Chapter 9 Lunch With My Girls

Ludwig swallowed a particularly nasty tasting lump. The girls surrounded him, all smiles and cheer, as they all sat at a table in Silverbrook Mall's food court. The oldest Koopaling's insides felt tickly and squeamish. He had never been surrounded by this many women before. Granted, he hadn't been a woman before either, but still. He had no idea what would be the appropriate emotion to be experiencing at this point. Was he supposed to smile like the friends of the character Lily were doing? Well, he didn't know them, or anything about them. But still, the fear and discomfort that currently ruled the regions of his mind somehow felt a smidge inappropriate.

The red haired girl, who Ludwig had learned was named Amber, stuck to her friends like glue. She wrapped her arms around the purple haired girl (Skylar) and laughed like Bowser after he had successfully pulled up the weekly kidnap Peach ritual.

"Isn't this nice?" Amber said between laughs. "Just the five of us, all together. We never get to go ut anymore!"

The blonde (Bianca), giggled and placed her hand on Ludwig's shoulder, activating a whole bunch of uncomfortable stimuli in Ludwig's brain when she did. "I blame Lily's Mom. She's such a wash!"

Ludwig gulped and gently pushed Bianca's hand off of his shoulder. Maybe this was usual and appreciated behavior to Lily, but it made him feel even more like a creepy, out of touch fish out of water. Once Bianca's hand was off of his shoulder, he turned his attention to the table. He took deep breaths, hoping that it would calm him down.

"Oh, don't see that, Bee," The blue haired girl (Sydney), said. "She's just trying to look ut for Lily and make sure that she has a good future."

"Yeah," said Skylar as she adjusted her glasses and ran a hand through one of her violet locks. "She's just being a good mom."

Amber snorted. "A good mom? Please. If she was such a good mom, she would allow Lily some more free time!" Amber looked straight into Ludwig's new face. "Right, Lils?"

Oh shoot, they're talking to me! Ludwig twiddled his thumbs as he tried to think of a response. The response that he ultimately came up with was "Yeah. It's not like she's forcing me to kidnap a Princess every week! Ha ha!" This got him a raised eyebrow from just about everyone who was present at the table, which caused him to sink into his chair. "I mean…I guess she's alright."

Bianca kept her eyebrow raised for about half a minute more before she snickered. "Well, it's better that she be alright than a dictator." She rose from her seat. "I'm going to go see if our order's all set."

Once she was gone, Sydney gave Ludwig a look that was a lot more serious than any face she had made previously. "In all seriousness, I hope that you falling behind won't affect your ability to be in the squad."

Ludwig blinked. "The squad?"

"Yeah," said Amber. "That would really suck for all of us. We need you, Lily. You're our leader!"

"We would certainly be left out to dry if you weren't there," Skylar said.

Ludwig felt ultra confused. "Squad?" What in the Mushroom World were they talking about? It was probably an important part of the plot for the show. Plus, based on the way the girls spoke about this "squad," it was probably something that took up a lot of time and required a lot of dedication. Probably something like…

"Ohhh." Ludwig forced a laugh. "You mean cheerleading squad?"

The girls all blinked before bursting into laughter. "Cheerleading squad?!" Amber asked as she held her stomach. "Oh, that's rich, Lils!"

Skylar wiped her glasses with a napkin she had pulled from her pocket. "I can't see how you could juggle cheerleading with all the other stuff that your mom has piled on your plate."

Ludwig blinked. It wasn't cheerleading? Then what was it? Maybe it was a secret girl thing, like a club or something. Really, that was the only thing that made sense to him. Right before he could question the girls about it, and thus create another reason for embarrassment for him, Bianca came back with a bag full of their food.

"I have returned!" She sat the bag down on the table. "I hope you guys are hungry, cause we've got enough food to feed a third world nation."

Sydney giggled. "You don't have to call Amber names like that."

"Hey!" Amber shouted. She crossed her arms and sent a pouty face in Sydney's direction. "That's not funny!"

Bianca snickered before pulling the food out of the bag. "Two ten piece chicken nuggets for Skylar and Sydney, two hamburgers for Amber…" Amber flushed with embarrassment as Bianca handed her the sandwiches… "One fish burger for me." She pulled that out before sending a sparkling smile towards Ludwig. "And one garden salad for Lily."

Ludwig eyed the salad that Bianca set in front of him. "A salad? Well, that's not very exciting. Where are my two hamburgers?"

Bianca sent him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I just figured that, with your mom breathing down your neck about your figure, you'd…you know…"

Ludwig scoffed. "I'd at least would have liked to be asked!" Man, were all girls this presumptuous, or did Ludwig just get the wrong end of the stick in terms of what show he wandered into?

Sydney looked at him empathetically. "We're sorry." She turned to Amber. "Amber, do you think you could lend Lily one of your hamburgers?"

Amber raised her head from the table. Her cheeks bulged out, and right in front of her were two balled up hamburger wrappers. "What hamburgers?"

Ludwig sighed. "Never mind, I guess I'll live." He opened up the salad and took a bite of the lettuce, making a face as he did so. "Man," he whispered. "Even in the realm of the TV, salads still taste like yardwork."

So, the girls ate their lunch. While the four others talked and laughed together, Ludwig thought about his next possible course of action. After all, this whole pretending to be this random television girl bit was only temporary. He needed to find Iggy and get out of here as soon as possible. The only problem was, he had no idea how he was supposed to do that. Iggy could be trapped as a character in this show. Emphasis on the word "could," because for all Ludwig knew, he could be stuck in a completely different one. And if he was, how was Ludwig supposed to find him?

"Ooh, Lily!" Amber squealed. "Look, it's Austin!"

Ludwig blinked out of his thoughts and turned around. He saw a boy with a black leather jacket and caramel colored hair. The oldest Koopaling made a face.

"What, you mean that ruffian over there?"

"Ruffian?" Amber laughed. "Did you get a bonk on your noodle, recently? You've had a crush on Austin since middle school."

Ludwig wrinkled his nose. "Wow. I must have really poor taste." That boy was so scruffy. Even if Ludwig actually was a girl, he woul probably try to aim his sights a little bit higher than…Austin.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Lily?" Skylar said. "Go talk to him."

Ludwig's heart skipped a beat. "I'm sorry, you want me to go TALK to him?" He laughed. "Yeah, no thanks. The most that boy deserves is the satisfaction of being completely ignored."

The girls sent confused looks Ludwig's way. Amber even looked a little angry, as if Ludwig had just uttered the most blasphemous words on the planet.

"Come on, Lily," said Bianca. "I think that's being a little bit harsh."

Ludwig shook his head. "Harsh? Please. If you think that's harsh, why don't you try dressing like an edgelord and see how man people fall for you."

Steam actually shot out of Amber's nose. "LILY…!"

"Amber, please," Sydney said as she gently placed her hand on the red haired girl's shoulder. "If Lily doesn't want to talk to Austin, she doesn't have to. People's tastes do change, after all." At that moment, a device in Sydney's pocket beeped. When she pulled it out and looked at it, she gasped and rose to her feet. "And it looks like we're going to have to worry about that later! We've got business to take care of."

All three of the others gasped. "Oh no," said Bianca.

"Not now," said Skylar.

"What PERFECT timing," Amber said with a glare.

Ludwig just sat there without any clue of what was happening. "What are you guys talking about?"

Before he could get a response, the others rushed out toward the mall exit. The oldest Koopaling sat for a minute before shrugging.

"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out. Hey guys, wait for me!"