One day, Anne, and I decided to show Sprig and Polly some videos of each of us back home. Anne showed us a video of Domino, her kitten. "And this bad boy is my kitty, Domino, you guys would love her, she's got fire." She said. "Aww, I miss Domino!" I cried as Anne showed the video to Sprig and Polly. "Aww, she's so tiny, I feel huge." Polly said. "I will set her free!" Sprig exclaimed as he pulled a hammer out of his pocket to break Anne's phone. "Please stop doing that." Anne begged. I was scrolling through my photos when I came across a photo of my family and I. "This is my family, my dad, my sister, Rosalina, me, and my puppy, Thor." I said as Sprig pulled out his hammer. "Don't even think about it." "I don't remember you having a dog." Anne said. "Dad got Thor for my 13th birthday." I replied. Suddenly, a horrible odor surrounded us. "What is that, did something crawl under the house and die?" I asked. "Worse, Rowena, much worse, Hop Pop is cooking!" Sprig replied. "Brace yourself." "Brace myself for what?" Anne asked as Sprig opened the door and the odor got worse.

Inside, Hop Pop was cooking a dish for a competition. "What's the plan this year, Hop Pop, poison the competition?" Sprig asked. "The plan is to win." Hop Pop said. "Win?" I asked. "The annual village potluck." Hop Pop replied. "Every year we frogs gather for a great contest, the family who brings the best-tasting dish is showered with love and copper coins, the family with the worst tasting dish spends the night in... the shame cage!" "Brutal." Anne said. "And guess which family ends up there every year." Sprig sighed. I looked at Anne, and then back at the Plantar's. "Anne, we gotta help them, they don't deserve to be locked up all night, that's frog abuse!" I explained. "I got an idea." Anne said as she whispered her plan in my ear. Anne bangs her fist on the kitchen table. "If you think we're gonna let our favorite froggy family end up in a cage, you've got another thing coming." I said. "I know neither of us are technically a Plantar, but maybe we can help." Anne added. They all nodded. "Anne, Rowena, we'd sure appreciate it." Sprig said. "So, what you making over there, Sock gumbo?" Anne asked. "No silly, it's a traditional recipe from my family's cook book, we've been using this baby since I was a pollywog." Hop Pop replied. Anne took the cook book from Hop Pop and looked at a few recipes, and let me tell you, they all looked disgusting. "I think I found your problem, guys." I said. The Plantars gasped. "Old things are dumb." Anne said as she slammed the book closed. "But we Plantars have always cooked these recipes, what would my great-gam-gam say?" Hop Pop asked. "She'd say move on." Anne replied. "She was a fierce woman." Hop Pop sighed. "Look, if we're gonna win this thing, we need something new, something revolutionary, something no one in the swamp has ever seen before." I said as Anne pulled out her phone, showing a recipe for pizza. "Something like... Pizza!" Sprig looked amazed by the pizza. "I don't know what it is, but I love it." Polly said. "Pizza is the ultimate dish, you haven't lived until you've shared one with your friends at the mall." Anne explains. "Now, now, hold on, before we get carried away, what about this tried-and-true recipe, swamp mold pot pie?" Hop Pop asked. "Pizza, Pizza!" Sprig and Polly chanted. "We'll win for sure with this, Hop Pop." "All we gotta do is get four ingredients, dough, cheese, basil, and tomatoes." Anne said. "Now are you guys ready to make your pizza dreams a pizza reality?" I asked. "Pizza dreams!" Sprig and Polly exclaimed. "Maybe we could put pineapple in it, seems like a natural fit." Anne picked up Sprig by the neck, almost choking him. "Don't you dare talk about pineapple on my pizza, ever." She whispered. "Okay, let's go get those ingredients." I said.

We headed over to a nearby bakery to get the dough for the pizza. "If you want the dough, the boy has to marry my daughter." The baker said. His daughter looked kinda creepy. She literally had a voodoo doll of Sprig. "Hi, Sprig." She said in a creepy tone. "Ain't she adorable?" asked the baker. "Done." Anne said. "Anne, Sprig is only 10, that's way too young to get married!" I exclaimed. "Well at least it is where Anne and I come from." "You know if we used a traditional recipe, we wouldn't have to sell Sprig." Hop Pop said. "No, that old book is old, Sprig's eternal happiness is a small price to pay for pizza." Anne replied. "Agreed." Polly added. "Aw, it's not so bad, maybe we'll learn to love each other." Sprig said as he jumped by the sight of Maddie behind him. "I've seen your death in my mind." She said. "I was kinda hoping it'd be a surprise." Sprig chuckled. "Congratulations on your new son, now cough up the dough." Anne told the baker. He gave us the dough. "Pleasure doing business with ya." "Looks like we gotta go." Sprig said nervously. "I wanna be the maid of honor!" Polly shouted. "See you soon, hubby." Maddie replied.

We went to Croaker Dairy to get the cheese for our pizza. Anne, Sprig, Polly, Hop Pop, and I were being chased by a giant bug that looked like a cow. "Thanks again for helping me out," Mrs Croaker said, "I know Brutus can be a handful." "What are we here for again?" Sprig asked, still running. "Cheese!" Anne replied as she grabbed a big red leaf and treated Brutus like he was a bull in a fight. Mrs Croaker gave us a thing of cheese. "Here you go, dearie, a hunk of cheese made fresh from the milk of those ca..." "Please don't tell us where that comes from." I interrupted.

We got the basil after many hard fought battles. "Careful with that basil, dude, we had to fight off like ten different aphids to get it." Anne said to Sprig, who picked up the basil. "Who knew ultimate flavor could be so painful." Sprig replied. "Almost lost my behind to those things." Hop Pop added. "This is the price of progress, Hop Pop." Sprig stated. "Exactly, and we only got one ingredient left, tomatoes." I said. "According to this, they should be up ahead." "Still can't believe I traded my favorite dentures for that map." Hop Pop said. "You know, I never actually tasted a tomato." Sprig points out. "No one in town really sells them." "There's a reason for that." Hop Pop explains. "They're in the dangerous vegetable section, it suggests we go for prunes instead." "Whoa, dangerous vegetables, c'mon."Anne scoffs.

"Holy giant tomato." We all gasped at the sight of the tomato monster. "Ya know this book has got some great substitutes." Hop Pop said, slowly backing up with Sprig and Polly. "All of which are delightfully harmless." "Couldn't hurt to hear a few options." Sprig added. I could tell that he was pretty scared, but I don't blame him. "Hold on!" Anne exclaimed. "Guys, the shame cage isn't just in the town square, you're not gonna change the world without taking a few risks." "Girls, there's a big difference between courage and stupidity!" Hop Pop shouts as the monster grabbed him. "Hop Pop!" We all exclaimed as the monster grabbed us too and put us in it's mouth. "My fiancée was right!" Sprig yelled. Down the throat, we were going to be dropped in acid. "Holy smokes, acid!" Hop Pop shouts. "Well, at least the ingredients are safe." Anne said as the ingredients were submerged in the acid. "The ingredients, everything we've worked for!" "At least it'll be a quick, painless death." Sprig adds. "Why would this be painless?" Polly asked." "Just let me have this lie!" Sprig exclaimed. "Our revolutionary ideas were supposed to help you guys, not get you killed." I sighed. "We shouldn't have been so stubborn, we just wanted to share a pizza with you guys." "Ah, I didn't care about that pizza stuff anyway, but you were really trying to help this family out, and that's worth something in my book." Hop Pop said. "Your book, that's it!" Anne exclaimed. "Is there anything in the old ways that could help us right now?" "Well, I don't know, nothing especially useful, just that the throat of this giant tomato plant is absolutely delicious eaten raw." Hop Pop explains, pulling out his book, which gave us the idea of eating the insides. "Know your place, plant!" Polly shouted. Suddenly, a bell started to ring from a distance, it was most likely for the potluck. "There's not much time, let's go home and make one of your old recipes, Hop Pop." I said. "Yup, but maybe we can spruce it up with something a little dangerous." Hop Pop suggests.

Later that night at the potluck, we put on the tomato slice, the finishing touch. "Perfect." Me and Anne sighed in unison. Suddenly, Mayor Toadstool came out of nowhere to judge the competition. Now I know we're going to lose, just because me and Anne live with the Plantar's and are still considered freaks. "Alright, let the annual potluck begin!" He said. "Let's get to tasting those dishes." "I'm so nervous." I said. The mayor was snacking on the other dishes and then there was us. "And last but not least, the Plantar's, what kind of filth have you cooked up this ti..." he groaned, but then he saw the tomato. He tasted the dish and gasped. "Well, I do declare this is the best dish the Plantar Family has ever brought to a potluck!" "What, did we do it?" Sprig asked. "Did we win?" "Win?" Asked Mayor Toadstool. "No, it's better than usual, but it's still terrible, last place as usual, you folks should know your way to the shame cage by now!" "Cheer up guys, sure we came in last again, but thanks to Anne and Rowena's new ideas and Hop Pop's old ones, we've done the best we've ever done." Sprig said. "You know, he's right." Hop Pop added as they entered the cage. "Any chance we could squeeze in there?" Anne asked. The frog operating the cage nodded as we joined the Plantar's. "Well, if we can't share a pizza, at least we can share this." Anne said just as many of the frogs threw what Sprig called shame nuggets at us. "Son of a slug!" Hop Pop yelled. "I said this once before and I'll say it again, this is frog abuse!" I exclaimed.