IMPORTANT: This chapter isn't exactly what I'd consider T but its not exactly as childish as previous chapters. But I'm pretty sure most of the readers are age 10 and above so I think you'll be ok. Oh and the italicized part is the flashback.

Hey! Sorry I didn't update earlier, but I had to get in WaterlessEar's character in and I must say I really do like her. :D I know I said I would update more over the break and all, and I will attempt to but we're having so many relatives at my house around the same time! Somewhere around 10 or 11 people not including my immediate family! I know crazy right? Some of them are already here, but once the kids get here we're probably going to be doing stuff together a lot. I was going to do a lot of stuff with my friends this break but I can't now, but I'm really happy my relatives are going to be here! I love my family so much that I'm going to dedicate this chapter to them! 70 Reviews until the next update!
~Sirius

After getting Mario to their home, Luigi had entrusted Rosalina with the emergency kit and she was currently tending to him in the living room. It was a good thing their parents weren't home because there was no way Mario would want them to see him like this.

"Luigi..." Daisy began nervously.

"Hmm?" He had been in deep thought when she approached him.

"Is there any chance your sister is home?"

Luigi's eyes widened. He couldn't let his baby sister see Mario like this.

"Is she? I didn't hear a thing when we got here."

Daisy shrugged. "Well she's usually in her bedroom reading anyway. She probably figured you guys got home and didn't bother to come down."

He began scratching his neck nervously and pacing nervously. "Oh, it'll break her little heart to see Mario like this. Please go check on her and just hang with her for a while to keep her from coming down."

She raised an eyebrow. "She's pretty good at figuring things out though. I think she'd be more suspicious if I suddenly showed up and decided to hang with her."

"Please!" Luigi pleaded. "You know how much she loves you."

Daisy sighed. She couldn't refuse Luigi.

"Fine." She grumbled. "But there's no telling if I can really keep her occupied for long enough.

Daisy walked upstair and went to the room 2 doors down. She had been to Luigi's house so many times it was almost as if it was her house.

She knocked lightly on the door.

A soft and friendly voice answered. "Who is it?"

"It's Daisy." She replied.

"Daisy?" She sounded awfully surprised but responded with a "come in" anyway.

"Hey!" Daisy said sounding much too cheerful.

Mario and Luigi's sister, Catarina, an extremely skinny and pale 8th grader with curly auburn colored hair and glasses looked up and smiled.

She was glued to her book. Today she had been reading Othello.

"Into Shakespeare lately aren't you?" Daisy asked, sitting next to Catarina on her bed.

Catarina nodded. "What are you doing here? Didn't you and Luigi get into a fight or something?"

Daisy laughed nervously. "No not a fight. A little misunderstanding that's all. Did he tell you we fought?"

She shook her head. "I heard him and Mario talking about it this morning."

"well. Everything's fine now." Daisy assured her.

Catarina sat up excitedly. "Does that you two are finally together?"

Daisy nearly fell off the bed. "What!?"

Catarina frowned. "I guess not, I just assumed, I mean-"

"Its ok." Daisy cut her off. "But you do know about Rosalina..."

Catarina looked at her with surprise. "Are they still together? I mean, I heard things got tough after some party you guys went to."

Daisy blushed. "You're one smart cookie aren't you? They are broken up now. But I think he's not interested in dating anyone right now. I think you should stop eavesdropping on your brothers' conversations."

Catarina grinned. "Nah. I like listening to them. They are such girls sometimes."

Daisy giggled. "Oh girl, you know it. Now tell me about this Othello. We have to read it next semester and I'm not looking forward to it."

"How are you feeling Mario?" Yoshi asked nervously.

"Better." He replied. The swelling had gone down a bit, and he could talk now, but it still caused him great pain to talk and the rest of his body wasn't exactly in great shape either.

"Fortunately, he didn't dislocate, sprain, or break anything so there's no need to go to a doctor." Rosalina stated calmly, causing Luigi to sigh from relief.

She bit her lip. "But he's still in pretty bad shape. I think you should stay home tomorrow." She said facing Mario.

He shook his head. "I can't. What am I going to tell Ma and Pa?"

Luigi looked at him darkly. "You can't hide this forever. They need to know what happened."

Mario frowned. "But what if Bowser gets in trouble? He'll never leave me alone. He's probably going to attack me again tomorrow."

He sighed and slumped into his chair. "I should just get a transfer. I've completely made a fool of myself and I'm no longer safe."

Rosalina bit her lip. "So, what exactly did happen?"

The others looked at him expectantly.

"We should wait till Daisy gets here." He said. "I don't want to tell it again."

"Where is she anyway?" Toad asked.

"Upstairs. I asked her to watch Catarina." Luigi answered.

"Why?" Mario gave him a questioning look. "She can look after herself, she's 13."

He nodded. "I know, but I don't want her coming down and seeing you like this."

And as if it was right on cue, Daisy came downstairs and greeted her friends.

"I thought you were watching Catarina." Yoshi said.

"I was." She replied simply. "But, I came down just to check on Mario. I told her I was getting her a snack since she was hungry. I think she's ok. She'd probably prefer if she could read in peace though. Now Mario you should tell us the whole story.

Mario sighed, but opened his mouth to speak. "Ok. You guys deserve to know what happend."

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE KISSING MY GIRLFRIEND!" Bowser roared angrily.

Peach backed away from Mario and smirked. Her job was done. Now, he was angry.

"Man, I had no idea she kissed me!" Mario replied shifting nervously as he made his way over towards Peach.

"Ugh, personal bubble Marvin." She squealed swatting him away.

He turned to her with a shocked face. "Peach? What do you- are you, I'm just so confused right now."

Bowser chuckled. "You're an even bigger idiot than Wario. And that's saying something." He and the rest of the football team laughed.

"Take that booger brain." Wario shouted at him, obviously not noticing the fact he had also been insulted.

Waluigi facepalmed as the rest of the team chuckled at his stupidity.

"Let's show this loser how its done." Bowser said menacingly.

"I'm not sure if thats a good idea." Dk said nervously.

Bowser rolled his eyes. "You gonna back out of this like ol'Toad?" He asked angrily.

DK quickly shook his head.

Bowser nodded at the team curtly and they all surrounded him...

"They just pounded on you?" Daisy asked in shock.

He nodded solemnly. "It was terrible. And even DK threw a few punches. I thought he wasn't all bad."

Toad shook his head in shame. "I can't believe even DK went there too. And I know Bowser is terrible but I didn't think he was that cruel."

"And Peach just stood there?" Rosalina asked in disbelief.

"Yea." He sighed. "I don't know why she would do that to me."

"Uh isn't it obvious?"

The voice had not come from the group of friends.

Mario looked pained when he saw his little sister enter the room.

"How much did you hear?" He asked sharply.

"Pretty much everything." She admitted.

"I told you it was a bad habit to eavesdrop on your brothers." Daisy scolded.

Catarina shrugged. "Sorry, but you were taking a long time and I came down to see what was going on and you know..."

She approached her brother and examined his face.

She gasped. "Gosh, what did they do to you?"

He snorted. "I thought you were listening just now."

"Yea, but I can't believe kids in your school are that bad."

"Yea, better believe it kid." Luigi said bitterly.

"Now what are we going to do about it?" She asked her brothers eagerly.

"We?" Both brothers said in unison exchanging looks of worry.

She nodded.

"Look sis," Luigi began firmly, "Stay out of it. Its none of your business."

"But we have to at least tell ma and pa." She insisted.

"I know." Luigi admitted. "But Mario has to be up to it first."

"No." He responded. "This stays between the seven of us."

"Catarina, please go finish reading whatever you were reading." Luigi instructed.

She frowned. "Fine. But this isn't over." She went upstairs and Luigi followed to make sure she went all the way to her room.

After he returned down, Toad whispered softly, "What did Peach do afterwards?"

Mario looked about ready to cry, but he slowly began speaking, "She kind of just looked at me like I was some sort of idiot and then she kinda left with Bowser. They were all laughing at me I think."

Yoshi looked about ready to punch someone. "Why, what is wrong with her? I'm going to-"

"Don't man. I've learned my lesson. No need to go cause Bowser any more trouble." He stated glumly.

Luigi patted him on the back. "Don't despair man. Now you know she's not worth the chase."

"I just," Mario sighed. "I thought she really liked me. Maybe I was clinging to the Peach we knew in middle school. And then a summer later, she got really pretty too, and I guess I was just hoping she was the same Peach on the inside. I should have forgotten about her."

"Yea, you should have." Rosalina said in an I-told-you-so tone.

Mario frowned at her.

"Sorry."

He sighed. "I totally screwed everything up. Bowser isn't going to let me off easy."

"It'll be ok." Toad assured him. "We should tell someone though. Bowser's already gotten into too much trouble before. His dad will be furious if he hears of any more incidents."

"Bowser is going to hate you too now. Just saying." Yoshi stated.

Daisy pinched his arm.

"Ow." He squealed.

"Bad timing much?" She whispered into his ear.

"Its ok guys." Toad responded with a half smile. "Bowser needs to be punished for what he's done."

"If we report him, is there any chance he is going to come back and attack Mario?" Daisy asked.

Toad shrugged. "Maybe. But I was at his house once and I overheard his dad yelling at him last year because some teacher caught him bullying a kid. He almost got suspended but since his dad is highly influential when it comes to the school board since he's one of the biggest contributors, Bowser got away with a month of detention. Apparently, he's going to be sent to boarding school if another serious offense is reported."

Rosalina bit her lip. "I didn't know all that stuff about his dad. Is that why he thinks he can get away with everything?"

Toad shrugged. "I honestly don't think that's it. His dad doesn't take all this stuff lightly. He kind of has high expectations for his son. He wants Bowser to get a football scholarship, but messing with grades and discipline can seriously jeopardize his chances. So his dad basically has Bowser on a leash."

"Obviously, he's set free at school." Daisy said bitterly.

"But my point being is that causing more trouble would be risky game for him. He's more likely to get away with these things if they go unreported." Toad explained.

Mario seemed to be deep in thought.

"Just thought about what you said about Bowser." He said.

"And..." his friends continued.

"I think- maybe he's taking out his anger on his dad, at school."

Luigi chuckled a little, but Rosalina and Daisy looked at him with serious expressions.

"That might be-the single smart thing you've ever said in your life." Daisy said causing the rest to laugh.

"That's not an excuse for beating Mario up." Yoshi insisted.

"Its not." Rosalina agreed. "But, if that's true, then he isn't being a total jerk for no reason."

Luigi gave her a shocked look causing her to quickly defend her stance.

"I'm not saying its justifiable." She insisted. "What he did is still terrible, but we could get to solving the problem in a better way if we figure this out."

Toad nodded. "I'm actually starting to see the point you're making. But you can't really do anything about it. I mean you can't just go talk to him. And whenever I even mention his dad he just gets really angry. Its not in our hands what happens with his dad."

"But I feel like I want to do something." Mario said joining the conversation again. "Bower's been nothing but terrible to me. But, I'd feel really good about myself if I did something good like that. And if we just get him expelled or something, he'll be bullying some other poor kid."

"I think Mario and I are actually on the same page for once." Rosalina observed.

"Are you sure Mario?" Daisy asked. "I mean you're the victim here."

He hesitated to answer, but he finally spoke. "I think I want to try something."

So, what did you think about the whole Bowser's dad thing. I know it was kind of random, but there's a little depth to Bowser now. I thought it would give a more interesting turn to the story. So what is Mario going to do now? Also, did you guys like WaterlessEar's OC Catarina? You'll be seeing more of her soon. 70 reviews till next update. Ciao!

~Sirius