Author's Note: This is a response to a prompt I filled on Tumblr. I can't link it here, but it turned out better than I thought it would! There is a second part I'll upload soon, but I currently have no plans to turn it into a full-length fic.

Here's the prompt from Tumblr account danphanwritingprompts: Star can't help but find Danny Fenton to be a curious oddity when she's assigned to tutor him in math.

Star Error

If Fenton didn't show up in exactly two minutes, Star was going to leave.

She drummed her pen against his name on her tutoring list, the last one. She technically wasn't allowed to leave until her session was completely over, but she wasn't about to wait on this dorkus. Her throat was already sore from talking for ninety minutes straight.

He finally walked into the classroom. Star turned from the table with a scowl. "You're late. But of course you are. You're late to everything."

Fenton's hand clutched tight at his backpack strap. "Star, um... I didn't know you were in the tutoring club when Falluca asked me to sign up."

"Yeah, well, I can't buy my way into a good university like Dash or Paulina. Need to do something a little extra to prove myself on my applications. Plus it gives me something to do after school while Paulina's at cheer practice."

"Oh, yeah!" Fenton pointed up toward the ceiling. "I actually saw her on my way here. I mean, I saw all the cheerleaders out on the field."

Star quirked a brow. He pointed up as if toward the sky, as if he saw her from the sky.

Weird.

But not any weirder than he normally was.

"So that's why you're late, huh?" asked Star. "Distracted by Paulina and all the cheerleaders?"

Fenton's mouth hung open.

"Whatever." Star rolled her eyes. "Sit down. Let's get started."

Fenton took a seat beside her at the table and pulled out a textbook and notebook from his bag. "Okay, so, um, this is for math—"

"Yeah, I know it's for math. I exclusively tutor math here; that's why you got me when you signed up."

"Oh." Fenton nodded in his usual dopey manner. "Um, well, homework tonight is all the even problems on page two-oh-six."

"We'll see how much we can get done together," said Star, looking over the textbook page. "Definitely won't be all of them, but maybe we can do like the first two."

"That's fine. Anything helps when it comes to me."

Star puffed out an amused chortle. "Yeah, I bet it does."

She shifted more comfortably in her chair and read the first question out loud. "If one light-year equals nine point five times ten to the fifteenth power meters and a cloud is in the shape of a sphere with a diameter of three hundred thousand light-years, what is the volume of this cloud in cubic meters?"

Fenton pressed his pen into his jaw. Star watched his face, scanned for signs that he had any clue at all how to solve this problem.

Nope, clueless.

Star placed a piece of scratch paper between them. "Okay, so we start with—"

"But that's not right."

Star retracted her pen from the sheet of paper. "What do you mean it's not right?"

"It's not nine point five, it's nine point four six. And even that's an estimate, a light-year is really—"

"Fenton," said Star sharply. "It doesn't matter. You're focusing on the wrong thing. Just use the numbers given to you in a word problem even if you think it's wrong because if you try to use anything else, you're going to get the wrong answer and then you'll get marked off." She shook her head. "God, no wonder you're failing math."

"I'm not failing, I just—"

"Whatever, let's just skip this problem. We'll do the next one." Star looked at the textbook again. "Two galaxies are currently a hundred thousand light-years apart and approaching each other at a speed of six hundred kilometers per second. In how many million years will the two galaxies have completely collided if they continue at the same speed?"

Star again watched Fenton's face. He nodded a couple times, appearing deep in thought.

"So it gives us some conversion equations here." Star tapped a spot on the textbook page. "So how do you think we should use them to solve this?"

"I feel we need more information than that first," said Fenton.

Star groaned. "Oh, my gosh, like what, Fenton?"

"Well, like… What kind of galaxies are we talking about?"

Star stared at him.

"Well, you know, there's different types of galaxies—spiral, elliptical—and I just think that could be a factor in what's happening here. Because they move differently, they have different rotations. And further, is there anything between them? Or anything affecting their trajectories, like other galaxies or a black hole or—"

Star's mouth twitched as he prattled. His eyes were directed across the room and didn't seem focused on anything at all. The fluorescent lighting picked up on the glitter dotting his cheekbones.

Wait, glitter? She could've sworn those were freckles before.

"Fenton, okay, stop. Calm down."

Star held up a hand. Fenton shut up immediately.

"Yeah, you're right," said Star. "In reality, there are other factors that would need to be considered, but again, this is why you probably struggle so much with math, because you keep focusing on things that don't matter."

She jabbed at the math problem in the textbook with a manicured finger.

"When you read a math problem, there's no hidden information, okay? Just take it as it is, don't overcomplicate it." She chuckled. "Actually, this is probably why you struggle so much with a lot of things, why you're so awkward all the time. Because you fuss over things that aren't important."

Fenton ducked his head. The light speckling his cheeks faded. "Sorry."

Star propped her elbow on the table. "But boy, you really like astronomy, huh?"

"Oh. Yeah." Fenton leaned back in his chair. "I really love it a lot. Since I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do is use my parents' big telescope to look at all the stars and sometimes even the planets if they're visible."

And just like that, his freckles lit up again.

"Is there a reason your freckles glow?" asked Star, scrunching her mouth.

Fenton raised his hands to his cheeks. "Oh, um—"

"Is it all that freaky ghost radiation crap you're exposed to at your house?"

"Um—well—"

"I mean, sometimes your eyes glow, too. Like I've just seen them light up sometimes." Star shrugged. "I just figured it has something to do with your parents' ghost research. Like it's just seeping into your body and making you…glow, I guess. Like a ghost."

"No, it's—um—" Fenton stood, his hand still covering the lower half of his face. The freckles on his arm and neck flickered. "I just remembered I need to—I have to—thanks for your help, but I need to go."

He kept his face turned from her while he put his things back in his bag and dashed out of the classroom.

Star stared at the closed door.

Weird.

And this time, maybe even a little weirder than he normally was.