Mario
"I jinxed it," Sam said. "I'm telling you, I jinxed it."
"Jinxed what?" I said to myself. "What is she talking about?"
"We had that whole conversation a while ago?" she said. "It was about how we're different genders—"
"I know," I said.
She blinked. "You aren't using my mouth," she said. "Don't tell me…" She frowned. Her mind went silent.
I rolled her eyes up to her forehead.
"I can only hear you speak to me," she said."You're still your own entity."
"But can I still read your mind?" I asked.
She folded her arms.
"...Maybe I'm already in it."
Sam got to her, or our, feet. "Mar," she said, "don't move a muscle. I'm taking us upstairs, and I'm getting dressed for school."
I made her cringe. "Wouldn't that require me to…"
"I probably have complete control over myself as long as you don't move," she said. "So try turning your thoughts inward. I'll make it quick."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Mario heard a knock at the door. He let out a frustrated sigh.
"Who's there?" he shouted.
"It's me!" Cappy shouted back. "You locked the door again!"
Mario jumped up from his seat. He made his way to the front door of the Odyssey and unlatched the chain holding the door closed.
Cappy let himself in. He flew over to his usual seat beside his friend's.
"Thank you," he said. "I thought I'd turn in for the night…" He glanced about.
Dozens of paper balls were scattered around the floor. They covered every inch of the rug Mario bought from Shiveria and left something of a trail from the closet to Mario's seat.
"Is this why you wouldn't come out today?" Cappy said.
"...Yeah," Mario said.
He floated down to the mess, picked a paper ball off the floor, and unwrapped it. He squinted at the page. "What's this supposed to say?" he said, holding the page up for Mario to see. "I can't read it."
Mario's face burned when he read the page. He ripped it from Cappy's little arms.
"Th-that's nothing!" Mario shouted. "Nothing, I swear!"
Cappy blinked. "Are you sure?" he asked, giving him a quizzical stare.
"That one's too…" Mario paused to find the right word. "...Adult in its approach."
"Oh," he said, turning a little red too. "So what are you working on?"
Mario crumpled the paper back up and threw it at his closet. The ball bounced off of it and landed on the floor.
"I'm writing a letter," Mario said. "It's for Peach."
Cappy's eyes grew. "Really?!" he shouted excitedly. "Could I write something for my sister?"
Mario frowned. He hugged his notepad to his chest. "I dunno," he said. "I feel like I've worked up to something good here, and I want to keep this between Peach and me."
"How about you read it for me?" Cappy said, coming over to float behind him.
Mario grinned awkwardly. "Um, sure?" he answered. "It's about what happened on the Moon, and—"
"You can do it," Cappy said. "I won't judge."
Mario cleared his throat.
Dear Peach,
Hey. How are you?
It's been a couple of weeks, right? I haven't been able to keep track with all this traveling I've been doing lately. Or maybe the lack of traveling I've been doing? I don't know; Cappy's kept me in the Seaside Kingdom for the last few days. He seems to have a thing for the ocean. Not that I'm complaining; I just wish those snails would quit staring at me whenever I hit the beach.
I've seen you around but we haven't really "talked" since that whole thing on the Moon. You're busy with your world tour that, and I'm honestly afraid to personally talk to you. If I bring up what happened at Bowser's "wedding", wouldn't you only get angry? I don't want to upset you again—
"Yoink!" Cappy shouted, pulling the letter from Mario's hands.
"Hey!" Mario yelled after him. "Give me that back."
"No," he simply said. He doodled on the page with the pen that had been attached to the notepad.
"Cappy, this my letter to my—"
"Oh, lighten up a little!"
Mario got up from his seat and lunged at Cappy. He grabbed the notepad back from him.
Cappy dropped the pen. He gave his friend a downtrodden look and floated back down to his seat.
Mario picked up the fallen pen from the table between their seats. He read over what Cappy wrote down:
Cappy, give me it back.
No.
Cappy, this is MY letter to MY—
Oh, lighten up a little!
Mario let out a big groan. Cappy's vandalism ruined his letter, and he had a good start this time!
He reached for his notepad. He could salvage what he wrote if he had more paper, but that wasn't going to happen. All the notepad had left was the brown sheet at often came at the end of its life.
He saw a drawing of Cappy at the side of it and picked up his letter.
"Come on…" he said, shaking his head. He had tried to be serious here!
His gut told him to ditch this version of his letter. He decided he'd have to suck it up, though. He didn't know where he could find more paper, especially with how any and all shops around here closed with the sunset.
He picked up the pen and continued to write:
He wrote our argument down?!
Well, I'm not going back now. This is probably my thirty-fifth attempt at a letter.
As I was trying to say… I'm sorry for everything. The impromptu proposal, letting myself get angry when Bowser cut in… I was being impulsive. I thought because there was a wedding hall right on the Moon and it was all set up, we could use that and, you know, get married. Everyone seems to expect it at this point. I didn't want to let them all down.
The way I worded that sounds kinda pushy. Just 'cause they "expect" it?
Is it possible we could chat after you get this? My apology would sound more sincere if you heard it from me instead of this letter.
What I really want is to see you again, Peach. You're the reason why I can smile every day.
Love,
Mario
"Ahem…"
Mario put down his letter and saw Cappy in front of him. Cappy clutched a certain red hat to his chest.
"I'm not giving this back unless you send that version," Cappy said.
Mario rolled his eyes. "Such a kid…" he mumbled. He wrote one last thing in his letter to his princess:
P.S. Cappy's holding my hat hostage. Say hi to Tiara for us, alright?
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
"Mar?" Sam said. "I'm done."
I exhaled. "You are?"
I found myself standing in Sam's closet. I picked at the red sweater she put on.
"Not bad," I said.
"I found it in the back of my closet," Sam said."What do you think?"
"Looks good," I answered. "And you're pairing it up with…"
"A pair of black sweatpants and my regular sneakers," she told me, showing them off in our shared vision. "You're fine with this too?"
"...Yeah."
Her eyes rolled upwards. "Is something wrong with them?"
"It's not about the clothes," I said. "I remembered writing a letter to Peach."
"Is this another one of your lost memories?"
"No, I'm pretty sure that's always been there. I guess I specifically remembered it today because…"
"It's Valentine's Day," she finished for me. "You miss Peach."
I hung our head. To avoid confusing myself, maybe I should refer to our body parts like that from now on.
"We'll find a way back to your home," she said, "I swear. Right now we need to play the part of a regular high school senior. If everything goes well, and you get the hell out of my body, we'll have plenty of time to search during my winter break."
"Which will be…"
"I'll be off next week, Mar."
I smiled. "That sounds great."
Sam bit down on our lip. "Yeah, yeah. Don't pull crap like that, by the way. Let me deal with everything."
"Wait, one question," I said. "How are we gonna handle Dennis? He knows that I exist."
"Ignore him. He'll seem crazy if he says anything about you to anybody, especially with how we are now."
A strange sound filled our ears. It blared and made a little musical jingle that stayed in my head seconds after it stopped.
I flinched.
Sam clenched our teeth.
"What… Was that?" I questioned.
"The doorbell," Sam told me. "I've forgotten how loud it sounds from here. We don't normally get visitors."
Sam opened the door to her closet and turned off the light within it. She shut it behind us.
"Should we go see who it is?" I asked.
"Way ahead of you," she said.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Sam opened the front and screen doors. She looked around the porch.
"There's nobody here," she said.
"Maybe the doorbell malfunctioned?" I said.
"Or maybe…" She glanced at the ground.
A red hat laid on the welcome mat. Sam picked it up.
"Is this your's?" she asked me. "It's got a 'M' on it..."
"No," I said. "Mine's upstairs, and it's not that small."
"You're right," she said. "This looks like it would fit on my head." She closed the front door.
"Who would abandon a hat on your doorstep?"
"Dennis?" Sam said, shrugging. "The only other person I know who knows I play Nintendo games is Father, and it makes no sense for him to leave me a present at our doorstep."
"The culprit could be anybody."
"Sure, Mar. Some high-ranking government official came over to my house and left me a hat. Sure." She went over to the stairs. "Let's grab my bookbag and get to school. We'll deal with Dennis later."