Dedication

For Mom, because she first taught me to write my name

Jackie, because she’s been there

The rest of my family because I have one

And Tana, because I promised in 9th grade.

Mr. C.S. Lewis, Brian Jaques, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

For Mr. Deese who taught me to read,

And for Dr. Suess who taught me to rhyme.

Mrs. Roth who helped me write, and Mrs. Stacey because I promised I’d finish one.

For any child who’s heart is touched

For anyone who’s found an invisible door

And opened it.

This is for them.

Chapter 1

“Order, order! We must have order in the room.” The girls had been talking about the previous night, before the meeting started, and now Self-Proclaimed Judge Rose O’Nell was getting tired of the endless chatter. “You must be quiet. Thank you. We all know about last night, or at least I can assume that by your noise,” she paused here, “Alex snuck into the our room… again, this time with eggs. Miss Henry, I call you to the stand.”

Angelica Henry was the oldest of the girls who lived in the room which was attacked. She was 13 years old, had medium-length wavy blonde hair, and, most importantly, had been awake during the time of Alex’s egg attack. “I had been having trouble falling asleep last night, so I was up late. Then, all of the sudden I heard a noise in the hall, and a second later it was raining eggs! It had to have been dozens.” A sudden cough from one of the girls in the audience brought Angelica back to reality. She paused for a moment before correcting herself. “Well… I think it might have been four or five. Anyways, I jumped off after them, but they were gone. I then woke the girls and we cleaned up the mess.”

“Thank you Miss Henry. You may now step down,” said Judge O’Nell, nodding at Angelica. “Now we have to decide what we are to do about this attack. I am tempted to tell Miss Mallorie, or Mrs. Kenel… on account of the stolen eggs, but have not yet made a decision. Any objections?”

A girl with short brown hair who was about the age of 11 jumped up, “Rosie, you know that we can’t! We can’t bring ourselves down to that level. Where’s our pride?”

“You will address me as Judge O’Nell while at court, Sarah.”

“Why should I if you don’t address me formally?” Rosie made to interject here, but Sarah did not let her. “Anyways, that’s not the point. We can’t tattle-tale. We might as well surrender! Alex and Tony don’t deserve the triumph. Do you honestly believe that they will care about getting in trouble if they knew we lost?”

“Oh, you’re probably right,” Rose sighed, letting the teenager in her show through. “It’s just that Mrs. Kenel will be wondering where the eggs have gone. Are there anymore comments?” She took a quick look around the room, viewing five girls attending. The younger two looked a bit disinterested and she vaguely wondered why they even bothered to come at all. “No? Okay, let’s have a vote. All in favor of keeping the adults out of this dispute, raise your right hand,” Five hands shot up. “Okay, now we still have to decide our next counter-attack, so after this meeting I would like to speak with our captain. You are dismissed.”

The girls began to leave the room while Angelica sat down to talk with her friend, who was now going by the name “General O’Nell”. Sarah waited for the other girls to leave before saying goodbye herself and headed straight towards her neglected chore in the kitchen.

Sarah slowly opened the kitchen door to see a woman in her late forties with dark brown hair with some gray ones mixed in. The girl slipped in and the woman turned to face her.

“Hello, Mrs. Kenel. Sorry I’m late… we had an emergency meeting.”

“Emergency meeting? What was this one about?” Mrs. Kenel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Sorry, I’m under oath not to tell anyone.”

Mrs. Kenel held back a laugh and stated, “I surely hope it has nothing to do with the four eggs I discovered missing this morning.”

Sarah bit her lip and pulled some stray hair behind her ear. After a moment’s pause she decided to completely ignore the question. “So… what am I doing today?”

“Dishes, of course,” Mrs. Kenel sighed. They’ve been sitting there all mornin’ and I’ve had to leap about them all day. If you want lunch, you’ve better get going.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sarah started hastily on the breakfast dishes. This was her least favorite chore, and she was thankful that she only had to do it twice a week. She scrubbed a wooden bowl that had been used for their porridge that morning, wishing she had done her chore earlier so the food wouldn’t be so hard to get off.

After dishes it was lunch time, and she sat at her usual table of friends. “So, did you think of anything good, Rosie?” Sarah asked when the girls sat down.

“Not really,” Rose replied. “Nothing original anyway.”

“It doesn’t have to be original as long as it works,” a girl named Susie rebutted. She had medium length straight blond hair.

“I know, but if it’s original they won’t expect it, you know?” Rose replied, with a tone of disappointment.

“Why don’t either of you ever try to get higher ranks?” Angelica asked. “It’s a lot of fun being a captain.”

“You’re the only captain,” said Susie.

At this Angelica simply shrugged and said, “Well, you’ve ought to try it sometime.”

Sarah looked up and nodded. The boys could be seen in the background laughing. “Probably making plans,” Sarah said to no one in particular.

“Isn’t he always?” Susie answered.

an: Thanks for reading the first chapter of Our Star. I am going to attempt to update once a week, though I can’t guarantee it.