She was a beautiful baby. She had teeny, tiny skeleton fingers that she had balled into a little fist under the blanket Dr. Finklestein had wrapped her in before giving her to Sally. Jack put his arm around Sally and looked at his beautiful new baby girl as she opened her tiny mouth and made a quiet, sweet sounding squeaking sound. She'd been crying before, screaming her little baby head off, until Sally had soothed her enough to calm her down.
Together, Sally and Jack decided to sneak the baby back home and announce her birth the next day. There was no need to call everyone together so suddenly, and they didn't want to make the baby cry again. So, under cover of the newly fallen night, they made their way back home and welcomed Anna into her new life as the pumpkin princess. When they got her home, she had one of her fists in her mouth and still hadn't opened her eyes.
Jack wrapped his arms around Sally's waist and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I love you Sally,"
She turned around with a smile on her face so she could stand on her tip-toes and kiss him on the mouth.
"I love you too Jack," She said. "I always have, and always will." Jack smiled and held her face in his hands, leaning in to give her a soft kiss on her lips. When they pulled apart, Sally smiled in the shy and girlish way she used to before they started dating. Before Jack took any real notice of her at all. But when he took that moment to look into her beautiful eyes and down at his precious baby girl in her arms, he realized how much he could've missed out on if he'd gone on thinking they were just friends.
Just thinking about being without his wife and daughter made him give Sally a hug. He kissed the top of her head, trying to convince himself that everything was real and that he wasn't just dreaming.
After a moment of comfortable silence in Jack's arms, Anna yawned, a small and Squeaky yawn, making both of her parents smile. "I should probably go put Anna to bed. Shouldn't I?" He nodded and watched her walk away towards the nursery with Anna curled up in her arms.
Sally gently laid Anna down in her crib and pulled the tiny baby blanket-- that happened to be about the size of a dish-rag-- up to her little shoulders. She took a moment to watch Anna sleep, leaning her elbow on the cold iron crib and resting her chin in her palm. Her baby was beautiful, she never before understood how a mother could be so vain to think their own child was the prettiest in the world, but as she watched little Anna curl her tiny skeletal fist and put it in her mouth with her eyes closed, she understood.
Jack came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his head on the top of her's and watching their precious child with her. Sally smiled and whispered,
"She's beautiful,"
"Just like her momma," He whispered back, kissing the top of her head. "Come on, we should probably get to bed. We're going to have a big day of showing our baby." she softly laughed and nodded. Holding onto Jack's hand, they both went into the master bedroom and went to bed. The next day really would be a big one, esspecially when they get pulled left and right by the towns people, each of them demanding to see the baby.
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The three pranksters heard about the town meeting, and decided to do something out of the ordinary and join in. Lock had brought three whoopee cushions to prank the old witches. He'd been planning to pull a prank on them for a while, but never really got around to it. There wasn't really anything specific that kept him from doing it, just laziness really.
Shock and Barrel found a place near the back for them to hide while Lock went and tried to position the whoopee cushions just right so he'd get the witches. To be fair, he would've been happy with whoever he managed to trick, but he hadn't pulled anything on the witches in a while and he figured they were overdue.
As the meeting hall started filling with people, Lock hurried back to join Shock and Barrel in the back. He felt a small light of satisfaction inside his chest when he heard the whoopie cushion noise and the witchs' agitated groans. He did so love playing pranks, and loved it even more when his victims got embarrased in front of the whole town. It was like icing on a cake.
Jack walked up to the podium and called everyone's attention. None of the trio was surprised that Jack was the one who called the meeting, he usually called most of them. They were even a little bit tempted to try and pull something on him while he was standing in front of the whole town, but decided unanimously that it would be a bad idea. Jack outranked them in the hearts of the townspeople, if anything came of pulling a prank on him it would probably be their own demise. So they didn't do anything, they just hid in the back and listened to what he had to say.
"Listen everyone!" He said enthusiastically, almost magically making everyone stop talking and look at him. "I have some wonderful news! Last night Sally and I were blessed with the birth of a beautiful baby girl, and we named her Anna!"
The town erupted into applause and cheering while Lock, Shock, and Barrel just looked at eachother in awed amazement. They knew Sally was expecting a baby, but they thought Oogie would've made them go after her during the late stages of her pregnancy so Jack would get a taste of being a father and then have the baby taken away. But when they saw Sally walk over to Jack from behind the stage holding a giggling baby in her arms, they knew he wasn't lying.
Everyone got out of their seats to try and see the new baby, but Lock, Shock, and Barrel stayed in the corner just looking at each other. In silence, they all three decided to slip out of the meeting hall as unnoticed as they could. This was made very easy while everyone was preoccupied with cooing and making faces at the new baby, who seemed entertained by the attention.
"What's Oogie waiting for?" Shock asked exasperatedly, crossing her arms across her chest.
"He's probably got something in mind," Lock said, leaning on a light post. Shock, agitated at everything at this point, sat down with her back against the side of the meeting hall stairs. The trio sat in silence for a moment, the whistling of the afternoon wind as it pushed away some leaves being the only sound in the square. But then, something clicked inside Shock's head, and a smile peeled across her face.
"What're you thinking?" Barrel asked uneasily. He looked over at Lock, who was looking at him uneasily. They both knew Shock had come up with a plan, and were almost afraid of what it was.
"I've got an idea, and you two are going to help me."
"But Oogie--" Barrel started, but Shock interrupted him.
"Oogie's never going to do anything! If we want to mess with Jack, we're going to need to take the initiative here. So here's what I'm thinking..."
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A/N Below:
[b]xD some cliff hanger huh? I hope I've got your attention for the next chapter!
I was actually going to put her plan in the end of this chapter, but then decided I didn't have enough stuff for the next chapter so...here we are. [/b]
