't I?" I asked in a pleading tone.
I was taken aback when they answered that I could and that it would be good for me.
I finished my cereal and headed over to the phone. I called Carrisa and did a 4 way call.
"So, did you guys tell your parents yet?" I asked all three.
"No." was everyone's reply.
"Good because my Great Aunt Amy was going to let us stay with her in Mexico to take care of some business! We are really going to Mexico, not another world."
They understood and I told them about the letter. I also told them that she was going to pick us up today to stay in a hotel in New York for a meeting. They all hung up the phone promising to call as soon as their parents answered.
I waited by the phone until lunchtime. As soon as I was about to head over into the kitchen for my sandwich, I heard the phone ring.
"Hello."
"Hey" everyone else was on the line. They all answered in excited tones that they could all go. I told them to pack and say good-bye to their parents and then head to my house so we could leave.

It was going to be totally awesome. I was so excited and thrilled of the adventures that laid before me. I was going to be with my best friend and my new ones for a long time. A long, hard filled working time. So much for summer vacation but I am sure it will be well worth it though.
After I had packed all of my favorite outfits that I loved and dragged my suitcase downstairs, I sat down on the couch to wait for my friends.
When 4:00 came I heard the doorbell ring and I went and answered it. There in the doorway stood my 3 friends eagerly waiting for the adventures to start. I went and said good-bye to my parents in the living room who amazingly did not come and see my new friends. We hugged me and told me to be careful. I was on my way out the door.
Amy had ordered a road trip car to take us to the hotel all the way in New York. She was having a meeting downtown so we were going to New York City. I was happy she had a meeting because it would have taken longer to leave my parents would have asked a lot of questions.
We all got into the taxi. Chris beat Jason to the front seat so he sat in the back. Jason was on my right and I was in the middle, while Carrisa was on my left by the window. I didn't mind sitting in the middle even though Carrisa and Jason kept bumping me with their elbows supposedly by accident. Yeah right, as I kept scooting around to make room for me. Chris was encouraging them to bump me the entire trip.
The driver didn't stop the entire trip. We soon fell asleep because it was nighttime outside and we were all laying our heads on each others shoulders. Chris was the only one who had his head against the passenger window.
We finally arrived at the hotel just before noon. We got out and I turned to pay the taxi and told me it was already paid for.
When we arrived we could hardly believe our eyes. I was a very expensive hotel and ansy. We started to look around when we entered the lounge room. It was so beautiful, the cieling was so tall. It had a huge crystal chandelier in the middle. It made the whole room have a warm feeling and it surely made me feel at home. The walls were painted a light sky blue color and the floor was a blue marble swirls of white in it. As soon as we were done looking around we realized we didn't know what the names of the rooms were under. So, we decided to go to the desk and ask them for the rooms that might be under be under one of our names. Before we could even make it to the desk, a busboy steps right in front of us.
"Are your names Christ, Carrisa, Jason, and Jessica?" he asked us all.

"Hello my name is Mark and please follow me I will show you to your rooms." he motioned us to follow him. We all followed him up the carpeted, wide staircase. "The elevator isn't working at the moment. But, there are only three floors." he laughed to himself.
We made it to the hallway that led far away from the stairs. We had rooms at the end of the hallway. Our rooms were right next to each others and mine was the last room in the hall.
"What room is right next to mine? It doesn't have a number on it." I asked the busboy.
"It's the door that leads up to the roof on the top floor and it is opened to the elements." was his reply.
"What do you mean?" Carrisa said over my shoulder.
"I once got caught out there in a rain storm." Mark said answering Carrisa. I laughed at his answer.
Mark handed us our keys. Chris gave him a tip and the busboy made his way back downstairs.
We all got our keys and headed into Jason's room first. It was beautiful and had blue walls like the rest of the place. Except only the marble was in the bathroom. We toured the rest of his room as we checked things over. He had a t.v., mini fridge, a microwave and of course a coffee maker. I knew that wouldn't get much use with the boys. But, Carrisa went over to investigate it and made a kind of squeal. The rest of us went over to see what it was about. It wasn't a coffee maker but better yet a hot coco machine! It would most definitely get used now.
The group headed over to Chris's room next, which was on the right side of Jason's. He unlocked it and everyone piled in. His room was almost exactly like Jason's room and he had the same colored everything. Chris was happy about his room. The bathroom was also the only room with marble and it was blue. He had all the same appliances that the other room had. He soon made it look like his room with the covers unturned in a sloppy way. I laughed as we headed back into the hallway.
When we got to Carrisa's room again that was on the right side of Chris's. It had a girlie touch to it almost like it was made for a girl. She had the same color and the bathroom marble. She had the appliances the boys had. She immediately turned the t.v. on. She was watching her favorite show on Animal Planet. We soon left her room and started towards mine.
At the very end of the hall to the left of the roof door we came to my room. I was surprised to find it blue and I mean everything was a shade of blue. I'm a blue fanatic and i still couldn't get enough.
After checking out everything I finally came to the decision that this space was wonderful. On the way up Mark had said these rooms hadn't been used in a while but they surely didn't look that way.
We all left each other alone to set up in our rooms and just settle in. We were totally happy and relaxed. We checked everything out and left nothing unturned. I was so content even though nothing after this would ever be the same. I might never be able to come home or see my family again. I was happy and relaxed, I was with people I knew and trusted. I wasn't alone and we would always be together.

After I unpacked my clothes I headed out to find out about this rooftop. I grabbed my jacket and went out the door. The door gave me no trouble opening it and I left the door unlock so I wouldn't get locked out on the roof. WHen I shut the door I saw a light at the end of the stairs. The stairs weren't entirely lit up and I stumbled several times on my way up to the top. When I reached the top I was soon rewarded with a view that took my breath away. I could see all the way to downtown, which was not very far away. The buildings weren't that high but when you were on the roof you could see a ways off. I was amazing and I couldn't wait to come up here at night to see the stars.
I was only out there for a while before I heard the door open to the roof. I heard someone yell ouch!, so apparently it was someone who hasn't been up here before. As, I watched to see who it was I saw Jason sticking his head out into the light and rubbing his knee.
"Are you okay?" I asked a little worried.
"Yeah, I just stumbled on the stairs." he replied in almost a laughter.
As he finally came out to the edge and seen the view it had the same effect on him as it had on me. I t was amazing and we both just stood there watching out at the town and the people below us. We didn't have to say anything that was one trait I soon liked about Jason.
"So much has happened it seems like we have been dreaming" he said softly.
"Yeah, it's almost like we haven't had time to soak it in." I whispered back playing with the necklace around my neck. We both thought back to the first time we read the letters. I would have never thought we would have already have come this far. It was scary but I was adjusting to the change.
"I know I am glad that I have you guys with me or it would be terrible to be alone." I whispered to him.
"I am too." was his reply.
We talked about how things were going to change and I told him I would like to go shopping tomorrow with everyone. He just sighed and gave me a look and laughed.
We headed back downstairs to join the others and decided what we were going to do about our time here. All of us went into my room because it was the furthest from the other rooms and no one would happen to over hear our conversation. We talked about things and it wasn't long before we heard a knock on the door. I looked through the peep hole and seen Mark. I opened the door and he handed me a letter. I thanked him and tipped him.
I opened the letter and read it out loud.

Dear Group,

This is Amy and I want to tell you that you are to stay at this hotel for one whole week. So you can do anything you want. You can go to the back and get into your account that is under your name. It has a lot of money due to you being royal. So spend as much as you want but remember you have to lug around all the3 new stuff plus the old. So be wise and stay safe Do not tell anybody about the past things we have talked about. Right now you are normal kids staying with your Grandma. Shat out of trouble and don't make me have to stop what I'm doing to rescue you out of some kidnapping.
Love your Grandma Amy
Enjoy your short vacation.

So we had our permission we need to do some exploring. Us girls were excited unlike the guys. We would enjoy dragging our new guy friends around telling us how we looked. They just rolled their eyes telling us they were going to get pay back. They laughed and soon we joined in. We all sat in my room for a while talking and then we turned the t.v. on. We sat watching some comedy show that we had never heard of before. It was some kind of New York program.
We watched it until 1:00 am in the morning, then we decided to turn in for the night. We all said goodnight and went to our own rooms. I would let the roof wait until another night. I jumped into bed and instantly fell asleep Dreaming of the adventures to come.

****

The next day we all didn't wake up till noon. Well, us girls did and we had to wake the boys up. They had trouble sleeping and supposedly they were already up. We both laughed as we waited outside the door until they got dressed. We teased them about it even though they didn't want to go shopping but they could have at least got up, sleepy heads.
We all got into the taxi and went to the bank. We we in and got $100 each. We needed money because when you went anywhere you had to have some kind of money. In the back we learned we had over a million dollars each. We weren't planning on using it all the hundred but just in case.
Our next destination was a teenage clothing store. It had a few other people in there but it wasn't all that crowded. We looked around and found nothing that we liked, much to the guys relief.
We headed over to the next shop, which was full of clothes for both teen ladies and guys. Us girls looked around and found some cute jeans. We found some matching shirts we both bought them. We loved trying to be like twins. We also found some jackets and sweaters. After we were done in that section of the store we went to the boys section. They found them some jeans and shirts. They were to big on design and really didn't think long about the things they bought.
We soon stumbled upon a dress store. It had beautiful dresses, colors, and styles. If we were going to have to wear a dress sooner or later we might as well practice now. So we tried on some and soon put them back because of the boys' comments on them. Then, we found the perfect dresses for both of us. Mine was a water blue and wasn't too long. It had blue sapphires only on the top but it sparkled all over. Carrisa's was an earthy green. It was almost like mine but it was green with emeralds on it. We bought the guys some nice clothes too. If we had to do it so did the boys.
We were done shopping and handed the bags the hotel bag boy. We greatly appreciated it and were glad we did not have to carry our stuff around. The boys were a little optimistic about not having someone handle expensive things. I told them to relax because we had the receipt and would get our money back if anything happened.

The gang headed to a comedy shop which had trickster toys and g. The boys soon got back a big kick out of it was we toured the store. We laughed as they would point at things and then see if they had enough money. Us girls would just shake our heads , once a kid always a kid. We both laughed as we looked at each other at the same time knowing we were thinking the same thing. The boys continued to look around and laughing at stupid things. After about a half and hour of looking at things we left the store with the boys empty handed, thank goodness.
It was about 3:00 when we grabbed our somethings to eat, We were having a late lunch because of heavy traffic at suppertime. So we would wait until the supper crowd had settled down before we went and had supper. Plus, that would mean longer time to shop and explore. For lunch we had the famous hotdog at the stand in New York. We had lunch on the go while we were window shopping.
When we fad finished our lunch we started to go back into shops again. We told the boys that we would not go into anymore clothes shops as long as they agreed not to go into any totally gross shops. We all agreed and the boys didn't think twice about the clothes shops. We spent the day laughing and talking. It had been a long time since I was carefree. It was a vacation even though it would eventually end. I was walking and as I was, some lady shouldered me. Not on purpose of course, but she could have at least said sorry. I just glared at her as she headed up the street. Carrisa came over along with the boys and asked if I was okay.
My mind was soon off of it when Chris ran off down the street. I looked at him then at Carrisa and she just shrugged her shoulders. So all three of us took off after him. We soon caught up with him as he stopped in front of an old shop.
"What was that for?" I asked him almost out of breath
"The shop was closing." he said turning to face me from staring at the shop.

We looked at each other and went into the shop. The guy was surprised and told us he almost never got customers, especially this late. We all apologized for begin so late but we basically had just got done seeing seeing every shop downtown.
"Where are you from?" he asked us all
"From Kentucky at the top by Indiana." Carrisa said to him. I knew the question was coming and I was certain to mess it up.
"So what are you Kentuckians doing in New York?: he said in his best western accent.
"We are in New York to see our Grandmother." I answered before any of my friends could open their mouth.
""Well you all just look around and if there is anything you like, let me know. I'm Gary." he replied walking to the back room.
The boys went to the left side and us girls went to the right. The shop was amazing with all these antics but they were all in wonderful shape. We looked around until we met in the middle in the back of the store.When we were looking I noticed something sticking out of the shelves behind the glass casing. I went and asked Gary if he could let me see that thing. He looked at me and said I was old enough no to break anything. SO he opened it and I pulled this piece of paper from the casing. I looked over the paper over and was soon joined by my friends when they saw my surprised expression. It was a description about a Princess in another kingdom. The little piece I saw sure sounded a lot like our story. "Is there anymore to this?" I a" he told me not sounding sure.
"Where might I be able to find this book>"
"The library." he answered and gave us directions to it.
We bought the page and thanked him then we left.
We ran down several blocks before we just got too tired to run anymore. So we walked the rest of the way. When we got done running and walking 7 blocks we were exhausted.
We finally walked up the steps of the library. When we got to the door we stopped.
"What the heck are we going to tell them?" I said my thoughts out loud. We all finally agreed that we were just going to tell them and show her the page. I was hoping it might help them find it. Surprisingly the librarian had no trouble finding the book.
I asked her how much we could pay her for the book. The librarian looked at me wierd. "this book has been in my family for generations until my Great Grandmother died." I said starting to remember the book and why it was so special, also it's tragic end. So

I quickly told the librarian my Great Grandmother's name was Jasmine and in the back of the book there was a secret compartment. I was all flooding back now. I told her to look and in that compartment there would be a picture of my Great Grandmother and Grandma. She did and to her surprise the picture was there and I showered her one I had in my purse, they matched.
She immediately gave me the book for free. I walked out of the library with my friends in shock. Finally after we go in the taxi to head to the hotel they finally said something.
"How did you know that?" they all said in unison.
"It was really in my family and would have been passed down to me" I answered a little amazed that I now have it in my hands.
When we got home and put up our stuff we had bought, we all sat down in my room. I was so excited to read it. I didn't know if it was true of not. As I opened the book I soon saw that the pages were very old but still in good shape. I leafed through the chapters and saw it was also a how to book. I went to the beginning and I read out loud.
"Chapter 1: The Marriage
I was a teenage girl when I was to be married. I was not happy with an arranged marriage. So I protested and soon won. My parents soon said that I could marry whomever I wanted as long as he was richer than my family. SO I fell in love with a lawyer who was wealthy. I was so happy and so were my parents. Little did I know of my destiny. After a year of a wonderful marriage we received a letter saying the queen of a city passed away. Little did we know that my husband was in line for the throne!
The letter came and we soon found out. We had to move to the castle and it was amazingly huge! Almost 5x bigger than our mansion we were living in. We had so many important things to deal with but war was not one of them."

I stopped reading when I noticed everyone was fast asleep. It was getting late and it was almost 5:00. I would let them sleep until around 7 so we could head over to the restaurant for dinner. I sat down and scanned through the book and seen it wasn't as long as I thought it was. Almost half of the book had blank pages. Must be for the next generation to continue to the story. I know I would defiantly continue it but until I know why we are no longer living in that world anymore first. I continued to read by skimming. I was reading about the history and about that world.

A long time ago Grandmother was married to the lawyer and found out about the live to the throne and she did not become Queen. But when they did have their first war the King died leaving her to rule by herself. It wasn't long before she had a child and she became my Grandmother. She was raised the same way and soon became Queen after her mother died. She to married after she had become Queen. Then she had my mother. The rules are that you cannot marry until you become Queen or you you couldn't become one. My mother married before she was crowned. She was banish and that is when it ended. Apparently they didn't know about me being born.
It also said in the book that they sometimes pick Queens and Kings out of a heart locator. It keeps track of everyone's personality or heart. When they chose my best friends because they have a heart to become a great ruler.

I stopped reading because I was getting a bit tired. I stifled a yawn and then went to the window to look out. I saw people and everyone walking together. Everyone was living together never connecting themselves to each other.
I went to the dresses in the closet and stood there looking at them Was I really ready to be anything more that what I was, just a simple teenage girl.? A simple girl to a princess with powers? I tumbled the thought over and over in my mind. What would happen when it was all over? Would I be happy or even alive?

I wasn't sure about my destination anymore but I knew I would do whatever it took to be who I am destined to be. I then went back over to the window. I could just make out the dark blotch that was downtown buildings.
I was lost in my thought that I almost jumped when Carrisa tapped me on the shoulder. She started to jump too but stopped herself. She was giggling when I turned around to holler at her for scaring me. When I saw her face and started laughing too until the boys woke up with our laughter. They woke up and we all went and got ready to go out to eat. I went and got my dress out. I put on some lip gloss and then did my hair. I had it up in a ponytail with some jewel clips that sparkled. I slipped into the dress ten waited for the others to join me in my room.
I didn't have to wait long before they all walked in almost right in a row. Everyone looked good and was very hungry. I was almost 8:00 pm. We headed downstairs and waited for a taxi to pick us up. The night air was warm and windy which made everyone feel excited. After a minute or so the taxi driver arrived and we got in. We drove to a very expensive dinner. It had a red carpet laid out like a pathway. When we entered the door we were greeted by a warm feeling atmosphere. We waited by the check out counter to be seated. A lady came to the counter and escorted us four to a booth. The tables had landscape pictures covering it. Ours was a mountain and it had snow all over.
We sat down talking about what we were going to do on our summer vacation. Jason said he was going to just sit back and watch TV. Chris was going to go to an eating contest down at the fair. Carrisa was going to hang out with me and have lots of sleepovers. I was going to have to have a great adventure. We all laughed and said I got my wish. I guess I had and we will see if it was what I was looking for.
The waiter came and got our drinks and then dinner. We ate in silence without much talk and I kinda blamed it on them just waking up. It also might have been the thoughts that were running through their minds. I kept quiet though because in my mind they were swimming also. After we got done we decided to walk home because we had at so much. We were hoping that the pain would go away. We walked in silence and then we talked about if I had read anything in the book more. I told them what I read and said that it was kind of mean. It made sense why my mom wasn't part of the royal family. It was because I wasn't married. "You're not married" Jason said in a sarcastic tone. I just shook my head and then hit him. He laughed and stepped out of the way so I couldn't do it again. We walked the rest of the way talking about what we were going to do when we got older.
We got to the hotel feeling much better. We all split up and headed to our rooms. It wasn't late but we were all pretty tired. I went and changed into some comfortable clothes. I then went to the window and looked out to see if the sky was clear. It was, so I headed up the stairs to the roof. I was smart enough to grab a flashlight because of the dark stairways. I walked up to the roof top and I saw the view. You couldn't see the stars as well because of the neon lights. I looked up at the sky and then downtown and it looked exactly the same. In fact I thing the neon signs were a tad bit brighter. I toyed with my necklace while I watch the skies. It wasn't long before I herd the door open. I quickly went over to the stairs and clicked the flashlight on. Jason thanked me and walked up with no problem this time. He looked out at the town and saw it was the same thing as the sky.
He laughed and said he would be glad when we got out of the city. He said the city life was just not for him at all. We both sat there looking at the city and thinking to ourselves.
It seemed like forever before we talked again.
"I wonder if we will ever be able to go to that other world." he asked in a whisper in case someone was listening. But who would be on the roof top this late?
"I don't know and I don't want to know when. I like going slow" I said in a sad way. Jason heard it in my voice and turned to look at me. I just smiled at him and gave him the excuse that I was tired. We both headed back into our rooms to sleep. Sleep is what I did and I was happy to be able to shut my eyes. But the thoughts didn't stop.

I was sleeping better then I had all night when I heard the door to my room open. I heard someone walk over to the window and throw open the curtains. I was dumb enough to open my eyes and I quickly shut them. The sun burned my eyes and I was not happy with my wake up call. I turned over to look at the clock on the nightstand I saw that it was 9:00 am. It was way too early for me so I turned over to go back to sleep. The next thing I know the covers were flung off of my bed. I sat up and grabbed the covers and pulled them back over my head. I looked up to see who was fighting with me.
I saw Amy and I sat straight up.
"What are you doing here?" I said between a yawn. I saw her laughing at me. "What's so funny?"
"You are defiantly a relative." she said
"Why?" I asked getting tired with her avoiding my question in the morning.
"You wake up just the way I do." she said laughing and then threw my clothes at me.

`She told me we where leaving to go stay somewhere else. She explained that we could not stay here for an entire week without supervision. I rolled my eyes and took off to change in the bedroom. When I came back out Amy was packing my stuff. I thought about going over and stopping her. However she seemed to be doing a fine job. She seen my expression and I guess my thoughts too because she threw my clothes at me. I was to pack by myself ans she was going t check on the others.
We all put our stuff in the back off the travel van and paid the hotel expenses. We left going to a place we had no clue of.
When we pulled up to this clack spiral gate and at the top of the gate it had pointed spheres. It defiantly didn't look like a welcoming kid of gate. It's size was breathtaking; I could have fitted two buses side by side and that would have been the size of the gate. We entered it and we went down a long long, tree driveway. We all were leannng on each other to see out the windows. I looked over at Amy ans she seemed to have been here before.
We eventually pulled up to a beautiful entryway with a fountain in the middle. I however did not notice the entryway at all. We had came to a mansion which was 3x bigger that a 2 story house. It was more long than it was tall but it was still huge. I couldn't help but gawk at it and Amy soon reached over and closed my mouth. She just shook her head as she got out. The driver was already taking our bags at the front door. IT was beautiful in every way and I almost tripped when I stepped out of the car. Jason was in front of me amd caight me laughing. I just glarred at him for that.
We walked to the door while Amy paid the driver and then followed us. She rang the doorbell and a man answered the door. We noticed that there were statues of lions by the door and they were so life like. Chris gave a little squeal and we all couldn't help but laugh. Amy nudged me and then glared at the other three.
came in and saw a beautiful mansion. We had entered the Great Hall , it was just an entryway to the stairs. The mansion had a huge ceiling and a humongous crystal chandelier, almost 2x the size of the hotel. The flooring was white granite and there were statues at the the beginning of the stairs. The walls were light a red color and looked really great with the white floor. I noticed that unlike the hotel it. We were then lead to a room to the right of the door. I was the Great Room and I soon figured out that everything in this house was for a giant, well not really but if you wanted to invited one you would have no problems. The room was a cloudy blue color. The carpet was but the walls were white. The couches were a light brown.
We were motioned to be seated on the longer couch. Two people I had never seen before were seated on the loved seat. Amy was down in the single chair. I looked at the two people and got used to their faces. The wife had orange hair and the husband had brown. From the way she acted I could tell the mother was in charge.

"SO how are you all doing?" the wife asked while the husband twirled his wedding ring. "
"Fine we are just adjusting, but fine." Chris said.
"You have a lovely place." I said looking around the room.
"No, this is your house." the wife said again.
"Yes we just run it while you are gone" the husband said looking up for a moment and then went back to his fiddling.
"My name is Mrs. Abbagal and this is my husband Mr. Thomas." she said waving her hand towards him. She was studying us and ti was making me feel a little uncomfortable. "Well, I shouldn't hold you up any longer, you all are probably tired, plus you'll be seeing lots of me."she said waving a maid in. The maid came over to us while the couple left.
We were greeted by a maid who's name is Maggie and she said she would show us our rooms. She also told us that we could explore later. Amy was already gone when I turned around.
As we walked up the stairs Maggie was telling us about the mansion. She tole me that the 3rd floor had 2x as many rooms as that floor did. She also told me they used to rent it out to people until now. Our rooms were on the 4th floor and that floor had only but 6 rooms total. Maggie told us as we came to the floor that we were the only ones that had rooms on this floor. I asked her what the other 2 rooms were for and she said in case we had guests or friends over. Maggie went to the first room which was Jason's on the left side of the stairs. She opened the door and we saw he had red marble floor and red walled room. His bathroom was red marble mixed with white. It was awesome, it also had a fireplace. I noticed that that in certain places there were little flame pictures on the wall. It was definitely cozy and warm. It was a warm room and Jason soon told us that he loved the room.
We then moved on to the right but left of the stairs to Chris's room. It was just as splendid as Jason's was. Except that his was more for and Air lover that for a Fire lover. It had silver marble flooring and silver walls. The walls were not gray or even dull silver it was a silver, silver. His bathroom was like Jason's but with silver. Also he had little pictures of wind moving in the trees. His room was equally beautiful.
We then went to Carrisa's room but the on the right side of the stairs then the boys. The room was a light green marble floor and walls. It was not a line green, no Carrisa hated lime green. It was a beautiful light green. I watched her run her hands over the sink counter top. We walked around the room and saw pictures of all kinds of trees and plants from everywhere. It really was a beautiful room but it was just not my color and I hated to rush but I was trilled to see my room.
We went to the right of Carrisa's We opened the door and I was in blue heaven. I could have spent a whole ear standing there looking at the color of my walls. I soon moved into the bathroom and saw my whole bathroom was blue. I saw a medium blue and the white mixed together, I was so lost. It was a beautiful room. I went looking for pictures and soon seen some. Some were teardrops, raindrops, and even pouring rain. They were all beautiful paintings. I walked around the room in awe.

Jason - Fire
Chris - Air
Carrisa - Earth
Jessica (main character) - Water

After a while of my looking around, Maggie came to my door. She told me that supper would be ready at 5:00 pm sharp. I was to be dressed in my new evening gown which will soon be brought up to me. I was to be civil in everything I did as soon as I reached those stairs. Maggie also told me that the dinning room was on the right side on the stairs. With that, she left.
After she left I could not laugh because I wanted to ask her who was the Princess in this house. But it would have been very rude of me and I soon stop thinking of that. I unpacked my stuff but left most of my things I didn't need in my bag I was not certain if this is where I was staying. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth when I reached something in the bathtub. I was startled but I found out what it was. I flung my open the curtain only to find the poor boy fall over. I later learned that he was trying t oscare me and I had scared him instead. I just laughed at him for being so brave.
I aske him what his name was and he told me Eric. He then pleaded for me not to tell anyone about him sneaking in there. I asked him if he liver here and he said yes. His other is Mrs. Abbagal and his father is Mr. Thomas. I was not surprised, he certainly looked a whole lot like his father. Eric;s personality was not of theirs at all. I told him I would forget the incident if he did something for me. He gladly agreed before even finding out what it was first.
I left my room and headed down the hall. Eric's expression went from happy to scared. He soon stopped being worried when I passed the stairs and headed for a room I knew who it belonged to but Eric didn't. I knocked on the door and Eric hid behind me. Jason opened that door and immediately Eric stepped out behind me. I knew he was interested and thought of us as hero's. I knew he would love Jason even though he likes me too. I left hi showing Eric around and talking with him. I stopped in the door to see Jason talked with Eric. I had never seen a boy so happy he was holding on to every word Jason was saying. I just laughed at the two of them and left.
I went over to Carrisa's room and knocked on the door. She answered and gladly let me in. I was happy to be with someone. I asked her if Maggie was being bossy with her too. We both started laughing and then started impersonating her. We then started a pillow fight. After a couple of hits with the pillows, our other friends joined in. We all fell down laughing and quite glad that none of the pillows broke.
We all sat down and watched some TV. We then turned on the movie channel we hadn't seen since we were little and the show was almost over. I wanted to know what the show was called but it was close to the the end to know.

It was getting really close to dinnertime. Jason and Chris left to go to their rooms to get ready. Carrisa left to wait for the maid to bring her evening gown. Last but not least was Eric. I told him he had better leave and make it down the stairs before the maid catches him. Which, as I watched him, he had to have took those stairs two at a time. I laughed and headed into my room, so apparently he really likes hanging out with Jason no.w
I only had to wait a little while before a younger maid came into my room with a dress bag. Her name was Waverly and she would be my personal maid. She started my shower and I took to it quickly. Then when I was out she styled my hair, which was done beautifully. After the hair she went and got my dress. It was a royal blue color with black lace over the bottom half of the dress. It was long sleeve, which seemed to bother me a little bit but I soon forgot about it.
Waverly said I was to wait here until my escort arrived. I waited taking deep breaths, saying I wasn't alone. I knew I was not alone but I would have loved to see someone I knew. I only had to take a couple of breaths more before I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door and standing there was Jason. I was so happy to see him.
I looked at his red tux. I thought it would have looked horrible but it looked great on him. We stood in the door in silence looking at each other in awe. It was amazing what a dress and tux could do to someone's appearance He finally held his arm out for me to take and I was back to my old self.
"I'm nervous, scared and maybe a little excited" I whispered to Jason.
"You'll be okay, you look great." he replied back in a whisper.
I looked at him to see if he was kidding but I saw only truth. I wouldn't have thought that because I have never seen myself in a dress before. Well, except when I was a little girl but other than that.
We were soon joined by Carrisa being escorted by Chris. They looked great together and I almost didn't even recognized them. They later told me that was exactly what they thought about us. We were going to enjoy this night even thought I don't know why we had to dress so much just for dinner. It would be a party and formal one. I soon noticed that the guys weren't acting their normal goofy selves. They were, oh what is the word, serious. We made it to the bottom of the stairs and went to the right just like Maggie had said. Jason and I make it to the doorway almost stood there gapping at what was beyond it. We quickly stopped and straightened up. Was this a test or was this a celebration? I looked back to see Carrisa do the same exact thing and soon straightened back up too. We all moved forward to be seated at the table. Thank goodness that we were seated next to each together. Jason was the first one on the left side of the table and I was next to him Chris was sitting across from Jason. The same was with Carrisa so we could to to each other.
Sitting at the table there had to be about 30 different guests. At the head of the table was an older woman and the other end was a man. I didn't know who they were but they looked familiar. The only people we knew were Eric's parents, Eric and Amy. Amy was holding hands with some man about her age and I was soon curious as to who he was. The dinner was served by a lot of servants and they place a silver platter in front of each of us. They all at once lifted the lids and we saw a chicken dinner underneath it. I tasted it with my fork and it was delicious. I looked at Carrisa and she too did the same thing. We continued to eat and then we started to get full. The servers came back out again and this time took our plates away. When they returned we were severed desserts of pudding. It was a very yummy chocolate pudding.
After we were done eating we were taken to the door to the right and ended up in a ballroom. As we entered the ballroom the music started. It was a slow song. Us four sat down at the table because we didn't know the dance moves. We sat watching and learned they weren't dancing a certain style, they were just dancing together. We would have joined in but the song was at the end. When it ended the musicians put another slow song on. Jason got up and asked me if I wanted to dance and I of course said yes. When we got out on the dance floor, we were followed by Chris and Carrisa. It was a little awkward at first but we soon began to have fun. We didn't know the song but sang along with it anyways. It was only the chorus because it repeated itself.
When the song was over, we sat down and snacked on some little cakes. All four of us tried to guess the flavors. I said blueberry and everyone soon said I was right. We talked about what was to come and if our parents missed us at all.
Then Chris and Carrisa hit the dance floor again. Jason and I sat there for a while in silence and then I grabbed his hand. I pulled him out to the dance floor to dance a few faster ones. I don't think I had ever laughed so much in a long time. It hurt for me to even think about laughing I had laughed so much already. Finally, at the end of the dance we were lead by Maggie into the living room. There we sat on a couch, where the woman and man that was at the head of the table at dinnertime. They were dressed a whole lot more elegantly up close than we thought. We watched her and she soon beckoned us to sit down on the larger couch. I was pleased to be able to rest my weary feet. I didn't stop acting like a Princess and neither did the others. It was almost like we knew she was important and was watching to see how we acted. I bowed my head in respect thought I knew nothing of the woman and so did the others. We sat in silence until woman clearer her throat to speak.
"I'm glad you all know when to behave yourselves, which means someone learned well" she spoke.
"Thank you, we had good teachers" Carrisa answered her back.
"My name is Anne Marcia this is my husband Gerald Alan" the woman said.
"So you are my relations and that would explain why you looked so familiar." I reliped unexcited as possible.
Anne soon went on to tell me she was a relative in means of my Grandmother. I asked her what she was to me and she said she was my Grandmother's sister. I was happy to see someone I knew even if it was not as a familiar face but close enough. We talked for a while and then she saw Chris yawn. She told us we would talk again before we left. We bid farewell and went to our rooms.

When we made it up to our rooms the maid had left a dress bag to keep our dresses in so they wouldn't get wrinkled. I was exhausted but my adventure was not over yet for today. I heard laughter, looked out in the hall and saw no one. Therefore, I went down my rooms hallway following the sound. The sound led me to what I thought, in the dark to be a dead end but really when I looked harder I saw a door. I continued to hear the laughter and it wasn't very long before my friends heard it too. They came out of their rooms and followed me. I opened the door and went up the stairs. It wasn't dark because it had torches along the way. It was spiraled and extremely long. We continued to walked up the stairs following a noise and occasionally looking back at each other. When we made it to the top of the stairs we reached yet another door. I looked back at my friends who urged me to open it. They only urged me because they were behind me and didn't have to be the one to open it.
I took a deep breath and opened the door. It took me into a long passageway that was completely dark. It was really scary and I soon backed myself out of the passageway door. Jason and Chris soon were looking at the torches on the wall. It wasn't long before they had the torches, ready to travel into the passageway. We entered a little scared but very curious about what lay ahead. We followed the long passageway soon forgetting the laughter we heard earlier.
We walked for about 30 yards until the passage became wider. Finally we reached a huge ceiling cave. It had no signs of anything living in the cave but it still sent chills down my spine. We looked around and the chills became so bad that I couldn't stand them and I found myself holding Jason's hand. As I grabbed his hand he looked over at me and whispered it would be okay . For some reason i didn't believe he could keep his word t, this time it was different.
After sometime looking around I began to relax. I was still holding Jason's hand and as I looked over at Carrisa, she was doing the same with Chris. I was not alone in being scared and I knew the boys were scared too but they just didn't want to show us they were.
We finally stumbled upon an old pottery basket and we soon were looking inside much to our surprise there was a letter to each of us. No matter how hard we tried to read it in this light we all failed horribly. Therefore, we decided to take the letters back to our rooms and discuss what the letters said tomorrow morning.
We headed back quietly glad to be out of the passageway and curious to see what the letters contained. We said our goodbyes and went to bed. I went down the hall to my room wondering and thinking so much so my head hurt when I finally made it to my room. I slipped under the covers only to throw them off again when I heard something. I went looking for the noise and soon it went silent again. I thought the only thing that would hide in my room.
"Well, I guess I will call Mrs. Abbagal to look for the scary creature hiding in my room" I said to the walls around me. I only had to wait a few more seconds before I saw a read head looking our from under my bed. I knew who it was and was a little angry Eric being in my room so late. I soon stopped being mad when he tole me his mother is making him go to Sunday School from now on. I laughed at how intelligent he sounded sometimes and sometimes he acted like a little kid. I sat him down on my bed and told him every ruler had to go to school.
"You cannot be a turkey brain and a brave little man" I said to him. It had a big affect on him and he soon went to bed and agreeing to go to this Sunday School. After he left I got the letter out and turned on my bedside light on to read.

The letter...

Dear Jessica,

I know this is a little weird to you because you don'[t know that much about me but I know you. I have seen you when were a little girl but that was so long ago. You must be tall and beautiful now, just like your parents before you. Yes, I know your parents and you are mostly the center of this thing. Your friends are just as important as you are but you have a hint of more royalty than they do. Not that that matters any. I hope when you find this letter you have seen that cave merely in curiosity. That cave is not the most wonderful thing in the world. That is because ti is the world between evil and good. Here is what I mean; I mean it is the portal to your kingdom world. You just have to believe in that portal. Of course you could end up somewhere else if you are not careful but you don't belong anywhere else. You would have to be very focused on going there in order to go. You will end up at the castle of your own and life will continue like you were always there. You will not be able to go to that world until you believe this all is real. Try not to go back into that cave please.
Love, a friend
P.S. Take care of each other.

It surprised me a little but I was happy to hear from another relative. Everyone I had been meeting lately have been complete stranger. I knew I could trust here and I wanted to believe it was true. It would only take time for reality to sink in and for it to become true. I turned the light out wondering what would happen if we believe and what would the new world look like. I wonder what my friend's letters contained.
The next morning I must have been tired because I had to have the young maid Waverly wake me up. I was quite glad it was her that had woken me up and not Maggie. Maggie was hot-tempered and I could have been if I was woken up the wrong way.
"My lady it is time for you to get up, it is nearly noon" she spoke in her nicest voice.
"Can you please start my shower and thank you for waking me" I replied as Waverly headed off to the bathroom. Waverly had my shower going and had my clothes picked out. I slowly made my way over to the shower and got it. I was soon wide awake when I got out. I got dressed and headed down stairs for my breakfast. When I go down the stairs I saw that all three of the other teenagers were out of bed, which made me feel even worse. "Good morning, sleepy head." laughed Carrisa, echoed by the boys
"You guys are so funny" I laughed. I grabbed my breakfast bowl of cereal and ate it in pretty much in peace. Everyone was really quiet and I soon realized they had slept about as much as I did. I hardly slept because of my horrible nightmares. They were about the cave and the horrors that could like on the other side of the portal. The only one that had anything besides a frown was Chris.
"Why are you so happy?" I asked him.
"When we entered that room we were all going to have bad dreams and after last night we would no longer have them." he answered. That kinda made me feel better.
I saw the relief on my other friends and I knew they had nightmares too. We finished our breakfast and headed up to our rooms to discuss the letters. It took us a couple of minutes to settle down and get comfortable. When we did everyone got their letters out and told us what it said. They were pretty much the same except they were addressed only to the reader. Before we started, we agreed that if it wasn't meant for the whole group to hear, then we didn't have to share that information. Tee discussion was mostly about the other world and the cave. We tried to avoid the cave but we couldn't it was the like to this world with that world.

We talked and it wasn't very long before we heard a knock at the door. It was Waverly, here to give us our lunch. We stopped talking about the letters because we were so hungry and ate our lunch in silence. The day passed by, much to our relief, quite fast. We spent all day watching movies and shows. We did not mentions the cave or the other world again. We were happy to have that conversation put aside. We knew what we needed to do now and we only had to wait a little while for that to happen. By the time we finished our 4th movie of that day it was time for bed. I don't think I have ever went to bed without complaining in a long time. We said goodbye and headed to bed without so much as a whine. I flopped into my bed and was asleep in seconds. Dreaming wasn't an option and I slept with nothing to think of.
The next morning I was full of energy and back to my normal self. Well, as normal as it gets. I was happy to see that I was up with everyone else. My friends said they wanted to eat out in the garden for a chance. So we went in to the colorful rose garden and we soon were told that it stayed like this until winter. We had arrived at the right time the gardener told us that springtime is when they are the must colorful.
We walked around until we came to where the garden of roses circled us. I wasn't very long Jason was soon pointing something out. We looked closer at the roses and we saw our colors encircling us. After a while we began to notice something else as we looked closer, we hadn't noticed it before because we were standing to far away and the ivy that grew with it cover the roses. We were looking at the roses and we saw that the green and were on the right side of the circle and the red and white were on the left side. We came to the middle and saw the blue and red connected to each other. We also noticed the green and white connected to each other also. We were so int other roses and the symbols they were making we didn't notice Waverly standing behind us.
"What are you doing?" Waverly asked in a calm voice. We could have jumped over the rose bushed we were so startled. Waverly jumped because she didn't expect us to act like that. We all were leaning over because we were out of breath. Waverly set up our breakfast and we ate.
After we finished, we turned back to the roses and we began to wonder. We went over to the head gardener, Jay, and he told us that those roses were made that way on purpose and were almost a hundred years old. We soon went back inside only to be greeted by Eric and he wasn't happy.
"I hate Sunday School" he said very anger.
"Stop acting like a baby and again you need to go." I replied in an almost calm way. He made a fave at me and then Jason stepped in.
"You only have to go for so long and you have to do it. You are under age and you need to listen to your mother. If you don't then you'll have to suffer more, if you go to school when your not under her rules then you won't be able to enjoy your freedom." he replied very happy that he had thought of that.
I just shook my head and started to walk toward our rooms. Chris and Carrisa were up ahead talking to each other and laughing. It wasn't long before Jason catches up to me.
"How is it he likes you and listens to you?" I asked him knowing what the answer was going to be.
"Boys have to stick together before you girls brainwash us." he answered not even the slightest hint of laughter. I swung my hand at him but missed hitting him as he stepped aside. I just shook my head as he point at Chris. I just continued to shake my head and laugh.
"You don't watch it you'll be next." I threw back at him. We bother started to laugh and we caught up the the other two. I was happy again to have Carrisa and the two boys. We all headed up to my room to watch a movie and then we decided to have a sleepover thing. No one liked the fact that the boys would be joining us so we said they would stay until it was time to go to sleep. We started it with popcorn and a scary movie. I t was scary and us girls screamed when the guys jumped our form under the floor. The guys laughed and covered their ears. We continued to watch the movie until the end.
We then got out the game boards and it was the boys against the girls.. We played three games and each time the girls won. Us girls were thrill at beating them and they were of course sore losers. We stayed up until three in the morning and by then we were exhausted. We said goodnight to the boys and went to bed.

I woke up with a sneeze because my nose was itchy. I looked over at Carrisa who was sitting up also for the same reason. We looked around and couldn't find anything or anyone. We then heard something in the bathroom. Both Carrisa and me snuck into the bathroom. We through open the shower curtain and saw Chris down on the ground covering is mouth. He told us he had sneezed and slipped.
We laughed and noticed that Jason wasn't int the shower too. I asked Chris were Jason was but he didn't know, he said they had split up after they had woke us up. We then began the search of Jason. We looked almost everywhere and couldn't find him. I headed over to my bed to check beside my desk. When I got over to it something grabbed my leg. I screamed and Jason was soon howling with laughter. I flung him off my leg and I looked under my bed.
"If I get a hold of you, Jason, you are going to be sorry!" I yelled at him.
"Yeah, but you have to catch me first." he yelled back as he stopped at the door.
I ran after him not caring what was in my way. I was so angry but having fun chasing him. We ran through the kitchen with the cooks hollering at us. Jason ran into the living room interrupting Mrs. Abbagal having tea. She hollered at us that it was not very royalty like running about the mansion. We ignored her, and I was getting closer to Jason. He then led me out to the garden and I was right behind him. Jason then tried to get rid of me buy jumping the fence but I too jumped as well. We ran out to the huge well-cut field used for golf. I was starting to get tired and so was Jason. We had made it across half of the field before Jason fell exhausted. I too fell down next to him with my hand on his shoulder saying I got him. We both were out of breath and laughing which made my stomach hurt.
We had sat there for an hour trying to catch our breath. Then we finally got some breath back and headed back to the house.
"Did you see Abbagal's face?" I asked laughing.
"Yeah I thought she was going to have a heart attack." he replied laughing.
"I bet she would never let go of her tea though." I answered again laughing.
We started laughing which hurt us so much. We made it to almost the end of the field when we turned and looked out across the field.
"I can't believe we made it all the way across that" Jason said.
"Your were really scared." I retorted. He looked at me and laughed.
We climbed the fence and headed into the garden. We were greeted by Carrisa and Chris and we all headed inside. Unfortunately, we were greeted by Abbagal and she wasn't happy. We weren't hollered at but we were told it was not lady and gentlemen like. She also told us that if we had that much pent up energy then we were to begin sword lessons.
Therefore, we were lead out to the field where we were greeted by a man named Sedrick. He was in his twenties and very handsome. He began with the boys first.
"They told me I shouldn't use real swords and I agree. But for now you will be using real sword dummies." he told us rolling a dummy out on the field. The boys were taught how to hold the sword and the stance so you have more power. We followed by example and Sedrick came over giving us pointers. It didn't take us long to master the handling and stance.
Then the boys started to learn how to strike the dummy. We followed and soon got it. After a couple of hours of practicing the fighting and stance we stopped. Sedrick then complemented us on our work and he was glad to be our teacher. We left happy and ready to learn more. When we got inside Mrs. Abbagal again greeted us. She told us girls to follow her and she said nothing to the boys. We followed her to the ballroom. In the ballroom, there were two other gentlemen in the room. They were in a formal suit but not a dress suit. She handed us a fan and we practiced waving it and the meaning. It wasn't long before Jason and Chris came to sit down and watch.
Then, music was turned on and it was a slow song. The gentlemen came and bowed before us and we returned a bow. We joined hands and we started to dance. It was a waltz and we were amazingly good at it. It didn't take long before we got it. Abbagal broke us up and we had to start over again. Us girls waved our fans around and they the gentlemen came over and bowed. We looked at each other for a moment and then we bowed back. The music started and we began to dance. We had fun and after the gentlemen were done dancing with us they bowed. They told us we had danced gracefully and we returned the bow.

They left us in the room with only Abbagal and the boys. Abbagal came over and said she was surprised but we lo took to dancing well. She left telling us we would continue again tomorrow after sword practice. We went over to the boys and they looked disgusted.
"What are you looking at us like that for?" we asked.
"May we dance with you darling?" Chris said mocking the gentlemen. We just shook our heads and headed out of the room trailed by the boys.
We all went to our rooms kind of exhausted. I decided to go for a walk to cool off. I was out in the garden over looking the golf field thinking how things might be. What if this is a dream? How am I going to rule a kingdom all by myself? It wasn't very long before Jason came outside.
"What is the matter with you?" he asked when he saw my worried face.
"I'm suppose to rule a kingdom by myself!" I was worried and scared.
He looked at me and came to stand by me. "You're never alone." he answered in a whisper. I couldn't help it and I couldn't stop it as tears started to stream down my face. I missed many things and I was scared. Jason pulled me into a hug when he seen my tears. I cried in his arms for a while until I let go and dried my face.
"Thanks. I needed that." I answered.
"What do you think will happen to each of us?" Jason confused me with that question. "We're not brothers and sisters, we wouldn't always be together, especial you girls getting married."
"Do you know something I don't?" I replied in a mater of fact way. He looked at me and I said "I would marry when I wanted to, to whom I want, and nobody can change that"
We laughed at each others foolishness. I finally said goodbye to Jason and headed to my room to only be questioned by Eric.
"Where were you? Why weren't you in your room?" he asks.
"What would it mater to you? You spying on me?" I asked him trying not to raise my voice.
"No, not exactly and it wasn't only me" he said in a rather sorry voice.
"Who else was watching Eric?" I asked impatiently.
"Mrs. Abbagal was watching" he whispered and then left.
Her, how dare she watch me! I am not a child and don't have to be watched!
I went to bed angry and had a lot of trouble getting asleep. After tossing and turning I finally drifted off to sleep. I was dreaming of my new home and new beginnings.

The next morning I woke up early, the earliest I had ever woken up. I had slept ok but I was not overly tired. I was not the only one up at this time, everyone else was preparing for the rest of today, I just mean of the teenagers. I headed down to the kitchen and grabbed me something to eat.
After breakfast, I went to the armory out by the golf field. I got a sword out and dragged the dummy out myself. I practiced my stance a couple of times and then I began striking. i was lousy at it at first but soon I was starting to get the concept. I raised the sword so it would reflect off the sun. It made it glow so bright I had to close my eyes. I swung the sword around in my hand focusing on the weight and the force. I stabbed and the sword went right through the dummy's heart. I had my eyes close that entire time and I had striked my mark exactly.
"Very good, your starting to feel your sword, and the force you can make." Serdrick said as he was walking out to me. I hadn't even noticed him.
"Thank you." was all I could manage to say.
He then handed me a wooden sword and he had one himself.
"Now lets see how you are in defending yourself." he said in a challenging smile.
I started out rough and I kept being hit, which hurt by the way. I fell down several times because of the pain but I always got back up. After what felt like forever of us blocking each other's strikes, he showed me the proper way to block. I practiced blocking in slow mode and after understanding what I needed to do we began again. I could feel my blood racing in me as we paused before we started striking. I took a deep breath and we began. He was fast and I soon adjusted my slow speed to match his. I was soon blocking his strikes with ease and started to fight even stronger.
The thing that ended our battle was me being poked in the ribs and screaming out in pain. It hurt almost as if we were using real swards. Sedrick came back to reality and realized he had just hurt the Princess. He ran to my side and was saying sorry the whole time I laid there. I sat up, the pain slowly leaving me and me catching my breath.
"Would you stop for a minute so I can catch my breath and my head." I said taking deep breaths. When I finally had my breath caught up, I told him that I had never been that thrilled before. I loved fighting like that and appreciated if he wasn't treating me like a baby.
I was fine, I was just exhausted a little and tired. It wasn't the pain that had made me fall down, it was the exhaustion. I was totally happy and content again with no worries. I had gotten rid of all my stress finally and I could defend myself with a sword in a battle. I thanked him and he told me he would put the dummy and swords up. I headed up to the mansion, relaxed and I had finally let go of my anger. Little did I know it was about to return.
When I entered the front door, there stood Mrs. Abbagal with a smile on her face. I was not in the mood to hear her opinion on the way I acted. I just bowed my head and left hoping not to be followed. I was of course wrong; she followed me into the kitchen.
"Can I help you with something.' I said. trying very hard to keep my temper under control.
"Well, yes you can. I want you to take some extra lessons." she said almost enjoying bothering me.
"Why?" i asked.
"To become more lady like." she replied enjoying her torture too much. She was torturing me and thinking I was going to do her every will. She was very mistaken and wrong.
"Sorry, but I cannot do that." I spoke coolly.
"Why not?" she asked but less happy.
"Because I make the rules and I will follow no one else's, now if you excuse me I have better things to do." I answered most satisfied by my answer and I left her in shock and confusion.
I went up to my room while the gang woke up and headed out for breakfast. After that, they were going to practice fighting and dancing. I was hurting to bad for dancing or another round of sword fighting. I was excused with no further comments. I watching Abbagal scowl at every word I said.
Much to the whole mansions relief she backed off being a nuisance. When the group was done with their lessons, they came back to my room. I told them what had happened with Eric's mom and me and they were thrilled. I had won the battle and as a bonus, I had done it with grace. We talked with each other on how our fighting and dancing was going. They told me that they had mastered the blocking, along with me. All they had to learn was to find spots to hit in the blocking.

We we to bed without much regret or struggle. I had to sleep on my left side to keep my right side from hurting. I had a huge icepack on it the entire night. I was happy to be free of pain anyways.
The next morning I was happy to be able to touch my side and it no hurt as bad. I went down to breakfast, and then be joined by my friends. They were happy and not sleepy. When we reached the table we heard a growl. We all started laughing as we looked at Chris who just said oops as he fixed him something to eat. We ate talking about wrapping up our sword skills. I was glad for that even though we hadn't master the sword fully.
When we were done with breakfast we headed out to the field to begin our final lesson. Sedrick came out with something wrapped in cloth, which he did not show us. We began our lesson with the dummy and then went on to being showed how to get through the opponents blocking. After we had learned it we fought with Sedrick one at a time. When we were done we were all exhausted but mostly of all Sedrick.
Us, teenagers agreed that we would put the dummy and the swords up for him. When we had finished our task, we saw the Sedrick had not left the field yet. We all ran over to him and asked him what was wrong. He said that nothing was wrong he just had something for us to keep.
It was the cloth that he had carried out with him earlier.. Whatever they were, they were individually wrapped. Sedrick handed us the cloth wrapped thing at the same time. We opened it and much to our surprise, they were swords. Each sward was styled just for us. Carrisa had green ivy running around her handle and a huge green stone in the middle. Chris had a swirl of wind around his handle and a huge white stone. Jason had a fire running around his and a huge red stone in the middle. I had waves running around my sword and in the middle a blue stone. They were all beautifully made and we took great pride of our gift. They were made especially for us. Sedrick then bowed his head and watch us with them, proud of his students. He said we were ready to fight if need be and the we should take great care of them.
We went into the mansion and up to our rooms to find a place to store them. We all found excellent spots, for now. We went down the the ballroom to begin hopefully our last lesson. I had almost forgot who our teacher was and then I remembered it was Abbagal. When we got down to the ballroom we soon began the waltz. Instead of dancing with other guys, we were dancing with the boys. When we had finished the song, the teacher told us we had danced well and that we had learned all we needed to know.
I was amazed and I soon learned the Mrs. Abbagal had too much pride to go on being a nasty woman. We soon ahd to put our differences behind and had made up in a silent kind of way.
Before we had left the ballroom, Mrs. Abbagal told us that we had another ball to attend to tonight. It was for us completing our training and also becoming Princes and Princesses. We were thrilled and happy.
We headed up to our rooms with the time it would start and how long we had before we had to get ready. When the time came to get ready we left each other. Waverly came to my door with a new dress and started my shower. After I was done that I slipped in my dress which was royal blue much darker than the last dress I wore. Waverly did my hair up in a bun and then put make up on. I then had jewelry that I had not worn before. It sparkled in the light and was expensive. It had a bunch of loops and blue jewels on it.
I sat waiting on my bed for my escort to arrive. I was holding my breath but soon released it when I saw who it was. Jason was wearing a dark red tuxedo. He then handed me a blue box, which I opened happily. When I opened it tears nearly fell form my eyes. The earrings were so beautiful. They had a gorgeous blue diamond in the center and long white diamond loops falling down to my neck. It was so breathtaking and I soon hugged Jason after I had put them on and thanked him.

Jason then held out is hand as we waited in the hallway for the two to arrive. Chris was wearing a white tuxedo. Carrisa was dressed the same way as me except that her dress was a darker green from the last time. When we waited in the hall together to be called in we admired each other's new jewelry.
After a while of waiting we were called in to be seated at the dinner table. When we entered, all eyes were on us and they were all in awe. I was happy the way I had looked and soon I realized I was over my self-consciousness. I was to be accepted the way I looked or not at all. We sat down at the beginning of the table while Any and her former boyfriend sat at the head. We soon started to relax when the eyes started to drift to other things. We ate and talked about how to handle different situations. We even talked with Amy. After dinner and dessert out of the way we headed into the ballroom. We started to dance with ease. Even thought it was a waltz, we took to it like a fish to water. We had no trouble keeping up and we soon stopped. We were not exhausted but we weren't full of energy either. After three more dances the music stopped and Amy too the microphone.

"I am sorry that I had to interrupt your dancing but I have to make a speech. The only reason I did not make the speech at supper time was because not all of our guest had arrived. I would like to congratulate some outstanding young ladies and gentlemen for their accomplishments tonight. Jason and Chris have been patient and had to put their boyish pride aside to learn to fight and dance with grace. They will be fierce fighters and wonderful dancers. I thank them for being strong when we needed them to be and patient when others where not. Thank you two. " she said in a proud voice while everyone else clapped. "The girls became graceful ladies in a matter of seconds. They were graceful when need be and strong when they were also needed. They sure surprised me and I was happy to have all of these young students to become Princes and Princesses at this moment. So without further a due I would like just the Princes and Princesses to dance in the beginning of this song."
I thought it was scary when we had entered the dinning hall; it was 2x as scary in the ballroom. I danced with Jason for a while before all the guest joined in.
I was happy and content. I was starting to believe I was something that could not be explained. I was not home here even though they made it feel like it. My home was in another world taking care of my extended family and people.
I had friends and now it was time to take on my destiny. I was ready and I seen it in my other friends faces as well. I walked up to Amy and told her it was time to go. Jason and Chris said goodbye to everyone they knew and the same as us girls. We had a good time here but it was time to go home!
We packed our bags with our things. In addition, we packed our swords in with our belongings. We then were told that Ame was also coming. She was coming with us to help settle in and so, we at least knew one person there. We packed anything we could and carry through the long passageway, which wasn't much. We got our bags, went to the door, and opened it. We walked through it except this time with a different purpose.
After we had went up the stairs we stopped and took a break form the journey up here with bags. when we caught our breath, we opened the door into the portal room. Instead of it being dark, there was an eerie glow. It lit the cave just enough that we didn't need the torches. We held each others had and turned around to say one last but final good bye.
The last thing i remember was the wind and it was like being inside a tornado. There were no colors, no images, only time and us.
When I finally found my feet and head I was in a very different world.
"I thought you said that this world was like ours?" Chris said in amusing tone.
"So I lied and you can't totally blame me it has been awhile." she replied in a little child like voice.
I finally stood up, it felt like I had just been on a ship at sea and then stepped foot on land for the first time. My head was spinning and I was confused.
"I think I need to sit down for awhile." I said sitting down with my head spinning.
"Here eat this. It's a grape from this world." Amy said handing me the grape.
I ate it and I was soon feeling better. I could at least stand but I was still just as confused. I ate more grapes and I was feeling back to my normal self. We had made it, all of us, to a different world, home!
"Welcome home you four!" Amy said pointing at a huge castle that was exactly like the book said. It was 5x bigger than the mansion. It was beautiful and wonderful. It astounded me and I was to rule this entire place, not alone of course.

"What's the city's name?" I asked.
"It's name is Delmon." she replied.
After a moment of repeating the name in my head she told me that she couldn't tell me the name when we were in the other world because of to many questions.
We started to head towards the city gate but then Chris stopped.
"I thought you said we were going to transport into the castle." he said confused.
"I said it once, it had been a long time." she said.
I just laughed and then told let's go before it turns dark. I love night, but I would be grateful to be in shelter then out here in the unknown place.
We walked towards the castle and it was quite a walk. Not as bad as it looked but it was a very long walk. We got to the gate and told the guards we ere to talk to the Princess. They soon let us in and we watched all the people in the market. place. They were warm-hearted people and were never hostile to us. We even got a few good evenings from a few people. I was happy to see such warm and caring people to even a stranger.
We looked at a couple of things in the market place. Us girls even bought a necklace or two. The boys just followed looking at swords and shaking their heads at us.
We finally made it to the castle doors and as expected the guards stopped us. I was hurt. Didn't they know who their Princess was? Then Amy showed them a card and we were welcomed in with open arms.
We entered the castle to find it was much more plain than the mansion. It had no marble only dark blue stone. It was a wonderful castle non the less. it had a massive ceiling but no chandelier. It had a lot of room and the maid, Jennie, told us we could explore after we got some rest. Therefore, she showed us to our rooms. It was on the very top floor, up the spiral stairway.
Our rooms were in the towers that were sticking our of the castle and I soon learned you could see those towers for miles off. We each had an awesome view even thought it was a cloudy night.
"You would be able to see better in the daytime." Jennie spook noticing me gawking.
I was certain and excited for the beginning of tomorrow. I said goodbye to my friends and headed to bed. I fell asleep in a matter of seconds. I didn't even have time to think about anything.
The next morning I woke up just as the sun was rising over the horizon. It sent the village into a golden glow. I looked our and could see the mountains but other wise I could see for miles and miles. I went to my bed, got my suitcase out, and unpacked. It was warm and made me feel very happy.