Hello, everyone. Yeah, you're seeing it right. This is the very old My Turn: Super Paper Maria. And it's being rebooted. Again.

Because this time, I actually thought of a good ending.

So, you might notice a lot of stuff has been changed, if you've read the three-times-rebooted original story. Like for one thing, I'm putting it on a whole new story instead of just replacing chapters. For another, wow, look at all that description. My writing style's changed a lot since I last worked on this dinosaur. Thirdly, a lot of characters have been cut out of the story. (If you read the original, you might remember Alfie, Caleb, and Tallgoom. Nope. They're gone. I narrowed the list of friends down to just two best friends.)

And... that's it, I guess! Please enjoy chapter 0-1 of Super Paper Maria.

F.

It glared out from the page forbiddingly, plastered on in tacky orange highlighter just above the neatly printed, black ink title. Other than a few circled misspelled words or highlighted incorrect grammatical usage scattered through the paragraphs below, there was no good reason as to why the horrid letter should have been glowering from the top of the page for all to see. In fact, if the grammatical errors on the essay were the only errors on the page, for all intents and purposes, the letter at the top should have been at least a B. However, the small sticky note that was for some odd reason stapled to the page (what was the point if it was already sticky?) pointed out the final flaw clearly.

"'Write the story of how you decided to come to this school, and where you plan to go for high school'. You only wrote the first half of the prompt, and while it is an interesting narrative, it is once again not factual. See me after class."

Maria scowled.

The bell rung somewhere above their heads, causing the light chatter in the classroom to rise into louder conversations and laughter-it was the end of the school day, after all. Maria almost got up to go see her teacher at the front of the class, but ultimately decided it was pointless and stupid. She glared at the sharp-looking Toad woman, scribbling at something on her desk at the front of the classroom. Maria would be given the same lecture as always. "You have trouble separating reality from fiction," she would say. "Please write something factual next time." Or maybe, she thought angrily, you could try listening to me.

Maybe if someone tried listening, I wouldn't be trapped here.

In the end, sitting in the very back of the class turned out to be a good thing, because it meant she could easily sneak out unnoticed amongst the rest of the crowd of gray and blue. She'd probably get in trouble later. She didn't care. At this point, everyone would probably be going back to their dorms to change clothes (these stupid uniform pants were the worst), and then to find some place around the grounds to hang out until dinner. Wednesday, she thought miserably. Still Wednesday. Just two more days.

'How you decided to come to this school', the prompt had read. Yeah, because she decided to go to Amanita Academy, clear out on the other side of the Mushroom Kingdom, away from her family and friends. Everyone here was so much different than they were in Toad Town-maybe it was because they were so close to Dark Land. The school was mostly populated with Koopas and Goombas, mingled with other species despite the incredibly scarce amounts of Toads; as far as Maria knew, she was almost the only human in the school. The species gap alone would have been enough to separate her from her peers, but there was another reason why the weird human girl with the braid was a freak who didn't have any friends.

As for 'where do you plan to go to high school'? Yeah, funny. It wasn't like she'd have a say where she went.

Maria hitched her backpack up higher as she finally got out of the building and onto the front lawn of the school- the backpack was the same one she'd been using since 6th grade, when she had come to this school. Now it was March, and she was a frustrated 8th grader with 13 years under her belt and a longing to not be tied down anywhere. Did they not realize keeping all this- this raw sense of adventure cooped up in a boring old boarding school was a bad idea? Man, she needed to get out of here.

Her thought process was interrupted by a sudden blow to the head, and down she went with a yelp of pain, collapsing onto all fours by just barely catching herself in time. A chorus of laughter sounded somewhere behind her, and immediately Maria's already frustrated spirits curdled and soured like rotten milk. She knew who that was.

"Nice Headbonk, Goombrielle!" someone crowed from several feet behind her.

A snicker followed. "Guess I got the first strike," a voice mocked.

Another ripple of laughter followed, this one louder than the last; everyone nearby knew exactly why this was so funny. In fact, as Maria pushed herself up into a standing position, there were already a small circle of people crowding around to watch. Some looked eager or curious, and others looked worried- but they sure weren't doing anything to help. In fact, most of the crowd simply tried to walk around the circle to reach their dorm buildings. Maria scowled again and turned to look at her assailant. There were a few Koopas and Goombas, but she didn't care about them. She cared about the Goomba in front, with the dark auburn hair and the blue barrette. And she knew that the Goomba only had eyes for her at the moment- that is, for the purpose of mocking her.

"Happy Wednesday," Goombrielle simpered, with an equally simpering smile. "How was your essay, Marie?"

Maria scowled again- she hated being called Marie- but she lifted her chin. Someone must have told her what score she'd gotten on her essay. So that was the attack plan for today- make her look stupid. "It was great," she said stubbornly, clutching the paper tight in her hand. "Best thing I've ever written."

"Really?" Goombrielle's smile widened. "Did Ms. Riquette T. say so?"

Maria shot backwards as quickly as she could when a Paratroopa near by flew toward her, ready to defend herself if she had to, but she was so focused on defending herself that the essay was easily snatched from her hand. The Paratroopa easily circled back around and stopped by Goombrielle to hand it off to her. Goombrielle took the essay with a smug smile and scanned the page with pale blue powdered, half lidded eyes.

"Trapped in Amanita, by Maria Mason. Wow, Marie, where's your school spirit?" Goombrielle mocked again. "Oh, yeah, great grade you got there, too. That's a biiiig step up, getting an F."

"Shut up." Maria's fingers curled tightly around her bookbag straps. No, she changed her mind, this wasn't about the grade and it sure wasn't about school spirit. This was about her 'weird girl who's obsessed with Mario' status.

"But this is such a lame topic. 'I'm Mario's cousin', again. Ugh, grow up, this isn't third grade anymore." Goombrielle rolled her eyes. "No one cares about your stupid fan fiction and you act like it's so stupid you got an F. Grambi, just die already or something, quit acting like you're too good for us."

She could get in so much trouble for that last sentence. So, so much trouble. But Maria knew no one would listen to her. "I got an F for telling the truth," Maria growled.

"You got an F because you're an attention seeking wh-"

"Goombrielle, hey." A new voice spoke up, and Maria was relieved to see a pale yellow skinned Koopa girl pushing through the crowd. She wore a pair of sunglasses, but they hung on a black lanyard around her neck- one that was just as black as her shell and her boots. Even in her ugly school uniform, she managed to make the action of tossing back her heavy waves of raven hair look attractive; after all, the whole school knew Tatum Koopsey was not only the richest girl in school, she was also widely known as the prettiest. The crowd, and Goombrielle, shifted stance at her approach.

"How are you?" Tatum asked politely as she made her way forward to stand next to Maria. "Had a nice week?"

Goombrielle gave Tatum a wary stare. It was a great disadvantage to her, after all, that the richest, most sought after girl in the school also happened to be one of Maria's best friends. "...Fine," she muttered finally.

Tatum smiled calmly. It was amazing how it really managed to reach her red eyes even with the heavy atmosphere. "That's great. I'll see you at dinner, then, right? Have a good one."

Maria followed her quickly back through the now quiet circle of people. Somehow she was relieved and annoyed at the same time, and not because Tatum had come to her rescue. Only when they were several feet away and nearing their dorms did she turn her head to look backward. The small circle had dispersed. Goombrielle was probably done making fun of her for the day. "...Thanks," Maria said finally, as she took a couple of long strides to walk next to Tatum.

"What happened?" Tatum queried, frowning. "Goombrielle doesn't normally round up an entire crowd."

Maria opened her mouth to tell Tatum not to worry about it, but somehow, the entire story of her essay grade spilled out anyway.

Tatum just sighed. "I wonder why this town can't mind their own business."

Maria's stomach dropped. She wouldn't blame Tatum for being fed up with her, but… "So, do you, like… still believe me?"

"Yeah, I do." Tatum glanced over at Maria, automatically filling her with relief. "How can I not? I did a lot of research." She grinned. "The first and last time I'll do that for anybody."

A weak grin spread across Maria's face as one hand sheepishly tugged at her braid. It still felt bizarre that Tatum had been the only person in the 6th grade to look into her genealogy for the sake of finding out if she had been telling the truth or not. Unfortunately, now that they were in 8th grade, she was still the only one who had bothered. No one knew the truth- that "Maria Mason" was actually Maria Mario, younger cousin of the Mushroom Kingdom superstar, under an alias to prevent her from getting into some kind of trouble.

Her coming to Amanita K-8 Academy since 5th grade was to "protect her", he and Luigi had said, but Maria thought it was a frankly very stupid idea. Just because she had run away from home (and saved the kingdom! Did no one remember?) when she was nine years old didn't mean she was going to get herself killed. Ridiculous. Nothing bad had happened last time, why now?

"...But I don't blame them." Tatum's smile faded. She stopped when they reached the top of the steps to the girls' dormitories, glancing up at the faded metal doors. "I mean, you don't look much like him. Or Luigi. Mario's a little round, and you… you said yourself you couldn't put on a pound if you tried."

"Hey, I have brown hair," Maria defended, not even looking away as she pushed a door open.

"It's caramel. Mario's is chocolate," Tatum said matter-of-factly. She stepped inside as Maria held the door open, then glanced over her shoulder and watched as she followed her inside. The pair of them began to head for the stairs. "There's a difference."

"Dude, I thought you wanted to be an artist, not a… candy inspector or something." Maria grinned at her winningly.

Tatum rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you know what I mean." She paused, and then, appearing to not be able to help herself, added, "Also, their eyes are royal blue, and yours are cyan."

"Grambi, shows what I get for asking an artist!"

Tatum stuck her tongue out at her. "Then pay more attention in art class. You might actually be able to color-coordinate an outfit."

"Soon as you wear something other than black," Maria teased in return. Her mind was now far away from essay grades and annoying bullies; how easy it was for her to ignore what she didn't care about.

"Black is sophisticated," Tatum defended.

"I thought orange was the new black."

"Nnnn, gross."

They continued on like this, bantering back and forth in a friendly, teasing volley, until they reached their dorm room. When they did, and Tatum fished her dorm key out from their purse (Maria's was lost somewhere in the sea of her backpack) and unlocked the door. The door swung open at Tatum's mercy to reveal a lanky human girl standing near a bed on the far side of the room, with her arms and her shirt stuck over her head, muffled slurs and expletives escaping her as she writhed and struggled to pull off the uniform shirt. Maria just blinked at the sight.

"Sable?" Tatum called out with amusement as she shut the door behind them.

"I'm kind of busy," the girl growled out in response. She gave another valiant tug at the shirt. "Hold up."

"Didn't you unbutton it?" Maria asked, grinning as she walked over to help her other best friend and roommate. The reason she was almost the only human in the school was thanks to Sable, who, as far as they both knew, was the only other human at Amanita Academy. Unlike Tatum, who lived a very upper-class life, Sable had swapped frequently from foster home to foster home her entire life, often living poor, and had gotten into Amanita by being anonymously funded owing to her genius intellect. But right now, Maria thought with a snicker, she sure wasn't acting like a genius. She reached out to unbutton the collar of the shirt and ended up reaching out for nothing when Sable whipped backward.

"Quit it, don't touch me," Sable snapped, turning away. "I can do it myself."

"Sabe, I know you hate being touched, just lemme unbutton it," Maria tried to reason, still laughing to herself as she went back around to reach for the neck of the shirt again.

"Maria, I swear-"

The button came undone very quickly once Maria got a hold of it, and at last the ugly shirt pulled over her head to reveal a thin, pale face, with vibrantly colored brown eyes and a very mousy brown ponytail. Her eyes were tired as they always were- there were deep purple-blue shadows beneath them. Sable squinted at Maria, finally muttered what might have been a thank you and went toward her bed to snatch up the T-shirt that lay there.

"You get straight As and you're beaten by a polo," Tatum teased as she sat down on her own bed, leaning back on her claws easily. "That takes some talent, seriously."

Sable rolled her eyes. "Not my fault," she muttered as she pulled her shirt over her head. She meticulously smoothed the gray-rose shirt out over her black leggings, then gestured irritably at nothing in particular. "Ye gods, humans have the worst uniform options at this school."

"I know, right," Maria complained. "You've got it easy, Tatum."

Tatum's eyes widened as she put one claw to her chest. "Me? Do you know uncomfortable it is to wear this thing over or under my shell? I think I have it just as bad as you two."

"Bull," Sable retorted, pulling her ponytail over her left shoulder. She flopped down onto her bed and casually pulled a book off of her nightstand, then promptly flipped it open to a page.

"What's that one, quantum physics?" Tatum chuckled.

"Teleportation between dimensions," Sable muttered, flipping a page.

Maria raised her eyebrows. "You actually believe in that stuff?" She paused. "...I mean, it's cool and all though. I'd want to go to other worlds." Anything to go on an adventure. She was itching for it- it must have been true, what they said about adventures changing people, because she desperately wanted to go on another one.

Sable gave Maria a very squinty stare. "...What d'you mean, actually?" She huffed and looked back down at her book. "You've got to be kidding."

"Well… no one, from our world, I guess," Tatum conceded as she slid off of her bed again, "ever talks about other worlds."

This prompted another eye roll from Sable. (Maria wasn't worried; Sable was just naturally hostile. She just happened to be slightly less hostile to her and Tatum.) "Of course there are other worlds. There's proof everywhere."

"Like…?" Maria pressed.

Sable frowned, waving a hand. "Like, say, the X-Nauts. Where'd they come from? Why'd they decide to just take over this world? Was their homeworld wrecked? Or was this world only one part of a whole universe takeover?"

A grimace appeared on Tatum's face at the mention of the X-Nauts. "Nnnnnnn, don't talk about them. Please."

"Huh, right, you don't like them," Sable muttered, returning to her book. The group of them all knew why- in her childhood, Tatum had been very sickly and quiet, always needing to go to the hospital for tests of some kind or another. Her parents, philanthropists, had adopted her as a result, hoping to find treatment for her. Around the time of the X-Naut invasion three years ago, Tatum had slipped into a coma. Her parents had feared for her life. However, there had been no need- Tatum woke up shortly after the X-Naut invasion had been thwarted by Mario and his partners, and had been in excellent health ever since. The group of them, and her parents, had often joked that the X-Nauts had helped her recover somehow. Nevertheless, Tatum had a certain distaste for them (not to say it was unreasonable; they did try to take over the world, after all).

Maria appreciated her friends. They were all very different (poor, rich, and herself, middle-class- and despite this, her grades were the worst of the three of them), it was true. But they were better friends than any she'd ever had in Toad Town. That in itself was incredible.

"Speaking of Mario," Tatum piped up after the silence that followed. "Did you guys hear about the princess being kidnapped again?"

Sable grunted, not even bothering to grace it with a response. The whole kingdom knew that King Bowser had a knack for kidnapping their princess, Princess Peach, whenever it was inconvenient. Maria, however, was dumbfounded- kidnapped? Now, of all times, when it was especially inconvenient? "How do you know?" she asked Tatum, bemused.

"I overheard some teachers. They're talking about installing some extra security measures, since we're so close to Dark Land," Tatum explained, and gave a shrug. "I don't know why they haven't told us yet."

Something clicked in Maria's head. "...Maybe because Mario and Luigi are on vacation," she said slowly.

Tatum and Sable both looked up at this, the latter only briefly.

"Vacation?" Tatum repeated. "You're kidding."

"Not kidding." Maria shook her head. Something eager was forming in the pit of her stomach- but how she'd pull it off, she wasn't sure. "Luigi sent me an email a few days ago. They're going to the Waffle Kingdom on vacation for his birthday. I guess Bowser took his chance since they're gone, but he said they were keeping it quiet."

They were close to Dark Land, the princess had been kidnapped by Dark Land's king, and she needed to prove herself again so she could get out of this rut. The setup was almost too perfect. She wondered if she could get her friends to come with her… and on top of that, she needed to act fast. So the question was, leave tonight, or Friday? Silently she began to weigh the pros and cons of both, while tugging on the braid that fell over her right shoulder.

"I guess so. It makes sense." Tatum spoke up as Maria continued to think. "Hey, are either of you hungry? I think I want to buy a snack. I'll treat both of you."

Maria winced, brought back into reality at once- that was something she felt embarrassed about. She couldn't keep mooching off of her rich friend for money, she felt terrible about it. "Tatum, I can't…" she said meekly.

"They have cookies the size of your face, Maria." Tatum grinned. "I can't let you miss out just because you spent all your allowance. Sable, how does a snack sound?"

"Vegan cookies and you've got a deal," the other girl said absently, not looking up from her book.

"Done," Tatum agreed.

The book snapped shut instantly, and was set off to the side of the bed. Sable swung her legs over the side of her mattress and stood up, folding her arms automatically as she eyed the pair of them. Maria stared at her in disbelief before folding her own arms. "You only get pulled away from your book with your super special vegan cookies."

A laugh escaped Tatum. "I guess vegan cookies are expensive at the snack bar. Get changed so we can go. And don't forget to unbutton."

Sable grunted in response to the off-hand jibe.

Several minutes of talking and at last shedding their horrible uniforms later, the trio had at last headed down the stairwell of the dorm building and now walked together through the hall, still talking. Simply to contradict Maria after more teasing, Tatum had dug through her high-end wardrobe and come up with a gray blouse, which she now wore, along with a cheeky smile on her face.

Maria had retaliated by doing her best to color-coordinate her outfit- the best had managed to do was match her red high-tops with a red T-shirt and, of course, her trademark red baseball cap. She tugged on the bill of the cap as she chatted, simply to reaffirm that it was there, remembering how she had hand-stitched the golden M on the front herself as a child. It looked sloppy- but at least it meant Maria knew who she was. Once she had picked out an old pair of denim shorts and her favorite leather gloves to compliment the outfit (brown and fingerless- boy, did these gloves make her feel awesome), Tatum had to concur that the outfit was at least slightly passable. Maria didn't care much, but at least she was sure she'd won this round. She just didn't see what the problem was with wearing bright pink leggings with red shorts sometimes. But no, fuschia and crimson simply did not go.

Maria pushed the dorm building door open, arguing with Tatum over whether yellow and purple went together, half laughing and half exasperated. "They'd look like something out of a little kids' show," Maria protested, stopping dead in the doorway as she realized this point.

"Purple and yellow are complimentary colors," Tatum repeated, raising her eyebrows. "They go together in any circumstances."

"Yeah, in little kid show circumstances- Sabe?"

Sable had walked out of the dorm building ahead of Maria and Tatum- she stood at the bottom of the stairs, staring out at the rest of the wide expanse of school lawn. But her body was stiff, her hands almost claw-like in her tensed-up stance. Maria exchanged a glance with Tatum, then went to quickly join Sable at the bottom of the stairs, skipping steps in her haste to know what was troubling her friend.

"Sabe, what's up?" Maria spoke up quickly, stopping next to Sable. She was slightly out of breath- Tatum was too when she stopped on Sable's other side- but Sable didn't even take notice of them. She continued to gaze, eyes narrowed, out at the school lawn. Maria glanced out herself, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. The lawn looked the same as it always did. Boring.

Finally, Sable's voice sounded, but it was the quietest Maria had ever heard it. "...Can't you feel it?"

Maria blinked. Feel… what? "Uh…" she trailed hesitantly.

Tatum spoke for them both when she asked. "Feel? What is it?"

"Something's wrong here. It's… it's this feeling. I feel like…" Sable's hands clenched into fists. "...the dimensions are shifting."

Her thin face turned to glare back over her shoulder, back up at the closed doors of the dorm building. "We need to go back in," she said sharply. "Now. Let's not get snacks for a while."

Maria watched in confusion as Sable whipped around and started back up the steps briskly, her hands still clenched tight and her movements stiff. Maria didn't move; she had no idea what Sable meant. 'The dimensions were shifting'? How did she know what shifting dimensions felt like? Sure, she was reading that book, but…

"Sable, wait!" Tatum piped up quickly, starting after her. "Hang on!"

Sable gestured frustratedly without looking back at Tatum. "Tatum, just shut up and-"

A box appeared around Tatum.

'Box' was the only way to describe it. It was a cube that seemed to have no real edges or lines, and yet Maria could still see them because they just looked so irregular, almost but not quite opaque, against the rest of the scenery. Otherwise, Tatum appeared to be standing in a completely clear box. She bumped into one wall of the box without realizing, took a step back in shock, and glanced all around the box in something like horror. Maria felt frozen as she gawked at Tatum. Sable, after turning around, was similarly frozen, staring at their friend with wide eyes.

The box turned in a circle once, and then it and Tatum disappeared.

Maria's stomach felt like it had dropped out of her body, and her head automatically shot up in alarm to look at Sable for answers. "Sabe-"

"Maria, come on!" Sable snapped, hurrying back down the steps toward her. There was a new note of urgency in her voice. "Let's get back in-"

The same box formed around Maria this time when she tried to take a step forward, and just like Tatum, she ended up pushing up against a wall of the box. The surface of the wall felt neither hot nor cold when she bumped into it, nor did it really seem to have a particular texture. She looked up at Sable. Her heart thudded madly in her chest.

The last thing she saw before the box turned and everything went black was Sable reaching out toward her with one hand, eyes wide with fear.