Review replies:

neomoon585: Poppy certainly has a plan—and it's a good one!

Beanz: You want it, you got it!

YougottaeatdemBEANZ: I'm glad you love it, and after this I might do either the story from Poppy's perspective or a Q/A with Branch and Poppy! Tell me which you would like to see!

Please enjoy!


"Afive, six, seven, eight!" Poppy yelled.

The Snack Pack began to sing and dance, grabbing makeup from out of nowhere. "When you look in the mirror, let it disappear, all your insecurities—"

"Wait!" Bridget yelled. She pointed at me leaning against the collage. "Why isn't this one singing?"

I started and looked around. To be honest, I wasn't paying much attention, I was just waiting until this love stuff is over and we can get out of here! Hello?!

"Come on, Branch!" Cooper said. "Sing with us!"

Everyone started to plead for me to sing with them. Um, have you met me?

Well, not Bridget, but…you know.

"Oh, no, that's okay," I said, letting them down easy.

"You don't think this will work?" Bridget said, tears forming in her eyes again.

"Oh, no no no, it's not that, I just don't sing."

"Branch!" Poppy said, gesturing to Bridget.

"No," Bridget said, starting to sniffle. "He's right, this thing is stupid! King Gristle will never love me!" She flopped down onto the bed and started to cry again. The bounce made everyone on the bed jump.

They crowded around and started to comfort her. "Just let it out, just have a good cry. Go girl!" Biggie encouraged.

Bridget raised her head and let loose a heart-wrenching wail. Well, heart wrenching for everyone but me, that is.

"Okay, now bring it back in, reel it in…"

I pshed and headed to the curtain. Poppy followed me. "Branch, what are you doing, you have to sing!"

I started to climb the curtain, trying to get away from Poppy. "I told you, I don't sing." Poppy climbed after me.

"Well, you have to!"

"I'm sorry, I can't."

"No, you can, you just won't!"

We reached the top of the curtain where there's another ledge and a window. I ran over to the window and opened the latch, I'm not sure why. I stared out.

"Fine, I just won't!"

"You have to!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Why not, why won't you sing?!"

I whirled around. "Because singing killed my grandma, okay?!"

I turned back to the window, lowering my voice. "Leave me alone."

My ears drooped as I move to another part of the ledge. I thought I heard Cooper say something about his uncle breaking his neck while tap-dancing; I wasn't sure.

I sat down, drawing my knees up to my chest. Poppy slowly walked over, a stunned and sympathetic expression on her face. "How did…singing kill your grandma?" She knelt down and paused, tilting her head. "What song was she singing?"

The pain came like it did the many times I thought about her. I lifted my head, unable to keep my face from crumpling.

"I was the one singing."

Poppy was stunned; I guess she'd never thought she'd hear me admit that I once sang.

"That day, I was so lost in song, I didn't hear my grandma trying to warn me. She pushed me off the branch just as a Burgen tried to grab me. She…got taken instead."

I stopped talking, for fear my voice would crack and I would start to cry. Standing up, I pressed my hand against the window, leaving a mark.

The others, minus Poppy, for once, started to sing. "Once upon a time, there was light in his life. Now there's only love in the dark. And nothing he can say…"

"A total eclipse of the…heart." Bridget finished, her breath ruffling Poppy's hair.

I speak again. "I haven't sung a note since."

I didn't know why, but Poppy… she just made me feel like opening up, something I hadn't done since Grandma was alive.

"I'm so sorry, Branch," she said. "I had no idea…I just assumed you had a terrible voice."

Nope. "No, no, it was…like an angel's." I turned around and shrugged half-heartedly. "At least…that's what Grandma used to say."

I looked at Poppy, and she had this happy/sad expression on her face. Sad for me and my past, yet happy that I finally talked about it. A moment later, she trotted over and gave me a side-hug.

"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing? It's not hug time."

Poppy looked at me without letting go. "I just thought you could use one."

With that kind of answer, I couldn't help but smile feebly, just enough that I know I am, yet small enough so that no one else noticed.

On instinct I leaned into it, Poppy's hair tickling my face…

And then everyone else joined in and the spell is broken.

When Bridget started to hug us too, that was it for me. "Okay, okay!" I say, barging out of the group hug. Poppy clung to me slightly, but finally let go.

"I'll help." I pointed at them threateningly. "But I am still not singing." I glared.

Poppy shrugged when she realized that was the best she was going to get. "Okay, people," she said. "Hair we go!"

Everyone except Poppy scattered and regrouped atop Bridget's head. "You…" they all sang in harmony, growing out their hair.

Poppy slid on her knees and pointed at them. "You gotta let it…"

"Show!"

Poppy grabbed me and vaulted us onto Bridget's head. She let go with a smile, but I sat down again and ignored her.

The Snack Pack and Poppy twirled out their hair and changed it to rainbow colored before flopping it down over Bridget's hair. Me, I didn't even bother trying.

"I'm," they sang. "Comin', out. I'm comin'!" Meanwhile, Bridget put on a pink jumpsuit with a pink handbag and white platform shoes.

They kept singing all the way out into the streets of Burgen Town. So many Burgens were looking at us, it made me feel like food.

Oh, wait. I am food.

Suddenly, Bridget started to sing. "Yo! I'm comin' out, like the sun after rain! ready to shine, no time to be a-playin'! Feeling good, gonna get, get what I what I want! Gonna show ere' ere'body how I how I flaunt!"

All the while she was rapping, I'm bouncing around like one of those little Mexican jumping beans.

FYI, those things are freaky and unnatural.

"Look at me now, my confidence is soarin'! Dudes, be impressed with the points I'm scorin' like"—"That ain't borin'!"—"And it just don't quit. Watch the king drop a show, when I'm shakin' my hips, I'm singin'—"

"She's comin' out!" Poppy and the others started singing and dancing again. Meanwhile, I was just sitting on top of a Burgen's head, don't mind me.

"It's time to take a stand!" Poppy wriggled down to where there was an opening in the hair. She and Bridget sang the last few notes together.

"And show the world that I'm/she's comin' out!" They ended with a high five.

Then Bridget finally realized that she was standing on top of Barnabus, the king's crocodile/dog/lizard pet. She fed him a sandwich she picked up as a microphone and he stopped growling.

"No, no, no, no, no, it's all wrong!" Suddenly we heard a familiar voice. The voice belonging to the monster that ate Creek.

The king.

We looked to the right into a store called Bibbly's and there he was, shouting at a tailor in all his kingly glory.

"I am the king who is bringing back Trollstice!" he yelled. "I need a bib to match!" Still on the bib thing, huh? Idiot.

"I look like a child in this one!" he continued, ripping off the one he had on and throwing it in the poor tailor's face. "I need something elegant…sophisticated…you know…a man's bib!"

Is there even such a thing as a man's bib?

"Oh, he's so beautiful!" Bridget sighed, pressing up against the window. That passes for beautiful here? Jeez.

"And so are you!" Poppy encouraged.

Bridget started to shake a little. "Oh, he'll know that I'm just a scullery maid!"

"No no no no no no no no!" Poppy said quickly, but too late. Bridget was in full-panic mode.

"Agh, I gotta get out of here!" she said, looking around desperately for a place to hide.

"I'll be right here for you, Bridget!" Poppy promised, then disappeared. She popped out again in a different place. "We all will."

"You'll tell me what to say, right?"

"Of course I will!"

Bridget assumed a confident expression. "Of course I will!" she mimicked, adopting a deeper voice.

"Just—wait until we get inside," Poppy clarified, then disappeared again, back into this rainbow-colored nightmare called hair.

Bridget stood outside the store watching, waiting, and listening. See, Poppy, I told you Burgens did that!

The tailor suddenly brightened. "Oh, Sire, I believe I have the perfect bib!" He ran off to the back of the store.

"Urgh, it better be!" King Gristle harrumphed. "Trollstice is tomorrow night! I mean, I know I look good, but I have to look great!"

The tailor came back with a box and opened it to reveal…a yellow bib with a purple, smiling bird.

It's official. This town is whack.

King Gristle, however, gasped like it was the best thing in the world next to fried troll. "It's got a wingdingle on it!" he whispered in awe.

"Oh, Your Majesty!" the tailor said, putting the bib on Gristle. "Look at you! Such a big, big boy you are!"

Gristle admired himself in the mirror. "Yes! I love it!"

As the guards and tailor clapped, Poppy quickly guided Bridget through the door and fed her a line that I couldn't quite hear. However, Bridget soon enlightened me.

"I think you look fat!"

What?!

"What?" King Gristle said in a low voice. Everyone spun around to look at us. Now I really feel like food.

"P-H-fat, then strike that pose!" Poppy said.

"P-H-fat." Bridget then put a hand on her fake hair, nearly squishing Biggie, and a hand on her hip. "Oooh!"

Suddenly Gristle stopped looking angry and just stared. "Hot lunch," he whispered.

Okay, that is weird.

"Total honesty from a total babe," he said, sliding over to us. Bridget laughed unattractively, then seemed to realize what she just did. She groaned.

King Gristle didn't seem to notice and took Bridget's hand. "And who might you be?" he asked in what was apparently supposed to be a suave tone.

Bridget stuttered. "Uh…um…"

Poppy faltered. "Your name is, uh, um…" She turned to me. Uh, no.

The others suggested some names.

"Lady?"

"Glitter?"

"Sparkles!"

"Seriously?" I hissed at them.

"My name is Lady Glitter Sparkles Seriously." Bridget said in a robotic voice.

I face palmed. If this was our best chance for saving Creek, he was doomed.

Gristle seemed confused for a moment, then shook it off. "Well, Milady Glitter Sparkles," he laughed, bowing. "Would you care to join me for an evening at Captain Starfunkle's Roller Rink and Arcade?"

Wow, dude. Taking a girl to a gaming arcade? Even I wouldn't do that.

Not that I would ever go out with anyone, anyway, certainly not. I laughed uneasily in my head. Nope, never go on a date, nuh-uh…SHUT UP, ME!

"Would I!" Bridget said. Then she stopped. "Would I?"

"Yes, you'd be delighted." Poppy prompted.

"Yes, you'd be delighted." Bridget said, pointing at Gristle. Oh, boy.

"Huh," Gristle contemplated. "Indeed I would." Dud.

I turned to Poppy. "When are you going to ask him about Creek?" I asked.

"Well, we have to warm him up first." She smirked at me, hands on her hips. "Don't you know anything about romance?"

I crossed my arms and put on a fake smile. "Of course, I'm passionate about it!"

She looked stunned. "Really?"

I dropped the act. "Don't you know anything about sarcasm?"

"I think I had a sarcasm once," Cooper offered, a goofy grin on his face. No, Cooper. Just…no.

Gristle took Bridget's arm. "And I'll take one of everything, Bibbly!" he said, walking to the door. "Things are gonna get messy!"

He slammed the door, leaving the confused tailor and two guards.

It's Go Time.