Stella Brightwood's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Stella Brightwood wanted the ball's votes locked in before anyone else woke up to the game. She stood at the castle school's front steps, four club banners snapping above her, and counted her problem out loud. The vote opened in three days. She had her yellow star-crest uniform, her calf-length hair, and a boyfriend the whole school watched. What she did not have was a reason for anyone to picture her in the crown. Popularity fades when you stop reminding people of it. Stella never stopped. Brennor found her before class. He had a soccer ball under one arm and mud on his white shoes. "You're planning something," he said. "I can tell. You get quiet." He shifted the ball. "I hate when you get quiet." "I'm not quiet. I'm working." Stella pushed her glasses off her head and let them rest in her hair. "The court poster goes up Friday. Three queens. Me, Miku, Sakura. If I don't do something loud, I'm just a name on a list." Brennor nodded slow. "So do something loud." That was the whole answer. She almost laughed. Sometimes he was simple. Sometimes simple was the thing she'd missed. Stella went to the mall that afternoon. She walked past the fashion floors and the food court and stopped under a glowing shop sign shaped like a shooting star. A stationery store. She bought a set of white markers covered in bright neon stars. Then she bought poster board, more than she could carry alone. Brennor carried it. He didn't ask why. Back at school, Stella spread the boards across the cafeteria tables. She wrote in tall neon letters: a star party, tomorrow, in the quad. Free markers. Make your own crown. Vote for Stella. She drew her star crest on every board. She worked until her hand cramped and her five hours of sleep felt like two. The next morning the quad filled. Students crowded the tables. They grabbed the star markers and drew crowns on their arms, on paper, on each other. Someone taped a marker crown to the fountain. Stella stood in the middle of it, handing out pens, saying names, laughing at the right times. Brennor stood beside her because that was the point. The most popular couple, in yellow and white, at the center of the loudest thing on campus. By lunch, half the school had a star on their skin. Her name was on every mouth. The event worked. Then she saw the last marker box was empty, and a small line of students still waited. She turned to grab more from her bag. Brennor wasn't beside her anymore. He stood at the quad's edge. He was handing his own marker to the quiet girl from his practice team. She wasn't drawing a crown. She was drawing a panda. And Brennor was smiling at it the way he never smiled at Stella's stars.