Chapter Text
To Poppy, writing in her diary while skipping through Troll Village to her new high school on a sunny morning became a great idea as she grabbed her pink, puffball pen and diary from her backpack, opening to the first page, clicking on the pen’s top.
Monday, August 29th
Dear Diary,
Hi, I’m Princess Poppy of Troll Village, and this is my very first diary. I’m super excited because it’s my first day of attending Trolly High School (or Trolly High for short). What made me excited to go is when I went to the orientation last summer to check out what the school looked like. I immediately fell in love with it, inspiring me to prepare for the first day.
What else I’m excited about when it comes to Trolly High is making new friends, which is on top of my list of things to do at Trolly High. I used to have lots of friends back in middle school, but none of them were close to being my close friends, which saddened me. So, I hope to make some new friends today. Oh, I’ll be having a Find-A-Friend Party after school in case I don’t make any friends at school today, which I’m going to be sending out invitations now. I’m going to update you about what happened at school.
-Poppy
Closing and putting her diary back in her backpack, Poppy grabbed a bag filled with her invitations from her backpack. She took a deep breath, smooth out her turquoise dress, brushed her straight, downward hair, adjusted her flower headband, swinging the doors open.
“What a day...” Poppy’s singsong, sweet voice caught some of the Trolls’ attention. She continued to sing. “I am feeling great...so excited for the fun and things I know await...today is the day, which it is a Monday...cause it’s the first day of Trolly High—oh, it’s a school day...”
Poppy skipped and sang through the school hallway, giving out invitations to some Trolls, although it became a bit difficult to get around due to the Trolls hustling and bustling past her. But Poppy continued trying to go through school, giving an invitation to a small, yellow Troll with long, turquoise hair, wearing a pink bow on top of her head.
Multitasking, she went into the office to grab her map, schedule and student guide while greeting and passing invitations to the other Trolls. Poppy sang some more about being excited for being the first day of Trolly High, looking for her locker. She danced, spun around, flipping around. From Glitter to Fuzzlings to Rainbow to Sporty Trolls had an eye on her, watching her dancing around. Poppy ended her song with a front flip, shouting for joy, smiling and breathing hard from all the dancing, singing, and jumping around.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Who could be clapping like that? In a slow, sarcastically way? To her right, a Troll, who wore a black hoodie, continued to clap in a slow way. He was unlike any Troll she had ever seen. In fact, he was gray. She couldn’t help noticing his blue eyes, how they gleamed at her dark pink eyes.
“You know, dance class doesn’t start till later, right?” The gray Troll put his hand on the locker’s handle. “What are you looking at?”
She continued with her own ways of putting her backpack inside her locker, giving out a few invitations to a few Trolls while at the same time her eyes glanced at the gray Troll pull hard on the locker’s handle, but it wouldn’t open.
“Having trouble with your locker?” Poppy said.
He paused. “No. Not at all, it’s a bit jammed...”
“That’s the same thing. Here, let me help you,” Poppy said.
“No, that’s okay—”
“What’s your locker number?”
“Not in a million—”
“The locker number, please?”
He groaned, giving his paper to her. Poppy peered at it. His name Branch was written above the locker number. She dialed the combination, pulling on the handle. It was jammed.
“See?” Branch said. “I told you that you couldn’t open it. I would go to a loud, crazy party if you get a chance to open...”
“Here we go.” Poppy swung the locker door open. Branch’s eyes dilated, his mouth dropped, and he let out a heavy sigh.
“H-H-How did you do it?” Branch said.
“Oh, I put in the combination, and then I knock on the door, and then pulled the handle and—did you say what I think you said?” Poppy handed over Branch’s paper back. He snatched his paper from her, putting his backpack inside his locker. How rude. He didn’t even say thank you. But before she could even confront him about that, she remembered what he had said. She indeed opened his locker, and when she told him about this, he told her it was an exaggeration, not willing to do it for real. Was he sure about that? To Poppy, it sounded like he really meant it. Maybe it won’t hurt to invite him too. He looked like he needed a friend.
“Speaking of parties, would you like to come to my Find-A-Friend party?”
“Is it for the weekend?”
Oh, is he interested in coming to my party? “Oh, it’s actually tonight,” Poppy said.
“Today? I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Branch said.
“Oh, why not? I have already put a note at the bottom of each invitation about asking their parents first before they can go.”
“Poppy, right? Look, Poppy, you can’t have a party on a school night. Parties on school nights will always have some eventual consequences.” Branch continued to talk about how parties will distract everyone, including her, and on the first day of school, this would not be prudent. “In addition to that, loud, crazy parties will lead to the arrival of Bergens. As you know, those creatures eat Trolls, and while that would be a sick way to end a party, not gonna lie, I would prefer to be alive to watch your future educational demise that is sure to come if you keep hosting parties on school nights.”
“Come on. We haven’t seen a Bergen in eleven years, plus it’s only the first day of school where the teachers won’t give us any pressure. Maybe you can learn to loosen up a bit and come to my party this one time,” Poppy said.
“No way in the world because I’ll be studying and hiding inside of a heavily fortified, Bergen-proof survival bunker,” Branch replied smugly.
“So, you’re not going to come to my party tonight?”
“Did someone say party?”
Poppy’s head turned to the left. A Troll, whose lavender purple skin gleamed at her. Oh, my god, who is that guy? Just check out his dark purple eyes darkened like grapes, his blue to light blue to green ombre hair shaped like whipped cream—oh his smile shined like diamonds. “Ooh la la,” Poppy said.
“Hey, do you still have any room left for me to go?”
Poppy hesitated, twirling her finger in one of her bangs.
“Oh, I'm sorry, where are my manners—I’m Creek. You must be Princess Poppy.”
“Why, yes—” Poppy dropped her bag as the invitations fell onto the floor. They picked up the invitations, placing them into the bag. She thanked him, giving him the invitation to him.
“Oh, I must go now. I’ll see you around?” Creek said.
Poppy nodded as Creek waved goodbye and left.
“Oh, I thought he’ll never leave,” Branch said, rolling his eyes
Poppy faced Branch. Am I really going to invite this party pooper? Yes, I still am. Everyone deserves an invitation and a friend. “Branch, I do want to invite you because everyone deserves to be happy, including you,” Poppy said.
“What are you going to do? Force me to be happy? Try me, because I don’t do happy.”
“No, but I do believe happiness is already inside of you. You just need my help to find it.” Poppy pulled out an invitation where it said, “You’re Invited” as it expanded like a pop-up book with two Trolls holding hands. A poof of glitter shot right at Branch’s face. He gave her a look.
She smiled at him back. “What do you say, Branch?”
Branch let his hand to the invitation. Poppy felt tingling all over. Oh my gosh, he’s finally going to accept her invitation, and would he have a great time? Regretting what he had said to her before? Branch grabbed the invitation, smiling at her. His blue eyes caught her attention, gleaming at her. She squealed...
He threw her invitation onto the floor and smushed it with his left foot. Gasps filled in the room, including hers and one Troll said oh my god. Poppy stood there. Why would he do such a thing to her, even when she was trying to be nice?
“I would rather go and study in my bunker than go to your lame party,” Branch said.
She felt as if someone popped her balloon with a pen. Heat flushed through her body, her heavy breathing slowed and steadied, tears swelled into her eyes, though she blinked back the tears. Crying at school was the number one thing Poppy didn’t want to do. In truth, she felt like running away to the nearest Girls’ bathroom to bawl her eyes out, but her feet wouldn’t move. She took a deep breath as she opened her mouth to speak to Branch...
“Make way, popular girls coming through.”