Chapter 2: Reunited

Jessie woke up with thoughts racing in circles inside her head. She looked around a little and saw nothing that was familiar to her. She was lying on top of a pile of straw. Sitting up with a little difficulty Jessie realized that she was between two wood-paneled buildings. Beyond her immediate area was a small town, much like an old western town. The sun was already beating down brightly upon her, yet the whole place seemed overshadowed and "gray" somehow. As she stepped onto what appeared to be the main street, Jessie realized that there were many different types of creatures around here.

There were several saloons up and down the street, one of them being to her immediate left. Apparently there were so many creatures because most of them were just visiting. The town was probably just a pit stop or a trading post for the most part. Jessie decided that she should first look around to see if anyone else had landed around there. She walked down the street and saw nothing and no one familiar to her. She decided to go inside one building to see if anyone in there could help her.

"Hello?" she slid uncomfortably in the doorway.

"'Hello' what?" answered a gruff voice from behind the counter. She turned to see a nasty looking little mushroom.

"Uh-" Jessie was unsure of how to answer or what to do next.

"Look, do you have any business to conduct in here?" it asked.

"I don't know..." Jessie's voice trailed off.

"Then get out and don't come back until you do know!" the mushroom snapped and ran out from behind the counter to shoo her out. Jessie hurried out.

"Okay, I guess I just picked the town meanie's shop. No big deal. I'll just find someone else to help," she said to herself. A few buildings down was another shop. When Jessie entered, about the same thing that had happened in the first shop happened. The same thing also happened at the next few places she tried. Jessie was becoming increasingly distraught. And several times when she was inside, creatures could be heard screaming and running around outside.

The last place she went in was a saloon, and it was getting rather dark. "Can I have a room for the night?" she asked.

"Sure thing," answered the bartender, a goomba with an unpleasant voice. She went upstairs and went to sleep. The next morning she went back downstairs where there were many creatures already around the tables socializing.

"Need something?" the goomba asked from behind the bar.

"Um," Jessie said and paused as her belly issued a loud growl.

"I guess that means food," the goomba said.

"I guess..." Jessie answered. The goomba, the only person working there, apparently, slipped back into the kitchen and reappeared a few minutes later with a steaming plate, which he set at the bar.

"This is mine, right?" Jessie asked as she approached it.

"Yup," the goomba replied and went on with his business.

Outside the creatures were running around and screaming again. But Jessie didn't notice. She was too concerned with the "food" in front of her. She poked at the stuff, which appeared just to be a blob of gray Jell-O that had lost a lot of its jiggle. Whenever she poked at it, it rocked back and forth rigidly a couple of times.

Finally she asked, "Uh, what is this?"

"That's the house specialty. Try it," the goomba answered proudly.

Jessie poked at it again and took a very small piece off with her fork. She placed it in her mouth and immediately scrunched her face in disgust. Trying to be polite, she forced herself to swallow at least that bite.

"Ain't it great!" the goomba exclaimed.

Forgetting her manners again, Jessie blurted, "This is disgusting!"

Everyone in the saloon went dead quiet and turned to face her. "You dare to insult the house specialty?" the goomba asked coldly.

Jessie, now feeling very uncomfortable and very, very unsafe answered hesitantly, "I, uh, I mean- it's not exactly the best thing I've ever tasted."

The goomba's anger leaked out in steam through his head as he shouted, "Get the heck out of here, you miscreant!" Jessie got up from her seat and ran out of the saloon into the street.

The next second, Jessie turned around to see, diving down from the sky at her, a very mean and angry look upon its face, the sun! Jessie screamed and jumped out of the way. It flew back into the sky again, circled a few times, and dove at her again. She jumped out of the way again and started running down the street. Unfortunately, in her panic, Jessie failed to notice most of the people who were in her path.

Finally the sun left. But the people who Jessie had run into were furious. They started shouting insults at her. Many started stalking up to her. Sensing the growing danger, Jessie turned on her heel and ran down the alley she had started in the previous day. Many of the creatures stood at the end of the alley, shouting at her. Tears welled in Jessie's eyes as she kept running down the impossibly long alley.

Finally, out of breath, Jessie slumped down against a wall. After a little while she got up again. Realizing it would be crazy to go back to where she was before, Jessie kept walking away from it. After a little more walking Jessie made it to the other end of the alley. As she emerged into the street, everything became bright again. Jessie was very upset and lonely now. Right on her left was a saloon.

Apprehensively, she stepped in through the door. No one really seemed to notice her, but the overall atmosphere was a lot friendlier than before. Besides the bar, tables, chairs, and stairs leading upstairs to the inn, Jessie noticed a stage with several instruments and some microphones on it. The instruments were drums, a violin, a couple of guitars, and a piano. A sign near it had the words written on it, "Feel free to entertain us."

"Too bad Mario and Luigi aren't here. We could really entertain," she muttered to herself. She realized then that she needed her brothers for more than that. They probably could have helped her out during the past couple of days. Jessie realized also that she really missed them at the moment. A knot formed in her stomach, "I think I would do anything to have them here right now."

She climbed the steps onto the stage and sat down at the piano. Music flowed from her fingers. For about a minute, she sat there playing the piano, a tune of her loneliness. After about a minute a mole climbed onto the stage and sat at the drums. He waited for a spot where he could come in and added his music just as Jessie started singing a song from the last world she was in. ((A/N: It's Vanessa Carlton's "Thousand Miles." I had the lyrics here before, but the rules say no song fics because the lyrics don't belong to us. So, now they're gone!))

Eventually a mushroom joined in on violin, and later a koopa troopa on guitar. Finally Jessie and the mushroom finished up the song with the piano and violin. Everyone who had been listening stood up and applauded loudly. Jessie managed a smile and stepped down from the stage, actually a little embarrassed. She sat down at a table near the window and sat thinking for a minute.

"First you want to get away from your family forever, and now you want to be with them all the time, huh? I guess your real family is as good as you expected," a girl who had sat down across from Jessie said.

Jessie answered, "I told you I would find them and whoever my real family was would be way better than those terrible excuses for parents, Nicole-." Jessie's head shot up. A girl with shoulder-length brown hair, dark blue pants, white shirt, light blue vest, and brown shoes sat across from Jessie. "Nicole?" she exclaimed.

Nicole nodded her head with a smile. But the smile disappeared and a sad and somewhat despaired expression plastered itself on her face as she leaned in toward Jessie and wrapped her arms around her neck, "Oh, Jess, I don't know anyone here! I've been lost and alone this whole time! It's scary and I- I- oh, my God, I'm so glad I found you! This is the best moment I've had so far since I got here!" Nicole was crying by now in a mixture of sadness and happiness. Jessie was also starting to cry out of pity for her best friend and joy at having found her here too.

"It's my song too," Nicole whimpered, and then added somewhat jokingly, "I'm so happy I actually found someone here. We'll have to stick together. I mean, we're probably the only ones from the other world here, huh?"

Jessie remembered just then that Nicole was not the only other person there. This probably wasn't the best time though. "Why don't we get a room together and we'll talk there and stuff. It's getting kind of late anyway."

"Okay," Nicole answered. She smiled, "My God, we have so much to talk about!"

Lying in their beds, Jessie and Nicole talked about their time there and how they had come to be where they were. "I woke up in the middle of the night that night and had an urge to look out my window. And I saw the light from the next portal," Nicole told Jessie.

"Me too, so I just got out of bed, got dressed really quick and ran to it," Jessie replied.

"Yeah, same here," Nicole continued, "I had expected, and I'll bet you did too, to see that portal of light. But when I got there and saw the pipe, I wasn't sure I should jump in. But then I decided that it still had the light, so it had to be a portal. So I jumped in. I came out of another pipe in the sky and landed in a jungle. I was stuck in there for a while and learned a little about some of the creatures here. Then I got out and I wandered down a beach for a while getting more experience. Finally I made it to a plain old field and worked my way across it for a while. Finally, after several months, I got here, and I've been here in this town for about a couple weeks."

They lay there in bed for a minute before Nicole added, "We gotta stay together. We're the only ones from the other world. Cougars gotta stick together!"

"Yeah," Jessie answered, "Why don't we go to bed now. Like I told you, I need to start heading east tomorrow." So they went to sleep.

'

"So, you're heading east, huh?" Nicole asked the next morning as they sat eating breakfast, some actual food.

"So are you," Jessie answered.

"Cool," Nicole responded, then added teasingly, "Hey, you've been out of the other world for a few months too, right? Anyone you miss? Like you- know-who maybe?"

"Uh, actually," Jessie started. Nicole looked at her questioningly. "All right, I want to tell you something, but I wasn't sure how. But I think I might have a good way. Just sit right here and listen up," Jessie told Nicole.

Jessie went around the room looking for the mole, the koopa troopa, and mushroom, and, upon finding them, asked them to do another song with her.

They got up on stage and picked up their instruments. The mole started, then the koopa troopa, then the mushroom picked up, and then Jessie started, and she sang another song from the other world ((A/N: Vanessa Carlton's "Prince" for those who care.)).

When the song was done, Jessie went back over to where Nicole was sitting. "I don't get it," Nicole said.

"Mushroom Kingdom, that's where we are right now, if you'll recall, is ruled by a royal family. Until a little while ago Princess Toadstool, or Peach, ruled solely," Jessie explained.

"And what happened a little while ago?" Nicole asked.

"We all fell out of pipes and found Mushroom Kingdom. I found my family, because I landed right outside our house. Then I found him and we found his family," Jessie continued.

"Him?"

"Peach's baby brother, the prince, who is now ruling with her."

Nicole thought that over for a second. Then a mischievous little grin crawled onto her face, "You like him now, don't you?"

Jessie, taken aback, blushed, "Well..."

Nicole laughed, "That's what that song was about!"

"Yeah," Jessie answered failing to hold back her own smile.

"What's his name? Hey! Wait a sec. You said he came out of a pipe too. Do we know him from before?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Who is he?"

Jessie had tried to work her way delicately around it, and she now found herself averting Nicole's gaze. Her eyes were now drawn to the window. She noticed now that the town outside was about a mirror image of the other town, especially in that it had many saloons as well. There was actually one right across the street. In fact, she could see a boy sitting by a window in the one across the street.

"Wait a minute?" she thought, "The only human kids in the kingdom are me, Nicole, and-," out loud, "Ian?"

"Ian?" Nicole repeated.

As though he had heard his name from across the street, Ian looked out his window and saw Jessie standing at the window in the saloon across the street. At about the same time they hurried out the doors, Nicole following closely behind Jessie.

"You landed here too?" they exclaimed in unison.

"This is great! Now we can go to Sarasaland together! I don't have to go alone!" Ian cheered happily.

"No, you certainly don't," Jessie said, smiling as she moved aside for Ian to see Nicole.

"Wait, I thought we were the only human kids in Mushroom Kingdom?" Ian asked.

"Ian, I believe you know Nicole. She also is from here and jumped into the pipe the night we did," Jessie explained.

At the same time Nicole exclaimed, "Ian?" Ian exclaimed, "Nicole?" They all just stood there in the middle of the street soaking in what had just happened. When they finally recovered they all kind of smiled and laughed.

Still laughing slightly, Nicole said, "Well, I guess we're all going to... wherever together."

"I guess so," Ian answered.

"So, let's get going," Jessie added.