Free Starcrossed by Brenda Hiatt

just helping Molly and Sean get caught up in History—not that they need a lot of help.” I smiled at Molly and she smiled back.
    “It was my mom’s idea,” she explained to Bri, who was still frowning a little. “But M’s being a really good sport about it.”
    “So, Molly, are you joining the cheerleading squad?” Deb said to change the subject. Deb hated anything like conflict.  
    Molly nodded. “I thought it might be fun to cheer at Sean’s games. You guys will come, won’t you?”
    “Are you kidding?” Bri was instantly distracted. “I never miss a game. I especially won’t now. Let’s all go to the scrimmage against Alexandria week after next! Show our support.”  
    She spent the rest of lunch talking basketball and I was surprised that Molly seemed to know as much about it as she did. Rigel made an occasional comment, too, but I stayed quiet, not wanting to display my ignorance. I was just happy Rigel was relatively cheerful again, despite the frequent mentions of Sean’s name. I hoped that meant I’d successfully reassured him.

    It was still drizzling when I got off the bus that afternoon. I worried it might keep Rigel from coming over but less than half an hour later he showed up wearing a rain poncho that covered most of his bike as well as his body.
    “Nice!” I said, grinning at his attire when I opened the door.
    He shrugged, grinning back. “It’s not a force field, but it gets the job done. You want to go for a walk? I brought an umbrella—a real one.”  
    “Let me grab my coat.” No neighbors were out in their yards on a day like this, but I wouldn’t put it past Mrs. Crabtree to be spying out her window.  
    A minute later we were walking toward Diamond hand in hand, Rigel holding the big black umbrella over both of us. Very romantic, in spite of the puddles. But then, pretty much everything was romantic when I was with Rigel.
    “It sucks there’s no place we can be alone without getting rained on,” I commented after a moment.
    “Yeah. Maybe after Allister and Grandfather leave you can come to my house again.”
    Aunt Theresa had made it clear that neither Rigel nor I were allowed in each other’s houses without supervision. She’d even mentioned it to his parents after church a few weeks ago, so they now felt obligated to play by her rules. Fortunately, Rigel’s dad worked out of their house about half the time, since he did a lot of his computer consulting over the internet. Rigel’s mom was an OB/Gyn, so she was gone a lot during the day.  
    “We can go to the arboretum,” I suggested. “It ought to be deserted.”  
    He nodded and we headed that way.  
    “So what’s this project you’re working on?” I asked as we walked.
    “Allister and Grandfather are writing up guidelines for new Echtrans on how to blend in without drawing attention. I mean, there have always been generally understood dos and don’ts, but with more coming in and others leaving the compounds, they want something standardized. Something bipartisan, I guess you could say.”
    “So where do you come in on this?” It sounded very governmental and official to me. I tried to ignore the fact that I really should be learning about this stuff myself.
    “They want to include stuff for kids—all ages. Used to be, folks with young kids almost always stayed in one of the Martian compounds or villages until they were older but now, not so much. I’m supposed to come up with ideas for that part.” He didn’t sound happy about it.
    “But you think it’s really to keep you home? Away from me?” I could definitely see Allister doing that, but Shim? He’d seemed to like me, and even approve of us as a couple.
    The arboretum was as empty as I’d predicted, so we went in and wandered slowly along the wet gravel path. It had been pretty when the roses were in bloom and the trees still had leaves a month ago, but now it was drab and gray in the cold drizzle.
    “Maybe I’m wrong about that.”