A knock woke me up the next morning and my eyes shot open and for a moment, the unfamiliar surroundings left me dazed and confused. These were not the white walls of my apartment and that voice outside was not Miss Hudson, my neighbor in 221B. This speaker had too deep a voice as they called hello to me.

  I sat upright and then the events of the previous day came back to me. I wasn't in my apartment. I was not in Boston or even on Earth. I was on Asgard and part of a competition to fall in love with Thor and become the queen.

 That thought woke me up and I was suddenly very alert. "Give me a minute," I called to the unknown speaker. I flitted over to little pocket door on the south wall and opened it up to find a small bathroom. I caught site of my reflection in the mirror and winced, my eyes were dry and swollen and my face was blotchy from my night of crying. Not a pretty sight and not something I wanted to explain to a perfect stranger either.

 I turned on the faucet and splashed my face and neck with cool water, hoping that would help and then dried off my face with a towel hanging on the nearby rack. I checked my reflection in the mirror again and sighed. My face looked less like I'd been crying all night but my long hair was a rat's nest and the knotted black strands clearly spoke of a restless night.

 Oh well, this would have to do for now.

The person knocked again and I set the towel down. "I'm coming!" I called as I hurried out of the bathroom and to the door. I stood on my toes and looked through the peephole. A young woman, about my age was standing outside the door. She was black, her hair curly even though it was cut quiet short and she wore a sundress of vibrant orange and large hoop earrings.

 I stood flat-footed against the ground and stepped back to open the door. "Can I help you?" I asked.

"Did I wake you up?" the woman asked, her low voice full of surprise and clear worry in her gold eyes.

"No," I lied, not wanting to make her feel bad. Besides, I needed to get up anyways so as far as I was concerned, she'd done me a favor. "You didn't I was just in the bathroom."

 "Oh good," she looked relieved. Her accent was strange, her Os were long. "And no, I don't need any help per se, I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm staying across the hall," she pointed to the door parallel to mine. "The maid let it slip the last contestant arrived and I thought I'd be the first to welcome you."

She held out her hand to me and I took it. "Suzume Hamada, nice to meet you."

"Elise King and it's nice to meet you as well." We shook hands and she smiled at me, her teeth very bright against her dark skin. "Are you from New York?"

"No, I'm from Boston."

 "Well I was close," she said, drawing out her O vowels again. "They're both on the East coast."

 "I take it you're not from there then?"

Elise shook her head. "No, I'm from up North, Minnesota."

That explained the accent. "Minnesota? Cool. Don't you have what, ten thousand lakes there?"

 "Actually eleven thousand eight hundred and forty-two lakes." Elise said with another kind smile. "Ten thousand just looks better on the license plate."

 I smiled at her joke, but I didn't have it in me to laugh yet.

"If you're hungry," Elise continued, "they usually start serving breakfast around this time, I'd be happy to take you down there if you want."

 I usually started off my mornings with a run or a set at the weight room, but since I had not eaten much of anything over the last few days, breakfast sounded really good. "Can you wait five minutes or-?"

 "Of course," Elise said before I could finish my sentence.

  "Thanks," I said with as mall grin and I shut the door and turned my attention towards the duffel on the ground as my stomach grumbled. I unzipped main pocket and dug out a white t-shirt and a black maxi skirt. Quickly, I shimmed out of my sleep-ware and into the clean clothing. Looking back at the duffel as I walked towards the bathroom, I resolved to unpack when I was done with breakfast.I dug out my small case of toiletries and headed into the bathroom again, scrubbing my teeth with a bit of Crest and then applying a light bit of concealer to my face to cover up the bags under my eyes. I added a swipe of black eyeliner as well and a quick layer of Chapstick before I ranked a brush through my hair. I examined my reflection in the mirror again; I looked better. Still tired, but I didn't look like I'd been weeping for half the night and for now, that was good enough for me. I slipped on my shoes as I walked towards the door and joined Elise outside in the hall.

"Wow," she remarked. "That was actually five minutes."

"Well yeah," I said, tugging at the shirt which was a bit too large for me. I was rather short and so the shirt was long even with it tucked into the skirt. "I said I'd be out in five."

 "I say it too, but it's never five minutes." She smiled again and shook her head. "I take forever to get ready for anything. Even work and all I wear there are scrubs."

"Scrubs?" I repeated. "You're a doctor?"

 "Oh no," Elise said, "I'm a pediatric nurse. I work in the Mayo Clinic on the NICU, been at the position for two years. Dream job, I could've flown when I got the call saying I landed the job."

 "Mayo Clinic," I whistled. "Wow." I didn't know much about Minnesota, never having really traveled outside Massachusetts my lifetime, but I knew the Mayo Clinic was one of the best hospitals in the United States. To land a job there, you had to be one of the best. That knowledge made me take a second look at my neighbor in her boldly colored dress and well-done makeup. She hadn't struck me as a science person at all. I had pegged her as a more fashionista, into the arts type.

"Thanks, I love it. Oh am I walking too fast?" she asked, slowing down even in the same breath. "The NICU requires you to move quickly and I can't really break the habit even when I'm off the clock."

 "You're fine," I assured her, "I get it about work habits leaking into daily life." I was the same way with buckling my chest strap behind me every time I got into a car. "Walk as fast as you want, I'll keep up. I'm in good shape."

"Oh you work out? I thought so but I didn't want to offend you by asking."

 "Why would that offend me?" I asked with a sidelong glance at my neighbor. "I know I'm a little built so it's not exactly subtle that I'm a gym rat." I wasn't a body-builder by any means, but my muscles were clearly defined and shaped by all the time I spent lifting weights, running and swimming at the local rec center three blocks from my apartment as well as the sparring session I did with Mathew.

 I wonder if they have anything like that here, I thought. Even though my hunger was the main thing on my mind, I knew myself pretty well. Each morning, I did do some form of a workout depending on the weather or when my shift was, and the rush of endorphins from the activity woke me up and left me feeling ready to tackle anything. I wasn't going to be able to get that if I ate breakfast first, not right away at least and I had a feeling I'd manage to get caught up in something else all day whether I wanted to be there or not.

 All nine of the contestants for the trials were on Asgard now and that had to mean something. A meeting, a briefing or something to prepare us for what was next.

"Suzume?"

"What sorry?" I said, snapping out of my musing and back into the conversations.

"I was asking about what you do," said Elise. "What's your job?"

  "I'm on the Boston PD," I replied, feeling a proud smile come to my face. "I'm a cop."

 "Really? What department are you?"

 I shrugged.  "I cover a bit of everything mostly. Patrol, traffic control and responding to calls."

"What sort of calls exactly?"

"Depends on the caller," I admitted. "I've had someone calling to complain about a group of kids playing basketball and there was no noise laws actually being violated so it was just a waste of gas." I could barely stop for grinding my teeth over that either. Boston was a large city and with the Triad cutting it apart some crazy lady had decided that a basketball game at the local park by her house was a real problem.

 "Sounds annoying," Elise commented.

 I tried to pull my face out of its sour expression. "It was but it is part of the job. You have to treat every call as valid."

 Elise nodded, her silver earrings catching the light as we walked. "So I have to ask, as a cop, do you love donuts?" She laughed almost the moment the words left her mouth which told me she was joking but I answered anyways.

 "Dukin' Donuts is a stop I make during morning shifts," I admitted. "A large black coffee and a bagel twist aren't bad ways to begin the day." Yuki and I had stopped there often before my shift began and she had a never-ending array of cop jokes waiting for me when I met her at the store.

"What's a bagel twist?" Apparently Minnesota wasn't fond of the chain and I found myself trying to explain the savory pastry that I liked to treat myself with in the morning.

"Oh here we are," Elise said brightly as she pulled me towards a double set of doors that matched the same polished look of the rest of this place.

She grabbed one of the oiled bronze handles and pulled open the door for me. I muttered a thank you as I crossed the threshold.

 This room was large, the white walls were covered in large windows that gave a dramatic and sweeping view of the courtyard which was lush and green. I neared one of the windows, pressing my hand against the warm glass to get a better look.

"Beautiful isn't it?" I heard footsteps behind me and saw Elise had joined me. "I love the gardens here, they're so nice."

 I made note of stone pathways that lined the space between the thick hedges and indistinct green patches. I had a place to go running here, provided the weather held out. "It is beautiful," I agreed as I stepped away from my vantage point. "But a sight of eggs and bacon would be even more beautiful right now."

There was laughter behind me, laughter too high pitched to belong to Elise. I turned slightly and saw that she and I were not alone. Six other women were in the room, three of them were lounging around a long table and talking excitedly if their eager expressions were anything to judge by. One of them sat near the group, but her face was hidden by a curtain of long blonde hair and she seemed absorbed in something invisible to me. None of them paid me and Elise no mind. But two others were drawing near Elise and myself, eyes trained on me, the new addition.

A woman with dark red hair approached me first, her green eyes wide with excitement while her friend hung back, apparently shy. "Well hiya," she said and I fought the urge to wince. I knew the moment she spoke where she was from, Brooklyn as her accent was strong and grating. It reminded me of Harley Quinn from the Batman cartoon I had watched as a kid. "You're new."

"Clearly."

The redhead rolled her eyes and spoke again in that loud voice of hers. "So you got a name?"

Given the way she spoke I had a feeling hers might be Janice. She reminded me a great deal of the Friends character. I glanced around the room again, still watching the other women, I did a count in my head again, there were seven of us and Sif had said there were eight of us all together.

"Someone's missing."

 "We aren't talk 'in about other people here lady," the Brooklyn girl said. "So you got a name of what?"

"Officer Suzume Hamada," I said, "now tell me who's missing before I start filing a report. Believe me I've had enough practice doing it."

  The redhead perked up. "Now ain't that better? Nice to meet ya Suzume, I'm Melinda and it is Karen who's missing but she's always late. I wouldn't be worrying too much." She held out her hand to me which I shook but her words did nothing to assure me. I had a feeling there were plenty of mythical creatures around here that could easily snatch up a human.

I didn't say that though and merely returned Melinda's greeting. "It's nice to meet you as well."

"So you're a cop?" she drawled. "That's neat. You from New York?"

  "Boston, and let me guess, you're from Brooklyn?"

 "Born and bred," she grinned. "Come on, ya hungry?"

Her accent was starting to get on my nerves and I prayed her lack of an indoor voice wouldn't give me a headache later. "Starving."

She grabbed my arm without invitation and before I could protest dragged me towards a nearby lounge area and shoved me into the couch. "Here," she handed me a plain old silver plate. "Eat up."

"Eat what?"

"She just arrived Melinda," I looked up from the shiny dishware to see another woman sitting opposite me. She looked like she had Asian heritage, same as I did but I couldn't be sure. She had the same straight black hair and almond eyes that I did, but her skin was so startlingly pale white and that threw me off.

"Oh yeah, thanks Reba," she brightened. Melinda tapped the plate. "You have to tell it what you want, it's magic."

I almost dropped the plate. "What?"

"Like this," Elise said patiently as she sat down at my left side. Grabbing the plate she set it on the coffee table and said, "Bacon and eggs please."

There was a shimmering like a mirage and suddenly, the tantalizing smell of scrambled eggs and thick cut bacon was wafting up from the plate. The haze cleared away and what greeted my eye was a full plate of breakfast.

"Wow," I whistled my jaw dropping as I reached for the food and the fork that had suddenly appeared as well. I dug into the eggs and began scarfing them down. They were perfectly done, soft, and hot without being scorching and perfectly seasoned.

I scarfed them down quickly and it didn't go unnoticed by the present company.

"Eat much Officer?" Melinda drawled as she toyed with a lock of her curly hair. The woman whom I thought might have been Asian giggled at the joke. I'd already forgotten her name. Probably because she didn't have an annoying voice.

"I sort of forgot my appetite the last few days," I admitted as I stared at the empty plate, still a bit hungry. "Being transported to another world can make you a little forgetful."

 "So true!" Melinda said but I noticed her friend had opened her mouth to speak but had not gotten the chance. I wondered if that was a common occurrence. "When Idun showed up at my doorstep I thought I'd had too many screwdrivers and that I was paying for it with this weird-ass dream."

"You probably did have too many screwdrivers Melinda," the Asian woman interjected and they both laughed, or I think they did. Melinda's roar drowned out everyone else.

"Who's Idun?" I asked as the laughter died down.

 "She's my sponsor. I was her pick for the trials-she's a member of Odin's council. Real nice and she can mix a mean margarita." She grinned devilishly and I was starting to get the very strong feeling Melinda was the sort of woman who enjoyed having a good time. Perhaps a little too much.

 "Heimdall found Reba," Melinda nudged the black haired woman and I did my best to cement her name to my memory. This was the second time I'd heard it now and I did not want to forget it again. "Saw her wish on a star for one of her student's and-well what he'd say exactly? I forgot."

 "He said he liked my optimism," Reba said in her little voice and a dark red blush stained her white face. "It was why he picked me."

I made note of all the odd names I was hearing. Idun and Heimdall were two I had not heard of, but Odin rang a bell. He was Thor's father.

   I looked over at Elise, curious as to who had selected her. "Who's your sponsor?"

 "Fulla," she answered. "She's not a member of the council like Heimdall or Idun, but she's a good friend of Thor's."

 I nodded. Apparently not everyone who was involved in the selection had political power. I wondered if that had any effect on how Thor viewed each person chosen. He didn't seem like an elitist type of guy when I met him the other night but then again, we had been discussing a dangerous monster.

"What about you?" Reba asked quickly, probably hoping to get a word out before Melinda steamrolled her again. "Who brought you here?"

"Sif," I answered. "Thor's ex-wife."

 "Oh," Melinda whooped, throwing back her head and laughing. "Got the approval of the ex-wife that has to feel good!" She doubled over laughing and Reba turned beet red again, apparently embarrassed.

"I haven't really thought about it," I mumbled. I'd had more pressing things on my mind than the fact that I'd gotten the seal of approval from the former wife. "So, I know Elise is a nurse, but what do you guys do for a living?"

"I'm an assistant professor of archeology at New York University. And no, I am not as cool as Indiana Jones," she winked at her reference and then laughed at her own joke.

I blinked. Given her party animal persona the fact that Melinda held such a prestigious job was a bit shocking. I would have guessed that she was a bartender or maybe a waitress.

She elbowed Reba then who blushed again. "Well as I said before, I Heimdall found me because I was wishing for a student's well-being so I guess that's a clear give away of my being a teacher."

  "What do you teach?"

 "I'm a middle school teacher in Anna Maria, Florida."

"Is that a city?" I asked, not really interested but I wanted to keep the topics in a safe zone. A place away from families and what made us decide to take part in the trails in the first place.

 Reba shook her head. "Nope, a little blip on the map with about four thousand people. You blink and you miss Main Street."

"No wonder you came here," Melinda teased and Reba blushed once again but laughed anyways. Reba either had a great sense of humor or she was good at pretending.

"So what happens now? With the trials I mean, do you any of you know anything about it? I mean we're all here now so shouldn't it all start soon?"

 "It should," Elise agreed. "I know from what Fulla told me, they do want to start as soon as possible, Thor's eager to get things underway. Nervous too she mentioned. But I can't say that I blame him, dating is hard with one person, let alone nine."

Melinda let out a loud sound that was a mix between a laugh and a screech. "Suzume, hand me that plate!" I did as she asked, stunned by the strange request. She grabbed the plate and requested loudly, "Nine mimosas!"

I wasn't sure if that would work but my misgivings were proven wrong as the plate filled with nine flutes of the orange juice and champagne. Melinda hollered across the room at the remaining women and there was a scraping of chairs as they followed her orders.

 "Take one and pass it around," she instructed even as she grabbed a drink of her own. The rest of us followed suit, including me though I didn't like orange juice that much.

"Shouldn't we wait for Karen?" Reba piped up but Melinda shrugged off her concern.

"She's always late, if you're late, you miss stuff and that's that." As soon as everyone was given their flutes Melinda raised hers aloft and crowed, "To eight beautiful, talented ladies about to embark on one hell of an adventure, may the best woman win!"

I raised my glass in sync with the rest of the women and took a small sip before setting it down. It didn't go unnoticed either.

"Not fond of champagne are we?" Melinda gasped.

 "No, I just don't like orange juice."

"Damn," she said, downing her own drink and reaching for my unfinished one. "That's sad."

What's sad is your inability to speak as though I'm not several football fields away. I thought, feeling a hot throbbing build behind my temples. As I had predicted, Melinda's voice was giving me a headache.

"Not gonna arrest me for stealing are ya Officer?"

Melinda's joke was greeted with a few laughs and I shook my head. "No."

"Officer?" I looked up and saw one of the other women who'd joined us speak up. A woman with short brown hair and thick glasses that magnified her light blue eyes. "You're a cop?"

"Yes," I said disliking her tone of surprise a little but I was used to it by now. A woman in a male dominated field was bound to raise a few eyebrows and five years had gotten me accustomed to it.

That dislike must have shown on my face because her large eyes blinked rapidly behind her glasses and her words were rushed as she spoke. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to offend it's just that you're so..."

"Small?" I offered. "I know that. My build doesn't exactly scream cop."

"Yes," the woman said, still blushing as Melinda snorted with laughter. "That's about right. Sorry," she apologized again. "I'm Vivian Martin."

"Suzume Hamada," I said, holding out my hand which she took, but it didn't disguise her weak grip.

I saw her shrink away from me, to the side of her friend whose hard expression startled me. Her espresso brown eyes were fixed on me and glazed over with a coldness that spread to the rest of her oval face and leeched a bit of color from her olive skin.

  She realized I was aware of her cold leer and arranged her soft features into a more relaxed expression. I even saw a half smile form on her cherry colored lips, but she quickly turned away from me and began to pretend to be engrossed in whatever Melinda was saying.

 As for me, I was focused on the feeling of my teeth grinding together in response to the headache. I wondered if perhaps it would be an acceptable time to slip away from the crowd and go for a run. The sun was certainly shining outside and some fresh air would have probably done me some good. I took a deep breath, ready with my excuse to leave but before I could get the words out, there was the sound of doors opening and then a deep, familiar male voice calling out to us.

 I turned in my seat and beside and around me, I saw the other women turn as well to look at the new arrival and as I had expected, it was Thor.

The Asgardian Prince looked different from when I'd seen him the other night. Namely in how he was dressed. When we'd met, he was only in a button down and jeans. Now he was wearing a full three piece black suit and shoes to match. He wouldn't have looked out of place a press conference or a board meeting.

"Glad to see you're all here," Thor said, smiling and showing off his dazzling white teeth.

"We're not," Melinda said and I tried not to wince as my head throbbed. "Karen's not here yet."

 "Karen Vaugh is no longer part of the trials."

 At first, the words made my throat tighten as I remembered the Jotun, but then the fear faded out to nothing. I'd seen the Jotun's style, they could not to do anything quietly. If one had been here and attacked another member of the trials, Thor would not have been here to tell us, we would have already known. Karen Vaugh was fine.

No one took note of the distress I had felt however, thanks to Melinda. "What'dya mean she isn't part of the trials anymore?" She demanded, her accent coming through even stronger than before.

 "Karen Vaun opted to remove herself from the trials. She is currently in her room packing her belongings and you'll have the chance to say goodbye if you wish to do that." He looked pointedly at Melinda, "Do you have any more questions Ms. Elbert? Or are you going to let me finish speaking?"

 Melinda blushed slightly and sat back in her chair, arms crossed and apparently silent. I thanked Thor silently in my mind, perhaps my headache might cease if I had a few minutes without her talking.

"With that in mind," Thor continued, folding his arms behind his back. "That means that the eight of you sitting here today are the ones who will continue onto the combat trial. That will happen in a month and you'll be able to use that time to train. These building has several facilities which you can use at any time to do that, if you need directions to them any of the staff here will be more than happy to help you."

I wanted to ask which sort of facilities were offered, but I stayed quiet. I had a feeling some of the questions I still had would go answered without prompting if I just let Thor talk. I'd learned that lesson the hard way in briefing at the station.

Thor rubbed the back of his neck and looked down a second before he continued speaking. "And besides training, I'll also be taking the time to...get to know each of you." He muttered the last few words a bit quickly and that made his sudden lack of confidence quiet understandable. "My plan so far is simple, dedicating one day a week to spend with each of you, with a little rotation of course, given how there are still quite a few of you."

He grinned nervously at as us, making him look oddly boyish even though nothing about him was like that at all. Personally, I found his plan to be fairly well thought out. Make the most of the time available before the trial and some of us were gone. We had a month to the trial and roughly would wind up going on three dates apiece with Thor before we were sent into the first trial.

 "Excuse me," I looked up to see the woman with the cold gaze interrupting Thor. I was a bit surprised, I had expected more interruptions to come from Melinda.

Thor's dark blue eyes flickered to her. "Yes, Camila? That is your name isn't it?"

 "Yes," she said. "And I had a clarifying question, you said how you would divide your time up between the seven of us, but you didn't say what we would be doing."

"Well that's because I don't have an answer," Thor replied, "I can't really take all of you on the same date now can I?"

 Well he could, but I did appreciate that he wasn't going to be pulling the same tricks on all of us. I glanced at my wrist for the watch that was no longer there. It had been destroyed when Loki blew up the club. I felt my right leg move restlessly, a nervous habit I'd never fully been able to kick much to my disappointment.

Now that my stomach was full, the urge to move and feel my muscles strain and work was building up through my body. Like most people, I had a morning routine. For some, it was a large cup of coffee and a hot shower. For me, it was a run, a set on the weights, a few laps in the pool or a turn on the sparring mats with the guys at the station. I changed it up every now and again, but the core was the same-I started my day by physical activity.

"Suzume?"

The sound of my name pulled me from my musing about treadmills and leg presses. "Yes?" I looked up and Thor watching me with apparent interest.

"Did you have any questions?"

"Yes," I admitted. "Assuming there isn't more information you need to give us, is it alright if I leave?" I figured the end of the briefing was close and I didn't want to be around for the chatter at the end. I knew the conversations would turn from sponsors and jobs to families and I was not ready to talk about mine.

 That wasn't the question Thor was expecting. "Suzume, I admire your eagerness to begin training but-."        

 "It's not training," I interrupted, too restless to worry about manners. With the exception of Camila, the other contestants seemed nice, but I didn't feel like doing the getting-to-know-you thing. I wasn't ready to talk about Yuki to these people. Not yet. "I need to unpack-I got in a bit late last night and didn't have the time for it then. Too tired."

Thor still looked confused. "Oh," he said flatly. "I see, and to answer your question, I've said all I need to. You're free to go."

 "Then I'll see you all later," I half-waved, feeling a bit awkward as I walked away. "It was great to meet all of you."

 Thankfully, as I let myself out of the grand room, no one tried to follow me.  For the moment, I was safe from conversations I wasn't yet ready to face. And now that I thought of it, I decided I was going to head back to my room and unpack-and then I was going to hit the gym afterwards. Sif had mentioned a combat trial so I had no doubt I could find a place where I could lift some weights. I hadn't gone a day without exercise in over a decade and I wasn't going to change that now. Normally, I did that first thing in the morning but it would have to wait until I'd gotten settled in my room. A slight variation to my usual routine, but perhaps that was a good thing; something to help me establish a new normal.

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New chapter! Suzume has met everyone! What are you guys thinking about the other women so far? I admit, I love writing Melinda! She's funny (to me at least!) Please remember to COMMENT and VOTE!

Write on! :)