Trolls Band Together (OC Insert)

Chapter 7

"Spruce, wait," Branch says.

Spruce stops but he doesn't turn around to look at us. "Oh, no. I knew this would happen one day. Listen, I know you recognize me from BroZone, and I'm happy to give you an autograph or whatever. But can you please be discreet about it?"

"Spruce, it's us. It's your brothers," John Dory says.

Spruce immediately drops his pencil and paper and runs right past John Dory to Branch. "Whoa. Bitty B?" He throws Branch up in the air and laughs.

Branch lands on the ground and takes a step back. "No tossing, okay? Too big to be tossed,"

"That last time I saw you, you were in diapers," Spruce says, laughing once again.

"Diapers. Right," Branch mutters, now looking away from him.

That gives Spruce a chance to put his finger in his mouth before putting it in Branch's ear. "Wet Willy!"

Branch quickly recoils from that and wipes his ear. "Stop it. That's disgusting. I am a grown-up."

"Oh, sorry. A wet William," Spruce says before going to do the same thing again.

Just a distance away from the brothers, I stand with Poppy and Tiny. I feel Poppy nudge my arm and motion for me to say something to him, like maybe an introduction.

My eyes widen as I look at Spruce and then at Poppy. I give her this look that reads, "Are you serious?" in a freaked-out kind of way while shaking my head.

Not having it, Poppy pushes me forward, almost causing me to stumble. I can't turn back now, so I clear my throat and say, "Hi, Spruce. I'm Val, Peacekeeper of Music...Uh, this is Poppy and Tiny Diamond..." As I'm saying this to him, I constantly make eye contact before looking somewhere else. I then stop when I notice Tiny is nowhere to be found.

"Hey, what's up?" Tiny's voice echoes from a distance. He stands by a bowl of nachos with a few of the islanders. "Killer nachos you got here, by the way." Tiny quickly jumps into the bowl without saying another word.

John Dory is the next person to say something. "Okay, Spruce. We're here because Floyd--"

Spruce cuts him off by saying, "Actually, no one's called me Spruce in years. I go by Bruce now."

"I'm sorry. Did you say Bruce?" John Dory asks in disbelief.

Spruce, or Bruce now, nods. "Yeah. I wanted to put the whole boy band thing behind me now that I'm a dad."

We all stare in shock as he says the last part.

"Wait a minute. You're a father?" John Dory asks.

Bruce looks at us with a big smile. "Yeah. I can't wait for you to meet everyone." Just then, an islander with yellow skin and red hair walks behind the counter holding a drink and a plate of cookies. "Hi, honey. These are my brothers, unexpectedly," Bruce says to her.

The islander looks in our direction. "Oh! Oh, hello there. So nice to finally meet you."

We wave at her, saying small "hi"s and "hello"s.

"This is my wife and business partner, Brandy. She is my soulmate. My very tall soulmate. But we make it work," Bruce says lovingly.

John Dory takes a pause to think about this. And with confusion, he asks, "How?"

Brandy takes a cookie from the plate. "We don't even really know how it works...I'm kidding. I'm not. I'm--I don't know."

A small toddler with green skin and red hair crawls over to Bruce. "Daddy, Daddy, can I have a cookie?"

Bruce grabs a cookie from the plate and places it in the kid's mouth. "Becoming a dad was like a--like a seismic shift in my brain."

Two other kids pop out from behind the counter, one being yellow with pink hair and the other pink with teal hair. "Daddy, Bruce Jr. bit me," the kid in yellow says.

"No biting," Bruce says to the kid in pink.

As they walk away, a kid with light blue skin and red hair walks over on the counter. "Daddy, I don't see how any government stands a chance."

"You're not wrong, kid," Bruce sighs.

Another kid with purple skin and hair rolls over in a ketchup bottle. "I'm stuck in this ketchup bottle."

Bruce places his foot on the bottle. "Okay. Gonna handle all of that. Just give Daddy two seconds, okay? Love you." After the kid rolls away, he turns back to face us. "As a dad--"

Another kid with blue skin and red hair walks over. "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Guess what? I have pink eye."

I cringe at the sight of the disease on the kid. So do the others.

John Dory tries to bring us all back to the situation we are dealing with right now. "Look, Spruce, gotta cut to the chase. We're not here to catch up. We're here because we need to hit the perfect family harmony."

"Oh, no. You're still going on about that?" Bruce asks before walking away. "Hey. Get these guys their meals to go."

"No, no, no. You don't understand." John Dory says desperately. "It's for Floyd. He's being held captive."

Bruce quickly turns around. "What? Well, then, what are we waiting for? We need to call the authorities."

"Hit the perfect family harmony. Spruce, it--it has to be us. Floyds being held captive in a diamond prison," John Dory says.

"Oh. Well, yeah, you need the perfect family harmony for that," Bruce mutters.

"Exactly," John Dory says before walking to a small stage with a microphone.

"Wait. But how? We've never even come close to pulling it off. You do remember our last show, don't you?" Bruce asks.

"If we practice, I know we'll be able to nail it. We have to," John Dory says confidently.

Bruce scoffs. "At my age? I really don't think that--"

"See, guys. I told you Dad wasn't in a band," one of Bruce's kids says.

His demeanor changes immediately to confidence. "Oh, I was in a band. I was in the band. You ask your mother if I was in a band."

"Oh, he was in a band," Brandy says while leaning on the counter.

"Prove it," Poppy chants. And because of that, the other kids start chanting with her.

I smile at their behavior while putting my jacket back on.

"All right. I'll prove it. I'll prove it right now," Bruce says, hopping up onto the stage with John Dory.