I wasn't going to write the chapter about puberty right away, but I kept getting requests for it, so here you go! It might not be exactly what people requested (it was super interesting to hear different people's ideas for this chapter) but I hope you like what I've come up with!

Chapter 3: Puberty

"This isn't as good as suspicious island," Sprig commented. He was sitting on the couch, leaning against Anne's side so he could see the tiny phone screen resting on the table. "But I do like the part when she says yes to the dress."

"Ugh," Polly groaned from her place on Anne's other side. "Can we pleeaase watch something else now? I only like it when they start fighting, but even that doesn't have any weapons or blood!"

"Fine, fine, we can watch something else," Anne said as she reached over and stopped the next episode from playing. "You guys want to watch one of my movies?"

The front door opened, but the three kids were too immersed in Anne's phone to look up as Hop Pop entered the room.

"Oh good, Sprig, you're here," Hop Pop said as he closed the door. "I've been meanin' to talk with yew."

Sprig looked up curiously when instead of speaking, Hop Pop went into the other room, grabbed a chair, and brought it out to sit down on the other side of the living room table.

"What's going on Hop Pop? Did I forget to lock Bessie's gate again?"

"No, nothin' like that." Hop Pop cleared his throat. "I just wanted to have a chat with you."

Anne looked on with renewed interest. It wasn't often that Hop Pop's stern lecturing voice was focused on someone other than her for a change. She spared a glance at Polly who looked just as confused as she was.

"You see Sprig," Hop Pop began, "Yer gettin' older and yer going to start noticin' your body going through certain changes."

"Uh…" Sprig looked around uncertainty. "What is happening right now?"

"These changes are completely natural for a young frog," Hop Pop continued. "You'll legs will get longer, yer voice will get deeper and you'll notice yourself molting more… a lot more."

Sprig groaned; a blush beginning to creep up his cheeks. "Hop Pop, do we have to talk about this right now?"

"This… is… amazing." Anne was grinning widely. She rarely got to see Sprig embarrassed unless it had to do with his feelings for Ivy.

"Yeah, bro," Polly snickered. "This is important information. Go on, Hop Pop."

"Well, those are just the beginnin' of the changes you'll experience. You'll notice yer emotions gettin' all out of whack and you'll get angry or sad over the tiniest things. You'll have emotional outbursts out of nowhere! Not to mention, you'll start thinkin' nonstop about a special frog in you life. You'll want to be around them all the time, holding their hand, kissing them-."

"Like Ivy," Anne said in a sing song voice as she leaned against Sprig, clutching her hands together under her chin and fluttering her eyelashes.

"Cut it out, Anne!" Sprig said as he attempted to swat her away. His face growing redder by the second. "Hop Pop, why are you just talking to me about this stuff?" Sprig asked as he tugged his hat down to hide his embarrassment. "Polly is going through a lot of changes too."

"And I can't wait to get my legs!" Polly announced. "I will be unstoppable!"

"Polly is still a baby, Sprig. It's good she's hearin' this early, but right now it's important for yew to know what changes are goin' to start happenin' in yer future."

"Well, what about Anne?" Sprig asked desperately. "She's older than me! She should get this talk too!"

"Aaand, I'm going to stop you right there," Anne said. "I already had 'the talk' with my mom and I already know about the birds and the bees. I don't need to go through that again from someone that doesn't even know anything about my species."

"The birds and the bees?" Hop Pop asked. "Anne, we're talking about puberty, growing up, and courtship. Why in Amphibia are yew bringin' other animals into this?"

"No, see it's an expression. They call it the birds and the bees in my world because... because… huh, why do they call it that?"

"Okay, that's enough puberty talk," Polly interrupted. "It was funny at first, but I really don't want to hear about courtship stuff. I would rather hear about what it was it like when Anne got her legs. I can't imagine someone as big as you being small like me."

Anne blinked down at the little polliwog. "What? No, you guys don't get it. Humans are born with their legs."

"Wait? Really?" Sprig said at the same time Polly said, "That's not fair!"

"Yep, no weird growing limbs or losing tails for us."

"I knew it! You've always been that big, haven't you?" Polly said with a pout.

Anne shook her head. "Of course not. I was a baby like you once."

Polly looked up with renewed interest.

"Let's see…" Anne picked up her phone began scrolling. "I think I have a picture of myself as a baby. I had to do a school project about my family and I saved some of the photos." Anne bit her lip in concentration as she searched through her phone. "Here it is! This is a picture of my grandma holding me when I was a baby."

Anne held out her phone for the frogs to see the image.

"Whoa," Sprig said as he leaned closer. "You looked so weird and squishy!"

Anne shot him an annoyed look.

"Cute and weird!" he amended quickly. "You looked very cute!"

"Wow, you were almost as small as me and you grew so big!" Polly said in awe.

"And yew weren't foolin' about the limbs," Hop Pop said. "That must have made things easier for yew and yer family."

"Yeah, having arms and legs must have made it much easier to get out of your egg," Polly agreed.

"Actually, I didn't hatch out of an egg."

The Plantars blinked up at her in confusion.

"Wait, seriously?" Anne asked. "You guys don't know anything about how mammals have babies?"

Sprig shrugged. "Not really. Most mammals are predators, so we don't get too close."

"I know a bit from readin', but it could be different in yer world, Anne," Hop Pop said.

"Well, uhh…" Anne began, unsure of what to say, or if she even wanted to talk about this. "Humans grow in their mom's stomach for nine months," she explained. "Then they are born… with all their limbs."

Polly and Sprig looked horrified. "In their stomachs?" Sprig asked. "How? Why?"

Anne shrugged uncomfortably. "That's just how it is."

"So there is no egg?" Polly asked. "At all?"

Anne started to fidget. "Well, there technically is an egg, but that's… a little more complicated."

"Wait, do you come from an egg or not? I'm so confused!" Polly demanded. "And how do they even get the baby out of the stomach?!"

"You know what," Anne said, her voice suddenly cheery. "Let's just go back to embarrassing Spig. That was fun."

"Wow Anne," Sprig commented with a grin. "I didn't know you could turn so red."

"Embarrassing Sprig is fun," Polly agreed. "But now I just want to know more about humans and their weird biology."

"Oh yeah, what's puberty like for you Anne?" Sprig asked. "I bet it's really different from frogs."

"Or it might be more similar than you think," Hop Pop interjected. "Anne, if you talk about your experiences with puberty, then it might help Sprig out."

"Umm, okay, no." Anne said flatly. "No way I'm talking about that with you guys."

"Why not?" Sprig asked. "We talked about frog puberty with you."

"Yeah, but… that was… that was different."

Sprig cocked his head to the side. "How?"

"It just was, okay!" Anne shot back. "You guys wouldn't get it!"

"Maybe we would get it if you told us more about it," Polly prompted.

"Why would I do that?" Anne snapped. "It's not any of your business anyway! Just know that human puberty is the worst, okay? Especially for girls!"

"Especially for girls?" Polly asked. "What does that mean?"

"I-It's just is!" Anne's face was burning.

Polly scoffed. "It can't be that bad. It's not like you have to grow any limbs."

Anne stood up from the couch. Her thoughts racing as her heart thudded in her chest. "What do you know?" Anne demanded, her voice going up an octave. "You don't even know what I'm going through. Human puberty is painful and messy and… and it's not like I can talk to anyone here about it because no one would understand!"

Before anyone could speak, Anne ran out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

"Uhh… what just happened?" Polly asked.

"Remember when I mentioned that puberty causes emotional outbursts… well, that was one of them." Hop Pop sighed. "I should go after her and make sure the girl is okay."

Before Hop Pop could stand up, Sprig was already opening the front door. "It's okay Hop Pop, I'll go talk to her. She's my best friend after all."

It didn't take long for Sprig to find Anne. The ground was moist, and there was no one in town that left footprints as big as hers. He found Anne sitting by a pond only a few minutes down the road from home.

"Hey," Sprig greeted as he sat on the mossy ground next to her.

"Hey," she greeted without looking at him. She tossed a rock into the pond.

"I'm sorry about what happened. We shouldn't have pushed you."

Anne shook her head, but still didn't look at him. "No, I'm the one that should be sorry. I thought it was funny that you were so uncomfortable talking about puberty stuff, but then I couldn't take the heat when it was turned back on me. I shouldn't have teased you… or ran out like that."

"Anne," Sprig said slowly. He wasn't sure what to say, but whatever he said next he wanted it to come out right. "I know we're really different and I don't know what you're going through... or why it would be painful for you and make you so upset." Worriedly he tried to search her face to make sure she was okay, but she still wouldn't look at him. He wanted to ask her if she was okay or if she was in pain now, but he held back. "And honestly, I don't know much about this puberty stuff for myself. It's all just kind of..."

"Embarrassing? Dumb?"

Sprig chuckled. "Yeah. I wish we didn't have to grow up and everything could stay the same."

Anne hummed in agreement.

"But umm, Anne," Sprig said, and there must have been something in his voice, because Anne finally turned to look at him. "Even though I'm not good at this stuff, Hop Pop is. He can be a little embarrassing, and I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but he's really understanding about… about that kind of stuff. So, if you need to... if you don't want to talk to me…" Sprig trailed off awkwardly.

Anne gave him a small smile. "Thanks Sprig. I don't know if I will, but I'll think about it."

It had been three days since the awkward conversation with the Plantars. Anne hadn't planned on bring up the topic ever again, but with Sprig's assurance that Hop Pop was understanding about this kind of thing, and with her internal clock working against her, Anne was starting to run out of options.

Anne knocked on the open study door. "Hop Pop, can I ask you something?"

Hop Pop lowered the book he was reading and beckoned her to come in. "Sure, Anne. What is it?"

Anne bit her lip. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, and a feeling of dread sat heavily on her chest, making it difficult to breathe. "If I… If I give you a list of stuff to get from the store, could you get it for me without asking why?"

Hop Pop rolled his eyes. "For the last time Anne, I'm not gettin' the fruit marketed as organic. That's just a scam! It's all organic! It was all grown in the same town for Frog's sake!"

Anne felt heat rise to her face and she suddenly felt like a total idiot. This was a stupid plan. Why did she think this was going to work? "Oh, umm… yeah… totally. Never mind then."

Hop Pop gave her a skeptical look.

"Hold up there, Kiddo. What's this about?"

Anne shrugged; her body half turned away to leave.

"Let me see that list of yours, alright?" he asked gently.

Anne shook her head. "You know what? Never mind, it's just dumb stuff anyway."

"Anne, let me see the list," he requested firmly.

Hesitantly, Anne handed him the piece of paper. Once he put on his reading glasses, his eyes quickly scanned the list. It wasn't anything too fancy, just extra padding for medical bandages and extra tissues- All the stuff that Anne had found in the Plantar household and used without their knowledge.

"I-It's just some stuff that… that girls from my world need." Anne rubbed her arm self-consciously. "But I can't really tell you why."

Hop Pop glanced at Anne's face and then back at the list. He folded it up and placed the list in his pocket.

"Okay."

"Okay?" Anne parroted back in confusion.

"I'm headin' to the store tomorrow. This stuff should be easy enough to get."

"Really?" Anne felt the feeling of dread weighing on her chest ease up just a little bit. "You're not going to ask why I need that stuff? I know the farm doesn't make a lot of money-"

"Anne." Hop Pop held up his hand to stop her. "Believe it or not, I was a teenager once, and I do remember how easily I got embarrassed and how difficult it was to talk about things, especially to adults. I'm guessing this has something to do with the puberty conversation we had the other day?"

Anne felt her eyes drop to the ground.

"Every teenager feels like they're a freak living in another world where no one gets them," Hop Pop said. "In yer case, you're actually from another world, so I'm sure it's even harder for yew"

It was strange, but the more Hop Pop spoke, the more the tight feeling of dread began to unravel, and Anne finally felt like she could breathe properly again.

"Y-Yeah…"

"If yew want to talk about it, I'm here to listen, but if yew just wanna hand me a list, that's okay too." Hop Pop patted her arm comfortingly. "Don't yew know by now that yer old Hop Pop's got your back?"

Tears sprang to her eyes and Anne bent down to wrap her arms tightly around him.

Anne took a shaky breath. "Thanks, Hop Pop. I don't know what I would do without you."

Hop Pop rubbed her back soothingly. "Anne, yer not alone here. We might not always understand but we are here for yew, okay?"

Anne nodded into his shoulder. "Okay."

Let me know what you think!