"Ah, finally caught up then, Hamtaro!" said Bijou happily, reaching out to him with her dainty paw. The wind once again rustled the grass all around the pair, and caught a dandelion clock, scattering it's seeds into the air. Hamtaro reached out, taking hold of Bijou's extended paw. Suddenly, the wind picked up, whisking the pair upwards into the air. Caught together in the gust of wind, neither seemed worried or scared, each simply stared into the others eyes. A single cloud floated through the sky towards them. On it was sat Jingle, guitar in hand. As he approached, he raised his left paw, and opened his mouth, ready to sing.

"GOOD MORNING…."

……

"GOOD MORNING! It's 7 O'clock, and already yesterday's wonderful weather seems a lifetime away. Suggest you grab that coat and brolly, because it's going to be one wet day! In other News…" Hamtaro groaned and sat up. Sticking his head out the cage, he saw Laura slowly climb out of bed.

"Ow, I'd forgotten how loud that thing is…" She yawned. Hamtaro heard her sleepily plod down the stairs.

"I thought she'd lost that thing," thought Hamtaro, rubbing his eyes. "All these early mornings can't be good," he added, picking at the pile of seeds still left from yesterday. When Laura returned a few minutes later, he felt much more awake. Laura, however, still looked ready to fall asleep again at any moment.

"Sorry Hamtaro, guess I woke you up again." She said. "Oh, it's just I need to get in early again. I think Travis was trying to ask me to the Dance yesterday, but the bell rang just at the wrong time, and I hardly saw him at all for the rest of the day." She sighed. "I do hope he asks me, Hamtaro…" Her voice trailed off, and she got dressed in silence. Hamtaro sat down again and grabbed a few more seeds. "Bye Hamtaro," Laura managed as she was leaving half an hour later. "See you this evening."

"I wonder why she just doesn't ask him herself?" Pondered Hamtaro. "Perhaps she's worried about what the answer will be." He sighed deeply. "But then that could be exactly the reason he's not asking either…"

……

A short while later, he slid his way down the drainpipe, his small blue umbrella tucked under his paw. He'd picked it up last winter from one of the boutiques in town, and found himself wondering if the choice of blue had been a rather subconscious feeling towards Bijou, as the colour matched her ribbons perfectly. Landing outside on the soggy grass, he stuck up his umbrella.

"Cya later, Brandy." He waved to the dog, who was cowering as far towards the back of his kennel as was possible. He set off in the direction of Bijou's house, having not forgotten his promise to meet Bijou there. He wandered past an empty bench at a bus stop, the weather keeping any potential passengers at home in the dry. He'd almost got past it when a voice from underneath it made him turn round.

"And where are you off to then, Hamtaro?" Swinging round, he came face to face with Sandy, who was sheltering under the bench to keep out of the rain.

"You scared me, Sandy!" He started. "People seem to keep doing that to me! Anyway, what are you doing under there? Your house is nowhere near here." He stepped underneath the bench as well, putting down his umbrella and shaking off a few of the raindrops that covered it.

"I'm here because someone obviously needs to, like, knock some sense into you or something." She began. "Look, Bijou is going to be heartbroken if you don't ask her to go with you to the Ball. You have to take her." Sandy was almost pleading.

"How did you know I'd even been thinking about it?" Asked Hamtaro, accusingly. "Did Oxnard come talk to you?"

"Uh, no. It's totally obvious you were thinking about it. You spent most of yesterday in some kind of daze; You hardly took your eyes off Bijou all day. You so want to ask her, why don't you?"

"Well, it's complicated…" Hamtaro began, in an attempt to find a real reason.

"No, it's not." Replied Sandy firmly. "You like her, she likes you. She spent nearly as much time talking about you yesterday, as you did looking at her!" She continued. "There's like, no way she'll say no. Trust me."

"I don't know…" Hamtaro looked at down at his feet, blushing.

"Oh, look. At least think about what I said, OK? Just remember she's not going to wait forever. If you really have feelings for her, you'll be the first one to ask her." Sandy turned away, peering out from under the bench into the lashing rain. "I'll see you at the clubhouse later." She finished, and then dashed off into the storm. Hamtaro sat down, exhausted, unsure of what to do. Rain still bounced off the bench above his head. Finally, reaching a decision, he stood up. Opening out his umbrella again, he marched out from under the bench, heading for Bijou's house.