𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐋! [𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐋 𝐆𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐆𝐇𝐄𝐑]

TUTORING AND SURPRISES

"Hey, Poppy!" All of the voices filled Poppy's ears, making her smile.

"Hey, family," she smiled at them.

"You know, it's starting to feel like you all love my girlfriend more than you love me," Carl scoffed grabbing Poppy's hand.

"You're just realizing this now? Brother, dear, we've always loved Poppy more than you," Debbie told him.

"It's true!" Ian and Lip both called out as Carl flipped them off and dragged Poppy up the stairs.

Poppy laughed as she sat on Carl's bed and pulled out her phone.

"What're we gonna do?" She asked him, eyes not leaving her screen as she sent out streaks and responded to Cristina's text.

Meanwhile, Carl's was pulling something out from his closet and, thinking nothing of it, Poppy just continued to be on her phone, trying out Snapchat filters.

"Carl, c'mere and be an angry bunny with me!" Poppy called out from where she was laying on his bed.

"Actually, I got you something," Carl announced.

Poppy sat up and saw that he was standing by the bed, holding something behind his back.

"You did?"

Carl nodded. "I saw how upset you were the other day of the piano incident, and I never want you to feel like that again, so I decided to get you this."

Carl brought his hands from behind his back and Poppy's jaw fell when she saw what he had gotten her.

"Carl, you didn't," she said, quickly standing up and walking towards him.

"Yeah, I did," he chuckled, handing her the beautiful mahogany colored ukulele. It was like the one Poppy had before, except this one was better.

It was small so that Poppy's small hands could play it and there was a bright red bow placed on lower body of the uke.

Holding the instrument in her hands made Poppy feel so happy. She gently set it down on the bed before turning back to her best friend and throwing her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

He was taken aback at first, but soon hugged back.

"Thank you so much. I love it."

"It's no problem, Popsicle. Trust me, you deserve it for putting up with me all these years."

It was at that remark that made Poppy pull away and smack Carl's arm.

"Stop!" She told him. "We're best friends. We put up with each other."

"Yeah, alright, so why don't you play us a song?" Carl asked, both of them sitting on his bed.

Poppy grabbed the ukulele, carefully taking the bow off and placing it on Carl's head. She began to tune the instrument. "I don't know... I haven't played in a while."

"C'mon, Popsicle," Carl told her with a grin, "do it for me."

Sighing, Poppy began to play the first song she had learned to play on the ukulele.

"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high..."

Carl instantly smiled proudly at his girl-friend. Yes, that dash is important, according to Carl, anyway.

Seeing Poppy was a bit self-conscious, Carl stood up and began to (terribly) dance and sing along to the song.

Poppy laughed as she sang, and shook her head.

"Someday I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me..."

Carl didn't know all the words like Poppy did, so he tried his best.

They continued until the finished the song, or tried to at least, and then they both sat back down on the bed laughing.

Poppy hugged her newly found pride and joy as she leaned back against Carl.

They've always been very affectionate with one another- or they used to at least, until Carl started dating Dominique and Poppy thought it was best that her and Carl stopped being so touchy-touchy for Dom's sake. It was the deal that had made them start up their lovey dovey best friend-ness again.

"We should name him," Poppy said after a few seconds of just laying there.

"Who?"

"The uke!"

"Did you just assume the ukulele's gender?"

Poppy laughed and gently elbowed Carl, placing the red bow on his head again, since it had fallen off when he was dancing around.

"It's an inanimate object, not a human- so- just help me name him, will ya?" She turned her head to look up at him and he looked down at her.

"Alright, alright. How about Carl?"

"No, asshole."

"Fuck you," Carl grinned, "Leo?"

"No."

"Denny?"

"No."

"Albert?"

"..."

"Alb-?"

"No."

"You can't just turn everything I suggest down, Popsicle!"

"Okay, okay. We can name him later," Poppy said with a smile. She looked up at Carl again, "thanks, Carl. Genuinely, this is the best thing anyone's ever gotten me."

"What about your first ukulele? Who got you that?"

"I got it for myself. After seeing Cristina's, she taught me how to play a few songs and I fell in love with it, and so after about, five months of saving up for it, I got one for myself. Although, I only had it for about a month before my parents decided that I should play the piano instead and got rid of it," Poppy explained.

Whenever Carl heard anything that Poppy's parents did, it enraged him.

"Asswipes."

Poppy sighed. "I know."

"They won't take this one away though, I promise."

"Thanks, Carl."

"Yeah. So, are you sure that you don't wanna name it Carl?"