Three's a Crowd: 4 (Star Girl) Read online

  “I had no choice,” said Addie. “Astron Girl couldn’t go and…”

  “And if Orbital 2 wasn’t up to going out either, then you should have stayed put and called in. You did have choices and you chose incorrectly, I’m afraid.”

  “Yes, Ms. Styles,” said Addie. “I’m sorry. But I did manage to bring those plants back to life.”

  “Yes, you did,” said Ms. Styles. “And you and Orbital 2 did destroy the filter screen and sunlight is now falling back on Planet Rednessis. Still, I don’t think you girls will score well. We’ll soon find out.”

  Olivia looked at the ground. “May we go now, Ms. Styles?” she said.

  “Yes. I can see you two girls have more to talk about,” said Ms. Styles. “I hope this mission has helped you to understand each other a little better.”

  “It has,” said Addie.

  Addie and Olivia sat on either side of Miya’s bed in the infirmary. “Nothing’s broken,” said Miya. “I just have to stay off my ankle for a few days and see how it goes.”

  “That’s good,” said Olivia. “Look, I’m really, really sorry about trying to get a bad score out there. Valentina said if I made sure we didn’t do well, I could go to her party.”

  “You’ll get that invitation for sure then,” said Addie. “I think we did pretty bad out there, but at least those poor reptaliens will be all right now. And I heard that Valentina and Sabrina did really well on their mission together. I wonder what the scoreboard will look like after today.”

  “I don’t even want to go to Valentina’s party now,” said Olivia. “I’ve been pretty dumb lately. And you guys were so good to me out there. I’m sorry I got so scared and left you to do it alone, Addie, but I was honestly totally freaked out. I’ve never felt so scared.”

  “I know,” said Addie. “I could tell you were. So what are you going to do now?”

  “I’d like to go to your party, if I still can,” said Olivia.

  “I'd like that. Since Valentina’s party is on the same night, though, it might just be the three of us!” Addie said. “And we’ll try harder too, Olivia. It would be better if three girls could share a dorm room. Then none of us would feel left out.”

  Just then Grace walked in. “Hi, guys,” she said. “I heard about what happened. How’s your ankle, Miya?”

  “Badly sprained,” said Miya. “It will be better soon, though.”

  “Hey, Addie,” said Grace. “I saw on SpaceChat that everyone you invited is going to your party. How cool is that? It’ll be a really fun night!”

  “Awesome,” said Addie with a big grin. “Now I can’t wait until Saturday night! I’m just going to go and say hi to Space Surfer. Do you know where he is?”

  “He’s in the isolation room,” said Miya. “He’s not allowed visitors. He has a vomiting bug and they don’t want anyone to catch it.”

  “Oh, gross,” said Addie. “Poor thing. I’ll just send him a text then.”

  “Say hi from all of us,” said Grace.

  “Will do,” said Addie, and she took out her SpaceBerry.

  Star Girl

  Hey, sorry you're sick.

  Space Surfer

  Hi Star Girl! I'm feeling a little better. I'm SO bored.

  Star Girl

  Glad you're feeling better.

  Space Surfer

  Yeah. I'll be back out there in no time. What have you been up to?

  Star Girl

  I'm just back from a mission but we didn't do very well. Missing our usual pilot. Ha ha!

  Space Surfer

  We can't win 'em all, Star Girl. But we can try.

  Check out all of Star Girl’s space adventures at www.capstoneyoungreaders.com

  Star Girl is first published in the United States in 2015

  by Picture Window Books

  A Capstone imprint

  1710 Roe Crest Drive

  North Mankato, Minnesota 56003

  www.capstoneyoungreaders.com

  First published in 2011

  by Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd

  15–19 Claremont Street

  South Yarra, Vic 3141

  Australia

  Text © Louise Park 2011

  Cover © Kyla May 2011

  Illustrations © Melanie Matthews and Kyla May 2011

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on the Library of Congress website.

  ISBN: 978-1-4795-8278-5 (library binding)

  ISBN: 978-1-4795-8282-2 (paperback)

  ISBN: 978-1-4795-8474-1 (eBook PDF)

  ISBN: 978-1-4795-8596-0 (eBook)

  Summary: Planet Rednessis has been plunged into total darkness, and the reptaliens are turning on each other. When Space Cadet Star Girl and her two besties investigate, they learn that being kept in the dark can be disastrous. Can the cadets sort themselves out in time to save both the planet and its inhabitants?

  Designer: Natascha Lenz