Chapter 2 Bad Boy Blues

"Oh come on, Judy, please!"

"No!" screamed the koopa girl. "I'm done with you! You're...you're...STUPID!"

Roy felt as if he had been stabbed. He stared at the teal haired, red faced Koopa girl. Her eyes seared into his soul as she frothed at the mouth. Roy scratched the back of his shiny pink head and chuckled.

"Well...we can't all be Koopsteins, can we?"

Judy sharply exhaled and shook her head. "You don't have to be a Koopstein to know that using curtains as dish towels is a bad idea! Seriously…" She picked up the curtains. The otherwise white lace had a humongous brown stain right in the center. "These belonged to my grandmother! They're a family heirloom!"

Roy's heart sank at the amount of pain in his girlfriend's voice. Her face grew redder and redder, her fists were clenched so tight that they looked like boxing gloves.

"I'm sorry, Judy." He approached her slowly. He made sure to put on a smile as he touched her arm. He knew that she loved it when he touched her arm. "I can replace them."

Judy's mouth foiled into a wavy line. "You don't get it, do you? These are irreplaceable." She threw them down on the floor like a bag of garbage. "You just keep making 'mistakes' like this, and you know what? I'm sick of it!"

Roy blinked. "So, wait. Are you breaking up with me?"

There was a pause before Judy nodded. "Yes. I am. I want nothing to do with you."

"Nothing to do with me? But Judy…."

"I don't want to hear it, Roy; I'm tired of excuses." She pointed toward the door. "Get out before I throw you out."

This wasn't much of a threat to Roy, as he was more than strong enough to fight off against her. However, he knew that he couldn't. His heart was sinking like a rock in the ocean. His legs felt weak, his mouth hung open. He stared at Judy. He wanted to feel some sort of emotion toward her. He wanted to feel angry. He wanted to feel ambivalent. Heck, he even wanted to feel sad.

But instead...all he felt was empty.

…

Beep beep beep!

Roy groaned. Was it really 8:00 o'clock already? He felt as if his sleep went by too quickly. He groggily forced his hand to look for the screaming alarm clock on the nightstand. When he couldn't find it, he growled and sprung to a sitting position. His eyes now open and his teeth grit, he grabbed the alarm clock with both hands and ripped the cord out of the wall.

Crash!

Roy breathed in satisfaction once the clock hit the wall. It uselessly laid on the floor in the form of a pile of metal. Roy yawned, pulled his blanket back around his body, and closed his eyes.

He wished he could stay here forever. He didn't have to worry about any bad days, mean people, or angry ex girlfriends while he was in bed. All that he could do was lay wrapped in his blanket, dreaming of Judy, and snuggling no one.

Knock knock. "Roy?"

Roy groaned again and pulled the pillow over his head. Please no. Please don't let Bowser be here to get him out of bed. He was happy here. He was safe here.

The door creaked open, allowing the burly, red haired Koopa King to enter the room. "Roy, it's time for breakfast."

"I don't want breakfast," Roy gurgled, his voice muffled by the pillow.

"Come on. You can't stay cooped up in this room forever. Besides, it's your favorite!"

Roy actually considered this. He was hungry. After all, it had been four days since the break up with Judy, which would be exactly how long he had stayed in his bed. His stomach gnawed at him like a wolf, which only increased the emptiness that Roy felt. Perhaps getting something to eat wasn't a bad idea. There was nothing stopping him from coming back up to his room afterward, and besides, Bowser did say it was his favorite.

With that, Roy let out a breath and sat up. "Alright."

"Good," said Bowser with a smile. He waited by the door as Roy put his magenta sunglasses on and got out of bed. When he exited his room, Bowser closed the door behind both of them and trailed behind Roy as he made his way down the hall toward the stairwell.

When they got to the stairwell, Bowser cleared his throat. "I'm sorry about Judy, by the way."

Roy adjusted his glasses and directed his eyes away from his adopted father. "Okay."

Bowser nodded. "Man, I really liked her too. She was one of the few girls you brought home who wasn't bat poop crazy."

Roy nodded. "Yeah," he said quietly. His face grew warm.

"But, you know what they say," Bowser said with a shrug. "Sometimes, you just have to let bygones be bygones. You just have to go with the flow."

Roy sniffled. That was easier said than done.

The two of them made their way through the east wing's first floor hallway and through the entrance hall. Once they got to the dining hall, Roy immediately took notice of how quiet it was. None of his siblings were talking, which was odd considering how chatty they usually were. Roy inched his way toward his seat beside Morton.

"So," Morton asked once he was seated. "Glad to see you finally showed up." His voice indicated no level of emotion, no enthusiasm at seeing his brother nor any frustration. All it showed was stoic ambivalence.

Roy shrugged. "I just wanted food, is all."

With that, Bowser took a seat at the head of the table. He looked around at his children. Iggy, Wendy, Ludwig, and Junior sat on the right hand side, while Lemmy, Larry, Morton, and Roy sat on the left. The great Koopa King cleared his throat and put on a smile.

"Man, it sure is quiet. Why don't we lighten up the morning by having a little chit chat?"

Roy sunk into his chair, chit chat being the last thing he wanted. The only reason he came down here at all was for the food, which was still in the process of being made.

"Okay," Lemmy's high pitched voice said. The little rainbow haired Koopaling sprang up out of his seat and perched his fingertips on the table as he smiled. "I have been practicing some tricks on my circus ball yesterday! I finally learned how to do a backflip."

Bowser smiled. "Oh, neat, Lemmy! Very neat indeed."

Ludwig snorted from his position. "It's not neat on the slightest," he said. He pushed his fingers through his royal blue hair, all while wearing a toxic smirk. "He practiced all night last night. I couldn't sleep a wink because he kept crashing into the book shelf."

Lemmy blinked before giggling. "Well, what can I say? There isn't much space in our bedroom to do a backflip. That doesn't mean you have to 'flip' out, Ludwig."

Lemmy broke into laughter, causing Ludwig to grunt and turn toward Bowser.

"Seriously," Ludwig said, "why did you think putting us in the same room was a good idea?"

Bowser chuckled. "It's meant to help you improve your cooperation abilities. We need you all in tip top shape so we can finally beat Mario on our next kidnapping mission."

Larry laughed. "Well, that shouldn't be too hard, considering Ludwig has Super powers." He turned toward his brother and grinned wickedly. "It's just too bad that he's too much of a lazy sassafras to use them."

Ludwig glared at his youngest brother. Blue fire covered up his body, as well as the royal blue cloak that he had on. "Say that one more time, I dare you."

Larry smirked. "What, you didn't hear me? That's surprising, considering that your hearing is good enough to listen to your music." He chuckled. "But considering how lazy you are with fighting, I wouldn't be surprised if you get people to do the work on that too."

Ludwig growled. "Why you little…"

Right at that moment, the light bulb in the lamp over the table exploded, sending shards raining down. Bowser let out a sigh.

"Larry, that's enough. You know not to provoke your brother." He stood up. "Everyone, stand up and sweep the glass shards into your hands so we can throw them away."

Roy got up and did exactly as he was told. He noticed that the others were doing this as well, save for Wendy, who was busy applying red lipstick to her already puffy lips. Roy rolled his eyes. Girls were just weird.

"Okay," Bowser said once the servants had come in with the trash can. Once he dropped his shards into the trash, he wiped his hands and sat back down. "Now that that's out of the way, I am in the mood to hear how you guy's work lives are coming along. Iggy?"

The green haired Koopaling stood up with the same degree of formality that one would use when they are called upon by a teacher. "Yes, Bowser?"

"What exactly have you been up to over the past few days?"

Iggy smiled and adjusted his glasses. "Well, I have been doing research on procreation…"

"Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there," said Ludwig. "Is that really stuff we should be talking about at the breakfast table?"

Iggy cast him a glare. "Don't worry; I'm not going to go into too much detail." He turned back to Bowser. "Considering that both humans and Koopas possess forty six chromosomes, I have been curious as to whether or not it is possible for them to procreate. Believe it or not, I have actually found evidence of such in the form of a folktale from the time of King Cosmo the Fourth's reign."

"Really?" Bowser said as he put his elbow on the table.

"Yes indeed." Iggy smiled. "Apparently, there was a Koopa human hybrid found during that time, born to a Koopa mother and a human father. Unfortunately, it didn't live past infancy, but still. It was quite fascinating to study."

Bowser chuckled. "Human Koopa hybrids, huh? Well, if such a person were to survive past infancy, I would like to meet them."

"As would I," said Iggy as he took his seat.

Right at that moment, the chefs came back out. Roy breathed a sigh of relief as his veggie and cheese omelet was set right in front of him.

"Awesome," he said. He grabbed hold of his plate. "I'm going back up to my room."

Bowser blinked. "You don't want to stay and eat with the family?"

"No," Roy said with a shake of the head. "I'd much rather...um, well…."

The Koopalings stared at him, unblinking. Wendy's brow furrowed as she stood up.

"Roy," she said softly. "Please stay. We all really missed you over the past four days."

"Yeah," said Lemmy. "There have been a bunch of games I've been meaning to play with you."

Roy shrugged. "I'm sorry about that. But I just am not in the mood right now, Lems."

Iggy stood up. "Roy, this is unacceptable. You can't spend time locked up in your room like this. You need to…"

"Iggy," Morton said, speaking for a rare instance. "Leave him be."

Iggy's mouth gawked open. "Leave him be? Why should I leave him be when he is clearly in need of support?" He stared at Roy. "I know that the breakup with Judy was tough on you, but this is not a healthy method of dealing with it."

Roy felt a pang. He turned away as his cheeks grew red. "Like you would know anything about having your girlfriend break up with you."

"Alright, alright," said Bowser as he raised his hand. "Iggy, you and I are going to have a little talk later. Roy, if you want to go up to your room, you're allowed."

Roy nodded. "Thanks Bowser." With that, he left.