Star vs The Forces of Evil

Earthni Sweet Symphony

Disclaimer: Star vs The Forces of Evil was created by Daron Nefcy and is owned by Disney. I own no part of Star vs.

Episode 2: Star Butterfly: Terrible Student.

Episode Summary: Star attempts to step in & assist when Marco finds himself overwhelmed with his college courses.

Original Release Date: July 11, 2021

Star, alongside brother Miles & Marco's sister Mariposa, found herself sitting rather comfortably on Marco's couch. In her right hand she held the remote to the television. In her left hand she held a basket full of unhealthy snacks for her & Marco to munch on. The plan for that night was to embark on an all-night - or at least as long as they could stay awake - TV marathon of all their favorite & least favorite shows & movies. This was a typical date for them. They weren't particularly high maintenance when it came to lavishing on romantic gestures. Merely being in each other's company & getting to show their affection for each other - whether it be hugs, kisses, or the more adult nature - was satisfactory for them.

But recently, that kind of time proved to be harder to come back.

With Marco having finally begun his college tenure, more of his time became devoted to his studies & to passing his classes. Granted, his courses were all online, so it wasn't as if Marco was constantly trekking out into town to take classes or boarding at a school hours away where he couldn't be with his friends & loved ones at all, but the classes themselves still proved to be time-consuming & challenging, justifying the need for expanded attention. Star insisted that Marco shouldn't feel lousy over needing to focus on his homework when needed, but of course it's Marco, so did he heed that advice?

The stress that the online courses were putting on him - and the stress he was putting on himself - was evident that night, as Marco dragged his feet down the stairs, yawning & rubbing his eyes. He tried his damndest to put on a front for his girlfriend, but she saw right through it without hesitation. As he finally approached the couch and took his seat, Star naturally adjusted hers, assuming the position that had become commonplace when they sat together, with Marco able to freely & unapologetically squeeze her rear end the way they both wanted him to. The babies could only giggle.

"How's your work?" She politely asked him as she kissed his cheek. She was careful with her tone. She was concerned for his well-being but also wanted to support him.

"Oh, uh...it's going fine..." He somewhat lied, hesitating to look her in the eye. "Nothing I can't handle..."

"You sure?" But she wasn't in the mood to dance around the subject. She wanted to be direct. "Because you look like hell."

His efforts to brush it aside were weak, and they were quickly failing. "N-Nonsense, I look-"

"Marco you look like I did when my depression & anxiety were at their worst." She point blank said to him, startling him slightly. "Thank corn you don't have anxiety or depression - at least as badly as I did - but you're exhausted. Your eyes are giving it away." Indeed, his slightly sunken & bloodshot eyes gave the game away. He had no way to argue it. "I was the same way when I was helping Eclipsa & overworking myself into the ground. You're not fooling me. I-Is it really that bad?"

"No! N-No..." He blurted out quickly & abruptly. "It...The homework isn't hard, the classes aren't really hard. There's just a lot and I wanna make sure I do really well in them. It'll help me when I graduate so I can get a really good job that hopefully leads to a good career." Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his sister reaching her arms out for him, asking to embrace him. He gladly obliged.

Star sighed & caressed the boy's cheek. "Yeah but don't you have, like, three years at that place to get good grades or something?"

"Four, actually. But that's not the point. I take my grades very seriously, you know that. So I gotta get all my work done."

"Even if it means running yourself ragged?" She wasn't going to let this point drop.

"Well, schools can be demanding. You remember how it was for you when you were enrolled."

"No, that was just because I was lazy & uninterested. You're the bookworm in this relationship, Marco. Not me. And I just don't want you to burn yourself out like I did."

"But it's not the same as dealing with direct political meetings or-"

"Yeah, maybe, but I exhausted myself doing that stuff non-stop. You saw it happen. I was irritable & short & cranky and I had so much sleep I had to catch up on. I just don't want you to go through what I did." This time, out of the corner of Star's eye, she saw Miles reaching out his arms to hug her, and she happily obliged.

Star made good points, that much he had to admit. And the look in her eyes told him all he needed to know about how serious she was. He leaned in & gently kissed her. "I know you're worried. But it's not like I can just tell my professors "Hey I'm feeling a little burnt out right now so I'm not gonna do these assignments for a while." It doesn't work like that."

"Well why not?"

"I-I don't know. It just doesn't."

"Well, then maybe I can help you with whatever you need to do." She was more than eager for the task, whatever it was. It didn't matter how hard it was or how overwhelming it seemed. Any time she got a chance to help & contribute positively to Marco's life, she was going to take it. And of course, she was no fool. She understood that the odds were she wouldn't really understand what Marco needed for his assignments. But that wasn't going to stop her.

"Well...if you really wanna know..." He sighed a deep one as he tightened his hug of his sister. "I'm supposed to be writing a paper for one of my classes on the history of martial arts. You know, the different types there are, how they originated, what each style teaches students..."

"Wait, hold up, there's more than one type?"

"Oh yeah. Different dojos teach different styles of martial arts. It's all about personal preference. I have to research & explain each & every type of martial arts. You know, what kind of weapons are used, the types of fighting styles, those kinds of things. It's a lot of fun to research, but it is a lot."

"Sounds like it. Well, listen..." She leaned in & kissed his cheek. "Take the rest of the night off. You're wiped out & you deserve a rest. You can pick it up tomorrow."

"I'm gonna have to. It's due the day after tomorrow."

"How long did they give you to work on it?"

"A week? It was a quick turnaround."

"Oh that's just ridiculous. Humans are not made to have this much work done in such a short amount of time." Star protested. Marco could only shrug & sigh.

"Hey, can we maybe not talk about it anymore tonight? I had to quit for the night just because it was so much to deal with. I'd just like to watch TV in peace with my girlfriend & our siblings."

Again she planted a kiss on his adorably tired face. "Aww, Marco..." She grabbed a bag of chips from the snack basket & handed it to the boy. "Go nuts."

Thus, the date night commenced rather quietly. With the children by their side, Star & Marco quickly got into the swing of things, laughing at or making fun of the shows & films they were watching on the screen, though staying quiet enough as to not wake Marco's parents.

Unfortunately for them, the good times didn't last very long. Only a couple of hours in, and everyone was nearly out of it. The babies understandably had knocked out early, but it was Star's hope that she & Marco would be able to last far longer into the night. But it wasn't to be. During one of the commercial breaks at around midnight, Star peered over to her side & caught a glimpse of Marco, who had fallen asleep of his own volition. As disappointed as she was, she couldn't blame him for his exhaustion. The boy was working his tail off to succeed in all of his classes, and clearly it was taking time for him to adjust to the workload. In a hush, she shut the TV off & somehow managed to lug him, Miles, and Mariposa upstairs. She tucked Miles & Mariposa in the crib residing next to Marco's parents - an arrangement made for whenever Star wanted to sleep at Marco's house - and then lugged him carefully to his own bed, tucking him in snuggly & kissing his forehead. "Goodnight, safe kid. I love you." She turned, readying herself to leave...until her eye caught something in the corner.

It was a half-open laptop bag, with Marco's laptop sticking out. There were also several books scattered around the bag; these were the books in question that Marco had been referencing in order to complete his big paper. Suddenly the wheels on her head began to turn. She had an idea. She was going to help her boyfriend no matter what it took. So she tip-toed to the bag, grabbed it & the books lying around, and she made her way back downstairs. She set the laptop up at the dinner table, plugged it in to ensure the battery wouldn't die, and prepared herself to assist Marco by finishing the paper for him. But there was a problem.

She had to get into the laptop first. There was a password. "Uh oh." Star said quietly. "Password protected. Ooh, Marco's very shrewd. Now, if I were Marco, what would I make my password?" She tried a few different passwords.

AbsDimension?

"Nope, not that."

SuperCheesyNachos?

"Not that either."

MarcoTheKnight?

"Argh, still no. Dangit, what could it be?" And just as quickly as she was about to throw a fit, a lightbulb went off in her head. She had one more idea. It was a longshot, but...

StarBubbleButtButterfly?

DING.

Yup, that was the password. And Star immediately felt her ego inflate. It appeared that her relentless efforts to have Marco embrace her wanted nickname "Bubble Butt" around her had been paying off. But now it was onto business: helping Marco finish his report. She gave a look over what Marco had done thus far, scanning each of the five pages already written to determine what he had covered & what still needed to be covered. She then got to work scanning through all the books she took with her, determining which ones were next to be used & referenced. She was hellbent on ensuring his good grade streak continued, and she was hellbent on making him proud.

And of course, Star put it an effort that was beyond worth of such praise. For nearly five hours, she worked non-stop on the laptop, researching martial arts & typing away at Marco's paper. And it wasn't Star's typical brand of effort for schoolwork, where she would half-ass it and then be surprised that she failed. She put in the work. She did everything in her power to make the paper as good as she thought it needed to be. The result was a nearly 12 page essay that...for all intents and purposes, clearly did not have Marco's voice to it, but if one ignored that part of the equation, could be seen as quite decent. At least that was the hope Star had.

As for Marco, he found himself parched & in need of hydration, waking up & slowly realizing that Star wasn't next to him. He also quickly noticed that his laptop & books were also missing, so it didn't take him that long to put two and two together. He quietly traversed towards the stairwell & tip-toed down each step, maneuvering to the living room where he finally gazed into the kitchen & saw what he suspected: Star asleep at the table with his laptop open & books scattered everywhere. He didn't want to wake her; she looked so peaceful with her disheveled hair & the tiny stream of drool running down her chin. As carefully as he possibly could, he tip-toed over to her & gently kissed her forehead.

"MUAY THAI!"

And it didn't work, as even that was enough to snap her out of her sleep & gasp in a frenzy. She quickly darted her eyes around until they settled on her beloved standing next to her. "Morning, sunshine."

Star hastily cleaned herself up & looked at him once her vision straightened. "W-What time is it?"

"Five A.M."

"Five A-Wait a minute, I was writing for almost five hours!?" Even she couldn't believe the focus & dedication she had put into helping him.

"You've been up this whole time?"

"Well...yeah." She lamented.

"May I...ask why?"

She took a deep breath as he took a seat next to her in one of the vacant chairs. "I...wanted to give you a break. You know...from your schoolwork." His eyebrows raised, but he continued listening intently as the sleep deprived girl. "You've been working hard lately & stressing yourself out, a-and I missed you a lot more lately, and I just wanted to help." She started to chew on one of the nearby loose papers, a nervous tick that has stayed with her since the days of owning the royal magic wand. "I just hope I didn't screw it all up."

"Can I read it?" Was his response. And it clearly caught her off guard. She expected some sort of backlash from her boyfriend for her actions. Sure, they may have been well intended, but she still technically broke into his laptop in order to interfere with his work. But none of that was here, at least on the surface. She passed the laptop over to him; he took control of it and began silently reading the paper that Star had written. All 12 pages of it. What stuck out to him was just how articulate Star's writing had become. Mature, immaculate, concise, focused...it was a massive improvement from where she was just a year prior. Sure it didn't imitate Marco's voice particularly well, but he didn't expect that from this.

"I know it doesn't sound like something you would write, b-but-" Her attempted apology was interrupted by his lips pressing on hers.

"It's great."

A response she was completely unprepared for. "I-It's great? Marco, it's gibberish. I literally B.S.'ed my way through it, I was just trying to get it done for you so you didn't have to-"

"If that's gibberish, then it's some of the best gibberish I've ever read."

"You're not just saying that to feed my ego?"

"What are you talking about "ego?" You stayed up all night trying to help make my life a little easier. And you did a really good job, too!"

She found her face turning red thanks to the praise Marco was lavishing upon her. "Aww, you're such a sweetheart..."

"And you are the best girlfriend anyone could ever ask for." He kissed her once more, letting the tingling sensation of her lips consume him momentarily before allowing himself to return to reality. "...You do know that I can't submit the paper like this, though, right?"

No, she didn't. "Wait, why not?"

"Well...because technically I didn't write it."

"Y-Yeah, but nobody's gonna notice, right-"

"Star, these are highly trained teachers with incredible qualifications. They're trained to detect even the slightest hint of plagiarism."

"Plagiarism?"

"That's when you take someone else's work & present it as your own without changing anything in it. It would be like if I submitted that paper that you wrote & put my name on it. I'd be stealing your hard work without doing anything for it."

"Okay but like nobody would know that I wrote it, right? A-And even then I didn't write all of it. Just half of it."

"More than half."

"Well now you're just splitting hairs."

"It comes with the territory of being a dork." He playfully pinched her cheek & elicited a giggle from her. He hated the moral quandary he found himself in, since the only reason it existed was because of Star's innate desire to help make his life easier. "Look, it's not a big deal. I could easily rewrite this to make it sound like I actually wrote it. You already did all of the work for me, all I have to do is just...rearrange the puzzle pieces, that's all."

Star sighed & shook her head. "Why must you insist on making more work for yourself? You did it when you came to Mewni to be a knight, you did it when you were trying to figure out your feelings for me, and now you're doing it for some flimsy diploma. Why can't you just once make things easier for yourself & take the easy win?"

"Because that's not how I work and you know that. I-I need to feel like I'm the one that did it, you know? I'm the one that has to live with it. It's kind of like with you & how you worked to stop prejudice on Mewni. You were the one that wanted to be the one to do it. You took pride in the job well done."

She shrugged, hesitant to let her mind wander back to what she considered dark times for many reasons. "I guess. Still..."

"Star," Once more he kissed her, increasing his assertiveness as he & Star allowed their hormones to slowly overwhelm them. "Look, I'll make you a deal. I won't touch this paper & I'll submit it totally as is if...if..."

Now it was time for Star to go slightly smug & rest her chin in her hand as she patiently waited for him to finish. She found herself in a unique scenario, as it appeared she would get the chance to negotiate for her to get her way. "Name your price, Mr. Diaz."

"Well...is there any chance you're in the mood for a quick round or five upstairs?" Bless the child, he was trying. But being flirty & devious with his girlfriend was still such a challenge. Luckily, she was less hesitant & willing to help pick up the slack.

"Only if you promise to go totally hog wild on me to make up for last night."

"W-D-W-Why would you put it like that?!" The boy said with a massive red blush.

"Because we didn't get to do it and I'm sure that probably bugged you. Look, You can play gentleman all you want - and I love it when you do - but we both know that when push comes to shove, that's your favorite part of our time together. And I can't really say that I blame you. So what do you say? Let's celebrate us finishing that paper of yours."

He playfully rolled his eyes. Taking control of his laptop once more, he saved his paper to avoid any catastrophe, then powered it down & closed it. "I can submit the paper later."

"You sure?"

"Positive." He stood up and, like a gentleman, helped Star out of her seat. "Have I ever told you how lucky I am to have someone like you in my life?"

"Only a thousand times." She playfully retorted, kissing him in the process. "But I never get tired of hearing it. I love you, Marco."

"I love you too, baby girl." He quietly led her out of the kitchen, preparing to lead her up the stairs to his bedroom...when suddenly, a thought occurred to him. "Wait a sec..." He turned to Star with a look of confusion on his face. "You...got into my laptop."

"...Yes, we just established that."

"W-Which means you would've had to guess the password."

"Right." And then the light bulb went off in her head, and a smug, flirty smirk came to her face. "Riiiiight. I almost forgot to thank you for that." She winked & purred, causing his face to go even redder. "I knew you'd grow to like that nickname."

"W-What can I say? It fits you." His attempts at sounding confident were laughable at the moment, but Star couldn't help but chuckle at his authenticity. "Just like how your tush fits in my palms."

"Oh aren't we getting an early start, Mr. Diaz?"

"Is that a problem for you, Miss Butterfly?"

"Not at all. But now you better not let my bubble butt go in bed, you understand?" And that was that. They quietly raced upstairs into Marco's room & proceeded to have themselves some fun. It wasn't like people needed any more proof that their bond was unbreakable, but that's just what these events proved. They would always be there for each other no matter what the circumstances.

End of Episode 2!

Yep, this series is going to test me on my "don't hold yourself to a specific word count for the sake of it" pledge. I don't intend for every chapter in this series to be as short as this one, but there's no point in arbitrarily extending a chapter if you've already told the story you wanted to, right? In any case, I hope you enjoyed this installment, and hopefully the next one won't take as long to push out. But no promises.

And as always, please read & review! :D