Diaz and His Princess

Ch. 9, Secrets and Narwhals

The next morning Star awoke to the sobs of one of the twins.

Rubbing the weariness from her eyes, Star swung her legs over the edge of her bed and got to her feet lazily.

The only thing Star hated more than mornings, was being rudely awoken during them.

Yawning unattractively, she opened her door hesitantly to discover a sobbing Michelle sitting in the middle of the hallway being coddled by a pajama-clad Jan.

Closing her door swiftly as to avoid being asked to help, Star walked zombie-like over to her windowsill and cracked the screen open, allowing some cool morning air into her stuffy bedroom.

With yet another yawn and the sun gradually lighting up her room, Star began to get ready.

She began to slip on a smooth white sundress with colorful little flowers speckled across its surface...until she realized she had put it on backwards and shifted it around uncomfortably.

Next she slipped on her white converse (fortunately she managed to get each on the proper foot). Pulling her hair into two French braids Star carefully rested her red-bowed headband atop her head and gave herself a satisfied smile in the mirror.

Finally feeling awake, Star grabbed her backpack from off the floor, then hesitated at the foot of her bed, wondering if bringing the helmet Marco had given her was being too presumptuous.

What would Jackie think? Star reminded herself, and decisively shoved the helmet further back with her foot.

Double-checking that her wand was in her bag, Star slipped her backpack over her shoulders and made her way out the door and towards the bus stop.

The first half of Star's day was rather uneventful, considering all that she had done was slip notes to Janna during Math class while also taking notes on the lesson and make weird faces at Jackie when they made eye contact in the hallways.

Even lunch was uneventful since Jackie had snuck out of school to skateboard down to McDonalds with one of her friends from middle school and left Star with Janna. Normally this would've been fine if Janna wasn't severely hung over and refused to talk because she felt like her brain was going to explode.

Star hadn't even really seen Marco all day, besides on her way to Biology when she caught his eye and he smirked smugly at her. She didn't quite know why he looked so smug but she just figured it was in his nature to look like an ass 24/7.

Finally when the school day was coming to a close, Star was more than excited to go home, change into some sweatpants and binge-read her new book.

With these thoughts in mind, Star was determined to avoid making plans with Jackie or Marco after school since all she wanted to do was read.

Not even the tantalizing idea of riding on Marco's motorcycle would convince Star.

Star made her way to her locker, the chipping and fading paint that graced it was ugly to her at first, but now held some kind of hidden charm that made Star think rather fondly of it for some strange reason.

Upon reaching her locker, Star traced a hairline chip in the paint with her finger before entering her combination and swinging the door open.

The inside of her locker was much nicer than the outside, considering how neatly her things were stacked and the cute little pictures of her family taped to the inside of the door. She even had a picture of Janey and Michelle taped inside. Believe it or not she had grown quite fond of the little twins...or maybe that's not the word...she was more in a love-hate relationship with the obnoxious little cuties.