“Are you going to join us?”

Jeongyeon is lying on a plastic lounge chair in the backyard, while Shiro and Kuro are napping in the grass at her feet. It’s hard to tell if she’s heard me. Abnormally large plastic sunglasses cover her eyes and most of her eyebrows. She’s got one earbud tucked in her left ear, but I can see the other dangling over the side of the recliner.

She totally heard me.

“Hey, are you coming inside? We’re going to get started.”

Jeongyeon sticks a wad of fluorescent gum back into , chews loudly, cracking the bubbles with her teeth, and then slowly begins to blow a big, pink bubble. When she gets the bubble big enough to obscure her sunglasses, she it back in with a loud pop.

“Summer’s not gonna last forever, Jihyo,” she says without looking over. She folds her arms behind her head. Feathered clouds pass in the reflection in her sunglasses. “Better soak all this up before it’s gone.”

She twirls the end of one short blonde hair around the tip of her finger, challenging me to give her something worth coming inside for.

“You’re right,” I say. She loves it when she thinks she’s right. “Summer’s almost over. I just think we should talk about… things. You know, before school starts again.”

Jeongyeon purses her lips and blows a raspberry in the air.

I should not have mentioned school. Definitely lost her there.

“Well,” I say, trying a different tactic, “I guess you don’t want any of the popsicles Momo brought?”

Jeongyeon sits up, straddling the recliner. Kuro startles awake, yawns, and mischievously starts to tumble the still sleeping Shiro over in the grass. Jeongyeon pushes the enormous sunglasses up to sit on her forehead, making it look like giant plastic stars are shooting out of her hair.

“Popsicles?”

“Yep,” I say as I step inside the house. “Shaped like rockets.” I shut the sliding glass door behind me and walk towards the kitchen. Five seconds later I hear the door slide open and shut.

Thank the stars. As temperamental as Jeongyeon is, she can be awfully predictable about desserts. And ammunition.

My peace is momentary. As I walk into the kitchen, Momo is standing on a chair in front of the stove, turning pancakes on the griddle, her determination and focus evident from the bend in her elbows and the iron grip she has on a big metal spatula. There is a trail of batter and sticky syrup linking her to the refrigerator and the counter.

“Uh, Momo, what’s going on? I was gone for, like, five minutes,” I say as Jeongyeon elbows past me, making a beeline for the freezer.

“Nayeon said she was hungry,” Momo says over her shoulder. She shrugs and turns her concentration back to flipping the thin batter in front of her. “I made pancakes.”

Nayeon is sitting at the kitchen table intently drawing with one hand and stabbing a bite full of pancake with the other, unconcerned with the food drama surrounding her. Pix is gnawing on an uncapped green marker. Nayeon scratches her familiar’s head without looking up from her own work.

“Sounds good, Shortstop.” Jeongyeon claps Momo on the back and then slides into one of the chairs, all while slurping one of the rocket-shaped popsicles. “Make me one shaped like a star? No, wait, one shaped like a missile? Oooh, I know, how about a star missile? I need rainbow sprinkles!”

“Oh, look who finally decided to join us,” Momo mutters to the griddle.

Chaos. Utter chaos. There’s pancake batter on the ceiling. How are we supposed to save the universe if we can’t get it together ourselves? Mina is quietly washing the pile of dishes that Momo’s been creating. She’s staring out the window in front of the sink. Zephyr is sitting on the counter next to her attempting to the syrup from its paws.

“So,” I start to pace in the little bit of open space in the kitchen. “I think we should talk about the next year. School’s about to start and…”

“Hey, whatcha drawing, Noopy?” Jeongyeon leans over Nayeon’s shoulder, stealing a bite of her pancake with a spare fork. She doesn’t want to think about the future so badly, she’ll even feign interest in Nayeon to get out of it. I try to keep my deep sigh inaudible.

I start again. “As I was saying, we…”

“It’s the starfall,” Nayeon interrupts, completely unconcerned that words were coming out of my mouth. “The new stars are coming.” Without looking up she pushes a paper flyer across the table towards Jeongyeon. A glob of whipped cream and sprinkles drips off Jeongyeons’s pancake piece onto the paper as Jeongyeon gives it a once over. She smirks and leaves it on the table. I can see the flyer has more than ten words and only one picture, so of course Jeongyeon has totally lost interest in it.

I stop my pacing behind Nayeon, taking a good look at what our little artist has been drawing for the first time. It’s a field with some trees around the edge. The five of us are standing in the field looking up at a night sky. Mina being the tall, purple one, Momo has her hammer, and Jeongyeon’s short, blonde hair is easy to pick out. I guess I’m the round pink one. *Does my hair really stick out of the sides of my head like that?*

“This is you?” I ask, pointing to the ombre-haired one in the meadow of green and black fireflies. Nayeon nods, biting her lip in concentration as she shades in the dark blue of the sky. Among the penciled-in stars there are more colors.

“What about these?” Jeongyeon asks, pointing at the colored bits.

“New stars, of course,” she says, rolling her eyes at Jeongyeon. Nayeon looks up at me. “Can we go?”

“There are no more new stars here,” Momo says as she turns another pancake.

There’s a loud clatter from the sink as Mina fumbles a plate. “Sorry,” she stammers as she catches it.

I walk over and stand next to her. Through the kitchen window I can see the wispy clouds are gone; it’s just a big, empty summer sky. In the sink, Mina slides the sponge around the plate’s outer rim in a slow, wet orbit.

“Nice save,” I say, offering Mina a towel off the counter. “The slippery ones are the hardest to hold onto.”

Mina looks over at me and then down at the plate she’s been washing. Her cheeks color pink, betraying her normally cool demeanor. Something’s up.

She nods and puts the extra-clean plate in the dish rack. She tucks a lock of brown hair behind her ear and picks up another syrup-drenched plate from the stack on the counter.

Yup, something’s definitely up.

Jeongyeon, oblivious as usual, continues to drown her pile of pancakes in syrup, alternating layers with whipped cream and sprinkles.

“You know how much I hate to agree with our blue-haired door stop,” Jeongyeon says as she crams a full fork in . “But Noops, it’s just us against all the big bad this part of the galaxy has to offer.”

Nayeon puts down her pen and picks up the flyer, handing it to me. I take it and wipe off Jeongyeon’s melting clump of whipped cream and sprinkles with a kitchen towel, smearing a wet rainbow trail across the top of the paper.

“'Camp Targon’s Summer Starfall. Watch the summer meteor shower. Get out of the city and get to know some new stars. Games and amusement. Last chance for summer fun',” I read aloud. “It’s hosted by the Astronomy class at the university and open to all the local high school students.”

I look up. No one’s listening. Nayeon’s back to drawing. Momo and Jeongyeon are stacking more and more pancakes on their plates, determined to see who can eat the most. I can see Janna’s face in the reflection of the window. She’s lost in the sky again.

The paper crunches in my hand. I ease my grip, embarrassed by how tightly I’m holding on. The deadline to register for the camp is today.

“Last chance,” I breathe the words to myself. I look at the girls; everyone’s going in different directions. They are not going to be happy about this. But I’m the captain. This will be good for them. “It will be good for us,” I whisper out loud, talking myself into the decision.

“Pack your bags, ladies,” I say loudly, pasting a bright, shiny smile on my face. The bubbly confidence is as much a show for them as it is for me. Each of them looks up, unsure of what is about to happen.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and start dialing the number on the flyer. “We’re going to welcome some new stars.”