21After hearing the announcement, Star turns Marco around and starts pushing him down the hallway. Star kicks open the door to the counselor's office, making everybody inside jump while Marco cautiously enters and Star casually strolls in. Mr and Mrs Diaz, Janna, Principle Skeeves and Mr. Candle are all sitting on chairs that make a circle with two extras meant for them.
"Marco Diaz and… Star Butterfly?" Mr. Candle asks, Star nods at him but he keeps his confused and weary expression. "Don't you only go through mewberty once?" He asks.
"Yeahhh that's what I thought too." Star sighs. He seems to relax slightly and Star and Marco sit in the chairs.
"So Marco, I heard you're a space cop, react badly to surprises and…" He glances at Janna. "You recently broke up with your girlfriend?" Marcos parents looked shocked and all eyes are on Marco.
"Y-Yes. I did. But why would you care about that?" Marco asks with a raised eyebrow. "Gonna go tell Tom all the details of this session… or is this one confidential?" He asks with a smirk, catching Candle of guard and making everyone but Star look at Candle with uncertainty.
"But I guess you all want to know what changed from yesterday, right?" He quickly takes the attention off of Candle much to his relief. They all patiently stare at him, urging him to continue.
"Well, if you misuse dimensional scissors…" He starts, unsheathing the scissors from his leather sheath and showing them to the group. "You might get a visit from the goddess, Hekapoo. She is in charge of all dimensional travel, to and from anywhere in the universe, in any dimension." He sighs.
"Basically, I went on a life changing journey; full of fire, assassination, mild torture, warfare, gladiatorial combat, survival, academics… Adventure, companionship, betrayal, politics, magic… and more fire." He lists just the basic topics off the top of his head. Everyone looks at him wide eyed in awe, sorrow, surprise, proudness, etc.
"I was diagnosed with PTSD about 3 years ago, but I've dealt with it pretty well if I do say so myself." He says cheerfully, trying to laugh his way out of his confession. Marco notices that everybody is looking at him with pity and is slightly annoyed about it. "My objective was to chase down every Hekapoo clone until I found the real one and blow out her flame." He points to the fire above his head. "I spent a total of 16 years in Hekapoo's dimension before I found her. She bestowed these scissors to me and was so impressed, she gave me the title of her champion and shared her flame with me. That's when Star found me and brought me back home." He says before he slumps down in his chair a little. Everybody else is looking too shocked to say anything, so Marco continues.
"At first, I was absolutely livid at the fact that only 8 minutes passed by on Earth, but I quickly got over that when Star pointed out that now we have more time for adventures." Everyone is too shocked for words, even Janna and Star that knew a portion of what happened were staring at Marco with disbelieving looks. A few minutes passed and Marco started to become uncomfortable with their glares and began squirming around in his seat.
"So, uh…" Marco starts. "You gonna counsel me or what? This is getting really awkward." He says with a forced, crooked smile.
"O-O-Okay…" Candle stutters, literally having to rip his attention away from Marco onto Star. "So, what happened to you?"
Star heavily blushes and puts her face in her hands, she grumbles something unintelligible. The others start to take notice of Star's embarrassed expression. "Its too embarrassing to talk about." She softly says, avoiding all eye contact just trying to hide her red face.
Marco snickers, and Star whips her head and glares so fast it could cause whiplash. Marco quickly shuts his mouth and acts like normal, except for the heavily supressed smirk showing on his face.
"Okayyyyyy…" Candle remarks, slightly confused. "Does it have anything to do with Marco breaking up with his girlfriend?" Everybody watches Marco and Star's expression carefully, but they don't seem worried.
"Actually, I broke up with her because I'm technically a 30-year-old man, dating a 14-year-old girl. It obviously felt a little bit… questionable." The others quickly nod in realisation and understanding. "I was asking Janna for advice but Jackie overheard at a bad time and ran off." Silence for a few minuets as the occupants in the room looked at each other and gauged their expressions.
"Well, um… Is there anything else you want to say?" Candle asks. Marco actually ponders for a moment. "Don't freak out, but…" Marco pulls out his scissors again and flicks his wrist to activate is sword. A flaming, sharp roman gladius appeared in Marcos hand where his scissors were. Everybody but Star jumped back in surprise but relaxed themselves quickly as Marco held it by the blade.
"My job requires me to carry this at all times." He looks up to the principle, "Is this going to be a problem?" The principle sighs and rubs his temples.
"Listen Marco, you're a good kid, or man? …Anyway, I'm going to pretend you aren't holding a flaming sword right now because it is strictly against school rules to have weapons, but I do trust you, and it would be easier for everyone if we all kept this little bit of information to ourselves." Principle Skeeves responds smoothly. Marco smiles at him.
"Thanks. Anything anyone else wants to ask?" Marco asks the group.
"What do you want us to say if anyone asks about you?" Janna asks.
Marco shrugs, seemingly not caring, "Tell them, if you feel like it. It's only been half a school day and Star and I have already gotten a ticket to a counselling conference with parents and principle present." They all guilty grimace. "Point is, I'd rather the truth be told instead of rumors." Janna just smirks and nods towards Marco before leaning back in her chair with a smug expression on her face.
"What are you doing here anyway Janna?" Marco questions. Not really minding that she is, but just curious. Janna smirks in response and actually seems proud.
"Like I couldn't find out even if I wasn't here." She says in a cocky tone. "Besides, no one stopped me from walking in and taking a seat when you guys were called here." Janna answers, smiling at Marco's parents.
Raftel speaks up, "What is your new job exactly? And what will you be doing?" Marco proudly grins and crosses his right arm against his heart.
"I am Marco Diaz, champion of Hekapoo." He disappointedly looks at everyone in the room because he didn't get the reaction he was hoping for. "Trust me, say that anywhere else and it's a big deal." Everyone except Star is confused, but nod anyway.
"My job requires me to be ready at a moments notice, to carry out the tasks given to me by Hekapoo or her superiors, defend Hekapoo's name and image, and to keep 'doing what I do best.' Whatever that means." Marco finishes.
"It's actually a really big deal." Star adds. "Hekapoo has never had a champion before so Marco is the first in existence to hold the position. You basically work with my mum now." Star tells him with enthusiasm.
"Do you want to talk about what happened on your journey?" Candle asks.
Marco chuckles, "Well how long have we got?" He jokingly asks with a hint of sarcasm.
"As long as you need." Marco frowns at Candle.
"No thanks." He glances at Star. "Maybe, some other time." Star softly smiles at him.
"Okay, unless anyone has something they want to ask or add…" The room is silent.
"This session is over." Candle declares as Marco quickly stands up and runs out the door to avoid further questioning, with Star and Janna right behind him. Marco is leaning against his locker, lightly panting and hoping no one will follow him.
'Okay. That was harder than I thought.' 'Why did I run? I have nothing to hide.'
"Marco…" Janna says softly, putting a hand on his shoulder. He tactfully pushes it off, before he realises its Janna.
"Sorry Janna." He immediately relaxes and starts taking long deep breaths. He smiles at the both of them before noticing their surrounded by awkward looking students. He groans for what could be the 10th time just this morning.
'Screw this, I need to go see Jackie.' He opens a portal while thinking about Jackie's house, grabs Star and Janna and pulls them through.