by Ahmet Zappa
Adora ran one finger along the bottle’s cap. “I just put this on the bites!”
Hannah looked confused but shrugged. “I guess sunscreen helps bee stings, too.”
Adora grinned. She’d just discovered her special talent: she could heal bee stings!
Then she noticed a scratch on Hannah’s arm. “Can I try to make this better, too?” she asked.
Hannah nodded. So Adora smeared a bit of lotion on her arm, carefully touching the scrape, and like magic, that disappeared, as well.
She could heal scrapes and scratches and who knew what else!
But she had to get back to the matter at hand. “I’m glad I could help you,” she told Hannah honestly. “That’s why I’m here.”
Hannah looked at her doubtfully. “There’s no sunscreen that can fix friendships.” She looked like she was about to cry again.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
A short while later, Adora was standing in the bathroom, which was a small building by the CIT tent. She gazed at her plain reflection in the mirror. Already she felt tired. Her energy levels must be getting low—and so soon into the mission! Dealing with Hannah and her emotions certainly took a lot of strength.
Adora had told Hannah she needed to “freshen up” before lunch. But really, she’d just wanted to refresh using her Mirror Mantra.
She leaned in close to the mirror and recited her lines: “Use your logic. You are a star!”
Immediately, Adora saw her reflection shift to her shimmery Starland self, all sparkle and glow. Adora grinned. She did indeed feel refreshed. Satisfied, she stepped away from the mirror and called, “Hannah!”
Of course her Wisher was too nervous to go to the mess hall on her own. She was waiting for Adora outside. But Adora wanted to say her Mirror Mantra again, this time away from the mirror, with her Wisher. That would definitely give them both strength.
“Coming,” said Hannah in a small voice, knocking tentatively before she walked in.
Really, how timid could one Wishling be?
Slowly, Hannah walked inside, looking shyly at the floor.
“Come on, Hannah,” said Adora. “Look at me so we can talk!”
Hannah lifted her downcast eyes. “Oh!” she gasped, falling back against the door.
Adora frowned. What was her problem now?
“Y-y-you’re all sparkly!” Hannah stammered. “And your hair: it’s blue!”
“What?” That couldn’t possibly be true. Adora’s heart thudded in her chest. Even in her shock, Adora took note of her rapid pulse. It was certainly an unusual state for her and worth reflecting on. “You’re serious?”
Hannah nodded.
Slowly, Adora turned to face the mirror. It was true! Her skin still shimmered, and her blue hair actually sent sparks flying into the air, a reaction to her heightened sense of danger. She recalled being taught that a Wishling should never see your true appearance. This was bad—very bad.
“Who—what—are you?” Hannah whispered.
Adora made a split-second decision. She would tell Hannah everything. But first: privacy. Like a science experiment gone haywire, this situation needed to be contained as quickly as possible.
She rushed to lock the door. It took her a moment to figure out the mechanism. When she whirled around, she saw a panicked Hannah slipping into the bathroom stall farthest away. Hannah closed the stall door with a click.
“You locked me in!” Hannah cried. “What do you want with me? Wait! Don’t answer. Just don’t come any closer! I have…I have…” Adora heard her rummaging around. “A toilet plunger! And I’m not afraid to use it!”
Adora took a deep breath. Then she knocked softly on the stall door.
“Hannah? Open up the door so we can talk. I may look different. But I’m still Adora. I won’t hurt you.”
“How do I know that? I need proof.”
Adora could understand that. “Tell you what. I’ll unlock the outside door. Then I’ll go in another stall, in case anyone comes in. You can leave whenever you like.”
“Okay,” Hannah said softly.
Quickly, Adora unlocked the door and sat down in another stall. This is just too weird, she thought, sitting on the uncomfortably hard seat. Why couldn’t Wishlings come up with technology to make objects conform to individual bodies and preferences? And now she had to explain to her Wisher why she was glowing. What had gone wrong? None of her Star Darlings classes had ever covered a situation like that one!
Adora heard Hannah’s door open. She half expected the girl to rush outside. Instead, the Wishling moved closer and stood outside Adora’s door. “Go on,” Hannah said.
Hannah hadn’t run away. That was good. Now to explain. There was only one logical way to proceed: she had to tell the truth. “I’m from Starland,” Adora began. She talked about her world, about Starling Academy and the Star Darlings and the energy crisis.
When she paused for a moment, Hannah said she could open the door.
Adora went on to explain what her mission was and how she had traveled to Earth. When she took a breath, Hannah said she could come out.
Hannah’s eyes were wide. “It sounds unbelievable,” she said, “but something is telling me that you’re not making this up.” She laughed. “Maybe it’s your sparkly skin and your glittery blue hair that convinced me!”
The two girls leaned against the sinks as Adora finished her explanation. “So I discovered my special healing talent. That wasn’t, ah…sunscreen. It was just me. What is sunscreen, anyway?”
“It’s lotion that protects your skin from harmful sun rays,” Hannah told her. Adora looked at her in shock. Imagine needing protection from a light source!
“Anyway,” Adora concluded, “I know that you’re my Wisher. So I need to help make your wish come true.”
“Starland…Wishworld…granting wishes.” Hannah shook her head in wonder. “I would like to help. Do you think if I just say, ‘Okay, I’m good at making friends now,’ you can get the wish energy and leave?”
“I don’t think so,” Adora said doubtfully. “It probably needs to be a genuine wish-come-true.” She shrugged. “But let’s try it anyway.”
She held out her arm, bringing her Wish Pendant watch closer to Hannah. She smiled as the Wishling proclaimed loudly, “I feel so confident! I realize now how easy it is to make friends!”
But no rainbow of colors whooshed from Hannah to the watch. She didn’t give off one tiny spark.
“That was nice of you to try,” Adora said. “But it’s useless.”
With those words, her heart beat faster once again. She didn’t like those feelings. She was nervous. Upset. Clueless. She didn’t have the starriest idea how to fix the situation.
What had she done to make things go horribly wrong? How would she ever be able to grant a wish when she couldn’t even leave the bathroom?
Suddenly, the door to outside swung open. Hannah quickly but gently pushed Adora back into the stall. Adora hastily locked the door, then pulled up her feet when she realized even her sneakers were sparkling.
She heard footsteps. Someone said, “Hi, Hannah. I haven’t seen you yet! How have you been?”
Hannah mumbled a soft, awkward response.
Adora opened the door very slightly, peeked out, and saw the girl who had waved earlier. She was so friendly. Why couldn’t Hannah see that? It would make everything so much easier!
The girl finished quickly and left the bathroom without saying another word.
“Now what?” said Hannah in a normal-sounding voice when Adora came out again.
“I really don’t know,” said Adora. For the first time ever, she had no next step, no hypothesis to test.
“Well,” Hannah said, “you need a hiding spot. You can’t stay in this bathroom forever.”
“I do have a tent,” Adora said, wondering why she hadn’t thought of it earlier. Why, oh why, wasn’t she thinking straight?
“Great!” said Hannah. “You can set it up in the wo
ods.”
“Well, it is kind of big,” Adora explained, “but it won’t need to be hidden. It’s invisible to Wishlings.” She thought for a moment. “But I guess it shouldn’t be too close so nobody will bump into it!”
“You can put it behind the CIT tent!” said Hannah.
Adora could, in fact, leave the bathroom. So why was her heart still racing? And why was her mind still a muddle?
The whole mission was more difficult than she could have imagined. Forget about finishing in record time—what if she never finished her mission at all?
A lump formed in Adora’s throat. She couldn’t swallow. She thought back to the previous day, when she’d suspected she was getting sick. If it really was star pox, she’d be in deep trouble. Who would take care of her on Wishworld?
Then one tear rolled down her cheek. Oh! Adora realized with a start: She wasn’t sick. She was crying. It had been so long she’d almost forgotten what it felt like.
Hannah stared at Adora’s pale blue tear. “It’s like liquid glitter,” she marveled. Then she patted Adora’s arm. “It’s okay. Just wait here.”
Hannah brought back a long terry cloth robe. Adora slipped it on, the bottom sweeping the floor. She pulled up the hood so it covered her head and face.
“Lead the way,” said Adora. “And fast.”
The girls hurried outside, not pausing for a moment—not even when Uncle Hal called out, “Hannah! Why weren’t you at lunch?”
“Not hungry!” Hannah squeaked out.
A distance behind the CIT tent, Adora opened her backpack and took out her folded-up tent. Immediately, it popped up to its full size.
“When are you going to pitch the tent?” Hannah asked.
For a moment, Adora was too confused to answer. Pitch a tent? Was that some kind of Wishling sport?
“The tent is right here, set up and everything,” Adora said. “Remember you can’t see it?”
“Can I go inside?” asked Hannah.
Again, Adora didn’t know. They were really in uncharted waters. What if she wasn’t allowed into the tent? What if Hannah could go inside but was still visible to Wishlings? Either way, they’d never get anything done.
“I’ll try to lead you inside,” Adora finally told Hannah. She opened the flap, took Hannah’s arm, and steered her through the opening.
Inside, Hannah opened her eyes wide.
Well, at least she can see the interior, Adora thought. And it was impressive, if she did say so herself.
The star-shaped room was large and plush. Thick blue carpeting covered the ground from one end to the other. In the very center stood a huge bed, covered with fluffy pillows, all tinted a lovely shade of sky blue. Adora took off her backpack and dropped it to the floor.
Hannah stood for a moment with her mouth open. “This is unbelievable!” she said.
“Remember, you can’t tell anyone about this!” Adora said warningly.
“Who would I tell, anyway?” Hannah replied. “Remember? I don’t have any friends.”
Adora felt sad for her.
Hannah walked around the perimeter, examining the paintings of Starland that hung in every point. Looking at the pictures, Adora felt an unexpected pang in her stomach. That time she knew she was sick—homesick.
“This is amazing!” said Hannah. “But am I invisible, too?”
“I don’t know!” Adora said. She peered outside. The girl from the bathroom and her friend were leaving the CIT tent and moving closer. “But we’re about to find out.”
“Uh-oh, that’s Jess and Allie.” Hannah quickly sat on the floor, putting her head in her hands, as if she was upset.
“I’m striking a pose,” she whispered. “If they see me sitting in the middle of nowhere all alone, they won’t even think it’s strange.”
The two girls walked past as if Hannah and Adora and the tent weren’t there at all.
Adora and Hannah collapsed in a fit of giggles.
“We figured that out,” Hannah said, catching her breath. “Maybe we can figure everything else out, too.”
“Star salutations, Hannah,” Adora said, still smiling. “That means ‘thank you.’”
Hannah had snuck into the mess hall and returned with sandwiches, fruit, and cookies. She’d even brought Adora bug juice, which Adora learned wasn’t made from bugs after all. In fact, it tasted a lot like starberry juice.
Now it was dark outside the cozy tent, and the girls were still trying to come up with a plan.
“I have to go to the CIT bonfire,” Hannah told Adora. “But I’ll come back later to make sure you’re all right.”
Adora sighed. Somehow it seemed she and her Wisher had switched places. She was supposed to make Hannah feel better, not the other way around.
Still, she appreciated everything Hannah was doing for her. And while her Wisher was at the bonfire, Adora would go back to her logical way of thinking. She would come up with a foolproof plan for Hannah to gain the confidence she needed to make friends.
Of course, the plan couldn’t take Adora outside…so maybe she had better figure out how to fix her appearance first.
Oh, moonberries. Her mind was in a muddle once again. What should she try to take care of right then? And how would she accomplish any of it?
Adora leaned back on her pillows and stared at the tent ceiling, waiting for inspiration. She yawned loudly. It had been quite a starday. She was starmazingly tired.
Across the tent, a lone mirror hung between a holo-photo of the Crystal Mountains and an artist’s rendering of a florafierce field. All she had to do was walk across the floor, gaze at her reflection, and say her Mirror Mantra. That would definitely make her feel better. She really needed energy! But then she realized that she needed that strength just to reach the mirror.
Slowly her eyes began to close. She’d just rest for a few starmins….
“Adora, wake up!”
The next thing Adora knew, someone was shaking her shoulders and bouncing up and down on her bed.
She sat up quickly. “Cassie!” she exclaimed. “Am I late for Astral Accounting?”
Wait! Cassie wasn’t even in her Astral Accounting class. And how had she gotten into her room, anyway?
Then it all came back in a rush: Adora wasn’t in the Big Dipper Dorm. She was in a tent on Wishworld, and her mission was going starmendously wrong.
She’d been hoping she could handle it all on her own, but there was her helper Starling. Adora would not be the first Star Darling to complete a mission on her own after all.
Adora was pleased to see Cassie but a little put out at the same time. “I haven’t even been here one day,” she said with an edge to her voice. She glanced at her Star-Zap, which was sitting on a nightstand. “My Countdown Clock says I have lots of time left. You could have waited a little longer.”
Cassie smiled at her gently. “Your energy levels were so low everyone was alarmed. Besides, look at you! You’re shimmering and glittery and everything a Wishling is not. Something is really wrong. That must be draining your energy. You definitely need some help. That’s why I’m here, Adora. Not to make you feel bad.”
Adora slumped back against her pillows. Cassie was right. It actually felt good to have her close by, frowning in sympathy. Adora gazed at her friend: no sparkles, no glitter. Wishworld plain as could be. Adora would never have believed she’d ever be envious of dull skin and hair. But she was!
“Star salutations, Cassie,” she said.
Cassie reached out for her hand. “How did it happen?” she asked. “How did you change back?”
“I don’t even know,” said Adora miserably. “I was in the bathroom, saying my Mirror Mantra. One starmin I had no sparkle; the next I was as shiny as a newborn Starling.”
Again, a tear rolled down Adora’s cheek. This is ridiculous! Adora thought. I’m an emotional swift-train wreck.
“You poor thing,” Cassie said. She hugged her close for a moment, then looked at her thoughtfully. “We’ll figure i
t out.”
“Oh, Cassie!” Adora burst out crying. “Don’t mind me. I’m just so glad you’re here.” If sweet, sympathetic Cassie had taken on this mission, Adora thought, she’d have gotten Hannah to open up on her own, without resorting to trickery with a recording device! She had a sudden thought. “Cassie, what was your Wish Mission?”
“To help a Wishling who wanted her teacher to appreciate her,” Cassie replied.
“So you and your Wisher were a good fit?” Adora asked.
Cassie thought for a starmin, her brow furrowed. “Now that you mention it, I don’t think we were! Or at least, we wouldn’t have been. She was a real class clown. It only worked out because I was so”—she blushed Wishling pink—“um, braggy at the time.”
Adora grabbed Cassie’s hands. “Cassie, I think that our Wish Missions were mixed up!”
“Really?” said Cassie.
“Yes,” replied Adora. “My Wisher is very sensitive. I almost don’t understand her.”
“Well, it makes sense, I guess,” said Cassie. “Something seems to go wrong on every mission.”
Adora pointed to her sparkly self. “And on this mission, more than one thing!”
“Well, maybe we can reverse your appearance,” Cassie said.
Adora leaned forward eagerly. “Maybe we can!” She got out of bed, gave a small yawn, and began to move more quickly. “Let’s re-create the scene. I was standing in front of the mirror, wearing my backpack.” She grabbed her backpack and threw it over her shoulder, the key chain swinging.
“Then I said my Mirror Mantra.”
Adora gazed deeply at her reflection and said, “Use your logic. You are a star!”
Immediately, Adora felt wide awake. But there was no appearance change. If anything, her glow grew stronger.
“That’s okay,” she told Cassie. “Trial and error. Scientists live by it.”
“What if you said it backward?” Cassie suggested.
