Author Notes - Most of my Bubble Guppies stories are quite long (I think the shortest is 6,000 words), and they often deal with somewhat heavy topics. So I decided to write this as a humorous little short story instead. Gotta keep your writing varied, after all!

I was inspired to write this short story after reading 'Pigeonophobia' by KindAdaptableKayak.

MOLLY THE FEARLESS

'AAAHHHH!'

Molly couldn't help giggling at the sound of Gil screaming yet again. What was it this time? Nothing much; just a caterpillar. He had simply tried to reach for Bubble Puppy's ball after it fell into a bush, only for him to see the creepy-crawly on his arm after grabbing the ball.

'Get it off!' He yelled. 'GET IT OFF!'

Once he finished flailing his arm about, Molly - unable to stop giggling - gently picked up the little bug and placed it back upon the same leaf that Gil had found it. She could've sworn it was shaking about five fists at them, but she couldn't be certain.

Obviously, it was just a regular old green caterpillar, but everyone nearby who had heard Gil's scream may have thought it was some sort of horrible near death experience.

'Gilly!' She said, still laughing just a bit. 'That was just a caterpillar!'

Immediately, Gil blushed. 'O-Oh. R-Right…'

Now that Bubble Puppy's favourite ball had been retrieved, the pair of Guppies continued down the path to their school. Today, they were going to actually make it on time for once. No meeting anyone new, or getting distracted by a new building, or anything like that. Deema had made fun of them for being late enough, and now even Zooli was beginning to get in on the jokes.

'Why are you so jumpy, Gilly?' Molly asked.

It was a question she had been wondering about for a while, but never thought to ask because it seemed a little… mean, I suppose. Today, however, seemed like a pretty good time to ask it.

'What do you mean?' Gil asked back, giving her a bit of a dirty look.

'I mean, you scream a lot.' Molly replied. 'And you seem scared of… well, everything!'

'I'm not scared of everything!'

Molly laughed again, half from his response and half from that funny look of annoyance and frustration on his face. His insistence that he wasn't the jumpiest out of all of them never failed to make her laugh.

'Well, let's see…' She said. 'There's chickens…'

'Hey, those chickens really wanted to kiss me!' Gil retorted.

'And the planet Jupiter…'

'It was a giant boulder rolling after me!'

'Unicorns…'

'Those horns are sharp!'

'Then there's Charlie…'

'He just took me by surprise!'

'The Little Fish…'

'Look, her shadow on the wall looked like a shark!'

'I think Mr Grumpfish as well…'

'He's a scary guy! … I like him, but he's still scary!'

Molly giggled again. Now, Gil usually didn't mind it so much if Molly laughed at his fright. It made her laugh, and that was enough to make him happy. This time, however, as they were slowly approaching their school, it prompted more frustration than happiness out of him. He crossed his arms and gave her an incredulous look, which got her to stop laughing.

'What?' She asked.

'I'm not the only one who gets scared, you know.' He said. 'Everyone is scared of something! You've got to be scared of something too.'

'Like what?'

He had to think for a few seconds, of the things that scared him the most. It was a fairly long list, as you could guess…

'HEY!' Gil yelled, directly at the author of this tale.

But all the things on top were the kinds of things that a lot of people would find scary. So surely one of them was the key!

'What about… spiders?' He asked.

She giggled, and shook her head. 'No.'

'Uh… what about heights?'

'Gilly, we can swim.'

'Okay, uh… the dark?'

'It's a little unnerving, but I wouldn't say I'm scared of it.'

'Thunder?'

'It's loud, yeah, but it's just a sound!'

'Oh, I know! You gotta be afraid of crocodiles, right?'

'Gilly, it's kinda cheating to name something that anyone in their right mind would be scared of.'

'Hey, Deema once threatened the one at the zoo when it stole her lunch.'

'I said anyone in their right mind.'

It continued like this all the way to school, with Gil naming just about everything that came to his mind no matter how silly it got. He must've been about fifty guesses in - all of them failures - when they finally arrived at the front door of their school. They both groaned to themselves when they heard all their friends already inside. So much for trying to get to school on time for once… at this rate, even Nonny would start cracking jokes at their expense. Heck, even Bubble Puppy was chuckling to himself now.

'GAH!' Gil yelled. 'Aren't you frightened of anything that everyone else isn't already scared of?!'

Molly giggled. 'Nope! I guess I really am fearless!'

Gil rolled his eyes. 'Whenever I say that, something scares me.'

'Well, you couldn't find anything that scared me, so I guess that doesn't apply to me!' She giggled again. 'Molly the Fearless… I like it.'

As she opened the front door to the school, Gil crossed his arms and huffed. It seemed like all of them had something they were frightened of that the others weren't, even things that their fans would never find out about...

For Goby, it was blood, his own or otherwise; even the smallest drop made him feel ill. For Oona, it was too much attention; she never went on a big stage by herself. Nonny had quite a few things that 'made him nervous', as he put it, but dragons and bees were high on that list (the latter was justified, considering his bee allergy). As for Deema, it was a lot of things, but her fear of creepy statues and animatronics was probably the big one, seeing as it led to her accidentally destroying a bunch of stuff at a museum. That even went on to inspire something in an adventure-action story starring them. And then there was Zooli, who would sooner punch a clown in the face than laugh. Bubble Puppy was petrified of thunder, and even Mr Grouper was terrified of sharks.

But here was perfect little Molly, unafraid of anything… he definitely wasn't jealous. NEVER.

As Molly and Gil swam into the building, however, they quickly noticed that something wasn't quite right. Everyone was lined up by the table, where a snail in a doctor's outfit stood. Deema was sitting away from everyone else, grumbling to herself while rubbing a sore spot in her arm.

'Uh, what's a doctor doing here?' Gil asked.

Molly shrugged. 'I… don't know.'

Right now, it was Goby's turn to sit in the chair in front of the doctor, and he looked rather nervous.

'W-Will there be a lot of blood?' He asked, already feeling a little ill.

The doctor shook her head. 'There won't be much blood at all! It'll be just a little prick, and I'll bandage it up so you won't see any blood anyway.'

Goby breathed a sigh of comfort. 'Oh, that's a relief…'

Molly and Gil approached the rest of their friends, all in a line, when Mr Grouper arrived to greet them.

'Good morning, Molly! To you too, Gil!' He said. 'Sorry I forgot to tell you, but it's time for some scheduled booster shots.'

'A booster shot,' Nonny explained, turning to a non-existent camera. 'Is another shot you get of a certain vaccine that you've already gotten years ago, to make sure that it's still effective.'

'Right you are, Nonny! And they're important to have, so you don't get sick with anything that could be dangerous. You two can go right after Zooli!'

Gil looked at the needle as it was being injected into Goby's arm, and shuddered just a little. Needles hurt - a lot, sometimes. Still, he wasn't too worried about it, and was more frustrated than anything.

He unleashed an annoyed sigh. 'Well, come on Molly. I hate getting shots, but you gotta do what you gotta… Molly?'

As he turned to his pink-haired friend, he was shocked to find her staring dead ahead like a deer about to be struck down by an oncoming car. He waved his hand in front of her face, but she did not respond or even move.

'M-Molly… are you alright?' He asked.

Molly did not reply, and instead backed away slowly and carefully while staring into the distance.

'See, Goby?' The doctor said. 'There wasn't much blood at all!'

'Yeah!' Goby replied, going to join Deema. 'It hurt a little, but I didn't see any blood!'

As Molly backed away with all of the emotion of a lifeless marionette, she bumped into something. Were she going any faster, she may have fallen over. She slowly cranked her head around to see just what she bumped, and her eyes widened when she saw, inside the doctor's bag, a pack of needles being safely contained in thick plastic boxes.

'Molly, are you-?'

'AAAHHHHHH!'

Molly unleashed a mighty scream almost as loud as anything Gil could manage, and she dashed away from that cursed bag as quickly as she could. Every other Guppy stared at her in shock, but none more so than Gil.

'M-Molly?!'

The Guppy in question skidded to a dead stop when she realised just what lay in her trajectory - another needle, carefully unwrapped by the doctor before her very eyes. Oona took a seat after Goby, with her usual bubbly smile on her face. Molly stared at the sharp point of that needle for a few seconds, as if trying to process the scene, when…

'AAAAHHHHHH!' She screamed, even louder than before. 'NEEEEDLLLLLEEEE!'

Before anyone could do a thing to stop the panicking girl, Molly zoomed past everyone and hightailed for the only way she could escape - out the front door, still open from when they came in! She charged, feeling the 'wind' pushing past her face, as she dashed for her only chance of escape…

*BONK*

'OOWWW!'

… only to smack her head against the edge of the door instead, right in front of everyone. In any other situation, she'd be embarrassed beyond belief, but as she turned around all she saw were those pointy needles…

'AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!' She screamed once again, this time even louder than Gil had ever managed; any louder, and the windows would've shattered.

'M-Molly…' Mr Grouper said, trying to take charge while he was confused as heck. 'Y-You need your booster shot, or you could-'

'YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!'

And that was the last thing she yelled before she swam out the door - for real this time - and disappeared down the road while screaming as loudly as her lungs could manage.

Gil could not help but to laugh.

It took a long while, but Mr Grouper had finally found Molly hiding in the house belonging to a highly-confused and somewhat worried Mr Grumpfish. After much struggling, he managed to get her to take the shot through all her screams and cries for help. The needle was injected before she knew it.

'See?' Mr Grouper said, holding her hand. 'That wasn't so-'

'LET ME GO!' Molly screamed. 'OR I'LL BITE YOU!'

'Uh… never mind.'

She was the last Guppy to get her booster - unsurprisingly - and Mr Grouper let her and Gil have a few minutes to themselves to deal with the shots. Molly sat down next to Gil, crying her eyes out. It was completely out of fear, seeing as the needle didn't hurt much at all.

'It's okay, Molly.' Gil said. 'You were very brave.'

She gave him a smile. 'T-Thanks, Gilly.'

Now that she was feeling better, Gil couldn't help but laugh again. It started off small, but soon it became almost maniacal.

'What's so f-funny?' Molly asked, putting her hands on her 'hips'.

'Well well well…' Gil replied. 'Looks like 'Molly the Fearless' can deal with thunder and the dark… but a little needle has her screaming! Imagine that.'

She wanted to be mad, but she couldn't help giggling a little too. 'Okay, I admit it. Molly the Fearless isn't so fearless after all. I suppose everyone has their own silly little fear.'

Author Notes - Of course, being frightened by needles isn't silly at all! ... Unless you're running out of the building screaming, in which case you might be a little too scared of them. I chose a fear of needles since it's a fairly common fear, and just about anything else I could think of would've been proven false by an episode.

And, at the end of the day, I just wanted Molly to be the frightened one instead of Gil!