Welcome back everyone! I hope you are all well and healthy. Thank you again for coming back to this fun series of stories. I realized that I hadn't done one about Star or Marco recently, but Marco as a knight is just so fun. Anyway, I don't own Star vs the Forces of Evil or any of its amazing and colorful characters.
19). Sir Marco the Quitter
Taking a deep breath, Marco slowly let it out through his mouth to study himself. "Okay, Diaz. You got this. You've been studying every day for five months straight. Just-be cool." Taking another deep breath, Marco began to walk up the steps toward the police academy. He tugged on the door, realizing that it wasn't opening. Marco paused, frowning slightly. He tugged again. It still wouldn't open. "Ahh, come on." Suddenly, he began to frantically pull on the door, tugging again and again, using his whole body to pull.
With a bang, the door finally flew open, slamming again the wall. The receptionist, a monster with tall horns, stared blankly at him, her eyes glazed. Marco grew extremely red. He awkwardly chuckled as he quietly pulled the door shut behind him. "It was push." The woman muttered in a monotone. Marco apologized and slowly walked up to the front desk.
"Sorry. Sorry. I can pay for that."
"It'll be $650."
"Ugh…why am I not surprised." Shaking his head, he wrote down his phone number and handed it to the monster. "Just-call me when I need to pay it. Anyway-Marco Diaz-Butterfly. I'm checking in for the Police Academy Exam."
The monster blinked blankly again, slowly pulling out her checklist and looking down his name. "Diaz-Butterfly? I only have a Diaz listed."
Marco smiled goofily, pulling out his hand from his pocket to flash his wedding band. "Haha, I got married a couple months ago. I signed up for the exam before I was married."
"Wow. Congratulations." There was no authenticity in her voice but Marco just ignored it. He took the testing materials from her wordlessly and walked toward the exam room. As he began to walk toward the room, his heart began to thud rapidly. Quickly, he stopped in front of the door again. "Don't break that one too." The voice of the receptionist rang out. Marco groaned and gently pulled open the door before he slipped in.
Taking a seat near the front, Marco nervously strummed the table, while shaking his knee rapidly up and down. Finally, he couldn't stand waiting anymore and fumbled for something in his pocket. Quickly, he pulled out a folded-up pink card and rapidly unfolded it, a smile forming on his face. An explosion of color and glitter filled his eyes as the good luck card Star had made him opened. The words "Good Luck-You'll Hit The Target" showed in front of him, cartoon police porcupines wearing sunglasses and shooting glitter guns posed around the letter. Marco smiled as he fingered the letter, his heart soaring. He really was a lucky-
"That your homework, Marco? Or is joining the Earthni Police Force a joke to you?"
Straightening up, Marco jolted around and shoved his letter into his pocket. "Seriously-what are you doing here?" Marco fought down the urge to punch. Very few people could elicit that emotion from him.
But Higgs was one of those people.
Higgs smirked down at Marco, crossing her arms. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'm here to stomp you in this exam. But I at least will pass it by myself, unlike some nepotism loving human."
"Higgs, everyone knows that humans and Mewmans are the same species."
"That's just lies the government feed you so they can control you."
Rolling his eyes, Marco turned back around, noticing the test was beginning to be passed out. Ignoring the scraping of the chair directly behind him, Marco frowned and tried to concentrate. He was going to ace this test-nothing could stop him from-
"Hey Diaz." Higgs whispered behind him, her voice full of venom. "Better not get your hopes too high up-you don't have a princess to buy your way in like you did as a squire."
Angrily, Marco whipped around with his mouth open when a hand slammed down a paper in front of him. Flustered, he looked up to see the proctor staring down at him with narrowed eyes. Gulping, he turned back around and picked up his pencil. He could hear Higgs snickering behind him. Taking a big breath and shoving his hand into his pocket one more time to squeeze the letter, Marco began to write.
The words swam in his vision. Marco began to sweat in his armpits. He quietly fanned himself as he continued on with the exam. Soon, the humans, Mewmans, and monsters around him were finishing their exam and walking it to the front. Panicked, Marco began to madly fill out answers. He paused, realizing that he couldn't have another 'Picture of Marco Gray' moment like with is mother's baby shower, so he took a breath to steady himself. He continued to concentrate, assessing each question before choosing the best answer. Finally, after what seemed mere seconds, the timer buzzed in the front. The proctor, a Mewman who still was a bit shaky on technology even after eight years of Earthni, slammed the alarm while screaming about a possessed clock.
A feeling of failure washed over Marco-he wasn't ready. "Five more minutes? I just need to recheck the question on-" But before he could finish, the proctor snatched up his exam, eyes narrowed at the young man. "Oh, okay then. Guess I'm done now." Marco sucked in a breath and walked out toward the exit. Just as he was pulling open the door (the receptionist reminded him not to break it again) he smacked headlong into Higgs. The red-headed woman smirked as she watched Marco pull himself up off the ground, rubbing his nose.
"So Marco, did you make a zero or a negative on the test?"
Balling his hands into fists, Marco frowned at her. "I totally passed. You're just jealous that I was knighted five times in the Neverzone and you were only knighted once." Blinking twice, Higgs stared at him with a blank face. "Ugh…Heckapoo's dimension. The one with the abs?"
With a snort, Higgs crossed her arms and began to walk away. "Whatever, you're still going to fail. See you at training, 'Sir Marco'. Oh wait-no I won't." With a laugh, she walked away down the street. Rolling his eyes, Marco turned around and began to walk home. Despite knowing he did his best, he felt like he was a failure. Something didn't feel right. He just knew that he had failed the test-and it wasn't just Higgs talking in his brain. Though-it did sound a lot like her voice to him.
Finally, Marco made it to his house. As he opened his front door, the smell of burnt cooking filled his nose. "Oh no…" He dashed into the kitchen to see Star hard at work. Well, hard at work reading a magazine as the food burned on the stove behind her but still. "STAR!" Perking up, Star smiled at Marco until she noticed his horrified face. Whirling around, she saw what he saw.
"OH CORN! THE FOOD IS ON FIRE!" Leaping into action, the ex-princess grabbed a pot holder and placed it over the flames in the pot to smother it. She then turned off the stove and whirled around to smile at him. "Hehe-surprise! I cooked dinner to celebrate your big exam!" Despite himself, Marco had to smile at his wife. (It still gave him butterflies in his stomach to think that she was his wife.) "So-how did it go?! Did you totally nail the target?" She pointed her fingers like a gun and pretended to shoot something.
The smile slowly feel off of his face and Marco shook his head. Star straightened up and cocked her head to the side. "What's wrong? Did everything go okay?"
Before he could stop himself, the words tumbled out of his mouth. "I totally failed it and I am never going to be a cop and I should just quit now!" He ducked his chin into his chest, unable to look at Star. Silence permeated the room. Awkwardly, Marco looked back up to see Star glaring at him with a furrowed brow.
"MARCO! How could you say that?! You are totally going to be a cop and you should not quit now when you are so close!" Star crossed her arms and tightened her lips, looking startlingly like her mother in that moment. "Are you Sir Marco the Quitter? Or are you Sir Marco the Valiant? The Loyal? The Brave?" Taking a step toward him, she placed a finger under his chin and turned his face to look at her. Blue eyes met brown as Star let a small smile tug at the corner of her lips. "Marco, you are the most amazing person I have ever met. And I've met Milly Sparkles!"
Marco gave her a smile in return. Star's eyes sparked as her smile grew even bigger. "Wow. Milly Sparkles, Owner of the Bounce Lounge. You must really think I'm amazing."
Giving him a friendly shove in the shoulder, Star giggled and turned to pull the rest of dinner of the stove. "Shut up. Well, I made dinner-"
"Yeah, let's go out."
"HEY! Yeah…and we can go see your results on the way to dinner!"
The couple laughed as they made their way through the town hand in hand. While this was nothing new to anyone in Echo Creek, it still felt surreal to the two lovers. Star did everything in her power to keep Marco's mind off the exam results. She told about her day in school and how learning to be a lawyer on Earth was completely different than on Mewni-you couldn't just be born one. Marco laughed at a joke Star said about Prince Rich Pigeon when suddenly they heard a cry for help in front of them.
Turning quickly toward the noise, Marco realized the commotion was coming from an alleyway nearby. The couple saw a group of five Mewmans standing in a circle around a shorter monster who resembled a turtle. The turtle monster was shaking his hands in front of himself as he tried to ward off the group. "Look now-I don't want any trouble!"
"Aren't turtles a little slow, Rex?" One of the smaller Mewmans chuckled, cracking his knuckles as he examined the lonely monster.
The biggest Mewman, the pudgy looking man named Rex, flashed an evil grin. "Let's see how fast he is if we take his shell from him. It has to be heavy."
"No-wait-don't"
"HEY! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
The group turned around to see Star and Marco dashing up to them. Marco pulled back his fist, standing in a karate pose. Star stood to his left, a knowing smirk on her face as she got into a fighting pose as well. Though they weren't going to attack first, they wanted to intimidate the group to stop bullying the monster man. Marco flashed a smile at the group, who bristled at them. It was like old times, fighting monsters and pranking Ludo. "Who do you think you are-bossing us around?!" The lead Mewman, Rex, snorted and spat out a nasty looking boogey. "Wait…Ahh, look. You have the monster-lover princess and her…who are you exactly? Whatever-get 'em!"
The group of Mewmans leapt at the couple. Well-they asked for it. The turtle monster ducked into his shell as the pair sprang into action. Marco went low as Star went high, leaping over her husband and yanking one Mewman's arm behind his back. As he let out a yelp, Star noticed another one coming from behind her. She smirked and swirled around, thrusting her prisoner into the charging man. Both went down with a thud. Satisfied, she glanced over at her husband, who was holding his own-which, as a knight, of course he could.
Marco was facing off the other three Mewmans. He karate-chopped one in the face while he backward head-butted another in the nose. The Mewman grasped his nose in pain, tears springing from his eyes as Marco whirled around and swept his feet out from under him. In the same movement, he caught the one he had karate-chopped before he hit the ground. Ducking into a backward roll, Marco used his momentum to toss the poor fellow over himself and used his legs to kick him into his friend. Both went down with wails of pain. Marco sprang up and looked at Star. Their eyes met and both burst into large grins-who said old married people were lame?
In sync, the couple turned and faced off Rex. The Mewman stared at them gapping. A fly flew into his mouth and the group leader gagged, coughing on the insect. He waved his hand in front of him as he hacked away, eyes watering. Marco and Star glanced at one another before falling into a fit of giggles. Suddenly, he straightened up, face red as he gestured to his fallen comrades. "Get up." He wheezed, gesturing for the four injured Mewmans to get up. They all groaned but slowly got up and walked away. "You were lucky I didn't fight you. You're not worth it." He coughed again as the gang slowly walked away.
Marco wearily watched them turn the corner before Star tackled him into a big hug, kissing him multiple times on the check. "That was amazing! You were amazing! We were amazing! Man-I forgot how much I love kicking people's butt!" Marco smiled and whirled her around, before remembering the poor monster who was being hassled. He turned and looked at the monster, who was eyeing them nervously.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah-my husband totally saved you because he's a cop!"
"Star-don't lie to him."
"I'm not!"
"Thanks or whatever." The turtle monster shrugged his shoulders ungratefully, (which made his shell go up and down) before slowly turning around and walking away.
With a grunt, Marco shrugged and muttered, "Well, that seems about right." But his thoughts were interrupted again as Star tackled him into another hug. She gave him a smile as she pulled away, making his heart tug.
"See Marco? You make a difference in people's lives-even when people don't care or thank you. You really are the most amazing person I have ever met-because you care. And that's why you passed your test."
Blinking twice, Marco frowned and cocked his head to the side. "Umm, what?"
A cocky smile grew on Star's face as she tossed her hair and turned to the side. "No big deal. You just passed your exam is all."
Now Marco was really confused. "Okay-how would you know that?" With a giggle, Star pulled out her phone and showed it to Marco. In a text from Janna, she showed a picture taken of his results-which read Marco Diaz-Butterfly: Perfect Score.
"See Marco? You were so nervous over the test that I had to do something. But when I saw how down you were-I realized that I had to get you out of your funk. Soooo, I asked Janna to steal the test results while I was cooking!"
A small smile was slowly building on Marco's lips as he looked at his wife. Though he was still processing, a weight he didn't realize he had was lifted off his shoulders. "I'm not sure I would call that cooking…" He paused as Star frowned and crossed her arms, pretending to be hurt. "But I passed…I passed! I PASSED! I'M GONNA BE A COP!" With a whoop, Marco took Star around the waist and twirled her into the street. A car swerved around them and honked their horn, the driver yelling something about blind idiots but Marco didn't care. He was gonna be a cop! "YOU'RE THE BEST WIFE EVER! I LOVE YOU STAR!"
With a giggle, Star gently gestured for Marco to let her down. "We should celebrate!" She declared, pulling out her most regal princess face she could muster. "I decree that we shall dine on Emilio's Pizza, in honor of Sir Marco the Cop!" With a gasp, she raised a hand to her mouth in surprise. "WAIT! We could make a TV show about you. Cop shows are the new telenovelas! OH! WE COULD STAR IN IT!"
"YEAH!" Marco exclaimed getting excited.
"And we could use real-life footage of us taking down bad guys!"
"YEAH!"
"Oh, and Ponyhead could produce it!"
"Yeah…I'm gonna pass."
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was just something goofy and fun-loving for a time that seems dark and fearful. Even though there are scary things going out in the world, remember to find light and joy in these times-much like Star and Marco do. But please stay safe aw well. Anyway, thank you again for commenting, favoriting, following, and reading my fun story. Please let me know what you thought of this random chapter. Until next time!
Sugar: Yes-I took a bit of a page from How I Met Your Mother when it comes to forgetting important details. In the show, he is always missing something and has to go back and remember how it relates to the story. Also-I think they would have kids. I picture Janna having a really girlie girl daughter and she is horrified by it and another one who is just like her. Thank you again for reading and letting me know what you think. I really appreciate it!
Starco4everr: Thank you so much. I so appreciate how you are so faithful with your reviews, you are a real encouragement!
