~ Birdo's POV ~

"OMG," Dixie sits down next to me, shaking her head. "I cannot believe we just did that."

We just finished swimming in the lake... At 5 a.m, in our pajamas. We really enjoyed it, and we got to catch another sunrise.

It wasn't just Dixie and I though. Boo, DK, Toad, and Wario were with us as well. I invited Mona because she's our cabinmate, but she wanted to sleep in.

"That was fuunnn," I grin.

"Yeah," Toad agreed.

"Good start to the day," DK added.

I glance at Boo, the friend who I succeeded in making. He's just sitting on the ground, with a subtle smile on his face.

"Imagine me... With an undercut," Wario jokes out of the blue.

"... I can't," Dixie states.

"Oh, you know who should totally get an undercut?" I say. "Boo!"

Everyone bursts out laughing, trying to picture it. Boo simply shakes his head, slightly laughing as well. I feel like getting him to laugh is such an accomplishment, because it rarely happens.

"No way, are you kidding?" Boo replies. "This 'emo' look is my trademark!"

"Well, that's true," I nod. "Oh, but what if you dye it a color like... Bubblegum pink?" Dixie gets into a giggling fit at this.

"That... Is even worse than an undercut," Boo facepalms.

"I kind of want to dye my hair a ridiculous color, I could be a trendsetter," Toad grins.

"I wonder who'd follow that trend," Wario snickers.

"Hey, when's Bones gonna join us?" I ask, the question suddenly popping into my head.

"Once he joins, our whole cabin will be in this group," Wario states.

"Well, I don't know how anyone's gonna make him join," DK says honestly.

"I don't know either," Boo mumbles. "He's pretty set on not associating himself with anyone other than me. And actually, I was like that too."

"Hey, at least you aren't anymore," I smile. "We just need to get him to open up as well."

"Good luck doing that," Dixie says.

"I'll keep trying to convince him," Boo tells us.

I have really high hopes for this group. And I'm getting to achieving my goal of befriending Bones and Boo. Yay!

~ Bones's POV ~

"Hey, dude," Boo enters the cabin. Toad and Wario are elsewhere, but they were hanging out with Boo. I was just here alone, waiting for Boo to come back from hanging with his new friends.

Ugh. "Boo" and "new friends" in the same sentence? Weirdest thing ever.

"How was it?" I mutter.

"Like the previous times, good but you should've been there," Boo replies. "Dude, when will you join us?"

"It's an 'us' now?" I question. "Since when?"

"Well, they consider me a part of the group. And if you accepted their invitations, you'd be in the group too," Boo states.

"Who's in this group anyway?" I say.

Wait, why did I even ask? At what point did I start caring? Oh maybe at the point that they've started slowly been ruining the small, tight, perfect circle that consists of Boo and myself.

"Well today I was with Birdo, Dixie, and our cabinmates," Boo responds. "It was fun. It always is when I'm with them. What's stopping you from trying it? You're invited every time. I was just as antisocial as you are, you know."

"Yeah, you used to be," I cross my arms. "And you're going to turn into a total people person like everyone else. Maybe you can't see it, but I can."

"Why do you take pride in isolating yourself from everyone?" Boo questions. "I'm beginning to realize, it isn't exactly a good thing. We just needed good company, and I've found it."

"Boo," I sigh. "Just drop the subject. I don't like fighting with you."

"I don't either, dude," Boo sits on the bed next to me. "You're still my best friend."

"Good," I smile. "Don't let that change."

That was close. I almost thought we'd get into a real fight. But by now, it's a routine. After each instance he hangs out with them, he tries to convince me to go with him next time and we get into a bit of an argument about how he has changed his ways. And every time we argue, it gets worse. It scares me, honestly. I don't want to risk losing my only friend, even if by now he has others besides me.

"Bones," Boo speaks. "Promise me that you will keep an open mind at some point though. That you'll actually consider getting more friends, because there are a lot of people here that you won't regret getting to know."

"Fine, maybe," I say, just to get him to stop talking about it.

He's gradually changing, and it's happening right in front of me. I want to stop it, but I can't. I just hope more than anything that he won't drift away from me.

~ Dixie's POV ~

Diddy and I are chatting while sitting on a big tree branch that's about six feet above the ground. I'm not very athletic, but at least I can climb trees... To an extent.

"I'm craving ice cream," Diddy states.

"Me too, it's so hot here and we can't even eat ice cream," I reply. "The first thing I'll do once camp is over is get a banana split at my favorite diner."

Suddenly, I notice what seems to be a Polaroid picture poking out of Diddy's pocket in his shorts. I only see like half of it, and the half I see is him in the picture. So, he took it with someone else?

"What's that?" I decide to ask.

"What?" Diddy sounds confused.

"There, in your pocket," I say.

"Oh," he glances down and pushes the picture back to place, so that it's completely hidden. "Don't mind that."

"Umm, okay," I respond. "Sorry for asking, I just got curious."

"No need to apologize."

"That kind of picture looks familiar though. I think my headache of a sister takes Polaroid pictures."

"Oh, does she?" Diddy suddenly looks a bit surprised. "That's interesting."

"Yeah, I don't see Polaroid pictures around that much," I state.

"Neither do I. This is my only one so far," Diddy tells me.

"Well, I don't have any so it's okay," I smile and glance upwards, trying to see the clear sky through the tree's leaves.

I'm so glad I'm friends with Diddy now. He's just as great of a person I expected him to be. Although I am a little curious about that Polaroid picture...

Nah, I shouldn't be. It probably isn't anything significant. I should just be glad I got to spend time with Diddy once again.

~ Bowser's POV ~

My cabinmates and I are out for a planned bike ride through a trail. This camp has two biking trails, the Goomba trail and the Wiggler trail. Weird names, I know.

We're taking the Wiggler trail which is longer, judging by its name. I don't want to bike with these people though. I better get this over with as quickly as possible.

And how do I do that? By leaving them behind, of course. So I hop on my bike and take off, pedaling at a pretty good speed.

It's the 26th day at camp now, right? And there are 56 days in total. That means I'm almost halfway through these eight weeks of torture.

I know that my goal is to make sure the other campers don't have a good time either, but they all seem to be having fun. Should I step up my game? Perhaps I should.

I really wish I wasn't forced to come here. It just frustrates me how just about everyone is having the summer they wanted and the people who are in Camp Tanooki are here by choice, but then there's me with thirty more days to dread until I get to return home. But my summer was ruined from the start, and there is no way to make it better.

~ Daisy's POV ~

My first two days of being fifteen couldn't have been more confusing. And it's mostly Luigi's fault.

I don't want to have to say it like that. But, there isn't any other way to put it. The night before my birthday, I finally got a chance to become closer to the constantly quiet Luigi. It was a really good night. After that, I had really high hopes for the next days. I guess I expected Luigi to be less shy around me from that night onwards.

Instead, it seems like he has been avoiding me. Today and yesterday, he hasn't said one word to me. I tried to say hi to him a few times yesterday but he would just walk past me, pretending I wasn't even there. I don't get it. What did I do wrong? It's like we had such a good time hanging out until midnight just earlier this week, and suddenly we're strangers.

*flashback*

It was breakfast time of the day before, and my whole group was sitting together at the dining pavilion as usual. Luigi was the last one to arrive.

"Hey," I smiled up at him from my seat, a friendly gesture. He just avoided looking at me, walking to sit in the farthest possible place from me in our group's part of the table.

"Luigi, what's up? Aren't you gonna greet Daisy?" Mona questioned. I decided to do him a favor to save him from being humiliated.

"He did earlier," I lied. "It's fine."

Then, I shot him a look as if to say "you're welcome". He noticed this, but he stared down at his food rather than looking appreciative or anything.

What was wrong with him? He wasn't always like that. Was he giving me the silent treatment?

*flashback over*

Don't get me wrong, I had a good birthday... Mostly. I mean, I had other friends who helped me stay in a good mood the whole time. But by bedtime, I couldn't stop wondering why Luigi was suddenly avoiding me. It irks me, but I don't want to be mad at him. I just want to understand what's going through his head.

Wait. I have an idea! Doesn't Luigi have a twin brother? That guy who Peach is totally obsessed with, Mario? He probably knows Luigi better than anyone else! I should talk to him about this.

I'll try to talk to Mario during or after dinner, which is in a few hours. I hope to get the answers I'm looking for.

~ Mario's POV ~

While having dinner, something unusual happens while I'm eating with my friends. Daisy approaches me. I don't recall her talking to me much before, so I have no idea why she's here now.

"Hey, Mario," Daisy says. "Can I talk to you? In private?"

This causes all of the guys in our part of the table to look at me with great curiosity. I know what they're thinking, and apparently Daisy does as well.

"Don't worry, I don't have any intentions of stealing him away from the girl he's going for," she tells them.

At that point, they all burst out laughing and I get a bit embarrassed. What exactly does Daisy know about me?! All I know about her is that Luigi most likely had a crush on her.

"Anyways, Mario? Let's go," Daisy tells me.

"Oh, fine," I shrug, standing up. "I shall comply, you pretty flower."

I see Daisy look annoyed at this so I just walk ahead, expecting her to follow me. And sure enough, she does.

"Where to?" I ask.

"Umm, how about the lake?" Daisy answers. "I don't think we'll take too long though. We can just walk there and back."

"Sure, but hold on," I say. "Do you really know the girl I'm going for?" If she did, that would be ridiculous. It would also mean that word gets around much too fast in this camp.

"Nope," Daisy laughs. "I just said that for fun."

"Oh okay," I reply. "Well, what do you want?"

"It's about Luigi," Daisy begins.

She tells me about this situation of hers, in which Luigi just decides to ignore her after they had a nice late night chat recently. Unfortunately it sounds just like something Luigi would do, just avoiding someone for unknown reasons. I'm actually impressed that he had the guts to invite her to talk with him in private like that, and for that long.

"So, what do you think? Why is he acting like that?" Daisy questions.

Okay, I think I should tell Daisy what I got from my conversation with Luigi awhile back. I know that Luigi wouldn't want me to do this, but he'll thank me for it later. I'm sure he will.

"Maybe it's because he likes you, and he isn't sure how to act around you since he has accepted that he likes you," I suggest. "He isn't mad at you or anything. But you have to show him that it doesn't matter if he has a crush on you or not, that it shouldn't mess up your potential friendship."

"How do I do that?" Daisy asks.

"Just keep reaching out to him," I advise. "I know it'll probably be hard, but it'll show him that he shouldn't be afraid of spending time with you. Luigi's too cowardly to realize some things on his own."

"I just... Don't get it," Daisy states. "So, that's why he avoids me now?"

"Maybe," I reply. "It's because now he is even more scared to mess up around you. So for some reason, he decides that the best option is to be distant."

"Wait," Daisy responds. "Do you really think he likes me?"

"I don't think it," I grin. "I know it."

"Well thanks, Mario," Daisy actually sounds appreciative.

"Anything for you, Daisy," I casually put my arm around her shoulder, which she quickly shrugs off.

"One more thing."

"What?"

"Your oh-so-cool flirting," Daisy starts. "Don't even bother trying. It doesn't get you anywhere." I just laugh.

"Whatever you say, you pretty flower," I say, making Daisy roll her eyes. We then continue on our walk back to the dining pavilion in a semi-comfortable silence and the faint smell of medium-well steak  coming from our destination.

Here is my first chapter of 2016! Haha well I hope you guys enjoyed reading. Idk when the next chapter will be posted. This is a short A/N because I'm putting up a long one right after this. Anyways please add, comment, vote, etc. Thanks!

- pinkandpeachy