Ivy smiled as she and her family set up their stand. "Ah, the Wartwood Farmer's Market, where salt of the earth frogs come to sell stuff and fill up on free samples."
"And where we get to sell our wares," said Johan as he placed bottles of absinthe on the rack alongside jars full of herbs and spices and various fruits and vegetables.
"Oh, look, there's Anne and the Plantars," Ivy pointed to her neighbors' stand. "Wanna say hi?"
"Sure. Your mom and grandma can run the stand without us."
"Good morning, Mrs. Croaker," Anne and Polly said to Sadie Croaker as she approached the stand.
"I'll take this here gangly gourd, Hopadiah," the old frog said as she took a gourd from a basket.
Hop Pop smiled as he reached for it. "Oh, I sense a batch of Croaker Stew coming on." Suddenly, he stopped and looked at the gourd suspiciously. "Hmm... Hang on there, Sadie. You don't want that one." He split it open, revealing a large, fat maggot inside. "Ah-ha! It's a gourd maggot. These guys taste terrible."
The maggot jumped out and landed in Anne's hair. She screamed and tried to get out off her head. "It's in my hair! It's in my hair!" She ran only to slip and land in mud.
Hop Pop gave Sadie a new gourd. "Here, take this one instead. It's maggot-free."
Sadie smiled as she placed a few coppers on the stand's countertop. "Classic Plantar honesty. I've been buying from this stand since your father was running it. And y'all have never steered me wrong." She left with the gourd and a happy smile.
"Very impressive, Hop Pop," said Ivy as she and Johan approached the Plantar stand. "Hi, Sprig."
Sprig's cheeks turned pink. "Uh...hi, Ivy."
"That is the Plantar difference, Ivy." said Hop Pop. "You can't taste honesty. But if you could-"
"-it'd taste like a Plantar stand vegetable," Polly and Sprig said, bored.
"This stand is the heart and soul of our family. I don't know what I'd do if we ever lost it."
Way to jinx yourself, Hopediah. "Bad news, everyone! Bad news!" Toadie said, running up to Hop Pop and handing him a rolled-up scroll. "Gonna run away before you read it!" He then started backflipping away from Hop Pop before he could protest. "This is for you, Miss Sundew," he gave one to Ivy. "Give it to your mother!" With that, he summersaulted away.
Ivy unfolded the scroll and her eyes widened. "WHAT?!"
Johan looked at it and he saw what was making Ivy outraged. "Mayor Toadstool is quadrupling everyone's rent and he wants it in three days?!" Johan did a mental note to get the mayor on Passione's payroll.
All around the farmer's market, everyone shouted angrily in protest and outrage at the Mayor. Johan was deep in thought. This would mean he would have to raise the prices on the absinthe, but he didn't have much to worry, given how prestigious the Sundew family is.
Hop Pop on the other hand, was having a panic attack. "At this rate, we'll lose the stand. What are we gonna do?"
"Sell something else," suggested Johan. "Something attention grabbing you can sell at a high price."
"Oh, like a Snugaroo," said Anne.
"'Something else'?! We don't have anything else," the old frog exclaimed. "All we sell is vegetables!"
"Here." Johan reached for a jar then squeezed some gourd juice into it, added some wormwood and sugar and stirred it a little. "And behold! Plantar's Potion! Guaranteed to expand your lifespan and increase fertility!"
Hop Pop raised an eyebrow as he took the jar from Johan. "All that in one jar?"
"Honestly, it's just a marketing tool, a little white lie to sell the product. The point is, health drinks are popular in America and the best part is you can charge through the nose for them."
"Heh. I don't know what a nose is, but it's worth a shot." The old frog stood on a soap box, cleared his throat and said as loud as he could, "New product! New product, everyone. This here is a freshly made bottle of..." He paused. "What was it again? Oh, yeah! Plantar's Potion!" Wally raised his hand. "Yes, you in the front, Wally."
"Does it taste good?"
"Wouldn't know. Haven't tried it yet."
"Oh."
Johan face palmed. Anne grabbed Hop Pop and pulled him back to the stand. "Hey, Hop Pop! Can we chat for a second? Sprig, Ivy, work the crowd."
The two young frogs looked at each other before they cleared their throats. "Uh, Sprig Plantar and Ivy Sundew. Ten years old," said Ivy. "Now what was that song JoJo taught me? Oh, yeah! Ahem." She cleared her throat and began to sing a popular Italian song best known as Volaré.
"Volaré, oh-oh
Cantaré, oh-oh-oh-oh
Nel blu dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassù"
Sprig played along with the tune with his armpit farts. The crowd applauded and threw flowers at them. Felicia wiped a tear away. "I didn't know my daughter had it in her."
Johan said seriously to Hop Pop, "Okay, I hate to break it to you, but you stink at advertising. If you want to sell this stuff, you have to bend the truth a little."
"What he means is," said Anne. "Make promises you can't keep and junk."
"Anne, that's not what I meant..."
"Did you forget this stand was built on honesty?" Hop Pop asked Anne.
"In three days, there won't be a stand," she said.
Hop Pop glanced at the stand's sign and the words "Honesty first!" written beneath the giant "P" symbol. However, the desire to save his farm grew stronger than his want to follow the Plantar family policy. "I'll give it a try."
"Hold it." Johan wrote some cue cards down and gave them to Hop Pop. "Here."
"Take five, kids," Hop Pop said to Sprig and Ivy. "I'll take it from here." The two let Hop Pop stand on the soap box and he said, "Folks, I'd really appreciate it if you bought this drink. Uh..." He looked down at the cue cards. "Because it'll make you, I don't know... stronger?"
That caught the crowd's interest. "Unbelievable," exclaimed Wally.
Hop Pop noticed this and he continued on, "And uh... smarter, too!"
"Smarter?" asked someone in the crowd. "Smarter, too?"
"Yeah!" Hop Pop said with a lot more confidence. His inner snake oil salesman awoke and he needed to keep up the charade. He grabbed a straw boater hat and said with more confidence and flare, "Folks, one sip of Plantar's Potion..." He chugged the whole jar and smashed it. "...and you may very well...LIVE FOREVER!"
Everyone started cheering. "I'll take ten!" Wally said as he placed a bag of coins onto the Plantar's stand.
"I'll take a hundred," said Felicia as she poured the contents of her purse into Hop Pop's hat.
Soon it was literally raining money as everyone bought more Plantar's Potions. Hop Pop couldn't have been more happy. "Suffering swamp gas! We gotta step up production on this stuff. Fast!"
Johan returned to the Sundews' stand and he watched as Ivy, Felicia and Sylvia guzzled down the Plantar's Potions they bought. "Guys," he said as he felt a little guilty. "You do know it doesn't really do all that stuff Hopediah mentioned, right? I mean, I kinda told him to bend the truth a little to sell that stuff. It's just a bunch of juices mixed with wormwood."
"Wait, what?" exclaimed Sylvia. "It's not a miracle potion? And you knew?! You're helping the competition?!"
"I think the absinthe can sell itself. I made sure of that. Besides, I felt bad for Hopediah. I mean, didn't you say he's an old friend of yours?"
"Yes, but he should know better. The deceitful lifestyle is a dark, and endless void," Sylvia said dramatically.
"We're Gang-Stars. The deceitful life is kinda what we do, so long as no one innocent gets hurt."
"And you don't think this is any different than when Diavolo started selling drugs to minors?" asked Felicia.
"Hey, Diavolo knew the drugs he was selling were dangerous and he didn't care. All I did was give Hopediah a little edge. Besides, it's only juice."
"You just wait. Things are gonna escalate."
Somehow, Johan knew she was right.
The next day, the Plantar's stand was the most popular stand in the Wartwood farmer's market. A massive crowd gathered in front of the stand, cheering for Hop Pop and his family's new potion that promised to work miracles. Anne carried a crate of freshly picked beets from the cart and climbed up a ladder leaning against a giant barrel with a water spigot. She opened the top and peered down to see Sprig and Polly standing at the bottom, up to their feet in juice. "Incoming," she called down to them and tossed the beets down to the kids.
"Fresh beet juice, coming up!" Sprig said as he and Polly squashed the beets.
Outside, Anne turned on the spigot and filled jar after jar of Plantar's Potion and placed them in a crate before carrying over to the stand. Sitting it on the counter, she started setting out the jars in two rounds. "All right, who's next?" A bunch of frogs clamored to get the stuff and practically threw their money at her.
"There he is," one villager exclaimed.
"Look, Daddy, the potion man," said a child as Hop Pop walked out on top of the stand's roof.
Putting his acting skills to use, Hop Pop began his advertisements. "Folks! Say, any of you been losing the stick on your tongue? One sip of Plantar's Potion..." He guzzled down the potion "...and my tongue has never felt stickier." He stuck his tongue out and put an apple on it.
People cheered and applauded the old frog.
"Feeling dry? Plantar's Potion will have you moist and smooth," Hop Pop said. He drank some more and then proceeded to rip off his shirt and show off his slimy chest. "Just look at the sheen on me!"
The clouds moved away, and the sun's rays shone down on him. The light reflected off his body as everyone stared in amazement. "Ooh!"
The old frog made more claims and more promises he couldn't keep.
"It'll make your warts bigger!"
"It'll make your kids talk back less!"
"It'll erase all the regrets that keep you up at night!"
By this point, he stopped feeling guilty every time he looked at the words "Honesty first!" on the sign.
Night came and by that time, the Plantars and Anne made enough money to save the stand. "I know I doubted you, Anne, but this is really working," said Hop Pop.
"I gotta say, Hop Pop, you've gotten really good at this," said Anne as she gathered some jars for more refills.
"Why thank you, young lady," said Hop Pop with a tip of his hat.
"Hey guys," said Johan as he and Ivy approached the stand. "How's business?"
"Booming!" exclaimed Hop Pop. "I gotta thank you and Anne, JoJo. This is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me!"
Suddenly, Sprig and Polly jumped out of the barrel. "Guys, guys! exclaimed Sprig.
"Big problem!" shouted Polly.
"We used up all our produce. There's nothing left!"
"No! We're so close. We can't fall short now," Hop Pop cried, slamming fists on the bed of the cart.
"Come up with another product," suggested Johan. "You've still got the apples, right? Make some sweet bread and..."
"THAT'S STUPID!" shouted Hop Pop. "I need to make more Plantar's Potion! That's the only thing that'll save the stand! Let's see…." He looked around frantically until his eyes fell upon the compost pile. "Jackpot!"
Anne's eyes widened. "Uh... Yeah, uh... Yeah, that's literally garbage."
"Garbage? Or Plantar Potion's new secret ingredient?" Hop Pop grabbed the compost pile and placed them in a bag. "Still need a bit more, though."
"Hopediah?" said Johan.
Hop Pop grabbed some egg shells...
"Hopediah?"
...potato peels...
"Hopediah?"
...then he gathered them all up and placed them in the barrel. "You sure about this, Hop Pop?" asked Anne, very unsure.
"Oh, I'm sure. Everyone's hooked. They'll buy anything I sell them."
"HOPEDIAH! MUDA!" A punch from Johan knocked Hop Pop onto his back. Johan grabbed the old frog by the collar and slammed him against the barrel. "Look at yourself! Look at what you've become! You've turned into a madman who doesn't care about who gets hurt as long as you get profits, just like Diavolo! And you want to know what that means? It means it will give Passione a bad reputation! People will think it'll be Blue Oyster Cult all over again!"
Hop Pop sputtered in insult. "Wha? That's crazy talk! I just wanna save my stand!"
"Hopediah, you have to stop this madness! Even if you did sell this sludge, the instant people taste it, your stand will get shut down for health violations! You're just gonna have to tell all those people that there's no more Plantar's Potion left and they'll have to wait until you get more products. Anne, Sprig, Polly, you agree with me, right?"
"He does have a point," said Sprig.
"I don't want to smother in that barrel," said Polly.
"But...but..."
"Hop Pop, it's over," said Anne.
Hop Pop looked at the kids, then at the sign. "Honesty first," it said. He sighed. "You're right. I'll tell everyone tomorrow and possibly face their disappointment."
"It's better than getting a bad reputation."
Hop Pop nodded. "You're right."
The next morning, Hop Pop nervously looked at the crowd, all eager for some Plantar's Potion. Well, time to face the music, Johan thought as he and his friends watched. "Ladies and gentlemen," Hop Pop said. "I'm afraid I have some bad news. I'm afraid we're all sold out of Plantar's Potion."
"Aww!"
"That's not fair!"
"It's too bad."
Hop Pop smiled. "Which is why I have good news! Behold!" He held up a jar full of a black sludge. "Friends and frog folk, step right up. New limited edition Plantar's Potion. Only 20 coppers a bottle!"
The kids were shocked. "He didn't," exclaimed Johan.
Hop Pop was having the time of his life. Handing out potion after potion and taking all the money the people were offering. Soon, almost all of the garbage potion was off the stand's counter, and in its place were piles and piles of coppers and riches.
"Thank you for your patronage," he said to the last frog in line.
"I'm gonna feed this to my baby," the villager said, walking away.
"I wouldn't do that!" Johan shouted. He facepalmed and groaned. "I've created a monster." He walked up to Hop Pop and cleared his throat. "I thought we had a talk last night."
"I had my fingers crossed," said Hop Pop with a smirk. "Besides, we gotta sell to one more sucker and we'll be home free."
A familiar old frog lady pushed her way to the stand. "I'll take a bottle, Hopadiah."
Hop Pop gasped. "Sadie Croaker, the stand's oldest and most loyal customer."
"Usually, I find potions and the like to be a bunch of malarkey, but if Hopadiah Plantar says it works, then it must." Sadie didn't notice the way Hop Pop started to sweat nervously. She reached into her purse and took out a large gold coin. "Been saving this gold farthing for a while now. Waiting for something special to spend it on. One bottle, please."
Hop Pop quickly destroyed the last bottle before she could see it. "Uh... we're all sold out."
An old frog handed her a jar. "Here, you can have one of mine! I got twenty of them."
"Oh, thank you, deary," said Sadie.
Hop Pop's old heart nearly stopped.
"To Hop Pop and the Plantars, the most honest folks in the business," cheered Sadie as she raised her jar.
Anne winced and put a hand on her chest. "Oof, even I felt that one."
"We ALL felt that one," Johan said.
"TO THE PLANTARS!" cheered the crowd.
"JoJo, you gotta stop this," Ivy shouted.
"Hopediah dug his own grave, he can sleep in it."
Hop Pop's heart raced as he looked at the people about to drink the black sludge, then to the "Honesty first" policy written on the stand's sign. Johan was right. If he told the truth, he was screwed. If he did nothing, he was screwed. He couldn't take it anymore. He had to make this right, the Plantar way. The honest way. "NOOOOO!" He slapped the jar right out of Sadie's hand just before she could bring it to her lips.
"What has gotten into you, Hopediah?"
"THAT WAS NO HEALTH POTION! IT'S GARBAGE!" Hop Pop's confession echoed across the village. When everyone heard that, they gasped and threw the potions onto the ground. Then they glared at the old frog as he took off his hat in shame. "Folks, I'm so sorry. I never meant any harm. All I was trying to do was save my stand."
Before he could continue, a buzzing sound was heard. Everyone looked up to see a swarm of flies buzzing around the garbage barrel. Sprig and Polly tried to fight them off, but they got caught.
"Hop Pop!" Polly screamed.
"They want the garbage potion!" Sprig yelled.
Two flies pushed the barrel over, spilling its contents which they slurped up quickly. More flies chased after the frogs still holding onto the bottles. One fly swooped down and grabbed Wally. "Eaten by flies? Oh, the irony!"
Ivy summoned Invisible Touch to make herself invisible while Felicia summoned The Rose, who shot at the flies with thorny projectiles. Thank goodness these flies couldn't see Stands.
Meanwhile, Johan took out his gun and shot down a few of the flies. One tried to grab onto him only for him to slice it in half with his kaiser blade.
Anne chased after the fly carrying Sprig and Polly with her tennis racket. "Hey, let go of my bumpkin frog family!" Only to scream when another fly swooped down and grabbed her.
"Anne!" Johan pointed his gun at the fly and shot it down. Another fly swooped down and tried to grab him, but he summoned DARE who proceeded to punch its head in.
"Hey!" Hop Pop stood on top of the barrel, attracting the flies' attention. "Ain't this what you want?" The flies stopped their attacks on the villagers and began chasing after Hop Pop. He jumped onto the barrel and rolled it like a log down the hill and toward the forest. "You really want this so bad? Then go get it!" He jumped off the barrel and it rolled off a cliff with the flies chasing after it. They grabbed it and flew off into the sky.
Hop Pop quickly ran back to the market and found his grandkids and Anne. "Everyone okay?"
"Not really," said Sprig.
Hop Pop sighed in shame. "Kids, I messed up big. I was so desperate to save the stand, I forgot what the stand was even about."
"So, what now?" asked Anne.
Hop Pop knew what to do. "We go make things right. That's the Plantar way."
And so, Hopediah Plantar's punishment began. He was to return all the money back to the people he sold the garbage potion to. "Apologies," he said to a frog who scoffed at him. He gave another coin back to another frog. "Here you go, sir. I hope you'll give Plantar's another chance, someday."
Johan approached the stand. "Sorry about this, Hopediah."
"Don't be, JoJo, this is my fault."
"You know, if it makes you feel any better, you make a good salesman."
Hop Pop smiled a little. "I was good, wasn't I?"
And then, a cross Sadie Croaker approached the stand. Hop Pop gave her back her coin. "Well, Hopadiah, looks like you're going to have to earn our trust back. That being said, I think your father would be proud that you did the right thing today."
"Thanks, Sadie. I'll work hard to earn your trust back."
"Not with this stand you won't," said Toadie, who appeared out of nowhere. "No coin, no stand!"
"Or any stand for that matter," said Ram Bamboo, who was in full cop mode. "Let's see, charges include food contamination, public endangerment, false advertisement... Yep! You can kiss your food vending license goodbye," she said as she reached into Hop Pop's pocket and took out his license. "And you all will be doing exactly one hundred hours of community service!" She slapped the citation in Hop Pop's face. "Get a good night's sleep, 'cause tomorrow, you're picking up trash with a stick." And with that, she left.
Hop Pop was stunned. "My food vending license...suspended?" And to add insult to injury, he was forced to watch as the Plantar family stand was dismantled.
The kids helped the old frog gather all of their produces and supplies before loading everything into the cart hooked up to Bessie. The last thing to take was the sign, which Hop Pop took down and placed in the cart.
Ivy offered to help Sprig out. "Hey, sorry about what happened," she said as she helped load up the cart.
"It's alright," said Sprig. "We've been through worse."
"Really?"
"No. This is the worst thing that could have happened to our family."
"You want me to... off Toadie and Ram Bamboo?" offered Polly as she slid her finger across her throat. "I'll do it. You know I will."
Johan cleared his throat. "You won't be offing anyone in my gang. Besides, you don't exactly have the money for it." Polly pouted.
"Thanks, kids. Let's just get home and relax a little. First, let's drop Ivy and JoJo off." The kids and Hop Pop jumped onto Bessie and the snail moved toward the tea shoppe. As they drove on, Hop Pop said his thoughts out loud. "You know, maybe the end of one tradition means the start of another. Maybe I ought to start over the Hop Pop way, experiment with those new seed varieties I always wanted to try."
"That's the spirit, Hop Pop," said Anne, who gave Hop Pop a light punch to his shoulder.
"Yeah, we're gonna make it after all," said Sprig with an optimistic smile.
"The future is ours!" exclaimed Polly.
There was a moment's silence.
"You're taking this rather well, Hopediah," said Johan. "All things considered."
"OH, FROG, I'M UNEMPLOYED!"
To Be Continued...