Poppy's POV

What the actual heck did I just hear in the television? Branch and Kaylee are childhood friends and are together since two years ago? Just a little bit more and I am going to slap that bratty liar—

No Poppy, keep your positivity within you. I shouldn't be angry, because I am certain that those aren't really real.

Suddenly, something flashed into my mind again: Branch's story, the one he told us from his scrapbook-specifically the thing about the failed great escape. Are the other trolls really lost forever?
What if they're still out there? What if they're still alive?

Having those questions conquering my brain, I had the urge to ask my father about it.

~~✨~~

I am currently inside my dad's pod, telling him about the thing I want to know. I know it would be a nice conversation about it, like wondering if those lost trolls were still alive, but it soon ended up in a little argument.

"Poppy, you don't have to find those lost trolls," dad adjured. "It's too dangerous to do another venture out there. Remember the last time you had an adventure with Branch?"

"But, what if they're out there, dad?" I asked, trying to oppose his advice. "What if...what if mom's still alive out there?"

"Poppy, please. I—can we just...talk about this sometime?"

"What? You'll just try to ignore even if there is a big chance that they're still alive?!" I complained, not even thinking that I am talking to my father. "What happened to your no troll left behind, dad?"

Dad closed his eyes, sighing like there is something he can't explain. "Poppy, please. You don't understand—"

"Don't understand? How would I ever understand if you don't even give an explanation?!"

"Poppy, you will never or cannot find those trolls out there because they were never lost!"

What dad said made my heart beat rapidly in confusion. "What do you mean, dad?"

Dad heaved and closed his eyes for a moment. As he opens his eyes, he began explaining, something I would not expect. "The lost trolls were never lost, okay?"

"What?" I said in confusion. "I—I don't understand."

"The failed great escape did happened. But that doesn't mean they did get lost. After that getaway, the escaped trolls secretly went back to the troll tree, not wanting us to be left on."

"B—but, you said that those trolls were...gone, right? So you mean, they're here all along and you-you lied to me?"

I started to see worry and nervousness deep in his orange eyes. "No, no! I didn't mean to lie to you—"

"But you still lied to me!" I complained, slightly raising my voice in disappointment. "What's your legal reason for you to not tell me what's true? To others?"

Dad pursed his lips and sighed. "Poppy, the trolls who were witnesses knew they did came back."

"But why didn't you tell me?!" I whimpered, trying to stop tears to fall down from my eyes. "If—if they were never lost, where's my...mom?"

"Poppy..."

"Tell me the truth, dad," I commanded in a grave and abrupt way.

Dad gave another sough. "I'm sorry... I think...this really is the right time to tell you the truth."

I was unable to resist my tears to stream down to my cheeks. Realizing what dad meant, my eyes widened and then I exclaimed, "all these years, I never lost hope because I know my mom is still out there, alive! I was always positive that mom will soon come back to reunite with us and now I realize that I was just an idiot to expect nothing at all!"

"Poppy, don't call yourself an idiot!" dad replied in denial. "I just...don't want you to feel left out unlike others—"

"I'd rather know a long time ago that mom really is dead than to live my whole life in prevarication!"

"I...I'm sorry, okay? Please..." dad said, his eyes full of dreariness.

Speechless, I only shook my head in sorrow and disappointment, and walked out.

Jessie's POV

"Why'd have you go and make things so complicated~"

When I was a child, I've always dreamt to have a band of my own. And now, I finally had the opportunity to grab my dream. I have gotten a chance to become a member of an awesome band with talented trolls who also dreamt of becoming a part of a band. And here we are, known as the Smashing Candies.

"Acting like you're somebody else makes me frustrated~"

Oh! Pardon me for not introducing myself formally. I am Jessenia Eleanor Ravine, eighteen-year-old lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Smashing Candies. Wait, isn't that too formal?

What I hate most is calling me "Jessenia", so I prefer to be called by everyone as Jessie.

The red-haired guy who also plays the guitar and wears those weird piercings? He's Jayden William Rose, twenty-year-old stud who's the lead guitarist of the band.

The yellow lady beside us is our Goldie, Goldiana Silverstone. She is also twenty years old and is the keyboardist of the band.

The green dude playing the bass guitar? He's the nineteen-year-old Lime Harrison Green who probably is the bassist of the band.

And the blue chick behind me is Lake Rosewater, the band's nineteen-year-old drummer who loves having her hair down.

Through the years, we never gave up and we worked together as a team.

Smashing Candies would be a sensation, and it would be talked about by everyone because of its amazing music and its talented musicians.

Right now, we are performing in a local nightclub, and everyone is looking forward to our performances.

But actually, we aren't that of superstars like Katy Berry or Taylor Sniff. In fact, we're still in the starting line, heading to the midst of popularity.

As we finished our performance, everytroll gave us their wonderful round of applause. We all went down, and the people in the club all welcomed us with réclame and positive comments.

"Thank you!" we all exclaimed, smiling back at them.

One guy wearing a hat, sitting at the back corner of the bar, approached us with an acclaim. "Great performance out there!" he applauded.

"Thanks," I replied, giving him a smile.

"I think you trolls should enter this competition," the man added, handing us a leaflet.

Join now in our
"Amateur Battle Of The Bands"!

~~✨~~

Branch's POV

I grabbed my towel and wore it around my waist as I was just finished taking a shower in my most favorite time of the day: a calm and peaceful night. I walked towards the mirror, applied shaving cream on my beard-covered face, and shaved them with a razor. Suddenly, I remembered about the thing Kaylee said to the press that evening.

To be honest, I don't know what to do. I can't do this lying thing anymore. But if I tell everyone the truth, everyone would probably hate me, and maybe Poppy too could be involved in this issue.

But of course, popular ships also have haters—which is a good thing for me.

Ugh. I wish I have never signed that paper in the first place.

Suddenly, I have received a text. I checked my phone and saw that it was Aspen.

Branch, there will be an Amateur Battle Of The Bands and they want you to be their special guest as one of the judges. Do you want to attend?

Wow. This a great event to attend on. I can't wait to see talented musicians to perform in that competition! I got to attend.

Sure, I'll attend. Maybe the winner gets a chance to perform on my next concert.

Great! I'll tell them rightaway. 😉

Maybe this is a good thing for me to forget about the Braylee issue for a while.

Hi guys!

I know, right? Not updating this book for more than two months? ┐(⊙Д⊙)┌

I am very, very sorry for not updating it as early as I can. I admit, during those two months, my brain has become empty of ideas to put into this story that even one time, I planned to make this book officially "on-hold" 😣 I know that is a bad idea, so I decided not to do that. Luckily, my stupid brain have been invaded by a lot of ideas for this book and tada! I finally am continuing this book, with new scenes coming soon.

Btw, new characters, eh?

And ofc, some of you know them already :p

Credits to le OC owners:
Jayden - Sophie
Goldie - Goldie
Lime - Faith
Lake - Val

Other OCs will also show up here soon xD

And btw, the name "Smashing Candies" is inspired by the band name, "Smashing Pumpkins". XD