Star Spangled turned around and around in the mirror. No matter what direction she turned, however, her flank was still blank. She had her glorious stitchmark she'd inherited from her dad, her twinkle eyes she'd gotten from her mom -- and no cutie mark as of yet. She almost liked it that way. Having a cutie mark meant she would have to choose one day. Or that the choice would be thrust upon her, which might be even worse.
She didn't want that. She didn't want to have to choose. Why couldn't she be like Mossflower and just KNOW what she wanted? This way was the worst! She loved baseball. Loved the smell of the dirt and the chase after balls and the hot summer evenings made cool by the sense of competition and the yell of the crowd. She didn't want to have to stop watching her dad pitch, or playing ball with her siblings after, or being close to the game.
But she also loved to sing. Why was that so hard? She loved practicing scales. She loved swelling her voice with song. Having others sing along but being in the middle of it. That's what she wanted. That's what she really, truly wanted. To sing and to play baseball. Why couldn't she have both?
She sunk down on the ground with a sigh. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that she was going to go have to choose. It just wasn't.
She wished there were some happy medium. Like she could go to games and catch balls and sing songs and --
-- Star lifted her head.
Sing songs? Like the Star Spangled Banner? Or the Seventh Inning Stretch? There was music in baseball! There always had been! And -- and who was to tell her she couldn't take over some ball girl duties in between? The Phonyland Phonies needed a new anthemist. She'd heard Fast bug Moon to do it more than once. Why couldn't she take over that job?
But it would be too perfect, right? Too neat, too clean? Even if that was what she wanted, who was to say she would get it?
Star flapped her wings, rising up. No way. That wasn't how she'd been raised. If there was one thing she'd gotten from BOTH her parents, it was tenacity.
Now that she knew what she wanted, she was going to get it.
