Like Father, Like Daughter

by ADdude

After spending 16 years in another dimension Marco is finding it a little hard to readjust to his life back on Earth. Then a few days later Hekapoo shows up at his doorstep with a daughter, their daughter! Needless to say, he's going to have a lot more stuff to get used to. Cover by hntrgurl13 on tumblr

4. Chapter 4: School Life

Like Father, Like Daughter

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Vs the Forces of Evil or any of its elements.

Special Thanks to my beta IdeaGenerator

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Chapter 04: School Life

"-and that's about it," Marco finished. At the moment, he was currently standing in front of Principal Skeeves' desk, Seraph sitting in a chair next to him and his parents right behind him. It was early in the morning outside, well before school would start. Most people would have been asleep at this time, but thankfully for the Diazes, Principal Skeeves was a very early waker.

"Okaaay," Principal Skeeves said slowly, looking at the four of them with a narrow pair of eyes, "so let me get this straight. This girl-" he pointed at Seraph, "-is actually your daughter?" now looking at Marco.

He nodded. "Yes."

"And she's actually only a month old, but is physically and somewhat-mentally about fourteen years old because of the strange physics of a magical dimension?"

"That's about it."

"And you would like me to enroll her into this school?"

"Yes please, if you can," Rafael replied, a smile on his face.

"And you would like her to start today despite the fact that the semester is well underway?"

"If it is at all possible," Angie added.

Principal Skeeves hummed for a moment and tapped his fingers together, then he exhaled slowly as he opened one of the drawers in his desk and stuck his hand in. "...Alright, just give me some of your time and we can get her started as soon as possible, " he said, rummaging around and eventually pulling out a thick stack of paper.

Marco blinked. "Really? That easy?" He was more than a little surprised, especially since he had imagined things would have gone with a lot more difficulty.

Adjusting his glasses, Principal Skeeves looked flatly at Marco. "Normally, I would say no, but considering these...odd circumstances, I think it would be best to help you as much as I can to ensure your continued enrollment at this school stays possible." He then shrugged. "Plus, you caught me while I was in a good mood. They released a new flavor of ice cream today, and it didn't disappoint." Standing up from his chair and offering his hand to Seraph, Principal Skeeves smiled warmly. "Welcome to Echo Creek Academy!"

Underneath his friendly expression, he gave a deep sigh of relief that, after the surprise enrollment of one Star Butterfly earlier in the year, he had made extra copies of the forms from that incident. Without them, it would have been near impossible to get through all the red tape and governmental bureaucracy for creating a whole new file for a such a 'unique' individual as a student. And who knew how the Diazes would have reacted if he couldn't get the newest member of their family into his school.

Honestly, he couldn't afford to lose Marco Diaz in any way, shape, or form. Echo Creek Academy needed him and his safe-thinking ways to keep up their reputation as the cleanest and safest school in the district-even if he has been slipping on that behalf rather recently, Principal Skeeves thought.

That, and he dreaded seeing the day that Janna Ordonia would stop being distracted by messing with Marco Diaz and try to pull off some of her larger schemes. He almost shuddered imagining the arrival of such a day, but thankfully, he managed to collect himself before any of the Diazes could see it.

And, he thought, I could probably just add her to the Butterfly expenses. Thank goodness they understand why I charge them, unlike some oblivious parents who couldn't understand that, yes, their 'poor, innocent Jeremy' would act that way and that he'd-

Principal Skeeves shook those thoughts out of his head as Seraph took his hand with a surprisingly strong grip.

"Thank you so much sir!" she exclaimed, beaming at him as she let go.

Principal Skeeves chuckled as he sat down into his chair. "Oh-ho-ho, and she's polite too! What's your name?"

"It's Seraph. Seraph Celosia Diaz."

Clicking a pen, Principal Skeeves set the first page of the stack of documents in front of himself. "Okay, how do you spell that?"

"Celosia?" Marco questioned.

"Yeah, mom got it from-"

"A red flower, one with flame-shaped heads, right?" Marco finished for her, thinking back a long time ago. He remembered clearly the day when Hekapoo first brought him to her personal private gardens, planted and full to the brim with those flowers. It was a beautiful sight, all those flowers in bloom and rippling across the field in rich waves of reds, oranges, and yellows in the wind, making it look as if the entire field was a living sea of fire. It wasn't hard to see just why Hekapoo had picked that name for Seraph.

Sometimes, when she would bring him there, they would dance amongst the flowers under the light of her three moons to her favorite rave music, laughing and dancing the nights away, but most of the time, it was nice to simply lay down in the fields together and try to pick out shapes in the clouds above them. The last time he had been there, it had been the night right before he returned to Earth-and, as he realized now, the night they had made Seraph.

Then, shaking him out of his musings, Seraph nodded. "Yeah, it's mom's favorite flower."

"Yes, yes, that's all well and good," Skeeves said impatiently, "but seriously, I really do need to know how to spell her name. I can't stay in this office all day."

0000

When the bulk of the papers had been completed, Principal Skeeves had printed out Seraph's schedule and sent her along with Marco to tour her around the school. Meanwhile Rafael and Angie stayed behind to finish their part of the paperwork, as well as making an appointment for Seraph to meet her school counselor soon.

After having introduced Seraph to where she'd have to go for later, Marco was in the middle of walking her to her very first classroom, one that, coincidentally, they both shared. However, as the pair was walking around the school, they had to come to a stop as a swirling portal formed in front of them. A short moment afterwards, Star jumped out as it closed behind her, her back to Marco and Seraph.

"Marco!" she called out, searching around in front of her. "I got your scissors! I'm not too late for school, am I?"

"Uh, Star, we're right behind you."

Star whirled around with surprise on her face, a large bag in her arms. "Oh, there you are!" She then held out the bag towards Seraph with a small smile. "I got you a little something from Quest Buy to start off your day!"

Marco narrowed his eyes at her. "Star, what did we talk about last night?" he asked firmly, crossing his arms.

"Oh, what, this?" Star said as she glanced down at the bag in her hands. "Oh, no! This isn't spoiling her!" she quickly shot back. "I just thought I'd get her something for her first day at school." Sticking her hand in the bag, she pulled out a backpack shaped like a dragon's head, scaled green with a cartoonishly floppy red tongue and large googly eyes. "I probably would have gotten it yesterday but I didn't think you'd need it so soon." She rolled her eyes and looked to the side, her hands on her hips as she huffed. "Really into making kids go to school in this dimension, I swear..."

"Aw, thanks Star!" Seraph said, taking the backpack from Star. As she was presently wearing a spare and generic red backpack Rafael and Angie had pulled out of Marco's closet, she took it off and tried the new backpack on, adjusting the straps and seeing how it felt on her back. "I love it! I think I'm going to call him Burrito!"

"Huh, that's really thoughtful of you Star," Marco praised, his previous concerns quickly forgotten.

Star just waved his comments off with her hand. "Pffft, it was nothing. With how boring school can be, I thought something to cheer her up would be nice."

While Seraph took off her dragon-pack and starting moving supplies into it from her spare bag, Marco whispered to Star, "Thanks for doing that for her."

"No problem," she whispered right back. Then, she took out a pair of scissors and put them in Marco's outstretched hand. "And thanks for letting me borrow these."

"You're welcome," he said, then he slowly raised his eyebrow at her. "As long as you tell me first before you use them next time for 'shopping,' okay?"

Star just responded with a sheepish grin. "Kay Marco. Now let's go!" And with that, she grabbed his hand and was off with a spring in her step, pulling him along for the ride.

Honestly, Marco didn't mind Star borrowing his scissors all that much-they were friends after all, and he was originally trying to get back 'Star's' pair in the first place, though he really should have figured that of course Pony Head would do something like that. It was just that, after working so long and hard for them, it made him anxious whenever he considered the possibility that he could've lost his scissors, especially with how much trust Hekapoo was placing on him to use them responsibly.

But though he was still a little bit angry about Star borrowing his scissors for a trip to Quest Buy without telling him-and was still getting used to actually having a pair after years traveling without them-he had faith that she would bring them back safe and sound.

As the trio started to head off for class again, three familiar faces that had been waiting for them came up to them; Janna, Alfonzo, and Ferguson. The former had a Cheshire grin on her face, smug like a cat that ate a canary. She greeted Marco with a half-lidded stare, her tone slow and flirty. "Oh hello, daddy. Nice to see you here."

Marco just pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Please don't call me that again."

"I make no such promises," Janna teased. "You just make things too easy."

On the other side of things, Alfonzo and Ferguson took the chance to introduce themselves properly to Seraph.

"Hello, I'm Alfonzo! I'm a friend of your dad. If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask me," Alfonzo said warmly, adjusting his glasses.

Meanwhile, Ferguson puffed-or tried to puff-out his chest and proudly gave Seraph his best smile. "You can just call me Ferguson, or just Ferg if you like." He then shifted his eyes back and forth as he shuffled up to her conspiratorially. "Also, you think you can convince Star to turn me and Alfonzo back into a centaur?"

Seraph slowly leaned backwards with an unsure smile on her face. "Well, I, uh…I-I guess I can try, Justferg?"

However, at that moment, the warning bell rang, signifying a few minutes were left before the start of class. "Looks like we should start going now," Marco alerted the group, which now started to slowly make its way towards the classroom.

While they were walking, Janna put her arm around Seraph's shoulder, surprising the young girl with the sudden contact. "Okay, here's a tip for your first day of school: don't show any weakness. The first chance you get, punch the toughest person you see as hard as you can. Show everyone you won't be pushed around."

Seraph just blinked at her confusedly. "...but wouldn't that be my dad?"

"No, Janna, just...Just no." Marco said, exasperated. "Nobody is punching anyone."

Janna just snickered as Marco rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath. "I definitely didn't come back for this." After shaking his head, he turned to Seraph, giving her a smile. "Just try to be friendly and be yourself, and everything going to be just fine. I'm sure they're going to love you. "

Hopefully, that is.

0000

As the first class had already settled into their seats and the warning bell several minutes ago, Miss Skullnick had stopped the late group of friends at the door, only letting everyone except the Diazes into the classroom.

"Considering the situation," Miss Skullnick began, "I think it might be best if we tell everyone the truth about you, Seraph. This way, we can deal with answering most of the questions ahead of time." She then crossed her arms, a sympathetic tone entering her voice. "And don't worry Marco. As long I'm here, I'll keep things from getting out of control."

Marco thought about it, then nodded. "Yeah, I guess it's for the better if we do that." If Janna hadn't already told everyone else already, they were gonna find out Seraph was his daughter sooner or later, so it made sense to explain the truth before the rumor mill could get its hands on it.

As Miss Skullnick then stepped through the classroom door, Marco stayed back for a moment to talk to Seraph.

"So, are you nervous?"

"Uh, a little bit," Seraph admitted, peeking into the room. It hadn't really sunk in for her yet, but after seeing all the people in the classroom, people that very likely knew her father and were complete strangers to her, she was starting to feel a bit apprehensive at the prospect of standing up in front of them all.

"Well, it is your first day at school. Everyone gets nervous on their first day, but don't worry, Star and I are here for you. And you can always count on my friends for help-" he paused for a moment, "-okay,maybe not Janna all the time, but she's okay, you can trust her." His brows furrowed. "...I think."

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of motion through the window in the classroom door. Shifting his eyes over, he could see Miss Skullnick gesturing at him, inviting him to come in and face everyone.

"Well, here goes nothing." Putting his hand on the doorknob, he turned one last time towards Seraph. "Just wait a bit to come in. We'll introduce you to everyone first."

Opening the door, he was greeted with the sound of the usual chatter one could expect from a class of high schoolers; full of the newest trends and gossip about national and school celebrities. As soon as the door closed behind him, Miss Skullnick exclaimed over the noise, "Everyone be quiet!"

After a few moments of waiting for the volume to die down, she started talking again, this time in a quieter tone. "Okay, class, we've got a new student today, so everyone be nice and welcoming for…for..." Miss Skullnick sighed and turned towards Marco. "Just bring her in Marco."

The class was silent as everyone looked at him as he opened the door and let Seraph in. Some stared at the horns poking out of her hair, others glanced at her heels-slash-boots combo, but all of them could notice the similarities between her and Marco, especially their choice of hoodies.

"Go ahead and introduce yourself." Miss Skullnick gestured towards Seraph with her hand as faint murmurs started being traded around the room. Seraph was rooted to the spot for a moment, not sure what to say until she saw Star and Janna at the back of the room, waving at her and giving her the thumbs-up respectively. Feeling a bit better knowing she had their support, she looked at Marco, who just gave her a smile and a faint nod.

Encouraged, Seraph gave a small wave to the class. "Oh, uh, hello," she said timidly. "My name's Seraph Diaz and I just moved here, so it's nice to meet you all."

Marco opened his mouth to speak when someone in the back suddenly cut him off. "So, like, are you Marco's cousin or something?"

Unfortunately, for his desire to ease the class into an explanation, Seraph immediately responded to the question. "Actually, he's my dad."

The class fell dead silent as the words began to sink in. As Marco physically braced himself for the inevitable outburst, Miss Skullnick, used to dealing with such things in her long career of teaching, started to count down with her fingers. "Five, four, thre-"

"WHAT?!" nearly everyone shouted, the force of their shout almost bowling Seraph over.

"Uh oh," the teacher said, her eyes widening at the premature detonation, "that's not good."

With the classroom erupting into a maelstrom of questions and out of their seats, Seraph couldn't help but flinch and shrink back at the noise. Seeing her reaction, Marco jumped in front of her, his arms stretched out as if trying to protect her from the words. "Okay! Everyone, please, just calm down!" However, his attempt at quieting the class just caused the questions to come even faster, now directed at both him and Seraph instead of just the poor girl.

As he stood there, trying vainly to get the class to be quiet again, he could barely hear the shouts of Miss Skullnick, trying and failing to do the same, over everyone else. Then, from behind him, he felt someone grab the back of his hoodie. Turning his head back, he came face to face with Seraph clutching onto him for safety, overwhelmed and frozen by the commotion going on around her.

Facing back towards the rest of the classroom, his eyes narrowed then closed as he shifted his jaw. His chest swelled and contracted several times, air flowing through his nose and out his mouth as almost every sound disappeared from his ears, leaving only the beat of his heart as it slowed and steadied. Opening his eyes, he stared at the scene of chaos unfolding in front of him, Miss Skullnick struggling to be noticed and obeyed despite her intimidating size while his friends were swallowed up by the frenzy.

Then, his mouth opened.

"Everyone, settle down! Now!"

And with that, the class fell silent once more. Not even Brittney, the biggest gossip in the school, gave a peep as the seconds ticked by.

"I get that you all have a lot of questions, but let me make a few things clear before you ask them."

Slowly, everyone sat back down in their seats. Even Miss Skullnick found herself sitting back at her desk. Despite looking no older than the rest of them and being dressed in a very unassuming set of clothes, he easily commanded all of their attention.

Marco's head turned slowly, surveying the room around him. "Yes, I have a kid. Yes, she's coming to school here. Now, if you have any questions, one at a time please."

A moment passed, then his eyes flicked over to the back of the room, a hand tentatively raising upwards in his sight. "Yes?"

The person who had raised his hand shifted in his seat as the whole class turned to look at him, realizing that everyone's eyes were now on him. Nervously and slowly, he put down his hand. "So, uh, like, um...h-how? How did you have a kid?"

Marco looked at him, then he nodded sharply. "It's...complicated, but I'll do my best to explain. Just a few weeks ago, I came back to Earth from having spent several years in another dimension." At the outbursts that arose from the class, asking how that even worked, he held out his hands in a placating manner. "Yes, I know that it may be hard to believe or wrap your head around, but that's just how time works there. A minute here equals two years there."

He then stared off into the distance, captivated by something unseen by anyone else. "I had gotten stuck there, unable to return to Earth, so I went chasing after a way to get back for all of those years." His tone became nostalgic, lost in memories of a time not too long ago. "I traveled across many worlds, meeting and making many friends along the way. Heck," he said, a proud grin taking over his face, "I even fought hordes of evil creatures, tamed a wild dragon-cycle, and even earned my own pair of dimensional scissors!"

"But how did you have a kid then?" a voice said, interrupting his thoughts.

Marco blinked, having been snapped out of his reverie, then he shook his head amicably. "Oh, oh yeah. Sorry about that, I got a bit sidetracked there. So anyways, while I was there, I met someone named Hekapoo, the fastest and the most fiery girl I've ever met," he said with a wave of his hand and a light chuckle. "It took me years just to catch up to her, though there were a few times when I managed to get this close to her." He emphasized the distance with his fingers and a squint, but when he opened his eyes to look back towards the room, they fell onto the wincing, hurt face of one Jackie Lynn Thomas.

Suddenly finding it hard to speak, Marco couldn't help but notice all the stares of the people surrounding him, watching him, judging him. Only now realizing just what it was that he said and who he said it to, he tried to find within himself the strange confidence that had just filled him and given him a voice, but found nothing left. Opening and closing his mouth like a fish, he stood there at the front of the class with very little to say in mind, and it was as if a switch had been flipped in everyone.

No longer were they looking at someone both paradoxically young and not, but Marco Diaz, the awkward teenager. Grasping at anything he could do to get out of this situation, he blurted out the first thought that came to mind. "Sothat'swhyyouuseprotectionkidsokaythankyouI'mjustgoingtositdownnow." And with that, his chair screeched underneath him. Seraph hesitatingly followed suit a few seats over as he tried to face forward and ignore everyone behind him, especially a certain girl with a seashell necklace.

Miss Skullnick just facepalmed at the sad display, the loud sound gathering the room's attention and regaining some control over the room. "Alright class, now that's over, it's time to get back to class. Today's announcements are..."

While Marco put his face into his hands with a groan, heavy thoughts swirling around in his mind as the lecture went on, someone tapped his shoulder. Confused, he froze, unsure if he really felt that until they tapped him again. Glancing backwards, he saw that it was Justin, the captain of the football team and apparently now his first interrogator of the week. "What?" he tersely whispered, hoping Miss Skullnick wouldn't notice.

"So wait, you and Star didn't have a kid?"

Whatever he expected Justin to say, that was not it. Half-formed words died in his mouth as his brain tried to find the logistics behind that question. "...What." He scrunched his brow and blinked his eyes several times, unable to come to a conclusion of any kind. "Where'd you get that?"

Justin looked at him strangely. "But I thought…" He paused, then shook his head. "Actually, nevermind."

"Okaaay. Right." As he looked away, Marco tried to focus back onto the lesson on the board, but he couldn't help but be distracted by the sound of a sigh coming from a certain direction, one he was afraid to look. Turning his head, he caught a flash of movement in the corner of his eye, the shifting of blonde and blue curls of hair. With a heavy weight in his gut, he spotted Jackie, who was now trying to avoid making eye contact with him.

However, as she fidgeted with her hands, her eyes slowly started to swivel towards his own with a sad frown. Marco almost didn't catch what she said as she spoke so softly that it almost seemed like a whisper.

"We need to talk later. After school."

He processed her words, then he nodded firmly. Hopefully Seraph would be fine with going home with Star by then.

0000

Unfortunately, for his state of mind, it felt as though each one of his classes passed by in an instant, with Jackie's deadline looming over him like an overbearing shadow. The only thing that could take his mind off worrying about the upcoming meeting was worrying about how Seraph's first day at school would go. As he couldn't be there to keep watch over her for every one of her classes, the thought of having to let her go off and be by herself worried him. Thankfully, after homeroom, she had math with Miss Skullnick, so he didn't have to worry too much about that period, and they both shared the next class, history.

Considering where she was raised and for how long, Marco wasn't that surprised by how often Seraph would ask for clarifications on every single detail of history. At least their teacher was understanding of the situation, though he could only hope the other teachers would be too as well. After all, he wouldn't see her for several more periods until lunchtime.

But as he walked down the halls towards the cafeteria, Marco couldn't help but feel the stares and the whispers of conversations piling up on his back on the way to lunch, overshadowing his other concerns. He tried his best to ignore them,but it only seemed to make them stand out even more.

"Those horns on her head are real? I thought Star gave them to her as a mom-gift or something."

"Waaah! My Starco fan fiction is ruined now!"

"I thought Marco was dating Star."

"You sure it wasn't Janna? I thought that they just had their own way of messing around with each other."

"No, he's been dating Jackie for a while now. They got together after the dance."

"Wha-Really?! No way! He had a kid with someone else while he was dating her? Heh, guess he really isn't that safe."

"I wish I was dating him. Sigh, he's such a bad boy."

Marco could only wince at the reminder of his upcoming talk, and the irony of that last part was not lost on him. He pulled the hood of his jacket over his head and gritted his teeth, attempting to block out the mutterings in vain, but their words still got through the red fabric and to him.

"Wait, you're saying the Marco Diaz has a kid? You'd think the safety kid would know to use protection."

"Yeah, I know, right? And the thing is, she's, like, a teenager already even though she's only a month old."

"How does that even work?"

"Magic? I don't know, I got confused when she explained it to me."

"I think it's because her mom's a demon or something."

"A demon?"

"Well, I mean, I think she's one. I mean, she's got horns and fangs and everything, kind of like that guy that invited Star to some ball or whatever a while ago. She's also super pale, but she's heck-of cute. I can see why he'd go for her instead of Jackie."

"How do you know that?"

"Picture. Janna showed it to me for five bucks. She was there when the mom dropped his kid off at his house apparently. Still can't believe that that's what happened between them."

"Heard the new girl almost burned down the school. That would've been so awesome if she did."

Marco rubbed his temples with his fingers, deeply wishing it wouldn't be useless to talk to Janna about what should be kept priva-

He froze in the middle of the hallway, eyes wide open. Wait, what was that last part?

But before he could fully process what he just heard, he felt a tug on his sleeve, and turned to see found Seraph looking at him, a concerned-and somewhat guilty, a small part of his mind noted-expression on her face. "You okay, dad?" she asked. "You look like a statue."

"Yeah, yeah, just...zoned out for a bit." Marco absentmindedly shook his head and pulled down his hood. "So, uh, did anything interesting happen for you today?" he said dazedly, almost on instinct, but then he noticed Seraph bite her lip and struggle to avoid his gaze. The faint scent of burnt something emanating from her hair reached his nose, causing it to wrinkle slightly. Taking a closer look, he could see small flecks of multi-colored soot sticking to her hoodie.

"Did something happen? Are you okay?!" he exclaimed, his voice full of worry as he put his hands on her shoulders, his eyes widening.

"I, uh, um…I might have started a fire last period?" Seraph almost asked, her hands twisting around each other. An uneasy smile crossed her face for a moment before it dropped down into a grimace.

"A fire? What happened?"

"Well, uh, um..." Seraph fumbled around for words, unsure how to explain things, but then a certain macabre-loving teenager popped up to rescue her.

"Pottery," Janna said loudly from behind Marco, the sound so uncomfortably close he gave out a yell, reflexively spinning around and almost karate-kicking her in the chest. Stopping his foot just before it could connect, he slowly put it down as his heart beat on, full of adrenaline as well-practiced fighting techniques and strategies eventually started to evaporate from his mind.

Inwardly, he was mildly impressed at the near complete lack of reaction or flinching on Janna's part, though his concerns and questions for her took precedence as a disapproving frown on his face and a pair of crossed arms. "...So, can you tell me what happened?"

"Well, as long you're done putting on a show, sure!" She smirked at him as he rolled his eyes. "Your 'baby girl' tried to make a clay pot and cook it with her fire powers, and she set an entire table on fire instead. It was awesome!" Her tone became more musing, her fingers rubbing her chin in thought. "Actually, that gives me an idea…" She snapped her fingers. "Hey Seraph, in art class tomorrow, think you could help me wi-"

"No Janna, you can't ask her to help you out with any of your 'projects." As Janna snickered in response, Marco turned to Seraph, who wilted under his inquiring gaze. "Seraph, is that true?"

Regretfully, she nodded. "...Yes." She then looked up pleadingly at him. "But it was an accident! The teacher told me that you make pottery by heating clay to high temperatures. I didn't know she didn't have fire-proof tables like mom does or that you have to do it in a kilt-thing!"

Marco closed his eyes. "Did anyone get hurt?" he asked, his voice toneless, impossible to decipher.

"...N-no?"

He took a deep breath through his nostrils, then he opened his eyes and gave her a gentle look. "Then that's all that really matters in the end, Seraph."

She blinked owlishly. "Y-you're...you're not mad at me?" she asked uncertainly.

Now it was his turn to scrunch up his eyebrows. "Mad at yo-No! Seraph, I'm not mad at you!" He took her by the shoulders, surprising her with the contact. "Sure, I am a little disappointed that it happened in the first place, but I can't blame you for not knowing to be careful with your pyrokinesis here on your first day at school, and at least nobody got seriously hurt." His back straightened as his eyebrow raised. "Now, I hope you've learned your lesson about how flammable objects can be, right?"

She nodded determinedly. "Right! I'll be more careful next time!"

Marco gave a sigh of content, the tension in the air dissipating. His face then took on a joking expression as the edge of his lip curled. "Besides, that's nothing compared to Star's first week at school. She almost burned down the entire school by accident. Three times. " At her disbelieving stare, he could only chuckle, shaking his head. "Yep, that's what happened. Ah, those were good times," Then, as discreetly as possible, he leaned over to Janna, who'd been watching the whole scene with the same smirk as usual. "So, how much for the damages?"

"About six hundred and fifty dollars, but I'm sure you can get a certain 'princess' to pay for them," she said with a wink and a grin. She stayed like that for several moments, as if expecting something to happen.

Marco shifted his eyes from side to side, confused at her sudden bout of silence. "...Uh, is that it?" He shrugged nonchalantly. "Eh, guess I'll just tell the company to send her the check this month," he said, more to himself.

At this, Janna gave him a flat stare and folded her arms. "Ugh, you're no fun." Then, she lazily saluted off to him and Seraph, her smirk restored as she started to walk away. "Well, looks like I'll be seeing you later when you need this back," she said, waving an orange pouch with a zipper at him.

Marco's hand flew to his waist, but it found nothing. "Janna!" he exclaimed, an annoyed expression on his face.

Now at a sprint, her cackles echoed down the hall. "You can scold me later, daddy!"

"JANNA!"

Deciding it was not worth the effort to chase her down even though it would have been a cakewalk compared to Hekapoo, Marco grumbled while Seraph just stood next to him, confused at what happened. "Good thing I can make another at home." Then, he turned to Seraph and tried to clear his mind. "...So, how was the rest of your day?"

"It's been going great!" Seraph said excitedly. "I got to learn about how to make stuff with clay in art, and I can't wait to show mom what I can make soon! And PE is really fun! I made a couple of friends there, and we got to play a game called 'bat-min-ton,' though I don't get why there aren't any actual bats involved, and tomorrow we're going to be running laps around the football field!"

However, her mood took a flip as she crossed her arms, a look of exasperation coming over her. "Though the math homework is so boring! I'm not even halfway and I still need a lot more paper for it!"

Marco chuckled loudly at her frustrated, adorable pout. "Heh, you wouldn't be the first to feel that way about math class. Now come on, let's go!" he said with a wave of his hand, his original purpose for coming down this hallway finally remembered. "If we get to the cafeteria in time, there may still be some cake left!"

0000

Thankfully, the cafeteria wasn't that far away, so they arrived a few minutes before the cake ran out and the end of lunch. Unfortunately, for Seraph's next class, Biology, she had to part ways with Marco once more to his regret, but for his sake, at least it was the last class she would have to do so. And to make up for the separation, it was a subject that she found really interesting, just like history-the history of Earth, that is.

Having grown up in another dimension and on the stories about her father, Seraph was excited to learn more about the planet he came from, but she did feel a little saddened when her teacher took the strange old book she found on the floor from her at the end of class. Though it was missing quite a number of pages and was full of unfamiliar words, it had a lot of characters with bizarre names in it, like Mr. Young, Werner, and Erwin, though she couldn't help but write about some of the things they did that exactly didn't make sense to her at times. However, her mood perked up at the sight of her father in her next and second-to-last class, Spanish.

Marco, in turn, was also filled with happiness when he saw Seraph walk in, a feeling of excitement welling up at the thought of being able to hold a full conversation with her in Spanish some day in the future. Although his knowledge of the language had been stunted for a long time, teaching Hekapoo the basics of his language had helped keep the information fresh in his mind, and it soon be came apparent to him that she had done the same with Seraph. Even though her Spanish wasn't the best, it pleased him immensely that she was able to keep up with the rest of the class and teacher without too much trouble.

To top off the end of their day, Marco and Seraph shared a class of English together. Despite being someone with a limited exposure to the field of literature, Seraph dove right into the middle of things with a surprising amount of energy. She had marvelled at the thought of reading stories of times from long, long ago and tales of made-up worlds, and she had even started packing her bag with books before Marco introduced her to the concept of libraries. With her enthusiasm to begin reading, he couldn't help but wonder what her reaction would be to hearing that her grandmother was a poetry teacher.

With all of the textbooks Seraph ended up needing at the end of the day, Marco was thankful that Star liked to shop at Quest Buy so often, as he had been surprised at the amount of foresight put into her gift-backpack for Seraph. Specially charmed to be bigger on the inside and always feel as light as a feather no matter the actual weight of its contents, it was perfect for any school-related situation.

After checking to make sure Seraph had all her books and supplies with her, Marco zipped up her backpack. "You sure you have enough paper?" he asked jokingly, handing the bag to her. "It looks like you took several packs from the supply tables in here."

"Yeah, I'm sure," she said. "I just didn't want to run of paper out for homework."

Marco laughed heartily. "With that much paper, I don't think you'll be running out 'til college." Letting out a deep breath, he smiled contently, then he looked her straight in the eye, a slightly more serious look on his face. "When we get home, don't forget to finish all your homework later, okay?" Marco asked authoritatively, to which Seraph nodded.

"Ugh," Janna groaned with a roll of her eyes, "why'd you have to become such a stick in the mud? Loosen up on the poor kid already." Then, she turned to Star, who had just finished texting Pony Head for the day, and a glint shone in her eye. "Hey Star, got any more of those backpacks? I've got an idea."

"Oh sure! They were on sale and I got this…"

Marco wanted to dissuade both of them from whatever it was that Janna had come up with, but then, whatever they were saying faded into white noise as his eyes wandered beyond the pair of troublemakers. Far off in the distance, he spotted the school flagpole, and at its base stood Jackie, waiting.

"Hey, uh, Star, can you take Seraph home for me today? There's something I need to do, and I'm not sure how long it'll take," he said, absentmindedly holding out his scissors towards the princess.

Star smiled at him brightly as she took them from his hand. "Oh, sure thing Marco! You can count on me!"

"Wait, what's happeni-" Seraph tried to ask, only to be interrupted as Star grabbed her hand and pulled her through a portal.

"So, now that we're alone, still want your little belt bag Marco?" Janna asked, waggling her eyebrows. "You can have it back if you give me a little 'something' in retur-"

Marco strolled past her without even looking at her, cutting her off. "No thanks Janna, I don't need it that much."

"Awww," she said, though she didn't actually sound that disappointed. "Well, looks like I get to keep this. See ya!" And with that, she was off, going down the street behind him.

After a quick check of his surroundings, he kept walking to the flagpole, glad to see the courtyard almost completely devoid of people, everyone else having either gone home or to whatever after-school activities they were a part of. It wouldn't do to have people listening in on their conversation.

It was a short walk, and within several moments, he finally reached the flagpole. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," came the reply, "you came."

A pregnant pause hung in the air.

"I'm sorry if I made you angry with me."

Jackie sighed, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "I'm not angry at you, I just...I just-" She turned away from Marco with a soft frown on her face. "You..." Jackie trailed off, then a deep sigh escaped her lips. She turned her head to look at him in the eye. "Can you...can you just...just please, help me understand. What happened between you and Hekapoo?"

Marco pursed his lips, then rubbed the back of his neck slowly. "I...I don't know what to say."

Another pause.

"...How did it start? How did you two become so...so close?"

Marco leaned against the pole and stared off into the distance. "...I'm...not sure. It just...happened." A slight crease formed itself between his eyebrows. "We just started talking someday during my trial, somewhere in between trying to learn how to survive in the wild and going on adventures across the multiverse."

A flash of confusion crossed Jackie's face. "Wait, 'trying to learn how to survive in the wild?"

"Yeah-I mean, back at the beginning, it wasn't like I was a master tracker or knew how to make supplies or anything. I spent a lot of the first days just figuring out how to catch food and find shelter, but I got better at it eventually," he said nonchalantly, waving his hand in the air.

Her eyes widened in concern, her voice gaining a horrified tone. "So wait, she just left you there without food or supplies to die in the wild?!"

"What?! " Marco's head shook, a shocked expression on his face. "No! She wouldn't do that!"

Jackie's face turned confused, befuddled. Her eyes looked for an answer in the air in front of her. "So then...then what did she do?"

He held out his hands in front of him, trying to soothe her concerns. "Jackie, Hekapoo's not like that. Whenever I got hurt or nearly starved to death, she would always give me supplies to help me survive." He gestured with his hand, searching for words. "...Look, her trials aren't meant to be easy, but they're not that unfair! I mean, heck, if anything, she could've done a whole lot worse to me considering that, back then, she thought I stole her personal pair of dimensional scissors, and because I actually did abuse them. She saved my life. Multiple times. I know I can trust her with anything...and so can you." His breath was heavy now, and he stared at Jackie, his eyes pleading for her to believe him.

She looked at him with an unreadable expression, then she closed her eyes and tilted her head forward, casting her face into shadow. "...So, I guess you just forgot about me instead, right?" she asked softly.

"No, Jackie, I didn't forget you, it's just…" Marco sighed and placed his back against the flagpole, sliding down until he felt the ground beneath him. Next to him, he felt the displacement of air as she sat down as well. "...Jackie, I've been away for sixteen years. That's longer than I had a crush on you, longer than I've ever lived on Earth."

Pulling up his knees to his chest, Marco stared down the road running in front of the school, looking to where it blended into the edge of the horizon. "I got used to the idea that I might never see you, Star, or my parents for a long time, over a decade ago. I'd thought that, by the time I would've eventually gotten back home, everyone would've moved on with their lives already, so I moved on as well. Star would've become queen, Janna probably would've been on the run from the cops, and you would've found someone else to be happy with, someone who could actually be there for you and get to know you more than I ever did."

Jackie gently put her hand on his shoulder. "Marco, you know I wouldn't do that-"

"Even when you'd be in college or have a job, waiting for someone you only dated for a few weeks in high school and went missing years ago? Someone who never really got to truly know the real you, to see if they actually had something more than just a childhood crush on you?"

Jackie opened her mouth, but only silence came out. Closing her mouth, she looked to the side, then back at him, troubled by her thoughts. "...Then what about the past few weeks? Why'd you keep taking me out if you moved on already?"

Marco was silent for a moment, unsure how to respond. Then, a memory from the day before came to him, the hours he spent talking with Mr. Candle running through his mind. "...I did that because, when I came back to Earth like this-" he gestured at his body, "-I felt like I had to go back to being Marco Diaz the 'safe kid' again, even if I didn't fully remember or know how to be him anymore." Marco stared at his hands, picking out the scars-or lack thereof-he'd earned over the years. He rubbed his fingers together, feeling the sensation of how unfamiliarly smooth they were, then took a deep breath. "...The past couple of weeks, I've been letting who I used to be define should be instead of who I am now. I'm sorry if I led you on like that, I didn't mean to."

"Marco," Jackie said, a perturbed tone in her voice.

"It is true though, Jackie. I mean-" he rubbed his forehead with his hand, "-I did enjoy the time we hung out together, I just...it just didn't feel right for me, you know, even when I told myself I did."

"...oh," Jackie said quietly, though not in response to him. "...Was it...is that because you and Hekapoo…hooked up while you were gone?" she asked, looking at him with a questioning expression.

"What?" Marco did a double take at that. "Hooked up?" He screwed up his face. "No, no, we're not like that. We're friends, we just…" he trailed off, unable to find the right words to explain properly.

"You two were just...casual?" Jackie finished for him.

"I mean...I guess you can it that?" He hesitatingly shrugged his shoulders. "We never really got that serious with each other, and we're really just more friends than anything."

"So you never really thought you'd get her pregnant?" Jackie raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm surprised you didn't use protection or anything. It doesn't exactly sound like something you'd do."

Marco rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I mean, I just didn't think that it would ever happen between us. Heck, I didn't even know it could happen until a few days ago, and I'm still trying to figure it out!" Throwing up his hands in the air at that last part, he let them drop down to the ground by his.

They shared a moment at the bottom of the flagpole, letting a cool breeze wash over them in silence. One of Marco's hands laid on the ground, splayed wide open, while Jackie's lingered nearby, tentatively inching forward and backing up before it returned it its owner's lap.

Even though he didn't turn to look at her or move at all, Jackie could tell Marco had something to say. "...You know, I never meant to hurt you. I completely understand if you want to-"

"Break up with you?" Jackie tilted her head back until she could feel the metal of the flagpole on the back of her head. "...Yeah...it might be for the best." She sat there for a second, thinking, then she turned to him, a hopeful look on her face. "We can still be friends, right?"

"Wha-Of course we can!" he said, wondering why she'd even need to ask such a thing.

She kept her eyes on him for a few seconds, then she shook her head with a small smile and chuckle. "I should've known," she whispered to herself. Then, with a grunt, she stood up and stretched her limbs. "Geez, that pole is uncomfortable." As she rubbed her back with a hand, Marco got up from the ground next to her and stretched as well. Pulling out her skateboard, she set it on the sidewalk and placed her foot on top. "See you later, Marco," she said, looking at him with a smile.

"See you late-"

However, Marco's farewell was cut short as he stood there, his eyes wide as he slowly raised his hand to his cheek. The sound of skateboard wheels grew faint as he watched Jackie ride away with her back to him, the feeling of lips still lingering where his fingers touched.

His mind whirled for what seemed like an eternity, stuck trying to figure out what just happened, until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay man?" Ferguson asked from his right, his tone inquiring. Alfonzo stood next to Ferguson, his face displaying concern. "That looked rough."

"I'm...I'm okay," Marco said, unfocused. He blinked once, then shook his head. "I'm fine, really."

Ferguson glanced over to Alfonzo, who could only give an uncertain shrug in return, and looked back at Marco with a smile. "If you ever need someone to talk with about girl problems, we're here for you."

Marco tried to halfheartedly grin at the duo, but it gradually dropped into a confused look. "That's, uh...that's very nice of you guys...but it's not exactly like you guys have a lot of experience with girls."

Alfonzo put his hands on his hips and huffed defiantly, readjusting his glasses with a finger. "Well, I'm the only one of us that actually got married before, remember?"

Marco stared at him uncomprehendingly, his eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. "Wait, you got married?"

"Yeah, in Pixtopia with the Pixie Empress!" Ferguson chimed in, oblivious to Marco's confusion and struggle to remember. "And while we are on the subject, I want you to settle something for me. Was it inappropriate of him to marry my ex-fiancee?"

"Ferguson, we talked about this already! You broke up with her in the first place, so it's not!" Alfonzo argued, exasperated.

"Well, you divorced her! I would have never done such a thing to such a pretty lady!"

"I didn't divorce her, she divorced me!" He turned his And I'll let you know we're still on good speaking terms with each other!"

Marco looked between the two of them with a unbelieving stare, a long-forgotten memory finally coming back to him. "Wait a minute...Ferguson, why are you even arguing about that? She wanted to eat you!"

"Yeah, so?" Ferguson lifted his nose into the air haughtily. "That means she actually loved me first!"

Yep, that's the Alfonzo and Ferguson I remember, Marco thought to himself as his palm met his face with a groan, the two continuing to bicker on in front of him about the inane topic.

0000

By the time Marco got home, the sun was low and casting vibrant colors across the sky, and he arrived to hear the sound of laughter ringing through the front door. Turning the knob, he was greeted with the sight of Seraph being horribly assaulted by the many tongues of laser puppies on the living room floor, flailing about at the 'attacks.' Through her laughs, Seraph struggled to speak. "Stop tha-haha! It ti-ti-ahaha-ckles!"

Unfortunately for her, Star had another idea. She picked up one of the pups and started to talk in a silly manner, almost as if she was imitating a whale. "No, you're too tasty to stop. Yum yum!" And with that, Star brought the pup closer to Seraph's face, causing another round of belly laughs to erupt as it licked her nose.

At seeing this, Marco couldn't help but join in with the laughter, his worries forgotten as the puppies found a new target for their 'kisses.' Rolling around on the floor with Seraph, it felt as though a large knot had finally become untied in his gut. Even after the puppies were finished giving their affection, he lay on the floor with a large, tired smile.

This is nice.

0000

The next day at school, Marco stretched in his seat as the bell rang for lunch and let out a yawn, feeling his bones pop with the movements. Smacking his lips, he was swept along with the frenzy of students and out into the hallway. After having the first real deep sleep in weeks last night, his body still felt its aftereffects, and he struggled to keep himself from falling back into such bliss even with all the energy he had.

Not in any particular hurry to get to the cafeteria, the loudness of the halls grew quieter as he walked, instead of running like the others. Because of this, he easily and clearly heard a familiar pair of stomps echoing from behind him. Even without his hearing, he would have been able to tell that it was Miss Skullnick simply by the strength behind her footsteps, rocking the ground underneath his feet.

Judging from how fast the volume of her steps increased and how quick they were, Marco eyes widened as he made to move to the side, sleepiness forgotten at the threat of being in the path of a troll running at full speed. But then, she called out to him. "Marco! I need to talk to you!"

For a second, Marco's mind ran through the events of the day, trying to remember if there was anything he could've gotten into trouble for, but his thoughts were interrupted as she came to a stop in front of him, huffing on her knees. Carrying a large stack of paper underneath her arm half as tall as Marco himself, she gave him an expression of wide-eyed shock. "It's about Seraph."

"What?! Is something wrong?" Immediately, a ball of fear started to form in his gut.

"No, there's nothing wrong, just-just look at this!" she exclaimed.

She held out the stack of paper towards Marco, who instinctively held out his own arms and nearly fell forward at the sudden weight. Grunting, he struggled to find a good hold on the way-too-large-to-carry-properly stack of paper before he finally settled for dropping it on the floor, making sure to slowly and carefully set it down so it wouldn't topple over.

"What's this?" he asked as he flipped through the papers, an eyebrow raised in confusion at what he saw. Each and every page was densely packed with mathematical equations and jargon. At the first top pages, he recognized a few simple processes here and there from his studies on catching back up, but as he moved deeper and deeper into the stack, they grew more and more complex to the point where he wasn't even sure they were from the same subject.

"That's every question from the textbook, all answered completely and correctly! I even had to skip grading the homework from the other periods just to make sure it's hers!"

Marco stared at the pile, his jaw beginning to drop. "All of it?" Now that he looked closer, he could definitely tell it was Seraph's handwriting. Full of rune-like letters and numbers, it was a close match to Hekapoo's own, though just a bit rougher. "She thought she had to do the entire book for homework? How'd that happen?!"

Miss Skullnick frantically threw her hands in the air. "I don't know! It was a free day yesterday! I just told the class to work on their assignments from the book, not the whole thing!" She then pawed at her pockets, looking for something. "And that's not the only thing!" she said, pulling out a beat-up and extremely worn-out textbook, the lettering on its cover heavily faded but still barely visible.

"Wait, is that a physics textbook?" Marco asked, pointing his finger at the object, which looked like it would and had fallen apart once. "What could she have done with that? She doesn't even have Physics as a class." He then looked at Miss Skullnick questioningly. "And you teach Physics?"

"I don't, but the science teacher Mr. Smith does, and he brought me this. Look!" she exclaimed, cracking open the book to a page with a bright new sticky-note. It was chock full of equations in a familiar style of handwriting. "Apparently, this is one of the outdated textbooks he uses to prop up the tables in his classroom, and he caught Seraph writing in it near the end of fifth period Biology yesterday."

Marco furrowed his brow. "But...then why didn't I get notified about that? Isn't that something I need to talk to her about not doing at school?"

"But that's the thing." Miss Skullnick flipped to the beginning of the book and the table of contents. Many of the chapters were circled, with a few like Thermodynamics, Kinematics, and Dynamics sticking out the most prominently. "These equations aren't even taught in high school! Mr. Smith told me he even had to ask several colleagues for help with identifying a few of these equations, and they work on projects like theoretical wormholes or something!"

"Wormholes?" Marco asked, his mind whirring in thought. His eyes widened, then they looked down, a triangular-shaped bulge in one of his pockets calling to them. The shiny glint of metal stared back at him as he made out the shape of his dimensional scissors. He gasped. "Of course!"

"Eh? What are you talking about?" Miss Skullnick asked, confused.

Marco's face was deep in concentration as he ran his fingers across the pair of blades. "Dimensional scissors. Just using them typically involves a basic understanding of the space-time continuum and multiverse theory." Turning his head, he looked Miss Skullnick in the eye. "Hekapoo's the only person in the entire multiverse who knows how to make them, and she's Seraph's mom."

A flash of realization came over her as Miss Skullnick opened her mouth to talk, but before a word could come out, two voices called out from the other end of the hallway.

"MARCO-"

"-DIAZ!"

The two spun around to see the assistant gym coach, Minerva, trying to contain two struggling students in her grip. Marco recognized one immediately as Justin, the captain of the football team, from the day before, but the name of the other one, a girl in running clothes, escaped him.

"Calm down you two!" Minerva yelled, barely able to keep a hold on the back of their shirts.

"We are calm!" Justin said, and he managed to twist his shirt out of the teacher's hand. He sprinted towards Marco, almost as if he was about to tackle him, but then came to a stop in front of him and fell on his knees, a begging look in his eyes as he clasped his hands together. "Marco, please, you have to let your kid join the football team!"

"Football?"

Behind Justin, the other girl gave out a yell as Minerva, now able to focus on only one rabid student instead of two, wrapped her arms around the girl and lifted her with a grunt. She then walked up next to Justin, the girl in her arms kicking her legs in the air. "Mr. Diaz," she said, exhausted, "I can't keep this up for much longer. Can you please help me deal with these two?"

Marco and Miss Skullnick stared at the strange display in front of them, not caffeinated enough to deal with this on top of everything else.

Wriggling herself free of the teacher's grip, the girl shoved Justin aside. "Marco, my name is Monique, and forget about football, she needs to join my track team! She just broke the school track record last period! I've never seen anyone run that fast, not even at the Olympics! Say yes! Please say yes!"

At that moment, Justin got up from the floor and tried to shove Monique out of the way. "Don't listen to her! With your kid, the Awesome Opossums will be able to dominate the entire season! We can finally get a winning streak over the Warriors!"

As the two quarreling students glared at each other, Marco put his arms between them to separate them. "GUYS!" he yelled forcibly, grabbing their attention as their screaming died down. "How about I talk to Seraph first before you ask me for permission, okay? How does that sound?" Out of the corner of his eye, the large stack of paper standing next to him and the textbook in Miss Skullnick's hands caught his attention. "I know I need to," he muttered quietly, barely paying attention to the wide-eyed nods from Justin and Monique.

0000

In a darkly-illuminated office, Mr. Candle gestured to a bowl of candy on his desk. "Go ahead, help yourself if you want."

"Ooooh, don't mind if I do!" A hand reached in and grabbed as many as physically possible, the crinkling of plastic wrappers being undone filling the quiet room. Stuffing random pieces of candy into her mouth until her cheeks bulged, the hand's owner moaned as she chewed the sweet conglomeration.

Mr. Candle raised both of his eyebrows, then shrugged. "Well, looks like you're good for the rest of lunch." Clasping his hands together in front of him, he looked at Seraph, who was sitting in front of him with a surprised look on her face as she discovered how well caramel sticks to teeth. "So, how did your first couple of days at school go?"

"Muhnmphff-" Screwing up her eyes, Seraph paused to swallow, then continued to speak even though there were still a few pieces of candy in her mouth. "I mean, school's been going great, though History's a bit confusing, and I even have a couple of friends already! Janna knows so much about dad, and Brittney even called me a 'freaky weirdo!" she said proudly.

Mr. Candle's face briefly contorted into a frown for a second, then quickly snapped back into a strained smile. "Oh...well, that's...nice to hear, though how about you let me know if Brittney calls you that again? I might need to talk to her about something in the future."

"Okay!"

As Seraph nodded cheerfully, he carefully took a sip of his coffee, mentally hoping that Hekapoo would be able to find it within herself to not smite Brittney immediately if she ever caught word of this. The poor girl deserved that bit of kindness at the very least. Setting down his mug, his smile was more earnest this time. "Heard you've become quite the school sensation at the football field today. Care to fill me in on the details?"

Swinging her legs under her chair, Seraph picked up a paper clip from Mr. Candle's desk. "Well, I don't know what everyone's so excited about," she said, inattentively holding up the paper clip to her eye and inspecting it. "Hm, steel." Picking up a few more, she continued to inspect them as she kept speaking. "I just ran a few laps, that's all. I'm not even as fast as mom is."

Mr. Candle hmmed and stayed silent for a few moments, but then spoke up after it became clear that Seraph wouldn't be done with paper clips any time soon. "So, whatcha doing there?" he asked inquisitively as she tossed them lightly into the air, testing their weight.

Nodding at some unseen instruction, Seraph placed both of her palms together, the paper clips in between, and squeezed tightly. Mr. Candle raised his brow curiously as his face started to warm up, a red glow beginning to shine through Seraph's fingers and lighting up the look of concentration on her face, the tip of her tongue poking out of the corner of her lips. "Oh, I'm just making something for dad."

"Huh," he remarked as he covered his eyes with his fingers and squinted, the glow becoming brighter and yellower in color, "you like to make art?"

Seraph separated her hands slightly, a small ball of molten metal hovering between them. Not moving her hands, she flexed her fingers, commanding the ball to reshape itself into the rough shape of a motorcycle, two protrusions extending from its sides. A few sparks fell onto his desk as the figurine traded its bright glow for a cool reflective grey, revealing the image of a certain dragon-cycle. "Yeah, it's really fun!" she said, looking at him with a smile. "It reminds me of working with mom in the forge, and Abuelo's even going to teach me about painting and sculpting this weekend!"

Blinking the spots from his eyes, Mr. Candle peered at the small statue as it floated down onto his desk in front of him. Though he wasn't an expert in either dragon-cycle physiology or artistry, and some of the proportions were ever so slightly off in several places, it was still impressively detailed for such a small piece of art. "Ah, so a family interest then? They must be pretty proud of you, teaching you about all those different styles."

Seraph's eyes widened slightly, blinked, then eased their way down to the dragon-cycle figurine. Picking it up with her hands, she sank back in her chair, bringing it closer to her face. "Yeah," she said, "I guess they are."

0000

Omake: After School

Two girls stood on the sidewalk, one in a cheerleader outfit, and the other with a green beanie on her head. "If you want to see it, pay up first."

The cheerleader groaned loudly before taking out a crisp twenty dollar bill and handing it to the other girl. She huffed, showing her displeasure at the action. "I better be getting my money's worth."

Tucking the bill into a bulging pocket, Janna took out her cellphone, happy to pull another fast one on Brittney with her patented 'specialty discounts.'

Brittney studied the picture of Hekapoo, sitting on a couch next to Marco, with a pair of narrow eyes. "She's kinda okay-looking I guess, though notas pretty as me, obviously." She sniffed disinterestedly, raising her nose high in the air.

"So, what'd you think?" Janna asked, her hands itching to count her gains for the day.

"Humph, " Brittney said, whipping her hair behind her. "Can't you tell? I was already done several minutes ago."

Janna just shrugged as the cheerleader strutted off with her head held high. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a fat stack of bills and licked her finger. "Twenty...forty...sixty-"

"Janna." Marco's voice came from behind her, and, as she slowly glanced backwards, so did a disapproving stare.

Unphased, she tied up the stack with a rubber band and turned around, not even bothering to hide it. "Hey Marco," she said, coyly waving the stack of bills at him with a smirk, "want to help me count this money?"

He stared flatly at her. "...Really?"

Janna shrugged and put the bills back in her pocket. "Eh, got to make a living somehow."

"By selling personal information? My personal information?" Marco crossed his arms.

Janna held up her hands defensively. "Hey, gotta give the people what they want. Not my fault they want those pictures." She then placed an arm around Marco, who looked at her hand and then back to her with a distrusting expression. "Besides, you're like a celebrity now, isn't that something to be proud of?"

Marco sputtered. "P-proud?!"

"I know, right?" she said cheerily, almost as if Marco wasn't burning a hole through her head with his eyes. Janna then shifted her eyes from side to side conspiratorily, as though she was about to tell him a grand secret. "You know, I'm actually quite impressed with you Marco. You spent so long just nodding at Jackie and playing it safe, I was starting to think you'd never be able to put the moves on anyone. But then you actually got it on, with someone other than Jackie no less!"

A wild look appeared in her eyes, one that was starting to make Marco feel like he really should've run when he had the chance. "You! Mar! Co! Diaz!" Each word was punctuated with a finger poking into his chest and a way-too-enthusiastic grin, which was already uncomfortable to deal with, but then, she laughed and gave him a half-lidded stare. "The resident safe kid-or, should I say, bad boy. Making girls swoon and me some serious moolah."

"…" Marco could only stare at her, unsure how or even if he should respond.

Janna slapped him on the back and out of his silence, nearly causing his reflexes to flare up and flip her over his shoulder. "Come on, it's time to celebrate!" She waved her stack of bills in front of him. "I'm taking you and your daughter out to get something to eat! The school's paying for it, not me!"

His eye twitched. What did I even get myself into? Marco thought, right before he got dragged away by his hand.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the school, Jackie rested her forehead on the door of her locker, the coolness of the metal helping to ease her mind. After yesterday afternoon, she'd thought that getting back on track with life would've become easier, but it was beginning to feel hard for her to feel optimistic after people still kept going quiet and try to hide their stares whenever they saw her.

Ignoring them had been easier to do yesterday by keeping herself occupied with thinking about what she'd talk about with Marco, but now, there was nothing else left to distract herself with. And, as her past experiences with the school rumor mill told her, she wasn't going to be free of that reaction for a long time. Being popular sure did have its drawbacks sometimes.

Pulling her head away with a deep breath, she reached up for the lock on her door. With a few twists, it became undone and the locker swung open. She made to grab her books inside, but then a voice interrupted her. "Excuse me, are you Jackie Lynn Thomas?"

Jackie internally sighed as she reluctantly turned around, expecting to see another person who wanted to pry into what was going on between Marco and Hekapoo. However, to her surprise, she was greeted by the face of their daughter-thinking about it still made her feel strange inside-looking at her with a wide-eyed expression.

"Uh...yeah," she said, slowly putting on a confused smile. "Do you need something?"

"Well, earlier today Star told me my dad used to really like you," Seraph said innocently as Jackie's smile dropped, "and I wanted to meet you! I figured, if my dad liked you that you must be an amazing person." She stuck out her hand expectantly to Jackie, who didn't reciprocate the gesture. "My name's Seraph Celosia Dia-"

"I know," Jackie cut her off shortly. "I was there when you came to Earth a few days ago."

"Oh!" Seraph said excitedly. "Then would you like to be friends with me?"

"Huh?" Jackie blinked, then her expression lightened. Well, that is, it tried to lighten itself as much as possible. "...I guess I can try-"

"Hey Seraph!" Janna called out, dragging a still stunned Marco behind her. "We've got places to go!"

At hearing Janna's words, Marco snapped himself out of his trance and pulled his wrist out of her grasp. Shaking his hand for a bit, he looked up to see two familiar faces, glad to see them. "Hi Jackie! You've been talking to Seraph?"

Jackie gave him a small smile, though it felt a bit forced for her to do. "Yeah, I have. She's a...nice kid."

"We were making friends!" Seraph exclaimed, grabbing Jackie's hand and bouncing up and down.

Marco's face brightened in response. "Really? That's nice to hear."

"We were about to get something to eat," Janna said as Marco groaned but didn't say anything else, figuring it would be useless to try and correct her. "You wanna come Seraph? My treat."

Seraph gasped. "I wanna come, I wanna come!" She then looked to Marco expectantly. "Dad, can Jackie come along too?"

"Sure," Marco said, "the more the merrier."

"Besides," Janna stated, "the school's paying for it, so you can get whatever you want."

As the group started walking off, Marco turned to Seraph, a questioning look in his eyes. "So Seraph, can you tell me what Hekapoo taught you about math and physics? I think we might be able to skip you a few classes if you can take a few tests for Miss Skullnick."

"Oh, really? Well, mom said that I didn't really need to learn about fractal topics yet, so she started me off with calculus instead of…"

Meanwhile, as Seraph continued to gush on about her mother, with Marco commenting on how well of a job Hekapoo did every once in a while, no one noticed Jackie lagging behind silently, an uncomfortable feeling rising within her at every mention of her.

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Author's Notes: Hello new readers and old alike. I hope you guys have all been enjoying this story me and my beta have worked hard to make it as good as possible. Lot of stuff is brewing, next arc is what I'm calling the Battle Nexus Tournament. Probably one of the longer arcs I've planned and I hope you guys like. Leave a review telling us what you think.

Also it seems someone has made a TvTropes page for us, go check it out.

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Beta Notes: Yeah, I don't have much else to say other than things will be picking up next chapter, and don't forget to show your support for this story on our TvTropes page. It could really use some love right now.