“This was a bad idea.” Dylan growled at Andrea as they sat inside of the car and watched the group of four pack up their stuff to leave.
  “Dylan, two of them are still kids and the twins are barely eighteen.”  Andrea watched a young redhead with beautiful sharp grey eyes pick up some books. As she started walking towards her small bag of stuff, she tripped and her books splattered everywhere. Ben ran over and offered her a hand.
“Are you all right Claire?” he asked.
“Yeah thanks.” She smiled at him, picked up her books, and put them in her bag.
“Claire!” a male voice yelled at her.
She turned around. “What Tommy?” she asked, exasperated.
“It’s time to go.” the blonde boy pointed out.
“Okay!” she yelled back. Tommy climbed back into the back seat with his twin Sabrina and his friend Ben.
“Are you sure we can trust them?” he whispered to Ben.
“We can hear you!” Dylan snapped. Andrea smiled in apology.
“Yes you can trust us. My name’s Andrea, and this idiot is Dylan,” she chuckled as Claire climbed into the car,
“Hi, I’m Claire.” She smiled at Andrea. Andrea smiled at the redhead.
“I’m Sabrina,” a blonde girl with icy blue eyes stated, “the older twin to this kid.” She elbowed the blonde boy next to her
“And I’m Thomas, but you can call me Tommy.” Sabrina’s twin grinned childishly. “The better twin.” he joked.
Andrea laughed. “Nice to meet all of you.”
She studied each of them as they conversed between each other. Claire looked to be about seventeen, was little taller than Andrea, and appeared to be very smart. Tommy had a humorous aura around him. His blonde hair was quiffed, and his chocolate brown eyes twinkled, he was quite tall, and his skin was tan. His broad shoulders shook as he laughed at another joke. Sabrina, on the other hand, was different than the other three in the new group. She seemed nice but she had this cold and cunning stare that Andrea couldn’t get out of her mind, Andrea decided to take a nap. A couple hours later Claire nudged her
“Andrea? We’re stopping because Dylan needs sleep.”
“Okay…” Andrea said in deep thought. “Go ahead; I’ll catch up.”
“Okay?” Claire said. She got out of the car and thought about the two new people who had been nice enough to let them come. Andrea seemed decent. Ben spoke fondly of her, like she was an older sister, even though they had just met that day. Andrea was very pretty with dark skin, long brown hair and chocolate eyes. Dylan on the other hand, with his green eyes and quiffed dark brown hair, seemed to be rude and pushy, but Claire could tell he was very nice under it all.

Ben was getting concerned about Andrea. They had stopped an hour ago, and she hadn’t left the car yet. He was going to ask Dylan to go check on her, but Dylan was still asleep. He got up and started walking back to the Impala.
“Ben, where are you going?” Sabrina yelled at him.
“I’m going to go check on Andrea!” He yelled back.
“Okay,  be back soon!”
Ben ignored her and kept walking. When he reached the car, he could tell Andrea was still in it. He climbed in and sat down next to her.
“You all right?” he asked his friend.
“Yeah,” she stated. “Just thinking.”
Ben looked at her hands; there was a necklace with the Star of David on it.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s the last thing my mother gave me before she died.” Her eyes watered as she recalled the memory. Ben regretted even asking.
“I’m sorry…”
“No, it’s okay.” She put on a brave face.
“It’s not,” he replied.
“Okay, maybe not.” She cracked a small smile. “But I’ve got Dylan, and now I have you, Claire, Tommy and Sabrina.”
“That you do.” he replied. “Now we should probably get back, because I can’t imagine Dylan being very happy about both of us being gone.” Ben chuckled.
As they walked towards the camp they heard yelling. They looked at each other and started running. When they reached the camp. They stared in horror at what they were looking at.
The Stars were raining down on them.
 

Dylan really hated stars. He woke up with Claire violently shaking him.
“Claire!” he exclaimed shocked. Then he heard yelling coming from outside of the tent. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“It’s a little hard to explain,” she stated before the back of the tent suddenly caught fire.
Dylan stared at it wide eyed before yelling at Claire “Out now!” He grabbed a couple things before he scrambled out of the tent. He stared in shock at the scene in front of him, then he looked down at the ginger next to him, who was glaring up at the sky,
“You might want this,” she said before shoving a metal lid into his hands.
He ran out to the middle of the camp
“Everybody head toward the car!” he yelled over the noise.
“A little help over here?” Tommy yelled while trying to gather their food.
Dylan ran to help the tall blonde gather the food before they ran to the car. Andrea ran up to Dylan.
“What happened?” she questioned him.
“I don’t know!” he snapped.  “I’ve been asleep!” Dylan watched as Sabrina made it to the car and hopped into the back seat and motioned for the others to hurry. Claire and Ben reached the car at the same time and jumped into the backseat next to Sabrina. Dylan got to the car and quickly started it. He watched helplessly as Andrea and Tommy ran quickly to the car, and Tommy suddenly fell.
“Tommy!” Andrea yelled and turned around to help him.
“Andrea!” Ben yelled, about to get out of the car.
“No! Ben, stop!” Dylan held him back. “We can’t help them.”
“But…”
“No.”
Ben didn’t like the idea of sitting in a car while his family was at risk, but he unwillingly sat back and glared at Dylan. Sabrina touched his arm
“They’ll make it,” she told him certain of herself. He relaxed a bit.
The group of four sat in silence as they watched Andrea and Tommy finish gathering the stuff scattered on the ground and run up to the car. 
Andrea jumped into the front and Dylan embraced her in a tight hug. Ben sighed in relief as his to best friends made it to the car,
“That was new,” Andrea joked in shock
“Really?” Tommy glanced over at her. “We get those at least once a week. Maybe even three times a week!” he exclaimed. Andrea and Dylan glanced at each other warily.
“Told you it was a bad idea,” Dylan muttered under his breath as they sped down the road into the night.

The group had been driving down the road for about three days now with no stars disappearing and no stars raining on them. Andrea and Dylan took turns driving. Tommy offered to drive, but Dylan just glared at him. Andrea had just finished her shift and tried to sleep, but it only brought bad memories.
“Mommy I don’t want to go!” seven-year-old Andrea cried.
“I know sweetheart, but your father’s going to be home soon.”
“I’m not afraid of him,” Andrea stated bravely.
“I know you’re not.” Her mother laughed. “But I am. Now take this.” She took off her necklace. “May I always be with you in this,” her mother stated. “Now go!” she commanded.
Andrea nodded sadly and started to walk out the door, but stopped and ran to her mother and hugged her.
“I love you.” Andrea whispered.
“I love you too.” Andrea’s mother let silent tears slide down her face as she watched her daughter run out the door to a whole new life, a better life, she reminded herself.
Andrea didn’t run though. She went and hid in the shadows under the window.
Andrea’s mother dried her tears, made some tea and waited for her drunken husband to come home.
“Andrea?” her husband slurred as he came into the house. “Andrea? Where are you? Papa wants to play!” he giggled, still no reply. “ANDREA!” he screamed.
“Andrea isn’t here,” her mother called out calmly.
He grinned at her, but it turned into a growl.
“Where is she?” he demanded
“I don’t know,” she replied with such calmness that Andrea didn’t know how she did it.
Her father pulled out a gun. “Tell me or I’ll kill you.”
“You won’t kill me,” her mother replied.
“You’re right,” her father replied, “but I will do this.” He threw a punch at her and kept beating her until there was blood everywhere. Andrea pulled her knees up to her chest and sobbed quietly.
Andrea’s mother took her bloodied hand and stole the gun from her husband. He recoiled, shocked, and watched as she held it to her head, and let a single tear fall down her face as she uttered her last words, hoping Andrea could hear her.
“Ster is the only true fear.” She pulled the trigger.

Andrea woke up with the all too familiar sound of the gun crack. She looked around and saw everyone in the car staring at her.
“What?” she asked
“You were sobbing,” Sabrina informed her
“Oh… It was just a bad dream it’s over now, she told them. Dylan looked at her as if to silently ask what was wrong.
“My mom,” Andrea mouthed to Dylan. He gave her a look of sympathy and nodded.
The group sat in silence for another ten minutes until Ben spoke up. “We need to stop.”
“Why?” Dylan asked annoyed
“We’ve been sitting in this car for three days. I think all of us agree that we need space, fresh air, and most importantly, showers,” Ben argued. Everyone nodded in agreement
“Fine,” Dylan agreed. He pulled into the woods and stopped the car. Everyone got their stuff and set up camp. Dylan pulled Ben aside.
“What?”  Ben snapped at him
“If we’re going to find this star thief, we need to get along,” Dylan stated. “And considering you’re like, Andrea’s little brother, then you’re my little brother as well.” Dylan said.
Ben grinned at him, “I was just about to tell you that!” he told the older boy. Dylan grinned back, and clapped him on the back.
“Now go shower. You stink!”
Ben laughed and ran off. Dylan stared contently at his new friends conversing between themselves. He watched as Tommy told Claire and Sabrina another cheesy joke. He then heard something come up behind him, then it jumped on his back and laughed.
“Andrea I know it’s you,” he laughed
“I know, I need to talk to you, Ben, and Claire alone,” she said
“Okay?” Dylan said confused “When?”
“Tonight, when Sabrina and Tommy are asleep.”
 

Claire wanted to get some sleep, just not in the Impala. But Andrea had called a meeting without their blonde friends. As she sat confused at why she was there, she saw Dylan and Ben come in just as confused as she was. They sat down next to her. Then Andrea came over to them.
“I need to tell you all something,” she stated. “Dylan already knows this but my mother didn’t only die, she killed herself…” Andrea’s breath shook as she recalled the memory
Claire held her hand to her mouth in shock.
“But what no one knows is what this necklace actually is or what her last words were,” Andrea continued as the rest of them looked at her shocked that she was telling them this. “This necklace is the Star of David, like you probably all know, but it’s also that star in the sky.” She pointed at the brightest star in the sky “And my mom’s last words were ‘Ster is the only true fear.’ I didn’t know what that meant at first, but then I started researching and Ster means star in Dutch!” 
Claire tensed as she remembered something, but kept quiet. Andrea kept talking.
“And I was thinking isn’t it weird that the raining stars didn’t happen to me and Dylan until you guys joined us?”
Dylan nodded his head in agreement
“The reason I’m telling you guys this and not Sabrina and Tommy is because I think it’s one of them,” Andrea said
“What?” Ben spat out “That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!”
“Hear me out,” Andrea continued, “I think it’s one of them because I remember Tom telling me that they were half Dutch,” Andrea was about to continue, but she saw Claire shaking violently.
“Claire, what’s wrong?” Dylan asked her, concerned.
She looked up with a horrified realization on her face. “Tommy and Sabrina…” she stopped shaking, “their last name is Ster.”

The entire group exploded into chaos at that statement.
“It’s not Sabrina!” Claire argued. 
“Well, it’s not Tommy!” Ben snapped.
“I’m going to have to agree with Ben on this,” Andrea stated “Sabrina has always had a weird aura around her.”
Claire glared at her. “Sabrina is my best friend. I’ve known her since we were three.” 
As the group quarreled, more stars disappeared from the sky.
“Guys… look!” Ben pointed at the sky.
They looked at each other and ran back to the camp as fast as they could. Andrea ran to the Ster’s tent and opened it.
“Tom!” she yelled.
“Andrea!” he yelled shocked. “What are you doing in here?” He covered himself up even though he was fully dressed.
“Where’s Sabrina?” Andrea asked.
“She left like half an hour ago, I thought she was with you!” he said.
“Come on!” she motioned him to follow her.
  The group reached the top of the hill and stared in awe at what they saw. Sabrina was standing at the very edge of the hill, and her hands glowed with the star’s power.
“Sabrina?” Thomas looked at her in shock.
Sabrina slowly turned around with tears in eyes.
“Tommy? Claire?” she looked at each individual. “I… I didn’t want you to find out this way… I’m sorry,” she cried. Claire stood silent with tears in her eyes.
“Why?” Tommy sputtered with silent tears streaming down his face. Andrea put her hand on his shoulder. He looked down at her and gave her a weak smile.
“I can’t protect you on my own, I needed the power.” Sabrina smiled at him. “I’m doing it for you! And all I need is one more star, that star.” She pointed at the brightest star in the sky, the Star of David.
“No!” Andrea screamed.
Sabrina turned and glared at her. Andrea started rushing toward her, but Ben and Dylan held her back.
Sabrina reached her arm up to the sky and clinched her fist. It started glowing. She tugged, but it didn’t budge. Andrea felt a tug on her neck and looked down. Her Star of David necklace it was lightly glowing. Andrea grinned from ear to ear.
“She can’t take it,” she whispered.
“Why isn’t it working?” Sabrina asked. She looked back at her friends and saw   Andrea’s necklace. “You,” Sabrina stated. “Give me the necklace.”
“Um, no.” Andrea looked at her like she was crazy.
“Give it to me now,” Sabrina stated. “Now!” She screamed. She walked toward Andrea, but Tommy stepped in front of her.
“Tommy?”  Sabrina looked up him, confused.
“I’m not letting you hurt her.” He stated with betrayal etched all over his face.
“Fine,” she replied, hurt. “I guess another star will do.” She turned and faced the nearly starless sky. She stared into it and smirked. “Perfect.” She reached her hand back into the air, and clinched her fist. As it started glowing, everyone searched the sky for disappearing stars, and they didn’t expect what they saw.
The moon was slowly melting! Tommy knew he had to stop his sister. He started running toward her and pushed her off the cliff. The moon stopped melting, and a couple of stars returned to the sky. Awe-struck, the group ran to the edge and stood next to Tommy as they looked over and saw that Sabrina had barely survived. She was holding on to a few stars as she floated towards the bottom. When she reached it, she ran, she ran as fast as she could.

 The shocked group walked back to the camp and stood in silence once they got there. Andrea noticed Tommy looked devastated. She walked over to him. She didn’t say anything, she just held out her arms. He embraced her tightly as he sobbed into her shoulder. Andrea kissed his forehead and stayed silent. Claire walked over and put her hand on Tommy’s shoulder. Ben and Dylan soon followed her actions. They all stood silent, comforting Tommy as he cried.
Slowly, Thomas stopped crying, but he was still in shock. He leaned on a log by the fire and stared blankly into the blaze. Andrea went and sat by him.
“You okay, Tom?” she asked before realizing it was a stupid question. He shook his head.
“All along it was her,” he muttered. “And it was for me,” he spat out. “If she had only told me…” he went silent again.
“It’s not your fault,” she told him. He smiled down at her.
“It sort of is, but thanks.”
Andrea noticed Ben was motioning for her to go over to where he and Dylan were sitting.
“I’ll be right back,” Andrea told Tommy. He nodded at her. Andrea walked over to the two other boys. She sat next to Dylan. “Where’s Claire?” she asked.
“I think she went to her tent to recover.” Ben answered.
“Why did you need me?” Andrea asked.
“We wanted to congratulate you!” Dylan smiled at her.
“Why?” Andrea asked, confused.
“You figured out who the star thief was,” Ben pointed out with a look on his face that said “Obviously.”
“Thanks guys,” Andrea replied. “But I think it would have been better if I hadn’t,” she stated, glancing over her shoulder at the once happy blonde.
“You know he would have eventually found out,” Ben told her quietly.
“I know.” Andrea stood up. “I’m going to sit with Tom.” She walked over to Tommy. When she got there, he stood up and hugged her. She scrunched her eyebrows confused, but hugged him back.
“I’m going to bed now,” Tommy told her. He quickly kissed her cheek, then ran off to his tent. Andrea just stood there, shocked and confused, as she watched him get into his tent.

Sabrina was having the worst day of her life. First her best friend and her brother found out she was the thief, then Andrea--at the thought of her, Sabrina scoffed--wouldn’t let her take the Star of David and when she tried taking it from her, Tommy defended her--at the thought of her brother, tears came to her eyes--and pushed her off the cliff when she tried melting the moon, and Claire didn’t even try to stop him. Now Sabrina was stuck sleeping in a cave trying to regain her energy. She thought of her brother and Claire as she fell asleep, hoping for no dreams, but with no luck.

“No, Tommy, that’s cheating!” fifteen year old Sabrina laughed as Tommy tickled her. “Tommy, stop!” she scream-laughed. He did after a couple of seconds.
“You never said that!” he pouted. “You just said I had to make you laugh.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, loser.” She pushed him off the bed and started laughing. He glared at her and threw her over his shoulder.
“Thomas Brodie Ster, put me down now!” she screamed and tried kicking him. He laughed and ran outside. Her eyes widened when she saw where he was taking her.
“Tommy, please no!” she pleaded, but it was too late. He threw her into the pool.
“Thomas!” she screamed when she resurfaced.
“Be quiet, I’m on the phone,” he yelled at her. Sabrina rolled her eyes at him, then saw him tense up and his eyes widened. He slowly lowered the phone from his ear.
“Tommy, what is it?” Sabrina asked. No response. “Tommy?”
He slowly turned towards her.
“Mom and Dad…” he started.
“Mom and Dad what?” Sabrina pushed.
“They got in a wreck. The hospital doesn’t think they’re going to make it through the night.”

Thomas woke with a start. He had tears in his eyes as he remembered the dream. Sure, they weren’t his biological parents, but he had still loved them. After that, he and Sabrina went to live with Claire and her family. If her parents hadn’t accepted them he didn’t know what he would have done. He probably would’ve been put back into the foster system and separated from Sabrina. He decided he needed some air and got out of the tent. He saw Dylan, so he went and sat by him.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Dylan asked
“You could say that.” Tommy laughed a little. “You?”
“I’m on third watch, remember.” He glanced down at Tommy “and since you’re fourth, I’m going to go back to bed. Night, kid.”
Dylan got up and walked away.
Tommy sat in silence, watching the sunrise. He suddenly sat upright at the sound of an owl. He scolded himself and relaxed again. He started falling back asleep; he desperately tried to stay awake but it was impossible. “Tommy, you’re on watch, wake up!” He reminded himself before it all went dark.

The next day found the group speeding down the road in search of Sabrina. It was almost nightfall, which they were grateful for because it would make it easier to find her. Ben moved his hand to turn on the radio, but Dylan smacked it away. Ben glared and looked out the window searching for Sabrina.
“What are we even going to do when find Sabrina?” Claire piped up from the back seat. “She’s too stubborn to listen and we can’t kill her.”
“We’ll do what we have to do,” Tommy mumbled. Claire raised her eyebrows at him, but stopped talking. They drove in silence for a couple more hours until it was dark.
“Wait, stop!” Andrea yelled. Dylan screeched to a stop.
“What?” he asked.
“Doesn’t the moon look larger than normal?” she asked.
Dylan looked out of Andrea’s window and saw two cliffs that were about 100 yards apart. There was a river at the bottom that seemed to be moving very fast, but it was the moon that caught his eye. It was huge! It seemed to be resting upon each cliff edge. He nodded his head.
The five of them decided to walk to the cliffs so they wouldn’t make too much noise.
“It’s beautiful,” Claire whispered as they got closer. Suddenly, Sabrina appeared out of nowhere.
“It is, isn’t it?” she smirked “Now look at it.”
They all looked at it. It was like it had turned into a waterfall as it melted into the river below it.
“Sabrina,” Tommy started, “stop.”
“Why Tommy? This is for you,” she said.
“I want you to stop,” he growled. Sabrina recoiled in shock, and the moon stopped melting.
“What?” Sabrina asked.
“I want you to stop,” Tommy replied calmly. 
“Fine,” Sabrina snapped before she threw a knife at Andrea. It missed her by three inches. They looked at her in shock. Dylan ran at her and pushed her to the ground. Then Ben helped her up.  She looked at him confused and as she got up she started to say thanks, but Ben punched her to the ground again.
Andrea, Tommy, and Claire watched the fight, but were shocked when Sabrina’s eyes started glowing. She then opened her palm and a small ball of fire appeared. She got ready to throw it at Dylan. Andrea too shocked to do anything hid her face in Tommy’s chest. But nothing happened. She looked up when she heard Claire.
“Sabrina!” Claire snapped. Her eyes stopped glowing and she gave Claire a smile, but then she noticed that Claire had a gun pointed at her face.
“Claire?” Sabrina asked confused. “What are you doing?”
Claire glanced back at Tommy. He had tears in his eyes, he started to mouth something to her, but she turned around.
“Claire, please,” Sabrina pleaded. “Don’t do this.” 
“It’s too late,” Claire replied,
“No!” Tommy screamed,
Claire pulled the trigger, and Sabrina’s lifeless body crumpled to the ground.

Dylan, Andrea, and Ben stared at Claire. Andrea was hugging a sobbing Tommy.
“Why did you do that?” Ben snapped.
“I did what I had to do,” she replied while glancing at Tommy.
“We could have given her a chance,” Ben glared.
“You don’t think I’m dismayed?” Claire started. “That I’m not going to miss her?” she cried. “Sabrina was going to kill Dylan; I saved him,” Claire yelled before she broke down into tears. Ben stopped. Dylan went up to Claire and hugged her.
“Thank you,” he whispered in her ear.

The sun was up now, and the group of five were saying goodbye to Claire.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” Dylan asked her.
“I want to graduate high school first,” she smiled at him before they hugged.
“Bye,” Ben told Claire before he embraced her into a tight hug.
“Thank you for saving Dylan,” Andrea told Claire.
“You’re welcome.” Claire smiled. Andrea hugged her and walked to Tommy’s side. Claire frowned. “You know I really am sorry, Thomas.”
He nodded at her, not responding.
She nodded sadly before turning around and walking away.
“Wait!” Dylan yelled.
Claire stopped and turned around and felt his lips against hers.
“What was that for?” she smiled at him.
“You’ll come back after you graduate?” he asked her. She nodded.
He smiled before walking back to the side of the car. Andrea smirked at him. He ignored her and climbed back into the car and watched as Claire walked into the sunset.

Andrea and Tommy were sitting by a log. She was laughing at one of his jokes, but she stopped when she saw him staring at her.
“What?” she smiled. “Is there something on my face?” she questioned.
“No, I just really like your laugh,” he told her. Andrea blushed and looked down.
“I’m sorry,” Tommy mumbled.
“Why?” Andrea’s head shot up.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” he replied. He started to say something else but couldn’t because Andrea kissed him. She leaned back and laughed at his shocked face
“I like you too, Tom.”
He smiled at her. Ben and Dylan walked over to the two. The group smiled at each other. They stared into the sky and smiled as the stars started reappearing. The stars in the sky were there to stay.