“No.” Vega glared at Scarlet, whose short fuchsia hair was slightly messy from sleep. “I called you here because obviously there’s a lot more to Rancora than any of us realize, and we need to know more about her if we’re going to figure out what she might be planning to do to us—or to Starland—next. Lady Stella may be doing her research, but I think we should start doing a bit of our own, too!”
“What kind of research?” asked Libby, always eager to help in any way she could.
“Well, for starters we should see what we can find out about Lady Cordial, since that’s who Rancora was in disguise,” Vega proposed.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Sage noted. “There’s got to be some information about her in the faculty pages of the school staryearbooks.”
“Exactly!” Vega agreed.
“I don’t see how that’s going to help,” Scarlet protested. “What are the staryearbooks going to tell us that we—and especially Lady Stella—don’t already know?”
“I say we give it a try,” Leona chimed in, giving her shiny golden curls a confident pat. “If we do find out something useful, Lady Stella will think we’re even bigger stars than we already are.”
“I agree,” said Sage.
“Me too.” Tessa nodded.
“Ugh. Fine.” Scarlet rolled her eyes, giving in after all the others had voiced their support as well.
“Excellent,” Vega said with a smile, leading the way into the library.
With most of the Starling Academy campus still asleep, it was even quieter inside than usual. The twelve girls made their way through the vast stacks of holo-books and up the winding staircase to the section where the staryearbooks were located. The tomes contained holo-images of every student and faculty member who had ever been at Starling Academy, along with detailed records of everything that had happened during each school staryear since the very first class had enrolled.
“So what are we looking for, exactly?” asked Gemma, accessing the pages of a recent staryearbook as she sat down on a plush orange couch and then beginning to scan through them. “This says Lady Cordial has been at Starling Academy for two years and she’s helped to make the school what it is today.”
“Ha—only because nothing’s been written about us yet!” Leona grinned proudly while Vega sat down next to Gemma and tapped on the image of Lady Cordial, eager to see if anything more useful might pop up.
Alas, all she saw was the director of admissions shuffling from her office to Lady Stella’s office, then back to her office, with an occasional moment where she spilled something or tripped. That was helping to make the school what it was today?
“There has to be more information about her than this,” Vega said with a frown, taking the book from Gemma and scrolling through it some more.
“I’m kind of with Scarlet—even if we found more information about Lady Cordial, what would it really tell us?” asked Adora, sitting down next to Vega. “Isn’t Rancora the one we need to investigate?”
“Yes, but they’re one and the same,” Vega pointed out as she continued to scroll through the pages, moving farther and farther back through the book.
“True, but we might find something more informative—something she was hiding—if we go to her office, or maybe even her old residence in StarProf Row,” Adora pointed out.
“Adora’s probably right,” Sage agreed.
“She’s totally right!” Scarlet said.
“Oh, my stars!” Piper suddenly called out. She had wandered off and found a much older staryearbook, which she was now gazing at in wide-eyed wonder.
“What?” Vega asked, leaping up from the couch and racing over to grab the holo-book from her roommate before returning to the couch with it.
“What is it, Vega?” Sage asked, positioning herself behind Vega so she could get a better view.
“It’s…it’s…Lady Stella!” Vega gasped as she glanced over at Piper. “Right?”
“Uh-huh.” Piper nodded.
“So?” Scarlet huffed.
“No—I mean, it’s Lady Stella when she was our age,” Vega elaborated. “When she was just…student Stella.”
That was enough to distract everyone from the task at hand, at least for the moment.
“Oooh! I want to see!” Gemma grabbed the book from Vega and studied the holo-page intently.
Even Scarlet leaned in a little closer to see the photo of two teenage girls, who were holding hands. The tall sophisticated-looking one with long golden-pink hair and a Bright Day crown on her head was almost certainly a younger version of their headmistress.
“Holy stars,” exclaimed Adora, reaching over to grab the book from Gemma. “Look how super celestial that dress is! And those boots! She was so beautiful, even back then.”
“She and her friend look so happy,” Gemma noticed.
“C’mon, guys,” Scarlet said. “Looking at old holo-photos of Lady Stella won’t help us figure out anything about Lady Cordial or Rancora or whatever you want to call her.”
“I’m actually getting a strange feeling this staryearbook is really important,” murmured Piper.
“Piper thinks this is important. Let’s take a quick look,” Adora urged. “Then we can go check out Lady Cordial’s office. It’s not like we have to be in class for a while, anyway.”
“Actually, I think we should do more than take a quick look,” Vega said. “As long as we’re going into this old staryearbook, I might as well holo-hack into it. That way, it’ll automatically link us to any important info from any other relevant holo-document, like a journal or letter.”
“Wow, that’s so cool, Vega,” said Cassie, impressed with Vega’s tech skills.
So, as the girls all gathered around, Vega tapped on the image of young Stella, and a holo-vid detailing her time at Starling Academy—long before she became headmistress—began to play before their eyes….
It was a bright and sunny afternoon, and Stella couldn’t stop smiling. She linked arms with her best friend, Cora, who had just gifted her with a Bright Day crown of flowers, and they ran down the grassy hill to rejoin the rest of their friends. More than a dozen classmates, most of them in their final year at Starling Academy like Stella and Cora, had gathered on the lush banks of Luminous Lake and were already enjoying the cookies and glimmerchips with star-dip that Cora had set out on fuzzy pink picnic blankets.
Stella looked over at Cora, who was wearing a knee-length party dress that perfectly complemented her long silvery-blue hair. She still couldn’t get over the fact that Cora had secretly planned this whole party without her finding out. There had been a few moments during the last few weeks when she’d noticed Cora sneaking around their dorm room or acting a tiny bit suspicious—but any time Stella had questioned her behavior, Cora had always managed to offer a perfectly logical explanation. It was no wonder she’d played the lead roles in all of Starling Academy’s theatrical productions since they were first-year students. Cora was a born performer.
“Hey! Who has a glamera?” Stella called out as she adjusted the Bright Day crown on top of her head. The pink and white flowers shimmered and released puffs of sparkling stardust with a sweetly spicy scent, and they matched the color of Stella’s tailored pink minidress perfectly.
“I do!” shouted Gloria, a short girl with close-cropped green hair and thick-rimmed glasses, holding up the boxy handheld device with a pop-up screen on the top. Gloria was the head of the staryearbook committee, so she never went anywhere without her glamera and tripod.
“Oh, of course you do!” Stella laughed. “Would you mind taking some holo-movies of me with Cora?”
“Anything for the Bright Day girl!” Gloria got up from the picnic blanket and aimed the glamera in Stella and Cora’s direction.
Stella smiled as she turned to face Cora and grabbed both of her hands. The best-friend charms they wore around their necks glinted in the sunlight.
“Say ‘zoomberries!’” Gloria instructed.
“Zoomberries!” Ste
lla and Cora shouted in unison as they leaned back and began to spin around in a circle—faster and faster until they began to levitate off the ground. All of the girls who were gathered down below clapped and cheered as the two best friends floated up so high that they nearly reached the treetops. As they continued to pick up speed, Stella’s rosy-hued hair and dress blended with Cora’s pale blue clothes and hair until they appeared to combine in a blurry, sparkling lavender ball.
“You look like you’ve turned into an enormous Wish Orb. You must be spinning at a minimum of three hundred revolutions per minute!” called out their math-obsessed friend Nicola in amazement.
Finally, when Stella and Cora couldn’t keep up the pace any longer, they dropped down to the ground and collapsed in a fit of laughter.
“I thought my levitation skills were good, but the two of you are incredible!” Gloria said before turning to get some holo-footage of the other party guests.
Their spinning trick was pretty amazing. Cora had come up with the idea and convinced Stella to try it. It was one of the best parts of their friendship; Cora’s adventurous spirit rubbed off on Stella.
“Oh, Cora!” Stella looked over at her friend as they lay side by side on the grass. “Thank you for throwing me the best Bright Day party ever!”
“Were you really surprised?” Cora asked, widening her light blue eyes.
“I really was.” Stella grinned.
“I’m so glad,” Cora sighed. “I wanted to make sure it was extra special since you weren’t able to go home to celebrate with your family.”
Without warning, Stella’s eyes began to well up with tears. As fun as the party had been, and as happy as she was to celebrate it with Cora and the rest of her friends, it was the first time she had spent a Bright Day without her parents and three younger sisters. During her previous years at Starling Academy, she had traveled home to be with them. But this year, getting a swift train ticket had been impossible because there was an energy drought, meaning more Starlings than ever before had started taking public transportation to help conserve wish energy.
“I’m sorry.” Cora reached over to wipe away the glittery pink teardrop that was sliding down Stella’s cheek. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’ll get to see them soon enough—when we graduate!” Stella quickly brightened and jumped to her feet, pulling Cora with her. “Come on, I want to try some of that zoomberry cake.”
“Okay!” Cora agreed, following Stella over to the shiny glass picnic table, where a huge cake was decorated with bright pink letters spelling out HAPPY BRIGHT DAY, STELLA! “Who’s ready for cake?” Cora called out to the rest of the party guests.
Stella’s heart felt like it was going to burst with positive energy as everyone made a circle around the table and joined hands to sing to her. Then, as Cora focused her blue eyes intently on the cake, a spectacular fountain of shimmering light streamed out of the letters on top and morphed into the shape of a brilliant star. Stella’s mouth dropped open as she marveled at her friend’s masterful energy manipulation.
“Make a wish!” Cora urged.
Stella smiled, inhaled deeply, squeezed her eyes shut, and focused all of her energy on the same Bright Day wish she’d been making since she’d taken her first Tiny Wishology class in Wee Constellation School: I wish I could be the greatest wish energy scientist that Starland has ever seen! She blew on the star and it went shooting up into the sky. Then, as everyone clapped and took turns hugging Stella, Cora served the cake.
“Wow,” Stella enthused as she sat down at the picnic table and took a bite. “This tastes exactly like my mother’s zoomberry cake!”
“Really?” Cora’s face glowed even brighter than before. “I called her to get the recipe and tested it in the lab at least four times to make sure I had it exactly right.”
Stella’s eyes welled up with tears again—but this time, they were from pure joy. “You’re the best, Cora—thank you.”
“You would do the same thing for me,” Cora replied with a shrug, taking a big bite of cake. “Especially if it involved testing anything out in the lab!”
“That’s true.” Stella grinned and looked up at the sky, which was turning from a shimmering blue to pale pink as day turned to lightfall.
Just then, Nicola walked over from the picnic blanket where she’d been sitting with Gloria and set down her empty cake plate. “Hey, Stella,” she said, brushing away a few blades of grass from her copper-colored skirt. “I hate to break up such a fantastic party but we should probably get to our meeting now, don’t you think?” Stella looked down at the golden moon watch on her wrist and realized the small star was well past the five. “Oh, my stars! I almost forgot!” Stella was president of the Wishology Club, and Nicola was vice president. They had a meeting at the same time every week, but in all the Bright Day excitement, it had completely slipped Stella’s mind.
“Oh, no!” Cora frowned. “I’m so sorry—I can’t believe I planned your party for the same time as your meeting.”
“You didn’t,” Stella pointed out. “We’ve just been having so much fun that it’s gone longer than you probably expected it to.”
“True,” Cora said with a smile. “But I guess you’d better get going now.”
“But—but I want to help you clean up,” Stella stammered.
“No, it’s fine.” Cora shook her head and insisted that Stella go.
But Stella felt torn. She couldn’t believe she was letting down the Wishology Club by running late, and now she was going to have to let down her best friend, too. It was so unlike her, forgetting a meeting—especially a Wishology Club meeting.
“Are you positive?” Stella asked.
“Yes!” Cora widened her pale blue eyes with a hint of impatience.
“Okay. If you’re sure you don’t mind,” Stella said, frowning apologetically as she got up from the picnic table.
“I don’t! Honestly!” Cora reached out her arms and gave Stella a reassuring hug.
“All right,” Stella replied with a grateful smile. “We can finish celebrating later.”
“Of course we can.”
“Thank you again for the best party ever.” Stella gave Cora’s hand one last grateful squeeze and waved good-bye to the other guests. Then, as she linked arms with Nicola and headed off toward Halo Hall, she glanced back to give Cora a final beaming smile. She couldn’t have wished for a more perfect party or for a better friend.
The next day, Stella stifled a yawn as she sat in Advanced Astral Accounting class. She and Cora had stayed up late celebrating her Bright Day, holo-texting with Cora’s boyfriend Theodore and his best friend Ozzie, and stuffing themselves with leftover zoomberry cake. She did her best to pay attention to Professor Gibbous as he projected a series of complicated equations on the screen at the front of the classroom and excitedly explained how to solve each one. But all Stella really wanted to do was go back to bed.
“So you see, Starlings, that is the simplest way to measure the levels of positive wish energy!” Professor Gibbous concluded, rubbing his chubby hands together and bouncing in his shiny red loafers. His face turned almost as red as his sparkly beard and hair—or, at least, the small amount of fuzz that formed a halo-like band around the bald spot on top of his head.
Stella stared at the professor, then glanced down at her holo-textbook and up at the equations on the screen at the front of the classroom again. She was trying to wrap her head around all the numbers, but there didn’t seem to be anything simple about them. She turned her attention to the front row, where Cora was seated, and raised the antenna on her large Star-Zap, punching in a quick holo-message asking if she understood what Professor Gibbous meant. She quickly added I AM SO SLEEPY! with a bleary-eyed smiley face.
Just then, the voice of their headmistress, Lady Astrid, came through the classroom speakers. “Students, please direct your attention to the front of your classrooms for an important message that is being broadcast across all of
Starland!” she said as a hologram appeared at the front of the classroom. The students were surprised to see it was Andromeda Glint, president of Starland, and immediately sat up a bit taller.
“Greetings, citizens of Starland,” said President Glint. She had neatly styled golden-pink hair—almost the exact same shade as Stella’s—that formed a big pouf around her head, and she wore a suit with a large sparkly silver star pinned to her lapel. “My sincerest apologies for the intrusion, but I’m coming to you today with an important announcement. As you all know, Starland is facing a positive energy drought—and although we have assembled a team of top wish energy scientists who are working hard to find a solution, the conservation and recycling efforts that were recently put into effect have become more of a priority than ever before.”
A few of Stella’s classmates began to chatter softly to each other, but Professor Gibbous quickly silenced them by sliding his glasses down his nose and raising his bushy red eyebrows—his standard firm-but-friendly warning for them to quiet down.
“I know that these efforts haven’t been easy for anyone and I thank you for the sacrifices you’ve already made,” President Glint continued. “It is my hope that you will continue to do everything you can, as well as come up with additional solutions to help ensure that we maintain the precious positive energy resources that are so vital to keeping our world running.”
As the president kept talking, the screen of Stella’s Star-Zap lit up with a holo-text from Cora: DIDN’T THEO LOOK SO CUTE LAST NIGHT? ☺ The screen went dark and then lit up again with another holo-text: OH, AND I’M SOOO TIRED. GIBBOUS IS MAKING NO SENSE TO ME. AS USUAL! Cora ended the note with her usual sign-off—an image of her taking a bow. But this time, after doing so, the image fell down and went to sleep.
HA! Stella holo-texted back before lowering the antenna and closing her Star-Zap so she could listen to the rest of the president’s message.
“Many of you will be receiving additional instructions and requests from local officials, school administrators, and the like, and I urge you to give those directives your immediate attention,” President Glint said. “Of course, your government is here to support you in any way we can, but all Starlings must work together to make sure that we address this challenge. So long as we all remain committed to retaining our positive energy levels, I know we can get it done. Thank you and good day.”
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