The First Bad Day

A bad day in the Troll Village was almost rare, especially for Queen Poppy herself. Her contagious smile, her hearty laugh, and a pep in every step. However, on this particular day Poppy would learn even Queens have bad days sometimes.

Poppy woke up on her side of the bed to find Branch's side empty. She was surprised at first but then remembered he had mentioned that he was needed in the village in the morning for a repair. It disappointed her a little as she was looking forward to a morning cuddle. Poppy shrugged it off and leapt out of bed to begin her day. On her way to the bathroom she accidentally stubbed her toe in the doorway which sent a wave of pain through her body.

"Frosting!"

Poppy breathed a series of breaths as the pain subsided. Once it was gone, she proceeded to take her shower. Something was off though, the water felt lukewarm and not hot like it normally was. It quickly went from lukewarm to cold altogether. This was not pleasant! She tried to wash as much of her hair as she could, but the cold water was too unbearable, so she gave up. Poppy felt incredibly disgusted by the thought of a short shower. She hoped her deodorant would be enough for today until Branch came home later to take a look at the shower. Her hair however would be a different story, she tried to style it like she normally did but it would not cooperate. She tied it up in her usual ponytail and then some strands of hair would come out. She fussed with it for a while before once again giving up. The strands of hair that wouldn't stay were held down for now with a few bobby pins. Poppy sighed as she looked in the mirror. She hoped no one would take much notice of her hair today.

After finishing in the bathroom, Poppy headed towards the bedroom to get dressed. She picked out a dress, but then noticed a tear in it. She could fix the tear, but she had really wanted to wear it today. Instead she settled on another dress and kept on with her morning. When Poppy made it to the kitchen, she was happy to see Branch had made the coffee already. Morning coffee made everything better, or so she thought. Just like everything else this morning, drinking coffee went wrong too. While pouring it, Poppy accidentally dropped the mug on the floor which shattered to pieces. This was the last straw, she reached for a pillow in the living room and screamed into it so no one could hear her.

"AHHH!"

Frustration was rising from her toes to the tips of her hair. Breath she told herself. She took a few deep breaths and once she was calm enough, she proceeded to clean up the mess. Unfortunately it was the last of the coffee, so she would have to go without it today.

"I can do this. It's been a rough morning, but that only means the rest of the day will be better."

Poppy leapt out of the pod and headed towards the village for the morning song. There were no problems during that to her relief, but it wouldn't last long. As soon as the song finished, everyone dispersed out. As Poppy made her way through, she noticed there were some areas of the ground that were wet since there was a rain storm the day before. It was great for the flowers, not so much for her feet. Her thought was correct when she almost tripped but caught herself. She made a mental note to stay away from the wet grounds for today.

First, she met with the glitter trolls in the village. Glitter Palooza was coming up so there was a lot of glitter needed for this holiday. Poppy was amazed by the different colors this year.

"This is a really impressive Guy!" Poppy exclaimed.

Guy Diamond smiled with amusement."Thank you Poppy, this is going to the best Glitter Palooza yet!"

"I helped too, Aunt Poppy!" Tiny Diamond added.

Poppy gently patted his head. "I see that! You did great Tiny!"

"I can't wait to shoot glitter in the troll's eyes!"

"No glitter shooting for you mister. You're still grounded for sneaking off on an adventure without my permission."

"But daddy-"

"My decision is final, son. You could have been killed, recklessly driving a caterbus! You know you're not old enough to drive!"

"I have a learner's permit!"

"A fake one! Where did I go wrong?"

The two started to bicker and which made Poppy feel awkward so she snuck away from the tense argument and decided to go to her next stop, Sky Toronto's factory. Sky was working on building a skating rink for the village and wanted Poppy to test drive some skates for it. Once she picked them up, she placed them in her hair. She had other things to attend to before she could try them out, but was very excited to try to later! Maybe this would be the thing to turn her rocky morning around.

Poppy continued her way through the village, everyone was happy which made her happy. No one was having any problems that required her immediate attention, so she decided this would be a perfect time to try out the new roller skates. She skated her way around and loved how fast they went! Every troll cheered her on as she did her amazing tricks. This was great! Suddenly, the wind started to pick up and Poppy found herself unable to stop. She was going wherever the wind was going, completely helpless. Poppy cried out for help but no one could catch her because of how fast the skates were. The one flaw Sky Toronto made, no brakes! She went so fast that she started bumping into other trolls, then things were getting knocked over including the glitter for glitter palooza! It was not only on the ground but all over Poppy too! Glitter was in her eyes, nose, and mouth! As if it couldn't get any worse, the mud puddle Poppy had tried to avoid earlier was what finally made her stop. Mud splattered all over her when she fell. There was murmuring all over the village about this, now the glitter trolls would have to start all over for the glitter collection! Poppy coughed up mud and glitter and threw the skates off. That was it. First her toe, the cold shower, her broken mug and lack of coffee, and now this!. Nothing had gone right today and she finally had enough. The other trolls offered to help get Poppy cleaned up, but she stormed off.

Poppy raced towards the woods and finally let out a rageful scream. She breathed a few deep breaths before she collapsed to the ground and started to cry. The Queen wasn't supposed to scream in frustration or let fellow trolls see her cry yet here she was. She felt so pathetic and being covered head to toe with glitter and mud was not helping the case. Poppy continued choking on her sobs when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked behind her to see Branch standing there. She felt so embarrassed for him to see her like this.

"Poppy." Branch said softly.

Poppy sniffled as her lip trembled. "Branch I-. I-".

She couldn't finish her thought, but Branch knew. He immediately pulled her in for a hug completely ignoring the fact that he would have glitter and mud on him too. He held Poppy as she continued to cry. Branch himself felt a little teary eyed hearing Poppy's sobs, he held her tight until he felt her breathing return to normal. She pulled herself away from him and hugged her knees to her chest.

Poppy wiped her eyes and sighed. "Today has been horrible."

Branch nodded at her response. He didn't even need to ask, it was all over her face. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I stubbed my toe this morning, the shower wasn't hot, I broke my mug and didn't have time for coffee. I thought I escaped the worst of it today but when I tried Sky's new skates I couldn't stop myself, so I knocked over all the glitter the trolls worked hard to get for glitter palooza and now I'm covered in glitter and mud!"

It took Branch a second to understand since she was talking so fast. She sounded incredibly frustrated. He thought carefully about what to say next.

"That sounds like a pretty tough day, I'm sorry it's been like this."

Poppy sighed. "I just don't understand. It feels like everything has just been going wrong today."

Branch nodded. "Sometimes bad days are like that, but you know what the good part of a bad day is?"

Poppy looked at him with confusion and shook her head.

Branch gave her a soft smile. "It can only get better. Tomorrow is a new day. However, there's still time to turn things around today."

Poppy hung her head. "I feel like if I move from this spot, it'll just be worse."

"I'm willing to bet that it won't. First things first, what can I do to make your day better?"

Poppy bit her lip to keep herself from whimpering. "I really just want a shower." She gestured to her mud and glitter covered body. "I feel so disgusting."

Branch smiled. "I'll find out what's going on with the shower. While you're doing that, I can go to the village and help with the glitter mess. How does that sound?"

He stood up and held out his hand to her. It took Poppy a second to accept it as she was still afraid things would get worse if she moved from her spot. A sense of guilt washed over her seeing her boyfriend having some glitter and mud covering his clothes.

"I'm sorry…Your clothes.." Poppy whispered quietly.

Branch kissed her forehead. "Don't worry about my clothes. I can always wash them, but for now I want to wash away the stress from you. Come on."

Branch led Poppy through a shortcut back to their pod away from prying eyes. He was so proud of himself for that, he knew his crazy preparedness could come in handy in some ways. When they reached their pod, Poppy immediately changed out of her clothes while Branch took a look at the shower. He toyed around with it for a little while, but the water still felt cold. Branch wiped the sweat from his forehead, his muscles were aching and he was tired but he was determined to get this fixed for Poppy. After playing around with the pipe some more, he finally found the source of the problem and fixed it right away. He tested the water and felt the familiar warmth and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Poppy!" Branch called. "Shower's fixed!"

When Poppy didn't come out, Branch tried calling her again but she still didn't respond or come out of the room. He headed towards their bedroom and found Poppy in her robe sitting on their bed. He knew the feeling she was feeling all too well, numbness. He went over to her and helped her up and guided her to the shower. Once there, he turned on the water for her and helped her undress from her robe. Poppy's head still hung low in defeat and she didn't budge.

Branch caressed her cheek as he spoke. "You're beautiful, Poppy. I promise you'll feel a lot better after this."

Poppy nodded as a response and Branch took it as his cute to help her step in the shower. No sooner had she stepped in and felt the warm water land on her, she sighed happily which made Branch feel happy in return. Finally, the first turnaround of her bad day.

"I'm going out to the village and to help the trolls, you just focus on the warm shower."

"Branch wait-"

"Yes?"

Poppy poked her head from the shower curtain. "Thank you."

"You're welcome sweetheart. I'll be back soon."

Before Branch made it out the door, something caught his eye, Poppy's broken mug. He carefully picked up the broken pieces when an idea came to him. He put the pieces in a plastic bag and put it in his hair for now. When Branch reached the village, he was surprised by how well the glitter cleanup was going. He had initial worries that the trolls would be in distress since Poppy was in distress early, so he was amazed by how well everyone was doing. Sometimes he didn't give them a lot of credit, but then again glitter was the hardest thing to get out of the ground. He joined in the clean up and assured the trolls who asked that Poppy was doing just fine.

"We all have bad days sometimes." Branch reminded them.

"I just want Aunt Poppy to feel better." Tiny Diamond said.

"She will Tiny. I can assure you of that."

"Can we do anything to help?" Guy Diamond asked.

"I think the best thing we can do to help her is just treat her normally tomorrow and not make a big deal of this." Branch suggested.

The others agreed with Branch's suggestion and in no time the glitter fiasco was a thing in the past. After double checking with the other trolls to ensure no further help was needed, Branch took out the pieces from Poppy's mug from his hair and got to work. Poppy's original mug was pink with suns and rainbows on it. He wasn't sure if he could put all the pieces back together, but he was going to do his very best. Branch used a special wax to make the pieces stick, but it wasn't a perfect puzzle. Some pieces had half of a sun and a rainbow combined. Feeling like he did all he could do, Branch decided to make his way back to Poppy. To cheer her up further, he picked up some of her favorite treats. Maybe it would make up for the fact that he couldn't fix her mug to its original form.

Poppy plopped down on the couch after her much needed shower. She felt so clean and refreshed, there were still some flecks of glitter left on her, but she could deal with that better than the mud. She reflected on today, Poppy was used to a few things not going right in the day but never experienced a day where everything snowballed. She thought she could have handled herself better when she had her outburst and felt red in the face again. Then she thought when Branch found her, she wondered how he must have felt seeing her like that. It was no surprise how gentle and caring he was towards her, she was so lucky to have a supportive partner like him.

Poppy's ears twitched at the sound of the pod door opening and turned to see Branch. She saw that in one of his hands was the mug she broke. He fixed it. He fixed it for me, she thought to herself. It wasn't perfect, but she didn't care. Then she noticed Branch had goodies with him, her heart felt like it could overflow. Branch put all that stuff aside for now and joined Poppy on the couch and wrapped her up in a much needed cuddle. Finally for the first time today, a smile spread across Poppy's face.

Ta-Da! Hi guys, long time no see! I'm sorry about the long update, life has been pretty busy. I thought about this one for a long time to think of the perfect story for this. Branch knows what it's like to have a bad day and we all know a series of unfortunate events in the morning can sometimes lead to the mindset of the day not going well so this was an interesting point of view for Poppy to experience this. I also needed to add the aftermath of Tiny sneaking off in Band Together, little tidbit there. Now that life is getting somewhat back to normal, I hope to update more! If there is anything you guys want to see, feel free to comment! See you soon!

~Ash