"Norah, what happened back there?" Lucy asked when Norah returned.

"Did you fall asleep again?" Mindy asked, her eyes rolling.

Without skipping a beat, Norah conjured up a story that would neatly explained away her tardiness in the 'battle'.

"I was fighting the space lizards, when a bright light shined on me and I heard a voice in my head. It told me we should head to the floating temple of Garon," she said.

"A floating temple?" Raj asked, wide-eyed.

Norah nodded. "It was an ancient temple floating in space. It once belonged to a powerful empire that disappeared eons ago. There were powerful magic in there, but evil had taken over it again. I believed the Star Dragon was trying to stop it when he disappeared."

"Oh no! Is he dead?" Aurora asked.

"I honestly don't know. The voice disappeared before I could ask any questions, and before I knew it, the battle is already over."

"Then we're going there to find the answers ourselves and defeat evil! Let's head to Garon!" Lucy announced.

After another warp speed travel that lasted about a minute, the crew of SS Adventure arrived at the floating temple of Garon.

"Whoa, Norah is right. It is a floating temple!" Mindy exclaimed.

"But I don't see anyone here. Where is the evil being?" Lucy asked.

Raj suddenly pointed at something up in the tree in terror. "Look up there! It's a crow monster from another dimension. Holy moly, it's even bigger than our ship!"

Norah looked up. Sure enough, there was a crow perched on the branch. It tilted its head at them, and then flew off.

"It landed in front of us. It's going to attack us!" Raj continued, now pointing at an empty space ahead of them.

"Battle stations, all hands on deck!" Lucy shouted.

Raj pressed an imaginary button on his imaginary robotic head. "It's charging up its power! I can feel it in my sensors! Its power level is now over one million points!"

"It's firing an energy beam at us! Hold on!" Lucy started making whooshing noise to simulate the energy beam that was blasting the ship. "Oh no, my ship's systems are failing!"

"Attack!" Raj shouted. Together, the kids ran ahead and attempted to fight the crow monster.

"Wow, not even my days in nursery was that exciting." Norah mused to herself as she watched the kids frail around. One by one, they fell to the ground, defeated.

"Oh no, it's too powerful!" Mindy cried out.

"Norah, help us!" Aminah added.

"Norah, use your best attack!" Aurora urged her sister.

"Right! I'll shoot an energy beam at the monster!" Norah faced the invisible demon and raised both of her arms. "Blast off!"

"Wow, that attack was amazing!" Aurora said in awe.

"But it still didn't work!" said Lucy. "It attacked her! And now Norah is defeated too."

Relieved, Norah promptly sat down on the ground, glad that she had another chance to rest her tired feet. "Oh no, I'm injured, and now I can't get up."

Aurora ran over to Norah and tried to lift her up from behind, pleading, "Norah, you've to get up! The space crow is winning!"

"Not yet Aurora, I'm tired for real and I need to rest my feet for a while," said Norah. The moment she sat down was the moment all the strength in her aching legs seemed to have been sapped by the ground.

"Are you tired already?"

"Yes, for real."

"Oh."

In the background, the kids had just 'revived' themselves and had another go at the monster.

"Try tying it down with a rope! Or trip it!" Norah could heard Mindy yelling, clearly in charge of their renewed offensive.

"Okay, I'll wait." Aurora sat down next to Norah.

For five seconds she waited, before she asked, "Are you fine now?"

"No, still tired," groaned Norah. "I just finished a really tough test in school and I'm really tired now."

"Test? How hard was your test?"

"Oh, you've no idea. I had to take those papers every day for the past five days and all of them were difficult."

"Really? I had my test last week too, and it wasn't hard."

Norah grinned. "Yeah, I remember my tests back in my primary school. They were nothing compared to what we have in secondary school."

Aurora cocked her head sideways in confusion. "Secondary school? What's that?"

"It's the school I go to after primary school. You'll be going there too when you're older."

Aurora's eyes widened. "Whoa, you mean there's another school I'll have to go to when I'm older?"

Norah couldn't resist chuckling. "Yes, of course you have to."

"Is it fun? Do you get to do fun stuff in school too?"

Norah thought back over her past three whirlwind years in secondary school. There were memories of friendships forged, and broken; her continuous struggle to maintain her school grades; her first crush and rejection; the laughably insipid dates with her self-absorbed ex-boyfriend; the happy evenings spent after rehearsals with her drama club friends; and her first stage performance in front of a public audience in a Shakespeare play. There were no shortage of miserable moments, but she also had plenty of funny and happy memories too.

With only less then twelve months to go before the 'O' levels and graduation, Norah was confident she had enough experience to make a judgement.

"Yes, it can be fun. Where do you think I learnt to laugh like an evil witch?" she eventually replied with a grin.

"Wow, I can't wait to grow up and be just like you!" Aurora said in awe.

"Oh, but you won't want to grow up too fast either. Trust me." Norah only knew how true that statement was.

"Norah, we need your help!" Lucy interrupted them from above.

"Oh no! The crow is still not defeated yet! Come, I know exactly what I should do to help you become stronger!" Without warning, Aurora slapped Norah's exposed shoulder with the palms of her hands.

"Ouch!" Norah cried out.

"Norah, I've given you some of my light power! You can stand up now! Quick!" Aurora urged her sister, trying to push Norah up.

"Okay, okay, I'm standing up." Norah relented and got back to her feet.

The moment she stood up, Aurora gasped. "Norah, you're glowing! In fact, you're turning golden in colour!"

Aurora waved at her friends, shouting, "Everyone, I gave Norah my light power and she is glowing! I think she's changing!"

Mindy stopped fighting her imaginary foes. "Changing? Into what?"

"She's changing into another dragon! I see a star mark on her."

"A star mark! I see it too!" Lucy shouted, now jumping in joy. "Aurora, the Diamond Dragon has just transformed into the Star Dragon! She's the Star Dragon all along!"

"Wow!" Marcus and Raj looked up to Norah in awe.

"I am?" Norah honestly didn't expect the plot twist.

"Yes you are! You've turned golden!" Marcus exclaimed.

Norah pretended to look at her hands in awe. "Oh my, this is totally unexpected."

"Kill the crow! Use your star power to kill the crow!" Raj urged Norah.

"Okay Norah, this is just like back on stage during that Shakespeare play", Norah muttered to herself. "Don't worry too much about the people looking at you, just focus on giving a good show. In fact, don't even think about the weird stares you are already getting from people. You are doing it all for Aurora."

"Time to end this!" Norah formed a circle with her hands and aim at the empty space where the imaginary foe stood. "Star power blast!"

With plenty of exaggerated sound effects and matching hand movements, Norah the Star Dragon had successfully vanquished the monstrous villain under a hail of brilliant light.

There was a second of silence. Then, Aurora shouted in joy, "We did it!"

"We did it!" The other kids threw their arms up in the air and repeated after Aurora.

It was an extraordinary sight to Norah, watching them cheering and giving each high-fives for winning an imaginary battle. It was all obviously make-believe and even deeply silly, but the kids weren't ashamed of it. All they cared about was having innocent fun by role-playing, and they had the freedom to pretend to be anything they wanted, only limited by their imagination.

"Aminah, it's time to go home!" Norah heard Aminah's mother calling out from the bench.

"Marcus, finish up fast! We're already late for dinner!" David also called out, running towards Norah and the kids. "We've to visit our grandparents for dinner, remember?"

"But bro, we're like a million light years away from Earth! We can't just go back now!" Marcus protested.

David smacked his forehead and groaned. "Oh come on, you can't keep playing forever!"

"I can't hear you David, I'm too far away to hear you, in another galaxy!"

"Yeah! We're not done yet!" the kids agreed in unison.

Norah turned to David and assured him, "Don't worry David, I know how to handle this. Just give me a minute."

"You can? No offence Norah, but," David lowered his voice to a whisper, "you are dealing with some of the rowdiest kids I've ever encountered. And that's saying a lot because Marcus is already my brother!"

Norah winked at David. "Watch me."

Norah confidently faced the kids, and with a deep, husky voice befitting of a regal dragon, said, "My fellow warriors, thank you for waking me from my overdue slumber and helping me to defeat the evil crow monster. Thanks to Aurora's power, I finally remember who I am and what happened before my deep slumber."

"What happened?" asked Lucy.

"Ten thousand years ago, I was battling the same crow to protect the universe," Norah continued. "After a long and exhausting battle, I managed to banish the crow into another dimension, but it had already stolen much of my power before its defeat. I was weak, so I landed on Planet X when I could no longer fly and fell into a deep slumber. That was why I became the Diamond Dragon and forgot my real name."

The kids seemed enthralled with Norah's story.

"Star Dragon, we came searching for you thinking you were a monster, but we were wrong. Would you like to come back to Earth with us and receive our medal for bravery?" Lucy offered, in a very diplomatic manner befitting of an ambassador.

"Certainly. I wish to see Earth, I heard it's a beautiful planet."

"But we're a million light years away from home! How will we go back?" Marcus asked.

"Don't worry, for as the Star Dragon, I have power over the cosmos. I will immediately open a wormhole back to Earth, and we can all go home in a blink of an eye!"

Norah turned, and with her right finger drew a large circle in the air. "Here it is, Earth! Hop through! Even your spaceships can fly through."

One by one, the kids eagerly jumped through the invisible hoop that Norah had drawn. Norah was the last to walk through the hoop.

"Well here we are, Earth!" Norah announced.

"We're home! And just in time for dinner too!" Lucy cheered. "Hooray! Thank you Star Dragon!"

"You're welcome. Now hurry along, it's time to find your parents."

Finally satisfied, the merry adventurers disbanded and returned back to their waiting parents and siblings.

"Thanks a lot Norah! You've saved my backside this time," David thanked Norah, before hurrying with David back to their family car where their parents were already waiting impatiently.

"Mum, mum, you won't believe the adventure we just had in outer space!" Norah heard Aminah saying excitedly to her mother as they left the playground.

"Aurora, time to go," Norah called out to Aurora. Aurora said her goodbye to Lucy before running over to rejoin their parents at the bench.

Norah felt a grubby finger poking her, and looking down she realised it was Mindy, who still hadn't left the playground yet.

"You are a good dragon Norah, but I still think you slept too much," Mindy said. "Mum says you'll get sick if you sleep too much"

Smiling, Norah bent down and said, "Fine, I admit it. I slept too much. I promise I won't oversleep again."

"You promise! Otherwise you'll be so fat that you can't fly anymore and you can't fight evil in space again." Mindy held up a pinky to Norah. "Pinky promise?"

Norah hooked Mindy's pinky with her own. "Promise!"

"Mindy, there you are! I've been looking for you!" Norah heard a woman calling out.

"Mummy!" Mindy broke off from Norah and ran over to her mother to hug her at the hip.

Norah froze. She recognized that voice, and it had been almost four years since she last heard it.

"Mrs Jones?" Norah stammered. She looked up, and sure enough, Mindy's mother was indeed Mrs Jones.

"Norah?" Mrs Jones was surprised too. Her surprise was quickly replaced by pure delight. "Norah! Oh this is wonderful! Look at you! You've grown so much since the last time I saw you! It's being, what, four years?"

Norah slowly stood up to face her former teacher. She was overwhelmed with conflicting emotions that she didn't know how to react, except to say, "Yes. It's been a while."

"How are you doing? How's your mother? How's school?" Mrs Jones asked eagerly.

"I'm fine. My mother is doing fine too. In fact, I'm even doing okay in school now." Norah felt a lump in her throat. She had so many things she wanted to say to Mrs Jones all those years, but at that moment, looking up at her former teacher's motherly face, Norah could not decide what she wanted to say.

"Mummy, do you know Norah?" Mindy asked.

"Yes honey. Norah was one of my students," Mrs Jones answered.

"Wow! Are you really that old?" Mindy exclaimed.

Mrs Jones laughed. "Yes, I guess I am now."

"Is Norah a good student?"

Mrs Jones looked back kindly to Norah as she said, "Yes Mindy, Norah is a good student. In fact, she is the brightest and most hard-working student I ever had. I'm so glad to see her again."

At that moment, Norah simply broke down into tears. The last vestige of sorrow and self-doubt leftover from her troubled childhood that remained inside her finally vanished. It meant the world to her to hear those words of encouragement from Mrs Jones again.

"There, there." Mrs Jones offered Norah a tissue paper. Norah gladly took it and blew her nose with it.

"Oh god, this is so embarrassing. I guess I haven't changed much," Norah joked once she regained her enough of her composure to speak.

"You have, trust me."

"Norah! What's going on over there?" Norah heard her mother calling out, stricken with worry.

"Mum, it's Mrs Jones! She's back!" Norah cried out happily.

The moment she said Mrs Jones' name out loud, Norah's parents scrambled over with Aurora in the tow.

"Mrs Jones, what a pleasant surprise to see you again!" Norah's mother wasted no time in shaking Mrs Jones' hands. "Please, visit us for tea some day!"

"Oh sure I will, Amanda! I've only just recently moved back here and it's nice to meet some familiar faces again."

Mrs Jones then showed off Mindy to Norah's family. "This is my daughter Mindy."

"Hello! It's nice to meet you," Mindy greeted them brightly, a model of good upbringing by her mother.

Norah's mother chuckled. "Oh, what a sweet girl you have. By the way, I want to introduce you my new husband Thomas, and my step-daughter Aurora. Say hi, Aurora."

"Hi." Aurora greeted shyly.

Mrs Jones bent down to talk to Aurora at eye-level. "Hi Aurora. Have you been a good girl?"

Aurora looked down shyly at her feet. "I think so?"

"You only think so?"

Aurora giggled. "Yes."

Chuckling, Mrs Jones turned her attention back to Norah's parents. "By the way, I've met Aurora in school. She's such a wonderful friend to Mindy in school. I haven't forgotten the time when she offered me her umbrella because it was raining!"

"Really? That's so nice of you Aurora!" Amanda said with an approving pat on Aurora's head.

Mrs Jones then glanced at her watch. "Oops, I'm so sorry, but I really need to go now. But please, call me any time if you want to visit!"

After exchanging phone numbers, the adults were ready to part ways with their kids, but Norah suddenly said, "Wait, Mrs Jones, I've something to say."

Mrs Jones waited patiently as Norah quietly walked up to her. Norah had finally decided what she want to say, and she wanted to say it before they leave.

"Mrs Jones, I didn't get a chance to thank you properly before I left the school. I was a terrible student when I was in your class, and I'm worried I haven't shown enough gratitude to you to make up for it." Norah took a deep breath. "I just want to say, thank you, for everything you've done for me. It's a little bit late, but I just want you to know how grateful I am."

With a beautiful smile that hadn't aged a year, Mrs Jones gave Norah a reassuring pat on the head. "You didn't have to worry, Norah. Seeing you changing for the better is all the gratitude I ever want from you."

Norah smiled at her old teacher. She kept smiling as Mrs Jones finally turned and left, with Mindy beginning to recount her grand adventure at the playground.

"So, shall we go?" Norah's father broke the silence with the suggestion. "We can eat dinner on the way back."

Holding hands with Aurora, Norah followed her parents back down the park trail beneath the setting sun.