Kaeloo entered the room and shut the door behind her. Quack Quack, Mr. Cat, Pretty, Eugly, and Olaf were already there, sitting around the coffee table. Kaeloo sat herself down in an empty seat. She cautiously lifted one side of her headphones and found, to her relief, that she was no longer able to hear the torturous noise which had been plaguing the residents of Smileyland for the past one week. Quack Quack had done an excellent job of soundproofing the room. Quack Quack stood up and everyone focused their attention on him.

"Quack."

This simple "quack" was essentially a speech explaining why he had called this meeting. Stumpy had recently started playing the guitar with all of his amps tuned to maximum volume. While this would understandably be a problem for anyone living around him, the factor that exponentially worsened this was that Stumpy couldn't play the guitar to save his own life.

"I think Kaeloo should be the one to fix this! She's the one who was dumb enough to think it was a good idea to give Stumpy a guitar for his birthday!" Pretty pointed out.

The others, who had all gotten him video games, glared at Kaeloo.

"Video games are bad for your brain! Learning to play a musical instrument can help a young child develop his or her brain."

"Quack", said Quack Quack, reminding her in a slightly annoyed tone that he and Stumpy were only two years younger than her.

"You ruined our lives, Kae-loser! I haven't been able to go on TikTok all week! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT DOES TO A SOCIAL MEDIA STAR'S CAREER?!"

"Um, no…?" Kaeloo offered awkwardly.

"Well, of course you don't. You're you." Pretty flipped her ears like a human girl would flip her hair.

"Come on, buddies, the music isn't hurting us that badly!"

"Quack!" Quack Quack had missed an important announcement on the radio about a sale on dairy products at the local supermarket because he was unable to hear it.

Eugly discreetly signed to Kaeloo that Pretty wasn't allowing her to be happy because she felt that her sister couldn't be happy if she wasn't.

"Eugly and I don't even live with you guys! We're your neighbors, and we still can't even hear ourselves talking in our own house!"

"Even I'm bothered by the noise, and my house actually has walls!" interjected Olaf, who hadn't been able to yell at anyone. This was considered a win by everyone except him, but nobody really wanted to tell him that.

"Every time I hear that music, I feel the sudden desire to rip his arms off and stuff them in my ears as earplugs," Mr. Cat said darkly. Everyone stared in horror. Mr. Cat would never admit it, but the real reason he was so mad about Stumpy's guitar was that playing the piano helped him relax and feel connected to himself, and he couldn't exactly enjoy playing his music when Stumpy had his on full blast.

"I haven't been immune to the consequences either!" snapped Kaeloo. "Every time I try talking to my therapist on the phone, we can't hear each other!" she complained, gripping the headphones in her hand tightly.

"Hold on, froggy, what's with the headphones?"

"They're special noise-canceling headphones that I got so I wouldn't have to listen to that awful music anymore."

Mr. Cat snatched the headphones from Kaeloo and put them on.

"Mr. Cat, give those back to me!" Kaeloo ordered. Mr. Cat simply stared at her in amazement.

"I don't hear anything at all!" A devilish grin formed on the cat's face as he took the headphones off. "I think I have a plan to stop nutcracker once and for all."

"Quack?"

"We're going to convince him that he's gone deaf!"

How are you going to do that? Eugly asked.

"It's quite simple, actually. We just put tadpole's fancy little headphones on him and he won't hear a thing!"

"You're so smart, Mr. Cat," sighed Pretty.

"I know, right?" a smug smile spread over his face.

"Mr. Cat, don't you think that's a little extreme?" asked Kaeloo, wagging a disapproving finger in his direction.

"Do you have a better solution, fly-nibbler?"

"Well… no," she admitted. "But how will making him think he's gone deaf help? We'll still be able to hear him!"

"You do realize that if he couldn't hear anymore, he'd have no reason to play music anymore, right?" he pointed out with a sardonically raised eyebrow.

"Very well," she sighed. Everyone cheered.