Peach walked to school again the next day. She tried to convince herself it was because she didn't want to talk to Mario on the bus, but in the back of her mind she knew the real reason was that she wanted to run into Bowser again.

God, why did she want to see him? He was scruffy, her kingdom's enemy, and a mean brute. He'd only ever shown her one moment of kindness. She hated him.

"Hey, Princess."

And there he was. Peach felt her heart jump into her throat. "Hi, Bowser."

He laughed. "What, no 'get away from me' or 'leave me alone'?"

Peach smirked, crossing her arms. "I don't mind if you walk with me. It's a public sidewalk."

Bowser raised his eyebrows, eyes widening. He shrugged, falling into step beside her. "Okay, what a surprise."

Peach stopped walking and turned to him. "Let me see your face."

"Huh?"

"Your face was bleeding yesterday. I want to see if it's okay." She looked at the place where blood had been dripping; it had mostly healed. She fished a band-aid out of her bag anyway. "Here."

"Are you kidding me? I'll look like a dork with that on my face!" He pushed her hand away, but not as fiercely as he had the day before.

Peach smiled to herself. "Whatever you say." She looked up. She could see the school in the distance, about two blocks away. "Hey, Bowser?"

"What?"

Peach closed the space between them and, before her brain could catch up to her actions, pressed her lips to his. She felt Bowser recoil, then return the kiss. She closed her eyes, immersing herself in the moment, her first kiss.

She pulled away and smiled at him.

Bowser gave her a blank stare, and a "woah."

Well, that was good enough for her.

Mario was still celebrating the next day. He and Luigi stood at the bus stop, Mario smiling like an idiot and Luigi smirking.

"I didn't think you could do it, bro. Good job." He clapped a few times, half sarcastically.

"Shows what you know, huh?" He punched him lightly on the arm.

Luigi laughed, but dissolved into seriousness. "Look... I gotta ask you something. Daisy's been acting different. Girlier. And you two have been spending a lot of time together, is there something wrong with her?"

Mario's heart skipped a few beats. "Uh... No, she's fine. Just regular Daisy." He felt like an asshole, but he didn't want to hurt his brother.

"Well, if you say so." The bus pulled up and screeched to a halt.

As he walked onto the bus, a few people cheered, saying things like "Way to go!" and "That was kickass!" He sat down next to Daisy, Luigi behind them.

"Oh my god, you were perfect!" Daisy grabbed his face and pulled him into a passionate kiss. In that moment, Mario could feel Luigi's eyes burning holes in his skull. When Daisy released him, his attention snapped to him.

Luigi looked like a deer caught in headlights. He looked wildly from Mario to Daisy. Daisy looked indifferent, but anxious just below the surface. Mario felt his face burning.

"Wh- wh- why...?" Luigi stuttered. He took a deep breath. "Am I the only one who didn't know about this?" he shouted, angered.

Neither of them answered at first. Then, Daisy said, "Yes. I think so." Her voice sounded small, meek.

Luigi let out a breath he had been holding in. He shook his head and didn't speak for the rest of the bus ride.

As soon as the bus stopped, he rushed off. He wasn't proud of it, but the second he got into the school, he ran to the bathroom and cried like a girl. As he leaned against the wall of the stall, hoping nobody could hear him, he marveled at how unfair everything was.

Why did Mario get the girl of Luigi's dreams?

Wasn't everything supposed to work out?

What did he do wrong?

Mario walked proud down the hallway that day. People parted like the red sea when he walked by. He felt like the greatest man in the world.

He felt a prod of regret, though. He had waited too long to tell Luigi about him and Daisy, and now Luigi was angry at him.

But, he could wait to feel bad about that.

He opened his locker and picked up his books. Next to him, he saw Peach, and offhandedly wondered if she was still mad at him. Then, he realized that he had a girlfriend now and didn't really care. "Hey, Princess!"

She glared at him, but Mario could tell she wasn't very angry. "Hey." She leafed through the many folders in her locker, looking as if she were missing something.

"So, what's going on in the world of glitter and pink?"

She slammed the locker door shut. "Why should you care? We're not friends."

He felt a dull thud in his stomach. "Wait, we're not? Since when?"

"Since you decided to slobber all over my best friend." She gave him a "take that" sort of look.

Mario was confused. "What, instead of slobbering all over you?"

Her eyebrows flew up and her cheeks flushed. "Uh- that's not what I-"

Realization dawned on Mario. "Oh my god, you thought we had a thing, didn't you!" When she didn't respond, he stepped closer. She whirled around and stalked off, dropping a few papers behind her. Mario watched her take the hand of Bowser Koopa as he walked by.

Wait. He did a double-take. Bowser?

The bell for homeroom rang, and Mario watched Bowser give Peach a peck on the cheek. And, rather than slapping him or stomping on his foot, she smiled.

She smiled?

His jaw dropped to the floor. When the hell did this happen?

Once again, he felt like a jerk when he realized that this is how Luigi must have felt on the bus that morning.

Well, he thought, he might as well go to homeroom before he got a detention. He bent down to pick up the papers Peach had dropped. Science homework, History notes and...

A diary page.

Oh, crap.

Luigi sat down heavily next to Waluigi at science class. The latter eyed him with annoyance. "What's wrong with you?" Waluigi asked.

"I just-"

"Never mind, I just realized I don't care."

Luigi sighed. "That's okay, I wasn't expecting you to." He didn't feel like crying anymore, he just felt a numb sense of betrayal. But, then again, when had his brother ever been nice to him?

"Luigi?" He turned around. Daisy was in her usual seat, looking apologetic. "Luigi, can we talk? Please?"

He shrugged. "Class is about to start."

"Weege-"

"Don't call me that." He turned back, deciding to stare at the blackboard instead of the tears welling up in Daisy's eyes.

Dear Diary, -

Ugh. Mario couldn't read this. Peach wasn't talking to him now, so the next step was probably killing him in his sleep.

He spread out the slightly crumpled page on his desk, glancing around to make sure nobody saw what he was looking at. He couldn't read it... But the pink stationary, the glittery ink it was written in, the rosy smell coming off of it, it was all so enticing.

I just won't mention it to anyone. Ever, he decided.

Dear Diary,

Dear god, what a day. But then again, the first day of school is always exciting. But it usually isn't this bad. Mario can be so insufferable sometimes. But, you know the way I feel about him. It's getting pretty hard to hang out with him, since I feel so bad for Luigi. Just think, he has to live with him!

Mario's eyebrows knotted together. Was he really that bad? And that one part, "you know the way I feel about him", did that mean that she secretly hated or loved him? God, women were so confusing.

Daisy won't stop talking about how tall Luigi has gotten. It's actually gotten a little annoying. Luigi this, Luigi that. But I can't complain to anyone, since she doesn't want anyone to know she likes him. She's actually a little embarrassed.

Oops. It was going to be pretty hard to pretend he didn't know all this. But if Daisy liked Luigi, why did she walk out on him? And did she still like him?

I think I need to talk to Mario. I might sneak out later. How exciting! But I need to be serious. I really want Mario to know that

The page ended there. He sat back, staring at the piece of paper warily as if it would jump up from the desk and attack him. Well, he really was a jerk, and... What was that word Peach called him? Insufferable. He couldn't believe he had just intruded upon her privacy like that. He felt a bit sick. Peach could never, ever find out about this.

"Hello, Mario?"

Mario jumped backward, almost falling out of his chair. Peach was standing over his desk, staring down at him. "Peach!" he yelled, slamming his elbows onto his desk, trying to cover the diary page, ignoring the tears that came to his eyes when he hit his funny bone. "W-what brings you here?"

She looked suspicious, but not angry. "I... I just wanted to apologize for how angry I got in the hallway. And I was wondering if you caught those papers that fell out of my bag?"

"Oh!" Mario relaxed, relieved. "Yeah, yeah, hold on..." He ducked down, rifling though his own bag to find the papers she had dropped. When he sat back up, holding the papers she needed, his face fell in horror.

She was holding the diary page.

And she looked ready to explode.

"Thought it would be funny, reading my diary?" Her voice shook, her face was red.

"N-no... I-I just-"

The look on her face silenced him. She was frowning, with a look of complete betrayal in her eyes. She shook her head. "I can't believe I was ever your friend."

When Mario wrapped his head around what this statement meant, Peach had gone.