STARGIRL

seven.

Eleanor sat cross-legged on her bed with her old pair of headphones clipped into her dad's spare Walkman. She nodded her head along with the beat as she read one of her books again for the billionth time. As the music died down, she heard footsteps coming towards her. Her head whipped around at the sound only to see her dad, "You gotta stop sneaking up on me," she said, breathing out in relief, "This is like the, uhh, third time."

"Only second." Peter corrected her, sitting down beside her. She abandoned the book on her bed and shuffled over to sit next to him. She shrugged, "Still. Too many times."

"Sorry, bean." Peter smiled.

Eleanor rested her head on his shoulder, "What are we doing?"

"Well, Gamora is being very unresponsive when I'm asking her about the buyer and how far away they are," sighed Peter, stroking Eleanor's hair, "But apparently we're heading in the right direction," he glanced behind her, noticing the book lying open on her bed, "What're you reading?" he scooped it up, "Hey, you're breaking the spine!"

"Since when did you care about books, Dad?" she replied, grabbing it from his hands carefully as to not lose her place, "And it's the one that Mum gave me before she abandoned me."

There was a small silence. Eleanor debated whether or not to say what she wanted to say. Eventually she took a deep breath and went for it, "Dad, did Mum hate me?"

Peter's eyes grew wide at her question, "What?" he said shocked, "No, not at all, Els. She just wasn't ready to be a mother."

"Will she ever be?"

Peter debated lying to her, but his daughter was smart. She would be able to feel the uncertainty in his voice, so he went for the truth, "I don't know, bean... but you know I love you, right?"

Eleanor smiled at him, "Always."

"Come on up to where the party is!" Peter changed the tone of the conversation. Eleanor could tell from years of asking that he felt a little uncomfortable talking about her mother, "You have the massive tree, the judgemental raccoon, the killer queen, and some can't take a joke alien. Who'd you wanna hang out with?" he said it in a joking way.

Eleanor laughed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, "You."

Eleanor sat spinning on a random chair in the main room as her dad pretended to practice shooting people with his guns.

"Heads up!" Rocket yelled, "We're inbound."

"Come on, Els." Peter said to her. She stopped spinning and took his hand and they headed upstairs to where the controls were. Rocket and Groot were steering the ship. The planet looked creepy. Too creepy, Eleanor thought, Could they trust this person? After all, four billion units was a crazy amount.

"Guys-" she tried to spill her worry out to the others but she could barely get past the first word when she got interrupted.

"What is it?" Drax asked.

"It's called Knowhere," replied Gamora, "The severed head of an ancient celestial being," Hairs on the back of Eleanor's neck stood up and she shivered. She didn't want to go. Gamora continued to talk, "Be wary headed in, rodent. There are no regulations whatsoever here."