This Year's Giver

Chapter 3

"AHH!!! WHA-" Branch widened his eyes once he noticed that Poppy was almost on top of him. "P-Poppy?" Poppy's eyes were also widened.

"Oh, I'm-I'm so sorry Branch, I had to enter your bunker quickly so that no one would catch me.....or you!"

"Oh uh, that's alright" Branch smiled nervously. Poppy got up, helping Branch up as well and closed the mat and Branch pulled the lever of the elevator so that the elevator would go down. There was some awkward silence while they were on the elevator....at least it wasn't too awkward when they got to the bottom...

"So Smidge went and ordered some food, and while that I quickly went to my pod and got this" Poppy got out a light purple hoodie from her hair. "Will this do?"

"That's great! Did you get the sunglasses?" Poppy gasped.

"The sunglasses! I totally forgot about those! How am I supposed to go outside now?" Poppy started to freak out.

"Actually...." Branch started going towards his closet. "I just remembered, I think I may have another pair of sunglasses here..." he looked in his closet and found them. "Oh, I found them! Here, try these on" he gave them to Poppy. She tried them on.

"Oooooh, I like these!" She smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror. Branch smiled as well. "Alright, should we start wrapping some presents?"

Branch looked at the pile of presents left to wrap. "Sure! I think there's just 800 left to go-"

"800?!" Poppy might've been in a rush to go to Branch's bunker, but she did notice that it was mid evening, how are they going to wrap 800 presents in just a few hours?!

"Yeah, it's a lot, but we have time" he looked and smiled at Poppy.

Poppy smiled back. "Huh, that's a new side of you, isn't it?"

Branch giggled a little. "Well, I try" He then smiled.

Poppy sat next to Branch and picked up a present and some wrapping paper to start wrapping the presents left.

"So, do you know how to wrap a present?" Branch looked at Poppy.

"Actually I don't, um, but I kinda try to improve?" he giggles a little. "One present that I totally can't wrap is this one" he got out the present he was struggling with earlier and handed it to Poppy. "...can you teach me how to wrap it?"

Poppy looked at the present and then looked at Branch. She smiled. "Of course!" She looked for an item that was at least close to the shape of the gift she was about to wrap. It was a cylinder shaped can that had chocolates in it. She then found the same kind of can and handed it to Branch.

"What's this for?"

"Well, if you want to learn how to wrap this kind of shaped present you're going to have to try it step by step" she smiled at him.

"Very smart of you" Branch smirked.

"Why thank you" Poppy giggled. "Alright, let's start" she got some tape from her hair and put it next to her. "So first, you have to lay down the wrapping paper" Poppy layed the wrapping paper down for demonstration. Then, Branch did just the same.

(I got lazy with that part sorry XD)
Once Poppy finished their...let's say, lesson, she let Branch try it himself without Poppy's help. Turns out, that was a huge failure.

Branch was full of tape and wrapping paper, and also some glue. The present, well, it was kinda in a sticky mess.

"Uhhh....I'll wrap that present, you can wrap the other one over there, don't worry" Poppy pointed towards the box shaped item that was in front of Branch.

"Sorry Poppy...." he muttered. "I really do need more practice, don't I?"

"Well you do...but don't worry, it's alright" she smiled as he smiled back. They then went to work.

Meanwhile, Smidge was hanging out with Milton, talking about how they "didn't" catch the giver last year.

"Wait, Cooper actually explained his whole life?" Milton's eyes widened a little. Smidge nodded, with a smile on her face since she of course was hanging out with her crush.

"Yeah! Then we discovered that Cooper wasn't the giver, and that the actual giver sent Cooper to distract us without Cooper knowing! Then we heard sirens, the ones Poppy activated so that she could catch the giver but the giver quickly left so we don't know who they are yet. Oh, and I thought it was Branch for a second but Poppy said he wasn't"

"Ohhh, hopefully you guys can find them and thank them"

"Yeah, I really do hope so-" Smidge looked around her. ".......have you seen Poppy? I thought she was here with me..."

"Huh, actually I haven't, but I can help you find her if you want me to" Milton smiled as Smidge's cheeks turned red.

"O-of course!" Smidge smiled. 'Wow, his smile is beautiful...' she thought in her mind.

"Okay, where should we start looking?"

A/N: Hiii! Sorry this chapter was a little short, I think the next one will be a little longer :D anyways, cya!