Chapter 13: Older Siblings in General
"It's stereotyping, and I resent it!" Jessie protested. It was the first night on the way home and they had already made it to a town. They had gotten a suite for all of them to use and the boys were insisting that the ladies use the beds. "It implies that women have a problem with sleeping on the ground! I know I've spent at least three times as much time sleeping on the ground as all of them combined!"
"Jessie! Cool it, for crying out loud!" Nicole exclaimed. "If you've slept on the ground so much then you should be happy for a nice bed! Geeze!" She and Jessie were sharing one of the three bedrooms while Peach and Daisy each had one of their own. They both climbed into the bed and pulled up the covers.
"It's still insulting," Jessie said as they turned off the lights.
"We were just trying to be considerate! It's called common courtesy!" Luigi defended to the guys. They murmured in agreement.
"Common courtesy my rear-end!" Jessie called from hers and Nicole's room ("Shut up, already!" they heard Nicole say.)
The boys all looked at each other. "One thing you gotta learn about Jessie: she starts an issue, she finishes an issue," Ian told them.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jessie shouted ("Give it a friggin rest!" Nicole exclaimed.).
"See?" Ian whispered. They turned out the lights and went to bed then.
'
The next day they bought a rope and tied themselves together while they crossed the desert (they did not want to be separated again). That night they camped out on the edge of the desert and jungle. Then the next day after that they made it to Wedding Hill again. They got a suite in that inn too.
That night they all sat at the table in the dining room, eating dinner. Jessie was feeling antsy because she'd realized earlier that no one had said anything about Nicole. She kept stealing glances at her friend and at everyone else at the table. They usually caught her eye and looked away again really quick. Finally Jessie had waited long enough.
"All right, that's it!" she exclaimed slamming her cutlery to the table.
"Jessie, what's up with you?" Ian asked.
"I'll tell what," she said. "The only mention of Nicole's being new was when I introduced her to everyone. Does no one else realize that she, Ian, and me all appeared here out of pipes? That means she has to be the long- lost relative of someone or another too! We could most certainly be giving this some thought."
"It's not like we had any way to be telling anything. We don't have any of the resources we did when we connected Ian to Peach," Mario said.
"There's still much that can be discussed," Jessie said.
"I gotta agree with Jess on this one," Ian said. "You guys remember how I got when I was just stuck at your house. Eventually I had to go out and look for my family. Don't you think Nicole will want to do that too?"
"Yes, but there is still nothing much we can do right now," Yoshi said.
"You can always plan for the future," Jessie said.
"She has a fair point," Peach admitted.
"Nicole, do you want to add to any of this?" Ian asked.
"Only that I really want to find my family ASAP, and I'm not in any way opposed to talking about finding them right now," Nicole answered.
"And right now is possible," Ian said.
"You've put it off for days," Jessie said.
"I would really like to get this done so I don't get to the point Ian did," Nicole said.
"Yeah, you remember how that got," Jessie said.
"It's getting kind of late," Peach said. "We've got another day's walk ahead of us, don't we?"
"She's right," Luigi added. "We should get some rest and wait until we get home and have the time to talk about this."
"But-," the kids started to protest.
"Now," Mario said. "If you can't recognize that you need to rest for a hard-day of walking then-."
"We can make a bedtime rule for when we're on journeys," Peach finished.
The kids rolled their eyes and grudgingly went with everyone else upstairs to the suite, where they all immediately went to bed.
'
The next day they finished the last leg of the journey. During that time, they decided that Daisy could stay with them in the castle and help them run the kingdom. That night they finally made it back to Toadstool Town. Peach, Ian, Daisy, and Toad went back to the castle, Wario and Waluigi went to Wario's house, and Mario, Luigi, Jessie, Yoshi, and Nicole went back to the Pipe House.
The day after that, everyone (excluding Wario and Waluigi, of course) gathered at the Pipe House to discuss Nicole's situation. "How are we going to do this?" Mario posed when they were all situated in the living room.
"Well, do you think maybe we should go about this the same way we did when Ian showed up?" Jessie suggested.
"What, you mean leave to look for her family, they figure it out while we're gone, and then disappear before they can tell us?" Ian joked.
"Ian," Jessie muttered and smiled and rolled her eyes.
"And then you can come save us and inevitably conquer in your first try what took the rest of us months?" Mario continued humorously.
"Mario," Jessie said a little louder, it was less amusing this time.
"Better yet, we could call up Bowser and tell him we might have another member of the royal family!" Yoshi added. Those three were cracking up.
"Guys!" Jessie cried, it was no longer funny. "C'mon! This is serious-."
"Wait a second!" Luigi exclaimed. "What if she is?"
"What?" That certainly shut the boys up. Luigi thought for a moment.
"Daisy, why didn't we think of this before?" Luigi asked her.
"Think of what?" Daisy asked.
"Don't you remember what we talked about back at your castle?" Luigi asked.
"You mean-?" Daisy started, but then realized something for herself. "Oh, my god! Why didn't we think of that before? Why didn't I make that connection?"
"What are you two talking about?" Mario inquired.
"Luigi, show me that picture really quick!" Daisy directed. They both leapt out of their seats and Luigi showed her the picture on the wall of Jessie, Ian, and the little boy and girl.
"Is that-?" Luigi asked.
"Yes! That's her!" Daisy exclaimed.
"What's with you?" Ian asked.
"And it's her!" Luigi exclaimed pointing toward Nicole.
"What is going on?" Nicole shouted.
Daisy ran over to Nicole and threw her arms around her. Tears of joy were flowing down her cheeks. "Luigi, what are you not filling us in on?" Jessie asked her brother.
"Let's just say that this room contains one prince and three princesses," Luigi answered. Jessie got up to look at the picture Luigi had shown Daisy.
"What are you talking abou-?" Jessie started, but she saw what in the picture had caused such excitement. She gasped. "Daisy said that was her little sister?" she confirmed.
"Yes!" Luigi exclaimed.
"But that's-!" Jessie.
"I know!" Luigi replied.
"Oh, my god!" Jessie squealed.
"WHAT IS GOING ON?" Ian shouted over everyone else.
"Can someone tell me why Daisy is squeezing the life out of me?" Nicole gasped. Daisy loosened her embrace.
"Guys, do you remember that picture of me and Ian as babies that we used to ID Ian?" Luigi asked the room.
"Yes," everyone but Nicole ("No.") answered.
"Does anyone remember there being the two other little kids besides Jessie and Ian?" Luigi asked.
"Vaguely," Mario answered.
"Oh, screw it, everyone come look at the picture!" Jessie commanded. "Daisy has positively identified this kid as her little sister."
They all got out of their seats and moved over to where Jessie and Luigi were standing. They looked at the picture and then looked quickly at Nicole.
"That's Nicole!" Peach exclaimed.
"What are you saying?" Yoshi asked.
"Think, guys," Jessie said. "If Daisy recognizes that as her sister and we recognize it as Nicole, then what does that mean?"
"...I'm Daisy's sister?" Nicole exclaimed after a moment.
"Yes!" Jessie answered.
"Oh, my god!" Nicole cried, and grabbed at Daisy, squeezing her in the same way that Daisy had squeezed Nicole. Everyone else was cheering.
"Wait a second," Nicole said suddenly, holding Daisy at arm's length. "Daisy's a princess."
"Yes?" Ian answered.
"And I'm Daisy's sister," Nicole added.
"Yes," Jessie answered.
"So- what does that ma- I mean- Am I a- uh- am I a-...princess?" Nicole stammered.
"Hey! You sound just like me when I found out I was a prince!" Ian laughed. "Funny!"
"Oh, man!" Nicole murmured. "Does this mean I'm gonna live in the castle and be royalty and stuff too?"
"Absolutely," Peach answered.
'
That evening Princess Peach, Prince Ian, Princess Daisy, and Princess Nicole returned to the castle with Toad. Yoshi went home too. And the Mario family went back to normal. They all sat on the couch and stared into space for a little bit.
"You know," Mario said suddenly, "It might be wise for us to simply carry around copies of that picture in our back pockets so that we will be able to identify that last little boy as soon as we see him."
Luigi and Jessie nodded their heads in approval. Then Jessie thought for a moment.
"Wait, there is one other boy, isn't there!"
That too is another story.
'
The End! How'd you like? Yeah, I probably won't write, or if I do I won't post, about the stuff they do between now and the next story. Just a Mario Party or two. Anyway... Review please! I've only gotten two reviews total for my two Mario fanfics. This makes me very sad, not to mention angry. So if you read and don't review then you will deal with the Brownies, because they are mere weeks away from completion of their current mission.
Anyway, look out for my next story! It's called "Extended Family!" I have the first few chapters written but the rest will be posted as it is written. This makes me happy because now I will have a much better reason for not posting stuff as frequently. Anyway, look out for and read it. Laters for now!