"So, Marco, your father and I have something to talk to you about."

"Yes, Mom?" Marco replied, dully tracing the edge of the cereal bowl with his spoon. He didn't look at her, but rather stared past her at the picture frame on a shelf behind her. In it was a picture from the eighth grade school dance. All six of them had goofy grins: he, Ferg, Alonzo, Jackie, Janna, and Justice. Marco had his arm around Jackie's and Janna's shoulders, and the look on his face was pure enjoyment. Those were the days… the fun times he used to have with his friends. Justice had moved to Wisconsin after that year. Justice, Jackie, and Janna… they used to be called the "J triplets." What had happened to Jackie? It just seemed like she had gotten too cool for all of them. She grew distant from the remaining four in her freshman year. But the truth was, Marco had admired her for a long time. The spring in her step, the way she laughed…. He eventually figured out that meant he liked her. But by that time, she had lost the spring and she never laughed. That was too "uncool." But Marco had been determined anyway. He asked her out in his sophomore year. That was what cut the tie all the way through. That's when Jackie told him she already had a boy that she was interested in pursuing a relationship with. It was the worst feeling in the world. It had been creeping up on him—he had been slowly losing her as she started paying less attention to their middle school group and started hanging around her "cool" friends more. But then he knew for sure. He had lost her to someone else. He just wished he could go back to being thirteen years old. Everything was so much better then. But high school hit, and they all split up. And he got the worst end it all.

And that pretty much lead up to where he was now. A depressed introvert with nobody to turn to.

"So… are you okay with that?"

"Umm… yeah, sure." Marco took a bite of cereal without looking down. Instead, Marco's eyes wandered again to another picture. This one was of just him and Janna. He stared at Janna for a moment, frowning. Janna and Jackie had been such close friends. How would it feel to lose someone like that? Could it possibly be worse than what he felt? Maybe.

"Really?" questioned his father, "I thought you would resist more. Ouch! Oh, alright."

The "ouch" had come from Angie shoving her elbow into Rafael's gut.

"Um… wait, what did I just agree to?"

His mom replied, "We accepted a foreign exchange student. She'll be our house guest for a while.

Marco spit out his milk. "No she won't!"

"Marco, you don't even know her. Give her a chance."

Marco stood. "No! I tried friends, and all they gave me was pain. She is not coming into this household!"

Rafael slammed his fist into the table. "It's not your choice! This is our household and you are our son, so we're going to make the best decision for our household and our son!"

Angie nodded, speaking in a quieter voice: "Marco…you have to open up to people. If you won't on your own, then we will have to force you to. And this girl needs a home. If we refused her, we'd be sending her out to live in the streets"

"I don't ca-are! I'm going up to my room, the one part of this household that is mine and lets me control who comes in."

"Marco, you have to go to school today," Angie protested.

Marco, halfway up the stairs, leaned over the railing. "School's stupid! Everyone thinks it where everyone gets along and has perfect friendships and has fun. The most fun I'm having is finding solutions of quadratic graphs. You're a teacher! Why don't you homeschool me?"

"Marco, I'm a third grade teacher. I can't teach you high school math."

"That's not what's holding you back." There was a pause, with Angie having no answer. "You want me to go to school and for me to magically make perfect friendships so you can go and say 'here's my perfect kid; he's smart and well-behaved and popular and perfect.' News flash: I'm NOT perfect, and I never will be. I'm RUINED! Can't you see that?" He slammed the door closed. He found the picture of him and Jackie that he kept on his nightstand and threw it into the floor. The glass shattered. He then ground it underfoot. "I hate you! I hate you! I HATE YOU!" He then went for one of him, Janna, and another younger girl. For some reason, he couldn't force himself to break it. Janna didn't deserve that after all she had gone through. Losing Jackie, losing that other girl in the picture… it just felt wrong to inflict harm upon her.

His mother walked into the room, Marco still holding the picture of Janna and the picture of Jackie on the floor. "I presume all that was directed toward Jackie?"

"Yeah, not you, Mom. Sorry."

Angie wrapped her arms around her son. "I love you, Marco. I love you no matter how many friends you have, whether you get straight A's or not, whether we get into fights or not, no matter how broken you are."

"Thank you, Mom. I love you, too." They hugged.

After Angie pulled back, she peered at the picture in Marco's hand. "You know, she's just as lost as you are."

Marco thought for a moment. "I'll remember that."

"Okay, now get ready for school. We can worry about Star later."

"Star?"

"That's the name of the exchange student."

"Star? Who names their kid after something in the sky?"

Angie smiled. "You were almost named Sol."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yep. I talked your father out of it. It had to be more American, I told him."

Marco nodded. "I'm going to be late."

"All right, go."

Marco rushed to get ready. As he was walking out the front door, Angie mentioned one more thing: "Marco?"

"Yes, Mom?"

"Star's going to be at school today. Show her around and… try to tolerate her."

"Okay."

"Thank you."

He closed the door and started to walk. He kept his head down.

"Hey, stranger!" someone called.

Marco wasn't sure whether the person was talking to him or someone else, but he didn't look up. If you ignore them, then they won't talk to you. Just don't look up.

Then came another voice. "Hey, Marco boy!" It was Janna. She bumped into him, almost knocking him over. She caught his hand and helped him regain his balance. Marco stared down at their entwined hands. His face grew red and he slipped his hand away. Janna just seemed to have a smug smile on her face.

Sensing an awkward situation, Janna ran ahead, shouting back at Marco, "See you at school!" She dashed into an empty alleyway. Catching her breath, she squealed, "I did it! I just held Marco Diaz's hand!"

Marco finally made it to school. It was two minutes before the bell rang, so he sat in his usual spot in the front of the room (so he could distance himself from his peers) and waited. He scanned the room for any new faces. No… they were all kids who'd been in his class all year.

The bell rang and class started. Mrs. Skullnick started talking about something. Something about triangles… meh. He twiddled with his pencil. When that became boring he started doodling what he thought Star would look like.

"What is the circumcenter? Marco?"

Marco played it off. "Um, the circumcenter is equidistant from each vertice."

"We haven't gotten to that yet, but… yes. It's equidistant from each vertice, and we find it by finding the point of concurrency of the perpendicular bisectors of each—"

Mrs. Skullnick was cut off by a girl kicking the door open with surprisingly good kicking form. Marco would know—he took karate. As could be imagined, the sound of the kick and the door slamming on its hinges created quite the commotion. First Mrs. Skullnick scolding, "Don't kick the doors!"

"Sorry," Star replied in a giggly voice, "hometown habits die hard."

Mrs. Skullnick shrugged it off. "Find a seat."

The girls near the back were in a riot trying to find a seat for her and fighting for the spots closest to Star's new desk. Jackie waved Star over, and she came. She was immediately peppered by questions such as: "Where did you used to live?" "Did they actually kick doors open in your hometown?" "Was it like a tradition, or was it just your kind of thing?" "Do you have a boyfriend?" (The last one was said by one of the handful of boys who had come over.)

And the crazy thing was that she actually seemed to like it. She was trying to answer all their questions and just burst out laughing when they started coming too fast.

Meanwhile, Marco noticed Janna sitting aside from the rest, doing something on her phone. She glanced at the crowd and rolled her eyes.

Mrs. Skullnick struggled to be heard over the other students. "Class! Class! Class!"

Eventually everyone settled down. "If we're all so curious, how about we have Star come up here and introduce herself."

Star walked up to the front. "All right… I'm Star Butterfly. I have these weird heart marks on my cheeks. And I'm pretty sure I'm just a normal kid otherwise." She said it too sweetly, too ironically. Marco knew something was going to happen. Star tapped her chin. "Oh, and one more thing. I'm a magical princess from the dimension of Mewni!" As she said it, she pulled out a wand and zapped Mrs. Skullnick in the belly. Star, snickering, snuck back to her seat before Mrs. Skullnick could catch her. Marco watched in horror as his teacher morphed into a troll. Most of the class laughed, the group around Star laughing the hardest of all.

Mrs. Skullnick clenched her fists in fury. Marco, being the closest to her, became afraid: "Star! Turn her back!"

The initial comedy of the situation was now waning, so Star had no problem with zapping Mrs. Skullnick back to a human. But the teacher's anger had not receded with the horrible looks. "You have been in my class for one day, missy, and you have caused more problems than I have had all year!"

"Don't worry," Jackie muttered, "It's only the third day of school."

Mrs. Skullnick was oblivious to the comment. She continued, "If you give me any more trouble today, I will send you to the principal's office and have a meeting with your parents. Yes, in your junior year! Stop acting like a three-year-old!"

"Oh, well I don't have parents."

"You… don't have any parents? A relative, then, or your legal guardian."

"Well, yeah I do, but they're back in Mewni. Along with every one of my relatives."

Mrs. Skullnick's patience was wearing thin. "Then who do you live with?!"

Star shrugged. "I don't know yet."

Instantly, the girls who were around her burst into conversation again. "Hey! Come stay with me!" "Don't go to her house, come to mine!" The boy from earlier smirked devilishly. "Maybe you could stay with me." Star blushed. At this point, Marco finally got a good look at the boy. It was Oskar. Oh, Dios, if Oskar's interested in her, he'll pick her up in a week.

"Actually, I've already accepted an offer."

"From who?"

"Tell us!"

"Well," Star answered, "I'm not sure, but that person was supposed to meet me in this classroom. They know who they are!"

Marco stood. "It's me."

Everyone's conversation stopped. All eyes turned toward him. Marco stood there, trembling. This was really too much. He hated being the center of attention.

Star skipped over to him. "Hey… um-"

"Marco."

"Hey, Marco! Uhhh, you're… a boy. That's not weird at all."

"Whatever. It wasn't my choice anyway. Look, don't give me trouble, okay?"

"Okay!"

Marco let out a breath of frustration at Star's lack of seriousness. He tried to keep his cool as he said, "Star, if you're not going to cooperate, I don't have to do this for you!"

She tapped her chin with her wand. "Well… actually, your parents already accepted, so… yeah, you do."

Marco's face was red with anger. He stormed out of the room, leaving the door swinging back behind him.

Mrs. Skullnick watched the exchange in shock. "I should probably report this to Skeeves." Suddenly, the bell rang, signifying the end of the period. As the students hurriedly packed up and crowded toward the door, the teacher shouted, "You will be tested on this material!"

Marco, meanwhile, stormed into the bathroom. There was no one in there. Good. There was no one to see him flip out. He punched the wall hard. It was tile, so it stung quite a bit.

Now ready to calm himself, he splashed water on his face. He'd learned this as a way to cope with his emotional outbreaks. Soon, he was all right. Whistling, he walked down the hallways to his next class: art. Art wouldn't be too bad; it was a place to express his emotions and not be bothered. Art was his hideout, where he went when he needed to be alone with his thoughts. He didn't have a choice of when to go, but he almost always felt like being alone anyway.

Oskar, who had the same schedule as Marco, walked in, Star trailing him. Star walked over toward him. Marco couldn't suppress a bitter remark: "Looks like you found your own guide. Guess you don't need me anymore."

Star was unfazed by the bitterness. Couldn't she understand? "Well, I don't want to burden you. Plus… Oskar is pretty cute." She giggled.

Star really was tactless, wasn't she? "But… I'll sit with you." Smiling, she sat down next to Marco. Marco was anything but smiling.

"Okay, class," Mrs. Culler announced, "you'll be working on your self-portraits today. Get to work!"

Marco let out an amused grunt. He'd finished that three days ago. He took out a piece of paper and began to draw. He glanced over at Jackie a few times, trying to get her face right. Then Star poked her head over Marco's shoulder, saying, "Hey, whatcha drawing?"

Marco blocked her line of sight with his arm.

"Hey, let me see!" Star protested playfully.

"It's nothing-" he moved his arm as Star poked her head around, "-you should be worried about!"

"Pretty please?"
"No!" He folded his paper over.

"That's not gonna fool me!" Star snatched the paper away.

"Hey!"

Star opened it up. It was a picture of Marco and Jackie together, Marco on the right, Jackie on the left. Their cheeks were pressed together. Jackie was grinning, and Marco had a blushed and timid look. In the background was large heart enclosing the two. "Ooooh, I see. You have a crush on Jackie!"

"No, I don't!" Marco snatched the paper back, tearing it along the crease. The right side of it took an entirely new form, showing a broken heart in the background and a now depressed-looking Marco. It was interesting how it morphed so quickly because of context. One was suppression of a smile out of embarrassment, but joyful nonetheless, and one was a forced smile out of uniformity, but saddening nonetheless.

Star, of course, saw none of it at first. "What? Did you not like it?"

"No," replied Marco patiently, "I was just finishing the piece." He wasn't sure why he decided to show her, but he did. He brought the pieces together, showing a happy couple, then took them apart, the drawing of Marco seeming to change emotions.

"Ohhhhhhh! But why is um… Jackie still happy?"

Marco replied bitterly, "Just look at her."

The girl in question was with her friends at another table. She laughed at some joke they made, clearly enjoying herself.

"Now look at me. I'm broken; I've been diminished to nothing!"

Star paused, thinking. She snapped her fingers. "Aha! I know how to cheer you up!"

Marco snickered. "I'd like to see you try."

Lunchtime came. He sat down alone and started to eat. It was a nearly mechanical process. Star came over to sit by him, but one look from Marco told Star to go somewhere else. She found a spot at seat across from Jackie, at a table with her, Hope, Dawn, and Faith. (A/N: That's not from a lack of creativity in names; it's symbolic.) Oskar quickly joined the group, coming over with bought lunch.

"Sooo… when am I gonna be served food?" Star asked.

Jackie rolled her eyes. Guess I should have expected this from her. It's the mindset of a princess: she expects people to do everything for her. "You have to go up and get it yourself."

Oskar had just sat down with a hamburger, and another boy walked past with chicken tenders. Putting two and two together, Star exclaimed, "We get to pick our own?!"

"Um, yeah," replied Jackie.

Star got up and rushed over to the lunch line, which was now nearly empty. It was a good thing, as Star didn't know what waiting in line was. She rushed right up to the food counter where three options were displayed. "Oooooh, hmm, 'fish sticks.' Wonder what that is! Why not?" She put it on her tray along with three chocolate milks and two apple juices, quickly passing by the fruits and vegetables. A lady in front of some weird-looking electronic device asked her for her last name. "Butterfly!" she replied before zooming back to the table. Her mouth watered. "Mmmmmmmmm, this looks so unhealthy!" She gobbled up the fish sticks in seconds flat, using both apple juices to wash it down. She chewed for a few seconds then ran to a nearby trash can, spitting it out. When she returned, she sat down and said incredulously, "What WAS that?"
Dawn spoke up. "If I'm right, those were… fish sticks."

"Well, yeh," Star tried to stay while holding her tongue out and wiping it off with a napkin. "But why does it tasth tho bad?"

"Do you know what fish are?" asked Faith.

"Umm… oh, those things that swim in the lake, right?"
"Yeah, basically."

Star put on a disgusted face. "You eat those things?"

The whole table burst out in laughter. It had been building up for a while, and that comment rendered them unable to stifle it any longer.

Across the cafeteria, Marco watched bitterly. I hate them. How was he possibly going to live with someone who had messed up his life so much in the first three hours of knowing him? Or was she actually making it better and Marco was just so used to misery that he was resistant to change. No, that definitely wasn't it. He tried to push the thought out of his brain, for some reason scared of it. A whistle blew, signifying the end of lunchtime and the beginning of a recess of sorts where everyone just stood outside and talked or did homework. He got up and left the cafeteria, heading out to the courtyard.

The courtyard was a square shape depressed into the ground. The northern side had a brick roof, simply an extension of the roof of the cafeteria that bordered it. There were brick columns for structural support along this side. The east side, perpendicular to the first one, was lined by a wall about four and a half feet tall. Otherwise, the courtyard was unbounded. In the center of it was a ramada with picnic tables where most of the teens went. Marco found his usual spot-the junction of the wall of the east side and one of the columns of the northern side. It was in the northwestern corner of the whole place. It was quite secluded, as almost everyone stood under the ramada or sat at the picnic tables. Sometimes Marco sat and did homework here, but today he just watched. It was not uncommon for him to do this; he typically did it two or three days out of the week. He always mentally remarked that he got the best view of the action over here, away from everyone else. This was how he saw the world-or at least how he did now. He observed from a distance, and from there learned so much that the ones in on the fun would never pick up. For example… Dawn pulls at her curly red hair whenever she's emotionally distressed. Oskar's eyes dart from side to side when he lies-that is, when his eyes are even visible. Jackie never tells a lie-not even to save feelings. And he had even learned something about Star already: she's careless, acts upon instinct without considering any sort of consequences.

And yet… he still knew next to nothing about Janna. Some basics, but no more. For example, she loved to tease him and break into his things. And every day, she stood in the southeast corner, directly across from him, and watched. They watched the other people, and sometimes they even watched each other. She was a sort of enigma to Marco-and he could drive himself crazy trying to figure her out. There was a piece missing from her, just like Marco. Something made them similar, and Marco wanted to know what it was.

It was really the only thing that made life interesting anymore.

That was when he realized that he and Janna had been staring at each other for too long. He looked away from her, back at the main group of teenagers. He was just in time to see Oskar slyly take Star's hand when she wasn't looking, Star blushing and giggling. Marco's right hand balled into a fist. But… why was he angry? Why was he angry that Star had a boyfriend? Marco shoved his next thought-the answer to his questions-down before it was even conceived.

He looked down at his feet for the rest of the time, afraid to look back and see Star and Oskar kissing or something.

And Janna watched him. She watched him stare at his feet and thought: about him, about herself, about everything between them. There wasn't much between them anymore.

A/N: Yay! Longest chapter I've ever written! I'll admit: I could have ended it better, but I'm not sure how at the moment. We'll dive into Marco and Jackie's breakup in later chapters. Janna's backstory will be covered in the next chapter. Please review with thoughts or criticism. Until next time!