Scarlet Discovers True Strength (13 page)

She was as sure as a sundial the bracelet would be glowing like a fiery flare. But no…the star-shaped jewels on the bracelet were as lifeless as they had been before.

“I thought we'd found her. Didn't you?” Scarlet looked over her shoulder at the tall girl, still so close to them, watching her friends' bus pull away.

“Maybe she is my Wisher,” said Ophelia. “Maybe, just like my Star-Zap, my Wish Pendant is powerless, too….” She looked down at her wrist in frustration. Then, suddenly, her head bent farther down. “Did you bring a glowworm here with you from Starland?” she asked, pointing toward the ground.

“What?”

“You're glowing. There, on your ankle. Under your…what do you call those again?”

“Jeans,” said Scarlet, distracted, as she followed Ophelia's eyes. Her ankle
was
glowing…even through the heavy pants!

She yanked up her cuff to discover the hot-pink star-buckles on her own Wish Pendant boots shining like quasars on her feet.

She looked up at Ophelia. “It's not a glowworm, it's my Wish Pendant.”

Ophelia's eyes were as round as moons. “Why is
your
Wish Pendant glowing?”

“Don't ask
me
!
How should I know?
”

The next thing
Scarlet knew, her Wish Pendant faded from twinkling star to flat pink stone.

“What happened?” gasped Ophelia.

“I don't know….” Could it have been some sort of false alarm? Then she looked up to see the tall girl had moved and was walking down the street. The Wisher just wasn't close. That was how Wish Pendants behaved.

“Come on. You've got to catch her!” Scarlet snapped at Ophelia as she hurried to follow the girl.

“Star greetings, Wishling.”

The tall girl stopped midstride on the chalky gray sidewalk. “Excuse me?” she said, slowly turning, with a stiff note of dread in her voice.

Ophelia, who'd offered the greeting, covered her mouth with one hand. “Sorry! Forgot!” she whispered to Scarlet.

“Hi.”
Scarlet looked back up and smiled at the Wishling. “Sorry.” She pointed her thumb toward Ophelia. “My friend here thinks she's so funny when she says weird things like that.”

The girl's eyes skipped back and forth between Scarlet and Ophelia. “Sorry, but do I know you? Do you go to this school?”

“No,” said Ophelia innocently before Scarlet could stop her.

Scarlet smiled as she gritted her teeth. Had they been on Starland, sparks would have been shooting straight out of her ears.

“What she means is no, this isn't our regular school,” Scarlet explained hurriedly. “But
temporarily
, yes, we go here.” She checked to make sure Ophelia was listening carefully. “We're
exchange
students, you see.”

“Really? That's so cool. Where are you from?” the girl asked.

“Where are we from?”
Good question
, thought Scarlet as her mind suddenly went blank. She tried to remember some of the names of places she'd learned in Wishworld Relations, names she'd imagined using on missions just like this hydrongs and hydrong of times….

“Orion!” Ophelia blurted, lifting her chin and looking proud.

“Orion? Where is that?” asked the girl.

“It's just up there in the—”

Scarlet pulled Ophelia's arm down from above her head and put her other hand over Ophelia's startled mouth. “Did you think she said
Orion
? She said
Ohio
!” Scarlet laughed.

“Oh.” The girl nodded, then grinned with a friendly shrug. “Well, welcome to Florida, I guess. I'm Arden. Nice to meet you.”

“Hi. I'm Scarlet, and this is Ophelia. Nice to meet you, too,” Scarlet replied before Ophelia could speak. She wasn't quite sure how Ophelia would have answered that introduction. She only knew somehow it would have been wrong.

“If you like, I could show you around,” Arden offered.

“Really? That would be startastic!” exclaimed Ophelia.

Scarlet swallowed a groan and closed her eyes.

“Would you excuse us for just a minute?” Scarlet asked the girl, who shrugged.

Scarlet dragged Ophelia away from Arden by her backpack. “Ophelia!” she muttered. “You have to stop saying things like ‘startastic' and ‘star greetings.' Those are Starland phrases. Wishlings say things like ‘awesome' and ‘sick.' It's one of the first things we learned. Remember? Back in Wishers 101. What have you been learning at Starling Academy, anyway?”

“Star apologies…” mumbled Ophelia. “I guess I just forgot.”

“Well, start remembering!” hissed Scarlet. “Or better yet, don't say anything else. Just let me do the talking. Okay? You worry about focusing all your energy on granting Arden's wish.” She quickly checked her Star-Zap. “This clock is counting down very fast!”

“Yes. Okay.” Ophelia nodded, and Scarlet hoped she understood. Scarlet wasn't sure how she'd gone from thinking it might be all right if Ophelia failed to being determined to see her succeed. It was almost as if she had no choice but to make the mission work.

“Is everything okay?” Arden asked when Scarlet and Ophelia returned.

“Everything is great.”

“So, what do you think? Do you want to hang out? Do you want me to show you around? What haven't you seen yet?” asked Arden. “I know it's a pretty small town, but we have a really nice park. It's kind of famous for its butterfly attraction…er, um…but we can skip that part. It's not really all that great.”

“Thanks,” said Scarlet. “That sounds really nice. Really, it does. But…”

“But what?” Arden asked.

Scarlet tried to assume the expression she'd seen the other girls give Arden before—the one that seemed to say, “I feel so sorry for you, poor girl.”

“You probably have to go straight home,” said Scarlet.

“No,” said Arden. “Not really.” She smiled and shook her head. “I mean, I have to go home eventually, but later on—by dinnertime—not, like, right away.”

Scarlet was confused and could tell that her face showed it. “Are you
sure
? I'd hate for you to get in trouble with your stepmother.”

“How did you know I have a stepmother?”

“Er…I guessed, I guess?”

“Wow. Good guess,” said Arden, who looked surprised but not upset.

“You probably wish you didn't have one,” Scarlet went on, nodding. “Or at least that she wasn't so mean.” She snuck a wink at Ophelia, then watched as Arden's expression slowly changed.

“No, my stepmother's great. She's not at all mean. In fact—don't tell my mom this—but she's nicer than her sometimes.”

Now it was Scarlet's turn to flip expressions. “But doesn't she make you stay home? And do all the chores? You know, and work all day and night?”

Arden's nose wrinkled and she started to giggle. “What are you talking about?” She looked down at her red ruffled skirt and sleeveless yellow tee. “Do I look like Cinderella? The only chores my stepmom makes me do are the dishes, sometimes, and make my bed…not that I ever do.”

“But…”

Arden waited for Scarlet to finish, but Scarlet wasn't sure how to go on. Why had this Wishling told those others that she had a mean stepmother if she didn't? And most important, what was her wish, then? To have a
mean
stepmother? No, of course not. Why would any Wishling want that?

So then what could it be? Scarlet tried to think. She glanced at Ophelia, who was blank-faced, clearly trying to catch up. She wasn't going to be much help in figuring this out; Scarlet could tell from her frown. Then something else that Scarlet had heard before suddenly popped into her head—something about doctors' appointments….

Of course! That had to be it!

There were no doctors on Starland, of course. There simply was no need. All the positive wish energy on Starland kept Starlings healthy throughout their Cycle of Life, until they began their afterglow. But Scarlet had learned in school about Wishworld doctors and all they did for Wishlings whenever they got sick. She'd also learned about the kinds of wishes that Wishlings often made when doctors couldn't help. Of course, those were impossible wishes, and maybe that was why Ophelia was having so much trouble. But Scarlet was sure they could help her make a more appropriate one.

“You're not well, are you?”

“Excuse me?”

“You're sick. Well, don't worry. We'll find a way…”

“But I'm
not
sick. I'm fine. Really. Why?” the girl asked, touching her cheeks. “Do I look bad or something?”

“No, no. You look good. It's not that,” Scarlet said. What could she say now? If the Wisher wasn't sick and her stepmother wasn't mean, what wishes were left? Had she also said something about a piano recital?

Or
…could it be that she wasn't their Wisher at all?

What a starmendous waste of time!

Scarlet looked down to check her Wish Pendant. It was still glowing…which was odd. But it wasn't like this was
her
mission, so maybe it didn't mean anything.

“Omigosh,” the girl said suddenly, as if a holo-text had just come through. “I get it.” She turned to Ophelia. “You must have heard me talking to Chloe and Sydney.”

Ophelia's cheeks filled like balloons as she worked to keep the words in.

“Yeah,” Arden went on, not needing a reply. “Some of those things I said back there…they weren't exactly true.”

“But
why
?” Ophelia blurted. “It sounded like they needed your help.”

That was actually a good question, Scarlet thought, so that time she let it go.

“Oh…it's complicated,” said Arden. She sighed and looked away.

“They're mean girls,” said Scarlet knowingly. It was a common basis for wishes, unfortunately, but those weren't too hard to grant.

“No,” said Arden. “They're fine. They're really nice and fun. And I want to be their friend. That's why I
wanted
to be in their lab group for this science project.”

“Oh,” Scarlet said, confused. Was this something Wishlings often did, she wondered—fail to make any sense?

“I didn't know they'd want to study butterflies….” As she said that, Arden winced.

“What's wrong with butterflies?” said Scarlet.

“Are you afraid of them?” Ophelia asked.

Scarlet turned to Ophelia and did all she could not to roll her eyes. “Of course she's not afraid of
butterflies
!” she muttered. Could a Starling be more dim?

“I know,” said Arden. “It's ridiculous, isn't it? But I can't help it. Do you know, I can't even look at pictures of butterflies without wanting to throw up? I tried to suggest other topics, but they were so into the idea. And they'd already ordered the caterpillar kit and everything. There was nothing I could say or do. Their minds were totally set.”

“Did you tell them you were scared?” asked Scarlet. That seemed easy enough to do.

Arden nodded. “I tried to. But they thought it was a joke. They just laughed and said stuff like ‘Can you imagine? Afraid of butterflies!'”

“So…they
are
mean,” said Scarlet.

“No, they weren't being mean at all. They thought I was being funny. They thought it had to be a joke.” Arden kicked a rock and sent it bouncing off the curb and into the street. “I guess I could have told them I was serious…except then, instead of laughing at the idea, they would have laughed at me.”

“So what are you going to do?” Scarlet asked. She reached for Ophelia and pulled her near. She could sense a wish a breath away and wanted to make sure Ophelia heard it.

“What I've been doing, I guess: making up excuses to stay away. So I'll get an F on the project and Chloe and Sydney will never talk to me again. But what else
can
I do? I
wish
I wasn't afraid of butterflies…but we all know wishing doesn't help.” She took a few steps away to kick another rock while Scarlet hung back and pumped her fist.

Yes!
she thought as a sharp but not unpleasant jolt ran up and down her spine.

Scarlet turned to wink at Ophelia, but Ophelia's eyes were on the ground.

“Ophelia!” Scarlet nudged her with an elbow. “Your Wisher just voiced her wish! She doesn't want to be afraid of butterflies!” she hissed.

“Really? Oh! Sorry,” Ophelia said. She glanced over her shoulder at Arden. “What do I do now? Oh…and what are butterflies? Are they, like, wings or something you can put on toasted Wishling bread?”