Yay, I'm back! Okay, I'm going to be honest with you all: this is sort of a filler chapter. It doesn't progress the plot much and I'm sorry if you were expecting more, I'll make up for it in the next chapters. The only reason I included this was that if I didn't, there would have been too big a time gap between the last chapter and the next one. This is the worst it's going to get, at least in my opinion, so please don't be put off by this!

Disclaimer: Nintendo owns all of the characters.


In homeroom, Mr Piranha had something to tell the students.

"Class, I've great news for some, and bad news for others. The report cards have been made out, and they'll be sent home tomorrow."

Mario's face was drained of colour. "Sir... what exactly is a report card?"

"A report card will have all of your overall grades on each subject written down."

"Oh, mamma mia," muttered Mario under his breath. "I'm screwed." He wasn't looking forward to his parents seeing his less than average results. Try as he might, he couldn't get better than a D, and he counted himself lucky if he got a C.


Two days later, the reports came home in the post. Mario was really worried, but Luigi seemed confident enough. Lucky him. He envied his brother's brains. Luigi didn't even study half the time and he still got straight A's.

"Mario, Luigi! Come over here!"

This was it. Time to meet his doom.

"So, Luigi, we'll open yours first," said Mamma, ripping the envelope. "Let me see... Ah, all A's! Well done Luigi, oh I'm so proud of you!" she said, and both parents hugged their son.

"Now for yours, Mario. Eh... hmmm, could do with a little improvement, huh? Too many D's... but at least you got one, two, three C's."

The older twin was pleasantly surprised. He was expecting one C at the most.

"I actually have been trying, though."

"It's true," said Luigi. "I've seen him."

Mario threw him a look of gratitude.

"Well, that's good," said Papa. "At least you're trying!"

"Yeah..." He felt so relieved. Now that the worry was all over, he could concentrate on Christmas!


Probably the shortest chapter yet, and for the rest of this fic. I wanted to portray Mario as the type who keeps trying to do well but can't. He's not the stereotypical "I'm too cool to study" type of guy. Also, while Luigi envies Mario's popularity, Mario is jealous of his grades. I guess some people always want what they don't have... And before anyone asks, there's not going to be a special Christmas chapter. Sorry about that!
Also, I have a poll on my profile, it's not getting many votes but I'd really like your opinions on my profile picture: do you think I should change it? I wasn't sure if it was a little darkly coloured and unmemorable, I'll change it to something brighter that sticks out more if people didn't like my picture.
Please review!