Well, the update has arrived! I hope you guy will enjoy it as always ^^!
Disclaimer: I do not claim the right to Star vs. the Forces of Evil or any of the characters that appear in the show. They belong to Disney and the show's creator, Daron Nefcy. I do, however, claim the right to the plot as well as any original characters that may appear in this fic, and would kindly ask you to inform me should you want to use anything from this fic in your own story. -jolleIQ
Beta read by ElleFreak.
Story cover by Luzz015. Be sure to check her out on DeviantArt!
Star vs. The Forces of Evil: Staring it up!
Chapter 8
Secrets Exposed, Part 2
As the portal closed behind the trio, Jackie immediately covered her ears. The music was deafeningly loud and it felt like a true blessing when Marco offered her a set of earplugs to help muffle the noise. Once they were in, she could finally enjoy the music without hurting her ears.
"Much better. Thanks."
"No prob-"
"What took you peeps so long!? Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting here!?" Pony Head scolded Star, Marco and Jackie as they entered her field of vision, interrupting Marco. "I've been standing here for, like, 3 minutes! That's 3 whole minutes of my life I'll never get back!"
"Don't you mean floating here?" Marco corrected her with a smug grin as he walked up to her, earning a menacing glare from the flying unicorn head.
Pony Head narrowed her eyes angrily and puffed loudly with her nose like a horse. "Boy, you're lucky my bestie and you are goin' steady, otherwise this horn would be stuck somewhere you do not wanna know about!"
Marco swallowed audibly and flashed Pony Head a nervous smile as he retreated a step back.
"Hehe, kidding! Kidding!"
"Mm-hmm... You'd better be..."
"C'mon guys, we just got here!" Star declared and jumped between the two and wrapped an arm around each of them, hugging them close to herself. "You'll have plenty of time to squabble some other time! Right now we're here to dance our butts off!"
"You know it, girl!" Pony Head agreed. Star loosened her grip on both of her captives and flashed a smile towards Jackie. "You've met Pony Head before, right?"
"I think so, yeah," Jackie shrugged. "Kinda hard to forget a flying horse head."
"Uh, excuse me? You mean a flying pony head?" Pony Head corrected.
"Technically, you're a unicorn, so..." Marco commented, adding his opinion to the conversation.
"Alright, that's enough chit-chat!" Star declared, having grown weary of the idle conversation. "Let's go have some fun!"
The party cheered in agreement and headed over to the bouncer. The large ogre with a nose half the size of his head and dressed in an inappropriately fancy tuxedo eyed the group of teenagers for some time, but said nothing and gestured them inside as he tiredly mumbled, "Welcome to the Bounce Lounge."
Once they were inside, Star and Pony Head wasted no time and dashed straight to the dance floor while Jackie and Marco headed over to the refreshments table and poured themselves a cup of punch each.
"This place sure looks like lots of fun!" Jackie said in admiration, sipping on her drink and humming approvingly at the delicious taste. "And this punch rocks!"
"See? And you didn't wanna come along..." Marco said with a teasing smirk. Jackie stuck her tongue out at him with a quasi-irritated face, but soon dropped it and shared a quick laugh with the boy. "Anyway, it's been a while since we've, you know, talked or hung out."
"I've just been really busy with stuff, you know." Jackie shrugged and drank more of her punch.
"Yeah, I've noticed. What have you been doing, anyway?" Marco asked, arching his eyebrow. "I hardly see you outside of school anymore. Is everything alright?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, of course, duh! Why wouldn't it?"
"I dunno. You're usually so laid back and relaxed, so hearing that you're so busy that you can't even grab a slushie or something is a little strange..."
Jackie fell silent for a time, staring blankly at the boy, then responded with a flat tone, "Everything's fine, Marco. Like I said, I've just been busy with some... personal stuff and I just haven't had that much free time to hang out with you guys. That's all there is to it. Really."
"That's an understatement," claimed Marco. "Last time I asked you if you wanted to grab some ice cream, you didn't text back until 3 days later."
"Busy..." Jackie replied nonchalantly and put on a smile. "Anyway, I'm here now and we're in a party house, so why don't we stop standing around already and join in on the fun!"
Marco followed the direction of Jackie's hand and saw her pointing at Star and Pony head. The princess was - rather comically - doing what was supposed to be a robot dance. However, her movements were so stiff, it looked like she was a robot that hadn't been oiled up in a while. Pony Head was dancing next to the princess with what appeared to be another flying unicorn head, larger than her and with a blue mane. It looked male, Marco's best guess was that she was hitting on the unicorn.
Marco finished his punch with one large swig and nodded to Jackie.
"Alright," he said, a smile on his face. "Let's go have some fun!"
Jackie smiled in agreement and downed her own cup of punch, then threw it to the ground carelessly and rushed to the dance floor. Marco picked up the plastic cup with an annoyed sigh and disposed of both cups in a more suitable way; by throwing them into the recycling bin some feet away from the snacks table.
"That's better," Marco said, giving himself a good pat on the shoulder before rushing off to join his friends on the dance floor.
Earth
"This is hard!" Zora exclaimed, frustration written on her face, earning an amused giggle from Angie. Angie, at Zora's request, was teaching her some basic principles of mathematics. Zora was enthusiastic at first, but her enthusiasm soon turned into frustration as they went from simple addition and subtraction to division and multiplication. Why the girl wished to spend her free time learning maths was a mystery, but Angie liked the idea and enjoyed spending time with the lovable girl, whose stubbornness and unwillingness to let go of pen and paper until the equation was solved reminded Angie of herself when she was younger.
A knock on the front door interrupted their study-session. Angie excused herself and went to answer the door. Upon opening it, Angie was greeted by a well-dressed young man wearing a warm smile.
"Good afternoon. I presume this is the Diaz household?"
"So it is."
"And you must be Angie Diaz," said the man in a friendly manner, extending his hand in greeting. After a quick handshake, the man continued, "I am inspector Bill Horker. I've been sent here because of an anonymous call I received earlier today, and I would like to follow up on it."
Angie looked startled.
"Uh, a call about what?"
The man's friendly smile turned into a serious frown.
"About your alleged illegal harbouring of a young girl without the required jurisdiction and paperwork. May I come inside?"
The Bounce Lounge, Some Hours Later
The longer they danced and hung out, the more apparent was Jackie's forced cheerful behaviour, which Star took notice of. She couldn't pinpoint it, but something about Jackie's constant smiling and her supposedly-energetic dancing felt... off. It was almost like part of her was sincerely trying to enjoy the party and have fun, while the other half was being distracted by burdensome thoughts. Not only that, but Jackie frequently kept making excuses to leave the dance floor, always taking out her phone and saying that someone 'important' was calling her, although she never revealed the caller's name. She looked more and more tired each time she did so.
Everyone else seemed oblivious to her behaviour, but not Star. The princess knew the difference between a 'I'm having so much fun right now!' face and a 'Yeah, I'm having so much fun right now!' face, the latter of which she could attribute to Jackie.
Something was definitely wrong.
"Star, be careful!" Marco's irked voice brought her back to reality. She instinctively looked at him and saw the displeased frown he was aiming at her. She wondered what was making him upset, then noticed that her foot was atop his. "Star," he continued. "I thought we were dancing together! This is the fifth time you've stepped on my foot! Be more careful, will ya?"
"Oh, sorry," the princess apologised and removed her foot from his. She looked around awkwardly for a few seconds, then said, "Um, Marco, do you mind if we take a little break? I need to go talk to Jackie for a bit."
"Um, sure? But what do you-"
"K! Thanks! You're the best!" Star exclaimed hastily and rushed away from him before he could finish his sentence, leaving him alone and annoyed. Star looked for Jackie but failed to find her on the dance floor or at the refreshments table, meaning that she was likely in the bathroom, yet again.
Right the princess was, for as soon as she opened the door of the lady's room, she could hear Jackie speaking to someone, likely over the phone. Despite knowing that she shouldn't eavesdrop on someone, Star wanted to know why Jackie wasn't as lively as one would expect, so she decided to listen in on the conversation from outside the stall.
"Yeah, I'm still with them," Jackie said to the other person on the line. "What? Already? But what about-" She paused for a few seconds as the person on the other end of the line spoke to her. Star could hear Jackie sigh wearily before speaking up, "I see. Alright, I'll take care of it, even if it is theft..."
Theft? the princess wondered. Was Jackie attempting to steal something?
"Mm-hmm, got it. Yeah, bye."
Lost in thought, Star forgot to back away from the stall door as it opened and was consequently spotted by Jackie, who stared at her with panicked eyes.
"Oh, Star!" Jackie stammered, hastily pocketing her cellphone and putting on, or rather attempting to put on a relaxed smile. "Uh, sorry about this. I've just got this, um, this part-time job interview I've got to schedule and the guy in charge keeps hanging up and, um, stuff."
Star tilted her head sideways and looked at her friend with perplexed eyes. She was definitely lying. And what was all that talk about theft?
"Jackie, you know you can talk to me, right?"
"Huh?"
Star approached the girl and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Look, I overheard you talking about stealing something-" Star could feel Jackie tense up, so she quickly added, "And I've noticed that haven't been having fun today. I know you're a good person; heck, you're probably the kindest person on Earth and Mewni combined! I know you'd never steal from someone, so if someone is forcing you to do something, just tell me and Marco and I will help you out."
Jackie blinked a couple of times. A deep frown settled on her face and she cast her gaze on the ground.
"I... nobody is forcing me into anything, Star." As she said that, Star noticed the guilt in her voice. For whatever reason Jackie was doing what she was doing, she clearly wasn't proud of herself. Star smiled.
"Look, Jackie," Star spoke in a soothing voice. "Whatever's going on, just tell me. You know you can trust me with anything, right? I'm your friend! So please, talk to me."
"Star... I... I..." Jackie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, which she exhaled before putting on a serious face, startling the princess. What startled Star more was when she grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the bathroom and over to Marco, whom she also grabbed before dragging both of them away from the dance floor onto a less crowded part of the Bounce Lounge, after which she released them from her grip.
"Uh, Jackie, is everything alright? Why'd you suddenly drag us over here?" Star asked, genuinely confused by her friend's behaviour.
"Because..." Jackie hesitated, looking towards the ground, unable to face the two. "Because I have something to confess."
Star and Marco exchanged a quick glance before returning their gazes to the skater girl.
"Uhh, confess what?" Marco asked, wishing to know what was troubling his former crush.
"Well, here goes nothing..." Jackie murmured to herself, clenching her fists tightly, and looked at the two with shame in her eyes. "The truth is that... that I'm really-"
"I'd hold that thought if I were you."
"Ahh!" Jackie screamed and stumbled forward, knocking Marco over. and landing on top of him. "Sorry!" she immediately apologised and got off him.
Upon standing up, Marco glanced at the source of the girly voice and, lo and behold, there stood Janna, flashing a proud pose as she stared at the two. Marco rubbed his eyes to make sure it wasn't some type of hallucination and, to his woe, the troublesome girl really way standing before him.
"Janna!? What the heck are you doing here!? We didn't invite you!" Marco yelled, frustrated at Janna for somehow showing up uninvited, yet again.
"Don't mind me," she said colly, a sly smirk on her face. "I'm just here to watch the fun," she said calmly, then looked at her wrist upon which was strapped a decorated mewman watch, and added, "In about 5 seconds... 4... 3..."
While Janna was counting down, Marco shot her a nasty glare, tired of her constant meddling in his affairs.
"Janna, I don't have time for your nonsense!" declared Marco "Now please explain to me how you even got here and-"
"FIREBALL! EVERYONE DUCK!"
Marco, Star and Jackie turned towards the source of the panicked voice. It took Marco but a moment to notice the flaming ball of doom hurtling towards Jackie. He reactively grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her out of harm's way. The fireball exploded upon hitting the ground and caused the floor to catch fire. Fortunately, none of the guests was hurt, but the fire did stir up a panic as everyone began rushing towards the exit.
"Marco! Jackie!" Star yelled in a panic and dashed to her friend and boyfriend. "Are you ok!?"
"We're fine, we're fine," Marco assured her as calmly as he could. "But what was-"
"Stay away from my friends, you vixen!"
To be continued...
WAT!? JANNA KNOWS MAGIC!?
Yep! She does, indeed! Fret not! All will be explained!
'Till next time! And remember to leave feedback!
Expected update: Next week!
