by Ahmet Zappa
Vega shrugged and headed to a shiny blue starbeautychamber.
“Cassie, let me see,” called Adora from a sky-blue starbeautychamber nearby.
Cassie stood and walked to her. She considered putting her shoes back on but didn’t want to cover up her sparkling toes. Adora leaned over to take a look. “Pretty,” she said. A Bot-Bot masseuse was giving her a neck massage as she picked her polish color. “I can’t decide between Cerulean Circus for my fingers,” she said, clicking on it, “or Starbeam Dream.” She looked up to Cassie for help. “Oh…um,” said Cassie. They looked exactly the same to her. “Definitely Starbeam Dream,” she finally said.
“You’re right,” said Adora. “It’s much prettier.” She didn’t seem to need any help choosing Indigo Spell for her toes.
When everyone’s nails were done, the girls reclined on overstuffed couches and admired each other’s fingers and toes as they sipped tall sparkling drinks brought to them by hovering Bot-Bot waiters. Then the lights dimmed. The starlight show began to flash faster and the music got louder. Cassie was pleased to note that Leona was the first to jump up and begin to dance—barefoot, of course. Her fingers and toes sparkled in the dim light; she had chosen a polish that made her nails look as if they had been dipped in liquid gold, which Cassie took as another sign that she was improving. Leona crooked her finger, beckoning to Cassie, who began to shake her head, her usual self-conscious response. But the idea of everyone’s eyes on her as she moved to the beat, which usually unnerved her, suddenly seemed like an appealing one. She jumped up and bopped over to Leona, who grinned and grabbed her hands. The two began to spin around and around, then broke apart and twirled in the empty space. Cassie closed her eyes and moved to the music, freely and joyously. She didn’t worry that she looked silly, and she didn’t care what anyone was thinking of her. All she knew was that she felt beautiful, and fluid, and natural—and like she never wanted to stop moving to the music. After a few minutes, the rest of the girls joined in. They were a jumping, twirling, grinning mass. They danced until they couldn’t dance anymore, then flopped onto the couches in happy exhaustion.
Cassie closed her eyes, breathing hard. She opened her eyes to see Sage leaning over her. She was still laughing.
“Cassie, get up, it’s time for bed,” she said.
“All right, all right.” Cassie swung her feet to the floor and reluctantly slipped on her shoes. With a sigh, she stood up. She admired her fingernails again under the flashing lights. “Wow,” Cassie said. “I really picked the best color.”
Adora grabbed her arm. “I thought you liked Starbeam Dream,” she said almost inaudibly.
“The music’s too loud,” said Cassie. “What did you say?”
“I said, I thought you liked Starbeam Dream.”
Cassie shrugged. “Glad you like it, too,” she said. She looked at Vega. “Are you coming with us?” she asked.
“You should go, you shouldn’t wait,” Vega said, pointing to Piper, who was sipping a sea-green beverage through a straw. “I will wait for my roommate.”
Cassie was sleepy. “Okay, I’ll see you all in the…”
“Morning,” finished Piper.
Clover stood and threw her arms around Cassie.
“See you at breakfast, Clover,” Cassie said.
“Wait for me,” said Leona. But then she never got up, so Cassie and Sage shrugged and headed back to their room. They chatted and giggled all the way back to the dorm. Cassie tumbled into bed, fully intending to get up in a starsec to use her toothlight and sparkle her face, but she found she was so tired she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even muster the energy to ask Sage to please quiet down. The girl was still giggling.
Weird, she thought. Ophelia never showed up at the party. Something better must have come up. Maybe she’s not as lonely as Leona thinks she is.
Sage rolled over, trying, and failing, to muffle a laugh.
I am so much better at falling asleep than Sage, Cassie thought. And she was right. She drifted off to sleep.
When Cassie awoke the next morning, she felt starmendous—so much so that she said it out loud. “I feel starmendous,” she said. No, that wasn’t quite right. “I am starmendous,” she tried. Yes, that was much better.
She stepped out of bed and stubbed her toe. “Moons and stars!” she cried. “That hurt!”
She looked to her roommate, whose head was resting on her lavender pillowcase, for sympathy. Sage looked back at her and giggled.
“Sage!” said Cassie with a scowl. “I hurt myself!”
“I know,” said Sage, trying to make a sad face and failing miserably. “But something about it is pretty funny.”
“No,” said Cassie earnestly. “It’s actually not.”
But apparently that was very amusing to Sage, too.
With as much dignity as she could muster, Cassie hobbled her way to the sparkle shower room. Even though her toe was throbbing, she couldn’t help admiring herself in the mirror, her gossamer silvery-pink hair looking so, well, gossamery and lovely around her pale face.
Cassie stood on the Cosmic Transporter, on her way to breakfast, staring into space. Suddenly, she was startled by someone skipping by, almost knocking her over. She peered after her. Was that Scarlet? she wondered.
When Cassie arrived in the cafeteria, she found Scarlet and Piper already sitting at the table. Piper’s amazingly long seafoam green hair was pulled back into a rippling ponytail. Cassie chose the seat next to her. “Good…” she started.
“Morning,” Piper said pleasantly.
Leona and Adora arrived next. “I’m not hungry,” Leona said. “I ran into Ophelia this morning and she gave me this delicious zoomberry turnover from the huge care package she just got. So I’m just going to get a cup of hot…”
“Zing,” said Piper.
Leona gave her a funny look. “Ozziefruit tea,” she said, correcting her.
Vega arrived next and sat on the other side of Cassie. She was followed by Astra and Clover, who sat on the other side of the table.
“Last night was so much fun,” said Clover.
Vega nodded. “We did our nails, had snacks, and more.”
Clover nodded. “Yes, we did!”
“It certainly was not a bore,” Vega finished.
The Bot-Bot waiter arrived and began to take their breakfast orders. Cassie ordered a bowl of druderwomp flakes with starberries.
Moons and stars, that was a good order, Cassie thought. She addressed Adora, who sat across from her. “I hope you don’t have breakfast envy!”
“I think I’ll like mine better,” said Adora.
“Starscuse me?” said Cassie.
“I think I’ll like mine better,” repeated Adora.
“Um…what?” said Cassie.
“I said I think I’ll like mine better,” Adora said patiently.
“Uh…that’s great,” said Cassie, who still couldn’t understand what the girl was saying but was too embarrassed to ask her to repeat it a third time.
When it was Leona’s turn, she thought for a moment and ordered starcakes and tinsel toast with a slice of mooncheese.
Sage giggled. “I thought you said you weren’t hungry!”
“What are you talking about?” said Leona.
Breakfast arrived in record time. Tessa took a bite, then got a confused look on her face. “Starscuse me,” she said politely to the Bot-Bot, “but I asked for starberry waffles. These are moonberry.”
“Star apologies,” said the Bot-Bot waiter. “That is highly irregular. I’ll fix that right away.” He zoomed back to the kitchen and returned a few starmins later.
Tessa dug in to her new breakfast excitedly, took a bite, then shook her head. “Moonberries again!” she exclaimed. “How…”
“Delightful,” finished Piper.
“No, how odd,” she said.
“I hate moonberries,” said Sage disgustedly. But she punctuated her statement with a delighted laugh.
Sage’s
giggle is really annoying, thought Cassie. It would be so much less annoying if she had a sweet, tinkling laugh. Kind of like… She thought for a minute. Kind of like mine, she decided. She practiced it, putting her hand over her mouth and tittering. She nodded. It was musical and quite pleasant.
Cassie’s day went on starmendously. She felt emboldened enough to raise her hand in every class, even when she wasn’t quite sure of the answer. And when every eye in the class was focused on her, somehow it didn’t feel intimidating at all. That was some pep talk Lady Stella gave me yestarday, she thought.
At the end of the day it was time for their Star Darlings lessons. Cassie settled into her usual seat in the soundproof classroom. She was starprised to see a new, unfamiliar teacher in front of the room. She was one of the youngest teachers Cassie had ever seen, with super-short magenta hair that stuck up from her head in tiny spikes. She wore swirly leggings in shades of pink, red, and orange, a fitted jacket (which the Star Darlings would soon discover, as the class went on, changed color every ten starmins), and shiny orange boots.
“Hello, class,” she said, standing and walking up and down the aisles as she spoke. “I am Kiri Lillibelle and I am thrilled to be your guest lecturer today. You may not know me, but I am certainly familiar with each and every one of you. I am the researcher who hand-selects all of your—”
“Outfits,” offered Piper.
Kiri gave her a quizzical look. “No, Mirror Mantras,” she said. “A Mirror Mantra is a very important part of a successful Wish Mission. By repeating your Mirror Mantra while gazing into a mirror, you will receive strength and centeredness. When you recite it together with your Wisher down on Wishworld, you can bring clarity and focus to her that will aid in wish fulfillment.”
She began to walk around the room as she spoke. “Mirror Mantras used to be presented to Starling Academy students upon graduation. We had four staryears to determine the perfect message for each student. The timing was a little tighter for you Star Darlings,” she said with a laugh. “But we were able to determine the correct mantras for each of you.”
“How do you choose them?” asked Libby with a yawn.
“An excellent question,” said Kiri. “They were carefully selected based on each of your personalities, strengths, and challenges.”
“Challenges?” asked Astra.
“Yes, challenges,” said Kiri. “It is not just your strengths that make you the special person you are, but also your challenges and how you face them.”
“But we already know our mantras,” said Leona. “They were assigned to us as soon as we found out we were Star Darlings.”
“Yes,” said Kiri patiently. “But we’ve determined that the more you use them before your Wish Mission, the more their strength will increase. We want you to become as familiar with your mantra as you are with your own name. We want to make sure that they become second nature to you, and that you use them to their fullest potential. We want you to know your mantras forwards and backwards.”
The girls nodded.
“So let’s begin!” The classroom door opened and a bevy of Bot-Bot assistants flew into the room, each holding a floating holo-mirror, which it placed in front of a student. Cassie gazed at herself and found herself taking off her starglasses to get a closer look at her eyelashes. They were so thick and lush! How had she never noticed them before? They were pretty starmazing, actually. She was about to lean over and ask Leona if she had noticed her lashes before—and, if so, why she had never called them to Cassie’s attention—when Kiri began to speak again.
“Okay,” she said. “Now let’s go around the room and recite your mantras for each other. Why don’t you start?” she asked, pointing to Sage, who sat in the front of the room.
Sage giggled nervously and cleared her throat. She gazed into the mirror levelly. “I believe in you,” she said. “Glow for it!”
Even from the back of the room, Cassie could see that Sage’s reflection took on a brilliant glow.
“Look at her reflection!” Kiri cried to the class. “Her glow is intensifying even here on Starland! This is some pretty powerful stuff!”
She turned back to Sage. “Okay,” said Kiri. “How did that make you feel?”
“I felt really energized,” Sage said with a laugh. “While I definitely felt the power of the mantra when I used it on Wishworld, I felt something extra just now. Maybe my mantra has even more power than I realized.”
Kiri nodded enthusiastically. “That’s exactly it. We’re thinking that we have not yet taken full advantage of the power of the mantras. And we think that you as Star Darlings may have even greater mantra powers than the other students.”
The room began to buzz with excitement. When they quieted down, Kiri went around the room and had the rest of the Star Darlings recite their mantras, one by one.
“It’s all in the balance. Glimmer and shine!” said Libby, her pink ponytail shimmering.
Leona said: “You are a star. Light up the world!”
Scarlet reached into her back pocket for her drumsticks and beat out a drumroll on top of her desk before stating: “Abracadabra—time for some star power!” And even she looked impressed by the burst of sparkle in her reflection.
“Dreams can come true,” said Piper when it was her turn. “It’s your time to shine!”
“Stronger you make challenges,” said Astra with a wide grin. “Glowin’ get to time!”
“Huh?” said Kiri.
Astra blinked at Kiri innocently. “I thought you said you wanted us to know our mantras forwards and backwards!”
Kiri shook her head and moved on to the next Star Darling.
“Let your heart lead the way,” Tessa said, smiling at her reflection.
Her little sister went next. “Make up your mind to blaze like a comet!” Gemma shouted.
Clover adjusted her purple hat and said, “Keep the beat and shine like the star you are!”
Hmmm, thought Cassie. That’s not a bad mantra at all. Maybe Clover got mine by mistake? She hesitated. She knew that Kiri was waiting for her to speak, but for some reason she just didn’t want to say her mantra out loud. She had gladly accepted it when she had first received it, but it suddenly didn’t seem right to her at all.
Kiri smiled at her encouragingly. “Come on, Cassie, let’s hear it,” she said.
Cassie sighed. “Listen to your feelings. Let your inner light sparkle,” she said in a monotone. She was surprised to see that her reflection got extra sparkly even though her heart wasn’t in it.
“What’s wrong, Cassie?” Kiri asked. “That’s a lovely mantra, if I do say so myself.”
Cassie shrugged. Suddenly, she had an idea—a brilliant one, in fact. “Do you ever change people’s mantras?” she asked.
Kiri was clearly taken aback. “Are you pulling my leg?” she said.
Gemma stood up to take a look. “No, she isn’t,” she told Kiri seriously. “She’s not even touching you!”
Astra snorted. “Good one, Gemma!”
“I was thinking of something a little more star-forward,” said Cassie slowly.
“Star-forward?” asked the teacher, her brow wrinkled.
“You know,” said Cassie. “Exciting. Vibrant. Like ‘You are totally startacular.’ Or maybe ‘You are starmendously talented,’” she suggested.
Kiri was frowning as she studied Cassie. “But the Mirror Mantras are carefully chosen to reflect each student’s personality,” she said. “A lot of work went into each one. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a student requesting a new mantra in Starling Academy history.”
Cassie shrugged. It just didn’t seem like such a great fit anymore. It was kind of…boring.
Kiri opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, clearly thought better of it, and turned to the next student. “Adora?” she said. “It’s your turn.”
And Adora said,“Use your logic. You are a star!”
Kiri shook her head. She was clearly getting frustrated. “Wel
l, apparently Adora is not ready to share yet. We’ll get back to you la—”
And that was when all the Star-Zaps went off. Cassie looked down at the message: SD WISH ORB IDENTIFIED. PROCEED TO LADY STELLA’S OFFICE IMMEDIATELY. The girls all shot each other quick looks, then began to make their way out of the classroom. It was time.
Usually, when Cassie headed to Lady Stella’s office for the Wish Orb reveal, her stomach was in knots. She would look at her fellow Star Darlings who had not yet been chosen for their Wish Missions and silently hope that it was their turn, instead of hers. She’d be ready, she would tell herself, next time. Just one more reprieve, and she’d be ready. But then she never was.
But this time was different. Cassie knew she was ready. And she also knew that there was no better choice for this mission than she. In fact, she was sure of it.
Cassie calmly made her way to Lady Stella’s office, where she sat at the shiny silver table until all the Star Darlings were gathered. Then she patiently waited her turn as they all made their way down the hidden staircase behind Lady Stella’s desk into the cool, dark secret caves underneath Halo Hall. Scarlet was just in front of her, and in the gloom Cassie noticed a silvery white bitbat land briefly on the girl’s shoulder. That’s odd, she thought. Bitbats were notoriously skittish. Soon they entered the special Star Darlings Wish Cavern. Cassie took in the scene—sunlight shining through the glass roof, golden waterfalls of wish energy streaming down the sides, the garden they stood in green and abundant. The glowing Wish Orbs still in the ground waiting for the moment when they would be ready now numbered just six. It was clearly impossible for the place to exist deep underground, yet there it was, right in front of their eyes. The girls moved to the grass-covered platform in the middle of the Wish Cavern and waited for the chosen Wish Orb to emerge. They did not have to wait long. A shaft of sunlight lit up the center of the platform and the orb burst out. Cassie never took her eyes off the glowing globe. This time, instead of circling the room quickly, or pausing at each Star Darling as if trying to decide who it belonged to, the orb simply zoomed right up to one student: Cassie. She held out one hand confidently, motioning for the orb with the other as if to say, Get over here right now. The Wish Orb nestled right into her open palm. Everyone stared at Cassie in disbelief.
