Trolls: Supposed to Be

I Understand

branch rushed through the large crowd of people, eager to get to his own bunker, away from everyone and everything.

but something felt off. something felt like it was stopping him from going to his bunker, like the feeling you get when you're about to do something and then forget what you were about to do.

he spotted king peppy in the distance. he was leaned up against his pod door, holding the crushed crown and fallen jewels in his hands. tears streamed down his cheeks as she stroked it.

branch knew the feeling. losing the last piece of someone you lost.

a few days before his grandma had passed, she had given him a customized teddy bear with a voice box inside. he named it rosie, after her. every time you squeezed its tummy, you could hear his grandma's voice softly saying, "sweet dreams, my darling. i love you so very much."

one day at school, he had brought it in for show and tell. most of the class sighed in sympathy and gave him a small smile in attempt to somehow take away the horrible grief he was feeling.

the teacher had taken their class to the bathroom, so branch left rosie safely hidden inside his desk behind his blue pencil pouch.

the class returned one by one from the bathroom, and when branch entered the room, his eyes practically popped out of their sockets when he saw what happened next.

creek and one of his friends, ripping apart rosie into millions of pieces and laughing about it.

8 year old branch fell to his knees and sobbed uncontrollably, wishing he could escape. escape everything. escape the classroom, escape the school, escape the world.

he struggled to get the courage to run over to creek, but he did. eventually. creek and his godawful friend were still laughing and ripping the stuffing out of the teddy bear, piece by piece.

branch snatched it from them and practically growled at them. anger fumed through his body and he felt like he was on fire, like he could explode any minute. without second thought, he smacked creek right across the face, as hard as his little arms could. he jumped on top of him and punched him, left and right. tears streamed down his cheeks.

the entire class screamed and the female teacher pulled him off, only to see the ripped up stuffed animal lying in 4 pieces on the floor.

branch had spent all day and night for 2 weeks strait trying to sew it back together, but it was next to impossible. they'd even smashed the voice box, the only thing he had to hear when he was feeling sad.

and from that day on, branch had hated creek.

"king peppy?" the blue troll snapped back into reality and approached the crying troll.

peppy didn't say anything. instead, he closed his eyes, feeling ashamed of branch seeing him such a mess.

"let me see that." branch gently took the crown and the jewels from king peppy's hands. he observed them carefully. "i could get this stitched up for you."

the king opened his eyes and he looked at branch, hope gushing inside of him.

"i understand what it's like to lose something this important to you." he winced at the memory, but quickly brought himself back to reality. "obviously it won't be identical to what it was, but...i'll see what i can do."

"thank you!" king peppy pulled branch in for a big hug and squeezed him tightly. "you don't know what this means to me!"

looking down, branch found himself sad, thinking about the past and wished someone had done what he was doing. he wished someone had tried to help him fix the most important thing in the world to him.