Yay! Chapter 8 is already finished! Call me butter cause I'm on a roll! Thanks to SuperSmashGirl for reviewing. I wish I could too, but it only ever works for other people (although if I threaten my toilet sometimes it'll unclog on its own...) Anyway, to those of you who are reading, enjoy this chapter, which basically shows what Jessie was doing during the last chapter.
Disclaimer: I own nothing Mario-ified. The only people in this story that I own are Jessie, Ian, Nicole, and Mogjyn/Martin. So go ahead and read on!
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Chapter 8: A Different Perspective
"Wow, I'm bored..." Jessie sighed and flopped back on her bed. It was Saturday and she had nothing to do. All of her homework was done, she didn't have any good ideas creatively, and Mario and Luigi were out working on the pipes in someone's house (they are plumbers, y'know). She'd thought about hanging out with Nicole, but she was doing something with Daisy. And Ian and Mogjyn were supposed to be hanging out together.
"Wow, I'm bored..." she sighed again. She sat up. "Maybe I'll head over to the track and run some laps. Heck if anyone else is there, maybe I can start a pick up game." This sounded better than sitting around doing nothing, so she grabbed her duffle and ball and started toward the front door. "Hmm..." she thought as she glanced at a clock. It was three-thirty. "Better leave a note just in case Mario and Luigi beat me home..." She grabbed a pen and scribbled a quick note on the pad on the fridge. Then she left and headed toward the park since there was a football game at the school.
When she got there she dropped her duffle next to the starting line. There were a couple others lying there and a few kids running around as well. A Lakitu kid was sitting in a beach chair nearby and had a stopwatch. "Hey," he said.
"Hey yourself," Jessie answered.
"You want me to time you too?" he offered. "You'll have to wait for them to finish."
"Sounds cool," Jessie replied. She stood on the grass and stretched out a little. There were about ten other kids, three koopa troopas, three goombas, a yoshi, and three moles. They all finished within about a minute of each other and joined Jessie on the grass to rest up. She recognized all of them as being on the soccer teams. "How many laps did you guys go?" Jessie asked.
"Four," a mole girl answered. She took a drink from her water bottle.
"Sweet, gettin' ready for the Monstro High game?" Jessie inquired.
"You know it," the yoshi, a boy, answered.
"Biggest threat we got," said one of the goombas, another boy.
"If it weren't for them, we would have gone to kingdom last year," said the koopa troopa (a girl). (a/n: kingdom is the equivalent of states in the real world)
"Boys and girls?" Jessie asked, since she, of course, wasn't there last year.
"Both of us," everyone else answered.
"Dang..." Jessie said.
"You guys about ready to go again?" the Lakitu boy asked.
"Yeah, hold up a sec," said the yoshi.
"Wait for us!" someone else shouted from the gate. Eight more kids were coming to join: two koopa troopas, a mole, two goombas, two yoshis, and a whomp.
"Hurry up!" the mole girl said. When everyone was lined up the Lakitu blew his whistle and they took off. Jessie, the yoshi, and one of the boy koopa troopas were up ahead for the first two laps. Then the koopa troopa fell back a bit, and then the yoshi. Jessie ended up falling back midway through the fourth lap, but she remained at the head with the other two. The three finished within five seconds of each other.
"Good job," the yoshi said, giving Jessie a high-five as they sipped their waters.
"Thanks," she answered. Everyone sat back down on the grass and rested again.
"Hey? Anyone bring a ball?" the recently joined mole girl asked.
"Yeah, I got one," Jessie answered.
"What d'you guys say to another four laps and then a game?" the mole girl asked.
"Right on," one of the koopa troopas said. Everyone else seemed to like the idea.
"Yo! You guys all running together?" Someone else was joining them. He dropped his duffle and stood in front of them.
"Ian, what're you doing here?" Jessie stared at him perplexed. Wasn't he hanging with Mogjyn? "Is Mogjyn with you?"
"Huh? No, is Nicole with you?" Ian asked. He looked just as confused.
"What?" Jessie said. Nicole was with Daisy at the castle. They both raised their eyebrows at each other. Jessie stood up and walked over to a nearby bench with Ian. "Why would you think Nicole was with me?"
"Well, she left this afternoon saying she was gonna chill with you today," Ian answered.
"Nuh-uh. She told me she couldn't come over cause she had something to do with Daisy," Jessie answered. "Mogjyn, on the other hand, said he was hanging with you today."
"Uh, no. He told me he was gonna do some cleaning today," Ian said. They both looked baffled. "Why would they lie and say they were going to be somewhere else?"
"...Because they're doing something together and they didn't want us to know about it?" Jessie suggested, though she somewhat doubted it.
"What would they be doing together that they wouldn't want us to know abou- ?" Ian said but then something hit them. Their eyes widened and their jaws dropped. "You don't think-?"
"Oh, my god. Do you think they would?" Then as she thought about it, she smiled a sly kind of grin. "Well, well, well. I guess they're gonna be doing some more stuff together."
Ian smirked too. "I guess so." Suddenly they were jolted back to reality.
"Are you guys gonna run?" called a yoshi.
"Oh! Yeah!" they exclaimed and lined up. The Lakitu blew his whistle again. This time, in addition to Jessie, the yoshi, and the koopa troopa, Ian, a mole girl, another yoshi boy, and a goomba girl were in the front. Four laps and they were all resting on the grass again.
"Okay, so how we decide teams?" a goomba girl asked.
"Who wants to be captains?" asked the whomp.
"I think Jessie and Poshi should do it," said a mole girl, pointing at Jessie and the yoshi that had been near the lead when they ran.
"Works for me," said Poshi.
"I guess so," Jessie shrugged her shoulders.
Everyone stood up and the other eighteen kids lined up shoulder to shoulder. The Lakitu came over to Jessie and Poshi. He took out a coin. "Who's callin' it?" he asked.
"Him," Jessie said, jabbing her thumb in Poshi's direction.
"Call it in the air," the Lakitu said. He tossed the coin up.
"Tails," Poshi said. The Lakitu caught the coin.
"It's heads," he said. He turned to Jessie, "You want to pick first or kickoff?"
"Uh, pick," she answered. They turned back to the other eighteen. "And as my first pick, I choose Ian."
"Who didn't see that coming?" he said, grinning, rolling his eyes, and joining her.
"Who to pick?" Poshi pondered.
"Pick the mole girl!" They turned around and standing on the path was a couple of people. "Pick the mole girl in the white shirt!" She was the one who was ahead in the pack earlier. Apparently these bystanders had been watching them for a while.
"Uh, okay," Poshi said, pointing to the girl. The spectators continued to shout suggestions during the whole team picking process. Two of them even joined. When the teams were set up, 11 v 11, the Lakitu gave Jessie's team yellow pennies to tell the teams apart. The teams took their positions on the field. A number more people had gathered as well. They were on the grass around the field and sitting against trees.
"You guys ready?" the Lakitu asked; he was refereeing. Jessie and Poshi nodded. The Lakitu looked over at the sidelines where he had two observers acting as linemen. They nodded as well. "All right." Tweeet! Poshi's team kicked off. Jessie, Ian, and the koopa troopa they had playing forward with them went after them.
The game was largely back and forth, a lot of passing. The kids were good; there wouldn't be a clear-cut winner throughout the game. Neither team scored for over fifteen minutes. Finally, Jessie and her offense managed to outmaneuver Poshi's defense. Ian passed it up to the koopa troopa, and he kicked it past their mole-y goalie. "Nice!" Jessie praised him as she gave him and Ian each a high five.
About five minutes later, Poshi and his team booted the ball past Jessie's defense. They raced after it, but a goomba on Poshi's team got there first. Most of Jessie's defense hadn't made it back yet, so the goomba dribbled the ball farther up for a better shot. She kicked it, but it bounced right off the whomp, a natural goalie. The only problem was, when he went to kick the ball out to the offense, he landed on his back, one of the troubles that whomps often have. While the ball did get up to the offense, Poshi's defense managed to get it back to Jessie's end of the field before the whomp could get up, and they scored.
Tweeet! The Lakitu blew his whistle signaling the half a little bit later. The crowd of onlookers, which had increased substantially since the game started, cheered as the teams left the field and attacked their water. "You'd think it was a real game," Ian remarked looking at the spectators.
"Nah. You'd never get that many people at a Toadstool High game," a mole boy joked. About ten minutes later, the Lakitu blew his whistle and they all headed back to the field.
Jessie's team had kickoff. Just as both teams had done for all the kickoffs prior, the center (in our team's case Ian) booted the ball downfield and everyone had followed it. Nothing incredibly eventful happened for a while that half. Finally, Jessie's offense forced the ball down to Poshi's goal. Jessie took her shot, but the mole-y goalie jumped and punched it over the goal. "Corner kick!" the Lakitu shouted. Jessie went over to the corner and set the ball there while her team got into position. When she saw they were ready, she kicked it in to them. There was a mad scramble, and somehow Ian managed to get higher than everyone else and headed it in.
"Awesome, Ian!" Jessie shouted. They all hurried back to their side of the field. When there were only about two minutes left in the game, Poshi managed to kick the ball beneath the whomp goalie and scored. The total was now tied: two to two. They headed back to their positions once more for Jessie's team's kickoff.
"Ian!" Jessie said suddenly. She pulled him toward her and whispered something in his ear. He smirked and passed the message on to their koopa troopa forward. He too smirked and they took their places. The ball was set on the midfield line. Ian backed up to get his running start. Tweeet! Ian ran up to the ball and swung his foot out- and inched the ball just far enough over the midfield line.
Poshi's team was back pretty far because they expected a boot, so they didn't make it forward in time to prevent Jessie from passing the ball back to the koopa troopa and take off with Ian. Before Poshi's team could figure out what was going on, the koopa troopa booted it past them to Jessie and Ian. Ian dribbled it up before he was confronted by the sweeper. He couldn't shoot from this position, so he dropped it to Jessie. She didn't even stop to get control of the ball. She one-timed it into the upper corner of the goal.
"Yes!" the crowd cheered for this brilliant strategy as they returned to their positions. About a minute after Poshi kicked off, the Lakitu blew the whistle one last time and ended the game.
"Woohoo! Heck, yeah!" everyone shouted. They lined up on the midfield line and shook the other team's hands. Poshi's team wasn't at all upset at losing. It was, afterall, just a pick up game. They were all just glad to have fun.
"Good game," Poshi said, shaking Jessie's hand.
"And yourself. It was really close," Jessie answered.
"Thanks. Hopefully there weren't any Monstro Town kids here to see that kickoff," Poshi said. "I've never seen anything like it. We'll definitely have to use it at the next game."
"Wow. We brought a whole new brilliant play to Mushroom Kingdom," Ian said, appearing next to them. "I feel so accomplished."
Poshi laughed. "Some of us are planning to go out for ice cream or something now," he said. "You guys wanna come too?"
"Sure. Oh, wait!" Jessie suddenly realized. "Oh, crap it's all dark out and stuff! What time is it?" She turned to the Lakitu. "Oy! Jake! What time is it!"
Jake, the Lakitu, looked at his watch. "Going on seven!" he called back.
"Urk! I don't think I can," Jessie said dejectedly. "My brothers are probably wondering about me anyway."
"Yeah, Peach is probably wondering where I am too," Ian said.
"Too bad," Poshi said. "All right. I guess I'll see you guys around." He grabbed his stuff and turned to leave with the other kids going out.
"Later!" they called and then started getting their stuff together. Jessie grabbed her ball and slung her duffle over her shoulder.
"Well, I guess I'll be leaving too," she said.
"Yeah," Ian agreed. "By the way, when'd you wanna get started on the research for our science project?"
"I dunno, when's it due?" Jessie asked.
"Uh, Halloween I think. The whole thing is due, I think, the first week of December, last week of November or something," Ian answered
"Jeez, they like to move it along quick around here, don't they?" Jessie said, comparing it to science fairs back in the other world- not ending until early January.
"Yeah. So, we got about two and a half weeks," Ian said.
"Er, let's get to work on it next Monday in study hall," Jessie said.
"Sounds good," Ian agreed. They heard Jessie's sports watch beep inside her duffle as she pulled out her jacket. "Seven o'clock?"
That's when the lights in the park turned off. They heard several people scream playfully across the grassy lawns. The park closed at seven. "Yeah, I'd say so," Jessie said as she put on said jacket. With the lights gone, Jessie noticed that it was pretty dark. She looked up and saw that the moon and stars were hidden by thick clouds. "Hmm."
"It's dark," Ian commented. Apparently he had noticed it too.
"Yeah," Jessie said. "I kind of wish I'd brought a flashlight, just in case."
"You want me to walk home with you?" Ian offered. "Make sure you make it back there okay?"
Jessie smiled at his thoughtfulness. "I've got telekinesis and about five lifetimes of fighting experience," she said. "You, on the other hand, your royal prince-ly-ness, have no telekinesis and a throne to get back to. If anyone will be walking anyone home tonight, I will be walking you."
"Suit yourself," Ian said. They found the path and followed it out of the park. About two-thirds of the way to the castle, Jessie started twitching her nose. "Gotta sneeze?"
"No," she said rubbing it with the sleeve of her jacket. "I felt something wet." They looked up and got water in their eyes. "Uh-oh." The rain started to drip-drop on them. Jessie reached into her duffle. "That's why they invented umbrellas." She popped the thing open and they huddled under it as they continued to the castle. When they got there, they went inside.
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End of chapter. Next one is going to pick up right where this one left off. And I do mean RIGHT where this one left off. The only reason it's not a part of this chapter is because this was getting a little long. It might not seem very necessary or in any way conducive to the story, but like I said, next chapter. So, until then! Buh-byes!