Aftermath

Conversations

As the last stars faded into the brightening orange sky, the hug ended.

"Tell me what happened," Anne suggested.

"Well, the moon and the Core exploded," Sasha began," and then so did you!"

"But you're back somehow!" Marcy finished with a joyful bounce. "Which is amazing, but how?"

"It's a long story," Anne sighed, content to be among her friends again. "And if I'm being honest, it all just felt like a dream!"

"So what do we do now?" Sprig asked standing up.

"Well, we defeated the bad guy, and I've seen enough movies to know this is the part where the happy ending is." Polly pointed out.

"Which would be going back to Earth," Marcy mused, uncertainty lacing her quiet words.

A tense silence followed her remark. The water's reflection gradually turned blue reflecting the bright sky. Nobody had noticed it was the first time the sky took a healthy cerulean hue ever since the day everything went wrong.

After what seemed like an eternity, Hop Pop finally spoke, "I think we'd all better take a day to rest. It's been... an eventful night. We'll talk about this tomorrow."

The group murmured in agreement not realising they needed rest until it was suggested. The Amphibians dispersed into what was left of the city that once was Newtopia, leaving the humans and the Plantars standing outside the crumbling no longer polished white gates. They walked in.

For once the girls had no more responsibilities to attend to. There was nothing left to cover up the true extent of the problem in their strained relationship. They may have forgiven each other in the heat of the moment, but sometimes it takes humans quite some time to realise the true meaning of things they say as a formality. One can say something, and not understand the promise they're making and in turn break their word. This situation would be the perfect anecdote for that.

An awkward silence suffocated the air and those who breathed it in until a youthful voice dispelled the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"You weirdos gonna talk or something?"Polly questioned.

"What?" the three humans yelped in sync, surprised to be plunged back into the cold waters of reality so soon.

"I said are you three going to-" she was broken off by a wrinkly webbed hand muffling her mouth.

"Now, now, Polly. Sometimes it's best to let awkwardness air out by itself." Hop Pop chided while wagging an ancient finger in the tadpole's face.

Unfortunately that remark only worsened the situation and somehow caused the atmosphere to bump up to a whole new league of awkwardness. It seemed impossible, but Hopediah Plantar invented a whole new impossible level of awkwardness.

Typical.

"You know how people say it's only weird if you make it weird?" Anne turned to Hop Pop, her right eye twitching a bit. "Yeah, that applies to awkwardness too."

"Sure, it was awkward before you said anything," Sasha chimed in, "But you pointing out the awkwardness literally made it worse."

"Don't worry about it though," Anne added.

"Gosh, Anne. It's hard not worry about it if you..." Hop Pop continued the conversation which replaced the previous silence.

Marcy wanted to add something to the discussion, but as the conversation moved to topics which related to the resistance, Marcy quickly gave up and turned to her own thoughts. The girl subconsciously fell back behind the group, unnoticed as usual.