Notes:

We're introduced to the Diaz family tradition of welcoming kids only on their fourtieth day of doing so. I can only imagine that with the excitement Star showed then, that her exuberance on day one was almost unsettling-especially having not learned much about Earth customs yet.

Chapter 7 (EDITED 12/22/2020)

My max level cleaning and organization skills have my room once again returned to normal within only a few hours. Everything in its place, other than the fragile collectibles I had a small tear filled funeral for. I flop back onto my bed and let finally relax, the exhaustion of the very, very busy day getting to me. Still, one last check. I glance around and see all of my many knitted rugs from grandma covering basically every surface, my sturdy wood desk and dresser in their respective corners, my blessedly undamaged laptop sitting on my desk, my inspirational karate posters on the walls, my newly cracked television, and finally my thin, pale blue silk pajamas-currently on my body.

I nod to myself, satisfied with the final check and slide under my wonderfully soft brown comforter. As soon as I close my eyes, I….do not manage to fall asleep. I feel a powerful thwack as a heavy object lands on my stomach, and my eyes bug out as they fly open.

"Marco!" God, will my ears ever get used to that shrill scream? I really need to teach Star about inside voices. As you might expect, I find a blonde who looks like she's just chugged three cups of espresso sitting on my stomach, bouncing up and down with an excited expression, "How can you be trying to sleep?! We're having our first sleepover!"

Sleep grumpiness gets to me more than anything, and I grab the edge of my comforter. As the heavy girl tilts her head, I snap the brown comforter and toss her off of my bed with a hmph. She waves her arms wildly to try to catch her balance rather than falling flat on her face, and somehow manages to land on her feet, "Safe." I take this time to finally appreciate what the girl is wearing, and see that Star also enjoys a shade of blue for her sleepwear. Darker than mine, and made of a lighter variant of the weird almost silk all of her clothes are made of, the blue nightdress has a half moon on the front. Below that, she's traded out her leggings for thick striped socks.

The glance at her feet reminds me of our earlier shower adventure, and I blush for a moment. The embarrassment at least wakes me up enough to consider a conversation with her, and I grumble out, "We're literally living together. This does -not- count as a sleepover. Also, I'm exhausted. Can we do this tomorrow?" I've sat up in my comfy bed by this point, but by the end of my last sentence I can feel my eyelids rebelliously attempting to close. Star seems unwilling to allow me any amount of rest when fun can be had, however, and raises up her wand to point it at me.

"Shining Sugar Ru-" my hand snaps up to cover the front of her glowing wand just as the pink beam is almost finished charging.

"Nope. None of that." I didn't quite realize exactly how bad of an idea this was in my sleep deprived state, and later I couldn't repeat this particular feat (no matter how much I wanted to) but apparently sleepy Marco couldn't give two shits about how things should work. I flop back onto the pillow and begin snoring almost immediately while Star stares dumbfounded at the wand which had obediently stopped its spell cold.

The next thing I know, its Saturday morning at 6 am and I'm wide awake. I wish I could find it in myself to be annoyed at my inability to sleep in, but I have a confession to make-I'm a morning person, through and through. Just seeing the sun just past sunrise puts a massive smile on my face, and I find myself humming happily while dressing for the day. I head downstairs as soon as I'm in my standard hoodie with black jeans combo, and find my parents already hard at work in the kitchen, "Getting Star's welcome cake ready?"

"Oh, yes Mijo! We're currently wondering how much sugar is too much. She's already quite the hyper girl, yes?"

I snort at that, "She'll be herself regardless, just put the normal stuff in. I wonder if she's allergic to anything? Hey Mom, Star had, uh, a chat with you last night right?" the awkwardness of the question pierces through my early morning cheer only slightly, and seems unable to affect my parents at all.

My mother answers "Yes, yes, she's… got a lot to learn! But I think I passed on the basic girl to girl stuff." she gives me a wink, then waves towards the living room, "Go put up the sign! We can't have her first morning here be any less than wonderful! You know how homesick exchange students can get." I simply nod, glad that my parents share my morning person tendencies. We've long gotten into a habit where we throw a celebration for exchange students the morning after they move in-most of the time they can make it through the night on sheer excitement, but a lot feel worried when they wake up in a new place. I think our tradition helps them feel at home, if only slightly. A few minutes later I have our balloons set up, along with the sign saying, "Happy First Day on Earth, Star!" with that preparations are almost complete, and I begin thinking about my personal plans for the day.

I'll likely be paired with Star throughout it all. I'm her guide, after all! So, first there will be a trip over to the school to pick up my bike, then I can show her around the town. Pick up some lunch at McDonalds (She's sure to love that), then swing by Ferguson's place to introduce her. Alfonso pretty much lives there, so she should meet with him too. I pull out my personal notepad and click a pen to start scheduling each thing down to the half hour, even knowing that considering my travel partner for the day -some- sort of chaos will happen and knock us off course.

By the time I finish, I see a sleepy looking Star still in her nightwear walking down the stairs, and I call my parents over quickly. We stand under the sign, cake lit with only a single candle, and yell out "Welcome Home!" Star jumps nearly a foot in the air, scrambling to aim her wand at us before letting out a gasp. Her eyes widen and she jumps again, this time with an excited squee. The energetic ball of fun rolls over the rail and begins dashing towards us, her stomping feet waking up the sleeping puppies who start a storm of yips and laser beams.

"Gimme gimme gimme gimme!" Star flexes her hands as she fidgets in place, only having eyes for the cake. My family and I share a somewhat bemused look, before my father hands it over. Our new foreign exchange student immediately smashes her face into the icing, to the mild horror of my parents.

"I spent half an hour drawing her face on that." My father's voice trembles, clearly only barely managing to keep it together.

Luckily he manages a shaky smile when Star finally comes back up for air, "Its sho good! Thanksh for the cake!" I find myself wondering if she can even taste what flavor it is by the way she's inhaling it down, but before I can ask her she starts running back up the stairs with the half eaten cake. We never saw the plate we had handed it to her on after that-I personally think she stashed the whole thing in her secrets closet as a memento, though such realizations happened much later in our story.

As soon as the blonde force of mayhem is out of sigh, my father flops onto the couch with a sigh, "Come on now Rafael, at least she was clearly happy, right? I mean, I think." my mother pats his burly shoulder in an attempt to convince him that his work wasn't in vain, though I find myself thinking she may have reacted the same had we given her a blank vanilla cake with bland icing. Star just seems easily excited by things.

My father has mostly recovered by the time Star skips back down the stairs. Fully dressed and with a newly clean face that only smells slightly of icing, she appears ready to take on the world, "Hey, I'm gonna take Star out to see the town. See you around dinner."

My parents wave back, their exuberance almost at normal levels. We all have some things to get used to, "Alright Mijo, have fun!"

Star snags my arm and drags me out onto the street, nearly vibrating in place with her readiness to do things, "What're we gonna do first?! Go dancing? Start a party? Head to your marketplace for some SHOPPING?!"

Ignoring her slightly odd terminology I peel her hands off of my arm and inform her, "We're going back to school." The crumpling of her happiness and the sad faces that pop up on her cheeks make me far more entertained than is probably healthy.