"What's going on?" Tom asked, frowning. "Everybody's here in front of the . . . goo-idance counselor's office?"
"Guidance," Marco corrected. "He talks over your future with you, what career you might get, that sort of stuff."
At that moment, some annoying kid who Marco had told him was Oskar walked out, playing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' on his keyboard. He stuck a candy in his mouth and said, "Mr. Candle said I'm gonna be a musician."
The other kid, one of the swimming guys, replied, "Sweet. I got champion swimmer. I was gonna get dressed, but now I don't need to."
"Wow," Marco commented. "Everyone's getting really awesome careers."
"Good for them," Tom said with a shrug. "My future's pretty set in stone. I'm a prince, eventually I'll be king of the Underworld. Not that big a deal." He was next, though, so he walked right in.
"Thomas Lucitor," the counselor said. Mr. Candle, Oskar had said. "Please sit. Help yourself to some candy." He did grab one piece and stealthily stuck it in his mouth.
"How do you tell the future?" he asked. His brain was immediately going to stuff like reading the entrails of animals, though humans were usually . . . a little more laid-back than that.
Mr. Candle rummaged through his drawer. "Just normal guidance counselor stuff." He pulled out a folder and looked at him. "Have you given much thought to your future?"
Tom nodded. "Well, yeah, it's pretty obvious. At some point, I'll become king of the Underworld, and I'll try to be as good at that as possible. Find myself a queen at some point." Or king . . . stupid blood moon.
The counselor nodded, thinking. "Yes, yes . . . however, your future is a little shakier than that. At the moment, you're stuck in your friend's body. Do you have a plan for fixing that?"
His breath caught. He hadn't even thought about that. "Um . . . no, sir. I . . . I hadn't . . ." He looked down, rubbing at his arm, then determination filled him. "I'll figure something out. Even if it takes years, we've got years, and I'll, we'll, find a way to fix it."
Mr. Candle smiled, like he was happy to hear that. "No need to stress just yet. You're a bright boy, you'll be able to figure something out. That's all. Good-bye, Tom. You can send your friend in."
He nodded, smiled, waved, and tried to pretend like he was less concerned than he was.
He paced around Star's room, books sitting all around him as he tried to figure out a way to switch them back that had more than a 20% success rate and didn't leave them broken or creepy half-and-half hybrids. Which left him with basically nothing, since most solutions came from the Underworld, which didn't especially care if you got irreversibly scarred.
He groaned and ran a hand through his hair again. It was wearing him out, and he didn't really know what to do. But whatever.
He spotted Marco peeking his head in to try and look in. The human had had a pretty good time with Mr. Candle, since his grades were good enough that he could basically get most jobs he wanted.
If he really wanted, he could be the second king of the Underworld, the stupid curse whispered in his mind, sounding like himself, and he growled. The curse abruptly shut up. He was not going to listen to that right now.
"Um . . . you okay, Tom?" he asked, his brows furrowed in concern.
He sighed rather sharply. "I just . . . I'm trying to find a way to fix me and Star, but nothing's gonna work!" He plopped down on the bed and huffed, folding his arms.
"Why are you suddenly so worried?" the human asked, sitting down next to him.
". . . Mr. Candle brought it up and now I can't think about anything else," he admitted. "I . . . I don't know. I'm probably just overthinking it."
"Eh. You've got time," Marco said with a shrug, probably not realizing that was really close to what the counselor had said. "Just calm down. I'm making nachos, if you want some."
Tom glared at him, and he laughed.
To destress, they went with Marshmallow and the laser puppies to the park. He smiled, leaning against a tree with Marshmallow on his head. He took the little pink bunny off to coo at how cute he was before putting him back on his perch.
Marco was muttering to himself and trying to poke a hole in the juice box, and he was having a little difficulty with it. The puppies yipped and ran around another tree, where Tom had tied their leashes to. They shot lasers everywhere, and he noticed some other people leaving. He felt a little guilty at that, but giving Marshmallow another ruffle helped soothe his nerves.
He pulled out the wand and waved it, giving the laser puppies a bunch of chew toys, which they happily started chowing into. He sighed, then felt something tugging on his wand. Hard. He did a double take, accidently releasing the wand (ugh! Why would he do that? Apparently, if Ludo had tried doing that, he'd have gotten the wand a long time ago) and spun around, his bunny grabbing onto his head in concern.
There was a dog with the wand in his mouth. He frowned and tried to grab it, but it growled. He growled right back. He tried going at a different angle, but that didn't work, either. He plopped down on the ground, set Marshmallow in his lap, and peered at the dog.
"You're not going to release it, are you?" he asked, annoyed.
The dog just stared at him, and he tried interpreting its thoughts. "You wish, buddy."
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Is there anything I can give you so you will let go?"
It shook its head.
"Tom, the laser puppies are hungry," Marco called. "Just get your wand and we can go."
He frowned at the dog. "Okay . . . can you at least follow me home? It would be annoying to have to carry you and Marshmallow."
The dog just stared at him and, with a huff of defeat, he picked up both animals and started carting them home. "You stupid dog," he muttered.
"Look, he'll put the wand down if he wants to eat," Marco pointed out. He set a bowl of food in front of the dog, who proceeded to slurp up the food without releasing the wand. Both boys stared at it, bewildered, and it proceeded to go into the bathroom and shut the door.
Tom looked from the door to Marco and asked, "Uh, you were saying?"
It came out and sat on the couch after using the toilet and sink, apparently. Hmm. That probably wasn't normal. He turned to Marco for help, but the human just said, "Sorry. This is your problem. I'm gonna go to bed. Come on, puppies." The laser puppies jumped over to him. He picked up five, and then the last one jumped after him.
He sat next to the dog. "Okay. It's late, and I wanna go to bed, but I don't find it super comforting to know the wand, my big responsibility, is in your mouth, so . . . oh, wow, you're nice and warm." He cuddled up to it, and it growled, and he growled, too. "Okay, fine, be that way. I'll sleep with Marshmallow instead."
The next morning, he woke up and had almost forgotten about the whole dog incident, at least until he saw it sleeping on the couch. "Oh, right," he groaned. He would've tiredly ran a hand across his face, but that would've smudged his mascara, so he stopped himself.
He kneeled down and stared the dog in the eyes. "All right, doggo, we're gonna do this. I can't go to school without my wand, but I can't go to school with you, so I'm not going to school until you give me the wand." He put his hand on it, and it growled. He growled back at it and stuck the other hand on, too.
It growled louder, and so did he. He picked up the entire dog via the wand, and then they were both growling very loudly. He tried to shake it off the wand, but it wouldn't budge.
Marco came downstairs, then saw what was going on, and he just said, ". . . I'll ask later," before going back upstairs.
Tom shook the wand harder, but the dog clung on. He whipped it back and forth, but that didn't work. He grabbed it by its feet and tried shaking it like that. Nope. He sat down on top of the dog, which only got him scratched. He tried dipping down, but he wasn't frustrated enough for that to work.
"Just let go!" he exploded, glaring it it. "You stupid dog! That wand's not even my responsibility, it's my friend's, and if I lose it, I'm screwed!" he sat down on the couch, clutching chunks of hair in stress. "I'm screwed either way," he murmured.
It stared up at him, suddenly looking sad, and it dropped the wand and sat, almost human-like in its actions. Then it became more human-like. "Sorry," it said.
He looked up, confused and somewhat disturbed. "What?"
"I took your wand because in my dimension, dogs are the ones with all the problems. No escape. Only sadness." It, no, it must've been a she, grabbed one of the juice boxes that Marco had been struggling with and easily poked it through the bottom. He made a mental note to tell the human later.
One of the laser puppies wandered over, and she sadly looked at him. "All I really want is to be . . . like them. I thought if I zapped myself with your wand, I could quiet my troubled mind."
He was quiet for a moment. "Yeah, I know what that's like," he said softly. "To want to be carefree like other people. Because they make it look so easy, when there's so much to worry about . . ." He shook those thoughts away. "But you can't just run away from it all."
"What are your other options?"
He shrugged, then an idea came to him. He pulled out his compact and called Star. "Hey, Star, you want a dog?"
"Do I?!" she screamed, lifting the compact up close.
"Alright. Um, she talks, so . . . there's that, but I'll send her over pretty soon. Bye." He flipped the compact closed and looked at the dog, who was admittedly looking a little horrified. "There you go. Star's the most upbeat person I know. If anyone can distract you, it's her."
"But . . . but . . . !"
"Hey. Trust me. It'll be fine. I'd trust her with my life."
And that much was true.
The dog glanced at the compact, then nodded. "O . . . okay."
He picked the wand back up again and said, "Well, I'm off to school. Try not to steal anything else while I'm gone!"
This one's . . . shorter than I would've liked, but not much is happening. Also, my characterization of Tom is a little more reasonable than Star, so a lot of scenes flat-out didn't happen. But I dunno. The next one should be better.