How Bad Could It Be

Chapter 7

A/N: I want to thank Mircosedy from fanfiction.net for beta-reading my story.

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When Once-ler finished his tuft pulling device, he immediately set out to the Truffula trees only to be stopped by the Lorax.

"Okay, Beanpole, what are you up to?" The Lorax asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm getting some tufts for my thneed," Once-ler said happily.

The Lorax put himself in front of the Once-ler and held an arm out to stop him.

"No, you remember the deal," The Lorax said. "You can't chop down anymore trees."

"I won't be chopping down any trees," Once-ler said as he ran past The Lorax and used the device to tug the tufts off of the Truffula tree, astonishing the Lorax. "Okay, that works."

Apparently, the Lorax didn't care what Once-ler did as long as the trees didn't suffer for -ler gathered the tufts off of the ground and took them to his cottage. There was just enough for one thneed. He immediately got to work and called Kat when he was done.

"Hello?" Kat's voice said as soon as she picked up.

"Kat, it's me, Once-ler," Once-ler said, trying to contain his excitement. "I just finished your thneed."

"That's great, Once!" Kat said. "How much do I owe you?"

"Owe me?" Once-ler responded shock. "You don't owe me anything."

"Once, I'm not so broke that I can't afford a thneed," Kat said reassuringly and added the next thing in a joking manner. "Unless you're charging $100 a piece for them."

"No, nothing so outrageous!" Once-ler said in shock. "Though, if you insist, you could pay me a little something in return."

"Once, just because I'm sleeping with you doesn't mean I'm going to prostitute myself for a thneed," Kat said. "The only possible way I would ever prostitute myself is if the world entered an apocalyptic situation."

"Kat, I would never ask-!" Once-ler began, surprised that Kat would expect the worst from him like that. "Wait a minute, you mean you would prostitute yourself?"

"Well, I have to eat and I don't have any other skills."

"I think you might have more survival skills than you know," Once-ler reassured her. "And I would never make you prostitute yourself for anything."

Kat laughed.

"Would you relax?" Kat said. "You really need to learn how to take a joke."

"I think your sense of humor might be a bit much for me," Once-ler responded. "Anyway, I was hoping that you'd bring one of your stories here in exchange for a thneed."

"Really, Once?" Kat said. "A story for a thneed?"

"My work for yours," Once-ler said with a smile. "I don't know about you but I'd call that a fair trade."

"Okay, if you say so," Kat responded. "I'll be there in a few."

"Looking forward to it," Once-ler said.
                                 
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When Kat arrived in Truffula Forest, holding a stack of papers to her chest, she saw the swomee swans giving flowers to other swans, the humming fish presenting pearls to other humming fish like they were engagement rings, and the bar-ba-loots singing to other bar-ba-loots on tree tops and jumping into the singing bar-ba-loots' arms. Melvin was lying on the grass, lazily observing the whole scene.