Toadette's Story: Book 1

Chapter 57 - Race Home

Peach and her daughter were destined to be the end of me one way or another.

“Get out of the way!”

I jumped back. What the…! I was standing in the middle of the track. Well, my distracted sprint into the path of these racers meant that Penelope was in my grasp. Either I’d drag her spoiled butt out that car, or I was hopping in.

“Penelope!” I felt my teeth grind together as I growled her name. She was coming into view. I squatted, already lifting my heels to dive into the second seat.

“I don’t need you!” She honked the horn, her eyes scrunched under that helmet’s visor.

“Moron.” Didn’t matter. I had her. If she didn’t go in my direction, she’d drift her way into a sea of mud.

She kept going straight. I must’ve looked like a psycho, smiling as she was about to hit me. Well, here goes nothing…

The second I jumped, the crowd cheered. Then suddenly I dropped like a stone. My ribs shook from the impact, and I felt the wind blowing past me. As the crowd cheered louder and louder, I finally reoriented myself.

Not only was I not in Penelope’s car, but I wasn’t even on a seat. The driver’s tight grip kept me from flying off the car’s hood. He was human, professionally dressed, his focus shifting between me and the dirt road. But eventually that focus shifted entirely to me. The question was who recognised whom first.

“You!” Anger pulsed through his veins, clearly visible from the mark Captain Toad had left on his forehead. “So they really couldn’t ice you!?”

I snarled at him. “No, but we iced some of your guys. Are they still frozen or have they finally melted?”

Our incident was fresh in my mind. My first blowjob, and a disgusting one at that. The tip of his dick probably still had my teeth marks in it. His grip on my wrist was now becoming as painful as that bite.

“The yellow-haired girl belongs to you?”

“Don’t even think about messing with her!”

He adjusted his tie with his other hand and let the wheel go wild. As we rounded a corner, my face slammed into the hood.

“Relax. We’re just gonna have some fun.” He chuckled. “So you stay out of Leo Scapelli’s way, or we’ll bury you in this track!”

With a grunt, he flung me into the air. The audience let out a collective gasp, probably reaching out to catch me. Too bad I didn’t land that far, instead plunging into a lake of mud. When I resurfaced, body brown, I heard another sticky splash. Then the sound of waddling as I struggled to pull myself out.

“Toadette!”

“You jumped from all the way up there!?” I grabbed my friend’s thicker arm. “Are you crazy!?”

“Acting like I’m a daredevil when you were just about to action-movie your way into Penny’s car.” She laughed, but her expression quickly turned serious as she watched the racers continue to lob items at the child.

“The one who threw me is the Scapelli whose dick we had to suck to get out of there. He knows it’s me, and now he knows Penelope is ‘related’ to me.”

She wiped her face. “He’d probably be cool if you didn’t treat his wiener like a smoked sausage.”

“If the so-called captain didn’t get himself caught like me, he could’ve knocked him out on the first go.”

We climbed up onto the harder dirt, myself shuddering from the mud. As soon as we could get our shoes on, I took another look at the scene.

This Leo guy was in fifth place, just ahead of Penelope. They were nearing the end of their third lap when he threw another Fake Item Box in her direction. As it exploded on her, she screamed, and I could feel her muscles tense from a distance. And behind her, the other racers were still out for blood. Koopa shells and banana peels weren’t enough. Now they’d brought in Thunder Clouds, which pumped more electricity into her every ten seconds. That little speed boost was negated by Leo’s ability to attack her easily once her car was right behind his.

Minh T. lit up. “Can you jump and carry me at the same time?”

“Barely. How… Okay, why?”

She signalled for me to follow her to the starting line. As I did so, two racers had passed us and were now beginning their fourth lap. As a third nearly knocked me off my feet, Minh T. looked me in the eye.

“You’re gonna throw me in Penny’s car.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.” She pointed to Penelope’s position, about 24 seconds away and still under siege. “You try to jump in again, and she’ll avoid you. Yell at her later, but now I’m taking control.”

“And if I miss?”

She groaned. “Don’t think about missing. You have any other suggestion?”

This was the moment when I would’ve scoffed at how everyone relied on me to make plans. But now I had nothing, and Minh T. would be the hero of the day. Well, at least she gave me a little break, but her plan was deadlier than some of mine. What were the chances I’d be able to throw her in that car without something getting in the way?

No time to wonder. They were coming hot. The fourth-place racer along with the fifth-place racer. Leo.

“If this is what the little idiot wants!” I grabbed Minh T. and prepared to jump into the air again. She waved at Penelope, and the girl’s jaw dropped. Whatever the reason, she kept going straight like last time. But she was even faster, since before the line was a huge downward slope. I flexed my small muscles. “Go!”

As soon as Minh T. left my grasp, I became weightless. A car hit my falling body and sent me rolling to the side of the track. Somehow my breasts felt even flatter and my body as sore as when I’d been shot. Panting, I lifted my shirt to find only a faint mark on my left breast. And when I stood to check on the racers, I could finally smile again.

Keeping to the edge of the track, I sprinted as fast as I could to keep up with the action.

Minh T. had swapped seats with Penelope, and she now gripped the steering wheel. She wasn’t flooring the gas. No, she crushed the pedal so hard it was on the verge of breaking.

The Scapelli screamed as he saw her pass him with a massive exhaust cloud.

“Ooh!” I pulled out my phone. Since we never ended the call, I’d be able to listen in.

“She just doesn’t listen sometimes.” That was definitely Penelope’s whiny voice. Though she also spoke quicker than usual and noticeably stepped over some of her own words.

“Take it from someone who’s known her since the beginning. If Toadette’s willing to jump in a moving car for you, she doesn’t hate you.”

Leo held up three bananas, hurling them in front of the girls.

“It takes a lot to make her hate someone, like wanting to hurt one of her friends!” Minh T. slammed on the brakes, then, to my shock, angled the car to zigzag through the three peels. At the same time, Leo ran into his own item, losing control.

No matter how simple or trashy Minh T. presented herself, she’d always reveal the unexpected once you put her in a situation.

Running to follow the racers proved to be excellent for me. A nice workout so that when we finally had to skip from this place, I’d be more than ready.

With her speed and skill, Minh T. guided her and Penelope into first place for the final lap. They made it through the first three turns without a problem and were now racing uphill. But Leo eventually caught up to the girls, approaching the side of the car. Even with Minh T.’s advanced movers, he didn’t seem to be intimidated anymore.

“You’re good, mushroom. In fact, I’ve never seen a chick race so professionally.”

“Must only race against guys to feel good about yourself. So sad, so sad…”

“You’re confident too. But while you’re great on the road, I’ve got the upper hand!” He dug under the set and pulled out a… No! It couldn’t be! “A racer is nothing without his items!”

The dreaded Spiny Shell. Any Koopa with this on its back wasn’t too threatening on its own, but in this context, the Spiny Shell was hell in a shell. The blue demon was nothing like its cousins. Coughing up panic, Minh T. began to move her car as little as possible. Keeping it straight would maintain its speed, but at the same time, it only made her an easier target.

As soon as Leo chucked it, she and Penelope braced for impact.

But the shell spun past them. Huh? Penelope let out a sigh of relief, but fear still lingered in Minh T.’s voice.

“No, no, no, it’s gonna loop the entire track and hit us!”

“What!?” The little girl punched the car’s dashboard. “So we don’t even have a chance of winning!?”

“Hate to be a party pooper, but winning is our last priority right now!” Minh T.’s words got Penelope to shut up quickly. “What do I do? Think, think, think.”

“Minh T.! Minh T.!” I waited until she finally lifted the phone to her head. “I have an idea, but you’re not gonna like it.”

Based on my limited game experience, I gave Minh T. the rundown of what I needed her to do. All the while, my body followed the Spiny Shell as it tore through other racers’ cars. Some of their tyres were flattened. Some of them lost control altogether. And… Ouch! One poor Lakitu in the back got had a nice slash on his arm. But if Minh T. and Penelope listened to me, there was a chance.

Penelope gawked at my idea. “I don’t wanna lose, though.”

“God, you cry like a baby,” I scoffed. “I’m trying to stop that shell from maiming you. You wanna be a big girl, then you can innovate!”

“I will!”

As they went through the longest section—one with mechanical Piranha Plants coming out of horizontal tubes, all while firebars rotated in the middle—Leo stayed hot on their trail. But he was far enough back that the Spiny Shell could work its magic when it arrived. And it wasn’t too far behind, picking up speed as the girls went along a windy curve.

“Get ready,” I warned, standing on the tips of my heels.

“Miss Minh T., do what Miss Toadette said, but make sure you flip in reverse,” Penelope pleaded.

“What!? But then we’ll—”

“Will somebody just listen to me for once!?”

“This is what you get!” Leo screamed, the Spiny Shell only seconds behind him.

Time for the grand execution!

Minh T.’s foot coated the brake pedal in its filth, pressing so deeply that her leg muscles strained. Jerking the wheel, she positioned the car in reverse a few feet from the boost panel ramp. She nearly ripped her arm out the socket switching the gear into reverse, now feeling the car slowly accelerate backwards. In that split second, Leo overtook the girls and flew into the air.

His body language as the Spiny Shell flew past them was that of a man who knew he was utterly screwed. A blue explosion, contained to that one car, spun him out and slammed him to the lower level. All that was heard was a shrill scream under a flipped car.

When the shadow of the explosion was still in the air, the rear wheels of our team’s Wild Wing hit the boost panel. Minh T. slammed her foot on the accelerator, and they were flying over the ramp. I could taste the victory as the wheels hit the other side, followed by the crowd’s uproar. Applause came from every direction in the stadium as electronic celebratory music played.

Penelope immediately went to unbuckle her seat. “We actually won. Yes!”

“I swear I broke my foot,” Minh T. groaned, waving as I came into view. Once I was there, she embraced me in a tight squeeze. “You’re so smart, Toadette.”

“You know, if you’d just slowed down like I said, someone else might’ve still passed you. Your spinning technique just saved you first place.”

I looked at Penelope. Her body was stiff around me again, though I could see some clear embarrassment in her eyes under that red helmet. She continued to look at my feet, not my face. Like the new parent I was, I had a firm grip on her arm.

“The next time you think I’m trying to screw you over, remember the day I helped you win a race.”

She mumbled the words “thank you”, still staring at my long toes. Oh well, with tons of electricity in her body, the poor kid must’ve been deathly tired. Too bad we weren’t finished with the physical activity yet. We needed to get out of here before Leo followed us elsewhere in the city.

The pained Scapelli was trapped under the car long enough for us to have Penelope and Minh T. take a picture—we made sure it was only in our possession and not the company’s—and choose a prize. Minh T. didn’t ask for anything, but Penelope walked away with something that had us scratching our heads.

“You’re seriously gonna wear that helmet around here?” I asked.

She nodded. “I feel like a bad girl with it on.”

“Okay, you watch too much TV. Let’s hope you stay a good girl,” Minh T. said, leading us out of Circuit Rank. Even though we were back in Mushroom City, all of us were too dirty. Not only did we Toads still have smelly mud between our toes, but the kid took a decent beating in the race. She was lucky she hadn’t suffered any serious injuries, just a noticeable scrape on her knee.

I looked up at the sky, still clear. “Still got some daylight, but it’s time we go to the apartment. Unless the kid’s mom wants to make our day harder.”

“Apartment?” Penelope cocked her head.

“You’re gonna meet Toadette’s family,” Minh T. said, feigning excitement. “Let the drama commence.”

“Yeah, and fast. Come on, the longer we stand out here, the sooner that prick’s gonna find us.”

“Wait, Miss Toadette.”

Penelope stopped in front of me. The royal got down on her knees and bowed her head. “I’m sorry for treating you like a worthless peasant.” She then proceeded to kiss the tops of my feet. She kissed my right foot twice, spat out some mud, then repeated the action for the left foot. When she stood, she wrapped herself around me. “Please forgive me.”

“I thought Minh T. made it clear it takes a lot to make me hate someone.” I pulled her to my side, beginning to follow Minh T. “I’ll be amazed if I end up loathing you, kid.”

***

“Aw, I thought your brother would be my age. Lame.”

Penelope’s miffed face at learning that DT was 13 made me and Minh T. crack up on the subway ride to my apartment. We tried explaining that she probably wouldn’t want him anyway, especially since humans and Toads rarely mix. But she really acted like she was searching for a boyfriend, this 10-year-old.

“You two have one thing in common,” I said. “You both make my life hectic in the present.”

“So he wasn’t like that in the past?”

“He definitely wasn’t making deals with a crime family. I don’t remember him being able to hurt anyone without even throwing up. And even though he was hyper, he knew how to sit in one place for a long time. Yeah, the boy from my past is different from this teen in the present.”

For most of the ride, she continued to ask about my family situation. I gave her the answers she was likely to find out anyway but skipped a lot of the nitty-gritty stuff. She was a child, not my psychiatrist.

“So they know you’re their Toadette, right? Not a random lady.”

“My mom shouldn’t know. DT, I told him during our last Scapelli showdown. He got knocked out when he used the Super Star right after that, so it’s a coin flip if he remembers.”

Minh T. played with her fingers. “And if he does, things are about to get really interesting.”

Despite staying awake so long, Penelope slipped in and out of consciousness the more questions she asked. It got to the point where I had to tell her she could relax before she finally just fell asleep.

“And now you can wake up.” It took a lot of shaking to finally get her off the train when we got to our stop. But I promised her she could rest as soon as she took a shower. Because during the entire ride, many were looking at us like we were hobos. We stank, we were filthy, and two of us weren’t even from this place.

When we reached the apartment and went up to our floor, I took a deep breath. Anything could happen once I rang that doorbell. As shaky as my finger was, it was pushing the button in. The buzzing sound came, then the sound of footsteps on the tile. I forced a smile on my face as the door opened.

“Oh!” Just as quickly, I stepped back. Seeing my mother with her mess of red hair was the last thing I expected. “Um… Hello, ma’am. We need to shower, please.”

She stared at me for a few seconds before looking at Minh T.

“Did you two just come out a barn?”

“Farms are ten times safer than what we just went through, Miss T. Ana, believe me.”

Penelope tilted her head, observing the apartment as she marched past my mother. “People actually live in places this small?”

“Shoes off.”

“Huh?” She looked back.

“Shoes off, shoes off, shoes off!” That final shriek from my mom sent the kid flying back. Penelope chucked her dirty sneakers towards the door, one hand clutching her chest. With everything right in her world now, my mom focused again on us Toads. Though this time, Minh T. was at the door while I was flat against a neighbour’s door. The confusion just ramped up for my mom. “What’s with the human?”

Minh T. glanced at me.

Avoiding eye contact, I said, “Part of my job description. A girl who likes to impersonate Her Highness and actually lives in the castle.”

“That’s right.” Minh T. pulled me inside, slipping off her flip-flops. “Now, first thing’s first, I’m gonna make sure Penny gets cleaned so that we can shower quick. We’re spending the night here, Miss T. Ana!”

“I feel like I’m in a jail cell,” the kid said, spinning around until Minh T. walked her to the bathroom.

Now it was just me, my dirty body and my mother.

When I woke up here unconscious the first time, I somehow played it off smoothly. But now, thinking straight hurt my brain considering my damn brother. If he really retained that memory from before, how was I gonna explain myself to him without him breaking down? Once this day ended, we’d only have four more days in Mushroom City, so I was stuck with a 96-hour time limit. Such a big number didn’t mean anything when my schedule was as hectic as an out-of-control train.

But there were two bandages to rip off. After all, I’d run away from two family members.

My entire walk to the living room was full of fidgeting and sweating so intense it’d make a waterfall blush. Though it wouldn’t blush as hard as I was right now, not just on the face but from head to toe.

Given my filthy state, I couldn’t even sit to get myself comfortable.

I gulped. My mouth slightly open, I turned to face the one who drove me to leave in the first place.

“Gah!”

She was right behind me. Now I was shaking, and my heart was thumping its way out my chest.

No matter how impossible it was to see her eyes, the years I’d spent analysing her face made me perfectly fluent in her language. Her jaw was relaxed. Her lips were as still as they could be. Nothing about her face hinted that her eyes were even crinkled. She was gonna say something more than a little important.

I wanted to beat her to the punch. “You need to—”

“I’m gonna need your help tonight.”

“My help?”

“If you’re the type of person I think you are, then you’re the one I want doing this.” She slowly rubbed her hand along my cap, smiling. “I’ll discuss it with you around seven, is that good?”

“I don’t know.” Of course, I knew. Peach wasn’t gonna give me a task that late. My nights were usually my reprieve. “We’ll see.”

“Ah, I know you’re gonna say yes, so I’m not worried.” She stepped into the hallway, leaving me by myself and utterly confused.

How stupid was I? I could’ve just interrupted her and told her who I was on the spot. Oh well. Even if I couldn’t shower right now, I could at least wash part of myself off in the kitchen sink. Just the face and braids. I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the water cleanse my pores of this filth. After a minute, I was ready to quit when my eye caught something rustling on the counter.

A photo? No, a bunch of them. Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Some were squares, some were rectangles, but all of them had a big white outline. They had a second thing in common: a reoccurring figure. She was a girl who varied from being a baby to being old enough to have her first period. There were no glasses to obstruct her face, nor any braids to occasionally smack herself in the cap with. Just predominantly straight red hair, drooping behind her back. And in each picture, an innocent smile.

I reordered the pictures from youngest age to oldest, with the final being taken when I was 12 or 13. It had me at a beach, grinning, with a bandage on my right leg.

At the same time I chuckled, I shed a tear. Multiple, in fact. But when the realisation hit me, I found myself unable to blink, just wiping them away.

No matter our relationship, pulling out several photos of me just to confirm who I was showed more effort than I’d expected from her. But at the same time, did this mean DT never told her? Or did he just not remember what I said?