A Thousand Shining Stars

Truthfully, I never thought it would come to this. Surely I wasn’t one of those kids that stayed out late after dark, roaming the streets with their pack of, as my parents would disdainfully put it, “hoodlums”. I never saw myself as the kind of girl who would dare to attempt at getting anything past the ever-watchful parental eyes that loomed in every corner of her life.

No, I’ve always been a rule-follower, a weekly church-goer, an A-plus student.

But then again, even God’s most perfect souls have their secrets.

Now, I’m not saying I’m a perfect soul by any means, but I’d say I’m closer than at least eighty-percent of the students at West Mason High. That’s my school, where I’ve spent the last eleven and a half years dodging the perverts that walk the halls and maintaining a steady 4.0 GPA; successfully placing myself in Golden Child status among my parents.

To maintain said Golden Child status, takes a lot of work. I am always studying when I’m not at school. And if I’m not studying, I’m interning at my parents’ law firm. Both my parents are lawyers, a true match made in heaven. They met at Harvard and were married right after graduation. I think they’ve got a similar plan in mind for me.

Being a Golden Child means no late nights, a limited circle of friends exclusively reaching for the same academic status, and never wasting time doing anything that won’t benefit my future career in law. Those were rules I lived by, since birth, until Junior year when everything changed.

I still wonder sometimes if the decision I made was a mistake. It breaks every Golden Child rule. But then again, it’s a universal truth known to every perfect child: when you reach Golden Child status, you can get away with murder. With parental trust, comes power. But you must be careful because if you slip up once, you’ll never get it back.

And so, when the opportunity came last year for me to break every Golden Child rule I knew and followed with religious precision, I recognized the power I had gained for the first time and decided to use it.

No, of course I don’t like lying to my parents and going behind their backs, but I think everyone in The Challenge would agree that without our little group, we may not have held onto our mental sanity through these difficult last years of high school.

I’m headed to The Challenge now, although my parents think I’m going to “study group”. In fact, that’s what we all tell our parents, so if one of us is ever suspected, we’ve got plenty of students and parents to vow that our “study group” is legit. Which of course, it is not. It is however, the only real fun we get to enjoy as kids, and that is something worth all the lies in the world to keep a secret.

I glance out the window of my parents’ two-thousand and thirteen Honda Pilot, and into the dusk that is settling over the acres of cornfields that surround me. My parents firmly believe in country-living, which is something hard to understand considering their career choices. They say the fresh-air and quiet calm them and help them solve difficult problems. They tell me I’ll understand it one day; the bustling city is no place for a true professional.

My destination, Nordstrom Park, is in the heart of the city. It’s a buzzing grassy oasis in the middle of the high-rises, where important people go to walk their chihuahuas. It’s usually nearly empty at the time we meet there, except for the occasional jogger. It’s the perfect secret place to meet.

The night air is chilly through my open window reminding me that winter is just around the corner. I pass the last cornfield and drive into the city, its warm glow pulling me in. It’s already hopping with nightlife; women in tight dresses and men in suits walk in and out of restaurants holding hands. College-age kids are driving around in their sports cars, revving the engines at every red light.

I weave through the traffic carefully, doing my best to avoid squashing any pedestrians, and approach the park entrance, pulling into a spot in the tiny parking lot. I recognize Wally’s truck and Emma’s Prius. I’m not the first one here. I’m also not the last, I notice, when James pulls into the spot next to me in his shining silver Mustang. His father’s rich and we all know it, but James isn’t stuck up like most rich kids, which is why he's found favor in our group.

“Hey,” He says, stepping out of his car and smiling.

I offer my own smile back. “What’s up?” I ask.

“The sky?” He offers. I roll my eyes and huff, turning to walk towards the park entrance.

“Hey, hey,” he jogs around his car to catch up with me. “Okay, I’ll admit it, that one was bad, but you have to admit, I have my moments.”

“James, you’ve never had a “moment” in the entirety of your existence. Just because you laugh at your dry humor doesn’t mean anyone else does.”

“Fair point,” he concedes. We walk in silence a few moments down the winding park path toward the pavilion up ahead. I can see the rest of the group gathered there waiting for us.

“Hey, do you remember who's the Challenger this week?” I ask James.

“I think Wally is,” he says, stuffing his hands in his pockets and grinning. “That means it’s gonna be good.”

“It’s always good,” I say, giving his shoulder a tiny shove.

Wally is clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention as we approach the pavilion, illuminated by the moon’s glow.

“Nice of the love birds to finally join us,” Wally grins, eyeing us knowingly. My cheeks warm and my hands turn sweaty. I glance at James beside me to gauge his reaction. He laughs off the comment, avoiding eye contact.

This isn’t the first time we’ve received this kind of treatment. In fact, it’s been going on for awhile now, even though we are clearly not a “thing”, and I never even see him outside of The Challenge.

 But truthfully, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want something to be there, its just…never come up.

After the snickers die down, Wally clears his throat in that authoritative way only a respected person can. He’s studying to be a doctor and unlike me, he’s happy with it. He’s proud to think that one day he could be saving lives, but just like the rest of us, his parents are strict about all academics and no fun.

“I’ve done my best,” he says, passing out sheets of paper to everyone gathered. He hands me one and someone switches on the overhead light fixture so we can see what we’re reading.

I scan through the list quickly evaluating each item for its potential.

“As you all know, the harder the task, the more points you’ll rake in for it.” Wally can hardly contain his excitement as he hands out the last paper in the stack. “And don’t forget to get photographic proof of each task you accomplish. You have one hour. Ready?”

“Hold up,” someone says from the back of the crowd. “‘Get a picture with Ed Sheeran’? How is that even possible?”

Wally smiles. “He’s in concert tonight at the Rave on the other side of town.”

“There must be, like, fifty security guards crawling that place, it’s never gonna work,” someone else chimes in.

“Well,” Wally states. “It’s worth three hundred points, so if you want to win badly enough, you’ll get creative.”

I look over the list again. “What does ‘find a thousand shining stars mean’?” I ask. “We’re in a city, it’s never gonna be dark enough to find even one star.”

Wally smiles. “As I said, folks, get creative.” There’s a wave of whispers through the crowd as teams discuss strategy.

I look at the bottom of my paper to see who I’m with tonight. As challenge maker, it’s Wally’s job to pick the teams, and just as I suspected, I see my name next to James Peterson.

I look up and find James watching me. He makes his way over. “We got this.”

Wally claps his hands again to silence the crowd. “Alright everyone. One hour. Ready…”

People make their way to the edge of the pavilion, readying themselves to take off in various directions.

“To my car first,” James says, taking my hand and pulling me toward the edge facing the parking lot. “We’ll make a plan from there.

“Set…”

I plant my feet firmly in the concrete, ready to push off into a sprint.

“GO!”

Everyone takes off running. A few teams are headed to the parking lot along with us, but we pull ahead. We skid around the corner onto the asphalt where the concrete park path ends and weave through the cars until we make it to James’ Mustang, fling the doors open, and drop inside.

“Okay, okay,” he says between breaths. “Where to first?” He’s already starting the car.

“The concert,” I say. “It’ll be easy.”

He hesitates, hands on the wheel. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure! Move it!” The other teams are already pulling out of the parking lot. “Wally said to get creative and so it got me thinking and I have an idea,” I gush, still out of breath.

“It had better be a good one.” James sends the tires squealing as he pulls out of the parking lot.

The city flies by outside the windows, a rainbow of colors; a mixtape of sounds. The Rave isn’t far away, only a five-minute drive, but it feels like a waste of precious seconds to be sitting in a car doing nothing.

“Do you have any ideas on what we’ll do next?” I ask James, to fill the silence that has fallen between us.

“If we can manage to pull off this concert thing, we won’t need to do much else to win,” he says. “‘Finding Marty outside of the cafe’ sounds easy. That stupid cat is always dumpster diving.”

“Yeah, but it’s only worth twenty points.”

“It’ll be quick, we pass right by there on our way back from the Rave.”

I find a pen in the glove box and put a tiny star next to “Find Marty outside Cafe Olivia”.

“What else?” I read the items to him as he drives.

“How much is ‘find a thousand shining stars worth’?” He asks.

“Four hundred points, but it would take forever to get far enough from the city to be able to see even a few stars.”

He contemplates this. “We could do it,” he says after a moment of silence.

“No way, it’s impossible.”

“Not impossible, just difficult. Everything on the list has to be possible. It’s the rules.”

“I don’t know…”

“I bet no one else will do it.”

“Because any rational human being would see that it’s too risky! What if we don’t get back in time? We’ll get disqualified.”

James is pulling into the packed Rave parking lot now.

“Cory, it’s a point jackpot,” he reasons. “We won’t be able to come up with four hundred points doing all these easy things around the city. We have to go for it. Live a little.”

“Okay, but we’re skipping the cat then,” I say, crossing out the star I drew.

“Fine,” he says, but it’s not a convincing “fine”.

The parking lot is filled to the brim and cars are overflowing into the grass surrounding it. There’s no way we’re going to find an empty spot anywhere near the event entrance.

“Do you know where you’re going?” James asks.

“I think so.”

“Good,” he says, putting the car in park in the middle of the driveway between the front two rows of parked cars. “Let’s make this fast.”

“You can’t be serious,” I say. “We're so not allowed to park here.”

“No problem if we don’t get caught. Emphasis on the fact that we need to hurry.”

I roll my eyes and scramble out of the car, sprinting across the grass toward the massive outdoor pavilion. I hear James’ footfalls right behind me.

And then I see it: straight ahead, a massive five-foot poster with Ed Sheeran’s face plastered on it, on the brick wall outside the pavilion. We won’t even have to lay eyes on a security guard.

“This way,” I whisper-shout over my shoulder, giddy from the dark and the excitement. As soon as we reach the poster I pull James in beside me and whip my cell phone out of my pocket to snap a pic.

“Smile!” I say, and the flash goes off.

“I don’t think that counts.” James looks skeptical but amused.

“Only one way to find out,” I reply.

We hustle back to the car and James pulls away before anyone can notice our sketchy parking stunt.

I reach for the list folded up in the center console and put a checkmark next to “Get a picture with Ed Sheeran”.

“Okay,” James says. “I trusted you, now you have to trust me. We’re going star hunting.”

I shake my head, amused. “Truthfully, there’s never been mutual trust in this relationship, James.”

“Who said we’re in a relationship?” James smiles.

I feel my face warming again. “Friendship, relationship—Same thing!”

He keeps quiet after that, but I know we’re both thinking the same thing: friendships and relationships are not the same thing, and I should have kept my stupid mouth shut. Okay, maybe that last part only I’m thinking.

We’re passing through a quiet neighborhood on our way back into the city when something catches in the corner of the headlights. I whirl around in my seat as it sails past the window.

“What the—,” James starts. “Was that…?”

“Emma and Alex!” I gasp. “Holy crap they’re actually TPing Mrs. Kaleho’s car! The vice freaking principal’s car!”

I turn to James, my mouth open, eyes wide. He laughs. “Some people will do anything for The Challenge.”

I sink back into my seat as we enter the city again. We travel in silence for a while and I try not to think about how awkward it is.

When we come to a familiar street, James slows the car to a snail’s pace.

“What are you doing?” I ask. “We’re in a time crunch here.”

“I’m looking for something…” he trails off, squinting out his window. “There!” He points out his window frantically. “Jump out and get a picture of him, he’s right out front.”

“Oh no,” I shake my head. “I told you, we are not stopping for the cat. He’s only twenty points.”

“He’s right there, damn it, go!”

“You owe me!” I holler over my shoulder as I jump out of the car, in the middle of the street, and sprint across two lanes until I’m just outside the ally next to Cafe Olivia. Marty meows a friendly greeting and I snap a quick photo.

I sprint back across the road and a massive blue SUV blares its horn at me. For a split second, I know exactly what a deer-in-the-headlights feels like, and then I throw myself out of the way onto the hard pavement in front of James’ Mustang.

My heartbeat speeds as I pick myself up, jarred by what just happened. What in the world was I thinking? And then, a laugh escapes me at the absurdity of it all as I drop into the passenger seat of the Mustang. James is staring at me, wide-eyed.

“Why are you laughing? You almost got killed!” He shouts.

“This is so insane!” I giggle.

“You’re insane,” James says harshly, and then takes off down the road.

I glance at him uncertainly, realizing that he’s genuinely mad. Really mad. “What’s your problem?” I ask.

“You almost got killed, that’s my problem,” he says, keeping his eyes locked on the road.

“But I didn’t, so it doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter, because believe it or not Cory, there are people in the world that actually care about you.”

My breath catches in my throat. Excuse me… what?

We’re leaving the city lights behind us now, pulling out into the dark, open, countryside. We sit in silence for a long time, neither of us sure what to say next. I think about every time James has smiled at me or made me laugh. Every feeling he’s ever made me feel surfaces until I’m spilling over with emotions. I’m not even watching the time anymore. Who cares about The Challenge?

Ten minutes later, James parks the car along the side of an old dirt road and climbs out. I follow him. He comes around to my side of the car and stuffs his hands in his pockets. We both lean against the Mustang and turn our eyes upward. A thousand shining stars glitter above our heads.

James takes a shaky breath. “I’m sorry, Cory,” he starts. “I shouldn’t have said that. If I made you uncomfortable—“

I reach my hand up around his neck and pull myself up to my tip-toes in front of him, my lips landing softly on his. He’s startled at first, and then pulls me in close.

I pull away first. “You don’t have to apologize,” I say. “Some things can’t be ignored forever.”

“Dang,” he says. “So this is a relationship. I’ll never doubt your foresight again.”

I laugh.

“You know,” he says. “We should do that again for the picture.”

“Agreed.”

He leans down close and the kiss is long and sweet. I pull out my phone and raise it high to snap the picture of us amidst a sky full of shining stars.

Point jackpot acquired.