The Road to Newtopia (The Calamity Girls Book 2)

The Plantars Check In

We arrived at the castle to meet with the king of Amphibia. "Dang, girl, this is where you've been hanging out this whole time?" Anne asked. "I wouldn't say I hang out here, but, yes!" Marcy exclaimed. "Staying at the castle has been awesome." "This is insane!" I exclaimed. "Wow, I can't believe we're here." Sprig said. "And that we're about to meet the king of Amphibia." Polly added. "Wow, just look at this place, am I dressed okay, should I have worn my silk ascot?" Hop Pop asked. "I'll go back and get it." "Don't stress, guys, this is no big deal." Marcy said as Lady Olivia came in the room. "Okay, frog family, you're about to meet King Andrias, this is a big deal!" She exclaimed, making us more nervous.

Lady Olivia led us into the throne room to meet the king. "May I present to you, Andrias Leviathan, lord of Amphibia, peacekeeper of a thousand years and the first of his name." She announced. "Now that's king sized." I said looking up to see the king, who was 15 times the size of me, Anne, and Marcy. "Hello, Plantar Family, bring it in you guys, bring it in." King Andrias greeted as he pulled them into a hug. "It's so good to finally meet you." "I love this guy!" Polly exclaimed. "Dear King Andrias, just once it would be nice if you followed proper castle etiquette." Lady Olivia said, but King Andrias didn't seem to care. "Ooh, what do we have here?" He asked, looking at Anne and me. "You must be Anne and Sasha, sup, am I saying that right?" "You got it." Marcy replied, giving him a thumbs up. "And actually, the girl with the blonde hair is my other friend, Rowena, we still have no idea on Sasha's whereabouts." "Oh, the thumb of approval, and here's a thumb for you, Anne and Rowena." King Andrias said. "Right back at ya!" Anne exclaimed as both of us gave the king a fist bump. "Delightful, now, let's get down to business, shall we?" King Andrias asked. "Getting you girls back home safe and sound, alas, without the music box, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do, Marcy doesn't have it, and, well I assume that you two don't have it either." "Oh, actually, we do have the box." Anne explains. "What, are you serious?" Marcy asked. "Why this is marvelous news, come, come, let's see it." King Andrias cheered. "Well, we don't have it, have it, Hop Pop left it with some contacts to see what they could learn about it." I explained as Hop Pop gave a nervous chuckle. "But, Anne does have a photo of it." "Yes, yes, a photo, let's see here." King Andrias puts on a pair of glasses to get a better glance at the photo. "How peculiar, Marcy, didn't you say the gems were colored? Look here, they're grey." Anne turned her phone around. "Hey, you're right, I guess I never actually noticed that." She said. "I never actually knew that those gems had colors." I added. "This will require further studies in the deepest of our archives, give me a few days to work with this information, at that time, we shall reconvene and set a glorious plan into motion." King Andrias explains. "Great, MarMar, what can RowRow and I do to help?" Anne asked as I blushed. "Can either of you translate ancient amphibian runes?" Marcy asked. "We sure can't." I replied. "Don't worry dudes, I got this." Marcy said. "Nice, just like group projects back home." Anne smiled. "Until then, my dear Plantars, go forth and enjoy the sights of Newtopia, we've booked you a suite at the Hemisphere Hotel, my treat, and here, the royal credit card, it will grant you access to do anything in Newtopia, be safe with it now, wars have been waged for less." King Andrias explains as he gave the card to Hop Pop. "Whoa, we get to explore Newtopia with unlimited money?" Sprig asked. "This is a dream come true, onward family, time to see Newtopia!"

In our hotel room, everyone else was relaxing, except for me and Sprig. "What do you mean nobody wants to go see Newtopia?!" Sprig and I asked. "Not happening." Hop Pop replied. "Polly happy right here." Polly added. "Anne, you're with us, right?" Sprig asked. "Sorry, dude, the only thing I want to explore is that gift basket." Anne replied. "But we have the royal credit card, the city's our playground." Sprig said. "Sprig, the city will still be there tomorrow, probably." Hop Pop explains. "Tomorrow?" Sprig asked. "Or me and Rowena can take the card and..." "Sprig Plantar!" Hop Pop snapped. "Under no circumstances are you to take that card outside of this hotel!" "I won't, Hop Pop." Sprig sighed as Hop Pop fell asleep, leaving me and him the only ones awake. "He didn't say anything about using it inside the hotel." I said as Sprig grabbed the card from Hop Pop's robe. As I opened the door, I saw a newt carrying some luggage. "Four years of Newtopia University and a mountain of student debt for this." She complained. "Oh, hi there, Bella the bellhop at your service, got the rest of your bags here." "Thanks." I said. "No tip?" Bella asked. "Oh, sure, if you were to do one thing in the hotel for fun, what would it be?" Sprig asked. "Sprig." I whispered. "Not that kind of..." "Well, I've never gone, but, everyone says the view from the top of the indoor Ferris wheel will change your life." Bella interrupted. "Great, thanks for the tip." Sprig said as I gave a few coppers to Bella and followed Sprig.

After getting off the elevator, Sprig and I were astonished by the inside of the hotel. "This place is amazing!" I gasped. "Look at that fountain!" "Ooh, and that must be the indoor Ferris wheel, we're gonna save you for later." Sprig said with a wink. "Excuse me, are you winking at that Ferris wheel?" One of the hotel employees asked. "Yes, and we're rich, so deal with it." Sprig replied as we began a montage around the hotel, from getting ice cream to Sprig getting buzzed on some coffee.

After the montage, Sprig and I relaxed by a balcony. "Well, that was awesome." I sighed, trying to catch my breath. "Yup, all that's left is to ride the Ferris wheel, and we have just the thing to pay for it." Sprig explains as he accidentally dropped it from the balcony. "That's not good, c'mon, dude, we gotta get that card before someone else finds it!" I panicked. We got into the elevator again, but an elderly couple wanted to use it too. After the couple wanted to go to every floor, I used my driver to help me and Sprig escape. He lost the credit card, causing us to fall into a fountain. "How am I not dead?" I asked. "We jumped from the 18th floor." All of a sudden, we saw Bella again, who looked like she was on her lunch break, and she found the card. "Oh thank goodness, I was beginning to think that I would never get our royal credit card with unlimited funds back." Sprig sighed. "TMI, Sprig." I whispered. "What?" Sprig asked. "Did you say unlimited funds?" Bella asked. "Sure did." Sprig smiled. "Oh wait, you're gonna steal it, aren't you?" "Finders keepers!" Bella shouted. "You can't do that!" I exclaimed. "You know you'd be committing credit card fraud!" Sprig chased after Bella towards the Ferris wheel. "Oh, come on, I can't jump that high!" After a few minutes, I saw Bella about to plummet to her death. "Oh my frog abuse!" I shouted. I saw Sprig drink another coffee to save her. "Rowena, grab as many cushions as you can!" Sprig exclaimed as I found some in a laundry chute and poured everything out and he ran very fast to grab even more. I grabbed the card as Bella fell on the cushions. "What the, you two saved me!" Bella cheered. "Thanks kids." "You two are in big trouble, nobody rides the Ferris wheel for free!" A staff member exclaimed. "Oh, sure, here you go." Sprig said as he gave the card to him. "Oh, my mistake sir." He apologized, and then turned to Bella. "You on the other hand are fired!" Sprig looked at me as I did the same. "Excuse me, were you about to fire your best employee?" I asked in a British accent. "My best?" He asked. "This bellhop recommended the Ferris wheel, but also went above and beyond her duty by showing it to me personally." Sprig added in a British accent as well. "I think the newt king, who we happen to know, would be upset if she didn't get a raise." "The king?" He asked. "Yes, absolutely, sound good Bella?" "Yes, sir!" Bella exclaimed. "Thanks kids, it's people like you that make me ever so slightly more positive about the future." "Don't mention it." I replied. "I happen to know someone who reminds me of you." Bella smiled. "You guys wanna go buy, like, 500 ant sundaes?" Sprig asked. "If you guys are paying, let's make it 1000." Bella replied as we went to get ice cream.

After getting the ice cream with Bella, Sprig and I laid on a bed in our room, exhausted. "What a morning." I yawned as Anne's alarm went off on her phone, waking up her, Hop Pop, and Polly. "Nothing like a nap to feel rejuvenated and full of energy, you guys wanna check out the hotel?" Hop Pop asked as Anne tried to wake us up, but we were too tired to move.

So, this chapter may originally be centered around Sprig, but I wanted to have a chapter of the family meeting the king, so I hope you enjoy anyway. -Mal.