The back courtyard that Tony had described was a green stretch of land pressed up against the rear of the school building. There were no windows looking directly at it and some oak trees surrounded by mounts of mulch provided shade. The picnic tables lined up between the trees were darkened with age and had probably been there since the school was built.

Only one student was at the tables; he sat resting his temple against one hand and he used the other to pick over his food. A group of tall, leggy girls, probably seniors were across from him talking in low tones by the dumpster. Marco though he smelled smoke and thought it best not to look and make them think he was thinking of ratting them out.

He didn't want to draw attention.

The lone man at the table looked up. Sure, his father looked much younger. His body was slender in that way that only youth or extreme old age could provide. He looked like a typical teen. His hair was oiled straight back and shaved on the sides and his jeans were baggy and loose with huge pockets dominating the sides of the legs.

It was a lot to take in, your parents in their youth. No matter how much of their past that they revealed; no matter how much they loved to talk about days gone by there would always be missing details and things they left out. A photograph could only tell you so much.

For a long while Marco was frozen there. The bell would ring soon signaling that it was time for them to head inside. Sure, there was tomorrow, but that was one less day they had to solve this whole thing. And they were working with a strict deadline.

"Ra-Rafael?" Marco said. He was walking too fast and when he waved his hand motion was too loose. Even then he couldn't stop it, he wasn't an actor and how was he supposed to behave? He was a teenager from 2019 pretending to be a teenager from the late 90s. It was likely that his father wouldn't notice. He wasn't looking yet.

"Rafael?" He repeated.

The boy who would become his father later looked up from his plate, there was a sort of slow realization that Marco had been actually talking to him. Though he didn't know what to say it seemed. He started to stutter, his words tripping over one another so that nothing that really made sense came out.

"Hey, I'm Marco." Marco suddenly had an awful thought, what if he was still born, but by using this name in front of his future parents he somehow caused them to change it. He was in too deep now.

"Hola, Marco," said Rafael. In reality his English seemed mostly the same. His father didn't grow up in the middle of nowhere, people around him spoke English in little pockets and they had access to television shows from the States. Why had Tony thought that his language was so bad?

"Y-you'll have t-to excuse me," Rafael said.

Marco scratched the back of his head. "Oh no man, no need to apologize." He hadn't thought this far into things, it was all about finding his father, how was he supposed to nudge him toward his mother? "Um, I found this text book. It's a biology text book really and someone said they thought it, uh, belonged to you. Did you know anything about that?"

Rafael touched his hand to the side of his face. "No—no I do not even have biology," he said. "Who said about—"

"Angie Phalange," Marco blurted out. "Oh man, Angie must have the hots for you or something, oh no…" What was he doing? This was a poorly, correction, this was not thought out at all.

For a moment Rafael seemed to recall something. "The cheerleader? You must have the wrong Rafael," he said.

"No, my…sister overheard her saying it. She thinks you're cute and this thing with the book must be, uh, her plan to get to you," Marco said. Why was he still saying this stuff? He needed to run, just get out of the area. He could work with mom and Star could do this, clearly he had already messed it up.

"That's not possible—Angie is everybody's favorite. She wouldn't even take a second look at someone like me," Rafael said. He muttered something Marco was sure was in Spanish, but he couldn't hear it.

"If you stick with me," Marco started. "I'm sure we can figure out some way to respond to this."

"Why would you do this, M-Marco? Why would you help me; you don't know me."

"I was sent here by uhh, universe to make sure that you and Angie get together."

"You mean like the cupids?" Asked Rafael.

"Yeah, just like the cupid," Marco said. "And the only thing I ask is that you—name your first son Marco…" Verbal diarrhea. Why couldn't he stop talking?

Rafael blinked, staring up at Marco for what seemed like several minutes. The hollow tone of the bell ringing over the school's PA system cut through the silence between them. "You don't have to decide now," Marco added.

"Okay, I'll think about it." Rafael gathered his things onto his lunch tray and ducked away from the table to head for the doors of the school. Marco stayed frozen in place to the trio of senior girls had passed.

"Aww man, the Stars are going to kill me," Marco said.


Star spent the most of her last period of the day thinking about the way Marco's hands felt against her, the steady pressure that had been there just hours ago when he clutched her abdomen to keep her steady with one hand while the other…

When class was out Star was slow to respond to the bell, she had left a note with the office telling Marco to head home without her, but she didn't know if he would get the message. She hadn't been so clear, but she had told him that she would be at cheerleading practice, her first one ever. And that it might run long because there's such a short time to go over the material before the game next week.

This was what Star expected, at least.

As she closed in on the doors to the gym there was music blaring from inside, a guitar with a steady bounce in it's notes and a more synthetic sound backing it up.

The moment that I step outside

So many reasons for me to run and hide

I can't do the little things I hold dear

'Cause it's those little things that I fear…

The singer's voice seemed to ovulate through the mostly empty gym. Star spotted Hoshi first, she was standing next to Angie and began to tap her on the shoulder as Star neared. Hoshi pointed and Angie waved, she said something, but the music drowned her out.

Oh, I'm just a girl, guess I'm some kind of freak

'Cause they all sit and stare with their eyes

Angie made a slicing gesture across her neck and the music stopped. She jogged over to meet Star. "I was a little worried we had scared you off," Angie said.

"Nah, I'd do anything for y—our team. I'd do anything for our team," Star said scratching at the back of her head nervously. This Angie looked too much like her Angie, even with the twenty-two or so years separating the two of them by age. She was wearing a cheerleading uniform with a white sleeveless top with a v-shaped opening in the neck. The school's initials were embroidered across the front of the uniform in the same burnt orange color of the knife pleated skirt.

Angie smiled. "Yeah, that's the kind of school spirit I like to see. You'll fit right in, I'm sure." She wrapped her arm around Star's shoulder and led her back into the center of the gym where the other girls, and one boy, were waiting. "This is the one I was telling you about, Coach Skullnick."

Star's blood ran ice cold. Part of her wanted not to look at Skullnick, she didn't think anyone here she had that much future interaction with would be around besides Angie. She could feel the others in the room staring at her, so she finally glanced up. Miss Skullnick was far more slender, actually curvaceous was the word you used to describe it. She had the same vicious overbite, but it was made far less prominent by her plastered on smile and hair which she wore in a ponytail.

All around she was far less terrifying.

"I'm Starla," Star said.

"Okay Starla. It's nice to meet you," Miss Skullnick said. "Everyone give Starla a big Opossum welcome."

The rest of the squad clapped, getting really into it. There was a few hollers from the bleacher, that was when Star glanced up to see there were a few people watching, probably the siblings or parents of some of the cheerleaders. And then she saw him sitting there peering down at her. He was probably actually just as shocked to see Skully as she had been. Marco was in the bleachers with his backpack laid out across his lap.

No, she needed him not to be here. She needed to not worry about what he was thinking and not be thinking about the only thing that had been running through her mind since the previous night. We should have just had sex. Star wondered if that was the issue here. Maybe she was regretting not going all the way with Marco?

What did Marco think? He had been fine with it in the moment, but now he was sticking close to her, watching her. He had to be thinking something.

"Starla? Have you had cheer experience." By the way that Miss Skullnick phrased the question she had asked it at least once before Star heard it. She must have zoned out. Not good.

"No, but I have a background in dance and I'm really good at remember steps and—and phrases," Star said. All those years of looking through a spell book and dancing with the girls would pay off.

"That's something, if you can copy a cheer and the moves we can work with that for now," Skullnick said. She looked Star over carefully. "We have extra uniforms, so we might even have one to fit you."

Star nodded. "Right—I guess I can go check on that in the…"

"Locker room."

"Locker room, right," Star said responding to Skullnick. She shuffled toward the bleachers, slinging her bag off of her shoulders and lifting it up by the strap to hand to Marco. "Can you keep this up there for me?" She asked.

"Sure." He walked down, stepping on the rises of the bleachers and squeezing between two people in order to get to her faster. He took it.

"You can head home if you want," said Star. "I can—I can get by on my own."

Marco didn't seem to take the hint or he was just not listening. He was staring past Star at Angie, it must have been weird to see her like this. More than Skullnick or how different the school looked. Can't draw too much attention to the whole thing. She and Marco were supposed to be family, or at least it seemed like they were. Really they didn't want people to question it, but they looked different. If they kept making awkward goggly eyes at each other it would only make things worse.

The cheerleading squad gathered around Skully for some kind of short discussion, Star walked by them on the way to the locker room and couldn't hear anything they were saying. The locker room was empty and she realized that they hadn't explained where spare uniforms were located.

Star searched around the inside of the room, looking between the rows of bright orange lockers. At some point in the future the school would repaint them to a reddish-orange, one of the school's other colors. Honestly, she liked this orange better.

In the back corner of the room there they were. Seven uniforms of varying sizes in the same style as the one that Angie and the rest of the squad wore. Star leafed through them until one of them looked like the right fit. She unhooked the hanger and held the uniform down in front of her own body. Star pressed her chin down until it was in the neck-hole.

"This should work," she said to no one at all. The idea of having to go out there and deal with both Angie and Skullnick at the same time had her wondering if there were any way that she and Marco could switch. Rafael had to be a lot easier to deal with, right? He had always been a bit more outgoing and weird like Star, that would make things less complicated.

Her shoes were all wrong for this kind of thing, the other girls had these dolled up tennis shoes with bits of sparkly stuff sprouting out of the laces. She guessed that to fit in she would have to do the same. This was all about fitting in while correcting whatever someone had changed. On her way out to the gym there was a picture of the current squad hanging in the hall.

Right near the center was the injured girl, the one that Star was replacing. She was slender and blonde with a plain looking face. Star wondered if this too was someone that she knew in the future, even if they had passed each other on the street. Angie had mentioned the injury, but not how. She began to wonder: had this happened in the original timeline. How close they were to living out what actually happened. Every moment that they stayed here things were further diverted off path.

Star stared at the girl she was a stand-in for. Making a quick circular motion with her index fingers by either side of her head, she muttered a short spell. Her hair was pulled up into pigtails and tied into place with little orange ribbon, just like the other girl in the photo.

"Okay, let's do this."


Skullnick and his mom had known each other, not just that, but they had worked together closely for god knows how long on a cheerleading squad. His mother had probably had eaten with Skully or even discussed personal stuff. And this was something that she didn't really mention at all. It wasn't often that she talked about high school.

Her time in France or the things she did later with Dad would always be the go-to topics about her past, but pretty much anything before she left for college were seemingly too far back.

Marco watched his mom huddled up with other girls, as a teenager with a huge smile on her face. She seemed happier than he had ever seen her. She was loud and playful, something that he saw very small glimpses of between her and Dad, but this was dialed up to a level that he never imagined.

She and another girl were doing stretches at one point and she squatted near enough to the girl so that only the two of them could hear. Whatever it was that she said, the other girl gave her a playful little punch over it before bursting into laughter. He had only been watching for a bit of time when he realized something: the mannerisms, the energy, the wide eyed optimism—it reminded him of Star.

Was Star like Mom? Had Mom been like her at an earlier time and that's why he was so drawn to her?

Then Star emerged from the girl's locker room in the orange, red, and white cheerleading uniform. The skirts were shorter than they would be in the future and though he had seen them many times before there was something about Star's legs in this context. They seemed to shine in the gym light and the moment that he noticed that he wondered if it would always be like this?

Had he become one of those guys that just sexualizes his best friend all of the time?

Could they even stick with the best friend moniker at this point?

Marco lifted Star's backpack and laid it across his lap, just in case.

Star's his when she walked, the sliver of skin between her top and the skirt—Marco should have gone home to wait for her. He really shouldn't be here to see this, but he didn't want to try and tear himself away now. He watched them go over several routines, Angie taking time with Star to make sure she got the steps down with the timing of the words. They would demonstrate a blip of the actions to Star and then go over them slowly.

For everything that Marco knew about Star, he had forgotten how good a dancer she was. It seemed to translate directly into this. Star followed along perfectly doing each set of steps as they were needed. It wasn't until she had to do several parts in a row that she messed up and even then she looked beautiful doing it.

Marco decided he liked Star dressed like this, he liked to watch her dance and really he just liked to see her happy and laughing and getting along with other people. It couldn't be assumed how she felt about all of this. Star Was being the cautious one now, at least when it came to him.

His mom was speaking now. "We'll try to avoid any stunts for now. Do you know what a Herkie is?" She asked.

Something on the other side of the room caught Marco's eye. There was someone moving along the back wall in a black cloak-like coat. Did no one else see this? Did Star?

It might have been nothing, but it seemed off. It was no raining today or even cool out, the coat made no sense. Marco watched them, taking every few moments to look back at Star and his mother. Mom was doing whatever it was a Herkie was supposed to be, some kind of jump, from what he could tell. Star mimicked his mother's motion over and over. Each time she did it the move was al little closer to perfection.

Marco looked for the figure again. The person was standing near the door boys locker room in the far right hand corner of the gym. The cheerleaders were more over to the left, closer to the girl's locker room—there'd be less chance anyone was looking in that direction. All of the siblings and parents that he saw in the stands ranged from staring down at books or homework to anxiously watching their kid.

Did grandma and grandpa ever come to these things? Marco didn't know his mother's parents. They died before he was born and she didn't talk about them.

"If we progress fast enough with you maybe we can get something in like this…come on, slide the mat over here, please," said Mom.

Some of the cheerleaders moved a huge, plush looking blue mat from the side so that it was centered on the area they were working in. Skullnick, knowing what was about to happen motioned to Star. "Could you step back a little bit, Starla?"

Star backed away as the cheerleaders grouped around the center of the mat to form a sturdy base. Mom stalked to the other end of the mat and stopped to turn and face them. "Are we ready?" She shouted.

"Ready!" The other cheerleaders screamed.

"Okay," Mom yelled before she got a small running start and did some sideways tumbles into a set of hand springs. When she was near enough to them she vaulted back toward the little cup-like base the group had formed to be caught in a cradle made of their linked arms.

Marco's eyes flashed to Star, where she was looking up in awe and then to where the strange figure had been standing, but they were gone.

A bright flash lit the room up near the exit door and when Marco turned to see what the source of it was he caught the tail end of the large, metal door shutting. He heard one a shriek and turned to see the mat, which had been rooted in place slide uncontrollably side to side like it was on oil.

His mother was in the air when two of the girls on one side of the base toppled into the other side. They had just thrown her up high, Marco bolted up just in time to see his Mom careening toward the bare gym floor. In a blur that must have been assisted by magic, Star snatched his Mom out of the air. They both tumbled to the mat, rolling over one another until Star was on bottom, still clutching her tight out of fear it wasn't over.

"Wow—you really saved me," his Mom said.

Star nodded. "Yeah, Angie, that was really weird…"

"Are you girls okay?" Miss Skullnick knelt down beside them. "You could have broken a leg or arm back there," she added.

"It's okay, the new girl got her," one of the squad members said.

There was a smattering of applause from the stands as the few people in attendance stood up to clap for Star. Marco followed along, still eyeing the sides of the room for that person.

As the sound died down, his Mom said something muffled against Star's chest. "Um, Starla—I think it's safe to let go now."

"Right," said Star before climbing to her feet.


The longer that she stayed in the uniform, the more that she felt out of place. Sure, she liked the little Opossum on the upper left breast of the top and the colors were okay. Marco sure seemed impressed with her in it, but this level of closeness with Angie felt like it was some kind of invasion of privacy. Like reading her journal or something.

After the practice had gone so poorly they went out for pizza on the coach's dime. Star was never one to pass up free food, but Marco had to sit this one out. His tagalong brother routine was becoming a bit much and there was no use in having the rest of the squad or Skullnick asking questions. The pizza place was a buffet with a salad bar and all you could eat pizza.

Star powered her way through as much of it as she could easily before settling down to drink her water and wait for everyone else. Her mind flashed back to the accident that happened in the gym. There was no way that mat moved like that on its own. Even before she fully comprehended what was happening she smelled the magic in the air.

It wasn't so much a smell as it was a kind of tense electricity. It tingled when you breathed it in; it made your hair stand on end. For a second before Angie fell it had been there.

Angie pushed her way in next to Star, nestling her head again Star's neck and shoulder. "How's my guardian angel doing?" She asked before laughing far too much for the joke she had made.

"I'm a little full, you know…"

"Hey, quick question, since our sesh this afternoon ended in such craptastic fashion." Angie outside of cheer practice had an entirely different person, it seemed. Way more affectionate for sure. "How would you like to come to my house tomorrow night with the rest of the girls so we can get some practice in? We'll do a sleepover, it'll be awesome."

"Yeah, I'd like that." It made sense too, if someone had used magic to try and hurt Angie that could be their next move. Maybe Star should stay close to Angie to keep them from being successful.