Star was quietly sitting on her balcony in her ruffled pink gown staring into the night. The blood moon was still up in a calm, clear, starry night. Her best friend, Marco Diaz, came up to her balcony, in his black charro suit.
"Star!" Marco calmly sang out. "Here are my super awesome nachos!"
"Yay! Gimme some!" Star held out her hands and started picking and eating one by one.
Marco placed the nachos between him and his friend and sat next to her on her balcony.
"So Star, I was thinking about earlier and…"
"Marco, it's okay. Besides I really did enjoy dancing with you!"
"I know, but since it's still kinda early, I'd figure I'd stay up with you to make up for it."
"Like a bestie's night?"
"Sure!"
"Awesome! I'll bring out some cookies to go with the nachos!"
Star took out her purple magic wand and zapped a plate full of fresh, warm, colorful frosted sugar cookies with heart and star-shaped sprinkles. Marco brought out his tape deck and started playing a relaxing Mexican guitar song. As Star and Marco munched away their snacks, they stared into the clear, starry night.
"Nice night," Marco said.
"Lots of stars! Including me!" Star said, pointing to herself, and they both laughed.
"I can see Ursa Major!" Marco said, pointing.
Star looked confused. "Ursa wha-? Was that an ancient Earth language?
"Ursa Major is a constellation, Star. Y'know, a bunch of stars that form a shape. In this case it's a big bear."
Star took a closer look at where Marco was pointing, but was still very confused.
"I still don't see it, Marco."
Marco held out Star's gloved hand and traced the constellation with her finger.
"You see, Star, if you trace the points of the stars, you can form the big bear, ursa major."
Star squinted and tilted her head left and right. She was able to make out the legs, the body and some of the face. But she still wasn't sure.
"I sorta get it, Marco. Though, it looks more like a grasshopper to me. But I'll go with it. You Earth people sure do have some imagination."
Star and Marco munched on some more snacks until they got to the last nacho.
"Want it, Marco?" Star asked.
"We'll split it," Marco said, snapping the nacho in half and handing one of the halves to Star.
"Goody!" Star said. "Snap!" They both popped their cheesy nacho halves into their mouths.
"So whaddya wanna do now, Marco?" Star asked. "You wanna go downstairs and finish the movie about the robots that look like people? Now I'm starting to question if I'm really a Mewman…" Star looked at and turned her hand around a few times.
"Actually Star, I was thinking, I never actually formally asked if I could dance with you."
A smile crossed Star's face.
"But the thing is, I don't think I've got ballroom music."
"I got some!"
Star twisted the crown on top of her wand like the key of a music box a few times. The wand floated toward the back of her balcony. The blue ball on top opened like a clamshell to reveal a tiny gold statuette of a couple spinning as the wand started playing twinkling waltz music.
Marco led Star to the center of her balcony, each facing its sides.
"May I have this dance, your highness?" Marco said, spinning his hand, holding it out as he bowed toward Star.
You don't have to call me 'your highness', Marco," Star happily said. She curtsied toward her friend. "But I'd be delighted, my good sir."
Star took Marco's hand and soon, she put a hand on his shoulder and Marco put his other hand on her waist.
Marco started leading Star step-by-step across the balcony. Then, they turned around together and stepped the other way. He then led her across the balcony again. And when they reached the other side, they stepped to the other side. Then, he twirled Star across the floor. And then he had her twirl across again.
As they started to spin across the balcony together, Star stared into Marco's brown eyes. When Marco looked into Star's eyes, she shook her head, looked away, smiled and her cheeks blushed light pink.
"Star, are you okay?" Marco asked.
"Oh, it's nothing," Star replied. "It's just…you dance really good Marco!"
"Awww…stop," Marco said modestly. "I'm just going off of what I learned from my parents."
"Your parents taught you this dance?" Star asked as they swayed across the balcony. "And the one at the Blood Moon Ball?"
"It's kinda more a mix of stuff they taught me as a kid. I mean you've seen how lovey dovey my mom and dad can get."
Marco and Star swayed across the balcony again.
"Before I left for the ball, my parents said they actually just got these super rare steaks from some farm in France. The prices would probably be enough to pay for my college education."
Star smiled. "Awww..." Star said as Marco had her twirl across the balcony.
"But really Star, I think it's you who helped make our dance good at the Blood Moon Ball. I mean you even said you're a great dancer that one time when we had to tie Miss Skullnick."
Star giggled. "I dunno…it's actually kinda weird, I love ballroom dancing, but come to think of it, I think I get my dance skills from my mom."
"Do you guys have Mewnian ballroom dancing?" Marco asked.
"Yeah!" Star said as Marco had her twirl across the balcony again. "In fact, she taught me all kinds of Mewnian dances from the Mewaltz, the Mewedding Dance and the Waltzing Dragons. And these are great dances, Marco. Some of the best times I've had were practicing these dances."
Marco led Star step-by-step across the balcony.
"And my mom also goes ALL OUT setting up these big parties. She plans weeks in advance, has our servants put up posters all over the kingdom and even leaves messages on people's mirrors."
Star started mocking her mom as she and Marco stepped across the balcony again.
"No, no, no the light's not right, no, no, no the temperature on this roast beef isn't right, no, no, no, Star, no boy will dance with you wearing that gown and your hair messy!"
"Harsh..." Marco said as he led had Star twirl. "Do you dance at these parties?"
Star exasperatedly sighed.
"What's wrong?" Marco asked.
"The thing is, my mom has me dance with all these princes and knights at these parties and to put it nicely, they're not very good."
"Huh?" Marco asked and Star circled across the balcony.
"Yeah, I mean don't get me wrong these guys were cool people, but it always feels beyond awkward to dance with them. Once in awhile, I would get someone that could do it pretty good. I even remember this one prince that danced a good Mewaltz. But a lot of times, the guy would stretch me out too much, or would spin me around too many times, or move too suddenly or too fast."
Marco had Star twirl across the balcony.
"The worst part is they tend to step on my feet," Star said.
"Oooh…the one thing you're not supposed to do," Marco said.
"AND IT'S SO PAINFUL! I swear one of those guys left a scar on my foot!"
When Marco and Star got to the other side of her balcony, he stopped and looked down at one of Star's bare feet and saw what appeared to be a small, thin blemish.
"Is that it?" Marco asked.
"Hmmm…?" Star looked down at her foot. "Yeah! I tried showing my mom and even our castle doctor and they thought I hurt my feet fighting monsters or something."
"That must've been one sharp shoe."
"I think it was one of the centaur princes."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Marco said, as he and Star circled around her balcony. "So aside from the dances, what would you do at these parties?"
"Outside of the actual dancing, these parties were actually a lot of fun!" Star said. "Me and Pony Head would plan the really fun parts of these parties for the princes, princesses and knights! Like there was this one time we took the castle's warnicorns out to this obstacle course me and Pony Head set up! It had fiery rings, quick sand and trees with tangling vines."
"Woah…" Marco said..
"Speaking of which, I remember we would also go around with these chamber pots that blew up every time somebody needed to use them! We could use a guy like you, Marco! Since you seem like someone that could put these in good places…"
"Sounds cool!"
Marco then led Star step-by-step to the center of the balcony. He then put his hands on her waist and spun a big circle with her. He then brought her close. Star and Marco smiled at each other and started to laugh.
Star hooted. "That was fun!"
"It wasn't the biggest party, I'd dare even call it that," Marco said.
"Probably not, but it had everything a princess could ask for." Star gave
Marco a hug to thank him. "And a little more."
Star went to pick up her wand and Marco picked up both of their snack plates and his tape deck. Marco then started to head for the door.
"Hey Star?" Marco asked as he opened the door.
"Yeah, Marco?"
"If we go back to Mewni, can you teach me those dances They also sound fun!"
"Alright! I know we've got a book on them in the castle library!"
"Thanks. Night, Star."
"Night, Marco!"
After Marco closed the door, Star sighed.
"Arrgh, what a night," a sailor-sounding voice said.
Star heard it and looked around to see where it came from, but couldn't figure out where. She looked around and the only things in her room were her heart-shaped mirror, her bed, her magic instruction manual, her diamond-shaped magic mirror and her picture of a ship captain.
