When the Stars Collide

Chapter 1

"Calla!" Sophie yelled from downstairs. "Bronte is yelling at me for being late to your meeting!"

"One sec, Mom!" Calla Foster-Scencen yelled back, as she threw on her Team Valiant Junior uniform.

"I told you, you were going to be late, but you insisted on sleeping for an extra 30 minutes." Ro smirked from the corner of Calla's room.

"Shut up." Calla vigorously brushed through her hair, when her imparter rang, "Hello?"

"Girl, where are you?" Abrianna scolded through the phone, "My dad is grumbling away about Sophie's entire family always being late."

"Well Tam can suck it up, he's the one who taught me to ignore people's judgments." Calla ripped out a knot and threw her hairbrush on the ground. "I'm leaving right now, so let Nikkos and Declan know that I'll be there soon!"

"Calla! Oh, my fizzleberry wine. Niko would kill you if he heard you call him that." Bri said with a chuckle.

"What? Calling him by his actual name that Linh and Wylie gave him?" Calla laughed, using her shoulder to hold her imparter to her ear as she tried to put on a shoe, but failing and hopping on one foot.

"Fine, I'll keep it a secret this time. Okay, just hurry up, Bronte and my dad are going to kill you." Bri said as she hung up.

"CALLA!"

"I'M COMING MOM!" Calla sprinted down the stairs, Ro casually walking down behind her.

"I warned you about running down the stairs, Calla. If you get hurt ... that's on you." Sophie said with Calla's mini crown around her finger, spinning it like it was worth nothing... which it was worth a lot as well as showed Calla's status as team leader of Team Valiant Junior.

"Yea, yea, stairs are dangerous...blah, blah, blah, stairs caused me to be born too early and almost murdered you." Calla said with a sigh as she took her crown from her mom, "It's definitely not like literally anything almost killed you when you were younger."

"Okay, yes, but sprinting down a flight of stairs is just dumb." Sophie said with an annoyed look. "Have a good meeting, you'll be working on something that's very important to all of us." Sophie said with a distant look in her eyes.

"Do you really have to be annoying and keep the meeting details secret like every other meeting? If it's so important to you, then maybe I should know before, so I can prepare?" Calla complained.

Sophie gave her daughter a sad smile, "No, I can't, I'm sorry. It's better everyone learns at the same time. Your dad is out right now, working on it. He should be back for dinner." Sophie hugged Calla and kissed her on the forehead before saying goodbye and letting Calla light leap to the Team Valiant HQ with Ro.

She quickly licked the lock and ran inside the crystal doors, stumbling once or twice over her own feet, but eventually making it to the meeting room where Niko, Bri and Declan were waiting.

"Sorry! SORRY! I know this is like the 15th time I've been late, but I swear it was for a good reason!" Calla announced as she took her seat, Bri quietly chuckling.

"Do you mean the 30 extra minutes of sleep you got?" Bronte asked with a raised eyebrow, Tam sitting beside him shaking his head.

"Hey! Who snitched?" Calla whipped her head around looking at Bri.

"Your phone call was on speaker." Tam said staring directly looking at Calla with a small smile.

"Ohhhh... so Niko, you uh... heard that?" Calla asked sheepishly slowly turning to him with a smile weak smile on her face.

"Yes, Calla. I sure did." He said shaking his head.

"Okay, let's get on with the meeting." Bronte called everyone's attention.

"I can't believe you did that!" Calla whispered to Bri in her head.

"It was my dads' idea, he was giving me the death eyes he does. You know where he covers his eyes in shadows." Bri demonstrated with her own shadows, which made Calla laugh. Which she tried and failed to stifle.

"Ladies." Tam snapped, "This is very important, much more important than past missions, so I suggest you listen."

They both innocently nodded their heads, as the boys chuckled at them.

"Many years ago when you were all babies, well Bri and Nikkos were babies and Calla and  Declan were a year old, an elf went missing. No trace of him to be found. One day he was here in the lost cities, the next he disappeared no word of where he went. We don't know if he left voluntarily or was taken. All we know is a string of letters and numbers, that was left sewn in his foxfire uniform 10 years after he disappeared." Tam turned on the hologram and the clue appeared.

938154.87, 0340022.61, NeReG, XmAlIoX

"For 16 years we have been trying to locate this elf. Both his family and friends have been searching for him." Tam eyes seemed to go distant just like Calla's mom had.

"So it's our job to look for him?" Declan asked with a confused look on his face.

"No, you are to unscramble the clue and then look for him. Team Valiant has been searching for years, it's time to let a new set of eyes and elves look for him." Bronte said quietly, "Your parents are very well versed in looking for this elf, you may ask them for help, or of course us." Bronte explained.

"Okay, well let's talk about a plan of attack." Calla jumped right in, "So let's see if maybe one of the tech-"

"Wait." Declan cut her off, "Who is this elf? We should probably know who it is before making a plan." He looked around and the Team Valiant Junior nodded their heads in agreement.

Bronte looked to Tam, "Well, you may have heard your parents mention this elf a couple of times, before, maybe as a good friend or someone they knew." Bronte started and looked to Tam to finish it off.

"Fitz." Tam stated shadows covering his eyes. "His name is Fitz Vacker."

Name Pronunciation Guide:

Calla - kah-luh

Nikkos - neek-oh-ss  Niko - neek-oh

Abrianna - eh-bree-awe-nuh Bri - bree

Declan - deck-len Dec - deck