“Maybe you should take a deep breath?” said Mrs. Pierce. “Francine said you did a good job taking deep breaths this morning.”

Nova took a deep breath. It didn’t help.

Finally it was time to put the flash cards away.

“Class!” said Mrs. Pierce, clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Please return to Morning Circle. As you all know, the Challenger space shuttle launches today, and as a nice surprise, we have a special guest here to talk to us about it!”

Nova cocked her head to the side, her eyes wide. A nice surprise? A special guest? Could it be Bridget? Wriggling her fingers excitedly, she hurried to the circle and sat in the same seat she’d occupied earlier, beside Alex.

“Maybe is a astronaut,” said Alex. “A real-life one!”

“Maybe it’s Valentina Cornucopia,” said Mallory. “The first woman in space!”

Nova let out her biggest laugh, shaking her head. Mrs. Pierce had read them a book about the first woman in space, a Russian cosmonaut who orbited Earth forty-eight times in 1963, but her name wasn’t Valentina Cornucopia; it was Valentina Tereshkova.

“What?” asked Mallory, her eyes flashing furiously. “What’s so funny?”

Nova shook her head again, but she had no way of correcting her friend, so when Mrs. Pierce asked them all to have quiet voices and calm bodies she folded her hands across NASA Bear’s tummy and held back her giggles. Mallory must not have stayed mad long, because she shrugged and smiled and took her seat too, right next to Nova.

Once they were all sitting with Quiet Voices, Listening Ears, and Calm Bodies like the list of rules reminded them to, Mrs. Pierce nodded to Miss Chambers, who was standing by the door. Miss Chambers opened it, and Nova, clutching NASA Bear, held her breath.

Bridget?

But the smiling teenage girl who entered was not Bridget.

“Class, this is Stephanie! She’s a student at the high school, right across campus, where she’s studying astronomy and space travel. She would like to work for NASA someday. Would any of you like to work for NASA someday? Raise your hands!”

Nova jumped out of her chair, put both hands in the air, and squeaked. Not Bridget, but she was happy to see Stephanie. Wispy Lip Luke and Mallory had raised their hands too, but just one each.

“Stephanie already knows Nova because they went to the planetarium together last week, but let’s introduce ourselves one at a time…from our seats.” (Miss Chambers motioned for Nova to return to her chair.) “Let’s start with you, Buddy. What is your name?”

At the end of the semicircle, Bouncing Buddy touched the center of his chest with an open palm, then made a sort of X with the index and middle fingers of both hands, and finally folded his thumb across his left palm, raised the other four fingers, and waved palm-out.