Thirty-Five Running
an awesome blossom
There it was: the limousine and their escape. She only had to endure the boastful chatter of School Administrator #2507 and respond with scripted answers while fielding the harder, more thoughtful ones for a little while longer. It was eight yards away, thereabouts. Or maybe seven. Six. Nine? She was a princess; she had to be skilled in public appearances and the art of banal conversation, not judging distances. The point was that it was too far away, and she was too important to close the distance on her own without it being a part of the schedule. Temporary relief was due to come in five minutes. Princess Peach Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom was patient enough to wait until then.
When she finally found herself in the safe confines of the limousine some fifty-odd hours later it felt (though in reality it was only five minutes thanks to the ever-important schedule) she couldn't remember exactly what had transpired in those minutes. It wasn't odd or worrying, though; she rarely could, not when she wanted so desperately to be somewhere else. But it wasn't as if she could let down her hair inside her all-important transportation that slowed Kingdom traffic down to a crawl every time she made a public appearance. There were attendants outlining the rest of the day and congratulating her on what a great cardboard speech she gave to the little toads of Public School #Whatever, there was her longtime steward quietly cursing the traffic their very existence had created (though he was not as subtle as he would have liked in this endeavor), and then there was the Mushroom Kingdom's legendary hero, looking as out-of-place as ever.
Mario.
Back in the good old days, Mario was just a plumber who had taken a fancy to doing the right thing and rescuing Peach whenever she had been kidnapped. But the public fell in love with the sensationalized stories that spread like wildfire, and their hero quickly found that he could no longer return to the quiet life he had with his brother. Against his will he had been dragged into the public eye in punishment for his good deeds.
Her attendants loved Mario's inclusion in the princess's public appearances (perhaps they felt safer from threats against her highness), but to Peach it made her entourage feel a little more cramped - and it was already too big for her to begin with. But today Peach was in luck; there was an hour to kill before she needed to prepare for a fundraiser that evening. Sure, that hour included the uncomfortable ride back to the castle, but these days she made due with what she had. After all, she was itching to get home and check her text messages on her private cell phone.