Best Days We'll Never Know

Teaser

"Can we do this?"

"No."

"Are we gonna do this?"

"Yes."

Luigi grins, "That's the spirit."

"Oh forget it." Mario laments, putting his head on the table. "You said this class was gonna be worth it, and the final was gonna be a piece of cake. Not even remotely true!"

Luigi crosses his arms with a grin. "The only reason I took this class is because my stubborn big brother wouldn't do it without me."

"Oh come on!" Mario whines, pushing their books aside. "We already know what we're gonna do once we graduate high school! We're gonna save Brooklyn!"

He gestures to the poster on their shared bedroom wall. "Starting with graduating with honors at Cornell University!"

"Which is not gonna happen if we don't pass this final!" Luigi brings it back around.

"And then we're gonna show people what happens when you underestimate us..." Mario continues. "So they'll be the ones begging us to give them a chance!"

"And we will!" Luigi agrees. "Thanks to your crazy plan!"

"Weegee, come on."

"No, you come on. What we're doing right now is gonna follow us into our future!"

"Why don't I just let you worry about our future..." Mario says mysteriously. "And I'll worry about now."

"And what exactly does that mean?" Luigi asks testily, exasperated.

Mario wordlessly holds up an envelope, then moves it with his fingers, revealing another one.

Luigi gasps, "Are those...?"

"I just found these waiting for us when we got home today." Mario confirms.

"When we got ho---oh my GOD!" Luigi shrieks, wincing when he realizes it before coming over to Mario's bed. "Well? What do they say?"

"Haven't read them yet." Mario tells him. "I'm just saying, Weegee, there's no reason to think we're not gonna graduate. Despite all the trouble we got in, we still passed all our classes. Our future's already started. But we only got right now to have some fun."

"Now?" Luigi repeats, and at Mario's nod, follows it up. "Whaddaya have in mind?"

As it turns out, Mario's definition of having fun now was to go to a graduation party. Specifically, Pauline Verducci's graduation party.

When they get there, it's already crazy with their fellow students, drunk and screaming along to a DJ that's playing somewhere.

But Mario's going straight inside, plastic bag in hand as he weaves through more partygoers and reaches an off-limits bedroom, knocking a few times, before the door opens and Mario lets himself in.

Luigi's still where he left him, sitting on the bed holding his Cornell letter.

"You manage to calm down some in the 20 minutes I was gone?" Mario asks.

"I wasn't exactly expecting to do this here, Mario." Luigi says, shoulders slumped.

"Right, so." Mario sets the bag on the bed, pulling out two picture frames. "These are if they're acceptance letters."

"Okay..."

"And then I got a little creative and got this stuff..." Mario pulls out a small metal trash can and a lighter, setting the trash can down by their feet. "In case they...are...not."

"We did everything to make our applications look good." Luigi reminds him.

"I know. I just...didn't want us to get our hopes up." Mario admits.

"We can't not get in." Luigi says. "We don't have another plan. We're going to Cornell.", then upon looking at the envelope again, "What if we did get rejected?"

"I refuse to accept that we did." Mario says, then winces. "Crap, I jinxed us, didn't I?"

"I'll open mine first, then you go a second later." Luigi offers.

"No, I'll go first." Mario promises, picking up his own envelope.

"Let's just do it together." Luigi decides. "Rip them open like a Band-Aid and be done with it."

"Alright." Mario turns on the bed so he's sitting facing Luigi with his envelope in his hands, and Luigi follows suit. "One..."

"Two..."

"Three!"

Envelopes tear, papers are pulled out and unfolded.

Mario gets a good look at his letter, before looking at Luigi.

Luigi looks at his for another moment, then looks back at him.

In almost perfect synchronization, they turn their letters over for the other to see.