Disclaimer: Is still the same as it has been since I started this story. :P
Quick note: I realized I made a mistake earlier. I've said for Mario and Luigi to meet the girls at Koopa Cape, but when you start reading the beginning of this chapter, it sounds like a completely different beach. So to keep readers unconfused, I changed the meeting place on the last chapter to Shy Guy Beach. Sorry for the confusion; I was confused myself! :P
Chapter 10: Beach Party, Everyone's Invited
"The pirate Shy Guys are not going to bomb us or anything, right Plum?"
"Yep! Nothing a few coins can't do! So, did you take care of the Sidesteppers, Pauline?"
"Sure did! A few green shells in their kissers scared them away!"
"That's awesome! I don't want any crabs snapping at my boyfriend's behind!"
Pauline suddenly stopped walking. "I have an idea Plum."
Plum stopped also becoming enticed. "Yeah, what's on your mind?"
"Okay, you love Luigi and I love Mario correct?"
"Obviously."
"Well, why don't we work together and say we 'even out the competition?'"
Plum pondered over Pauline's idea. It was true the other girls were clearly in love with the brothers and that made their goal a lot harder to achieve. "We aren't going to... Kill them, are we?"
"What? No! You and I are just going make the other girls find a reason to make them stop liking our Mario and Luigi."
It didn't take long for Plum to slowly agree with the plan. Sure, it wouldn't be the Mario brothers they would like, but with a little push, they could be match makers from heaven. "I like the sound of that... Okay I'm in!" Plum got excited and started clapping and jumping at the same time.
"Great," Pauline said excitedly as she started walking again with an excited Plum walking next to her. "You should start with Rosalina and Eclair; I'll start with Bow since it looks like she's starting to like someone else. We'll work our way up to the chain until we finally hit our biggest competitors."
"Whom are?"
"Peach and Daisy, of course."
"Honestly, who would be late for their own birthday party?" Bow asked infuriated.
"I know, even the guests are here first," Sushie confirmed.
"Well, it was sort of a sudden thing," Watt said.
"Whatever," Bow said abruptly. "I'll be over there with Kirby." She left without saying so much as a good-bye.
"What's eating her?" Sushie asked, "She's a bit snipper than usual."
Watt sighed. "That's Bow for ya, her way of a proper princess."
All of a sudden, a loud thud was heard behind Watt and Sushie. The tremor startled everyone as they immediately stopped with whatever activity they were in the process of to see what caused the commotion. When the dust from the sand cleared, the entire population saw a pair of legs and red beach shorts wiggling around as if it was trying to escape the hold of the sand.
"It's Mario," whispered Kooper, a fellow blue-shelled koopa you all know and love.
"Actually, it might be Luigi," whispered Toad, a fellow toad you all know and love... To an extent.
Yoshi whispered his name, but somehow everyone is able to tell he was motioning for everyone to hide quickly.
Another large thud was heard; now there were two pairs of legs and red and green beach shorts, respectively, squirming about in the sand. Finally, one of the pair of legs with green beach shorts was able to wiggle its way free. Out popped the head of the younger Mario bros: Luigi.
Luigi bonked the side of his head and successfully got the sand that piled up out of his ear. "Hey Mario, are you here?" He looked around for his brother and then realized the pair of legs and red beach shorts were, in fact, the same outfit and look of Mario's beach shorts. Luigi quickly scampered to the pair of legs and red beach shorts and firmly grasped one of the legs. He started pulling and heaving until after a while he fell over. When Luigi rose up, he expected to see Mario grinning happily, but instead he saw nothing. "Oh my goodness, Mario is sinking in the sand!" Luigi frantically scooped sand back like a mad dog. "Don't worry Mario, I'll get you out!" He just might of too, if he did not suddenly feel himself immediately sink into the sand. Luigi struggled to rise up to the surface, but it seemed like something above him was preventing his escape. Luigi gave one final push up and he was suddenly free from the sand.
"Oh there you are, Luigi! I was wondering where you were." The famous red plumber grinned as he knocked the sand out of his ear. It looked like a waterfall, but with sand flowing out of the ear.
"Well if you haven't landed right on me Mario, then you would have known sooner!" As once before, Luigi roughly bonked his head to release the pile of and stuck in his ear.
"Mama-mia Luigi, sorry!" Luigi calmed down and nodded. "Now let's find out where this party is at before..."
"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIO AND LUIGI!"
"WHAAAAAAAAA," the Mario Bros screamed terrified.
"So how do you like the decorations Mario?" Peach asked.
No response.
"Mario?"
No response again. Why? Because all the guest saw that the Mario Bros have fainted over the shock surprise they got.
"Oh dear," Peach murmured. The brother's friends felt sympathetic for them; their rivals, such as Wario and Waluigi, either smirked, laughed, or laughed harder.
"That's one for the scrapbook," Bowser said amused. "Junior take a picture, will ya?"
"On it," Bowser Jr. hollered as the flash from his camera went off.
"Oh boy," Bowser said, smiling like a young boy who got himself a bike for Christmas. "I'll never let the Mario Bros live this down."
"I have an idea," Wario suddenly shouted as he pulled out two markers from his pocket. Why he was carrying markers randomly was beyond anyone's comprehension. "Here Waluigi, take this one and let's say we make them more picture perfect." Wario and Waluigi began scribbling nonsense over Mario and Luigi's faces.
"Hey, anyone else got markers?" Donkey Kong asked.
"Me too! I want some," Diddy Kong agreed.
"I do," Lemmy shouted.
"Pass them here," Goombario shouted.
"Me too," Daisy hollered.
"Not you too Daisy," Peach exclaimed in disbelief.
"What? It's funny!"
It was not until twelve minutes later in which the Mario Bros. finally woke up from their state of shock. Luckily, the others who drew on Mario and Luigi's face were able to wash off the marker stuff so the two would be none the wiser. The Mario Bros would probably never see what happened to their faces, but then again, their faces would make perfect Christmas Cards... At least that is what most planned to do when Christmas came around again in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Anyway, the first person Mario and Luigi saw was Peach, who smiled warmly at the two. "Happy birthday, you two!" She embraced them both in a hug. "How are you both feeling?" At least this time, neither of them fainted from a shock.
"More or less okay," Mario confirmed. Luigi nodded in agreement. "You guys really got us good."
She smiled warmly, grabbed Mario's hand, and prompted him up along with herself. "Come on, there's a party going on and you're invited!"
"Yeah! Let's-a go," Mario proudly proclaimed.
"Boy, I'll never live down fainting in front of all my friends," Luigi thought, clearly not with the times.
We first follow Mario as he finally has that tennis match with Bowser he was supposed to have exactly six chapter ago.
"Poyo (Advantage Mario, Match Point)."
"Mario," Bowser yelled. "You are the worst cheating tennis player in the history of tennis!"
"I don't cheat, Bowser. You just suck," Mario snickered.
Bowser growled. "I will make eat your own words, Mario!"
"D-A-D-D-Y! That's who'll win! D-A-D-D-Y! Gonna get Mario in pins! Whooo! Go DADDY!" Sure enough, all eight Kooplings were giving their all on a chant for Bowser.
"Wait, when did you get your own cheer squad," Mario asked, clearly puzzled.
"I don't know," Bowser scratched his head. "But I have one and you don't, so it doesn't matter!"
"M-A-R-I-O! Our winning hero! M-A-R-I-O! Gonna make Bowser a zero! Whooo! Go MARIO!" Not to be outdone by a bunch of turtles, some other girls including Peach and Vivian gave Mario his own little show.
"Looks like I have one now." Mario grinned.
"My kids did a better cheer than your little club of girls anyway!" Bowser threw the ball up in the air, the thought of winning intent on his mind. "I hope you miss this serve, pasta-boy!" Bowser served the ball hard and fast, but Mario returned the ball, unflinching. It was a lob shot, Bowser's particular favorite because he could then smash the ball to the other side, which is exactly what he did. Mario saw this coming earlier and successfully returned a curve ball, in which Bowser lobbed to the other side.
Needless to say, the spectators were enjoying the game. "Go Mario! It's all you!"
"Bowser you can do it! Mario is out of his prime!"
"Bowser packs the punch while Mario packs the punched!"
"Mario's got the moves, Bowser's got the...um nothing!" As the spectators continued to shout random, sometimes pointless encouragement, one other person decided to start moving forward with a plan to get the man.
"So Bow, enjoying the match," Pauline asked.
"Quite, but I bet I could do better," Bow replied.
"Better than Mario and Bowser, huh?"
"I guess... I mean they are good, but it's nothing to sneeze at."
"What if... Kirby played? Would you be better than him? He looks like he's seen better competitors, that's for sure. "
Bow all of a sudden sneaked a blushing glance at the pink puffball, who was staring intently at the tennis match. "Um... Kirby? Well, I'm not sure. I... Uh... Never seen him play before."
Pauline smiled mentally. This was all going according to her plan. She peered closely at Bow. "Why Bow, are you blushing?" she asked in fake disbelief.
"No!" Bow quickly rubbed her face as if she could magically make the blushing stop or just plain disappear.
Pauline smiled. "Okay, sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. I'll leave you alone then." Pauline left an extremely flustered Bow to herself. She had nothing to worry about though, she had planted the seed and it was only a matter of time before it sprouted into something more appealing.
"Bow, why do you look so flustered?" Flurrie, who was right next to Bow, asked.
"Shut up! I am not!"
Pauline giggled. "This is going great! Almost finished here." She took a pause in her plan to watch Mario's tennis match.
It was rally after rally, hit after hit. Mario would not let up and neither would Bowser. Bowser slammed the ball hard into the sand, but Mario slammed it back at Bowser. Bowser was getting frustrated as he thought of a new strategy, this time he did not rely on his sheer power, but instead relied on his technique. He curved the ball so much that it performed a perfect arch, one that Mario was not expecting Bowser was capable of. He did barely manage to lob it to the other side, as he stumbled. Bowser grinned happily, this was what he wanted. He ran forward a smashed the ball with all his might, there was absolutely no way Mario could reach it; it never occurred to Bowser that Mario miraculously saved his power shot for something like this. Mario jumped-twirled and hit the ball back over the net- above and beyond Bowser. Mario thought he had finally won but did not take in the fact that Bowser also stored his power shot. Bowser went inside his shell, spun around toward the ball and sent it back over to Mario.
"I'm not letting win that easy, Mushroom-head," he hollered.
"Wouldn't want an easy win," Mario smirked as he returned the ball over the net. The sweat dripping from the once rival can only mean the relationship between the two had grown into something more likable. Where once the fearsome King of the Darklands struck the should of everyone with terror, now stood someone that people might actually want to hang around with. Bowser found himself grinning, a genuine grin that didn't actually bother him as much. This was pretty fun.
At the sidelines, Pauline, now satisfied that Mario wasn't about to lose to Bowser, set out to finally finish her plan. She casually strode to where Kirby was sitting on the big chair overlooking the tennis match.
"Enjoying the game, Kirby?" She asked casually.
"Poyo, Poyo (Yep, it's like watching these two on a Smash Brothers match, only less violence)."
"Do you think you would be better than them?"
"Poyo (Not sure, I haven't played tennis myself that much)."
"I'm sure you would be great, but not as much as someone else thinks..." she trailed off.
Kirby was now curious. "Poyo? Poyo (Really? Who)?"
Pauline smiled. "Bow." That was all Kirby needed to hear before he felt warm and goodness. He blushed and sneaked a glance at Bow, who was still looking flustered but not as much.
"Are you blushing, Kirby?" Pauline asked in fake disbelief.
"Poyo (No)!"
"Okay, well I'll leave you alone then. You do seem quite flustered. Maybe you should get a drink?" Pauline indeed left an extremely flustered Kirby to himself. "Now all I have to wait for are the sparks to fly." She sighed happily. "I'm getting closer to my goal." She then averted her gaze at a certain red plumber, who just took out his Ultra Hammer and swung it at the flaming ball Bowser sent at him earlier with his offensive power shot. Her deed was done here so it was time to move on to the next.
"It's pretty cool how you helped Bowser take down his own castle that one time, Private Goomp," a curious Goombario said.
"I didn't know that Bowser could even grow twenty times his own size," Goombella said truthfully. "I have to add that to my tattle log."
"Well, Bowser did most of the work, I just helped in any way I could," Goomp said modestly, intentionally leaving out any part of his betrayal.
"That's fine by me," Goombaria exclaimed. "I'm not going to hate my boyfriend for something like that. You were actually really brave." Goombaria kissed Goomp on the cheek, causing him to blush.
"Why don't you love me like that?" Goombella cooed.
Goombario rolled his eyes, "If I didn't love you, would I do this?" Goombario placed a kiss straight on Goombella's lips. "Happy?"
"Well...maybe one more." Goombario planted another love-induced kiss upon Goombella's lips. "Okay, now I feel happy."
"You two seriously need to get a room," Goombaria joked making choking noises.
Goombario rolled his eyes. "Whatever, sis. I have my girlfriend and you have your boyfriend." He stuck his tongue at her as retaliation.
"You know what amazes me?" Goomp started.
"You mean besides me?" Goombaria fluttered her eyes.
Goomp chuckled."Not as amazing as you are, but it is mediocre amazing that the tennis ball bounces in the sand as if it were concrete."
When Bowser sent his arm back to swing his tennis racket, the ball suddenly plopped into the sand.
"What the...?" Bowser yelled. He picked up the ball and smashed it to the other side, Mario sent his arm back to swing his tennis racket but the ball did what it previously did before.
"Poyo (So is this game, set, and match)?"
"Oops..." Goomp sheepishly said, slowly backing away to make himself scarce.
We now follow Luigi who was playing a game of volleyball at the time of Mario's tennis game.
Luigi thought the hardest part of a volleyball game would be how difficult it was to defeat Daisy, considering that he was in a match against her and Eclair with Rosalina on his team (Plum insisted she watch the match). No, the hardest part of this whole thing was staying focused on the game and not becoming distracted looking at the girls in their beach attire.
"You ready, Rosalina?" Daisy hollered, "This one's coming straight for ya!" Daisy served the ball straight to the cosmos princess.
"Heads up, Luigi," Rosalina called out bumping the volleyball to slightly distracted Luigi.
"I got it!" Luigi bumped it up in the air. Rosalina ran up to the volley ball, jumped up, and spiked it over the net. Eclair dived and saved the volleyball from falling; Daisy in turn repeated exactly what Rosalina did previously, only harder. Luigi managed to bump the volleyball up and skid across the sand at the same time. Rosalina bumped the volleyball up to Luigi's direction, Luigi jumped up and spiked the volleyball over the net once more. Daisy decided to show off and crystallize her hands and super spike the volleyball. The sudden spike caught both Rosalina and Luigi off guard as they could not move fast enough to save the volleyball.
"Score one for us!" Daisy triumphed giving a high-five to Eclair also.
"So you want to play dirty, eh Daisy?" Luigi huffed. "Well we can do so also, right Rosalina?"
"Right!"
"Ha! Me and Eclair can counter anything you two can dish out! You ready Eclair?"
"Definitely!" Daisy served the volleyball once again.
While those four were playing a game of volleyball, Plum was deep in her thoughts. "Hm, this might be harder for me than I thought. I have no idea how I could pair those two. They seem so fixed on Luigi." Plum kept thinking until she saw a yellow ball-like thing floating at a table. "Hm, if I'm correct, she is Starlow? Didn't she go on an adventure with Luigi at one point?" The more she thought about, the more anxious she got, "What if she starts to like Luigi? I need to do something about her too, but what?" Plum looked around until she saw a star nearby Starlow. "Perfect," she said giddily.
"Hello."
"Hi," said the star.
"What's your name?"
"Twink, and yours?"
"I'm Plum, and you seem to be lonely."
"Me? No not really, I just came here to get a drink... That was until I saw that girl Star Sprite over there."
"Oh really? What about her?"
"Well, she seems upset about something. I want to talk to her, but I'm too shy. She's really pretty."
"This is perfect," Plum thought. "Well, I know Starlow, Twink. Come with me and I'll introduce you." Taking Twink's hand or whatever passed for a hand, Plum lead the way to a rather upset Starlow. "'Sup Starlow! Why the long face?"
"Oh nothing," she lied. With something evident on her mind, her eyes met the ones of Twink and then something... "Who's your friend?"
"This is Twink." Plum excitedly shoved Twink in front of Starlow.
"Um hi, I'm Twink."
"Hello-yello! I'm Starlow!"
"Oh, I have to get back to Luigi," Plum interrupted, "I'll see you two later." It seemed like Twink was about to interject, but Plum was long gone before anything could of been done. A long awkward silence ensued, but Twink finally had the nerve to say something back. "So, you did seem upset earlier. Is something wrong?" He might as finish what was started.
"Hey Plum," Eclair called out, "Want to go surfing?"
"I would love to," Plum half-lied. "If it were just me and Luigi, it would be better," she muttered to herself.
So while Luigi and his little group of love-driven girls were out surfing, Mario and his little group of love-driven girls were out playing table tennis. Since I don't have the faintest idea of the mechanics of surfing and the fact that I'm too lazy to describe the events of the table tennis game, I decided to skip to the cake because a birthday party is not a birthday party without cake.
"Blow out the candles and make a wish you two!"
Mario and Luigi proceeded with the traditional ritual of blowing out the candles on a birthday cake.
"So what did you two wish for," Birdo asked.
"If we told you," Mario began.
"We would have to kill you," Luigi finished. Everyone gasped, except for the Mario Bros of course because they were laughing. Twink made a mental note to snoop around Star Heaven later.
"Just kidding." Mario grinned.
"But it would bring us bad luck if we told you." Luigi grinned too.
"You losers," Wario and Waluigi shouted. "Take this!" All of a sudden, two pies were thrown.
"Mama-mia!" Mario and Luigi both ducked in time to avoid the pie projectiles. However, Donkey Kong and Funky Kong, who were behind the Mario Bros the whole time, were hit with delicious, fruity goodness instead.
Donkey Kong licked a portion of his face. "Hm... Cherry flavored. Yours?"
"Peach flavored," Funky replied in monologue but not in his usual cool manner. "You up for a little Wario Bros beating?"
"I thought you would never ask." In a flash, Donkey Kong and Funky Kong ran after the Wario Bros like mad apes. Of course, they were mad but that didn't make Wario nor Waluigi feel any better. The four of them ran quite a bit and the rest of the party members just decided to continue on with the birthday ritual. After all, they probably wouldn't be back for a while it seemed.
Night draws near as everyone finishes their delicious desserts, except for Wario and Waluigi, both of who where a little bruised here and there, but nothing too serious - except for the wedgies.
But what better way to end a birthday party with fireworks?
"You guys prepare the fireworks?" Peach asked.
"Okay Big Top, show us some your fireworks," Ballyhoo exclaimed happily.
"Yay, fireworks going to go boom!" Big Top opened his head and shot exploding powder up in the sky.
"You know, it's the fireworks at the end that really make this party awesome," Mario said slowly as the fireworks continued to amaze him.
"You know us, Mario," Peach explained. "The Mushroom Kingdom always strive for the best fireworks!" She cuddled next to Mario and looked at him adoringly. "It's also about spending time with the ones you care for most."
"I'm sorry Peach," Mario apologized. "Did you say something?"
The princess blushed. "No nothing."
"Oh okay, um... Flurrie can you please move over some? I'm getting kind of squished."
"Right sorry," she apologized. "Bombette, can you be a dear so I can move over for Mario?"
"Certainly. Hey, Ms. Mowz can you scoot over so I can move over?"
Away from the group, two girls were reminiscing about their successful day.
"So you know Vivian right?" Pauline asked.
"Yeah, what about her?" Plum asked.
"I learned that she had a crush on a Koopa named Koops."
"So did you get them together?"
"No, apparently Koops already has a girlfriend named Koopie Koo."
"Ouch, so she must be pretty heartbroken now."
"She was, but I did happen to come across another koopa named Kooper." Pauline pointed over to a section of the beach, in which you could see just Vivian and Kooper just chatting. "I have them talking now, but in time they will become lovebirds which means that I won't have to worry about her anymore."
"They look cute together," Plum stated. Even Pauline agreed to that.
"And I also got Bow to go with Kirby over there." Pauline pointed to another secluded place section of the beach; sure enough, Bow and Kirby were enjoying each others' company alone. "You know, I think they make an even cuter couple than Vivian and Kooper."
"I don't know, it's pretty debatable. Oh and before I forget, I hooked up Starlow with a star named Twink! It's like I am a matchmaker or something!"
Pauline pondered over the rest of the situation. "Okay, so that leaves Rosalina, Eclair, Bombette, Flurrie, Sushie, Watt, and Ms. Mowz."
"But what about Peach and Daisy?"
"Don't worry about them yet, Plum. We'll leave them for last."
Plum sighed. "This might be harder than we thought, I mean it was easy to hook up those girls because they already had someone else on their mind..."
"But these girls are strictly fixed on Mario and Luigi," Pauline finished. Pauline and Plum took a moment to view the exploding fireworks in the sky.
"We can worry about this tomorrow, I guess," Pauline concluded.
"Yeah you're right," Plum agreed. "I want to spend as much of the rest of the night with my Luigi."
"So do I, but with my Mario of course. Alright, see you tomorrow then, Plum?"
"Tomorrow it is." The two made their way to their respective boys and enjoyed watching the fireworks.
