SvsTFOE - Step Two

It was night time at the Diaz residence. The house was silent aside a faint snoring could be heard humming in the air, that snoring came from the Princess of Mewni herself, Star Butterfly. Aside her there was someone else at home at that time, it was a young boy resting in bed, suffering from a broken arm and a critical case of boredom.

The boy got up from his bed and reached his phone, he dialed some numbers on it and waited for a response.

"Hello?" Said the voice on the phone.

"Hi, Ferguson, it's me, Marco." He answered. "I was wondering if you could come over and hang out for a bit."

"Sorry, Marco, no can do. Alfonzo is helping me with a routine for the school spirit committee, they need me, I am the mascot!" Ferguson said excited.

"You're still doing that opossum stuff?! Anyway... bummer then, I am just bored out of my mind and pretty much alone at home." Marco said sounding disappointed.

"What about Star? or your parents?" Ferguson asked.

"Star is still asleep because the whole arm fiasco and I really don't want to bother her." Marco said.

"Oh yeah, what about your parents then?" Ferguson asked again.

Marco sighed. "They are gone on yet another of their romantic escapades, I know they love me but they left their son alone with a broken arm! I swear to god someday I will get kidnapped by monsters or something and only that will get them to pay more attention to me." Marco ranted.

The two continued to talk for a bit, then Ferguzon apologized again for not being able to go and hung up. Marco tossed his phone to the other side of the bed then looked at the clock, it was barely past 7 PM and now he had to deal with being bored for the rest of the night, so he decided he might as well try to get some sleep.

The house was really quiet, the faint sound of Star's snoring was getting easier to ignore for Marco after hearing it for a while so he noticed another very faint clicking and scratching noise coming from downstairs, the outside of the house's front door to be exact.

Marco decided to go to his window and look towards the front door from it, he saw a familiar someone curled in front of the door messing with the lock.

"Janna...?" He said recognizing the person making that noise as his classmate.

"Hm...? oh! Wasshup, Mahco!" Janna said noticing Marco up in the window. She was waving at him and had differently shaped pieces of metal wire on her hands and her mouth.

"Were... were you trying to lockpick my door!?" Marco yelled at her.

"Phtooey! Yup!" Said Janna spitting the wires she had in her mouth. "But this is nowhere near as easy as it looks on TV."

Marco groaned at how shameless Janna was.

"Just... just wait there, I will go open." Said Marco in an annoyed tone.

Marco walked down the stairs and went to the front door, he opened it and immediately saw Janna with her arms crossed and the smug expression he was used to see from her.

"What do you want?" He asked in a very annoyed tone.

"Geez, is that the way to treat a gorgeous lady that comes visit you?" Janna answered.

"You tried to lockpick my door! you could just knocked or rang the doorbell!" Marco complained.

"What's the fun in that? I wanted to surprise you so I was gonna sneak in and grace you with my presence without any warning." Janna said proudly.

"And give me a heart attack in the process!" Marco yelled back at her, then he just groaned and asked again. "What do you want, Janna?"

"Nothing really." She said looking up to the side. "I was bored and just wanted to scare you, that's all."

Marco gave her a nasty look and slowly started to close the door.

Janna quickly stopped the door from closing with her hand. "Okay, FINE! I came because I heard you were hurt and was a little concerned about you, HAPPY!?" She said very quickly.

"Wow that's... actually really nice of you, Janna, thanks." Marco said with his eyes wide in surprise, it was not common to see Janna being so sincere, still rude, but sincere none the less.

"Well I can tell you are alive so, I guess that's it, I'll be seeing you." Janna said clearly avoiding looking at Marco in the eye.

Janna turned around and started to walk away, Marco felt really bad for being so judgmental towards her, but you can't blame him, that girl was nothing but trouble and has been pulling constant pranks on him since almost as long as he can remember, so he subconsciously always thinks the worst first when it comes to her.

"Um... so, do you have some free time, Janna?." Marco asked reluctantly. "If so, wanna come in and hang out for a bit?"

Janna stopped for a moment, she internally was so glad she had her back towards Marco since she could feel that her face went thru about 20 different expressions of joy. she did her best to put on her usual smug face and turned towards Marco.

"You sure?" She said as she was turning around. "I hope you don't regret it later." She said as she was walking inside the door.

"I also hope I don't regret it later..." Said Marco in a worried tone.

Marco closed the door and Janna walked towards the living room.

Janna looked around for a bit. she felt like stretching her arms and prancing about since so many sweet memories of the place came to her, it felt like an eternity since she was here and there was nothing but good feelings this place gave her. She still kept a low profile and walked around a bit with her hands inside her pockets.

"It's quieter than a graveyard in here. What gives? Where's Star and your folks?" She said.

"Star is asleep, she stayed awake for 2 days straight trying to find a solution for my... arm problem..." Marco answered while looking at his cast. "Now she is getting a very deserved rest, so please don't get any funny ideas of messing with her or her stuff, her room is OFF LIMITS." He added in a commanding tone.

"Ah yes, your arm "problem.", such a shame its gone..." Janna said in a flirty tone.

Marco just made a face and continued explaining why he was alone. "... and as for why my parents aren't home well they..."

"...Left to a romantic escapade, right?" Janna interrupted Marco.

"Yeah..." Marco said rolling his eyes, he was still a bit angry at his parents just leaving him behind with a broken arm.

"Ahh, good ol' Don and Doña Diaz! They haven't changed at all even after all these years, still so in love." Said Janna in an unusually cheerful tone.

Marco felt confused for a moment, he hasn't heard anyone call his parents the way Janna did in a looooong time, but he could not quite put who used to call them that way or how long ago, he just shrugged the thought off and didn't gave it much mind after a moment.

"Also don't worry Marco, I don't plan to mess around with Star tonight even if she is such an easy target." Said Janna snapping Marco out of his train of thought.

"Huh...? ah yes, and I also forgot you usually like to play pranks on me and not so much on others." Marco said pointing at himself with his good arm.

Janna looked away. "Tch! I prank everyone equally, you are just a really easy target so you fall victim often," She said.

"If you say so." Said Marco annoyed and still believing Janna has something against him.

"ANYWAY!" Janna yelled. "I am bored, is there anything to do or you just invited me to be bored with you? We could always go out and hunt for some wild animals!"

Marco simply stared at her for a moment, then pointed towards his broken arm in a cast.

"Oh right..." She said disappointed. "I guess we are stuck to do "Safe" stuff then." She said doing a silly voice and a hand gesture at the word "Safe".

Marco just did a face, he started to regret inviting Janna in, but at the same time he was glad to not be alone, as annoyed as he was at her, she kept him company now that he needed it the most.

"But first!" Janna said pulling out a sharpie from her pocket, she heard Marco had a broken arm so she came prepared. "Time to sing your cast!"

Marco nervously held his arm towards her so she could start writing on it, she drew a big and very phallic looking shape pointing up with what looked like a sack in the bottom.

"WH-WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU-" Said Marco panicking.

Then Janna added some more lines and the shape turned into a fist doing a thumbs up, then she wrote "Get Well Soon!" next to it.

"What? its just an innocent drawing! Or what did you think I was gonna draw?" She said with the most obnoxious grin you can imagine.

Marco just sighed, he was used to it by now, she always pulled little pranks like this on him every time he trusted her with anything.

"You know Janna? you are nothing but trouble but, thanks a lot for hanging out with me, believe it or not I am really happy you're here." Said Marco sincerely despite also being annoyed at her overall attitude.

Janna felt incredibly warm inside at hearing Marco say that, it has been so long since the last time he told her he was happy to have her there, and while she internally did a happy pirouette her face remained unchanged on the outside.

"Cut that mushy crap already, and let's do something about this boredom already!" She said avoiding making eye contact, she was really good at this.

Marco smiled. "Well we could watch some TV or play some board games to pass the time, if you wanna that is." He said.

Janna smiled too. "That's so lame, but what can you do. I'll join you." she said trying to hide her enthusiasm, she actually was really excited to spend a normal down to earth evening with Marco like in the old times.

"We will need to clean up a bit before we start tho." Marco said.

"Let me help. we will have this done in a jiffy." Janna said as she was rolling up one of her sleeves.

"Thanks, but I don't need your help, Janna. I can handle this." Said Marco as he grabbed a broom with his good arm and a duster with his mouth.

Janna just shrugged. "Whatever." she said crossing her arms, she was used to seeing that reaction from Marco.

A few minutes later Marco was done, he pulled a board game of Operation from a drawer.

"How about we play a quick round of this one?" Marco asked holding the game box up so Janna could see it.

"Are you sure you want to play that one?" Said Janna in a worried tone. "You always got so much into it that every time you touched the edges you would start crying because you believed you killed the patient."

Marco made a shocked face. "H-how did you knew that...?" he asked completely baffled at something even he barely could remember.

Janna made an expression that mixed confusion and concern. "What do you mean with how I know that? I-"

Then she got interrupted by a very loud stomach growl coming from Marco's belly.

"uh... hahahah!" Marco laughed blushing a little. "Sorry about that, it seems that crazy arm hunger for bowels got to me, I haven't eaten anything since then. Do you mind if we go make something to eat before we start playing?"

Janna just nodded and followed Marco to the kitchen, she decided not to pay much mind to what just happened, probably was a simple mistake.

"Well. let me help you make some snacks." Said Janna once again rolling up her sleeve.

"Thanks, but I don't need your help, Janna, I got this!" Said Marco as he started preparing his trademark Marco's Super Awesome Nachos. he was so used to make them he could do so one armed no problem,

Janna just shrugged. "Whatever." she said in a very annoyed tone.

A few minutes passed and then Marco turned to Janna holding a plate with a mountain of his famous nachos.

"Ta-da!" he said excited. "Here there are! Marco's Super Awesome Nachos!" A fanfare played in his mind as he said that.

"Wow. I am very impressed you managed to make them using one arm and not messing up your clothes." Janna said then she leaned closer to Marco. "Such a shame you didn't get messed up, I was hoping I would end needing to help you change into clean clothes." She said in her usual flirty tone.

"Not now Janna, we are about to eat." Said Marco stepping away from her.

"You're no fun, you know that?" She said. "But I cant believe you still make these, it's been years since I ate them." She said as she took one nacho and ate it. "Yum! they are even better than the ones I used to make for you!" she said putting one hand on her cheek.

Marco froze for a second.

"Wait... what?" He asked being incredibly confused at what Janna just said.

"Hm? it's something wrong, Marco?" Said Janna still enjoying the nostalgic taste of the nacho she ate.

"Did you say that... you used to make THESE for me?" Said Marco while holding up the plate of nachos.

"Um... yes? Not only I used to make them for you, I taught you how to make them." Janna said a little confused at Marco's reaction.

Marco suddenly let go of the plate with the nachos, Janna saw it and thanks to her fast reflexes she caught the plate mid air before it fell and crashed into the ground.

"EEEK!! MARCO, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU THIN--, Marco...?" Janna said after catching the plate and then turning up to look at Marco, he was frozen in place staring into the ether.

"Marco... don't tell me... you really don't remember...?" Janna said as she stood up and put the nachos on the table.

"I... I..." Marco said as he struggled to remember.

"It was around ten years ago. we were playing in this very kitchen, even back then you were very organized and tidy, so I wanted to show you that food can be fun and messy too, so I grabbed some nachos and a ton of cheese and made a pile for you to try." Janna said while staring at the pile of nachos.

Marco was starting to remember slowly.

"I remember you did a nasty face when you saw the pile, but I shoved one into your mouth anyway. Then you did the most adorable face of delight ever, and said that they tasted "Super Awesome", then since I made them for you I called them "Marco's Super Awesome Nachos." it was just a dumb thing we did as kids." she added.

Then it finally clicked, Marco never stopped to think about it, but his Nachos were such a horribly messy food that completely clashed with his tidy and safe persona, so something like that could only come from Janna. who always was the one that loved messy stuff.

"We were... very close friends back then... right?" Marco said still a bit in state of shock.

Janna lowered her face and contained the urge to shed some tears. "So you did forget, huh?" She said in a sad tone that was very unusual from her.

More and more memories started returning to Marco, not only they were friends, they were near inseparable, they did almost everything together. Even before he became friends with Alfonzo and Ferguson, Janna was his original best friend back when they were very little. But why could he barely remember this?

When he thought of Janna all that occupied his mind was the Janna that always teased and pranked him, not so much the Janna that used to be his best friend.

"Don't worry marco." Janna said. "I don't blame you for not remembering, that was like centuries ago anyway." Said Janna trying to hide her sadness.

"But... what happened?" Marco asked.

"Huh?" Said Janna confused.

"What happened! If we were that good friends back then, why we suddenly grew distant?!" Said Marco in a distressed tone.

Janna was the one that froze this time, she tried to find an answer for what exactly happened that made them stop being friend and throw them into their current relation, in her mind there was the time where they were friends, then just a blank to the time when she would prank him and he would keep distancing himself from her.

Then after what seemed hours but was actually just a few seconds, something lit up in her memory.

"Step Two." She said while looking at blank space and her eyes were shaking.

"Huh? What's that?" Marco asked not understanding what Janna meant with that.

Janna just turned to look at Marco with an expression of struggle to remember something, even she had no idea of what she just said meant, but she somehow was sure it was related to why they stopped being close friends.

"Janna...?" Marco said worried.

"Ah..." Janna snapped out of it and put a hand to her forehead. "I... I'm fine don't worry, nevermind that, I think we should just go eat already."

Marco nodded and grabbed the plate of Nachos with his good hand.

"Let me help you." Janna said reaching for the plate.

"Don't worry, I don't need your help, Ja-" As Marco said that Janna quickly put her hand over Marco's hand.

"You always say that, "I don't need your help, Janna." every single time I offer you my help, I perfectly understand why you would reject my offer, believe me I know, even now that you have a broken arm I didn't protest at all when you said you didn't need my help... but could you please, just for tonight, let me help you?" Janna said with her head down and her hair covering her face.

Marco just stared at her for a moment, he could feel her hand covering his was trembling a little bit, he then let go of the plate of nachos, then took Janna's hand and guided it to hold the plate instead.

"Sure, thanks for helping me, Janna." He said in a very warm tone.

With her face still covered by her hair Janna simply smiled and a single tear rolled down her cheek, then suddenly she raised her face and yelled. "about time you stopped pretending to be a toughie, cast boy!" then she punched Marco in his arm... the one in the cast...

What followed was the entire house being engulfed in a scream identical to the one Marco let out when he originally broke his arm attempting to break wooden planks.

After Marco recovered from the pain and Janna apologized about 43 times in a row, they both rushed and peeked into Star's room, thankfully the scream didn't woke her up, she was still deep in dreamland.

Marco and Janna both let out a sight of relief and went to the living room to play board games and eat nachos.

The atmosphere was completely different from before, the two teens were laughing and enjoying their time playing and eating, they were playing the Operation game and Marco would sweat a lot during his turn, then he finally touched the edge, the buzzer went off and the nose of the "patient" lit up, Marco made a cartoony "about to cry" face in reaction to it, he clearly still thought that meant he killed the patient, Janna just looked at him with a mocking grin, then Marco would try to put a hardy face but failing and immediately returning to his about to cry face.

Janna would eat nachos at the same time as she was playing her turn, this made Marco envious because he could not do that.

"That's so unfair!" Said Marco seeing Janna eating with one hand while "operating" with the other. "I can't do that during my turn!" He said as he started his turn.

"Yes you can!" Janna said as he shoved some nachos into Marco's mouth.

Normally Marco would been both disgusted and embarrassed by Janna doing that, but it felt so nostalgic, and somehow made the nachos taste even better. He just chewed and smiled with his eyes at Janna.

After a while they stopped eating and playing the operation game, then Janna jumped onto the couch and grabbed a controller from Marco's videogame console.

"Hey, Marco! Wanna play some matches?" Said Janna waving at him a copy of The King of Iron Fist Street Virtua Gear II: Arcade Edition: Console Edition, Version 2012.

Marco replied by simply pointing at his cast.

"Oh right... wait I have an idea!" She said very excited.

Marco was not used to see Janna being so... casual, not trying to be cool or flirty or play pranks at him, in a way it was like that Janna he could barely remember was partially back.

"We can play this!" Janna said holding a copy of Lederhosen Kart.

"And how are we gonna-" Marco said as Janna rushed next to him and handed him a controller.

"Like this, you will handle the steering while I handle the gas and items, should be fun." Janna quickly said sitting next to him and starting the game.

"This is gonna be a disaster." Marco said.

They started playing, for the shock of both of them they were doing incredibly well, they had great synergy and communication and were getting better results than Marco normally does by playing normally.

"Oh my god we are about to beat by best lap time!" Said Marco getting really into the game.

"Shut up and turn left! don't get distracted! NOW! RIGHT!" Said Janna also completely absorbed into the game.

They were having so much fun they decided to give one go at every Cup in the game, when they were playing one of the less intense tracks Janna took the chance and rested her head on Marco's shoulder, Marco simply cleared his throat in an annoying way and Janna blushed and pretended to pout, lucky for her Marco was thinking back when they were little and Janna would often rest her head on him to be comfortable and that annoyed him, this time it was a little different and Janna didn't wanted to only do it because comfort.

After that they went to Marco's room to see if they found another board game to play.

"I bet you are all nervous that a girl is coming with you into your room, Marco." Janna said in a flirty tone that was a little more innocent sounding than her usual one, almost like it was more natural.

"Actually not at all." Marco said while looking for stuff in his drawers. "Star comes here all the time, I am used to girls in here."

"Bah! killjoy..." Said Janna sounding a little bit disappointed.

Then as Marco moved a few boxes around, a pretty big piece of paper flew from between them and landed at Janna's feet.

"Ooohhh... what's this???" Janna said as she picked up the paper and read it. "23 Step pla-"

"Gimme that!" Said Marco as he snagged the paper from Janna's hands. his face was bright red.

"Ooohhh... Is that some dirty secret I see, Marco!? Maybe something... dirty?" Janna said in her usual teasing tone.

"Now you start sounding like the Janna I know." Marco said. "but no is none of what you are imagining, it's... just promise not to laugh."

"I promise nothing." Janna said crossing her arms and looking smug.

"Lovely." Said Marco letting a sigh. "but Anyway, you see, there's this girl I like..."

"Jackie from our class, what else is new?" Janna said cutting him off.

"WHAAJSJHKAKJ... YOU KNEW!?" Said Marco nearly dying of shock.

"Pfff! Anyone could figure it out if they payed a bit of attention, you are not exactly subtle, Marco." Janna said in a condescending voice.

Marco just lowered his head in shame.

"Don't worry, I'm mostly teasing, I am sure Jackie doesn't know if that worries you and most people in our class have really bad attention spans to notice anyway." Janna said trying to reassure Marco a little.

"I see... that's a bit of a relief." Said Marco now being a little less worried.

"So is that paper about Jackie then?" Janna asked.

"Exactly." Said Marco as he spread open the folded paper using one arm and his mouth. "I present you my 23 step plan to get close to Jackie! I am currently on Step Four: Nodding every day!" Said Marco with legit enthusiasm.

"Hahahaha! 23 Step Plan! You are such an idiot in love!" Janna laughed at Marco's love induced silliness.

"Laugh if you want, but my plan is solid and it's bound to bear results." Said Marco as he folded his plan and tugged it into his hoodie.

"But enough about that for now, lets forget about games for now, I have a better idea." Said Janna stepping out of Marco's room.

"What do you have in mind?" Marco asked.

"How would you like a trip down memory lane?" Said Janna as she spread her arms and doing a spin, "And this house just so happen to be bursting with memories!"

After that they did a little tour around the house, Janna had tons of memories of the Diaz residence from her early childhood, Marco had long forgotten most of them so Janna was walking around the house telling them about things they did when they were kids, most of their little moments and adventures had left some kind of mark in the house, every crack in the wall, every chipped off piece of wood or concrete, every old stain, nearly all had some kind of little memory attached to it.

"See this crack on this wall near the stairs?" Janna said. "That's from when I tried to surf down the stairs using a plank of wood."

"Yes... yes I remember! I also remember I forced you wear a helmet." Marco said starting to remember more and more.

"Yep." She said. "You were an annoying Safe Kid even back then."

"You say that but this crack is from when you hit your head in the wall after your dumb stair surfing stunt!" He added. "so that helmet probably saved you from a broken skull!"

"You have a point there." She said admitting defeat. "Tho I remember that even if I was the one that crashed into the wall, you cried way more than I did." Janna smiled and thought to herself that Marco's worry for others is one of the things she loves the most about him, but she rather keep that little detail to herself.

"Makes me wonder how you even survived all these years without me talking you out of your most dangerous ideas." Marco pondered.

"Oh I have Hope for that now, she is usually the one that keeps me from breaking every bone in my body." Janna said proudly.

"So you replaced me with Hope?" Marco said in a jokingly annoyed tone.

"Oh yes! And Hope is waaaaay more adorable than you ever were, so it's a good replacement!" She said while grinning.

"Ouch... but I'll take that as a compliment." Marco said taking it as a moral victory since Janna technically just called him adorable, and back then he could never get Janna to compliment him.

Then Janna noticed a little spot under the stairs.

"Marco, look! This is where we used to hide to play Ouija!" Janna said cheerfully.

"Oh... OH! yeah you're right! I remember you always looking forward to that, even back then you loved ghost and monster stuff." Marco said remembering even more of their old time as friends.

"I remember that I always wanted to try the Ouija back then but my parents didn't allow me to get one, then Don Diaz was nice enough to buy us a board with the condition to keep it secret from your mom because she is very superstitious." Janna said trying to remember.

"Yeah, I remember that we avoided mom finding the board... by.. hmm..." Said Marco scratching his head trying to remember. "how did we did it exactly...?"

"I can't quite remember exactly..." Said Janna scratching her head too. "I think we used to hide it in..."

Then both Marco and Janna opened their eyes wide and looked at each other.

"OUR SECRET TREASURE SPOT!" They both yelled at each other in unison.

Then both of them rushed towards Marco's room, they opened the closet and removed everything at the bottom of it, then Janna removed one plank of wood from the bottom.

"It's here! I can't believe it! it's here!" Marco said in excitement at seeing the Ouija board and a little cardboard box hiding underneath the closet flooring.

"I had totally forgotten about this!" Said Janna almost tearing up. "We have to play it! right now!"

They quickly cleared up room in the floor of Marco's room and set up the Ouija board, they both were filled with an almost electrifying childlike joy, it was almost like they were transported into their past selves.

Janna put both her hands on the Ouija marker and Marco put his one hand on it too, nothing happened for a while, Marco decided to mess with Janna a little bit and stated moving the marker himself.

"OMG, OMG, OMG! MARCO LOOK! IT'S MOVING!!" Janna said almost exploding with excitement.

Marco looked at Janna and for an instant he saw her younger self clearly overlapping with her, he felt an incredible warmness overcome him, it was like seeing a long lost friend come back to you after so long.

"Look, look! It's spelling something!" Janna said. "G... O... T... C... H... A... Gotcha?" Janna said confused.

Then Janna turned to look at Marco, he had the nastiest grin this side of Janna's you have ever seen, Janna face turned bright red as she realized what happened.

"Y...Y... YOU JERK!!!" She yelled as she punched him in the arm... you know which one.

One scream, 43 apologies and one checkup on Star later...

"Oh come on! it was funny! admit it!" Said Marco.

"Hmph!" Janna just pouted still angry at him, they both really were acting like how they were back when they were little.

"So are you ready to open the box that was inside the treasure hiding spot?" Said Marco pulling out the cardboard box that was hidden along the Ouija board.

"We might as well." Said Janna still a bit angry.

Then they opened the box and looked inside, they could both instantly feel their faces burning.

"AAAARRRGHHH!!" Said Janna rolling in pain in the floor. "ITS THE ARC OF THE COVENANT OF OLD SHAMEEEE!"

"THE CRINGE! IT BURNS!" Said Marco also recoiling in pain from the sight of the box contents.

Inside the box were old drawings, old little comics they drew when they were little, among them were pure gold ones like "Super Marco saves the Universe" and "Lucha Janna vs The Vampire Women."

"Oh wow, I had forgotten we made luchador personas of ourselves," Said Marco.

"Yeah, we were very into old 50's luchador movies, I remember you were super scared of the ones featuring monsters, I would always comfort you by telling you that if a monster came to the house I would fight it off for you." Said Janna trying to not cringe at her embarrassing childhood drawn comics.

"Oh man, I would die if anyone saw these, look at this "Sweet Marc and Hella Janna", what were we thinking!?" Marco said as he checked the other drawings in there. then noticed among them was a little book.

"Hmm... what's that? Wait a second is that...!?" Said Janna recognizing the little book.

"I dont remember this at all, do you?" Asked Marco.

"Yeah, it's an old Japanese comic I gifted you a loooooooong time ago."

Then Marco remembered too. "Ah! yeah, yeah! I remember that the reason you gave it to me was because your dad gave it to you and you said it made no sense at all."

"Well, it did made absolutely no sense!" Janna complained.

"It's because you had to read it backwards, in Japan they read from right to left." Marco explained. "I remember I explained that to you even back then and you never could wrap your head around that."

"Well it's Japan's fault for being weird and reading backwards!" Janna continued to complain.

Marco started flipping pages. "I remember this, It was about a boy that had a crush on a childhood friend of his and tried to learn martial arts to impress her, this was only the first volume so I never learned if he ever got to tell the girl how he felt. I remember treasuring this but don't remember exactly why."

Janna turned around and saw Marco's Karate gi hanged in the wall. "Gee, I wonder why." She said in a very sarcastic tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Said Marco very annoyed.

"It just means that you like that comic because it's about a loser and you can relate!"

"I did not!" Marco said.

"Did too!" Janna said.

"DID NOT!" Marco yelled.

"DID TOO!" Janna yelled too.

They did not realize it but they were having an childish argument exactly like the ones they used to have as kids.

"I'm not a loser and neither is the protagonist of this comic! he has a plan to get with his crush and he probably succeeded eventually!" Marco said.

"You and that lame protagonist are just idiots in love that will never achieve anything!" Janna said.

"No! we both have plans and with perseverance will eventually fulfill our dreams!" Marco yelled.

"Bah! you dare say that when you have spend YEARS stuck in step two of your stupid pla-" Janna suddenly cut herself off.

"What? no." Said Marco as he reached into his hoodie and pulling out his 23 step plan, he held it with his mouth and pointed at it with his good hand. "See? I am currently on Step Four! not two! Janna...?" Marco said noticing that Janna was looking pale.

"I... I..." Janna took a few steps back, it seems she finally was starting to remember something she tried to earlier. "I... I'm sorry, I need to go!" She said as she dashed by Marco leaving his room and heading for the front door downstairs.

"GAH! J-Janna wait!" Said Marco starting to chase Janna, but by the time he reached the front door he could varely see her running away in the distance covered in the darkness of the night.

"Janna..." Marco said as he stood by the door of his house, he then looked down and saw something Janna left behind before.

Meanwhile on other part of town Janna reached her house, she quickly climbed to her bedroom window which she left open to get inside without waking up her parents, she started searching all over her room for old notebooks or notes. she didn't even turn of the light of her room because how much of in a rush to find that thing she wanted and the only light inside was the one from the moon that filtered through the window.

She then finally found a stray piece of paper that was caught inside a very old notebook, she looked at it and started to tear up.

"Janna's Five Step Plan to Become Marco's Girlfriend!" the paper said written in crude letters using color pencils.

There was a little annotation that said "currently here!" next to Step Two.

"Play pranks on him every day so he pays more attention to me than other girls." Janna read the writing in step two of the plan illustrated in the little paper in her hand, compared to Marco's massive one, her's was small and modest, with a few drawings illustrating every step, She remembered it all now, she actually did this the same day Marco did his own plan.

Tears starting wetting the paper as she stared at it, she also now knew the reason why Marco and her stopped being close friends.

It was because step two of her plan, rather than make him pay attention to her it drove him away slowly, she eventually forgot about the plan because unlike Marco she was very disorganized and her teasing "plan" slowly became a routine rather than a calculated act to get closer to him.

And on Marco's side he slowly replaced the friendly Janna with the one that would tease and prank him constantly in his mind, that image of her completely overcame his memories muddling the ones from their close friendship before he fell in love with Jackie and... before Janna fell for him.

"I'm... I'm such an idiot in love..." Janna said to herself as she clenched the little plan paper in her hand.

"So heff you aff!" Janna heard a voice as the same time as her bedroom door opened.

"GYAAAAAHHH!" Janna screamed at the completely unexpected visitor. "M-M-M-M-ARCO!?!? H-HOW!!"

Marco then walked a few steps into the room enough for the moonlight to illuminate his face, he had in his mouth the same wires Janna left outside when she tried to pick the lock of his house.

"I Pickffed the lockff!" Said Marco trying to speak with the wires in his mouth, he managed to pick the lock of Janna's house front door with one arm and his mouth, if he wasn't the safe kid he would make an scarily good thief.

Janna's face turned bright red after realizing those were the same wires that were in her mouth before, hence this being an, albeit nasty, indirect kiss, she was so glad her room was poorly lit so Marco could not see her face well enough to notice.

"Y-Y-Y-YOU ALSO ALMOST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK YOU DUMBASS!" She yelled at him.

Marco spit out the wires. "Shhh! you don't want to wake up your folks right? and see? this is why it's not nice to sneak into people houses!"

Janna calmed down a bit then sat down on her bed.

"So why did you came?" She asked in a serious tone.

"Geez! why the serious treatment?" Marco said. "I was just worried sick about you, you just ran away right after we had an amazingly fun time. these past few hours were some of the most fun I had in years, and also felt like I got back something that I had lost a long time ago."

"You realize that this is not how things will always be right?" Janna said in a cold yet sad tone. "we won't just magically go back to be our 6 year old selves, today was an anomaly, from tomorrow our relation will go back to being like it's been for years."

Marco simply walked forward and sat right next to Janna.

"I know, and that's exactly what I want." Marco said looking at Janna's eyes and smiling.

Janna's eyes widened a bit, she was not expecting that kind of answer.

"Today was amazing no doubt." Marco said. "Getting my old friend Janna back for a night was, if you excuse the cheesy term, a magical time."

Janna let out a small chuckle. "Well, I love me some cheese, so its fine."

"But even then," Marco continued. "I don't want the Janna that teases and pranks me gone, in a way that's the you that I have known for the longest time, yes it's true that you drive me insane sometimes, and it's also true that I have trouble trusting you."

"I don't blame you for that, don't feel bad for it. I wouldn't trust me either." Said Janna smiling.

"But despite all that." he said returning Janna's smile. "you are a very important part of my life, probably without you being around me I would never be able to accept things that go against my safe kid nature, for example without my experience dealing with you I probably would ended hating Star for all the reckless havoc she causes."

"Now you are talking crazy, no one could hate Star, she is like, joy incarnated." Janna interrupted.

"heheheh, but the point is, if you disappeared from my life Janna, the you that drives me insane and constantly pulls tricks on me, if you went away, it would be a huge hole in my being that I could never fill up with anything, so thank you for being yourself Janna and for being a part of my life for all these years."

Janna smiled and rested her head on Marco's shoulder.

Marco cleared his throat in a loud an annoying way like he did when he was little and Janna did that.

"Oh deal with it for a bit, you crybaby!" Janna said getting even closer to him.

"Fineeeee." Said Marco in a forced annoyed tone but smiling from ear to ear.

A few minutes passed, then Janna looked at the clock. it read 10:00 PM

"You know? I said that starting tomorrow things would go back to normal, but theres still a bit of the day left if you want to hang out with little Janna a bit more." She said.

"Sounds good to me!" Said Marco. "But what else is there to do?"

"Well we already relived our memories of our adventures in your house so... how about we go down a memory trip from the adventures we had all over town?" Said Janna grinning nefariously.

"Eh? but I have a broken arm! that's not safe!" Marco said nervously.

"Sorry but you threw safety out the window when you left your house and lockpicked into mine!" Janna said in a commanding tone.

"B-but.." Marco whimpered.

"Oh relax, I'll get you home before midnight, Cinderella." Janna said as she grabbed Marco and lifted him in her arms bridal style. "I will go back right into Step Two tomorrow, so tonight will be a night to remember!"

"WH-WHAT ARE YOU DOING, J-JANNA!?" Marco panicked. "ALSO WHY THE HECK ARE YOU SO STRONG!?"

"I was always this strong! and this is just because we are gonna get out of my house in my style." Said Janna while holding Marco in her arms.

"Y-your style...?" Said Marco fearing what's to come.

"Lets just say... Safety is not the only thing that will get out the window today." Janna said as she turned towards her bedroom window.

"OH NO!! NONONONONONONO!" Said Marco struggling but unable to get off Janna's grasp because his broken arm.

"IT'S JANNA TIME!!" Janna said as she dashed towards the window.

"NO, JANNA! NO!!" Marco screamed as Janna leaped off the room with him in her arms.



A scream of sheer terror echoed thru Echo Creek that night as two teens with souls of little kids flied thru the air.

Don't worry dear reader, they landed just fine and went to have a cute adventure filled with childlike joy and sweet, sad and warm memories of simpler times.

Those two were so different, and yet so similar.

After all, they both were idiots in love.


-T H E  E N D-