Marco woke up the next morning to Star squealing. Not the best way to wake up. Marco groaned and turned over. He would get up if he heard distressed screaming or magic sounds. He hadn't heard them yet, so he stayed in bed, before hearing Star's footsteps. He could tell they were hers because they were upbeat. His parents always walked dragging their feet until their 3rd cup of coffee.

"Sure. let me grab Marco real quick." Marco didn't even know what was going on and didn't like where this was going. He laid down and covered his head with the blanket. Star knocked on the door.

"Marco?"

"What?" Marco asked, out of habit, until he realized all hopes of Star thinking he was asleep were down the drain.

"If you need me I'll be in another dimension."

"Wait...what...?"

"If you need me I'll be in another dimension."

"Hold on a sec...let me get ready..." Marco changed into his clothes and rushed out of his bedroom door.

"Ok Star. I don't know if I'm going insane or what, but did you just say you're going to another dimension."

"Yup." Star said from where she was waiting outside Marco's door.

"Ok, I have a lot of questions."

"If you're so concerned, why don't you come with me?"

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea-" Marco said, being dragged into Star's room, where an interdimensional portal was, glowing blue.

"What is that?"

"A portal. Now c'mon." Star grabbed his arm and dragged him through the portal. Marco looked around at the landscape. Pine trees towered so tall he almost couldn't see the sky. A small bubbling creek ran peacefully a few feet away. Birds were chirping and the sun was shining.

"Where are we?"

"Dunno."

"Ok-wait what?"

"Not knowing where you're going is the fun of it Marco."

"That doesn't really sound fun. It sounds like a possible way to die."

"It's not like I'll send us over a cliff. Interdimensional traveling is easy."

"I have a feeling both of those statements are going to backfire on us."

"Whatever. We might as well have fun."

"But...are you sure about this? My parents don't know where we are, and-"

"Marco, look at me." Marco looked into her cloudy blue eyes.

"Do you think I'd do this if I wasn't sure?"

"No."

"Do you think I'd do this if this wasn't safe?"

"No."

"Ok. This is where we are now."

"Ok. How did you open that portal? Are we stuck here?"

"Don't worry Marco." Star pulled out the dimensional scissors from her pocket and opened a portal to Earth, shoving Marco's face in it.

"See? I gotchu. Now do you wanna go to your house or go dimension hopping with me?"

"Dimension hopping." Marco said.

"That's what I thought. So...bounce lounge?"

"Sure!"

"Ok." Star opened a portal.

"I'm going to another dimension! I'm going to the bounce lounge! I...actually don't know what that is!" Marco said, stepping into a portal, and walking forward and...off a cliff. Star walked off after him.

They fell in calm silence.

"Star, what was the one thing you said you wouldn't do today?"

"Send us over a cliff."

"And what did you do?"

"Send us over a cliff."

"You sent us over a cliff!" Marco yelled.

Except for Marco yelling at the end, it was a surprisingly calm exchange.

"Don't worry Marco. I got us covered." Star grabbed onto Marco's hoodie, and grabbed onto a bit of rock on the side of the cliff. Star opened a portal, and jumped through, pulling Marco behind her. The bounce lounge was active, even though it was morning.

"Yay! I got us into the bounce lounge. On the second try but still!" Star celebrated, bouncing up and down.

"Ok, all this is great, but we need to get to school eventually. And you're in your pjs."

"Oh please."

"Seriously though, you can't show up in your pajamas."

"Nah. I'll be fine in my pjs. Wanna hit the bounce lounge tonight?"

"Sure, but you really should change."

"Yeah yeah." Star ducked behind a tree and zapped herself with the wand, dressing her in a light blue dress with a pink octopus, purple and orange tights, and dark purple boots.

"Ok. Let's go."

"Ok. How the heck do you operate these things anyway?" Marco said, holding the dimensional scissors.

"I just use them like regular scissors. Hekapoo would argue otherwise, but who cares."

"Ok...can you cut us a portal to school? We're going to be late." Star opened a portal to Earth, and she followed Marco into it, and he led her

"Aren't you still my guide?"

"Oh yeah. So that's Ms. Skullnick's classroom, there's the cafeteria. The bathroom's are around the corner."

"Cool." Star said, skipping, and Marco stopped her.

"Come on." They went into the math classroom, where Ms. Skullnick immediately scowled.

"So you're the new student."

"I guess so."

"Ok Class. We have a new student with us today. I'd ask her to introduce herself if I cared. Get in your seats, today we have a pop quiz." The class groaned in unison, and Marco patted the seat of the chair at the desk next to his, and Star sat down and tucked her wand in the desk as Ms. Skullnick handed out the quiz, and Marco slid Star a pencil, which she took.

"Ok, you have the whole class period to do this. Or you can just scribble on it, it's honestly the same to me."

Marco focused on the test, and Star focused on what was going on outside, which in all honesty, wasn't much. A bird sitting in a tree, green grass, and a few trees scattered. But what she was actually looking at was a dark haired boy playing a keytar on the hood of a red car.

"5 minutes left." Ms. Skullnick announced, and Star scribbled random numbers in the answer spots. Once the 5 minutes were up, Star handed in her paper, back to looking out the window.

"Hey Star-" Marco started, and saw her completely zoned out. He waved his hand in front of her face.

"What?"

"Uh...are you coming?" The classroom was empty except for them, and

"Oh. Right. Yeah, I'm coming." Star stood up and followed Marco to the cafeteria, and they loaded trays up with the barely edible free school lunch food, and they sat down at a table, and Star picked at the mush on the tray that was supposed to be mashed potatoes, green beans, and a hamburger, as she zoned out again, staring at the parking lot.

"Uh...Star? What are you looking at?" Marco asked, and Star pointed to the red car.

"Oh."

"Who is that?"

"That's Oskar Greason. He has a record. I'd avoid him at all costs."

"Oh. I'm probably not cool enough for a guy with a record anyway."

"Star, you know what it means to have a record here, right?"

"Ye-wait no I don't."

"It means to go to prison."

"What's prison?"

"The Earth equivalent to being locked in a dungeon."

"Oh. Got it. But how'd he get out?"

"His parents probably bailed him out."

"But we never let people out of the dungeon."

"Star, it basically means you did something bad and- oh nevermind."

"Well, I'm gonna give him my phone number." Star pulled out a pen and a pad of sticky notes from Marco's bag and wrote her phone number on there in her absolute best handwriting.

"Star, are you sure about this? He's a dropout. He lives in that car. Think about this."

"I've already thought about this. Worst case scenario, it'll be Demon-Ex-Boyfriend-Tom-2.0, and that wasn't a huge problem...for me at least. As for the people in that forest he burned down..."

"Wait what?"

Star skipped off to the parking lot, and Marco sat there and ate his hamburger until Star got back. To his surprise, she skipped back with a huge grin on her face.

"So what happened?"

"Guess who got a date tonight?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope."

"It's your first day at school and you have a date. Wish I was that lucky."

"Well, maybe I can help. Who do you like?"

"I-I don't like anyone, where did you get that idea?"

Star gave him a look.

"Ok, ok. I know that sentence made me look bad but-" Marco stopped mid-sentence as Jackie Lynn Thomas skateboarded across the lunchroom, staring at her, hearts in his eyes.

"Hmm..."

"Don't you get any ideas."

"Too late for that."

"Star, please, no."

"Why not? Just talk to her."

"I've tried. It's never ended well."

"I just talked to Oskar, and look at me."

"Nope. Not talking to Jackie. End of discussion."

"Fine."

"If you're crossing your fingers behind your back I will seriously smack you." Marco said, and Star held up both her hands, and no fingers were crossed. The bell rang, and Marco had to drag Star, who was still staring at Oskar, back to the classroom, where Ms. Skullnick handed the quizzes back, and Star smiled at her paper.

"What did you get?" Marco asked through his teeth.

"It says F. For fantastic."

"Star...F means fail."

Silence filled the space between them for a second.

"Oh crud."

"Don't you have tests on Mewni?"

"Uhh...What did you get?"

"That's not important. Let's go home." Marco slipped his paper into his backpack and they headed out the door.

"Want me to help you with your math later?"

"I don't need help."

"You failed the math quiz, it's pretty obvious you need help."

"No, I don't."

"Look, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Your math classes at home just might have not gotten to this yet. I can't do a bit of long division and my grades are fine." Marco said, and Star snapped.

"I don't need help! I can do this on my own! Ok?" Star pivoted away from Marco and headed home angrily, and she sat on the front steps.

"Star, I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah, sure."

"Star, I really didn't. I was just asking if you needed help, because I'll give it to you. If you want it." Marco said, and Star turned away.

"I never took any math classes back home. I never went to school."

"You mean...you're in 9th grade and you've never been to school in your life?"

Star didn't answer, but the way she looked away answered Marco's questions.

"There's no school, like at all?"

"There's the Skywynne's institute for unmagical but somewhat gifted children but I don't qualify for obvious reasons. I'm not gifted and I'm magical. Kinda breaks all the criteria. Mom tried to teach me stuff. All she managed to teach me was how to read and write. She's too busy being Queen of Mewni to actually care."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine, I pretty much expected to fail anyway. I don't even know how long I'll be here. I'll probably just fail school until Mom and Dad retire and I need to be responsible. I'll have to be queen." Star spat out the words into the humid air.

"It doesn't have to be that way. I want to help."

"Marco, no. I'm fine with it."

"But Star, do you really want to fail high school?" Star didn't answer.

"Look, I won't bother you, but the offer's still on the table." Marco headed inside, and Star looked at her math homework.

After trying to figure it out on her own, she realized she'd regret it if she didn't take the offer, even though she really didn't want to. So she knocked gently on Marco's door, quiz and homework in hand. He opened the door.

"Can you help me...?"

"Sure. Come on."

They did their homework at the kitchen table, with a big bowl of nachos. Star eventually figured out how to subtract after about an hour. The paper was covered in nacho cheese and Marco found himself getting frustrated a lot, but they made progress. Marco looked over to find Star asleep, drooling on her homework. He grabbed a blanket from the living room and wrapped it around her.

"Sweet dreams." Marco said, yawning afterwards and heading to his room.