Twelve days of Trollsmas (A Christmas Special!)

Branch doesn't Dance

Branch wakes up late. The Trolls told him not to worry about waking up as they were doing th activity in the afternoon. Branch knows he is going to hate it as nobody is telling him what it is. He sits down in the empty lounge room, glad nobody is actually here. That's when he hears a knock. He jinxed it.
"What?" He opens up the door to find Poppy. "Wha- Poppy, why are you here?"
"You've been getting close to Aspen, and quiet a bit with Guy Diamond too so I was wondering if I could hang out with you." Poppy says, balancing on her toes in patiently. He smiles and opens the door. She sits down on his couch. "So-"
"Wait here." Branch says, walking into the kitchen. He grabs strawberries and some heats up some white chocolate over the fire pit.
"Can I come in there?" Poppy calls.
"Hang on!" Dipping the packet of strawberries into the now-melted white chocolate and laying them on a plate, he sprinkles them with colourful tiny candies and brings them out to her.
"Oh, wow, Branch. You didn't have too." Poppy was as Branch places them down in front of her.
"You said you liked them, plus I had to get rid of the strawberries if I didn't eat them soon. So, here." Poppy smiles, placing one in her mouth.
"Oh, it's still warm." She says, smiling after she ate it. "Branch I'm sorry for the way I've been acting. I feel like I'm forcing you to do the twelve days of Trollsmas. You don't have to, you know that, right?" Poppy says, looking to Branch.

"Poppy, I know I don't. I do it because I know you're only trying to help me be happy. I'm going to tell you something though, I can't be happy. I like who I am now." Poppy looks down. "I get that you don't like seeing grey trolls, being a princess and soon to be queen in a couple of years but you have to accept I won't change." She nods, taking another strawberry. Swallowing, she speaks.
"Who is Apple by the way, I heard a bit of you and Aspen talking yesterday. He said something about you really liking Apple? I am not sure what I heard, everyone was loud in the other room." Branch's eyes widen.
"You must have heard wrong, Aspen and I were talking about what we liked about the clothes we picked up. One had apple pattern on it, I'm not sure if you saw it though. That's probably what you heard." Branch says, then shoving a strawberry into his mouth.
"Oh, okay. So that dress? You really think it's beautiful?" Poppy asks.
"No, it was too dark of a green, it wouldn't suit you. An emerald green probably would though, that would look beautiful on you." Branch responds. Poppy stares at him. "What?" She smiles.
"I asked if you think it was beautiful. Not if you thought it would look beautiful on me." She giggles. Branch stops and stares at her. 'Come on, we'll be late otherwise." Grabbing my hand, she leads me out the door.

We end up in an open space with polished, wooden floors.
"Poppy, what are we doing here?" Branch asks.
"Just wait." Everyone is standing in the middle. She drags Branch to the middle with her  and then let's go to turn on a radio.
"Guys, what are we doing?" Branch asks, noticing Cooper and Aspen are sitting down.
"We are dancing!" DJ and Guy Diamond say together.
"WHAT!" Branch yells and in an instant slow music starts playing.
"Pair up!" Branch runs to where Cooper and Aspen are sitting and sits down before anyone can grab him. DJ dances with Guy Diamond, Creek dances with Poppy (To Branch's hatred), Satin and Chenille dance together, Moxie and Mandy chose each other and Biggie is dancing with his pet worm; Mr Dinkles.

"Cooper, why aren't you dancing?" Branch asks as he sits down.
"I'm not a dancing type, I rap and sing. I don't exactly have the body for dancing." Cooper says.
"Well, what about you Aspen?" Aspen shakes his head.
"I rather sing than dance. We were out voted." Branch looks at Aspen the figure they held a vote; sing or dance. Knowing them, they would have chose dancing so Branch would join in. They were wrong.

Several times they tried dragging Branch up to get him to dance with them but not even Poppy could get him to.
"Wow, you must really hate dancing." Aspen says when Branch returns from the dance floor once again, this time away from Poppy.
"I do."

The day ended quickly, Aspen talked about skitterboards with Cooper and Branch just listened, watching everyone slow dance. He kinda wished he took the opportunity to dance with Poppy, hoping another opportunity would come up - it didn't.

3 days left