Juno and the Sneaky Star — Every evening, Juno wiggled through Snowglobe Pond polishing frost-stars with the peppermint end of her candy cane. Scritch, scritch, sparkle! Read the full story →
Every evening, Juno wiggled through Snowglobe Pond polishing frost-stars with the peppermint end of her candy cane. Scritch, scritch, sparkle! She liked to finish before the moonfish woke, so nobody would know who made the water glitter. Until one evening, a round ornament with a ribbon bow bounced off a bubble and bonked her Santa hat sideways. “Psst,” it jingled, “act natural.”
Because of that, Juno followed the ornament past curly ice swirls and fat, silent snowflakes. Because of that, she found a tiny glass beetle inside it, shivering beside a cracked painted star. The beetle had been stealing shine to fix his winter lamp, but all he had made was a rattly mess. Juno snorted a bubble laugh, then rubbed her best candy-cane glow into the crack. The ornament warmed, the beetle’s lamp blinked on, and nobody clapped because nobody was there.
At dawn, the pond ceiling twinkled brighter than ever, and Juno pretended not to notice. If you spot her peppermint cane, keep her secret: scritch, scritch, sparkle.
