by Ahmet Zappa
Suddenly, Astra closed her eyes and brought the flowers to her nose. She took a deep sniff and her face grew serious. “I don’t know,” she said, hugging the flowers to her chest. “They just smell so good….”
Cassie stole a glance at the wall and spotted a holo-poster of a sporty-looking woman with her name emblazoned underneath. She winked at Cassie, as if in encouragement. Cassie hated to lie; in fact, it pained her to do so. But this is for Astra and Clover’s own good, she thought. They’ll be grateful when the flowers are gone and things can go back to normal.
She took a deep breath and spoke. “Um, as a matter of fact, they interviewed a top athlete named Saturnia, who said as soon as she threw out a bouquet of flowers she had in her house, she felt so much better.”
“Really?” said Astra, her eyes narrowing. “And they interviewed her recently?”
Cassie nodded. “Just this morning,” she said. “This news is hot off the holo-presses.”
“Aha!” Astra said with a laugh as she put down the flowers (but not before taking another long, deep sniff). “Good joke, Cassie!” she said. “You had me going until you brought up Saturnia. She’s in training for the Starlympics and she’s in a remote mountain location. She won’t be giving any interviews for starmonths.”
Oh, starf! thought Cassie. “Ha-ha, I almost got you!” she said weakly. “Good joke, huh?” Her heart sank. What was she going to do now? She had to come up with something—and quick. She scanned the room, looking for something—anything—that would give her some inspiration. Her eyes fell on a stick with a star-shaped net on its end propped up in the corner, and she picked it up. “The real reason I came over was to ask you for help. Believe it or not, I’m not doing very well in P.E.”
“Physical Energy?” asked Astra, a shocked look on her face.
“Yes, Physical Energy,” said Cassie. “I was wondering if you could teach me how to handle this star…” Her mind raced. What was that thing called, anyway?
“Starstick,” said Astra. “It’s called a starstick. You know, for playing Star-Away. It’s an important skill to master. You’ve come to the right place.” She raced to a closet, threw open the door, and started tossing sports equipment behind her. “There it is,” she said, pulling out another starstick and a medium-sized ball. She tossed the ball into the net at the end of her stick and began to bounce it up and down. “You know, where you have to get the ball into your opponent’s basket to score a point? It’s a lot of fun.”
“Riiiight,” said Cassie, nodding. All these star sports were so similar to her she could never keep them straight.
After showing Cassie how to hold the starstick properly, Astra tossed her the ball. But Cassie’s initial instinct was to duck. The ball hit the wall and bounced to the floor.
Astra shook her head. “You’re supposed to catch it, silly,” she explained. “Hand me the ball.” Cassie did and Astra placed it in her net and tried again. That time Cassie bobbled the ball for a moment but held on to it.
“Great job!” said Astra encouragingly. “Now toss it back to me.”
Cassie did. Her throw was off target and Astra had to lunge sideways. Still, she caught it neatly.
Toss after toss, Cassie began to fall into the rhythm. Scoop and toss, scoop and toss. “Hey, this is kind of fun!” she said.
“It is,” Astra agreed. “Just wait till you try star ball,” she added.
Cassie could see the flowers out of the corner of her eye, mocking her with their mere existence, their presence intensified by the cloying smell of silverbellas. Suddenly, she had another crazy idea. She had no idea if it would work. But she kept moving closer and closer to the vase of flowers. The two girls tossed the ball back and forth, back and forth as she made her way across the room.
She was within arm’s reach of the blooms. And suddenly, the front door slid open. Clover was standing there. Cassie saw her chance. She tossed the ball as far past Astra as she could, then scooped up the vase of flowers in the net of her starstick.
Astra jumped over her round red couch and made a flying leap, catching the ball.
“Duck!” Cassie cried to Clover. Looking puzzled, Clover did. And Cassie hurled the vase of flowers as hard as she could. Astra turned around, obviously pleased with her stellar catch. When she saw her beloved flowers hurtling through the air toward the open door, her mouth opened in shock. It seemed to Cassie as if everything was happening in slow motion: Astra’s loud “Noooooo!” and her desperate lunge for the flowers. But she was too late, for miraculously, Cassie’s aim was true. The flowers landed right inside the mouth of the waiting disappearing garbage can and then they were gone—instantly.
Cassie was panting hard as Clover straightened up. The roommates were both staring at Cassie in shocked silence. Astra scowled at her. “Cassie!” she shouted. “Why in the stars did you…” Then she noticed her roommate. “Clover!” she said pleasantly. “There you are! How did band practice go?”
“It was great,” said Clover. “Star salutations for asking. Did you have a fun time with Cassie?”
“I did,” said Astra. “Who knew Cassie was such a natural Star-Away player? Did you see that throw? I’m going to tell the coach we’ve got a brand-new hurler!”
And Cassie began to laugh. The last of the flowers were gone. Sure, she was still worried. There was still the question of who had sent them—and why. But she laughed anyway—with relief that the flowers were finally gone, with happiness that the roommates were back to normal, and also with pleasure that she had actually discovered a sport she enjoyed!
Operation: Flower Disposal a success! The S.D. are now flower-free. Let’s meet after dinner to talk about next steps!
Vega?
Scarlet?
No answer. Again. This was getting weird. Something must be wrong with the Star-Zaps’ holo-connections, Cassie decided. There were a lot of missed messages lately. Cassie’s stomach rumbled. She had worked up quite an appetite playing starstickball—or whatever it was called. She checked her Star-Zap. It wasn’t quite dinnertime, but she didn’t feel like being in her room any longer. She decided to take a stroll in the ozziefruit orchard before dinner.
Cassie meandered through the trees, which were heavy with fruit. The smell of ripe ozziefruit was mouth-watering. Flutterfocuses wafted among the trees, and glimmerbees darted about, on a mission. She took a seat on a low stone wall and closed her eyes, enjoying the slight breeze and the gentle warmth of the late-afternoon sun on her upturned face.
“Cassie! What a nice starprise!” said someone with a familiar voice.
Cassie’s eyes snapped open. A shadowy figure stood in front of her, blocking the sun. She squinted, but it wasn’t until she shielded her eyes that she could see who it was. She gave an involuntary gasp.
“Lady Stella!” she said. “What are you doing here?”
Lady Stella laughed. “Just enjoying a pre-dinner stroll through the ozziefruit orchard, same as you,” she answered. She motioned her head toward the stone wall. “Mind if I join you?” she asked.
“Not at all,” said Cassie. She sat up straight and smoothed her skirt. She hadn’t been alone with the headmistress since the day of her Starling Academy interview, many starmonths earlier. Truth be told, she found the headmistress, as lovely and kind as she was, a little intimidating.
Lady Stella smiled and sat down next to her. “I love the light this time of day,” she said. “It’s not as stunning as lightfall, but it has its own stark beauty. Everything looks so sharp and focused, you know?”
Cassie nodded. She did know. She felt the same way.
“And it’s the perfect time to come to the orchards. Most people are getting ready for dinner, so you have them all to yourself.”
Cassie nodded again. “Yes,” she managed to say in agreement. She felt tongue-tied around the headmistress. She yearned to say something intelligent and thoughtful, but couldn’t think of anything at the moment. Her face became warm and she knew that her cheeks were turn
ing that unflattering shade of silver she so disliked.
“May I be frank with you, Cassie?” Lady Stella asked.
Cassie nodded nervously.
“You’ve been on my mind recently.”
Cassie gulped. She had?
“I’ve been wanting to ask you a question. Why do you think you are here at Starling Academy? Why do you think you were chosen to be a Star Darling?”
Cassie took off her glasses and peered through them to grab a starmin to think. She had an idea, but she felt nervous about saying it aloud. She didn’t want to seem like a braggart. So she shrugged.
“I only ask because you don’t seem as confident as you should be. Take it from me, Cassie. You know that you and your fellow Star Darlings were chosen for your strengths, and what you bring to the group, each something different. You are one of the most intuitive students I have ever come across in my career. You scored off the charts on the entrance exams.” Lady Stella gave her a sympathetic look. “You must learn to recognize your strengths and trust yourself.”
“St-star salutations,” said Cassie. She was both happy to have her suspicions confirmed and disappointed that she hadn’t spoken up for herself. It was an odd mix of emotions.
Lady Stella stood and turned to go, then turned back. “I know you are dreading your mission, Cassie,” she said. “I’d be a fool not to see it. But I am telling you that you have nothing to fear. You’re going to be a natural.”
“Star salutations, Lady Stella,” Cassie repeated. She watched the headmistress’s retreating back. Again she felt a rush of different feelings—embarrassment at being so transparent, relief that Lady Stella had faith in her, and hope that she would be successful when her mission actually happened. With a sigh, she headed to the Celestial Café for dinner. On her way, she thought she heard a rustling in the branches behind her. She turned around sharply, but no one was there.
When she walked into the bustling cafeteria and made her way to the Star Darlings’ table, she was struck by the sinking sun, which lit up the sky with its warm rosy tones. She knew that as soon as the beams hit the Crystal Mountains, the view would be even more spectacular, as prisms of rainbow light would begin to appear. But what really caught her attention was the fact that Astra and Clover were sitting side by side, looking quite chummy. As Cassie pulled out a chair and sat down, she saw the Bot-Bot waiter from that starmorning zoom up with the roommates’ drinks. He hesitated for a moment before placing them on the table.
Clover threw her arms up in front of Astra. “Don’t worry SL-D9,” she cried. “I’ve got you covered!” The two girls cracked up.
“Star salutations,” said the Bot-Bot sincerely as he carefully placed the drinks out of Astra’s reach.
Vega raised her eyebrows at Cassie, who nodded. Vega gave her a triple wink, the Starlandian way of silently telling someone “Good job!”
Scarlet came in and sat down next to Cassie. “All good?” she asked quietly.
Across the table, Clover laughed out loud. “Oh, Astra, you’re so funny!” she said.
Cassie grinned. “All good,” she said.
Dinner, for the first time in more than a double starweek, was extremely pleasant—argument- and drama-free. The girls talked and laughed and joked and traded bites of their dishes. Even Leona and Scarlet seemed to be getting along, or at least not fighting with each other, which was good enough in Cassie’s holo-book. Cassie had a huge smile on her face for the entire meal.
The Bot-Bot waiter came over to take their dessert order.
Tessa ordered first, as usual. “I’ll have an ozziefruit parfait and a mug of hot—” she began. Just then, their Star-Zaps chimed, all twelve at the same time. It made a pleasant, musical sound to Cassie’s ears.
Adora read the holo-text first. “Starmendous!” she said. She looked up. “Hey, everybody, listen to this! We’re invited to a party!”
The table started to buzz. A party! How fun! It’s just what we all need, thought Cassie. A chance to relax and just enjoy ourselves for a couple of hours. All the girls flipped open their Star-Zaps as the Bot-Bot waiter hovered nearby, forgotten. Gemma read the invitation out loud. “‘You are invited to a Star Mani/Pedi Party tonight after dinner in the Lightning Lounge’s party room. Hydrongs of polish colors to choose from, state-of-the-art starbeautychambers, music, dancing, a floating dessert bar…’” She paused. “What’s a floating dessert bar? We don’t have those in Solar Springs.”
Libby, who lived in a mansion and had been to too many fancy parties to count, supplied the answer. “Oh, you’ll love it! It’s a levitating cloudcandy table covered with every light-as-air dessert you’ve ever heard of,” she said. “You know—Aeropuffs, Floating Wisps, Featherwhispers. They’re so startastically delicious they just melt in your mouth. There are cocomoon starpillows and…”
“Say no more. I’m in,” said Tessa. She canceled her dessert order and stood up. The rest of the girls followed suit.
On her way out the door, Cassie spotted Ophelia sitting alone at a table, idly twirling a noddlenoodle on her fork and staring into space.
“I hope it’s not too crowded,” said Vega worriedly as they approached the Lightning Lounge. But when they pushed open the doors to the party room, they discovered they were the first to arrive.
“Oh, my stars!” said Sage, taking in the shifting, shimmering multicolored stars that were projected on the walls, floor, and ceiling; the multileveled dance floor; the colorful starbeautychambers, round and shiny; and the floating dessert bar, which was even better than it sounded, with edible fluffy pastel pink, blue, and yellow clouds of spun sugar candy suspended in the air. Nestled in the candyfloss were sweet little confections in all the colors of the rainbow. Tessa made a glitterbeeline for the sweets and loaded up a sparkling crystal plate with some carefully selected treats. The rest of the girls did the same. After eating three jujufruit gossamerwisps, which, she was pleased to discover, were as light and airy as they were delicious, Cassie’s mind returned to Ophelia, who’d been sitting all by herself in the cafeteria. She flipped open her Star-Zap and started typing.
Ophelia, we’re all at the Lightning Lounge, at a mani/pedi party. The desserts are out of this world! Come join us!
That sounds startacular! I’ll be right over!
We’re downstairs in the party room. See you soon!
Cassie smiled as she shut her Star-Zap. Her good deed for the day was done. Now she was ready for some beauty time.
“I don’t know why the rest of the students aren’t here,” said Adora as she reached up to grab a hunk of pale blue spun sugar candy, as fluffy as a cloud. “But that just means more dessert for us!”
Cassie walked across the room and hesitated in front of a silvery chamber, unsure what to do next. Libby appeared at her side. “Let me help you,” she said. “My mom has one,” she explained. “Starbeautychambers can give you manicures, pedicures, haircuts and styles, facials, body scrubs, face sparklings, you name it.” She pressed a round button on the side and the chamber opened like a flower, revealing a holo-screen, a fluffy white seat, and four covered pods. “That’s where you put your hands and feet,” she explained. Cassie took off her silver slippers and lowered herself onto the cozy-looking seat. She gasped at how luxuriously soft it was.
Libby nodded. “Amazing, right?”
The holo-screen slid into place at lap level. The shape of a hand appeared on the screen, and Cassie hovered her palm over it, looking to Libby for confirmation. Libby nodded. “Put your hand right on it,” she said encouragingly. Cassie obliged and a list of nail polish colors in her signature shade appeared on the right-hand side of the screen. When she touched the name of the polish with her free hand, an image of the color was projected on her nails so she could make a well-informed decision. Cassie considered them all. Silver Streak was pretty-ish; Icicle a bit too frosty; Sassy Sparkles not quite as tasteful as she’d like; Time of Shadows White too austere; and Storm Queen a little too gray. She thought she’d l
ove Pink Snowflake but was just lukewarm about it. Finally, Magic and Moonbeams came up. She gasped with delight. It was pure perfection. Sparkly, iridescent, and silvery white, it glowed with the promise of stardust and enchantment. She chose it for both her fingers and toes and slipped her hands and feet inside the pods. They were immediately enveloped in warm lotion that smelled just like glimmerdrop cookies. Cassie closed her eyes and a scene came flooding back: a day she had come home from school to find her mom, her cheeks flushed and her silvery hair escaping from her bun and framing her face. She had been baking all day and presented Cassie with a plate of warm cookies, which Cassie munched as she told her mom all about her day. It brought a sweet smile to her face and Cassie pressed the memory function on her Star-Zap to record it so she’d be able to watch it on-screen whenever she liked. A Bot-Bot masseuse zoomed up and began to knead her shoulders, which were slightly achy from the vigorous game of Star-Away she had played earlier. Ah, that was heavenly. Her chamber began to softly play “Brighter Than a Comet,” one of her favorite songs, and she hummed along. Once her hands and feet were sufficiently moisturized, they were massaged. Then the nails were trimmed and shaped, and finally the polish was applied.
Vega, who had gone back to the floating dessert bar for seconds, was on her way to get her own mani/pedi. She scanned the room and leaned over Cassie’s chamber to talk to her privately. “If the whole school was invited, why are there only twelve chambers?” she asked. “That’s not even close to enough.”
That’s a good question, Cassie thought, but then the pods released her hands and feet and she saw her fingers and toes, polished to a silvery perfection. “Oh,” she breathed. “I picked the most perfect color ever.”