Scarlet Discovers True Strength (5 page)

The campus was quiet, as it often was after dinner, when most students flocked to the Lightning Lounge. That was a place, though, that Scarlet usually avoided. Everyone was far too sociable and eager to hang out and chat. One couldn't even lie back and gaze at the stars from underneath the retractable roof without some shiny Starling leaning over and saying, “Ooh! Aren't they pretty?” or “Do you think they look the same from Wishworld?” Scarlet's jaw ached from holding back rude responses, like “
No
, they look like globerbeems from Wishworld. What a startacularly silly question! Of course they look the same!”

Scarlet didn't care much for the hedge maze, either—for a different reason. The hedge maze drove her crazy, the way its pattern constantly changed. No sooner would she think she'd found a way out than a path would turn, a wall would shift, or a leafy new hedge would suddenly appear. Where the fun in
that
was, Scarlet had no idea. She thanked her stars for the single red blossom in every hedge wall that would open a door when plucked. She plucked one every time. Vega, on the other hand, would never have dreamed of doing such a thing. She loved the maze and spent more time there than all the other Star Darlings combined, so it was the best place Scarlet could think of to get a few words with her—alone.

Even before she spotted Vega, Scarlet saw her sapphire aura. The constantly changing maze, however, made actually reaching her hard.

“Vega!” Scarlet finally shouted through the glittery hedge wall. “I'm over here! Come! Hurry up!”

Vega was beside her in a starsec, only slightly out of breath.

“How did you get here so fast?” asked Scarlet as a new wall of hedge popped up behind Vega.

“Easy,” Vega said. “I waited for the hedge to shift left, then ran south ten degrees, then doubled back through the—”

Scarlet held up her hands. “That's all right. Never mind. I don't care.” At the same time, though, it was exactly this love of puzzle solving that gave Scarlet hope that Vega could help.

“So what did you want to talk about—
finally
? It's good to see you, by the way. Where in the universe have you
been
? We've been worried about you for stardays. So…did you want to hear about my mission?” Vega smiled proudly, ignoring Scarlet's immediate sneer. “You'll be happy to know that—unlike Leona's…” Vega sighed. “Poor thing. Anyway, unlike Leona's mission, mine was a
great
success. Another Power Crystal collected! Not that I didn't have a little issue—but everyone does, it seems. I found my Wisher fairly easily. It's the wish
identifying
that's so tricky. I know they always tell us that, but you don't really know until you try. Luckily, Clover came down and helped me figure it out in plenty of time. It was actually quite an interesting wish….” She paused, finally noticing Scarlet's pained expression.

“Really, Vega? Do you truly think I wanted to meet to hear all about a Star Darlings mission when I can't go on one anymore?” Scarlet shook her head and her black hair swung back and forth across her eyes. “I thought you were smarter than that. That's about the
last
thing I want to talk about.”

“Of course!” said Vega. “What was I thinking? Star apologies.” She reached out to pat Scarlet's shoulder, but Scarlet shrank away. “So then…what is it? Oh!” Vega nodded. “It's the
band
! You want to come back. That's startastic!” She clapped. “We need you! We really do! Clover was filling in, but she couldn't take Leona anymore. Not that
you
should worry about her. Yes, she's mad that you dropped out, but she also knows what a starmendous drummer you are.”

“Freakin' fireballs,” Scarlet groaned. “The band is the
second
-to-last thing on my mind!” Sure, she missed the band—well, she missed playing the drums—but she definitely wasn't ready to go back to it, and she wasn't sure she ever would be. Of course Vega, who played the bass, was fine. And Sage and Libby were okay, too. Sage wasn't the best guitarist, but she had good instincts and worked to improve. Libby tried way too hard to make everyone happy, in Scarlet's opinion, but she was startastic on the keytar. It was Leona who drove everyone crazy by bossing them around. Frankly, Scarlet was surprised she didn't try to play every instrument herself.

“Then
what
?” said Vega. Under her bangs her forehead wrinkled. For Vega, the only feeling worse than having the incorrect answer was not having an answer at all.

“Something's wrong. Very wrong,” said Scarlet.

“Ah.” Vega nodded. “I see. I know. You're right. It's so unfair. It really is. And I'd feel exactly the same if I were you, I'm sure.”

“What?
No!
” Scarlet scooted out from under Vega's hand again. “I mean, yes. It's unfair. Of course. But it's unfair because it's a huge mistake. That new girl—Ophelia, or whatever her name is—should never have been picked to take my place!”

“You don't think so?”

“I do not!”

Vega sighed and crossed her arms. “Truth be told, you could be right. I've been wondering about her myself.”

“You have?”

Vega nodded. “She's so far behind in Star Darlings class—which made sense in the beginning. No one expected her to know anything yet. But she's just not catching up. Do you know she still can't manipulate a watt of energy? Not a single watt! Ooh!” She suddenly jumped as a branch reached out to tickle her ribs. “Come on, we should keep moving,” she told Scarlet. “The maze doesn't like it when you stop.”

Vega moved to link her arm with Scarlet's. But Scarlet had never been the touchy-feely, arm-linking, hand-holding type. Instead, she put her hands behind her back as they moved along the ever-twisting starlit path.

“You know,” said Vega, sensing Scarlet's impatience with their route, “if you just focus and look for a pattern, you have a much better chance of making it out. It's when you try to fight it that you end up feeling trapped.”

“Whatever,” said Scarlet. “Just get me out of here.”

So Vega linked arms with Scarlet (despite her protests) and they quickly made their way out of the maze.

“Star apologies,” said Scarlet, “but I just can't play peekaboo with a bush and think at the same time. You're good at solving puzzles, Vega. I've never had patience for them. So think: why would someone so new and totally unprepared to grant wishes be picked to take my place when my wish-granting potential's so starmendously high?”

“You're right. I do like puzzles…” said Vega. “At the same time, though, this was Lady Stella's decision, and we have to trust her, don't you think? Still…” She paused. “It is strange.” Scarlet could sense that an idea was being born in Vega's mind. “And if you talked to Cassie, she'd tell you that's not the only strange thing going on.”

“I know,” said Scarlet.

“You do?”

Scarlet shrugged and scowled. “I might have…overheard her…talking about me, and Leona's Wish Pendant.”

“And the whole flower thing?” Vega's bright blue eyebrows shot up.

“She did say something about flowers…but I didn't actually get that part. What flowers was she talking about?”

“The bouquets,” said Vega. “You know. The ones we all—all the Star Darlings, I mean—had delivered to our rooms?”

“Oh, those.” Scarlet nodded. She did remember, though she hadn't thought it strange at the time. “So you still don't know who they're from?”

“No,” Vega said, “but that's not even it. Cassie has this crazy idea that they were making us fight with each other over the littlest things. In fact, she's so sure, she took my bouquet to the botany lab to be evaluated. She'd already thrown hers and Sage's away.”

“What do
you
think?” Scarlet asked. “Do you think Cassie might be right?”

Vega smoothed her hair back. “No, I don't. In fact, we made a bet. If I was right, she would do a puzzle with me every day for a double starweek.”

“And if she was right?”

“I'd help her study for her Astral Accounting test.”

Scarlet frowned.

Vega winked. “I know. Win-win. But I'm not too concerned about helping her study. Piper's still annoying me as much as ever. She makes these sounds when she's meditating….” Vega closed her eyes and cringed. “Ugh! I can hear them all the way from upstairs in her part of the room. It sounds like a Bot-Bot on the fritz. Like this high, whiny
ohmmmm
.” She winced. “How about you and Leona?” she asked Scarlet. “How were you getting along? Before you switched rooms, I mean.”

“Oh, I don't know. Leona and I had our testy moments….” Scarlet shrugged. “But I'm sure we would have anyway. So what did the botany lab say?”

“Nothing…
yet
. But we should probably hear soon.”

“Promise to tell me when you do.”

Vega drew an X over her heart. “Cross my stars—and moons. But…how? I mean, when will I see you again? Where have you been all this time?”

“I've been…around,” said Scarlet vaguely. “They gave me a new roommate. Her name's Mira.”

“I don't know her,” said Vega.

“Neither did I.”

“Is she nice?”

“She's fine,” said Scarlet. “We don't really know each other yet. She isn't around that much, and I pretty much stay in my loft all the time, so maybe we never will….”

“Have you been to any classes since…”

“No,” said Scarlet bitterly.

“Don't you think you should?” Vega gently asked. “I mean, I can understand dropping out of Leona's band. No one—well, except Leona maybe—blames you for that. But even if you're not in the Star Darlings anymore, you're still a student at the school, and you can still go to Wishworld and grant wishes one day…but only if you graduate, of course.”

Scarlet looked over her shoulder, past the hedge maze, toward the majestic Crystal Mountains, which glimmered across Luminous Lake. Vega was right, she guessed. Not that Scarlet was worried about falling behind in any subjects. Her classes seemed to get easier for her every year. But hiding from everyone and everything, while it made life simpler right then, wasn't helping her solve her problem, either.

“You can't hide forever,” Vega went on, almost as if she'd peeked into Scarlet's mind. “How about I make you a deal like I made with Cassie?”

“I don't make deals,” muttered Scarlet. “But what?”

“You start going to your classes, and I'll do whatever I can to help you get to the bottom of what went wrong.”

The next day,
Scarlet went through the motions of going to morning assembly, classes, meals…all the things she was
supposed
to do. But the more she tried to act like everything was normal, the surer she was that everything was wrong.

She didn't even try to move all the desks in Wishful Thinking class, and yet with a single eyebrow raise she did exactly that. She was just as surprised as everyone else when it happened but was determined as always not to let her emotions show.

Even Professor Dolores Raye's mouth fell open. “Who did that?” she gasped.

In the far corner of the room, Scarlet slowly raised her hand.

“Oh, my stars!” said Professor Raye. “I didn't even see you back there, Scarlet. Welcome back to class, by the way. I must say, I've never seen such control in a third year. Those are very special powers. Er…now, if you don't mind, would you be so kind as to move the desks back to where they were?”

This only confirmed something Scarlet had already begun to sense: somehow, instead of feeling less special since leaving the Star Darlings, she felt as if her wish energy powers were stronger than ever before.

At lunch, Scarlet managed to sit by herself: no small feat in the Celestial Café. The tables were large and round and designed to encourage Starlings to linger and talk for starhours. Scarlet sequestered herself at an empty corner table, where she promptly spilled her mug of Zing. “Forget it,” she told the Bot-Bot waiter who appeared instantly with another as the puddle disappeared. Instead, she ordered a steaming bowl of stewed garble greens—the smell of which was guaranteed to keep other Starlings far away.

Rather than eating, though—she
hated
garble greens—Scarlet observed the Star Darlings from afar. They sat together, as they had since they'd been summoned, at the middle table near the window overlooking Luminous Lake. Astra was dressed in her neon-trimmed fiery-red star ball uniform. It could have been a game day or not. With her, you never knew. Cassie was nose-deep in a holo-book, and Gemma was giggling and prattling away. Listening to Gemma was one thing Scarlet did not miss in the least.

Vega noticed her and waved so that the others couldn't see. She flashed Scarlet a sparkly smile of friendly encouragement, which Scarlet accepted reluctantly.