A/N: Wow! People have been blowing up this and my other story! I feel so happy to see so much activity from it all! As I find out where this story wants to go, hopefully, I'll be able to write longer chapters as I figure out where in the heck I want all of this to go. I hope people enjoy it, and please Message me or leave a Review if you like it! That kinda thing always gets me fired up to write the next chapter!
"Yeah, Marco. I'm down to learn some Magic."
Skidding to a halt, Marco had to whip his gaze all around himself. He had barely turned the corner when he heard her voice, and peering back saw Janna tucked away next to a line of lockers.
"Janna! I have something to-..." Marco paused, taking in what she had said, "...wait, you already…?"
"Yeah I've been listening in the whole time," She said, her hands tucked behind her back and her mischievous grin disconcerting. Marco groaned.
"Why am I not surprised…?" He said, exasperated.
"You'll learn eventually," Janna said, hopping off the wall and quickly closing the distance. "Or you won't, more fun for me that way."
Before Marco could answer, Janna had tossed something small at his chest. Smacking against his sweater, Marco fumbled with the projectile, nearly spiking it to the ground. As he finally held it in his grip, it clicked what it was.
"Pudding…?" Marco said, tentatively. Janna shrugged her shoulders, never losing the grin.
"That's what the little blue guy wanted, yeah?" Janna asked knowingly, "Least I could do."
"How did you even get this so fast? He just asked for it!"
Waving it off, Janna snatched the small dessert cup back. "I have my ways."
"At this point, I'm not sure you even need magic..." Marco said, following along behind his exceedingly creepy friend. In the distance, Marco heard surprised yelps and intermittent noises that sounded like gusts of wind. Wings, perhaps?
"Ah! So you've returned." Marco was shaken from this distraction as they once again came to the tome. He had to admit, this still felt a little odd. He wasn't even sure he'd have any kind of aptitude for magic, and this was feeling a little like going behind Star's back. Janna held no such hesitance.
"That's right," She said, waving around the treat she had brought along, "Sounds like you're gonna make me and Marco witches, yeah?"
"That's about the idea, yes," Glossaryck answered, floating up and taking the cup of pudding from Janna and tucking it under his arm, "And you're already off to a good start. Janna, was it?" Janna nodded in response.
"Excellent, I think you'll both make fine... what was the word you used?" Glossaryck searched around for the term, meanwhile punching a hole into the top of the pudding cup and scooping out masses with his hand. "Ah yes, witches."
"Hey! Can you please use a more fitting term for me?" Marco said, averting his eyes as he saw Glossaryck stuff his six-fingered, pudding covered hands into his mouth, "Like maybe, I dunno...like a warlock?"
Janna rolled her eyes. About to get magical powers under an obviously powerful arcane presence, and he was getting worried over the job title. Janna kneeled down to be more eye level with Glossaryck.
"So what's the deal, what kind of stuff are we going to learn?" Janna asked. Glossaryck pondered, though the image of a wise figure was somewhat ruined by his pudding-stained face. Still, the small figure floated backward, the book flipping through its pages to various chapters.
"Well," Glossaryck began, swallowing the mouthful he had and digging for his next in the cup, "I believe you'll need to begin with the past queens' works."
"Past queens?" Marco said, "I thought this was just a magic instruction book."
Glossaryck began to speak, though his voice was muffled as he spoke through a full mouth.
"Um, please swallow, first..." Marco said. Janna perked up.
"That's what she said."
"Janna!"
Glossaryck finally swallowed, wiping his hand across his lips. "This book," he said, ignoring the distracting back and forth between his new pupils, "Is the collected works of all the previous queens of Mewni. All queens have created their own magic and developed their own specialties. For example..."
The pages began to rifle towards the front of the book, going to one of the earliest chapters. The section they stopped on had multiple illustrations of timepieces and clocks, as well as intricate calculations dotting along the margins. Strangest of all was an illustration of a large muscular man, running within an enormous hamster wheel.
"This is the chapter of queen Skywynne Butterfly and holds all of her research into the use of time magic. Very intricate, and admittedly dangerous."
"Wicked, I wonder if I could rewind someone back to being a baby," Janna said.
"That's horrible!" Marco replied, looking aghast, "You wouldn't really do that!"
"I don't know, Marco. You were such a precious baby according to those photo albums." Janna gave a wide roguish smile with half-lidded eyes. Marco found himself questioning how scary Janna would be with the addition of witchcraft.
"Anyway!" Glossaryck interrupted their thoughts, with the book flipping to between other chapters, "There is a multitude of things you could learn. There is Celena's work with potioncraft, and SOlaria's combat magic, and..."
"Whoa, go back for a sec," Janna said, her eyes widening. Glossaryck realized what she likely saw. Would it be too much, too soon?
Oh, he was already teaching two non-Butterflies this magic. They should at least know about her chapter.
Flipping back to a section with dark pages, the entire chapter seemed to stick together in one block of paper. The front was sealed by a skull connected with blue chains.
"This is queen Eclipsa's chapter. The forbidden chapter," Glossaryck clarified, hoping to instill the proper amount of respect into them. "You two are not ready for..."
"I found the one I wanna start with," Janna said, cutting Glossaryck off. He could have facepalmed.
"No. No no no no, absolutely not." Glossaryck said, slamming the book just as Janna had reached out to tug on the skull lock. Placing his feet down on the front cover, the small blue living embodiment of magic crossed his arms.
"Buzzkill," Janna said evenly.
"I mean if it's forbidden, I think it's better if we, ah, don't mess with it," Marco said, hearing Janna let out a small huff.
"Looks like our safety nut's got the right idea," Glossaryck said. Marco grimaced but was interrupted by small electronic beeping.
"Uh, what's…?" Marco began before Glossaryck held up his hand.
"Ah, it appears we'll need to continue this later," he said, looking to the small watch on his forearm. With a wave of his hand, the small device evaporated, and the book reopened. "We'll discuss the beginning of your training after you reconvene with Star. Until then, toodles."
The heavy book slammed shut, and Marco's expression fell. "Oh gosh, that's right! Star!"
Janna set her sights skyward, studying the cloudy overhead. "Easy there, Diaz. Don't get your undies in a knot."
"But I completely forgot about her!" Marco said, reaching down to grab the massive book, "Who knows what happened, or where she is?! Or…!"
Marco didn't get to finish as Janna smacked him lightly on the rear. Marco didn't even have time to look embarrassed as he looked up."Hit the deck!" Janna cried.
Marco looked skyward as well, eyes wide. The young boy crouched down and tackled Janna, rolling across the floor with her. Right where they had stood seconds before, a large metallic object came crashing down to earth next to the book of spells. The impact kicked up dust and debris, and Marco felt small bits of something showering against his back.
"Holy cow! What the heck was that?" he exclaimed, his voice panicked.
"Whoa..." Janna said from below Marco. Gazing down at her, he saw her eyes wide and staring. "I see...hearts..."
Marco felt heat raise up into his cheeks until he saw something fall in his periphery. Letting his vision wander, Marco finally saw the gray-purple bits that were raining lightly around them. It was tons of little hearts, exactly like the ones Star had been shedding all day beforehand.
"Uh, Marco? Not that this isn't entirely comfortable, but mind if I get up?" Janna asked, bringing Marco back to his current position.
"Oh, r-right," he said, bringing himself to his feet and grabbing Janna's hand to hoist her up. Looking around at the surreal scene surrounding them, Marco finally heard a heavy 'Oof!' directly behind them.
Finally looking back towards the book, Janna and Marco saw the initial impact had been Oskar's rusted-out car, looking even worse for wear than it always had. The chipped paint had spread like an explosion from the impact, and Marco realized his sweater was covered in the stuff.
Laying atop the hood of the vehicle was two figures. The first was obviously Oskar, his keytar looking snapped with various bits of rubber and plastic dusted over the car. On top of him was…
"Star!" Marco yelled, rushing away from Janna and carefully jostling the dazed girl.
"Huuuh…?" Star said groggily, brushing her blonde hair out of her face and dusting off the final few hearts that clung to her skin. Placing her hand down, she realized that the ground was warm and soft. Star finally looked down and gasped audibly.
"Oskar?!" she screamed, falling backward and nearly toppling off the hood. Marco hooked his arms under Star's and kept her from tumbling. Star was stammering, looking terrified and awestruck at the handsome truant before her.
"Oh gosh, oh geez, did I…?" Star asked, concern in her voice. Janna finally moved closer to the car, pressing two fingers to his throat and placing her ear close to his mouth.
"Nah, just barely broke anything," Janna said lightly, adjusting the motionless boy to a more sitting-up position on the hood, "He's just taking a bit of a snooze. Probably a bit of shock, maybe a bit of head trauma."
"Oh no! Oh that's real bad, right? Oh dear, maybe I can fix this! Um, uh, Marco!" Star whipped around, finally placing her feet on the ground and twisting to face her best Earth friend, "Did you get my book back from Ferguson?! I need to see if I can find something to fix Oskar!"
"Actually!" Marco said, raising his voice to cut off that line of thinking, "Don't you remember last time? You might end up replacing his brain with some dangerous parasite or something..."
"Heh, now that'd be an improvement," Janna muttered, ignoring the small glare she felt from Star.
"My point being..." Marco continued, also giving side-eye to a shrugging Janna, "We'll go get the nurse and see if she can help."
"He's gonna be fine," Janna said dismissively, pushing Oskar's legs to the side and slamming the giant spell book on top of the car. The entire structure wobbled from the weight and the abuse of the fall. "I know a concussion when I see one, the guy just fainted."
Star was about to ask how she knew so much but felt Marco squeeze her arm. As Star looked back, Marco said, "I'd… believe her. The creepier it'd be for her to know, the more likely she'll know it."
"Thank you, Marco," Janna said, her tone suggesting that she really did take that as a compliment.
"Well, then why are we taking out the book if…?" Star didn't finish as the book burst open, and floating before the trio was Glossaryck. Cracking his neck and taking in the scene around him, Glossaryck let his eyes pause on Star.
"Ah, good, you're back to normal," he said, fingers running through the snow-white beard (which still held bits of chocolate brown throughout). "That will make this easier."
"Easier? Make what easier?" Star asked, glancing from Glossaryck to Janna and Marco, seeing all of them with some semblance of familiarity. Glossaryck cleared his throat and flew closer to Star, floating inches before her face.
"Your friends here are going to help me on a bit of a pet project," Glossaryck said, motioning to his two new pupils, "I wish to see how humans handle magic. Given the number of monsters constantly attacking you and Mr. Diaz, it seems only right to prepare him more."
"Oh," Star said, letting it process in her mind, "...yeah! That makes sense!" Looking past Marco to Janna, though, Star contemplated the unfamiliar girl. "Um, but what about her?"
"I just offered him a bunch of pudding to cut me in," Janna said casually. Marco wished he had that kind of cool of a demeanor when it came to lying.
"Awesome!" Star said, looking back to Glossaryck before a question formed, "But wait… I thought there was no magic on Earth?"
"You are correct, Star. There isn't yet," Glossaryck clarified, before he held out his hand, "But we can remedy that for your friends here."
"Huh?" Star said, confused. Then she realized that Glossaryck was motioning to the item in her hand.
"Star, We're going to need your wand."