Chapter Text
September 16, 2016.
Star really just wanted to leave without anybody noticing that she was gone, but she also knew that the Diaz's would worry about her, so she figured that she should at least say goodbye to them face to face. For everyone else, she could just text them updates, and it would be fine. Hopefully.
Mr. and Mrs. Diaz were downstairs drinking coffee, her bags were already packed, and Marco was still asleep. Optimal conditions.
She tiptoes downs the steps of the house and waves towards the couple, who were quietly drinking coffee while some radio station droned on about local news. "Mr. and Mrs. Diaz? I have to go back to Mewni for a festival. It's official princess business, and what not."
Angie smiles at her. "Of course, Star. Would you like to wake up Marco before you go?"
Star grimaces a little bit. "There's no need to wake him, I'll leave a message for him to read later." She then bounds back up the stairs to her room. Angie and Rafael frown at each other.
part i: which reminded me how we ended up where we are now
September 21, 2016.
She had spent the past couple of days trying to figure out where Jackie was eating lunch. At first, she wanted to just sleuth it out, like Sherlock Holmes, but there were just too many spots to consider around the high school. Plus, she didn't have even close to the level of deductive reasoning to figure out where Jackie ate lunch with the hints of a cloudy sky on Snapstigram and a vague post about hamburgers. (You would think a post like that would narrow it down a little bit, but on that said day the school lunch was hamburgers.) However, even with the setbacks, she still had one ace-in-the-hole that might get her the answers that she was looking for. While she was reluctant in using this resource, it seemed like she was entirely out of options. (There's not too much that you can do when a person goes out of your way to avoid you in the hallways and doesn't answer your text messages.)
"Hey, where does Jackie eat lunch?"
Marco nearly chokes on her soup.
"I don't know, Janna. She hasn't talked to me since the sleepover."
"Come on, Marco. You have to have some idea of where she is."
Marco dips her spoon back into the cold soup she packed for lunch and takes another bite before answering. "I really don't. She said that she needed time, so I'm giving it to her. Once she's ready to talk to me again, I'm sure that she will."
"Are you saying that you're not even a little bit nervous?"
"Janna. I am the most nervous person to exist on the planet."
Janna laughs. "I hear ya, girl." The miniscule smile that pops up on Marco's face as she eats her soup could light a city block. "Okay, so if you don't know where she's eating right now, where were you two eating lunch before?"
Marco, without looking up, responds. "I'm not telling you."
"Oh come on, Marco. Are you worried that I'll blab about your secret make out spot-" At this moment, Marco chokes on her soup, again, and Janna realizes that she might be able to figure out where Jackie is hiding based off of Marco's reaction to her allegations. (Just like Sherlock Holmes.) "-to the other DnD kids or something?"
"N-No! Shut up!"
"Lemme guess, it's one of the skate park benches or some hidden shelf in the library or in an abandoned swimming pool."
"Wr-wrong, shut up, stop talking, go away forever."
And now Janna had a pretty good idea of where she might be able to find Jackie.
The only thing that Jackie had been able to think about for the past couple of days is how badly she had fucked up.
Normally when she was having relationship problems, she would be able to talk through it with her dad, but this time around, trying to talk with her dad only lead to her crying and being frustrated, so she kind of gave up on it. Her dad was convinced that she had done the right thing by asking for time, but in the day to day it seemed foolish, and each day that she didn't try making up with Marco would be another thing for Marco to add to a growing pile of resentment.
She was so deep in thought that she didn't notice the sound of footsteps behind her until it was too late.
"Fucking finally. Y'know," Janna pauses to wipe the dirt off of her skirt- "that drain pipe was a lot harder to climb than I thought it was going to be. I must be getting rusty."
"Janna? How did you find me?"
"I Sherlock Holmes'd it. I was talking to Marco and making fun of her-"
"Her?"
"Yeah, Marco's a girl. Wait, shit, you know that, right? Or did I just majorly fuck up?"
"No, I've known... when did she tell you?"
"After the party. Anyways, I was talking to her and she twitched a little bit when I mentioned the library, so it was pretty easy to figure out that you two would sneak up to the roof. The harder bit was figuring out how you got up here without being seen, but then I saw a scuff by the drain pipe and figured that-"
"Why are you here?"
"Why am I here? Why are you here?"
"This is where I eat lunch."
"No, I mean, why are you avoiding Marco instead of figuring stuff out? Why are you avoiding me?"
"Janna, you were there when-"
"When what? When you said you needed time to figure out whether or not you needed to choose between your literal girlfriend and a person you kissed once?"
Jackie pales. "You heard all of that?" she says, barely louder than a whisper.
"Yeah, I did. I figured you would have also heard when Star said that she was going to leave again, and I told her that I loved her, and then literally ran all the way back home, but hey! clearly you're the only one with problems here!"
The bell rings.
Janna, not expecting to be as loud as she was, regains her composure. "I'm inviting Marco over to my place. You should come too. We can all talk and get our shit figured out."
Jackie doesn't respond. Instead, she sits on the roof, head in her hands. Janna looks back at her once before climbing down the drainpipe.
Technically, the festival had ended already.
Technically, Star didn't have any service on her cellphone in Mewni. She still got the messages that her friends were sending her, but she ignored them. All she could hope is that Marco didn't chase after her. She can't handle something like that, again.
"Glossaryck? If you were in my situation, what would you do?"
Glossaryck, floating upside down on the ceiling, lowered himself down to Star's eye level, as she sat on her bed kicking her feet on the mattress. "Well, Star, there's no way for me to know what the best thing for you to do. I'm not the Canajoharie."
Star immediately sat up. "What is the Canajoharie, exactly?"
Glossaryck, now lazily spinning in circles, stays silent for a few seconds. He then shrugs his shoulders briefly before speaking. "The Canajoharie is a mythical creature that lives in the outer reaches of Mewni. They have the ability to tell whatever being that manages to gain an audience with it which choice they should make. However, they're a very fickle beast that has mostly unpredictable movements."
"Mostly?”
"Ah, yes. There's one spot that they return to pretty consistently, a small cottage in the Jaggy Mountains. They're scheduled to be back there soon, but if you miss out on catching them there you're going to have to wait for another two years-"
Glossaryck hasn't even finished his sentence before Star summons a Warnicorn to fly her towards the Jaggy Mountains.
Jackie stood outside of the door of Janna's house for a full five minutes before she rang the doorbell. She could feel sweat trickling down the back of her neck, and even though it was a bit warm for September, it wasn't the heat that had her sweating. From inside, she could hear muffled shouting, and then the sound of the door clicking open. Janna smiles at Jackie, and then motions for her to enter the house. Jackie slowly steps inside.
"So, uh... yeah. I'm here. Why is it so dark?"
"I like the dark. Anyways, Marco is in the bathroom right now-"
"Janna, I refuse to try on one of your bras!"
"-trying on some of my old clothes. To see if there's anything that she likes that I can give her so she doesn't have to shop with her parents."
"I thought her parents are supportive."
"They are, but they're also over the top. Imagine trying to shop with them." Jackie does, and she shudders. "Hey Marco! Jackie is here!" This is followed by silence, and then the unmistakable sound of a person falling over themselves inside of a bathroom.
"I'll be out in a minute!"
Jackie looks over at Janna, who can only shrug. Eventually Marco walks out, wearing her classic hoodie over a skirt that seems to be a bit too short for her comfort. It reminds Jackie of the night that Marco walked out of her closet, wearing that one yellow dress. She can feel her stomach tightening out of fear. She may have destroyed one of the best things in her life.
"Hi Jackie."
"Hi Marco."
The two stare at each other, unsure of what to do next, until Janna claps twice. "Okay, I have brought the two of you here because you both have issues and the best way of solving them is by talking about it, out loud, to each other. I'm here to mediate because I'm a good friend. I started water for tea, so just get comfy in my room."
Jackie nods, and passes Marco on her way to Janna's room. Marco follows behind her, and opts to sit on the floor, while Jackie sits on the bed. The awkwardness in the air is palpable.
"So...." Marco breaks the silence. "Ummmm.... how are you doing?"
"I'm okay."
"That’s good."
More silence, except for the sounds of Janna pouring tea into cups in the kitchen through the open door.
"So, uh, I think-"
"Jackie, I-"
They pause, again. Janna then walks in with three cups of hot tea. "Marco, sit on the bed, next to Jackie." Marco shrugs, and then sits on the bed next to Jackie. Janna gives them tea cups, and even though Jackie doesn't usually drink tea, she likes the feeling of steam rising on her face. "Marco, would you like to go first?" She nods.
"Jackie, you were the first person that I came out to. You were there for me, even when I was in Mewni fighting in a war with Star.
"From the beginning I've been worried that you'll just want to hang out with Star, because she's cooler than me in every way, and is like, an actual royal princess and all that, and you two are pretty good friends now.
"But after I came out, it feels like that part of my head just kicked into overdrive. I mean, honestly, I didn't even know if you see me as a real girl or not. But even if you did, I would be able to deal with it, right? It's you, and as long as you were able to handle me being me, I would take it.
"But Star is a girl, too. Like, a girl girl. And if kissing her once means that you like her now, there's no way for me to compete with that. You are one of my favorite people in the entire world, and if you want to date Star instead of me, you should do that."
Marco sniffles near the end of her statement. "Is that everything you wanted to say, Marco?" Marco nods. "Okay, before you say anything, Jackie, there are a few things I want to tell Marco.
"Marco, no matter what anyone says, or thinks, you are a real girl. There's no right or wrong way to do being a girl." She taps Marco on the hand twice, and Marco smiles at her. "Okay, Jackie, it's your turn."
Jackie takes a deep breath, and exhales. “I’m a bad girlfriend, and you should break up with me.”
DATE UNKNOWN
The Jaggy Mountains are not a forgiving environment, to say the least, but Star is hardly hindered by the snow and the wind. She found the cottage pretty quickly, and by her best estimates she was going to be on time to meet the Canajoharie before they left to somewhere else. The cottage, at least, has the lights on, and smoke coming out from its chimney.
Star knocks on the door of the cottage, and when she doesn’t get a response, slowly turns the knob. The door swings wide open. “Hello?” There isn’t much in the cottage that she can see, so she opens the door wider and lets herself in.
The cottage is, in fact, almost completely empty. There is a raging fire in a fireplace on the far wall, and a desk where a strange being sits motionless.
“Excuse me?” Star asks. “Are you the Canajoharie?”
The being then opens its eyes. “Oh boy! A guest! I assume you’re here to get some wisdom from the Canajoharie.”
Star nods. “And you are…”
“I am merely an assistant of the Canajoharie. Now, the rules state that if you are to get an audience with the Canajoharie, you have to pass a series of tests. These tests are often dangerous and difficult. Are you sure you want to proceed?”
Star doesn’t hesitate.
“Bring it on.”