Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass

do?”
    The three of us beam at each other while we wait for a reply. A few seconds later: “You don’t do anything. We get a large number of errant signals a month. When your work unit is complete, it will upload automatically. If we find a signal that merits looking into, we will contact you with the information we have on record.”
    Our collective bubble bursts. “That’s it?” Kenny says, sagging into the other chair. Ryan nudges my shoulder. “Ask how long it takes.”
    I type the question, and the reply says, “Could be a few weeks.”
    “Okay,” I type, slower this time. “Thanks.”
    “Well that’s that,” I say, staring at the patterns, which have returned to normal. “I guess we wait.”
    No one says anything for a minute, then Kenny says, “Pretty cool!” and Ryan and I say, “Yeah it is!” and we start laughing because it IS pretty cool. It’s REALLY, REALLY cool! Then I remember I was on my way to the office and I leave them high-fiving and whooping.
    I hope Mom and Dad are back because it’s getting pretty busy already. More arrivals are making their way to their cabins as I hurry down the road. I can feel the grin from finding a possible signal still splitting my face. When I round the corner toward the office, I see a girl about my age sitting on the stoop, her chin in her hands. She doesn’t look happy. I hope she and her family haven’t been waiting long.
    “Can I help you?” I ask her as I approach. I stop a few feet away and stare. She is the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen outside of magazines. She has blazing blue eyes and long brown hair that shimmers where the sun hits it.
    “Not unless you can get me a different set of parents,” she says firmly. She gestures with her thumb to her parents and a younger girl. The others are talking excitedly, and turning in circles to point at different things. I’m about to interrupt when the younger girl suddenly does a back flip. In midair! Just standing there! My jaw falls open. Behind me, the girl on the stoop sighs loudly.
    “That was really cool,” I call out to the younger girl.
    “Thanks!” she replies, chewing happily on her ponytail.
    I go over to the parents. “Are you trying to check in? My mom just got caught up somewhere, but I can help you.”
    To my surprise, they both reach out and hug me!
    “You must be Ally!” the mother says. “We’ve heard a lot about you.”
    “Um, you have?”
    They pull away and I stand stiff. I can’t remember when the last time people I hadn’t met before hugged me. Never?
    “It’s US!” they exclaim, their eyes shining. “The Holdens!”
    “Um, okay.” Mom sometimes gets chatty with the people she makes reservations for, but she must have really bonded with these people. “Let’s go in.” I turn and hurry past the girl on the stoop and push open the screen door. I grab the clipboard with the daily arrivals off the desk and scan the list.
    “I’m sorry,” I say, looking up. “I don’t see your name here.”
    They laugh. “We’re a few days early,” the father says. “We just couldn’t wait to get settled in our new home.”
    I smile. It’s nice when people come to think of the Moon Shadow as their home away from home. “Well, I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”
    “This office,” the mother says, “it’s attached to the main house, right?”
    I nod, looking around for Mom’s reservation book. She must have it with her.
    “We’d love to see the rooms later, if that’s okay,” the mom continues. “Just to peek.”
    I’m taken aback. No one has asked to see our house before. I don’t know how to respond. The girl on the stoop calls into the room. “Don’t forget you said I get first pick of rooms, not Melanie! You promised!”
    Her parents roll their eyes at each other. “We didn’t forget, Bree.”
    “Do you know if our boxes arrived yet?” the father asks. “They were supposed to get here yesterday. About twenty of them?”
    I shake my head. This