The sound was coming again, the gritty, repetitive, teeth-gnashing sound…

Squeaky.

It was tolerable during the earlier hours of the day, but by - squeaky - the time Psychology passed in the early afternoon - squeaky - it was too much. There was only so much a guy could stand before wanting to rip his hair out - squeaky

"Star," Marco hissed. "Stop!"

Blonde hair dancing, she looked his way with wide blue eyes. Even if she didn't understand what he meant, Star mercifully stopped bouncing in her chair.

Too loudly, she asked, "What?"

"Ms. Butterfly," their teacher snapped at her, and both teens flinched. "That's enough. One more word and you can finished your conversation with Diaz in detention."

Star, clearly confused, began to open her mouth, but Marco cut her off.

He looked to his left pointedly, and through grit teeth, answered on her behalf. "Our bad, Skullzy. Please, continue with this fascinating lesson."

The burlish woman practically growled at his sarcasm, and Marco could only roll his eyes, biting back the taunts that rumbled in his throat - some sort of comparison to an untamed beast seemed a fitting metaphor, but now was not the time.

Staring each other down, good ol' Skullzy seemed fatigued by his antics and snapped her chalk in half. One piece fell to the floor and the other she managed to hold, and lip curled, she crushed the fallen dust beneath her heel while turning back to the board.

Out of his periphery, Marco could feel Star's eyes on him. Probably too wide, too innocent, too sensitive, too pretty; meeting that gaze might make him forget his own fucking name, so he ignored her and took out his cell phone instead.

The remainder of the class passed with much the same sort of heavy silence, broken only by an occasional sniffle from a student, the scribbling of graphite against paper, and a few airy sighes to his left. It was rather obvious that Star was trying to get his attention, but Marco wasn't in the mood to indulge and risk getting the both of them into more trouble - like Skullzy suggested, she was one mark away from getting detention herself, and he felt annoyingly guilty about it.

If she'd been matched with just about anyone else, bet she'd be 100% clean, the brunette thought with latent irritation.

At least Star's grades had not been brought down by his association - damn girl was smarter than an average bear, certainly. That being said, Marco couldn't help but wonder if her quick wit and impressive academic performance was a reflection of her as a Mewman, a Princess, or just as a Star thing. She was the only one he had met that satisfied the former two categories, and she was definitely in a category of her own with the latter.

The bell roused him from his mild daydreams, and Star was at his ear before he could so much gather his things.

"Marco!" She whispered, which made it difficult to hear over the din of students moving to their next class. "I am so sorry! I hope I didn't get you in more trouble."

He snorted derisively, standing and reclaiming some personal space. "Yeah Princess, you're the real troublemaker."

Bristled, she grimaced and crossed her arms. "I-I was just trying to be nice and apologize!"

"That was your first mistake," he answered with a shrug. As if on cue, her flicker of annoyance vanished with a beaming smile, and Marco couldn't do much but return it.

"Let me make it up to you?" She suggested, tapping her chin.

Starting towards the door, Marco's patience grew thinner by a hair. "I just said you didn't even have to - "

"Excuse me, Ms. Skullnik?" Star inquired, the three of them the only ones left in the classroom.

A little harsher than Marco thought to be necessary, she looked up from her desk. "What is it, Ms. Butterfly?"

"I was wondering, um, why are you always so hard on Marco? Is there anything I can do?"

Marco facepalmed.

"Star, really, we can just - "

"Ms. Butterfly," Skullzy interrupted, narrowing her eyes at him. "I could ask you the same thing. Why are you so nice to Mr. Diaz? He's a bit…" She raised a hand in his direction, and both women looked to him.

Skin slightly flushed by the unexpected attention, he buried his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Wow, thanks, Skullzy. You really know how to foster a supportive learning environment."

"That," she nodded to Star, all but ignoring him. It did little to help temper his mood. "Is why I have a short leash with him. He doesn't respect me."

"Maybe there's a reason for that." Marco suggested, raising a brow, and he could see the woman's features grow irate. Lips thinned, forehead creased, teeth bared - he thought she rather looked like a morbidly overweight jackal.

Sighing, he walked up to the desk and placed a hand on Star's forearm. Her eyes had been flickering between the pair with a mixture of curiosity and something reminiscent of fear.

"Just, c'mon Star, forget about it," he suggested, but the Princess did not move. She set her jaw and turned back to the teacher.

"I think you two could get along if you tried more. Why don't we have a diplomatic meeting? I'd be glad to delegate."

Skullnik pursed her lips and stood from the desk, eyeing the pair of them. "Thank you, Ms. Butterfly, but that's not how we do things on early. Even with your help, you can't magick Mr. Diaz into being less of a brat."

Head rolling back on his shoulders, Marco felt his anger growing, and he considered commenting or just dragging Star away. This conversation had gone way off the tracks, and it was probably about time to bail. They'd both definitely be late for their next class, at this rate.

Needless to say, he was surprised when Star jumped to his defense. "Marco isn't a bad person. He has lots of friends. I just feel like you could bothbe a little nicer, and a lot of your problems would go away. Is that so hard?"

"Sure, Star, whatever - can we please just go now?" He exerted a bit of pressure through his fingers, hand still rested on her forearm, and she glowered at him.

Stubborn girl.

"Fine, we can go. But this conversation isn't over!" She pointed a finger between the both of them, and Skullzy just rolled her eyes and slid back into the chair at her desk.

That struck a nerve.

"Jesus christ, Skullzy, Star is just trying to help. Don't act so dismissive. Get over yourself, why don't you?"

The woman leapt up, positively fuming, and Star backed up into Marco with a startled squeak.

"Marco Diaz! You are to - "

Before he had the chance to talk the woman down, Star reacted. Quicker than a whip, her hand was in her purse and the wand was in her hand.

"H-hypercheer Droll Reflex!"

With a burst of pink light, glittering under the fluorescent lights, a cloud of dust erupted between the pair and the teacher, and Marco began coughing with rasping inhales as the smoke settled. It was like the burden of smoking with none of the release, and he hacked heavily while Star merely tittered beside him.

"Whoa, Star," he managed, covering his mouth and nose with a hand to help himself to better breathe. "What did you do?"

He found her face in the last of the rosy miasma, and she looked positively frightened. Following her gaze, his jaw went slack when he spotted Skullzy, hunched over her desk, at least triple her size, body turned leathery and sickly green. Her already-bad underbite was exaggerated by a massive, jutting jawline that showed a pair of spiked teeth, and her clothes were stretched taut across her nauseating form.

"I-I-I… I might have said… troll instead of… droll?"

A large part of him wanted to be furious - indeed, he already was furious - but the knee-jerk reaction that burst from his lips was laughter. She seemed so disturbed by her own actions that the pitchy tone to her voice was downright hysterical, especially juxtaposed with the unbelievable turn of events.

"Okay, that's rich, just turn her back. Thanks for trying to defend me," he added, feeling his face warm a little. Probably the coughing and waves of laughter, he figured.

"... Um." Star lowered her head, clutching the wand to her chest.

His eyes narrowed. "Star…"

The ribbons along, usually bright and poppy, drooped over her face.

"Tell me you can change her back."

"Welllllllll," she started, the top of her wand pushing against her lower lip anxiously. "I don't know, I really don't like to lie… so…"