~ Peach's POV ~
"Peach," someone shakes me awake. "Peach. We need to get ready."
"Huh?" I slowly open my eyes to see that the person who woke me up is Toadette.
"Wilderness backpacking today, remember?" she says. I check the time on my phone. It's 5 a.m.
"Why so early?" I whine.
"Well, we only got like six hours of sleep. Maybe you'd feel better if we slept at 9 last night like Daisy," Toadette states.
"Where is the weirdo?" I murmur.
"She went outside a few minutes ago, she's already prepared to leave. I am, too," Toadette replies. "Peach, I really think it's time for you to get ready now." Aww. I was about to fall asleep again. I'm not the kind of girl who wakes up after lunchtime, but I'm not a natural early riser either.
"Fine," I force myself to stand up and get ready to go backpacking.
We were informed of this in advance. Basically we'll all be taking a super long hike, one that's so long that we won't be back until tomorrow afternoon. I know this trip will be exhausting, but everyone is going to be in it.
I manage to stop myself from screaming when the especially cold shower water hits me, fully waking me up.
*later, at lunch*
After walking up a hill, we stop to eat. The provided lunch is pasta salad.
"Peach, is it okay if I stay with Mona for lunch?" Toadette asks me.
"Yeah," I answer. At least she told me first. If she didn't, I might think she's ditching me.
Well since Toadette's gone for now, I just take a seat on the grass. It's better than sitting on the dirt, in my opinion.
It turns out that I don't spend lunch alone. A brunette, grey-eyed girl sits next to me and even though I've never really talked to her before, I know her name is Pauline. We don't speak for a minute or so, focusing on our meals instead.
"Hi," Pauline lifts a hand towards me after awhile. "We've never actually chatted, but I think you know me as Pauline."
"Yeah," I shake hands with her. "And you know me as Peach."
"How are you?" Pauline asks.
"I'm fine, thanks," I answer. "You?"
"Same," Pauline says.
"Do you like this camp?" I question.
"Definitely!" Pauline states. "Do you?"
"Yeah," I tell her. "But, it would be better if my stupid cousin Daisy wasn't around." I think Pauline is really nice AND really pretty. I hope to be good friends with her.
As we continue eating, I notice that she constantly glances at the large group of guys that are several feet away from us.
"You like one of them, don't you?" I speak up.
"What?" Pauline immediately turns to look at me. "Umm... Yeah." Aww, that's cute.
"Would you mind telling me who?" I say.
"You seem trustworthy, so I guess I can tell you," Pauline replies, and then she says a name that I don't really hear.
"Who?" I ask.
"Mario. You know, the brown-haired one that's kinda tan and wears red often," Pauline grins. "I just think he's so cute and so fun to hang out with." I know, Pauline. I know.
Whoa wait a second, she likes MARIO??? Unbelievable! First, Mario and Rosalina are flirting nonstop. And now, my new friend likes him? But, I like him too! Do all of the girls in this camp have crushes on Mario or what?!
"Oh, cool," I smile at her, and it's not a genuine smile. "Thanks for trusting me."
"You're welcome!" Pauline responds. "But, please tell me... Do you know anyone else that likes Mario?"
"Nope," I lie.
I'm no longer sure if I can survive being friends with Pauline.
*after lunch*
~Toad's POV ~
There's a reason why I always have to be around other people, and why I don't like being alone.
Being alone is just boring and sad for me. It's not like I should start talking to myself! And it also leaves me alone with my thoughts, which isn't exactly a good thing.
Right now, I have two main thoughts. The first one is, "go find your friends!". Most of the other guys are nowhere in sight as I walk. Am I really that fast in walking? Everyone is pretty much walking in their little groups. And then there's me, alone with my mood-killing thoughts that I usually ignore when I'm with good company.
And the second thought? It's, "make things right with your sister". Yeah, I feel guilty for arguing with her almost a week ago. I was being a bit too harsh. We've never gone this long without taking to each other. I know we're basically complete opposites, but that just makes her like my other half.
I think I'm going to apologize to Toadette, sometime today.
Luckily for me, she is several feet ahead of me and she's also walking alone. I try to walk faster to catch up to her. But suddenly, someone pops up beside me.
"Hey, Toad!" Yoshi says. "Why are you alone?"
"Umm, I don't know," I reply honestly. "Where have you been?"
"Behind you the whole time!" Yoshi states. "Come join us."
"Okay," I follow Yoshi to the big group that consists of our friends.
I'll just apologize to Toadette later.
*two hours later*
We're taking a break from our wilderness backpacking. As I sit with DK and Wario, I sneak a glance at Toadette, who looks at me for a split second and quickly turns away once we make eye contact. I think now is a good time to talk to her.
However, I miss my chance before I can even tell my friends, "I'll be right back".
"Dettie!" I can hear Peach say from where I am. "Come with me! I need to show you something!" Peach pulls Toadette up from the ground, and the two girls disappear from my sight.
My mind is still set on telling my sister that I'm sorry.
*several hours later*
We stop walking again once we reach the top of a cliff. The sun is about to set, and we're planning to have a campfire and dinner in like thirty minutes. I'm going to make another attempt to talk to my sister.
On my way to approaching Toadette, I suddenly notice the guys (except for a few) all crowding together. What are they doing? I join the group to find out.
DK and Mario are arm wrestling and everyone else is watching. It turns out that various people have already arm wrestled, and this is just the current match. After about one minute Mario finally wins, which is impressive because DK is quite strong.
"Good job, Mario," DK high fives Mario.
"Thanks," Mario grins.
I nearly forget about my initial plan of apologizing to Toadette. But, you know what? It's actually not a big deal. I mean, whatever I said to Toadette during our argument was true. She just makes a big deal over everything. And besides, she seems okay without me because I've noticed that she has been talking to more people than before.
I don't think I should apologize to Toadette yet. We're both perfectly fine without each other after all.
~ Koopa's POV ~
"Good job, Mario," DK high fives Mario.
"Thanks," Mario grins.
A lot of the guys, including myself, are gathered together in some kind of arm wrestling tournament. DK and Mario just went up against each other, and Mario won. In fact, Mario has won every single match he has participated in today.
"Who's next to arm wrestle me?" Mario asks. No one answers him because he beat most of us already. Mario is most likely the best arm wrestler among us.
"I challenge one of you," a voice than isn't one of ours suddenly speaks. We all turn to face the direction of that voice. Bowser has joined us.
"Hey," some of us say in attempts to be friendly.
"I challenge one of you," Bowser repeats. "So, which of you wimps want to arm wrestle me?"
We look at one another in curiosity. Bowser coming to us is completely unexpected because it feels like he hates everyone- he usually isolates himself. If everyone was enthusiastic about arm wrestling a few minutes ago, I wonder who is now.
"I'll go against you," Mario tells Bowser after a moment, stepping closer to him.
"At least one person isn't as much of a scaredy cat. Such a shame this person is way too arrogant," Bowser shakes his head. I notice that a few of the other guys are beginning to get annoyed with Bowser.
"Stop talking, let's get straight to the match," Mario says.
"You think you're the best, don't you?" Bowser mutters. He and Mario kneel on either side of the large rock and grip hands. They begin arm wrestling.
It's an intense match. At first the hands barely move, which means they're applying equal amounts of strength. Then, Bowser's hand becomes more powerful than Mario's. But he doesn't win just yet because Mario gains strength and is soon closer to winning than Bowser. Bowser's hand is slowly lowered by Mario's, until it touches the rock. Mario has won an arm wrestling match against Bowser that was more than twice as long as the other matches.
"I took on your challenge, are you happy now?" Mario stands up. I notice him winking at someone from afar, presumably Rosalina. I'm pretty sure he has a crush on her.
"Wipe that smirk off your face," Bowser snaps at Mario. "I can break your bones if I wanted to badly enough."
"Oh, I'd like to see you try-" Mario is interrupted by Waluigi.
"Mario, calm down," Waluigi murmurs. Mario follows Waluigi's advice, quietly crossing his arms and staring at Bowser.
"My business here is done," Bowser states. "I should have known that I'd be wasting my time by approaching pathetic cowards." He then leaves us alone.
Why does Bowser hate everyone so much? Is it because of something we did to him? We want to be kind to him, but it's as if he wants the opposite. He's just forming rivalries with many of us, and he's clearly doing so on purpose. But, why??? I guess there are some blanks that will never be filled in...
"Come on, guys," Diddy glances at us. "Cheer up! We're supposed to be happy in this camp!"
I agree with Diddy. We should think positively as much as possible! Camp Tanooki is great, and I want to make the most of my time here.
Sorry, this isn't a very good chapter in my opinion! This A/N is probably gonna end up being another long one because I'm a person who tends to ramble a lot. Anyways, it has only occurred to me really recently that this book is actually a crossover! It's a crossover between the DK, Mario, and Wario series. And I thought it was only a Mario fanfic... Anyways this is a crossover book because Diddy, Dixie, and Tiny are not Mario characters, they're DK characters. And Mona isn't a Mario character either, she's a Wario character. You're reading a crossover right now! Come to think of it, I've only played like 2 DK games and I've never played a Wario game before. Also, you can leave POV requests in the comments if you want to tell me whose POVs you want to see in the next few chapters. And I'm curious- in general, do you like thinking of Toad and Toadette as a couple or as siblings? You can answer that in the comments. I don't know which option I prefer, both of them are good ideas to me... Not at the same time of course! Hahaha. Btw according to wordcounter.net, most of the Camp Tanooki chapters are 9th/10th grade in reading level which is actually pretty surprising. In case you didn't know, I'm about to be in 9th grade. Aannnd I'm really sad because I'm going back to school in less than a month... Well please follow GrandStar05 and Nintyler because why not? Anyways please add, comment, vote, etc. Thanks!