Brother's Loyalty: Endgame

Something Just Like This

Thad had invited Brad and Chad over to his room, and now the three of them were reclined on the bed, Thad signing into his Skype account and connecting with one of his friends.

Another Toad's face popped onto the video feed. It was another one of Peach's retainers, named Conrad. "Hey!" he greeted.

"Hey, Conrad!" Thad, Chad and Brad chirped in unison.

"I take it you all got in okay?" asked Conrad.

"We did," said Thad. "We're all relaxing in our hotel rooms."

"Yeah," Brad piped up. "It was a long trip."

"Sorry you couldn't come with us," added Chad.

"That's okay," said Conrad. "I could have plenty of fun here in the MK."

"So, Conrad," said Brad. "Wanna have some long-distance fun? Wanna play a game?"

"Sure, I'm up for a game," answered Conrad. "Smash Bros? Mario Kart? Mario Party?"

"I was thinking something more—analog," smiled Brad. "Mad Libs, perhaps?"

"Oh. My. God. I love Mad Libs!" trilled Conrad. "Hold on!"

He dashed off, only to return with the aforementioned game. Chad, Thad and Brad took out their own copy of the game and placed it on the bed between them.

"Okay—let's do an excusal from class," said Conrad. "'Please excuse blank, who is too blank to attend blank class'."

Snickering among themselves, the Toads each grabbed a pencil and filled in the blanks. When they were finished, Conrad raised his head. "Who wants to go first?" he asked.

"I'll go," said Thad. "'Please excuse Thad, who is too tipsy to attend sex-ed class'."

Laughter.

"'Please excuse Chad, who is too artistic to attend shop class'."

"Really?" asked Conrad.

"That was all I could think of," shrugged Chad.

"'Please excuse Brad, who is too horny to attend trigonometry class'."

The other Toads cracked up.

"'Please excuse Conrad, who is too stoned to attend home ec class'."

All of the Toads nearly fell over laughing.

"All right—that was the warm-up round," said Conrad. He chose another slip of paper. "How about—we take turns filling this next one out?"

"Okay," said Brad. "Wanna start us off?"

"Why not?"

Conrad began reading from the paper he'd selected. "'It was a cloudy, cold November day. I woke up to the blank smell of blank roasting in the blank downstairs'. Chad?"

"Uh—how about 'I woke up to the mouth-watering smell of Cornish game hens roasting in the family room downstairs'?"

"That's pretty good," said Conrad. "'I blank-ed down the stairs to see if I could help blank the dinner'. Brad?"

"Let's see. 'I did the Harlem Shake down the stairs to see if I could help burn the dinner'."

Snickers.