Chapter 4

"Did I see that right?" said a familiar voice as Mario turned around to see Peach Toadstool walking up besides them on their way into school. Dressed all in pink, as usual, with her blonde hair falling to her shoulders. Her powder blue eyes twinkled as she asked the question.

"What are you talking about?" Mario said, looking at her as he gave a playful grin, which only served to let her know that he knew full well what she was talking about.

With a laugh, she responded quickly, "What I'm talking about is you and Pauline, Mario! Did I just see you two talking?" As she continued to ask questions, she turned around, walking backwards as she thrust out an invisible microphone towards Mario as she giggled.

"I think the answer you're looking for is no comment." said Luigi, smiling as he reached out and pushed the "microphone aside." Peached tossed her head back with laughter as she winked at Mario, then saw Luigi mouth the word "Love" and with a grin said, "That's off the record of course."

Peach frowned for a second as Mario punched his brother on the arm, then Peach pushed the invisible microphone back into Mario's face with a smirk, "So, for the record, did we or did we not just see you and Pauline conversing on the bus?"

Waiting a few beats before she intoned dramatically, "The public needs to know."

"You mean Peach needs to know!" said Mario, as they made their way up the stairs and into the school. Peach stopped walking backwards as she began walking side by side, the microphone still in place as Mario continued, "But yeah, we talked. It's not a big deal now, is it?"

"It is a big deal!", Peach said loudly, then said in a softer voice, "Usually you can't get within five feet of her without turning into some kind of spaz or freak show, Mario!"

"No I don't." responded Mario quickly, though he couldn't deny it very strongly, looking from Peach to Luigi and then back to Peach again, discovering they were both nodding in agreement as he thought his relationship, or lack of it with Pauline so far. He'd never been exactly what one would consider smooth around her, but freak show?

"So, what does this hold for the future, Mario?" Peach asked suddenly, that precocious sparkle in her eye once again as they reached their lockers. Mario found himself blushing a bit, seeing both Luigi and Peach waiting for the answer. Fortunately, he was spared from having to answer, being rescued by an unlikely source: Principal Wart.

Principal Wart half-hopped and half waddled towards them as he called out over the early morning chatter, "Peach Toadstool! Just the person I was looking for!" Principal Wart came through the hallways, not bothering to apologize to students he knocked out of the way, which proved to be a considerable number considering his size. Not as many as you might expect, however, since many students were used to this routine by now and were smart enough to get out of the way. Even, some of the freshmen hadn't picked up on it yet and as such, were knocked sideways. They may never get used to it. Of course, who gets used to somebody who looks like a giant frog running down your hallways much less running your school? Principal Wart may indeed by a giant frog, but nobody had dared ask him yet. Only in New York.

Simultaneously, all three of them turned towards their lockers, depositing some books in and retrieving others. Hearing rather than sensing Principal Wart's continued approach, they all rolled their eyes. However, as Principal Wart gave one last hop to arrive behind them, Peach spun around and positively beamed at Wart. All that was left to complete the illusion was a shining halo above her head.

The prompted another eye roll from Mario as he stifled a laugh. It was no secret that most, if not all, of the school viewed Principal Wart as pompous and largely incompetent. Each day only served to reinforce these conclusions as correct, as the student body watched Principal Wart move around the school acting as if he owned the place.

"Bye Luigi!" called out Peach, slinging her backpack over her shoulder as she walked away. After a few steps, she giggled and with a wink over her shoulder, she shouted, "Bye Mario!"

"Bye Peach!" they responded together, then finished getting what they needed for classes from their lockers. Then, they separated as well, heading towards their separate classes. Mario walked down the halls, barely registering the various conversations as he momentarily considered what Principal Wart could want with Peach but then let his thoughts drift towards the early morning conversation with Pauline on the school bus. This didn't last as long as he would've liked though, as Mario spotted his cousin Wario by a water fountain surrounded by a group of freshmen. This of course was never a good thing.

Wario had always hated Mario ever since they were little, although Mario wasn't exactly sure why. He strongly suspected it stemmed back to when they used to play cowboys together. Mario loved the game but Wario hated it with a passion. That could've been because Mario almost always played the sherriff and Wario played the rustler that Mario had to arrest. In a way, Mario supposed he had bullied Wario into playing. That was almost laughable today to think Wario had ever been bullied, especially consdering how Wario did most of the bullying nowadays.

Wario was built similarly to Mario, although their personalities couldn't be more different. Wario was manipulative, ill-mannered, lazy and greedy. It was a combination of the last two which led to his frequent get-rich-quick schemes. There was no doubt in Mario's mind that's what was going on right now.

Mario walked up, standing next to Wario right in the middle of another sales pitch to gullible freshmen. Standing next to Wario only seemed to highlight their similarties as well as their striking differences. Mario and Wario appeared physically similar, though one of the main differences was in their mustaches as Wario had more of a wiry handlebar mustache as opposed to Mario's bushy mustache.

Even their clothing had obvious similarities, though the color pattern of Wario's clothing had always made Mario ask whether or not Wario was colorblind. On his hat, he always wore a yellow hat with a blue letter M in the middle and he wore a matching yellow t-shirt along with that. After that, he wore a pair of bright purple overalls and a pair of green shoes.

Their similarities in a physical sense had led many in the school to dub Wario "Bizzaro Mario.". Not to his face of course, but Mario suspected he had heard this comparison already and this only served to fuel his rage towards Mario. Sometimes, it seemed like Wario was jealous of Mario, though for the life of him he couldn't understand why. Wario was freakishly strong, with phenomenal strength and that was probably why Wario was the quarterback for the football team. No matter what though, it never seemed enough to satisfy him and that's what brought us to another obvious scheme to con some money out of some desperate freshmen.

"With our midterms coming up this week, I'm sure some of you will need some extra help and that's why I've created Wario's special 1 Up Potion!" Wario said, pulling out several bottles from his backpack as he displayed them proudly for the freshmen.

"What does it do?" one of the young freshmen asked, nervously clutching his books around his chest.

"What does it do?" Wario snarled, them gave a wicked smile, "I made this little potion over the summer and I was amazed to discover that it gives anybody who drinks it a boost in brainpower, not to mention their IQ!"

"You probably just filled those bottles with toilet water and food coloring this morning before school, Wario!" said Mario casually, peering at the purplish substance that was murky within the clear plastic bottles. The freshmen looked up at Mario, the dramatic spell that Wario had been working so hard to bring about breaking a bit as they wrinkled their nose at the notion of drinking toilet water.

"Not true, Mario!" shouted Wario, glaring at him so furiously as his cheeks flushed with anger as he fixed him with a smile so patently fake that it hurt Mario to see it, "I made this over the summer and in fact, the trials were so successful that the FDA already approved it! It will go into production early next year!"

Mario rolled his eyes as the freshmen looked shocked and surprised at this development. This was a new trick concocted by Wario and one designed to impress the freshmen. If it was approved by the Federal Drug Administration, then why shouldn't they use it?

Wario smirked at him, obviously proud of his cunning as Mario asked, "Do you have any proof of this approval from the FDA?"

The smirk didn't go away as Wario's hand darted back into his backpack, producing a piece of paper that he thrust into Mario's hand with a grand flourish as he turned back towards the freshmen, "Now, for only ten dollars a bottle, you can get all A's to finish up the year…"

Mario stopped paying attention to the sales pitch as he studied the document in his hands, frowning a bit as it looked very official. According to the document, the Federal Drug Administration had reported 100 success with their trials so far and based on this, they were approving Wario's 1-UP potion. Mario knew that the FDA didn't approve drugs like this, but there was no way to prove it as his eyes flickered over the paper slowly, searching for something to refute Wario's claim. After about a minute, Mario suddenly spotted something that caused him to grin and after checking his cell phone for a moment, tossed the paper over his shoulder as he called out to the freshmen as they rifled through their wallets, "Save your money. The potion is worthless."

With surprisingly quick reflexes, Wario caught the paper and then glared at Mario, positively spitting as he said, "What are you talking about? I have the paper right here to prove it!"

"You got ahead of yourself, Wario!" Mario said, looking over at the freshmen now instead of Wario, "The paper was dated June 31st. There is no June 31st. Not this year and not ever! The potion is a fake!" and with a smile added, "So are you."

The freshmen were obviously caught off guard by this sudden change of events as Wario gazed at the paper, looking down at it furiously and looked ready to kill Mario, when once again, Mario was spared. At the moment, the bell rang. Leaving Wario sputtering for an answer as the freshmen scurried off for their classes as Mario headed to his history class to start another morning at Brooklyn High School.

Walking into the classroom, Mario received several early morning greetings as he slid into his seat and his eyes looked over at the seat next to him. Normally, Peach sat there and was conspicuous by her absence. Still reveling in his latest victory over Wario, sparing more students the unfortunate discovery that Wario was a con artist, it took him a moment to remember that Wart had needed Peach for something or other.

Suddenly, Peach entered the room all smiles as she plopped into the seat next to Mario. Immediately, she began getting out her notebook and history book as Mario leaned over and asked in a low whisper, "What did Principal Wart need?"

Rolling her eyes, Peach gave him a smile, getting out a pen as she said, "You'll see in a moment." Mario looked at her quizically, his curiousity piqued as suddenly his history professor, Mr. Pidgit, called out, "Attention everybody!" as he cleared his throught in a "Hem-Hem!", tugging at his turtleneck uncomfortably as he waited for everybody to stop chatting.

Finally, the voices died down as he looked them over, giving a smile as he looked at them over his beak-like nose, then spoke up in a voice that had always been abnormally high, "We have a new student joining us today, so if you would all give a warm Brooklyn High School welcome to Bowser Koopa."

Even as he heard the name, Mario shivered and it had nothing to do with the cool temperature in the room. As Mario, Peach and the rest of the classroom laid eyes on Bowser Koopa for the first time, the moment became etched in Mario's mind forever.