Scarlet Discovers True Strength (3 page)

You take a deep
breath, about to blow out the candles on your birthday cake. Clutching a coin in your fist, you get ready to toss it into the dancing waters of a fountain. You stare at your little brother as you each hold an end of a dried wishbone, about to pull. But what do you do first?

You make a wish, of course!

Ever wonder what happens right after you make that wish?
Not much
, you may be thinking.

Well, you'd be wrong.

Because something quite unexpected happens next. Each and every wish that is made becomes a glowing Wish Orb, invisible to the human eye. This undetectable orb zips through the air and into the heavens, on a one-way trip to the brightest star in the sky—a magnificent place called Starland. Starland is inhabited by Starlings, who look a lot like you and me, except they have a sparkly glow to their skin, and glittery hair in unique colors. And they have one more thing: magical powers. The Starlings use these powers to make good wishes come true, for when good wishes are granted, it results in positive energy. And the Starlings of Starland need this energy to keep their world running.

In case you are wondering, there are three kinds of Wish Orbs:

Starlings take their wish granting very seriously. There is a special school, called Starling Academy, that accepts only the best and brightest young Starling girls. They study hard for four years, and when they graduate, they are ready to start traveling to Wishworld to help grant wishes. For as long as anyone can remember, only graduates of wish-granting schools have ever been allowed to travel to Wishworld. But things have changed in a very big way.

Read on for the rest of the story….

“So you're saying
Vega heard from her?”

“Cross my stars. A holo-text. She got it last night.”

“Well, what did it say? Where has she been this whole time? Is she in Starland City? Did she run away?”

Scarlet recognized the Star Darlings' voices outside her window immediately. She didn't have to peer down, but she did. She could also tell right away that they were talking about her.
How dare they?
was all she could think.

Scarlet was perched up in the loft of her dorm room—her
new
dorm room—a place that, these stardays, she seldom left. It had all happened so fast it still felt like yesterday: Lady Stella's informing her that her being assigned to the Star Darlings was all a “starmendous and most unfortunate” mistake, and that, as a result, she would need to be reassigned to a new dorm room so her replacement—some meek-looking orange-haired first-year student—could move into hers. At first, Scarlet had looked at that, at least, as the silver lining, since she and her roommate, Leona, had been bickering. But it didn't take long for her to realize that there would never, in a moonium staryears, be any silver linings to the cloud she had found herself in.

“It didn't say where Scarlet's been, unfortunately.” That tinkly voice belonged to Cassie. Scarlet gazed down at the top of the first-year student's silver-white pigtailed head. She and her roommate, Sage, were walking along the path between their Little Dipper Dorm building and the Big Dipper Dorm, where third and fourth years, like Scarlet, lived. Scarlet couldn't help smiling as she thought how clueless they were; she was right there, just two floors above them, and they had no idea. “All the holo-text said,” Cassie went on, “was for Vega to meet her in the hedge maze…which makes me wonder if Scarlet's still here at school….”

Sage tossed her long lavender hair dramatically from one shoulder to the other, a habit that had always made Scarlet roll her eyes. “I don't know,” Sage said. “If Scarlet was at school, don't you think she'd go to classes? I mean, she's already been kicked out of the Star Darlings. Does she want to get kicked out of school, too?”