Janna's Teddy

>Marco was busy reorganizing the contents of his locker when he noticed a shadow looming over him from behind. As the boy turned around to see who was sneaking up on him, a familiar voice rang through his ears, causing his entire body to freeze and tense up on instinct.
>"Doing some redecorating, eh? I'll keep that in mind the next time I'm in there." Marco quickly closed his locker, pulled himself together and turned around for what was sure to be another grueling confrontation.
>"Oh. Hey Janna," Marco said begrudgingly to his troublesome classmate. "Is there something else of mine you're after today?"
>"Relax man, I just wanted to say hello. Is that so wrong?"
>Marco shot a suspicious leer at the girl who responded by widening her already vast grin. She was clearly up to something fishy as usual.
>"Hmmm. Well alright then nice talking with you I gotta go see ya!" Marco quickly blurted out, eager to leave as soon as possible and continue on with his business.
Janna quickly stepped in front of Marco and wrapped one arm around his shoulder, preventing him from escaping. With victim in hand, Janna slowly pressed her face closer to Marco's, raising his discomfort level up by quite a few notches.
>"You smell pretty good. Is that a new cologne you're wearing? Trying to woo a certain female perhaps?"
>Marco's eyes widened as he managed to pulled away himself away from Janna. Her smug mug only further irritated him with each passing second.
>"T-that's none of your business!" Marco exclaimed as his face became flushed red. "What do you want anyways?"
>Janna let out a small chuckle. Pushing his buttons had always been one of her favorite pastimes. "Oh come on Marco, you know I'm just teasing ya a bit. No need to be so cold! Besides, I'm here on very important business!"
>"Hmmm, I'm SURE you are." Marco replied sarcastically.
>"Listen Diaz, this is gonna sound kind of silly but I really DO need something from you."
>Marco raised a brow and pursed his lips a bit in skepticism. It wasn't like Janna to be so forward about this kind of thing. Normally if there was something she wanted from him she was never above stealing it from behind his back in the first place.
>"Alright then, I'm listening." Marco spoke with a tiny bit of intrigue, interested in hearing what Janna had to say.
>"I was wondering if you could help me ouuut..." Janna dragged out her sentence as she reached into her backpack, "With THIS!"
>Marco recoiled in fear and struck a karate pose as if to defend himself from whatever it was she had drawn on him. Realizing he may have overreacted, Marco let down his guard and took a closer look at the artifact Janna was clutching in her hands.
>"Is that... a teddy bear?"
>"Sure is!" Janna replied in earnest confidence. "You're telling me you don't remember this little guy at all?"
"Nope. Can't say that I do. What's his deal and how am I supposed to help you with it?" Marco replied.
>The smile upon Janna's face faded slightly, feeling a bit crestfallen by Marco's quick dismissal of the bear. "Seriously? I can't believe you don't remember! This really blows. It was only like 5 years ago dude!"
>Marco moved closer to the stuffed animal and focused his gaze on it much more intently. Janna gave the teddy a couple shakes for emphasis in hopes of jogging his memory. After a few moments, it all came rushing back to Marco and hit him harder than one of Star's narwhal blasts. "Oh. OOOOOH! This is from that one time at the crane machine in the movie theatres if I recall correctly. I had almost completely forgot all about that!"
>With a filthy fur coat, one of it's plastic black eyes missing, and stuffing bursting at the seams in various places, the old stuffed bear had definitely seen better days.
>"This little dude is named Marco Tediaz and he watches over me while I sleep like my very own knight in shining armor. He's even got this sick little red sweater I swiped off of some girl's build-a-bear." Janna raised the stuffed animal up front, comparing her tiny friend to the real one. "It's a pretty good copy, don't you think?"
>"Yeah that's not creepy at all," Marco said feeling unsettled by this whole situation.
>"Look Diaz, I know you get kinda nervous around me and I can't really blame you, I'm kind of a bombshell after all but let's get serious here." Marco could do nothing but roll his eyes in the most exaggerated way known to man. "I need you to use those wicked sewing skills I know you have to fix Tediaz up."
>"Whoa wait up a second, who told you I knew how to sew!?" Marco panicked at the bomb Janna just dropped on him. "B-BESIDES, IT'S A VERY CONVENIENT AND RELIABLE SKILL TO HAVE AND IT'S NOT JUST FOR GIRLS!!"
>Janna's maniacal grin reared it's ugly head once more. Seeing Marco red as a tomato and squirming about only further excited her. "Cool your jets, I'm not gonna tell anyone. It'll be our little secret! So long as you help me out here. Tit for tat am I right?"
>Marco pulled himself together and retaliated. "Extortion, huh? I can't say I'm surprised Janna. I don't really care if you tell anyone and since I'm not really getting anything out of this, give me ONE good reason why I should help you at all."
>The last thing Janna was expecting out of Marco's mouth was such an assertive answer. She thought for sure he would buckle under her demands. She knew very well that all of her actions up to this point were risky but she didn't want to reveal her true colors in front of Marco. At least not yet.
>"Alright alright, maybe I came on a little strong there," Janna said hesitantly, "but come on Diaz, we're old friends right? We go way back and friends help each other out. I really want to get my little buddy here patched up and I know that no one is more capable for the job than you. Also, because i don't really know anyone else good at this kind of stuff but whatever! Every man has his price right? Name it. Let's strike up a deal."
>Marco listened to Janna's words and was just about to call her out on pulling another cheap trick when he decided to stop himself and play along with her. He pondered over her offer for a brief moment and spoke up. "You know Janna maybe I've been a bit too hard on you about all this. It's just as you said, friends do help each other out and if you want this adorable little fuzzball refurbished I think I can do you a solid."
>Janna making a hard effort to hold back her ecstatic smile, slowly walked over to Marco. "I knew you'd see things my way. Maybe I'll tell Jackie about this and score you a few points wi-"
>"Hey now wait a second there Janna, every man has his price remember?" Marco remarked.
>Janna gritted her teeth a bit and a slight grimace stretched across her face. "Oh yeah, of course! I didn't forget about that. So what's the catch?"
>"I'll fix up ol' Marco Tediaz for you for sure!" Marco said as he gently accepted Marco Tediaz from Janna. He gave the teddy bear a little squeeze before responding, "IF you can tell me why this fluffy fella means so much to you."
>Janna stiffened up instantly upon hearing those words. It was not her intention to tell Marco why she wanted her bear fixed up nor was she expecting him to poke and prod around like this. To say it was a precious memento from the one she admired so was not on today's menu. Her near frozen state quickly cracked and her knees suddenly grew weak. "W-well the thing about the bear is that... n-nothing really, it'd just be a shame to let him go to waste is all!"
>Marco looked up from the bear and gave a quick glance towards Janna who was scratching her arm and trying her hardest to maintain her cool facade. "He is pretty adorable ain't he?"
>"...he sure is." Janna replied after a short pause, face blushing redder than Marco was earlier. "It would really suck if I lost him."
>Marco still wasn't sure if Janna had some ulterior motive since he had trouble recalling the last time he'd seen her act like this. She seemed so nervous and even a bit vulnerable. If this was a sincere request of hers he wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.
>"Sorry I don't remember all the details about... 'Marco Tediaz' but hey, I'm sure you got your reasons for caring about him so much and it's not my business to be asking about that. I SUPPOSE I could try my best to fix him up for you. So long as you stop breaking into my locker and stealing things. I know it's you Janna."
>As quickly as Marco had agreed to help her out, Janna was already back to her old nonchalant self. "Heh, I knew you couldn't say no to me. I'm pretty persuasive like that after all," Janna said while wiping her eyes and trying to hide her face. I'm counting on you to fix Marco up, Marco! Catch ya later tailor boy." Janna retreated immediately after speaking, not even allowing Marco to get a final word in.
>"We really should hang out more Janna," Marco said to himself as he gently tucked Marco Tediaz into his backpack. "Hmmm, I probably should have bartered for my keys back instead. Darn it!"