She followed Zadie down the long corridor from their room. Neither girl said a word until they stopped in front of a set of double glass doors and a sign reading, FOR USE ONLY FROM SUNS UP UNTIL SUNS DOWN.
“Shouldn’t that say sunup until sundown?”
“No. We have two suns. Suns down is curfew. You do understand what that means, don’t you?” Zadie asked.
“Sure. Curfew means to be inside, or at home, right?”
“Correct. Our rules mandate curfew enforcement from half bell before suns up till half bell after suns down. Tonight, curfew begins at six-and-a-half bells. You must use the admissions door and ask for permission to enter after curfew.” Zadie pushed open the door.
“Wow. This place is something straight out of Disney World.” Bubble-domed roofs topped houses and shops on each side of the wide, clean flower-bordered streets.
“What’s Disney World?”
“It’s a place in Florida. That’s where I live. There’s a real Cinderella’s castle, neat shops, shows, and fantastic rides. Everybody goes there—kids, teenagers, and grown-ups, too. Does this place have a name and rides?”
“The name of this town is White Feathers. The school is White Feathers Academy, but we call it WFA. We have trucks, airboats, ABCs, and aero wheels. Is that what you mean when you say rides?”
Zadie pointed up to the red ball hovering in the sky above them and the blazing gold ball moving toward it. “See the suns. That one, the Red Sun, rises in the east and sets over Tranquil Bay. The Gold Sun rises in the west and sets over the Rogue Sea. They cross each other in the middle of the day.”
“Come on. If we walk fast, we can see the park and get back before suns down.” Zadie led the way past shops with names like Jot It Down, Star Works, The Dripping Canvas, Tunes, and an ice cream shop called Chilling Berries. They zigzagged through alleyways, along cobblestone sidewalks and dirt paths until they arrived at a wooden boardwalk separating the sandy shoreline of Tranquil Bay from the park.
A team of boys raced past them, airborne on unicycles, followed by a girl riding a ball-shaped vehicle. A group of young artists were hanging their paintings on a rope stretched between trees. Her mind buzzed with questions about this new school where everyone seemed to be busy and happy.
The sound of happy giggles got her attention before she saw the three girls working on sparkly items under a sprawling tree. The girls were identical in looks, sounded alike, and wore identical outfits except for the color.
“Hey, Zadie, come see what we’ve made,” they chorused.
They headed toward the girls and their shell-loaded table.
“Hi. This is my roommate, Halo. It’s her first day here. This is Amber.”
The girl with golden stones on her headband waved and smiled.
“I’m Opal.” The girl in a white blouse and wearing a headband of milky stones introduced herself.
“And, I’m Star.” Her blouse was red, as was the glittering red headband holding her blond curls in place. “Want to see the new necklace?” She held up a beautiful seashell chain.
“These are cool.” She started to touch one of the shell necklaces but pulled her hand back when Zadie flinched.
“How do people tell you apart?” She searched their faces for a distinguishing mark.
“They don’t,” Star giggled.
“But Zadie knows,” Amber volunteered.
“How can you tell?”
“It gets easier the longer you know them.” Zadie shrugged, reached down to finger an odd shell loosely wrapped in tissue. “This is new. Where’d you find it?”
“We think it might be a sea creature.” Star lifted the shell from its wrapping and handed it to Zadie.
“See, tiny eyes and a mouth,” Opal pointed out.
“And it’s like, a little sea person,” Amber finished.
“Weird. You find it on the beach?” Zadie asked.
“No,” the three girls answered together in one nervous voice.
“We found them at a street sale,” Star answered, her head bobbing up and down in perfect unison with her sisters.
“Oh.” Zadie arched an eyebrow and whispered, “You didn’t go down there, did you?”
“Of course not.” Opal rolled her eyes and pretended to be insulted.
“You know it’s off-limits,” Amber whispered, checking to see if anyone could hear.
“We would never do that,” Star finished.
“Yeah, I know. They’re pretty.” Zadie dropped the shell back on the table. “We need to go now. See you.”
“Here. This is for you.” Star picked up the starfish, threaded it through a green ribbon, and handed it to Halo.
“Oh, it’s beautiful.” The blue starfish glowed with an unknown energy. “I can’t take it.” She offered it back to Star.
Amber plucked it out of her hand, walked behind her, and tied it around her neck.
“It’s a good luck charm. See, it glows when you touch it,” Opal said.
“Thank you, really, thanks. I’ll wear it every day. Every day until I go back home,” she added.
“We have to go.” Zadie sounded impatient.
“Okay. Hey, slow down. The suns are still up. Are you mad at me? What did I do?”
“We need to hurry if we want to see the fountain.”
“Did I do something wrong? It’s the necklace, isn’t it? I’ll give it back.” She blew out a breath, matching two of Zadie’s short steps with one stride of her long legs.
“No, it’s that, well, they don’t usually give their stuff away.”
“Why not?”
“Making jewelry is their talent. Every student has a special angel gift,” Zadie explained without slowing down.
Halo stopped in the middle of the path. “Angels? Gifts? What are you talking about?”
“Everybody has a talent. We present our best talent to the angels on Birth Day. My talent is music. I’m writing music for my water drum. The one in our room. I want to study with the music angels, maybe even try to become one. Amber, Opal, and Star make jewelry. They want to study with the angels of the elements. These are the angels who work with the natural elements of the planets such as metals, jewels, archeological digs, and other beautiful treasures. Do you know what your gift is?”
She didn’t know how to answer. Who would think a twelve-year-old would know what she wanted to be when she grew up? She wasn’t even sure she would grow up.
“Angels. We’re here to learn how to be angel assistants. All of us arrived here from different villages in the galaxies to improve our talents. Didn’t you learn about your talent in your village?” Zadie asked.
“No. No. I’m not sure I have a village. I thought when people died, well, I thought if I was good and didn’t do anything really bad, I’d be an angel. I didn’t know you had to study and have a talent.” She wrinkled her brow, trying to make sense of things happening to her. “What happens if you don’t have a talent?”
“You’re twelve, right?” Zadie asked.
“Yeah.”
“Twelve-year-olds have a talent. The housemothers in the villages throughout the galaxies help sort out the babies and put them in the right study group. Some of the infants are transported to realms dedicated to specific studies when they are newborns. After our sixth Birth Day, we can join in one of the myriads of villages, if we don’t want to study for a special realm. I want to present my talent on Birth Day, so I am assigned to the music department and practice my talent every day. Isn’t that the way you studied in your village, or the place you came from?”
“Wow.” She needed to sit down. “What’s the difference between myriads of angel villages and realms of angels?”
“The myriad villages are the billions or maybe even trillions of homes where angels live in large cities or planets throughout the galaxy. They use their talents to make the city or planet a better place to live. Angels in the realms are more powerful. They specialize in things like science, medicine, music, the arts, and technical stuff. They help people and things in other worlds.”
“How do you know all that?”
“It’s all in beginning history. Didn’t you study history of the planets, galaxies, and angels where you lived?”
“No. I mean, we read Bible stories about the way the world was created. Not so much about planets and worlds, though.” She shrugged. “How long have you lived here?”
“I came to White Feathers on my twelfth birthday, just like the other students at White Feathers. I was a baby when I entered the galaxy, so I don’t really know exactly how old I was when I arrived. Almost everyone here grew up in one of the villages. White Feathers Academy is the best place to study to earn a place with the angels.”
“Then, why am I here?”