The Flower of Attraction
WARNING!
This chapter contains elements of:
mind-affecting pheromones;
love-inducing smell;
mental influence;
acting crazy under influence.
To respect both Amphibia's characters and fans, we examined the mentioned events to make sure no appropriate content is shown. Thus, this episode is to be considered SFW, unless you consider the act of "k-i-s-s-i-n-g" NSFW. If you share this opinion, we suggested you turn off the device you are reading this fanfic with, or to just ignore it and read the chapter before or after this.
We thank you for your time and wish you a good continuation of this show.
Once upon a time, there was a boy called Jacob, who liked Tabletop Role-Playing Games where he pretends to be an orc soldier in a company of adventurers. Every day he would go into adventure, fighting vicious creatures and dangerous enemies in order to make enough coins for his next adventure. His good skills and luck allowing him to rise to the rank of "Adventurer of First Class" alongside his friends.
Until the day the dream came true, and he ended up with a bunch of friends in a world inhabited by talking frogs, and where adventurer was a legitimate job. And he found out the hard way that being an adventurer was not a good career, if you were a newbie.
First, you had to be ready to put your life on the line every day as you ventured into the wilderness; you had to be wary of everything happening around you; you had to be sure how to find the road back home; you had to always be ready for everything that could happen. Last but not least, you had to know where to find something worthy, that you could gather and sell for a decent retribution.
"Remind me, cousin: what are we doing?" Amelia called out for him, a few steps behind him. In truth, Jacob didn't want to bring her with him, but as Marcy herself stated the day they almost got lost into the forest, "no one should leave the farm or go into the forest unaccompanied".
Jacob didn't refute that; but he wished he could have brought Anne or Marcy rather than…her.
"We are doing explorations, Amelia," the boy stashed his phone, "Looking for things we can gather and sell back for a profit!"
"I guess your new gig as an adventurer is not a bed of roses, huh?"
"Harsh but true: Loggle wanted to to hire me, but there aren't a lot of valuable items in Wartwood."
"Considering you are bringing his shop back from bankruptcy, I was expecting he would give you a little more consideration."
Jacob grunted, kicking a rock. Loggle did pay several coppers to him every time he brought something interesting, and he introduced him to several other shopkeepers in Wartwood willing to hire him. Yet, nothing could make him forget that Loggle was the one who gained the most from the whole thing.
"Well, let's put this way" the boy smirked, trying to hold back the thoughts, "Now we have an excuse to go into the forest and fight large critters for fun and profit."
"You're seriously willing to share your bounty with me?" Amelia poked her tongue out.
"Who said about mine? Everyone's responsible for their own expenses and earning: if you want to get paid, you'd better find something worthwhile!"
"Cheapstake!"
"Freeloader!"
The two kids quarreled amicably for a little while, before settling down. Amelia looked above, to the still-cloudy sky, and grimaced.
"You think it will rain again? Yesterday's rainstorm was quite terrible. Especially for James."
"Hey, he's the one who wanted to star-gazing until late, wasn't he? It's not our fault he fell asleep and now's coming down with a cold!"
"You could have gone and fetch him when the rainstorm started."
"I was already going to bed: why didn't you go?"
"Thank you, but I have no intention of getting a cold too. A samurai do not get cold!"
Amelia looked away, unaware of the vine on the ground, nearby her foot, and she ended up falling down through a steep path without handles.
"Amelia!" Jacob screamed, as she noticed her cousin fall down. Wow, I guess spending so much time around Marcy is starting to affect your walking too.
A plunge sound led Jacob a large hole, filled with water from last night rain. There, Amelia tried to stand on her feet, only to fail due to the slipperiness of the hole's edges.
"I appreciate your attempt to integrate in this world, Amelia, but I don't think this is the correct way to become a proper frog."
"Shut up and help me get out!" His cousin replied, "I'm all wet and covered in slime!"
"Ok, ok, I guess I have to save you. Again."
"Jacob!"
The boy laughed, using his own quarterstaff to pull Amelia, helping her out of the drain hole. However, he soon found another reason to laugh as Amelia violently sneezed.
"Oh, no!"
"Hah! Now you have a cold too! I guess samurai can get colds, after all, huh?" the boy laughed, taking a couple of steps back.
However, karma has to go both ways.
While Jacob was so busy laughing at her cousin's expense, he failed to notice the large yellow flower, tall as a tree, partially hidden by leaves and bushes Thus, when he didn't see the plant's large stem and hit it with his back, the flower shook for a second before dropping the entire contents of its corolla into him.
"Agh!" the boy jerked, as he was covered head to toe by a slimy, purple substance similar to icing, "What the frog is this thing?"
"Looks like I'm not the only one who should pay more attention to their feet," Amelia laughed as she saw that the score was now even, "By the way, Jacob, you stink. Literally, now."
"Wha-" he tried to smell the gunk that was covering him, "Oh, frog."
"Ok, the test was a success!" Marcy gleamed as her newest invention worked, as she was hoping. "The zapapede-powered fence is now a reality!"
"Huh, Marbles, can you remind me what is this supposed to do?"
"Sure thing, Anna-Banana! You see, this fence is designed to protect the farm crops from any critter or pest that endangers them; this, coupled with the other invention I worked on yesterday-"
"You mean the horn-sound that allows us to scare the smaller pest whenever they get too close?"
"Yup! With both of them working, I think the farm's crop are now safe and protected."
To Anne's side, the Plantars looked with glee at the latest innovation that Marcy brought to the farm. Hop Pop, in peculiar, looked star-struck, his eyes widened, his mouth unable to generate cohesive talking.
"This-this is amazing!" Sprig looked all over the fence surrounding the farm, now protecting it from any creatures that until then he had to fight in first person, "Does this mean we no longer have to remove the pest by hand?"
"Affirmative, Spriggy! Sure, it's still not a perfect defense, but don't worry: I have more side projects on the work!"
"So what other wonder are you going to do next, Genius Marcy?" Polly gleamed, happy for all the hard work the girls' innovation kept making easier and lighter.
"Well, I am thinking of a greenhouse cover to keep the crops warm even-" her words were cut short by an old frog hugging her to the waist.
"Where have you been my whole life?!" Hop Pop said, among many happy sobs, "You started working on upgrading the farm in just a few days, and you did all of this already!"
Back to the spot where she was currently sitting and looking at her phone, Sasha snickered. The old frog may have been happy, but his words now sounded totally hypocritically.
"She could have started way earlier, if you had read her suggestions instead of burning them into that barrel-covered fire pit of yours!"
"Sash!"
"What? It's true, Marbles! You forgot how distraught you were when you found out this guy had burned all your ideas so far? You forgot how many tears you shed? Because I can assure you I haven't!"
"Sash," she started to reply, before Hop Pop stopped her.
"There is no need. You're right, Sasha, and while you could have said it in a more gentle way, I realize by now how wrong my assumptions were. I had no right to refuse all ideas without even checking on them, and no one was more heartbroken than me when I saw Marcy cry."
"Hey, I didn't cry that much-"
"Anyway, I'm happy to have this second chance to make amends, and judging by what Marcy gifted us so far, I think I'm no more going to discharge suggestions arbitrary in my life."
Sasha looked at Hop Pop. She still remembered the pain in Marcy eyes, and yet, she decided to not press further. Maybe because she, like him, was happy for all the inventions and things Marcy was building to make their lives easier and more comfortable.
"Fine." The blonde girl said, before looking at Marcy, "But if he ever makes you cry again-"
"He won't!" Marcy hurried to reply, "Besides, I've learned now to make two copies of any project I make, and leave one with Anne for such contingencies. Isn't that right, Anna-Banana?"
Marcy turned around, only to notice Anne was no more at her side. Instead, she was sitting on a log, a couple of meters from them, and was looking afar, holding her heads among her hands.
"Anna-Banana?" Marcy said, walking to her. Even Sasha, from the spot where she was sitting, suddenly became alert as she noticed Anne sitting motionless, without making a sound.
"Everything ok?"
"I'm ok, Sprig," the Thai-American girl replied, but from both her expression and the tone of voice she was using, it was clear she was all but ok.
"You don't sound very ok."
"I said I'm ok." she replied, with time accentuating on her tone.
"Are you really-"
"I said I'm ok!" Anne roared, making Marcy and the Plantars take a step back out of surprise, "Ok, fine, I admit it: I'm not ok! I'm not ok at all!"
Sasha, hearing Anne roar with so much repressed rage and frustration, quickly jumped on her feet and walked to Marcy's side.
"The truth is, I'm jealous!" Anne admitted, "And I'm jealous of you!"
"Me?" Marcy recoiled, her mind spinning to the sudden revelation of her friend, "You are jealous…of me? But, why?"
"Why?" Anne asked rhetorically, almost as her own words were hurting her, "Because you're smart, and I'm not. You remember how it was at school? Every test, you always got A plus, you were always such a fast learner, you were so enthusiastic into having new things to study, and now that we are here, you have done so much in so little time. Look around! How many inventions and ideas have you added to the farm? The zapapede-powered electric fence; the water channel system; the weed-pullers; the magic super-fertilizer; the wheeled plough to taper the soil; a dip well that automatically refills itself every day; the-"
Sasha and Marcy, together with the Plantars, stood silently as Anne kept pointing and referring every invention Marcy had ever worked on for the farm up to that moment. Sasha looked at Marbles, and saw a single tear fall down from her eye.
"Meanwhile, what inventions did I add for the farm? What genius breakthrough did I brought? Nothing! Because no matter what I try, I can never be as smart as you!" She looked down, tears running down her cheeks and into the ground.
"Anne," Marcy said, putting her hands on her friend's shoulder, "Would you believe me if I told you that I was jealous of you all along?"
"What?" Anne asked, turning to face her, "What could you ever be jealous of mine? You're the smart one-"
"But you're the ones with the best social skills!" Marcy vented out in turn, "You always get along so well with people. Everyone who meets you starts liking you the second you present yourself, you were always invited at every event, always welcome at any house! Sure, I am good at memorize books and making projects, but you are amazing at making connections! Me? I have trouble looking people in the eye sometimes."
Anne looked at Marcy, seeing her expression and feeling her emotions. Even Sasha, while she was not actively involved, could feel the emotional turnabout in her.
"You – you think this? For real?"
"Sure I do, Anna-Banana! Besides, I may have planned them, but who was the one who went back to the Misty Peaks in order to bring me the zapapedes we needed to power up the fence?"
"Technically, I wasn't alone. Jacob and Amelia helped me."
"And who dug the water canals exactly as I wrote down on paper?"
"Well-"
"And actually helped me build and test the weed-puller to check and fix any issue it had?"
"Ok-"
"And who actually watch over me constantly every time I risk tripping somewhere or end up in a bad situation?"
"Hey!"
"And, every day since we became friends, who actually risked her own life several times just to protect me?"
"Mar-Mar." Anne said, newly formed tears forming in her eyes, out of joy.
"Face it, girlfriends" Sasha smirked, walking into them, "You're a brainiac, you're a socialite queen, and I'm a leader. This is the best part of being friends: we complete each other."
The girls hugged, as Hop Pop and Sprig simply smiled for the emotional warmth of the moment, while Polly simply looked away. At least, until the door of the farm opened with a sneeze.
"Girls?" James said, a humid handkerchief in his hand, "Do you have more of those salts for me to nuzzle? I feel like my headache is coming back-"
"James!" Hop Pop looked at him with a stern but worried expression, "I told you to stay in bed and rest!"
"Sorry, Hop Pop," he stopped to sneeze one more time. "But it keeps getting worse. I feel like I'm turning into a zombie."
"What is a zombie?" Sprig promptly asked.
"It's the name of a monster from our world." Marcy promptly replied, "Basically, a zombie is a human infected with a virus that makes them into a creature with slow and clumsy movement; remove their ability to talk; make them want to eat other creatures alive-" she stopped, as she realized that the Plantars were looking at here with a scared look. "Of course, such creatures do not exist for real, they're just a fantasy."
"But James-"
"He means that he feel brainless like one of such creatures!" Sasha came to support her, "Come on, guys! At least you should stop seeing us as monsters!"
"You're right, I guess," Sprig said, as he looked around, "By the way, anyone has any idea when Amelia and Jacob are going to return?"
"I don't know, and I don't care." Sasha proudly said, returning to her sitting place, "Every minute we can spend without the wannabe samurai, for me, is-"
"I'm baaack!" a younger female voice announced, and a petite girl wearing a cone hat and a wooden katana on her side walked out of the forest. Sasha grimaced instantly.
"Frog, I summoned her."
"Amelia!" Marcy and Anne walked toward her, "Everything ok? Why are you all wet?"
"Nothing serious: I just fell into a pit of leftover water from yesterday. Don't worry, I'm-" but before she could complete her sentence, she sneezed.
"Amelia, now you're sick too?" Anne's hand moved to her forehead. Sure enough, she was burning.
"I'm not-" she sneezed again, "I'm not sick! Samurai don't get sick!"
"Well, you surely look sick to both of us."
"Welcome to the club, little sister," James smirked, trying to hold back his cold as well.
"What happened to Jacob? Is he ok?"
"He is," Amelia replied, trying to cover her nose as James (instinctively) passed another handkerchief to her, "Only, during the trip he got soaked with the liquid of a large flower, and now he's got the smell of it. He was trying to get it off."
"Seriously, what's got into that buffoon?" Sasha laughed. "The only person who could be lamer would be a girl capable to fall in love with him. Oh, here is he."
Jacob was now walking out of the woods from the same path Amelia had walked, his long quarterstaff on his back, as he tried to suppress the smell with sheer willpower. To no avail: by now, he was so infused by the flower's smell that even trying to cover his nose and breath with the mouth was not enough.
"Jacob!" Sprig said as he approached, "I guess you had a close encounter with Amphibian's wilderness, didn't you?"
"Please, shut up!" The boy replied, "I tried three times already to remove this smell off me, and it doesn't work!"
"Hey, you were the one who wanted to go exploring today, weren't you?" Sasha chuckled, "Jacob, you can be so…"
However, her words stopped once the smell of the flower, coming from Jacob's clothes and hairs, reached her nostrils. Suddenly, Jacob looked …amazing. She had known him for years, and yet, only now she could see how he was attractive, and handsome, and beautiful and… amazing.
"Jacob," Sasha said in a dreamy voice, as her pupils suddenly turned pinkish, "Did I ever tell you that you're gorgeous?"
"Uh – what?" Jacob asked, caught by surprise by the sudden event. He knew Sasha, and knew what she liked, and what not. Under no condition, Sasha would ever call him "gorgeous".
"What."
"Sasha?"
"Sash, what are you doing?"
"Huh?"
The surprise of the boy was not alone, as every one of those presents looked with shocked expression as Sasha was putting her hand on the boy's shirt and looking at him with a dreamy, somehow romantic expression.
"I wonder why I never noticed this before. Would you like to go somewhere? It's a date…"
"A date?!" Jacob almost jumped out of surprise. Ok, something was definitively wrong here!
"Marbles, what happened to Sasha? And why she's acting like she fell in love with Jacob all of a sudden?"
"I have no idea, Anna-Banana, but surely-"
A gust of wind brought an unfamiliar smell to their noses, and suddenly they felt like they had just gone through a life-changing event. Until a few seconds before, they simply thought of Jacob as a fun-loving, but still annoying and reprobate friend, but now…he looked wonderful.
All of a sudden, they could see why Sasha was so interested in Jacob: better yet, they wanted in.
"-surely we can't leave Sasha to have all of him, don't you think, Anna-Banana?"
"You took the words right off my mouth, Mar-Mar!"
"Anne? You too?!" Sprig exclaimed in shock, as Anne and Marcy rushed to surround Jacob.
"How about spending more time with us, Jay-Jay?"
"Jay-Jay?" Jacob asked with astonishment, hearing Anne making up a nickname just for him.
"Please, Jacob," this one was Marcy, "Don't you want to spend time with a very cute girl?"
"Ok, what the frog is happening?" Polly said, turning toward Amelia and James, "Is this a human thing?"
"This is-" James stopped for a second as she sneezed, before resuming, "This is absolutely not a human thing."
"What the frog?" Amelia jumped forward, anger shining in her eyes, "Since when my idiotic cousin became the protagonist of an otome?!"
"What's an otome, Amelia?"
"I can't explain now, Sprig. Moreover, I have a more urgent question; since when the girl's pupils are pink?"
Jacob "gently" tried to push the girls away, and yet they kept buzzing around him, love-struck, as himself felt horrified. Maybe, because the idea of Sasha (and her friends) romancing him sounded so wrong in too many levels.
"Amelia, James" the boy waved at them, "A little help, please?"
A few minutes later, everyone was back into the living room of the farm. Jacob was sitting on the couch, while the girls surrounded him on all sides (Sasha to his left, Marcy to his right and Anne hugging him from the back), massaging his shoulders, passing the hands through his hair and looking at his face without ever stopping. While the girls simply didn't appear to mind, Jacob felt increasingly uncomfortable and weirded out by the uncharacteristic behavior of theirs.
Sitting to their left, there were James and Amelia, both of them still suffering from their respective colds, and thus with some hot blankets covering them and with their handkerchiefs close by. Amelia was weirded out by the girls' sudden turn of character, but her attempts to "free" them had resulted in Sasha, Anne and Marcy fending her off, destroying any hope (albeit slimy) Jacob had for an early liberation. Meanwhile, James was analyzing the situation from a more scientific point of view, as he focused on the girl's unnatural color in their pupils.
Last, Sprig and Polly were sitting in front of the couch, waiting for Hop Pop to return from his study. Sprig kept looking at Anne with a worried expression, while Polly simply tried not to look at such display of femininity.
"Here I am!" Hop Pop announced, walking back to the room with a large book in his hands, "So, Amelia: you told me the flower who drenched Jacob was yellow, right?"
"Yellow, and tall as a tree, yes!"
"And Jacob, the liquid in his corolla you were drenched into…what color was it?"
"It was purple and slimy," the boy said, unable to move due to the girls hugging on him at the same time, "And it smelled stingy. I tried to remove it, but I failed every time."
"Here is it!" the old frog said, opening the book to a certain page and showing it to the kids, "This one is the Yellow Arum Flowtree, a flower who is known to grow as big as some trees, and whose corolla is able to turn the raining water into a slimy, purple substance."
"It's the same flower!" Amelia gasped, before sneezing again.
"Hey, this one wasn't in the lessons you gave us!" James commented, as he checked the image on the book "Why-" he sneezed again, "Why you didn't talk about it to us before, Hop Pop?"
"Because this flower, while big, was supposed to be safe and harmless," was the old frog's reply, "I mean, sometimes some frogs still get drenched by it, but that's it. It smells a little, but is not supposed to have any other contraindications."
"But then, why it has such an effect on the girls," he pointed at Sasha, Anne and Marcy, "but didn't affect Amelia or me? Or anyone of you?"
"That's what I would like to know as well."
"Well," Amelia said, trying to control her own cold. "I know a person who could help us with that. The problem is…" she looked at Marcy, "I don't think she's in the best shape to help us."
Jacob shrugged. If this had happened to himself or Amelia, and not to Marbles, she would have guessed the reason already. Unfortunately, they didn't have a spare Marcy for-
Wait, maybe her intelligence is still there, no? I just need to figure out a way to access it.
"Huh, Marcy?"
"Yes, dreamy boy?" the girl replied, purring on his side. Silently, the boy tried to repress his own abhorrence of the situation.
"I was thinking…I do love girls who can help my friends understand things" she blinked once, sharing a complicit look with James and Amelia, "And I'd say…I like when you can explain things in such a smart way."
Marcy's eye pink glowed for a second as she smiled, her baseline enthusiasm now over-boosted by the flower's smell on Jacob and the effect it had on her. "Sure thing! What can I do for you, love?"
"Can you, huh, help us guess why the smell of this flower has a…peculiar effect on you, Anne Banana and Sashy? And why it doesn't appear to work on James, Amelia or the Plantars?"
"That's easy! The reason why probably this flower was considered harmless, it is because its perfume probably works as pheromone, but frogs and toads do not have noses like us that would make them vulnerable to its effect. Nevertheless, we are humans, mammals, and it works differently for us. Not that I dislike loving someone good-looking as you-"
"Ok, ok!" The boy stopped her before she could push the issue further, "But then, what about Amelia and James? They're not under the effect like you!"
"I guess it doesn't work unless you breathe it by your nose," Marcy purred. "And since both of them have a cold and can't breathe normally-"
"Wait!" Hop Pop jerked up, realizing the issue, "You mean the reason why both of them are not suffering the effects of the flower's smell - is that they got a stuffy nose?"
Immediately hearing this, James and Amelia looked at the warm blankest covering them, and threw them into the ground.
"So, I guess this gives us an idea of what is happening," Sprig murmured, before looking at his grandfather, "Any idea of how longer the effect of the smell last, Hop Pop?"
"Well, if the smell itself is a good marker, it should dissolve itself in…one month, more or less."
"What? We can't leave them like this for a whole month!"
"Neither can I survive this long!" Jacob protested, unwilling to accept the idea of being the girls' plush toy for a month.
"And neither can-," James said, before sneezing again, "Neither can Amelia nor myself keep a cold for a whole month. But if we get better, then the smell effect take us too-"
"No way!" Amelia roared, feeling disgusted by the idea alone. "This is no Beverly Hillbillies, and I'm surely not going after my own cousin! The idea alone makes me want to puke."
"Same here! Now, the question is, is there some way to remove this smell faster?"
"Well, that's the thing" Hop Pop said, checking his book, "No remedy is listed. Since the smell is not too bad, it's quite easier to wait for a month for it to wear off by itself. Plus, it's quite an uncommon flower-"
"Come on, guys!" James grumbled, "There must be someone who can help us! I don't know, someone who has experience with smell, or substances, or-"
"James, you got it!" Sprig jumped into him, "We can ask Maddie! She's the most knowledgeable person I know about magic and dark arts; she's got to have something that can help us!"
"That's not a bad idea!" Amelia smiled, "Plus, she and Marcy are close friends, aren't they? And Marbles asked me previously to take care of her sisters and train them as mine disciples."
"Is that why you're scribbling down a training program and watching all the anime on your phone?"
"Hey, this is not the point, you Tommy! The point is, we can ask Maddie for help, at least to help Marcy!"
"You want me to draw you, my lovely male main character?"
"Marbles, please. You are scaring me now-"
A trip to the Flour's home and shop later, Maddie was now at the farm, and examining the girls with a worried, anxious look. It wasn't necessary much to convince her: as soon as Sprig told her "Marcy has been affected-" she rushed to the rescue, without need for the frog boy to finish explaining the situation.
"So…" Jacob asked, while Marcy, Anne and Sasha grew even more attached to his arms, "What is the diagnosis?"
"Nothing good," the young witch replied, in her usual tone of voice, "Whatever this smell does to you humans, is making them grow more and more attached to it. In theory, the effect could be limited if we get them far enough from you; and yet-"
Jacob sighed. They had tried, earlier, to get the girls as far from him as possible, without success. The fact that the girls grew aggressive every time someone tried to detach them from him didn't help. Like, at all.
"I guess we're back to square one." Amelia grumbled, trying to hold off her sneezes, "To turn it off, we have to stop the smell, and we don't know how."
"Wait!" Maddie said, a strange expression growing into her face, "Maybe I do know something that could help us."
"Oh, yeah? And what is it?"
"There is a spell I know, it's called the "Scent Neutralizer". It is now foremost used as a cleaning spell, but it should completely remove any trace of the smell and thus break the effect the girls are currently experiencing."
"It's exactly what we need!" Sprig jumped forward, "Prepare the spell and use it on Jacob!"
"Yes, please!" The boy pleaded out, "Do it now!"
"Sorry, but I can't." Maddie replied instantly, crushing their hopes, "This is a spell no one ever ask me for, thus I do not have one ready."
"But you can prepare it, right?" Polly asked, "I mean, according to Marcy, you're the most knowledgeable frog when it comes to magic in Wartwood!"
Maddie grimaced, hearing the indirect compliment about her coming out of Polly's mouth, "Well, I could try to prepare, but I'd still need the specific ingredients."
"Then let me-" Amelia jerked up, stopping a second for another sneeze before resuming, "Let me go! Even if this blasted cold is protecting me, I do not want to stay too close to Jacob while he's like this!"
"No, Amelia!" Hop Pop immediately protested, "You're too sick to go in the forest, especially alone!"
"She won't be," James got up in turn, "I'm going with her."
"What."
"Even if I don't particularly like the idea of going on another wild adventure with you, after what happened last time," the boy grimaced, remembering the humongous skunk, "Marcy, Anne and Sasha are my friends now too, and so is Jacob. And I'm not going to let them pamper Jacob for a month."
"Geez, it's not like I'm enjoying this!" the other only male human replied, "To tell the truth, I want this to end as much as you do."
"I thought it was the secret dream of every boy to have three beautiful girls in love with him, Jacob."
"Ok, Amelia: first, that's a stupid cliché males are not always running behind girls, just like not all girls wielding katana are legitimate samurai!"
"Ouch, that burns." James chuckled.
"Second, Sasha, Anne and Marcy are my friends. We have been since we were young, and while I may not know them as well as they know each other, I still do care for them. And I do not like the idea that a stupid flower smell is making them act this way!"
"But we want to be more than just friends."
"Duh, what's the issue if we're mind-controlled or not? I don't care!"
"Third, it's been since this thing started that they are holding on me like a plushy or a teddy bear: not only this completely goes against my image as school rebel and cool lonesome kid, but my arms and back are quite sore! Last, they're not genuinely loving me: they're just acting like this because that flower smell forces them to! James, if you were in my place, would you take advantage of the situation?"
"Of course I wouldn't. If there is-" sneeze "- If there is a thing Doctor Zone taught me, it's that taking advantage of strange substances affecting your friend's minds and wisdom is a recipe for disaster!"
"Then it is settled. James, Amelia, you come with me and help gather what we need. Sprig, you and your family can prepare a couple of things for when we return?"
"Sure, Maddie! What do you need?"
"Just a cauldron large enough, a couple of fire-resistant spoons and a couple of things I already have home. Ask my dad, he'll let you gather them."
"And what about me?" Jacob asked, struggling to move, of course failing due to the three girls attached to him, "I mean, are you sure- oh-oh."
"Oh-oh what?"
"Huh, nothing Amelia."
"Don't nothing me, cousin! You don't go "oh-oh!" for nothing!"
"Amelia?" James patted on her shoulder, pointing at the girls.
When she saw it, Amelia almost felt her heart jumping. The girls 'eyes were not only pink now (and that was already enough freaking to her) but their pupils now resembled heart symbols, their faces frozen into a love-struck expression. Jacob had noticed it, as now the girls were holding on him even more tightly and firmly, making him feel pain to his arms and torso.
"Frog! What's happening to them?"
"Must be the effect of the continuous exposition to the smell," Maddie declared, "We have to move now, before they become so possessive of him that they tear him into pieces just to keep a part of him forever."
"Tear me into what?"
"We are running out of time!" Hop Pop realized, "You three, goes fetch everything Maddie needs for that spell. We'll stay here to prepare the equipment and to check if the girls' don't end up doing something extreme."
"Please, Amelia, be fast!"
"Don't doubt me, cousin. Even if you're a blockhead, I'm not leaving my friends in such a state. We'll be back, dead or alive!"
"I, for one, would prefer to return alive…" the British kid replied.
"Ok, Maddie, what's the first item we need to gather for that spell?"
"We need bark out from a tree that grows in the forests of the Valley, James. It's called the Azure Chestnut."
"Chestnut bark?" Amelia groaned, "How in frog is that supposed to be difficult?"
"You'll see."
"Amelia, I know that you like to play the Lone Samurai type, but being overconfident of your abilities is not going to help us. Remind what happened every time you rushed forward without even planning ahead?"
"I fought large monsters and kicked butts."
"No. You endangered yourself in foolish ways, most of the time endangering the ones who were with you as well. Should I remember us that you ended up is serious danger three times this week alone?"
Amelia didn't reply, but looked aside, and muttered some words.
"あなたの叱責に耳を傾ける必要はないのです。" (I do not need to listen to your rebukes.)
She surely didn't expect for James to react. Nor, for him to reply in kind.
"文句ばかり言って、ご先祖様に恥をかかせているのではありませんか？"(Aren't you shaming your ancestors with your constant complaining?)
Amelia stopped, and looked at him. James replied with a smug smile. Maddie, of course, didn't understand a thing, but she quickly ignored it. The road was still long, and so far, it wasn't involving her.
"You - you speak Japanese?" Amelia squeaked out, unbelieving her own ears, "How?"
"When my parents sent me to study in California, I had a large pool of schools to choose, and many of them offered secondary courses. Thus, I decided to pick up Japanese: I had many fluent schoolmates to train myself, and it gave me the chance to read raw mangas without need for translating."
"Why you didn't tell me before?"
"Because you didn't ask?" The boy replied, unamused, "Moreover, it's funny to see the faces people do when they realize you could understand them being disrespectful behind your back."
Amelia facepalmed, as she realized she was busted. "I'm sorry, I didn't- I know you were just trying to help, but-"
"Let me guess: you're so much used to play the savvy smart relative against Jacob that now you feel everything you do is justified?"
"No! I mean, maybe? Just a little?"
"Amelia," James looked at her with a glaze full of pity, "Since when you can speak Japanese?"
"Just a couple of years," the girl replied, "I found an online app to learn foreign languages, and since I always wanted to learn Japanese on my own, I took some online lesson. I'm still not fluent into it yet."
"I can hear that: you've got some accents wrong, and your speech is not fluent as the one of a student under a regular teacher. Did you ever ask for one?"
"I…would have liked to. Yet, my Aunt said that we cannot afford it, and I did not want Jacob to laugh at me. He's always been dismissive of my passions so far."
"He's been dismissive because you act like you're an expert, while you clearly don't know much. I appreciate your passion for Japanese culture and symbolism, but acting the way you usually do, is more like you're mocking it."
Amelia shrugged, still walking forward, "It's not something I do willingly. I tried to learn by reading and watching videos and such, but - there was so much information. And I end up always confusing it all!"
James looked at her, as Amelia continued to talk, and vent her long-hidden frustration. She had never shown this side of her before, but Jacob's annoying younger cousin had many issues hidden behind her pretentious face.
"Dad often went to Japan for work, and many times I asked him if I could go with him, but he always say no. You're not big enough to take a plane; it takes twelve hours for you to go from Los Angeles to Japan, and every refusal made me even more curious about it. Then, when he started to bring me photo and items from there, my interest skyrocketed, and I tried to learn as much as possible. But Jacob-"
"Did he laugh at your interest? He doesn't seem the person-"
"He didn't laugh at me, if that's what you are asking. However…"
Amelia stopped talking and James, even with no clue of what could have happened between them, realized that Amelia was hurt by it just as much as Jacob was. Yet, neither of them looked like they were interested into keeping the conflict going further: then, why they had not settled it yet?
Jacob, what the frog did you do?
"Girls, girls, please!" The boy said, while Marcy, Anne and Sasha's face were getting closer and closer to his, "I do appreciate your presence, but I do also appreciate breathing. And you're making it quite difficult."
"If you need air, lover boy," Sasha said with a grin empty of her usual skills, "would you like for me to practice mouth-to-mouth? You'll find out my breath smells like strawberries."
"No, let me give my breath for you!" Anne pushed forward, barely stopped by the other girls, "Or would you prefer for a pleasant massage?"
"Anne, since when you can do massages?"
"Oh, J-J, have you forgotten? It's in my blood."
Ok, the real Anne would never say something like that. Is the smell of the flower starting to affect their intelligence too?
"Come on, Jolly boy," now was Marcy's turn, "Why don't you try to be a little more assertive? I thought you liked being the most popular boy at school. What's more popular than having three beautiful girls all for you?"
That was because I like to rebel against oppressive authority, Mar-Mar. And while you might be the most beautiful girls in school, you're not supposed to be a prize to be won. Also, I know that once this thing ends, you'll be ashamed for all day long.
"Girls, I do appreciate your attention, I really do! However, there is a reason why I can't accept your wishes right now."
"And what that would be?" all three jumped forward, almost scaring the boy. I guess I have to sweet-talk it as much as I can.
"Girls, I know that I am handsome," that technically was not a lie, "However I remind you that we are hosts in this house? I mean, this is Hop Pop's house, after all."
"That's right," the old frog confirmed, walking out of the kitchen with a large cauldron, for Maddie to use "And as long as you're under my roof, you're going to follow my rules. And the rules say: no lovey-dovey unless we're outside."
Hop Pop's words were meant to pry on the girl's discipline to try to get them to behave, in an optimist way. Unluckily for him and his family, his choice of words was quite…poor.
"Then, I guess the logical solution is to throw you out, isn't it girls?"
"You're right, Sasha."
"Girls? What are you-"
Too late, as Jacob realized a second later, as all three girls left his side (giving him a long-awaited chance to breath and relax his tired pained arms) and walking toward Hop-Pop, a crazy expression on their faces.
"Hey, what do you want to do?"
"Sorry HP, but nothing can stand between us and our loved one!"
"I'll do anything for him! Anything!"
"You are taking him from us? No one can take him from us!"
"Wait! Stop, stop!"
Hop Pop's pleas, however, fell on deaf ears as the girls grabbed him and threw him out, quickly followed by Sprig and Polly.
"Hey! You can't throw me out of my own house!"
"Anne, it's me Sprig? What are you doing? Let us back!"
"You'll regret this!"
"It's that smell: they're getting more and more possessive the more time they spend around him!" Sprig realized, "Now they can't even accept anyone else close to him!"
"When this thing is over, I'm giving you dish-washing duties for another week!"
"Come on, we have to gather the items Maddie told us! Let's hope they're already making good progress with the ingredients for that spell."
Meanwhile, Maddie, James and Amelia were now in sight of the so-called Azure Chestnut tree: it was a large tree, as tall as some buildings on Earth were, with spiky azure leaves and many curly chestnuts growing from its branches. The main difference from any Earth chestnut, yet, was the fact that those chestnuts look aware of their surroundings, able to move and with large, threatening teeth that made James remember a certain tomato plant.
"So…we need to get some bark from the tree, right Maddie?"
"Yes, James" the blue-skinned frog nodded, "We do not need much: just a handful of it. We just need someone to get close enough to scrape it off."
"And how do you expect us to get close? Did you notice the carnivorous chestnuts? Wait, do you have any spell we can use against the tree?"
"Sorry, but we can't risk endangering it. To be effective, the scraped bark must be taken from a living tree."
"Wonderful. Anyone-"
"I'll do it."
"Amelia?"
"I can use my katana to strike the chestnuts who get too close. You focus on gathering the bark as fast as you can. Maddie, you have something that can help me being less visible to these oversized chestnuts?"
"No, but I have some Repelling spells you can use. If one of the gets too close to you, throw into their face to get a reprisal."
"Thank you, Maddie," the girl murmured, taking the spells from her hands. Now that she looked at her, she did not look very evil. More, goth-like?
"Ok, Amelia, whenever you're ready."
Amelia smirked, looking at the tree before of them. She had fought many creatures after they ended up here, and every time she had survived. Today was different: she was not aiming to survive.
She was aiming to win.
"Banzai!" The girl yelled, rushing toward the tree with an angry expression on her face. Noticing her movement and sound, the voracious chestnuts rushed to attack her, only for Amelia to hold her ground, hitting them with her wooden katana or the spells Maddie gave her, moving continuously to avoid being surrounded.
As the chestnuts focused on her, James and Maddie pushed forward, up to the tree's bark, as the human quickly started to scrap off as much as he could, while Maddie stood on watch, leaning the tree, surveying the battle Amelia was fighting against the chestnuts.
For a minute almost, the tree focused on Amelia, trying to grab her whenever it could; and then-
"James, watch out!" Amelia yelled, as some of the chestnut abandoned their fight and moved toward him. Maddie rushed to fight, but due to the limit of what spells she could use, she was in disadvantage.
"Withdrawal!" James replied in turn, grabbing Maddie the bag with the scraped bark in his left arm, while hitting the attacking chestnuts by throwing rocks at them with his right. Soon, Amelia reached him and together they ran out of the tree's attack range, back to safety.
"Wow," Amelia said, as the adrenaline rush left in place to fatigue, "That sure was something,"
"I got to admit it, Amelia" James replied, smirking, "You maybe be too hot-blooded, but you sure know how to fight when the bets are off."
"Of course I know how to fight! It's my destiny to be a ronin…plus, you try to live with Jacob and not develop some serious fighting skills in the process."
"Don't celebrate just yet," Maddie reprimanded, securing the hard-conquered bark "We still have two or three key ingredients we have to gather, and none of them are easy to get."
"Then, I guess we'll have to get creative. Don't you think, partner?" James asked, looking to Amelia.
For a couple of seconds, the girl didn't say much else, stumped, as her brain assimilated the fact that James actually called her "partner". And then, she smiled.
"Let's do it!" she said, a grin blooming on her face.
"Girls, what are you doing now?"
Back at the farm, Jacob looked all over what Anne, Sasha and Marcy were doing. The fact that he was now free again to move on his own accord, without them clinching to him and looking at his face non-stop was little consolation, as after the Plantars were kicked out, the girls were now falling back into putting him into a pedestal. Now, even the parts of him who liked their attentions were feeling worried and scared, and wanted this nightmare to end as soon as possible.
"I'm preparing a breakdancing cheerleader stet up just for you, JJ," Sasha smiled, her face empty of her original personality "Is the dream of every quarterback having a beautiful cheerleader girlfriend, after all."
"For frog's sake, Sasha: I am not a quarterback! I'm not even in the school's squad!"
"But the coach did want you to join, didn't he?" she purred, in the dreaming voice that Jacob was now dreading. "He said you were so promising, and strong-"
"And he said the same thing to many other kids, just to rope them into joining! You remember that he also was the one who suggested for Marcy to join the cheerleader squad? You remember how that turned out?!"
"Truth to be said, I always wanted to see you in the school's football uniform…"
Jacob took a step back. From what he was able to figure out, the flower smell that had drenched him didn't make the girls tell lies, unless he specifically request them to. Did that mean…Sasha did want to see him join the school's football team?
No matter that, he would have never accepted: football squad was for the school's "true losers", the people who weren't smart enough to get passable grades, nor had the social skills to get accepted on their own. They may look popular on the outside, but they had nothing besides their muscles: every guy like that, who Jacob ever faced before, was a bully (and thus a ripe target for the school's regular troublemaker prankmaster) one of Sasha's past boyfriend (before she dumped them after a couple of weeks top) or a combination of the two.
This was one more reason why Jacob didn't like the idea of Sasha romancing him: the idea of being compared to those brick-heads was repelling to him.
At least, Sasha was (somehow) acting as the most rationale of the Trio.
"Jacob," a dreamy voice coming from behind him preannounced a certain Thai-American girl gripping him into the –nth hug of the day, "You know what would you make you feel better?"
"Huh, you being more respectful of my personal space?" he replied, truthfully.
She giggled "No, you silly. You are stressed, I can see that. What do you need is a proper massage to expel all your unhappiness out of your body."
"For the last time, Anne: being Thai doesn't make you a massage expert!" Profiling aside, if you put your hands on the wrong place you could even ruin my back rather than fix it.
"But, I can always try. Or would you prefer for me to prepare some nice food as my parents prepare them?"
Jacob would have accepted that offer, in more friendly circumstances. Yet, right now, the fact that Anne was looking at him with eyes who weren't hers (plus in Amphibia, insects were 99% of all ingredients available for cooking) was turning down his appetite.
"Jacob," the sound of the remaining love-drunk girl made the boy groan, "I'm drawing some sketches of you: which one better showcases your handsome-ness?"
The boy looked at the drawings Marcy had done of him. His small appreciation for the way Marbles had drawn him (tall, muscular and with a glare that made him look cool) was immediately suppressed, as he saw the various Marcys, all holding onto him as they were his girlfriend or close.
"I-I think your art is good, Mar-Mar" he smirked, trying to find out an excuse to go somewhere and leave the girl, anything for a few solo time. "I see you're getting better."
"You see? You see?" Marcy squealed, looking at the other two, "My true loves appreciate me! I'm the number one!"
"No way, I'm his favorite!" Sasha roared, grabbing on Jacob before he could take advantage to run. "He is mine!"
"No, he is mine!" Anne joined, grabbing Jacob's other flank, "And I'm not leaving it to anyone of you!"
"Try me, Boonchuy!"
"Step back, Sash!
"Go back to your manga, Mar-Mar!"
Since when I was friend with three yandere? Jacob tough, trying really hard not to groan about his current misfortune.
"OK, we're almost done," Maddie nodded "We need just one small thing.
Behind her, Amelia and James tried to breathe (as much as their partially-functioning noses allowed them to) and regain focus. The hunt for the ingredients Maddie needed for her spell was turning out to be worse and harder than anyone of them could have foresaw (except Maddie). After facing the large carnivorous chestnut tree, the trio went to gather some red mud out of a mineral-polluted water source (and ended up fighting a giant centipede); then they gathered some pollen out a bright white flower that was a favorite of Amphibia's Hybeenas; then, they had to take some rare grass that green mantises loved. Giant aggressive green mantises, of course.
And yet, the battles, while tiring and gruesome, weren't all too much insufferable, as the two humans slowly grew to coordinate with each other and work together for a common goal.
"I have to admit, Amelia, you're getting skilled with that katana by now."
"I guess now that I actually need it against giant bugs, I have plenty of occasions to train myself and get better. Plus, you're not all bad too: Sprig would need a slingshot to hit the bees; you can simply threw things by hand."
"We're not done yet," Maddie reminded them, "That, is the last ingredient we need."
Amelia and James looked in the direction the small wizard frog was indicating, and saw a small blue flower, growing in the middle of an opening, with nothing around.
"That?"
"It's called the Screaming Flower," Maddie immediately explained, "I need to harvest some of its liquid nectar. The problem is such flower emits a sound, whenever opened, that attract any nearby predators."
Amelia immediately looked around, nervously. As Amphibia had taught her, just because you couldn't see large predators nearby it didn't mean there weren't .
"Can't we simply cut the flower, and extract the liquid at the farm?"
"That's not a possibility, Amelia; first, it would start screaming even if we cut it to bring it away, and this could risk endangering Sprig and his family. Second, the liquid pollen rots after a few minutes once the flower is cut or opened: I have some vials that will allow us to preserve it, but we'll be cutting it close once we start."
"In short, we need to open the flower and harvest the liquid we need, as it attracts large number of monsters onto us?"
"Not exactly James, we also have to gather the liquid and store it safely. Even if we survive whatever creatures gets attracted, it will be all for nothing if we don't preserve enough liquid pollen."
James nodded, taking a step forward "I'll gather it."
"James?"
"Maddie, do you have any spells that could we use as camouflage? A smoke-creating spells to hide us and make it more difficult for any creatures to see us?"
"I have more than enough spells for that purpose."
"Good! Once the flower start up screaming, throw them around us. I will harvest the liquid, palms up, to avoid being sighted and attacked. Amelia, can you…?"
"Sure," the girl grinned, "I'll, use the coverage of the smoke to hit and retreat!"
"Remember, Amelia: I need you to buy me time."
"How much?"
"As much as you can get me!"
The small kunoichi exchanged a glance with Maddie, "I'm ready."
"Me too."
"It's show-time."
James leaned toward the flower, and as soon as his fingers touched it, just as Maddie said, the flower started to emit a sound. It wasn't a screaming, at least not like any humans would picture a scream, but it was loud and pitching. James didn't stop, focusing on his work.
Meanwhile, as soon as the sound started, Maddie was quick to grab some spell bags out of her waist pockets and threw it around James, creating a grey smoke surrounding him. Just in time, as she heard the onrushing sound of the large bugs coming out of the forest, attracted by the flower's screaming.
They were large and scary, and as soon as they arrived, they tried to locate preys to attack. It was then that Amelia struck, using her katana with hit-and-run tactics to spread chaos and confusion. Feeling themselves under attack, and unable to notice Amelia thanks to the smog and her quickness, the bugs attacked each other, thus starting what the humans would have described a "free-for-all fight".
"James!" Amelia yelled, rushing while trying to avoid the large bug infighting, "How much longer?"
"Almost done, Amelia!" The boy yelled her back. The bugs might not have hurt any of them (yet), but sure, no one wanted to stay longer than needed.
"I'm almost finished with my spells!" Maddie's voice rang as an alarm, as she checked what she had left. A couple of smog spells, barely enough to conceal them for another ten minutes at most.
"I'm done!" James jerked up, with a small vial of azure liquid in his hand "Amelia, let's fall back!"
"Arigato!" The girl replied, grabbing the vial as they ran. Unfortunately, a large beetle noticed them and charged, rhino-like, missing Amelia by so little before crashing into a tree.
Only after they were far enough for the still-ongoing battle, the trio stopped to take a breath.
"We did it." James smiled timidly, "Maddie, are-"
"No!" Amelia said, her voice broken of shock, as she saw the broken vial in her hands. When the rhino-like beetle attacked them, it was broken and the previous liquid was now wastefully leaking in her hand.
"We failed," the girl continued, dropping on her knees, a lone tear escaping her left eye, "We- I failed."
"Huh, no, we didn't. You see, I…may have taken a little more backups, just to be sure." James spoke, showing the other four vials full in his hand "As the old saying goes, Always bring more than you may need, no matter what."
"James, you're amazing!" Amelia jumped to hug him.
"We'll have time to celebrate later," Maddie nodded, while still happy they had everything they nodded. "Now let's go back at the farm, and hope everything is ready to prepare the spell."
When the group arrived at the Plantar's farm, they were quite surprised to find the three Plantar family members waiting outside: Hop Pop was sitting on a log, trying to warm himself out with the fire for the cauldron; Sprig was checking the boiling water, as Polly was angrily (and fruitlessly) attempting to dig a tunnel to get back inside.
"Guys, you're back!"
"Sprig, what happened?"
"A little bit after you left," Hop Pop explained, "the girls went… a little overboard with Jacob."
"They threw us out!" Polly protested.
"What?" both James and Amelia exclaimed, almost at the same time.
"The smell effect is getting stronger," Maddie flat-out said, "it's just a matter of time before they start getting overly aggressive and tear their own faces off."
"Then there is no more time to lose! Maddie, let's get going!"
"Jacob," Amelia looked at the farm, "I do seriously hope you know what to do."
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
"Help!" Jacob yelled, as the three girls quarreled endlessly. The fact they were getting more and more aggressive was by now freaking him out non-stop.
What can I do? Is there some way to make them stop, before they end up hurting each other for real?
Wait, I may have an idea. Just, can I do this sacrifice to save them?
He glanced at them. Either the fight stopped right now, or one of them risked getting hurt, like real hurt. For real. Silently, he made his resolve.
"Girls!" he shouted, gaining their attention "Please, if you stop fighting…I let you kiss me in the face!"
Immediately, the girls stopped quarreling, and they focused on him. Too late, Jacob realized he made a tactical error.
"Kiss-Kissy!"
"Doki-Doki!"
"Love-Love!"
"Nooo!"
"What was that?" Sprig asked, hearing a yell come from inside the farm.
"That's Jacob!" James realized, "He must be in danger!"
"Maddie! The potion?"
"Almost ready, Amelia!"
"It's too late!" Hop Pop yelled, hearing the sound, "They must be ripping him apart in this instant!"
"Smell Nullifier Spell ready!" Maddie finally said, giving the hard-prepared spell bag to James, "Use it!"
James didn't need to be told twice, ran toward the farm and launched the spell inside. Two-three seconds, a smog of purple-blue light exploded inside the house.
"Jacob!" Amelia launched herself forward, pressing on the barraged door and opening it, "You-"
"Huh, what was-"
"Sashy, why is your hair all messed up?"
"And Marbles, what was happening?"
"Ugh," came voice underneath them as they saw Jacob, lying on the floor, all three of them all over him. The most peculiar fact was his face was now covered by lipstick.
"Jacob," Sasha said, as the memories of what happened started to rush back into her "You-"
"The spell was defective!" The boy said, seeing the anger in her eyes, "You turned her from yandere to tsundere!"
"I'm not a tsundere, you idiot! What the frog was that?"
"Oh, Sash, you're back?"
"Jacob, please tell me the memories I am experiencing are not something that actually happened."
"Huh, I guess we can explain?"
"This must have been the most humiliating day in my life!" Sasha grunted, punching her pillow like it was a boxing bag, "Me, falling in love with him?"
"The feeling is reciprocal, Sash!" The boy called back, "By the way, your breath stinks!"
"Anne, are you ok?" Sprig asked, walking to the side of his friend, currently entangled in managing her disgust.
"I am, Sprig" the girl replied, "But I seriously hope we'll never talk again about what happened. Marbles is red as a tomato!"
Hearing this comment from Anne made the Taiwanese-American girls just try harder to hide her reddish face under her hoodie, trying to make herself as discreet as possible. "This is something I will never report on my journal."
"Hey, it was the flower's smell," James walked in, with Amelia and Hop Pop behind him, "Now that we know about it, we can be careful. Plus, Jacob did try his best to not take advantage of the situation, and he did a sacrifice to stop you from hurting each other."
"Just a memo: if someone asks, this never happened. I have a reputation at school to defend!"
"Yeah, same here!" Sasha shouted back.
"Plus, it wasn't a total waste. Amelia and I learned how to work as a team, and we did a good job. We-" he stopped for a second, before sneezing again. "We found we have quite some things in common, and equal interests among us."
"Plus, for once I saved you," Amelia smirked in her cousin's face, making him shudder.
"Ok kids, I guess you two must go back to take care of yourselves. With what happened today, your cold has got stronger."
"That's fine HP. Besides, James and I must get back into full strength in order-" she sneezed louder "-in order to be prepared and ready for tomorrow.
"Why, Amelia? What do you want to do tomorrow?"
"The same thing we do every day, James. Try to go back to our world!"
They're James and Amelia
Yes James and Amelia
One wants to be Japanese
The other's British
They're creatures with face bumps
Misplaced from their own world
They're gangly
They're James and Amelia, Amelia, Amelia, Amelia
Amelia, Amelia, Amelia, Amelia
Before each day is done
Their attempt will be unfurled
By the twilight of the sun
They'll return to their world
They're James and Amelia
Yes James and Amelia
Their wish to survey
Is easy to explain
To prove their human worth
They want to return to Earth
They're gangly
They're James and Amelia, Amelia, Amelia, Amelia
Amelia, Amelia, Amelia, Amelia
"Godspeed!"
"Ok," Anne glanced between Marcy and Sasha, a bewildered look in her face. "I guess you heard the music too?"
Hello everyone!
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