Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
by Natalie DiBiase
Character: Stargirl
Stargirl is a quirky girl with a passion for making others happy. She is well known around her school for singing and playing her ukulele for others when it is their birthday. At first, her school, a small, robotic high school in Arizona, was taken back by her. No one every stood out, everyone was very much the same in style. Yet, she was very different.
As time went on, she surprised everyone by becoming a cheerleader because of her bubbly, positive attitude. Mika High, her school, was never good at sports, so none of the students payed attention to or attended any football or basketball games. Once Stargirl began cheering, many people came to see her. Mika started to become a profound school sports wise, and Stargirl's popularity skyrocketed.
Everyone started bringing their own ukuleles to school, her once vacant lunch table was now crowded with fans, everyone loved to dance in the rain with her. She was the most popular person in school.
That is, until their basketball game against Sun Valley. One of Sun Valley's major players got hurt and was lying on the floor. Stargirl, being on the opposing team, rushed over to help him. She was tending for him while he was in pain, and all the Mica students were shocked. They lost that game, and they blamed it on her.
She soon became the most despised person at Mica High. She didn't really mind, she never cared what others thought of her anyway. But her boyfriend, Leo, thought otherwise. He liked that she was different, but all the students shunned her due to her actions. Leo, being her boyfriend, was shunned as well.
He did not like that. He tried to change her, told her to act like a normal student and wear normal clothes. But that just wasn't her cup of tea. She is so stuck on the idea of everyone liking her now, and fixed her attention on that.
But a school dance came, and Stargirl and Leo were separated. She went to the dance by herself. But once a trendy song came on, she led the dance and everyone was under her spell. She led the crew outside, and left. No one had heard of her after that.