Brave New World: Stargirl

Chapter 4

"So, how was everyone's first day in Blue Valley?" Pat asked as the Whitmore-Dugan family sat down to dinner that night.

"You were right about this place, it's awesome." Mike said eagerly as he began to stack food onto his plate.

"Really. I thought you said this place would suck." Pat asked with a chuckle.

"That was before I realized that because there's nothing for kids to do around here, so all they do is play video games and it turns out that in my computer design class, we get to use computers to create our own video games." Mike said eagerly.

"Really. What has the world come to if that's true." Courtney asked with a chuckle, though honestly, she had to admit that this town was not as bad as she thought it would be.

"It's true. My group and I are working on this game, Pizza Blood Party." Mike said eagerly, causing both of his parents to raise an eyebrow at that.

"Really. And your teachers have approved that?" Pat asked.

"Yeah." Mike said.

"Okay, I think I might need to have a talk with them about what's appropriate." Barbara said.

"Please don't. I don't want to lose all my new friends because my stepmom had to be a party pooper." Mike said.

"Fine." Barbara said and Courtney chuckled.

"What about you Court, did you join the gymnastics team?" Barbara asked.

"No it was shut down due to budget cuts. Our tax dollars at work." Courtney said and Barbara was disappointed.

"I also learned that small towns are also very close minded." Courtney said.

"So it sounds like you did not have a good first day." Pat said.

"I didn't say it was all bad. I did make a few friends today." Courtney said.

"So, it sounds like Blue Valley isn't so bad after all." Pat said.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I just said it didn't suck. I wouldn't say that this place is great yet." Courtney said.

"I'll take what I can get." Pat said.

"How was your first day at your garage?" Barbara asked him.

"It was good. I met one of the other owners today. Kind of a strange guy, a real fitness nut." Pat said.

"How was your first day at your new job mom?" Courtney asked.

"It was okay I guess. I got an actual office at the American Dream, which is more than I was expecting, but I don't think that my boss likes me that much." Barbara said.

"Well, give it some time. Like you told me about this town, maybe your new boss will warm up to you once he's gotten used to you being there." Courtney said.

"I hope so. However, I'm glad that at least you both are making friends." Barbara said, right as Mike's phone buzzed.

"Speaking of which, can I go over Johnny's house tonight? We want to play Fortnite for research." Mike said.

"Is that what you're calling it?" Courtney asked.

"What, if we're gonna design a video game, we need to learn more about what people want in their games." Mike said.

"Sure you do." Courtney said, rolling her eyes at him.

"It's learning." Mike insisted as Pat and Barbara chuckled at their sibling banter.

"Anyways, yes Mike, you can go, but you need to be home by 10:30 and if you're not I'll start texting you every 5 minutes till you come home." Pat said.

"Yeah, no need to do that. Thanks dad." Mike said as he finished eating before taking his plate to the kitchen and then heading out.

"What about you Court?" Barbara asked.

"I don't have any plans tonight, but my new friend Beth is going to be taking me out tomorrow to show me around Blue Valley and hopefully my friend Yolanda will be able to join us too." Courtney said.

"Why wouldn't she?" Pat asked.

"I don't know. I can tell that she's not ready to tell me the whole story yet and since we just met today, I'm not going to push it. She'll tell me when she's ready." Courtney said, though she had an idea, but she didn't want to say anything in case she was wrong.

"Well, we can go to the drive-in theatre tonight if you'd like." Pat offered.

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass. I think I'm gonna go try and catch up on some of the sleep I lost last night." Courtney said not unkindly, but just tiredly.

"Go." Barbara said as Courtney took her dishes to the sink before heading towards the stairs.

"It looks like she's starting to warm up to this place." Barbara said.

"Yeah and she's not giving me the cold shoulder anymore." Pat noted.

"I think that now that she's starting to warm up to Blue Valley, she'll come around to you." Barbara said and Pat nodded. But then his attention was drawn by the fact that he was seeing Courtney walk back downstairs, though what really concerned him was the glow in her eyes as she headed towards the basement.

"Courtney, are you okay? I thought you were going to get some sleep?" Barbara asked.

"So did I. But for some reason, as soon as my head touched my pillow, I felt a weird urge to go down to the basement. It's like there's something down there calling to me." Courtney said.

"That's ridiculous." Barbara said, but Pat knew it wasn't and he was silently cursing himself for keeping the object that he knew was calling to Courtney in the house in the first place when he should've stored it at his shop.

"I know, but I can't help it." Courtney said as she headed down to the basement, with both Pat and Barbara close behind her, since they wanted to see what was going on with her and Pat was desperately hoping that he was wrong, though he knew that he wasn't.

When Courtney arrived in the basement, she felt herself drawn to the same crate she'd seen glow yesterday while they unpacked. Especially since whatever was inside was glowing again and this time, it was glowing even more brightly than before.

"What is going on?" Courtney asked as she approached the crate and as soon as she touched it, it started to rattle, like whatever was in there was alive and wanted out.

"Courtney, don't. You don't know what'll happen." Barbara said, but Courtney was beyond listening as she found herself in some kind of trance as she opened the crate to reveal the same staff she'd seen in her dreams.

"This is what's been causing my dreams." Courtney realized as she picked the staff up and pulsed with energy in her hands.

"Courtney, put that down." Pat said as he groaned at the sight of her holding the Cosmic staff.

"What is this thing?" Courtney asked.

"It's called the Cosmic Staff." Pat said as he moved to take it from her, but Courtney held it out of reach and the staff responded as such.

"Pat, what is that thing, how do you know what it is and why is my daughter holding it?" Barbara asked and Pat sighed.

"That is a very long story Barb." Pat said.

"Well, we've got time. Start sharing." Courtney said and Pat nodded, knowing that he wasn't getting out of this.

"It's a very long story, so I guess I better start from the beginning." Pat said as he felt both his wife and stepdaughter's eyes on him as he continued.