Sunshine and Shadows (An Amphibia AU Fanfiction)

Chapter 10: The Art of Writing

Neither Sasha nor Anne were super interested in writing, so whenever they had that class, they forced themselves to get through it.

The problem was they had been stuck in Amphibia when everyone chose their classes last year, so when Sasha and Anne came back, they were tossed into whatever was available, which happened to be writing.

Anne was twirling her pencil around in her hand. It suddenly slipped and flew past Sasha's eye.

"Woah, Anne!" Sasha exclaimed angrily, "Careful! I almost lost my eye!"

"Oops. Sorry," Anne responded.

Sasha sighed and picked up Anne's pencil and handed it to her, "It's fine. Here."

"Thanks," Anne replied, pushing her pencil away from her a bit to prevent any more accidents.

"So anyway, you'll do this next project in partners," the teacher was saying as Anne started paying attention again, "What you need to do is write a short horror story..."

Sasha suddenly perked up, "Horror?" She asked excitedly.

Anne rolled her eyes.

"It'll be due this class period next week," the teacher added.

Sasha raised her hand. She waited for the teacher to call on her before she said anything, unlike what she would've done before getting teleported to Amphibia. With Sasha's redemption, Anne noticed she had more manners now too.

"Do we get to choose our partners?"

The teacher looked from Sasha to Anne, completely aware the two would choose to be together, "Yes," he sighed.

Sasha fist pumped.

"For the rest of class today, you can pick your partners and start to plan out your ideas. The rest of your project must be done in your own time."

Anne froze and gave Sasha a look.

"What?" Sasha asked as everyone started to get to work.

"We're going to Amphibia tomorrow and spending the week there!" Anne exclaimed, "When will we do this!?"

"We could just do it in Amphibia?" Sasha suggested, "I'm sure the Plantars would love to help us too."

"I guess..." Anne responded, "I just don't like the idea of doing homework when I'm supposed to be bonding with my frog family!"

"Hey! What if we all write a story about one of the experiences you guys had together! I think that qualifies as horror... You did almost die constantly," Sasha suggested, "Come on! That'll make it more fun!" she nudged Anne playfully.

Anne smiled, "Ok, fine, we'll give it a try."

***

"Ooooo, ok!" Sprig nodded, "So, we're basically doing what we do during the Shut In! Telling true scary stories to each other!"

"Yeah!" Anne responded, feeling better about the project at how excited the pink frog was to help.

The three Plantar family members were sitting in the living room, along with Anne and Sasha.

"'The Shut In?'" Sasha asked.

"It's a holiday around here," Anne explained.

"Anne," Sprig glared at her, "We've been over this. It's. not. a. holiday."

Anne just shrugged and continued explaining it to Sasha, "It's basically Halloween, but instead of going around and getting candy, you go around and get tools and other supplies to lock you in your house for the night."

"Uh... ok..." Sasha responded.

"But anyway, what's something scary we've been through we could write about?" Anne asked.

"Oh! How about the Bizarre Bazaar?" Sprig suggested, "As cool as it was, that place was still really creepy..."

Anne nodded, "Ok..."

"Whatever happens in the Bizarre Bazaar, stays in the Bizarre Bazaar," Hop Pop suddenly responded sternly.

"Oh yeah," Anne sighed, "Ok, any other ideas?"

"Literally just everyone getting eaten a hundred gazillion times," Polly suggested.

"How would we even write a story about that?" Anne replied, "It needs to be just one, nice, consistent story."

"What about the temples?" Hop Pop asked, "I still have nightmares about that giant Flipwart game."

"I just said it needs to be one story!" Anne groaned.

"See, you guys!?" Polly suddenly exclaimed, "Now you know how I felt during the Shut In! Not being able to come up with any ideas!"

"Hey... Why don't we just do it about the Shut In...?" Sasha asked, "I mean, I wasn't there, but you guys could just tell me what happened...?"

"Oooo! People telling stories within a story! I love it!" Sprig exclaimed, grabbing Anne's paper for the project and starting to write stuff down.

Anne quickly pulled the paper away from him, "Sorry, Sprig, but me and Sasha need to be the ones writing it. It is our project after all... as much as I would love for you guys to do it for us instead..." she added under her breath.

Anne looked at the paper, "Oh... and no offense, Sprig, but this hand writing is... not the best..."

***

And so, they wrote!

...And throughout the experience... Anne found herself... really enjoying it?

Not only was it actually just... fun, but she also enjoyed reliving the past in that way.

The group finished up the project, the girls spent the rest of the week in Amphibia, and then they went back home.

Before turning the project in, they got together to add a few finishing touches to it.

"So... uh... Anne...?" Sasha asked awkwardly.

"Yeah?"

"...So... maybe writing isn't as bad as I thought it was..."

Anne gasped, "You like it too!?"

Sasha, relieved Anne felt the same way, smiled widely, "Yes! It was so fun to just... put everything down on paper like that!"

"I know! And it was especially fun to do it with my friends! Biggest plot twist ever, right?" Anne laughed.

Sasha chuckled, "Ok, now let's finish this up already!"

***

After turning in the project and getting a decent enough grade on it, Anne and Sasha started to write little short stories about Amphibia and just their adventures together.

The stories probably weren't going to become anything more than just a fun little hobby the two girls did, but it was just that: fun!

And maybe that class wouldn't be as bad as the two thought it would be.