Contract with a Star (On Hold, Possibly Forever)

The Planning and the Star

            “I’m bored!” It wasn’t the first time he’d whined like that and it wasn’t the first time Tanya slapped the back of his head for it.

            “Tanya?” Rena called softly.

            “Yeah, hun?” Tanya turned and ignored Aiden’s grumbling.

            “I’m bored too.” Rena looked up at her with pleading eyes, like Tanya was the only one that could solve her problem. Tanya tuned Aiden started talking about equal rights and how little girls can survive a slap in the back of the head.

            “When did I become the mother of two?” Tanya muttered to herself. “Would you like to go somewhere, then?”

            “Yeah! Where?” Tanya rolled her eyes at the other two. Rena was ordered to get a map while Tanya cleared the table. Rena came down carrying a very large and very fragile piece of paper.

            When Aiden unrolled it, he and Tanya became disoriented. The map was very plain, with only one city on it. Although it had the entire continent on it, there was only one country marked, the Forest Star country. The map was very detailed about the rivers and the forests and the general wilderness, but some of them were off, and no longer in existence. The lone city was the old capital, which had been moved after three hundred years.

            “What is this? The first map ever?” Aiden was completely baffled by it.

            “What’s wrong with it?” Rena looked insulted.

            “It’s really inaccurate. For example, do you see this lake right here?” Tanya pointed to a large lake on the western border, “This is a swamp, and it’s only about half the size of this lake.” She pointed out more inaccuracies that knew of.

            “Are you sure?” They nodded, certain. Rena was a little upset, “I’ve never been out there, and this is the only map I have.” The teenagers didn’t know how to fix the problem when Rena thought of a solution all on her own. “I know what we should do! We should fix my map! We can visit all the places on the map and fill them out. Do you want to?” Rena had perfected the puppy dog eyes.

            “That’ll take a long time.” Tanya warned.

            “Yeah, and don’t you have noble classes or something?” Aiden asked.

            “Does that mean we can go? Because there’s no such thing as noble classes and we have an entire year to waste!” Rena really didn’t look like she would listen to anything else they said, so they spent almost two hours planning out their trip before Rena interrupted them by taking their plans and throwing them in the fireplace. Tanya promptly took them out of the fireplace because it was a warm spring day and they had no reason to light the fires.

            “Why are you trying to burn the plan you wanted in the first place?” Tanya was ticked.

            “Wouldn’t have been ‘trying’ if somebody had remembered to light the fire this morning. Stupid Aiden.” Rena muttered. Louder, she said, “Why do we have to plan everything out? All we need is money, blankets, horses, food, and a direction and we’re good to go. We can sleep everywhere and anywhere. If there’s anywhere we want to go, we’ll just go there.”

            “And how much money will we need? What if we get attacked by bandits? What if we get lost? What if someone needs us?” Tanya was skeptical.

            “If they want us, they’ll find us. If we get lost, we’ll ask for directions. I’m sure you two could fight off a couple of low down bandits with your pretty little diplomas from the best school in the country.  And if we run out of money, we’ll get jobs. You and I can be street performers while Aiden pleasures old men in the back alleys.”

            “What?!” Aiden only caught the last of the conversation.

            “It’s a compliment, Aiden.” Rena said without turning away from Tanya.

            “Oh, thanks.” Pause, “Wait a-”

            Rena ignored Aiden, silently pleading with Tanya to say yes. Tanya rolled her eyes, knowing Rena would race up the stairs when she said yes. So she waited, and waited, and waited, until Rena began to shake in barely contained excitement and even Aiden was starting to get anxious. Then she said yes. Rena squealed with joy.