Cassie Comes Through (8 page)

“Well, it was certainly a sur—” she finally started.

“I think it's simply wonderful!” MO-J4 exclaimed. “Now the group can get back together and you can win the Battle of the Bands on Starshine Day. Beat that Vivica, just like she deserves!”

“All right, see you later, MO-Jay,” she said. They had reached the Celestial Café. The light was shining above the door. Breakfast was ready to be served and another day was about to unfold.

Sage smiled at Cassie. “And our starday begins,” she said. “Hope it's a good one.”

Cassie tapped her elbows together three times for luck. She herself was hoping for a day filled with more clues. Something strange was going on at Starling Academy; she was almost sure of it. She just needed some tangible proof.

“How many times
do I have to tell you?” Clover scolded her roommate. “No star balls at the breakfast table!” She rolled her eyes, turning to the rest of the Star Darlings sitting around the table as if she was an exasperated teacher and Astra a naughty Wee Constellation School student. “She throws that thing around all day long. It never stops. It's driving me crazy! I wake up in the middle of the night and there she is, tossing that ball!”

“I told you, Coach Geeta said we have to practice as much as we can to prepare for the big game,” retorted Astra, her flaming red hair pulled into two braids. Two matching glittery spots appeared on her cheeks. Cassie knew Astra well enough to know that meant she was getting angry.

“I'm sure she didn't mean in the Celestial Café!” Clover practically shouted. The rest of the Star Darlings looked at each other uncomfortably. The usually fun-loving Clover was being very rigid, and Astra was being way more stubborn than usual. It wasn't enjoyable to watch the two butt heads so forcefully. Cassie held her breath as Astra grinned wickedly and tossed the shining orb into the air again, her hands poised to catch it. She made the ball hover in the air over the table for a moment, showing off the skills that made her Starling Academy's most talented star ball player. Just then a Bot-Bot waiter zoomed in with a breakfast tray.

“Yum!” said Astra, distracted for a moment. “Am I hungry! I had quite a workout this morning!” And Cassie watched in shock as the shining orb crashed down, faster than she thought possible. “Oh, my stars!” said the Bot-Bot in dismay as it hit his tray with a loud smack, sending stacks of steaming starcakes and glasses of glorange juice flying onto the table.

The girls stared at the scattered starcakes and the puddles of glowing glorange juice on the fancy tablecloth. Tessa, who hated to see any food go to waste, quickly snatched up a starcake and took a bite out of one of its perfect five points. Clover looked furious. The rest of the girls exchanged glances. They knew Clover was overreacting, since the mess immediately disappeared, as messes always did on Starland. “Pardon me,” said the Bot-Bot apologetically as he neatly stacked the plates and zoomed back to the kitchen for a replacement breakfast tray. Cassie nudged Vega's leg under the table. But the girl didn't react. Cassie did it again.

“Did you just kick me?” Astra scowled across the table at Clover.

Oops,
thought Cassie.

“No, I didn't!” Clover retorted. “But maybe I should!”

The two girls glared at each other. Cassie noticed that although both their mouths were set in grim lines, there were matching looks of confusion in their eyes. It was as if they couldn't understand why they were so angry at each other, and they weren't very happy about it, either.

That's it,
thought Cassie. If there had been any question in her mind about the negative effect of the vases of flowers, it had just been answered. Everyone else was getting along well (with the exception of Leona and Scarlet, who would probably never get along under any circumstances, but that was another story). She, Vega, and Scarlet had to come up with a plan to dispose of the flowers—that starday.

The rest of breakfast went by without incident, and Cassie leapt up from the table as soon as she took her last bite of astromuffin. She hurried out of the cafeteria, excited to get to her first class of the day—Intro to Wish Identification. Never slowing her pace, she hopped onto the Cosmic Transporter that looped through campus, and she jumped off at Halo Hall. She bounded up the steps and through the large imposing doors, which dwarfed her tiny figure. Although Cassie's secret Star Darlings lessons had placed her far beyond the rest of the first-year class, and she often found boring the introductory lessons she had to attend to keep up her cover, she was really looking forward to that day's class. They were going to attempt wish identification on a Starlandian creature. Cassie tapped her elbows together three times for luck, hoping they'd be studying a glion or a galliope, or maybe even a twinkelope. She would love to hear its trumpeting call in person. Being up close with any one of those majestic creatures would really be a thrill, as would trying to figure out what its wish could possibly be. She quickened her pace down the starmarble hallway, toward the wish stellation. She didn't want to be late.

“Cassie, wait up!”

Now what?
thought Cassie as she abruptly stopped, the soles of her silvery ankle boots squeaking on the floor. She turned around impatiently. But her scowl disappeared. To her starprise, it was Leona pushing through the crowd of students to get to her side.
Imagine that.

“I need to catch my breath!” Leona gasped, putting her sparkly golden hand to her sparkly golden throat. “You practically ran right out of the Celestial Café. I've been chasing you ever since!”

“You look really glowful,” said Cassie appreciatively, taking in the girl's aura. Leona had been looking decidedly unglimmery ever since her failed mission. That had concerned all the Star Darlings, since Leona was naturally extra golden to begin with.

“Star salutations,” said Leona, holding out a sparkly arm and admiring it. “I'm starting to feel a bit better.”

“I'm glad,” said Cassie, and she really meant it. It felt good to be talking to Leona. Sure, they had been in Star Darlings class together and seated at the Star Darlings' table at the dining hall, but this was the first time they were talking one-on-one since their argument about Ophelia.

That she and Leona, so different at first glance—very nearly opposites, in fact—had become such fast friends had starprised her. Cassie had initially felt intimidated by the bold, brash third year, never in a moonium staryears dreaming that the two would have anything in common—or that she would actually enjoy spending time with a girl who seemed always on the lookout for an admiring audience. Cassie had assumed that Leona would be exhausting to be around, but the truth was that Leona's zest for life energized and inspired her. And she learned that Leona had a kind and generous side that was easy to overlook at first glance.

Their unlikely friendship had begun one evening on the way back from dinner shortly after school had started. The Star Darlings were on the Cosmic Transporter heading back to their dormitories. Cassie recalled that Leona was singing a song about the beauty of lightfall, her arms thrown out and her eyes closed. Cassie thought that the girl looked more luminous than anyone else, her golden hair a brilliant halo around her radiant face. She was shocked when Leona had impulsively grabbed her hand at the end of the song. “We're going to the roof,” Leona had announced, and before Cassie could argue, she had whisked her into the upperclassman dormitory and up onto the roof deck. Cassie, who had thought she preferred always being in the background, was surprised to discover she enjoyed being in the golden spotlight of Leona's attention. The two girls had lain on lounge chairs well into the night, staring at the magnificently star-studded sky, squealing when they spotted a shooting star. They pointed out constellations to each other, and when they ran out of names, they made some up. Leona told Cassie all about her family, about how she loved them fiercely but sometimes felt held back by their limited view of the world. And Leona had been the first person at Starling Academy who Cassie had told about her parents, tentatively pointing out their stars, which winked at her as they always did. Leona had known that no words were required at that moment, just a warm hand to hold as they sat in silence and stared into the heavens. The two didn't realize how late it was until they saw how the stars had completely shifted across the sky. Cassie had had to sneak back into her dorm long after lights-out. In fact, she had felt a little thrill of naughtiness when she'd placed her hand on her room's palm scanner and the Bot-Bot voice had said, “Good evening, Cassie,” in what she was certain was a disapproving tone.

But her friendship with Leona had practically ground to a halt after the Starling's disastrous mission. While Cassie understood how disappointed Leona was when it was discovered that she had not collected any wish energy, she was surprised when Leona had completely shut down and frozen her out. Instead Leona had chosen to spend time with her new roommate, and Scarlet's replacement as a Star Darling, Ophelia. And once Cassie had started asking questions about Ophelia—who, everyone agreed, didn't seem to be Star Darlings material at all—Leona had taken great offense. They had pretty much avoided being alone together ever since.

Sure, Cassie felt a slight glimmer of resentment that Leona had dropped her friendship so abruptly, but her delight in seeing her friend looking so much better won out. Leona gave her a blinding megawatt smile and Cassie grinned right back. All right, maybe Leona's smile wasn't
quite
as intense as it had been before all her mission troubles, but it was still pretty dazzling.

Leona slipped her arm through Cassie's. She leaned down as if to tell Cassie a secret. “So can you believe it?” she whispered, her breath tickling Cassie's ear. “You know they moved Ophelia into the Little Dipper Dormitory. Not only did I lose the sweetest roommate ever, but I'm sharing a room with weird old Scarlet again.”

“Poor you,” said Cassie, feeling a stab of guilt. She was fond of Scarlet—or as fond as anyone could be of the secretive and somewhat strange girl. But her pleasure at being back in Leona's good graces outweighed her loyalty to Scarlet.

“All that black!” Leona groaned. “And the constant skateboarding messing up my beauty sleep. And remember, she plays the
drums
and she always forgets to turn on the muting switch. And her weird stuff lying around. Globerbeem cases and old meepletile skins. Ugh.” She shuddered with distaste. “Imagine what new oddities she's collected since I've seen her last.” She sighed and made a sad face. “And what's going to happen to Ophelia? She may not be a Star Darling, but she's such a sweet Starling.” She gave Cassie a sidelong glance and her eyes widened. “You know something? She's an orphan, too! But she has no one at all, not like you with your famous uncle to take care of you. As a matter of fact, she grew up in an orphanage in Starland City. She hadn't made any friends in Starling Academy until she met me. And now she's all alone again.”

“Oh,” said Cassie. She hadn't known that about Ophelia. She had been so focused on the wrongness of Ophelia's being a Star Darling that it hadn't occurred to her to think about the girl's feelings. Now all Cassie felt was sympathy for her. No one but a fellow orphan could understand the unspeakable pain of losing both of your parents at a young age. Of feeling so achingly alone, like you belonged to no one, adrift in a world that was suddenly empty and terribly frightening. And the devastating realization that life would never, ever be the same. For a girl who was searching for a place to fit in, being offered the chance to be a part of a secret group and then having it suddenly taken away must have been devastating.

Cassie swallowed hard. “I…I…I'll keep an eye out for her,” she heard herself say.

“And you'll talk to her, see how she's doing?” Leona pressed.

Cassie nodded. “I will. Cross my stars and hope to shine.”

“Star salutations,” said Leona. “I'm worried about her. I really am.”

Cassie nodded. “Well, here's my classroom,” she said. She unlinked her arm from Leona's and impulsively gave her a quick hug. She tried to step back, but Leona held on for a moment longer than Cassie was expecting.

Leona had missed her. And that was a pretty nice thing to realize.