Chapter 6: More Trouble
Sprig, Anne, and Polly were back in the center of town relaxing from the chicken-beast chase. And yet Sprig was still being a smart aleck about Anne and Herb.
"I wonder which sounds better." he teased. "Annerb or Herbanne?"
"Would you stop it already?" Anne said.
"I think you two would make a nice couple." Polly joined in.
"That's enough!" Anne yelled. "The last thing I need right now is more problems!"
"Excuse me, children." said a green adult frog whom they all knew to be the local medicine frog.
"Oh hi, Dr. Bogg." Sprig said. "How's it going?"
"I heard that your friend Anne is sick. Is that true?"
Anne and Sprig instantly knew where that question was going, but before they could say anything, Polly beat them to it with a simple "Yes."
"Oh good. Sort of. Now I can repay her for all that she's done by helping her recover in person."
"Wait!" Anne said. "Are you sure you want to treat a human with maybe a highly contagious disease that you probably never even heard of?"
"Of course I do. besides, how else can we know how serious it might be." Dr. Bogg then walked off to the Plantar residence.
Sprig and Anne glared at Polly who merely said "Oops."
"We have to get home and trick him somehow!" Anne said.
"Come on! I know a shortcut." Sprig picked up Polly and led Anne to a path she couldn't take before.
As soon as they reached the edge of town, they leapt to a rooftop, then to the nearest tree branch, and up to almost the top of the forest. From there they quickly hopped from branch to branch without any trouble. In a matter of minutes, they were out of the woods and able to see the farm.
"You never told me you had that option." Anne said as they got back to the ground and rushed home.
"I only use that for emergencies so the predators don't catch on." Sprig explained.
They made it to the house, opened the door, and got inside before slamming it shut.
"What in frog's name is going on?" Hop-Pop asked.
"We've got a new problem, Hop-Pop." Sprig said.
"Dr. Bogg is coming to give me a checkup!" Anne said.
"Don't any of yew worry." Hop-Pop assured. "I've been coming up with a plan since last night just in case."
Twenty-five minutes later, Dr. Bogg came to the front door of the Plantar residence and knocked. The door was answered by Hop-Pop.
"Hello, Dr. Bogg. What brings yew over?" he asked.
"I heard that Anne was sick and wanted to see if I could help her recover." Dr. Bogg explained.
"Well I've already done all I could." Hop-Pop said. "Maybe letting yew see her will have better results. Come on in."
Dr. Bogg came into the living room while Hop-Pop closed the front door and opened the basement door. They descended the stairs and stopped a few feet from the bed in which lied someone who shouldn't be Anne, but looked like her. She was the right body length under the sheet and her hair that was sticking out was brown and messy enough.
"Hello, Anne. It's me, Dr. Bogg. I came to see how you were doing."
The head end of the sheet slowly moved out of the way and revealed... Anne's human face? Not only that, but her nose was red and she looked awful.
"Hi, Doc." Anne weakly said. "I've been better."
"If it's all right with you, I'd like to see if I can help at all."
"Sure. *Cough* Go ahead."
"Now what do you call this disease?"
"The mocha lattes."
"Are they contagious?"
"No."
Dr. Bogg pulled out his stethoscope and checked her heartbeat. It seemed normal.
"Well your heartbeat is just fine, which means they aren't going to kill you."
Then he checked her temperature with a thermometer and noticed something odd about her skin.(Even for her.)
"Wow. Your temperature is higher than I thought. And your face looks like it's about to fall off. Now let's see your tongue."
Anne hesitated, but she nervously opened her mouth. Her tongue was still that of a frog.
"Fascinating. I didn't think your species had tongues like ours."
After a couple more medical steps, Dr. Bogg was done.
"Well, Mr. Plantar, her mocha lattes are not as bad as I originally expected, but here's something to help Anne get better sooner." he handed Hop-Pop a bag of specially made herbs. "Take care, Anne."
He left the house and then the house in general. Once Hop-Pop knew for sure that he was gone, he said "Okay, the coast is clear."
Anne threw the sheet off, revealing her frog body and Sprig underneath. Polly rolled out from under the bed with a butcher knife and a disappointed look on her face.
"Aw, I was hoping he'd find out so I could threaten him." she whined.
"I'm just glad that's over." Sprig said. "It was hard to breathe under there."
"Well at least you didn't have to break a promise you made." Anne said as she pulled off what turned out to be a mask and coughed some red smoke. "Or eat one of those pain peppers. I still can't believe you made such a good mask, H.P. Thanks."
"No problem, Anne." Hop-Pop replied. "It's a good thing you told me what human diseases are really like. But just to be safe, maybe yew should spend the rest of the day indoors."
"I think that's a good idea." Anne said.
After Anne got her hair in a ponytail again, they all went upstairs to relax. Anne played with her phone, Sprig and Polly played a board game, and Hop-Pop went to his room to work on a model ship. Then a few minutes later, there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it." Anne went and answered the door.
She was however surprised by who had come over. It was Herb hiding something behind his back. Sprig and Polly saw him, but Anne quickly stepped outside and closed the door.
"Hello, Herb. What are you doing here?" Anne nervously asked.
"Well you see, Fran..." Herb struggled a little to speak. "I know we only just met today... but I was... wondering... if maybe... we could get to
know each other better tonight."
"Wait, as in a date?"
"Please?" Herb revealed a bouquet of mushrooms and gave it to her.
Anne didn't want to date anyone, but she didn't want to be rude either. So she made an excuse to avoid this awkward date.
"Just let me check with my parents first." she said.
"That won't be necessary." Sprig said from the window with a smirk.
"Yeah. They both overheard and said you could." Polly snickered.
"What!?" Anne cried out.
"Great. I'll see you tonight at Stumpy's." Herb happily hopped away.
Anne then gave Sprig and Polly a piece of her mind.
"Now look what you've done, you little eavesdroppers!" she ranted. "Was what I did really that bad for you, Sprig!?"
"We were just having a little fun." Sprig said. "I'm sorry, Anne."
"I'm not." Polly said.
"We will make it up to you after helping you get ready for the date."
"Alright, but don't let Hop-Pop know about this."
Anne returned indoors to prepare for what could be a miserable night for her.