Every Soul a Star

Ally and Bree, just meeting each other and both set against the move, agree to plot to get their parents to change their minds. The plot that Bree and Ally agree to try, taken from Disney’s movie The Parent Trap, seems simple enough. Each girl, feigning to be interested only in the other girl’s welfare, will go to the other parents and, pretending to want to help them understand where they are going, will describe all the negatives of life in their new home.

Bree, for instance, tells Ally’s parents about crime in the city, overcrowded classrooms, bullies, gang activity in the neighborhoods, and noise. Ally tells Bree’s parents about the remoteness of the camp, the infestation of bugs and snakes, the frequent blackouts during which they might lose critical research data, the time and money involved in homeschooling, and the sheer boredom for kids far from television and friends. The girls coordinate a plan: They will cut the electricity to the Holdens’ cabin just as the parents are recording research data and at the same time let bugs lose through the windows. The plan fails; the parents are on to the girls’ scheme.

In the process of hatching the plot, however, each girl opens up to the other: Bree tells Ally about her plans to be a model, and Ally shares her dream of discovering a comet.