Gemma and the Ultimate Standoff Read online

  Gemma looked up. Cassie nodded, and everyone else seemed okay with the change, so she went on:

  “‘We now know that you have been working with the noted wish energy scientist Indirra to come up with a solution to the wish energy crisis and are not causing it. We think we can help figure out who is the culprit: the same Starling who sent us the poisonous flowers that caused us to argue and provided us with the nail polish that made us act odd, and who has been controlling our missions and ruining our Wish Pendants…’”

  Gemma made a point of not looking directly at Leona, who was actually the only Star Darling whose Wish Pendant had been ruined. She continued.

  “‘There is one Wish Mission left to come. We have been hearing reports from our families and friends that the shortage is worse than we realized. We are worried that this is our last chance to collect enough wish energy to help reverse the crisis.’”

  Gemma’s glow flared orange. It was her Wish Mission and she was both thrilled and terrified at the prospect. Talk about pressure!

  “‘Lady Cordial is trying her best, but it is clear that she is just not up to the job and may even be in denial about the severity of the shortage. We need your help and guidance. Won’t you please come back and be our leader once more? Starfully yours, the Star Darlings: Sage, Libby, Leona, Vega, Scarlet, Cassie, Piper, Astra, Tessa, Adora, Clover, and Gemma.’”

  She stopped reading and looked up. The group stared back at her silently and the mood suddenly felt tense to Gemma. Itty must have sensed it, too, because she gave a throaty purr and began to sing her “Song of Relaxation.” Despite her anxiety, Gemma found herself calming down a bit as the comforting tune filled the air.

  “I think it’s ready to go,” Sage finally said. “Is everyone in agreement?”

  All the girls nodded and Gemma pressed the send button. As everyone stared at her expectantly, she felt like a few words were in order. But Gemma’s mind began to race. Lady Stella was missing. It was their fault. There was a terrible energy shortage and only one mission—hers—left. She opened her mouth to say something reassuring, but nothing came out.

  Well, that was a first.

  Gemma narrowed her eyes and scrunched up her face at her Star-Zap’s screen, trying to use the sheer force of her will to make it chime and flash with an incoming message from Lady Stella. When she looked up, the rest of the Star Darlings were looking back at her oddly. Must be nerves, she thought. Everyone was on edge, waiting for the headmistress’s response.

  “Any starmin now,” Gemma said encouragingly, at last able to speak. Her words came back to her in a rush. “Any starmin now I’m sure we’ll be hearing from Lady Stella. Actually, she’s probably holo-typing like mad right now, writing to let us know that there are no hard feelings! She’s not one to hold a grudge. She’s got to understand that all the evidence was clearly pointing to her. We actually had no choice but to believe she was the culprit.” She caught her breath and thought for a moment, seeing the other side of the story. “Although, come to think of it, she actually could be quite angry. We did falsely accuse her of sabotaging us. And at the very least, she’s most likely disappointed in us for not trusting her. I mean, she was our headmistress. What were we thinking!” Then, noticing the other Star Darlings’ frowns, she did an about-face. “But…it’s quite likely she will be simply relieved that we came around to believing in her. I mean, she just disappeared in a puff of smoke as soon as we started talking to her. What were we supposed to think? She could have explained everything, convinced us we were wrong. Instead, she vanished! Well, hopefully she’s forgiven us and she’ll have an idea about how we’re supposed to save Starland that she’ll share with us. We certainly haven’t been able to figure that out on our own! Oh, my stars, I just hope she’s not mad at us for doubting her. The truth of the matter is that we really should have—”

  “Gemma!” said Adora in a warning tone.

  “Yes?” said Gemma, turning toward the tall, slender girl with the sky-blue aura. Gemma had just been getting warmed up and, frankly, resented the interruption. So she had raised some uncomfortable points. They were all true, weren’t they?

  Adora’s response was to put both index fingers to her temples in the classic Starlandian “zip it” signal. Gemma gave the girl a “What in the stars do you mean?” look. Gemma couldn’t stand uncomfortable silences, and it looked like the rest of the girls were feeling the same way. Like Piper, for example. Although she had just begun to meditate, her long seafoam-green ponytail draped over her shoulder like a lovely ripple of seawater, her eyes kept popping open. And Cassie was taking off her immaculate star-shaped glasses and unnecessarily polishing them on the hem of her gauzy silver shirt for what was at least the fourth time. Upside-down Astra, who could effortlessly walk on her hands through an obstacle course with her eyes closed, had just clumsily bumped into Clover. This caused Clover, who was juggling three ozziefruits, to drop the fruit to the floor. Tessa absentmindedly picked one up and took a big bite. “Tessa!” snapped the usually starmazingly patient Clover. Tessa turned to her, her lips darkened by the indigo juice. “Sorry,” she said. “I get even hungrier than usual when I’m worried.” Clover looked like she was going to say something else, then picked up a substitute glorange from a bowl on the table. But instead of returning to juggling, she sighed and sat down next to Leona, who was fiddling around with her microphone. These girls needed a distraction, and fast.

  Gemma knew she was a talker. A chirpy, cheerful chatterbox. Gaps in conversation seemed empty and uncomfortable to her. Why stand there in uneasy silence when she could fill it with a joke, an interesting observation, or just some friendly chitchat? She had a lot to say about everything—and anything—under the suns, and she always had the confidence to speak up and state what was on her mind. It puzzled her to no end that this ability of hers could occasionally irritate those around her. (It was her observation that those who did not appreciate her ability generally had a lot less to say than she did or were lacking the confidence to speak up.) Gemma knew that her talkativeness could come in quite handy for her classmates. When Cassie, who could be very quiet, got called on unexpectedly in class and blushed a stunning shade of silver, Gemma would helpfully offer an opinion to give her a moment to gather her thoughts. And during those awkward lulls in conversation among acquaintances, when everyone was standing around, looking at their feet, searching for something to talk about, Gemma always knew exactly what to say. If she didn’t, she made something up.

  “You have the gift of gab, my starshine,” her grandmother used to tell her. That was exactly how Gemma saw it, as a great gift. And now it was time to bestow that gift upon her fellow Star Darlings. With everyone about to go supernova with edginess, she felt in her heart of hearts that it was her job to make them all feel at ease. Plus, she thought she might burst if she didn’t start talking again. The silence felt even more oppressive and heavy to her that day.

  With a quick glance at Adora, Gemma opened her mouth, about to launch into some pleasant, distracting chatter. But just then she felt a slight tremble in her fingers as a message arrived in her Star-Zap’s in-box. Her pulse quickened. This was it! As the phone began to chime and flash, there was a collective sharp intake of breath. Gemma squeezed her eyes shut for a split starsec, then opened them and read the words on-screen aloud to the group: HOLO-MESSAGE DECLINED.

  Gemma’s heart sank. The downcast faces of the other Star Darlings mirrored exactly what she felt. Disappointed. Scared. Guilty.

  “This is terrible,” Gemma said. “It means that Lady Stella has not forgiven us.” She felt her face getting hot and she knew that her cheeks were probably bright orange. This was their fault! If only they hadn’t turned on Lady Stella, she’d have been with them right then and there.

  Sage looked sad. “We made a mistake,” she said. “We took the evidence we were presented with and we made a decision—a bad one.” But then she straightened up and spoke almost fiercely. “But we can fix it. I’m sure we
can. We are the twelve Star-Charmed Starlings, aren’t we?”

  A few of the girls shook their heads. “Clearly she doesn’t want to talk to us,” said Tessa. “Not that I can blame her.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Astra. “You mean you think that Lady Stella wouldn’t accept our message? I’m thinking that it means she didn’t receive it.”

  Clover nodded her head in agreement. “I don’t think she’s blocking us. If she was, it would have read ‘sender rejected.’”

  There was silence as they all tried not to look at each other, wondering why anyone would have seen fit to block a message from lovely Clover. But she wasn’t offering an explanation. Perhaps that was a story for another starday.

  Piper stood, her seafoam-green eyes misty and faraway-looking. “Maybe Lady Stella isn’t angry with us at all. Maybe…possibly…she needs our help….” Her voice trailed off and she sat down abruptly.

  Gemma stared. Sometimes Piper said things that were so odd that everyone just ignored them. But maybe there was something to that thought….

  “Our message probably just didn’t go through,” said Sage. “Otherwise we would have gotten her outgoing message. Like this.” She stood, holding out her Star-Zap. A hologram of her mother, clad in a lavender cape, popped up. “I’m sorry,” her holo-self said, “but I am away on a business trip and cannot be reached. Please try again.” Even in hologram form Indirra was beautiful, an older and taller version of Sage with the same large violet eyes, pointy chin, and lavender hair.

  “You’re right,” said Vega. “Lady Stella’s Star-Zap should have an outgoing message.” She peered more closely at Sage, who looked uneasy. “Is something wrong?”

  Sage took a deep breath. “I know I shouldn’t be worried,” she said. “But I am. It’s very unusual that my mom’s message would come up for me. In the past, even on her most classified business trips, calls from the family would go through. This just doesn’t feel right to me.”

  Cassie stood to put a comforting hand on Sage’s shoulder and Gemma noticed that it seemed to almost instantly calm the girl. Sage thought for a moment and brightened.

  “Hey, I have an idea!” she announced. “We should go tell Lady Cordial the good news. She’s been such a mess trying to hold this place together. I mean, it took her star ages to figure out how to start conserving energy on campus. And now she’s totally fixated on planning Starshine Day when it’s obvious it needs to be postponed so we can spend our time concentrating on coming up with new and better ways to save energy. I’m positive this will be a big relief to her.”

  “I like that idea,” said Gemma, Piper’s words disappearing from her mind. “I think that will make Lady Cordial feel so much better.” Poor Lady Cordial. She simply wasn’t headmistress material, and she had been thrust into the role after the disappearance of Lady Stella. She was obviously trying her best, but that wasn’t cutting the ballum blossom sauce.

  “Shall we go now?” asked Sage.

  “Sure,” said Leona, jumping to her feet. Gemma watched as Leona casually reached down to grab Scarlet’s hand and hoisted her up. Sage pulled open the door, and she, Astra, and Leona led the way as the rest of the girls fell into place behind them, Gemma and Piper taking up the rear. They stepped on the Cosmic Transporter and Gemma half expected it to start moving them along, as it usually did. But the power to all nonessential machinery had been cut after students had begun to protest Starling Academy’s wasteful wish energy practices during the crisis. Now Bot-Bots were set in sleep mode unless absolutely necessary, food choices were limited in the Celestial Café (much to Tessa’s chagrin), and doors needed to be opened manually, to name but a few changes.

  CONSERVE WISH ENERGY: LEVITATE OBJECTS ONLY WHEN ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, a flickering holo-sign read. Another proclaimed SPARKLE SHOWER WITH A FRIEND, and showed two smiling Starlings showering in bathing suits. That one made Gemma laugh, as it was intended to. A little Starlandian humor in the face of an overwhelming situation.

  Gemma turned to Piper. “This is good,” she said. “I bet Lady Cordial will help us find Lady Stella now that we know she can be trusted. Those two have been working together for a while now and seemed very close. Lady Cordial could have an idea of where to find Lady Stella.”

  “Mmmmm-hmmm,” replied Piper distractedly. In the bright sunlight, her dulled appearance was more apparent to Gemma. She didn’t even want to see her own reflection. Sparkle shower rationing made everyone dimmer and less vibrant. It was disheartening.

  The girls pushed open the heavy doors to Halo Hall. The starmarble corridors, usually crowded and bustling, were empty and quiet on this Babsday, the second day of the Starlandian weekend. Gemma even missed the roaming Bot-Bot guards, which she realized gave her a sense of security. The Star Darlings’ footfalls echoed ominously in the empty hallways, which suddenly seemed full of looming shadows.

  “This is weird,” Gemma whispered to Piper, who stared straight ahead, not acknowledging that she had been spoken to.

  Apparently the rest of the group felt the same. They had been chattering excitedly on the walk to Halo Hall, but suddenly their voices were silenced. Wordlessly, they walked to Lady Stella’s old office. Leona raised her hand to knock, but Sage boldly slid the door open and stepped inside.

  The rest of the girls filed in behind her. Gemma was right behind Piper, who slowed for a starmin.

  Piper turned and grabbed Gemma. Her fingers felt icy cold on Gemma’s bare arm. “Should we be doing this?” she blurted out. Her eyes seemed clouded and her brow was furrowed. “I—I’m just not sure about this.” She bit her lip. “Maybe it will just confuse Lady Cordial more. Maybe we should handle this on our own.”

  Gemma considered that. But the girls were energized and positive for the first time in a while. It felt good to be doing something, taking action. And they were already there, for stars’ sake. She shrugged. “It probably can’t hurt,” she said.

  “Okay,” said Piper, though she still looked a bit doubtful. She turned and glided through the doorway. With a deep breath, Gemma stepped inside and pulled the door shut behind them.

  “Halt! Who goes there?” shouted a robotic voice. Gemma felt a jolt of fear and jumped.

  “We-we’re looking for Lady Cordial,” said Sage in an unexpectedly shaky tone. Clearly the Bot-Bot voice had startled her, too.

  A shiny Bot-Bot zoomed toward them from a dark corner of the room, its eyes blinking and its voice loud and commanding. “State your purpose, Starlings,” the Bot-Bot said.

  Leona spoke up. “We need to talk to Lady Cordial,” she said. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the floating robot. “I thought all Bot-Bots were in sleep mode until further notice. What’s going on?”

  “Not guard Bot-Bots,” said the Bot-Bot. “My job is to protect Lady Cordial’s office at all times.”

  “Lady Stella’s office,” Clover muttered under her breath. “It will always be Lady Stella’s office.” Gemma silently agreed.

  “Well, where is she?” asked Sage impatiently, having regained her composure. “We have some important news to tell her.”

  “Lady Cordial is on her way to address the student body,” the Bot-Bot said in its clipped tone, “at the assembly.”

  “At what assembly?” said Gemma just as the Star Darlings’ Star-Zaps all started vibrating. Looking down, Gemma saw that they had just received a school-wide holo-blast: GATHER IMMEDIATELY AT THE BAND SHELL FOR A QUICK UPDATE ON STARSHINE DAY FROM YOUR HEADMISTRESS. STARPRISE GUEST ENTERTAINMENT!

  “Maybe she’s going to announce that she’s postponing Starshine Day until the energy shortage is fixed,” Cassie suggested reasonably. “That would make sense.”

  “Does Lady Cordial ever make sense?” scoffed Leona. It was an unkind thing to say, but there was some merit to it. Lady Cordial was, in the best of situations, nervous and awkward. With Lady Stella away, she seemed to be making bad decision after bad decision.

  The girls made their way to the band shell and plopped
themselves down on the stargrassy area in front of the stage. They watched as the Star Quad began to fill with students. Some had brought blankets, which they spread on the ground, while others stood around, chatting with fellow students. The overall mood seemed to be slight puzzlement at the last-minute invitation, but pleasure nonetheless at being outside with friends. The sun was shining brightly and there was a slight breeze, which felt refreshing. Gemma closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun, knowing the result would be a smattering of light orange star-shaped freckles across her nose. She caught snippets of conversations, which mostly seemed to be about news from home—Starcarpool regulations, newly added HOS lanes, and sparkle shower rationing. That made Gemma realize that she hadn’t heard a star news report on campus in a while—or, come to think of it, seen a copy of a holo-newspaper. Very odd.

  “What in the stars?” she heard Leona say. Gemma’s eyes snapped open. Leona was pointing to the stage. A girl with a bright green aura was dragging out a drum kit. Leona stood, walked onto the stage, and started talking to the girl in green. Another girl, in a pale blue robe, hurried out to join them. It looked like Leona and the new girl got into a discussion that was not particularly friendly. Gemma watched as Leona turned, her face angry, and stormed off.

  Scarlet, who had been lying on her back, staring up at the clouds, raised her head. “Where did Leona go?” she asked. Gemma shrugged and closed her eyes again. Vega was deep in a holo–crossword puzzle and Piper was, of course, meditating. Truth be told, Gemma didn’t care if the assembly ever started. It was nice to just empty her mind and relax, to not think about anything. It had been far too long since she’d had the pleasure of doing that.

  Just then Cassie grabbed Gemma’s arm and Gemma snapped her eyes open. Lady Cordial was standing in the middle of the stage, staring out at the crowd. The students watched as she took a deep breath and pulled a purple microphone out of one of her voluminous pockets. Lady Cordial’s face was pale and she looked as ill at ease as ever. “It’s painful to watch,” muttered Cassie, who knew a thing or two about feeling awkward. It was obvious that the responsibility that had been thrust upon Lady Cordial due to Lady Stella’s abrupt departure hadn’t done a thing to boost her self-confidence. Someone jostled Gemma as she sat down next to her. Gemma gave a sidelong glance and realized it was Leona. The Starling didn’t look angry anymore, and she was grinning wickedly. But before Gemma could ask what Leona was up to, Lady Cordial began to speak.