Anne had never been so excited to hear the ringing of school bells and chatter of classmates. Autumn had settled in nicely, with the cool air spreading leaves around like splotches of paint. It wasn't as magnificent as some of the sights in Amphibia, but there was a coziness to this more modest display of nature.

The chatter in the halls turned to curious whispers as Anne entered the school building. She hadn't noticed in her excitement to be back. After the awkwardness of first period where her teacher had to make a public announcement of her return to the indifferent applause of her peers, the morning classes went by smoothly.


Before long it was lunchtime. Students were filling the halls and planning where they would go once, they were "free." Anne felt a little envy knowing she wouldn't have that kind of freedom for some time after her adventures. She wanted to tell someone about the crazy stuff she experienced but her parent's advised against it. It was frustrating but understandable, she felt even they had trouble believing it all. It didn't help that students would constantly take glances at her then turn away.

"Jeez guys ever heard of subtlety?" Anne mumbled to herself. "One of you could just ask."

"Excuse me! You're in the way of journalism!" The dynamic duo of Rico and Desi suddenly stormed through the halls.

"Ok anyone except them."

"Anne Boonchuy!" Rico approached with little respect for her personal space. "One of the calamity girls of Saint James Middle School in the flesh."

"Calamity trio?"

"You like it? I came up with it myself." Desi replied after snapping a picture of Anne's confused face. "After you all disappeared people thought you were dead, so they started blaming every bad thing that happened here on you guys. Like your spirits themselves were haunting the halls."

"The paper was on fire back then." Rico snapped another picture. "And now you guys actually came back, this may be a story for the local papers."

"Care to spare a few minutes for an interview?" They spoke in unison, notepads at the ready.

"Right look Rico, Desi I have a lot to catch up on so-"

"Are you saying you have nothing to add to the rumors that you were kidnapped by a lunatic?"

"What?"

"Or what about the rumor that you were deported back to Thailand."

"That's a little…"

"Or that the three of you are all convicts on the run from the law and being a student is your cover?"

" Pfft, look I know you guys feed off of dumb rumors but no one will believe any of that."

"Then let's set the record straight." Rico's shades gleamed. "What. Really happened. To. The. Calamity Girls?" They circled her like piranhas.

"We uhh…" The sweating began. "Got lost."

"Lost?" Desi began furiously writing in her notepad. "Lost where, lost how?"

"Lost on our way to uhm Tennis camp…in the wilderness."

"Ah so it's true!" Rico briefly looked over his notes "The three of you were lost in a swamp for 5 months."

"That's not…entirely true."

"Picture it." Desi's eyes widened as she began to fantasize. "Stranded in a strange world, with danger at every corner, living off of nothing but bugs and mud. Fighting wild animals just to survive."

"Ok, maybe it's more accurate than I thought." Anne couldn't hide the pride in her smile thinking about what she accomplished. "Hey wait a minute, who started that one?"

"Sasha Waybright, head of the cheerleaders, calamity girl, demon of Saint James." Rico explained. "According to her the three of you got lost running away from the police because of an item you stole and ended up in the sticks."

"Of course, that's what she'd tell them." she said under her breath.

"In fact, she adds that you also caught what she describes as "swamp madness".

"What?"

"Symptoms include a disregard for personal hygiene, bouts of hysteria and manic episodes where you started to believe a bunch of frogs were your family." Rico tapped his pencil on his temple inquisitively. "Care to confirm?"

"WHAT?" her outburst took them aback. "Come on! Do I look like some swamp crazy thief, running from the law while talking to a bunch of frogs?"

"Hmm maybe not...or maybe." Rico studied her closely with a finger to his chin.

"But it would make for a much more interesting story." Desi added.

"Look we're done here, not everything is some story with a catchy headline. I mean this is my life for crying out loud!" After slamming her locker shut, she stormed off.

"Uh thank you for your time."

"Also you got leaves in your hair, girl."

Anne continued to grumble to herself as she picked out some autumn leaves from her hair. She had tried not thinking too much about Sasha and this wasn't what she needed. Luckily, she noticed Marcy coming to meet her.

"Hey Anne. How was class this morning?"

"Hey Mar-mar." They shared a hug. "They haven't gotten to you yet have they?"

"Who? Oh, you talking about the school paper? I wrote an article for it."

"Seriously? You told them everything?"

"I didn't miss a detail. Couldn't let all those notes I took go to waste."

"Marcy maybe it's better we don't tell everyone we were trapped by a magic music box and sent to another dimension with talking frogs."

"What? But that adventure was so amazing! We should be getting honors maybe even a peace prize for such a discovery."

"The only prize we're gonna get with that is a free trip to the looney bin. If I didn't have pictures of talking frogs and giant killer snakes even, I wouldn't believe it actually happened."

"Well, I guess when you put it that way it is a little hard to believe. Still, it would be so cool to have someone believe something so incredible actually happened."

"Hehe, it was pretty crazy. Honestly right now I'd probably take fighting off giant killer bugs than dealing with my parents smothering me. My mom hasn't let me sleep alone since I got back, I had to beg her not to follow me to class today."

"I know the feeling." Marcy then lifted her leg showing a fairly large beeping device with a red light. "Tracker." She then pointed to a piercing on her left ear with a sign with a phone number and address. "Tag." she then pulled out her phone and began texting. "And I have to report to her every 15 minutes even if I'm in a class."

"Hoopa da boopa. Looks like I got off easy."

"Yea, it's probably going to be a while before my mom trusts me out of the house…or ever again."

"Guess things won't go back to normal so easily huh?"

"Speaking of normal..." As they walked Marcy's pace began to slow. "Have you guys talked yet since, you know?"

"Marcy." Anne sighed, stopping in her tracks. "I know you want us to work things out, but you know what she put us through, how she betrayed us. How am I supposed to trust her again after all of that?"

"Sure she may have gotten a bit out of hand with the whole trying to conqueror Amphibia thing, but I actually don't think she really wanted to hurt us."

"You didn't see her at Toad Tower, she was going to kill Hop Pop and hurt Sprig just to be in control."

"Ok that is bad. But, she didn't know them as well as you did."

"Even if that's true. The thing that upsets me the most is even after all of that I trusted her." Anne leaned against a wall and folded her arms. "It was so easy for her to just use me, like I didn't even matter to her."

"Don't say that Anne, of course you matter to her." Marcy put a hand on her shoulder. Sasha doesn't like to talk about her feelings but maybe she's just...a little scared."

"Scared?" Anne smirked a bit. "Heh, maybe scared I'd kick her-"

"Anne! Ugh. Look maybe you guys can try talking things out over lunch." Marcy opened the cafeteria doors. "I think they're serving apple pie today too. A little sweetness should get the dopamine going and uh-" She slammed the doors quickly.

"Hey! Maybe we should eat somewhere else I mean why eat here anyway?"

"Dude it's the lunchroom."

"Lunchroom, bathroom, dark corner in the hallway, a rooms a room you can eat anywhere let's go."

Anne gave her a confused look before opening the door herself. "What's going on in the-"

A group of students were gathered near a wall in the room, laughing and cheering. On the wall was a less than endearing photo of Anne taped to the wall with a bullseye crudely drawn behind it. The picture itself was covered in drawings of flies buzzing around her, drool coming out of her mouth, bugs in her teeth among other unsavory things. Kids were taking turns launching dead frogs from a bucket at the picture. At the center of these kids was none other than Sasha.

"Oh man I got another one in boobchuys hair." Maggie seated not far from Sasha fist pumped in celebration.

"Oh, look Mad Franne is here." A girl from the cheerleading squad pointed out.

"WHAT THE HECK? Where did you even get these?"

"Jeez Anne what's the big deal." Sasha's voice dripped with a familiar sarcasm. "We're just trying to reunite you with family. It's the right thing to do."

With perfect timing her entourage cackled in unison.

"Anne we can just go." Marcy tugged on Anne's arm trying and failing to hide behind her. Anne only kept her fist clenched, trembling.

"Uh oh Sasha looks like she's gonna go crazy with the swamp madness."

"Relax Vince we're far from the swamp now." Sasha stared straight towards Anne with a ferocity no one noticed but the girl in question. "She doesn't have any fight left in her."

"Come on guys this is just juvenile!" Marcy feared the worst. "These frogs should be used for their educational purposes."

"Oh, lighten up nerd." Sasha picked up a frog. "The cheer squad noticed I was a down after our little trip, so they came up with a fun way to lighten the mood." She launched the frog with enough force it stuck to the picture for a few seconds before finally dropping, leaving its mucous on the already stained picture.

"Why don't you grab a seat and use those nerd skills to land a shot right between the eyes."

"Sash this is just-!"

Before she could continue Anne put a hand on Marcy's shoulder. "It's fine Marcy, I'm not hungry anyway. I'll just...meet up with you later." She made for the door slow at first trying to be sure no one could see her face before busting them open and running out.

"Anne!"

"Oh no, looks like you spoke too soon on the madness Sasha."

"Poor girl. What's that the say about taking a frog out of the pond?" Cheyenne ripped as she filed her nails. A chain of laughter once again filled the room.

"Sasha!" Marcy slammed her hands on the table. "Don't you think this has gone on long enough? "

"Uh oh fun is over." Cheyenne quipped before getting off the table she was sitting on.

"Uh later Sash." Maggie said meekly. Soon all of the students were walking away.

"What? She was the one who said we weren't friends anymore." Sasha kept her hands in her jacket pocket tapping the bucket of frogs with her foot. "Why don't you go get her, after all you're not a "horrible person."

"No."

Sasha was surprised by the response but was caught even more off guard by Marcy's expression.

"No, you're wrong...I am horrible. I'm the worst."

"What are you talking about?"