by Ahmet Zappa
“Is that the drink Professor Elara Ursa told us about?” asked Vega.
“Yes! You have to try it! It’s the most delicious drink! It’s sour and sweet, all at the same time!”
“Kind of like puckerup juice?”
“A little. But without the spice…and the sparkle, too. Here, I’ll show you!” Leona veered to the right and dragged Vega along with her.
Vega hung back, though. “Maybe later. I didn’t really want a tour. Your Countdown Clock is ticking, and I think we need to talk.”
“About what?” Leona frowned.
Vega pointed back to the music building. “About that,” she said. “This duet…are you sure about it?”
“Sure, I’m sure!” Leona said. “Like I said, it’s the only way I could get Lily to do the show.”
She explained how hard even getting Lily to sing a duet with her had been after the mean things some Wishlings had said. “And it wasn’t just these jealous girls—it was her own sister, too. Do you think all Wishling starkin are like this?” Leona asked.
“Moon and stars!” said Vega. “I hope not!”
Leona couldn’t help thinking of her own starkin: her two brothers, who were older and already out of school, and her two younger sisters, who were students back in Flairfield, still living at home. Leona had hoped they would follow her to Starling Academy, but neither one had even applied. Just like the rest of her family, they were perfectly content with small-town life. Still, Leona holo-called them often on her Star-Zap, and she loved hearing about life at home. In fact, since she’d been on Wishworld, it was the thing she had missed the most.
She suddenly wondered what her family thought now that stardays had passed since their last holo-call. If only Leona could have told them about her mission…but Lady Stella’s plan was too top secret to be shared with anyone. She hoped when their mission was over, she’d be able to tell them everything. And she hoped, thanks to her, that starday was coming very soon.
“Please, Vega. Trust me. I know what I’m doing here. Now, do you want to try some lemonade or don’t you? It’s up to you.”
At seven o’clock sharp, the curtain went up in the auditorium and Ms. Frasier took the stage.
“Welcome to Havisham Academy’s sixty-fifth annual talent show!” she announced. “I think you’re all in for quite a treat! We have talent this year we’ve never had before!
“First, of course, I’d like to thank our distinguished panel of judges. Judges, will you please stand up?”
A line of adult Wishlings stood up in the first row and turned, waving and grinning. Leona recognized several teachers as well as the headmistress who had welcomed her to school.
“As you know, the judges will be awarding a first prize,” Ms. Frasier went on, “but really, everyone who performs is a winner tonight. I hope, therefore, that you’ll show them all the respect they so deserve. Now, without any further ado, ladies, may I please present our first performers, who were last year’s winners…and the year before that, too: Talia, Kasey, and Adeline—otherwise known as Make-a-Move.”
The students in the audience applauded politely as Talia and her friends ran onstage. Leona did not miss the icy glare Talia shot at Lily. On Starland, it was known as giving someone a solar flare.
“Ignore her,” Leona told Lily.
“I’m trying,” she said. “I really am.” Lily looked down at her glittering gold outfit: lamé leggings and a sequined tank, plus shiny gold patent-leather lace-up ankle boots. Next she smiled at Leona’s ensemble, a mirror image of her own. “I still don’t know where you got these awesome costumes,” she said.
“Oh, you know.” Leona shrugged. Naturally, she had used her Wishworld Outfit Selector, but she had to keep that to herself. “They are pretty stellar, aren’t they! But hey! We’re stars! What else would we wear?”
Onstage, Make-a-Move was making moves, each member at a slightly different speed. Their smiles, however, were huge, and their ponytails swung impressively.
“So they’ve really won the past two years?” said Leona.
Lily nodded. “Mm-hmm.”
Just then, Hannah, the girl with the lifelike doll, walked up beside them. She held her partner, Dolly, in her arms. “Wow! You two look like real rock stars!” she told Leona and Lily while Dolly checked them out.
“We try,” Leona told her. Lily blushed. At the same time, the music ended and the crowd broke into cheers.
“Oh, I hope they don’t win again,” muttered Hannah as the dancers bowed and high-fived off the stage.
No one else congratulated them. A few girls rolled their eyes. Dolly whispered something into Hannah’s ear that made her eyes grow wide.
“Really, Dolly! I can’t believe you would say that! That’s so rude!” Hannah laughed.
If Make-a-Move cared, though, they didn’t show it.
“Who wants to quit right now?” Talia said.
Fortunately for everyone, Ms. Frasier soon appeared and herded the act out the stage door. “Girls,” she announced, “after you’ve performed, please go out and join the audience so it’s not so crowded back here. Next up, Hannah and Dolly!”
“Ee’re ready!” Dolly declared.
Leona surveyed the other performers backstage, all waiting their turns to go on. There were a few other dancers, including one with shiny black shoes that clicked whenever the soles tapped the floor.
Several girls with instruments had made the show, as well. Along with the girl with the flugelhorn, there were a pianist and a tall copper-haired girl who blew into a thin silver tube.
Ms. Frasier had been firm about not having nonperformers backstage, so Vega sat in the audience along with the rest of the school. Leona could see her from the edge of the wings, but Vega could not see Leona. Vega looked anxious, wringing her hands in her lap. Leona wished she could run down and tell her to stop. Her mission was bound for success! But no, she was going on soon and had to save her voice. She needed to focus on her performance! Wait…that sounded wrong.
Leona tightly squeezed her eyes closed, trying to unscramble her tangled thoughts.
Aha. She knew what she needed.
“I’ll be right back,” she told Lily, dashing off to find some privacy.
“Wait! Don’t leave me!” Lily said. She followed Leona to a quiet corner backstage.
Leona closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let everything else melt away. “You are a star. Light up the world,” she murmured three times purposefully.
“What did you say?” asked Lily.
Leona turned to Lily. “It’s just something I say sometimes that helps me…you know…find myself.”
“How does it go exactly?” asked Lily.
“Like this: ‘You are a star. Light up the world.’” She touched Lily’s arm. “Try it. Go on. It really works.”
Lily did.
“How do you feel?”
“I feel…better.” Lily’s chin rose a little higher. Her shoulders seemed to relax. “I can do this!” she said, smiling at herself.
Leona also felt better, though not quite the way she’d planned.
“Lily! Leona!” Ms. Frasier motioned from the edge of the stage. By that time, half a dozen more acts had gone on and come off. “Places, please. Charlotte is almost done, and you two are on next.”
“Ready?” said Leona. She linked her arm with Lily’s in the Starling way.
“Ready!”
“Then let’s get out there and sing! I—I mean we—I mean you, most of all, are so winning first place! Get ready for your dream to come true!”
That brought a smile from Lily. “Oh I don’t care if we win. Do you? I’m just happy to be doing this at all. When we met, I was just wishing to have the courage not to chicken out the way I did last year. I’d love to show my sister that I can do it, you know, and maybe make her a little proud of me for once.”
Leona stared at Lily. Now everything made perfect sense. She knew what she had to do.
The shiny-shoed dancer
tap-a-tapped off, waving her top hat and cane. Ms. Frasier returned to the stage with two microphone stands.
“Thank you, Charlotte! Now, please welcome your next performers, Lily and Leona!”
Leona stepped in front of one mic while Lily took the other one. Leona drank in the round of applause like it was a tall, cold glass of lemonade.
She smiled down at Vega and even waved, hoping to get her to smile back. At the same time, she tried to ignore Talia and her friends. Unfortunately, they were working way too hard at making themselves impossible to miss. Rather than clapping, they were giggling and whispering loud enough for everyone to hear. It was all Leona could do not to use her energy and shut them up with a flick of her wrist. They were lucky she kept her hands clenched around the microphone instead.
“Thank you! Thank you, everyone! Really, you’re too kind! Hey, how about a round of applause for our real star of the night, Ms. Frasier. After all, without her, none of us would even be here. Am I right?”
Leona led the crowd in another round of applause, to the teacher’s delight. Then she took a deep breath and leaned back over the mic to add one more thing.
“Now, I know the program lists our next act as a duet…but the truth is I’m not out here to perform. I’m just here to introduce my friend Lily, who’ll be singing a solo for you all.”
A collective gasp rose from the crowd as Leona stepped away. The loudest gasp by far, though, came from Lily, who spun toward Leona in disbelief.
“I can’t!” she mouthed.
“Yes, you can,” Leona mouthed back. And she had to, Leona knew. Vega was right. For Lily’s true wish to be granted, she had to prove to herself that she had the courage to get up there and sing alone. Leona had gotten much too carried away with the idea of singing along with her. But there would be plenty of time for performing back on Starland. This was the time for Lily, and Lily alone, to shine in the starlight.
Leona gazed deep into Lily’s eyes. “You are a star. Light up the world,” she murmured, pointing to her own heart.
Lily bit down on her lip and slowly nodded. She stepped closer to the mic. At that moment, something happened. Lily changed, like the sky when the sun breaks through the clouds. And it took place so quickly that Leona wasn’t even ready for the fountain of wish energy that gushed out.
It poured out at her in a blindingly brilliant arc—blindingly brilliant, that is, to Leona and Vega. The roomful of Wishlings had no idea. All they were aware of was Lily standing in the spotlight, getting ready to sing for them.
“So sing already!” someone hollered in a shrill voice.
“We’re waiting!” someone else howled.
Leona tore her eyes from the flow of wish energy to scan the audience for the source. She knew, of course, who it was before she found them: Talia and her cohorts.
Leona turned back to Lily, whose face had frozen. Her wish energy flow had all but stopped. Leona knew she should be worried about her mission’s success then, but all she could think about was her Wisher and her Wisher’s feelings, and how she could make those bullies stop. She was just about to raise her hands and use energy to dump water on them when someone else jumped up.
“Hey! That’s my sister! And she’ll sing when she’s ready. Show a little respect. You can do it, Lily!” called her sister. “Take all the time you like.”
“Yeah!” others yelled, and a chorus of agreement rose around her, followed by a round of supportive applause. Lily’s eyes, meanwhile, filled with clear, happy Wishling tears as she and her sister shared a smile.
ZOOWWWWWHOOOSHHHHH!
If Leona had been slow to capture the first surge of wish energy, she nearly missed the next as it burst toward her like a tidal wave in a whole new, even more spectacular rainbow. It was simply startacular.
“Moon and stars! That was starmendous, Leona! Truly!” Vega gushed. She punctuated her compliment with a warm, impulsive hug.
“Star salutations,” said Leona. “Especially for opening my eyes.”
They stood in a corner of the lobby, where everyone had gathered after the show. Everyone, that is, but Make-a-Move, whose members had stormed off as soon as the judges’ votes were tallied and Ms. Frasier announced the results. Talia and her friends had not won first place, which surprised nobody but them. That award had gone to Lily, whose performance had earned the sole standing ovation of the night. Nor had they won second. That had gone to the pianist. Dolly and Hannah had come away with third. Make-a-Move had earned something else, however; they had been disqualified—“for behavior unbecoming to students of Havisham Academy, or anywhere else,” Ms. Frasier had announced.
“Oh, you would have figured out what to do on your own, I bet,” Vega told Leona. “But I’m glad that I could help.”
“I don’t know if I would have.” Leona sighed. “I got pretty excited about singing up there. Even when I realized what helping Lily’s wish come true really meant, it was hard to step out of the starlight and let her shine, alone. It would have been so startastic to sing with her, up onstage on Wishworld….It would have been the chance of a lifetime.”
“Well, clearly you’re meant to be a Star Darling, thinking about others and not yourself. I just hope that when it’s my turn, I do half as well. Literally!” said Vega. “You captured two wishes’ worth of energy!”
Leona rubbed her Wish Pendant proudly while Vega pulled her Star-Zap out. “So, should we head back?”
Leona held back. “Now?”
Her eyes skimmed past Vega to Lily, who stood at the other end of the room. She looked thrilled but overwhelmed by the throng of classmates surrounding her.
Their eyes met and Lily’s hand shot up in a swift “I need you” wave.
“We can’t go yet,” Leona told Vega. “I haven’t even said good-bye.”
Good-bye… The word hung in front of Leona like a dark, unexpected cloud. Somehow, this part of a mission had never occurred to her before. She’d been too busy, she supposed. And now that the time had come, she wasn’t ready. Not at all.
“Of course,” Vega told her. “Star apologies. You’re absolutely right. But you should hurry.”
“I will!” said Leona. “Wait here. I won’t be long.”
Leona reached Lily and threw her arms around her. “Congratulations! You were so great!”
“Thanks! Ooh!” Lily giggled and shuddered. “Wow, there’s a lot of static in the air these days.”
“Oh, sorry.” Leona let her go. “I knew you could do it!” she went on.
“Well, that makes one of us.” Lily laughed. “When you said I was singing a solo, I honestly thought I was going to faint!”
“Yes…but then you did it! You found the power in yourself to make your dreams come true! And I bet you can’t wait to do it again! Tell me singing up there onstage wasn’t the best feeling you ever had!”
“Actually…” Lily started, but just then, her sister appeared.
The older girl smiled at both Lily and Leona. “You’re new, aren’t you?” she said.
Leona nodded.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. Thanks for being such a good friend to Lily. There aren’t a lot of girls at this school who would have helped her the way you did. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d ever see her get up onstage.”
“Well, it won’t be the last time!” said Leona. “Especially when she knows you have her back.”
“I know, but I’m not always going to be there. I graduate this year. That’s why I keep trying to make Lily stand up for herself. If you don’t,” she told Lily, “who will?”
“I know.” Lily nodded. Then, suddenly, she stood straighter, as if an idea had sparked in her mind. “In fact, I’m going to stand up for myself right now….You owe me a duet!” she declared, turning to Leona. “We can’t let all that rehearsing go to waste. Hey, what if we formed a band!”
“A band? That’s the best idea ev—” Leona started when a tug on her elbow made her stop. She looked down to see Vega staring up at her w
ith wide “are you out of your mind?” eyes.
“What I mean is, you should form a band,” Leona clarified. “You’d be a great lead singer! And every school needs at least one band! But…I don’t think I can start it with you. In fact, it’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Uh…because…well, because…I didn’t want to seem like a show-off, so I didn’t tell you this before…but I actually just signed a recording deal, and I have to go cut an album…tonight.”
“Really?” Lily’s jaw fell open. Her sister’s did the same.
Leona nodded matter-of-factly. “Would I lie about something like that?”
“Tonight?”
“I’m afraid so. At least, that’s what my agent tells me?” She smiled at Vega. “Right…agent? Isn’t that really why you came?”
“Uh…sure,” Vega said slowly.
“You’re her agent?” Lily asked.
Vega shrugged. “I know…it’s crazy, isn’t it?”
“I think it’s awesome!” said Lily. “Wow…Now it’s really too bad we didn’t sing together,” she joked. “I almost sang with a real star.”
Lily’s sister spoke up. “I’d love to hear you. In fact, I bet everyone would.”
Leona felt herself blush, Wishling style, as Vega hooked her arm.
“Too bad we have a flight to catch,” Vega said meaningfully.
“Wait.” Leona held her ground. “Okay. I’ll do it.” She slipped her arm from Vega’s and took hold of Lily’s hands. “Let’s go sing that duet. You talked me into it. But let’s do it out under the stars!” she said. “Have you ever sung there before? Oh, you’ll love it! It’s the best!”
Leona had realized her Wishworld good-bye would be hard, but it was even worse than she had feared. She probably would never get to see Lily again. Not in person, at least. There was always the chance, Leona supposed, of catching a glimpse of her from the Wishworld Observatory. But with seven billion Wishlings on Wishworld, the odds were atom-slim. Still, Leona swore to herself she would try and try and try until she did. Lily was sure to do something great with her talent on Wishworld, and Leona was not going to miss it.
