Frank and Anne have finally come to terms with their broken friendship and have decided to make the effort to mend their broken friendship. Frank made it clear that they were going to start over from the beginning, as Anne would have to earn his trust back. A condition that she expected. The next day, the winds in Wartwood were starting to pick up. So the two humans decided to stay inside and hang out with Sprig.
After Anne had laid out the stuff she had in her backpack, Sprig started looking over it all. "Wow, Anne, look at all your cool stuff!" Sprig said, before picking up a toenail clipper that Anne had. "What's this? Ah, I get it. Torture device."
"That's a toenail clipper," said Anne.
"Oh, okay, okay, sure. Oh! How about this?" He then grabbed Anne's tire pump that she used for her bike. "What does this do?" Instead of waiting for an answer, the little frog put the hose into his mouth. He then started pumping air into his mouth, causing it to inflate until his cheeks were painfully big. "It's painful."
Frank chuckled as he reached out and pulled the hose out of Sprig's mouth, making the little frog fly around the room like a balloon that had all the air in its release. When he landed, Sprig sprung back up with one of the pens Frank had in his pockets.
"Oh, and this." Sprig then started clicking the pen over and over again repeatedly. "Oh, I love this," he said, stopping his clicking before continuing. "This is amazing."
"That's a pen," Frank said, grabbing the pen from Sprig. Clicking it once to have the point out, he grabbed Anne's notebook and wrote something down on it. When he was done, he showed Sprig that he had written down 'It's used for writing' on it. "You can keep it if you want."
Sprig took the pen, and then went back to clicking it.
Anne and Frank continued to watch him. "I think we created a monster," said the Taiwanese girl.
Their moment was cut short when they heard a bell clanging. "Kids! Chow time!" Called from upstairs.
"Time to eat! Time to eat! Time to eat!" The human teenagers and the two Planter kids chanted together as Hop Pop spooked out large spoonfuls of their food.
"Hold on, you kids. Hold on." Hop Pop said. Frank and Anne waited in their seats before the old frog slides them a bowl of food.
However, much to their disgust, it wasn't what they were hoping it to be. It was a weird soup of a green liquid that had bugs in it like a cricket's leg, a spider that crawled right on out of the bowl, a caterpillar, and other bugs.
"Ugh! Uh, you know what? I think I'm gonna pass," Anne said, pushing her bowl away.
"Yeah..." Frank pushed his bowl away before turning to Anne. "Wanna try and catch some fish?"
Hop Pop looked rather annoyed with them and asked sarcastically, "Why? Is my food not good enough for your royal highnesses?"
Frank and Anne narrowed their eyes at him. "Well, if we're royalty, then your cooking is royally bad," said the girl. Sprig and Polly looked at the two humans, with the brother staring in shock as he dropped his spoon. Then the two young frogs started cheering at that comeback.
"Oh, yeah? Well, you... I..." Hope Pop stuttered, not able to think of a good comeback.
"What's the matter, Hop Pop? Frog in your throat?" Frank asked with a smirk. "Is that why you're croaking on your comeback?"
"Ohhh!" Polly cheered.
"Oh, they both got you!" Sprig exclaimed. Anne and Frank then high-fived.
"Oh, damn it!" Hop Pop furiously threw down his spoon and stood up from his chair. "You know what? I'm gonna take a nap," he said in defeat, before storming off to his room. Grumbling along the way. "I don't believe this. I feed you, I house you, and this is how you repay me? If you don't shape up soon, you two, I'm throwin' you out!" He then slammed the door hard, rattling some of the pictures on the wall, and knocking over a flower.
"I dunno, Anne. Maybe we were too harsh on him," Frank said.
"What? Please. Hop Pop's just being a grouch." Anne waved him off, before grabbing the hair on the side of her head and began mocking the old frog's voice. "I'm Hop Pop, and I cook bad and have a temper problem!"
Polly and Sprig started laughing together. "That's so Hop Pop!"
Frank rolled his eyes with a smirk. He had to admit, Hop Pop wasn't easy to get along with, and while he always tried to respect his elders, he wanted in on the action too. He got up, grabbed a short cane from the holder, and pretended to be an elderly man. "Eat your aphids, don't play with them. Elbows off the table!"
His joking got Anne, Sprig, and Poll laughing out loud hysterically. It was all in good humor, so the frogs didn't mind.
"Sometimes I wonder why I even bother putting up with you at all!" Anne said, joining Frank as the two friends smiled and laughed.
"Yeah! If you don't shape up soon, you two, I'm throwin' you out!" Frank said, swinging the cane down.
Only for the top end to hit the edge of the table and break off with a loud snap.
Sprig and Polly gasped in horror.
"Whoa! Dude, what did you do?" Anne asked worriedly as Frank froze up for a moment with a shock expression when the cane snapped.
Frank picked up the other end and looked at the two halves with wide eyes. "Oh man, did not mean for that to happen. But luckily..." Frank looked up and he stopped talking when he saw that both Sprig and Polly were looking at the cane in total horror. "You guys okay? You look like you've seen a ghost," he said with a smile. But then he looked scared. "Wait, there's not a ghost behind me, is there?"
He looked behind himself, and saw no ghost. "Phew!" He said, turning back around and wiping his brow. "No ghost."
"What's the big deal? It's just one cane," Anne added, gesturing to the cane in Frank's hands.
"That wasn't just any cane," Sprig said as he and Polly approached them. He then pointed to three pictures on the wall. The first was of Hop Pop with the cane. "It was Hop Pop's special cane, passed down from his father, Hop Poppity Pop..." Sprig pointed to the next picture of the elder frog's father, before pointing to the next picture of an even older looking frog. "...all the way from his father, Hop-and-Lock-Drop Soppity Pop."
"That is a lot of Hops and Pops," Anne said.
"Anne, this really bad," Frank said, grabbing the girl by the shoulders and shaking her a bit with a panicked expression. "If he finds out, he's gonna blame and kick the both of us out of the house! We'll be forced to go back to living in a cave!"
"What!?" Anne exclaimed, grabbing her head and shaking it as she started to have a freakout. "No! No, anything but that!"
"It couldn't have been that bad," Polly said with a roll of her eyes.
Frank and Anne froze up for a moment as they both remembered their time in the caves they lived in during their travels. The darkest of the inside that masked the critters and creepy crawlies with the exception of their glowing eyes. They all tried to eat and bite at them, and Frank would stay up all night trying to kill them with his knife. All while the rain outside would wake them up with every booming thunder, and water coming in to slash on their faces.
Anne shuttered when she thought about it. "The nights were the hardest."
"Don't worry, guys. We'll do whatever it takes to help you," Sprig said with a smile.
"Eh, count me out," said Polly.
"Polly!"
Polly threw her flippers up. "What? I hardly know them."
"Okay, then. How about this: If you help us get the cane fixed before Hop Pop finds out, then you can have this!" Frank said, pulling out a candy bar that he had stashed away in his backpack.
When she saw the candy bar, she gasped with excitement. "Candy from another world?"
"That's right." Frank nodded with a smirk.
"Deal!"
"Glad to hear it," Anne said, pumping her fist. "Now, let's try to save our skin.
The first thing they tried was to glue the two pieces back together. Luckily for them, the food that Hop Pop served them was just as sticky as glue. So, Sprig placed some of the food onto the bottom piece of the cane. Frank, crouching down and holding the bottom piece, held it in place as Anne pushed the top piece down with her body weight. Polly then tied the two ends together with her bow.
After holding the two ends together for about thirty seconds, Anne slowly lets go of the cane as Frank held it. Seeing that it worked, the kids all cheered. "Yeah!"
And then it broke again. The top part falling off onto the ground.
"Okay, this isn't working," Frank said, picking up the other piece. "Anyone got any ideas?"
"Why not have someone else fix it? Someone good with... wood?" Anne asked.
"You mean like a woodsmith?"
"Yeah, like that!"
Sprig suddenly hopped up on Anne. "Guys, you're geniuses! We'll just take it to Leopold Loggle, the woodsmith. He loves wood. Almost a little too much."
The four kids journeyed into town and arrived at the woodshop of Leopold Loggle with the broken cane. Inside the shop that had made expertly crafted items and prosthetics, they waited in front of the shop's counter as Loggle examined the cane.
Loggle was a light blue axolotl with dark-blue gills. He had small white tufts of hair on the side of his head and a large white mustache. He had a light green tongue. His ears were covered by the pair of goggles that he wore around his head. The left lens was clear while the right lens was green with three small settings on it, similar to a microscope. He wore a beige shirt, a brown work apron, and grey boots. To top it off, he wore a red neck scarf over his neck.
"Uh-huh. Oh, oh, yes. Well, aren't you fascinating? Yes, you are." He muttered to himself creepily.
"When you told me he liked wood, Sprig, I thought you were exaggerating, but this...this is weird," Frank said, a little uneased by the axolotl's behavior.
"Eh? What?" Loggle looked up, a little startled.
"So, can you fix it?" Anne asked the woodsmith.
"As a matter of fact, I can..." Loggle said, dragging out his sentence. Frank and Anne opened their mouths with wide grins. "...not," the woodsmith said, placing to two halves on the table.
Frank and Anne's smiles fell down to looks of confusion. "Huh. That was unexpected," Sprig said what they were all thinking.
"Then what about a new one? Can you make it?" Frank asked hopefully.
"Absolutely..." Frank and Anne again looked excited. "...no way," Loggle said with a swip of his hand.
Now the two friends were starting to look annoyed with their frog friends. "Do you have one we could buy?" Polly then asked, sitting on Sprig's head.
"Of course I do..." The teenagers and frog kids looked excited. "...n't," he said. "I don't."
"Can you stop doing that?! It's annoying!" Frank exclaimed, frustrated.
"Sorry. Old smithing accident," Loggle said, before looking down with a dark expression on his face. "You don't want to know."
Anne held up a finger and started. "Uh, okay, so-"
Loggle suddenly turned around and slammed his hands on a work table behind him. Tripped on an anvil. Landed neck-first on a metal pipe. Pierced my voice box clean through!" He exclaimed, turning around and lowering his scarf to show a hole in his neck. Looking like something that someone who had smoked for a long time would have.
"Blegh!/Dude, come on!/I did not need to see that!" Frank, Anne, and Polly yelled in disgust.
"Cool," Sprig said, not grossed out like the others.
"Switched over to wood after that," Loggle said, covering the hole again. He then moved the goggles up his head, revealing his eyes to be so small, that they looked like they were closed. "Anyhow, I'm afraid I can't do much for you."
"When, can't we just make one that's like it?" Frank asked, shrugging his shoulders.
"Not with this kind of wood," Loggle said, walking over to a bookshelf and grabbing a dark-colored book from it. "That cane was made with wood from the incredibly rare, extremely dangerous..." He slammed the book down, which was ironically titled 'Incredibly Rare, Extremely Dangerous Trees'. He opened the book to a wicked and evil-looking tree. "...Doom Tree!"
All four kids gasped in terror, before Frank sighed. "Of course it's evil," he murmured.
Loggle opened his white eyes with blue pupils and began his warning speech to Frank and Anne. "Few have made it to the Doom Tree alive, fewer yet returned. It holds many secrets that mortals dare not-"
"Dude, it's a tree. Just tell us where it is," Anne demanded.
"Yeah, Loggle, cut the chitchat!" Sprig added.
"You're bald!" Polly insulted.
"Okay, okay." Loggle relented by flipping the pages to a map that'll lead the kids to the destination of the tree. "I got a map to the Doom Tree right here, but it'll cost ya."
"Click," Frank said, after pulling out his phone and taking a picture of the map. He then showed the picture he took to the axolotl on his phone.
"Or you could do that, for free."
"Alright, let's go! Hop Pop could wake up at any second, so we have to hurry!" Frank said to the others with a look of determination.
"Right!" Anne, Sprig, and Polly said.
"To the Doom Tree, everyone," Anne yelled as they turned and rushed out the door of the shop. Polly and Sprig cheered as they followed after the humans. However, Sprig came back after seeing a wooden statue of Loggle.
"Whoa, Loggle. We gotta talk about this, man. We're comin' back. We're gonna talk about this. All right, good-bye," he said, before turning around and followed after his friends and sister.
Loggle rushed over to the open door and called out to the kids. "Be careful, you kids. It's cursed, I tell ya. Cursed!"
And so the four kids traveled together to find the Doom Tree. Going past Death Ridge and the Mushroom Forest, before stopping at Swamp Lake. While Frank and Anne went around it, Sprig and Polly went through it.
About an hour into their journey, Frank was walking in front of the group. With his combat knife, he hacked and cut down plants and vines that were in his way. But when he saw something up ahead, he stopped and held his other hand back, signaling the other to stop. "Hold up," said Frank, before holding up his phone and looked at the picture of the Doom Tree. "We're here."
Frank lowered his phone and stared at the Doom Tree directly in front of them. Looking even more horrible than it did in the picture. Nothing more than a crooked, old, mossy tree, with two small branches at its middle.
"Now, that is an ugly tree," Anne commented.
"Just one of Mother Nature's horrible mistakes," Sprig added.
"Like the platypus," Frank said jokingly, but it really didn't do much in lightening the mood. There was still a strange and foreboding aura that seemed to eminent from the tree. It towered over them as they approached it. Pasting by many bones of frogs that had died.
"Look," Anne said, grabbing Frank's shoulder. She pointed at a branch high above the ground. "That branch is perfect."
The two friends nodded their heads and started climbing up the tree while Sprig and Polly stayed on the ground. Thanks to their athleticism and experience in the wild, the two were able to reach the branch with no problems.
Frank pulled out his combat knife and was about to start sawing away, when he looked closely at the tree. "Maybe this wouldn't be so hard," he said tapping the tree with his knife. "It's mostly dead, so all we got to do is pull it right out."
"Alright, but be careful. The tree is cursed." Anne said sarcastically, making Frank and her laugh. "Okay, seriously though, on three. One, two..."
With a hard pull, the teenagers were able to break off the branch. But right after they broke it off, there was a terrifying shrieking sound that came from the tree
"Uh, did you just heard the tree just scream?" Anne asked Frank.
"Really wish I hadn't," he said. The Doom Tree roared angrily again, but this time started shaking violently. Frank and Anne could do nothing but hold on, and even they didn't last long. The humans were sent falling down to the ground as the branches started bending and moving.
Frank and Anne landed hard on the ground next to Sprig and Polly. The four kids all looked in horror as the tree started transforming. Sprouting a long, thin insect leg that stepped in front of them.
When the tree was finished, the humans and frogs found they weren't facing a cursed tree, but a giant stick-bug that had two long, sharp claws, and two pairs of rear legs. Its head was large, with two, bulbous pink eyes on either side and a mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth and two mandibles. There were also two twigs protruding from the top of it's head, resembling antennae.
The stick-bug let out a roar, and then another one at Frank, Anne, Sprig, and Polly. Spraying down on them a brown liquid. Sprig licked the liquid on his lips and smiled. "Oh, hey, it's maple.
"RUN!" Frank and Anne screamed.
They all screamed while running away from the giant stick-bug that was chasing after them. Zigzagging through the trees to try and get it off their trail, but the bug would just crash right through any tree that was in its way from its next mean.
"That thing is not a tree. It's some kind of grody bug!" Anne exclaimed in fear as Polly rode on her head.
"A bug that wants to kill us!" Sprig screamed, hopping alongside them
"Shut up you morons!" Frank screamed as the stick-bug roared. "Run!"
The insect reacted out with its claws to grab at them. Frank looked back and saw it coming at them. So, he got out of the way of it, then stabbed the claw with his knife. The stick-bug roared in pain as blood spewed out of its stab wound. Giving the kids enough time to run further ahead of the monster.
Frank led them over to a large log and they hid behind it. The stick-bug caught up to them, but when it couldn't see where the kids had gone off too, it started looking around.
From a tree, a small little spider that was the size of a normal small spider on earth came down. Landing on Anne's face. She looked at it with trembling lips before she quickly tosses it off her. It landed onto Frank's shoulder. Frank looks at it anxiously, before the spider bites him. While still hiding, Frank mouthed a scream and threw his arms in the air, then lowering himself on his arms and knees and tears roll out of his eyes. While still screaming silently.
But Anne would have karma coming for her in the form of bugs crawling out of the log and onto her face. So, She screamed. Giving away their position.
"How does it feel, Anne?!" Frank yelled sarcastically as they started running again.
"Oh, shut up, Frank!" She shouted. The stick-bug chasing after them.
Meanwhile, back at Loggle's shop, the sun was setting over the horizon and it was time to close up shop for today. Outside in front of the door, he turned the open sign to close, sighing sadly. As he locked the door, he said to himself, "Well, Loggle, another day, another step closer to bankrupt- Eh?"
He turned around just in time to see Frank, Anne, Sprig, and Polly racing toward him. The kids tackled into him, and opening the door. They all fell inside, before Frank kicked the door shut. Outside, the stick-bug ran up to the shop.
The kids and Loggle heard the sound of the monster roaring from outside as they pressed their backs against the door. "What the- What's going on?" He asked the humans.
"Don't ask questions!" Anne replied. Right before one of the bug's claws smashed through the door, making everyone scream in terror.
Then it got worse when it tried to pull its claw out, only to take the entire front wall out of the store. Everyone screamed again and ran towards the back of the room as the monster stepped into the shop. Loggle dive into an empty chest and closed it, while Frank and Anne stood in front of a shelf.
"What's it gonna take to get rid of this thing?!" Frank exclaimed, looking around for some kind of weapon to fight back. If only he had brought his scythe.
That's when Anne noticed the shelf of wood items on it. She grabbed a simple-looking birdhouse and threw it at the stick-bug. Hitting it in the face. Following her example, Frank grabbed a box and threw it. Then Anne threw a wooden toolbox.
Frank reached down a grabbed a very nice and greatly detailed cuckoo clock. "Oh, this is nice," he said with an impressed smile, before tossing it. The clock smashed against the head of the stick-bug. Shattering it to pieces.
"That took 20 years to carve," Loggle said, while peaking out of the chest.
The stick-bug shrieked as it came closer to Anne and Frank, until a wooden leg took a step towards it. Gaining the attention of the bug. It turned around and saw it was Polly, who had grabbed prosthetic arms and legs "Yah! Yah yah yah yah yah!" She waddled her way over to the monster bug and started hitting with kicks and slaps. "And that! And that! Hi-yah!"
She sent a kick at it, but the leg came flying off her little body. Anne caught the leg while she, Frank, and Sprig were hiding behind the chest Loggle was hiding in. "Charge!" She yelled, jumping from behind the chest and rushed the stick-bug.
"Charge!" Frank yelled with Anne, running with his knife.
Sprig grabbed some sandpaper from the wall and followed after his human friends. "Charge!"
Frank jumped onto the back of the stick-bug and started stabbing it with his knife. Anne joined Polly on the ground, and hit the face of the insect with the wooden leg. Sprig then hopped onto the face of the squealing creature and started rubbing the sandpaper against the tough exoskeleton of the bug.
"I'm gonna sand your face!" He yelled. However, this did nothing but anger the stick-bug even more. With one claw, it swatted Polly away, before kicking Anne away with a leg. Then the bug started shaking its body and head around violently. Trying to shake off Frank and Sprig.
Sprig got thrown off, but was able to save himself by shooting his tongue out and grabbing the ceiling. Pulling himself up. Frank remained on the stick-bug. Holding on with all his might to not get thrown off. But when he cracked open one of his closed eyes, he opened them both completely when he saw something. It was where they had pulled the branch from. It was exposing some soft skin underneath. He climbed up to the hole, and jabbed the blade of the knife hard into it. Causing Maple to shoot out of it like blood.
The stick-bug shrieked in agonizing pain as it reared its head up. Maple flying out of its mouth. It stumbled around the shop. Knocking into walls and breaking many wooden items and prosthetics in the process. It would all come to an end when Frank twisted the knife.
The Doom Tree's arms went limp before it fell over on its front. Having pulled his knife out of the dead monster, Frank stood over the monster while panting heavily while covered in maple. Still popping with adrenaline, he raised his arms and yelled, "I AM FRANK RAMIREZ: GIANT MONSTER SLAYER!"
And just for the hell of it, he yelled like Tarzan.
Frank jumped down and walked over to Anne and the Planter kids. "Up top!" She said with a smile, and Frank high-fived her. But just as they were about to pull their hands away, they followed out they couldn't. Anne's smile dropped as the two of them tried to pull their hands away. "Well, this is awkward."
"Who cares! We did it!" Sprig yelled with a jump of joy.
"That was awesome, you guys!" Polly exclaimed, jumping and flipping happily.
"Alright, we still have the cane?" Frank asked after managing to pull his free of Anne's. After whipping the maple off her hand, she grabbed the cane from her skirt. "Alright, let's get it back to Hop Pop."
Suddenly the chest popped open and Loggle popped out of it. Snacking the cane away from Anne. "Give me that!"
"Hey!" Frank and Anne yelled.
"What gives, Loggle?" Polly asked, also mad.
"I'll tell you what gives. This doesn't even begin to cover the damages you've caused to my shop," Loggle said, gesturing to his shop. Frank and Anne looked and were shocked to see all of the damages that were down to the interior. Shelves smashed to pieces. All the wooden goods that Loggle was selling were destroyed. Windows were broken. And many other damages to the interior. "You're gonna have to give me something else. Come on. Pony up."
"But we don't have anything else," Frank said.
"Actually, will this work?" Sprig asked, reluctantly handing over his pen.
Loggle grabbed it and looked it over with his goggles. "What? What is this, uh..." Sprig reached and grabbed it from him, before clicking the pen repeated. "Oh," said Loggle, taking the pen back and began clicking it repeatedly. "Oh! ... ... ... I like this... ... ... You can go."
The kids sighed in defeat and walked out of the missing front wall. The sun was about to set, and Hop Pop was likely already awake right now and was likely furious that his cane is missing, and that they didn't say in the house like they were told to do. So, there was nothing more to than to go home and face the music.
"Probably a bad time to bring this up, but I still get the candy, right?" Polly asked.
When they walked into the Plantar house, the red crescent moon was already in the sky. With some bruises from the fight and Frank still having some maple on his body, they opened the door and walked inside, just as the door to Hop Pop's room opened.
Hopediah yawned happily and stretched his arms. His eyes closed. "Whoa, boy. I needed that. Hope nothing happened while I was asleep to make me mad again," he said and walked out of the doorway into the living room. His happy mood instantly soured when he opened his eyes and frowned when seeing the state the kids were in. "Oh, no. What did you do?"
"What's up with canes? Who even needs them these days, am I right?" Sprig asked, in a poor attempt to lighten the mood. Polly smacked him on the arm. "Ow."
Frank sighed and walked up to Hop Pop. "I'm really sorry, Hop Pop. I was goofing around with Anne, and I broke your favorite cane," he said, pulling the broken pieces from his jacket and handed them to the old frog.
Hop Pop took the pieces and looked at them in horror. "You WHAT?"
"It was an accident, but I know what I have to do now. I'll pack my things and go, but just let Anne stay. It was my fault, and she shouldn't have to pay for my mistakes," he said sadly, shocking Anne.
"No way, Frank!" Anne said, marching up to him. "If you're going, then I'm going with you too, partner."
Sprig then hopped next to them. "If you're kicking them out, then you're kicking me out too!"
"Sprig, you live here," Frank said.
"Oh, right," Sprig said. He then jumped at the two humans and hugged them. Polly hopped over in her bucket and jumped in. Frank and Anne got down on their knees and held them together as they all teared up. "We'll come visit you, guys. We promise."
"And just when I was starting to like you!" Polly cried, pressing her face into Anne's cheek.
"Don't make this harder than it is," Anne said, trying not to cry. Frank fought back against the tears in his eyes as he held them all close to his body.
As he watched the kids bawling their eyes out, Hop Pop looked thoroughly confused. "What the- What's going on?" He asked, scratching the top of his head.
Frank looked at Hop Pop with his face mixed with sadness and confusion. "You're throwing us out, right?"
"What? I'm not throwing you out over an accident," Hop Pop said. "Why would I throw you out?"
"What? But this morning you said you would," Anne replied, just as confused as Frank.
Hop Pop sighed with an ashamed smile. Now that he understood, he walked up to them. "Frank, Anne, truth be told, I was never gonna throw you out. I was just talking tough so that you'd show me a little bit more respect."
"That's kinda messed up, man," Anne said.
"Yeah. My grandpa was a tough man, but he'd never do that," Frank said with a frown.
"Heh heh heh," the old orange frog chuckled for a moment, before inhaling a breath of air. "Yeah. I probably was a little bit too harsh. I understand that it hasn't been easy for the two of you with your friendship fixing and being in another world. But I only did it because you two remind me of myself when I was your age. Rough around the edges. Now, put that bag down, you two. You're not going anywhere!"
Even with Sprig stuck to his arm by the maple, the Plantar kids shouted cheers of joy. "Thanks, Hop Pop," Frank said with gratefulness. But then something made him a little confused. "Wait, so that's it? You're really not mad about the cane?"
"Oh, no, Frank. I'm furious about the cane," Hop Pop said with a fake smile, before scolding him angrily. "You're on dish duty for a month, Frank!"
"Ugh," Frank groaned, before saluting. "Yes sir!"
"Hehe!" Anne laughed a little at Frank's misfortune, much to Frank's annoyance.
"Find something amusing about that, Anne? Then you get to join him!" Hop Pop exclaimed.
Anne groaned, but smiled and dropped her backpack on the ground. She and Frank looked at one another, knowing that they were still in good hands and that they would have each other's backs.
"Now that that's settled, I wrote a long list of comebacks to get you back for this morning," Hop Pop said, pulling out the list he made and cleared his throat. "'Hey, Anne, is that your hair, or is it a dandelion?' Ha..." There were no cheers from the kids, as they just looked at him. He sniffled and tried to find another comeback. "...Uh- Oh. Are those long, lanky limbs, Frank, or are those, uh, twigs? Ah! Hehe! Eh..." Sprig coughed and Hop Pop sighed in defeat. "The moment has passed, hasn't it?"