Chapter 4: Secret of The Star Spirit

(Disclaimer! I owe nothing of Nintendo or any recognizable quotes that anyone might recognize)

I was waking up from a dream I had about me and Toadstool and it was morning. The phone rang. I reached to get it. "Hello?" I asked. It was Max. "Nick, we have a bit of a serious situation," said Max, "They're freaking gone!" "What's gone?" I asked. "What the hell do you think, the Rush Tickets!" I suddenly realized what they were talking about. "Gone?!" I asked, "Where are they?!" "I don't know, look at what you had on the last few days!" said Max. I saw the jacket and checked the pockets. I found them. "I got them," I said. "Thank god!" said Max, "So did your uncle ground you because of that one day?" "No," I said, "But even if he did, would that stop me? See you guys at school." I hung the phone up and a book fell on my head. "Beans and ice!" I said. Johnson came in the room. "Nicholas, its time to get up," he said. I got up. "What are you doing?" he asked. "I'm just getting some fresh air," I said. "Well get changed, and don't think about putting on that dirty jacket."

"Why?" I asked. "Its dirty laundry firstly," said Johnson, "And you're already walking on thin ice young man so I would not go any further if I were you." He turned around and I saw the tickets. "Now I have business trip at work and your parents will be out of town so Toadbert is gonna watch over you," said Johnson, "And if you've been sneaking off to that girl's castle or playing that satanic Rush music…" He turned around just as I was about to get them. "Need I remind you of the consequences?" "G-grounded for a month with no video games?" I asked. "Smart boy," said Johnson. He gave me some clothes. "Now take these before they go out of style," he said. I was heading to school. "Hey, doesn't that geek look like Nick?" asked Jack. "Dude," said Max, "I think that geek is Nick." "Hey dork!" said Jack. I flipped them off. We were at the playground. "Dude, what's with the get up?" asked Jack. "Trust me, you do not want to know," I said. "Well at least we don't have to worry about him for the weekend since your cousin Toadbert is watching you," said Max, "Now where are the tickets?" "Tickets?" I asked. "Dude you left them at the house?!" asked Jack, "Are you nuts?"

"Hey," I said, "It wasn't my fault." "Oh no?" asked Max. "My uncle had me under a barrel," I said, "After that little sneak out, I had to let him watch me dress." "Dude, if he even smells those tickets, he's gonna destroy them!" said Max. "Relax," I said, "He's gonna be gone all day and the tickets are perfectly safe. I asked Toadbert to keep them hidden when he gets here." "Ok, so we'll just meet at your house," said Max. "And then we'll head over to the megadome to see Rush!" "A few hours from now I get to see my first rock band," I said, "This is gonna be awesome." "I never thought your parents would let you do this," said Max. The bell rang. "See you guys later," I said. A few hours later I was back in the playground during recess sitting with Toadstool. "You can't stop looking at that staff, can you?" she asked. "Its really awesome," I said, "It won't break no matter what I hit." "I'm glad you're enjoying it," she said. I remembered I had an extra ticket for her, and thought that now was the time to ask her." "Hey Toadstool?" I asked. "Yeah?" she asked. "Um… I was wondering if you're not busy today…" I asked blushing."I'm never too busy," she said. "Well, some friends and I are going to a concert tonight….." I said, "And…. I was wondering…. If you want… maybe we could…"

A microphone was feeding back. "Nicholas Shay, please come to the office," said the principal, "Nicholas Shay, come to the office immediately." "Give me that microphone!" said someone familiar, "Nicholas Shay, this is your uncle!" I suddenly realized who it was. Everyone in school was laughing. "You are in big trouble young man!" he said, "What I found in that stinky sweaty jacket of yours has me more than angry. You get your little ungrateful ass outta that seat, and get into this office!" My friends overheard everything. "There were albums, guitar picks and even some old guitar strings in there!" said Johnson, "But the biggest thing I found really made me angry!" I was scared out of my mind. "How dare you do this to your own family!" said Johnson, "How dare you humiliate us after we worked so hard for you! You took my hard earned money, and you and your dumbass friends spent it on Rush Tickets!" I was heading to the office. I saw Uncle Johnson holding the tickets. "Sit!" he said. Toadstool joined Max and Jack and were watching me sit. My mom and dad were talking to Johnson.

"Brother darling, I don't think you understa…." Said my mom but was interrupted. "Oh I understand perfectly!" said Johnson, "And so will Nicholas when he never sees that little princess friend of his again." My mom knew what he was talking about. "Y-you're sending our son to that horrible boarding school?" she asked. "What else can I do?" asked Johnson, "Albums, magazines, guitar books that's one thing. But tickets? Tickets?!" I was listening to the conversation. "Do you have any idea what this means?" he asked, "That your son is no longer contempt merely listening to their awful music and looking at photos of their satanic faces. Now he wants to see the devil in the flesh, he wants to reach out and touch pure evil! And with that girl no less!" He took a cigarette and smoked it and set the tickets on fire. I watched in horror. "Its been a long time coming for your son," he said, "But he is finally going to receive the kind of discipline he deserves. Its time for him to grow up!"

Johnson drove me to Blue Shell Business Boarding School. The headmaster came out. "So this must be the little troublemaker," he said, "Welcome to Blue Shell Business Boarding School." He was showing me around the school. I saw kids being forced to work hard and they didn't get any breaks. "Start over!" said one of the teachers. He hit a child. Some kids were being forced to push boxes down to other areas. One child got tired and fell down. "Get up," said another teacher. She tried but she couldn't. "I said GET UP!" he shouted. He whipped her. Toadstool followed us. "I gotta get him outta here," she said. I was horrified at what I saw here. "Well here's your new room," said the headmaster. He threw me in and shut the door. "Tomorrow, begin instruction on him and be tough as nails and make him work til his bones crack," said Johnson, "And I don't care how long it takes! He will respect me." I sat on a chair with my face covered. Then I heard the door unlock. It was Toadstool. "I knew I would find you here," she said. I gave her a big hug. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you," I said. We were sneaking out of the school. I heard voices.

"Johnson, you don't know what you're doing…." Said my mom but was interrupted. "I know EXACTLY what I'm doing!" said Johnson. "Nicholas needs to spend time with other kids like him and see other opportunities," said my mom. "The only thing he needs is to give up that goddamn dream of his!" said Johnson. "No nephew of mine is going to become a career musician!" "You're keeping him from knowing about what the world has to offer," said my mom, "You can't do that!" "I'm his uncle!" said Johnson, "I can do whatever I want!" "If you were half the man our father was you'd…" said my mom. "I am ten times the man our father was!" he said as he pushed her down. The headmaster got a whip and started hitting her. I heard a crack of the whip. The headmaster was beating her. "I'll teach you some respect," he said. I was looking through a window and saw everything. "I have to get my baby!" said my mom. "I said no!" said Johnson. He whipped her again.

"Stop it!" said someone, "Somebody's got to stop this!" He kept whipping her. "YOU! WILL! RESPECT! ME!" the headmaster shouted. He whipped her again and again and again and she was close to bleeding. I had to stop it. I grabbed a wrench. "Stop it," I said quietly. I was running to him. "Stop," I said as my voice got louder, "Stop it! Leave my mom alone!" "Nicholas?" said Johnson. I threw the wrench at the headmaster and he fell out of a window to the ground. Everyone saw. "Out of my way," said a teacher. He saw the headmaster's body. "Who did this?" he asked. "Up there!" said a kid, "It was him!" Everyone was looking at me. I started running. "Nicholas!" said my mom. I kept running. Isaac stopped me. "What's going on with you?" he asked. I turned from him and kept running. I ran far away from that school. Isaac followed me on his scooter. "Nicholas!" he said. "Leave me alone!" I said. "No, wait," he said. "You heard what happened," I said, "I killed somebody!"

I kept walking. "We can deal with that," said Isaac, "I can make it so it never happened." "Nothing anybody can say can change what I've done," I said. "Nicholas, people saw what you did that day and they think you're a hero," said Isaac, "They will think the headmaster was hurting someone and they'll think you're innocent of killing him!" "What they think doesn't matter!" I said, "Especially to Uncle Johnson. I can't stay here anymore." I kept walking. "Nicholas…" said Isaac. "NO!" I said, "Everything people think about me isn't true! I'm not a hero here. I'm just a freak. Its better if I disappear from this world." "What do you mean?" asked Isaac. "If you were me you would know," I said. I walked away. "Nicholas…. Please," said Isaac. "Goodbye brother," I said. I kept running away. "Nicholas!" said Isaac, "Nicholas!"

After a few minutes of running I was finally far from the boarding school. Someone stopped me. "Found you!" he said. It was Cloud. "What do you want?" I asked. "I've been following you from the boarding school," he said. I knew what he was talking about. "Cloud, please let me explain," I said. "No need," he said, "I saw everything when I picked up Toadstool." "Cloud please," I said, "I didn't mean it." "Yes you did!" said Cloud as he put his hands around my shoulders, "He deserved it. And you gave it to him." "What?" I asked. "You stood up for what you believed in," said Cloud, "The princess sent me to get you to live in our world." "I'll do it," I said, "If its for Toadstool." We went down the green pipe to her world but something wasn't right. There was fire around the castle. "What's going on here?" I asked. Some bone soldiers were formed and came at us. "Haul ass!" I said. We tried to run but they surrounded us. "Where do you think you're going?" one of them said. They tried to attack but I blocked with my staff.

"Not so fast!" I said. I was fighting them and Cloud got out his sword and started fighting. I heard a scream. It was the princess. Some dry bone soldiers were trying to get her. "Hey bone bags!" I said. They turned to me. "Hands off the princess!" I said. I jumped on one of them and they fell to pieces. I threw my staff at one of them and it went flying back to me. "Wow," I said, "This staff has more powers than I thought." "Nicholas!" she said as she gave me a hug, "I knew you'd come back for me." "Of course," I said. "Glad to have you join us," said a voice. It was Tatanga. "I knew you were behind all this," said Toadstool. I got in a fighting stance. "So you think you can protect her from me," said Tatanga, "I like your style." I got out my staff. "You want a piece of me?" he asked, "Very funny." He tried to attack me and I dodged and landed a hit with my staff. "Now that wasn't very nice," he said. He charged up a ball of strange energy and shot it at me. I dropped my staff.

"You fool," he said, "Do you realize who you are dealing with? I am the son of Ganondorf and soon I will rule this world and the world you came from!" He saw Toadstool's Star Spirit. "Give it to me," he said. "Never!" said Toadstool. "Leave her alone," I said trying to get up. He came closer to her and she backed up. "I said leave her alone!" I said. Fire formed in my hands and I threw a fireball at him and he dodged it. "Impossible," he said. I looked at my hand. "What the hell?" I asked. I saw a star on my staff. "The Star Spirit of Kasai," said Toadstool. Tatanga shot another ball of energy at me and I countered with a fireball. "I'm giving you one chance," I said, "Get outta here or I'll turn you into barbecue." He thought for a moment and realized he lost this fight. "This time I'll let you go, but the next time we meet, you won't be so lucky," he said. He vanished. Toadsworth found us. "Thank goodness you are safe," said Toadsworth. "Yeah," I said. "I can't believe you came back for me," said Toadstool. "I had to," I said, "You're my best friend." She hugged me and I hugged her back. "You're safe now," I said, "So who's this Kasai?"

"He is one of the legendary Star Spirits," said Toadstool, "I had the Star Spirit of Mizu. It seems like your Star Spirit chose you as its wielder." "Chose me?" I asked. "There are 7 Star Spirits total and each of them were destined to choose someone to wield their power," said Toadstool, "Once they glow, that means the chosen one was found. I'm just holding on to this until the real wielder is found cause its not glowing yet." Ok," I said, "Soooooo." "Each of the Star Spirits houses a different element," said Toadstool, "Fire, Water, Wind, Shadow, Thunder, Earth, and Nature. When all of them are found, The Star Spirits will awaken from their slumber. I'm not really sure what happens next." "Well it wouldn't hurt to find out," I said with a smile. "What kind of place is this?" said a familiar voice. It was Saria. "Saria how did you get here?" Toadstool and I asked in unison. We looked at each other. "Jinx," said Toadstool. "I saw you enter that strange pipe," said Saria. "Oh yeah," I said. I saw a star on her necklace. "That's 3 Stars so far," I said. "What do you mean?" asked Saria. "I'll explain on the way," I said, "Right now we need to get somewhere safe." We were heading out to find sanctuary from the burning castle. And thus began my adventure with the princess.