24. Chapter 24

No one was able to explain anything with Anne’s biological father out cold, so everyone (frogs included) simply went back to the house and waited. It seemed like the mother wanted to bombard them with questions, but she knew that she’d regret it if she didn’t wait for her husband to wake up first. By the time he did, everyone was already home and an awkward silence reigned.

When Bee finally woke up, he was laying on the couch with his wife at his feet, with the armchair in front of him. All it took was one look to remember why he passed out in the first place. There, staring back at him was his daughter with three giant anthropomorphic frogs all sitting in her lap. Her arms were protectively draped around them, as if she was expecting him to lunge for them at any moment!

Anne watched as he sat up and shook his head while staring at her. After a few moments, it became clear that he wouldn’t pass out again and she could just go straight into explaining everything. She told them about how she was raised in another world with Hop Pop even helping explain a few things here and there. Oddly enough, there weren’t really any questions, but Anne figured that was because they were still in somewhat of a shock about the whole thing.

At the last minute, she decided to stop the story at the third temple. They were clearly getting overwhelmed with information and learning about Andrias ran the risk of making her father pass out again. She’d tell them eventually, but not right then. After all, there was an even more important part that she left out.

While she was watching the movies with them, she offhandedly mentioned how unrealistic the magic was in each one and how inconsistent it was between them. It was then that they told her about how they genuinely didn’t believe that magic existed. When they asked her if she’d ever even seen it, she automatically said that she had. This led them into an entire rant about how magic apparently wasn’t real in this world.

As such, she completely avoided talking about her ‘medicine’ and made it seem like she had been raised entirely without it. After all, if she did mention it, then she’d probably have to prove it by using one of her only three remaining bottles. Plus her frog form wouldn’t be strong enough to protect the family that raised her from her biological family if they suddenly… got hungry.

Explaining it all took a few hours, but when they finally finished, Anne’s birth parents had the weirdest expressions imaginable! They looked like they could hardly comprehend what they were being told. Their eyes flashed in between the frogs and their daughter a few times before the father pinched the top of his face bump and put his other hand up.

“Wait, wait. Back up. So you’re saying you were raised in a completely different world called Amphibiland?”

“Actually, it’s called ‘Amphibia’.” Sprig was quick to correct him. Anne’s mother wasn’t paying any attention to them, though.

“This both answers and poses so many questions. I don’t even know where to start!” She put her hand to her face and wiped downwards to look at the frogs for a moment. Anne moved to put her leg in between them and her gaze. She didn’t mind them talking to each other, but she had no way of knowing what was going on in the other humans’ minds. As far as she knew, her whole family was in constant danger while in the same place as her amphibivore human parents.

The only things that made her not immediately rush the frogs out of the house and back to the ‘park’ they were originally hiding in were the facts that her human parents knew about them now and that Anne herself was actually there to protect them if need be. Sure, she might not be able to overpower an adult human because she was still just a kid, but she had the strength of a farmer while they didn’t. That had to count for something, right?

Thankfully, it didn’t seem like her biological parents were about to attack at that moment. They looked way too tired and frankly, Anne could at least sympathize with that part. It was already morning by the time they finished their discussion, so no one had slept at all and Anne was already going on a couple of days without sleep. Eventually her mother yawned and suggested something.

“Okay, how about we just call the police and get them to help?” Hearing that and remembering her time with them, Anne immediately called out how bad of an idea that was.

“No!” She crossed her arms and stared them straight in the eyes. “You said so yourself only a couple days ago that the police were practically useless, so why would they help now?”

“I said that because they were never able to track you down and find you when you were taken. Now that we know you were in another world, it makes sense why they were never able to find you. If they learn the truth, then they’ll probably be able to help the frogs get back home.”

“And separate us?! I already spent the last week practically separated from them and I am NOT going through that again! Either they stay here with me or I go with them. You may be my birth parents, but I’ve known you for less than a week! If you even TRY to take them away from me, then you’ll never hear from me again!” This seemed to catch them off guard. They were used to her being nervous, submissive, and even afraid to ask questions. So seeing her actually stand up for herself was completely new to them!

There was silence for a while before they turned to each other and started just talking in that language she heard at the temple. She had no idea what they were saying, so she took a couple of steps back while ushering her frog family behind her. Their little conversation was kept pretty short, though.

“Alright, they can stay so long as they don’t break anything.” Her mother stated matter-of-factly. The father continued.

“One of us needs to tend to the restaurant, so I’m going to go do that. I was passed out for most of the night while the rest of you stayed up, so it’s the least I can do. Meanwhile, I hope you all get some much needed sleep. Especially you, Anne! You’ve been awake for how long now?!”

“... I see your point, but-”

“No ‘but’s, you need to get some sleep, young lady!” Hearing that come out of him made Anne pause for a moment. Nearly every parent she’d ever heard had said something like that to their kid at one point or another, so did that… did that mean he was just trying to be a parent at this point? Before she could respond, Hop Pop joined in.

“He’s right, Anne. If it makes you feel any better, we’ll come with ya.”

“That… would actually make me feel better, Hop Pop.” She picked up him, Sprig, and Polly, with the latter clinging onto Frobo’s head and arm. From there, she eyed her birth parents and made sure to keep looking at them while she made her way up to her room. Once they were out of sight, she rushed into there and finally set her family down. Almost immediately, her siblings started looking around the place.

“Woooaaah! This place is way bigger than your room back home!” Sprig commented while looking around. While he was right, Anne began to feel like it was just a fancier version of the cell that the cops held her in only a few days prior. Still, it was better than the little forest camp that her family had been staying in for the past week, so she supposed she could let them just admire it for a while.

“You even have a desk in here! That’s the perfect place to put Frobo until I can fix him up!” Polly shouted while trying her best to hop up and reach it from the chair. Of course Anne stepped in to help her little sister just as Hop Pop weighed in.

“Either this was a guest bedroom or yer birth parents really went all out fer ya!”

“Well, they did say that it was originally going to be mine before I went missing. But since then, they’d turned it into a storage room. All of this furniture is brand new, though.”

“Well they must a dropped quite a few coppers on all a this! I say we give ‘em a chance ‘cause they’re clearly tryin’.” Anne didn’t want to argue with her grandpa, so she silently agreed for that moment before yawning. At this, Hop Pop urged her off to bed and climbed in beside her, calling Sprig and Polly to join as well. With her family tucked around her frame, she could finally feel that they were safe and sound.

Even despite the fact that there was an amphibivore in the house, she was able to tell that her family was at least safe in her arms. A relieved sigh left her before she finally closed her eyes and drifted off, the frogs around her snuggling in for a little extra warmth. When she finally awoke, it was nearly a repeat of how they woke up on the day of the salt floods. With Hop Pop in front of her chest, Sprig clinging onto the crook of her knees, and Polly nestled into the back of her hair.

For just that one peaceful moment, she almost thought that she was back home and safe with her family. A quick shift told her otherwise, though. After all, this bed actually fit her human form, unlike any that could be found in Wartwood. Looking around a little bit, she could tell that no one had entered her room besides them. At least her mother was giving her the space she needed… she sincerely hoped she wouldn’t go downstairs to find cops everywhere just waiting to take the frogs away!

The thought kept her up until the rest of her family awoke. All of them somewhat dreaded going downstairs, but a little encouragement from Hop Pop had the family cautiously making their way down. They hadn’t realized how much time had passed until they heard Anne’s father’s voice coming from the kitchen, although they couldn’t exactly make out what he was saying. They tried to be stealthy in their attempts to eavesdrop, but the mother noticed them anyways.

“Oh! You’re up! I was about to start making dinner, seeing as your father just got home.” Hearing that, Anne protectively grabbed the frogs. She didn’t know what her birth mother intended to make, but she wouldn’t let her use them in her recipes! She got a confused look for that, but her father seemed to miss it when he spoke up.

“I looked it up and apparently frogs are carnivorous, so we’ve been trying to think of a no-salt, meat based dish that we can make a lot of.” Anne was a little startled to hear that they were apparently planning on feeding her family. Hop Pop actually cut in to inform them of something they missed.

“Huh, I guess that’s another difference between us and the frogs a this world. We’re omnivorous, which is why we’ve got a vegetable farm back home!” Realization seemed to hit the two adult humans and the woman gave some thoughts on the matter.

“Oh, I thought the produce was used to feed livestock on other farms or something. But the bigger diet actually makes it easier to get proper food for the lot of you! And if plants are a part of your diet, then I don’t think we’d need to freak out over trace amounts of salt.”

“Uhh… no? Are you trying to kill them?!” Anne responded to the last part, horrified that they’d suggest that. It might just be that they didn’t know how dangerous salt could be for them, so she gave them a chance to explain.

“What?! No! There’s a natural amount of salt in all meat, so a carnivore usually gets enough salt from what they eat. And then sometimes herbivores will lick pure salt rocks or even eat a smaller animal because they need the salt, meaning plants usually don’t have any salt when eaten. Omnivores are in the middle, of course! We’re not gonna add any salt, but if there are trace amounts of it in an ingredient or two, then it shouldn’t be a big deal ‘cause that’s what you’d be getting from the meat you eat anyways.” Hearing her father’s explanation, Anne shook her head a bit.

“... how do you know so much about that kinda stuff off the tops of your heads?”

“Nutritional knowledge is all part of being a chef!” He shot back at her. She hadn’t thought about that connection, but the more she considered it, the more it made sense. Still though, she didn’t fully trust them to not poison her froggy family so that they could eat them after they died! She’d have to keep a close eye on what they were feeding them. At the very least she knew that some of their recipes were completely fine for the frogs because Anne herself had been feeding them for a little while.

“Hey, why don’t you four go ahead and watch a movie while you wait for us to make something?” Anne’s father encouraged them to go to the living room. In the short time she spent without the frogs, the girl had actually learned how to make a movie play. So it seemed he was just trusting her to take care of it while they did their thing. Yet, he still followed them into the living room for a moment. After he made sure they were all settled and caught up on the concept of what a movie was, he left for the kitchen again.

Anne still didn’t trust them to not load the food up with salt, so she picked out a movie she’d already seen (the one with the half fish and half human person) to keep her adopted family occupied. With the sounds of the movie masking her movements, she made her way back to the kitchen area and started watching her birth parents from a distance.

They kept speaking in that language she didn’t understand, so she wasn’t able to tell what they were saying. Therefore she had to just watch their movements and eventually she found herself mesmerized by how quickly and efficiently they moved around their kitchen when they were just working without actively trying to teach someone! They weren’t kidding when they said they were professionals! Unfortunately, this only served to scare Anne more because it became evident that if they decided they wanted to eat some frogs, then there’d probably be no way to make them stop.

She shuddered at the thought and continued to watch. Every now and then, the girl would notice one of her birth parents reaching for their spice rack, but then stopping short and retracting their hand. She could give them the benefit of the doubt by reasoning that they reached for that stuff out of reflex before reminding themselves. But in the same breath, she wondered if she had somehow been found out and they were just pretending that they hadn’t seen her.

She wouldn’t find out which one it was though, because before long they had six plates set up and filled with food. When the smell hit the girl, she nearly began to drool and then was reminded that she hadn’t properly eaten anything since the same time the day before. She was able to keep control of herself by remembering that her froggy family had been surviving off of only one meal per day for about a week by that point. If they could do it, then she could too, right?

Thankfully the food was done being made around the same time that the movie finished off, so everyone was called to gather around the table soon after. The dinner itself was far more awkward than the one they’d had with Sasha and Grime, but Hop Pop still tried to make a little bit of conversation.

“Ya know, I can see why ya had Anne watch those ‘movies’. You were looking for how she reacted to certain scenes when you were tryin’ ta figure out more about her! But ya know… if ya wanna know more about her past, then ya can just ask. I get she was tryin’ ta hide it earlier, but now ya know why. And now that that mystery’s solved, I’m sure you’ve got just as many questions as we do!” Hearing that, Anne began to fear that Hop Pop might want a one on one chat with them. Instead her birth parents looked at each other for a bit before her father decided to take him up on his offer right there.

“Well, I was wondering one thing…”

“What would ya like ta know?” At the invitation, he looked over at Anne for a moment. When he turned back to Hop Pop, he seemed to finally have his question ready.

“... You said during your explanation earlier that you had no idea what a human even was until you arrived in this world. So how did you know Anne’s nutritional needs well enough that she’s as fit as she is? I’m glad you kept her so healthy, but I’m just wondering how you knew what to feed her?” There was a beat of silence for a moment.

The real reason was that spending most of her childhood as a frog allowed them to just give her what a frog would need! But because they were keeping that part from them for the time being, they had to come up with a different answer on the spot. Thankfully Hop Pop was able to come up with something that wasn’t completely a lie.

“Oh, uhh… we just gave her what she seemed to prefer eatin’! Usually, if someone’s got a cravin’ for a certain type a food, then that means they’re lackin’ in nutrients that that food would give. Fer example, if we never woulda let her try new things like that, then we never woulda found out how important salt is fer a human.” Anne remembered how he reacted the first time she put salt onto her food and nodded along.

The rest of dinner went on like that with Anne’s birth parents asking more and more questions about her childhood. It was almost peaceful enough that the girl wanted to let her guard down. But she knew that the second she did it may very well be the moment they decide to strike and turn them into ‘stir fried’ or whatever the book called that frog dish! All she had to do was monitor both sides of her family (adopted and biological) very closely in order to protect the ones that she openly loved more.

At the very least, Hop Pop seemed to be getting along well enough with them. At one point, he even started telling them some stories from when she was a tadpole! Although he left out the part about her being transformed and made it seem more like she was human the entire time. The concept of being human while also being a young child seemed weird to her, but she also considered how weird it might seem to them that she was indeed raised as a frog!

The parents, for their part, were listening closely to Hop Pop talk about her. She saw what she believed to be melancholic looks on their faces. They seemed to be happy about finally knowing where she was for all those years, but also upset at the fact that they missed out on all of that. Anne figured it was a reasonable reaction as she caught the tail end of the story Hop Pop was telling them.

“... and then, after bathin’ her for a solid hour, she ran right back outside again-”

“And jumped straight into a mud puddle?” The mother cut him off. Hop Pop laughed instead of taking offense.

“Heh, you got it! Ya know, Mrs. Boonchuy, you know yer daughter better than you give yerself credit fer!” The woman seemed startled at hearing that. She couldn’t really seem to form words properly either. Instead, she just gave him a shaky smile, stood, grabbed her mostly empty plate, and left for the sink. If Anne looked hard enough, she could have sworn she saw water collecting in her eyes.

"Thank you, old frog." The father said before joining his wife. Seeing as dinner was over, Anne ushered her family out of there and confronted Hop Pop herself.

"What were you doing?!"

"Anne, if we get them ta care about us by bein' friendly, then they won't hurt us."

"I don't know, are you sure?"

"It'll be okay, Anne. And if anythin' happens, we'll call fer ya, okay?"

"Well… alright." She trusted that Hop Pop knew what he was doing, but there was also the fact that she didn't trust her birth parents. And if they ever went all glowy and feral like she did that one time, then there was no way he'd be able to hold them off! And then, if it came down to her defending them, it'd be one child who didn't know how to control that ability versus two adults who probably did.

So the following couple of days were filled with anxiety for the poor girl. Anytime she slept, she had to have her frog family with her just to be sure she wouldn't wake up to see one or more of them on her dinner plate! Any time they interacted with either of her birth parents, she’d be hiding around the corner or watching from the same room. It helped that one of the parents would regularly be at work, so she only had to deal with one at a time for most of the day. Also they were finally able to adjust to the new day/night cycle.

At the very least, Anne’s parents knowing most of the truth opened the gate for some more weird questions. Things that would definitely be common logic in this world and therefore would otherwise be awkward to ask about. The girl was grateful to learn things like the fact that this world was called ‘Earth’ and that humans weren’t actually venomous. That one had confused her parents for a bit until one of them did some extra research and discovered that humans have a powerful yet diluted painkiller in their saliva. She was relieved to find out that it was ultimately harmless and in fact might even be beneficial in some instances.

Eventually they even let the frogs into the back yard! At first they wanted to keep them indoors for fear that someone would discover them and call the cops, (a point that Anne had to agree with) but after enough time they figured that letting them get some fresh air would be healthy. Getting to see Sprig and Polly running around like the younger kids they really were helped put Anne’s mind at ease for the time being.

All of that came crashing down though, when she thought she had a good idea of where everyone was and realized that she… really didn’t. She was indoors, watching over Polly, when she heard a familiar scream coming from the back yard! She’d known that Sprig was out there and napping on a hammock because he slept better like that and he’d been missing it. Rushing out, she saw her biological father standing near said hammock with his eyes wide. He was carrying some sort of giant umbrella despite the fact that the sun was shining!

“What happened?! Sprig, what’d he do to you?!” Anne was about ready to punch her father in order to protect her little brother, but the man immediately backed down. Meanwhile, Sprig just seemed confused.

“Whu-? Anne? Mr. B, what?” The boy asked while still groggy. The father immediately set to explaining himself in the most defensive and apologetic tone she’d heard from him thus far.

“I-I just saw him sleeping out here and the sun is harsh today, so I thought to give him some shade! I just didn’t want him to get sunburnt, so I grabbed the parasol and I was going to put it here so I wouldn’t wake him. I don’t know why he screamed when I got close, but whatever I did, I’m sorry!

“I don’t know about frogs, but sunburn is one of the worst experiences for a human and I didn't want to find out the hard way whether it was like that for frogs or not.” As she listened to his explanation, it seemed to check out a little. She couldn’t imagine how he’d use a ‘parasol’ to hurt a frog, but there was one thing she had to point out.

“... So you thought it was a good idea to sneak up on him and loom over him with a silhouette that made you look like some kind of bird?” Instead of the clarity she was expecting to see on his face, she was only met with confusion.

“But- but birds aren’t that big!” There was a beat of silence for a moment. Sure, Anne had seen a couple of ridiculously small birds since arriving on Earth, but she didn’t realize that that was because there weren’t any bigger ones at all. Sprig then jumped into the conversation.

“Correction. Earth birds aren’t that big…” Hearing that, the father's confusion morphed into horror as he looked back and forth between the two kids.

“... What kind of death world were you guys living in until now?!” His eyes showed genuine concern for them, so Anne gave him a plain answer.

“Uhh? One with ‘giant’ birds that’d try to eat you if they got the chance? Why do you think all of us are scared of sudden overhead shadows?” At this, the father's head snapped to look at the parasol in his hands. It was obvious that the whole thing was an honest mistake.

“Oooookay, then. I’ll make sure to never do something like that again. Thank you for telling me about that.” He still seemed to be processing the information. Meanwhile Anne grumbled a bit and grabbed her little brother.

“Let’s just… go inside, Sprig.”

“Uhh… okay, then.” He didn't argue, but he did seem a little disappointed at the idea of not being able to finish his nap. Maybe she could set up a hammock in her bedroom for him? There were certainly enough spare blankets in the house! At one point, her father even offered to help her out with that. When he said it was so he could apologize, she eventually relented and allowed it. She didn’t see him doing anything suspicious with it either, so when he decided to help them out with something else, she let it happen.

Specifically, he held a bit of a crash course on how to use electronics. She didn’t fully understand how they worked, but Sprig and Polly seemed to be catching on a bit quicker. He explained that the younger someone was, the more likely they were to catch on, so Anne didn’t take it personally. After all, it definitely held true with Hop Pop being even more confused than her!

During their session, her father introduced them to a thing that he called ‘the internet’. Apparently it was the closest thing to a hive mind that humans had, where it contained all of the information that the species as a whole had amassed. He warned them that that included lies and misconceptions, so they had to be careful and check multiple sources any time they looked something up. As soon as he told them that, Hop Pop asked to research the internal biology of a human. When everyone gave him an array of odd looks, he explained.

“Well, one reason why I never actually finished off that research paper I was writin’ on Anne was ‘cause of what one a the newts at the Newtopian Sholar Library told me. Ya know, back when you kids were off and doin’ yer thin’ with Marcy. That newt told me that in order ta completely finish the paper, someone would need ta write down what was inside a ya. And that meant someone would have ta… vivisect one a ya.

“I was thinkin’ that if we ever saw Sasha again, then maybe we could do it on her, but then she actually helped us, so I held off. I was almost ready to just leave the whole thin’ unfinished unless someone volunteered, but now I don’t gotta worry ‘bout that! I can just look it up with this here ‘internet’ thin’ and copy it from there!” Hearing all of that, Anne was suddenly very grateful that he hadn’t tried to finish it yet! She’d been low key wondering about it here and there, but now knowing why it wasn’t finished, she was kind of glad he hadn’t said anything up to that point.

Anne’s father, for his part, seemed a little disturbed at the idea of something like that happening to his daughter, but ultimately shrugged it off in favour of continuing to teach. Seeing as he was showing all four of them what to do, the girl ended up just trying to absorb as much information as she could about the whole thing. But once Polly mentioned the idea of using it to figure out how to fix Frobo, the family started to really consider how valuable a resource like that could be!

Sure, ‘typing’ was a challenge for the frogs due to only having four fingers, but Anne’s father insisted that they’d figure it out and get the hang of it eventually. Apparently the keys were ordered the way they were because of frequency of use, but it was still pretty confusing for the lot of them. Polly had it the worst with her hands being so small that she basically had to punch the keys, but she seemed to get over it the quickest. Once again, Anne’s father reiterated that it was normal for the youngest person to be the fastest to adapt.

After a quick discussion about internet usage and what each member of the family wanted out of it, they decided to let Polly move Frobo’s pieces into the garage and simply let her deal with it as she saw fit. At the very least, it kept her out of trouble and Anne’s parents rarely went into the room unless they were about to leave the house and they needed their robot carriage to do so. So that kept the youngest frog out of harm’s way for the most part and eased Anne’s worries a little bit.

All she really had to worry about on a regular basis was Hop Pop and Sprig! The very next day though, she was looking for her little brother and was scared to find him in the kitchen with her mother! He was sitting on the countertop while she was making food right next to him! Not only was he alone with an amphibivore, but he was in their kitchen while they were preparing something! Fearing that he might be the next surprise ingredient, Anne rushed in to save him!

“SPRIG!!”

“Wha? Anne?”

“What are you doing in here alone?! You know better than to put yourself in danger like that! Come on!” She grabbed Sprig before he could argue and took him away, leaving her mother behind to cook something that didn’t have frog in it. She didn’t see the confused and slightly offended look the woman gave her and instead kept her focus on the frog in her arms. Meanwhile, Hop Pop and Polly had heard her shout and came running to meet up with the two of them.

“What’s goin’ on?!”

“What happened?” the two respectively demanded to know. Seeing that the eldest child had a completely unharmed Sprig in her arms, the other two frogs calmed considerably and followed them into the living room. When Anne explained where she found him, the other two sighed and walked away to let them deal with the issue. They hardly noticed, though. Instead, the two of them just started arguing with Sprig going first.

“Anne, you’ve gotta calm down! She was just trying to teach me how to make some of the food that you made for us once!”

“Yeah and who knows if she was about to add an ‘extra ingredient’, if you know what I mean?”

“Pfft, that’s silly! Look, I just want to get to know them a little more, like how you did. Hop Pop did say that if we got them to care about us, then they’d be less likely to hurt us, right?”

“Well yeah, but that’s jumping straight into the jaws of danger without even knowing for sure if you’ll get hurt or not.”

“Oh come on! If I can get them to see me as their kid like how they see you, then I won’t have to worry about that. And on top of that, I’m starting to go nuts with only having you, Hop Pop, and Polly as the only people I’m allowed to talk to!”

“Well I’ve actually had nightmares about them cooking one of you guys up and serving you for dinner! And me not even knowing it was you as I ate! I’d never be able to live with myself if something like that happened!” The girl started to tear up at the thought. Her little brother flinched at seeing her like that and tried to console her.

“But Anne, we know they’re smart! And eating one of us would be pretty dumb ‘cause it’d make the rest of us suspicious about where the one went AND when you found out, you’d leave them! And after you being missing for thirteen years, I don’t think they’d wanna risk losing you again just for the sake of eating something they clearly don’t actually need to eat!

“Also, do I need to remind you that they’re your parents ? They’ve been doing everything they can to not only make you, but also us feel welcome!” While she had to admit he had a point for the most part, she also had a counter argument.

“Uhm, do I need to remind you that they’re a predatory species that can and HAVE eaten frogs in the past?!”

“Only the non-sentient version that’s exclusive to Earth, though. They had no idea whatsoever that intelligent frogs could even exist! Plus, have you forgotten that you are the exact same species?!” Hearing that, Anne violently flinched back from him and clenched her fists. Her face took on a horrified expression as she averted her eyes. Sprig didn’t normally look too hard for people's reactions, but he’d been getting a bit better at understanding humans. Especially his big sister.

He was no mind reader, but he’d seen that level of fear on her once before. The day that she found out she wasn’t really a frog. Back then, they didn’t even know what her human form was supposed to look like beyond Hop Pop’s description of her baby self. Back when they all thought her transformation would make her into a feral beast that’d tear the family apart! Back when they all thought she could be a potential amphibivore.

In that moment, Sprig realized that part of Anne’s fear was actually projection. She wasn’t just scared of her birth parents. She wasn’t just scared of losing him, Hop pop, and Polly. She was also scared of becoming the very thing that she had feared for most of her life. She was scared of being turned into an amphibivore, herself. Seeing her shake as she came to grips with it, he jumped up onto her chest and hugged her.

“Anne, it’s okay. I know you’d never eat us, no matter what! You’d never eat any amphibian, everybody knows that!” She returned his hug and started crying a little.

“I-I-I know. I know. B-but I… I mean, ever since I started taking my human form, I’ve never felt the urge to eat anyone! This is the longest I’ve ever spent in this form that I can remember and even when I get really hungry, I never look at you guys as an option.” She made a sound that was like a chuckle and a sob mixed together “Heck, not even Polly shoving an arm into my mouth could tempt me. Logically, I know I would never hurt you…” When she couldn’t properly finish her thought, Sprig did it for her.

“... But… emotionally, it’s a little harder to convince yourself of that, right? And you’ve been taking that out on your birth parents?” She nodded at Sprig’s analysis. It was rare for him to be this perceptive, but whenever he was, he became probably the best one to go to for comfort. She felt guilty about being called out like that, but it also felt kind of good to have her feelings validated. At that, Sprig continued by giving her a bit of advice.

“You know, I think you might need to have an honest talk with them about all of this. It might help you and them reach an understanding!” As much as Anne knew he was right, she still didn’t want to do it right away. What would she even say?!

“I’ll… I’ll do that. But first, I need to figure out where to start.” Sprig nodded and prompted Anne to sit down on the couch and watch a movie with him in order to help her calm down. After all, her father was still out of the house and she’d need to talk to both of them to really make a difference! When he did arrive home though, Anne found it difficult to even start the conversation. She kept on debating with herself about what the best way to start it would be.

Thankfully, both of her birth parents seemed to be sticking together more than usual, so it was easier to keep an eye on them. Granted, there was the chance they were still planning something, but at least she didn’t have to keep an eye on two rooms at once. Just so long as they stayed away from the garage where Polly was, the girl was able to stay with the other two frogs and know that they were all safe. With her mind eased somewhat, she took a deep breath and started brainstorming ways to start the big conversation with her birth pare-

“I FIXED FROBO!!” Polly screamed as she came bursting into the room, startling everyone and cutting Anne’s thoughts off! Looking at the youngest member of the family, Anne noticed that she was actually wearing clothes for once. They appeared to be a pair of overalls with a shirt underneath. She also had a properly sized hat and pair of shoes to go with it. Anne began to wonder where the heck she’d gotten that outfit, but then she remembered the day her biological parents had moved a bunch of furniture out of the room that became her bedroom.

During the event, Anne had noticed them moving a bunch of creepy looking dolls. Apparently they had been a gift that was meant for Anne herself when she was a baby, but she’d never really interacted with them. One of them did have an outfit that was appropriately sized for Polly though, so that must have been where she got it. Still, Anne had some other questions.

“‘Fixed’ him? How? I mean, how did you even know what to do?”

“Oh, I just borrowed Mr. B’s ‘laptop’ and used the internet! I even used it to send some questions to some professionals and get their advice!” Polly answered as casually as possible. Hearing that made Anne nervous, though. As impressive as it was for Polly to learn how to use all that stuff so quickly, she was still so young! And she’d contacted other, more experienced humans for advice?! If the ‘tracker’ on Anne’s phone was anything to go by, then a human that knew more about this stuff might actually be able to somehow use this ‘internet’ to FIND all of them!

On top of that, those humans could have given her the wrong kind of advice, intentionally or not! Frobo wasn’t from Earth and these professional humans would only really know Earth robots, right? There were probably too many differences between the two worlds’ robot construction styles for it to be safe! Thankfully Hop Pop and Sprig both came to the same conclusion.

“Polly, I get that yer excited, but I think we should wait on bringin’ him back.”

“Yeah, what if the advice you got doesn’t even apply to Frobo?”

“Who knows what mixing two different worlds’ technology types will do? What if, when you turn him on, something will go wrong and he blows off your legs? You just got your legs! It’s awesome that you fixed him, but I think we should wait until we get back to Amphibia to turn him on. Just to be safe.” Anne explained as patiently as she possibly could. The two males of their family agreed with her immediately, obviously making the youngest upset. Tears welled up in her eyes as she shouted back at them!

“I don’t believe this! After all of the work I’ve done, after how much I’ve missed him, you three wanna leave him DEAD?!” All of them flinched at this. They had all been so focused on survival and dealing with Anne’s birth parents that none of them had stopped to consider that. Yes, what they were doing was important, but so were Polly’s feelings and they’d been completely ignoring her! Guilt seeped into all three of them as the smallest one kept scolding them.

“Well, who needs you guys?!” She yelled before running off. The other three gave chase with Sprig even calling out for her to wait! However, thanks to her head start, not even Anne was able to catch her before she got back to the garage and locked herself inside! As they all cried out for her to wait, it quickly became clear that she wasn’t listening to them. Especially when the lights in the house flickered, indicating that the power used to make them shine were being drained in favour of the robot!

Anne stopped banging on the door in order to get in and instead opted to press the side of her head against it. She could barely hear anything, but she could have sworn she heard some sort of robotic voice. Had Polly… really done it? But just as the eldest child was starting to be impressed by what little she could hear, there was a nearly deafening crash! Seeing as the sounds coming from the room itself died out immediately, a pit formed in Anne’s stomach!

Winding through the house, she burst out the front door! Hop Pop and Sprig were hesitant to leave, fearing being seen by any humans that might be passing by. They wanted to help, but unless they were in the backyard, it was just too dangerous! They still waited at the frame of the door for Anne’s signal if she really needed them to come and help, though.

Meanwhile, what the human of the family saw was one of the most terrifying things she’d ever witnessed! Frobo’s head and right arm were somehow attached to the clothes washing robot and he had three other limbs made of a bunch of melded together garbage! He even looked like he had a tail of sorts in the form of a cord hanging off of him. But that wasn’t what scared her!

Instead, it was the fact that he was flying away into the night sky with Anne’s little sister! All she could do was watch as he moved up and away until… he stopped. But he didn’t just pause in mid air and stay there, he broke somehow and started falling! With how heavy all of his components were, Anne knew that trying to catch him would only end up crushing her! Sure, her human form was strong, but not that strong! She would’ve frozen if it weren’t for two other humans approaching on some sort of board with wheels and a stick on the front end.

“Hey, do you know ‘Polly’? Little kid? Has a tail? Built a crazy robot?” One of them started asking. Were these the professionals that she had contacted? Anne knew they’d somehow be able to use the internet to track her down! But the girl couldn’t properly form words because of how terrified she was and so she just pointed up at her little sister. They both seemed to automatically follow her directions and as soon as they saw the issue, both of them yelled!

“OH MY GOSH!!” Judging by their reactions, there wasn’t anything either of them could do about the issue either! Were they all going to have to watch a young frog just die like that?! Tears started to form in Anne’s eyes before she saw Frobo trying to start himself back up again. There was some more movement that she couldn’t see before the robot started effectively steering himself back towards the house!

When he and Polly passed by Anne, she couldn’t see her little sister on him. But because she didn’t see her fall off at any point, she figured that she just had to be out of sight. They crashed through the branches of a tree and then bounced off the roof of the house before landing in the backyard! Anne ran back inside without even acknowledging the other humans’ presence because that was the quickest way to get to Polly’s landing site!

Given that Sprig and Hop Pop were already inside the house, they had a head start and had beaten her there. Anne watched as the pink boy pulled their little sister out of the crater that had been made.

“She’s okay!” He shouted up at them, carrying her over to the group. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief except for the youngest frog. Instead, she just looked over at Frobo’s severed head and the fact that it appeared to be just as broken as before.

“You guys were right. I was so impatient with bringing him back to life, that I killed him all over again!” She started crying into Sprig’s chest as he held her close. Hop Pop and Anne both leaned in to comfort her as well. While Polly had really been the only one of them who was actually close to Frobo, the sentiment wasn’t lost on any of them. Polly’s crying was cut short though, by the sound of the robot’s voice.

“Po-Pol-ly…” Everyone looked over at the source of the noise to see Frobo’s eyes light up with life in his signature yellow glow. Polly gasped and jumped out of her brother’s arms to run up to him.

“FROBO!! You big, lovable lug! I’ll fix you right this time and be slow and careful, no matter how much I miss ya!” The family couldn’t help but admit that Polly’s promise was an adorable thing to see. But just as they were cooing over it, the two humans from before jumped in between them and the little one! They mercifully ignored the other three members of the family while Anne pushed the other two frogs behind her to hide them out of sheer reflex. But these new humans just focused entirely on what was in front of them.

“Sturdy!”

“Impressive!”

“Looks like his harddrive is still in one piece, at least.”

“I think next time, we just need to tune the PID controllers.” The two of them went back and forth, spouting jargon that only served to confuse Anne, while one of them knelt down to pat Frobo’s head. The robot seemed to enjoy it while Polly responded, clearly understanding exactly what they were talking about.

“Oh yeah, increase his lateral and longitudinal stability? Totally!” She said. The new human who wasn’t patting Frobo put her hand on her chin and started asking questions. Thankfully they weren’t related at all to Polly’s species and instead were about the robot.

“Hmm… I’m just curious. What were the covariants of the pose estimate coming out of the slam module?”

“Simultaneous localization and mapping?...” Polly answered and then continued babbling on and on to the new humans. She didn’t seem to fear them at all, indicating that she was familiar enough with them already. Just how much had she spoken with them using the internet?! They didn’t look like they were going to hurt her, but Anne was still nervous.

Looking closer, the one that was patting Frobo looked like she was a similar breed to Anne and her birth parents because of the skin and hair colours. Although she didn’t speak with the same accent as said parents, so she might be an adjacent breed or something. Meanwhile the other looked like she was a similar breed to Marcy, given the eye shape. If there was one thing that Anne had learned thus far though, was that it was actually rude to ask about a human’s breed unless they brought it up on their own. So she kept her mouth shut about it.

Observations aside, Anne was torn about them. They appeared to be relatively harmless and they were clearly enthused about the same things as her little sister. But Polly was the only one who knew who they were and she was still practically a baby! As much as Anne wanted to trust her intuition regarding new people, these ones were clearly smarter than average! Heck, they were able to track Polly down and arrive at their home how quickly?! The only thing that made Anne not want to immediately chase them away was the fact that they did it in order to come to her aid!

"AHH!! THE BACKYARD!!" Anne’s father's voice rang out, startling everyone out of what they were doing. Looking around, the girl realized just how much damage had been caused by Polly’s and Frobo’s crash landing. And in remembering that her biological parents only allowed her froggy family to stay under the condition that they didn't break anything, she got nervous.

"Uhh… it was an accident and we'll fix it and clean it right up!" She tried to calm him down before he made any rash decisions, but then his head snapped up and focused on the two new humans.

"Wait, who are you two and why are you here?"

“Oh, I’m Ally.” The one that looked somewhat similar to Marcy introduced herself with the other following suit immediately after.

“And I’m Jess. We’re the IT gals. We have a Toob channel where we give various IT related tutorials. Polly here contacted us with some specific questions and when we gave her the advice she was looking for, we realized that she was totally about to put herself in danger.”

“So we tracked the location of the computer she was using via its IP address and GPS signal. When we found that we might actually be able to show up quickly enough to stop her from… I don’t know, setting the house on fire, or something? We rushed over as soon as possible!”

“Sorry for intruding, sir. We just wanted to make sure everything was going to be okay and nothing bad would actually happen. I mean, Polly was working with our advice, so we kinda felt responsible.” They stopped to wait for the man’s response and after a few moments, he sighed while facepalming. After he ran his hand down his face, he approached the three of them.

“Okay, I get that you were taking responsibility and trying to prevent a disaster and I appreciate that, but you tracked Polly down?! That’s actually kinda terrifying!” Wait, what? Anne shook her head. Was he… scolding them in defense of Polly?!

“Uhh… sorry, sir! How about this? We’ll help get this whole mess fixed and cleaned up. This only happened because Polly was following our advice, after all!” Ally suggested, clearly intimidated by the man and seemingly wanting to get Polly out of trouble. Anne tilted her head a little in disbelief, wondering why all three of those humans were trying to defend her little sister. Her father then nodded and turned to Polly herself.

“And you, Polly. While I’m impressed that you found some genuinely good people to help you, the internet is SUPER dangerous! Anyone can pretend to be anything and try to trick you. Honestly, you’re very lucky that these two are as good of people as they are, but if you’re going to keep using the internet, then you have to be WAY more careful in the future! Heck, even I don’t give out my real name on the internet and instead, I use an alias…”

Anne watched as her father continued to go on about internet safety, showing a clear amount of care towards the youngest frog! Eventually Ally and Jess joined in, saying that the only reason why they gave their real names was because they were legitimately famous enough that they couldn’t hide them anymore. Well, that and they were adults who were knowledgeable enough to know how to defend themselves if need be. Seeing all of the humans caring about her little sister, Anne began to realize just how paranoid she’d been acting.

The amount of times that she’d freaked out because she thought her birth parents would try to eat her family was immense. But seeing one of them show so much care for one of the frogs made the girl question a lot of things. She gave a sigh and promised herself to have that honest talk with them before the end of the night. After all, she'd need to do it sometime, right?

When all was said and done, there were promises to get the crater in the backyard fixed first thing in the morning. Anne watched her father actually pick Polly up and hold her close while Ally and Jess left for the night. Her heart skipped a beat, but once he made eye contact with Anne, he immediately handed the baby over to her without question and wiped his hands on his pants. She then remembered him saying that he wouldn’t want to touch a frog because he thought their slime coat was gross.

Hop Pop and Sprig came out of hiding from where they were and stared up at the girl while her father left to go back inside. Anne sighed and made to follow him, taking the frogs with her after the boy retrieved Frobo’s head. When they were all there, she set Polly down and looked up at her father.

“Hey, umm… thanks. F-for understanding what just happened and giving us a chance to make up for it.” She could tell that he was still upset, but that he was trying to keep a level head about it.

“You’re welcome. I just hope the repairs go quickly starting tomorrow.” There was a beat of silence before Anne finally took the leap.

“Hey, umm… I really think I need to have a serious, honest talk with you and… you know. Could you maybe…?” A part of her wanted to actually call the woman her ‘mom’, but something stopped her from doing so. It was a good thing she’d already talked to them about that! As it was, her father agreed immediately and ran off to go get her. Meanwhile Hop Pop sent Sprig and Polly (carrying Frobo) into the living room in order to say something to his eldest granddaughter.

“Anne, I know yer nervous about yer parents. But you’ve gotta remember ta give them a chance, okay? Would ya like me ta sit in on this conversation with ya?”

“Thanks for offering Hop Pop, but… no. I need to do this on my own. I hope you understand.”

“Of course. Hollar if ya need anythin’, okay?”

“Okay!” And just like that, the old frog went to join up with the younger children. This left Anne alone with her thoughts for a few moments. She could hear her birth parents’ footsteps upstairs almost directly above her, so she knew where they were and that they were on their way. She didn’t have time to get into any deep thoughts, so she just sat down at the dining room table and waited while focusing on her breathing and trying to not freak out.

“Anne? You wanted to talk to us?” She heard her birth mother’s voice. She motioned for the two of them to sit down. The last time she had done this, she was freaking out about finding that recipe and now…

“So… ever since Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly… for lack of a better term, moved in, I’ve been… kinda on edge.”

“Oh, we noticed. Is it because of that recipe you found?” Anne nodded slowly, stalling for time as she tried to think of how to say those dreaded words that seemed to want to crawl backwards into her throat. The mother interjected before she could force them up, which she considered a small mercy for now.

“First of all, your father and I want to apologize for… not reacting appropriately when you confronted us about that.” Anne perked up at this, surprised. Her head turned to her father as the man continued.

“I think there were enough signs for us to know frogs are important to you. We just didn’t understand why. And, in your eyes we probably looked like we were brushing you off. It didn’t matter if it was for cultural, or religious, or maybe even just personal reasons. We should have taken your feelings on the matter more seriously, whether we understood why or not. And now that we do know, we feel kinda… extra ashamed. So…” He looked to his wife as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck. She finished for both of them.

“We’re sorry.” Anne stared at them, feeling just a tiny bit lighter. She had not expected them to apologize about that on their own and she hadn’t intended to bring it up. But she would be lying if she said it didn’t untangle the twisting knot in her stomach just a little bit. Her eyes fell to the table, but she still felt a slight smile tug at her lips.

“Thank you.” She softly pushed past the lump in her throat.

“But that’s not the main thing you wanted to talk about. Is it?” Anne pursed her lips in discomfort at the human male’s question. Ah, back to uncomfortable silence they went, until she could actually speak the words, at least.

“Y-you-... I… My famil-... I-I was jus-…” No matter how she tried to say it, it kept sounding wrong. Too accusatory, too weak, too direct. She eventually tried to start from the kind of world that shaped her.

“B-back home, being e-eaten is a constant danger. And not even just from the wildlife, but also the a-amphibians themselves.” She saw her mother suck in a breath, prompting her father to take her closest hand on the table in his own and squeeze lightly. When they didn’t do anything more, she continued.

“There are a few certain large species that have the ability to eat the smaller species. There are more than enough alternatives for them though, and most of them that live in towns and communities are perfectly nice and amicable people to be around! But, well, let's just say my family and I have had run-ins with our fair share of cannibals.

“So what reassurance could I possibly have that a completely different, intelligent species from a whole other world, that I know for a fact eats frogs, wouldn’t look at my family as an exotic new snack with a lot more meat on them?” She could see her mom place her free hand over her mouth. She looked hurt, making the young girl flinch. But when she looked closer, she could also recognize the compassion and understanding in her eyes.

And that’s what made the words suddenly start spilling out. She didn’t even intend to bare her heart this much! Maybe it had all just become too much. Maybe the trauma was finally catching up to her and the pillars she put up to keep the weight from crushing her family were crumbling before her very eyes. Or maybe, she was just a small thirteen-year-old child with no business carrying that much weight on her own and she just wanted to feel safe instead. Maybe she just wanted a parent to hold her and tell her everything would be fine.

“E-ever since coming here I've had no idea what to do. I know I’m from here, I’m supposed to know how to speak to other humans and keep my family safe. But I don’t! And for all I know every little mistake, every moment I’m not vigilant enough, it could cost me everything I have left! If I don’t give them food my family could starve. If I don’t give them the right food they would be dissolved from the inside out. Already I have found so much here that humans use on a daily basis that could kill them, and I just know there’s more I haven’t found.

“If I give away too much or ask the wrong questions then people will get suspicious. They could find my Hop Pop, my brother and my sister and if they’re found by the wrong people, then they can’t defend themselves. Domino is big enough to mortally wound Polly. And I’m the only one that can protect them!” Her fingers found their way into her hair, her sharp stressed tugging not being the cause of the warm tears dripping down her face.

“But I’m not enough! I’m not big or strong or experienced enough. But I’m all they have! I mean, I’m bigger, stronger, and a liiiiittle more experienced than them , but it’s just not enough! E-especially when compared to you guys! I-I’m just s-so sc-scared they’re gon-gonna get h-hurt! B-b-but I-I have to b-be strong for t-them. B-because they're c-counting on m-m-m-” She couldn’t keep going after that, so she started focusing on her breathing once again and tried to get herself under control. That was until she felt two sets of big, warm arms wrap around her.

“Shh, shh… it’s okay, we’ll help you protect them. We understand how important they are to you.” The mother promised. Anne looked up at her in disbelief. They, who have eaten frogs before, wanted to suddenly help them? Sure, the frogs they'd eaten were the non-sentient variety that was native to Earth, but still! Something here just didn't add up.

“I-I… I don’t u-understand.” She was so confused! What was the factor that made her birth parents seem to want to help them? She felt them release her and shift to look her in the eyes.

“Remember, you can ask us anything and we’ll do our best to answer. You don’t have to worry about asking the wrong question to us anymore. We know now why you ask those things.” Her father explained. She nodded and took a few deep breaths before trying once again to ask the big question that had been plaguing her mind. This time, she decided to just spit it out as quickly as possible.

“I just… I-if I had grown up here, eating frogs just like you guys without giving it a second thought, then… then ended up in Amphibia later on… w-would I have e-eaten m-my f-f-family?” She slapped a hand over her mouth at the words, not realizing that she actually had the ability to say such a horrible thing. But there it was, finally out of her mouth. She was dreading the response and fully expecting a confirmation, but this was something she needed to hear directly from an older human or else the uncertainty of it would just bottle up in the worst possible way.

The parents, for their part, blinked at their daughter before turning to each other. She looked at them for some sort of clue and found that their faces held understanding rather than grief or discomfort. It was almost like something had clicked and they were checking to see if the other was thinking the same thing. Finally, the mother spoke.

“If we found out you had eaten any of them when there was literally anything else you could eat, we would have been SHOCKED!” Hearing that only served to confuse the poor girl even more. She looked in between the two of them, hoping that they would explain. She didn’t have to wait long, though! Her father was the one who clarified for her.

“You see, humans are pretty empathetic and it’s in our nature to hate harming something that can beg for mercy. There are a few exceptions, but those people are shunned by society and a healthy, well adjusted human just doesn't have it in their heart to kill someone. Of course, that means we don’t want to kill other intelligent life, like your family. But for a lot of people, even a language-less cry of pain or fear is enough to instantly make them docile. Even in a species we've never interacted with before, we'll pretty much instinctively recognize a cry of distress and stop.” Before she could even process what he said, Anne’s birth mother continued.

“A thirteen year old girl who grew up in a good, cushy home where you were taught to love and be nice to your pet and be respectful to other people? Even if you spoke different languages AND you had eaten frog before, you wouldn’t have been able to harm those frogs the second they started crying for help.” At that moment, her father perked up, seemingly having gotten an idea.

“OH!! Think about it like this: you’ve been eating bugs for your whole life until you landed on Earth, right?”

“Yeah?” She answered, not understanding where he was going with this, but wanting to let him finish.

“Well, imagine for a moment that instead of landing on Earth, you somehow ended up in a world where all of the people were sentient bugs. The second that one of them actually spoke, you probably wouldn’t want to hurt any of them at all, right? You’d find something else to eat instead and you probably wouldn’t even want to mention to anyone there that you had eaten even a single bug before. Make sense?”

Thinking about his explanation, it… really did. Eating a non-sentient bug was fine because it was normal and natural. But once one spoke up, it might feel a little too much like… cannibalism. Remembering their reactions to her even mentioning the existence of cannibals, she realized something.

“So… the fact that they’re sentient immediately makes you want to never hurt them?”

“Exactly! But also, even if they weren’t sentient, the fact that they’re important to you would make us want to protect them regardless. I mean, look at Domino! She’s not sentient and she is technically edible, but we still consider her a part of the family. So even though the sentience is the biggest reason why, there are other reasons too.” The father explained, with his wife following him up.

“Heck, we’re already getting to like them. The more Hop Pop tells me about how he raised you, the more respect I get for him. Sprig is a total sweetheart who obviously cares a lot about you. And Polly is smart as a whip and just plain fun to have around! They’re more than welcome in our home!” Anne slumped in her seat upon hearing that. Relief washed over her just like that first time she took her ‘medicine’ mid-transformation before she even knew what her true form looked like!

“I… that’s… oh thank goodness.” She hadn’t expected them to have already become fond of them! Sure, she knew that they were getting along for the most part, but it was still nerve wracking to think about all the possibilities regarding how things could have gone wrong in every way. Now with the knowledge that it was against human nature for her biological parents to harm the frogs, she was finally able to breathe and realize just how exhausted she really was! But they weren’t done yet as Anne’s father continued.

“Also, we’ve been thinking about ways to possibly disguise them so they can go out in public without people suspecting that they’re frogs! If that's okay with you, that is. I don’t think the disguises are ready quite yet, but we are working on them!” She looked at him in bewilderment. Sure, Sprig mentioned that he was going kind of stir-crazy at being locked up for so long, but she didn’t think to do something like that! Although… it was perfect !

“You’ve really… been trying to look out for them, haven’t you?”

“We have! We know how important they are to you and I promise that we’ll do everything we can to help!” Hearing her birth mother say that warmed the girl’s heart. She smiled up at them, her tears threatening to come back full force! She launched into a hug before they could, though. The three humans stayed like that for a good while before Anne finally let go.

“Thanks! You have no idea how much this means to me!... I think… I think I’m gonna go join them with their movie.” She turned to leave, but then her father called out to her on her way out.

“Of course! You go ahead and make sure nobody got hurt from all that nonsense that just happened out there. I’ll go grab a first aid kit in case you need any bandages or anything. And then the two of us will go back to what we were originally doing, okay?”

“Okay! Thank you!” She shouted back while she made her way over to her family. When the girl sat down, she began to space out a little bit. She REALLY wanted to trust her birth parents after all of that, but there were still some doubts lingering in the back of her mind. She wanted to make them shut up, but they just wouldn’t leave her alone! After all, they said all of that without even knowing about her ‘medicine’ and what that meant for her.

Anne knew that in order to ease her own mind, she’d need to tell them sooner rather than later…