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Author's Note:

I'm going on hiatus for some time. The reason is because I'm suffering from a huge writer's block. Progress on the story is slow, and I mean really slow. Sometimes, I'll be siting in front of the computer for hours only to delete it the next day. So I've decided to put this story on pause and take a break from updating so I can spend some time plan the next ten or more chapters.

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Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story idea and any OCs.

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Chapter 70:
Tutoring

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"UHRG, I give up!"

Junior collided his face on the library table, feeling really frustrated. He had spent over an hour trying to get his math homework done but he was having trouble solving the last four questions.

"Junior…?"

The Koopa Heir slowly looked up. He saw Luigi standing in front him. He had a few books in his hands, one he realized as their magic book.

"Junior, what's wrong?" Luigi asked.

He sighed. "I can't get these math problems right,"

"Is that all?" The green man smiled. "From the way you just sighed, you sound like you gave up on finding a cure for a disease."

"It sure does feel like it," He mumbled.

"I'm sure it's not that hard." Luigi placed his books on the table and sat across from him. "Let me see,"

He took the paper and held it in front of him. At first glance, he realized this wasn't any normal math problems. These problems were more advance.

"These are quadratic equations…" He glanced up at Junior. "Weren't you working on Algebra problems before?"

Junior lifted his head up and rested it on his hand. "It was starting to get easy so Kammy thought it was time I did more upper level math."

"Usually you don't start doing quadratic equations until high school, most likely junior year. At your age, you're about three, maybe four years ahead."He looked back down at the paper. "Hmm... did you double check your work?"

Junior frowned. "No, why?"

"Well, three times four does not equal sixteen. Everything from there is probably wrong."

Junior groaned and bumped his head on the table again.

"Junior, it's okay" Luigi assures him.

"No it's not!" Junior shot up, causing the plumber in front of him to jump out of surprise. "I have a stupid test on this in a few days and I can't even get half my homework right on my own. If I can't even do that, then the heck with being king; I might as well hand the throne over to Clawd now because obviously I'm too stupid to rule."

Luigi sat there for a moment, completely stunned on what he just witness. At first, one would think that anything you say to the young heir would enter one ear hole and exited out the other. But after witnessing his outburst, Luigi could see he has been taking Kammy's speeches to heart.

'Boy, the kid's really stress out,' Mr. L commented 'You better snap him out of it,'

'Right,'

"Junior," He called to him.

Junior didn't respond; he just kept his head down on the table.

"Junior, look at me," Luigi tried a bit harder. Still he got no response. He sighed. "Alright then…"

He reached over and grabbed the smallest book from the table. He held it firmly in his hand as he raised it in the air. Quickly he brought it down on top of Junior's head.

"OW!" Junior shot his head up from the table and glared at the plumber who hit him. "Hey! What was that for?"

"You should respond when someone's talking to you," Luigi told him calmly. "Also, I wanted to get you out that funk…Listen Junior, you're not stupid; in fact, you're actually kind of smart.

"Yeah, right," Junior scoffed, rubbing his slightly throbbing head.

"I'm serious; I won't have been able to do this when I was your age. You just can't think straight because you're stress out. It happens from time to time." He smiled. "And you don't have to do everything on your own. You'll have people around willing to help you out when needed,"

"Like who?"

"Well, there's me, your father, Kammy, Wendy, Ludwig, Kanary, Roy, Morton, Iggy, Lemmy, Larry-"

"Lemmy?" Junior questioned with an eyebrow.

"Hey, you never know,"

"Don't you have your own homework to do?"

"Yeah, but I can find some time to do it later. That is… if you want me to help you?"

Junior remained silent for a long moment. He really wasn't one to ask for help, but then again he didn't have much of a choice. He sighed,

"Alright,"

Luigi smiled kindly. "Okay, first let's double check the ones you did,"

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The library was peacefully silent. The only sounds made were the ones from a pencil hitting paper on a table and the occasional flip of a page on a book. Suddenly, a chair was slide back with a happy shout.

"Ha, I'm finish!" Junior cheered.

Luigi looked up from his book. "Here, let me check it for you,"

Junior hands him the paper. Luigi scanned through it, looking for any errors. When he didn't find any, he nodded in approval and hand it back to him.

"Looks good; is there anything else I can help you with?"

Junior sat back on his chair and glanced down at the table. "Well, there is one thing,"

Luigi tilted his head. "What is it?"

"I…still can't get my spells to work. I mean, I practice every day but they never came out right,"

"I could probably help with that,"

He dug through his pocket and placed a small rock on the table. He pulled out his training wand and gave it Junior so he could borrow.

"Okay, let me see you try to transform this rock,"

Junior held the wand in his hands. He pointed it at the rock and said the word,

"Reformabit!"

A small light appear at the end of the wand but nothing happened. He groaned in frustration while Luigi hummed in thought.

"Well, you definitely sound confident in yourself," He said. "But you're not really focus on it,"

Junior scoffed. "I've been trying to get this to work for almost three weeks, how focus can I get?"

Luigi put his hands up. "Calm down; I was having problem with it too until Wendy gave me some pointers." He took his wand back from Junior. "You're not entirely focus because of those voices in the back of your head."

'Like me?'

'Ignoring,'

Junior frowned. "Are you sure I just don't have a mess up wand?"

"Nope; the wand just focuses the energy into a single point. You've been feeling stress lately so it's probably affecting you both physically and mentally, making you out of sync. Here, I'll demonstrate for you,"

He took a deep breath clearing a head of any distracting thoughts… and L. Once that was done, he performed the spell. The rock glowed and was transformed into a diamond. Junior blinked in surprise while Luigi nodded in satisfaction.

"See? Now you try… Remember, just clear your head of all thoughts,"

He gave him back the wand. Junior frowned.

"But Kammy said-"

"Just forget what Kammy said," Luigi interrupted. "For the next few minutes, just have your mind clear of thoughts."

Junior still seem unsure but at this point, he'll do anything to get this over and done with. So, he did what Luigi told him. He took several deep breaths, trying to temporary forget all those speeches Kammy's been giving him and relaxed his body.

Luigi sat across from him, patiently waiting for him to finish. It took some time but once Junior had his head cleared, he tired to perform the spell again. With the wand in hand, he took one more deep breath and said,

"Reformabit,"

After nearly three weeks, his efforts were finally rewarded. Both the wand and the rock glowed. When it dimmed the rock was now an emerald.

"Look at that; you did it!" Luigi congratulated him.

Junior blinked in surprise. It actually took him a full minute for his mind to comprehend what he just did before a smile slowly form on his face.

"I…I did it…"

Luigi smiled. 'He's going to do just fine,'

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Ending Note:

A short chapter unfortunately. However, I promise when I return from this hiatus the next chapter will be longer (at least 2000+ words).

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Review :)