The day started out wonderfully, just like every other since I arrived on Earth. Hopping out of bed, I made my way downstairs, still in my pajamas. Yawning as I descended, I heard the Diaz family yell out "Surprise! Happy 47th day on Earth Star!"

Little, winged hearts burst from my wand as I gushed at how amazing the Diaz family was. I ran over to them exclaiming, "A party? For me? I can't believe it!"

"You can't? We've done this every day since you got here" said Marco.

I wasn't going to let his adorable naiveté ruin the celebration and instead of answering him, I turned to his parents.

"Here Star" said Mr. Diaz as he held a cake with my likeness out towards me, "I made you a cake."

"And I wrote you a poem" said Mrs. Diaz. "Our lives, were so small and puny, till this angel arrived from Mewni."

I was fanning myself with my hands, both to stop the tears and contain my happiness as she read the beautiful poem. Everything these two made was beautiful.

"Thank goodness" said Marco when the doorbell rang.

I paid him no mind as I enjoyed the small celebration, leaving him to get the door. I barely heard him open the door, but I did hear what followed. I always try to listen a bit when Marco talks, just to make sure he doesn't need my help of course.

"Hello!" exclaimed an unknown voice. "It is I Gustav!"

"No… way!" exclaimed Marco, all of a sudden he was incredibly excited.

"Marco! My American friend!"

During this exchange, Marco's parents were still focused on my little celebration. They had tied a cut, purple balloon to my wrist, sliced some of the cake and were handing me the slice when Marco called out to us.

"Look who's here!"

With a gasp, they turned and ran over to this Gustav, leaving me alone and without cake.

"What a wonderful surprise!" exclaimed Mr. Diaz.

"We missed you so much." Said Mrs. Diaz as they both pulled him into a hug.

Stepping forward I tried to not let my confusion and nervousness show. I failed miserably. "Uhm, hi?"

"Oh hello. I am Gustav. I hosted as the Diaz's exchange student last year" Gustav explained.

"What? But I thought I was your one and only foreign exchange student!" I exclaimed.


"So they had seen magic before? I thought you said it was new to them" asked Ruberiot.

"They hadn't, apparently on Earth, different countries sometimes send over students to learn." Explained Star. "But it's different than here. On Earth you go for the culture, not because the school teaches what you are trying to learn."

"Weird."

"I know, apparently they have lots of schools everywhere on Earth."


"Not even close" said Marco as he gestured to the wall behind me. "I mean who did you think all of these kids were?"

I turned to look at where he was pointing. It was wall I had seen many times before. There were pictures of all kinds of kids on the wall, and some of the pictures had Marco in them too. The first picture I noticed was of a blonde girl kissing Marco on the cheek. After he pointed it out, it always seems to catch my eye. I had always thought they were Marco's family, how was I supposed to know better?

Further study of the wall was interrupted as Gustav took command of everyone's attention again. "I brought gifts from Scandinavia! For Mrs. D, a pair of clogs! For Marco, the handheld game, Lederhosen Tycoon! And for Mr. Diaz, a genuine Viking helmet!"

With a gasp of glee, Mr. Diaz put the helmet on and head butted the wall, embedding the horns. Maybe Gustav wasn't going to be so bad I thought as he leaned towards me with his bag.

"And for you, nothing! I did not know you existed!" I was wrong, he needed to go. With a chuckle, he turned back to my host family. "Oh! Mrs. D, you've gotten so thin! I need to fatten you up. Come everyone, I will cook you my meatballs!"

Taking Mrs. Diaz and Marco by the shoulders, he led the family to the kitchen, leaving me in the doorway. Alone. My balloon deflated, matching my mood. I stalked upstairs to get dressed as Gustav started doing his thing in the kitchen.

When I finally made it downstairs, having spent a little extra time getting dressed than was strictly needed, Gustav was in the middle of a story. No one had even noticed I was gone it seemed. With a sigh, I pulled out a bar stool and sat next to Marco as I tuned in to the story.

"The Scandinavian monsoons were over, but the danger had just begun! The iceberg was sinking. Heedless of my own peril, I disrobed! I dove into the freezing fjord and I carried Yeorgi back to his mother!"

The Diaz family seemed blown away, I however was unimpressed. I could do that too, and better, even without my wand.

"Marco! Think fast!" Gustav suddenly exclaimed, throwing an uncooked meatball at Marco.

He leapt into action, catching the meatball in his mouth. It was an impressive display of dexterity, but I was already tired of the Gustav distraction. I didn't like him. He also seemed very suspicious. Constantly fighting monsters has trained my gut to recognize suspicious people, and something was telling me he needed to go.

"So, Gustav, where exactly are you from?"

"How much do you know about Europe?"

"I know it's a place, I'm pretty sure."

Oh! Well then. I come from the country of Scandinavia. It is the land where Vikings teach gym class and everyone has a pet penguin. Even if you don't like penguins. Whoop, too bad, here's your penguin."

"Hey Gustav, I'm open! Meatball me!" Marco interjected, cutting off any more tales from Gustav. As I stood, processing all of the information, Gustav scooped the stirring spoon into the raw meat and threw a meatball at Marco. Using his amazing karate reflexes, Marco managed to leap up and catch it in his mouth even though it went wide.

"Oh! Now me Gustav, now me!" shouted Mr. Diaz in excitement.

Gustav tossed three meatballs to Mr. Diaz. He caught two on the horns of his helmet and the third in his mouth while Marco cheered.

"Are you sure those are cooked?" I knew Earth was weird, but I hadn't seen Gustav even cast a spell on the meat to cook it and it seemed very dubious.

Gustav made his way over to the family and basically had them eating out of the palm of his hand. Mr. Diaz was picking meatballs up off the floor and Mrs. Diaz was clamoring for Gustav's attention as she tried to get more meatballs.

Marco was the worst though. With tears of joy and meatballs raining down around him, he exclaimed "Just think! Three more weeks of this!"

Three more weeks! No way was that going to happen, I wanted him gone immediately. I went up to my room, partly to plan and partly to get away from the Gustav madness. I sat in my room all day, trying to think of some way to get rid of him.

The hard part was finding a way to do it where Marco wouldn't be angry at me and that he couldn't come back. It would be easy enough to blast Gustav with magic, but then he would just return. If I turned him into a bunny or something, Marco would just make me change him back. I had to do this Earth girl style.

I eventually fell asleep after long hours of thinking. I had nothing on the guy, no way to get him to leave and stay gone. As I went to bed, I resolved to pay close attention to him. Plus, there was always the chance he would not be as bad in the morning.

The next morning I woke up feeling great. I hopped out of bed and headed downstairs for my cute little party. As I walked down the stairs, I yawned and as I neared the bottom steps I heard the Diaz family shout out "Surprise!"

I let out a squeal, my earlier sadness forgotten. "A party, for m-"

"Happy second day of your visit Gustav!" shouted the Diaz family.

And it was back, this time with a vengeance.

"Oh Diaz family, you are so full of pleasantness!" said Gustav as he walked over to them.

"Gustav! Gustav! Gustav! Gustav!" chanted the Diaz's as I moved to sit on the couch.

I plopped onto the couch angrily next to Gustav's bag. My disturbance caused his bag to flop over onto the floor and I turned to glare at it. At least Marco wouldn't notice this anger.

When I looked at the bag however, my anger turned to confusion. From the top of Gustav's bag had spilled two books and a map. The books were titled "Scandinavian for Dummies" and "Customs of Scandinavia." I picked up Scandinavian for dummies and looked at it, thoroughly confused.

"Oh look at you. Such a curious girl!" Gustav snatched the book out of my hands, replacing it with a slice of cake as he repacked his bag. He then turned to me with a terrifying face and told me "Now eat your cake and mind your own business."

"Uhhh, okay" I said slowly, still processing everything that had just happened.

"More cake for everyone!" Gustav shouted, running back to Mr. and Mrs. Diaz.

Then it hit me, Marco needed to know. I fetched Marco over to where I was seated. He looked at me confused, cake still in his mouth. "Marco, listen! I think there is something off about Gustav."

I released his arm and let him drop onto the couch next to me as I continued. "I found Scandinavian books and language tapes in his bag. Why would someone need to learn his own language! And why is he always makin meatballs? Meatballs aren't so great! I can make things too!"

I pulled out my wand and conjured up a little spider with a top hat before turning to pout.

After the spider scuttled away, Marco leaned over and taunted me, "Uh, jealous much?"

I turned back to him to protest. There was no way I was jealous that he was spending all of his time with Gustav and basically ignoring me. Nor was I jealous that he seemed to like Gustav more than me. I wasn't even jealous about how close the two seemed to be. The nerve of some people!


Star had to stop and take a few deep breaths from having worked herself into a frenzy.

"Uhhh" Ruberiot started, "didn't Marco just imply you were jealous?"

"What are you saying?" snapped Star, a dangerous look in her eye.

"Uh, nothing"

Star gave him a cross look before murmuring to herself. Ruberiot thought he heard her say "That's what I thought" before she launched back into her tale.


"Hey Marco! Think fast!" yelled Gustav, cutting off my defense and the conversation as Marco leapt into the air to catch the meatball that had been thrown his way.

"I hope he never leaves" exclaimed Marco around his mouthful of meatball.

He got up to go join Gustav and his parents, leaving me on the couch alone, sad, and slightly disgusted. I watched them play, but started noticing new things too, malicious things. I watched Gustav shove an entire slice of cake into Mrs. Diaz's mouth while he grinned wickedly at me.

Shuddering, I knew what I had to do. He was up to no good, and I was going to find out what it was. Later that evening as I was tailing him, I saw him pull out his phone and after looking around himself, he ducked into a closet. Definitely suspicious. I snapped a picture with my camera as he entered.

After his call, I followed him out to the garage where I hid behind a stack of tired with my pencil and paper. As I watched, he pulled an axe down from the wall and gave it a few experimental swings before shoving it into his bag.

Next he went inside and I pulled out my binoculars to watch him from the safety of the trees outside. I saw him putting some strange material into the meat he used for meatballs as he glanced around nervously. I turned to scan the area as well through my binoculars. When I turned to my left, one of the monsters in Ludo's army was in the tree with me, watching me through his own pair of binoculars.

After the monster quickly retreated through the portal, I followed Gustav as he made his way upstairs. I saw him enter the room of Mr. and Mrs. Diaz and I snuck in behind him. I saw him pull a tape measure from his pack and start taking measurements of each family member.

Gustav went to his room after that and I went up to my room. I still had work to do. I printed out all of the pictures I had taken and stuck them onto my wall with my notes. I continued this trend for the next few days, amassing a wealth of knowledge. Then one morning, things changed.

"Oh Star! We're about to-" Marco said, breaking me from my thoughts. Before he could finish his statement, I opened the door of my room and pulled him inside.

"What's going on" Marco asked after seeing my wall.

"I've been awake for days spying on Gustav" I told him, "and I'm this close to figuring out what he's plotting!"

"What?" exclaimed Marco as I stalked back over to my wall.

"His stories don't add up Marco! Penguins, ice bergs, polar bears? What the heck is a polar bear? And, he's making phone calls Marco. Phone calls! He's up to something terrible!"

"You, have lost your mind. But if you find it, were meeting Gustav for a picnic at Isolation Point. Where no one can hear you scream… with enjoyment!"

For a brief moment I considered capturing him, to keep him safe from Gustav. There were plenty of places I could comfortably keep him in my room. But I quickly dismissed that, he would resent me too much, so it was back to plan A. I needed to figure out what Gustav was up to, and soon.

Turning back to the wall, I remembered some of the things Gustav had said and done during his stay. There had to be a connection that revealed his scheme. Suddenly it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Gustav was going to turn them into meatballs! I had to go save Marco and his parents.

I heard the family car start and I ran to my window, terrified. I got there just in time to see Marco close the door and the whole crew pull out of the drive way.

"Wait!" I screamed, thinking fast. I sprinted out of my room after them and made it to the front door before they made it too far.

"Fire, Rocket, Blast!" I shouted, blasting the ground at my feet with magic and bunnies. I was launched into the air and aimed myself at the car, they weren't getting away from me.

With a thud, I landed on the roof of the car. I scrambled to grab on, finding a handhold before I flew off. I went to lean over and issue a warning to them, remembering at the last second to put on a "seatbelt". I used my wand to make a rainbow that went across my lap and kept me anchored to the car.

Smiling to myself, I leaned over the edge of the car and started pounding on the window. I tried to shout into the car, screaming "You're all going to die!"

Unfortunately they were unable to hear me over their singing, it was something about meatballs and woods. It was hard to hear them over my own screaming and the wind that blasted around me. Heedless of my warning, the family sped towards an ominous looking cliff.

As we crested a hill, I saw in the distance the sign pointing the way to isolation point. Thinking quickly, I blasted it with some magic, causing it to point the other direction at the fork. While the Diaz family turned their vehicle in the new direction, I leapt off the roof and headed towards Isolation Point.

Thunder rumbled ominously in the clouds as I arrived at the area Gustav had prepared. He was standing around a fire in a small clearing and I watched, scowling, I saw him pull the axe from his bag.

"I knew you were up to no good meatball boy!" I exclaimed, leaping from the bushes I had been hiding in.

With a terrified scream, Gustav dropped the axe and took off running. Not about to let him get away, I took off in hot pursuit and screamed "Get back here!"

Channeling my magic, I started casting spells at the person ahead of me. "Dagger, Heart, blast! Glow Worm, Blast! Narwhal Blast" I cried, raining spells upon him. When we reached a rope bridge, he cut the ropes in an attempt to halt my pursuit. As he turned to laugh at me, I channeled my magic and shouted "Glitter, Dragon, Escalation!"

Blasting the bridge with the spell, it came to life. The magic energies coated the bridge into the shape of a dragon and I stood on its head. "Give it up Gustav!"

With a terrified scream he scrambled off towards the woods. I willed the dragon after him and it crashed into the ground at his feet, knocking him flat as I leapt off.

"It's over Gustav" I said, advancing on the cowering boy and leveling my wand at him. I had saved Marco. "I know you aren't who you say you are."

"It's true!" Gustav wailed, breaking out into tears. "I'm full of lies!"

"So, you admit you're planning to eat the Diaz's?"

"Yes, yes… wait what?" He suddenly stopped crying and looked at me like I was the weird one. "No! I don't want to eat them."

"But you said…"

"I mean I'm not from Scandinavia" explained Gustav as he rose dejectedly to his feet. "The truth is my name is Charley Booth, and I'm just a guy from Bekersfieldville. Nobody's heard of it. Back home I'm just another boring face in a really boring crowd. It's not a good place for a talented guy like me."

I still wasn't convinced, not fully at least. "But what about the phone calls? And the axe? And those meatballs?"

"Well, the phone calls were to my meat guy, but he wouldn't pick up. The axe was to cut firewood for today's feast. As for the meatballs, my dream is to become a chef, and open a restaurant in Bakersfieldville that uses spices and flavors! So that's why I ran away… and moves in with the Diaz's."

"But what about measuring the Diaz's in their sleep?"

"Uhhh"

Before he could answer, we heard the honking of a horn as the Diaz's pulled up behind us.

"Star! What a pleasant surprise!" said Mr. Diaz.

"You made it!" Mrs. Diaz exclaimed as the family piled out of the car and hurried over to us.

As much as I now understood Oskar and realized he wasn't trying to eat the Diaz's, he still needed to go. "Yeah I did, and I came here to tell you something about Gustav." I shot him a look, causing him to gulp in fear.

However, I'm a nice person, and after some thinking, I decided not to blow his secret. He did still need to go however. Thinking fast, I told the Diaz's "He's made you even more meatballs!"

As the Diaz's ran off to eat the meatballs, I turned to Gustav and smiled at him. "Thanks for not blowing my cover Star. If there's ever anything I can do for you…" he offered.

That was what I had been waiting for. "Well as a matter of fact Charlie, there is."

"Of course, what is it?"

A hard look came into my eyes, "After this, you leave. For good. Otherwise, I tell them everything." I popped a smile back onto my face and laughing told him "Now let's go enjoy those meatballs!"


"I bet you enjoyed the meatballs now that you knew you had Marco back." Interjected Ruberiot.

"What? I have no idea what you're talking about!" babbled Star. "I was just happy they weren't going to be eaten!"

"Yes princess, just continue the story" Ruberiot said, hiding a smile.


When we arrived back at the Diaz's home, I told them about Gustav's sudden and unfortunate departure while he packed up the last of his items. We all stood on the front porch and waved goodbye, I was the loudest of them all. "Bye! Buh-bye Gustav! Bye!"

The rest of the family joined me as he took off into the sunset. Marco yelled out to him "See you next year!"

"Or not! You never know!" I added, I knew we wouldn't. Happy that that problem was taken care of, I skipped inside, Marco right behind me.

"Surprise! Happy 51st day on Earth Star!" Mr. and Mrs. Diaz were holding up a cake with my face on it.

I squealed with joy, "A party, for me?"

I walked over, Marco in tow as Mr. Diaz said "Who wants cake!" as he handed Marco and I a slice each.

"I'm sorry your favorite exchange student had to leave so soon." And I meant it, as much as I had wanted Gustav gone, I still felt a little guilty about sending away Marco's favorite.

"You kiddin? You're my favorite."

All of my guilt turned into joy in the blink of an eye. I could feel it bubbling up from my chest and I couldn't contain it. Smile plastered on my face and humming, I skipped off into the kitchen to finish my cake.

"I will miss seeing him though, that guy is just so real."

I laughed to myself, if only he knew.