Chapter 7 - Science

Schools started back up months ago and Marco had found what he thought was a productive use for their shared dreams.

"Hey Star, you feel ready?"

"Can't we just snuggle tonight?" She spoke with a whine.

"Nope"

"Fine I guess...sure toooooooooootally ready."

"Elements, go!"

The young pair were lounging on a blanket covered bed in the center of a great library. A light rain was hitting the windows providing a constant soft background noise. Star was on her back while looking at the ceiling. She was very un-enthused by the situation.

Raising an arm above her head she started. "Fire." Flames leapt from her hand. "Water." A small rain cloud formed. "Earth..."

Marco sighed. "No Star, commmmmeeee-on. Periodic table elements."

"Oh, right-right...Electron." Lightning shot from her hand. "Protron...ah." Balloons with plus signs on them appeared above her. "Neutron. What the heck does a neutron look like anyways?"

Marco hopped off the mattress and walked over to a well organized bookcase. After poking around he returned with two heavy textbooks. "Here, everything I know about the periodic table and this one is general science info that should help you with your class."

"You know how I feel about these study-dreams! I go all-day looking forward to dreaming with you and I just get more crappy all-day stuff! Why do I love someone who is so frustrating?! Aarrggh!" With that Star took the largest book and used it to make a tent to hide her face. "It's like a cake Marco! I save the frosting for last but you keep taking my plate away before I finish. I WANT MY FROSTING!"

He just giggled and pulled at her left sock. "I, Marco Diaz, take an oath. If my girlfriend passes her science class, maybe the last science class she ever needs to take for the rest of her life, I will make her cakes for a week with whatever type of weird flavors she likes and with as much frosting that can fit on top."

Star thought for a minute while in her book face-tent. "Are we talking work-week or the full seven days?"

He pulled at her big toe. "Full seven days."

"C- pass?" Her tone told him that she was considering his offer.

He pulled at another toe. "I'd like to see a B but I'll settle for a C."

There was much grumbling but she sat up, snapped her fingers to change the bed into a reclining chair, and finally started reviewing the books. "No complaining about the flavors I choose!"

He gave her a smile, "Love you and I bet you can get an A if you put your mind to it."

She replied with a grunt, "Whatever."

Marco watched her study for a few minutes but stopped as soon as his girlfriend gave him the stink eye. "Don't mind me Star, I'll find something else to do tonight." He surveyed the library of memories considering his choices.

At first Marco was organizing shelves that contained memories about his family. He kept finding random picture books mixed in with his texts. "'Cute Animals I Want to Pinch', 'Marco's Sleepy Faces'? What are these doing here?"

Looking back he saw that she was still reading. "Hey Star, is it OK if I look at some of your memory books tonight?"

She replied back in a monotone. "Whatever Mr. Study-Jerk. Just don't get all hurt when you find memories of me hating you for making me do this."

Passing his girlfriend while walking to the other side of the room, he gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head. Once in an area mostly populated with Star's memories he looked over the shelves before settling himself in front of a disorganized pile of randomly sized texts. For several minutes he flipped between pages while Star continued to study.

The first book was titled 'New Things I Like'. "Hey Star...you really liked when I rubbed your feet yesterday?"

Not looking up, she replied. "I got a noble-gases-groove going on over here dork. If I fail a test question about this I'm not taking the blame. But yes Sir Dorko, I liked it a lot."

"Hmm, you should have told me." The next book titled 'Open at Your Own Risk' had a brown cover and an off putting smell to it. He opened it up and immediately shut it. "Eeeww."

She still did not look up. "Had to put those memories somewhere. Don't know why you would open that."

Marco shook his head for a moment and then moved on to the next book, this one was much thicker than most. At first he just flipped through a few pages but then went back to the beginning, taking time to focus completely on each word.

Several chapters in he walked over to Star. "Hey. I want to ask you a weird question and I'm not trying to upset you at all or..."

She sighed. "Just stop, I'm not in the mood. What's the question Marco? Must be important if you would interrupt my learning of metals and their super-lame electrical properties."

"I'm looking at this book labeled 'Big Thoughts'. It has memories of what you are thinking but also includes what you end up saying to people. And...and your ideas are smart, I mean really smart. But sometimes, what you end up saying to people...it is like you are playing dumb."

She was looking into his eyes, her mouth forming a slight frown. "Technically that is not a question."

"Sorry, I am not trying to make you upset. I know math and science are not your thing but your writing is fantastic and you have these terrific creative thoughts about the world. Just seems weird that you would hide what you are actually thinking." While speaking he reached out to put his hand on top of hers.

She looked him in the eyes. "Ok dork. This is top secret information, I don't want you to tell anyone. Promise?"

"Promise."

"Promise, promise?"

"Promise, promise."

Star sighed. "You were going to figure it out and I don't do it as often as I used too but...so...anyways...yes, I play dumb princess sometimes."

He jumped up, "I KNEW IT!"

"Yeah yeah, don't pat yourself on the back too hard." Star folded her arms over each other.

Marco's excitement turned into a little dance. "I mean I've always thought you might be doing that! I was right! I was right!" Slowing his dance down he looked back to her. "But hey, why? Why would you do that?"

His long haired bestie was not impressed. "Think about it Marco, growing up a princess I could do just about anything I wanted. Being able to do anything means you make a lot of mistakes. At a young age I made a LOT of mistakes. What I learned is that acting a bit innocent and forgetful is a great way to keep people from hassling you. Maybe I carried it over to other things."

Marco silently smiled at her.

Her face became a scowl. "What?! Don't give me those puppy-dog-boyfriend eyes!"

He just raised an eyebrow. "You did it just now when I asked you about the elements?"

Star held her breath before showing her frustration with the question. "Yes! I knew what you were talking about, I just don't want to study. Dah!"

Marco was still smiling. "I love you."

"Whatever weirdo. I used to do it a lot more when I was a kid, I only do it now when I don't want to deal with things. You know!"

Removing the books from her lap Marco sat on top of her then leaned down to give a heartfelt hug.

Star finally started to relax. "You're lucky you don't weigh anything in our dreams dork. Are you really this glad I told you? I mean, you must have known for awhile."

"I have but hearing it from my bestie...that is nice."

"You better rub my feet when we get up in the morning." Star finally wrapped her arms around him, returning the hug.

He kissed the top of her head. "I'll do one better. I'll tell you a secret that your admission makes even better."

She pushed him away slightly so she could better see his face. "Secret? How is it you can keep a secret from me when we dream together?"

"Star, I've spent a lot of time thinking about how smart you are and the only doubts I've ever had were moments like that. Now that I know for sure, I need to tell you about...well you know that politics class I've been taking at the community college?"

"The one you want me to take it once I'm done with crappy Echo Creek Academy." She showed her dislike for her current school by sticking out her tongue.

"Yes, soooo I'm almost done with my final paper for the semester and it is about...you." He placed another soft kiss on her head.

"Whhha?!"

"We had to write about a political figure who changed the world. My paper is titled 'Star Butterfly - Rebel Princess to Greatest Queen in the History of Mewni'."

There were several minutes where the only sound in the room was the rain hitting the windows. Star spent that time staring at him confused. "Marco! Why in all of the dimensions would you do that!? First off, I was ACTING queen for only FOUR DAYS. Second, I didn't actually do anything other than give it all away. Third, everyone knows that Skywynne was the best queen. She made the most spells, she rebuilt the castle. If not her maybe Eclipsa. NOT ME!"

Shaking her head she continued. "You work so hard at school and then you go around jeopardizing your grades writing about me? No Marco! No-no-no! The professor is just going to think you're trying to impress your lame ex-princess girlfriend who is still stuck in high school. Why? Why would you do this?"

Despite Star's pushback the smile never left Marco's face. "First off, I was able to include everything you've done in your life, so NOT four days. Second, the actions you took finally got the kingdom to a point where Mewmans and monsters COULD co-exist. You didn't do it all by yourself but you provided the leadership and vision that was needed to get where we are today. Think about the last thirty queens. Just about every other queen before you either ignored Mewni's problems or made them worse.

Third, Skywynne wrote down some crazy spells but she also destroyed a dimension, raised the dead, and made some other awful magical decisions. Sure she was powerful but, could she merge dimensions like we did? No way! You, and maybe I, cast the most powerful non-destructive spell EVER.

As for Eclipsa, she is a wonderful person BUT, we both know she learned how to be a queen from YOU. How often does she still call you for advice? Frankly if it wasn't for your mom basically doing Eclipsa's job, all of the Mewni kingdoms would have been absorbed by the local Earth governments by now.

One more thing, even now with the worlds cleaved together, think about all the things you've done as an ambassador and as a speaker. You might still be in high school but YOU are a great leader."

Star just shook her head. "What am I going to do with you? 'Hey college, my name is Marco. I'm a serious student and I write papers about my girlfriend.' You should not be doing that! You said your plan is to get some requirements complete so when I'm done with high school you can transfer to a better college and we can be together. How can a psychology student be taken seriously when he does something like this? AND-AND why does me telling you I play dumb princess sometimes make this better?"

"Psychology student or...maybe political science student? I'm starting to think about changing my major. College is just so different then high school, way more ideas, and I'm talking to more people who think the way we think. Political science still includes some psychology classes and it might give us the opportunity to do the most good in the world."

She gave him a serious stare. "Us?"

"Yes us! You are all about cuddling but when the world needs to be changed for the better YOU, and sometimes I, are all about making it better." He leaned in to start another big hug. "You telling me is important because that was the only counter-argument to the whole paper. Your admission makes it clear that you know what you were doing. You didn't just guess and get lucky."

She leaned into the hug and gave him a firm squeeze. "Marco-Marco-Marco, I totally guessed and got lucky. Oh Marco. It is nice to know how much you believe in me but..." She stopped herself and took some time to think. "If...IF I had a choice, out of everything I could do with my life, I would choose cuddling with you and making the world a better place as ma thaaaaannggs. Our thaaaaannggs."

Star finally smiled a bit. "We did do some things right and I am happy with the results so far." She paused a second before continuing. "Marco, this is totally hypothetical but knowing what I know now, if we were queen and king back when it was just Mewni...we would have done awesome."

Marco touched her chin so he could bring her lips up in front of him. This was followed by a long kiss that was only interrupted by him whispering, "I fully agree."

Star let out a long sigh. "I guess this means I need to pass science now, so we can keep making the world better."

Marco placed one final kiss on the top of her head. "You are going to do great. Just think about the cakes."

"That kiss was nice but I still hate study-dreams."

He started stroking her hair. "I know. Maybe in the morning, after I rub your feet, you can help me edit my paper. The professor read a preview. She said it was so good that she wants to help me get it published."

"WWHAAAT!" Star flipped out of the chair, taking Marco with her.

The tumble was so strong it knocked them both out of bed and onto the Marco's floor. They were now awake.