A/N: Decided to just skim over "Lobster Claws" and "Sleep Spells" just to get to the juicy Blood Moon Ball chapter quicker. This one is just lots of prep, with lots of filler to lead up to the big event. I'm very excited to start writing the ball and kickstart Luma and Jackie's relationship while also giving Starco some early momentum, even moreso than the show itself.
Have suggestions? Leave a review/comment!
animegamefanatic: Luma would have a field day with the MHC in Season 3B lol. I honestly don't know yet whether Luma would want magic gone, but that's so far out anyways, so I have lots of time to flesh that out.
CrimsonSylvan: Chapter 15 answered your question, I guess.
Guest: Here you go!
Chapter 16: Blood Moon Ball Part 1 - Luma Gets a Date
Sunday, at the Diaz household…
I was on the phone with Jackie in me and Star's room, while Marco, Ferguson, and Alfonzo were downstairs messing with Star's mirror.
"...I literally don't care what anyone says. That concert last night was awesome!"
"Yeah, I agree. Honestly, I would never have thought you were a fan of Bebe Rexha."
"Yeah. Aren't I full of surprises."
"Anyways, I gotta go. See you in school tomorrow, I guess?"
"Yeah. See you then."
"Stay amazing."
Jackie hung up then, which left me to my thoughts, which nowadays revolved around the Blood Moon Ball, which was coming up fast! The event, true to its name, was scheduled for this Friday, the same day as a "supermoon" lunar eclipse. I wanted to take Jackie to that ball, but there were a few problems.
That I didn't have an invitation…
And that me and Jackie weren't exactly… "a thing" yet.
Thing is, I'm still kinda trying to respect the fact that Marco still has a crush on her, despite him letting things happen between us and not caring if things do turn out great for us. Marco himself suggested the idea of asking Jackie out, which was something I'm still very nervous about even if it were someone else, like Janna or Sherry.
Laughter erupted from below, freeing me from my thoughts as I looked at Marco and his buddies hanging out making prank calls with Star's mirror. By then, Star had joined the group, and Ferguson told Marco to make another one. As the mirror rang, I joined them as well.
"I'm sorry, but you have exceeded your minutes," a pixie customer service woman answered. "Your mirror service has been temporarily suspended. Please visit our office in Pixtopia to settle your bill."
Star gasped. "No! What if my mom tries to call me? She's gonna freak!"
"Oh, sorry, Star. That's my bad. The calls were totally my idea," Marco owned up.
"Classic Marco," I chuckled.
"Marco, you messed up! Now you're just like me. Yeeeees…" Star teased.
"What? No! I-I made one mistake," Marco defended himself.
"Hey, don't be ashamed, Marco. A wise man once wrote: 'Everybody makes mistakes! Everybody has those days'," I quoted Hannah Montana.
Star continued teasingly giggling towards Marco.
"You two can be mess-up twins!" I suggested.
That caused Star to explode in laughter.
"What? Man, I ain't no twin. I'm... I'm... I'm Marco Diaz, only child! Besides, you're her twin, not me!"
Neither me nor Star would have it. Both of us glared at Marco with an expression that was a cross between mischievous and teasing.
"...Okay, where are your scissors? Let's go pay your bill," Marco gave up.
Star opened a portal to Pixtopia with Pony's scissors.
"Hey, I'm gonna stay behind on this one. I've gotta deal with something by myself," I told Star.
"No sweat, bro!" Star nodded, understanding.
Ferguson and Alfonzo immediately rushed up to Star and Marco. "You gotta take us with you! This dimension is so boring!"
"Oh, sure," Star seemed on board with that, too.
"Going into portal land, teenage boys are holding hands!" they sang as they went through the portal.
"Mess-up twins secret handshake!" Star offered Marco, who refused… and went through the portal; Star followed after him, leaving me to confront my own problem head-on:
Asking Star's ex-boyfriend, Prince Thomas Lucitor, for an invitation to the Blood Moon Ball.
"Maybe I should've thought this one through…" I realized. With the scissors in Pixtopia with Star and Marco, and Star's mirror effectively out of commission, that left one more option for me, which, thankfully, did not go through Pixtopia; rather, it worked through a joint effort between T-Mobile and Reflectacore. Thank Mewni for that, at least.
"Hello, is this the Lucitor residence?"
An unintelligible series of grunts and screeches was my response. I couldn't really determine who or what was making those noises, but it did sound somewhat like a mix between a cat and some type of large bird.
"Um, hello?" I checked my phone's signal, which was weak, but good enough to prevent call drops.
More screeching was heard, before another voice, clearly either English or Mewman, was heard in the background. The screeching voice and the other voice seemed to be arguing or something, before a new voice spoke up.
"Sorry about that. My mom doesn't know English at all. Anyways, who is this?"
"Um… it's Luma. Luma Butterfly. And no problem. It makes sense that English isn't a common language in the Underworld."
"Oh, it's you." The voice turned bitter immediately, and I knew right then it was Tom on the other end.
"What do you mean, 'it's me'?"
"You should know by now. I don't want anything to do with you Butterflies anymore."
"Does this have anything to do with Star breaking up with you? Because if it does, you need to listen up."
"I don't need your sympathy. You can just leave me alone."
Ignoring that comment, I continued.
"Listen, I'm just gonna cut to the chase. This is about the Blood Moon Ball."
"Wait, how do you know about that?"
"Queen Moon," I replied simply.
"Oh. Right. So what do you want from me then?"
"I'd like to come. It sounds like fun!"
"Ugh, of course. And this, coming from 'Prince Stays In His Room Doing Nothing All Day'. Why do you wanna go all of a sudden?"
I chuckled a bit at Tom's bickering, then dropped the bomb on him (and to be honest, myself). "I wanna take this girl I'm interested in."
"You have a date?"
"Well, not technically. I wanted to make sure I had an invite before making my move."
"And rub it in my face that your sister broke up with me?" Tom replied jealously.
"Hey there. I'm not that insensitive. I just thought it would be kinda fun and kinda cute…" I trailed off, thinking about me and Jackie at the dance.
Tom fell silent on the other end, maybe thinking about my request,
"Well… I'll let you come, on one condition."
"Lemme guess: Star comes too?"
"Darn it! Smart kid. But yes, I wanna try again with Star. Trust me, I've been trying to be less of a hothead."
"Kinda ironic coming from a dude from the Underworld," I teased.
"Yeah… In fact, my new life coach is coming in today."
"Okay, that's good I guess…"
"Don't worry about transportation. I'll have a carriage come your way Friday at 7:30. Just worry about your date, and I'll worry about mine."
"Sounds good. Talk to you then?"
"Sure."
With that settled, it's time for phase 2: securing my date. I decided to wait for tomorrow for that, which meant sitting around doing nothing for a few hours while Star and Marco handle things over in Pixtopia. So I laid on the couch binging Amphibia and The Loud House, until at some point, I heard a crash in the backyard.
Great. Now I gotta deal with Ludo…
Coming outside, sure enough, Ludo and his goons were waiting for me.
"Hey, Stink-o! Ready to get pummeled for the hundredth time?" I taunted.
"Not gonna happen. Today, you and Star's wands will be mine!" Ludo responded. Deer Beard grunted in agreement.
"Speaking of Star, where the heck is she?"
"I'm not telling! And I've said before and I'll say it again. Just cause Star's not here doesn't mean I still can't kick your tails. Observe!"
I readied my wand, which glowed bright royal blue.
"Narwhal Blast!" Firing one of Star's specialty spells at the group, the battle was on.
The spell hit the group like a bowling ball, knocking down everyone but Spike Balls and the giraffe monster, who was still in a neck brace from the Squirrel Hill Tunnel incident a few days back.
"Awww, 7/10 split," I quipped.
Buff Frog got to me first, attempting a rolling kick that I dodged easily. The two headed monster did manage to land a hit, but it barely made a dent despite the size difference. A quick Crystal Dagger Heart Attack blew him away.
"Get that wand! Get the wand!" Ludo cried out.
As the battle progressed, it became clear that, as usual, Ludo was losing badly.
"Hey, y'all going easy on me or something? C'mon, bring it!"
Lobster Claws was next. He attempted to grab me with his claws, at one point almost successfully getting to me, until we noticed we were out of the view of the others.
At which point Lobster Claws said, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Remember that time at Quest Buy?"
"Yeah, why?"
"The Amphibia finale is this Friday. We're still on for that?"
"Actually…"
Big Chicken found us, but was quickly dispatched by a Mega Fire Blast.
"...I might have a date Friday. I can DVR it though, and we can watch it on Saturday morning. Gotta watch out for spoilers though."
"Ooooh, a date! Sounds neat. I understand, dude. Have fun!"
"Thanks, man."
We then shook hands.
"Hey, when we go back, can you do that thing Maui did to Moana to make it look like we were in one on one or something?"
"Better idea. Spinning Hydro Cannon!"
Lobster Claws was fired back into the yard, coincidentally knocking him into Ludo. Lobster Claws growled, but secretly gave me a thumbs up.
"Get off me!" Ludo yelled from underneath Lobster Claws.
As he did, the group as a whole, sans Ludo, Lobster Claws, and Big Chicken, performed one last charge.
"Grand finale time. Ready for it?"
About a second passed with no verbal response besides the monsters' charging cries.
"White-Out Dragon's Wind!"
A pearl white dragon-shaped wind cloud blew outward, spewing snow in its path, and collided with the monsters with very large force. The spell wound up being so powerful, it blew the monsters through the yard's wooden fencing and damaged most everything in its path, including chunks of asphalt and concrete from the road and sidewalk behind our house.
"...Oops," I chuckled sheepishly. "I'll fix that later."
Ludo and his army were tattered from my spell. However, as they'd been blown across the yard and the road behind it, almost into the yard across that, so I couldn't even hear what they were talking about as they made their retreat back through a portal.
"Butterflies: 650, Ludo: 0. See you next time on Magic Battle Royale…"
The next day, before school, me, Star, and Marco were just hanging out outside Stony Creek Middle School. Star managed to switch service providers for her mirror, which was great. Meanwhile, Alfonzo somehow got betrothed to the Pixtopia empress. It did make for a neat story, but I couldn't help but wonder if that relationship would last very long.
Jackie rolled up to us and greeted, "Hey, Butterflies! How y'all doing?"
"Nice! I managed to beat Ludo. Again. It's kinda fun, but kinda annoying at the same time," I replied.
Jackie and Star nodded, understanding.
"Hey, Star?" Marco got her attention. "We should get to class."
Star said nothing, but followed Marco as he walked away.
"So, what else has been going on?" Jackie asked me.
"Not a whole lot. But listen. I gotta ask you something," I managed to let out through slight nervousness.
"Sure, let it go, dude."
"So, you know how the Butterfly Fan Club's been talking about this thing called the Blood Moon Ball?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
I gathered up all my courage and dropped the bomb, "I want to take you to it."
"You mean, like a date?" Jackie seemed… well, she seemed like she actually liked the idea.
"Well, y-yeah…"
"Sweet. I'll gladly come. I think it'll be fun," Jackie ruffled my hair a bit.
"Okay, nice. Hopefully I don't 'pull a Star' on this one. Seriously, I never thought I would-" I started, but Jackie interrupted.
"Dude, chill out. This is also gonna be my first real date, too."
"Really?"
"Yeah… but that's mostly cause 'Safe Kid' over there never really talked to me, let alone ask me on a date."
"Yeah, I don't know what's up with that. First he's all gaga over you but too afraid of doing anything, and now he's all 'Go get 'em, Luma, cause I never could figure it out for myself'. Like that's gonna work well…"
We shared a few laughs at that.
"Tell me about it. In fact, if you weren't around, I probably would've just gotten tired of waiting for him to make a move and ask him myself."
"Speaking of, you okay with going out with me and not Marco? I mean, you seem pretty interested in him… not that I blame you or anything…"
Jackie simply chuckled. "Dude, you're way cooler. Besides, I have a feeling he's gonna end up with another girl…" she glanced at Star.
"Yeah, I can see it too," I agreed, having had that exact impression a long time ago…
Tuesday was incredibly uneventful. No magical misadventures, no visits from Ludo, nothing out of the ordinary even by Mewnian standards. There was a Stanley Cup Final game, at least, but the series was tied 2-2 and it didn't even involve teams that I was remotely interested in.
Wednesday, Star had to deal with Lobster Claws and his attempts to become a hero, but I didn't really participate, instead giving myself to a Loud House marathon ahead of a special of some sort.
Thursday wasn't too eventful either, apart from some weird princess trying to steal Star's face - literally - but somehow, I'd slept through the entire ordeal. Tom called me at some point to set up the details concerning my invite to the Blood Moon Ball, but besides that, the penultimate episode of Amphibia was all I really paid attention to.
Now, it's Friday morning, the day of the ball. The moon, which was for some reason, was a red crescent in the middle of the day, was high in the sky opposite the rising sun.
Class hadn't started yet, but the students, including me and Star, were sitting in the classroom waiting, when suddenly the door opened to a pink-haired demon I instantly recognized as Tom. He was wearing an admittedly nice black tuxedo and sunglasses. He moved a random student out of the way, and greeted Star.
This dude is a master of dramatic entrances, I thought to myself.
Tom took off his sunglasses and greeted Star.
"Hello, Star. I'm here to take you…"
A red crescent moon made of flames came from his palm.
"...to the Blood Moon Ball."