Leona''s Unlucky Mission (11 page)

“To watch?” The woman looked up. Her face was still calm and sweet and stiff. “That's okay, of course. I was just on my way in myself. I'm Ms. Frasier, the music director. I'm in charge of the auditions.” She shifted her clipboard and held out her hand.

“Really? Nice to meet you!” Leona shook it heartily. “Here!” She ran to the doors to the auditorium. “Let me get the door for you, Ms. Frasier. With my hands, of course!”

Once they were inside, it all made sense to Leona.
Now, this is more like it!
she thought.

Her gaze moved down the aisle, along the rows of seats, and up onto the empty stage. No, it wasn't star-shaped, and the curtains, unfortunately, were rust-colored, with no neon twinkle at all. Still, it was all Leona could do not to run up there, grab the mic, and belt out a rocking song.

But no, this was not the time. She had to remind herself of that twice. With luck, that would come soon enough, but Leona still had to find her Wisher. Then would come the hardest part of all: identifying the Wisher's wish.

She dragged her eyes from the stage and began to scan the auditioners. She saw Ms. Frasier doing the same.

“Okay, people! Let's do this!” the music teacher shouted as she marched down the aisle toward the first row of seats. “We have a long list of auditions to get through here, so I want you ready when I call your name!”

Leona quickly counted. There were forty-eight girls in the auditorium, most scattered among the seats. Two sat at the end of the row right next to her. She decided to start with them.

“Hi,” she said.

The first girl turned. It looked like she held a small child on her lap. A strange, tiny little kid.

The friend turned also, stiffly. “Hi, hello there!” she declared.

Leona jumped back.

“Oh, my stars!” she gasped.

The first girl dissolved into laughter while her small friend stared off into space.

“What?” said Leona. “What's so funny?”

“Nothing,” said the girl, laughing. She covered her mouth with her free hand. “It's just that you look really startled by Dolly. Like you thought she was a real girl.”

Leona didn't know what to say. She did know that her Wish Pendant did not show this was her Wisher, so she smiled and slowly backed away.

“Excuse us, we're trying to rehearse here,” said a sharp voice, which made Leona spin around.

“Oh, sorry!” She smiled at the three girls. “What's your talent?” she inquired.

They all looked at her and then at each other's matching shorts and leotards.

“Dance,” one said, swinging her hip to meet her hand.

Another nodded. “Jazz.”

“Wait, Talia, I thought it was modern,” the third one said, frowning.

“Whatever, Adeline.” The first girl, Talia, rolled her eyes back to Leona and lifted one cheek in a half grin. “What's
your
talent?” she asked. “Staring? Good one, right, Kasey?”

“Ha!” Kasey laughed.

“Can you do that as a talent?” asked Adeline.

“It was a joke,” explained Talia. She was their leader, Leona guessed.

Leona wondered if maybe these girls didn't want to be mean and wished they weren't that way. She checked her Wish Pendant, but it was barely glowing. None of the girls was her Wisher. Too bad. That would have been such a great wish to grant, helping one of them change into a better person.

“First up! Make-a-Move!”

“Omigosh, Talia! We're first!” Kasey squealed.

“First?” Adeline blanched.

“First is good!” Talia declared. “Then we can get out of here and eat, and we don't have to sit through all these weirdos, like Hannah and her creepy dummy.”

She nodded toward the girl with the little stiff friend as she said that. The other girls giggled behind their hands.

“Come on, let's go!” Talia went on, dragging her dance mates down the aisle.

“Good luck,” Leona told them.

“Thanks,” Adeline said.

Talia tossed her ponytail. “Who needs luck when you have talent? But yeah…” She snorted. “Thanks, lemonhead.”

Leona watched them head toward the stage, wishing she could take her “good luck” back. She had no idea what a lemonhead was, but it sure didn't sound like a compliment. Still, she couldn't take things on Wishworld personally. She had to remind herself of that. She was there on a mission, and it was way too important to let silly names distract her from that.

And besides, she thought, she had more talent in her little finger than those three Make-a-Moves combined.

Anyway…
Leona sighed and turned at a sound behind her. A girl stood in the back of the theater, blinking nervously, looking as if she was afraid the auditorium would swallow her. Leona walked up to the girl, and feeling her wrist tingle, she looked down at her Wish Pendant. She was nearly blinded by its glow.

“Hi. My name's Leona. What's yours?”

“Er…Lily,” the girl said, then gulped. She stared at the floor.

“Lily!” Leona nodded. “That's a pretty name! So…Lily…are you here to try out for this thing?”

Her head still down, the girl nodded.

Awesome!
Leona thought. There was only one wish this Wisher could have: to win this talent show!

“So what's your talent?” she asked the girl. “Or should I say
which
talent do you want to perform?”

The girl took a long, deep breath and held it. “Singing,” she said, exhaling at last.

“Really?” Leona could hardly contain her excitement. This was going to be the best mission ever! How lucky could a Star Darling get?

Meanwhile, music had started and so had Make-a-Move's routine. Leona didn't see too much talent in their dancing, yet she couldn't tear her eyes away. They did what they did with such self-confidence—just like Leona, in a way.

Even Lily looked up and watched them as most of the audience started to clap. Their dance involved a lot of rolling hips and stomping feet and crossing arms and pumping fists, along with a good bit of running in place and making fierce faces that featured curled lips.

“Wow,” said Leona as the dancers finally dropped to their knees at the end. “They know how to get your attention. You have to admit that, I guess.”

Onstage, the girls hugged and high-fived. Then they linked arms and took a bow. This was followed by another bow, and another—

“Okay, thank you, Make-a-Move,” Ms. Frasier shouted. “Really, thank you. But let's keep it moving. We've got a long list here. Okay…who's next? Let's see….Lily.
Lily!
” she shouted. “It's your turn!”

“Hey, that's you!” exclaimed Leona. She turned back to cheer on her Wisher, only to find that her Wisher was gone. “Wait! Lily!” she called to the closing door. “You can't go now! It's your turn!”

She slipped through the door, too, and caught Lily in the lobby, just about to go outside. “Lily! Ms. Frasier just called your name! You're up! It's your turn to get up there and shine!”

But Lily just stood there, her head shaking back and forth, her mouth clamped firmly shut. It took Leona a starsec to finally realize that her Wisher had stage fright.

Just then, Make-a-Move burst out of the theater and into the lobby.

“Omigosh!
Lily Fisher!
” Talia covered her mouth. “Are
you
the Lily Ms. Frasier's calling? Please tell me you're not really going to try out.”

“Of course she's trying out!” declared Leona. No one was talking to her Wisher that way! “You tried out,” she reminded Talia, “so why shouldn't she?”

“Uh, yeah,” Talia said, “and we have
talent
. And since this is a talent show, that's kind of something that you need.”

She laughed, and so did Kasey. Adeline, however, shrugged.

“I don't know,” she said. “Haven't you heard her sing in chorus? If I were her, I might try out. She's really pretty good.”

At this, both Talia and Kasey turned to their friend and glared.

Lily, though, didn't seem to hear her. She'd already opened the door to the quad and was halfway through it.

Leona brushed past the dance group to follow her, scowling at Talia as she did. “Just so you know, your routine was fine, but you were totally off beat.” She was so mad she nearly forgot to open the doors like a Wishling
again
. They were already starting to open by the time she remembered and lifted her hands.

Leona ran outside and spotted Lily heading down a brick path toward a building just beyond the quad.

“Hey!” she panted, catching up. “Don't listen to them. I'm sure you can sing! Let's go back so we—I mean
you
; of course, I mean you—so
you
can try out. Come on!”

Lily slowed down but kept walking, her eyes fixed on the ground. “I'm not trying out,” she said softly.

“But…but I thought…I thought you wanted to,” Leona said, confused.

Lily shook her head. “No,” she said very definitely. “I was just kidding when I said that. I never really wanted to. It was a joke, signing up. I don't belong in any talent show.” She looked up at last as they reached a long brick building. Solemnly, she opened the door. “After you,” she told Leona, forcing a smile and waving Leona past her.

“What's this place?” asked Leona. Her nose twitched at the rush of new smells. They were heavy and strange and thick.

Lily looked at her oddly. “It's the dining hall.”

“Really?” Leona looked around.
Ah, yes, of course.
She spotted the line of girls taking trays and sliding them down a silver track, past a line of older Wishlings in paper aprons and gauzy hairnets.

“So, what, are you new here?” asked Lily, gazing more closely at her.

“Um…yes.” Leona quickly nodded. “In fact, I just got here today.”

“Are you a sophomore, too?”

“Um…sure.” Leona could be a sophomore, she guessed—whatever a sophomore was.

“Well, the food's pretty good. Except for the meat loaf,” said Lily. “Here, take a tray. And there's always the salad bar, and pasta and stuff like that. And we just got a frozen yogurt machine, but it keeps breaking, I'm afraid.”

“Oh? That's too bad….” A thought suddenly popped into Leona's head. “I bet you wish it would get fixed.”

Lily shrugged. “Yeah, I guess….But I'm lactose intolerant, so I don't care that much, I guess.”

She seemed to care, however, because her face suddenly went pale. She'd been looking at Leona, but her eyes had shifted to something in the distance, past Leona. Leona turned and saw an older girl approaching, shaking her head.

“So.” The girl crossed her arms. “Guess what I just heard.”

Lily sucked in her lips. Her ears and neck flushed.

“You bailed on the talent show tryouts. Why are you always such a wimp?”

Lily's mouth fell open, but nothing came out except a meek breath.

“Excuse me!” huffed Leona, but the older girl was already walking away. “Honestly!” said Leona. “Who does that girl think she is?”

Lily swallowed, sniffed, and found her voice. “She's my big sister,” she explained.

Leona was speechless
—for a starsec. But a starsec was all it took for Lily to drop her tray back on the pile and flee the dining hall.

Leona was tempted to follow her again, but she wasn't sure that she should. She had a limited amount of time to help grant Lily's wish, yet what did Professor Eugenia Bright always say? “Haste makes waste.”
Think things through before you act,
in other words.

Plus, Leona's stomach was growling. Better to see what this Wishworld cafeteria had to offer, she thought, and restore her energy. One thing was for sure, though: she'd be eating by herself. She knew there were plenty of nice Wishlings on Wishworld—or so other Starlings had said—but the girls at Havisham Academy so far seemed pretty unpleasant.

Leona pushed her tray—with her hands—through the line briskly, taking a little bit of everything. Everything, that is, but the stuff labeled “meat loaf,” as Lily had warned her. When she saw it, it was easy to skip. She saw the wedges labeled
pizza
and remembered what Libby had said about it—delicious! She took two.

“Wow, you must be hungry,” said someone behind her.

Leona closed her eyes and sighed.
Starf,
she thought. Just what she needed. Yet another Wishling giving her a hard time.

She glanced over her shoulder to see the smiling face of one of the girls who'd almost run into her when she'd first arrived. “But you skipped the meat loaf. Smart. I see you got a uniform.”

Leona nodded.

“Cool! Welcome! My name's Calley. Want to sit with us?” She pointed to some girls already sitting at a table nearby. Two were the other girls she'd met in the courtyard. They all waved back and smiled.