Who is Susan Caraway?

               One day I asked Stargirl how she knew when it was people's birthdays, deaths, and stuff like that. She told me it was from the fillers. Fillers are articles in the newspaper that no one reads but they have information like  hobbies, deaths, birthdays, or stuff like special achievements. She also got a lot of information from bulletin boards around town. She counted 41 bulletin boards in Mica.
              She invited me to dinner that night. I expected her parents to be hippies. Surprisingly they were not. We all had meatloaf except for Stargirl. She is a strict vegetarian. She showed me her room. It was perfectly normal in every way. The only unnormal thing was Cinnamon's apartment and her Happy Wagon. Her Happy Wagon is a wagon that she fills up with pebbles. The pebbles represent happiness. There are 20 pebbles in all and 17 were in the wagon. She told me that was considered pretty good. We went out on the porch and talked. She took pictures of a boy that lived across from her. She was doing a biography to give to his parents when he was older. She said it was something for him to appreciate. I was surprised at first but then realized that this was normal for Stargirl Caraway.
              I then out of the blue said, "Are you running for saint?" Her eyes showed sadness and I quickly jumped back and said that I thought that  because you are always doing things for other people and you never think about yourself. She then understood and took the impression that I was jealous because she was focusing on other people more than me. She came up to me and hugged me and then we kissed. It was a short but I can tell you that that was no saint kissing me that day.
            The next day there was a huge sign on the school bulletin board that said STARGIRL LOVES LEO surrounded by a heart. I was so excited and embarassed. I quickly avoided her after school. She asked me if I saw it and I just walked away ignoring her. For the next two days I had gotten used to ignoring her when she caught me and I HAD to talk to her. I sat her down on a bench and told her that people were  basically shunning us. She did not seem to understand. For the next couple of days I had to tell her what was normal, what was not, how to do things normally, and tell her why it is important to care about what other people think.
             The next day she came to school right at lunch. She was not Stargirl Caraway she was Susan Caraway. Her real name was Susan. She had jeans and a t-shirt on. She wore makeup, earrings, rings, and sandals. She acted normal and never talked about Stargirl again. I was so proud of her. I kept on saying Susan just to hear myself. Instead of saying "I", I said "We". She was all mine! I was Susan Caraway's boyfriend!

             The shunning still took place and this time it hurt BOTH of us. She was so upset and she tried so hard to become popular or at least close to it. I didn't know what to do to make her happy. She then came to school one day and told me that everything is going to be okay! She had a vision and it was of her winning the speech contest and coming home to a parade of people cheering for her at the school. She was so happy. She yelled, "I am going to be popular!" I didn't know if the vision would come true but I was certainly hoping it would.

Stargirl's Increase and Decrease

               All of a sudden Stargirl was one of he most popular students at MAHS. Maybe it was her cheering or her crazy ways? She would keep on cheering anytime a point was scored. Even if it was the other team! 
                Was it a Hillari Kimble backlash? One day there was a big mob around the staircase. Hillari was at the top holding Cinnamon, Stargirl's pet rat, about to drop it to it's death. Stargirl just stood at the bottom of the staircase watching. People screamed and yelled "Don't do it!" Hillari let go of the rat but only dropped it by her feet. With one evil stare at Stargirl she pranced out of the room.
               Was it Dori Dilson? Another day a quite nobody named Dori Dilson sat with Stargirl at lunch. The table quickly filled up and Stargirl was no longer friendless or alone.
                Everyone loved her! A contest sponsored by the Arizona League of Women Voters came to our school every year. It was a contest for he or she to give a speech about everything they wanted to. They had a time limit of 7 minutes. Usually not many students signed up but this year there were 13 students. One of them the the spectacular Stargirl. She gave a speech on elf owls. She entitled it, Elf Owl, Call me by my First Name. 
                 More and more kids were breaking out of their shells. One guy wore sneakers with hush puppies all over them, another boy had purple hair, and one girl painted her toenails Kelly green.
                 With the good stuff also came bad stuff. Stargirl basically had no ego. She was more concerned with other people's losses then her own. She showed up at a funeral that she was not invited to, she was then kicked out. She gave a new bike to a little boy who had come home from the hospital BECAUSE of a horrible bike accident. The bike was then found at the curb of the neighborhood by the trash. She also said the Pledge of Allegiance in her own way. "I pledge allegiance to United Turtles of America and to the fruit bats of Borneo, one planet in the Milky Way, incredible, with justice and black bean burritos for all." All of this did not matter to any of us because it was just the way she was.
                   The good thing was that the basketball team was winning! Everyone got so used to winning that we HATED losing. We hated the other team, their coaches, their fans, and their referees. Stargirl did not. She cheered for the other team and for ours. One game when our team scored a hundred points. Our crowd went CRAZY. We stomped and yelped and cheered like there was no tomorrow. Stargirl left the court. She did not come back and ended up talking to the bus driver the rest of the game. People asked why and she felt like it was rude if she would have acted crazy. She felt bad for the other team.
                   As the days went on people started to become more and more annoyed with Stargirl. Her popularity started to decrease and more and more people started to dislike her. Before I knew it it was the day that we would interview Stargirl on the Hotseat. Everything was okay at first but then the jury of students started buzzing out of control. They were asking rude questions like, "Why is your name so weird?" "Are you from Mars?" "Why don't you wear any makeup?" It spun so out of control that Mr. Robineu, the supervisor, had to stop the show and destroy the tape. The whole time that Stargirl was asked rude questions she just sat there with her huge eyes and stared at the director's window. She just stared at me. The next day everyone somehow knew about what happened that night. Stargirl was quiet that day but did not strum her ukulele or sing. She seemed to have no expressions.

                 

Stargirl and her Popularity

               All of a sudden Stargirl was one of he most popular students at MAHS. Maybe it was her cheering or her crazy ways? She would keep on cheering anytime a point was scored. Even if it was the other team! 
                Was it a Hillari Kimble backlash? One day there was a big mob around the staircase. Hillari was at the top holding Cinnamon, Stargirl's pet rat, about to drop it to it's death. Stragirl just stood at the bottom of the staircase watching. People screamed and yelled "Don't do it!" Hillari let go of the rat but only dropped it by her feet. With one evil stare at Sargirl she pranced out of the room.
               Was it Dori Dilson? Another day a quite nobody named Dori Dilson sat with Stargirl at lunch. The table quickly filled up and Stagirl was no longer friendless or alone.
                Everyone loved her! A contest sponsored by the Arizona League of Women Voters came to our school every year. It was a contest for he or she to give a speech about everything they wanted to. They had a time limit of 7 minutes. Usually not many students signed up but this year there were 13 students. One of them was the spectacular Stargirl. She gave a speech on elf owls. She entitiled it, Elf Owl, Call me by my First Name. 
                 
      More and more kids were breaking out of their shells. One guy wore sneakers with hush puppies all over them, another boy had purple hair, nd one girl painted her toenails Kelly green.
                 With the good stuff also came bad stuff. Stargirl basically had no ego. She was more concerned with other people's losses then her own. She showed up at a funeral that she was not invited to, she was then kicked out. She gave a new bike to a little boy who had come home from the hospital BECAUSE of a horrible bike accident. The bike was then found at the curb of the neighborhood by the trash. She also said the Pledge of Allegiance in her own way. "I pledge allegiance to United Turtles of America and to the fruit bats of Borneo, one planet in the Milky Way, incredible, with justice and black bean burritos for all." All of this did not matter to any of us because it was just the way she was.
                   The good thing was that the basketball team was winning! Everyone got so used to winning that we HATED losing. We hated the other team, their coaches, their fans, and their referees. Stargirl did not. She cheered for the other team and for ours. One game when our team scored a hundred points. Our crowd went CRAZY. We stomped and yelped and cheered like there was not tomorrow. Stargirl left the court. She did not come back and ended up talking to the bus driver the rest of the game.
                  Stargirl's popularity started to decrease and more and more people started to dislike her. Before I knew it it was the day that we would interview Stargirl on the Hotseat. Everything was okay at first but then the jury of students started buzzing out o control. They were asking rude questions like, "Why is your name so weird?" "Are you from Mars?" "Why don't you wear any makeup?" It spun so out of control that Mr. Robineu, the supervisor, had to stop the show and destroy the tape. The whole time that Stargirl was asked rude questions she just sat there with her huge eyes and stared at the director's window. She just stared at me. The next day everyone somehow knew about what happened that night. Stargirl was quiet that day bu did not strum her ukulele or sing. 












































                 

Archie and the Loyal Order of the Stone Bone

        The next day Kevin and I went to go see Archie. Archie was a paleontologist and his house was practically made out of bones. Archie was a retired school teacher in the East. The only two reasons why he moved to Mica was because of the high school. He did not have any kids of his own. The other reason was because of a 32 foot cactus he named Senor Saguaro.  He was a teacher for most of us. He called us the Loyal Order of the Stone Bone. He welcomed all ages. We told him about Stargirl and how we were amazed with her. He sat there and he knew about her and in fact he had been teaching her for the past five years know. Her parents were perfectly normal and she was perfectly real. Kevin told Archie about how he wants to put her on Hotseat but that I don't want to. Archie told us to work it out. We talked until it was dark. Archie told me, "You'll know more by her questions than by her answers. Keep loooking at her long enough. One day you might see someone you know."

   

                 

Stargirl's Amazing Ways

          As I layed in my bed one night letting the moon shine over me. It came to me then that Hillari Kimble's idea about Stargirl was wrong! Stargirl WAS real. Almost everyday Kevin asked me "Did you sign her up?" and everyday I said "No."Something about it just spoke to me and what it said was: Leave her alone.  Then one day after school I followed her. Don't worry, I kept a safe distance. I expected the walk to be short since she did not take the bus, oh but it wasn't. We walked practically all over Mica. Then she pulled out a piece of paper from her bag. She looked like she was reading house numbers. Then she abruptly turned up a driveway and left something in the mail box. I ran to mail box, making sure no one was looking, and puled a card out that said CONGRATULATIONS on it. I ended up following her all the way to the dessert. I then wondered if she knew I was behind her  or if she had no idea. I quickly turned and ran back to the highway.
          Kevin was one of the few people to got to the school football games. One day he called me and said, "Hurry! Get over here now!" I quickly drove to the stadium and jumped out of my car. There she was Stragirl running, jumping, twirling, and dancing with the band on the field. The weirdest part was that she was barefooted. The referee told her to get off of the field but she simply grabbed the ball of of the tee and punted it over the other team's bench. She then ran out of the stadium. After she left, the crowd went wild. 
           At the next game over a thousand people showed up. Except for the most popular couple, Hillari Kimbe and Wayne Parr. The crowd was pumped and ready for some action. At halftime the band played but there was no Stargirl. Most people were disapointed because the only reason why they came to the game was to see Stargirl.
         The next day Stargirl was invited to be apart of the cheerleading team. She suprised us all and said yes. As the days, weeks, months went on, most of us decided that we liked Stargirl. We like the new suprises that she brought and she also gave us something to talk about. We liked that she sang to each and every one of us when it was our birthday.
         What scared everyone the most was that it was Hillari Kimble's birthday next. Oh, but Hillari Kimble took matters into her own hands. She set the stage for Stargirl and came right up to her and said, "You better not sing to me tomorrow. I'm warning you." Stragirl gave a faint reply and said, "I won't sing to you." The next day most of us raced to our seats waiting and watching for Stargirl or Hillari. Both of the girls entered seperately and ate their lunches as usual. Stargirl then got up, threw her lunch away but instead of leaving she walked along the tables singing and strumming her ukulele. She passed Hillari's table and came to mine. She sang Happy birthday to me but with Hillari's name in it. The question that most people were wondering was why me. She replied while tugging on my earlob, "He's cute."  The only thing Kevin and I could think of was that we HAD to go see Archie. 

           

The Beginning of Stargirl at MAHS!

Hi, my name is Leo and ever since Stargirl came to my school every thing has changed. I am still trying to figure out if it's for the best or worse. Ugh, look at me jumping ahead, let me start from the beginning.  Ever since I was a little kid I have been fascinated with porcupine neckties.  On my fourteenth birthday I got a mysterious package with a porcupine necktie inside of it. The weird thing was that there was no name on it. I asked my parents if it was them who had given me the package but they had both denied it.
                  

                The first day of eleventh grade all I hear was "Did you see her?" I wondered who it could be that everyone was talking about. Maybe a blond from California or some girl who had a major summer makeover? I had no idea! Then I saw her.  Her name was Stargirl Caraway. She wore an off white dress all the way past her feet. It looked like it could have been her grandmother's or great great grandmother's dress. She had sand colored hair and had a ukulele strapped to her back. At first, half the lunch room stared at her and the other half minded their own business. Then out of no where she starts to strum her ukulele. She then whipped her lunch bag over her back and started to play and walk around the lunch room singing. She even sang "Happy Birthday" to a kid in the 12 grade! She somehow knew it was his birthday?
                  My friend Kevin and I knew what we had to do. We had a show called the Hotseat where we interviewed athletes, role model students, and any other interesting students we could find at Mica Area high school, or MAHS. Stargirl would be PERFECT for the show. She obviously seemed interesting enough!
                 A couple days later Hillari Kimble, one of the most popular girls at the school, came up with the idea that Stargirl was a fake. That she was put in MAHS to pump the students up and to get them interacted in more school activities. Well, this idea spread all through the school and more people started to believe it. Or hoped it was true. All of the kids in MAHS were perfectly normal. We all wear the same clothes, talk about the same things, and do the same hobbies. Even our nerds were all alike. Somebody like Stargirl, who was absolutely different, would not last over a week in a more normal school like MAHS.