The Discovery
Adalia had always been a lucky person in her just over two decades of life, a fact that always annoyed her older brother who had the worst luck in the world. The one thing she was never lucky in - or good at, for that matter - had always been cooking. Every time she tried to cook for a boyfriend, friend, or even for her big brother she would fail miserably and usually Fiach would have to come to her rescue. A couple of times since she had come to live with him he had taken it upon himself to attempt and instruct her in the culinary arts but had yet to succeed with his endeavors. In fact, for his own sanity, he had given up entirely on teaching her how to cook at all. No matter how careful he was in watching her - or the food - she always somehow destroyed the meal or dessert. This inability to do something that she was sure was supposed to have been in her genes as she was, after all, a woman, depressed her on occasion and one cloudless night whilst lying on her bed staring out the window she was feeling just that.
Because of this feeling of depression, when she caught sight of a shooting star she quickly shut her eyes and said, "I wish I could cook! I wish I could cook! I wish I could cook!" as fervently as she could manage. Once the star was out of sight, the young woman giggled at how silly she was acting and quickly rolled herself over to go to bed and dream of being a master of the culinary arts. These thoughts quickly lulled her to sleep, allowing her to forget of the shooting star she had wished upon. Instead thinking of birthday cakes that looked like a cake should and tasting good enough people could eat more than a bite before saying they were full.
The next day Adalia noticed Fiach had still not gone grocery shopping, as he often neglected to do, and so took it upon herself to take the shopping list stuck to the fridge and do the purchasing on her own. It would give her something she could do to contribute to the household, at least, even if she couldn't cook. Forgoing the car in favor of walking to the store as the list wasn't too terribly large that morning, Adalia headed out with a pep in her step. Since big brother was at work, she took her sweet time and stopped along the way when she caught sight of what appeared to be a break in the concrete of the sidewalk near to an alleyway she had been passing. Her curious nature took over, and she carefully stepped towards the hole not sure what she would find but ready to run just in case it was something bad.
Much to her surprise, Adalia discovered a fallen star lying in the broken sidewalk. While she told herself it was just a coincidence that she had wished upon a falling star the night before only to discover one that had actually fallen into the city, the young woman couldn't help but believe that it was more than just that. How often did you wish upon a shooting star only to have it land practically in your backyard, after all? Not very, she was sure of that, and with that in mind Adalia quickly looked around for a way to take it home with her or at least cover it so that no one else could possibly take it instead of her. Although she was a few feet from the star, just close enough to see what it was but not touch it, she knew that would not be picking it up at any time that day. So instead, she chose to continue to the grocery store and on her way home she stopped to check it again.
With a determined walk Adalia carried the groceries homeward, fully sure she would be the one to take the star once it had cooled down and already planning the excuses to check on it at least twice a day without big brother growing curious. One way or another she was sure that star would grant her wishes. There could be no other reason for her to have discovered a fallen star right after wishing on a shooting one anyway, right?
