Bowser walked smiling into the Koopa Lounge, where all the Koopa Kids were conveniently lounging.  As soon as the tip of his snout showed through the doorway, the conversation was interrupted by a loud shout of, “Huyga!”

Bowser took another step forward and looked around the room, but all the Koopa Kids had conveniently disappeared.  “I know you’re here,” Bowser called.  “I heard you all arguing a minute ago.”

“No one in here but us very not bored Koopalings,” came the reply.

“Oh,” said Bowser.  “It’s okay, I’m not going to come up with some game for you to play.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Seven Koopalings hesitantly came out of their hiding places.

“I just came to tell you that your cousin Susan is coming for a sleepover tonight,” Bowser announced.

Seven Koopalings dived back into their hiding places without hesitation.

Later that afternoon, Susan B. Koopa arrived at the Royal Koopa Palace.  A servant showed her into the dining hall and she was given a seat of honor next to Bowser.

“How’s my beautiful little niece been?” Bowser asked lovingly.

“Very well, thank you, Uncle Bowser,” Susan replied sweetly.  “How have you and your family been?”

Bowser beamed and carried on the conversation with Susan, completely ignoring his own family.  After dinner, he sent Susan and her suitcases to the Koopa Lounge, and finally said something to his kids.

“The sleepover will be in the Koopa Lounge, so you’re not on anyone’s ‘territory’.  I trust you’ll all be very nice to your cousin.  Good night.”  Bowser left.

When they were done eating, the Koopalings rounded up pillows and sleeping bags and headed to the Lounge.  Susan greeted them excitedly.

“Hey guys!  What do you want to do first?”

“I move we observe the television for an elongated period of time,” Ludwig proposed.

Everyone looked at Lemmy, the next smartest person in the room.  He opened his mouth to speak.

“Ludwig says we should sit and watch TV for a while,” Susan talked first.  “But this is a sleepover and watching TV is not what you do at a sleepover.”

Everyone glared at Susan.  “Sleepovers are huge parties!  You’re supposed to stay up all night and talk and play games and eat junk food and have a good time!  Parents don’t really expect you to be quiet and go to sleep at a sleepover, you know,” Susan explained.

Everyone rolled their eyes.  “Okay, now first we’re going to have a prize hunt.  I unraveled yarn to make a trail for everyone,” Susan pointed to a chair.  “One end of each is tied to the back of that chair.  The other end is tied to a bag of goodies.  Everyone’s trail is in their favorite color and everyone has different goodies that they’ll like. Have fun, and I’ll be back in a little while.”

Susan left the Lounge and the Koopalings sat down to watch TV.  Around ten they turned off the TV and went to bed.  At about eleven, Susan came back and woke up her cousins.  “You didn’t find your prizes yet!” she complained.

Iggy thought quickly.  “We wanted to have the fun of suspense!  We’ll find them in the morning.”

“Okay,” Susan went to bed.

Later, one Koopaling quietly slipped out of their sleeping bag and tiptoed from the room.  The Koopaling sneaked upstairs and silently entered each Koopa Kid’s apartment.

In one room, the Koopaling obtained some dirt.  In another, the Koopaling borrowed a pair of shoes.  After dirtying the bottoms of the shoes, the Koopaling set about making tracks on the hallway carpet, but had to stop soon.

“How does Wendy walk in these things?” the Koopaling wondered.  After putting back the shoes, the Koopaling stepped easily down the hallway.  The Koopa worked upstairs until they had one item from each apartment.  The Koopaling deposited their own item in a hallway closet, then went downstairs and followed the yarn trails.  Items were deposited at the end of the blue, gray, red, and black trails.  In the dark, the Koopaling did not notice what the other two colors were, but picked out their own color and did not leave an item there.

In the hallway, the Koopaling thought they heard footsteps coming.  The Koopa ducked behind a plant and held their hair down with one hand so it would not be seen.  A minute later the Koopaling went back into the Lounge and noticed the shine of a bald head in the light from the hallway before closing the door and going back to bed.

In the morning the eight Koopalings woke up.  Susan went behind the couch to put on a fresh dress, but the others realized that they had forgotten to bring down clothes.  They went to their rooms to change.

A few minutes later, seven screams erupted from seven apartments.

“My nicest pot is missing!” shrieked Larry.

“Somebody must have stolen my copy of my most recent speech which took me a whole day to write and it was the only copy and it must have been stolen because it’s not where I left it and I never lose my speeches and especially this one because it was important!” Morton yelled.

“My swimming trophy is gone!” Wendy began to throw a tantrum.

“Where’s my pocket mirror?” shouted Iggy.

“Whoever took my shades is gonna be sorry!” Roy pounded his fists.

“To whoever took my ball: that was not a funny joke,” Lemmy said loudly.

“I believe I shall have to injure whomever is responsible for the thievery of my notebook,” announced Ludwig.

“What’s all the shouting about?” called Susan.

“SUSAN!!!” shouted seven Koopalings.

All seven Koopa Kids charged down the stairs and were about to tackle Susan when Bowser stepped in front of them.  Seven Koopalings screeched to a halt.

“Is there a problem?” Bowser asked icily.

“No,” agreed seven Koopalings.  The Koopa Kids left, and later Susan went home.

That afternoon, a large, menacing Koopa confronted another Koopaling in the hallway.  “I have some pictures of you attempting to steal one of Lemmy’s books.”

“Yeah, so?  You wanna make somethin’ of it?”

“I’m toying with the idea of showing them to Dad....”

“All right, I admit it!  I framed Susan!”