“I apologized again and again. She slammed the door in my face. She said she hates me. And then she told me to go away forever.” Randy looked up from where he was sitting on the stairs.

“Well, I don’t blame her.” Rei said softly. “You said some really awful things. I didn’t expect her to forgive at once.”

“Then why’d you send me up there in the first place?” Randy cried.

“So that you could let her know you didn’t really mean it. Let her know that you really are sorry. I’d hate for her to sit up there all night, still thinking that you meant what you said with all your heart. At least now she knows you’re sorry and that you want to make up.” Rei smoothed her evening gown and sat down beside him.

“Come on, Randy, its dinnertime. Mrs. Bruen prepared a luscious dinner, with all of Rini’s favorite foods. Go invite her to join us.” Rei suggested.

“I don’t think Rini wants to see me right now.” Randy said glumly.

“Maybe you’re right.” Rei said thoughtfully. “I’ll go invite her myself. Go on, sit down and eat. Go on, I’ll be there in a second.”

“What about the Starry Night Ball?” Randy asked.

“The whole purpose of holding the ball is to honor the night stars and the shooting stars. It’s raining quite hard at the moment, so no shooting stars will come around tonight. Queen Serenity postponed it until tomorrow. Perhaps for more than one reason.” Rei said thoughtfully, “I’ll have to speak to her about it. Go on to dinner. I’ll got speak to Rini.” Rei squeezed Randy’s shoulder briefly, then went upstairs.

Randy went into the dining room and plopped glumly into a seat.

“Are you okay, Randy?” Ben asked, as he served him.

“Thanks, Ben. Yeah, I’m just really sorry and thinking I’m really stupid for even thinking about what I said to Rini.”

Ryan didn’t say anything. Randy invited Ben to join them for dinner and they all ate in silence.

Randy finished his dessert quickly. “I think I’m going to go see if Mom would like any dinner. She’s been up there a long time, probably changing. I’ll just go and see her anyway. I have something to tell her.”

“Okay.” Ryan says absentmindedly, staring off into space.

Randy went upstairs, tugging his tie loose, and stopped at the top of the staircase. What if Rini slams the door in his face again? What if she slapped him instead?

He paused just outside her door. Just as he was about to knock again, he heard Rini sob loudly and voices. He decided to see what was going on before he made a fool of himself again. He peeked around the corner and watched them cautiously.

“I hate him! He…he always hated me! Ever since we first met. We didn’t hit it off that well at first.” Rini admitted, sniffling, recalling when they were about a year old and he had dropped a mixture of crushed bugs into her hair.

“Rini, hon, he could never hate you, even if you didn’t hit it off that well at first.” Randy heard his mom comforting her.

“But he does!” Rini insisted. “He thinks I hate him too.”

“But you don’t?” Rei prompted.

“No, of course not!” Rini sounded shocked. “I really like him, I really do, even though I don’t show it a lot. I care for him a lot. I’ve never felt this way before. He thinks I hate him because I’m always yelling at him, telling him it’s all his fault, but that’s only because I don’t know how to really show my true feelings.”

“I remember when we met this girl named Rachel. I didn’t really like her because I could tell she had a thing for Randy…” Rini trailed off and shrugged uncomfortably. “Do you mean that Rachel had a crush on Randy?”

“Yes. Yes, she did. I think she thought she was in love with Randy, but I could tell it was only a crush.”

“How? Rini, darling, how could you possibly tell that she had a crush and was not in love?” Rei said softly. Randy, anxiously awaiting the answer, inched closer.

“Because. I know what a crush feels like. I know the symptoms. And I know what love feels like. I’ve felt the symptoms.” Rini said slowly.

“How do you know what love feels like?” Rei asked.

“Because I love, even though I now know he certainly doesn’t love me back, I love…I know I love…”

Randy bolted. He didn’t want to hear what Rini’s answer anymore; he didn’t even want to have heard what Rini had said before that. He had heard too much already.

His mind spun as he thought about what he’d heard. He collapsed on a chair in the living room and said out loud, “I never knew she felt that way…How could I, with her yelling and hitting me every other second whenever we were together? I could never have known…It’s not my fault, but now I feel awful, terrible about what I said. Well, I always felt awful about what I said, but this…this is too much...”

“Randy, got something you wanna share with the class?” Ryan spun around in his chair, which was facing backwards, hiding him from Randy.

“Ryan! What are you doing?” Randy clutched his chest. If Ryan had heard…he’d for sure know then…

“Studying for my trigonometry quiz next week,” Ryan showed Randy his heavy trigonometry textbook and Randy sighed with relief. When Ryan started studying, especially math, he couldn’t be awoken unless you shook him really hard or spoke loudly, like Randy must have done.

Ryan raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing?” he asked. Randy gulped. Maybe he had heard.

Excuses ran across his brain, each one lamer than the one before. “Just talking to myself about this really sad book I read. I was just reading a part aloud, that’s all. That’s all.” Randy said finally, trying to act calm and collected.

Rei came in and stared at Randy for a moment, like she knew Randy had been listening in the conversation she and Rini had just had.

“Randy, um, sweetheart, why don’t you go sit on the double swing outside? It’s bound to be a beautiful night? Clear your head. Get you mind off things for a while. It stopped raining. It’s a very beautiful night.” She smiled and reached out as if she wanted to stroke Randy’s hand, then quickly retreated with the quickness of a crab darting back into its burrow.

“What did Rini say?” Randy questioned, not moving a muscle.

“What she said is not important. She was just telling me a few things, that’s all. She said that she was really hurt about what you said, but if ready to forgive you by tomorrow, probably. Just let her be for a while. Let her clear her head, too. She’ll be fine by tomorrow.” Rei answered, running her fingers through her long black hair.

She smiled as if she wanted Randy to forget about Rini for a while. “Now go on. Go on, now!” She gave his shoulders a short, tight squeeze and then fled into the kitchen where Ben was washing the dishes.

“I saved two plates of dinner, Your majesty, one for you and one for Crown Princess Rini.” Randy heard Ben say to Rei.

“Why, thank you, Ben. That’s very sweet of you. I think I’ll take Rini’s food up first.” Rei said.

“You should eat, too, your majesty. If you’re going to go through with this plan of yours, you need your strength. Randy can get pretty feisty.” Ben said.

“Yes, I know. And I will. You run along, you’ll need your strength, too, Ben, for the ball tomorrow evening.” Rei replied.

What plan? Randy wondered.

“Randy, are you still here? You listen to me this time and go and sit on the swing. Go clear you’re head, as I said before. Go on. You’ll be fine.” Rei tugged her son up and sent him outside. Smiling, she told him, “Come back in when it’s dark, honey. And don’t worry about Rini. She’ll be okay.” She swung the door shut.

Randy sat on the swing and rocked back and forth.

He thought about when he was little and used to think that if he swung hard enough he could fly around and over. “It’s not possible anymore, though.” He said to no one in particular.

Before long, he started to feel sick and decided to sit on the double swing instead. It was a good wooden swing with two benches straight across from each other. It was next to the royal garden and the prized red roses of Mars, so it always smelled good.

Randy sat down and breathed deeply, taking in the luscious smell of the perfumed flowers.

“Hmmm. Smells good, here, doesn’t it?”

Randy looked up. Ryan and Ben were standing by the swing watching it as the wind blew and mad it rock back and forth.

“Yeah.” Randy sighed.

“Mind if we sit down?” Ben nodded at the swing.

“No, go ahead.” Randy slowed the swing until it was almost to a stop and they climbed in, sitting on the other bench facing Randy. “What’s wrong, Randy? Never seen you so sad.” Ryan said, leaning back and relaxing as the wind blew harder and the swing rocked harder.

“Nothing. I’m just feeling really lousy and really terrible.” Randy said.

“About Rini?” Ben asked.

“Yeah. But don’t you start on it, too.”

“I figured you had enough nagging about Rini for one day.” Ben smiled kindly.

“So you’re on my side?”

“I’m on no one’s side, Randy. You were really mean, very rude to say that to Rini, but your mother, if I may speak candidly, was also very hard on you. She could have been a little nicer, I reckon. But I don’t blame anything on Rini. She seemed ready to burst a long time ago.” Ben looked up at the first stars of the night.

That startled Randy. “Really?” He asked, also looking up at the lone star in the sky.

“Yeah. Funny thing was it seemed to have started when you met that lady-in-waiting of hers, Rachel.”

“Oh, really? I hadn’t noticed.” Randy was glad for the growing darkness so his friends wouldn’t see his ears turn red at the very thought of Rachel.

“You didn’t?” Ryan seemed very surprised. “Honestly, I thought the whole world would know. She was arguing more than usual with everyone, about every little thing, and you know princesses are supposed to be all proper and stuff. She seemed very edgy and uptight. Didn’t you hear her the last time we were over at the palace? She was singing to herself and wouldn’t stop humming.”

“But…but Rini's best friend, Princess Violet of Venus says that Rini never sings unless she’s sort of upset about something or really confused about something serious. Or else if she is just being plain silly.” Randy raised a eyebrow.

“Yeah, I know. When I asked Rini about her singing, she totally denied it. But I could almost swear that I did hear her singing. And they were always slow songs that you dance to in dance clubs. Once or twice I caught the word ‘love’ in one of her songs, but I can’t be sure.” Ryan stretched.

“Yes, and I asked one of her ladies-in-waiting and they said she couldn’t stop singing. And they were all convinced she was singing love songs.” Ben added. Randy’s heart thunked to the floor, but he didn’t know why. All of a sudden, his throat tightened, and when he talked his voice was choked. “Rini was really singing love songs?” He asked. He coughed.

“Yeah, everyone’s agreed about that.” Ryan looked past Randy. “Oh, look at that sunset! It’s beautiful.”

Randy looked behind him and sighed at the sight of the sunset. It was a glorious sight, with mixtures of pink, orange, blue, and purple.

“Randy?” Ryan asked.

“Hmm?” Randy didn’t take his eyes off the sunset.

“I’m going inside before these pesky bugs eat me up. Come in soon, Randy, or it’ll be pitch black. Come on, Ben, let’s go.” Ben slowed the swing and he and Ryan departed.

I wish Rini could see this beautiful sunset. I really hope she’s okay. Randy thought. He looked up at her window. He saw a flash of red hair and the curtains rustling.

He smiled sadly.

He turned to see the last of the sunset go and saw that the first star of the night was still all by its lonesome self. No other stars were near it.

“Starlight, Star bright, the first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.” Randy closed his eyes and tilted his face up toward the star.

“I wish I can take Rini to the Starry Night ball and make everything all better with her.”

When he opened his eyes, the lone star had been joined by dozens of others. Randy sighed.

“Randy! Randy, come in now, it’s almost eight o’ clock. Go to bed. Tomorrow, you’ll have to wake early so we can perform the traditional ceremonies and then you’ll have to get all dressed up!” Princess Rei called out to him.

Randy reluctantly got up from his cozy swing and went inside.

The star blinked brightly once.

On to Chapter Three.