Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

room. He smiled with delight that he was here with Corena on his arm, yet he started to feel more nervous with all of these people looking in their direction.

Before King Maximus found a table for his family and nearby tables for their escort, Trance’s family was introduced. Trance was delighted to see his dad escorting his mother arm in arm. Kyle and Sammy followed behind, and Kyle waved at a few people that he knew. Trance watched his family take seats at a table just a little ways away from them.

Just a few minutes went by before some of Trance and Corena’s teammates came by with either their girlfriends or boyfriends. Everyone greeted them warmly, and most of them seemed excited about the dance and the upcoming tournament. As they talked, Trance learned that there was a lot of talk about the teams competing and their records coming into the tournaments. It seemed that there were some people really crunching numbers and trying to figure out who would win a number of the events. Trance was thrilled to learn that his team was now considered to be one of the major frontrunners for some of events. His team was even being compared to the White Knights that Rex had led to such success last year.

Trance learned that he was also being discussed. It seemed that many of the teams from the other planets entered into the tournaments had heard about him and how he’d led his team to such a successful year. It was also noted that he had repeatedly beat Rex. Many of the other teams were curious to see how good a knight Trance was and if he was as good a captain as they had heard.

There seemed to be another topic that kept coming up that night. Who was going out with whom, and of course it did not escape anybody’s notice that Trance was with Corena. There were comments made about why Princess Corena had dumped Rex. They had appeared to be such a good match. She was a lovely princess and heir to her kingdom, and Rex was sure to be picked as one of the best knights to be trained in many years. It just sounded so unusual that Corena should leave a guy that had such good prospects for some boy that came from such a distant planet. There were even a couple suggestions that she should be with a boy from her own world.

As the night went on Trance and Corena ignored these comments and concentrated on each other by dancing and sitting and visiting with their friends. They were really enjoying the company of some of their best friends; Zam and his girlfriend Masey, Gracer and Catrina, and Hamon and Amanda. At a break in the dance the couples split into two groups for a couple minutes, boys and girls. They enjoyed a little gossip.

On the boys’ side of the room getting punch Hamon asked, “Hey Trance, how in the hell did you get Corena to go out with you? By the way, why did she break up with Rex in the first place?”

“The answer to your first question is just my charm,” Trance said, making what he thought was a rather charming pose. “For the second question, he’s a royal jerk and had cheated on her, end of story. Now really, I guess that we kind of got interested in each other when we first met, and then we started talking in school and we just fell in love with each other. How did you guys meet your sweethearts?” He asked and indicated the girls as they sat together chatting.

“I met Catrina at last year’s get together dance and fell in love with her at first sight. We’ve been goin’ out ever since,” spoke up Gracer.

“Masey and I met a year and a half ago when we went to battle the Rovians. Her brother was on the team then and she had gone to cheer him on. It was just by chance that we bumped into each other, and we’ve been dating since,” said Zam.

“I met Amanda last year while jogging,” said Hamon, and then he went on to explain. “I was jogging around my home town minding my own business, when I tripped and fell. I had just stood up and was dusting myself off when this lass with an angel’s face came running over to see if I was okay. We stood and talked for quite a while and started dating a week later.”

On the other side of the room the girls were talking about what they liked about their boyfriends. “Trance is so kind and considerate, plus he’s a better kisser than Rex ever could wish to be. He’s also one of the bravest guys I’ve ever met,” said Corena.

“Zam is the smartest guy I know. He can answer any question I ask him without even hesitating,” said Masey.

“Gracer is so tall and handsome, he takes my breath away every time I see him,” said Catrina blushing at the thought.

“Hamon is so strong and powerful, when I’m with him I feel so safe and secure,” said Amanda hugging herself.

They all sighed at the same time, thinking about their boyfriends on the other side of the room. With their minds turned already toward them, they all started to think about getting their respective boyfriends to officially be their courters after they graduated from school. Corena had explained to Trance a couple times that there were five basic levels of romance generally accepted in the galaxy.

The first was having a beau, which was the level for young children up to Grade 8 in school. This level was early boyfriend and girlfriend. The second level was actually being a full boyfriend and girlfriend. This level ranged a whole gambit from High School to adults. Next was that of being a courter, and at this level the couple started making promises of getting married. Then there was being betrothed, or