Marco hadn't really had the time to give much thought to the fact that his life had completely changed while he was away. Well, perhaps that wasn't entirely true... no, his life had changed right before he went away, and now he had come back to a completely different world that the one he left behind when he decided to follow Star into Mewni, as if his dimensional scissors had somehow malfunctioned and brought him to a parallel Earth where his life was turned upside down... or rather, wasn't.
His life had been a total roller-coaster since the moment Star came into his life, and now suddenly she was nowhere to be seen and he went back to being a totally normal teenager with friends, classes and a girlfriend. Oh yeah, he had a girlfriend now. And not just any girlfriend, she was none other than Jackie Lynn Thomas, the girl he'd been admiring from afar since they were toddlers. It was borderline bizarre for him to think of her as his girlfriend, especially since their romance had had little to no time to develop before he disappeared soon after their end of the school year party. That little stunt he pulled would've angered any other girl, but Jackie had been super chill about it, and listened with a smile while Marco told her about all the things he'd seen and done during his weeks in Mewni, even if she probably didn't understand half of it. He was now sure she understood exactly why he'd left like that.
Alright Diaz, enough reminiscing. Let's go! he thought as he looked up and saw his old high-school, the doors wide open and an uncharacteristic absence of people blocking the entrance, as the building was somehow trying to welcome him specifically. Walking all the way there without Star by his side had already felt weird enough, but actually being there was even more strange for him.
It feels like it's been an eternity since I saw this place for the last time... he thought before finally mustering up the courage to start climbing the stairs.
Before he could take the first step, however, a familiar face slid from in between his feet and locked eyes with him from the floor. "Late on your first day? Tsk tsk tsk, you're such a rebel, Diaz."
"Gah-!" Marco let out before quickly composing himself and assuming a battle stance for the few seconds that it took him to recognize the face. "O-oh, it's you. What are you doing on the floor, Janna?"
"Not much," the dark-skinned girl answered with her usual smug smile. "I've been chilling down there for a while, waiting to see if you finally decided to show your face around here!" She got up with surprising elegance and dusted her skirt before booping Marco on the nose while making a goofy noise with her mouth.
"Stop!" for as ready as he'd been a second ago, the sudden contact took him by surprise. Truth was, he had purposefully arrived a bit late to avoid bumping into anyone, because Marco being Marco, he was a bit too nervous about showing up there like nothing had happened. However, as he was rubbing his nose, he couldn't help but to smile at the absurdity of the situation. "It's... been a while, huh?"
"Sure has," she replied. Funnily enough, she was acting like it'd been a week or so since they last saw each other, even if she knew pretty well that he was involved in a war for the future of a magical kingdom, and Marco didn't know if she was doing it on purpose to annoy him or if it was an honest reaction. You could never know with Janna. "You're not going to get me to admit I've missed you, but I kinda didn't have anyone to mess with during the Summer, soo... yeah, I got a lot of teasing to catch on to, so get ready!"
Marco rolled his eyes as he continued to walk up the stairs, his companion following soon. "I'm going to have some trouble readjusting to all this after these few months, Janna," he explained as he looked down. "Please don't make it harder than it needs to be."
"Can't promise anything," she replied with a shrug. "I can't believe you came back to this lame-o town instead of, you know, staying in Mewni forever. Speaking of, where's Star?"
"She's... busy," Marco said simply without looking away from the floor. "You know how it is, she's a Princess and she has to deal with princessy stuff. Even if I could just stay in Mewni, I don't think we could've hung out."
There was a way more complicated answer, of course, but he didn't have the time or patience to explain to Janna that a megalomaniac lizard had tried to destroy all magic, leaving Mewni in ruins and making travelling between dimensions way less safe, which were the two reasons why Star couldn't come back to Earth, at least for the moment. That and she literally almost died, but Marco didn't like to think about that part. Even though he knew they would be able to see each other soon enough, the mention of his best friend did make him feel a bit nostalgic all of a sudden, knowing nothing would be the same... in more ways that he would ever bring himself to admit.
"Makes sense," Janna said absent-mindedly, having already forgotten about Marco's incredible journey and now scrolling through her text messages. They kept walking for a while through the deserted main hall, right past the giant banner hanging from the ceiling, the words 'Welcome Back Students!' written in dark green against the yellow surface with a level of sloppiness that only the students of Echo Chreek Academy could accomplish.
"So," Marco felt strangely compelled to continue the conversation, as they still had a few minutes before arriving at their classroom and he felt kind of awkward just walking in silence with Janna, "my dad told me you came by to borrow some karate movies. Did you like them?"
"Eh, they were fine I guess," she replied, but her growing mischievous smile told Marco there was something more about it. "It was mostly an excuse to go to your room and look through your clothes and stuff."
"Janna!" he exclaimed, only to cover his own mouth immediately after when he realized there were people already in their classrooms. To be fair, he should've seen this coming.
"Relax, I didn't take anything," she said, waving her hand like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Nice heart-printed undies, though. Never would've imagined."
Marco's face lit up, a familiar feeling whenever he was around her, although for all the wrong reasons. And to be fair, looking through his underwear drawer was creepy even for Janna standards. Fortunately for his dignity, though, they soon arrived at the door marked with the number indicated in their schedules.
"Oh, by the way," she said, stopping her arm halfway through its way towards the knob. She put her hand in her pocket and produced a white and blue card that looked strangely familiar. "I've been waiting all summer to bring you this back, so you're welcome!"
Marco took a good look at the item, and soon the realization hit him: it was his social security card. "W-what? How long have you had this?"
"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to," Janna said, winking at him before opening the door to the classroom, ending the discussion then and there.
Marco sighed. His morning was going to be very, very long...
Tenth grade was weird, Marco thought while looking around the classroom as the teacher spewed some probably unimportant information and realizing roughly half of his classmates had picked a different subject. He was not one to slack off, but once more this was his first day and he was having trouble coming to terms with the idea that his life was going to be pretty much devoid of magic for a while, and to be honest he was a bit bummed out that Jackie was not in the same class as him, which he probably should've asked about instead of droning on and on about his amazing summer adventure. Yet another thing to add to the pile of things he had to apologize for. Yikes.
On the bright side, Ferguson and Alfonzo were in his class, and they had spent the last few minutes trying to get his attention. Trying not to laugh at their shenanigans, Marco had gestured them to talk to him after class, but they either hadn't understood him or had completely ignored him, because not only did they not stop, they also started becoming more and more obvious until the teacher told them to quiet down, which brought a half smile to Marco's face. There was something about their excitement that turned his initial boredom into some kind of enjoyment, and that only got better and better as the classes continued.
Contrary to what he'd imagined, his adventure on Mewni hadn't managed to completely desensitize him to normal Earth stuff... although he could not stop feeling like something was wrong, as if his brain was having trouble reconciling with the idea of going back to school without being able to see Star when he looked at the desk besides him, which was for better or for worse now being used by Janna. By the time lunch rolled around, however, he had reached a conclusion: boy, was it good to be back.
"Yeah, tell me about it!" Ferguson exclaimed after Marco voiced that thought. "I thought we were going to have to start school without you, man!"
"You should've at least called us when you got back!" Alfonzo said as soon as he sat back beside his two best friends with a tray full of food. "We're used to you going on adventures with Star, but you were gone for far too long!"
"I'm really sorry, guys," Marco apologized as he rubbed the back of his neck with embarrassment. "I really didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so I only told Jackie at the time. I saw a ton of weird things during this summer, and I kinda needed time to process all of it too!"
"Oh, you gotta tell us everything that happened to you!" Ferguson managed to say while stuffing his mouth with a burger. "I went surfing and almost got eaten by a shark!"
"Trust me, you're gonna need more than just a lunch break to hear the whole story," someone suddenly said behind Marco, making the boy flinch. He would've recognized Jackie's voice anywhere, and even if he hadn't she didn't give him any time to check, because she quickly slid a chair between him and Janna and sat down, giving one of her calm, warm smiles as she did. "He could write a book about all the things that happened to him this summer, right babe?"
Babe. It was still uncanny to hear the Jackie Lynn Thomas call him that, but it only made the butterflies in his stomach flutter faster. "Heh, y-yeah, totally." It was like every time they talked his brain resat and had to go through the entire process of assimilating the fact that she was his girlfriend now, but for some reason that made the whole experience a bit more special, and she somehow knew it. She didn't usually call him babe or sweetie or anything like that, mostly because she knew it was kind of embarrassing for him, but that was precisely why she decided to do it every once in a while. He was so entranced with his interaction with Jackie that he failed to acknowledge the worried look on Janna's face during their whole exchange.
"How have classes been?" he asked her, and she just shrugged.
"Same old, same old," she said. "I kinda miss you though. If I'd known we wouldn't be in the same class this year, I would've gotten together with you way sooner!"
If only you knew, Marco thought while laughing at the comment, but decided not to delve on the past too much, especially not in front of his friends. "Maybe it's for the best, you know. After all, I wouldn't want to distract you with my amazing looks during your first class!"
"Whoa whoa Diaz, you've gotten better at this!" Jackie laughed while elbowing him. "What, were you secretly going to flirting school all summer and the whole magic stuff is just a very creative cover?"
Once more, Marco was reminded why he liked his life on Earth so much, and he realized that perhaps readjusting to it wasn't going to be as hard as he thought...
"Hey, I need to go to the bathroom or something," Janna said out of nowhere, getting up before anyone had time to react. "Oh by the way, this summer I fell from a moving train and sustained heavy brain damage, could anyone help me get to the stalls? I don't remember where it is."
Marco frowned and opened his mouth to ask if this was a joke, but as soon as he raised his index finger Janna grabbed him by the wrist and forced him to stand up.
"How kind of you, Marco," she said unenthusiastically. "Come on, let's go."
She pulled him away from the table, and while nobody thought much of it, Jackie did give Marco a confused look as he was dragged away, to which he replied with a silent shrug before his girlfriend left his field of vision. As it turned out, Janna knew exactly where the bathroom was, because she dragged Marco directly towards and into it, and even if he felt kind of awkward going into the girls' bathroom, he was accustomed enough to his friend's shenanigans that he didn't even complain about it.
"What's gotten into you?" he asked, and as soon as she looked back at him he knew this wasn't one of her pranks. Janna looked serious, maybe even a bit nervous, and she was actively avoiding looking him in the eye.
"Okay, look," she began. "I wasn't gonna say anything because I wanted to keep things cool and I know how much you overthink literally everything and yadda yadda yadda, but I really can't just stay there and watch you... be Marco. Not while Jackie is here."
"What are you talking about?" the situation was getting more and more confusing for him, and he was started to get genuinely worried. "Things are totally cool with Jackie! Didn't you see?"
"You messed up bad, dude!" Janna exclaimed in a tone of voice Marco hadn't hear her use before. She quickly calmed down, though, and she gently grabbed Marco's shoulder. "Okay, look: Jackie may seem like she's super cool and not annoyed at all by the fact that you decided to vanish from the face of the Earth for several weeks without so much as a warning while chasing after another girl who had just happened to admit she had a crush on you like, the night after, but she really isn't."
She had to take a long breath after that one.
"B-but I didn't go chasing after Star!" Marco defended himself. "I only stayed in Mewni because there was some serious stuff going on and-"
"Yeah, I know that," Janna spat. "Or at least I think I know, because if it wasn't already clear enough you disappeared for weeks and you didn't even think about leaving a memo, you jerk!"
Marco opened his mouth to reply, but the words quickly had the desired effect on him and he started reconsidering his actions. He had apologized again and again to his girlfriend, but at the same time he'd always somehow thought he was kind of justified. He was saving the multiverse, after all, and who knows what would've happened if they hadn't defeated Toffee!
"Look," Janna spoke again. "Jackie was mega worried about you, and she couldn't understand why you disappeared like that! She didn't care about whatever magical misadventures you were living, she only knew that you were there one second and then the next you disappeared! Because when you do something like that, even if you think it's the right thing to do, people are going to get worried!"
"I..." Marco was speechless. He totally understood where Janna was coming from, and although he could easily excuse himself by saying he was busy, nothing would've stopped him from going back home and leaving a message at the very least. He had come to the surprisingly elusive realization that people of Earth didn't know or care about what was happening in Mewni, they only knew that he was missing. "I'm sorry, you're totally right. I'm really sorry, Janna, I never would've thought you guys would freak out so much about it... and that feels stupid now that I say it out loud."
Before he could say anything else, Janna closed the distance between them and gave him a surprisingly warm hug, something he certainly wasn't expecting from Janna of all people. While at first he was visibly confused, Marco soon returned the hug and even gave his friend a few pats in the back for good measure. It wasn't like her to display so much affection in one sitting, but that only emphasized how much she'd been worried about him, and upon realizing that Marco's guilt grew a bit more.
"We're your friends, you knucklehead," Janna said then, her head buried into his trademark red hoodie. "Of course we were going to get worried about you. Besides, I've already told you I want to keep your corpse so I can turn your head into one of those voodoo thingies."
"Oh, so you did miss me after all, huh?" Marco asked with a smug smile, quite relieved that Janna was back in-character, even if her outburst had been barely a minute long.
"This is the only show of affection you're gonna get from me for the next 100 years, Diaz. Don't push your luck."
"Got it. I'll shut up now."