CHAPTER FIVE

Best Friends

September 4th, 2043

Cornerian Elementary

Marcus gulped. Today was his first day of elementary school, and he was nervous beyond belief. He didn't recognize anyone, because he hadn't made any friends in kindergarten. Pretty sad for a kid his age. (6 years old to be exact.)

His mom and dad had driven him to his new school, and all the way they kept telling him how great it would be, socializing with kids his own age (Whatever that meant.) Every time they told him that, he rolled his eyes when they weren't looking. The school was also a middle school, meaning they mixed kids his age in with 12 and 13-year olds…

…which was bad. Really bad.

Marcus looked back at his parents, who stood right behind him.

It had seemed like only yesterday that he had been sitting on his dad's shoulders, joyfully laughing, as his mom and dad smiled at how happy their child was. Those were the days.

In fact, since he was only six that still happened a lot.

"I don't feel so good." Marcus said to Fox.

Fox stooped down and laid a hand on his son's shoulder. Krystal did the same on the other.

"It's OK, sport." Fox said. "I was nervous on my first day of school, too."

"You just need to talk to some other kids your age." Krystal said. "You'll do fine."

Marcus grimaced. That was easy for them to say.

From what he had heard, Fox had been a bit of a troublemaker when he went to school, and he always had Bill and Slippy to keep an eye on him. Krystal, because she was from a primitive planet where Cornerian law did not apply, never went to school.

But Marcus knew that his mom was far from stupid…in fact, she was anything BUT stupid.

Marcus sighed. "What if no one likes me? I mean…I don't even know anyone here."

"You don't need to know them to get to know them." Krystal said.

Marcus didn't even know what that was supposed to mean.

"I guarantee you that when you leave here today you'll have made at least one friend." Fox said.

"You sure?" Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"C'mon! Have I ever steered you wrong?"

Marcus looked at his parents and grinned. He had to admit, Fox was right. When it came to Marcus and his personal problems, Fox had yet to be wrong.

"OK! I'll do it!" he said.

"That's the spirit." Krystal said, smiling sweetly and kissing her son on the cheek.

They both gave Marcus loving hugs. Marcus inhaled, exhaled, and took his first step toward the school.

"And one more thing, buddy!" Fox called.

Marcus looked back.

"Yeah, Dad?"

"If anyone gives you a hard time in there, you tell us as soon as we come to pick you up, OK?"

"You got it!"

Fox and Krystal got back in their hovercraft (a futuristic replacement for a car. It was more efficient because it ran off electricity and didn't give off exhaust.), waved to Marcus, and called out one last thing: "Remember, you are a McCloud."

There were plenty of things that Marcus didn't understand, like where babies come from, how the time zones worked, why "Scars of Yesterday" by DragonForce was so hard to beat on Expert, or even what the heck a hot dog was made of. But THAT went ahead and kicked them all halfway across the galaxy.

He smiled and waved as his parents drove back to their house. As soon as they were out of sight, he frowned.

"What's so special about being a McCloud?" he asked himself.

Fox and Krystal never told Marcus that they had once been members of the Star Fox team. In fact, he didn't know spit about Star Fox and had never even heard of it.

Marcus looked at the school again just as the bell rang.

"Here goes nothin'." he said to himself.

As the other kids started running toward the front door, Marcus followed them. When he was about twenty feet from the door, an 8th grader rammed his arm and knocked his books out of his hand.

Marcus groaned.

"Aww, man!" he whined as he bent over to pick them up. "I haven't been here for five minutes and already I…OUCH!"

As Marcus bent over, his head smacked into someone else's.

"Hey, watch it!" the boy said.

Marcus sighed. "Sorry."

He picked up his books then handed another one to the boy; a short but lanky frog with a red T-shirt, a brown jacket, orange skin and a fedora on his head.

Marcus held out his hand. "I'm Marcus."

The boy stared at Marcus' hand, then took it.

"Chase Toad."

Marcus' eyes widened.

"Does that mean your dad is Slippy Toad?"

"How do you know my dad?"

"My dad is Fox McCloud. He was best friends with your dad."

Chase smiled.

"Oh, yeah! You're McCloud's kid! Nice to meet you!"

Chase and Marcus had actually first met each other years ago when Slippy and Amanda had brought Chase over to Fox and Krystal's house. While the adults talked and laughed with one another, the two babies passed a ball back and forth and stacked plastic blocks one on top of the other to make a tower together. Neither of them could remember this because it had happened when they were both only two months old.

A sharp voice rang from the door.

"Come on, boys. Your teacher doesn't have all day."

Marcus and Chase turned to see their principal standing in the doorway.

"Coming, sir!" they called.

Chase looked at Marcus.

"Let's skip the bittersweet introduction before we're late."

"Check." Marcus replied

In moments...

Chase and Marcus sprinted down the hall and ran into Room 211. The teacher had been stepping toward the door, getting ready to close it.

The boys doubled over and started panting.

"Right on time, boys." the teacher said. "Please take a seat."

They did. Marcus sat in a desk three spots away from the door. Chase sat behind him. The teacher had just about closed the door when someone slammed into it at full speed. When the teacher opened the door, a female hare with floppy ears and a pink sweater stood there rubbing her forehead.

"My goodness!" the teacher said. "Are you alright, dear?"

The girl spoke in a dazed voice.

"Yes, ma'am. I'm fine…ouch."

The girl stumbled over to the desk to Marcus' left and sat down. The teacher started giving roll-call. Marcus tapped the girl on the shoulder. She looked at him.

"I'm Marcus." he whispered.

The girl shook the stars out of her eyes and smiled.

"Hi, Marcus. I'm Anna."

"Anna Marie Grey?" the teacher called.

Anna raised her hand. "Here."

Believe it or not, Marcus and Anna had met before, as well. Krystal was on her way to the bank downtown, pushing baby Marcus along in a stroller, when she bumped into Lucy. The two began to talk about old times, while Marcus and Anna stared at each other. Apparently, Marcus had made a funny face and sent Anna into fits of laughter. If he had, though, he didn't remember, because once again, he had only been two months old.

"Hey, isn't your granddad General Hare?" Chase asked Anna silently as she sat down.

"Yep. My dad's Commander Bill Grey." she replied.

"Marcus James McCloud?"

Marcus raised his hand. Everyone was looking at him with their mouths wide open.

"Here." he said.

The teacher smiled.

"Another one, eh?" she said. "I had your father back when he was your age. Yours, as well, Ms. Grey. Quite the mischievous little jokers, I must say."

Anna and Marcus blushed.

"We'll try to be less careless, ma'am." Marcus assured.

Much later… "Chase Toad?"

Chase raised his hand.

"Here."

3:20 P.M.

Marcus had to admit that the day had gone fairly well in terms of smooth sailing, and just as the teacher was finishing showing them a map of the entire Lylat System (beginning with Corneria and ending with Sauria), the bell rang.

"Collect your things, everyone. See you tomorrow."

Marcus heaved his backpack onto his back. Chase was the first one out the door.

"See you tomorrow, ma'am." Marcus said as he left.

He started walking down the hall toward the main entrance when he saw Chase round a corner.

Marcus remembered what Krystal had said…how if he socialized and got to know people, he'd make friends.

Marcus sighed. It was then or never. He jogged after Chase, but when he heard a metallic slam, he stopped in his tracks. He carefully peeked around the corner. Three 8th graders were blocking the door Chase was trying to get out of.

"Ya got a dollar, twerp?" the leader asked.

"No. Just let me through." Chase retorted.

"If you don't got one, then get lost!"

"I just wanna go home! Get outta my way, you big jerk!"

The leader grabbed Chase's neck and opened a locker.

"Hope you got nothin' planned for the night, kid, 'cause you'll be spending it in here!"

The bully threw Chase in.

"Someone help!" Chase screamed.

"Make like a frog and croak, toad!"

The bully slammed the door. It beeped to indicate it had locked. Chase started pounding on the door. Marcus couldn't believe what he was seeing, but he wasn't about to let those jerks get away with it.

Marcus stepped out from his hiding place.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" he shouted.

The bullies saw him, then immediately sprinted forward and pummeled him in the stomach. Marcus groaned and fell on his side, clutching himself. His stomach hurt so much that he wanted to cry, but if there was anything he learned from Fox, it was that crying never gets you anywhere except a tight spot. So he just sucked it up and shouted a few random curse words that he knew in his head to ease off the pain.

"Let's get outta here before the crybaby goes and squeals on us." the leader said.

With that, they walked off.

"Screw you, you stupid mother…oh God." Marcus groaned.

"Marcus?" asked Chase from inside the locker. "Is that you?"

"Y-yeah.….I think I'm gonna puke."

"Marcus!" a female voice called out.

It was Anna. She came running down the hall, stopped in front of Marcus, kneeled down and lifted up his head.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Marcus weakly stood up.

"I might have some internal bleeding, but otherwise, I'm OK. Chase certainly isn't."

They ran to the locker where Chase was trapped.

"Chase, can you here me?" Marcus called.

"Yeah, but how am I gonna get outta here?"

Marcus looked at the door. It had a computer lock, so if he wanted to open it, he had to punch in the right nine-digit code. And since he was only a 1st grader and didn't use a locker, he didn't know the code.

Marcus angrily groaned, but then a light bulb went on in his head.

"Chase, do you think we could break the door down somehow?" he called.

"A-are you nuts?" Anna shrieked. "If we do that we'll get detention for sure!"

"Look, do you wanna get him outta there or not?"

That shut Anna up. Chase felt around inside the locker.

"The door is made of titanium-alloy, and from my estimate, it seems to have suffered some internal oxidation from frequent use." he called.

"Uhh…English, please?" Marcus said.

"To put it in simple terms, it's a piece of crap. If we apply enough force from both sides, the door should pop right open."

"OK," called Marcus. He looked at Anna and grabbed the handle on the door. "Grab hold."

She did.

"OK, guys. On the count of three, Anna and I will yank on the handle. Chase, you kick the door as hard as you can."

"Got it."

"One…two…THREE!"

Anna and Marcus yanked. Chase kicked the door with both of his feet.

"Again! One…two…THREE!"

They did it again.

"Is it working?" Anna asked.

"One sec." Chase said.

He checked the hinge.

"It's coming out! One more kick should do it!"

"OK! One…two…THREE!" Marcus shouted.

The door opened with a violent force. Marcus and Anna fell flat on their backs and Chase tumbled out of the opening and on top of Anna. Their faces were inches away from each other. They were both blushing. Chase rolled off of her.

The three stood up, looked at each other for a few seconds…and literally burst out laughing!

"Phew!" Chase breathed. "I thought I was never gonna get out of there. I owe ya one!"

"No problem." Marcus said.

"You know…this is just a guess, mind you, but I think we'd all make really good friends!" Anna said, smiling.

"Alright! Up top!" Chase said, holding up his fist.

Marcus and Anna looked at each other with awkward looks on their faces. Chase grimaced.

"C'mon, guys. Don't leave me hangin'." he said.

Marcus smiled and shrugged.

"Might as well." he said to Anna.

The three knuckle-bumped.

"Let's amscray! Our parents are probably getting worried!"

They ran out the front door. When they got outside, they saw Fox, Krystal, Slippy, Amanda, Bill and Lucy talking amongst themselves. Marcus touched his index finger and thumb to his teeth and made a loud whistle.

The adults looked over and saw their kids running toward them.

"Hi, guys." said Marcus as he gave Fox and Krystal each a big hug.

"Hello, sweetheart." said Krystal.

"How was your day at school?" asked Fox.

Marcus looked over. Chase and Anna waved to him. He smiled and waved back, then turned to his parents.

"It was awesome!"

From that moment on, Marcus never got scared of going to school ever again…

…because he always knew he was liked by someone other than his parents.

Now he had two best friends.