Author Notes - And with this little epilogue of sorts, this story comes to a close. Which will also put to an end to what's probably the most Zooli-centric story currently on this archive. And Zooli still isn't available in the characters filter, for some reason.

CHAPTER EIGHT - THERE'S A NEW GUPPY IN TOWN!

'So…'

'SHOUT OUT!'

'To my ocean animals…'

As Zooli watched the finished music video on the website, right before it was published, she couldn't believe it. Sure, the music video for 'In My Neighbourhood' also had a lot of other people in it, but that was the point. It was all just cameos from their neighbourhood friends. But, as she saw herself dancing alongside the others, she could hardly believe it. It was like a dream, once she hoped she never woke up from.

She wasn't the only one standing around the laptop - just about everyone else was too. Understandably so, since returning after a multiple month hiatus was a big deal, even putting aside the new member of their class.

97%... 98%... 99%... 99%... 99%...

'Why does it always get stuck on ninety-nine percent?!' Deema cried.

Zooli groaned with her. 'I know, right?'

Finally, after much waiting, it finally ticked over to 100%. The video just needed a few more seconds to process, and then…

'Done!' Mr Grouper announced. 'Are you ready, Zooli?'

She nodded. 'Yep!'

'Well, why don't you click the 'submit' button yourself?'

'Really? Oh, I would love to!'

He allowed her to use the mouse, and with an excited grin on her face she clicked the 'submit' button herself. And then… there is was, the finished music video, up and running on the website. After a quick ad from their sponsor (Nickelodeon), the music video played by itself. It was one thing listening to the song on its own, but actually seeing the finished video on the webpage was another thing entirely. And, as it played, Zooli focused only on herself whenever she was visible.

I really am part of the band now.

With the video publicly released, so was the song itself. Like with all their other songs, it could be found just about anywhere one could find music - cTunes, Podify, Soundbubble… just about anywhere where someone could listen to it, and often spend money on it if they wanted to.

'How many views do you think there's gonna be when we refresh the page?' Goby asked.

'I bet a lot!' Gil replied. 'I know the fans are still a little grumpy cos of the 'Zooli situation', but it's still a new song. I don't see why they wouldn't watch it!'

'And the fans would be so excited too!' Oona said. 'We've hyped this up a lot, after all.'

'Well,' Mr Grouper said. 'Let's find out.'

Zooli braced for the worst when Mr Grouper refreshed the page, well aware that the fans may have been so angry regarding her that they boycotted the music completely. At the same time, there were plenty of people who say they would boycott something, only to buy it anyway. She laughed, just a little, as she remembered the situation regarding Coralmon Sword and Coralmon Shield. So many fans said they weren't gonna buy the game… only for it to be sold like crazy. This writer is guilty as charged.

And, well, it seemed like the same thing happened here. Half a million views, already. Zooli's jaw dropped from the insane number generated after only about a minute. She was even more shocked to see that the others, while pleasantly surprised, weren't nearly as dumbfounded as she was.

Are these numbers normal for these guys? Dang…

'I knew it.' Molly said. 'No matter how angry our fans get, they just can't resist our music.'

'Look at the like-to-dislike ratio.' Nonny said, pointing at the screen. 'It looks much better than the last one.'

As Zooli looked at the like-dislike-bar, her heart soared when she saw that Nonny was right. Compared to the overwhelming red of the announcement video, this one was ranked much better. Yes, there was still a sizable chunk of red, and there was no denying it. Zooli didn't know her fractions too well, but that must've been at least a quarter if not a third of all ratings being dislikes. But she didn't care too much about that, when the likes were so much better than last time.

'Should we check the comments?' Oona asked. 'They should be a lot nicer now.'

'Zooli, would you like to check the comments?' Mr Grouper asked.

The titular Guppy tapped her fingers against the table for a few moments, before she answered, 'You know what? Yeah, I do. Even if there are some nasty comments, I won't get used to them if I just ignore them.'

'Alright then. Let's check 'em out!'

One click later, they were in the comment section. Since the video was only a few minutes old, there weren't too many comments, but there were still plenty with a lot of votes. And the first one was written by someone known as 'D33ma&G0by4Life', with nearly one hundred likes.

Okay, I'm still angry that Zooli is even here at all. But… I'll admit it. If the music continues to be this good, then I DON'T CARE ABOUT ZOOLI!

Zooli breathed a sigh of relief. Sure, the commenter still aimed their anger at her, but this highly-liked comment proved to her that the fans would only care about how good the music was at the end of the day. Scrolling through, everyone saw that MegaGuppiesFan05 had returned and, well, they still weren't so happy about it.

I'm clicking on this video just to leave this comment, so you guys get the lowdown. Until you guys kick Zooli out of the team, I'm boycotting every single song you make with her in the background!

As she read this comment, Zooli surprised herself when she laughed. It wasn't at the comment itself, but the amount of likes it had - four, almost nothing compared to the comments that praised the music over hating on the new girl.

'I don't know who this MegaGuppiesFan05 person is,' Deema remarked. 'But I know that they don't have much to do.'

No one in the room was aware of the teenage snail yelling at her computer screen while her siblings watched the newest episode of FIN Patrol, and that was how they planned to keep it. If they ever were to meet her at a meet-and-greet, and if she complained about Zooli then, well… she'd have six angry friends, a protective teacher, and a loyal little puppy to deal with, wouldn't she?

'Oh, who cares about them?' Zooli said. 'They don't matter. Our sales aren't going to get hurt just because a few people are boycotting, right?'

'That sounds like something the Walt Disney corporation would say…' Nonny muttered.

'And look at how well they're doing! If these people wanna boycott our music just because I'm here, then they can do what they want. I think they're missing out, if anything.'

'You see, Zooli?' Molly said. 'You're already learning how to ignore them!'

'Don't ignore them completely, though!' Mr Grouper warned. 'After all, sometimes even the meanest of comments can have some real criticisms in them, and it would be a shame to ignore that. It's good to learn what's constructive criticism or simply hate, but I think that's a lot to think about right now. Let's take this one step at a time, shall we?'

Zooli leaned back in her chair, and finally could relax for the first time since she first moved to this lovely little town. Did she feel like she really had been here the whole time? No, of course not. Nothing was going to change that, beyond time travel shenanigans. But she didn't care too much about that now.

'Hey, if you guys want more suggestions for songs,' She said. 'I've got a few. The Amazon is a big rainforest that's home to hundreds of interesting animal species! We could get a good song out of that. There's also nocturnal animals, and the animals who live in the desert, and lizards are really cool too, and I'm thinking we could even do one about cats and dogs!'

Deema chuckled. 'I'm detecting a theme here.'

'Hey, I like animals. What else are you expecting?'

'But we just finished one!' Gil said. 'We can't just jump right into another one. We'll drain ourselves of creativity if we do that!'

'I know what we could do.' Goby said. 'We were in the middle of a story before Zooli arrived. I'm thinking… we should finish that story. Maybe, in order to get our jewels back from the Sea Witch, we need another Guppy to show up and save the day.'

And so, while the fans discussed with themselves about the new song, the Guppies went into the playground and finished that story. I'm sure we all know how it goes - Zooli arrives in the nick of time, handing her own jewel over to the villain while the others question her plans. And, with a little bit of quick thinking, she convinces the Sea Witch to transform into a harmless sea dragon and gets the jewels back, teaching everyone watching what a sea dragon was. Or was that just me?

If they were going to have cool stories like this every day - whether or not she played a major role - Zooli didn't mind the nasty comments so much.

'Are you sure you want to do this, Zooli?'

'Yep! I want the fans to hear from me that I won't be leaving.'

While the other Guppies brainstormed some ideas for the other 25 songs in the fifth album, Zooli had decided that she - personally - wanted to talk to their fans. Not in-person or even live, obviously. She didn't want to risk meeting a fan who took their hatred of her too far, or chatting with someone who was perhaps too opinionated. It was just a simple update video, much like the one announcing her arrival. Except this one was just going to be her and no one.

Mr Grouper took a couple of seconds to set up the camera. 'Alright, it's rolling now! Say whatever you think is necessary.'

Zooli took a deep breath, and began speaking.

'Hi, Bubble Guppies fans. I'm Zooli! Though I'm sure many of you would prefer to think that I don't exist, I'm the newest member of this band. In fact, I think I'm the first Guppy to ever join the band after it was first formed. Which is… quite the honour, now that I think about it! But it's gotten a lot of you angry. I don't just mean that many of you don't like me, which is fine. I mean that many of your comments have been hateful and cruel. And I feel the need to talk about this.

'I'll admit, your comments left me wanting to leave the band at first. I didn't think I could handle such nasty comments being thrown my way. And I know, I know. It's all online. Just walk away from the screen! Yeah, that's not how that works. The entire world is online now, and I can't escape comments like this forever. And even then, knowing that people are saying such things about you can really ruin your mood and kill your self-esteem.

'But, I don't care! It hurts, yes, but I'm not leaving the band like so many of you want. I'm staying right here, in case you couldn't tell by that music video. You guys seemed to like the new song quite a lot, so my inclusion can't be that bad, right?

'Don't get me wrong. You don't have to like me! Opinions are opinions, after all. But I won't be letting that minority of angry fans put me down and make me want to quit. No matter what, I'll have six - no, eight - wonderful friends who will stay by my side no matter what and make sure I'm happy. If it wasn't for them, I might've quit already. But with friends so amazing, I'll be able to get through anything.

'Goodbye, Bubble Guppies fans. I'll see you all next time!'

Now that the video was over, she sighed in relief and sat on the floor. She wasn't sure how the fans would react to this video, and frankly she didn't care. It was over and done with now, and her friends wouldn't let anything bad happen to her.

In fact, now that the video was already finished, she swam back to the rest of her friends and joined in on the conversation.

'We're trying to come up with a rhyme for 'endless streams'.' Gil said.

'Surfing across the waters like a dream?' Deema suggested.

'Nah, that doesn't work.' Goby said. 'It has to be more obviously about geography.'

'Uh…' Zooli said. 'What about something to do with 'trees'? Like palm trees?'

'Oh!' Oona exclaimed. 'That's a great idea! What about… tropical islands with palm trees?'

The seven of them all worked together to work on the next song, titled appropriately as Geography, which was about all the different kinds of areas you could find in the world. Everywhere you looked, there was more to see. So they could learn more about geography. As they all worked together to write this song - for seven brains were certainly better than one - Zooli sighed blissfully.

Watch out, Bubble Guppies fans… there's a new Guppy in town!

THE END

Author Notes - I'll admit, with this story down and the alternative ending to I'm Not Okay nearing completion, I'm not completely certain where to go next on my Bubble Guppies writing adventures. This is by no means a 'I quit' speech (HECK no). At the very least, I'll probably be rewriting and re-releasing some old Bubble Guppies stories of mine I wasn't so proud of.

I'm definitely not leaving. Not yet.