A/N More story! Lemme know if there's anything you want to see happen and I'll see what I can do! Enjoy!

Chapter 4

A Normal Day?

Nutrition break came swifter than a blue hedgehog as Greg sat with his arms crossed at a lunch table surrounded by cheerleaders.

They were preparing to explain their newest plight to the star linebacker. This was, sadly, a normal occurrence for the grey koopa.

The head cheerleader, Wendy Koopa, began to speak. "As you may know, Henry broke up with Heather about a week ago and she's still pretty torn up about it."

The girl in question sat on the edge of the group with tears poking from the sides of her retinas.

"So... We want you to date Heather for a bit to make him jealous."

"You know that's really fucking stupid right? Like extremely fucking stupid. Probably your dumbest plan yet." Greg rolled his eyes. Listening to Wendy seemed to make him lose brain cells. "Chances are he's not even thinking about her anymore. Wasn't he eyeing Brianna from Class 12-C?"

Heather threw herself into the girl next to her and began bawling her eyes out.

"SEE WHAT YOU DID?!" Wendy wasn't pleased and neither were the rest of them.

"Let it out, sweetie. Waste those tears on that jackass."

"Greg!" The girl next to Heather gasped. Greg vaguely recognized her as Marisa.

"What? Henry is a jackass. She could do better than him with one of the mathletes."

"You know we don't do Mathletes! They're uncool!" Wendy's words resonated in Greg.

"Maybe that's your problem. All of you." He stood and motioned to the entire group. "You're focused so much on being cool, that the unconventionally cool kids get left out to dry when chances are they'd treat you a million times better than Henry!"

"What's your deal today? Usually you just grunt and nod." Wendy gave Greg a side eye.

"Maybe I'm sick of pretending to date the people you set me up with for your own personal gain." The football player stood up. "I'm leaving. Deal with this yourselves."

"But wait! Didn't you get something out of this too?" The crown princess's lips curved upwards slightly.

The boy froze and turned back around. She wouldn't... "Shut up, Wendy."

"It was between us, but maybe if I tell everyone you'll finally be free of those shackles.

"I'm warning you."

"You'll be like a nice jacket on a winter morning. Fresh out of the closet."

"Wendy, can it!"

The light pink koopa stood on the bench, her smirk growing wider.

What if I told everyone you're g-"

Greg slammed a hand over her mouth. His eyes screamed death but his face kept a can mystique that frightened Wendy immensely. "You rat me out, I'll expose every girl you've ever made me date for the devious gutter bitches they really are. Fucking try me..."

All eyes were on them in the room. Even the other tables turned to see what was going on.

Greg moved his hand and Wendy composed herself.

"Go out with Heather until I tell you to stop and your 'little secret' is safe."

"She gets one kiss in front of Henry and I don't have to walk her home."

"That's acceptable."

Greg crossed his arms, but nodded and grunted his approval of the terms.

"Wonderful!" Wendy got down from the table followed by Greg. Once on solid ground, she did a twirl for victory. "Wendy O. Koopa always gets what she wants."

~ ~ ~ ~

Roy, for once in his high School career, was actually paying attention in one of his classes: Psychology. He'd decided to pick it up as an elective assuming it'd be free credits, but now he was acting very not like himself: taking notes, asking questions and reading his textbook.

It scared him a bit, but the lesson for the day was on dream analysis and he damn sure needed to find out what his dream meant.

Sadly, it was plain as day on the pages, in his head, and through every kind of meaning it could've had. Case and point, he wanted to be in a relationship with Greg. A really close one.

During their in class assignment, he went to a shelf on the other side of the class and pulled a dream journal. He read another passage that basically cemented his thoughts.

Your bedroom is a private place that you just don't disclose to just anybody. Do you remember who was in the bedroom with you? People in your bedroom represents your relationship with that person. What ever events that took place in your dream should be decoded and brought to that persons attention.

If you are just laying in your bed relaxed signifies that you are content with your current state. If you are having sex on the bed means that you are very creative and have a stronger connection than you did before.*

Sex? If he hadn't woken up, was that the next step? He wasn't sure, but he remembered the sensation. Before now, the quarterback had only seen his best friend as just that. But now... Was he always that cute?

He shook the thought from his head and slammed the dream journal closed.

"I'm gonna fight this for as long as I can."

~ ~ ~ ~

When lunch rolled around, the two koopas sat next to each other, albeit with a noticeable gap between them.

Their friends picked this up as they also sat down. Fred and Pete were there with them this time.

"Did you guys break up or something?" Reggie nudged Greg's arm.

They both snapped to attention. "Wh-what?! We aren't-" They both spoke in unison and held their hands up defensively.

"Chill out. I was joking." Reggie's lips curved downwards. "You're just usually a lot closer to each other."

"Oh..." Roy sighed. "I dunno. I guess we both needed space? It's kind of hot out here."

"It's 64 degrees..." Barron held up his phone and sure enough, it was.

"We just left the football field so we're probably still warm from all that movement." Greg snapped his fingers.

"You took a shower afterwards so that's also not a good enough excuse." Fred finally spoke from his end of the table. Or was it Pete? He could never tell the twins apart outside of their uniforms. Fred had glasses but he only wore them in class so the teachers could tell him apart from his brother.

"Ok what's really going on?" Reggie bit into his taco. "You guys are acting funny. And not funny haha..."

"I'm not hiding shit!" They replied together. "I mean he might be- wait what?! I thought you were my best friend! I thought you were mine!"

"Enough!" Fred and Pete stopped their rambling.

"We're the twins here so cut that shit out. That's our shtick." Fred(?) rubbed the side of his head.

Roy decided to divert attention away from him and Greg. "So who's ready for the game against Green Hill High? I hear this year they have one of the best runningbacks in the tri-kingdom area."

"As long as we don't let them run it into the end zone, we should be fine." Barron bit into his own taco. "I'm not worried. We've got Greg."

"What? Am I some sort of secret weapon now?" The grey koopa raised his left eye in amusement.

"After that display last week, you're more like an atom bomb our team can flex to keep other teams in line." Reggie added.

"They do have a point." Roy propped his head on his arm.

"I'm not that good."

"Bullshit." Fred and Pete called out together.

Greg let gravity carry his head to the table. "Fuck you guys."

"We love you too." They all nudged him, giving him reassuring pats of encouragement and praise.

~ ~ ~ ~

Greg's knees chafed as she scrubbed the kitchen floor that night. His mother's toothy smile loomed over him.

"Isn't this a bit much?"

"After the night I had? You're lucky you don't have to retile the roof." Her laugh sounded so innocent, but you could feel the hidden aggression behind it.

"I was pretty focused on getting Iggy home last night. I almost got arrested. Can't I get some sympathy?"

"Oh, you missed a spot, sweetie." She chided him.

"Did I mention how sorry I am that I didn't call you sooner?" He scooted to the spot she mentioned and began vigorously cleaning it.

"Of course. Now keep scrubbing." She left her son to the kitchen and went to finish watching a movie in the living room.

"I love you!" He shouted to her.

"I love you too but I also love clean floors! Get it done!"