As soon as Toad hobbled over to his middle-sized home, he turned off the alarm and went upstairs. But, of course, when one is on crutches, especially for the first time, it takes quite some time to get anywhere. Even more so if 'anywhere' involves a path which includes stairs. It would not be to anyone, toad, human, yoshi or other, that the humble staircase, however many steps, to whatever incline, would become a new enemy to Toad. At least while he had a fractured foot.

After what seemed to be an almost endless climb, Toad reached the landing. Feeling his small stomach rumble, he realised how very hungry he was. However, the poor mushroom person was too tired to go back down the stairs, and so settled for bed.

He did not have anytime to think about the day he had just had, for even though he was still in his day clothes, tiredness overcame him as soon as Toad touched the pillow, and he was asleep. His curtains were still open, his hat on his head and one of his crutches remained in his left hand.

…

The brilliant Sun was looming over the horizon. From a deep sleep, Toad woke up. Slowly, he tilted his head and glanced at the digital clock beside him on a small, round, wooden table. It read 07:33. Toad groaned. He still felt tired, and knew after the late night he just experienced he should be sleeping until at least ten. Toad blamed himself for not closing the curtains.

Shortly after, he thanked himself for forgetting to close the curtains because he was due at the castle in about one hour, and only the sunlight woke him up.

Toad stood up. Next, he felt a giant pain in his left foot. Almost falling to the floor, he grabbed hold of his bed and swiftly turned around. Accidentally knocking one of his short (but not for him) crutches Toad quickly caught it and used it to aid him the stand. Toad got dressed very slowly, and after he put his hat on he took the other crutch in proceeded to limp over to the landing and saw a new challenge: getting downstairs.

Around three painstakingly tiring (and long) minutes later Toad reached the bottom of the stairs. After doing so, he remembered why he had an awful cast and crutches. Rosalina is the cause of all this, Toad thought to himself, but then, I could surely forgive her, right? She is just so… so… Uh, I need breakfast.

One small snack Toad named 'breakfast' later, Toad walked out his front door after setting his alarm. It was a short walk to the bus stop. A few minutes passed and then the 064 bus arrived at the stick jutting from the pavement.

The 064 bus was the only one Toad was required to take. It went around the suburbs where Toad lived, a path leading to Princess Peach's castle and beyond, to places like Mushroom City and going as far as Cheep Cheep Beach. It was such a long line there were so many buses operating on it at one time. As Toad entered the bus he scanned his Royal Bus Pass on the scanner. The Royal Bus Pass is given out to people who have contributed to the Princess or the Mushroom Kingdom greatly. Toad had one because he served the Princess by finding power stars and helping with duties around the castle. Mario and Luigi also had one because they have saved the mushroom monarch many times. The pass offered a 50% fare discount. If you didn't have royal affiliation it was full fare for you on your card, but under 18s got a 25% fare discount.

"...Thanks." Toad mumbled at the obese driver as he surveyed the bus for a seat. There were many available. Toad managed to get to a chair and slumped down, pulling his hat over his face so he could rest.

Many thoughts circled Toad's mind. Last night was at the top of these thoughts. I never took Rosalina's phone number… if she has a phone, that is. I'm sure I could find her back at Moo Moo Meadows, her ship was broken so she can't have been anywhere. I wonder how that big Lubba guy is doing.

"Mushroom Castle," the robotic voice of the bus stop announcement.

Toad called loudly, so the driver could hear, "Wait a bit, please, I've got crutches!"

"Yeah, okay, *kkkrunch, nom nom* mate!" Called back the driver, apparently snacking on some potato crisps.

…

"Toad, what happened to you?" Questioned Princess Peach. She wasn't in her normal attire. Instead, the Princess wore some gym-like clothes but her crown remained planted on top of her head. Toad had wondered why she never took it off to play sports. Then he wondered how he had picked up on this detail (it made him seem like a stalker). In the mushroom servant's eyes, Peach looked attractive, but Toad no longer loved - or tried to love - her. Thinking about this brought him back to the day he was going to ask Peach out: Toad was standing there, behind a wall, watching, waiting. Seeing Mario walk up to her first and then asking her out. Exactly what Toad was going to do. Seeing Peach accept the invitation was heart-wrenching for the poor toad. From that day on, Mario and Peach were an item, and Toad remained out of the picture. But that was years ago. Toad never hated Mario for his actions, they were still friends and the more he thought about it, the more Toad realised he wasn't cut out for Peach. Toad was over that phase.

For a brief moment, Toad wondered what did happen to him. Oh! Of course! I got hit by a… spaceship…? Yeah, I'm not sure about telling Peach that… And Toad shouldn't have been sure about telling Peach that because she would have questioned the heck out of him. In an almost instant, Toad opened his mouth but not much came out.

"I - er - w-w-wait…" Toad mumbled, finding the correct words to finish his already fib-sounding response. He finished with "w-well you see, I… I think I fell?"

Toad realised how unconvincing he sounded. He hadn't really told a lie - even a white lie - well ever in his life. He just wasn't very good. And boy, did that show now. Even a deaf toad would be able to decipher his mouth movements as "I'm lying, by the way." No, not completely accurate but close enough.

The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom smelled the rat as if it was on her nose. But when Toad lied everyone could smell the rat, so this was nothing special.

"Riiiiiight," spoke Princess Peach. Then, remembering she was due at a friendly tennis match with Mario, decided to get to terms with Toad. "Seeing as your, well, on crutches, I am going to let you siphon through my fan mail and see what letters are worth replying too. The useful ones like questions or queries should be kept in a neat pile. The rest can go into the industrial-sized shredder - hand it to Karl over there, he'll do it for you."

"Hey Princess!" The 'Karl' called from halfway across the entrance hall in the castle. He was dusting.

It was no lie Princess Peach got fan mail. She was pretty popular among the people of the Mushroom Kingdom. So popular, in fact, there was so much mail, she had to get rid of her shredder and some space in a spare room to make room for an industrial-sized shredder to clear out the junk. Invented by some university student who got so much junk mail for the people who used to live in his house than he knew what to do with, came up with a new concept: dump all the paper in the funnel, and bzzz. No more whole A5 paper, just tiny pieces of A5 paper. The creator got rich off of this new (but relatively simple) concept and even a letter from Princess Peach saying something like "This incinerator is so useful! I don't know what I'd have done if you didn't invent it."

"You may open the letters, you have my permission. Any letter of importance should be kept in a separate pile from the important fan mail," Peach continued, "and I'm trusting you not to screw this up."

"Okay, your majesty," Toad declared, "I'll sort the mail."

Toad was pretty upset at this news, but then - you don't get to read royal mail everyday, do you?

…

Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while. Boy, this chapter is long. Don't expect so much in the future!

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