Echo Creek. A small city in the outskirts of the edges of the suburbs of Los Angeles, it doesn't have much to show for itself at first. A small, tight-knit community? Sure. But you can find that anywhere else. A weird obsession with possums? That might have set the town apart in the past, but not in the world of today. However, this town was about to become the link between two dimensions, and in more ways than one, and it all started when a princess from another dimension happened to find herself in a group of nerds.
How did she end up with them? Long story short, it involved her setting her whole kingdom on fire, and her needing to train in magic on Earth, where it's safer. Of course, she has to enrol in school like an Earth kid, and this is where our story begins, with her in the principal's office with her parents.
"So you say you're from another dimension."
Principal Skeeves looked at Star with a blank expression. She was fiddling with a light switch. She said to her mom, "and you told me there was no magic on Earth."
Queen Butterfly sighed, as she explained, "For the fifth time, Star, that's not magic. It's electricity."
Star said in response, "Nope, it's totally magic."
With an expression of scrutiny, Skeeves said, "Yeah, this isn't gonna work."
The queen and king of Mewni then opened up a chest filled with gold and jewels. The principal's eyes light up as he says, "She is gonna love it here!"
River chimed in and declared, "She's going to need a guide."
Skeeves' expression went back to a blank one and he said, "if the girl doesn't even know what electricity is, I know just who to pick." He picks up his PA microphone and shouts, "Marco Diaz to the principal's office, Marco Diaz to the principal's office!"
Marco is sitting in Mrs. Skullnick's math class. He's busy taking notes on his notebook computer, a 2015 MacBook Pro. Apple, because he likes the hardware as well as OS X. He got it a few months ago, but it still looks as clean as the day he bought it. Good thing he keeps his stuff clean and away from any sort of danger. Hearing the announcement calling his name, he wonders what it could be. Whatever it was, he hoped it was something that would make him look cool, and not the safe kid computer geek everyone saw him to be. He saved his notes and closed the lid, because you always save your work. He then grabbed his bag and put all his stuff in there. He left without a word, because that's how cool he liked to be.
He didn't know what to expect when he got to the principal's office, but he certainly didn't expect this blond girl who was biting the water fountain. He guessed it was another exchange student. That was nice. He loved having exchange students over, as did his parents. Normally, Skeeves would explain more, but he ran off to get ice cream. Weird.
Star looked at Marco and said, "Hi, safe kid!" She continued biting at the fountain.
Marco replied. "I have a name, and it's Marco Diaz. Don't call me a safe kid, you haven't even gotten to know me. Also, why are you biting the water fountain?" Marco pressed the button, and Star was wowed by how the water came out of the nozzle.
"Hi Marco, I'm Star Butterfly, a magical princess from another dimension!" She waved her magic wand around, which Marco thought was just for show up until that point. He didn't really question it. He had his laptop, which always stayed with him, except for karate practice. If she had a toy wand, it was normal for him.
What was not normal for him, however, was what happened next. He saw a colourful rainbow come from the wand and thought, Wow, that's some pretty awesome tech. She must be rich, or a fellow geek, or both. Then the rainbow combusted. That did not look normal. Wait, what did she just say about magic? Marco knew what he had to do. He ran to the fire extinguisher in the wall, and broke the glass. He got it out and sounded the alarm. He then proceeded to douse the flames as they spread through the walls.
Once the fire was out, Marco calmed down. Any ordinary person would have been freaked out at this point, but as someone who was used to computers breaking down, he understood that she didn't have a full grasp over that wand yet.
He finally spoke. "Okay, Star, I am not sure what exactly magic is, but what I do know is that you should probably put that wand away for now. You nearly burned down the school just now as it is."
Star frowned as she put her wand in a pocket in her skirt. She grabbed her bags. Then she said, "wait, what do you mean you don't know what magic is? How else do you explain those lights?"
"It's called electricity, Star. You know, the stuff you have in lightning, us people on Earth use it to power tons of stuff, like lights, that water fountain you were biting on earlier, and computers."
Star blinked. "What's a computer?"
"As much as I'd like to show you now, we should probably get your stuff home. I'll get to introduce you to my parents as well. What do you say?"
Star nodded, and cheerily went along behind Marco.
The walk home was really nice, with Star explaining her home dimension of Mewni, and how as the princess, she gets a magic wand at 14. However, she ended up setting her entire kingdom on fire by accident, which is why she's here.
Marco said to Star, "Wow, you're really irresponsible. Don't worry, while you live with me, you'll learn a thing or two about responsibility, and a bunch of things about Earth technology as well." Marco stopped to grab his keys, and unlocked the door. "Well, we're home! Welcome to Casa Diaz! Ladies first!"
Star replied with a smirk, "Oh, Marco, such a gentleman."
Marco said in response, "It's the right thing to do."
Marco's parents leaped in excitement when they saw Star. They instantly sat her on the couch, gave her some nachos since they had nothing prepared on such short notice, and sent Marco and Star off upstairs.
As the two were walking up, Marco's mom yelled, "A bit of a warning about Marco: he's great, but he can be a huge bore sometimes!"
Marco frowned and said, "Do you have to say that every time, Mom?"
"Of course I do, Marco! You end up boring the exchange students when you talk about your computers!"
"Not this time, Mom, not this time."
Marco's dad says in response, "That's what he says every time. Every time." Marco's parents burst out in laughter. Marco also has a bit of a smile on his face. Star isn't sure what to feel. She doesn't even know what computers are yet.
Star then speaks up. "Marco, you still haven't—"
Marco interrupts. " We need to get your room set up first, Star, then we'll talk." He then looks down to the living room. "See mom, see?"
His mom pretends she didn't listen. Marco shrugs it off, and the two friends go to Star's room.
After a bit of sprucing up Star's room with magic, and Marco quickly denying she give his room a makeover, because he didn't want all his stuff to be destroyed, both of them are sitting in Marco's room.
Marco is acting like a showman, and says, "Star, I know I've kept you waiting for long, but the wait is finally over. This is a computer." He walks over to his desk, gesturing to his iMac, and pulls out a chair for Star to sit on. "Take a seat."
Star silently obeys. She looks at the computer. It looked like something she saw in the Underworld once. Maybe it's the same thing, she thought. She had never bothered to ask Tom. She looks at the desk, where she sees a thing with a bunch of buttons with letters on them, as well as a smaller rounded rectangle thing next to it.
"Okay, Star, are your hands clean?"
She nods. Marco inspects her hands to be sure. Once that's done, he resumes. "Okay Star, just put your right hand on the back corner of the computer and feel around for a dimple. When you find it, tell me."
Star feels around, then finds a dip in the back. "No, Star, that's not it, that's a headphone jack. A bit more to the right. Yes, that's it. Now press it."
Star pressed the button. For a second, she stared at the computer, not knowing what to expect. Then the boot chime played, which startled Star. She held up her wand, but Marco stopped her.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no wands near the computer. I don't want you breaking it."
Star forms a grimace on her face, and apologizes. "Sorry, I'll put the wand down."
By then, the computer is on the login screen.
Marco continues his instruction. "Okay, now, click on the icon that has 'Guest User' written below it." Star complies, and after a second of loading, it showed the OS X El Capitan desktop. The Menu Bar is at the top, with what looks kind of like a half eaten apple, which is next to the word Finder. Next to it were the words File, Edit, View, Go, Window, and Help. On the right, there are a bunch of different icons, including what looks like a magnifying glass, as well as the date and time, Tue 3:37 PM. At the bottom, there were a bunch of icons, with one that looked like a smiling blue-and-white face, one that looked like a rocket, a compass, a, a stamp, and some other weird-looking things. At the right, there was an icon that looked like a trash can.
Star admitted it all looked pretty, but then she asked, "Marco, what do you do with this?"
Marco replied, "Pretty much anything, really. For example, you can communicate with your friends and family via text and electronic mail, as well as video chat."
"Oh, so like a magic mirror. I have one I use to call my friends and family."
Marco thought that was pretty clever, having communication through a mirror. He might have to look at that mirror later. "Oh, but there's more. You can also listen to music, watch movies, play video games, write stories, and even browse the Internet!"
It was pretty clear that Marco was getting real excited about this, and Star wanted to join in on the fun too. "Yeah, the Internet! What's the Internet?"
Marco went into explainer mode. "The Internet is a bunch of different computers linked together all around the planet. You can use it to access all sorts of information and entertainment. Anything you can think of, right at your fingertips. To be fair, you can already do a lot with a computer without the internet, but with the internet, you can do even more."
Star's eyes widened and her pupils dilated. "You can do anything?"
"Yes, Star, anything."
"Anything?"
"Anything. Now hold on, let me show you some stuff. First, let me set up an account for you so that you have your own little space." Marco quickly switched to his account, and his unicorn background was plastered on the screen.
"Aw, Marco, that's so cute. Can I have that on my 'account'?"
"Of course, just hold on."
He used Spotlight to open up Users and Groups, and quickly entered his password again. Star saw as his fingers flew across the keyboard and how he quickly opened and closed windows. Marco then said, I'm going to need you to set a password.
Star asked, "Is it, like, a secret password?"
"Yes, it's secret. Don't let anyone know your password. Also make sure you can remember it."
"Hold on, I got this." Marco looked away as Star typed a password i . "Do I type it again?"
"Yes, Star, you type it again in the Verify Password box. Also remember to set a hint in case you forget."
Star continued typing slowly for a few minutes, making sure she got every letter right. Marco was getting bored, so he decided to pull out his laptop from his bag. "Don't mind me, Star, I'm just waiting."
Star didn't turn, as she was laser-focused on getting the password hint to be something she could remember the password by. After that, she then asked, "Marco, what do I do when I'm done?"
"Star, you click the 'Create User' button." Then you click the Apple menu in the top left corner, and log out."
"Log out, got it." By this point, Star knew to click on her user, having seen Marco done it, and to enter her password. "Okay, now what?"
"Now, we have some fun."
Marco and Star spent a few hours at the computer, playing games, watching videos, and prank-calling people on FaceTime. It was fun, and Star was really amazed at how the computer was able to do all this. It was like a magic wand.
Now it was getting late, and Marco said they should stop using the computer for today. Star pouted, and the hearts on her cheek broke. "Aw, but I wanted to use it more."
Marco simply said, "Star, with great power comes great responsibility. You need to learn not to spend too much time using a computer, because you want it to work for you. Kind of like your wand.
"Okay, I won't." Star calmed down a bit, and the two went downstairs for dinner. Marco was excitedly talking about how he was going to introduce Star to his geeky friends, and that together they could do lots of cool stuff together. Star couldn't wait to meet some more people, and if they were just as interesting as Marco, they'd have a good time.
She just couldn't wait.
Story notes: This is the first chapter, so there's not much story going on here as we're establishing the characters. This is just a taste of what's to come, and it's definitely going to get a little more technical as we go on. You have been warned.