Okay, I lied. THIS will be the last post for 2022. Also, in the votes, Kars is still in the lead while DIO is in second and Funny Valentine is in third.

Another day at the Wartwood Farmers Market. Anne was in charge of running the Plantar family's stand. She accepted two copper coins from Mrs. Croaker for buying two carrots.

"Here you go, dearie," said the old frog lady.

"Catch ya later, Mrs. Croaker!" called out Anne.

"Oh, they'll never catch me!"

Across the way, Anne saw Maddie running the Flour Breads & Pastries stand. "Hey, Maddie! Happy market day!" Maddie slowly spun her head around like in that scene from The Exorcist and smiled at her. "Classic creepy Maddie."

"Are you kidding?" Johan asked, startling Anne. "Polly's scarier than her! By the way, this is the part where you say, 'Where did YOU come from?!'"

"Where did YOU come from?!" Anne's eyes widened a little. "STOP DOING THAT!"

"Oh, I let Edera run her family's stand while I'm on break." He spotted Sprig hiding in a basket of vegetables and asked, "Rametto, why are you hiding?"

"I know Maddie said she's okay with me hanging out with Ivy," he said. "But that hasn't stopped things from being awkward."

"I thought the two of you ended the engagement."

"Not officially."

"Dude, if you don't want to be engaged anymore, just go break it off," said Anne.

"Break up with her? To her face?! She'll kill me!" Sprig looked at Maddie, who was laughing maniacally as she chopped up some bread. Whimpering, he hid in Anne's big bushy hair.

Anne took him out and said, "Look, breakups are no big deal. I used to do it for my friends all the time. They called me the Breakup Queen. Also, Angel of Death."

Johan raised an eyebrow at her. "So you did the dirty work while Sasha and everyone else got to be cowards?" he asked callously with his arms crossed. "Letting you take the fall for the anger and sadness the person felt after being broken up?"

There was a pause as Anne stared at him silently. "Well, when you say it like that, it sounds bad."

"Uh-huh. Because it is!"

"Perfect!" said Sprig to Anne. "You go break up with her for me, and I'll go find a new hiding spot."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Johan. "Anne's not breaking anyone up. You're gonna be a man and do it yourself."

"Aww! But I don't wanna be a man!" Sprig whined out loud. "I'm only ten!"

Johan rolled his eyes. "Okay, time to do things the Passione way." He grabbed Sprig by the shoulders and growled, "FORCIBLY!"

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" Sprig cried as Johan walked him toward Maddie's stand.

Johan stopped in front of Maddie and said, "Maddie, Sprig has something to tell you."

"Yessss...?" she hissed.

Sprig started bawling like a baby. "Questo è imbarazzante," said Johan.

"I can't watch this anymore," said Anne. She quickly wrote something down on a piece of paper and threw it at Maddie. "This is what Sprig wants to say!"

Maddie unfolded the paper and looked at it. It read, "Dear Maddie, I break up with you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sprig." She glared at Anne and Sprig, the latter of whom was still blubbering, then she turned away to resume her work.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" asked Anne.

"I think I peed a little," whimpered Sprig.

"See? Nothing bad happened!" Anne turned around to walk back to the Plantar family's stand, only to bump into a tall, blue, bucktoothed frog with red curly hair and rosy cheeks and wearing a suit and top hat similar to Willy Wonka. The frog was carrying a large pot of glowing blueberries which spilled onto the ground. "Gracious me!" exclaimed the frog.

"Oops. Sorry about that, Barry," said Sprig after he broke out of his fear-induced trance.

"I didn't see you there, Barry," said Anne.

"Scusami," said Johan.

"Shucks, kids. Don't worry about it," said Barry with a wink and a smile. "Nothing gets Barry down." He reached behind Anne and Sprig's ears and pulled out two lollipops. The kids took them with glee. Then Barry reached into his hat and pulled out a giant piece of chocolate and handed it to Johan. "Have a 'Barry' good day," he said with a chuckle as he walked off with his pot. A second later, he appeared behind the counter of his stand, which was named Barry's Berries. "Barry's here!" A crowd of kids started cheering at Barry as they eagerly gathered around.

"There goes Barry, sweetest frog in all of Wartwood," said Sprig.

Johan stuck the chocolate bar into his pocket. "There's no way a guy like that can be so happy all the time unless he's got something to hide."

"Quit worrying, JoJo. He's just got a streak of happiness that can never be broken."

"And you think Maddie's creepy?"

"Yes!"

That night, in a storage shed in an unknown forest, an unseen frog lit a match from their hand and flicked it under a flaming cauldron. The frog placed a piece of string and a sweet into the green concoction, forming Anne, Sprig and Johan's faces and whirlpools rapidly. Green smoke rose and formed into a large toad chortling ominously.

The next morning, Sprig awoke, but something was wrong. Something was obscuring his vision. He felt it and realized he had grown long and bushy eyebrows. "Something ain't right here." Suddenly, he heard Anne screaming downstairs. "Anne? I can't see. Whoa!" He fell out of his hammock and walked out of his room blind. "Whoa! Anne? Whoa!" He ended up falling down the stairs. "Anne, are you okay?" He bumped into Anne, whose body was sprouting brown feathers all over.

"Sprig! What happened to your face?" Anne asked before she squawked like a bird.

"Whoa! What happened to your voice?"

"It's not just my voice, dude. When I woke up, these things started growing out of me." She gestured to her feathers. "And whenever I try to talk, I just-" She started squawking again. "What is going on?!" Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Anne opened it to find Ivy. "Ivy, what are you doing here?"

"We got a problem!" She held up her hands to reveal Johan, who was now no bigger than a GI Joe action figure and wearing doll's clothes.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Anne. "What happened to JoJo?!"

"I don't know! He didn't show up for breakfast and when I went up to check on him, I found him like this!"

"Look at me, I look like a Borrower!" shouted Johan in a squeaky voice. "Now I know how Zio Narancia felt!" He looked around. "Thank God there are no spiders."

"Morning, kids." said Hop Pop as he came into the room. "Good morning, Ivy. Good morning, tiny JoJo." Wait. He looked again. "JoJo?! What happened to you!" Then he got a good look at Anne and Sprig. "Goodness gracious, boy! What's on your face?"

"I dunno. I just woke up like this," said Sprig.

"And me. Anytime I try to talk I-" Anne said before squawking again.

"I woke up like this, too," squeaked Johan.

Polly hopped down the stairs. "Have you guys seen my toothbrush?" She stopped when she saw Anne, Sprig and Johan. For a moment, she was silent. Then she burst out laughing with glee.

"Shut up, Polly!" shouted Johan.

"Listen to him! He sounds like somebody who got kicked in the testicles and never recovered!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Leave him alone, Polly," said Ivy. "He's already suffering. He doesn't need you...heh, heh...laughing...ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...at his voice...AH, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!"

"Rrrgh..." growled Johan.

"Sorry. Ahem." Ivy covered her mouth with one free hand to hide her giggles.

"Hmm. Woke up like this, you say?" Hop Pop asked as he looked Anne, Sprig and Johan over. "Hmm..." He raised one of Sprig's eyebrows.

"You fixed it!" He lowered it. "Aw."

"This has to be the work of a Stand user," said Johan. "There's no other explanation."

"This isn't the work of a Stand user, JoJo," said Hop Pop. "You three... have been cursed!"

"CURSED?!" exclaimed Anne before she squawked again. "That's a thing here?!"

"This land of ours is home to many arts, Anne. Sculpture, mosaics, and of course... THE DARK ARTS!"

"He really likes to be dramatic, doesn't he?" asked Johan. "Never mind. How could this have happened?"

"Well, it takes about a night for a curse to kick in. Any of you upset anyone yesterday?"

Sprig, Johan and Anne knew one certain spell caster capable of doing this. "MADDIE!"

"Dude, you've got to go talk to her," Anne shouted at Sprig.

"Any way you could wait till tomorrow?" asked Polly with a smirk. "Because I am loving this."

Sprig grew a beard. "Hey, I think it's getting better."

"I do NOT want to be doll-sized for the rest of my life," snapped Johan. "Sprig, as the boss, I order you to go talk to Maddie right now! Only she can reverse this!"

"You're right," said Sprig. "Or maybe we can try lifting this curse ourselves, without any awkward conversations."

"Tch. Sei proprio un codardo, Rametto!"

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

"I said you're such a coward!"

"Hey!" Sprig pointed at where he thought Johan was. "I'm not a coward! I just don't want to talk to Maddie!" He paused. "Okay, fine! I am a coward! But I can break this curse myself without having to go ask for creepy Maddie for help."

"Okay, but hurry," said Anne. "I've got a really bad feeling about where this is headed." She spotted some ants on the ground and started pecking them like a chicken.

"That's the first time I've seen her eat bugs without complaining," said Johan. Ivy nodded her head in agreement.

3 hours later...

Sprig, who at this point had become a giant furball, was in the kitchen, concocting a potion with the aid of one of Hop Pop's books, "So You Have Been Cursed?" So, far the only result he got was a potion exploding in his face. Like now. "Well, that didn't work either. How you doing over there, Anne?"

Anne was sitting on the living room couch, reading the newspaper. By now, she had fully transformed into a brown stork. "Anne, are you okay?" asked Hop Pop with concern.

"You know, it's actually not that bad," she said, surprisingly calm about the whole situation. "Watch this!" She knelt down on a floorboard, put her beak into a hole and pulled out a large yellow worm. Then she tossed the worm up and gobbled it down her throat. "Mmm!" she said happily. Then she frowned when she realized what she'd done. "I hate this curse."

"Speak for yourself," shouted Johan, who was getting dressed up by Ivy. "At least you still wear your clothes! Nothing I have fits me anymore!"

"Stop moving," said Ivy. "You'll tear the stitches."

Another explosion sent Sprig flying out of the kitchen and into the living room. He coughed before saying, "I think I'm getting closer."

"Sprig, enough is enough," said Anne as she helped him up. "You are going to get Maddie to lift this curse and that's that."

Sprig groaned before admitting defeat. "Fine, fine. But it's gonna be sooo awkward. Especially with you-know-who here," he said with a gesture toward Ivy, who frowned at him.

"Hey! Maddie said she's fine with the two of us together! Why aren't you? Are you really that afraid of her? What if I was in Maddie's place? How would you react?"

He thought about it for a moment before he opened the front door and was surprised to find a gloomy Maddie holding a basket of bread. "Got Mr. Plantar's bread order here."

He slammed the door in her face and hid behind Anne's legs. "Ahh! She's here! Someone hide me."

The door fell over. Polly screamed, "RUN! OBJECTS BEND TO HER WILL!"

"Nope. That's on me," said Hop Pop. "Forgot to fix those hinges."

Anne pushed Sprig in front of Maddie and he said nervously, "Oh... Hey, Maddie."

"Sprig."

Johan shouted, "Stop stalling, Rametto!"

"Just tell her," insisted Ivy.

"Uh..." Sprig built up the courage and he said out loud, "Maddie, I'm sorry for the way I broke up with you! It was wrong of me to have Anne do it, and doubly wrong that we didn't do it face to face."

Maddie said, slightly peeved, "Well, your breakup literally hit me in the face. But as much as I would've preferred an actual conversation, I was fine with what you wrote."

The furry frog sighed in relief. "Oh, thank goodness."

"Oh, thank goodness."

Anne flapped her wings to celebrate. "Told ya. Breakup 'qua-ween'." A crow flew into the house and landed on Anne's head; it cawed.

"Santo cielo," said Johan as he rolled his eyes.

"So can you take these curses off of us?" Sprig begged on his hands and knees. "Please?"

Maddie looked at Anne, Sprig and Johan and said, "Sorry, but I can't. Curses can only be lifted by the caster, and this isn't my curse."

"WHAT?!" the three cursed kids exclaimed.

"But if it wasn't you, then who?" asked Sprig.

"Hmm." Maddie brought out a mortar bowl full of soil, ground it with a pestle and sprinkled a pinch of minerals on it. She thew a handful of soil onto the floor and a purple cloud of smoke engulfs Anne, Sprig and Johan, coughing. The smoke dissipated to reveal a glowing blue trail on the floor, leading outside. "This trail will lead us to the caster." She ran off with Sprig, Anne and Ivy (still carrying Johan) in pursuit. "Quickly! Before it goes cold."

As the kids ran out, Polly had one question to ask Hop Pop. "You gonna fix this door?"

"Eh. Eventually."

As the kids ran down the forest trail (flying in Anne's case), Sprig tied his hair in a bun so he could see properly. Maddie asked him, "Why'd you think it was me who cursed you?"

"Well, you do give off a creepy vibe," he admitted.

Offended, Maddie said, "Just because I seem creepy to you doesn't mean I'm a bad person. I'll have you know, I learned magic to help people, not hurt them. Sheesh! Appearances aren't everything, Sprig."

Ivy said, "She's right. I like creepy stuff like her even though I have the appearance of a proper lady. I thought you knew that, Sprig."

Sprig slowed down to a halt as their words sank into him. "Yeah, well, that's…. That's a really good point."

"You got burned," said Johan.

Anne landed next to sprig and the crow in her hair squawked. "Kurt the crow says this will all end in tears," she said.

They followed the trail deeper into the woods and toward the old abandoned storage shack. It was dark inside. "What kind of evil person would live in a place like this?" asked Anne.

Somebody slammed the door behind them and someone turned all the light mushrooms on, revealing barrels full of candy. A figure stepped out of the shadows. "Hello, children."

They gasped. "BARRY?!"

"Enjoying the curse I put on you?" asked the tall, blue frog.

"WHY, BARRY?! WHY?!" wept Sprig.

"Why? I'll tell you why!" At that moment, the cheerful smile on Barry's face was replaced with a look of anger. "Surely you remember barging into me at the market yesterday? Spilling my entire stock of blue moon berries that only grow once every ten years. They were priceless! I played it cool and was sweet because my image is half my business. I may look nice, but I'm petty and vengeful on the inside."

"I knew it," shouted Johan. "Nobody is that happy and friendly unless they have something to hide!"

Ivy and Maddie nudged Anne and Sprig respectively. "Yeah, that was our bad. Looks can be deceiving. We get it," said Anne.

"Ah, right, right. The lesson thing," said Sprig. "Barry, we're sorry. Please lift the curse. You can't see it really, but I'm begging on my knees."

"Hmm, let me think," said Barry, considering Sprig's plea. Then he said, "Never! Not only am I petty, but I'm very unforgiving."

Well, this made Maddie angry. "As a curse wielder myself, this abuse of magic offends me." She threw a curse bag at Barry, but she missed, causing one of the mushrooms to grow a pair of eyeballs. "You should never curse someone unless they really deserve it. And, buddy, you deserve it!" Sprig, Anne and Ivy wisely walked out of her way before she started throwing another bag at Barry.

Barry dodged and reached into a cauldron. "Ah! Two can play at that game."

It had become a curse free-for-all. Bags were being flung across the room, cursing everything they touched. Sprig ducked behind a barrel only for a curse to hit the barrel, causing it to grow legs and wings and fly off. Anne flew out of the way of a few stray curses and hid behind a shelf. Ivy hid under a crate to avoid another bag from hitting her, only to realize she dropped someone important. "Where's JoJo?!"

Johan ran past the exploding bags and ran up Barry's pant leg. Barry let out a yelp and tried to hit him. "Get out of there. Wait, where are you- No! Get away from there!" Johan summoned DARE who proceeded to rapidly punch the most sensitive spot in a man.

"MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA!"

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Barry let out a shriek of pain as DARE's effect caused his pain receptor to skyrocket. He doubled over and squealed and moaned in agony. Johan slipped out of his pant leg and ran back to Ivy. "Now THAT'S what a guy who got hit in the testicles and never recovered sounds like."

Squirming, Barry reached into the cauldron. "One...last...curse..."

Maddie reached into her pocket, but felt nothing. "I'm out!"

"What do we do?" asked Anne.

"Anne, Sprig, JoJo! Give me a hand!"

"You mean literally? Or figuratively?" Maddie yanked some feathers off Anne's wings. "Ow!" Then she ran and grabbed some of Sprig's hair and plucked a single hair from Johan.

She tied all the hairs and feathers into a bag and ran toward Barry. Barry pitifully threw his last curse at her, only for her to catch it and throw both bags at him, resulting in a tremendous explosion.

"And that's how you fix a door," said Hop Pop. The shockwave caused the door to fall on him.

"Good job," said Polly.

When the smoke cleared, there stood Barry, transformed into a short, hairy chicken. "Oh, no. My beautiful body."

Anne, Sprig and Johan looked at each other and Sprig realized, "We're back to normal!"

"She turned the curses back on him!" exclaimed Anne.

"Up top, girl friend," said Ivy, giving Maddie a high five.

Johan cheered. "I'm tall again! And feeling a breeze for some odd reason."

Anne's face immediately turned red and she turned away. "Kids, look away." Confused, the frogs looked away anyway.

"What?" Johan realized the problem when he looked down. His face turned bright pink. Then he turned to look at Barry. An evil grin formed on his face as he said, "Nice clothes."

"Bagawk!"

DARE appeared and proceeded to pummel Barry, this time all over his whole body.

"MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA!"

A few seconds later Johan was standing over the beat up Barry and wearing his clothes, though they were clearly too big for him. "I'll change into my normal clothes when I get back," he said. "So, what are we going to do with him now?"

"T...T...Turn me back," whimpered Barry.

Maddie folded her arms and said, "Nothing doing. You're way too dangerous."

Barry cawed in shock. "What?! You can't leave me like this!" Crack! "Ooh! My hips! Damn you, JoJo!"

Sprig surprisingly felt guilty for the frog-turned-chicken and walked up to her. "Aw, come on, Maddie. We did him wrong."

"As much as I hate him," said Johan. "It was kinda Sprig and Anne's fault he wound up like this. Give him another chance." He leaned in a little closer. "And if he ever tries to act up again, the next curse you cast will be fatal."

"I beg your pardon, I heard that!" exclaimed Barry.

Maddie thought it over, then she decided, "Fine. I'll change him back. But for a price."

Sprig, Anne and Johan pushed the wagon full of every single candy Barry ever had toward Wartwood and toward Maddie's house. "Any chance we could get some of this candy?" asked Sprig.

"Nope," she said.

"Can I have some?" asked Ivy. Maddie threw her a red licorice rope. "Thanks."

The crow popped out of Anne's hair again and squawked. "Good-bye, Kurt," said Anne with tears in her eyes. "I'm not sure if all this was a blessing or a curse."

As the crow flew away, Johan said, "It was literally a curse, Anne. Wait, was that bird nesting in your hair the whole time? Quick, check in there in case there's eggs!"

Ivy coughed loudly. "Sprig, is there something you want to say to Maddie?"

Sprig looked at Maddie and said, "Thanks for helping us, Maddie. And sorry the engagement had to end like this. Friends?" He extended his hand.

Maddie shook it. "Friends." Suddenly she tugged on his arm and whispered in his ear, "I can't wait to hang out with you and Ivy."

"Cool!" said Ivy. "What do you want to do first, girlfriend?"

"Wanna help me with a little project I'm working on? I'm trying to resurrect a pet flea."

"Sure!"

Johan leaned in and whispered in Sprig's ear, like two peas in a pod, those girls are. You sure know how to pick 'em."

That night, when everyone was asleep, Sprig awoke with a sudden thirst for water. So, he headed down to the kitchen but he didn't get far when he saw a hunched over figure. Startled, he turned on the mushroom light and what did he see? Anne pecking ants off the floor like she was still a bird. She looked at him and asked indignantly, "What, you got a better way to eat ants off the floor? Sheesh."

Either she gave in to her new bug craving or the curse didn't entirely go away.

To Be Continued...