Mushroom High

20. Perspectives

*the next morning*

Daisy woke up feeling just fine. That feeling quickly faded away as memories from the night before came flooding into her head. Though she had only slept for about eight hours, last night felt like a year ago. Daisy didn't want to show her face to any of her classmates ever again. Now everyone in her class knew her secret, including Luigi and Rosalina.

Daisy quickly showered and dressed into one of her power outfits, meaning an outfit that put her in a good mood. She then went to her favorite café- Shroombucks.

What she had forgotten was that it was Rosalina's favorite café, too and Rosalina went there every Saturday morning. When Rosalina entered Shroombucks, she immediately joined the line to order. She realized that the person in front of her looked familiar. When the person began saying her order, Rosalina knew it was Daisy.

"One medium hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, please," Daisy said. After Rosalina said her own order, she tapped Daisy's shoulder. Daisy quickly turned around and when she saw Rosalina, she looked panic-stricken.

"Sit with me," Rosalina told Daisy.

"Why?" Daisy asked.

"Why not? We're friends, right?" Rosalina smiled.

"Umm, sure," Daisy replied. The two girls sat down on a couch after claiming their orders. Daisy opened her mouth to say something, but Rosalina cut her off.

"Don't apologize," she said. "It's not your fault.”

"Why aren't you mad at me?" Daisy asked. "I wasn't being a good friend. You deserve a better friend." Rosalina just smiled.

"You were being a good friend," she simply replied. "You wanted the best for Luigi and I. You kept quiet because you wanted us to be happy. After everything you went through for that one secret, how dare you call yourself a bad friend! You can't force your feelings to change. That's why I'm not mad at you."

"Thanks for understanding," Daisy said.

"Dai, I know you well enough to know that everything you do has a good reason behind it. I also know that you've always wanted your friends to be happy. It's my fault because I didn't know you liked him. It totally makes sense. And don't ever say you're not a good enough friend for me because honestly, I don't know if I'll ever come across another person who would be willing to suffer that much for me. I can’t ask you to be a better friend than you already are,” Rosalina hugged Daisy.

“But, what about your relationship with Luigi?” Daisy asked worriedly.

“I’ll confront him about it one of these days, unless he comes to me first… Which I doubt,” Rosalina shrugged. “I don’t know what will happen to our relationship, but if anything bad happens, you won’t be at fault. I promise. It’s all Peach’s fault. Does she really love drama this much?”

“She does it for others, not herself,” Daisy said. “Rosie, don’t you ever get scared?”

“I get scared all the time,” Rosalina laughed. “The key to being fearless isn’t having no fears, it’s being able to prevent your fears from taking over your life and your attitude.”

“Where do you get all of these words of wisdom?” Daisy questioned.

“From experience,” Rosalina answered flatly.

“So, should I wish I’ve gone through as much as you have?” Daisy wondered.

“You have gone through as much as I have, you’ve just had different experiences. All you have to do is look at the experiences that you made mistakes in and learn from those mistakes,” Rosalina sipped her snickerdoodle frappe.