Cosmic

The Flowers, PT. II

Estella paced up and down the length of her and Selene's shared room. For the past few weeks, Estella had been feeling on edge. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something just wasn't right. Estella began to review all the events that had occurred over the past few weeks. She and the other Star Darlings had suddenly found themselves annoyed with each other with no discernable cause, causing them to say mean or insensitive (she was still horrified by her carelessness towards Selene's sudden interest in her Star-Zap. Why hadn't it occurred to her that Selene would be using her newly charged Star-Zap to look at holo-pics of her family? It should have been the first thing Estella thought of). This had led to arguments (Juno and Callisto's argument about Callisto's grandfather's hat. Estella was glad that they had resolved that and that their friendship seemed stronger than ever since then) and them dismissing each other's feelings and interests (again, she was glad Halo and Faye were able to resolve that and seemed to be better than ever).

Recently, things had gotten even weirder if that was even possible. Lyra had started camping out in the living room. Estella still wasn't sure what had led to that. She had gone downstairs for a glass of milk (and to get Bitty a late night snack) and saw Lyra on the couch, sound asleep and looking pretty cozy at that. Lyra hadn't really explained it, all she said was that her and Vela's room had bad echoes in it to which Vela rolled her eyes at. Then, there was Halo and Faye's "spring cleaning" or whatever it was they were actually doing. The box pile on either side of Halo and Faye's door was starting to become precarious. One more day and Miss Wright would be asking them to move the boxes elsewhere. Then, there was Rhea and Maia's pact of silence. Estella had never heard their room so quiet. Usually, Rhea would be practicing her juggling with her soccer ball or shooting hoops or practicing her tennis serve. Maia would usually be strumming her guitar or humming lyrics under her breath as she wrote songs in her notebook. There hadn't been any of that these past few weeks.

Estella and Selene hadn't been spending much time in their room and when they did, they barely spoke to each other, just saying good morning or goodnight or informing the other that dinner was ready. Estella hated it, but it seemed to be keeping the number of disagreements that they had been having down. And speaking of not spending much time in their room, as of three days ago, after Skye's successful Wish Mission, Nova and Skye had joined Lyra down in the living room. As of right now, the loveseat looked like a sunset with Skye's stellpunto neatly folded over the left arm along with her pillow and Nova's blanket (an orange traditional Orishan quilt with a patchwork of stars, chatterbursts and stripalilies sewn onto it) messily strewn over the right arm, Nova's pillow thrown in the right corner of the couch.

But perhaps the weirdest thing of all, Juno and Callisto seemed to be getting along again. Now, Estella wasn't upset about that, not at all. In fact, she was glad that they were. But it was weird that while the rest of the Star Darlings were arguing, Callisto and Juno were joking and laughing along with each other. Estella furrowed her brows as her pacing sped up. Actually, when Estella thought about it, the only person in the house that hadn't been affected by the strange tension at all was Miss Wright. Why was that? Why was Miss Wright unaffected, but they weren't?

Estella stopped pacing and rubbed her forehead. Bitty, sensing her stress, flew up from the pillow she had been resting on and landed on Estella's head and started singing her Song of Contentment. Estella smiled up at the glowfur.

"Thanks, Bitty." Estella said, reaching up to grab the glowfur. Estella stroked the fur between Bitty's ears.

"I just can't figure it out." Estella said to the glowfur. "Why are we fighting all the time? What's changed?" Estella renewed her pacing. There had to be an explanation for this. Estella rubbed the side of her head and groaned as she felt a headache coming on.