Chapter 7 PJs and Pictures

The hospital door creaked open, and when it did, Morton breathed a sigh of relief. His family sat in the hospital beds, wearing hospital gowns that looked extra floaty. Despite that, they all wore smiles on their faces, especially when they saw him.

"Morty!" Lemmy exclaimed, his eyes twinkling. "You're alright!"

Morton nodded. He looked around and saw that each member of his family had a tray of turkey dinner in front of them; the traditional Koopsmas meal and one of the few parts of Koopsmas that Morton didn't mind. He went up and ducked his pointer finger into the gravy covering Wendy's mashed potatoes, causing the sole female Koopaling to cringe.

"Dude!" she exclaimed.

Morton just chuckled as he licked the gravy off of his tip. "I feel better already."

Wendy shook her head. "Of course you do, you jerk." She picked up her fork and pushed her potatoes to the side.

Morton looked at the rest of the family. Bowser chuckled, amused at the sibling antics of his adopted children. He pulled the covers back on his bed, allowing himself to stand up. His hospital gown looked more like a parachute than anything else.

"Well then. I suppose that everything turned out for the better."

"Yeah, but our gifts got ruined in the attack," Junior pouted.

Bowser put his hand to his chin. "Huh. That's true; I didn't think about that." His eyes lit up. "Well, we can always resort to plan B!" With that, he got his phone out of his hammerspace. He typed something into a text box, and when he hit send, he grinned. "There! I've gotten gifts for all of you guys." He kissed his phone screen. "Thank you, online shopping!"

Larry smirked. "Let me guess…" he leaned against his hand. "You got us all pajamas again."

"Ding ding ding!" Bowser said. "I've gotta have something for you guys to wear when I take photos of you."

Morton's heart sank into a pit of loathing. Pictures. Ugh. There was...a lot about Koopsmas that he didn't like. He hated gingerbread pancakes. He hated the lights. He hated shopping. But none of those...none of those things compared to the horror that was Koopsmas picture time. Sure, Bowser said that he wanted a way to remember Koopsmas' past when he was older. But…man, Morton hated getting his picture taken! The other Koopalings groaned, for they despised taking pictures as well.

"What? What's the problem?" Bowser asked.

"Do we have to do that today?" Ludwig asked. "We survived a monster attack; shouldn't that be enough reason to not go through more torture?"

Bowser laughed. "First of all, it isn't torture; it's the price of admission for your gifts."

Roy crossed his arms. "I didn't think that our gifts required such a high entry fee," he said, which actually garnered a snicker out of Morton.

Bowser cast a glare at Roy before continuing. "Secondly, I think that the monster attack is all the more reason why we should do the pictures. We're all alive and well, so we should celebrate that!"

Lemmy, one of the few Koopalings who hadn't groaned at the mention of picture taking, bobbed his head up and down. "You're right, Bowser! Besides, picture taking is tradition!"

Morton just sniffed. Wendy, who was the other Koopaling who hadn't groaned, hopped out of her bed and grinned.

"Yeah," she said. "I think that picture taking is a great idea." She struck a pose. "I haven't had a real photo taken since I appeared on the cover of Koopa Craze; I want to change that."

Bowser beamed. "Then it's settled!" He clapped his hands together. "We're doing pictures tonight!"

Morton shook his head.

…

Back at the castle, Morton stared at the clock. 7:30. Seven...flipping...thirty. Why was this day insistent on going as slow as possible? He wanted to go to bed already! He wanted to enter into the next day!

Alas, he couldn't. The Koopa troopa servant had just arrived with his gift, and Bowser couldn't be any more excited.

"Okay, guys! Go ahead and open them up!"

Morton watched his siblings tear into their gifts first. As had been said at the hospital, all of the Koopalings had gotten pajamas. Larry had gotten a Minecraft shirt and pants. Roy had received a pair of pjs that had pictures of Snowman's Land and Cool Cool Mountain on them. Lemmy had gotten an ugly sweater, as he requested to get one every year. Iggy got a shirt that said "Certified Genius" and pants that had pictures of the elements. Wendy got a nightgown, Ludwig had gotten a bathrobe, and Junior got a onesie.

"Really, Dad?" Junior asked as he stared at his onesie. He cast his father a glare. "You know I hate these! They're for babies!"

"No they aren't; they're for your age! That's why they're your size!" He turned toward Morton as Junior groaned and put his onesie on. "Well, Morty, looks like your last."

Morton groaned and carefully tore into his gift. When he opened it up, he cast Bowser a glare. It was a reindeer onesie, one complete with a hood that had antlers on it.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, of course!" Bowser exclaimed.

Wendy admired the onesie. "Oh, it's so cute!"

"It's like you're a magical reindeer!" Lemmy said.

Iggy smiled. "I suspect that will be able to last for a long time, provided that you follow the directions on how to wash it."

Morton looked down at the tag. It said that the onesie couldn't be put in the dryer or else it would shrink.

Good, Morton thought. Now I know exactly how to get rid of this thing in the morning.

Bowser smiled as Morton reluctantly put the onesie on and pulled the hood up. "Aww, now that's precious." He got out his camera. "Alright, everyone! Picture time!"

…

About an hour later, Morton made his way back up to his room. He was greeted by Wiggles when he opened the door, who bounced around like he was on a trampoline. Morton pet him and looked around his room with a sigh.

"It's over. It's finally over."

The picture taking, of course, had been torture. Morton had to get into this pose next to Iggy, and that pose next to Wendy. He had to make sure that his smile was literally picture perfect every time. It had made his face sore, oh, so sore. The only part of the experience he thought was funny was when Bowser wanted all of them to take a group photo.

"Okay!" Bowser had said. "Squeeze in real close. Pretend you love each other."

That had actually gotten a chuckle out of Morton. Bowser made that comment every year, and it made him laugh every time.

"Squawk!" Topaz said from across the room, drawing Morton out of his head. "Wow, Morty, you look stu-PID!"

Morton rolled his eyes. "Yes, insightful as ever, aren't you, Topaz?" He went over, picked up the sheet, and draped it over her cage. "Have a good night, sweetie."

"Squawk. Okay."

Morton smiled and crawled into his bed. He was so exhausted from the picture taking experience that he hadn't even bothered to take off his ridiculous reindeer onesie. He just pulled up his covers, turned out his light, and laid down in bed.

There, he did it; he got through the day. Koopsmas was over. It had been horrible, with the monster attack throwing everything out of balance and screwing everything up. But then again, even before the monster attack, it had been exactly as he would expect it to be.

Hopefully, with any luck, tomorrow would be a much better day.