by Ahmet Zappa
“I said, wrong way,” Scarlet repeated. Tugging on Tessa’s arm, she led Tessa and Cassie out of the building, toward the dorms.
“Where exactly are we going?” asked Cassie.
“To the Big Dipper Dorm.”
Cassie opened her mouth to ask another question, but Tessa shot her a look. Tessa was learning that sometimes with Scarlet, less was more. Not asking questions might get you all the info you needed.
“There’s another entrance here,” Scarlet continued, leading them inside the dorm, then through the halls to a door marked STARLING ACADEMY STAFF ONLY.
“This is it?” Tessa asked. Her stomach rumbled, the way it did when she felt hungry—or anxious. She thought longingly of her room, only a few doors away, where a dish of garble green chips sat on her desk.
Without saying a word, Scarlet opened the door. Inside, Tessa saw a tiny room filled with baskets of glo-pong balls, sparkle-shower supplies, and disappearing garbage cans. The three girls stepped into the small space, and Scarlet shut the door behind them. They were in total darkness.
Tessa sucked in her breath and only released it when Scarlet switched her Star-Zap to flashlight mode. Scarlet flicked her wrist, and a trapdoor opened at their feet.
The supply closet filled with an eerie light. Tessa glimpsed winding metal stairs but nothing else. “Let’s go,” Scarlet whispered.
“Okay,” Tessa whispered back. That was what she wanted, after all. She wanted to find something there that would clear Lady Stella or at least provide a clue.
Still, farm girl Tessa liked bright open spaces, not closed-in dimly lit tunnels. Of course she’d been in the caves many times and loved the light-filled Wish-House. But she’d never, ever enjoyed the trip there. And that was when Lady Stella had been leading the way. Now she and Cassie only had—gulp!—Scarlet.
As they made their way down the steps and into a passage, Tessa gazed at water dripping from the ceiling. Rocks hung like icicles, and stones rose from the ground in pointed shapes. Glowing gems, set deeply into walls, cast strange shadows. No, she really didn’t want to be there.
But Scarlet seemed to know her way, walking quickly through corridor after corridor, stopping once to point the way to their secret Wish Cavern.
“I don’t know what we’re looking for.” Cassie spoke for the first time in a quiet, calm voice.
“Me neither,” said Scarlet almost happily. “But if Lady Stella is doing something in secret, it would probably be down here, in a spot the rest of us have never seen. Maybe there’s a room full of poisonous flowers. Or a tech lab where she can mess with everyone’s Star-Zaps.
“Besides,” Scarlet went on, “isn’t it a nice change of pace from being aboveground, surrounded by so many Starlings and their silly chatter? I feel like I can breathe here.”
Tessa pulled out her Star-Zap. “I forgot to tell Gemma where I was going,” she said.
Scarlet put her hand over the communicator. “Those don’t work down here,” she said.
Tessa didn’t feel the way Scarlet did about being underground and was about to suggest they leave, when, suddenly, a bitbat swooped star inches from her face. Tessa jumped back, startled.
“Star greetings, little one,” Scarlet said in a cooing voice Tessa had never heard her use before. The bitbat landed on Scarlet’s outstretched finger, then swung upside down, folding its wings.
“Oh!” Tessa gasped. “She’s so cute!” Tessa had never seen a bitbat so close before. She was silvery white and as small as a glowfur. Her big luminous green eyes seemed a little sad.
Tentatively, Tessa held out her hand, and the bitbat swung over to her finger.
“Ugh.” Cassie pressed herself against the wall.
“She likes you, Tessa,” said Scarlet approvingly.
Other bitbats flew past, and Tessa smiled. They were like tiny acrobats, somersaulting through the air and swaying upside down. “I like them, too!” she said.
Tessa felt her fears vanish into the air. She understood now why Scarlet could spend starhours there.
They wandered the caves until it was time to go to their next class. The caves suddenly seemed enticing and mysterious to Tessa, and she felt like she understood Scarlet better after that. At least a little bit anyway.
But still, they didn’t find a thing.
The next morning, Tessa was the first to arrive at the Star Darlings’ table in the Celestial Café. She turned to the door, and right on cue, Gemma walked in. The two were almost always the earliest for breakfast. Life on the farm began with the chickadoodles crowing at sunrise. And neither could manage to sleep even a bit past that—with few exceptions.
The sisters settled into seats facing the café’s glass wall, with a glowrious view of the Crystal Mountains. Brilliant rays bounced off the mountain peaks. For a moogle, the two were silent. Even Gemma knew to sit quietly, soaking in the positive energy.
“So,” Gemma said, finally breaking the silence, “I have to tell you what happened last starnight. Libby and I were walking through the Serenity Gardens when we saw Piper meditating. So we…”
Tessa listened with one ear, a skill she’d developed at a young age when it became clear that Gemma could take starhours to tell a story that should be told in starmins. Their orders were taken and delivered. She finished her starcakes, then looked questioningly at Gemma and her half-eaten bowl of Sparkle-O’s.
Nodding, Gemma pushed the bowl to her, saying, “So then Piper tells us this dream about driving a Starcar. I mean actually steering and braking it, with no auto feature that she can figure out, and…”
Meanwhile, more Star Darlings were arriving, and the café was filling with students eating, talking, and laughing. Leona, Piper, Astra, and the others sat down, with Scarlet slipping into a seat at the other end of the table. Only Cassie was missing then.
“Sage, did you see Cassie this morning?” Tessa asked.
Sage shook her head, tossing her long lavender hair. “No, she was already gone when I woke up.”
Just then, Cassie hurried in, looking worried. She took the last seat, next to Scarlet.
“Is everything all right?” Tessa asked, her voice carrying across the table.
All talking stopped while everyone turned to Cassie. Even a few girls at the next table paused their conversation to listen. Tessa noted Vivica at the head of that table, Violetta at her side.
Cassie gave a funny sort of laugh. “Of course.” She shot a look at the other table, and the girls reluctantly turned away. “I stopped by tech repair to pick up my Star-Zap.…” She trailed off as if she had more to say.
“And?” Sage asked impatiently.
“Well, it’s fixed.” Cassie leaned forward, lowering her voice. “But something strange may have happened to it.”
“Something strange happened to your Star-Zap?” Tessa repeated to make sure she’d heard correctly. Heads turned in her direction. Oh, starf. She’d spoken way too loudly. Now everyone was interested.
So she raised her voice even louder. “I’ve heard about this new virus going around.”
“Me too!” added Sage. “My mom was talking about it. The Star Bores bug. It just keeps replaying your old holo-texts.”
“Oh, that’s old news,” Vivica called out loudly, not even caring that now everyone knew she’d been eavesdropping. “You Slow Developers are always behind the times. You should have a new special class, just for how to work a Star-Zap.”
She and her friends giggled loudly, then flounced out of the café with superior looks at the Star Darlings.
“Don’t let them dim your glow,” Libby told Cassie. “Go on.”
“Well,” Cassie continued after taking a deep breath, “it turns out my messages were all being rerouted, stars know where. The technician said it might be a virus. Or a forwarding mechanism could have been—”
She whispered the rest of her sentence to Scarlet, who frowned and leaned over to whisper to Libby. Libby whispered to Sage, and the message went around the tabl
e until it reached Tessa.
“The forwarding mechanism could have been saving face on your jar cap?” Tessa giggled. “This is worse than a game of holo-phone!” she complained. “Let’s find somewhere to talk.”
So the entire group of Star Darlings got up and found a private relaxation room in the nearby Lightning Lounge. Immediately, the room started to play the theme song from a popular—and scary—weekly holo-vision program called The Dark Files. The show had been keeping viewers in suspense for eons. Tessa wasn’t crazy about it; it was too spooky for her liking. Plus every starweek it focused on some strange conspiracy theory, such as all Starland leaders plotting with alien beings. For once she wished the room’s sensors didn’t pick up on mood.
But a few starmins later, Tessa finally understood what Cassie had been talking about: the technician thought someone might have sabotaged Cassie’s Star-Zap, programming it to send her holo-texts to another device. Astra had a thoughtful look on her face. “Mine’s been acting odd, too,” she said.
“Remember when I accidentally left it in Lady Stella’s office?” Cassie asked everyone. “She could have done something with it then.”
“Oh, come on,” Sage said, leaning back to gaze at the sky as the retractable roof opened. “First of all, Cassie, you’re always losing your device. I can’t count how many times you’ve had to use Find My Zap.
“Besides,” she added offhandedly, “you always think people are taking it, too. Remember when you thought Lady Cordial, of all Starlings, stole it?”
All the Star Darlings giggled.
“When was that?” asked Libby. “Oh, right, during the first week of school.”
Tessa remembered the Star Quad had been filled with first years who were having trouble getting acclimated to their Star-Zaps. Of course, poor Lady Cordial, the admissions director, had been in a panic. She was trying to explain how Star-Zaps worked to a large group. But her stuttering had been so severe no one could understand her.
“Yes,” Cassie said, “somehow my device wound up with all her display Star-Zaps, and she was about to walk away with it! When I asked for it back, she was so distraught she tried to give me a different one! Then she offered to give me all the Star-Zaps!”
“Lady Cordial is always trying to do the right thing,” Libby said. “Once she held the door open for Lady Stella using wish energy, but then Starlings kept coming and she didn’t want to close it on anyone, so she stood there, concentrating on that door, for an entire starhour.”
“I’m just saying it’s possible,” Cassie said, bringing the conversation back to Lady Stella’s tampering with her Star-Zap. “Lady Stella isn’t like Lady Cordial. She’s so powerful. Everyone has to take her seriously.”
“I certainly do,” Scarlet agreed.
Tessa blinked. This was all just guesswork. There wasn’t one shred of real evidence against Lady Stella. But looking at the other girls’ faces, she could tell some were wondering: was their beloved headmistress out to get them?
“So what do you think?”
Tessa and Gemma were strolling through the Ozziefruit Orchard arm in arm, in the usual Starling fashion. It had been an uneventful day for Tessa; she hadn’t once been late to class, and she’d been fully prepared for each. She’d even gone to the library to star apologize to Lady Floridia about missing independent study.
Now it was just after dinner at lightfall. Gemma had been chattering about going home for the Time of Lumiere and how they would spend their time: grooming the galliopes; taking care of the chickadoodles, the small winged creatures that couldn’t fly; coaxing the fruit to grow.
But Tessa was wondering exactly what her sister thought about the Lady Stella accusations. Earlier she’d just assumed that Gemma agreed with her that Lady Stella was innocent. But something about Gemma’s expression in the Lightning Lounge made her want to find out for sure.
“I’m confused,” Gemma answered. She stopped to twist an ozziefruit from its stem, then bit into the sweet indigo-colored fruit. Bright juice dribbled down her chin, and Tessa used wish energy to wipe it off. “I don’t want to think Lady Stella is a bad Starling. But Cassie and Scarlet seem so sure. I mean, she did set up Ophelia to take Scarlet’s place!”
“Well, I’m just as sure she’s doing everything in her power to help us and Starland,” said Tessa. “Maybe Ophelia made everything up about Lady Stella. Maybe she’s star-crazed and just plain bitbatty.”
Gemma took another bite of the ozziefruit. This time juice squirted down her dress. Tessa gazed at her sister and felt an urge to protect her. She seemed so young, so inexperienced. She was only a first year. How could she go on a mission when each one seemed more dangerous than the last?
“You know,” Gemma said thoughtfully, as if reading Tessa’s mind, “one of us could be chosen for the next mission.”
Tessa nodded. At least she had already been to Wishworld, to help Sage with her mission. But that had been the very first one. It seemed like light-years had passed since that time.
Back then Tessa had thought the journey was an adventure—nothing more, nothing less. If Sage doesn’t manage to bring back wish energy, no big deal, she’d thought. There’s always next time. But things had gone wrong on most of the missions. And the trip itself could be dangerous. Just thinking of how Leona’s shooting star had burned out made Tessa shiver. What if Vega hadn’t been able to strap her onto her own star? She’d have been lost in space!
Tessa’s Star-Zap went off suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. But it wasn’t only her device buzzing; Gemma’s was going off, too. And Tessa knew what that meant. They were getting the same holo-text from Lady Stella, telling the Star Darlings to report to her office immediately.
The sisters looked at each other. “The next mission!” they said in unison.
Lady Stella’s office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Tessa and Gemma were the last to arrive. They took the only empty seats left: on either side of Lady Stella. Tessa glanced around the oval table.
Everyone wore serious expressions. The air seemed charged with excitement, and an undercurrent of anxiety swirled through the room. No one looked directly at Lady Stella.
The headmistress moved gracefully toward the window, her long gown sweeping the floor. As she had her back to the girls for a moment, they all exchanged nervous glances. When Lady Stella turned, Tessa was relieved to see her expression was as calm as ever.
“Star greetings,” Lady Stella said warmly, letting her eyes linger on each girl for a moment. When she gazed at Tessa, Tessa felt her nervousness disappear like a puff of smoke.
Cassie was next, and Lady Stella rested her gaze on her longer than the others. Tessa saw Cassie smile at the headmistress—an open, admiring smile. Even Scarlet was moved, pulling down the hood of her black sweatshirt to soak in more warmth.
Lady Stella finally spoke. “I must star apologize to all of you. I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t spent enough time with any of you.”
The girls murmured their agreement. Cassie nodded eagerly. Tessa felt her shoulders relax. She hadn’t even realized how tense she’d been, worrying about Lady Stella and how the other Star Darlings felt about her. But now she felt so much brighter. She began to hope the next mission would be hers.
“Now let us see the new Wish Orb,” Lady Stella said.
Linking arms and talking softly to one another, the group headed through the secret door, down the ladder, and into the dimly lit tunnels.
When they passed the spot where the bitbat had hung from Tessa’s finger, she exchanged looks with Scarlet. There was nothing going on in those caves; no clues pointed to Lady Stella. Clearly the headmistress had nothing to hide.
The group reached the Wish Cavern. Tessa blinked in the bright sunlight, once again wondering how the sun could shine so far underground. The glittering waterfall cascaded to the ground like a moonium sparkle showers, and the grass felt as soft as a cloud beneath her feet. She sighed happily.
There was no evil
plot spearheaded by Lady Stella, Tessa was sure of it. Maybe there wasn’t a plot at all, just a random mix of mishaps. Tessa felt more relaxed than she had in a double starweek. It was the perfect frame of mind for a trip to Wishworld.
Only four girls had yet to go on a mission. Behind her back, Tessa counted on her fingers: “Me, Gemma, Clover, and Adora. One of us will be chosen.”
The girls grouped around the lush green platform and waited. Tessa squeezed between Gemma and Clover and took their hands. Then she leaned across Gemma to nod at Adora. All four girls leaned forward eagerly, hoping to see the Wish Orb as quickly as possible.
“Now,” said Lady Stella, and the platform noiselessly parted. Four delicate Wish Orbs floated lazily into the air. Four!
“Are we all going?” asked Gemma breathlessly. “What kind of mission would be perfect for all four of us?”
But three of the orbs descended back into the platform as quietly as they had risen. “Guess not,” said Gemma, sounding half glad, half disappointed. Tessa gave her a small smile; it would have been starmazing to go together.
The remaining Wish Orb swung this way and that in an almost hypnotic manner. Tessa followed the motion and, with every arc, felt her sleepy mind wander a bit farther. If only she’d eaten a bigger dinner, she would be wide-awake and ready for whatever the future might hold. She should have had another serving of noddlenoodle soup or more glorange juice or—
Suddenly, Clover elbowed her in the side. “Oh!” said Tessa. The Wish Orb had stopped right in front of her. She held out her hand, and the pulsing ball of energy settled gracefully in her palm.
“The orb has chosen,” Lady Stella said, smiling. “As soon as you’re ready, Tessa, you may leave.”
Tessa grinned. “I can be ready in two shakes of a glion’s tail.”
“I do believe you can,” said Lady Stella. “But I meant you can leave as soon as you’re ready in the morning. You’ll need a good starnight’s rest.”