by Ahmet Zappa
“Save Starland? From what?” Clover asked.
“I don’t know,” said Cassie.
Adora stared. Could that be what Lady Stella had been talking about in her office?
It was all so unbelievable that Adora found it difficult to take in. A moonium thoughts flew through her mind, lightning fast.
Why us? she wondered. Adora admired, respected, and basically liked all the other Star Darlings. Really, they were starmazing. But for them to be chosen like that, above all others on Starland…it took her breath away. Sure, they had been selected to go down to Wishworld ahead of the rest of their classmates. That was special enough. But the thought that they were actually part of an ancient prophecy…and that they were supposed to save Starland…from something—that was overwhelming news, indeed. It was a privilege, of course, but a huge responsibility, too. They had the weight of the worlds on their shoulders.
Still, it was an opportunity to change the course of Starland. Adora had always hoped to make a difference, to improve the planet with science and fashion. But this was something much, much bigger.
“Talk about being in the starlight,” Leona said. She shook her head in disbelief. “We’re the twelve Star-Charmed Starlings.”
The words sounded like Leona, but she spoke so quietly that Adora turned to study her for a moment. Ever since they’d started their rescue mission, Leona’s glow had been pale. Something was definitely bothering her.
Adora gazed around the room to see how the others were taking the news. Sage and Libby were whispering excitedly, but everyone else seemed overwhelmed. Vega had a blank expression, as if this didn’t fit into her practical worldsview. Adora understood. Being selected to go on Wish Missions was one thing. But this took the Star Darlings to a whole other level—a cosmic one!
Finally, Cassie spoke again. “And this all brings us back to Lady Stella. She must know about this ancient oracle. She brought us together, after all. So why is she keeping this secret from us? Is it part of an evil plan?”
“It has to be!” Scarlet said loudly.
“Then why did she form the Star Darlings at all?” Sage countered.
“Well, if we’re part of an ancient oracle, there’s a good chance we would have come together on our own anyway,” Cassie said seriously. “My theory is that Lady Stella organized us so she can keep an eye on us, control us…driving us apart on Starland with poison flowers and nail polish…interfering with our missions on Wishworld.”
Scarlet took a deep breath and flung her hood over her head. “She could be keeping us from actually saving Starland,” she said.
Adora weighed Scarlet’s and Cassie’s words. They made some sort of sense.
“I disagree!” cried Libby. “Lady Stella could just as easily be keeping everything secret to protect us. Too much knowledge could make us panic. It’s a lot of pressure knowing the fate of Starland rests in our hands, isn’t it?”
Adora nodded slowly, eyeing Gemma, who still held tightly to Tessa’s hand.
“All that knowledge could have have jeopardized our missions,” Sage added, “making us second-guess our every move—and put us in danger! Luckily we didn’t know—”
“Ahem,” said Clover. “Some of us haven’t had a mission yet.”
“Oops!” said Sage. “You know what I mean.” She smiled broadly at Clover, then Gemma, then Adora. “You’ll do starmendously, I know it! There’s nothing to worry about at all.”
“Yes, just the future of Starland,” Scarlet added with a wicked grin. “No big deal, right?”
The girls erupted into arguments, some speaking in support of Lady Stella, some against. Adora listened to the debates, not judging, just thinking.
When there was a lull, Tessa stood up. “I really want to leave now. Can we all agree on that?”
“Yes, let’s go back through the supply closet,” Adora told everyone. “Lady Stella may still be in her office.”
Everyone stood. But just as they turned to leave the room, the door slammed.
“Not again!” groaned Tessa. “Is it on a timer or is someone sabotaging us?”
The Star Darlings hurried to the door, pushing, pressing, waving Power Crystals, and flicking their wrists in a panic.
“Let’s stay calm,” Adora said quickly.
Cassie, next to her, turned paler than usual and whispered, “But we’re all here. Who will rescue us now?”
“We’ll have to find our own way out.” Adora moved around the room, peering into all corners. “Maybe this is like Lady Stella’s office, with a secret door.”
“You know,” Cassie said, joining her, “my uncle has written lots of detective novels. And in one of them, The Trouble with Twilight, there’s a bookcase that spins around on a platform. The characters pull out a certain holo-book and it triggers the revolving bookcase, taking them into another room.”
“Come on, Cassie,” said Adora, shaking her head. “That’s just fiction. The bookcase is a literary device to move the action along. We need to deal with real devices. Fact, not fiction.”
Then a holo-title caught her eye: The Great Escape. Could it be? She pulled it off the shelf expectantly.
Cassie gasped.
“What?” Adora said a little impatiently. There was no revolving bookcase. Nothing even moved.
Silently, Cassie pointed to the empty space on the shelf—and the wall behind it. There was a hole in the wall, right at eye level, perfect for peeping.
Immediately, Adora peered through it. “Moons and stars!” she cried. “I see the Wish-House!”
She looked more closely. Yes, there it was: the tall windows, the glass roof, golden waterfalls of pure wish energy running down its sides.
Everyone rushed over, jostling a bit to get a better look. “There’s got to be a way into the cavern,” Adora said. She turned to Vega, who was good at figuring out the hedge maze. Maybe she could figure this out, too. “Any ideas?”
Vega rolled up her sleeves and moved random holo-books off the shelves. Nothing changed, but a satisfied expression crossed her face.
“Look!” she said. “There’s a door around that peephole.” Quickly, the Star Darlings pushed aside the remaining holo-books.
“A door!” said Tessa. “Do you think we can open it?”
“Not with your silly Power Crystals, I bet,” said Leona. Then, before anyone could say or do anything else, she blinked at the wall. Whoosh! The door opened smoothly.
The girls wriggled over and under the shelves, making their way through the opening.
Adora was the last one through, and she joined the rest of the Star Darlings in the Wish-House, closing the door behind her. They stood there silently, staring. Lady Stella was already there, her back to them.
“Lady Stella!” Adora said with a gasp.
The headmistress whirled around. “Oh, my stars,” she said, surprised. “I just sent you girls a holo-text saying a Wish Orb had been identified. When no one came to my office, I thought I’d check on the orb before you arrived. How in the stars did you get down so quickly?”
How indeed? The Star Darlings all looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Adora took a deep breath.
“Well,” she began, allowing herself to blush a shade of sky blue, “when we got your holo-text, it just so happened we were all together. You, um, must have left the door to your office open, so we let ourselves in. But you were nowhere to be seen. So star apologies, Lady Stella, but we used the secret drawer to open the passage. And here we are.”
There wasn’t one lie in the whole speech! Well, maybe some little light lies. But still, not bad if I do say so myself, Adora thought, relieved she’d managed to stick to a fuzzy kind of truth.
Lady Stella looked a bit doubtful and seemed about to say more. But then the sunlight streaming into the cavern brightened dramatically—Adora had asked herself startime after startime how that worked underground—and Lady Stella bowed her head. “It must be time. Come, girls.”
The Star Darlings mov
ed to the center of the Wish Cavern and gathered around the grass-covered platform.
Adora’s mind, usually so focused, buzzed with ideas, theories, and possibilities. That secret room…had someone tried to trap them there? Or was the door on a timer? And why was Lady Stella keeping so many secrets? Who had been that mysterious visitor in her office?
Adora’s thoughts switched to the upcoming mission as the platform opened and a Wish Orb floated up into the room. The glittering ball could choose her, Adora knew. But she wouldn’t get that special feeling so many of the others had at the sight of their orbs. She just didn’t have that intuitive sense.
A couple of Wish Orb presentations before, in fact, she’d felt a definite tingle. This is it, she’d thought. This Wish Orb is mine. I’m going on the mission! But instead, the orb had settled right into Cassie’s waiting hand.
Now she didn’t have the slightest sense the orb would stop at her. It hovered between Gemma and Clover, and Adora sighed. She’d just have to wait until next—
Suddenly, the orb dipped and moved, swaying as if blown by a breeze. It first flew to Cassie, who unthinkingly reached out for it but then drew back her hand. Then it continued, moving a bit jerkily, to stop directly in front of Adora.
Adora held out her hands, and the orb landed on her palm as softly as a flutterfocus.
“The orb has chosen,” Lady Stella said, just as always. Adora felt everyone’s eyes on her, and she smiled. Each girl smiled back, even Scarlet, but Adora felt the tension in the room. They’d just learned the fate of Starland was in their hands—and they’d been trapped underground!
The gravity of the situation hit Adora like a load of starbricks. She’d be traveling mooniums of floozles away to a distant planet, away from her family and friends and everything she knew in the middle of a wish energy crisis. What if she got trapped there?
Adora brushed aside the thought. She would handle anything that came her way with logic and clarity, and it would turn out all right.
“That’s it, then, girls,” Lady Stella said with a sigh. She gathered herself and moved gracefully to Adora’s side. The headmistress reached for Adora’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Adora couldn’t help herself: she squeezed back. And for a moment, all doubts about Lady Stella flew out of her mind.
Aboveground once more, Adora hurried to get ready. She had to choose some Wishling clothes from her Wishworld Outfit Selector and compose a reminder list of everything she needed to do on Wishworld. Chronological order would be best, she thought—from folding up her shooting star to identifying her Wisher to collecting the wish energy.
Another list spelling out Wishworld tips would be helpful, too: keep track of the Countdown Clock, monitor energy levels, use the Mirror Mantra, figure out her special talent.
Adora walked into her dorm room, already starting to holo-type, her eyes on her Star-Zap. “Tessa?” she called. “Are you here?”
“We’re all here,” said Cassie.
Adora looked up with a start. The Star Darlings were grouped around the room, leaning toward her expectantly, as if they’d been waiting for her.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Don’t go!” said Leona, rushing over and flinging her arms around her tightly.
Adora waited a moment and then carefully removed herself from the embrace. She took a few steps back.
“Do you know how dangerous this mission could be?” Leona said, taking a few steps forward. “Someone is trying to stop us! Who knows what they will do?”
“Lady Stella is very powerful,” Vega added.
“Anything could happen,” Scarlet said.
“Stay home and bake astromuffins with me,” Tessa cried.
All those Starlings in agreement! That was concerning. Clover wasn’t telling any circus stories or cracking any jokes. And Cassie—smart as a glow-whip Cassie—was nodding seriously.
Adora looked at Sage and Libby, the strongest Lady Stella supporters. “What do you two think?”
They exchanged looks and Sage spoke up. “We want you to be safe. We don’t want you to go, either.”
Adora sat down at her lab table, her back to her friends. This was starmendously unusual. Everyone had come to her room to try to convince her to stay on Starland. Adora had read about this sort of gathering in a scientific holo-journal just the other starday. Instarvention, it was called.
In the holo-article, an astro-energy scientist on a quest to spot the mythical Galliope Comet could not stop looking through her telescope. She missed meals, bright days, even her own wedding. Finally, her family lifted her from her observation post, removed the telescope from her hands, and fed the scientist her favorite food—gamma-chip clusters—until she saw reason.
Reason, Adora said to herself. A key concept. Was it reasonable to go on the mission? Adora was nothing if not rational. She’d weigh the evidence.
First and foremost, no Starling had been hurt on Wishworld…at least, not yet. There had been Leona’s return trip to Starland, during which she almost hadn’t made it back…but that had been more of a cosmic fluke, Adora thought, since it hadn’t happened again.
Plus, if she didn’t go, Starland would definitely be in worse shape than it was now. There’d be no chance for extra wish energy. If she did go, she could very possibly help.
Besides, Adora felt confident she could reason her way out of any situation. As Lady Stella said, that was her strength: analyzing problems and figuring out solutions.
The good outweighs the bad, Adora decided. She turned to face the Star Darlings.
“I’m going,” she announced. “And no one can convince me otherwise.” She took a deep breath. “As one of the twelve Star-Charmed Starlings, it’s my responsibility.”
The next morning, everything happened quickly. Right after breakfast, the Star Darlings headed to the Wishworld Surveillance Deck. Lady Cordial gave Adora the traditional Wishling backpack and keychain, and Lady Stella gave her last-minute instructions. A cover-up? Adora wondered. Or a safety check?
“Remember to figure out your special talent as quickly as possible,” Lady Stella said. “That could make all the difference.”
“I’ll do my best,” Adora agreed. Maybe that had been the problem with Leona’s mission: she hadn’t used her special talent. Adora put that at the top of her checklist.
Lady Stella smiled down at her. “Adora,” she said softly, “much rests on your mission. Rely on your strength: your ability to study situations with an objective mind, your aptitude to examine any circumstance from a distance. And remember to recite your Mirror Mantra when your energy is low: ‘Use your logic. You are a star!’ You will do fine and make us all proud.”
Adora nodded. If Lady Stella’s concern was just an act, she was an accomplished actress.
Next Adora made sure her Wish Pendant—a sky-blue watch with a star-shaped face—was securely fastened. Then the Star Wranglers strapped her to a shooting star and she took off, with barely a good-bye.
The journey through the universe was a bit bumpy, with plenty of time for the Star-Zap’s outfit selector function to change her clothes. She’d chosen rolled-up denim shorts, a sky-blue sleeveless T-shirt, and sneakers designed with bright blue sequin circles.
Finally, she changed her appearance, reciting the lines “Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight: I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.”
“There,” she said, gazing into her Star-Zap mirror, totally satisfied. She’d lost her shimmery glow, and her blue hair had turned a light brown. She looked washed-out and dull—perfect for Wishworld.
When she landed in a field of clover, no Wishlings were in sight. So she folded her star, placed it carefully in her backpack for the return trip, and gazed around.
It was peaceful and quiet. Just then, Adora had an idea. She stepped carefully around the field, looking for a four-leaf clover.
There! She spotted one! Quickly, she plucked it out of the ground. How lucky c
ould one Starling get? And while she normally didn’t believe in luck—perseverance and hard work paid off more in the end, she thought—she certainly wouldn’t discount it now.
She’d learned in her Wishling Ways class that Wishlings used these clovers to make wishes—similar to those fluffy white flowers they blew on. So you never knew when one would come in handy. Besides, if she didn’t use it, she could always give it to Clover for a souvenir.
She was still bending over close to the ground when she heard voices. She froze. All of a sudden, cool, confident Adora wasn’t sure what to do. She’d just gotten back from helping Tessa on her mission. She’d navigated the route, found Tessa, and done her best to make a difference, all with ease.
But now she was the one responsible for success or failure. It crossed her mind that she could be the first to complete a mission without another Star Darling helping out on Wishworld. That would be starmazing!
“This way, campers!” someone called.
Adora lowered herself to the ground so she was hidden in the long grass and clover. She peered across the field.
A straggly line of wee Wishling girls was following a bigger girl—not quite an adult, but older than Starling Academy students.
“Let’s march, campers!” the girl called out. “Left, right. Left, right, left.”
The little girls stomped their feet and did their best to follow the directions. But the line looked even worse than before.
“Jenny!” one said loudly. “Are we going straight to lunch?”
“You bet, campers!” Jenny sang out, not turning around. “Our nature hike is ending just in time.”
Adora knew all about camp. For as long as she could remember, she’d gone to star camp over the Time of Lumiere break, during the warmest season on Starland. She fondly remembered making lightyards in stars and crafts and singing “Moonbaya” around the campfire. Adora realized that school must be out and the Wishlings were enjoying their summer vacation.
The camp group disappeared into the distance. Adora decided to follow while she checked her Star-Zap for directions to her Wisher. It must be someone at the camp, she thought.
