The stars in the room swirled again.

“Hydra,” a faraway voice was saying. “The largest constellation, named for a many-headed serpent in Greek mythology…”

In her head, Nova heard the voice of David Bowie.

“And the stars look very different today…”

For the second time in under ten minutes, her eyes filled with tears. She saw a shooting star above, so she made a wish. She wished the door would open and her sister would burst in. Bridget had never been to a planetarium either. If she had, surely she would have said so. Experiencing this magic without Bridget felt funny, but not the fun kind of funny. The bad kind of funny. Nova winced and wriggled as the funny feeling tugged at her tummy.

Nova bit her lip and hugged NASA Bear so hard his stuffing must’ve hurt.

“Cool, right?” whispered Stephanie.

The faraway voice hummed on, lecturing about this constellation and that. Nova covered her ears, choosing to listen to “Space Oddity” instead.

“And the stars look very different today…”

Another constellation.

Another neon-green line connecting the stars.

And another.

And another.

Words from the faraway voice invaded her brain. “Orion, Aries, Gemini, Leo, Lyra…”

Too soon, the lamp in the center of the room flicked on. The stars above and all around them went dark. Nova frowned.

“Next week’s assignment…,” Mr. Mindy began. Nova tuned him out while Stephanie jotted the information down in her notebook. After what seemed like an eternity, the astronomy teacher again extinguished the lamp. “For the last couple minutes of class, let’s sit back and enjoy…” He dragged out that last word, grinning, and didn’t finish his sentence, much to Nova’s annoyance.

“Enjoy what?” called out one of the boys, impatient.

“I’m sitting back!” another boy shouted.

“Don’t leave us hanging, Mr. Mindy!” added a third.

Nova wondered if they would be scolded for not raising hands, but Mr. Mindy kept right on grinning, twirling his beard.

“Let’s sit back and enjoy…a meteor shower!”

He flipped a switch.

Twinkling and blinking, getting brighter and dimmer, shooting stars enveloped Nova and NASA Bear, streaking across the sky. Out of the corner of her eye, Nova thought she caught a glimpse of the Little Prince, riding by on his asteroid planet. She squealed and bounced and flapped in her seat, unable to control her excitement, happier than she’d been since before Bridget went away.

Joanie was right.

It was amazing.

In her head, the voice of David Bowie swelled, louder and louder, until his voice was all she could hear.

“And the stars look very different today…”

Bridget had said the space shuttle Challenger gave them something to hope for.

“Nova, don’t you see? The First Teacher in Space contest shows us that anyone can have a dream! If they work hard enough and want it bad enough, anyone can escape Earth, even a high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire.”