I haven't been on in the longest time. I'm so very very sorry. Well, truthfully, I've been on, I just haven't been updating. Nya.

Just so you guys know, I thought about putting Pauline in this story, but decided against it, since I thought of something better I could do. Which you will find out about in this chapter here.

Mario woke, as usual, with the aid of his alarm. For a few seconds, he still thought it was summer vacation, and swore loudly when he realized it wasn't. "Weege, get up."

They went through their normal morning routine, and eventually arrived at their bus. As soon as Peach saw Mario, she crossed her arms and stared out the window. Luigi sat down next to her as Mario shrugged and took a seat up front.

"Where's Daisy?" Luigi asked, looking around as if he expected her to jump out from behind a bus seat.

"She said she wanted to walk today," Peach replied. "I don't know why."

I do, Luigi thought, an unnatural surge of dislike going through him. He shook it off. "So, are you mad at Mario?"

"Yep," Peach said bluntly.

"Well, don't be. He's as thick as a brick wall, but that's not his fault," Luigi said, shrugging. Peach laughed.

Luigi walked into science class, seeing Daisy sitting in her usual seat behind him. As soon as he walked in the room, she started a rather loud conversation with the girl next to her, until Gadd told everyone to be quiet.

"We'll be pairing up today for a lab activity," Gadd announced. "I'll be choosing the combinations, so don't get too excited."

Gadd circled the room, pointing people to other random people, all the while, Luigi chanted in his head, not me and Daisy, not me and Daisy, not me and-

"Luigi, why don't you work with Daisy?" he said, pointing Luigi to her. He sighed and turned around.

There was a great shuffling as everyone moved their seats to sit with their partners, all of which seemed to be boy-girl. (Except for Waluigi, whom Luigi heard angerly say "You be the girl," to Lakilester.)

Luigi didn't look directly at Daisy as they began their project, too embarrassed. Daisy seemed to feel the same way.

Luigi finally spoke. "So, how'd you get home last night?"

"Walked."

"Hm."

The rest of the class passed without them saying anything to each other.

Mario walked into gym feeling confident. He only had this class every other day, so he could fake his way through getting a good grade. He had learned quickly in his freshman year that the fact that this class was gym didn't stop them from giving written tests.

He lined up with the rest of the class as the coach told them to begin relay races. Mario ended up in the last leg of the race against a rather large Koopa he remembered from football tryouts.

A mushroom and a goomba started off rather slowly, and the batons were handed to a koopa and Peach (why hadn't he seen her before now?), who slowed up on purpose to try and make Mario angry.

"Peach, come on!" Mario begged, shaking his hands at her in a frantic manner. She smiled and slowed up.

Finally, finally, Peach handed him the baton, and Mario ran as quickly as he could, as the large koopa was almost halfway down the track. By some miracle, Mario won.

"Yes!" he shouted. "Sorry, man."

"There's no friggin' way you could have gone that fast!" He ran over and stuck his face much too close to Mario's for his liking. "You're a cheater!"

"Woah, what? Calm the hell down, it's just a school gym class race!"

"Want me to teach you a lesson? I'll meet you today at four o'clock, behind the school! Be there, or I'll find you and drag you there myself!" He grabbed Mario's hat, tearing it clean in half and dropped it at his feet, then left.

After Mario had picked up the pieces of his hat, he noticed Peach standing next to him. She laughed, and said, "Wow, some people take school too seriously."

"Yeah, I know." He looked sadly down at his red cap. "Who was that, anyway?"

"Bowser Koopa. He transferred over from Dark Land." She took the hat from him. "I could probably sew this up tonight, if you'd like."

"Yeah, thanks. Does that mean we're friends again?" He smiled at her hopefully.

She laughed again, tucking the hat remnants in her bag. "Yeah, sure."

The bell rang, and somehow Mario felt he was a bit too happy at Peach not hating him anymore.

Mario had had to walk home from school that day, since he had made the football team and had to show up for practice. When he got onto the road, he found Daisy.

"Hey, Daize," he said, beginning to walk with her. "So, up with you and Weege?"

Daisy's face turned bright red, and she turned away. "Um, I feel really bad." She was silent for a few more moments, then added, "How is Luigi?"

"Eh, he's fine," Mario replied. "He'll get over it."

They didn't talk for much longer than the two of them normally would. Daisy was still staring at her feet. Mario decided he should break the silence.

"So, how come you got out of school so late?"

"Eh, detention," she said, shrugging as if it were the least of her worries, and then again it probably was. "Mrs. Drowat caught me beating up Charlie Fiennes in the hallway. But let me tell you, he deserved it!"

"Really, now? What did he do?"

"He packed a ham sandwich for lunch. There's no excuse for that!" She was back to laughing. "I'm headed to Peach's, want to come with me?"

"Sure, I've got to pick up my hat anyway." He ran a hand through his hair. It felt weird to be out without his trusted hat.

"Yeah, I was gonna ask where it went. I heard that huge Bowser guy tore it in half 5th period?"

"Yeah, he did!" Mario then launched into a play-by-play of the incident, though adding unnecessary details, and pretty soon they were at Peach's front door. Daisy put her hand on the doorknob, but hesitated for a second.

"Mario...?"

"What?"

"Um... I didn't really have detention." She looked guilty, her cheeks bright red.

"Oh, that's great," Mario said, wondering why she was acting this way.

"I was waiting for you. Um..." She took her hand off the door, and before Mario could say or think anything, her lips met his. Mario was too stunned kiss back, push her away, or do anything, really, so he just stood there until she broke away. When she did, she looked intensely embarrassed.

"I'm sorry! If you don't like me that's fine, it's just that I-"

"That's fine," he said, cutting her off. "Are we dating now?"

Daisy looked stunned. "I don't know. Do you want to?"

"Yeah, only if you do."

"Okay then."

"Mhmm."

They entered the castle to be welcomed by a happy Peach, who directed them to her pink room. They sat around, talking about nothing in particular.

"Should we call Luigi and invite him over?" Peach asked, laying on her back on her bed, hugging a pink pillow.

Daisy shrugged, then said, "Nah, he's not missing anything."

Oh, Mario had forgotten about Luigi! He'd be furious if he found out Mario and Daisy were dating. What was he going to tell him? "Yeah, he's not." Good thing he had no difficulty lying.

An hour later, Daisy had announced that she was ready to go home. She hugged both of them and left. Mario lingered in Peach's room. "So, do you have my hat?"

"Oh!" She seemed oddly distracted, like she had forgotten he was in the room. "Yeah, right here." She took his hat off from her pink desk. You could barely tell it had been ripped. She went to hand it to him, then hesitated, and started to speak. "Mario..."

"Yeah?"

She frowned and closed her eyes. "Mario, I saw you kissing Daisy before you came in!"

His heart stopped. "What? So?" He tried to brush it off like it was no big deal, but then again, it was rather sudden.

"So..." Peach looked around as if trying to find her next words around the room. "So... are you... like, dating now?" She sounded like she would cry, and Mario panicked.

"Uh... well..." He gulped. "Yes."

Quite contrary to the waterworks Mario was expecting, Peach's head snapped up. With utter hate in her eyes, she broke the seams she had stitched on Mario's hat, tearing them all out. She threw the pieces on the ground. "Fix your own damn hat!" She pushed him out of her room and slammed the door.

Mario's mouth was gaping as he struggled for a rebuttal. He settled for a loud, "Oh yeah, well, screw you, Peach!" before leaving.

When Mario returned home, he found Luigi watching T.V. He looked up and said, "Hey, wasn't your fight with Bowser today?"

"Oh, Dammit."