Title: Starla
Plot # 22
Written: Jan 2010
“Whoohoo!” my laughter echoed
through the air as I soared by on the newly made star, “Rosalina
this star is amazing!”
“Yes, Starla,” My aunt was
standing on the ground watching me try out her latest design, “and
I would appreciate it if you avoided the buildings and save the
stunts for when it’s not your first time flying it!”
I steered back
towards her and landed, “This is defiantly your best invention
yet.”
She pulled the star
out of my hands smiling, “Thank you, but you realize that is what
you always say about my inventions.”
“Because it
true!” I threw my hands in the air for emphasis, “all your
inventions are incredible, and the next one is always better then the
last.”
She smiled but I
could tell she wasn’t convinced, “It is very maneuverable but,”
she pressed a button on the top and the large metal board shrank into
a ball of light the size of a lemon. She held it up to her face like
she was examining it with new eyes, “it doesn’t have a very long
range. It can only go a couple of galaxies before it looses its
connection and dies.”
A couple of
galaxies? “Sounds long range to me.”
She laughed like
that was funny, “well yes, to you,” she said it like I was
five and still thought unicorns existed, “but when you’re
traveling the entire universe, a couple of galaxies isn’t very
far.”
“True,” I took
the light from her hands, “but as you can see, I’m not traveling
the universe, so I say it is long range; making it your best
invention yet.”
She rolled her
eyes, “Some day you’ll invent something twice that powerful and
wonder why you ever praised me.”
I had to think
about how to respond to that one. Aunt Rose was always modest, but
that comment was almost insulting. I wondered for the millionth time
why she had been so critical lately, “well until then,” I hugged
her neck trying to squeeze the sarcasm out, “you’re still the
best inventor I know.”
She just hugged me
back, not bothering to argue. She knew as well as I that I wasn’t
an easy person to sway.
*
* *
“Stella, if you wouldn’t mind…”
I jumped up to keep my papers from flying across the room as my morph
star whizzed into the library. She changed from her star shape into a
six-inch version of me. The mini-me walked across the table making
her usual tinkling sound.
“What else would I be doing besides
studying constellations?”
She made another tinkling nose and I
blushed, “I’m not always thinking about Jack. I
concentrate when I need to.” I stood up from my chair and walked
over to a shelf.
The library wasn’t very big. Well,
considering the size of the observatory it was on; plus it was an
observatory so you’d think that the library would be a key
point in the structure, but no. still it was a pretty good size and
had over five-thousand books, so it still made it hard to find
things.
My eyes scanned up and down the shelf,
“Do you remember where Aunt Rose keeps her nebula books?”
Stella made her “beats me” sound.
“Of course you wouldn’t
know,” I bit my tongue. Apparently I hadn’t squeezed the sarcasm
out of Rose, but sucked it into myself. I turned around to see
Stella, now a flame, blackening the edges of my papers, “I’m
sorry. I’m just frustrated. I’ve been studying for hours and I
still can’t figure out this galaxy.”
Quick to forgive, she turned back into
mini-me and flew over to help me search.
It took us about ten minutes to find
the nebula books, but it wasn’t much help, since as soon as I sat
back down at the table I suddenly remembered this galaxy didn’t
even have nebulas.
“Ugh!” I banged my head against my
useless pile of books, “This is hopeless!”
Stella gave me an encouraging tinkle,
but I just shrugged it off, staring at my books mindlessly.
“You know,” a voice came from the
door way, “I hear you get a lot more out of the book if you
actually open it.”
A tall boy stood in the doorway, about
a year older then me. He was wearing kaki shorts and a stripped polo
that brought out his blue eyes. His sandy spiked hair and gorgeous
smile made him just about the most attractive boy alive.
My mood immediately lightened and I
jumped up from the table, “Jack!” I ran across the room.
He laughed as he swept me into a hug
and spun me around.
“What are you doing here?” I asked
when he finally, but regrettably, put me down, “I thought you
weren’t supposed to be back for another two weeks?”
He shrugged, “Change of plans.” I
waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t.
Stella mad a sort of ‘attention
please’ noise and flew over to us.
“Who’s this?” Jack asked.
“Oh, that’s right; you haven’t
met Stella have you?” Jack and I hung out a lot, but we were
usually planet searching. He hadn’t really spent that much time on
the observatory. “This is my morph star.” I motioned to the bird
perched on my shoulder.
“A morph star?”
“Yeah, we have a lot of them here.
They are originally light stars, but they can change into whatever
shape they want. She likes birds for some reason, but she usually
changes into a mini-me when I’m around.”
As if to illustrate that
point she changed into that shape.
Jack flashed his gorgeous smile,
“Cool. Can she do me?”
“She could, but she won’t,”
he looked at Stella with mock offense and I laughed, “I’ve yet to
get her to change into anything male or ugly.”
He seemed fascinated by that, “Why?”
I shrugged, “My theory is what they
morph into, to them, is like what we wear to us. A girl star would
never change into a spider and a boy star would never change into a
daisy. Just like you would never wear a dress and I would never wear
baggy shorts.”
“He nodded, “That makes sense.”
“Not to mention,” I leaned towards
him and whispered, “Stella tends to be a little more vain then the
rest.”
Jack laughed and Stella turned into a
flame again, making me jump.
