•Marshall•

"Fionna," I whisper, running my hand through her golden locks. She looks at me through her deep, crystal-blue eyes that I can just stare into forever.

"Yes, Marshall?" she whispers back.

"I really want to kiss you right now. Can I kiss you right now?"

Fionna smirks at me, giving me a devious look. "Only if you catch me," she says before she suddenly takes off.

I laugh as I run after her. "Fionna, good glob, wait up...!"

Eventually I catch up to her and tackle her in the thick grass and we roll down a hill together.

I have her trapped in my arms as she tries to wiggle herself free and fails.

"M-Marshall...!" she laughs. "Let go of me...!"

I lean down so my mouth is near her ear. "Never. I'll never let my little bunny go," I whisper.

Fionna smiles at me. "I think you've earned that kiss, then."

I lean in closer. "I think so." I lean in until our lips are only centimeters apart, one slight movement and we would be kissing.

I lean in closer and closer and closer until...

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

What the junk...?

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

An... alarm clock...?

"Marshall, wake up!"

I immediately spring awake and look around my surroundings.

I'm not in a field.

I'm in the tree house.

And I'm not with Fionna.

I'm with Finn.

I back away from him. "Dude, why the hell did you wake me up? I was in the middle of a... dream..."

"Yeah. I heard; you were moaning Fionna's name in your sleep." Finn makes a face like he is about to puke. "Just... try to keep that to yourself and not moan it for everyone to hear... okay? Ain't no one wanna hear that."

My eyes widen as I'm pretty sure my cheeks turn red. Ever since Finn told me I am in love with Fionna and I realized it's definitely true, things have been... different.

Like, I've been dreaming about Fionna more than usual.

And I've been enjoying it. Like, a LOT.

"Did I... did I really do that...?" I gulp. I had obviously enjoyed dreaming about Fionna again. But I had no idea I ever moaned her name in my sleep...! I really hope she didn't hear me... God forbid if she did...

Suddenly, Finn starts to chuckle, and eventually he is laughing. "I'm just kidding, Marshall...! You should've seen your face though! Priceless...!"

I want to punch him.

"You bastard..."

Finn smiles. "Aw, come on, Marsh, you know you love me~!" he sings.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, yeah...," I say. "So, I wasn't saying Fionna's name in my sleep...?"

"No, you were, you just weren't moaning it sexually, which I think is a good thing for all of us. Because, if you had been, I definitely would've puked," Finn says.

Thank glob I wasn't moaning her name... I would've been hearing about it the rest of my immortal life if I had...

"OKAY EVERYONE, RISE 'N SHINE! I KNOW YOUR ALARM WENT OFF SO HURRY UP, GET READY, AND GET YOUR BUTTS DOWN HERE! BREAKFAST ISN'T GONNA EAT ITSELF...!"

Cake.

I scratch the back of my head, confused. "Um, why did an alarm go off...?"

"Dude, did you seriously forget today is the first day of school? Does that ring a bell...?" Finn asks like I was stupid.

I roll my eyes again. "Oh. Yeah. That..." I grumble.

It had taken us all an entire day to clean up the kitchen and living room in the tree house, and after that the days seemed to go by in a blur.

Staying in the tree house and living with Cake, Jake, Finn, and especially Fionna has been a challenge--I had to try to look Fionna in the eye and act like we were still nothing more than friends when I know I want to be more than that.

Plus, sharing a bathroom with all these people has really been hell.

Luckily, the renovations in our cave are almost finished so Marceline and I can move back in soon.

"Well, we better get ready and get down there or Cake will come up here and drag us down there herself," Finn says.

I nod. "You're right. Let's go."

We approach the bathroom door, ready to go inside and get ready. Finn turns the door handle but it doesn't move.

It is locked.

Finn bangs his fist on the door. "Who's in there? We need to get ready...!" he shouts.

The door opens an inch to reveal Marceline's face and Fionna in the background standing next to the sink, putting her hair up in a long ponytail.

Marceline holds a hairbrush in her hand and looks like she had been brushing her long raven-black hair when we interrupted. "What do you boys want?"

"We seek passage to Narnia, O wise Gatekeeper," Finn says sarcastically. I snort.

Marceline glares at us.

Finn rolls his eyes. "Um, in case you didn't hear me shouting, we need to get ready for school, DUH."

"Well, sorry, but no--Fionna and I are still getting ready, so you'll have to wait," Marceline says.

"You sure we can't just come in and join you?" I ask.

Marceline heaves a sigh and lowers her voice to a whisper. "Look, Marshall, I get you're infatuated with Fionna and all, and that's cute. But you can't expect me to let you into the bathroom the same time she's about take her pajamas off and put her clothes on, so don't be a pervert, please," she says.

My eyes immediately widen.

What...?

"You know?" I gasp. Then I turn to Finn and give the most menacing glare I can. "YOU TOLD HER."

Finn backs away slowly. "Dude, I swear--"

"Chill the hell out. He didn't tell me anything, Marshall; I already knew," Marceline scoffs. "Jeez, what do you think I am--stupid?"

I just stare at her, unblinking. "B-But... I thought..." is all I can get out.

Then the bathroom door shuts before I get to say anything else.

"Gosh, what is it with girls and getting ready? They take hours when it literally takes us five minutes... We should get access to the bathroom first...!" Finn says.

I ignore him. "Good glob, how many people know about that?!" I shout at nothing.

Finn shrugs. "Apparently, just enough."

-------------------------

We all race down the stairs and head towards the kitchen table where breakfast is waiting for us.

Finn and Fionna stare at the several waffles in front of us. "Mathematical!" they say together.

"I know, I know, my waffles are always amazing...! No need to thank me...!" Cake says. "But you can keep going if you want to."

We all wolf down the several waffles in front of us, and we are ready to walk out the door and head to school. Luckily, school is a walking distance so it won't take us long to get there.

After we say our goodbyes to Cake and Jake, we all head to school.

In just fifteen minutes of walking, we make it—Conquest High.

Otherwise known as the home to your every day jocks, nerds, geeks, freaks, popular girls, and many other cliques I don't have the energy to think about right now.

The second you step on school grounds, you can feel it.

Goodbye summer, hello prison.

As we start towards the school building we notice all the different groups and cliques are already merging together and doing what they usually do—the jocks goofing around by throwing various items at people, the nerds already studying for mid-terms, and the popular girls gossiping.

Fionna rolls her eyes. "There's Breakfast Princess..."

We all turn to the group of popular girls to see Breakfast Princess standing to the side; she is basically second-in-command.

The clique's real leader is standing front and center.

Ashley.

The second I see her, I immediately duck down behind Fionna. "Hide me."

"What?"

"I said, hide me," I nod my head at Ashley. "Bitchy ex. Standing right next to BP."

Fionna turns back to the group and her eyes land on the witch. "Oh my glob. I still can't believe Ashley is hanging around Breakfast Princess and her group of Barbie dolls..."

"I know, me either. I mean, back when I still dated Ash and hung out with Ashley, Ashley told me she hated people like Breakfast Princess and her group of princess-Barbies... Well, since our first year at Conquest, she apparently doesn't hate them anymore..." Marceline says. Breakfast Princess and Ashley are over there chatting like they are BFFs or something, which, no matter how many years we've seen it, still surprises us.

"Well, there's Ash. It looks like he still does whatever Ashley tells him to," Marceline continues, and we all look closer at the group and indeed see Ash with them. Marceline glares. "God, I hate him SO MUCH."

It's still very surprising to see Ash and Ashley hanging around Breakfast Princess's group, mainly because, while Ash and Ashley didn't go to public school and instead went to a private school exclusively for witches and wizards as we were going to high school in the Nightoshere, they'd told us several times before that they hated fake people, people like Breakfast Princess. Had they gone to our high school, there's no doubt they would've been in Marcy and I's old clique--the clique that included basically all the troublemakers.

Then again, Marceline and I don't exactly hang around with the troublemakers anymore.

Still, even after three years of seeing it, it isn't natural seeing Ashley and Breakfast Princess talk and laugh together like besties.

"Oh great. Not only do we have to deal with Breakfast Princess, but Ashley as well, as freaking usual..." Fionna grumbles.

"Don't forget Ash..." Marceline glares at him like she is trying to burn a hole in his head.

Which, I must admit, I'd like to see happen.

"Oh joy," Finn says sarcastically. "I honestly can't tell which one is worse--Breakfast Princess, or Ashley."

"That's easy--Ashley, obviously," I say.

"Ugh, definitely. Her and her asshole brother. Glob, I can't believe I ever dated him..." Marceline says.

Ash and Ashley, the wizard and witch--Marceline and I had dated them years ago up until the point when they selfishly decided to sell Marceline and I's prized stuffed animals, Hambo and Hamba, to a witch.

You think that's nothing? Well, that's just the beginning.

At one point, they both stole memories from our brains and tricked us into thinking we were still dating.

It's a long story. However, to shorten it, Finn and Fionna saved us.

Luckily, we have been able to avoid Ash and Ashley for most of high school in Ooo, so that's been nice.

I just hope we can do the same for this year too...

"I can't believe I ever dated Ashley. But, hey, we all have our demons," I say. "Also, at least yours didn't cheat on you with about every guy you know."

Marceline shrugs. "I dunno... I've had my suspicions about Ash... I'm pretty sure somewhere along the line he cheated on me plenty."

Fionna puts a hand on both our shoulders. "Hey, cheer up, you guys! The hard part is over. You're not dating them anymore. They're out of your lives for good. So, we're all good here," she says.

I smile down at her.

She smiles back.

"Okay, thanks, Fionna... But can we hurry up and get inside the building already before Ash and Ashley see us?" Marceline says, clearly eager to get as far away from them as possible.

I am too.

So we all immediately usher ourselves inside without so much as glancing back at Ashley or Breakfast Princess.

"So we've seen Breakfast Princess--what about Breakfast Prince? Is he around here?" I ask, looking around for Breakfast Princess's stuck-up brother.

"Yeah, but you know he doesn't typically hang with his sister," Fionna says. "Besides, who cares? He's nowhere near as bad as Breakfast Princess--he's just really stuck-up, that's all. So, it doesn't really matter."

"Well, yet another year at Conquest High is starting out just awesome," Finn says, yet again, sarcastically. "All our worst enemies are still hanging out together, probably still plotting against us."

If our worst enemies plotting against us (not for the first time) is what our last year of high school has in store for us, then just about anything else is looking pretty good right now.

But we'll see.