Daisy jogged past the castle guards and to the entrance of Peach's castle, where Peach was waiting for her.

"Hello, cousin," Peach said. "What brings you here on this freezing morning?"

"I just decided to drop by," Daisy replied. Peach noticed that her cousin was subtly snickering on her way inside. The Mushroom Kingdom princess decided not to question it, since Daisy was known to be a little crazy in some standards.

"Have you already eaten breakfast?" Peach questioned.

"No, not yet," Daisy answered truthfully.

"Then, go on to the dining room," Peach responded. "I will accompany you as I haven't had breakfast yet either." The cousins walked to the dining room, where the smell of freshly-made, first-class breakfast taunted their hunger. Peach and Daisy sat next to each other in the long, narrow dining table.

Daisy slowly gazed at all of the food before her. Bacon, cold cuts, fresh fruit platters, bread platters, waffles, and pancakes were all in her sight.

"Do you eat this much for breakfast every morning?" Daisy asked.

"No, but I asked for more than usual today since I knew you were coming over in advance," Peach stated. "You know, you could easily have breakfasts like this as often as you wanted if you moved back to Sarasaland."

"Or if I moved into your castle," Daisy joked. Peach frowned.

"I think otherwise," was all she said before taking a sip of her hot chocolate. Peach and Daisy ate in silence for a few minutes before Daisy decided to speak up.

"Okay, I lied," Daisy said.

"About what?" Peach asked.

"I came here because I want to look at your old school yearbooks," Daisy's mouth formed into a smile.

"... Why?" Peach questioned, slightly weirded out.

"I was with the Mario brothers and they wouldn't stop talking about it," Daisy explained. "So now, I'm curious about them."

"Fine," Peach replied after a minute of thought. "We'll take a look at them after we finish eating."

*half an hour later*

"Where are they, where are they?!" Daisy asked, eager to see the yearbooks.

"Let's check my room," Peach suggested. In Peach's room were several shelves full of books, mostly about royal matters and kingdoms.

"I can't wait to read them!" Daisy said excitedly.

"Where could they be?" Peach murmured, staring at the book shelves.

"Oh! Are those the ones?" Daisy pointed at the very bottom shelf, which had twelve books of varied lengths.

"Yes, I think those are the yearbooks," Peach replied. Daisy pulled all twelve of the books out of the shelf and practically threw them onto Peach's bed.

"Dai!" Peach exclaimed on instinct. "Please be careful!"

Daisy ignored her cousin and searched for the first-grade yearbook. She quixkly found it and started flipping pages at what had to be running speed.

"Ahh! You're all so cute!" Daisy squealed. Peach's face turned slightly red as she looked at her first grade class pictures.

"What am I even wearing?" she said quietly. Daisy, however, was not paying attention to Peach's outfit.

"Where's Yoshi?" Daisy asked.

"I didn't meet him until I was in college," Peach stated. "So, he isn't in any of the yearbooks."

"Birdo isn't here either," Daisy said.

"That's because I also didn't meet her until I was in college," Peach replied. "Toad and Toadette are younger than us, so it only makes sense that you don't see them in all of my yearbooks."

Daisy flipped several pages to reveal in-class pictures. 

"Who's that?" Daisy asked, pointing to a picture of the younger Peach with a brunette, grey-eyed human girl.

"Oh, her," Peach frowned. "That's Pauline. She used to be my friend, but now she's what you can call my rival."

"And what are you doing in that picture?" Daisy asked.

*flashback*

"Students, please find a partner," Mrs. Monty Mole said. "You and your partner will make Christmas cards for each other." Pauline immediately stood up from her seat and walked over to Peach.

"Wanna be partners?" Peach asked.

"Yup!" Pauline smiled. Soon, Mrs. Monty Mole approached the two girls and gave them card-making materials.

"Whoa!" Peach gasped, staring at the containers of glitter that she had been given.

"Yay! Glitter!" Pauline exclaimed, grabbing a container full of gold glitter. She struggled a little in opening the container, but was able to open it nonetheless. 

Peach was about to begin writing on her card when gold glitter was dumped directly onto her.

"Merry Christmas!" Pauline said cheerfully.

"Hey!" Peach pouted. Suddenly, she had an idea. Peach smirked as she opened a container of purple glitter and proceeded to throw some glitter onto Pauline.

Pauline smiled, relieved that Peach was not angry at her. The two girls were soon having a glitter fight. This went on for about five minutes before the teacher noticed what was going on.

"Peach and Pauline!" Mrs. Monty Mole scolded. "Go to the bathroom and clean yourselves up right now!"

"Yes, Miss," the two first-graders said at the same time. Then, they exited the classroom and giggled to each other the whole way to the bathroom.

*flashback over*

"I'm actually pretty embarrassed about that," Peach admitted. "I was acting so unruly."

"Well, what's up with Pauline now?" Daisy questioned.

"She is the founder of a toy company," Peach answered. 

Daisy continued looking through the yearbooks as Peach absentmindedly organized her bedside table.

"Hey, Peachy!" Daisy suddenly said, causing Peach to look up.

"Yes?" Peach responded. She noticed that Daisy was now holding her fourth grade yearbook.

"Was this a Halloween party?" Daisy gestured to a candid picture of the fourth-grade Luigi and Peach.

"It was," Peach nodded.

*flashback*

"Peach!" Luigi ran to his royal classmate. "You have to try the blood punch! It is SO GOOD!"

"Okay, but after I look for the candy," Peach stated, proceeding to search for the candy in the classroom.

"What are you supposed to be?" Luigi questioned.

"The Queen Of Hearts," Peach answered.

"Oh," Luigi said. "Well, I'm a zombie."

"I know," Peach responded. She then quickly walked to a table at the back of the room, Luigi at her heels. The table had buckets of candy and each bucket had a student's name on it.

Peach searched for her bucket, but she couldn't find it. She turned to Luigi in confusion.

"Do you know where my candy is?" Peach asked.

"Umm..." Luigi thought for a moment. "Well, Mario took two buckets of candy instead of one. Maybe he took yours."

"Where is he?" Peach questioned.

"I think he's in the bathroom," Luigi replied. "Just wait for him. You don't want to enter the boys' bathroom, do you?"

"Fne," Peach crossed her arms, already impatient. She REALLY wanted her candy. Luigi decided to wait with Peach.

"Peachy, what are you doing with HIM?" Lady Bow asked, a look of disgust on her face. Luigi was immediately offended and Peach noticed.

"Luigi and I are waiting for Mario," Peach answered coolly. "Want to wait with us?"

"No way!" Lady Bow exclaimed. "Suit yourself. Just remember- boys are GROSS." The feminine ghost then floated away to another part of the classroom.

"Oh, there's Mario," Luigi pointed to the door. Peach approached Mario.

"Hi, Peach," Mario smiled guiltily.

"Give me my candy," Peach demanded. Mario quickly whispered something to Luigi before running away from Peach.

"Mario ate your candy," Luigi stated. "That's what he told me." Peach glared at Mario.

"I will get him back..." she said quietly.

*flashback over*

 "Wow," Daisy grinned. "You candy enthusiast."

"Sorry, but I really needed the candy that day," Peach stated.

"Why?"

"... I forget."

Soon, Daisy was flipping through the pages of Peach's sixth grade yearbook. 

"What's this supposed to be?" Daisy asked, showing Peach a picture in the yearbook.

"My geography class had to be divided into small groups and each group had to make an informative poster about a certain place," Peach explained. "My group's poster was about Delfino Isle. But, you'll never guess who my partners were."

*flashback*

"What are you gonna do, sprinkle glitter all over the poster?" Wario grumbled.

"No," Peach replied. "I plan to do what is necessary to get the perfect score for this project."

"Nerd," Lady Bow rolled her eyes, blowing a big pink bubble from her bubble gum.

"Hey," Peach glanced at Wario and Lady Bow. "This is a GROUP project. We all have to work equally."

"Honestly, I don't care about this," Lady Bow stated. "Our topic doesn't interest me."

"And I'm just lazy," Wario added.

The sigh that Peach made was barely audible. The princess couldn't believe her partners had to be Wario and Lady Bow. She wished that the teacher had let the students pick their groups.

Peach began working as her two groupmates slacked off... But, it wasn't like Peach predicted they would actually contribute to the project.

*flashback over*

"You should've beat them up," Daisy stated.

"No way, that would have totally ruined my image," Peach responded. "Besides, as a princess I should get used to meeting many different kinds of people- both hardworking and not."

"Lady Bow sounds like Birdo," Daisy remarked.

"Yes, but I find Birdo more tolerable," Peach replied.

A few more minutes passed and Daisy was looking at Peach's eighth grade yearbook.

"Oh my!" Daisy's eyes widened. "I completely forgot that you had red hair for awhile!"

"I did, too," Peach sighed when she saw her eighth grade class photo. "That was one of the strangest decisions I have ever made. And have I told you about the time that Mario thought I was you?"

"... What?" Daisy said, confused.

*flashback*

Peach was standing at the school entrance, reading something on her phone. She knew that many of the students had noticed her new hair color, some of which had made it their chatting topic. Peach didn't care  whether the people around her liked her red hair or not because Peach loved it.

"Whoa! Daisy?! What are you doing here?" Mario called, causing Peach to instantly look up from her phone and turn around to face Mario. Daisy's here? Why?! Peach thought.

"Where's Daisy?" Peach questioned her long-time friend.

"Oh... Sorry, I mistook you for Daisy," Mario's face turned slightly red. "I didn't know you dyed your hair red."

"Well, now you do," Peach replied.

"Yeah. See you later in Biology," Mario waved at Peach and entered the school.

I hope everyone else will be able to recognize me, Peach thought.

*flashback over*

"Seriously?" Daisy questioned. "We didn't even look alike back then- and we don't now either!"

"Your hair was longer at the time," Peach pointed out. "So, we probably looked a little similar."

"Ooh, the high school yearbooks," Daisy murmured, picking up Peach's ninth grade yearbook and opening it. "By the way Peach, have you EVER gotten in detention?"

"Yes, I had detention once in my entire school life," Peach admitted. "And it was in my freshman year."

"Wow," Daisy chuckled. "Seriously? Your royalty didn't excuse you?"

"Of course not," Peach stated. "My school wasn't biased."

"Well?" Daisy said. "Tell me all about it."

"Fine," Peach replied. "I'll tell you what I can recall."

*flashback*

"How was the geometry test for you?" Mario asked Peach.

"It was alright," Peach responded. "I studied for it a lot last night, so-"

At that moment, cold water and ice were dumped onto the Mushroom Kingdom princess. Peach instantly turned around. She saw Pauline smirking and holding an empty glass.

"Oops," Pauline smiled innocently. "I tripped."

Peach calmly stood up and faced her former friend. Peach's face looked emotionless.

"What are you gonna do? Cry? Be a tattletale?" Pauline taunted.

Suddenly, before Pauline could even blink, Peach grabbed Pauline's plate of spaghetti and shoved it into Pauline's face.

"UGH!" Pauline exclaimed. "I HATE YOU SO MUCH!"

The cafeteria supervisor, Ms. Chain Chomp made her way over to the two girls.

"Ladies!" Ms. Chain Chomp barked. "Your behavior is indecent. Detention for both of you!" Peach and Pauline were then given detention slips.

Peach glared at Pauline before turning away from her and sitting down.

*flashback over*

"What happened between you and Pauline anyway?" Daisy asked.

"I got annoyed with her towards the end of 8th grade. I realized that she was a really bratty person who seemed to enjoy talking trash about others and complaining," Peach stated.

"Sheesh," Daisy said. "I wonder how people like her survive in this world."

The two girls then dropped the subject and Daisy continued browsing Peach's school yearbooks. Daisy was eventually going through the yearbook of Peach's senior year.

"I wanna see the prom photos," Daisy flipped the yearbook pages, eager to find what she was looking for. "Oh! I think I found them." Peach glanced at the yearbook to see if Daisy was correct.

"You're right," Peach said.

"You were prom queen?!" Daisy exclaimed.

"I was," Peach nodded.

"And Mario was your partner. That's not very surprising," Daisy murmured. "Were you two already dating by then?"

"Yes," Peach replied. "In fact, Mario's way of asking me out was asking me to go to prom with him."

"Cool," Daisy responded.

*flashback*

It was 1 a.m. Peach was sitting in the passenger seat of Mario's Sports Coupe while Mario himself was in the driver seat. Just less than an hour ago, they had beem awarded as Prom King and Prom Queen.

The car was parked right next to a large field. The two teens were staring up at the sky, which was full of stars that night. Between them was a comfortable silence.

"Are you sure I won't get in trouble for being out so late?" Peach spoke up.

"No," Mario assured. "Your parents said your curfew was 2 a.m, so we can stay here for awhile. But, do you want to go home already?"

"I'd rather stay here longer, thank you," Peach replied.

"I can't believe we'll graduate in just a week," Mario murmured.

"I know right," Peach agreed. "Time flew by so fast."

"You know what Luigi and I do sometimes when I'm super bored?"

"What?"

"We look through our school yearbooks. It's fun to remember what life was like before."

"I just realized that we always complain about how hard school is, but everything just gets harder afterwards."

"True. And it is during moments like these when I think about how much I'll miss school once I'm not in it anymore."

"Before we know it, I'll be the queen and you'll be changing the world for the better."

"How would you know?"

"It seems like something you would do," Peach stated.

"Gee, thanks," Mario smiled.

*flashback over*

"I can't seem to forget that conversation and I don't think I'll ever forget it," Peach told her cousin. "It just struck me somehow."

"Well, thanks for letting me look at your yearbooks," Daisy stood up from Peach's bed. "I better be going now- I'm going to meet Yoshi because we have to do our Christmas shopping. Do you want to come with us?"

"No thank you," Peach replied. "I am already finished with my Christmas shopping." Daisy smiled to herself. It was predictable that Peach's Christmas shopping wasn't last-minute.

"Okay then. See you soon!" Daisy left Peach's room. Peach sat on her bed and stared at the pile of yearbooks before her.

"Before we know it, I'll be the queen and you'll be changing the world for the better," she said quietly to herself.

Both of the mentioned things had already happened. And Peach was overtaken by time once again.

And that is the second-last chapter of this book. I am SO sorry for not updating in practically forever. If you follow me, you'd probably be aware that I had my sem exams recently and I've just been really stressed out in general. I won't be in school for three weeks starting today so I'm almost completely sure that I'll be able to update a lot now! You all can look forward to the next chapter of this book, which will be the finale AND a Christmas special. I really hope I haven't become a worse writer ever since before my temporary hiatus. Btw I hope you readers are satisfied with this chapter's length. Anyways please add, comment, vote, etc. Thanks!

- pinkandpeachy