4. S1: Grubby Paranoia

Three little children sat around a table. One was lanky and weird, one was hoppity and weird, and one was round but somehow not weird. All of them were waiting impatiently for food to come and soon, their impatience paid off.

"Food, food, food!" The hoppity one known as Sprig cheered as he repeatedly slammed the table, fork and spoon in hand.

"FOOOOOODD!" The round one named Polly screamed, which was a normal response when one is desperate for sustenance.

"Yo, old man! When's the food coming? This girl here's gotta eat." The lanky one proclaimed to be Sasha asked rudely. Her chair was tilted back and her feet were laid crossed on the table, keeping her steady.

Meanwhile a few feet away, a much older person who goes by the name Hopadiah (aka Hop Pop) was busy pouring some mysterious concoction into a few bowls with a ladle. "Hold ya snails! I'm pouring, I'm pouring!"

Once done, he slid the bowls towards each of the children, excited for some well-earned grub.

"Here ya go! My famous mitosis stew!" Hop Pop said as he served the bowls, proud of himself. "Known to double your life expectancy when consumed. It also gives ya fair skin."

"I don't know what that name means, but I like the sound of everything else." Sasha complimented, flicking her spoon towards Hop Pop.

Once Hop Pop took his seat with his own bowl, he clapped his hands once. "Alright, kids, time to eat!"

"Yeeeeaaahhh!" Both Sprig and Polly cheered together, instantly gouging their meals. The older brother aggressively spooned his stew into his huge mouth, while the baby sister planted her face into it, slurping every last drop.

Sasha watched the two eat without any sense of table manners, and took a spoonful of the stew as well. She shoved it into her mouth, not noticing that the contents twitched.

Immediately, she knew something was wrong. Her eyes shot open and she felt something in her crack and died. Her stomach gurgled in protest, causing her face to turn green and her cheeks to puff.

"PSSSSHHH!" Without thinking, she spat out a stream of the stew out of her mouth, spoon included, towards Sprig. The warm liquid hit him directly onto his face and Sprig, who unfortunately was unprepared for that assault, was left surprised and defenceless as it violently attacked his eyeballs.

"AAAAAHHH! MY EYES!" Sprig cried in pain, his eyes turning red from all the spices in the stew. He leapt out of his seat and started running around in random directions, screaming and occasionally bumping into different household objects.

At the same time, Sasha was looking somewhat sick, her stomach completely empty. Her body too weak, she slid off of her chair and onto the ground, forming a foetal position as she continued to caress her aching belly.

"Urrrghh…" Sasha groaned, feeling as if she was dying. Her face continued to stay a sickly green and when her cheeks puffed with the rest, she quickly swallowed it back, feeling even worst.

Seeing his second-favourite grandchild and his human guest in pain, Hop Pop jumped off to check on them. "Sprig! Sasha! Are you two okay?!"

"Urrrghh…" was the only response he got from the latter before presumably fainting with saliva pouring out, while the former had dunked his entire head in the sink.

"Pssh, what a bunch of babies." Polly exclaimed, unaffected by the recent events, before returning back to finish her bowl of stew.

Later on, the Plantars (and Sasha) were having a family meeting in the living room. All the kids were sitting on the surprisingly spacious couch while Hop Pop stood in front of them. At the same time, Sprig had some roughly-tied bandages around the top half of his head, revealing a tuff of ginger hair, while Sasha was wrapped in blankets, looking horrible.

"Honestly, you two keep scaring the hoppers out of me." Hop Pop exclaimed, before sighing. "Okay Sasha, what happened back there? You never reacted like that to my cooking before."

Sasha coughed and wheezed. "Hgack, well I never actually ate your cooking before."

"Say whaaaat?!" Hop Pop shouted in surprise. "Then what've you been eating all this time?!"

"Oh you know, berries and veggies. A few roots here and there, ahck." Sasha answered before coughing. "It's— cough, not that bad."

"Well, I did notice you were looking thinner." Sprig added, not quite at her direction. He couldn't exactly see around him with the bandages over his eyes.

"Are you telling me you've been eating nothing but fruits and vegetables since ya got here?!"

"Heh, vegetarian diets exist in my world, so it's like— cough, totes possible." Sasha waved dismissively.

"Were you a vegetarian back in your world?"

"Well no, but—"

"SO YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING?!" Hop Pop scolded loudly. Sasha flinched in her blanket, a bit surprised. "Sheesh, Hop Pop. It's not that big of a deal. I've read a bit of Anne's magazines to know what I'm doing."

Hop Pop raised an eyebrow. "Anne? Who's Anne?"

"Oh, it's Sasha's BFF back in her world! She's got a nest on her head." Sprig answered, again not looking quite at the right direction. Hop Pop was still somewhat confused, asking "What's a BFF?" afterwards.

"Look, that doesn't matter! All I'm saying is that I totally can handle a full-vegetarian diet! All I have to find are the protein substitutes and I'm good." Sasha explained as she pulled out one of Anne's magazines from beneath her covers.

"What's a protein?" Sprig asked. Sasha turned to her BFF, "It's this weird chemical in all animals. Kinda important."

She opened up the page about dietary plans and skimmed through it. "Anyway, it says here I can substitute meats with tofu. You got any of that?"

"What's a tofu?" Hop Pop asked. Sasha immediately switched pages. "Okay then, no worries! We'll just check for something else…"

"How about soybeans?" Sasha questioned, which again the Frogs all turned heads. Sasha continued, "Avocado?"

"SPEAK AMPHIBISH, LADY!" Polly yelled. Apparently, English was known as Amphibish in this world. Sasha didn't know why but she decided not to question it. However realizing her increasing lack of options, Sasha made a calculated decision and threw the magazine into her basement room, where it would stay there until it proved itself useful.

"Okay, so I'm gonna die. That… that honestly sucks." Sasha exclaimed, though while smiling for some reason. It might be the stew affecting her brain chemistry. No one can tell really.

"How about them insects? I haven't seen ya even touch one of them." Hop Pop asked. Sasha stared at the old frog and proceeded to show her disgust. "Bleh! No offence Hop Pop but humans don't eat bugs."

"But you said animals have protein. So technically, bugs have protein too!" He pointed out quickly.

Sasha frowned. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I like eating bugs."

"But ya can!"

"But I. Don't. Want. To!"

"YOU GOTTA!"

"NO!"

"Hey hey, you two. I think we can make a deal." Sprig said, walking between the two. Despite managing to position himself correctly, he still did not look at the right direction. "Look, Sasha doesn't like what we usually eat but as Hop Pop says, it's healthy. So why not we make a deal?"

Sasha turned to Sprig. "What kind of a deal?"

"Well, there's the store we usually go to buy stuff like mushrooms and glue. Maybe you'll find something there."

Hop Pop rubbed his chin, contemplating. "Hmm… Well, it's worth the shot. Alright then, kids! We'll be visiting town tomorrow! It's a bit early than what when we usually do, but I guess we can make an exception this time."

Sasha, Polly and Sprig all cheered, though the human cheer being somewhat weak. For the latter two, they only visited the town twice a week; one for grocery shopping while the other was for selling their farmed goods. For Sasha however, she had been staying with the Plantars for just over a week and even then, she'd never really visited town. Thus, she was forced to stay home with Sprig while Hop Pop and Polly went to town.

Then again, Hopadiah Plantar was paranoid as heck back then so hey, little improvements.

Suddenly, Sasha felt something climb up from her stomach and her face quickly turned green. She immediately ran away into the bathroom and a few moments later, belching noises squeaked out.

Hop Pop stared at the bathroom door. "Or you know, until Sasha is not sick."

More uncomfortable noises came from the door.

The next day, Sasha had finally fully emptied her stomach and was feeling much better, albeit somewhat hungry. She had filled herself with some of her usual foodstuffs; plant stuff and cereals, before readied herself for town. The Plantars and her left home late in the morning, close to noon.

While it would have been preferable to be able to visit town anytime they want, it simply wasn't possible for them. The Plantar homestead was at the outskirts and while Sprig and Sasha are technically capable of going by themselves, Hop Pop simply didn't trust them to go there without causing any trouble. Plus due to the distance, someone like Hop Pop would have problems, so they took Bessie with them.

Finally arriving at town, Sasha looked around the place, absorbing whatever she set her eyes on. This was officially the first time she had been to Wartwood and in her opinion, the town was a lot more planned out than she thought. She had expected a bunch of houses haphazardly placed all over the place but Wartwood was a genuine normal town.

Except you know, frog people. That's still weird to her.

"Why do I have this drape again?" Sasha asked, sitting in one of Bessie's spare seats. Said drape was purple in colour and looked like it was pulled out of the attic after several decades. It probably was.

"Just because we're good with ya, doesn't mean the rest of the townsfolk are." Hop Pop explained, being the driver of their snail.

"I get that. You told me that days ago. But shouldn't I like—" Sasha fluttered her drape. "Cut the stem early or something?"

"Most of the folks around here never even seen you, Sasha. All they've heard are rumours and stories."

"My favourite's the one where you steal pollywogs at night and eat their legs." Sprig added.

Sasha turned to Sprig, bewildered. "Baby frogs don't have legs."

"Hehe yeah, I know."

Despite the interruption, Sasha continued. "But still! I'm not that bad right, Hop Pop?"

Hop Pop leashed Bessie to turn left. "Honestly Sasha, sometimes you scare me."

Sasha blinked from her drape. "Okay wow, dude… That's… that kinda hurt." Hop Pop shrugged nonchalantly and grinned. He then said jokingly, "You know, if it were anyone else, I bet they'd be so scared that they'd catch ya and feed you to the herons."

"Herons?" Sasha asked.

"Giant frog-eating birds, twice as tall as even our tallest buildings. They have a taste for the intestines, hehe."

Even though Hop Pop was just playing around, Sasha couldn't help but let the info cloud her mind. She stared at the citizens of Wartwood, unsure of how today would go. Sure, she knew Hop Pop was just joking but that didn't really ease her. After the whole lake incident, Sasha began to trust the Plantars more than usual and what Hop Pop said might hold some truth in them.

The drape around her tightened.

Seeing the store nearby, Hop Pop pulled the leash and steered Bessie to an empty spot close by. "Alright kids, we're here! Don't forget your shopping bags!"

Shopping bags in hand, the Plantars (and Sasha) strolled into the store. Despite the obvious purple drape covering her, nobody seemed to bat a froggy eye over her. Some might glance at her but other than that, she was nothing more than just a suspicious person which was still better than being called a monster.

The store they went in was full of various daily goods usually not sold in other nearby shops. From hardware such as nails and wooden planks to foodstuff such as spices and berries, to even unique tools like the fabled can opener, one can find almost anything in the store.

However, bulk supplies such as cheese and insect meat were often bought at the weekly market, where the Plantars also spend their time to sell their own produce. Nonetheless, the store was still essential to Wartwood.

"Okay, meet up at the counters in a few minutes. And Sasha, do try not to get into trouble." Hop Pop said.

"Wait, why am I singled out?!" Sasha argued but all she received was a knowing look from the older frog. Afterwards, the group split up, though only Polly was forced to accompany Hop Pop.

Sasha walked around the aisles on her own, looking for anything edible for her. Most food products were made from some form of bug meat, the difference being which type. What she did find interesting was the clear distinction between farmed and wild bugs.

Sasha picked up a weird grub worm bar from the aisle and read the label. "Made from real firefly larvae. Eww… Wait, what did it mean by 'real'?"

"Hey, you!" A squeaky voice called out from behind her. Sasha, still in her drape, turned around towards the voice. Looking behind, she saw a small frog person about the same height as Sprig but obviously older.

"Uh… Are you talking to me?" Sasha asked, instinctively pulling the cloth wrapped around her closer. The frog stared at her with increasing intensity, examining her every detail.

"Do I… know you?" He or she asked. Sasha couldn't really tell herself but decided to focus on the more important things at hand. She replied, "I don't think so."

"I don't know… You look kinda familiar."

"Nope, never seen you in my entire life."

"Hmm…" They stared at her even closer. Sasha felt nervous sweat squeeze out of every pore, both her breathing and heart rate accelerating. After a few seconds of intense and somewhat intimidating staring, the frog person whipped back to a more comfortable distance, smiling.

"Yep, you're absolutely right! Sorry about that! Haha!" The frog person laughed before leaving. "Welp, see you around, stranger!"

"Yeah, you too…" Sasha dishonestly replied. Once he was gone, she did a sigh of relief, pleased with how that turned out and unknowingly pocketed the larvae bar. "Phew, glad that didn't blow over."

Sasha walked towards the next aisle, continuing with her search. She looked over at a jar of blueish fluid, reading the label. Blubberry, which she assumed to be this world's version of blueberry. Don't know why it was just one letter different though.

"WAIT, DID WE GO TO THE SAME SCHOOL?!" Suddenly, the frog person returned, shouting at her at the end of the aisle. Unprepared, a startled Sasha accidentally dropped the jar of blubberry jam, splattering it all over the floor.

"Dude, what the heck?!" Sasha angrily yelled at them. "You made me drop the jar!"

"Sorry, sorry! I-I'll just leave…" They apologized dejectedly and disappeared. Sasha huffed and vented out the stress silently, and moved.

In a comical fashion, the jam stuck underneath her shoes acted as some sort of lubricant despite its ironic name. After a few steps, most of the jam had come off from her soles and the residue, somehow stuck itself onto her drape, caused her to slip.

"AAAAAHHHH—!" She yelped, almost falling backwards. The purple drape, once used to protect her identity, now betrayed her as it wrapped itself, restraining her top half. Sasha fought loudly to keep her balance and get free but the older-than-her drape proved to be a challenge.

With the drape over her head, Sasha ran around wildly and blind, crashing into shelf after shelf. Patrons nearby watched in horror as this purple monstrosity caused chaos at every step. Some even ran away screaming from her path of imminent destruction.

In the end, she was finally stopped in her tracks when the betrayal drape latched itself around her leg, causing Sasha to come crashing down. The frogs who watched the calamity unfold continued to do so and with a bit of struggle, she finally escaped her cloth prison.

"RRRAAAHHHH!" Sasha cried, ripping the drape over her akin to that of a baby bird breaking free of its egg. She was sweating heavily from the panic and her muscles felt tense throughout the ordeal.

With bloodshot eyes, she assessed her surroundings and found herself staring at a group of amphibian shoppers. Her breathing slowly calmed but her thoughts on this had not; she was exposed.

"I-It's the monster…"

"It's hideous!"

"Timmy, look away!"

"But mother! I wanna see the monster!"

The panic rapidly crept itself back in again and seeing all the pointing fingers and whispering, Sasha did the first thing her mind could've possibly thought off under intense pressure; she booked it.

"Look, a diversion!" Sasha exclaimed as she pointed at behind the crowd. All of the patrons looked to see said diversion and within that brief moment, Sasha bolted out of there.

Meanwhile at the cashier, Hop Pop and the kids were waiting for Sasha. While Sprig was happily showing the marbles he chose to Polly, Hop Pop impatiently tapped his foot and looked around.

"Now where did she go off to? This store ain't really that big." Hop Pop asked out loud to no one in particular. Sprig, however, had been listening. "Maybe she found something cool."

"I've been to this store since it first opened and I assure you, there ain't anything 'cool' here." Hop Pop replied, adding quotations with his fingers.

At the corner of her eyes, Polly noticed a figure running at their direction and turned to look. A moment of focusing later, she pointed. "Look! There she is!"

Sasha was running for her life. Though her life wasn't actually in any danger, it felt like it was at the moment and the 13-year old did not deal with panicked decisions. She saw the Plantars on her way and immediately turned straight towards them.

"Oh there you are, Sasha. We've been waiting for you for the past five minu— H-HEEY!" Hop Pop yelped in surprise as Sasha grabbed everyone into her arms without stopping and leapt over the counters. The cashier clerk stared in horror.

"W-wait, Sasha! We haven't paid!" Hop Pop yelled, trying to break free of her grip. Sasha, however, continued her run and threw everyone onto Bessie's back, who was happily munching on some mushrooms.

"NO TIME!" Sasha yelled back and took her seat behind the old frog. "WE GOT TO MOVE, NOW!"

"N-now hold on Here, Sasha! We can't leave without paying!"

Sasha placed her hands on Hop Pop's shoulders and tightened her grip. "Look Hop Pop, I don't think you understand what's going here. I thought you were just being stupid and weird but in there, a bunch of frogs just straight up screamed at me! So right now, I need you to look at the road—"

"AND DRIVE!"

In a moment of confusion, Hop Pop cracked his leash and Bessie quickly drove off. Sasha turned to see the so-called angry mob, only to find an angry cashier clerk screaming incomprehensibly at them.

"Huh." Sasha spoke in a surprised tone, finally calmed down, before turning forward. She looked around at the Plantars, examining them. Sprig and Polly don't seem that bothered but Hop Pop did not look happy at all. Brows furled, a deep frown and focused entirely on the road.

The trip back felt longer than it should and Sasha couldn't help but look away.

Finally home after an unsettlingly quiet trip, Hop Pop drove Bessie in front of the front yard, letting Sprig, Polly and Sasha off before parking in the barn. While Sprig and Polly went straight into the house, Sasha turned to face the still frowning Hop Pop.

"Hey uh, Hop Pop?" Sasha called out with a hesitant tone. "Look, I just want to say—"

"Save it for later, Sasha. I need to park Bessie for the night. Clouds are looking a bit dark tonight." Hop Pop cracked the leash lightly and Bessie slowly moved towards the barn, making a cute noise on the way. Sasha stood alone at the front yard, looking at the darkening clouds. She sighed and walked back in, somewhat dejected.

A few minutes later, Hop Pop walked into the house through the back door and immediately went to prepare dinner. With her hands in her pockets, Sasha went with the others and took a seat, though she didn't take a plate herself. Upon sitting down, however, she felt something in her pocket. Pulling it out, she found in her hands the grub worm bar she accidentally stole from the store.

"Hey, is that a grub worm bar?" Sprig asked, noticing Sasha's item. Sasha lifted herself to reply. "Yeah, I kinda stole it, I guess? What about you guys? I saw those marbles you got, Sprig."

"Oh, these? I paid for them with my allowance." Sprig answered, rattling the marbles in its little bag.

"Wait, you get an allowance?"

"Yep! I guess you don't have one yet since you never went to town before. I'm sure Hop Pop was going to give you one too."

Sasha looked at her weird not-chocolate bar and turned to Hop Pop, who was cooking at the moment. With pure conviction, Sasha stood up and stomped her way towards the old frog and forcefully turned him around. Hop Pop, taken by surprise, almost dropped his ladle. "S-Sasha?! What is going on here?! Why are ya—?!"

"Here." Sasha said, giving up the bar. Hop Pop stared at the snack and then at Sasha, repeating the process. Finally stopping, he turned upwards to Sasha. "What's this for?"

Sasha sighed. "I know you're mad at me for pushing you and stuff and the whole not paying thing. So…" Sasha looked down, averting eye contact and rubbing her neck, and spoke quietly. "Sorry about that."

Hop Pop looked at Sasha and for the next few seconds, it was just quiet and awkward. Then suddenly without warning, Hop Pop laughed.

"HAHAHAHA! YOU THINK THAT'S WHY I WAS MAD AT YA? HAHAHAHA!"

Sasha blinked. "… What?"

The old frog continued to laugh and no one really knew what to do about it. Sprig laughed a little too, feeling a bit out of place, but then stopped when Polly slapped his arm. After a few seconds of Sasha awkwardly standing there, Hop Pop's laughter finally died down.

"Hahaha… Sorry, didn't mean to laugh that much. Hehe…" Hop Pop apologized. "I wasn't mad at ya for skipping out like that. I guess I was a bit frustrated that you didn't take my words seriously and called it 'stupid' and 'weird'. But I admit, the drape was a bit too much. Must've made ya feel pressured and all."

Hop Pop pushed the grub worm bar back to Sasha. "I'm sorry I made ya feel that way. I was being paranoid about it. Next time we go to town, no more of that drape!"

Pushing it to her chest, Sasha smiled. "Thanks, Hop Pop. Sorry about those words I said."

Hop Pop waved it off. "No problem! 'River 'round the stalks', as they say."

"I think you meant 'water under the bridge'." Sasha pointed out.

"Why would I say that?" Hop Pop asked, only to shook his head. "It don't matter. But hey, since ya got that grub worm bar there, might as well eat it. We did go all that way to get ya some food. Though, it's still made of bugs…"

Immediately and without hesitation, Sasha ripped open the wrapper in front of the Plantars and bit down hard into the bar. She ripped off a piece and chewed vigorously, her face showing a weird form of disgust. Once fully chewed, she swallowed the now mushy bar, pounding her chest a bit and coughing afterwards.

She expected something disgusting, she even expected herself to barf and yet, she didn't. Instead, she actually liked it! Sasha took herself another but smaller bite. "Mmm, sweet… yet salty… Hey, this isn't half bad!"

"You liked it?!" Sprig asked in awe.

"I mean— Mmm, it tastes a bit weird but it's pretty good!" Swallowing, Sasha continued eating until it was completely consumed. Tapping on her stomach, she laughed. "Wow! I could use more of that."

"Well, you're in luck 'cause we'll be visiting town again tomorrow. We still need to buy some groceries after all and pay for that bar you stole." Hop Pop said.

"Maybe you'll find some other stuff too." Sprig added, climbing the table to get closer to the conversation.

Sasha grinned. "Yeah, you guys are right. I mean, I still won't eat raw bugs but hey, at least this stuff is good!"

Hop Pop and Sasha shared a nice and friendly moment, only to be interrupted by Polly who slammed the table with her little fins of might. "WAIT, WAIT, WAAAAIIIIT!"

Everyone turned to Polly, who was still in her seat. "If Sasha can eat normal food here, then why can't she eat Hop Pop's cooking?"

"Maybe Hop Pop's just a bad cook. Whatever he makes might just be pure poison to me. Hahahaha!" Sasha answered, laughing at her little joke. Sprig and Polly also laughed, followed by Hop Pop. When they thought about it, it could be true. And simply because of it, it was quite funny. The laughter lasted for several many seconds and slowly died down naturally, everyone still thinking about it.

"… Wait, what's that supposed to mean?" Hop Pop asked, glaring at Sasha.