Cassie Comes Through (14 page)

When Cassie awoke
the next morning, she felt starmendous—so much so that she said it out loud. “I feel starmendous,” she said. No, that wasn't quite right. “I
am
starmendous,” she tried. Yes, that was much better.

She stepped out of bed and stubbed her toe. “Moons and stars!” she cried. “That hurt!”

She looked to her roommate, whose head was resting on her lavender pillowcase, for sympathy. Sage looked back at her and giggled.

“Sage!” said Cassie with a scowl. “I hurt myself!”

“I know,” said Sage, trying to make a sad face and failing miserably. “But something about it is pretty funny.”

“No,” said Cassie earnestly. “It's actually not.”

But apparently that was very amusing to Sage, too.

With as much dignity as she could muster, Cassie hobbled her way to the sparkle shower room. Even though her toe was throbbing, she couldn't help admiring herself in the mirror, her gossamer silvery-pink hair looking so, well, gossamery and lovely around her pale face.

Cassie stood on the Cosmic Transporter, on her way to breakfast, staring into space. Suddenly, she was startled by someone skipping by, almost knocking her over. She peered after her.
Was that Scarlet?
she wondered.

When Cassie arrived in the cafeteria, she found Scarlet and Piper already sitting at the table. Piper's amazingly long seafoam green hair was pulled back into a rippling ponytail. Cassie chose the seat next to her. “Good…” she started.

“Morning,” Piper said pleasantly.

Leona and Adora arrived next. “I'm not hungry,” Leona said. “I ran into Ophelia this morning and she gave me this delicious zoomberry turnover from the huge care package she just got. So I'm just going to get a cup of hot…”

“Zing,” said Piper.

Leona gave her a funny look. “Ozziefruit tea,” she said, correcting her.

Vega arrived next and sat on the other side of Cassie. She was followed by Astra and Clover, who sat on the other side of the table.

“Last night was so much fun,” said Clover.

Vega nodded. “We did our nails, had snacks, and more.”

Clover nodded. “Yes, we did!”

“It certainly was not a bore,” Vega finished.

The Bot-Bot waiter arrived and began to take their breakfast orders. Cassie ordered a bowl of druderwomp flakes with starberries.

Moons and stars, that was a good order,
Cassie thought. She addressed Adora, who sat across from her. “I hope you don't have breakfast envy!”

“I think I'll like mine better,”
said Adora.

“Starscuse me?” said Cassie.

“I think I'll like mine better,”
repeated Adora.

“Um…what?” said Cassie.

“I said I think I'll like mine better,”
Adora said patiently.

“Uh…that's great,” said Cassie, who still couldn't understand what the girl was saying but was too embarrassed to ask her to repeat it a third time.

When it was Leona's turn, she thought for a moment and ordered starcakes and tinsel toast with a slice of mooncheese.

Sage giggled. “I thought you said you weren't hungry!”

“What are you talking about?” said Leona.

Breakfast arrived in record time. Tessa took a bite, then got a confused look on her face. “Starscuse me,” she said politely to the Bot-Bot, “but I asked for starberry waffles. These are moonberry.”

“Star apologies,” said the Bot-Bot waiter. “That is highly irregular. I'll fix that right away.” He zoomed back to the kitchen and returned a few starmins later.

Tessa dug in to her new breakfast excitedly, took a bite, then shook her head. “Moonberries again!” she exclaimed. “How…”

“Delightful,” finished Piper.

“No, how odd,” she said.

“I hate moonberries,” said Sage disgustedly. But she punctuated her statement with a delighted laugh.

Sage's giggle is really annoying,
thought Cassie.
It would be so much less annoying if she had a sweet, tinkling laugh. Kind of like…
She thought for a minute.
Kind of like mine,
she decided. She practiced it, putting her hand over her mouth and tittering. She nodded. It was musical and quite pleasant.

Cassie's day went on starmendously. She felt emboldened enough to raise her hand in every class, even when she wasn't quite sure of the answer. And when every eye in the class was focused on her, somehow it didn't feel intimidating at all.
That was some pep talk Lady Stella gave me yestarday,
she thought.

At the end of the day it was time for their Star Darlings lessons. Cassie settled into her usual seat in the soundproof classroom. She was starprised to see a new, unfamiliar teacher in front of the room. She was one of the youngest teachers Cassie had ever seen, with super-short magenta hair that stuck up from her head in tiny spikes. She wore swirly leggings in shades of pink, red, and orange, a fitted jacket (which the Star Darlings would soon discover, as the class went on, changed color every ten starmins), and shiny orange boots.

“Hello, class,” she said, standing and walking up and down the aisles as she spoke. “I am Kiri Lillibelle and I am thrilled to be your guest lecturer today. You may not know me, but I am certainly familiar with each and every one of you. I am the researcher who hand-selects all of your—”

“Outfits,” offered Piper.

Kiri gave her a quizzical look. “No, Mirror Mantras,” she said. “A Mirror Mantra is a very important part of a successful Wish Mission. By repeating your Mirror Mantra while gazing into a mirror, you will receive strength and centeredness. When you recite it together with your Wisher down on Wishworld, you can bring clarity and focus to her that will aid in wish fulfillment.”

She began to walk around the room as she spoke. “Mirror Mantras used to be presented to Starling Academy students upon graduation. We had four staryears to determine the perfect message for each student. The timing was a little tighter for you Star Darlings,” she said with a laugh. “But we were able to determine the correct mantras for each of you.”

“How do you choose them?” asked Libby with a yawn.

“An excellent question,” said Kiri. “They were carefully selected based on each of your personalities, strengths, and challenges.”

“Challenges?” asked Astra.

“Yes, challenges,” said Kiri. “It is not just your strengths that make you the special person you are, but also your challenges and how you face them.”

“But we already know our mantras,” said Leona. “They were assigned to us as soon as we found out we were Star Darlings.”

“Yes,” said Kiri patiently. “But we've determined that the more you use them before your Wish Mission, the more their strength will increase. We want you to become as familiar with your mantra as you are with your own name. We want to make sure that they become second nature to you, and that you use them to their fullest potential. We want you to know your mantras forwards and backwards.”

The girls nodded.

“So let's begin!” The classroom door opened and a bevy of Bot-Bot assistants flew into the room, each holding a floating holo-mirror, which it placed in front of a student. Cassie gazed at herself and found herself taking off her starglasses to get a closer look at her eyelashes. They were so thick and lush! How had she never noticed them before? They were pretty starmazing, actually. She was about to lean over and ask Leona if she had noticed her lashes before—and, if so, why she had never called them to Cassie's attention—when Kiri began to speak again.

“Okay,” she said. “Now let's go around the room and recite your mantras for each other. Why don't you start?” she asked, pointing to Sage, who sat in the front of the room.

Sage giggled nervously and cleared her throat. She gazed into the mirror levelly. “I believe in you,” she said. “Glow for it!”

Even from the back of the room, Cassie could see that Sage's reflection took on a brilliant glow.

“Look at her reflection!” Kiri cried to the class. “Her glow is intensifying even here on Starland! This is some pretty powerful stuff!”

She turned back to Sage. “Okay,” said Kiri. “How did that make you feel?”

“I felt really energized,” Sage said with a laugh. “While I definitely felt the power of the mantra when I used it on Wishworld, I felt something extra just now. Maybe my mantra has even more power than I realized.”

Kiri nodded enthusiastically. “That's exactly it. We're thinking that we have not yet taken full advantage of the power of the mantras. And we think that you as Star Darlings may have even greater mantra powers than the other students.”

The room began to buzz with excitement. When they quieted down, Kiri went around the room and had the rest of the Star Darlings recite their mantras, one by one.

“It's all in the balance. Glimmer and shine!” said Libby, her pink ponytail shimmering.

Leona said: “You are a star. Light up the world!”

Scarlet reached into her back pocket for her drumsticks and beat out a drumroll on top of her desk before stating: “Abracadabra—time for some star power!” And even she looked impressed by the burst of sparkle in her reflection.

“Dreams can come true,” said Piper when it was her turn. “It's your time to shine!”

“Stronger you make challenges,” said Astra with a wide grin. “Glowin' get to time!”

“Huh?” said Kiri.

Astra blinked at Kiri innocently. “I thought you said you wanted us to know our mantras forwards and backwards!”

Kiri shook her head and moved on to the next Star Darling.

“Let your heart lead the way,” Tessa said, smiling at her reflection.

Her little sister went next. “Make up your mind to blaze like a comet!” Gemma shouted.

Clover adjusted her purple hat and said, “Keep the beat and shine like the star you are!”

Hmmm,
thought Cassie.
That's not a bad mantra at all.
Maybe Clover got mine by mistake?
She hesitated. She knew that Kiri was waiting for her to speak, but for some reason she just didn't want to say her mantra out loud. She had gladly accepted it when she had first received it, but it suddenly didn't seem right to her at all.

Kiri smiled at her encouragingly. “Come on, Cassie, let's hear it,” she said.

Cassie sighed. “Listen to your feelings. Let your inner light sparkle,” she said in a monotone. She was surprised to see that her reflection got extra sparkly even though her heart wasn't in it.

“What's wrong, Cassie?” Kiri asked. “That's a lovely mantra, if I do say so myself.”

Cassie shrugged. Suddenly, she had an idea—a brilliant one, in fact. “Do you ever change people's mantras?” she asked.

Kiri was clearly taken aback. “Are you pulling my leg?” she said.

Gemma stood up to take a look. “No, she isn't,” she told Kiri seriously. “She's not even touching you!”

Astra snorted. “Good one, Gemma!”

“I was thinking of something a little more star-forward,” said Cassie slowly.

“Star-forward?” asked the teacher, her brow wrinkled.

“You know,” said Cassie. “Exciting. Vibrant. Like ‘You are totally startacular.' Or maybe ‘You are starmendously talented,'” she suggested.

Kiri was frowning as she studied Cassie. “But the Mirror Mantras are carefully chosen to reflect each student's personality,” she said. “A lot of work went into each one. I don't think I've ever heard of a student requesting a new mantra in Starling Academy history.”

Cassie shrugged. It just didn't seem like such a great fit anymore. It was kind of…boring.

Kiri opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, clearly thought better of it, and turned to the next student. “Adora?” she said. “It's your turn.”

And Adora said,
“Use your logic. You are a star!”

Kiri shook her head. She was clearly getting frustrated. “Well, apparently Adora is not ready to share yet. We'll get back to you la—”

And that was when all the Star-Zaps went off. Cassie looked down at the message:
SD WISH ORB IDENTIFIED. PROCEED TO LADY STELLA'S OFFICE IMMEDIATELY
. The girls all shot each other quick looks, then began to make their way out of the classroom. It was time.