Unfortunately not everyone felt the same as her. Much like the young girl towered over the spider she soon found herself and the arachnid towered over by a presence that shadowed them both from the afternoon sun. Even before her head tilted around to see who it was she was aware of the person behind her. The only one that would cast a shadow that was both long and somehow cold when it fell upon her. The first thing she noticed was the black jeans that lead up towards a black T-shirt of some heavy metal band she'd never even heard of before. Out the neck of the T-shirt was a cruel face if she'd ever seen one before with a grim smile.
"What do you want, Sergio?" She knew him of course, everyone on the playground did. A bully that seemed to enjoy nothing more than picking on those weaker than himself at every opportunity. Some kids had abandoned coming to the park altogether a long time ago simply due to the threat of Sergio ever returning to make their lives miserable. The young girl however hadn't given it much of a thought as she figured there was nothing he could do that would bother her.
"What cha' doin, twerp?" Black hair was messily parted to one side on his head by some kind of gel or mousse but it may as well have been cooking grease to compliment his complexion. She stood up and crossed her arms to face him.
"Nothing! Why don't you go bother somebody else?" It felt good to stand up to a bully and try to put him in his place but it wasn't the greatest tactic. The challenge of someone trying to be strong was an open invitation to be proven wrong and Sergio acted on this by grabbing the girl by her shoulder and tossing her aside. "Hey!"
"What's so great about a dumb bush?" The bully asked as she pulled herself to her feet, hoping that maybe he was actually too dumb to understand what she was looking at in the first place. While you couldn't count on a dumb jerk to get good grades or make solid life decisions, you could always count on them to find something good in the world and put a stop to it. "Ew! There's a spider here, I hate spiders!"
"Leave him alone!" She called out, running over to Sergio attempting to push him out of the way. While it was arguably brave it was still a poor tactic in dealing with an older and stronger boy. If she'd simply pretended to be girly and acted like she was afraid of the spider he probably would have let it live just to antagonize her. Instead she simply found herself shoved aside again as Sergio lifted his foot to drop it onto the bush. "Don't! He's not hurting anyone."
"Whatever, spiders are gross and you're weird for liking them." She watched on helplessly as she was praying for someone to come by. Maybe an adult to scare him away or if her prayers were to be answered the girl's parents to chase him off. While her wish was granted it was in the least desired way possible as another female voice chimed out from above.
"Halt evil-doer!" A voice trumpeted as the bully and girl looked skyward. Amidst the glow of the daylight stood a girl with long blonde hair coursing down her back, a purple dress with added glitter glue designs and a plastic crown upon her head. "Don't lay a hand upon that poor arachnid's body. For Star Butterfly is here to defend the weak from the wretched!" The other two kids looked up in confusion for a while before the boy realized what she was talking about.
"Aren't you that sixth-grader that doesn't have any friends?" The blonde girl choked up for only a moment as she was reminded of the alias that she was least fond of and seemed to be the one that everybody remembered. Putting aside the momentary set back to her pride the girl reached into her pocket and pulled out a plastic wand that was missing the battery cover, revealing its power source had been lost long ago.
"It matters not what you know me as, cretin! If you don't cease and desist with your terrible antics I shall be forced to stop you." Star proclaimed proudly but the bully only snorted with a laugh in return.
"Oh yeah? How ya gonna do that?" Sergio asked snidely, Star smiling gleefully that he'd invite her to act. Not dissimilar to the early satisfaction Sergio himself gained from stopping the other girl's defiance to him.
"Like this!" Star declared, pulling her wand back as she intended to launch herself off the tree limb into an overhead smashing club attack with her plastic toy. While it was an extremely ill-advised action at best that could have resulted in serious injury for everyone, Star never got to see it through. Instead the heel of her blue boots caught on some branches when she dismounted. "Whoa, oh no! Oh no!" The girl cried out as she was thrown off course upon her leap, arcing her away from the unforgiving bully and even more unforgiving ground and instead into the scratchy but cushioning embrace of the bush Sergio had intended to crush with his foot.
The irony of her landing place wasn't lost on the boy as he cackled horribly over her mistake. "Oh man, that's too good! I can't believe you squished that dumb bug for me!" Star was minding her scratches from where she fell when she realized what he was talking about. Still laughing to himself Sergio decided to just leave, his work being completed far more efficiently and elegantly than he could ever manage to do himself. "What a dumb idiot." Departing as jarringly as he arrived Sergio walked off while the sun dipped deeper, removing more of the light from the world around them. Sadly Star rose to her feet out of the bushes, staring at the ground and not wanting to see what her carelessness had done.
"I'm sorry Janna." Star apologized, having recognized the girl who was observing the spider from her home room class while she had been up in the tree branches. "I didn't want to make things worse, I just wanted to save-"
"There you go, Mr. Spider." Janna said out loud, completely oblivious to Star's apology. The blonde girl turned to see that while her and Sergio had been verbally dueling it out Janna had swooped in and saved the spider by catching him on a stick and getting him out of harms way.
"You saved him!" Star shouted happily in surprise. "Oh goodie! He's safe, I was so scared that I squashed him."
"Don't worry, I'll find you a new bush. Those meanies won't be able to hurt you if I find a place that's out of the way." As quickly as her heart had been soaring she felt it sink again when she realized Janna had said "meanies", plural. As in Sergio and her.
"Well... I mean I kind of distracted him so you could save him so you could say it was a team effort that-" Her explanation went ignored however as Janna was already running off to find her arachnid friend a new home. "Okay so I'll just... stay here then and pretend I'm sad so he thinks I really did squash it." Star sighed, sitting down by the tree that she'd just launched herself from. "That's it, I'm just pretending to be sad. I'm not really." It was a bad lie, even to her.
She tried to remain optimistic about herself even in the worst of times. That she really was destined to be a great super hero that would save the day from the forces of evil. In her heart Star knew this was the way things were supposed to be. Even if more often than not her attempts at stopping "evil" usually resulted in people getting upset with her and not wanting to talk to her or hang out at lunch. If she could just figure out what was stopping her from achieving what she wanted then maybe things would get better and she'd be recognized as the heroic princess she always wanted to be.
But for now she was just a girl sitting under a tree doing a good job of protecting the painted on hearts on her cheeks from being smeared by tears.
Star was supposed to wait at the park until her dad was free to come pick her up but if she started home now she could probably get there before he was done with work. As she was debating which option would be the best use of her time a shadow fell upon her and blocked out the sunlight. The girl sighed as trying to fight against the bully wouldn't do much to pick up her spirits anyway. But if she truly was a force for good then she couldn't wait until she felt happy to stop evil. Gripping her wand tightly but still looking at the ground, Star steadied herself. "So you want to go a round with me, tough guy?"
"Yeah right, I wouldn't want you to get seriously hurt if I cut loose." A boy's voice responded but not Sergio's. Instead this voice was closer to her own age and carried a heavy tone of bravado that was clearly more to impress than to show personal confidence. "I just came over here to make sure you were okay."
"What?" Star asked confused as she lifted her head to see a boy in a white karate uniform. He had a white headband wrapped around his head and a green belt on his waist. His dark brown hair was brushed upward to reveal eyes that had dark circles underneath that Star usually associated with boys who often stayed up too late at night to play video games. The other prominent features that caught her attention was the mole on the right side of his face. While most would have recognized the boy from the outfit he enjoyed wearing as often as he could, much like Star and her own princess attire, it was actually the mole that sparked the memory in her head. "Marco Diaz?"
"In the macho karate uniform, here to save the day." Marco said proudly as he stood before her and confusing Star tremendously. "I saw you sitting here and figured someone must have done something pretty bad to make you look depressed."
"I'm not depressed!" Star snapped back defensively. "I'm just... playing decoy is all."
"Decoy, for what?"
"For Janna and Mr. Spider." Star answered shakily, her lie unraveling to her the more she told it. "The jerk Sergio tried to crush Janna's spider friend, but then I uh... pretended to crush it. By accident." Wow this sounded dumb even to her when she said it out loud. "So now I'm here pretending to be sad so Sergio thinks I really did crush it and Janna can sneak him away."
"I don't think Sergio is even around." Marco said as he took survey of the park. "And Janna's playing on the swings over there with Hope. Are you sure Janna knows about your plan? She isn't really a team player."
"Of course she knows. It's all in the name of protecting the weak." Despite saying the phrase she normally shouted with a pose of victory Star didn't even feel the need to get up. Just continuing to sit on the ground beneath the tree. Marco seemed at a loss as to what to do about this situation until an equally crazy plan came to mind.
"I know, if you want I can go and fight that bully for you! That way you don't have to stay under this tree anymore." Marco did a karate pose in front of the girl but she didn't seem very impressed. "With my skills I can totally take him out for you. Heck, you don't have to worry about a thing. With Marco Diaz here you'll always have a hero in your corner."
"I don't need a hero..." Star muttered.
"What?"
"I don't need a hero!" She snapped defensively, starting to realize that she was being a little mean herself and pulled her knees up to her chest while she sat. "I'm supposed to be the hero. I was the person that was supposed to stop the bully and protect Janna and Mr. Spider and save the day and junk. But that's not what happened." Her arms tightened around her knees and fingers laced the toy wand in her hand. "Just go be a hero for someone else if it means that much to you. I don't want one."
"Oh." Marco replied, having abandoned his martial arts stance and looking at Star in confusion. "Okay... then. Sure. I'm... I'm sorry." Both at a loss for what to do Marco began to walk away from Star, leaving her to continue to sit underneath her tree as the sunlight dimmed around them. She'd decided this was the best place for her after all, might as well just wait until her dad came to pick her up. If she was lucky the other kids would leave the swing set and she could play on it for a little bit to entertain herself. Just as her breathing was starting to get under control again from her last outburst Marco's voice rang out. "Hey, do you like video games?"
"Video games?" Star asked as she looked to where Marco had stopped walking and was now facing her. The boy began to approach again but not with the swagger he had previously.
"Yeah. I've got a bunch at my house and there's all different kinds. I got the kart racing one if you like that? I don't know what kinds of games girls like really but it seems like that's one everybody likes so if you're interested my house isn't too far away. Maybe you have to ask permission but you can use my phone if you want, my mom's home and you can call anyone if that would-" Star was on her feet suddenly and the sight bathed in sunlight was one that caught Marco off guard. She was smiling at him brightly but he could see small traces of tears under her eyes as she did. Quickly wiping them away as if they hadn't been there, she nodded her head enthusiastically.
"Can I play as the princess?"
"Yeah, if you want." Marco said with a relieved face to see her smile. Without warning however he found himself gripped in about the tightest hug he'd ever felt from another human being. "Wait! Wait!" Marco protested and Star quickly released him, pulling back as she realized she'd over-stepped her bounds."
"I'm sorry! I was just excited so I hugged you."
"That's alright I'm just... not much of a hug guy. You know, macho man and all that stuff. Tough guys never hug."
"My daddy hugs me all the time and he wrestled a deer to the ground once."
"I... wait, is that even possible?"
"We go on camping trips a lot." Star said with a bright smile.
"Oooookay, well we better get going while we still got time to play."
A short walk later the two found themselves at the Diaz family household. It was pretty normal to Star aside from the stone statues out front that Marco had proudly bragged his father had made himself. Apparently he was something of an artist and made a living selling these unique creations, which wasn't what Star had expected at all. Given Marco's tendency to do martial arts poses and brag about his physical accomplishments she thought his dad would be more like hers. However he wasn't there to judge directly, only Marco's mother was home.
Though she felt nervous meeting another person's parents Star could tell she liked Mrs. Diaz right away. She was pretty and smiled a lot, standing tall and speaking in a melodic voice. Her long curly hair was tied back behind her and Star admired how fluffy and bouncy it looked. Star was allowed to use the phone right away and Mrs. Diaz didn't even make any comments about Star's clothing or the fact she carried a wand with her. Maybe it was because her son was walking around in a karate outfit but Star didn't really mind the reason, she already liked this house a lot. Once a voicemail had been left for her dad Marco kept his promise and took Star right to his game system.
He did have quite a few games, more than Star had in her own house. She didn't really play video games a lot but there were a few that entertained her and she'd spend some hours on. Marco explained some of them were borrowed from his friends Alphonso and Ferguson and Star realized that must be how he got to play so much. The temptation to ask to borrow something herself came up afterwards but she squashed it down, not wanting to be too imposing. After all she'd just really gotten to know Marco despite having been in class together for a while. Plus he might be getting annoyed she kept beating him at this Smash game they were playing.
"Are you sure this is the first time you've played this?" Marco asked, finding himself resoundingly beaten again and following the loss up with the same question.
"Well yeah, I don't have this at my house." Star answered proudly, watching the little victory animation of the princess character on the television. "I guess I'm just really good at hitting people."
"You did well enough at beating me to a pulp. I should let you play the single player game for a while to unlock more characters for me." The acknowledgement of her skill felt nice to hear from him but his suggestion left her concerned.
"Oh. Well uh... if you wanted to play that then, I can just watch I guess?"
"What? Why? You're totally better than me at this. Did you want to switch off instead?"
"Nah, I'm just not very interested in playing by myself is all." It was after all a skill she'd come to master and one she didn't like to practice if she could help it. The subject was thankfully dropped when Mrs. Diaz came into the living room with a warm plate in her hands.
"Are you kids hungry?" She asked as she put a plate of warm chips covered in cheese onto the living room table. Their eyes lit up at the sight of the beautiful food and Star could barely contain her delight.
"Oh my gosh this looks so good!" Star exclaimed and sat on the couch alongside Marco as the two began to dip into the food together. "Thank you Mrs. Diaz! These are so tasty."
"Yeah, thanks mom! Your Super Awesome Nachos are the best." Mrs. Diaz smiled in delight as the children ate together, her joy sprouting from the sight before her more than the praise they placed on her.
"You're welcome, dears. Enjoy your food, I'm going to work on some other things while you're playing." The children acknowledged her exit as they continued to stuff their faces, Star commenting on the joys of yellow triangle food and how they were too good to be from this Earth. As they ate Marco thought he heard the click of a camera from the kitchen but by the time he turned his head his mother was already gone along with the evidence she'd ever been spying on the two of them together.
Marco realized it was pretty rare for him to bring a girl over, even if she was just hanging out to play video games. It had been the only thing he could come up with to try and cheer her up when she looked so down. He knew she was the weird girl in school that nobody really wanted to be seen with. Even though his own group of friends were often regarded as dorks he still felt a little embarrassed if people knew he'd let Star Butterfly into his house. But honestly when she was just hanging out and not talking about flying pony heads and lasers from other planets or whatever weirdness she spouted regularly he found her to be fun.
"Say, if you want I've got a two player game." Marco interjected as Star was still feasting on the nachos at a rate that impressed him. "It's a shooter though so it's different than the other one. You run around blasting monsters. It's not the easiest but I think you'll get the hang of it if you want to play." The blonde girl considered his invitation for a moment as if she was trying to discern some alternative motive to what he was saying. He'd noted this before at the park when he invited her over to his house. Maybe it was a habit she'd picked up from having dealt with so many kids at school calling her the weirdo before eventually distancing themselves from her. Much like earlier at the park she smiled at him again brightly, but there were no tears in her eyes this time.
"Can I be the blue guy?"
"I think you mean blue guy or girl." Marco corrected as he got up to hand the box to her, showing multiple characters on the cover of different sexes. "But only if I get to be the red guy."
"Oh, like that belt you want." Star said suddenly which nearly knocked Marco off his feet.
"Yeah... but how did you know about that?"
"Duh, you talk about karate stuff all the time. That's like the only thing I knew about you before today was you did karate and you wanted your belt to be red." Did he really talk about it that much that even Star Butterfly over heard him in class? "That's cool though, I hope you get it. Are you close?"
"Almost. I'm almost there." Marco answered feeling a little self conscious now in front of her seeing as she paid attention to him more than he thought. "I need to earn my stripe first, then after that I'll have my red belt."
"Neat! That's cool how you have a rainbow of belts to wear."
"Spectrum. A spectrum of belts we ascend to." Star detecting the threatening nature of a word as effeminate as rainbow associated with his manly karate stuff made her giggle. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing! A 'spectrum' of belts, got it." The girl agreed coyly and leaped down from the couch to the front of the tv. "Now let's shoot some monsters!"
"Oh, just a sec!" Marco said as if he remembered something important and ran upstairs quickly. His feet could be heard first as Marco proceeded down the stairs moments later carrying a pile of fabric that was all bunched up and difficult to make out. "Here you go." He tossed a pillow to Star who caught it easily and placed it under herself. Marco did the same and tossed a blanket behind them to cover their feet. With the soft carpet beneath them it was a very snugglely way to enjoy a round of monster killing. Even if she'd never utter those words out loud herself and risk threatening Marco running from the idea of getting cozy with a girl. Boys sure were weird like that. But sometimes they were pretty cool too.
The next hour went by like a breeze through a field. The children never left the living room but traversed the stars side by side as they conquered various monsters and planets together as a team. It took Star a little time to get the hang of the game but once she started she had to agree it was easy to get lost in it and Marco was a really good team mate. Despite always wanting to be regarded as cool and tough he didn't mind at all letting Star take charge when she wanted to in game and was really supportive. He might have been the coolest boy she knew. So lost in the game were they that Star didn't realize they had an audience until it spoke up.
"Well it looks like you kids are bringing the house down together." A man said with a hearty laugh and Star sprang off her pillow and out of the blanket when she heard him.
"Daddy!" She cried and ran over to him, giving the man with the long blonde beard that nearly matched his daughter's hair a big hug. Marco paused the game when Star leaped up and took the sight of her father in. Honestly he had to admit the guy did look like the sort of person who could wrestle a deer. Her father was short and stout but his shoulders were broad and his arms looked powerful. Sort of like if someone had taken his own dad and squished him down to be about a foot shorter. "Hi daddy!"
"Hello pumpkin." The man greeted her in return. "Mrs. Diaz thank you so much for letting my little girl stay over at your place. This was very generous of you." Mrs. Diaz just shook her head in response to the thanks.
"The pleasure was all ours, Star was a wonderful house guest and I was happy to have her over. If her and Marco want she can visit again another time." Star was certainly over joyed to hear that, as was her father. While they were talking Marco was putting the pillows and blankets aside that he'd brought, turning off the game as well since their play session was over. With everything cleaned up the Diaz family escorted the Butterflys to their door to say good bye.
Star was hesitant to ask when they might hang out again. Even if she believed she was still destined for greatness she still knew that she was the sixth grader with no friends. Hanging out with her was like social suicide. So she braced herself during the goodbye. "I really enjoyed hanging out with you Marco. And playing games. And eating triangle food. And-"
"Here you go." Marco said as he passed the game they had first played together into Star's hands. The one with the princess she admired so much and managed to completely dominate him with. "I figured I've played the single player part enough so you can try it out until you're ready to give it back." Star took the game and looked at its case as if she were handling some sort of dazzling ancient artifact. Smiling at the boy she was practically shaking with delight and Marco sighed realizing what she wanted. "Okay fine, one time." He began to raise his arms for a hug but was nearly tackled over by Star when she lunged at him and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you! I'll keep it safe and bring it back I super sugar sweet promise on the stars and the karate spectrum!"
"Yeah, I know you will." Marco replied and gave Star a pat on the back. She finally released her death grip of joy and let the boy breath again, waving energetically as her father led her back to their car. The Diaz family watched them get in and drive off before heading back inside, Marco's mother beaming over today.
"That was very sweet of you, Marco." She said, making Marco feeling a little self conscious for his earlier gift.
"I just thought she might like it."
"I'm sure she did. You know I heard from her father that little Star has been having some trouble at school lately so this was probably the best thing anyone could have done for her. You were practically her hero today."
"Nah, I'm not." Marco replied. "She's not the kind of girl that needs a hero to save her." A confusing thing really, considering the princesses she admired so much seemed to rely on heroes to save them all the time. But Star was far from the average girl or princess.
"Well, maybe she doesn't need a hero. But I still think you gave her something she did need more."
"Nachos?" Marco asked perplexed.
"That's part of it. I hope you're still hungry for dinner after all those snacks and games. Go clean up before your father gets home, okay?" Marco nodded to his mother and ran up the stairs as Mrs. Diaz began to prepare their meal for the night. Absolutely excited to share with her husband later the story and secretly snapped pictures of how Marco made the cutest friend today.