Chapter 30

Susan sits in stunned silence until her parents arrive to take her home. As she gets out of the car, her trophy plate falls to the asphalt. Susan does not stop to pick it up. Her father retrieves the plate and hands it to Leo with a “strange smile.” Leo and Susan do not see each other all weekend. On Monday, Stargirl is back.

At lunch she gives every student a cookie, including Hillari Kimble, who takes off her shoe and smashes the cookie on the table. Stargirl plays her ukulele with Cinnamon on her shoulder, and Leo does his best to avoid looking at her. He is angry and does not want to encourage Susan’s transformation back into Stargirl. Dori Dilson is the only one who stands and claps at the end of the performance. As everyone files out of the cafeteria, cookies are littered about the room.

As they walk home after school, Leo asks her if she has given up on being “popular and normal.” Stargirl answers with a firm yes, and Leo is disgusted. She kisses Leo sadly on the cheek and says she knows he will not ask her to Ocotillo Ball, and that is okay with her. As she walks away, she gives him the same smile she gives to other needy souls. In that moment, Leo hates her.

Kevin calls later that night, as if on cue, to ask whom Leo is taking to the Ball. Leo’s hesitancy to say that he is going to ask Stargirl tells Kevin something new is happening with his friend; however, Leo is in no mood to talk.

The next morning a new sign is on the roadrunner—a sign-up sheet for a new musical group called the Ukee Dooks. No experience is necessary, and there are spots on the list for forty participants. Not surprisingly, the sheet is full by the end of the day; Mickey Mouse, Wayne Parr, and the principal of the school, among other such celebrities, all apparently want to be part of this new group.

After school Kevin and Leo gravitate to the television studio and the discussion turns to Stargirl. Kevin makes several comments that tell Leo that Stargirl is now a target for gossip and ridicule even for his friend, now that Leo no longer defends her.

Everyone derides Stargirl, and Leo hears it all. He wonders if the commentary has intensified or if he is simply listening better. It does seem as if they hate her more now than they did before she tried to be one of them. One day after school, Leo looks out the window and sees the Ukee Dooks (Stargirl and Dori Dilson) giving a performance in the courtyard, and they are good. People file by but none show any recognition that the girls even exist. Leo knows he should show his support for her. That he

should go out there and stand in front of them and applaud. I should show Stargirl and the world that I wasn’t like the rest of them, that I appreciated her, that I celebrated her and her insistence on being herself.

But Leo stays inside and says nothing. After all students are clearly gone, Leo assumes they will quit playing. They do not, and Leo heads home through another door.

Chapter 31

Leo does not go to the Ocotillo Ball, but Stargirl does. It is a beautiful May evening on the tennis courts of Mica High, and students are dressed elegantly for this special evening. Leo rides his bike to and fro and watches from a distance.

Stargirl arrives at the dance in a bicycle sidecar driven by Dori Dilson. Behind her, like some kind of float in a parade, is a train of flowers. The flash of the cameras and the buzz of the crowd all grow silent as Stargirl arrives at the party. She is wearing a gorgeous yellow dress that her mother obviously made just for her, and she is stunningly beautiful, perhaps even regal. She is still Stargirl, though: her earrings are tiny trucks and her necklace is a fossil. She is wearing some kind of yellow and black flower on her wrist, and she bends over her cart to say good-bye to Cinnamon. As she enters the room, Stargirl is unabashed; she makes eye contact with everyone, and they do not quite know what to do.

As the band begins to play, Stargirl dances alone in the crowd on the tennis courts. No one knows exactly how it happened, but “Raymond Something” asks her to dance, and suddenly the ice is broken. As others make their way to Stargirl to ask her to dance, she steps to the band and quietly requests a song. The strains of the classic bunny hop are heard and a conga line forms. Stargirl has mesmerized the student body once again, and she leads them in a winding path all over the tennis courts. Hillari Kimble and Wayne Parr do not join the line.

Soon Stargirl leads more than a hundred dancing couples in a winding route and eventually off the courts and onto the connecting golf course. The music continues, and Hillari pouts. It seems like hours before the swaying line of dancers returns to the dance floor. They are still on the beat, hopping on all the right notes, which the band is still playing. It is a sight and a moment that will be remembered for a long time, ending in a “frenzy of hugs and shrieks and kisses.”

The band resumes playing. Hillari approaches Stargirl, slaps her across the face, and says, “You ruin everything.” Hillari waits expectantly for a return slap, squinting and tensing for the contact. Instead, Stargirl leans over and places a gentle kiss on Hillari’s cheek. She then turns around and walks to Dori and her waiting “carriage.” It is the last anyone sees of Stargirl.