Leona''s Unlucky Mission (8 page)

“Ooh! May I see him?” Ophelia asked. She held her hands out and Leona passed him to her. “Hello, Glionny,” she said, gingerly petting its star-studded mane.

“Glow like you mean it!” the toy purred.

“See?” Leona said. “You must have some special things from home, too…?” Her voice trailed off.

“No…not really.” Ophelia kept her head down.

“Where are you from, anyway?” Leona asked.

“I'm not exactly sure,” said Ophelia. “But I've lived in Starland City for as long as I can remember.”

“Okay, first lesson,” said Leona. “Be proud of who you are—and that includes where you're from! That's one way to stand out. How amazing that you live in Starland City! I'm sure you've had so many incredible adventures. Unlike me—who's from little old Flairfield.” She closed her eyes and pretended to snore. “Not that I'm not proud of it,” she said, her eyes popping open again. “Naturally, I am. But listen to this: can you believe I never once traveled farther than Flairfield Lake until I came here, to Starling Academy? For real! I
know
!” Leona groaned. “It's my parents. Ugh.” She sighed. “They're homebodies.” She rolled her eyes. “What can you do?” She smiled.

“All I can say,” Leona went on, “is thank the lucky stars I got into Starling Academy! Best day of my life—so far. My parents made it
very
clear that if I didn't, it would be Flairfield High for me. Even when I got accepted, they asked me to think about giving up my place and staying home. Can you
imagine
? Pass up this chance? Has any Starling ever even done that before? Never once—I asked. Not that wish granting is my one goal in life, of course. Some Starlings could settle for that, but not me. As you can probably tell, I have lots of other talents.” She nodded toward her stage. “I'm kind of on my way to being a superstar, which is why Starland City is
the
place for me! Still…” Leona picked up a holo-picture from her bedside table and blew each member of her family a kiss. The people in the picture each blew one back. “I do miss my family a lot. Aren't they cute?” She turned the picture so Ophelia could see her two little sisters, her two older brothers, and, in the middle of them all, her mom and dad. “But enough about me, already! I want to know more about
you
!” Leona set the holo-picture down. “What do you like to do for fun?”

“I don't know….”

“Like music?”

“Well, um—”

“Want me to sing for you? Startastic idea!” Leona leapt back onto her stage and stuck a hand out toward a rack of gleaming golden microphones. A large one blinked, rose, and floated to her. Leona grabbed it with both hands. “Let's turn the lights down, shall we?” she said with a nod. Immediately, the room dimmed. At the same time, two gold spotlights blinked on and converged, capturing her in their beams.

“Sit! Please!” Leona nodded toward her beanbag chair, and Ophelia obliged her by plopping down. Still cradling the stuffed glion in her arms, she tilted her chin up and smiled at Leona.

“Here. Want a gamma-chip cluster? My mom made them. They're soooo good!” Leona said, offering her one. “Just watch the flowers, if you would.” She nodded toward a vase of delicate coral-colored blossoms on the crystal table by the chair.

“Oh, they're so pretty. Where did they come from?” asked Ophelia.

“You know, I'm not really sure….They just showed up one day—in all our rooms. It's a Star Darlings thing, we think. Maybe I should move them….I'd hate for you to applaud and knock them over,” she explained. “That's better for now, don't you think?”

The rest of the starday flew by—for Leona at least—as she performed her repertoire in its entirety…plus a few encores for fun. She was frankly stunned when the landscape began to brighten outside her windows as the sun sank behind the Crystal Mountains and the moon began to rise. All of Starland, and Starlings, too, shone brighter in the evening, at lightfall, when the halo of energy surrounding the planet reached its most glorious peak.

Just then, Leona's Star-Zap flashed. Ophelia's did, as well.

“Dinnertime? Already?” Leona let her mic drift back to its place on the stand and nodded the spotlights away. “Star apologies, Ophelia! We hardly talked about you at all! But don't worry! We will. We have plenty of time!” she assured her with a wink.

As Leona's eye reopened, she noticed the flowers sitting in the corner of the room. She walked over and took them, pausing to smell them. It was hard not to; their fragrance was so very sweet. She sighed with pleasure, then turned to give her new roommate a chance to smell them…but changed her mind suddenly.

“Well? Are you ready?” She sent the flowers to her dressing table and crossed her arms over her ribs.

“Um…yes.” Ophelia jumped up from the chair and left Leona's stuffed glion on the seat.

“Hey! Careful!” Leona snapped. “Have a little respect for my things!”

“Star apologies!” said Ophelia. She hurried over to hand Leona her toy.

“Give me an
S
! Give me a
T
! Give me an
A
! Give me an
R
!” the glion roared while Ophelia's wide eyes began to fill with liquid glitter—otherwise known as Starling tears.

Instantly, Leona wished she could take her words back or at least tame them a bit. She sounded…she sounded like Scarlet!
What's wrong with me?
she asked herself.

She took a deep breath, let it out, and tried to find a smile somewhere within. “It's fine,” she finally growled. As she heard herself, she winced. “Let's just go to dinner.”

As they left the room, Ophelia used her wrist to wipe her eye. “I was careless with your things, but I'll be more careful next time.”

“And I guess I was a little hot-tempered,” Leona admitted. “Star apologies. I think I was just hungry….” Leona gulped.
What's wrong with me?
she wondered.

After dinner,
Leona felt much, much better. And because of that, Ophelia did, too. Oddly, though, a delicious meal did not have the same effect on the other Star Darlings, who left the café seeming more irritated than ever before.

Breakfast the next morning wasn't much different, though some arguments had changed.

Sage and Cassie were bickering about holo-books. Cassie was certain that Sage had borrowed her copy of
Once Upon a Starry Night
.

“I didn't borrow it,” Sage said.

“But I saw it in your hands,” Cassie argued, her eyes blazing behind her star-shaped glasses.

“I picked it up, it's true,” Sage admitted. “But it seemed kind of boring, so I put it back on your shelf.”

Cassie's mouth opened in disbelief. “Boring? Are you serious?
Once Upon a Starry Night
is the best book ever. What's wrong with you?”

“What's wrong with
you
?” Sage retorted.

“And what's wrong with
you
?” Libby suddenly said, staring daggers at her roommate, Gemma.

“Who, me?” asked Gemma.

They had their own squabble going, about Gemma's housekeeping skills, which Libby deemed startacularly poor.

“That's what happens from living on a farm—messy seems normal,” said Libby.

“That's not true,” Gemma's older sister, Tessa, said. “We had to be very neat, but Gemma could never get the hang of it.”

Tessa, meanwhile, had her own issues with Adora—specifically over their shared bouquet. Tessa thought the coral flowers looked much more pleasing on her green side of the room and clashed horribly with Adora's blue. Adora found the argument frankly absurd, however, as her holo–color wheel clearly proved.

As they went on and on, Leona turned to Ophelia and rolled her eyes in a weary “Who cares?” arc.

“Oh, my stars,” Leona remarked to Ophelia as they left the table together, arm in arm. “Is it me, or did everyone wake up on the dark side of the moon today?”

“So they aren't always like that?” asked Ophelia.

“Oh, no,” Leona said. “Well…” She rethought that. “Maybe, sort of, lately. But never as bad as today.” She shrugged. “Lucky us, is all I can say. I was actually having the same problem with my old roommate until you took her place.” She gave Ophelia's arm a happy squeeze. “We're like the perfect roommates! It's as if we've known each other forever already, don't you think?”

Ophelia smiled and nodded. “It's a cosmic connection!” Leona continued. “For instance, I used to get mad at Scarlet for moving our flowers around, too. But with you I don't care. We're roommates. We
should
share!”

“What do you mean?” asked Ophelia. “Move what flowers? Where?”

“Our bouquet. You know.” They emerged from the café and into a misty, sparkly rain. Leona closed her eyes and turned her face up, and Ophelia did the same. “Did you know they say that the rain on Wishworld doesn't even
sparkle
?” she asked Ophelia. “And that the lakes there
reflect
light but don't make any of their own?”

“Amazing,” Ophelia said, nodding. “How do they get glitter into their star showers do you think?”

“Beats me.” Leona shrugged, pulled out her Star-Zap, and dialed up an energy bubble umbrella for them both. “Anyway, I don't know where you put the flowers, but it's fine. I don't care,” she went on.

“But I didn't move them,” replied Ophelia.

“You didn't?” Leona turned to her just as the lights throughout the campus shifted spectrum, turning from warm white to rosy pink.

“Time for first period already?” exclaimed Leona. “I guess I better get going to Wish Theory.”

Ophelia was on her way to Wish Energy Manipulation. They arranged to meet up before Star Darlings class.

“I always thought it was strange, you and Tessa and Adora being in that special class,” Ophelia told Leona as they made their way to the soundproof classroom where the secret class was held at the end of each school day. “And the others, too, I guess. You all seemed so smart in all your other classes. I mean, doesn't Adora win the Astro Science Fair every year?”

“So now you know,” said Leona. “Lady Stella just made up that story to help keep our mission confidential. None of us likes it at all.” Leona groaned. “But we're helping Starland, so it's worth it, I suppose.”

Their special Star Darlings lesson that day was about young-Wisher theory and was taught by Professor Illumia Wickes, who led her class by tossing ideas into space to see how far they'd travel and how bright they'd grow.

“Star greetings, Ophelia!” she exclaimed as Ophelia and Leona entered the room. “I heard there had been a Star Darlings replacement, but I had no idea it would be you!” She whipped off her enormous star-shaped rose-tinted glasses and flashed a suprised but welcoming smile.

Her wraparound dress, Leona noticed, displayed a constantly shifting pattern of stars and moons. It would certainly have hypnotized anyone who stared at it too long.

“I see we're all here,” Professor Illumia Wickes said as Leona and Ophelia took their seats and let them adjust to their height and weight, “so let's go ahead and get started. Our starhour always goes so fast! This starday, I want to give you a scenario and ask you what you'd do….Say there's a young Wisher who wishes for a moonium dollars in Wishling currency—”

Libby's glittery arm shot up. “Trick question!” She grinned. “Money wishes fall into the ‘greedy' category, which means we would never be called to grant a wish like that.”

“Ahem. As I was saying,” Professor Illumia Wickes continued, nodding at Libby, who lowered her hand to her lap, “a young Wisher wishes for a moonium dollars in Wishling currency, not for
herself
, but to pay for a new playground for her school, which doesn't have one. Now, tell me: how do you help?”

She gazed around the room as hands rose slowly.

“Yes? Sage?”

“Conjure a treasure? And help the Wisher find it?”

“Treasure…Interesting…” The professor looked around the table again. “Any thoughts?”

Vega frowned and raised her hand.

“Yes, Vega? You don't agree?”

“It wouldn't work,” Vega said.

“Oh? And why not?”

“Any currency or jewels or precious metals we conjured would glow or glitter on Wishworld and give themselves away.”

“Ah, interesting point…” Professor Illumia Wickes said, nodding. “Libby? Yes? Now you may speak.”

“I
still
think it's a trick question,” said Libby.

Gemma turned and asked, “Why?”

“Because as soon as you attach a price to a wish, doesn't it take the purity—and the truly good energy—away?”

“Ah, but does it?” asked Professor Illumia Wickes.

Leona spoke up. “I don't think so. It's the basic reflective property of wishing we learned last week. If the Wisher's heart is pure, then their wish has to be, too.”