May runs through the front door and goes looking for her mum. She is sitting in the living room, drinking coffee. She looks at May.

"Well, what do you want, Maria?" she asks after a minute of silence.

May sits down on the other side of the sofa, across the table.

"I was wondering...! Could I sleep at Rita's house, tonight?"

There is a long pause. Then her mother speaks again.

"Well, I guess so."

"Thank you, mother."

"Yes, yes. Go on then", her mother says looking annoyed.

May runs out of her room and goes to pack her things. Right at the bottom of the bag she hides her dress for the ball.

Then she goes over to Rita. Rita's mother opens the door and tells May that Rita is in her room. When May goes up to Rita's room, Rita's dog Scruff, greets her. After greeting him back, she goes into Rita's room. Rita is setting the beds up.

"Should I help you?" May offers.

Rita nods a little, then carries on. May helps her and soon they are finished. Next, they help each other with their hair. When they are ready, Rita goes to find her mother. May follows.

"We're off now then, mum, ok?"

"Sure. Have a wonderful time, you two. And don't come back too late." She smiles at them, then goes into the kitchen.

When May and Rita are out of the house, May says.

"Your mother doesn't know where we are going, does she?"

"No", Rita says in a small voice, looking ashamed. "She thinks we're going with a boy to a disco. That's all."

The rest of the way they walk in silence, until they start hearing faint music. As they draw closer, the music gets louder, until suddenly a massive palace appears in front of them. The doors to the palace are huge. They are slightly open and people are going in and out. From the doors of the palace a long path leads to a little gate. At the gate a ghost doorman, with big muscles, is stamping the people's tickets and letting them in. Not far from him is a ghostographer taking photos of the people walking on the path to the big doors. They stand for a while, then May looks at Rita and says.

"Did Sidhean give us any tickets?"

"I can't remember. But I don't think so", she answers.

"Check your pockets", May says, starting to check in hers.

Suddenly something falls from one of Rita's pockets onto the ground. Rita bends down to pick it up.

"It's the tickets", she explains happily, handing one of them to May.

They go to the ghost doorman and hand him their tickets. He stamps the tickets and lets the girls in. They walk past the ghostographer, who takes a photo of them, and go through the big doors into the palace.

Inside, the girls stay standing, stunned at how wonderful the place looks. Big diamond lights are hanging from the ceiling of the hall, lovely long yellow curtains are hanging in front of the massive windows and the hall is full of dancing boys and girls in all ages. The girls are wearing lovely silky dresses and the boys are dressed in suits. All of them are looking happy and seem to be enjoying themselves. Both girls feel like they are in a fairy tale. Then they scan the hall for Sidhean.

They see him standing at the back of the ballroom with another cute boy. Sidhean sees them and goes to greet them. The other boy follows him.

"Hey May, Rita, it's great to see you. This is my friend Joan."

"Hi Joan", May says.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you", Rita says, smiling at him.

He smiles back at her, but is interrupted by Sidhean, who turns around to Joan and says.

"This is Rita. The girl I was on about." Then he turns to Rita.

"This is your date for the night." Rita smiles shyly at Joan and he smiles back once again.

"Would you like to have a drink?" he asks her.

Rita nods and they walk of together, leaving May and Sidhean standing alone at the back of the hall.

So, May and Sidhean decide to walk onto one of the side balconies. They look into the wide, open space of field. Then Sidhean interrupts the silence.

"So, what do you think of the ball?"

"It's amazing. I have never dreamed of such a beautiful ball."

"Do you feel like dancing?" Sidhean looks at May hopefully.

"Ok."

They walk onto the dance floor. They dance for a while to the music, then Sidhean whispers into her ear.

"You look beautiful! Your dress is wonderful too."

He looks into her dark brown eyes. She smiles at him.

"Thank you!"

May looks round for Rita and sees her dancing away with Joan on the dance floor. They are dancing away to the music, as if they were alone in their own land. They look so happy together. Then May puts her head onto Sidhean's shoulder and they dance for a while in silence, moving along to the music. Then May lifts her head up of Sidhean's shoulder and tells him she wants to go out.

So, they head out together through the big doors at the back of the ballroom out on to the grass. They lie down in the grass and look up at the stars in the cloudless sky. The stars are sparkling in the moonlight. They lie for a while then Sidhean picks a wonderful red rose and places it into May's hair. After a little while of silence, May asks Sidhean.

"Do you ever come out of the forest?"

"Of course! Why do you think I don't?"

"Well, because I've never seen you in my village before."

"I live on the other side of the forest, but because I'm a ghost I have to go away from my parents in the night. They are the only people, up until now, who knew I was a ghost. Now you know as well."

"Why are you a ghost and your parents not?"

"Well, not everybody is born with two sides of life. It hasn't got anything to do with the parents being a ghost or not. It just happens. It could have also been you. You never know. But really we are just like you apart from in the night."

"But what about the two different camps? Where you aloud to pick which camp you..."

"Belong to? No, the people that are nice in real life come to our camp, the others to the other camp", Sidhean explains.

"Oh. And can a normal person turn into a ghost somehow?" May looks at Sidhean, waiting for an answer.

There's a long pause. Then Sidhean looks at May.

"Why would you ask that? A life as a ghost is not nice", Sidhean snaps at her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you", May apologises.

"It's ok. I'm sorry for being upset about it. It's just, you should be happy to be able to lead a proper normal life."

"But I want to lead a life with you", May says looking back up at the sky.

Sidhean smiles.

"You can lead a life with me. Just not at night." May smiles too.

Then Sidhean puts his arm around May. Then they get up and May says.

"It's getting really late and Rita and I should be off, before Rita's mum phones the police." May smiles.

"Do you want me to take you back?" Sidhean offers.

"That would be nice. Thanks!"

May goes looking for Rita. She sees her dancing with Joan. She walks up to them.

"Hey Rita, I think it might be a good time to leave, before your mother goes and phones the police. It's kind of late." Joan gives Rita a quick kiss.

As they step onto the long path, Rita looks back over her shoulder and waves a quick goodbye to Joan.

"I hope I'll see him again."

"Of course you will", May reassures her.

At the end of the gate Sidhean is waiting with his horse. He helps them get on and they ride through the forest. May leans herself against Sidhean and closes her eyes. It feels like she's flying. After a while they get to the end of the forest. Sidhean helps them down, then he says.

"It's great that both of you were able to come."

"I had a great time", May says to Sidhean and gives him a kiss.

"Bye!"

"Bye, May. Bye, Rita." With that he gets onto his horse and disappears into the dark forest. May and Rita watch him go, then they turn around and walk towards Rita's house.

Rita's mum greets them, happy to see them back on one piece.

"How was the party? Did you have a nice time?" "

The party was great! And we had an awesome time, mum. Didn't we May?" Rita turns to May.

"We had a lovely time", May says.

Then both of them disappear into Rita's room and go to sleep.