Yo! Chapter 7! I gotta say, this story is moving a lot faster than all the ones previous. Probably cause I want to get on with all of the stories following. So many ideas... it's hard to get them all on paper... or word doc, on computer... um... thingy...

Yeah, well, thanks to Dan and SuperSmashGal for reviewing. I hope you keep reading all my stories after this too.

Disclaimer: I own nothing Mario-ified. I only own Jessie, Ian, Nicole, and Mogjyn(/Martin)

On with the fic!

'

Chapter 7: Science Fair

"Come again?" Jessie, Ian, Nicole, and Mogjyn were sitting in their Biology class two weeks after homecoming. "A what project?" Jessie asked.

"A science fair project," Mr. Reno answered. "This is a course requirement, Miss Mario, read the fine print from now on."

"What fine print! I got placed in this class! Not selected it!" she retorted.

"Nevertheless, it is a requirement and you will do it or fail," Mr. Reno responded. "I do things differently in my class, however. Everyone works in pairs." Instinctively, Jessie and Nicole pointed to each other and Ian and Mogjyn pointed at each other. "I also like to mix things up a bit," Mr. Reno continued.

He walked to his desk and picked up a jar with several slips of paper inside. "I make one requirement when you choose your partners. Besides that you are free to work with whomever you want. There are ten possible requisites that I keep in this jar. It is different for every class every year." He shook the jar some to mix up the slips. Next he took off the lid. "Just so you do not think I cheated, I will allow Miss Mario to pick it out." He held the jar to Jessie. She rolled her eyes and reached in. Then she unfolded it and held it up to her face.

"Boy-girl pairs only," she read bored. Then it hit her. "Wait- what?"

"Boy-girl pairs only this year in this class," Mr. Reno announced. "I expect final partnerships and the project your going to do by next Friday." The bell rang. "Dismissed."

The group gathered up their things and left. "Quite honestly, I find it annoying that we didn't hear before about science projects being a requirement," Jessie complained.

"That means are usual happy pairs are messed up," Nicole said.

"This is gonna be weird," Ian said. "There was a reason we always split up the way we did."

"So, how will we divide up this time?" Mogjyn asked.

"I don't want to work with Ian," Nicole pronounced instantly.

"Why not?" Ian asked offended.

"Because you always go super crazy with your science project, and we live in the same castle. So if I did work with you I'd probably be getting knocks on my door in the dead of night bugging me about something you've thought of," Nicole justified.

"I would not!" Ian defended.

"And I guess that's why Josh was complaining about you calling him at midnight at least once every other week last year when you two paired up for your science project," Nicole retorted. "At least here you'd have to go through a Lakitu first, and I know they wouldn't deliver a science project message in the middle of the night." Ian remained silent, but huffy.

"Don't worry, Ian," Jessie consoled. "I'll let you make whatever adjustments you think would need to be made without my prior consent." They all sat down next to a window in the cafeteria, their usual spot since it got chilly out.

"I guess that means we're working together then," Mogjyn said to Nicole as Jessie and Ian started deciding what to do.

"I guess so," Nicole answered. "So, what kind of project do we want to do?"

"I dunno," Mogjyn said. "I had this kind of idea having to do with the boiling point, freezing point, and viscosity of liquids."

"Continue," Nicole said, willing to hear more.

"Well, what we would do is pick about ten liquids and find their boiling and freezing points. Then we would have to find their viscosity. The whole point is to find out if the three are proportionate."

"...All right. But how do we measure viscosity?"

"That's done with a viscometer. They're expensive, but they probably have one in the chemistry or physics classes."

"Sounds good. We can go see if they have one after school." They returned to eating their lunch.

'

After school that Thursday, Nicole and Mogjyn (they each had a game that night: no practice) were in the classroom of one of the chemistry teachers. "Sorry, I'm afraid the school doesn't have a viscometer," the mushroom man said. "They're a bit on the expensive side if you know what I mean."

"Yes, that's why we were hoping you had one..." Nicole said dejectedly. They walked out of the classroom. "So much for that idea."

"I guess so? What do we do now? Come up with a new project?" Mogjyn asked as they walked down the stairs and entered the atrium.

"We can't come up with a new project. It's due tomorrow!" Nicole responded. "We either need to ask for an extension, find another way to measure viscosity, or find another viscometer."

"Well, I think we can rule out the extension," Mogjyn said as he held open the study hall door. "There's no way Mr. Reno will give it to us. And I've already looked, there's no other way to measure viscosity."

"Great!" Nicole threw her hands up in frustration. "In other words we're totally screwed!" She plopped down into one of the chairs. Mogjyn's hand found the back of his head. Through his mask Nicole could tell he had something on his mind. "What's up?" she asked.

He waited a moment before answering. "I know where we can find another viscometer..." he said slowly.

"That's great!" she exclaimed, but then she saw that his uneasiness hadn't left. "That is great, isn't it?"

"Well, the thing is... it's at my house," he said in that same slow, nervous tone.

She looked at him for a moment in confusion but then understood. "You don't want anyone to know where you live..."

"It's just that, I mean, y'know, I don't-." He lowered his voice, "I don't really have parents. So it's not like I live in a halfway decent house."

Nicole paused a moment. "That doesn't really matter much to me," she said finally. "You know I understand your situation- what it is, anyway. I get that you don't have a lot to work with. But at the same time, for one thing we have our grade to think about and for another, someone really should know where you live if anything were to happen."

Mogjyn looked at her for a moment. "I'll bring you by this weekend," he said finally. Nicole smiled.

"All righty then."

'

"Okay, I feel like an idiot..." Nicole said. It was two in the afternoon and she was standing at the intersection where she and Ian, Jessie, and Mogjyn split up on their ways home from school. Mogjyn told her to wait for him there so that they could meet and he could take her to his house. "Martin," she reminded herself silently. Ever since she found out who he really was, Nicole had had to continue calling him Mogjyn around other people. She still didn't much understand why it was he didn't want anyone to know who he was yet. It seemed to her the longer he waited, the more complicated it would be when it did finally come out.

She looked around once more and almost decided to leave, but then she saw Martin coming from down his road. "'Bout time," she said when he reached her. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd chickened out," she added winking at him.

Behind his mask, Martin smiled uneasily. "Come on," he said, turning around again. "It's down here." He led her down the road a small distance before stopping and looking around. Nicole looked about confused until he led her toward the house with the "For Sale" sign.

"Wait, you live-?" she said, but he shushed her and looked around again. Then they approached the house and went inside. Martin closed the door and leaned on it, sighing with what seemed like relief. "You live in an abandoned residence?" Nicole asked.

"No, they just haven't gotten around to getting rid of the 'For Sale' sign yet," he said. They both laughed a bit nervously. Martin rubbed his head as though he had a slight headache.

"You okay?" Nicole asked.

"Yeah, just a little warm," he answered lowering his hand. He glanced at her nervously.

"Maybe if you took off the shy guy outfit?" she suggested.

Martin seemed nervous about the concept, having lived in it for the past few months, but then he nodded his head. He took off the mask, lowered the hood, and removed the robe, baring a pair of dark blue jeans and a blue t- shirt over a white long sleeve shirt. The boy looked like he was flushed from the heat, but Nicole could tell it would wear off as he cooled down.

"Uh, I guess I'll show you the viscometer," he said, clapping his hands together and heading toward a door on the other side of the room. Behind the door was a set of stairs leading down to a basement.

"Whoa," Nicole said when they reached the basement. It was filled with all sorts of dust covered machines and instruments. As a whole, it looked like the textbook basement laboratory right out of the movies. "I'm guessing the last person to live here was a scientist," she said looking around.

"That's what I assume," Martin said. He let her look around a minute before directing her attention to the viscometer. "I'm not sure on how to use it exactly," he said. "But I know that that's what it does. This guy left lots of notes on all of his experiments." Martin pointed toward a bookshelf that was filled with rows of books, most with extra papers bulging out.

"As long as it works," Nicole said. "Maybe that's what we should work on today. Just getting it to work. I mean, for all we know it could be broken."

"Right," Martin said as Nicole went over to the bookshelf and started skimming over the spines. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"Looking to see if any of these are operation manuals," Nicole said. "People can barely program their VCRs with those things, so I would think one would be absolutely necessary for an instrument like this... Aha!" She pulled a musty book off the shelf. "Eek!" she squeaked as a spider fell off of it onto the floor. Martin promptly stepped on and killed the arachnid. "Thanks," Nicole breathed.

"No prob'," Martin answered. They cleared a section of table, set the book there, and opened it up. After a while Nicole read instructions out loud to Martin as he performed the task and tried to get the thing working. Unfortunately, the thing just wouldn't turn on. No matter which switched he flipped or which button he pressed, nothing. "Okay, I cannot for the life of me figure out what's wrong with this thing," he said glaring annoyed at the machine. "Can you think of anything?"

"Hmm... maybe," Nicole said. She walked over. "Make sure the what's-it- called switch- you know which one- is pushed forward." Martin flipped that switch forward. It made a pathetic little whirring noise. Nicole glared at the hateful thing and smashed down on it with her fist.

"What are you-!" Martin exclaimed.

"Making this puppy work," she answered, rubbing dust off her fist and sleeve. Martin looked at the viscometer in disbelief as he realized it was running.

"How does that always work?" he grinned.

"Dunno. Don't care. As long as it does," Nicole answered. She glanced down at her watch. "Holy crap! It's like six o'clock! I didn't think it would take this long. I gotta get going."

"Okay," Martin said, turning the viscometer off again, then they went back upstairs. It was dark, so Martin turned on a lantern. "Can't turn on the real lights cause people'll get suspicious," he explained. Then he led her to the door. He looked out the window to make sure no one was coming. A half second, he was squinting through the glass. "Huh... That's weird." He was looking upwards at the sky.

"What's weird? Is Jessie walkin' down the street?" Nicole joked, teasing about his weird "cousin." She joined him.

"No, there're clouds up there," he informed. "Weather didn't say anything about rain or clouds or anything of that kind. Now it's really dark."

Nicole squinted out the window too. "Wow. That is a little weird," she agreed, as she saw, well, nothing. "It's okay. I'll make it home."

Martin narrowed his eyes in skepticism. "I don't know. You won't be able to see anything," he said.

"Sure, it's dark, and shadowy, and completely different from daytime," Nicole said, the last two words with a bit of nervousness.

Martin watched her for a moment. "No, I'm not gonna let you walk me home. Especially since you're a princess," he added jokingly. "I'm coming with you." He gathered his shy guy clothes and put them on again.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I would definitely feel safer if I saw you make it home."

"All right, let's go then." Martin had finished putting on his shy guy clothes. They heard shouting coming from the park as they walked back to the castle, but they ignored it. Martin and Nicole walked all the way there before they said goodbye. "So, I'll see you Monday."

"Okay. We can decide when to meet and where then," Martin said. They said their goodbyes and Nicole went inside to her room in the castle and Martin went back to hiding out as Mogjyn as he returned to the abandoned house he called home. Not long after the clouds opened up and started to downpour.

'

Did you like that chapter? I got another one coming up maybe even by the end of the day. I've been in a writing mood since I got grounded (report cards came in, 2 Cs in English and U.S. History, mother of Jessie was not exactly jumping for joy...) Anyway, I hope everyone had a nice Easter (mine sucked for various reasons I will not go into) and Spring Break (which got better for me because I was at my grandma's house and had unconstrained access to the internet, cable is sweet) Next chapter should be up shortly! Till next time!