Mushroom High

22. Hidden Hobby

*Monday morning*

“We will miss part of History because we have to go to Gym 2,” the class’ History teacher, Mr. Shy Guy informed. “The principal has an announcement.” The teacher and students made their way to Gym 2.

When they got there, they noticed that the sophomores were seated on the bleachers. The freshmen sat down in front of them.

“What now? All of the principal’s announcements are annoying and pointless,” Peach said, twirling a lock of her blonde hair around one of her fingers. After a few minutes of waiting, the principal, Mr. Goomba came to the gym.

“Good morning, students,” he greeted. About half of the students greeted him back. “I’m sure you’re all wondering why you are seated here now,” Mr. Goomba said. “You freshmen and sophomores will have a school dance.” The students started talking to each other.

“Will our dance be combined?” a sophomore questioned.

“Yes. The juniors and seniors will have their prom, which is separate from the dance you’ll have,” the principal stated. “However, it will be different this year for you freshmen and sophomores. I have selected a few people who will be in charge of planning it. I will give a few basic rules, but these students will work together to plan the dance themselves. If the dance is successful, they will receive recognition at the year-end awards.” The students once again began talking to their seatmates. Mr. Goomba waited until the students were quiet.

“I will now announce the students that the staff and I have picked,” he started. “From the freshmen, we picked Bowser Koopa, Mario Mario, Peach Toadstool, Rosalina, Toadette, and Yoshi. The sophomores we picked are Abbey, Chad Dawson, Jake, Melanie, Sofia Lee, and Troy Cook.” The students started mumbling to each other.

“Peach? Isn’t she that super pretty girl who has a vlog channel on StarTube?” one sophomore Toadette whispered to her friend.

“Yeah and she’s the queen of her grade. No freshman wants to mess with her,” the Toadette’s friend replied.

“If you are one of the twelve students, stand up,” Mr. Goomba said. Some of the students glanced at each other. Rosalina stood up confidently and at about the same time as Peach. Bowser also stood up right away. Mario, Yoshi, and Toadette got up when everyone else was up. The confident sophomores stood up too, followed by the shier ones of the six. A few of the other students applauded politely. “You will miss the rest of your first period today to start planning,” the principal said. “You may leave now and go to Conference Room C, in the faculty.” The twelve students left the gym. The principal gave a piece of paper to Abbey on her way out.

“Discuss these basic rules to follow with the others,” he said.

“Mario, hold yourself together,” Yoshi whispered to Mario on their way out.

“Don’t worry, I can handle myself perfectly fine,” Mario assured.

“You turn brain-dead whenever Peach is within a five-feet radius of you,” Yoshi stated.

“Chill, Yosh. Just help me focus and I’ll be fine,” Mario replied.

“Students, you may return to your class now,” Mr. Goomba said to the remaining students.

*in Conference Room C*

The freshmen and sophomores didn’t really interact often. So when they got to the conference area, they sat opposite to each other. “Ok, the principal wants me to go over the basic rules we need to follow,” Abbey said, running one of her hands through her ginger hair. “The dance needs to be in either April or May and it has to take place on a Saturday.”