I was now being guided to my homeroom class by some guy in a leather jacket. After the completion of my admittance into the school, I was being guided by who I was told was a model student.
He kept glancing at me for some reason.
He stopped and hastily stripped off his leather jacket, revealing a dark greenish brownish sweater.
"Does this make me look better?" He asked.
"Why are you asking me? I thought you were confident enough to know yourself," I said. We walked out of the doors and across the sidewalk to the other side of campus.
"You haven't said a word to me since you got here," he started, shrugging the jacket back on. "I'm starting to think you're scared of me," he swung his arms out, and me being slightly behind him made for the perfect spot for me to be smacked.
I ducked hurriedly before I was hit in the face.
"See?!" He cried. "Like that,"
"If I didn't move, you would've hit me," I laughed.
"Fair game, but the point still stands," he held his hand out, helping me up.
"I'm Tony, one of the only humans at this school," he shook my hand roughly.
His skin was tanned, and he was short. Wasn't shorter than me, but I'm 5'5 and I'm 15. That's a problem. Larry is 5'7 and he's 12.
"I'm Taemin," he smiled. "Taemin, I like that," he said, pushing open the doors to the second building.
"So, you in any extracurricular stuff around here?" He quizzed. I nodded.
"Bowser looked up my grades from an online school and decided to put me in a bunch of advanced classes.
"Yeah, I can see that based on your homeroom, she's tough," he said. "Anything else?"
"I'm in band and basketball," he nodded. "I'm in band and football. Basketball is a challenge," he said.
"Welp, here's the door to your first day of school. Hope it goes well," he said, saluting me as he turned on his heels.
"And hey!" He was down the hall, about to turn around. My hand was on the handle of the door.
"If you need anything, don't be afraid to come to find me!" He turns around and walks off before I can say anything.
"Here goes," I breathed to myself before opening the door. I decide to play the confident card, and not be afraid of my teacher. No one was here yet.
"Oh hey! You're my new student arentcha?" She beamed at me. I nodded at her. She shakes my hand. She had a bright smile on her face the whole time.
"I'm Mrs. Lannin! What's your name?" She asks.
"Taemin," I say confidently. She nods.
"Hey, aren't you the king's adopted son?" She asks. I paled, going slightly sick. I stayed composed on the outside.
"How did you know about that?" I asked, maintaining eye contact.
Confidence is key. Rick always told me to work on this.
"Oh! Word gets around. With him being king and all, everything he does gets fair publicity,"
I nod, slightly easing up.
"It seems you had very good grades at your old school. Keep it up here and you'll be totally fine hun! Pick an empty desk that doesn't have a name label and unpack a little. You'll only need a notebook and a pencil for today,"
She sat down at her desk, filling out some papers.
I sat down at an empty desk without a label. As I looked through them I saw a bunch of simplistic names.
Kate Barley,
Sammie Carl,
Bennie Brunson,
Stacey Curnow,
Tony Peters, I decided to sit at the empty desk with no label beside that desk.
I unpacked, and as the teacher began putting her PowerPoint on the SmartBoard, I got ahead on my work.
I jotted everything that was on the first slide. It was the bell ringer. Speaking of, the bell went off, and it almost caught me by surprise. I flinched slightly.
"Never been to school, huh?" The teacher asked, noticing my flinch.
I shook my head. Basically not.
She smiled, easygoing.
"Don't worry, I don't have many students and I'm sure they'll all be nice to you. I see you from the US. You're not familiar with humans and anthropomorphs being mixed. I wasn't either until I just got used to it. If you need anything let me know," she smiled as her student body trickled in.
So many unfamiliar faces. Not all of them were human. Actually, most of them weren't. "Hey! I'm Sammie! You must be the new kid?" A blonde furred male fox turned as he sat in front of me. He seemed really animated. He had soft facial features but an easy smile played at his lips. He held his paw out. I shook it confidently, beginning to introduce myself.
"Yeah, I'm new. I'm from America. I'm Taemin,"
"And I'm Tony," I paled as I watched the same dude in a leather jacket sit next to me. The guy that guided me here. Why'd he leave AND THEN come back?
"Wait what?" He smirked at me. "Didn't think I'd come back now did ya?" He smirked slyly.
"Am I missing something here?" Sammie quizzed, looking confused.
"It's called going to breakfast, " he smiled, embowing my arm. Iggy and Larry walked in but were too busy talking to each other to notice me. I wanted to call them, but I chose to wait. Even though I was sleep when they got home, they looked hazardously enervated. How was Larry even in this Sophomore AP class? Isn't he like 12?
Tony slid his leather jacket off and let it sit on the backrest of the chair. The desks were attached in pairs, and so were the chairs.
He began taking notes, and since I was already ahead, I just kind of chilled as the teacher began her lesson. I whizzed through her class, getting every question right. It was kind of laid back since it was the first day. Tony and Sammie seemed cool, so I stuck with them as I walked out into the halls. The two stuck by my side, lightly conversing amongst themselves while I stayed quiet.
"We got first lunch, you know where the cafeteria is?" He asked. I nodded, not planning on eating. I already ate too much of K. Rool's food this morning.
"Hey, I'm gonna go to the ice cream parlor when the last bell rings, anyone, wanna come with?" Sammie says. I had to stay after school for basketball today. I'm sure Roy and Morton did too.
"Sure. I could use it before practice," I said.
"I'm down," Tony agrees.
"You play basketball?" Sammie asked, slightly surprised.
I nodded. "Yeah, I decided to sign up, it seemed like a fun idea since I love the game,"
"Good call! Our coach is really nice, and sometimes he buys us food and takes us places," Sammie smiled.
"It's fun to have competitions too," he finished, pulling out his phone.
"Hey guys, you guys go on without me, I'm heading to the bathroom," I said, earning a nod from the two guys. I turn around into the crowd of obstreperous students. It's like swimming against the current, going one way while everyone's going another. It was kind of fun though. The bathrooms were in sight. I almost made it until...
"Gah!" I yelled out in pain as someone bumped into me, sending us both crashing onto the floor. I fell face first, busting my head on the floor and reopened my wound. Blood trickled out of my head and made a small puddle on the floor. Gasps were heard and the crowd of kids stopped completely, backing up into a large crowd around us. My books splattered on the floor, and as I got up, blood rapidly dripped onto my face.
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" The voice said, gathering my books up off the floor. He turned me around to give them to me and dropped them all once he noticed the blood all over my face. I couldn't make out the face because blood was washed into my eyes, and I couldn't make out the voice because it was too hazy for me to hear anything clearly. Whoever it was picked me up and right away I felt like they were so much bigger than me.
Oh god, no. This felt familiar.
"I'm taking you to the nurse, okay?" The mystery guy inquired. I nodded, the blood rapidly flowing from my head.
A few minutes later, I was in the nurse's office, a bed positioned under me as I gazed up at the blinding lights. Once I adjusted to the room, I saw the same Koopa who knocked into me kneeling at the bedside, the nurse nowhere to be found.
"Ah, you're awake! The nurse will be ba-"
"Rick!" I wrapped myself around him. He wrapped his arms around me slowly, confusedly, and cautiously.
"Uhhh... who's that? And I'm NOT a hugger. But I did bust your head open, so I owe you this bud," he said, letting me go.
My heart broke into pieces. It wasn't him, my delusion got the best of me. Unaware, my face fell. I swear it was rick. Looking closer, I saw a nasty gash above his eye, and both his eyebrows were split. He looked like Roy and Rick combined.
"Need another one?" The Koopa asked sympathetically. I shrugged and just let him hold me in his tight grip.
"The last one, I promise kid," he opined, letting me go.
I noticed that his clothes were stained with my blood. I frowned, sorry about his shirt.
"Your shirt has my blood, I'm so sorry about that,"
"Oh, this?" He shrugged on a letterman jacket with the school logo on it before continuing. "It's just some stains, and if I can't get it out, it's just a shirt," he said, covering up the stains by buttoning up his jacket. He stood up as the nurse walked in.
"I'm Ron, by the way. Walk with me to lunch, and you can meet my friends," I nodded.
"You two are clear to go back. It was just a really gushy reopening of a previous gash, so after cleaning you up, and bandaging you I'm required to send you back unless you don't feel alright. Do you feel alright?" The nurse asked. I nodded at her. She smiled, telling us were dismissed. And Ron walked into the halls, which were now empty.
"You like it here so far?"
I shot him a look.
"Alright, getting your head cracked open on the first day isn't fun, but trust me. This school is a really good place to be," he said. His voice was dipped in masculinity as his contralto vocalization bounced around the empty halls.
We walked through the halls in silence until he glanced over at me. He caught my nervous glance.
"So, you on any sports teams?" he asked.
"Basketball,"
He nodded. "So am I, " he said, earning a raised eyebrow from me. He looked like he was more of a football guy.
"I play football, basketball, and tennis, " he said. This made more sense.
We entered the cafeteria, all the students chatting vociferously to one another.
"Come sit with us," he said, gently grabbing my arm as I began to walk over to Sammie and Tony, who didn't see me. They looked a bit worried.
I followed Ron to his table, and funny enough, they were all donning matching school lettermen. I nervously sat down. Ron looked at me slightly concerned.
"You're not gonna eat?" He asked. I shook my head. He took off and I took out my homework so I could study. The jocks wouldn't stop staring at me.
"Just to be clear, we don't want you here," A cheerleader sassed the second Ron wasn't visible to the table.
"He's totally the nerdy type," another girl snickered.
"Not cool," I sneered, trying to act confidently, but failing as one of the jocks roughly pushed me off my seat.
"Don't talk to my girl like that!" He roared. I glared.
"She shouldn't have started it!" I shouted back. He got a dangerous look. He yanked me up off the floor and decked me in the face so hard, something in my nose burst, and blood started leaking out.
So much blood loss in a week, JEEZ.
I clattered to the ground, and he picked me up and slammed my head into a nearby table. I cried out in pain as I felt my wound reopening. The crowd... just laughed. They let this happen to me. I was helpless, and all they were doing was laughing and recording.
"Hey!" Roy's voice stuck out over all the rest, and he was roughly shoving through kids. He got through and analyzed my bloody self on the floor. He tackled the assailant into a nearby table. Ron came back just in time to see what happened, but he misjudged it and started beating up Roy. He shoved Roy off of his friend and they started fighting. Morton jumped into it and it became an all-out brawl.
I couldn't take this shit. I hated this. I mustered up all the courage I had and ran, pushing through everyone. I slowly felt myself deflating as I turned a corner. I collapsed on the wall in the empty hallway and broke down. I cried. A lot. I struggled to find out why everyone hated me. What did I do?
"Oh my god!"
I kept crying, ignoring whoever was rushing to me. Next thing I know, I was out.
----
My eyes were extremely blurred by blood in them, and my head was throbbing appallingly.
"Are you okay? Please talk to me, buddy! Who did this to you?!" Rick?
"Rick? I can't see, is that you?" I was very doubtful. "Yeah, buddy. It's me, Tae," he said. I threw my arms around him, I couldn't believe it- how was he here?
"H- how?" I asked, hating we had to reunite under such circumstances.
"Focus on getting better bubba," he said gently.
"You must really care about him, huh?" I heard Ron's voice. We were still in the hallway.
I could even feel it as Rick grunted in response. We went into the nurse's office after long moments of silence, concern, and pain throughout the halls. She gasped in horror.
"Yeah, he got beat up bad, " Ron said.
"I will do anything to show that damn prick his place and beat hi-" Rick began to ramble, but I assumed someone calmed him before he could say something regrettable in front of staff. The small cot dipped in and I felt a hand grasp mine.
The nurse began to clean my face, but it hurt so bad.
"I'm here! I'm here," I heard Iggy long with a bunch of other footsteps flood into the room. My other hand was suddenly occupied.
The nurse told me that she was gonna put some solution into my eye, and no matter how much it hurt, keep blinking until I could see. I nodded shyly. I screamed in pain as she dumped something on my eye in droplets. It stung so damn bad. I tried to keep quiet as I forced blinked to blink. Soon enough, I could see.
My eyes burned a little bit. The school nurse gave me some Advil's and wrapped my head. I felt so much better after that.
"I'm gonna call your parent so they can pick you all up. Most of you are in pretty bad shape," the nurse said, Roy and Morton, having been ambushed by jocks, and Iggy and Ludwig were bruised too. Maybe they jumped in?
"Oh, the king?" The nurse gaped, checking the number log. She shakily put her hand on the phone, calling.
Ron and Rick's faces paled.
"You fucked with THE KINGS SON?! You moron," Rick said.
"How are you in school?" I asked Rick. His facial expression mitigated.
"The idiot is my adopted brother,"
"Really? Did you get adopted? That's so cool," I smiled, happy for him. I looked him up and down, the expensive clothes giving me flashbacks to when he barely had clothes.
My siblings seemed extremely confused at my interactions with the mystery boy.
"Wait, so you two have a history?" Wendy asked.
"Yeah, actually. Surprising isn't it?"
As the nurse spoke to my dad, Ron looked as if he was going to throw up.
"He's on his way, I'll excuse your schedules and contact your teachers,"
The nurse left to the main office.
"You made a mistake fucking with our brother," Roy sneered toward Ron.
"What did you do?" Rick growled at him.
"Nothing! I just saw this psycho attacking my friend and I jumped in to help!"
"Do you know why my brothers were fighting your friend?" Ron shook his head no.
"The cheerleaders were making fun of me, so I told them it wasn't cool, so he pushed me off the bench, punched my nose and almost broke it, split my head open by bashing it onto a table, and everyone was laughing and taking pictures. But it all of a sudden mattered when the king's kids started defending me," I ranted.
"I'm new here, I had no idea you guys were the king's kids,"
"Well now you know," Ludwig growled protectively, clutching my hand tighter.
I sighed.
"Look, I'm so sorry," Ron physically began to gag at those words.
"That doesn't sound right coming from me, but I had no idea he was who attacked you. I thought Roy did, and my friend was defending you. I had no idea it was the other way around,"
"Now you know," I chuckled and echoing Ludwig's words.
"It's fine, but I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," I said, gesturing to my brothers, 4 of them seriously hurt.
"Sorry," Ron apologized, gagging again. Roy and Morton nods, while Iggy and Ludwig simultaneously mutter,
'It's fine,'
The nurse walked in and let us know someone was on the way to pick us up.
"Rick, you go here now?" I asked as we filed out of the nurse's office.
He smiled, glad he could talk to me for a bit. "Yeah, I got adopted by Ron and his family yesterday," he said. "Lemme tell you a secret, Ron, acts all tough, but he can be a real softie. And I noticed that after the first DAY," he whispered, causing both of us to giggle like school girls.
"So can you," I said, poking at his chest, knowing he's ticklish. He snickered and hopped away from me.
"So you two have history huh?" Ron said, falling back with us. My siblings talked amongst themselves in the school lobby as we just chilled in the corner, waiting for Bowser to get here.
"Yeah, man. We met about 3 years ago," Rick explained. His voice was alluringly deep.
"In the adoption home? How come I never met him?" My eyes widened.
"Wait, you were there too?" I asked Ron. He nodded.
"I was there since I was six, and Rick never introduced me," he said. I nodded as Rick frowned.
"You were unstable up until last week, I just wanted to... u-uhh,"
"You wanted to what?" Ron asked.
"Protect him," Junior said, scaring me. Our siblings were standing behind him, backpacks in hand.
"Gosh, it's not that hard to tell someone how you feel, I can tell and I'm only seven! Well, almost," he looked eye to eye with Rick. He was a brave kid, like his father.
"Get a grip dude," Junior said, leaving Rick to think about things. Ron snickered at his facial expression.
"King Boo is outside, he wants us to go back to the boardwalk.
"Ahh!! The boardwalk!" Wendy exclaimed in excitement.
"It's not that exciting, we go there a lot," Iggy raised a brow.
She walked up and grabbed my hand.
"Your very first sky shift," she said.
"My first sky what?!" All the koopalings' eyes widened as they began to clamor around me. They pretentiously begin to drag me out of the school doors hurriedly.
"Bye guys! Ack! Text me!" I said as I was practically lugged out of the doors as the office staff chuckled in amusement.
"Aye, what up dudes?" King Boo said, twiddling the keys to our fathers Tahoe in his hand, or, nub. I still couldn't understand how he could hold things. He felt like a giant marshmallow.
"Woah, what happened to your faces?!" King Boo exclaimed before we could respond. He ushered us into the SUV and once we were all piled in the expensive vehicle, motioned for us to talk.
"So basically, a guy at my school named Ron tripped me and caused my head wound to reopen after parting with my friends after leaving Mrs. Lennin's class,"
I heard Iggy and Larry gasp beside me. I guess they finally put two and two together.
"He took me to the nurse, and she patched me up. Out of pity, he invited me to sit with him and the jocks at lunch,"
King Boo nodded attentively, pulling out of the school and careening down the road at a much safer speed than bowser would've. The koopalings paid close attention to the story as I told it.
"I accepted his offer, since I was new, and needed some friends. Skip to lunch, while Ron was up getting lunch, I sat down at his table with his friends. I stayed quiet and since I didn't know them, just decided to study to keep my mind fresh,"
"Unprovoked, they began to tell me they didn't want me there, and that I was a nerd. I told them it wasn't cool, and some guy pushed me out of my seat, punched me so hard my nose bled really badly. He slammed my head into a table as everyone laughed and took pictures and videos. Roy and Morton started jumping defending me, and the jocks held them off as Ron, the same guy, misjudged the entire thing and thought the jocks were defending ME. I ran off and I don't know what happened after that," I explained.
"Me and Ludwig jumped in after that. They all of a sudden cared when they recognized that we were the king's kids. It made me so damn mad, " Iggy finished off for me. I couldn't have said it better.
"You need me to go to that school and kick ass? I'm a king, I can do what I want," he growled protectively. I shook my head.
"We taught him a good lesson. I hit him with my wristlet," Morton says proudly.
"That's my fuckin' nephew!" King Boo roused.
He swerved onto a bridge. I watched in absolute shock as the sky shifted from bright, crisp daylight to absolute darkness. At the end of the bridge, a sign labeled "Welcome to the South Islands!" stood fancily placed.
"What the heck?!" Was this a sky shift?
"Woah, did it hit a bird?" King Boo flinched.
"Totally got that reaction on video!" Wendy squealed. I smiled at my siblings, who smiled back at me.
"Woah, that was AWESOME!!" I exclaimed.
"The sky here is encrypted in a layer of black cloud, making light impossible to seep through them. The South Islands only gets one day of light a year," Iggy went on. I nodded, listening to the science behind this insane discovery.
"You're such a fucking nerd," Morton said, slapping Iggy in the back of the head. Roy joined in on harassing Iggy.
Larry and Wendy turned to me. We were about 30 minutes into the ride, and Ludwig had fallen asleep. He had been really quiet today.
"So?" Wendy started. "How was it?!" She exclaimed. Junior turned back to join the conversation as well.
"It was insane! The sky just does that?!" I asked.
"Yep! The boardwalk is in the South Islands. And the South islands are always really dark. They get one light day per year while we get one dark day. It's like we alternate," Larry said. Junior and Wendy nodded.
"King Boo's house is really big. It's the only one on the boardwalk," Junior says, smiling warmly at me.
"Is he the only one that lives there?" I ask.
"Yes sir! I really don't like my parents. They always rub it in my face that I died before them," he complained.
"Are they dead too?"
"Yep. To suicide right after I died," he said blankly.
He turns into an exit that leads to a beach. It was so trippy. You couldn't see the water. The skyscrapers lit up the sand, but the water was pitch black. At least it seemed like it was. There was a huge dock with multiple boats. Kind Boo pulled into the dock. We all piled out and began to stretch our legs.
Except for King Boo.
He had no legs.
He just kind of floats.
"So are you gonna tell us why King Dad wasn't the one picking us up?" Wendy asked.
King Boo's face glowed red slightly in a cherry tinted blush. "Uhhh he uhhh had work,"
"It's his day off," Ludwig retorted.
"You're his brother in law. You should know he doesn't go into the office on Fridays through Sunday. Mario does, and even then. They're royalty. You're royalty. They can do what they want. So they don't have to be at the office, rather taking care of things from home or in town," Lemmy said, raising a brow.
"Hey, y'fucking know it all, y-"
"Let's just go," I said before any other problems were caused.
I walk a bit forward near the edge where the boats were. They followed me. I stood by a smaller boat that was probably ours.
I rolled my eyes. Obviously, King Boo floated over to a huge ass yacht labeled "S.S. Boo"
Why was I so surprised? My family's rich. I should've seen it coming. I did see it coming, just didn't want to believe it.
My face paled, as thick beads of sweat began to percolate steadily down my tanned skin.
"We're getting on this? Somebody pinch me,"
"I'm having trouble figuring out whether that was a reference to a good dream or a scary nightmare," Larry walked up beside me, studying my slightly stressed features. He ran a hand through his partially shaggy azure hair.
"What's wrong? you chicken?" Roy snickered, tapping my shoulder roughly.
King Boo boarded the boat, and we followed him.
"Shut up, Pink Eye. I'm younger and skinnier, yet I still have more facial hair, " I spat. He begrudgingly hoisted his arms in the air in surrender. He rolled his eyes and boarded the boat.
"Just a bit nervous to be on something as big and expensive as this-" I conjured up a thought that told me this was a bad idea, but it died before leaving my brain.
"Big?! Expe-" His mouth ceased mid-word, I assumed he thought about what he was saying and who he was talking to. I rolled my eyes. I was gonna stop being such a pussy. He clasped his lips into a thin line and boarded the boat.
After everyone emplaned the colossal catamaran, I just stood there in awe. As the lights turned on, the shining exquisite masterpiece drizzled the night sky, inducing all the other small gondolas to severe contrition.
"We don't have all day! You gonna get on or swim?" King Boo joked, gesturing for us to get on. Morton snapped up, dazed from absentmindedly rubbernecking his phone.
"Oh yeah, Uncle Boo!" Morton bellowed from low ground. He stepped over the small railing over the water and walked across the bridge. I stood still, afraid of messing up and break something.
He granted his hand once he was over.
"Hold my hand. There's nothing to be scared of," he smiled warmly.
"Ugh, fine," I uttered, tightly enclosing my hand his denotingly large talons. I step over the railing and onto the populous yawl. He smiled proudly as I looked around.
I wasn't scared at all. My palms saddled in a particularly perturbed manner, but I was beyond excited to experience this boat. Morton hears his phone ding multiple times. He holds a finger up at me and I nod, waiting for him. I didn't wanna go in by myself- the boat looked simply too huge for that. Morton gaped at the phone, but it began to buzz like all get out, and he lost his grip and it fell into the dark ocean below.
"Fuck, that was my third phone this month," he sighed heavily. He trudged his way inside, motioning me to follow him. The boat was colossal inside. Gosh, rich people were so damn... rich! I would've thought the lavish life I'm living was only possible in dreams.
I inaugurated my way to the open space, which seemed to be destitute of life. As a matter of fact, I didn't see anyone other than the big oaf standing in front of me.
"Oof! What- Morton let me go!"
Ludwig rolled his eyes from the CCTV deck on the top of the ship. King Boo just guffawed, leaning back in the chair next to the one Ludwig was in. Ludwig groaned and began to stride out of the room and down two flights of stairs. The agitated Koopa pried Morton off me.
"Omigod, thank you! He was starting to crush me!" I laughed it off.
"Go down the hall, you big oaf!" Ludwig sighed, pointing into the empty room I was going to look in before he snatched me. He puffed his chest out, saluting Ludwig and took off. I held back a giggle.
"Okay, now to do this properly," Ludwig smirked and got behind me, covering my eyes with his claws. He pushes me along until he stops suddenly. Why was he covering my eyes to show me an empty room?
Beads of sweat freefell down my head as I worried what was going to happen next. Thoughts whirled in my head until suddenly-
He stopped. He lets go and I scan the room. I gape as the opulent features of the room stand out. The pearly white walls, the gold highlighted rug in the middle of the expensive wood floor, the carefully crafted King Boo statuettes, the huge TV that displayed a paused four-way game of Mario Kart 8, everything screamed expensive in here. I felt so inferior in this room somehow.
"Happy Birthday!"
"Ahh!!!" I stumbled to the floor as my family reanimated themselves everywhere.