Hey all you bored/amused/random readers of my story! I want to apologize for the slow update on this chapter. But, y'know, it's up now so... Let the annoyance begin!

Disclaimer: I do not own Mario, Luigi, the Mushroom Kingdom, Nintendo, or a unicorn. I only own Louise and a stuffed pony.

Louise blessed the morning with a huge yawn. Peeking out the window, she found early light creeping across the sky. With a smile, she shook all sleepiness away from her mind and skipped out of her room. As she pranced down the stairs, she realized that she was the only one up. Her smile switched from cheerful to evil. Running back up the stairs, she drew breath for a huge shout.

"Mario, Luigi! Get up! NOW!"

Mario groaned and stuck his pillow over his ears. He had tried to pass yesterday's occurrences off as a nightmare, but hearing that voice assured him that it was real. A tiny fist pounded at his bedroom door.

"Get up get up get up get up," Louise chanted. "We've got lots to do today!"

An annoyed Mario opened the door. "Go away."

Louise ignored him, continuing her chant. A sleepy Luigi opened his door down the hall. With a squeal, Louise grabbed his hand and dragged him downstairs. "Come on! We gotta get breakfast and go!" As Luigi tried to avoid tripping down the stairs to his untimely doom, Mario was forced to follow.

"But it's only 6 am!" Luigi whined.

"Yeah, but it's light outside!" Louise pushed Luigi into a chair and promptly opened the refrigerator door. As Mario entered, she was pulling out eggs and starting the stove.

"Are you cooking?"

Luigi's tired question was answered with a bright, "Yep!" A pan was extracted from a cupboard and placed on a burner.

"Then shouldn't you crack the eggs before you put them in the pan?"

Louise quickly extracted the whole egg she had placed in the pan. "Oops, sorry. I'm not that great at cooking." Lowering her voice to a murmur, she added, "Probably what started the house fire last time."

Mario shoved the girl away from the stove and began scrambling eggs. Louise mumbled a small 'thanks' and moved away. Luigi felt it necessary to break the awkward silence. "So… you said you had plans for today?"

Louise gave an excited nod. "Yeah! We're going to the mall! Shopping spree!" Realizing how girly that sounded, she abruptly stopped and coughed uneasily. "Uh, yeah. The mall. Yay."

Luigi and Mario gave her a look. "What? Oh…" Understanding dawned on her face, followed shortly by anger. "Not with your money, with mine. I have a job, you know! What, you thought I just robbed people for a living?" Seeing their blank stares, she added an indignant, "Well, I don't!"

Mario rolled his eyes. "Sure…"

"For your information, I have a job at an ice cream shop. And I'm quite good at it."

Luigi quickly changed the subject. "The mall?" he prompted.

Louise brightened. "Oh yes! We're leaving in 20 minutes!" She scarfed down her eggs and dragged the two brothers out the door, ignoring Mario's complaining that he hadn't finished his breakfast. They settled into a run as the mall came into sight. The trio came to an abrupt stop at the doors to the building. Gathering her composure, Louise forced herself to walk calmly. She turned to the Mario brothers. "Okay, battle plan," she started. "You follow me while I get everything I need. Any questions? None? Great!" Ignoring loud and numerous protests, she started towards a clothing shop. After just fifteen minutes, she had a large bag of clothes. One more store yielded two bags of small furniture and knick-knacks.

Then Louise entered a department store, and things got really interesting.

"Dresses!" Louise screeched, diving into a forest of flowing fabric. She grabbed gowns seemingly at random, ending up with over 20 garments in her arms. She dragged Mario and Luigi towards the fitting rooms. "Now, you need to help me decide," she said, hanging her dresses outside a stall.

What followed was nearly two hours of torture for any person of the male species. Basically, they had to watch Louise try on all 23 of her dresses.

"So, what do you think?" Louise spun around in a blue sundress.

Mario's eye twitched. "That is the same dress you just tried on!"

Louise gasped, looking indignant. "No it's not! Are you blind? That one was sky blue. This one is turquoise."

Mario groaned and banged his head against the wall. "Worst. Trip. EVER."

Louise giggled. "Oh no, it's not! Cause now I get to try the red dresses. There's apple and crimson and chestnut and rose and..." She pointed to about 6 garments in turn, rambling off the colors that she thought they were. "Or maybe that's more of a ruby," she mused, glancing at a gown.

Mario finally snapped. "WHO CARES? WE'RE LEAVING. NOW!" He grabbed Louise's hand and pulled her out of the store, followed by Luigi. He ran all the way home without stopping once, desperate to escape. He bolted inside his house and slammed the door.

Louise calmly skipped up the stairs and began placing her furniture in her room. Luigi knocked lightly on her door.

"Erm, Louise?" Louise glanced up as her favorite brother walked in. "I just wanted to apologize for Mario's behavior... If you want, I'll take you to the mall for a dress tomorrow."

Louise smiled. How sweet was that? But, she had to stick to her plan. As she turned back to folding her new clothes, she nonchalantly announced, "Oh, I never wanted a dress. I was just doing that to annoy you guys."

From the next room over, Mario screamed, "You what?"

Louise laughed. "Sounds like I succeeded," she said with a smirk.

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Louise crawled under her blanket and turned on a flashlight. She aimed it at a notebook and crossed out a line that read, "Dress shopping". With a smirk, she stashed her notebook under her pillow and went to sleep. So far, this was going very, very well.

So, how'd you like it? I'll try to update sooner from now on...

Please review. Reviews are the substance of my life.