Chapter 2: A Little Problem

Polly had just dragged a war hammer out of the secret rooms and started playing with it in the living room. Just as she was thinking of something evil to do with it, the door opened with Sprig and Anne coming in.

"Hammer?! What hammer!?" Polly said as she threw the hammer out of sight, causing a crash sound.

"Polly, is Hop-Pop still home?" Sprig asked. "We have a uh... little problem."

Anne gave Sprig a mean glare. Fortunately, Hop-Pop just came out of his room.

"I overheard. What did yew two do this time?" Hop-Pop said.

"It's not like that. It's worse." Anne nervously said. "I've... started shrinking!"

"You don't look any smaller to me." Polly commented.

"That's easy for you to say!" Anne shouted.

"Actually, Polly's right ,Anne. Yew really don't look like you've shrunken at all." Hop-Pop said.

Then as if fate wanted to prove Hop-Pop wrong, Anne shrunk again right in front of him and the kids. She was now approximately the height of a toad and Hop-Pop was flabbergasted.

"See!?" Anne said in panic mode.

*GASP!* "Do it again!" Polly said. "I wanna see you get tiny!"

"This isn't funny, Polly." Sprig said. "We were just buying treats at the Grub-and-Go and it just happened."

"Please tell me you have an idea what's going on!" Anne begged on her knees while holding the front of Hop-Pop's coat. "Am I cursed again?!"

"Dang it, Anne! We're not gonna get anywhere if yew keep panicking like that!" Hop-Pop said.

"You're right. I'm sorry." Anne let go of Hop-Pop and got up to sit on the couch with her hands gripping her hair. "I'm just really scared."

The Plantars sat down with Anne to comfort her.

"Come on, Anne." Sprig said. "We've been through this kind of stuff before and changed back. Why should this be any different."

"That... is actually a good point." Anne realized. "Thanks Sprig."

"Now that you're more relaxed, this does look like another curse." Hop-Pop said. "In which case, you're gonna need Maddie again. Sprig, Polly, keep an eye on Anne until I get back."

"Can this wait until she's smaller than me?" Polly asked.

"Polly!" the other three said.

"Aah, you're no fun."

Hop-Pop left the house to find Maddie as soon as possible. Sprig, Anne, and Polly continued sitting on the couch, unsure of how to spend the time
waiting.

"You know now that I think about it, maybe it won't be all bad if I get tiny." Anne said.

"What do you mean?" Polly asked.

"Well sometimes the shows my friends and I watch would have an episode where someone gets shrunk and has a big adventure. I can just imagine how Sasha and Marcy would react if it happened to them."

Anne then imagines that exact situation with her friends the size of earth ants.

"AAAHHH! I've been shrunk!" Sasha would probably say.

"Ooooh! It's like we're in a world of giants!" Marcy would definitely say.

Anne came back to reality and waited to hear if Sprig and Polly had anything to say.

"I still hope you get smaller than me." Polly said.

"And I'm still big enough to get you for that." Anne replied.

"You'll never take me alive! Hahahaha!" Polly bounced away from the couch.

Anne got up and started chasing the little polliwog around the house while laughing. Sprig joined in shortly after, trying to get his sister with his tongue. They ran through the living room, the kitchen, and up the stairs into Sprig's room. Sprig then tongued his window shut right before Polly could escape, leaving her vulnerable for a couple seconds. Anne then caught Polly in the middle of a bounce and cheered victoriously.

"Woohoo! I just took you alive!"

Her moment of triumph was cut short when she shrunk again. Now she stood in-between the heights of a toad and a frog.

"Not again." she whined.

"Kids! I'm back!" Hop-Pop called from downstairs.

"That was fast." Sprig commented.

The kids hurried back to the living room where Hop-Pop and Maddie waited.

"Luckily, Maddie was closer by than I thought." Hop-Pop said. "And I see it happened again."

"How interesting." Maddie said while examining Anne. "And this recently started happening?"

"Yeah." Anne replied. "How bad is it?"

"Will Anne get tiny?" Polly asked with hope.

Maddie checked random parts of Anne, mixed some stuff in a bowl like last time, and threw it at the ground. But this time, nothing happened.

"Well whatever's going on, it's unlike any curse I've seen before." she said. "I can't even track whoever did this."

"Alright, but can you fix this?" Anne asked.

Suddenly she shrunk once more, now around the height of Hop-Pop.

"I'm gonna have to look through my books to figure this out." Maddie answered. "But it might take a while, especially if I have to make any bakery deliveries for my Dad. I'll get started right away."

She bid the family farewell and left the house.

"So, Anne, do you wanna watch one of your shows?" Sprig asked. "Those always make you happy."

Anne didn't say anything. She just went outside. For a while, she simply sat next to the fence, trying to forget about her worries with her phone.
Unfortunately, seeing her hands holding the currently bigger phone didn't help. Frustrated, she threw the phone at the ground and hugged her legs. Sprig and Polly then came out to see how she was doing.

"Hop-Pop said we should leave her alone." Polly said.

"I don't care. Anne needs us." Sprig walked over to where his best friend sat.

"Hey, Sprig." Anne glumly said.

"So uh, feel any better?" Sprig asked as he picked up Anne's phone.

"No and I doubt anything you say can help right now." Anne got up and put a hand on Sprig's shoulder. "But thanks anyway."

Then for the fifth time, Anne shrunk. She placed her hand over Sprig's head, and then her own.

"Oh my gosh! We're the same height now!."

For once Anne was amused by her loss of size and even started laughing at herself. Sprig and Polly ended up laughing too. The laughter stopped when they heard a squawk from above. Anne, Sprig, and Polly looked up and saw a bird. It wasn't really that big, but Anne's fears of getting eaten had recently increased so much that the bird might as well be bigger than a mountain.

"AHHHHH!" Anne screamed and ran for the basement doors outside of the house.

"Anne, wait!" Sprig called, chasing Anne with Polly close behind.

Anne opened and shut the doors in a quick second. After tying the door handles with her bed sheets, she got onto her bed and lied on her side in a fetal position more frightened than ever.