Then, while still crouching, Vega focused her blue eyes upon the meter, using all of her strength to send it soaring back over to the desk and into the still-open drawer. “Stop messing around,” she huffed at the girls with a final glare at the drawer, which promptly slammed shut. “We need to stay focused!”
“Sorry,” Cassie replied, exchanging sheepish grins with Gemma, Tessa, and Clover as they turned their attention back to the bookshelves.
“Hey—I found it!” Libby suddenly called out, picking up a gleaming gold holo-book lying on a table near the expansive window that overlooked the Starling Academy campus.
“Let’s see,” Vega said, racing over to examine the tome. “Yes! That’s it! Good work, Libby.”
“Thanks,” said Libby. She smiled and tossed her shiny pink hair proudly as everyone followed Vega over to Lady Stella’s desk.
“Okay,” Vega said, shooing Gemma out of the big desk chair and claiming it as her own while the rest of the girls gathered around. Her heart began to beat with nervous excitement as she scanned through the pages of The Great Holo-Book, searching for references to Lady Stella.
“There she is!” Tessa gasped when an image of their then young headmistress appeared. “I know the others want to find out about Rancora, but I think learning what happened to Stella at the Wish-Tank after she graduated is important, too.”
“I agree,” Vega said.
In the holo-photo, Lady Stella wore a silver lab coat and was sitting at a long glass conference table in a sparkling blue office. On the wall behind her, the words Starland Wish-Tank were spelled out in shiny gold letters. Beneath her image was a chart containing the records of every last one of her Wish Missions. At the top were several categories, including the dates of the mission, the name of the Wisher, and the amount of positive wish energy that had been generated.
“Hey, look at this,” Vega said as she studied the chart and noticed that two of the Wish Missions on the list glowed more brightly than the rest, and that both had markings next to them that resembled an image of Wishworld. “These two missions have an extra code of some sort.”
“What do you think it means?” Gemma wondered.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Vega replied. “Ready?”
Without even waiting for a reply, Vega tapped on the first of the special links and drew in her breath as the details surrounding the Wish Mission were revealed….
As Stella sat in the Wish-Tank conference room, she couldn’t believe she had just graduated Starling Academy two years earlier. Now she was part of the esteemed Wish-Tank, waiting for her colleagues to arrive and hear her presentations on the findings from her most recent Wish Mission. As she looked out the window, Stella suddenly was overcome by a strong sense that something big was about to happen. It was the same jolt of positive energy she had felt shortly after beginning her job there, when she first proposed what had officially become known as the Wish Motivation Protocol—an approach to Wish Missions that was largely based on the research used in her Wish-Science Fair project.
In the two staryears since the protocol had been put in place, Stella and the other Wish-Granters in the Wish-Tank had gone on countless Wish Missions, but with a new focus: to help encourage Wishling girls other than the primary Wisher to believe in themselves and make more good wishes.
Their missions had been hugely successful, ultimately resulting in an exponential rise in positive wish energy on Starland.
And the most recent assignment had been Stella’s most successful to date, generating a full ten Good Wish Orbs from girls she had come into contact with while on her mission. It was the highest number anyone in the Wish-Tank had achieved—and Stella was eager to share her new insights with the team. She sat a bit taller in her chair as the other members of the Wish-Tank began entering the room, chatting happily with each other as they sipped from travel mugs full of hot Zing and took their seats. Then, at last, Skylar—the lead advisor in the group—arrived. Her hair fell like a long cape of yellow curls halfway down her back and she wore a glittery gold version of the standard silver lab coat worn by the rest of the Wish-Tank staff.
“Thank you for being here, everyone,” Skylar said with a warm smile as she stood at the head of the glass conference table. “I know we were all expecting Stella to present the findings from her most recent Wish Mission today—and while I’m sure that she’s eager to share the details, I’m afraid we’re going to have to postpone her report for now. I need to speak to Stella first.”
Almost immediately, all the positive energy that had been flowing in the room felt as if it had been sucked out. What could be more important than Stella’s news about garnering ten new Good Wish Orbs from her last mission?
As if reading Stella’s thoughts, Skylar said, “I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything more for the moment—but I hope to be able to soon enough.” She then turned to Lena, who had been working in the Wish-Tank for nearly eight staryears and, as a result, was the second-highest-ranking member of the group. “Lena, can you please lead the rest of the meeting?”
“Of course,” Lena replied, adjusting the star-shaped clip in her cropped lavender hair.
“Stella,” Skylar then said as she headed for the door. “Can you please come with me?”
Stella’s concern increased. What was this about, exactly? Had something gone wrong on her last mission without Stella’a realizing it? She wasn’t so sure she wanted to find out, but she didn’t exactly have a choice—so she slowly rose to her feet and blinked a farewell to the rest of the Wish-Tank staff before following Skylar out of the conference room.
Once they were in the hallway, Skylar glanced over at Stella. “Oh, don’t look so worried!” she said with a kind smile. “Come on—I have something extremely important to share with you.”
The flutterfocuses in Stella’s stomach settled down ever so slightly as Skylar led her through the shimmering blue corridors of the Wish-Tank building. A few moments later, they arrived at the gold door leading out to the Wishworld Launchpad, where Wish-Granters caught the shooting stars that took them on their Wish Missions.
“What’s going on?” Stella asked, unable to take the suspense any longer.
“You’ll see,” Skylar replied as she placed her palm on the scanner next to the Launchpad door, prompting it to slide open.
Once outside, Stella followed Skylar across the sparkling blue deck and over to a short Launchpad worker with fiery orange hair sticking out of his head in all directions. As soon as he saw the Wish-Tank advisor, he reached into a silver cabinet and retrieved a glowing Wish Orb, which he carefully handed to Skylar.
“Stella,” Skylar said, turning around and holding up the orb, which had an almost blinding aura, “I believe this Wish Orb presents a unique opportunity for you, and for the Wish-Tank—one that could take our Wish Motivation Protocol to an entirely new level.”
Stella inhaled, and examined the surface of the orb. It swirled in shades of emerald, blue, and silver—almost like a replica of Wishworld itself. In the two staryears she’d been going on Wish Missions, she’d never seen one quite like it.
Stella was nearly speechless. “Really?”
“Yes.” Skylar nodded solemnly. “I can’t tell you much more, except to say that this is bound to be your most important—but also most challenging—Wish Mission yet.”
Stella blinked as she stared up at her mentor, and the flutterfocuses returned to her stomach. But this time it was pure excitement rather than worry that was triggering the flutterfocuses—and the sense that something big was about to happen, just as she had speculated. Stella looked at the orb again as Skylar handed it to her.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
“I think so,” Stella replied, holding the orb with both hands as she followed Skylar over to two Star Wranglers, who were waiting to attach her to a shooting star so she could make her trip down to Wishworld.
“Good luck!” Skylar called out to Stella once she was fastened to the sta
r.
“Thank you!” Stella called back. With that, she was on her way.
She had been on enough Wish Missions at that point and was even used to the exhilarating journey experience down to Wishworld. But somehow this mission felt different. This time Stella was overcome with a thrilling anticipation unlike anything she had ever experienced—and she could hardly wait to see where this extra-special Wish Mission was about to take her.
As Stella approached the Wishworld atmosphere, she looked down at her Star-Zap and followed the familiar COMMENCE APPEARANCE CHANGE instructions, punching the Wishworld Outfit Selector button. She replaced her silver lab coat with a pink sweater and changed into a pair of cropped pants with white socks and sneakers. Then, holding tightly to the Wish Pendant hanging around her neck, she said, “Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight: I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight,” prompting her long golden-pink hair to change to a plain light brown and her skin to lose its sparkly glow.
Stella could barely contain her excitement when the Star-Zap told her to prepare for landing and she touched down on a concrete path just outside of an enormous white building with a dark dome-shaped roof. She picked up the star that had brought her to Wishworld, folding it up and placing it in her pink handbag along with her safety glasses. She wanted to meet her Wisher right away, but she was also eager to explore her surroundings. Spinning around to take it all in, she realized she was high up on a hill with a view of the entire city down below, where tiny dots of light illuminated the buildings and appeared blurry along vast highways stretching in all directions.
The sun was beginning to set on the horizon, lighting up the sky in dazzling shades of lavender and pink. It was positively breathtaking!
She could have stood there for hours, mesmerized by the view, but Stella knew she needed to get to work. So she took out her Star-Zap and followed the directions, which indicated that she would find her Wisher on the other side of the building. After making her way past the many large telescopes, which were built into the low wall lining the path, she came to the front of the building and noticed that there were Wishlings all over the place who seemed to be as fascinated by the location as she was. Most of them were holding glameras—well, what Wishlings called cameras—and taking pictures of the building, as well as the city down below and the mountains off in the distance; many were biding their time, then taking turns looking through the telescopes.
Above the entrance to the building were black letters spelling out the words GRAFFIELD OBSERVATORY. There was also a sign next to the steps leading into the massive building’s domed doorway, which stated ASTRONOMY FOR ALL. Stella stepped closer so she could read the rest of the sign, which talked about the history of the place. It said that the observatory was built to bring the stars and the planets to everyone because of the great desire people had to see them up close.
Stella shivered in excitement as the words sunk in; this place was almost exactly like the Wishworld Surveillance Decks on Starland, only in reverse!
There was so much more Stella wanted to learn about this fascinating place, but she noticed her Star-Zap lighting up and silently scolded herself for taking so long to get to her Wisher. So she continued along the path until she came to the side of the building, where she saw a paper sign on a wooden post stuck into the grassy hill. In large block letters, the sign said YOUNG SCIENTISTS LUNAR ECLIPSE PARTY! FRIDAY, MAY 3. COME ONE, COME ALL!
Just beyond the sign, Stella saw a girl setting up some sort of equipment. A bit farther away, there was a boy putting together a similar apparatus, and then another boy, and even another. As Stella walked toward the girl, she looked down at the Wish Pendant hanging around her neck. The closer she got, the more brightly the pink orb glowed. Yes, this was definitely her Wisher.
“Hello,” Stella said when she got close enough.
The girl turned around and smiled when she saw Stella. She had light brown hair pulled into two pigtails and wore a yellow-and-pink argyle sweater with a pair of cropped pink pants similar to Stella’s.
“Hi.” The girl wrinkled her nose and narrowed her brown eyes at Stella. “You’re not here for the lunar eclipse party, are you?”
“I actually am,” said Stella while nodding.
The girl looked positively thrilled, if a bit surprised. “Really?” she asked. “Another girl! Finally!”
“Yeah.” Stella quickly caught on to the situation. “None of my other friends were interested in joining me, so I had to come by myself.”
“Same here,” the girl replied with a slight frown as she extended her arm. “I’m Lindie.”
“Nice to meet you,” Stella said, reaching out to shake Lindie’s hand. “I’m Stella.”
“Nice to meet you, too.” Lindie tilted her head and narrowed her eyes again. “Did you bring a telescope?”
A telescope! That must be what Lindie and the boys were setting up—but the large, boxy equipment looked nothing like the sleek high-powered ones used on Starland, nor the ones along the path of the observatory.
“No.” Stella shook her head, appearing disappointed. “I was hoping someone here might be willing to share.”
“I’d be happy to!” answered Lindie, who became so excited she looked like she might actually lose her balance and go tumbling down the hill. “I just finished building this one last night.”
“You built this?” Stella stared at the collection of silver cylinders, rods, and boxes.
Lindie beamed. “Yup. It’s almost ready.” She turned around and began connecting the parts again while Stella watched.
Meanwhile, the sky was growing dark and more people, mostly boys about the same age as Lindie, along with a few younger Wishlings and their parents, arrived and set up their own telescopes. Before long, the moon—a bright and full one this night—shone high above them, and tiny dots of light appeared all over the night sky. Stella drew in her breath as she gazed up.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Lindie sighed.
“It is,” Stella agreed, finally tearing her gaze away from the sky to look over and smile at Lindie.
“Let’s hope we can get a good look at the moon with this,” Lindie said, giving her telescope a pat before leaning down toward the eyepiece. She turned a knob on the side of the main tube and then gasped.
“What do you see?” Stella asked.
“The eclipse—it’s starting!” Lindie replied while still peering through her telescope. “It almost looks like a tiny bite is being taken out of the moon.”
Lindie moved away from the telescope and stared at the sky. “Wow,” she said, pointing up as her eyes grew wide. “You don’t even need a telescope to see it.”
Stella looked up at the sky and could indeed see a shadow beginning to darken one side of the moon so it wasn’t quite as full. “Can I try the telescope anyway?” she asked Lindie.
“Oh—yes! Of course.”
“Thanks,” Stella said, stepping over to peer into the eyepiece. Through it, she could see the surface of the moon in far greater detail, slowly but surely being covered up on one side. Lindie’s telescope didn’t reveal nearly as much as the ones on Starland, but considering that Lindie had built it all by herself, it was still quite impressive.
As it turned out, the lunar eclipse party wasn’t exactly a party in the way Stella would have expected, but it was every bit as fun. Some of the Wishlings had brought food and drinks, which they all passed around to each other as they introduced themselves.
“Do you like ladyfingers?” Lindie asked as she held a bag out for Stella.
“Lady what?” Stella gasped. All she could picture in that moment were the limbs of Lady Astrid—or whoever the headmistress at Lindie’s school was—and her stomach lurched at the thought of eating a Wishling’s fingers.
Lindie shook her head and laughed. “They’re cookies—not actual fingers!”
“Oh, right. Ha.” Stella smiled and took one of the long yellow biscuits—and after she bit into
it, she was beyond happy that she had. It was more delicious than any cookie she’d ever tasted on Wishworld, and it practically melted in her mouth. “That’s the best cookie I’ve ever had!”
“Really?” Lindie beamed. “Thank you—I made them in home economics class. Do the girls in your home ec classes do much cooking?”
Stella had never heard about home economics before, so she simply shrugged and shook her head.
“I actually quite enjoy it,” Lindie said after finishing off her cookie. “There’s a lot of science involved in cooking; I don’t think most people realize that, especially anyone who says, a woman’s place is in the kitchen, like it’s a bad thing.”
“That’s true.” Stella nodded as she thought back to the zoomberry cake Cora had made for her Bright Day during their final year at Starling Academy. She could almost hear Cora saying that she’d gotten the recipe from Stella’s mom and tested it in the lab until she got it right—and that Stella would have done the same thing for her, since she loved science so much.
Before the memory could make Stella too misty-eyed, a man who was apparently the eclipse-party organizer began to speak to the crowd, providing details on what caused an eclipse. Essentially, he noted, Wishworld (which he of course referred to as Earth) was casting a shadow because it had directly lined up that moment with the moon and the sun, so it was preventing the sun’s light from reaching the moon! Afterward, when he came over to introduce himself to Stella and Lindie, and then saw Lindie’s telescope, he became extremely animated.
“How old are you?” the man asked.
“Seventeen,” Lindie replied.
“Well, I’ll be,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s not often that I see a young lady taking an interest in science.”
Then someone shouted out, “Hey! Look!”
“Yeah!” yelled out another voice. “It’s a shooting star!”
Stella looked up and, indeed, saw a bright light streaming through the dark sky. Everyone at the party began to ooh and aah as they noticed the shooting star as well, and several of them wondered what it would be like to see one up close. Stella smiled but kept it to herself. If they only knew how close one was to them at that very moment, right in her purse!
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