Space Pirates 3: Russel's Revenge, Amber Riel [nonfiction book recommendations .txt] 📗

“Exactly.”  She looked up at Ben.  “Our love and hate relationship.”

          Ben was really confused.  Everyone else looked at Zelda, also confused.

          “See,” she explained, “I love you, and he hates me.  When me and him start fighting, you love me just as much as I love you, and you interfere, stopping us from fighting.”  She looked at Gregory.  “Right, Double-D?”

          Gregory was trying to make since of what Zelda had just said.  “Ye-a…. Ri-ght.”

          “Zelda, I hate to say this,” Ben admitted, “but that made no since.”

          Zelda thought about what she had said.  “You’re right.  That didn’t make any since, but at least, I tried.”

          Ben smiled at her attempt.  “You did try.  Now,” he said, turning his attention to both Gregory and Zelda, “I want the two of you to call a truce, before we go on with the plans for battle.”

          “Fine.”  Zelda turned to face Gregory and held out her hand.  “Well, it looks like we have no choice.  Truce?”

          Gregory took a moment to consider, then he grabbed her hand.  He shook Zelda’s hand.  “Truce.”

          “Good.”  Ben was glad that his wife and brother set apart their differences and made an effort to get along.  “Now, that that’s settled what were you going to say, Zelda?”

          “Well, I know that there’s bounty hunters roaming different planets, and well, I think we need to use the element of surprise.”

          “What do you mean?” Olivia asked.  “How are we going to do that?”

          “We need a decoy.  Because I think that before we go to the other planets, we need to start on Blaze, and take out Magma.”

          “Why?”

          “Because she’s basically the leader, because she is the princess of the planet.  If you take away the leader, then you get chaos, and Russel will want to be the leader, because he’s older.”

          Gregory and Olivia were interested in Zelda’s theory.

          “Then you have Leo, who will want to fight Russel for the leadership, because no man, like him, wants to be pushed around by his dad, all the time.  I want to see my grandfather, and uncle, get into a fight.  I don’t care if they kill each other.  Heck, they both deserve it anyway.  Especially, because Russel killed my parents.”

          “I haven’t thought of it that way,” Olivia agreed.

          “Neither did I,” Gregory also agreed.  “I just have a question.”

          “What?” Zelda asked.

          “I thought that you were the only one in your family still alive.  Why didn’t anyone say that your uncle and grandfather are still alive?”

          “I didn’t know that they were alive,” Zelda admitted, “until a few months ago.  I will not call Leo uncle and I will not call Russel grandfather.”  Zelda didn’t think of them as family.  She thought about them as enemies and that’s what they were.  “To me, they don’t deserve those names.”  She grabbed Ben’s hand.  “I’m ready to go back to the White Rose.”

          Ben stoop up and helped Zelda out of the chair.  “Okay.  We’re going back to the ships,” he told Olivia and John.  “You can hang out here, and go over the plans, or you two can come back with us?”

          “Okay.  Are we going with them,” John asked, “Olivia, or are we going to stay?”

          “Hold on.”  Olivia looked over to Gregory.  “Gregory, are we going to go with Zelda’s plan?”

          Gregory waited a moment before answering.  “See you four on Blaze.”

          Ben smiled.  “Good.”

 

          The two ships were on their way back to Blaze.  John, Olivia, and Will were on the deck of the Black Velvet.

          “Captain, did you get any useful information?” Will asked.

          John realized that Will was flirting with Olivia.  “No,” he answered, rudely.

          “Dude, I wasn’t talking to you.  I was talking to her.”

          “Yea,” Olivia agreed, “John.”

          “I’m going to go talk to Zelda.”  John didn’t want to deal with Will.  “You better not do anything to my girl,” he told Will.

          Will held up his hands.  “Fine.  My hands are right here.”

          “They better stay there, or you’re dead.  And I’ll give you more than just a bloody nose this time,” John warned.

          “Okay.  You can go now.”

          John left.

          When John was out of sight, Will wrapped his arm around Olivia.  “So, did you make a decision yet?”

          Olivia pulled away from Will.  “Actually, I did.”  She didn’t want to hurt Will, but she didn’t know what to do.  She decided to let him down easy.  “You’re a cool guy and everything, but you can’t bribe me to love you.  No matter what you say.  I don’t love you.  I love John.”

          Ouch!  Olivia’s word cut Will like a knife.  They cut his heart into two.  The fire prince didn’t know how to deal with the pain.  He had never been turned down by a girl before.  “Oh.”  He tried not to sound disappointed.

 

          Zelda sat at a card table on the deck of the White Rose.  Ryan was trying to get her to fall in love with him.

          “So, Zelda,” Ryan asked, “tell me, do you like to be the most beautiful captain in the universe?”

          “Is that a pick up line?” Zelda asked, looking up from her sandwich.

          “I don’t know.  Is it working?”

          “No.”

          Ryan was disappointed.  “Why not?”

          “I’m married.”  Zelda couldn’t believe how dumb Ryan was.  He was tied with Peter.  “Remember, you were at my wedding?”

          “But, what about us?”

          Zelda didn’t want to hurt Ryan, but she had no choice.  “I don’t love you.  I’m in love with my husband.”

          “So.”

          “Maybe this will get you to leave me alone.  I’m pregnant.”

          “I don’t care.”

          Zelda was shocked that Ryan wasn’t bothered by what she said, which kind of worried her.  “Do you know who the daddy is?”

          “No, but I’ll be the daddy.”  Ryan was determined to win Zelda’s heart no matter what.

          “Ryan,” Zelda said as she pointed to Ben, who was talking to Ray and Peter, “my husband, and the father of my child, is over there.”

          Ryan looked at Ben and he grew disappointed again.  “Oh.”  He left as John walked over to Zelda.

          John sat down across from her.  “Hey, Zelda.”

          “Oh hey, John.”  She knew why he was there.  He didn’t have to tell her.  “Let me guess, Will’s being aggravating?”

          “Yep.”  An idea popped into his head.  “If I ask Ben if you can pretend to go out with me, so I can win Olivia from Will, will you do it?”

          Zelda gave John a look that met heck no.  “Even if Ben said, ‘Yes,’ I’m going to say, ‘No.’”

          “Why not?”

          Zelda couldn’t believe that she had to explain why she said no to John.  “First of all, me and Olivia are just getting our friendship back.  Second of all, even though, you’re not really cheating on her, she’s going to think that you are, then she’s going to dump you, and go straight to Will.  That’s not helping you, that’s helping him and I told him that I wasn’t going to do that.”

          John realized that Zelda was right.  “Crap.  Then what should I do?”

          “I don’t….” An idea popped into Zelda’s head.  “I think it’s time for you to ask her the question.”

          John was confused.  He didn’t know what Zelda was talking about.  “What question?” he asked.

          She looked at him and shook her head.  “The question that a guy ask a girl that he really loves,” she hinted.

          John thought for a second.  “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

          Zelda wanted to smack John.  “You two are dating, so why do you need to ask her that, unless you two secretly broke up again.  Did you?” she asked, eyeing him.

          “No.”

          She raised up both of her hands.  “Then, why do you need to ask her that?”

          John shrugged.

          “Okay.”  Zelda didn’t know how to make it anymore obvious, what she was hinting.  “It’s a question that a guy ask a girl that he loves, THAT he’s already dating.”

          John pointed to Zelda’s half eaten sandwich.  “Are you going to finish that?”

          She looked at her sandwich, then back to John.  He still wasn’t getting the hint.  “Yes I am, but no, that’s not the question.  It’s a question that a guy ask a girl that he loves and is already dating and it doesn’t involve food.”

          John didn’t answer.

          “What question do you think Ben asked me before we got married?”

          “Will you marry me?”

          “THAT’S IT!” Zelda exclaimed.  He finally got what she was hinting.  “Now go and ask her.  And hurry.”

          “Okay.  Just one problem.”

          “What?”

          “I don’t have a ring to give her.”

          “Forget about the ring.  Now go get her, Belle.”  Zelda pointed to the Black Velvet.

          John hated that nickname.  “Zelda,” he admitted, “I love you, and you’re the best sister-in-law any guy can have, but please don’t call me that.”

          “Okay, John Jacob Jingle Honor Smit.”

          “Please, don’t call me that either.”

          “Okay.  Fine.  Then what am I going to call you?  Johnathen?”

          “I like it.”

          “Okay, Johnathen.  Now go.”

          John left.  Ben walked over to Zelda and sat down next to her.  “Is Will giving John trouble again?” he asked.

          “Yep, but we fixed that.”  Zelda took a bite of her sandwich.

          Ben wrapped his arm around her.  “And how did you do that?”

          “You’ll see.”

          They sat there in silence for a moment.

          “Can I have a bite of your sandwich?” Ben asked.

          Zelda picked up the sandwich and let Ben take a bite.

          “Mmmm…. Peanut butter and Tuna.  My fave.”

          Zelda smiled and shook her head.

John's Question

          Olivia and Will were still on the deck of the Black Velvet, when John arrived.  “Olivia,” John said, “I have to ask you something.”

          “What?” Olivia asked.

          “I don’t have a ring but,” he said as he got down on one knee and took Olivia’s hand, “Olivia Raye Lander, will you marry me?”

          Olivia smiled.  “I thought you’d never ask…. Of course I will.”

          Will was shocked.  He couldn’t believe what had just happened.  “But he doesn’t have a ring.”

          Olivia turned to face Will.  “I don’t love John because he gives me fancy things.  I love him for him.”

          John stood up.  He placed his arm around Olivia and smiled.  “It looks like you need to find someone else’s girlfriend to try and take.”

          Will didn’t answer.  He was too shocked to know how to reply.

          John looked at Olivia.  “Come on, Olivia, let’s go tell Ben and Zelda.”

          “Okay.”

          They walked away.

 

          Olivia and John walked onto the deck of the White Rose and walked over to Zelda and Ben.  “Zelda, guess what?” Olivia asked, excitement in her voice.

          Zelda smiled.  “What?” She already knew what Olivia was going to tell her but decided not to say anything.  She was letting John get the glory for the idea.

          “Me and John are going to get married.”

          “That’s awesome.”

          “So,” Ben said, “I’m going to have a cool sister-in-law now.”

          “This is going to be great.  Now, Will can leave me alone.”  Olivia was growing tired of Will trying to