Randy’s head was filled with blissful dreams. He was playing baseball and had just scored a home run. It flew yards and yards past the fence and he jogged around the bases amid loud cheers. The crowd shouted, “Ran-dy! Ran-dy! Ran-dy!”

Suddenly, the voice got clearer, louder and sounded quite familiar. “Randy! Randy! Wake up! Randy!”

Randy yawned and raised himself up on his elbows.

“About time.” Randy blinked sleepily as his friend Ben, the head servant’s son, came into focus. “Princess Mars told me to wake you up. She said something about preparing for the ball and about Prince Ryan coming over later.”

Randy yawned again and Ben smiled. “Come on, slowpoke. Don’t have all day. Gosh, look at the time! I have to run! Bye!” Ben ran off and Randy got up and got dressed.

As he searched for his favorite pair of slacks, he thought about all that had happened already. He had just celebrated his fourteenth birthday only a few weeks ago. At the age of 13, he had been officially crowned heir to the throne of Mars by his mother, Rei Kino, the Princess of Mars. Tonight was the annual Starry Night Ball, which was, in Randy’s opinion, the one downside of becoming a prince. It was mandatory he attend; there just wasn’t a way to get out of it. It was just a stuffy affair in which his mother got to show Randy off to all of her other friends, like the Princess of Jupiter and Venus, and they would all squeal over how big he had grown. Randy sighed, as he recalled the events that had taken place at last year’s Starry Night Ball.

It was the first year that he had not been able to weasel out of going to the ball. His mother had insisted that he wear his stiff tuxedo and worst yet, he had to escort someone.

“But, Mom!” Randy protested.

“But nothing.” She said sternly. “You will escort someone, or I shall choose someone for you to escort. You know fully well that it’s tradition for the crown princes to escort someone down the grand staircase before the first dance. ”

Randy sighed. Knowing his mother, he’d end up escorting the princess of Mercury, Amber, who was the younger sister of his friend, Ryan, the crown prince of Mercury. He blushed as he thought of escorting Rachel, the very pretty lady-in-waiting for Princess Rini, whose mother was Neo-Queen Serenity herself. But he really didn’t feel like escorting anyone. He’d only do this to humor his mother and nothing more.

“Randy!” His mother admonished him. “Are you listening to me?”

“Yes, mother.”

“I know you too well, Randy. I know that you are much too embarrassed to ask anyone to escort. Therefore, I have already asked a very nice princess for you.” Mother looked quite pleased with herself. “All right, now we must discuss your wardrobe.”

“Wait, wait, you already asked a princess!? No, not princess Amber. Oh, Mother, anyone but Princess Amber! Please, don’t say Amber!” Randy pleaded.

“No, not princess Amber, crown princess Rini-though, what’s wrong with dear Amber? She’s a sweet girl.” Mother cocked her eyebrow.

Hastily, Randy replied, “Well, yes, she’s sweet but-wait, I’m going with Rini?”

“Princess Rini.”

“But…but, we’ve been friends for so long. I played with her as a child. We’ve known each other forever. She used to beat me up-I mean, try to beat me up. I can’t go out on a date with her. It’d be so weird!”

“Randy. You’ll just have to deal with it. She should be here any moment. I told Serena to send Rini over here soon so I could take pictures of you two. Now, go get dressed!”

“But…Mom…”

“GO!”

Grumbling, Randy went to hid room and tugged his tux on. He was struggling with his shoes when a servant announced that Prince Ryan had arrived. He told him to let Ryan in and Ryan stumbled into the room, a book in hand, as usual. He was also dressed in a tux, but he looked much cleaner than Randy. Randy already had a mustard stain on his jacket sleeve; how it got there still stumped him. However, Ryan looked quite a bit more nervous than Randy did and as soon as Randy mentioned that his mother had ordered him to take Rini to the ball, Ryan looked away.

“Ok, spill. Who are you escorting?” Randy punched Ryan playfully in the shoulder. Ryan mumbled something inaudible. “What?” Randy cupped his hand around his ear. “Crown princess Leanna of Jupiter.” He whispered.

“Lucky. She’s cool. You’ll spend all night talking about the latest baseball cards and stuff.” Randy played it cool, but inside, he was envious.

Ryan didn’t seem reassured. “But, Randy, I don’t even like baseball!”

Just then, Rei poked her head in Randy’s room. “Hello, Ryan. Randy, please come downstairs. Rini is waiting downstairs for you. Oh yes, Ryan, Leanna is also downstairs waiting for you. Come along, you two, and make sure you make a good impression!”

Randy sighed and trudged along behind Ryan and his mother. Ryan was nervously fiddling with his tie. Once they were in the main hallway, Rei turned and called up the east staircase, “All right, ladies! Come down now!”

Leanna and Rini descended down the staircase amid oohs and aahs from Rei and the Prince of Mars, Chad.

“Girls, you look lovely!” Rei exclaimed. Ryan nodded enthusiastically. Randy was speechless. In all the time he had known Rini, he had never known she could look so feminine and pretty. She blew him away.

Rini had her hair swept up in an elegant bun. She wore a sparkling white dress with a flouncy skirt. Her heels twinkled in such a way that Randy thought they might have been made out of glass. She carried a elegant handbag that blended with her dress perfectly. She wore a simple diamond necklace and earrings to match.

At that moment, Ben walked in, dressed to the nines, also preparing to attend the ball. “Wow, princess Rini, princess Leanna, you look fabulous.” Ben said.

Rini beamed. “Thank you.” Leanna nodded her thanks, but looked bored.

“Don’t they?” Rei sighed happily. “Well, Randy, aren’t you going to say anything? Randy?”

Randy stood speechless for a moment and then said in a choked voice, “Rini, I never knew you could look so…so….”

“Well, you look very handsome, too, Randy.” Rini said shyly, toying with the strand of her purse.

“No, really, did your stylist put a mask on you or something? You look very weird.” Randy backed away. He felt awful for saying that, but he didn’t know how else to react. He and Rini had always been playmates, and now that they were all grown up, he didn’t know how to act.

Rini gritted her teeth and punched Randy hard in the arm.

“Ow! Okay, Rini’s still in there.” Randy said through clenched teeth, trying to stifle the sting of pain.

“Randy, darling,” Rei stroked his hair and cleared her throat, a sure sign that she was going to say something he wasn’t going to like, “This is a very formal ball, and Rini is going to be your date. You dance together, dine together and sit together at all times. This is quite a formal occasion, and as crown prince, Randy, I wouldn’t want you to be embarrassed by not carrying on the tradition of not having a date.

Randy froze. He now had to date Rini? He had just gotten used to the idea of escorting her and now he had to date her? Rini looked quite calm, and with a start, he realized she had known about this all along. This didn’t at all bother her. Randy panicked and he knew he would regret his next words, but he couldn’t stop them. “Embarrass me? You think escorting Rini wouldn’t embarrass me? I’ll tell you, escorting Rini would very much embarrass me. She’s loudmouthed, she’s a plain old carrot top wannabe who’s not a bit pretty and she’s got the world’s ugliest face!”

Randy knew he was going to be in big trouble but he went on anyway. “I can see why everyone at school thinks she’s a little runt, because she is! She follows me around everywhere and annoys me until I want to slap her in her ugly face! I can’t believe I’ve wasted so many years of my life playing with this little brat, just to humor you! You don’t think escorting ol’ big mouthed loony toons here wouldn’t embarrass me, well, then you’re loony toons yourself!”

For a split second, everything was totally quiet. Then Rei exploded. “Randy! That is a awful thing to say!”

Randy gulped, not believing what had just come out of his mouth. He turned towards Rini. “Rini, I’m sor-”

Suddenly, he felt a strong blow on his shoulder. Just before he fell, he caught sight of Rini’s tearstained face as she pushed past him.

Randy hit the floor hard, but pushed himself back up in a second. He saw Rini’s feet thunder up the last few steps and then the back of her dress and purse whip around the corner. Far away, he heard the loud slam of a door.

“Randy! I’m horrified!” Rei’s hand flew to her mouth.

“Yeah, so am I, she pushes really hard. That really hurt!” Randy said, wincing as he got to his feet. Randy cringed as he mentally shook himself, wondering why he was saying all of these stupid things today.

Rei was furious. “It’s a wonder why she didn’t push you harder, Randy Kino! I’m ashamed of you! This is not how I brought you up! You said some very harsh things to her. You minus well have punched her. Those kinds of wounds never heal, Randy. You go apologize to her. Explain why you did this. Go, now, Randy! I mean it, GO!”

Randy stared at his feet. He knew he had really hurt her, but he didn’t know how he could find it in himself to apologize to her. He was so ashamed of himself. Ben came forward and gently nudged Randy. “Go, Randy. It won’t kill you to apologize to her. I’ll bet she’ll feel better knowing you really didn’t mean that.” Ben said softly. Inwardly, Ben was horrified that Randy could be so mean to anyone. Ryan felt the same way. Ryan, Rini and Randy had played together as children. He found it astonishing that Randy could even think of saying that to Rini.

Randy closed his eyes briefly, and letting out a deep breath, climbed slowly up the grand staircase. He found the door to one of the more elaborate guestrooms locked. He heard movement inside and a sob. He knocked gently and all of the sounds ceased.

“Rini?” He called softly. “I’m really sorry. But I rather say it face to face than to a door.”

Silence.

“Rini, please answer me. Or else I’m going to have to call Mom and ask her for her hairpin so I can break in.” Randy said, tapping his fingernails against the door.

“Go away! I never want to speak to you ever again! I’m going back to the castle and I never want to see you again as long as I live!” Rini yelled. “I hate you! I hate you! I’d hated you forever and I always, always will!”

Randy was taken aback. “I- I’m sorry, Rini.” He said softly. “I’m so sorry.”

The door opened abruptly. “Sorry?” Rini snapped. Her purse was flung on the floor, her jewelry lay strewn all over a table, her shoes kicked off in a corner. Her hair was messy and clung to her sticky, tear stained face. “Sorry isn’t enough. Sorry is saying, like, My mom made me come up here and humiliate me more. I never, ever want to see you again as long as I live, Randy Nicholas Kino!” Rini slammed the door in his face.

Randy stepped back. “I’ll just go then.” He said softly.

“And don’t come back.”

Randy started down the stairs when he heard Rini again.

“Ever.”

On to Chapter Two.