Mushroom High

38. A Night At Hollywood

 *the following Friday*

Mario: Should I pick you up already

Mario eagerly paced back and forth in his room, waiting for Peach’s reply. He made sure that he looked his best, since it was going to be A Night At Hollywood after all. Moments later, Mario’s phone vibrated with a text notification.

Peach: sorry i’m already here :/ i carpooled w di and dettie

Mario: Oh okay :) see you there!

Peach: k, love you <3

Mario couldn’t help but blush at Peach’s reply, he didn’t even care that he would no longer be picking Peach up.

Mario texted Bowser, asking if he could carpool with him and his other friends. Fortunately, Bowser agreed to picking Mario up and Mario joined his friends just five minutes later.

The first thing Mario noticed once he arrived at the school was that everyone seemed to be talking about Peach and her outfit, namely the sophomores.

“Wow, that Peach girl really took the red carpet theme seriously.”

“That freshman girl looks pretty hot. Oh, Peach is her name?”

“I need a stylist like Peach Toadstool.”

Hearing what others said about Peach caused Mario to walk at an even faster speed.

“Dude, calm down,” Bowser called from behind Mario. But, Mario was too far ahead of Bowser to hear what he said.

When Mario reached the gym and finally saw Peach, he almost tripped over his own feet.

As usual, Peach stood out from the crowd in her flamingo-pink, strapless dress which did not go past her knees. With the dress, Peach wore glittery silver pumps and large sapphire earrings. Peach’s makeup consisted of glittery gold eye shadow, fuschia lipstick, and winged eyeliner.

No one could pull all of it off better than Peach in the eyes of many people.

“Hey, Peach!” Mario called. He and Peach made eye contact and once they did, they began walking towards each other.

“There you are,” Peach smiled. “I was wondering when you’d get here.”

“Well, I’m here now,” Mario offered Peach a hand. “Wanna dance?”

“Yes, of course,” Peach took Mario’s hand and the two students disappeared into the crowd.

The unpopulars had arrived at the dance at least an hour before Mario did and they were having a good time.

Daisy was just watching everyone else dance, eat, and talk when Yoshi caught her attention.

“Dai, is it okay if I have just one dance with you?” Yoshi asked shyly. “As friends, obviously.”

“Yeah, that would be cool,” Daisy replied. “But, you know how bad I am at dancing, especially if you saw me earlier with Weegee…”

“And YOU know how bad I am at dancing,” Yoshi pointed out.

“Good point. Okay, let’s dance,” Daisy said. “It’s not like I have any respect left in this school anyway.”

Daisy and Yoshi made their way to the dancing area, where Yoshi placed his hands on Daisy’s waist and Daisy placed her hands on Yoshi’s shoulders. It looked as awkward as it felt and a few people stared and whispered to each other. But, Daisy and Yoshi did not care about the glances they were given and they shared a conversation to add to their many.

“We’re almost done with our first year of high school,” Yoshi murmured.

“Three more to go,” Daisy smiled weakly.

“Do you think Mario will last long with the populars?” Yoshi asked.

“I don’t even know,” Daisy answered. “You and Birdo weren’t supposed to be together for more than two months, but look at you two now.”

“It has only been eight months since we started 9th grade and many things have happened that I never expected to happen,” Yoshi said. “I kinda thought everything would stay the way it was by the end of 8th grade.”

“Same, but I don’t think we could’ve survived 9th grade as just you, Mario, Luigi, and myself,” Daisy replied. “And things could be better right now, but they could also be worse. So, I guess we should be really grateful.”

“Whoa,” Yoshi’s eyes widened when he glanced at the food tables. “There’s more food! Come on Dai, let’s eat!”

“Sure,” Daisy laughed, following Yoshi to the food table.

*a few hours later*

Mario and Peach were having yet another dance.

“Okay, I lied,” Peach said out of the blue, letting go of Mario’s shoulders.

“About what?” Mario questioned.

“About everything,” Peach replied.

“Umm… Care to elaborate?” Mario was very puzzled.

“Fine,” Peach started. “I never really loved you nor did I want to be your girlfriend. There.” The queen bee then began walking away. Mario stood speechlessly for a few seconds before running to catch up to Peach.

“What do you mean?" Mario said, unsure of what else to say.

“What don’t you understand? I lied to you more than once. We all did.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“All of us- Bowser, Wario, Waluigi, DK, Diddy, Di, Dettie, and myself. Are you trying to make me lose my voice or what?”

“What did you lie about?”

“Ugh! You’re so annoying!” Peach snapped, grabbing Mario’s arm and pulling him towards his group of friends. “Mario’s being a clueless idiot and I need you guys to tell him what I mean when I say, ‘We lied about everything’.” Bowser sighed.

“Alright, alright. Long story short, we aren’t actually friends and Peach isn’t actually your girlfriend. Your only options now are to be a loner or to go back to hanging out with the weirdo squad,” he explained bluntly.

“Oh… So, you basically lied about everything?” Mario said slowly.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say!” Peach exclaimed, exasperated. “Now goodbye, hope you had fun with us, and don’t try being a part of our group ever again because you will NEVER fit in with us.”

Mario was too shocked to move and he just stood still, staring at everyone. Suddenly, Bowser punched Mario’s face, causing Mario to stumble backwards with a black eye.

“Well?” Peach raised an eyebrow. “Get lost or have your entire body look just like your right eye. Your choice.”

“You know what?” Mario looked at everyone, slowly backing away from them. “Karma targets people like you all, so brace yourselves.”

Then, Mario ran out of the gym.

He ran out of the school.

He ran all the way to his house and stayed there, alone.

Does that count as a cliffhanger? Well whether it does or not, I updated when I said I wouldn't for awhile. So I was kidding. Now this is the last update for awhile FOR REAL. Guys, PLEASE check out my new book Mario Party 9.5! I really need people to sign up for that book. Than you to the one person who has already signed up- you know who you are. Anyways please add, comment, vote, etc. Thanks!

- pinkandpeachy