It had been about two weeks since Tucker and Star got together. They had been seeing each other in secret because that's what Star wanted. They had been just spending time at Star's house. Tucker was on his way there right now.

He got to Star's house and went to her room. They talked for a while and then came to a topic Tucker was very interested in. He pulled some papers out of his backpack and showed them to Star.

"That's super neat, Tucker," Star said. She could tell they were blue prints of some kind but she had no idea what for. "What exactly am I looking at?"

"They're blue prints for my own suit of power armor," Tucker said with a wide smile.

"Like in 'Iron Man'?" Star asked and Tucker nodded yes. "Cooooooooooooooool," she said with eyes widened in wonderment as she thought of the possibilities. She wasn't sure what she'd do if Tucker agreed to let her borrow it, but she was sure she'd think of something. "But how close are you to building it?"

"No idea," Tucker said. "I could totally build a prototype with some of the advanced technology the Fentons have, but they won't let me use it. Can you believe that?"

"Actually, I can," Star said. It seemed pretty reasonable to her that the Fentons wouldn't give their advanced and dangerous tech to their son's best friend just so he could play with it in the hopes of living out some super hero fantasies. She saw the hurt look in Tucker's eyes when she said this and she realized that it was time to be supportive. "I mean, that's a damn shame."

"Yes it is," Tucker said calmly. "I suggested to them the idea of building a giant robot to deal with the possibility of Godzilla sized ghosts and they blew me off. Though I can understand Mrs. Fenton's doubts: Jack Fenton is enough of a public menace behind the wheel of a car, put him behind the wheel of a giant robot..." Tucker stopped talking and shuddered in fear of the thought.

They talked about other things for a while and then decided to make out for a while. Star enjoyed making out with Tucker and not just for the obvious reasons. When she used to make out with Kwan, it felt like he was just going through motions. Tucker was much more enthusiastic about it. He made out with her like she was the most important thing in the world to him. Star greatly appreciated the change of pace.

After making out for a while, they broke apart and Star could see a single tear out of Tucker's right eye. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing's wrong," Tucker answered then wiped the tear away. "I'm with beautiful girl who accepts me for me. I'm just so happy."

Upon hearing this, Star hugged him. Kwan sometimes acted like their being together was just one of the entitlements he got for being a jock. Compared to that and the way she was often treated as Paulina's satellite, Tucker's declaration of joy really touched her.

A part of her wondered if maybe Tucker was faking this, but she considered that very unlikely. Besides, even if he was faking it was because of how much he wanted to be with her and wanted to put forth a good effort. After so much time of having to watch what she said and kiss Paulina's ass to maintain her status, she really enjoyed having someone worry about she thought of them.

Tucker was very happy about being together with Star. Not only did he finally have a smoking hot girlfriend, but he didn't have to get one by putting on a show and pretending to be someone he wasn't. He hadn't really considered what it would be like to be with someone in that way but he was finding that he liked it.

The hug ended and they looked into each other's eyes. They made out again for a while. Once they were done with that, they went downstairs for dinner. Star's mother had made pasta with garlic bread. They couldn't go out to a restaurant because of the secret nature of their relationship, so this was the closest they could get to a romantic dinner. Normally, Star's mother left them alone but she would be dining with them tonight because she and Star wanted to talk with Tucker about some things.

Star's mother essentially looked like an older version of Star. Tucker had not met Star's dad yet. He was told that he spent 30-something weeks out of the year away on business trips.

The three of them sat down to dinner. They ate for a while before Star spoke up. "We need to talk about something important, Tucker," Star said.

"About what, Star?" Tucker asked.

"Who have you told about us?"

"I haven't told anybody yet. Who have you told?"

"I've only told Valerie and my parents."

Shit, Tucker thought. The girl whose been trying to kill my best friend and briefly dated him knows about Star and me: definitely not how I'd like things.

"Which brings me to the first matter," Star continued. "Why haven't you told your parents? I can understand why you wouldn't tell Fenton and Manson for secrecy purposes, even though that's not your only reason. I know your planning to wait a few months and then tell them about us so that you can show them that A) you're capable of getting a girlfriend despite their low opinion of you and B) they didn't notice any suspicious signs about you having a secret girlfriend because they were too busy treating you like a third wheel."

Tucker paused for a few seconds as he processed this. "You really get me, don't you?" Tucker said as he unknowingly put his hand over his heart. He had complained to Star before about how Danny and Sam occasionally took him for granted. The freedom to get this stuff off his chest was one of several things he enjoyed about his relationship with Star. He was happy to see that Star listened to his complaints about Danny and Sam and understood where he was coming from.

"I do," Star said. "Which is why I'm not mad at you. I'd use you to prove similar points to Paulina if my relationship with her weren't so unequal."

Mrs. Johnson wasn't sure how she felt about this exchange. It seemed very strange to her that not only were they planning to use each other like that, but that they were very cool about it. She decided it wasn't a big deal though. Aw well, Mrs. Johnson thought to herself, I suppose that they have similar issues with their friends means they have something in common.

"I think we've gotten off topic," Star said. "I'll repeat my earlier question: why haven't you told your parents about us?"

Tucker took a deep breath as he prepared to explain himself. "I'm not sure they'll be cool about me dating a white girl," Tucker began. "I've asked them before if they'd be cool about it and they said yes, but a hypothetical scenario and facing the real deal are two different things. Besides, it's easy to be politically correct if you think you'll never have to own up to it."

"Oh," Star said and began thinking this over.

"This kind of brings me to something I've wondered about for a while," Tucker continued. "There's no delicate way to put this, so I'll just say it: does your dad no I'm black?"

"Yes he does," Mrs. Johnson answered for her daughter.

"Good," Tucker replied. "I wouldn't want to finally meet him in person where he finds out about that right there and have it turn into a thing."

"That's understandable," Mrs. Johnson said. "Now, his parents will definitely not take the news about you Star well."

"Does that have something to do with them listening to Rush Limbaugh all day long?" Star asked.

"Mostly," Mrs. Johnson continued. "They're current choice of pet certainly doesn't help."

"What do you mean?" Tucker asked. "Do they have a Rottweiler that used to be a guard dog and was trained to attack black people on sight?"

"No," Mrs. Johnson answered. "They have a Cocker Spaniel named Checkers."

"Uh oh," Tucker said as his eyes widened in realization of the implications.

"I think I'm missing something," Star said in bewilderment.

"Can I explain this?" Tucker asked Mrs. Johnson, who nodded yes. "Star, Richard Nixon had a dog of that same breed with that same name. Your grandparents getting a similar dog and naming it after Nixon's means that they are ultra-conservatives: a group of people not know for being big supporters of interracial...ness."

"I'm impressed you knew what dog Nixon had, Tucker," Mrs. Johnson said.

"Don't be," Tucker said. "The only reason I knew that was because it was used as a joke once on Futurama."

"Look, don't worry about my grandparents," Star said. "They live in Arizona and I only see them like twice a year."

This just gets better and better, Tucker sarcastically thought upon learning that Star's paternal grandparents lived in a state that would like nothing more than to deport all illegal immigrants on sight and refuses to acknowledge Martin Luther King Day as a holiday [1].

"As for your parents," Star continued, "you need to tell them so that you'll know how they fell one way or the other."

"And if they don't take it well," Mrs. Johnson said, "then I will talk to them and see if I can get them to cool down."

"I'll tell them," Tucker said. "But you gotta admit: keeping our relationship a secret from people our age because we're worried about social consequences doesn't look very good."

"But we're not keeping it a secret because of racial things," Star pointed out.

"They may not care enough to make that distinction," Tucker said. "But I will still tell them about us."

"About our secrecy," Star began, "are you really cool with that?"

"Yeah," Tucker answered. "At first, I thought about how cool it would be to show everyone that I finally got a girlfriend, especially a super hot one. But then I thought about how certain people would take the news. Specifically, how Dash and Kwan would break most of the bones in my body."

"Right," Star said as she thought over how cautious Tucker was being. Dash was such a sadist that he'd be very enthusiastic about beating up Tucker so he learns his place. As for Kwan, he definitely wouldn't take it well about who she was now dating.

"As if that wasn't bad enough," Tucker continued, "I'd have to spend a long time in a hospital to get better. Wait," he said as he stroked his chin, "did I even tell you about my hospital thing yet?"

"You did," Star replied.

They three of them finished their meal as Star thought over some things. She realized that if their relationship became common knowledge the worst that would happen to her is becoming a social pariah. The worst that would happen to Tucker is a trip to the ICU. She felt really bad about putting him in such deep shit.

But there was a plus side to this. For a while now, Star had been worried that Tucker was keeping their relationship a secret just because it's what she wanted and he wanted to be with her enough to go along with it. Star didn't want to unknowingly bully Tucker into keeping his mouth shut like that because that would make her like Paulina. After dealing with Paulina's ego for so long, that was the last thing she wanted. She was relieved to see that Tucker had his own reasons for maintaining secrecy.

…..

Author's notes: [1] I do not mean this as an insult to people from Arizona, merely a critique of the state's policy.