Hello, all! I wrote this in the beginning of season 2 of SVTFOE and I just had this swimming around in my mind. I DO NOT OWN STAR VS. THE FORCES OF EVIL. Daron Nefcy and Disney own it. Enjoy the story!
The classroom chatter increased in volume when the shrill screech of the bell was heard echoing in the halls. No matter how loud the students were, however, a booming scratchy voice sounded out over the tops of their retreating figures.
"Remember, class, the poem MUST be about something you care deeply for!" Miss Skullnick barked after them, brows lowering over her dark eyes. As the last student left, she grunted and kicked up her feet onto her desk. The only troll teacher in the school leaned back into her chair and opened up a magazine labeled How to Troll in Real Life. She swooped her flaming red hair behind her and her tusk like fangs glinted in the light.
Her lip curled as she muttered out, "As if those brats could care about anything but themselves."
"Marco! Marco! Marco!"
The figure in the red hoodie paused mid step and angled his body to where he was partially turned towards the brightly dressed girl skipping up to him jovially. He gave her a smile.
"Hey, Star. What's—gak!"
Star Butterfly had launched herself at him within a few feet away and attached her arms around his neck, effortlessly choking him. "Huuuugs!" She squealed out, continuing with the awkward side hug.
Marco Diaz stood there for a second before slowly bringing his hands up to detach herself from his body. However, Star clung on tighter, her cheek pressed up against his as she grinned ecstatically. Flushing, Marco let out a noise of frustration and tried once more to pry her off of him.
"Star, would you let go?" He grumbled.
"Not until you hug me baaaaaack!" Star sang.
Sighing with a slight chuckle hidden in it, Marco didn't resist as he hugged her back as best he could in their position. Star immediately jumped back once the hug was done with. Marco rubbed the side of his sore neck.
"What's got you so happy?" He asked as they continued walking out of school.
At the mention of why she was so happy, Star became even more excited as she jumped up and around Marco, baby blue eyes sparkling. She jumped until she landed right in front of her best friend, spreading her arms out wide theatrically.
"Summer!" She cried out.
"Summer?" Marco asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Summer!" She repeated enthusiastically.
The Latino hesitated before opening his mouth, "What—?"
"Summer!" Star interrupted cheerfully.
Marco gave her a dry look, crossing his arms. Star stared back, her smile never waning.
"You done?" He asked.
"Summer…" Star's smile became a mysterious grin, her fingers wriggling in front of her. "…vacation!"
Marco blinked before grinning himself. He closed his eyes and walked past her as he called back, "We've still got a month of school left, Star!"
Star's smile fell. "Wha—? Hey!" She ran to catch up to him, a smug look on her face.
"You can't ruin this for me, Marco, not after all the amazing things I've heard from everyone! I can't believe you're not as excited about this as I am! I mean, no school for three months? No homework? Just having fun and doing whatever you want? It's the best thing I've ever heard in my life! You can't tell me you're not excited for that!"
Marco looked at her as if another eyeball grew on her forehead. "What, of course I'm excited! I just… didn't want to get hyped up until after finals is all."
Star's bows furrowed. "Ffffiiiinnn-wha?"
Marco rolled his eyes with a smile. "I'll explain later. C'mon, let's go home and get Miss Skullnick's assignment done and over with."
A mess of brown hair slammed onto the table below, a groan followed up by it. Marco peeled his head to look miserably at the blank piece of paper below him. It'd only been ten minutes and already the teen was thinking of calling it quits. Why did English have to be so…so hard for him? Every other subject was a breeze, but noooo. Not English. He just wasn't creative enough.
He wasn't like—
KNOCK. KNOCK.
Marco jumped at the sound coming from his bedroom door.
"Marco, can I come in…earth girl style?" A hesitant voice spoke from the other side.
A smile made its way onto his face at her wording choice. "Sure, Star."
The door opened and the blonde haired beauty poked her head in before fully entering. She closed the door and dragged her body over to his bed to collapse onto it face first, moaning. Marco turned in his chair to gaze at her concernedly.
"Star, what's wrong?"
Star mumbled something into the covers and Marco pulled a face.
"What?"
She repeated herself a little louder, but the blankets were still muffling her words. He sighed.
"Star, I can't hear you with your face in there like that."
The latter turned her head to where she was facing him, her hair covering most of her face.
"I said," she spat out some of her hair, "I said that I hate my mooom."
Realizing that this was easily going to turn into another one of her mother rants, he got up and went to go sit next to her on his bed, legs crisscrossed.
"What did she do this time?" He drawled out, give Star a pointed look.
The usually energetic girl rolled onto her back to stare up at his ceiling with an irritated expression. "Ugh! Everything! Whenever she calls it's like the worst part of my day! She never just calls to say hi or ask what I did today or even pretend to be interested with my stay on Earth! All she asks is, 'Oh, darling, did you remember to follow your guidelines today on how to be a proper queen? A princess must always be on her best behavior for everything so stop having fun this instant, Star, because happiness does not permit success as a queen!'" She imitated in her mom's thick noble accent.
She let out a noise of frustration. "I'm just sick of it, Marco! I…I just want to live a normal life here on Earth for a little longer, but with mom calling every day I'm just constantly reminded that I'm forever doomed to be a queen just like her!" Star covered her face in her hands and pathetically whined into it.
During her rant, Marco had absentmindedly grabbed a few strands of her long blonde hair and had attempted to braid it, all the while listening attentively. He stopped braiding at the end of her speech, his hazel brown eyes roaming over her hidden face sympathetically. He sighed.
"Star…you realize that all your mom is trying to do is prepare you so that you'll have no troubles while ruling Mewni, right?"
The princess of Mewni shifted her fingers so that an eye was glaring up at Marco. "You're supposed to make me feel better, Marco, not worse."
Rolling his eyes, he grabbed her hands until they were off her face. "I'm not siding with your mom, Star, I'm just having you consider why your mom might be bothering you so much about this. She's just acting like a worried mother in her own way."
Instead of arguing like he thought she would, Star sighed heavily and took her hands out of his to rest them on her stomach. "I know. I just wish she'd lay off the queen stuff for a while."
Marco leaned back on his hands, staring down at Star's upside down features curiously.
"Why don't you want to become queen anyways?"
Star was silent for a moment, mulling over his question, before tilting her head back to look up at him, her eyebrows arched nervously on her head.
"I'm…worried that being queen will change me. I mean, can you imagine if I end up being just like my mother?"
Both of them pulled a face and shuddered as if they were in the dimension of cats with human faces once more. Marco gave out a nervous chuckle.
"Okay, I can see your point right there, but, I highly doubt being queen will change who you are, Star. Your personality is too strong to be changed by anyone. I wouldn't worry about that too much if I were you." He gave her a reassuring smile.
Star reciprocated back by smiling weakly before it fell away once more and she looked down at her hands, wishing the safety of her wand was in them.
"That's just the thing, Marco," she said softly, "I'll never be ready in the eyes of Mewni to be queen if I stay this way."
Marco leaned forward questioningly. "What do you mean?"
Star sighed before sitting up as well and turning around to face him, her expression uncharacteristically serious. Something he'd only seen a few times since he first met her.
"What I mean is, every queen needs to act a certain way. They need to be…to be perfect. And I'm not perfect. I'm just…me."
Marco immediately opened his mouth to protest when Star spoke first, looking him in the eyes.
"The worst part of it is that I know that I could be like them if I really tried to be." She pulled her knees up to her chest, her dress scrunching a bit, "But I don't WANT to end up acting like I'm perfect all the time. I'd be worse than my mother! I'd be all proper and boring and…and…"
"And what would be the fun of that, right?" Marco cut in with a small smile.
The blue eyed princess smiled back. "Exactly!"
Marco lay a hand on her pale shoulder. "Listen, Star, you've still got time to figure everything out about this queen stuff with your mom. There's probably a ton of loopholes that doesn't make it a guarantee you have to rule like you're a jar of grey poupon." Star giggled at the word, even though she had no idea what it was.
"And if you ask me," he continued with a smile, "those kind of queens are overrated anyways. If you rule Mewni just the way you are, Star, then you'll make an amazing queen one day."
Star's eyes glistened at his words and she quickly threw her arms around him in a crushing hug. Marco gave out a choked cough from the grip and then relaxed, wrapping his arms around her with a squeeze.
"Thanks, Marco, you always know what to say," Star said into the hug.
They let go of one another and Marco rubbed the back of his neck, cheeks slightly flushed. "Heh. Thanks. Wish I could say the same thing about this stupid poem we have to write."
"Ohh yeeaaah," Star said, "I totally forgot about that assignment! Marco!" She grabbed his arms and shook him. "I need help!"
Marco tore his arm out of her hold and stopped her from scrambling his brain. "Sorry, Star, but I need just as much help as you do."
Star pursed her lips. "Hmm…Ooh! I know!"
She leapt off of his bed, shouted, "Be right back!", and raced out of his room. Marco went back to his desk to brainstorm more on what to write about when he heard the familiar sound of the air being torn behind him. He glanced back just in time to see a pair of scissors disappear from view and a portal opening up. Star's head jutted out and then the rest of her body jumped into his room.
She was holding her wand and a ginormous book that contained spells of all different kinds. Marco groaned at the sight of the book.
"Star, we don't need magic to do this assignment."
Said princess looked up. "What? Oh, no, don't be silly, Marco! I was thinking we could have Glossaryck help us."
"Ooon second thought, I think I'd rather we used magic," Marco argued, going back to his paper.
Star huffed and threw down her book, causing the floor to rumble due to its weight. She pulled up a chair next to her roommate and brought up her wand. She pointed it at Marco's paper before he could do anything about it.
"Paper Poem Completion!" She cried out with glee.
There was a burst of purple and pink smoke that hit the paper before dispersing. Marco unshielded his face from his arms to see in his astonishment that there was a poem imprinted on his paper in very neat handwriting. He picked up the paper and began reading the poem out loud.
"Roses are red. Violets are blue. Warnicorns are sweet and so are—Star, I can't use this!"
Star shrugged and snatched the paper from him. "Fine. Then I'll use it."
"Staaar, what I mean is none of us can use it." Marco gave her a flat look.
"What? Why not?" She asked with a frown, hands on her hips.
A brown brow rose. "Didn't you hear her earlier? We have to be original. No red roses and blue violets kind of stuff. It's gotta be what we care about the most."
"Weeelll, good thing Warnicorns are the thing I care about the most then," Star replied with a smug smile.
"Well, then, write about that. Just don't include the roses and violets in there," he pointed out.
Star gave out a dramatic whine, "Aww, but that's like half of the poeeemm."
Marco chuckled, causing Star to follow along with her own small laugh. "Yeah, well, you're more creative than I am so I don't think it should take you too long to write one. You don't even have to make it rhyme."
"Wait, I don't?" Star said puzzled. "I thought that was the whole point of poems."
"Nah," Marco said with a waved off hand, "It's just writing down your thoughts in a sort of artistic way. Just read our book of poems and I'm sure you'll be hit with inspiration."
"Ooh! Good idea! I'm gunna do that right now!" Star sprung out of her seat and scooped up her items to take her leave. As soon as she reached his doorway, she stopped and turned back to him.
"Oh, and Marco?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for cheering me up earlier," she said with a soft smile.
He reflected her expression. "Of course, Star. Anytime."
Once the door shut, Marco turned back to his desk and brought out a new sheet of paper. He took a deep breath and put on a look of determination.
"Alright, Diaz, you can do this. You've still got daylight to burn and it's time to get those creative juices flowing! You got this!"
THREE HOURS LATER
Marco let out a defeated groan into his desk. He pulled himself away from his position to glare at the still blank sheet of paper. Shoving off, he changed into his pajamas and flopped onto his bed.
"I'll just write it in the morning," he yawned out before drifting off, instantly dreaming of breathtaking dimensions and a certain blonde haired princess taking him on these incredible adventures.
It wasn't until three in the morning that Marco Diaz was struck with inspiration.
Marco nearly collapsed on his school desk, blinking tiredly from the night before. His best friend, Star Butterfly, sat down in her seat next to him, bubbly as ever. The rest of the class were chatting away, taking every moment to use the current absence of Miss Skullnick to their advantage. Star bounced in her seat.
"I can't wait to turn in my poem! What did you end up writing about, Marco?"
She turned to see Marco's head buried in his arms, a snore rising out of him. She poked his shoulder with intensive force. He moaned.
"Marco? You okay? Not enough sleep last night or something?"
The Latino lifted himself up and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "Ugh, yeah. Poems aren't really my forte. I just want to turn it in and be done with it."
Star flashed her pearly whites at him. "What did you wri—?"
She was interrupted by the classroom door crashing open and their troll of a teacher, Miss SKullnick, stomping her way to her desk. She hefted her large body into her seat and took out her role sheet. The class begrudgingly stopped talking before another shouting match ensued with their teacher. Her grimy green fingers slipped her glasses onto her large nose as she stared down at the class with the most contempt she could muster.
"Alright, class, since I'm feeling extremely generous today, you all get to read your poem out loud to the class before turning it in," she snarled.
"Ooh. Tough date last night, Miss Skullnick?" Justin the jock called out from the back.
"I don't want to talk about it!" The troll barked out. "Thank you for volunteering, Justin. You will be going first."
"Aw, man," Justin whined out before reluctantly making his way to the front.
Marco, meanwhile, was staring at Miss Skullnick with a look of upmost horror. The color had drained from his face and he thrust his hand up in the air to wave it around.
"Yes, Mr. Diaz?" Miss Skullnick sighed out in annoyance.
"Ahem. Is there, I don't know, maybe, an option about reading them out loud? I mean," he half laughed out nervously, "what could we possibly gain from reading any of these, am I right?" He glanced around at his fellow classmates in sheer desperation. "Right? Guys, seriously, work with me here!"
"Shut your mouth, Mr. Diaz!" Miss Skullnick growled, "You'll be going after Justin."
"But-but I—!" Marco attempted in vain, but was once more cut off.
"Not another word! Unless you would rather be taking an F on this assignment," the troll snapped.
That shut Marco right up as he miserably looked down at his desk in shame. Star, who wasn't sure why Marco would be putting up so much of a fight, felt sorry at the sight of her friend looking so down and opened her mouth to offer comfort when Justin's poem rang out.
"Footballs are brown. The stitches are white. We'll win the game this match! We'll fight, fight, fight! Thank you. That was called Football," Justin said, a proud smile on his face.
"Pathetic. C minus," Miss Skullnick stated in a bored fashion.
Justin looked relieved to hear the grade and happily went back to his desk, high fiving a few guys in the back. The hideous female troll turned her beady eyes towards Marco's slumped form.
"Alright, Marco, you're up. Name of poem first."
Star could see that Marco's hands had a slight tremble in them as he grasped his paper and stood up. Shuffling to the front, Marco turned to face the crowd, sweat building up on his forehead.
Maybe he has stage fright. Wait, but Marco's spoke in front of a crowd like this before and was fine. Just what has got him so nervous? Star's thoughts ran rampant at Marco's behavior, but listened.
The teen in the red hoodie took a shaky breath and held up his paper. Clearing his throat, he stuttered out, "U-um, thi—this poem is called… M-Mi Estrella."
Looking over at the audience, ninety-five percent, including Star, held a look of befuddlement much to his immense relief. The only ones who actually had a knowing look were his best friend Ferguson—who was giving him a thumbs up with a suggested eyebrow wave—and Janna—who was trying hard not to laugh. Otherwise, nobody else seemed to get it. Feeling a little better, Marco cleared his throat again and began his poem.
"I...I love you just the way you are
but you don't see you like I do.
You shouldn't try so hard to be perfect.
Trust me…perfect should try to be you."
Throughout the poem, Marco's cheeks flared the same color as his hoodie and his gaze never left his paper. He was sure he had never sweat so hard in his life. Once finished, he heard the unmistakable sound of girls awing at his paper and some snickering from the guys at how sappy it sounded. He didn't dare look over at Star so he quickly handed in the paper and raced back to his seat.
Miss Skullnick made a thoughtful noise. "Not bad, Diaz. B plus."
Marco let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. Wiping the sweat from his face, he felt a poke on his shoulder. Stiffening, he slowly turned to stare wide eyed at Star's expression. She was simply smiling sweetly at him like she always did, no scorn or malice on her face whatsoever.
"Marco, that was—!"
"Star Butterfly, you're next!"
"Okay!" She chirped and skipped to the front, taking out her sheet of paper. In her other hand was her wand. "Ah, okay, this is called Wholesome Wand."
"With you I feel whole
from your wings down to your hearts.
You make me feel safe where I can
always count on you.
But without you I also feel whole
because you're imprinted within me
from my wings down to my hearts.
You are what makes me a Butterfly."
Finishing her poem, she smiled as the class erupted in applause. Marco, feeling much better, gave her a thumbs up. Even Miss Skullnick gave two claps, though a frown was still on her face.
"So you do have some talent within you after all, Miss Butterfly," she rasped. "A minus."
Marco swore he saw stars and hearts popping off of the princess as she turned in her paper and sat down with a wide smile, giving Marco a high five.
The poems continued until Ferguson's poem got cut off in the middle by the bell. Ferguson let out a sigh of relief until Miss Skullnick said, "We'll continue these on Monday. Ferguson, you'll be going first." Ferguson angrily kept his paper as the class began to swarm towards the exit.
"Marco, I did it!" Star exclaimed, bursting with joy.
The Earth boy smiled. "Your poem was awesome, Star. Looks like you found a hidden talent you never knew you had." He elbowed her playfully. Star shouldered him back.
"Yeah I guess I did! Aw, and Marco, your poem was so sweet! Ya gotta tell me who it was fo—!"
"Heeey! Ferguson! Janna!" Marco interrupted nervously as he swung his arms around each of their necks to bring them in close. "Ya miiind if I chit chat with you for a minute?"
Before Star could say a word, Marco had already began dragging them off much to their discomfort. He called back to her, however, "I'll catch you after school, Star!"
"Oh, uh, o-okay, Marco! Bye!" She waved until they vanished out of sight. When they turned the corner, her face fell into one of suspicion. Why was Marco acting so weird? She gave a final hum in thought before shrugging and continuing with her classes.
So this is an AU of Marco having feelings for his best friend. That ending of the second season really took me by surprise and I am so excited for it to come back for a third season! I really love where they're taking the story so far!
Also, as a note, the poem Marco recites is an actual poem called Perfect written by Bo Burnham in his book Egghead. It's a beautiful poem and if you love to laugh then I'd recommend his book of poems!
Marco: Staaaarrr, why are you making that face?
Star: What face? I make no face!
Marco: You used magic on me, didn't you?
*Star trying not to blow up*
Star: Nope.