Woah, a lot of stuff happens in this chapter. Everything is Nintendo's.

Peach sat alone in her bedroom, thinking. Everything in her room was pink, from the floaty pink curtains to the clean pink carpet beneath her feet. The room itself was basically a giant pink blot. She was curled up on the pink bedspread, hugging a pink pillow and staring at the pink wall.

She laughed in spite of herself. "Well, that was a crappy first day."

And it was. She didn't hate Mario, but she did think he was a jerk. She was becoming fed up with how much he put down Luigi in front of them. It was just cruel to treat your sibling like that. And Daisy didn't help anything by laughing along with him. What was wrong with trying out for drama?

So what if Weege could be a bit... flamboyant at times. That didn't automatically label him as gay.

Maybe she just had to talk with Mario, straighten everything out... She liked being friends with him, that much was clear. But it couldn't go on like this.

She whipped out her pink laptop, typing in the address for the school website. Looking up the sports tryout times, she found that they ended at 7:00. A smile lit up her features. She would have to sneak out.

Daisy powdered her face, trying to hide any zits she had. It felt weird, to say the least, to be going on a date with Luigi. She had never really felt any attraction to him, found him awkward, and never thought she could be with someone like him. This was going to be quite strange.

She checked her purse one last time just as the doorbell rang. She walked down the stairs, finding Luigi standing in the living room wearing a full tuxedo. She had to stifle a laugh, but couldn't help smiling. "What's with...?"

He looked a little embarrassed, comparing his formal wear with Daisy's orange blouse and jean skirt. "Umm..."

Daisy laughed. "Let's go."

Peach clamored out of her window, somehow landing on the tree outside. She climbed down, her long nightgown hindering her greatly. With every passing second, the idea of sneaking out seemed more and more stupid. But, she had to do it. And besides, it was thrilling.

She dropped onto the ground, walking along the long, grassy field and following her bus route to the school. Finally, panting from running most of the way, the football field came into view, lit up in the darkness. A bunch of indistinguishable jocks ran around, passing the football. She couldn't tell which one was Mario.

Climbing up onto the stands, wrapping her jacket around her thin frame, she settled down for the ten or so minutes it would take for tryouts to end.

Luigi pulled up to the movie theater, silently cursing himself. A tuxedo? What voice in his head told him that was a good idea?

He jumped out of the car, running to the other side to open Daisy's door. He brought up his arm for Daisy to take, but she ignored it and walked about six inches away from him.

He cleared his throat. "So... what movie do you want to see?"

She bit her lip. "Hm... The Happening looks good." She sounded a bit detached.

Luigi felt a spasm of panic. He had heard that that particular movie was quite gory. But he kept quiet at the risk of driving Daisy away more, until they were seated. As the film wore on, Luigi jumping out of his skin at regular intervals, Daisy seemed more and more bored. Luigi tore his eyes away from the film to look at her a few times, wondering if he should try something. This date definitely wasn't going like he'd planned, so what if he screwed things up?

He couldn't keep himself from staring at her. She was very cute, something he would never have admitted when they'd met in fourth grade. He felt a desire to put his arm around her. Would it be wise to try the cliched yawn-and-put-arm-around-girl trick? Eh... maybe not. He could be more creative than that.

He swung his arm around her shoulders flamboyantly, trying to make a show of it, but ended up elbowing her in the nose. "Ouch!" She clutched her face in pain.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, Daisy!" he whispered loudly, raising his hands in case he could help her.

Rummaging through her purse, she sighed. "I gotta go to the bathroom to get some tissues. Be right back."

Luigi waited, as he watched a girl on the screen stab herself in the neck with a knitting needle. But as the main character stole a car to escape the city, he noticed Daisy was still not back. As an old woman smashed her own face into a pane of glass, he was becoming more suspicious. When a man threw himself under a moving tractor, it became obvious that she was not returning.

He stood in disbelief, walking out of the theater. How could she stand him up?

Peach hopped down from the bleachers excitedly, wondering if the pillows she'd stuffed under her bedspread had fooled her parents. She felt frozen under her silky pajamas.

He saw a short, red-clad boy walking away from the field, and hurried after him. She touched his shoulder, and he whirled around.

"Peach?" he said, looking a little embarrassed. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk," she said defiantly, crossing her arms.

"What? Why?" He looked genuinely surprised and confused, which wasn't a surprise, since he made fun of people all the time. He probably wasn't expecting someone to call him out on it.

"Can you stop making fun of Luigi?" She couldn't think of much to say besides that.

Mario raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Peach felt a strong anger towards him, almost like she hated him. Maybe she did hate him! He was always so clueless of the damage he did to others, didn't care about anyone. "You know what I'm talking about! You keep calling him gay, and girly, and... Well, it's just a jerky thing to do."

Mario looked at her as she was speaking, with an amused expression. Almost laughing, he replied, "That's just something brothers do, Peach. You wouldn't understand."

She wanted to slap him. You shouldn't treat anyone that way. "I can tell he's hurt by it."

"He knows I'm kidding around."

"Yeah, but it still hurts him. I can see it. You need to stop, or..." She shook her head and shrugged. "Or, I'll make you stop."

Mario laughed loudly. "You'll make me stop? How much do you weigh, like, 50 pounds?"

"Mario, you're a jerk!" She yelled. She kicked him in the shin, but he didn't react, just chuckled at her attempt to inflict pain. "Why can't you treat people like they're people?" She didn't wait even a second to hear his reply. She was gone. She didn't look back until she got to the security of her pink room, under her covers.

Mario walked home confused. Nobody, especially not Peach, had ever said anything like that to him. He tried not to focus on it, busying himself on worrying whether or not he made any teams he tried out for. He walked into the apartment to find Luigi sitting on the couch, watching T.V. with a bag of chips.

"Hey, what's up?" He kicked his shoes into a corner, flopping into a chair.

"Nothing." He spoke through a mouthful of chips, in a monotone.

"Okay, are you pissed or something?" Mario took the chip bag and ate a few. "You look like a guy who got no action."

"No, I didn't get any action," Luigi replied. "I didn't even get through the whole date before Daisy took off. That bitch."

Mario laughed. "Nice!"

"So, I'm happy to be here with my potato chips and my Rocko's Modern Life," he continued, taking the bag back. He was quiet for a few minutes, then said, "I can't believe Daize would do that."

"Yeah, doesn't seem like her." He decided not to tell Weege about what Peach had said to him. It wasn't worth it right then. "Well, I'm off to bed. Seeya."

He nodded, staring at the television. Mario was at the doorway of the bedroom, picking up a pair of pajama pants from the ground, when he heard Luigi speak. "What do you think I did wrong?"

Mario shrugged. "I dunno. Daisy shouldn't have just walked off, though." His mind was still trying to focus on the various things that had happened that day, so he decided to just forget it all and sleep.