Scarlet Discovers True Strength by Ahmet Zappa Page A

easy enough to do.
    Arden nodded. “I tried to. But they thought it was a joke. They just laughed and said stuff like ‘Can you imagine? Afraid of butterflies!’”
    â€œSo…they
are
mean,” said Scarlet.
    â€œNo, they weren’t being mean at all. They thought I was being funny. They thought it had to be a joke.” Arden kicked a rock and sent it bouncing off the curb and into the street. “I guess I could have told them I was serious…except then, instead of laughing at the idea, they would have laughed at me.”
    â€œSo what are you going to do?” Scarlet asked. She reached for Ophelia and pulled her near. She could sense a wish a breath away and wanted to make sure Ophelia heard it.
    â€œWhat I’ve been doing, I guess: making up excuses to stay away. So I’ll get an F on the project and Chloe and Sydney will never talk to me again. But what else
can
I do? I
wish
I wasn’t afraid of butterflies…but we all know wishing doesn’t help.” She took a few steps away to kick another rock while Scarlet hung back and pumped her fist.
    Yes!
she thought as a sharp but not unpleasant jolt ran up and down her spine.
    Scarlet turned to wink at Ophelia, but Ophelia’s eyes were on the ground.
    â€œOphelia!” Scarlet nudged her with an elbow. “Your Wisher just voiced her wish! She doesn’t want to be afraid of butterflies!” she hissed.
    â€œReally? Oh! Sorry,” Ophelia said. She glanced over her shoulder at Arden. “What do I do now? Oh…and what are butterflies? Are they, like, wings or something you can put on toasted Wishling bread?”

After a quick explanation of what butterflies were (“They’re basically like flutterfocuses, only they don’t change color or light up.”), Scarlet told Ophelia her plan.
    â€œIt’s easy. We learned about these kinds of fear wishes in Wish Fulfillment, remember? No? Right. Of course you don’t. Never mind. Basically, we have to get her to talk more about her fear and where it comes from. Then we have to reassure her that butterflies mean her no harm. Then we need to introduce her to butterflies. It’s supposed to be little by little…but of course we don’t have a lot of time. Luckily, there’s that butterfly attraction she talked about—which is perfect! We just take her there!
Zap!
Done!”
    â€œTalk, reassure, introduce,” said Ophelia. She nodded so her pigtails bounced like springs. “Star salutations, Scarlet. I’ll try. I really will.” Ophelia’s chin was trembling, but she managed a smile. And somehow, before Scarlet could help herself, she was returning a grin.
    Scarlet could feel it inside her….
Ew!
Something was warming up and softening, like stars melting into thick molten glass. Scarlet tried to will it all back into sharp jagged crystals, but no—it was too late.
    It was easy to be mad at Ophelia for taking her place, and even easier to scold her for making so many mistakes. And yet this whole situation wasn’t Ophelia’s fault any more than it was Scarlet’s. The most important thing, whether Scarlet liked it or not, was to help Ophelia as much as she could to make Arden’s wish come true.
    â€œNo,” Scarlet told Ophelia sternly. “You’re a Star Darling. You need to do more than try. You need to grant this wish. So go!” She pointed to Arden, who was walking away. “What are you waiting for?”
    They caught up to Arden at the corner. She grinned at them warily. “So now you know my secret. You probably think I’m super weird.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” said Scarlet. “Everyone’s scared of something. Take Ophelia here.” She shot a quick nod at her partner.
    â€œMe? Oh, yes!
Me!
I’m afraid of everything!” Ophelia said. “Black holes…asteroids…gamma radiation…and even those energy