Scarlet Discovers True Strength Read Online Free PDF Page A

argued—vehemently. But the energy had been spent in vain. She left Lady Stella’s office stinging, as if a hive of angry glitterbees had attacked her, and the feeling still hadn’t gone away. The black hole Scarlet had felt in her stomach at that moment was still there, just as deep. In fact, sitting in the Celestial Café, watching Ophelia in her place among the other Star Darlings, only made the feeling worse. Scarlet knew her grades and scores were strong, so the whole thing already made no sense. But in what crazy parallel universe could a starling such as Ophelia have one score higher than Scarlet’s, let alone a whole file’s worth?
    Scarlet blinked and slid her now cold bowl of garble greens across the table before standing up and leaving the café. She had Lighterature next period, but she didn’t care. The thought of sitting in a class full of happy, carefree Starlings made her want to zap something. Besides, they were reading a tragedy by Shakestar that she had read hydrongs of times—
Romea and Jupiter
. The whole star-crossed romance thing made her want to hurl. So when she left the Celestial Café, she turned away from Halo Hall and headed across the Star Quad, straight back to the Big Dipper Dorm.
    The building was empty except for the Bot-Bot guard inside the front door. “Star greetings, Scarlet,” it welcomed her.
    â€œStar greetings,” she muttered back.
    Scarlet stepped onto the Cosmic Transporter as it rolled through the halls.
    Outside her door, Scarlet placed her hand on the palm scanner. The door opened with a gentle
whoosh.
As she walked in, the door slid smoothly closed. Scarlet scrunched her eyes to dim the lights and gazed around the room. Her eyes fell on her drum kit on its platform.
Yes!
That was just what she needed to do! Bang out a few dark and angry riffs…or maybe a few hydrong.
    Scarlet hadn’t played the drums much at all since she’d left the Star Darlings. Before that, she’d played hours every day—either with Leona’s band or in their old room while Leona sang. They found it was the one thing they could do together without getting on each other’s nerves. As soon as Lady Stella told her she was out of the Star Darlings, however, Scarlet stopped going to band practice, too. Every other member was still a Star Darling, and the last thing she needed was to hear them talk about their missions—or deal with their pity or, worse, their phony good cheer. The only place she could play was her room, but lately the inspiration just hadn’t been there.
    That day, she felt different, though. The drums seemed to be calling to her. She grabbed her sticks and climbed the platform and sat down. She waited a moogle for the stool to adjust itself beneath her, then gave her bass drum pedal three fierce stomps:
BAM! BAM! BAM!
The energy in the room flickered and rolled away from the star-shaped drum pad in powerful glittery waves. Scarlet smiled and whacked the cymbals—
CRASH! BANG!—
one at a time. She did it again…and again…and again…and again.
CRASH! BANG! CRASH! BANG-A-DEE-BANG! CRASH! BANG! CRASH! BANG-A-DEE! BANG-A-DEE! BOOM!
    With her eyes closed, she let her arms fly in a series of rolls and riffs, wherever they wanted to go. If her eyes had been open, she would have seen the energy aura surrounding her glow brighter and brighter pink. But the light grew so blinding she would have soon had to close them again.
    Scarlet had never played her drums so hard before or felt so energized. All her frustration, her bitterness, her confusion dissolved with every beat. Finally, after what felt like a moogle but could have been a staryear, Scarlet had to stop. Exhausted, she let go of her drumsticks and let them twirl in the air above the tom-tom while her head fell back. As her eyes opened, she let out a gasp at the dazzling sight of pure sparkling energy pulsing throughout the room.
    Did I do