Mario and Luigi wake up solemnly as they share a look, before finally forcing themselves to get out of bed, get dressed, and walk out of their shared bedroom to face their family.
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Mario and Luigi wake up excitedly as they jump out of bed, throw on some clothes and rush out of their shared bedroom to tell their family the exciting news.
Hours later, Mario calls Pauline as they start packing.
"Can't believe the next time I see you, we're gonna be college students!" he exclaims.
"Or more likely, on the road helping my dad get reelected."
"Hey, you're gonna kill it, trust me." Mario assures her, smirking at Luigi, who's making goofy faces trying to make him laugh.
" I can't wait to see you there. "
"I can't wait to be there either." Mario says to both Luigi as much as Pauline. "Neither of us can."
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Mario and Luigi sit next to each other glumly, as their family slowly wakes up, before Mario speaks up first,
"Let's not drop it on them. We'll wait until they give us a chance to talk, then tell them."
Luigi nods, "Alright."
"Yeah?"
"Boys?" they hear their mom call upon walking past their bedroom and not finding them there. Then upon finding them, their father following, she asks, "What're you doing up so early? Don't you need rest, so you have energy for packing?"
"We didn't get in." Mario blurts out suddenly, throwing out the plan altogether.
"What?" their mother says, but the father is more direct, "What did you do?"
The brothers share a look at that, but Mario's the one to ask,
"Can we wait...until everyone else is awake?"
A few hours later, the table is dead silent, despite every chair filled with the Mario family.
"You didn't tell us you only applied to one school." Giovanni finally breaks the silence.
"We didn't!" Mario protests.
"We turned them down." Luigi mumbles. "Cornell sounded so amazing; we were sure we were going to get in. We were just too excited."
"And that makes it better?" Gio snaps.
'We're still reeling from this too, you know." Mario fires back. "We're trying to come up with a new plan. We know we told you we'd be moving out, but is there any way you'd be willing to let us stay a little longer?"
"What about your future?" Gio reminds them. "What about both your futures?"
"You only just graduated high school, ragazzi. You've been talking about saving Brooklyn since you first snuck through that construction site."
"We're still gonna do that!" Mario protests, but when he sees them all shaking their heads, he insists, "Hey, knock that off! We are ! It's just not gonna happen the way we thought it would."
"What about you, Luigi?" Gio suddenly turns to the younger twin. "Do you still want to go along with this?"
Luigi stares at them wide eyed then says softly, "Yeah..."
"Of course you do." Gio rolls his eyes.
"Like Mario said. We're still gonna do it. We just don't know how."
YOU ARE READING
Best Days We'll Never Know
General FictionOn the eve of high school graduation, Mario and Luigi's life diverges into two parallel realities: one in which they get accepted and move into Cornell's dorms to pursue their careers, the other in which they don't get accepted into Cornell and must...
