Scarlet Discovers True Strength Read Online Free PDF

that?
Scarlet wondered. There was no other source she could see.
    Gradually, the energy faded, but Scarlet’s clarity did not. From the beginning, she had suspected there was something not right about Ophelia’s replacing her. Now she was sure. And if
she
didn’t get to the bottom of it, who else on Starland would? Maybe Vega could help her. But maybe not. Who knew?
And why wait to see,
Scarlet thought as her eyes fell on her roommate’s jam-packed costume closet,
when I have all I need to do it on my own?

The door to Scarlet’s dorm room slid open and a small, distinguished-looking man stepped into the hall. He wore a long silver topcoat with a wide forest-green collar and half-moon-shaped buttons as big as ears. His own ears were covered by a burnt-orange fedora tilted so far forward it concealed his face. The only feature not hidden, in fact, was the very tip of his emerald beard. Pausing, he stroked the bright green whiskers as his head swiveled right and left. Satisfied that the hall was empty, he raised a star-studded shiny black combat boot and boarded the Cosmic Transporter as it rolled past him.
    Scarlet hoped her disguise (courtesy of her roommate’s closet) was convincing. The first test was the Bot-Bot guard at the front door.
    She brushed past it, keeping her head down and her velvet collar up.
    â€œStar greetings, Scarlet,” the Bot-Bot guard said cheerfully.
    Scarlet sighed. “Star greetings,” she mumbled without turning. Bot-Bot guards were a useless gauge, she guessed. They could read an aura a floozel away. Hopefully, the Starling adults where she was going would be easier to trick.
    Once outside, Scarlet headed directly for the enormous star-shaped building between the hedge maze and the Celestial Café. Although it wasn’t geographically at the center of campus, it was the hub in every other way. Halo Hall, as it was called, housed all the Starling Academy classrooms, as well as the Astral Auditorium, where assemblies and performances were held. In the hall, too, were various offices, including that of Lady Stella, the headmistress. Its most spectacular feature was the gleaming lone white tower attached to the Wish-House. At the very top sat the Wishworld Surveillance Deck, the platform where Starlings could observe Wishworld and its Wishlings through telescopes and where they waited to catch a shooting star when their day for a Wish Mission came at last.
    Normally, a Starling walked up the white starmarble stairs and entered through the front doors. Since this starday was far from normal, however, Scarlet hurried around the Bot-Bot guard at the front and made her way into Halo Hall through the back. After all, she wasn’t going to some old class in Stellation four or five. She was on a mission to right what was wrong.
    If only she knew exactly where she needed to go.
    As far as offices went, Scarlet was familiar with only two: that of the perky guidance counselor, Lady Solara, who had made it her mission to “light Scarlet up,” and Lady Stella’s. Both were offices Scarlet hoped to stay well clear of, since she didn’t want to see either administrator just then. Fortunately, they were clustered with other faculty offices in Stellation one and she was fairly certain that the office she was looking for was in Stellation two…or maybe three.
    She decided to try the second wing first, since it was closest. Like every hall, its walls and floor were made of gleaming rainbow-hued starmarble. In that wing, they gave off a pink-tinged glow. Up near the ceiling ran a series of windows, letting light from outside shine in. Scarlet hurried down the hall, passing door after door. As she did, she lifted her hat brim ever so slightly to read the holo-signs outside of each.
    SUPPLY ROOM , read one star-shaped plaque. STAR-ZAP REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE , announced the next, followed by TECHNOLOGY , SWIFT-TRANSPORTATION SERVICES , and WISH ENERGY MANAGEMENT