Hi there! I'm HarmonyDove13 and I'm new to this website. I've written lots of fan fiction for Trolls, so I'll be hoping to publish those soon. Please read and review! (I'd be grateful for constructive criticism, but no flames. Thanks!)
Poppy closed her eyes as she approached the flower phone. It daunted her if she even looked at it, and this was something that had to be done. Breakups don't mean the ends of friendship, she told herself over and over again as her hand blindly reached for the phone.
She picked it up and dialed his number. He'd always been able to shut off his emotion, which Poppy had never thought a good skill to have, but now she was downright envious of it. She hoped she didn't break down at the sound of his voice . . . it had only been a month, after all . . . maybe this was too soon . . .
Rustling on the other end.
He'd picked up.
Too late now.
"Hello?" he asked, his voice filling her ears for the first time in a little under a month. She could practically see him underground in his bunker, standing by the phone and wondering why she'd called him. She wondered if he missed her as much as she missed him.
"Oh, um, hi, Branch!" she said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible—trying to be as cheerful as possible. "It's your friend, Poppy! Um, if you couldn't already tell."
She could see that little smirk that grew across his lips at her words—could taste it, too—
"Yeah, I could tell. What are, uh, what are you calling about?"
His smooth tone faltered in the second sentence. He was hoping she hadn't noticed, she knew, or if she had, was hoping she didn't know what it meant.
But she did.
Branch had a way with words, which came in handy when he was writing/reciting poems and honestly, just going through everyday life. When he fumbled for words, it meant something was really bad. He must be anxious about talking to her.
Aww. She missed him, too.
Still, she faked nonchalance, forcing it into her tone too. "I'm hosting a slumber party at my pod tonight! It'll have the whole Snack Pack, and I figured you might want to come, too. We were friends before we dated—why not be friends again?"
Actually, she had a million answers to that. Because I love you and when I see you my legs turn to jello and when I hear your voice my insides melt and when you're IN my POD for a WHOLE SLEEPOVER I'll be FLIPPING OUT and right now I can still taste you and I can still smell you and I hope that you feel the same way about me and I—
"Oh, sure, it's just—hold on a second—" she heard him say on the other end, then there was more rustling and some muffled talking that she couldn't make out. Why did Branch have someone else in his bunker?
Finally, he picked the phone back up. "Sorry about that. Sure we can still be friends, but Wisteria wants to come to the sleepover, too. That's okay with you, right?"
Poppy's heart sank. Oh, she was so stupid! How could she forget? How could she have a whole entire conversation with him and still forget?
He had a new girlfriend now.
A particularly annoying new girlfriend. Her name was Wisteria, and she was the sassiest, most spoiled, whiny Troll Poppy had ever known. Her whole family was like that, actually. They all thought they were great because apparently, they'd been friends with Poppy's mother, the former queen, who apparently let them help her rule (along with her husband, obviously).
They also tried to influence Poppy's rule, which she hated because they had suppressing, boring ideas for laws that would really only gain themselves more power. When she'd had Branch by her side, it had seemed as though he'd hated the family, too, but apparently not. Wisteria was Poppy's least favorite, even before this had happened, because she seemed to think Poppy had stolen her fate—which, in her view, was being queen.
The young queen forced a cheerful smile now, even though no one could see her. "Oh, yeah, that'd be great! The more the merrier, right?"
"Right." For a moment, she could've sworn he sounded strained. "What time do you want us to come over?"
"Um . . . two hours from now."
She heard Branch talking to Wisteria: "She says in two hours."
Then even more faintly, Wisteria's shriek: "Aah! Two hours?! How am I supposed to get ready?"
Branch said to Poppy, "Great. We'll be there."
Poppy didn't feel like talking after Wisteria's comment. "Good. Have fun getting your girlfriend ready! Bye!" She hung up before he could say anything.
As soon as he was no longer on the phone, she heaved a sigh. That had been going so well until Wisteria had been added to the conversation. She couldn't help but hate how Branch referred to himself and Wisteria as "we," like she'd once heard him talk about himself and her.
He would say it casually in Troll Village, arm around her waist or hand in her hand. He would say it in front of their friends, carrying her on his shoulders playfully. He would whisper it with no one else around, arms protectively locked around her, his warm breath on her mouth making her shiver—although she'd always suppress it as best she could because they both had a great deal of pride when it came to one another.
But enough sulking. She had a slumber party to decorate for.
Two hours went by in a flash, but it was a flash filled with streamers, glitter, baking, and throwing a fashion show inside her own closet to decide what to wear. (She settled on a sparkly purple-and-blue dress.)
The first guest arrived, and as Poppy went to get the door, she hoped it wasn't going to be Branch and Wisteria. That would be extremely awkward, the three of them having to stand around until someone else came, nothing to say.
Luckily, it was not.
The first guest(s) there turned out to be almost all of the Snack Pack: DJ Suki, Guy Diamond, Smidge, Biggie, Cooper, and Fuzzbert. That left only Satin, Chenille, and Creek—not to mention Branch and Wisteria.
Poppy helped them all get settled, and then Creek, Satin, and Chenille arrived. The young queen had never been so relieved to see the traitor, even if it meant that the next time the doorbell rang, it would be Branch and Wisteria.
Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened. Poppy plastered a smile onto her face and opened the door. "Oh, Branch, Wisteria! I'm so glad you're here!" she lied. "This will be so much fun!"
Fifteen minutes later, they were all settled in and sitting in a circle on their colorful sleeping bags. "Well, what should we do now? Any slumber party games, anyone?" DJ asked.
"I know one!" Smidge said. She hopped up and ran out of the room, then came back with a smile and a bottle. "Spin the Bottle!"
They all cheered (they were Trolls, after all), but Poppy and Branch just locked eyes, fake-smiling nervously at one another. This could be fun, but it could also lead to torture.
"Um, what are the rules of the game?" Branch asked. "I mean, I-I know the basics, but what about the more detailed stuff?"
Wow. "Um," stuttering, and "stuff" in the same sentence. This was really, really bad.
"I like playing so that if you land on someone you've already kissed, you have to kiss them for longer each time," DJ said. Of course, everyone agreed.
Welp, the rules couldn't get any worse. Now she just had to pray she didn't land on Branch and he didn't land on her.
"But who should go first?" Guy pointed out.
"How about Poppy?" suggested Satin.
"It's her party, after all," added Chenille.
Poppy bit her lip but stretched her mouth into a cheerful smile. "Fun!" she said, mustering every positive thought from within her to try to make it true. "Okay, here goes." She set the bottle on the floor in the middle of their circle, then spun it and watched in anticipation. She would kiss anyone it landed on, anyone except—
"Branch!" announced Guy as the bottle slowed to a stop.
Poppy didn't miss the way Wisteria frowned disapprovingly, as though waiting for someone to notice and stop the two from kissing. But nobody cared enough to read all her facial expressions and try to read her mind.
The pink queen glared at the bottle murderously before shyly crawling over to Branch. "Um, hi," she said, finally looking him in the eye as she placed her hands on his sturdy shoulders.
"Hi," he said back, and they stared at each other for a long moment before both of them leaned forward at the same time and connected their lips.
A bad idea. Spin the Bottle, especially the first time in a round you kiss someone, was supposed to be a quick, tongueless kiss that involved only the touching of the lips—not any other body parts.
This was the opposite of "quick," the opposite of "tongueless," and the opposite of "only lips."
Out of pure habit, Poppy and Branch parted their lips for each other and Branch placed a hand on her back, pulling her into him. Her arms snaked up and around his neck and she pulled herself even closer to make the kiss last as long as possible.
The two began to roll, entwined in each other's limbs, fingers threading up into one another's hair. Their lips never separated (save for the small gasps of air necessary to prevent suffocation) until Poppy, on her back on the floor, Branch lying on top of her, bumped into the bottle in the middle of the floor.
She pulled away enough to exclaim, "Oof!" and when she did, she remembered what was going on.
Which was that she and Branch had pretty much just made out in front of all their friends and his girlfriend.
That was not justified by a stupid bottle.
"Um, Branch . . ." she mumbled, averting her eyes, before he could continue the kiss (even if she secretly kind of wished she'd never bumped into the bottle and gained awareness of her surroundings again). "My turn's over."
"Wh - oh, right, sorry, my mistake," he mumbled, rolling off of her. She turned away and crawled back to her sleeping bag, face burning.
"What a lovely game, right, Branch?" Wisteria said, but there was a warning in the purple Troll's words as she slid her arm around her boyfriend's shoulder, getting as close to him as she could (although he was still blushing and breathing heavily from his . . . interactions . . . with Poppy).
Poppy felt her chest tighten watching them, and then instantly berated herself. You only kissed 'cause of Spin the Bottle. He's hers now.
No matter how painful that truth may be.
Smidge went next (she had to kiss Biggie—who in turn made her kiss Mr. Dinkles on the cheek—and she kept it a short one like Poppy and Branch should've done), and then Guy Diamond (had to kiss Satin). Creek had to kiss Chenille, and then it was Branch's turn.
This also had the potential to be a disaster, even though she could still feel his lips on hers from last time. But he'd land on someone else—hopefully his real girlfriend this time, even if it might be painful for the queen to watch—because that would be a crazy coincidence if he landed on her.
They all watched the bottle spin—
"And, it's Poppy!" Guy Diamond announced. Wisteria frowned even deeper this time. Poppy wanted to make a comment about frown lines but was too flustered to focus on that.
Honestly, Poppy wanted to run away or bang her head against a wall so many times she got amnesia or just never throw a party again or anything other than this. But this was her party that had just started. She would see it through to the end. Besides, maybe it wasn't fair not to at least acknowledge the tiny part of her that didn't care who was watching, the tiny part of her that just wanted to kiss Branch and stay there forever in his embrace.
This time, Smidge said, "Alright, who timed the kiss last time? They need to kiss for double that time!"
It was amazing how much harder the two Trolls blushed at hearing that.
"Double the time?" Wisteria asked, eyes widened irritatedly.
"Hey, those are the rules," Smidge said. "Seriously, does anyone know how long that last one was?"
Not long enough, thought Poppy, using all of her self-control to keep from voicing it.
"Somewhere around two minutes, maybe?" Suki suggested, exchanging a wink with Guy Diamond, who shook his head.
"No, no, DJ, it was more like three minutes," he said, never breaking eye contact with her.
"You know, now that I think about it, you're right. But actually, I think it was closer to four minutes," Suki said.
"So eight minutes, then?" Smidge asked, holding a stopwatch she'd gotten out of her hair.
"No, not yet, Smidge," Guy said. "Actually, it might've been five."
DJ Suki shook her head, eyebrows furrowed like she'd been thinking hard. "It can't be, because to tell the truth, I think it was six."
Smidge's eyebrows shot up into her hair as she punched the numbers into the stopwatch. "Twelve minutes?"
"Well . . ." Guy and DJ said together, meeting eyes. After a moment of nonstop eye contact, Guy nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Twelve minutes it is! Start the timer, Smidge!"
"Hold on. This thing interrupted them last time," Smidge said, hopping down to move the bottle. "Okay, places, Poppy, Branch!"
Wisteria scoffed and rolled her eyes as Poppy and Branch met in the middle of the circle, drawing closer and closer to one another by pure force of attraction.
"And . . . START!" yelled Smidge. The two smashed their lips together immediately because Smidge's voice made it sound like a competition.
Five minutes later: Poppy and Branch were still going strong. Wisteria was not even watching and was instead filing her nails. The Snack Pack was bored out of their minds, because watching your friends kiss got boring after the first minute to thirty seconds.
"You know what? I'm getting cookies for everyone," Smidge said.
Poppy and Branch looked up—
"KEEP GOING!" Smidge screamed, and they instantly started up again.
"How . . . much . . . longer?" Branch asked between kisses.
"You've done five minutes already. That's seven minutes left in case your lovestruck minds can't do the math," she told them, then went straight to the kitchen for cookies.
"'Cause . . . there is . . . a point . . . when . . . we might . . . suffocate," Branch said.
Poppy pulled his head even closer to hers. "Stop . . . talking . . . it's messing . . . us up," she told him in as few breaths as possible. Okay, maybe that wasn't the only reason she wanted him to shut up. This would probably never happen again, so she was going to savor that last seven minutes and she wasn't going to let Branch ruin it by blabbering as much as he could.
Three minutes after that: Poppy and Branch were still kissing. The Snack Pack were on their fifth plate of cookies because they had nothing else to do. Wisteria was painting her nails now.
"Hey, Wisteria, want a cookie?" offered Biggie.
She glanced up at him, a disgusted look on her face. "Ugh, no way. That's horrible for your figure."
Poppy heard this and snorted—or tried to, at least. You can't really snort when your open mouth is pressed against someone else's open mouth.
Both she and Branch ended up choking. They parted, coughing (both from Poppy's snort and the lack of air) and sweaty.
"What are you doing?" Smidge said, pausing the stopwatch. "You can't just stop!"
"Br-breathing," Branch coughed out, then glared at Smidge. "Is that a cr-crime?"
"No, but stopping is! Get back into position!"
They just kept on coughing and sucking in huge gasps of air.
"If you can't go any longer, darling, I'm sure we'll all understand. Won't we?" simpered Wisteria to Branch, shooting a warning glare at the Snack Pack and an even worse one at Poppy.
Even though she was panting, Poppy smirked. "Don't you know that a queen always has to honor the traditions, Wisteria? Besides, any girlfriend of Branch's should know to play by the rules. And the rules are telling me that we have to kiss for another—" She paused and looked to Smidge. "How much longer, Smidge?"
"Uh . . ." Smidge looked down at the stopwatch. "Four minutes."
Poppy nodded and looked back at Wisteria. "For another four minutes. Do you have a problem with that? If so, you can go home. We won't mind, will we, gang?"
They all shook their heads or murmured "No"s. They typically didn't disagree with Poppy anyway (one reason why Branch was her favoritest) and she was pretty sure that they didn't like Wisteria, either.
Wisteria rolled her eyes, scoffed, and went back to doing her nails. "Well? Get on with it, then."
They both took another breath, then Branch pressed his mouth against hers once more, as though he wasn't dating Wisteria, as though he was hers forever.
Maybe there was hope.
Sorry if the ending is a little rushed. I was finishing up when I got another idea and sped to finish this one in order to start that one. Again, please review, but no flaming criticism! Thanks!