Pippi Longstocking and his four best friends - Tommy, Annik,a Willie, and Anna - were looking forward to their new lives in the peaceful but busy town of Multimedia. They were more than certain that they would all make some new friends, discover some new hobbies, and create more memories to share. Not to mention, it would help them become recognized again after years of not having any new adventures in the two shows they appeared in - not that they were hard to recognize, of course.
First they gave themselves a new little group name: the Five Best Friends Forever, also known as the 5BFF. Whenever one of the members - for example, Pippi - decided to separate from the group for a few minutes, such as when they left to retrieve something, the remaining members would be known as the 4BFF until the one who had left returned. The group name had been decided one day when Pippi and his pals were playing together, and Annika suggested the name. She thought that the 5BFF would be a perfect name since there were five of them, and they were all the best of friends.
All that aside, the 5BFF had a feeling it wouldn't be easy to get by in a land where you had to earn money to pay for things. Luckily, they were able to make it a little easier for themselves - and from the beginning, too.
They started by going to the Multimedia Bank, which was open from nine in the morning until six in the evening every day of the week, including Sundays. There was only a 1% annual percentage yield per account at this bank, which wasn't much unless you were saving a large amount of currency in one account. But the good news was there was plenty of room for residents to store their money, as well as maximum security to keep it all safe, and best of all, no fees were ever made. Pippi told the bank-teller that he wanted to open a savings account, but she offered him a choice in response.
"Would you like to open an account just for yourself, or open a joint savings account for yourself and your friends?"
Pippi looked at each of his friends for a long moment. He wasn't sure which one he wanted, but finally he decided on a joint savings account. At least that way all of his friends as well as him would save their money together.
The problem there, however, was that none of the five had enough money to afford their own house, not even an apartment. As they brought out their coin banks, pocket change and dollar bills that they'd brought from their original homes to count out all of their money, they saw that their savings totaled only to a hundred dollars and twenty-five cents. Somehow, the bank-teller could tell they were a bit reluctant to hand over their money.
"Not to worry," the bank-teller reassured them, gently taking every dollar and coin they had. "We'll keep all of this money safe for you, and with our 1% annual percentage yield, you'll have earned an extra dollar by next year on this day. And with every deposit you make, you can earn just a bit more money that we'll add on your account's anniversary, three hundred and sixty five days from now."
"Thank you," Pippi thanked her, but he could tell that he and his friends still had a bit of a problem on their hands.
Once they'd taken their coin banks back and left the bank, the 5BFF took a long walk around Multimedia, looking for a place to stay. Along the way they met the ruler of Multimedia, a Southern-accented penguin named King Dedede, but they were appalled when they discovered how rude he was to everyone he spoke to.
"My goodness!" Pippi cried in a mixture of surprise and disbelief.
"Who would have thought a penguin could be so mean?" Tommy asked.
"What is that king's problem?" Anna wanted to know, even though nobody knew what it was.
"I'm not sure, exactly, but I think it's best that we never talk to him," Willie suggested, "and especially not make him mad."
"That's a good idea," Pippi said, and Annika, Anna and Tommy nodded in agreement.
As they resumed touring the town, someone they had never met before warned them to stay away from King Dedede. They described the king as two things: the ruler of Multimedia, and mean to almost everybody he met, so they had to be as careful as possible. The 5BFF thanked them for their warning, though it wasn't all that necessary. They already knew that caution had to be put to the wind if they were in a situation that involved interacting with someone as mean as Dedede, but they would personally rather avoid him altogether whenever possible.
Soon the 5BFF met up with another person none of them had ever met before, a man who they could tell was much nicer and friendlier than who they'd been warned about. The man had blue eyes and a black mustache, and over his short brown hair he wore a green hat with an L on it. He also wore a green shirt, blue overalls and brown shoes.
"Excuse me, do you suppose you five could help me with something?" the man asked, an Italian accent in his polite voice. "But first, my name's Luigi."
"It's nice to meet you, Luigi. I'm Pippi," Pippi replied politely. "What's wrong?"
Luigi explained to the five animals that he'd recently received a mansion in a contest he hadn't even entered. As if that weren't suspicious enough, the mansion turned out to be haunted and filled with ghosts, much to his dismay and fear, and he even had to rescue his brother Mario when he got lost in there. Luckily, with some help Luigi had managed to get rid of the ghosts and save Mario, even though the former was terrified of ghosts. However, even though the mansion was no longer haunted, and was now much less creepy on the outside and the inside, he had some trouble finding his way through it, even during the adventure. He would keep getting lost in its many rooms, so he was looking for someone - or better yet, a small group of people - to help him put up signs that would mark which door led to what room.
In fact, he even said that he would offer to share the house with whoever would help him get the task done, and even lend them some of his money and take care of them as part of his gratitude. In short, the reward would be room and board, just what the 5BFF were looking for.
Pippi, Tommy, Annika, Anna and Willie all agreed to the offer and went with him to the mansion he was talking about. When they got there, they were surprised that Luigi hadn't been exaggerating over just how many rooms it had. They decided to split up into three pairs; Tommy and Anna, Annika and Willie, and Pippi and Luigi, and for a few hours they were busy marking each of the rooms' entrances with a sign. Sometimes one of them got distracted by something in the room they were in after the sign had been put up, but the other one managed to coax them out of it so that they could head out of the room and find the next one.
Some time went by, and soon all of the rooms in Luigi's mansion had its own permanent sign. The three pairs reunited back in the lobby, with Luigi having a grateful smile on his face.
"Thank you so much for helping me. I spent hours trying to find my way around this place when I first got it!" Luigi said. The 5BFF laughed over his side comment, having compared this expansive mansion to a maze, but it was clear that they were all happy to help.
"By the way, I don't think you've met my friends," Pippi said, so he gestured to each of them. "This is Tommy, this is Annika, this is Anna, and this is Willie. I've been friends with them for a very long time."
"Do you suppose we could live here for a little bit?" Tommy suggested.
"We'll keep helping you, though we might need to get jobs so we can have some money flowing in for us," said Anna.
Luigi smiled. "Sure, guys! You can stay here as long as you'd like. But in the meantime, I'm getting hungry. How would you like me to make you some macaroni and cheese for dinner?"
Pippi's eyes lit up in a mixture of surprise and happiness. "That's a great idea, Luigi!"
With that, Luigi went into the kitchen and prepared some delicious macaroni and cheese, adding in some hamburger meat that he made sure to cook thoroughly before mixing it in. As he did, Pippi and his friends sat in the dining room, waiting patiently for their meals. The sweet scent of the cooking macaroni brought smiles to their faces, and their smiles only became bigger as Luigi brought the pot into the table. He spooned a generous amount of the macaroni into his guests' bowls, but not without making sure to fill his own bowl with it as well. Then he sat down, and they all thanked him, picked up their forks and began to eat.
"This is delicious!" Pippi said.
"I knew you'd like it!" Luigi replied with a smile. "Me and Mario have this all the time. Well, at least when he decides he's bored of spaghetti or pizza…"
Annika giggled a bit over his comment, figuring that either of those were his favorite food.
After dinner, Luigi cleared the table and brought Pippi, and his friends upstairs to the spare bedroom. There was a great big bed there, and although Luigi could sit and lay down on it without much effort, it was still so big that each member of the 5BFF, being smaller in size, had to climb up the covers to lay down in it. Luigi tucked them in, wanting to make sure they were warm and comfortable.
"Good night, Pippi. Good night, kids," said Luigi.
"Good night, Luigi," Pippi and his friends replied in unison.
Luigi switched off the light with the flick of a switch, filling the room with darkness, and quietly made his way out of the bedroom. The 5BFF slowly drifted off into a peaceful sleep, with quite a few happy dreams running through their heads. They couldn't wait for what tomorrow would bring them - they would explore Multimedia, meet many more of its residents, and perhaps find a job so they could earn more money to save for a rainy day. It was an exciting thought.