"And this bad boy is my kitty Domino." said Anne as she showed Sprig and Polly a video of the black cat on her phone. "You guys would like her. She's got fire."

"Don't you already have another Domino?" asked Polly.

"Huh?" Sprig asked, looking at Anne with confusion.

Anne slapped a hand over the little pollywog's mouth and said, "She doesn't know what she's talking about. Right, Polly," she asked through gritted teeth.

Polly's eyes widened when she said, "Oh, we're still keeping that a secret."

"A secret?" asked Sprig. "I WANT IN!"

"No! I don't think you're..." Anne stopped mid sentence when she smelled a foul odor in the air. It smelled like rotten meat and stale cabbage. "Ugh! What is that? Did something crawl under the house and die?"

Sprig sniffed the air. "Worse, Anne. Much worse. Hop Pop is cooking!"

They arrived at the house, which thankfully had been cleaned up of flood water, and Sprig grabbed the door knob. "Brace yourself," he said.

"Brace myself for what?" asked Anne. She got the answer to her question when he opened the door and got a full blast of the foul smell. They found Hop Pop in the kitchen, brewing what looked like toxic waste.

"What's the plan this year, Hop Pop?" asked Sprig. "Poison the competition?"

Hop Pop smacked him upside the head with a spoon. "The plan is to win."

Anne raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Win?"

"The annual village potluck," the old frog explained. "Every year we frogs gather for a great contest. The family who brings the best-tasting dish is showered with love and copper coins. The family with the worst-tasting dish spends the night in..." He paused for dramatic effect as lightning flashed. "...THE SHAME CAGE!"

Where did that lightning come from, Anne wondered. "Brutal," she said out loud.

"And guess which family ends up there every year," Sprig said. All three Plantars sighed sadly.

Anne, who absolutely hated losing, slammed her fist on the table. "If you think I'm gonna let my favorite froggy family end up in a cage, you've got another thing coming. I know I'm not technically a Plantar, but maybe I can help."

All the Plantars smiled. "Anne, we'd sure appreciate it," said Sprig.

"So, what you making over there, Hop Pop?" Anne asked as she looked in the pot. "Sock gumbo?"

"No, silly. It's a traditional recipe from my family's cookbook. We been using this baby since I was a pollywog."

Anne took the cookbook from him and skimmed a few pages. A few pages was all it took for her to conclude that it wasn't a cookbook, but an instruction manual for how to poison people. "I think I found your problem, guys." The Plantars gasped in anticipation. "Old things are dumb!" she said as she threw the book over her shoulder. Hop Pop screamed and grabbed it before it hit the ground.

"Oh, that makes sense," said Polly.

"It's all so clear now," said Sprig.

"But we Plantars have always cooked these recipes," said Hop Pop. "What would my great-gam-gam say?"

Anne looked at a picture of a crotchety, grumpy frog woman sewing a quilt with the words "Tradition Means Everything!" sewn into it. "She'd say, "Move on!'."

"She was a fierce woman," he admitted with a sigh.

There was a knock on the door. "I'll get it," said Anne. She opened it to find Johan on the other side. "JoJo? What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was scoping the competition," he said as he walked in. "And I smelled the stench of a thousand corpses. Is Hopediah dead?"

"I'm still here," the old frog shouted.

Johan looked at the pot of bubbling green sludge and scrunched his face at the smell. "Everyone is right. The Plantars do make toxic waste instead of food." Hop Pop frowned at him. "No offense." Hop Pop croaked in anger. "Anyway, I also wanted to come by to say thanks for letting me plant the herbs for the absinthe. It's gonna help make improvements for the tea shoppe and Stumpy's."

"Great," said Hop Pop. "So I basically helped the enemy!" He plopped down on the floor, face first.

"We're boned," Polly said.

"Not really. The Sundews are doing their own thing without the absinthe. They're baking cookies," Johan explained. "They...didn't really need my help. Sylvia said it's a family secret and I'm not family; just a guest," he said as his shoulders slumped. "So, with nothing to do, I figured I could help you out to make the food edible, just so you won't end up in the shame cage."

"We don't need help from outsiders," said Hop Pop. A bug landed on the cauldron, took a sip of the sludge with its proboscis, then let out a scream before falling to the ground, dead. Hop Pop sighed. "Maybe we do need some help."

"Look, if we're gonna win this thing, we need something new, something revolutionary, something no one in the swamp has ever seen before," Anne said with determination. "Something like...PIZZA!"

"Whoa," Sprig said with awe.

"I don't know what it is, but I love it," said Polly.

"Pizza is the ultimate dish," said Anne. "You haven't lived until you've shared one with your friends at the mall. All we gotta do is get four ingredients- dough, cheese, basil, and tomatoes."

Johan made a scoff. "You Americans wouldn't know real pizza if it ate you first," he said with disgust. "It's no better than burgers at McDonald's!"

"Oh, is that a fact," Anne asked, taking offense.

"Hello! I'm from Italia! We're pizza kings and queens!"

"Oh! Okay, Mr. Pizza King! How would you do it," Anne asked, arms folded.

Johan and Anne glared at each other, sparking electricity between them.

"Now, now, hold on," Hop Pop said, trying to simmer down the tension. "Before we get carried away, what about this tried-and-true recipe? Swamp mold pot pie!"

"STAY OUT OF IT," Anne and Johan shouted, startling him.

Johan cleared his throat. "The first difference between pizza in Italia and American pizza is how the tomato sauce is made," he said. "The sauce in Italian pizzas is made with fresh ingredients and garlic. In contrast, American pizza sauce is made with canned tomatoes and must be made from fresh ingredients. When it comes to the dough, Italians are more careful about the dough. We take a lot of time to prepare it for 72 hours. This helps the flour to leaven. We are also more cautious about the quality of their ingredients." He paused to see Sprig taking notes.

"When you order a pizza in an Italian restaurant, it's probably going to be filled with an array of different types of cheese. When you order it at home, you may be tempted to order a meat lover's special. However, American pizzerias are more likely to offer a variety of toppings, including a meat lover's pizza. This is because Americans enjoy mixing and matching different cheese and toppings. In the US, you'll find more cheese on your pie than you would find on an Italian pie. American pizza is more heavily loaded with toppings, as almost everything is an option. You'll find green or black olives, anchovies, beef, chicken, pineapple, and even cherry tomatoes. You won't find tomato sauce or cheese on the crust in Italy - only fresh ingredients. It's also a much simpler meal than its American cousin. In America, you'll find fewer toppings and a lot more meat and vegetables.

"Another significant difference is in the cheese spread. In Italy, the toppings are fresh and never stuffed with cheese. The tomato sauce in American pizza is typically thick and loaded with cheese. While some American pizzas use different toppings, most are different from the Italian variety. Both pizzas are tasty, but the Italian variety is more delicious. The Italian version has a more fresh and flavorful sauce than the American version. Italians have a distinctive mozzarella di Bufala cheese, a mozzarella cheese created from buffalo's milk. They use this cheese as scoops of fresh cheese instead of grating them, which provides a fresh taste to the entire pizza."

Sprig was curious, "How do you know that?"

Johan scratched the back of his head. "As punishment, I was forced to work at a pizzeria whose employees work for Passione. I was the bus boy, but I got to watch the pizza chefs do their craft until someone shouted, 'Johan! Torna al lavoro!' Uh, that means 'Get back to work!'"

Anne chuckled. "What did you do to piss off your boss dad?"

Johan looked away in embarrassment. "Spaventare l'insegnante..."

"Say it in English!"

"I scared the teacher with my Stand, okay?! It wasn't my fault! He tried to whack me upside the head with a yard stick for sleeping in the class!" He chuckled a little. "He wasn't a Stand user, so he thought he classroom was haunted." He chuckled again before saying, "Back to the topic at hand, if you guys can get the ingredients, I'll help you make a proper, genuine Italiano pizza. That is, if Anne doesn't mind."

Anne glared at him. "Please Anne, let him help us," Sprig begged.

"I want my pizza dreams to come true," Polly pleaded.

Anne groaned in annoyance then said, "Fine! We'll try 'the proper, genuine' way. But you stay away from my cooking zone!"

"Deal."

"Hooray!" shouted the kids.

"Oh! Oh! Maybe we should put pineapple on it," said Sprig. "Seems like a natural fit. GUH!" He choked as Anne, glowing with Ripple, grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to a wall.

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT PINEAPPLE ON MY PIZZA. EVER."

Johan backed up a little. "Are you allergic to pineapple?"

"No! I HATE pineapple pizza," Anne shouted as she let go of Sprig. "Who would put sweet and juicy fruit on top of a salty pizza?! What's next, are they going to make calzones with raspberry jam?!"

"Tomatoes are a fruit," the boy said nervously.

"Don't try to rationalize this," Anne growled. She exhaled, calming down a bit and turning off the Ripple. "Let's just go get those ingredients."

As they left the house, Hop Pop noticed a vial fall out of Johan's pocket. He picked it up and looked it over. It was full of a crystal clear liquid and it had a label on it, "A little extra flavor". Raising an eyebrow, he stuck it in his pocket.

The first place Anne, the Plantars and Johan went to was the bakery, the home of the Flours. Mr. Flour was kneading dough with his feet before baking it in the oven. He said in a deep voice, "If you want the dough, the boy has to marry my daughter."

He gestured Maddie, who was playing with a voodoo doll of Sprig. "Hiiiii, Spriiiiiiig..."

"Ain't she adorable?" her father asked sweetly.

"I like her," said Johan.

"Of course you would," Sprig said with trepidation. "She's in your gang!"

"Wait, she's in Passione?" asked Anne.

"She helped me kill Mr. Bufo," the boy said.

"And she'll stay in Passione," Mr. Flour said sternly. "Only if Sprig can protect her as her husband!"

"Dad, I don't need protection," Maddie insisted. "If anything..." She gave Sprig a creepy smile. "...it's Sprig that needs protecting."

"Help me..." he whispered.

"You know, if we used a traditional recipe, we wouldn't have to sell Sprig," said Hop Pop.

"No!" Anne grabbed the book and threw it out the window, making him scream in horror. "That old book is old. Sprig's eternal happiness is a small price to pay for pizza."

"Agreed," said Polly.

"Okay, I have to draw a line somewhere," said Johan. "Even Passione doesn't do human trafficking. Or frog trafficking in this case."

"What does snail traffic have anything to do with it?" asked Hop Pop.

"I'm talking about slavery," said Johan. Hop Pop looked shocked before he turned to glare at Anne.

"This 'slavery' is a strong word," she said. "I like to think of it as 'forced happiness'."

"You mean like all marriages?" Johan asked with a laugh.

"Aw, it's not so bad. Maybe we'll learn to love each other," Sprig said before he let out a yelp as Maddie got in his face.

"I've seen your death in my mind," she whispered.

"I was kinda hoping it'd be a surprise."

"It will be."

Johan leaned in and said to Hop Pop, "Looks like you've got a daughter-in-law now." The old frog made a nervous grunt.

Anne shook hands with Mr. Flour. "Congratulations on your new son. Now cough up the dough."

"Yay!" cheered Mr. Flour as he threw a ball of dough into Anne's bag.

"Pleasure doing business with ya."

Sprig smiled nervously at Maddie. "Well, looks like we gotta go. See ya." He grabbed Polly's bucket and ran out the door.

"I wanna be the maid of honor!" Polly called out.

"See you soon, hubby..."

The next stop was at Sadie Croaker's bakery. Anne, Johan and the Plantars screamed and ran as they were chased around a pasture by a large caterpillar with a bull's horns. "Thanks again for helping me out," the old frog lady called out. "I know Brutus can be a handful."

"What are we here for again?" Sprig asked as he caught up with Anne.

"Cheese!" she exclaimed.

Johan panted as he said, "But cheese comes from milk, which comes from female cows! That's a steer, a male!"

Polly laughed with glee as she clung to Hop Pop's head. "You know, there's a recipe in here that doesn't need cheese," he said.

But Anne shouted, "No old recipes!" Anne saw a red leaf and got an idea. She grabbed it and ran up to a corral and waved the leaf like a cape. "Hey, Brutus! Over here! ¡Toro! ¡Toro!" It seemed to work. The caterpillar turned in Anne's direction. She jumped out of the way while Johan quickly closed the corral door. She chuckled before realizing she landed in a pile of cow pie. Or in this case, caterpillar pie. "Oh, come on!"

"Well, we got it," Johan said.

Sadie approached the kids and handed them a wheel of cheese. "Here you go, dearies. A hunk of cheese made fresh from the milk of those ca-"

"Please don't tell me where it comes from," said Anne.

One time skip later, Anne, Johan and the Plantars were covered in bruises, green fluids and blood. Johan cleaned the mess off his kaiser blade while Sprig placed some basil in Anne's bag. "Hey, careful with that basil, dude. We had to fight off like ten giant aphids to get it."

Sprig smiled, revealing he was missing a few teeth. "Who knew ultimate flavor could be so painful?" he asked in a daze.

Johan glared at Anne. "I told you we needed to bring ladybird beetles," he said as he flicked the last off the mess off his weapon. "They're the natural predators of aphids! But noooo! You had to rush in!"

Hop Pop looked at the ripped hole in his pants. "Almost lost my behind to those things."

"This is the price of progress, Hop Pop," said Sprig.

"Exactly." said Anne. "And we've only got one ingredient left. Tomatoes. According to this," she said as she held up a map. "They should be up ahead."

Hop Pop grumbled, "Still can't believe I traded my favorite dentures for that map."

"You know, come to think of it," said Johan. "I've never seen anyone sell tomato sauce, or tomatoes for that matter."

"Nobody does," said Hop Pop. "There's a reason for that. They're in the "dangerous vegetables" section of the cookbook. It suggests we go for prunes instead. Can't go wrong with prunes!"

"Why are they dangerous," asked Johan. "Are they poisonous? I mean, back where Anne and I come from, it was thought that tomatoes where toxic because they're related to deadly nightshade. Until it was proven wrong when a man ate a whole bunch of tomatoes and survived."

Hop Pop chuckled. "Oh, no. They're not poisonous. They're worse. MUCH WORSE!"

"How?"

Johan got his answer when he, Anne and the Plantars found some tomatoes. Only, they were not like Earth's tomatoes. No, these tomatoes looked more like red versions of the piranha flowers from the Super Mario games. "Quelli non sono pomodori," Johan babbled and pointed at them. "Quelli non sono pomodori!"

Hop Pop patted his cookbook and said, "You know, this baby's got some great substitutes, all of which are delightfully harmless."

"Couldn't hurt to hear a few options," said Sprig.

"I wouldn't mind eating prunes," said Johan.

Before they could walk away, Anne blocked their path. "Hold on! Guys, the shame cage isn't just in the town square. It's up here." She pointed to her head. "You're not gonna change the world without taking a few risks. We need to be bold, groundbreaking, brave!"

Johan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Santo cielo. This isn't just about the shame cage at all, is it? This is about you."

"What's that supposed to mean," asked Anne indignantly.

"You hate losing, Anne! You always try your best because you're afraid of failure!" He didn't notice a vine from the tomato plant slowly creeping its way toward him.

"Of course I'm afraid of failure! Who isn't?!"

"Anne, we don't like failure," said Hop Pop. "But you don't learn anything if you don't fail! Besides, there's a big difference between courage and stupidity!"

"If that's true, why does your family lose every single year," the girl snapped. "You don't make any changes to your recipes and that's why the Plantars are a family of losers!" She slapped her hands over her mouth when she realized what she said. The Plantars made hurt looks. "Guys...I'm sorry..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Johan let out a yell as the vine grabbed him by the legs and flung him into the tomato plant's mouth. "JOJO!"

They didn't get the chance to rescue him as the vines grabbed them and flung them into its mouth. "My fiancée was right!" screamed Sprig.

Johan wedged the kaiser blade between the walls of the esophagus and held on for dear life. "NO! I DIDN'T COME THIS FAR TO BE BREAKFAST!" He looked up and gasped when he saw Anne and the Plantars falling down toward him. "Santa Maria..." They piled on him and slid further down the esophagus until they came to a stop just above a pool of acid. "Guys, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we're dangling above the stomach!"

"Well, at least the ingredients are safe," said Anne. And then fate laughed at her as the ingredients slipped out of her bag and into the stomach. "No! The ingredients! Everything we've worked for!"

"At least it'll be a quick, painless death," said Sprig with a little optimism.

"How would this be painless," asked Polly.

"JUST LET ME HAVE THIS LIE!"

Anne sighed sadly. "My revolutionary ideas were supposed to save you guys, not get you killed. I shouldn't have so stubborn. I just really wanted to share a pizza with you guys. And I shouldn't call you losers. You try your best every year, even if your best isn't enough."

"Ah, I didn't care about that pizza stuff anyway," said Hop Pop. "But you were really trying to help this family out, and that's worth something in my book."

An idea went off in Anne's head. "Your book? That's it. Is there anything in the old ways that could help us right now?"

"Well, I don't know. Nothing especially useful. Just that the throat of this giant tomato plant is absolutely delicious eaten raw."

Johan got an idea. "Or maybe pureed," he said as he summoned DARE.

Outside, the tomato plant licked its lips in satisfaction. But then satisfaction became confusion and then pain when it felt something punching its insides.

"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!" The tomato plant exploded with a mighty "MUUUUDAAAA!" Pieces of tomato rained down from the sky as the Plantars crawled out of the plant's remains, laughing with maniac glee.

"Know your place, plant!" shouted Polly.

Off in the distance, they heard the sound of a bell. "There isn't much time. Let's go home and make one of your old recipes, Hop Pop."

"Yup," said Hop Pop. "But maybe we can spruce it up with something a little dangerous," he said with a gesture toward the tomato. "And maybe with a little flavor thanks to Johan."

The boy gave him a weird look. "What do you mean?"

"Don't act like you don't know."

Johan shook his head. "Whatever. I gotta get back to the Sundews. Good luck guys."

At the pot luck, all the frogs gathered around with their dishes. Hot, crispy pill bugs, fly soup, maggot cheese, crispy wasp stings, candied gnats... If you were Andrew Zimmerman, it'd be paradise.

Johan took his pace at the Sundews' spot and took notice of the batch of cookies. "Where were you?" Sylvia asked grumpily.

"I was helping the Plantars since I clearly wasn't allowed to be part of the family baking," he said as he rested his head in his hands.

Felicia gave Sylvia the stink eye before saying, "We actually felt bad for leaving you out, so we decided to let you in on the recipe." She handed him a cookie. "And let you have a taste."

"I baked them myself!" Ivy said.

"Don't take all the credit," Sylvia snapped. "I helped, too!"

Johan smiled as he took a bite. "Grazie, Edera."

"I don't know what you said," said Ivy.

"Edera means ivy in Italian," he explained.

"Edera, huh? I like it!"

"Not as much as I like these cookies," Johan said as he took another bite. "What's in 'em?"

"I put night crawlers, mashed crickets... and dung beetles right in the mix," said Ivy with pride.

Johan's eyes bugged out when he heard that. "Dung beetles? Did you say dung beetles?"

"That's right. Dung beetles... and night crawlers and mashed crickets."

Johan took a third bite. "Man, those are good cookies."

"I'll be the judge of that!" said Mayor Toadstool. "Because I literally am! All right! Let the annual potluck begin! Let's get to tastin' those dishes." He began taking samples of everyone's dishes. "Mmm! That is scrumptious. Oh! Ooh! What have we here? Oh, that is delicious! Yeah! Excellent effort!" He paused to eat one of the cookies. "Why, Sylvia, I think we might have a winner!"

The Sundews beamed.

"And last, but not least..." He stopped in front of the loser family. "The Plantars. What filth have you cooked up this ti- Hmm?" He noticed the tomato. "Tomato? That's awfully dangerous." He was about to take a bite out of it, but Hop Pop shouted, "Wait! It needs a little extra flavor!" The old frog took the bottle out of his pocket and poured it onto the slop.

When Johan saw this, he gasped in horror. "Hopediah, where did you get that bottle?"

"It fell out of your pocket," the old frog said. "It said it would give my food extra flavor."

Johan let out a scream. "Mayor, do not eat that..." Chomp. "Oh, boy."

"JoJo, what's going on?" asked Anne.

Johan confessed, "When I was told you guys lose every year," he said to the Plantars. "I wanted to give you a winning edge. So, I had Suave Rico give me some."

"Suave Rico?!" exclaimed Hop Pop. "That sleazy lounge lizard?! JoJo, what was in that potion?!"

Johan scratched the back of his head. "Water."

"Why are you worried about water?" asked Sprig.

"Why, I do declare," said Mayor Toadstool. "This is the best dish the Plantar family has ever brought to a potluck! FIRST PLACE!"

Anne let out a cheer. "Did you hear that, we won!" The Plantars didn't look so happy about this victory and the other frogs were glaring at them with suspicion.

"Uh, you didn't let me finish," said Johan awkwardly. "Water laced with enough mystic mushrooms to make a god see visions."

When Anne heard that, she stopped cheering. "What the heck?! You were gonna drug the food?!"

"Just a tiny drop! Enough to put you in third place at least!"

"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel better!"

Mayor Toadstool didn't hear them. He was too busy having the trip of his life. He screamed and pointed at something only he can see. "They're all around me! No way out! No way out, I tell you!" He laughed maniacally as he began stripping himself of his clothes and began dancing and singing unintelligibly. "I can see the music!"

No surprise, the Plantars ended up disqualified and placed in the shame cage. "Cheer up, guys. Sure we came in last. Again," said Sprig. "But thanks to Anne's new ideas and Hop Pop's old ones, we've done the best we've ever done."

"You know, he's right," said Hop Pop.

"Yeah!" said Polly.

"We did, didn't we?" said Anne. "Uh, this is weird, but... any chance I could squeeze in there?"

Hop Pop looked at the executioner. "How 'bout it, Carl?"

"The more, the merrier," he said with a shrug.

Anne made her way into the tight cage and made herself as comfortable as possible. "Well, if we can't share a pizza, at least we can share this. And you know, honestly, this isn't so bad."

"Hey guys," Johan said as he approached the cage with a tray of cookies. "I just wanna say I'm sorry for getting you disqualified. And I brought cookies! Ivy insisted that you have them, Sprig. Especially this one." He held up a cookie with a death's head on it. "Maddie made it."

Sprig looked creeped out by it. "Oh, good," he groaned. "A gift from my future wife."

"Eh, I don't feel bad," said Hop Pop. "We probably would have lost even without the mystic mushrooms. But for future reference, NEVER LEAVE POTIONS UNATTENDED AGAIN!"

"I promise."

"By the way, how's the mayor?" asked Sprig.

"Well..."

Toadie tried to keep Toadstool under control as he led him to bed, all the while he shouted, "All the Toadstools sprung from Mom's back, fully formed! One of my brothers tried to eat me! I ate him first!" He broke down sobbing. "I ate him first!"

"Still on a trip. By the way, Felicia also wanted to give you a warning. Keep your heads down."

"Why would we do that?" asked Anne. She got her answer when the frogs returned and started throwing eggs and vegetables at them. "What the heck?!"

"Ooh, I forgot to mention the shame nuggets," said Sprig.

"You people should be ashamed," one of the frogs shouted.

"Hey! That's my son-in-law!"

"Hi," Sprig waved.

Another frog threw an egg at Polly and missed. "Is that the best you got?"

Hop Pop sighed in happiness. "Tradition is such a beautiful-" A cabbage beaned him in the face. "SON OF A SLUG!"

To Be Continued...