Gemma and the Ultimate Standoff

by Ahmet Zappa

  “Shhh,” said Tessa irritably next to her. Clearly, her sister needed more meditation.

  “No—Wish Orb!” Gemma shouted, holding up her Star-Zap. “Everybody check your Star-Zaps! My Wish Orb is ready!”

  The room broke out into excited chattering. Finally!

  Gemma’s eyes were shining. “The timing is perfect!” she said. “Lady Cordial said she had a feeling that everything would be straightened out in time for Starshine Day. I just know that this mission is going to collect a starton of wish energy!” she said confidently.

  As Gemma stood, she noticed that Leona, who was still sitting on her golden cushion, slipped her hand into her pocket. Gemma knew exactly what she was doing—running her fingers over her ruined Wish Pendant and thinking of her own failed mission. Gemma wanted to tell her that it was okay, that hopefully her mission would more than make up for Leona’s, but she thought the girl might take it the wrong way.

  Gemma was all set to sprint to Lady Cordial’s office when Sage stepped in front of the door and cleared her throat. “I just want to say that while you are off on your mission, we will continue to try to locate Lady Stella. Maybe we’ll find her by the time you return and we can fix this problem for good.”

  “I hope so,” said Gemma. “Can we go now?”

  Slip-slap, slip-slap. Gemma walked so quickly to Halo Hall that she almost lost an orange slipper along the way. Only Astra was able (or willing) to keep up with her. When Gemma arrived at the office door, she paused.

  “Are you okay?” asked Astra.

  Gemma nodded, but inside she felt paralyzed. What if her mission went wrong and she didn’t collect any energy? What if something went wonky with the wish energy and she got stuck on Wishworld? That would be fine for Scarlet, but Gemma liked living on Starland! And what if the girls didn’t find Lady Stella while she was gone? So many what-ifs kept crowding her mind, all of them bad. She closed her eyes, and a voice, clear and strong, suddenly cut through the chatter. It said, “Just remember these words: while looking to the future, you must not forget the past.”

  Gemma’s hands trembled. She turned to Astra. “Did you just hear that?” she asked.

  “Hear what?” Astra said.

  “Um, nothing,” Gemma replied. She didn’t want to say anything to get Astra’s hopes up, but the voice had reminded her of someone very dear to her—to all of them. It had sounded a lot like Lady Stella. Emboldened, and with the rest of the Star Darlings’ footfalls sounding in the hallway, she knocked and then slid the door open.

  Gemma blinked. The number of Bot-Bot guards in Lady Cordial’s office had swelled to four.

  “That’s a lot of Bot-Bots,” she remarked.

  “Oh, better s-s-s-safe than s-s-s-sorry,” Lady Cordial said offhandedly.

  The rest of the Star Darlings filed into the room and took their seats around the full moon–shaped table.

  “Welcome, everyone,” said Lady Cordial. “I am sure you are as pleased as I am that the final Wish Orb has been identified. There’s no question who it belongs to, s-s-s-so we will dispense with the dramatic reveal and s-s-s-simply open the box.”

  Lady Cordial reached behind the desk and produced a large solar-metal box. She placed it on the table directly in front of Gemma. All of a sudden the sides fell away to reveal a smaller box. The wait was agonizing to Gemma as she watched this happen again and again. She kept a smile on her face, but she really just wanted to scream. Finally, there was a Wish Orb–sized box sitting in front of her.

  “Open it, Gemma,” said Lady Cordial.

  Gemma lifted the lid, which was surprisingly light. She gasped as the orb—her orb—rose into the air. She blinked. Was it her imagination or was it moving a bit shakily? She reached out her hand, but the orb simply bobbed in place in front of her. She looked around. The rest of the Star Darlings were staring at the orb oddly, too.

  “It looks…different,” she said. It appeared to be much more sparkly than the other orbs, but somehow less glowing. And it was quite large and bulgy—almost like it was ready to burst.

  “That’s because it is the final orb. The most crucial one!” said Lady Cordial. She leaned over and whispered into Gemma’s ear. “The most important mission of them all.”

  Gemma shivered with excitement as a tingle ran down her spine. The twelfth and final mission. The biggest one of all. It was quite an honor—and a great responsibility. She felt like making a speech to commemorate the occasion.

  She continued to hold out her hand. Lady Cordial, perhaps unable to stand the suspense, bustled over and plucked the orb out of the air.

  Gemma waited for Lady Cordial to place it in her hand, imagining the smooth surface against her skin, the warmth that would flood her hand and run up her arm and into her body. But Lady Cordial instead placed the orb back in the box and snapped it shut.

  “Are you ready, Gemma?” she asked.

  “I am,” replied Gemma. “As a matter of fact, I just wanted to say a word or two about…” She then launched into a speech about last chances, bravery in the face of adversity, and the importance of support from one’s peers. “And in conclusion—” she began.

  Lady Cordial put her hands on Gemma’s shoulders and squeezed, perhaps a little too tightly in Gemma’s opinion. Gemma shifted uncomfortably. “S-s-s-star s-s-s-salutations for that inspiring s-s-s-speech, Gemma,” Lady Cordial said. “Now it’s time to prepare for the final Wish Mission. The fate of S-s-s-starland rests in your hands.”

  Gemma thought for a moment. As the voice had said, she had to look back into the future. She frowned. Or maybe it was that the future was in the past? In any event, her mission—the twelfth and final one—was about to start.

  By the time Gemma landed on Wishworld, her head was spinning, her hands were shaking, and her mind was racing. The trip down to Wishworld had been much more tumultuous than her previous journey, with dips and falls, near misses, and close calls. Whether an increase in negative wish energy in the atmosphere or an overabundance of solar activity was causing the disturbances, she did not know. The funny part was that all of the atmospheric activity had been positively beautiful, with flashes of light and colors so unusual that Gemma didn’t even have names for them. Unfortunately, she hadn’t really been able to enjoy it, because she’d had to close her eyes to avoid feeling sick. And this from a girl who loved starcoasters more than anything! While she wanted her mission to be a fast one so she could return home quickly, the thought of reattaching herself to her shooting star for the return trip was terrifying. Thank goodness for those meditation skills that Piper had shared with her; they came in very handy. By focusing on her breathing, she was able to keep calm on the trip.

  Saying good-bye on the Wishworld Surveillance Deck had been quite a melancholy experience. Not only because she had always pictured Lady Stella sending her off, but because her sister had been positively teary. Tessa had hugged her so long and so hard that Gemma had had to gently push her away so she could take off. And Lady Cordial’s final words to her—“always look ahead, not over your shoulder”—seemed to contradict the words she had heard in her head just before she had received her Wish Orb. Now she didn’t know what to think.

  Gemma had landed in a small wooded area, shielded by trees and bushes in fiery shades of yellow, orange, and red. After she folded up and carefully put away her shooting star, she pushed her way out. She realized that she was standing in the middle of a field filled with orange spheres that appeared to be growing out of the ground. It immediately brought her a sense of familiarity. A farm! A sign hanging nearby read HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM MACDONALD’S PICK-YOUR-OWN PUMPKIN FARM. It was illustrated with an orange pumpkin (she presumed that was what it was, at least) with a scary face carved into it. A holiday that seemed to celebrate both the harvest and spooky things. How curious!

  Gemma watched as families wandered about, looking at pumpkins, lifting them up, and sometimes carrying them off, but more often than not setting them back down and moving on to the next
pumpkin. The chosen pumpkins were carried to a rustic-looking red building nearby. Gemma took a closer look at the structure and nearly screamed. The most enormous black spider she had ever seen was perched on the top, its colossal web covering the entire side of the building. How horrifying! Wishworld spiders were way uglier (and bigger) than their Starland counterparts, that was for sure. But then she noticed that families were walking into the building, directly underneath the horrible creature, hardly even looking up at it, and her pulse started to return to normal. Lady Cordial had warned her not to waste any time recording Wishworld observations in her Cyber Journal, but if she had, it would have been: Mission 12, Wishworld Observation #1: Wishworld spiders are STARNORMOUS! But evidently, not dangerous. Or even noteworthy.

  Tentatively, Gemma took a step closer to the building, then another. She stopped and stared up at it. Had the spider just moved one of its eight spindly legs or was her mind playing tricks on her?

  “Pretty scary, huh?” said a voice right behind her.

  Gemma jumped. She whirled around to find two girls standing there, smiling at her. The taller one had short straight brown hair and green eyes that sparkled. The shorter girl had wavy shoulder-length blond hair and warm brown eyes. Gemma’s hands flew to her ears as she felt a tingling sensation.

  “Ooh, nice earrings,” said the blond girl. “How do they glow like that?”

  Is one of these girls my Wisher? Gemma wondered. Could it possibly be that easy? She hoped the answers were yes and yes.

  “That spider has been in my family for generations,” said the brown-haired girl. “As a matter of fact, my grandpa MacDonald used to hang it up with his grandfather, Angus. He was my”—she thought for a moment—“great-great grandfather.”

  “So you’re a MacDonald?” Gemma asked, pointing to the sign.

  “I’m Zoe,” said the girl. “Welcome to MacDonald’s farm.”

  “E-i-e-i-o,” said the blond girl, thoroughly confusing Gemma.

  “Don’t you ever get tired of that joke, Cici?” Zoe asked, rolling her eyes. Gemma sensed a tinge of annoyance in her voice and wondered if Cici was insulted.

  But Cici just laughed. “Nope,” she said. Then she leaned in to look more closely at Gemma. “You didn’t really think that spider was real, did you?” she asked.

  “Oh, my st—I mean, goodness, of course not!” said Gemma. “How silly! I mean, of course it’s fake!”

  “So are you new in town or something?” Zoe asked. “I haven’t seen you around at school.”

  “I am new and my name is Gemma,” she said truthfully. “I just arrived. It was a long journey and it was quite eventful! What a ride it was. All the way from…” She paused. All the way from where? Stop talking, Gemma, she told herself. Just stop talking!

  Luckily, Cici jumped in. “Well, you came at the right time!” she said. “We celebrate Halloween big around here. I hope you have a costume!”

  Gemma vaguely recalled learning about Halloween in Wishworld Relations class, but the details were fuzzy. Maybe she had forgotten to put her headphones on that night and hadn’t absorbed that day’s lesson. She searched her brain for details. Was that the holiday when Wishlings ate a large roasted fowl with their family? Or the one when they pinched fellow Wishlings if they weren’t wearing the color green, and had a big parade?

  Suddenly, Cici’s eyes widened. “Don’t look now!” she said in a loud whisper. “But Maddie and Kaila are headed our way!”

  Zoe looks both excited and nervous. “Do I look okay?” she asked.

  “Are you afraid of heights?” Cici asked.

  Zoe looks confused for a moment. “No,” she answered. “What does that have to do with anyth—”

  “Well, your zipper is.”

  Zoe seemed down in a panic, then realized she was wearing a skirt. “Cici, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” she said.

  “Sorry,” said Cici. “I thought it was funny.”

  “It wasn’t,” said Zoe icily. Then she put a huge fake-looking smile on her face as the two girls stepped up to them. They looked almost identical, with long, straight light brown hair, off-the-shoulder oversized sweaters, and short shorts over patterned tights and tall boots. They both wore knit hats. Gemma looked from one to the other. Were they wearing some sort of uniform?

  “Hi, Maddie. Hi, Kaila,” said Zoe in a rush. “You know Cici, of course. And this is Gemma. She just moved here.”

  “Hi, Gemma,” said one of the girls, her eyes flickering over Gemma from head to toe, taking in her ripped jeans, flannel shirt, and beat-up ankle boots. Gemma must have passed muster, because she nodded at her. “Cool earrings. So where are you from?”

  Gemma opened her mouth. “Um, from…well, it’s actually quite far away….” Her voice trailed off.

  The girl quickly lost interest and turned back to Zoe.

  Gemma stared at the girls. Now which one was which? They were hard to tell apart. She wondered if she should ask them, but then she decided to keep her mouth shut. She was realizing that speaking as little as possible on Wishworld was the best way to go. It was a struggle and perhaps would be the biggest challenge of her mission.

  “Is it always so dirty here?” asked one of the girls, grimacing at her dusty boots.

  “Well, it is a farm,” Cici offered. “Dirt is kind of necessary.”

  The girls glanced at Cici, then returned their attention to Zoe. “So my mom sent us here to get a pumpkin. Can you help us?”

  Zoe smiled. “Sure,” she said. She turned to Gemma and Cici. “Be back in a couple of minutes.”

  Cici sighed as she watched them walk off. “Zoe really wants us to be friends with Maddie and Kaila. I guess it’s okay. They’re super popular and really into clothes and stuff. But they seem fake to me.” She looked at Gemma. “Hey, what happened to your earrings?” she said disappointedly. “They’re not glowing anymore.”

  What happened is that I just got confirmation that Zoe is my Wisher! Gemma thought triumphantly. She leaned in close to Cici. “So would you say that Zoe really wishes to be friends with those girls?”

  Cici nodded. “Yeah. She talks about it all the time.”

  “Hmmm,” said Gemma. She was confused. Friendship seemed like a positive wish. Based on Cici’s comment about them seeming fake, Gemma wondered if they’d make good friends for Zoe. Perhaps they had positive attributes that she had not yet seen.

  “Are they really fun or nice?” she asked. “Or smart, or maybe interesting? Do you like them?”

  Cici shifted as if she was uncomfortable. “Well…they are very popular,” she said slowly. “And fashionable, for sure. Nice?” She paused. “I wouldn’t go that far. But if that’s what Zoe wants, I’m fine with it.”

  “You’re a good friend to Zoe,” said Gemma.

  Cici’s smile lit up her whole face. “She’s my best friend,” she said. “Ever since the first day of preschool.”

  All right, then, thought Gemma. It seemed way too easy, but she had been counting on a quick mission, so this was working out just right.

  “Listen, it’s time for me to leave for my brother’s basketball game tonight,” said Cici. “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow at the carnival.”

  “Carnival?” said Gemma.

  “Oh, that’s right, you’re new. There’s this awesome carnival with rides and food and games. Then there’s a parade and costume judging,” explained Cici excitedly. “Zoe and I almost always win a prize. We come up with the best costumes! One year we were bacon and eggs and another year we were Bert and Ernie. And we make them all by ourselves.”

  “We don’t have to decorate for it, do we?” Gemma asked warily, afraid she was going to be put on another committee.

  “Oh, no!” Cici laughed. “We just show up and have fun.” She turned to leave. “So, see you tomorrow?” she asked.

  “You can count on it,” said Gemma. “I wouldn’t miss it for the worlds—I mean, world.”

  After Cici left, Gemma leaned against the wall of the
barn and squinted down at her Star-Zap. Starf! There was only twenty-four hours left on the Countdown Clock! She knew that was one Wishworld day. Lady Cordial had said it should be a quick mission, but this was cutting it close!

  She spotted Zoe and the two girls across the field, deep in conversation. Is there that much to say about pumpkins? she wondered. She headed toward them. As she got closer she caught a snippet of the conversation. She heard “It’ll be fun” and “You’ll look great,” then “It’s up to you. No pressure.”

  “So see you tonight,” one of the girls said. She nodded at Gemma. “You can bring her if you want.” The girls took off, carrying a medium-sized pumpkin between them.

  “See you later!” called Zoe, waving after them. They didn’t turn around. “Thanks for shopping at MacDonald Farms!” Then she slapped her forehead with her palm. “That was so lame. Ugh! Why did I say that?”

  “So you want to be friends with those girls?” Gemma asked. It was pretty clear, but with time of the essence, she wanted confirmation from her Wisher herself.

  “More than anything,” said Zoe. “And they asked me to hang out with them tonight. I’m totally nervous. You’ll come, right?”

  “No need to be nervous,” said Gemma. “I’ll help you.” A shiver ran down her spine so suddenly that it made the tiny hairs on her arms stand up. She guessed that was the confirmation she was looking for.

  Her Wish Mission was under way.

  Zoe flipped through the pages of a glossy magazine. “It looks good. Now, you’re sure this is cool?”

  “I’m sure,” said Gemma confidently. She had spent the afternoon wandering around town, making observations and collecting information she thought would help her Wisher on her quest to win over these new friends. They were obviously very into fashion, so she looked in all the store windows until she found a place selling clothes that looked trendy and cool. Luckily, the owner was bored and just as chatty as Gemma. She showed her the latest Wishworld trends and even gave her an extra copy she had of the cool new fashion magazine. “It’s the first issue,” she said. “This will really impress the little fashionistas!” Gemma left with a new admiration for Wishworld fashion. While it was certainly not as sparkly as Starland fashion, it was pretty startacular in its own way.