Hekapoo's First Day of School

It was yet another day of school as Marco and Star walked into the classroom and sat down, waiting for class to start. As they and the rest of the class sat with bored and sullen expressions on their faces, Miss Skullnick stepped forward, clearing her throat.

“Alright class, I have an important announcement to make. Class?”

Much to Miss Skullnick’s chagrin, the majority of her students were either sleeping or not paying attention.

“CLASS! PAY ATTENTION!!” Roared Miss Skullnick, nearly deafening her pupils and causing them to sit up straight.

“Now, it seems that we have a new exchange student that will be joining the class. Say hello to Miss… Uh…”

As Skullnick tried to read the name, which was written in a different language, the clicks of heels could be heard walking down the hall.

“Yeah I have no idea what this says.” Said Miss Skullnick.

“It’s Hekapoo.” Claimed a voice from outside of the classroom, causing Marco to jump up in surprise.

“Oh, well then class, say hello to Miss Hekapoo.” Said Miss Skullnick as the white demon walked into the room and stood in front of the class.

“Hey guys.”

“Hekapoo??” Exclaimed Marco in disbelief.

“Hey Marco.” Said Hekapoo in a playful voice, giving a wink.

“Alright you said your hellos, now go sit down and listen.” Said Miss Skullnick as she pointed towards the seats.

“Sure thing, miss teacher.” Said Hekapoo as she walked over and took the seat right next to Marco, eyeing him like a tiger eyes her prey.

“What are you doing here??” Whispered Marco.

“Nothing really; I was bored so I figured I’d stick around and have some fun with you.”  Said Hekapoo before smacking him on the back of his head, singeing his hair and scalp.

“Well we’re in class right now, there’s not really any time for fun.”

“Sure there is, at least with me there is…”

“Look I really don’t have time for this-“

“STOP TALKING!” Bellowed Miss Skullnick before turning back to the board and continuing her lecture.

As Marco tried to listen to lesson, he found himself constantly bombarded by erasers tossed by Hekapoo, as well as a few spit wads; eliciting a giggle from Hekapoo with each angry stare he gave her. Eventually though it seemed like Hekapoo had given up, prompting a sigh of relief from Marco.

That relief was short lived however as a crumpled piece of hit the side of his head. Staring daggers at Hekapoo he noticed her mouthing the words “Open it.” He unfurled the paper, revealing a note asking if he liked her with a multiple choice answer. Deciding to humor her, he wrote his answer on the paper, crumpling it back up and throwing it at her head.

Hekapoo excitedly smoothed the note out to see Marco’s answer. Her excitement though was quickly snuffed out as she gazed up on the large “No” that Marco had answered.  Instead of excitement, she was now annoyed, tossing more erasers at Marco’s head with more force than she had been, one of which hit his ear.

Yelping in pain he shot a glare to Hekapoo once again, but was taken aback by her expression. Instead of the playful smile she had been wearing all day, her cheeks had puffed out and her brow furrowed, clearly showing her anger.The flame on her head grew in intensity as she turned away with a huff, leaving Marco somewhat befuddled and worried.

At lunch...

"So what happened between you and Hekapoo?" Said Star as she and Marco walked side by side, both carrying their lunches.

"I don't know." Said Marco as he gave a shrug. "All I know is she was bugging the heck out of me in class-"

"Hey Marco." Said Hekapoo, who had appeared right behind him, causing Marco to jump, and nearly toss his lunch all over Star.

"O-Oh hey Hekapoo... You're uh, you're not still mad are you?"

"Mad? Mad about what? I'm not mad." Hekapoo's demeanor belied her words as she crossed her arms.

"Well you know; how I marked that I didn't like you when you threw that note at me." Marco scratched the back of his head in nervousness as Hekapoo's flame grew stronger.

"No, I get it. It's totally fine; you don't like me."

“No I do like you Hekapoo!”

Upon hearing those words, Hekapoo’s flame calmed down and her expression returned back to normal, no longer perturbed.

“Well in that case, see ya around little boy.” Hekapoo’s tone had also returned to form, the sass in her voice was clear.

“I’m not a little boy…” Grumbled Marco.

“What was that?”

As Marco turned to yell at his mischievous “friend”, Hekapoo simply stated,

“Are you sure you want to do this in front of the whole school?”

As Marco looked, he had noticed that a number of eyes were gazing up the two of them. Not wanting to have this blow up any further, he stormed off.

“Buh bye…” Said Hekapoo playfully.

Marco quickly sat down at one of the cafeteria tables and began to quickly eat his meal, looking visibly annoyed.

“Uh Marco?” Said Star, though Marco was not paying attention.

“Marco?” Star once again tried to get his attention, but to no avail.

“MARCO DIAZ!”

“What?!”

“You’ve mangled your burrito.” Said Star as she pointed to his lunch, which was in complete disarray.

“You’ve also got meat on your face.” Star poked Marco’s cheek, wiping off some of the food and eating it. “Mmm, meaty!”

“Sorry. It’s just she can be so annoying sometimes!”

“Oh Marco, that’s just her way of saying that she likes you!”

“Yeah well I wish she’d cut it out!” As Marco spoke, a portal opened and a white hand holding scissors emerged, cutting a piece of Marco’s hair.

“I DIDN’T MEAN MY HAIR!” Yelled Marco as the portal closed.

Spotting Hekapoo on the other side of the room, he saw he lift her hand, clutching what seemed to be his hair.

“Yeah, because I cut the hair of people I like with dimensional scissors…”

Back in class…

After the Marco and the rest of his classmates finished their lunch, they returned to the class and took their seats. The levity that was once present during lunch had quickly faded as apathy and boredom set in.

Now that class had resumed, Hekapoo had to resort to more covert forms of annoyance as she couldn’t just use her dimensional scissors in the middle of class without drawing attention. She pondered on what to do next; she had already used conventional means of bothering him. Perhaps it was time to put her flame powers to use?

Trying to listen to Ms. Skullnick’s lecture, he felt a something flicked at the side of his head once again, only this time it burned. Turning his head, he saw a snickering Hekapoo holding a finger over her lips with the tiniest mote of flame at the tip before she blew it out. Marco held up two fingers to his eyes and then pointed them at Hekapoo, signaling that he was watching her before turning back around.

It was barely even a second before he felt another lick of flame touch his head, immediately causing him to turn sharply and stare down his next seat neighbor. He stared her down, only to see that she was trying her hardest to stifle a laugh, quietly snorting as she saw his flustered face. Growling in frustration he gripped his pencil tight before he gently let go and softened his expression.

Hekapoo looked at Marco blankly, wondering what had happened. Marco faced her once more, this time armed with erasers of his own. Deciding to give her a taste of her own medicine, he launched erasers back at Hekapoo hitting her square on her forehead. Caught off guard, she paused for a bit before smirking and lighting the tip of her finger.

The two engaged in desk warfare, Marco with erasers and Hekapoo with tiny fireballs that were unnoticeably growing larger and more out of control. Eventually Marco launched an eraser that hit Hekapoo right in the eye, causing her aim to sway and throw the fireball right onto his jacket, setting it ablaze.

Suddenly immolated, Marco jumped out of his seat, frightening the rest of the class.

“Hot! Hot! Hot! Get it off, get it off!” Exclaimed Marco, taking his shirt and jacket off and throwing it to the floor before stepping on it to stamp out the flames.

“MR. DIAZ! Care to explain why you’ve interrupted my class!?” Bellowed Ms. Skullnick.

“My uh, my jacket caught on fire?” Said Marco before chuckling nervously.

“Oh? And how exactly did that happen?” Ms. Skullnick eyed Marco skeptically.

Looking back, Marco saw Hekapoo sitting quietly.

“To tell you the truth, I really don’t know.” Marco’s answer elicited a look of surprise from Hekapoo, who was sure that Marco was going to rat her out.

“Well that’s an interesting excuse you have, but it could use some work. Maybe you’ll think of a better one in DETENTION!!” Yelled Ms. Skullnick, pointing at the door.

After school…

Closing his locker, Marco sighed. Detention was one place that he did not like to spend time at. He began to walk forward, but was quickly stopped as he felt something slap the back of his head.

“Hey Marco.”

“Hekapoo, I thought you went home already.”

“I was about to, but I still wanted to say goodbye.”

“Oh. Well then, later Hekapoo.” Said Marco before giving a wave goodbye and walking away.
As he walked forward though, Hekapoo suddenly appeared in front of him, looking contemplative.

“Whoa!” Exclaimed Marco, almost falling on top of his friend.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Why didn’t you say that I was the one who lit your jacket on fire?”

“Well I figured, today was your first day of school. I didn’t want you to spend it in detention.” Said Marco, giving a smile and shrug.

The two stared at each other for a moment, but Hekapoo quickly began to giggle before laughing loudly.

“What’s so funny?”

“Look at you, trying to act all cool.”

“What- No I wasn’t trying to act cool or anything!”

“Sure, sure, whatever you say.” Said Hekapoo, still laughing and waving her hand and causing Marco to blush in embarrassment.

“Anyways, thanks. I had fun bugging you.” Hekapoo walked up close to Marco, staring into his eyes before slapping him on the back of his head.

She turned around, opening a portal back to her dimension with her scissors and jumped through them. Before the portal closed however, she popped back out.

“By the way, you can come and bother me anytime.” Said Hekapoo playfully, Marco giving a smile and nod in response.

The portal closed and Marco was left alone. He touched the back of his head, still warm from her slap.

“I just might have to do that soon.” Said Marco as he smiled and stared up at the evening sky.