Clay & Viva

"Hey, Viva! What'd you think about this new fire exit idea of mine?" Clay asked Viva, approaching her with blueprints he made.

"Clay!" Viva exclaimed, hugging him as he approached. "You know I trust your judgment on these things. Also, are fire exits really necessary?" Viva asked, putting one hand on her hip in amusement.

"Well, yeah. I mean, you never know what could happen," Clay responded, looking around to emphasize his point, causing Viva to laugh.

"If you think we need fire exits, then I'll take your word for it."

"Cool! I'll get started on that right now!" Clay exclaimed, turning to leave.

"Or…" Viva said, causing Clay to halt. "You could do that later and come do something fun! Oh! How about we make candy necklaces that we never finish because we eat all the candy!?" Viva asked, jumping in excitement.

"Hmmm…alright. Let me just put these blueprints in my room first," Clay said, walking toward the small admin building he turned into his bedroom. Opening the door, he squeezed himself inside and leaned the rolls of blueprints up against the wall next to his bed. In all honesty, Clay hated his room. The only reason why he decided to make this his room was to push his brothers, well really just John Dory, out of his life. He believed that in choosing to live in something so small and dull he would be taken more seriously by the PuttPutt trolls, something he didn't experience with his brothers, who he only felt like a joke to.

When he was a part of BroZone, he was the prankster of the band, being the one who loved to have fun the most. However, despite his reputation, he actually wanted to be taken seriously and grew tired of being viewed as 'the fun one.' He even joined a sad book club before BroZone split. Even while living with his brothers he tried to show the serious side of him more and always made sure to voice his opinion of John Dory's leadership, especially when it came to backing Spruce up in their occasional arguments.

Once leaving the band, he was finally given the chance to be the troll he wanted to be. Not long after leaving, he came across what appeared to be an abandoned golf course. Entering it, he found Viva and the PuttPutt trolls, who welcomed him with open arms and accepted him for who he was. Since then, he's been spending his days helping Viva run the Hole N' Fun, taking on the role of being a responsible leader of the other PuttPutt trolls alongside Viva.

Looking in the mirror hanging above his bed, Clay's eyes are instantly drawn to his lime-green hair, his natural hair color. As part of BroZone, John Dory would have Clay dye his hair yellow to better match his 'Fun Boy' side/personality. Leaving his brothers not only allowed Clay to become more serious, but it also allowed him to grow his hair out the way he wanted as well as have it be its natural color. The reason as to why Clay kept the mirror above his bed was to remind himself daily of his choice, and how leaving gave him freedom to express himself.

Turning away from his reflection, Clay's eyes fell on a picture resting on the window sill of himself and Viva . Smiling to himself, he picked it up and looked into her eyes. He and Viva were very close friends, with him also being her right-hand man. He would always be grateful for her allowing him to be true to himself, and was glad to know just how much Viva trusted him. He was the only troll who Viva trusted enough to tell her past trauma to; which revolved around her and the PuttPutt trolls escape from the Troll Tree in Bergen Town.

Placing the picture back down, Clay headed back outside and made his way to Viva's room, walking up the rainbow path leading to her pink door and knocked. He heard a muffled "Come in" from Viva, so he entered the room. Unlike Clay's choice of room, Viva chose to live in the big pink plastic ice cream cone that was laid upside down toward the edges of the golf course. Inside, Viva took pride in decorating her living space with various types of candy, art supplies, and multiple colorful pieces of furniture. Usually, walking in her brightly colored and lively room would bring a smile to Clay's face, but upon entering, the sight of Viva kneeling facing the wall, holding something in her hands, caused Clay to pause.

"Viva? You okay?" Clay asked, approaching Viva from behind and placing a hand on her shoulder in comfort.

"Hm? Oh, yeah…yeah I'm fine," Viva unconvincingly responded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

Frowning, Clay knelt in front of Viva and placed his hand gently on her face, bringing her eyes up to meet his. "Viv, I know something's bothering you. You can tell me."

Sighing, Viva handed Clay the item she had been holding; her scrapbook. Noticing the confused look on Clay's face, she opened it up to the page she had been looking at which showed a picture of little Viva, her father, and her baby sister Poppy, all smiling brightly up at them. "I made this book shortly after the PuttPutt trolls and I escaped from the Troll Tree. I didn't want to forget them," Viva sadly told Clay, watching his expression as he studied the page.

Clay ran his fingers over the pasted cut-outs of velvet and colored paper that came together to create the image Viva replicated. A memory then popped in Clay's mind, of him and his brothers joining happily together in a group hug for a picture that had been taken and framed, but which was now probably lost and forgotten about back in his old home.

"I'm so sorry, Viva," Clay told Viva softly. "I know how you feel. I miss my family too."

"At least you know they're still alive though. I-I don't even know if they made it out of that tree…" Viva trailed off, refusing to finish that sentence.

"I don't know if my brothers are still alive," Clay told Viva, who looked up at him surprised. Clay barely talked about his family to anyone, and when he did, it was only simple phrases of him acknowledging their existence. "We split apart a long time ago. As far as I know, anything could've happened to them. I mean, it's been years since I've talked to any of them," Clay finished, looking down in shame.

This time, it was Viva who put a hand on Clay's shoulder in comfort. "How many brothers do you have?" She asked him, trying to help him think about the positive memories he had of them, which seemed to work as a small smile appeared on Clay's face.

"Four, two older brothers and two younger. I'm in the middle. The oldest, his name's John Dory. He's…well…let's just say he's pretty controlling, but there are times I remember him being this fun older brother. Then there's Spruce, who has to be my favorite brother. He was the one I always went to to hang out with, talk with, and just goof around with. He always got me, and easily related to me when it came to John Dory's controlling personality. After me there was Floyd, who was always pretty quiet but very understanding. He was probably also the calmest one out of all of us really. The youngest was Branch, who I would sometimes recruit to help me pull a prank on the others. He…was only one when I left…" Clay trailed off, the smile fading from his face as guilt swept over him.

"They sound amazing," Viva softly told Clay, her hand still resting on his shoulder.

"Yeah, they really were," Clay said, meeting her gaze and smiling sadly. Viva returned the smile and hugged Clay tightly, feeling him relax in her embrace and as he hugged her back.

All of a sudden, a bright light appeared in the room, slowly advancing on the two trolls. Pulling away from each other, Clay grabbed Viva's hand and helped her up, placing himself in front of her as he slowly backed away from the light. Before either of them could run or say anything, the light engulfed them, making them disappear from the room and leaving Viva's scrapbook behind.