The Road to Newtopia (The Calamity Girls Book 2)

After the Rain

One morning, I was eating breakfast with Sprig and Polly. Anne runs into the kitchen. "Hey guys, check it out, I got a mail fly message." Anne cheered. "Jealous, I never get mail." Polly groaned. "That's really cool, Anne." I said. "Open it, open it!" Sprig exclaimed as Anne opened her letter. "It's from Marcy, she says we're ready to travel to the first temple." Anne explains. "Looks like she made a checklist of things to bring." I added. "Food, weapons, got those, armor?" "Got it covered, believe it or not, I made each of you your very own suit of armor." Hop Pop explains as we all cheered.

Turns out that suit of armor that Hop Pop mentioned, was really a suit of rubber armor. The armor was so tight, Anne and I could barely move. "Hop Pop, this is the opposite of a suit of armor." Polly complained. "Exactly, less mobility means less trouble." Hop Pop explains. "Yeah, yeah, hey, guys, anything else on that list?" Polly as Anne grabbed the list. "Oh yeah, just one more thing, the music box." Anne replied as Hop Pop had a suspicious looking on his face. "Right, the music box, no problem, my contacts will have it ready by tomorrow." Hop Pop replied. "Great, you're the best." Anne said as Hop Pop gave out a nervous chuckle.

Later that night, I was sound asleep, until Anne woke me up. "Rowena, wake up, we're leaving." Anne said, crying. "Anne, what's wrong?" I asked with a yawn. "I couldn't sleep, but then I heard Hop Pop come downstairs, so I decided to scare him, but then he dug a hole in the yard and said that the music box was gone." Anne explains. "Holy frog abuse!" I exclaimed. "We can't stay here right now." Anne cried. "As long as we stick together, we'll be alright." I said, hugging Anne. I grabbed my stuff and ran out the door with Anne, not knowing that I left something behind.

Polly's POV

The next morning, Sprig and I were so excited to go on a quest. As we headed downstairs. "Hold up." Sprig said as we saw Hop Pop, who looked like he didn't get any sleep last night. "Uh, Hop Pop, are you okay?" "I really messed up, kids, I lied to Anne and Rowena about the music box and I buried it under the tree out front." Hop Pop explains. "What?!" Sprig and I gasped. "Oh, it gets worse, when I went to dig it up last night, it was gone, Anne saw the whole thing and ran off with Rowena, I've been waiting here all night for both of them to come back." Hop Pop continued. "Look, Hop Pop, I don't know why you did what you did, but you gotta fix it." Sprig said. "Yeah, you gotta get out there and bring Anne and Rowena back!" I added. "You're right, I caused this mess, so dang it, I'm gonna clean it up." Hop Pop explains as he sipped his coffee and breaks the mug. "Then I'm gonna clean that up." "Well, this is a bummer." I commented. "We gotta find that music box or they'll never forgive him." Sprig explains. "Right on, let's motor, Bro bro!" I shouted as I started rolling out, until something caught my eye. "What's this?" I hopped over to what looked like a journal. "The Calamity Girls?" Sprig asked, opening up the journal. "Polly, this belongs to Rowena!" Sprig and I flipped through the pages to see that all of our adventures were in this journal. "As soon as we find the music box, we'll return this to Rowena." I said.

Rowena's POV

I woke up with Anne in the cave we found before moving in with the Plantars. "Never thought we'd be sleeping in this cave again, not since the Plantars took us in." Anne sighed. "At least we have each other, Rowena." "You know, it was the Plantars who brought us closer together." I said. I got bored real quickly, so I decided to grab my journal. Oh my frog, it's missing. Did Anne find it? DID SHE READ IT?! I'M FREAKING OUT! "Anne, I can't find my journal!" I panicked. "Did you take it by any chance?" Anne nodded. If Anne didn't have it, where could it be?

Sprig's POV

I went into town with Polly to ask around. "Alright, maybe someone in town has seen the music box." I said. When we got to the town, there were holes all over the ground. I walked over to Maddie for some information. "Hey, Maddie, what's going on?" I asked. "Someone dug a bunch of holes and stole stuff from everyone in town." Maddie explains. "I even lost a talisman that if it fell into the wrong hands would bring an end to all living, I said too much." "Who would dig a bunch of holes into the ground?" Polly asked as Maddie left. "Holes in the ground, eh, and missing valuables too?" Soggy Joe asked, popping out of a bush. "Sounds like the work of the magpie beetle." "You gotta stop popping out of bushes, Soggy Joe." Polly said. "The magpie beetle is a rare breed of insect that lives underground, every 20 years, it burrows to the surface and steals junk to make its shell." Soggy Joe continued. "It presents that shell to to perspective mates in a ritual called, the love nato dance, a spectacle much too dangerous to observe..."

Polly and I ran back home to examine the area where the music box was buried. "Sprig, look, Soggy Joe was right, there's a burrow off to the side, c'mon!" Polly exclaimed. "Think this'll lead us to the box?" I asked. "There's only one way to find out." Polly replied as we went into the burrow. My sister and I were holding onto a branch. "Where are we?" I asked. "Oh, no, Sprig, we're right smack dab in the middle of the love nato!" Polly shouts. "Maybe we should've listened to the end of Soggy Joe's thing." All of a sudden, we were knocked down by an object, in the middle of the love nato. "Okay, the music box has to be here somewhere, we have to find it!" I exclaimed. Since it was raining, I put on my goggles to see better. As I looked around, I saw the music box. "There it is, I'm going for it!" I hopped over to the music box, but I missed and was brought under by some of the beetles.

Rowena's POV

In our cave, Anne was giving a makeover to this rock she found when we found the place. "I thought I knew him, you know, but he was lying to me the whole time!" Anne exclaimed. "Wish I had my bobby pins." "You're talking to yourself again." I said. Suddenly, a familiar face came to our cave. It was Hop Pop. "Oh, it's you, go away." Anne grunted. "Please, girls, just let me explain." Hop Pop begged. "I am not talking to you right now, Hop Pop!" Anne snapped. "If that's even your real name." "Actually it's a nickname." I added. "I need you both to know why I hid the music box." Hop Pop said. "It's dangerous, I was just trying to protect the family." "Then why did you lie, I thought we were family?!" I cried. "Because, there's something I never told you, something hard to talk about." Hop Pop explains. "The truth is..." Suddenly, we heard Sprig and Polly scream from a distance. "That sounds like Sprig and Polly!" Anne exclaimed as we ran to rescue them.

We found a giant hole in the ground with a lot of stuff. "What the heck is this?" I asked. "It's some kind of love monsoon." Hop Pop replied as we spotted Sprig and Polly. "Girls, we have to work together." "Work with you, not gonna happen, I'll save them myself!" Anne exclaimed, jumping into the hole. "She won't be able to do this alone!" I shouted as I followed her with Hop Pop close behind me. Anne slipped and was barely hanging onto the leg of a table. "Anne!" I shouted as she lost her grip. She luckily grabbed onto my leg as I was now hanging onto that table. "Please, girls, I know I lied to you, but trust me, at least long enough to save the kids." Hop Pop begged. I grabbed onto Hop Pop's hand as he pulled us both up. Hop Pop used his tongue to get us closer to Sprig and Polly. "Sprig, grab on!" Anne shouted. Sprig grabbed Anne's hand and Polly grabbed the music box as we were thrown out of the hole. Anne grabbed onto the music box and protected it like a woman would with her child. Sprig and Polly cheered. "I can't believe we did it!" Sprig cheered. "Yeah, we did, but now, we're through here." Anne said, walking away. "Sorry guys." I sighed. "Wait, Rowena, since this is goodbye, I wanted to give you this." Sprig said, pulling out my journal that I lost. "My journal!" I exclaimed hugging him and Polly. "I'll never forget you guys, you'll always be my little siblings." "But where will you guys go?" Polly asked. "We'll go stay with someone who isn't a liar, I don't know, maybe Loggle, he seems like a street shooter." Anne replied. "Girls, wait, let me at least explain, what I did wasn't right, but I didn't do it to trick ya." Hop Pop explains as we kept walking away. "Sprig and Polly's parents." "Hop Pop." Polly said. "That wasn't your fault." Sprig added. "It was a few years ago, I was on a journey when the herons attacked Wartwood, Sprig and Polly survived, but their parents weren't so lucky." Hop Pop explains. "If I'd just been there, I know things would've been different, ever since then, I swore I'd never let my family down again, that I'd do anything to protect them, so when I found out the box was dangerous, I lied to ya and hid it away, I thought I was protecting my family, but now I realize how foolish it was, Rowena was right, you're both my family too, and I've let you down, I let us all down, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just so sorry!" We walked over to Hop Pop and hugged him. "Hop Pop, I forgive you, you know, you remind me of my dad after the death of my mom, he was always very protective of me and my sister." I said. "I forgive you too." Anne added. Sprig and Polly came to hug us. "Can we get out of this rain?"

After the rain stopped, Hop Pop brought all of us to his study to show us a book, which contained very little information on the music box. "This book has been in our family for as long as I can remember, and look." Hop Pop explains. "Calamity Box?" Anne asked. "Yeesh, that does sound bad." "Yeah, not exactly comforting." Hop Pop commented. "I guess that makes us The Calamity Girls." I joked. Anne let out a small giggle. "I guess all we can do now is wait for Marcy." Sprig said. "Yeah, guys, I hate to say it, but this temple quest may be more dangerous than we thought." Anne sighed. "Well, girls, think this gang can handle it?" Hop Pop asked. "After today, I'm pretty sure this gang can handle anything." I replied, pulling them into a hug. "You kids sure you don't want to wear the puffy suits?" Hop Pop asked. "Hop Pop." We groaned. "Okay okay." Hop Pop said. "Just had to ask."