Unplugged

Chapter Fifteen

Vanellope's 'time to shine'! Vanellope will appear more often for the rest of the story because she was jealous of Felix being in A LOT of his own chapters. Actually, I didn't realize how often Felix appears in this story until I actually counted how many chapter's he's in. So, yeah, it's Vanellope's turn.

Vanellope decided to jump into the races at Sugar Rush today after she dropped off Felix at his game. She is super excited to see Ralph tonight. The day seems so long to her, but the arcade is scheduled to close pretty soon. So she tries her best to wait.

Vanellope drifts around a tight turn and shifts gears as soon as the track goes straight again. She picks up speed and is neck-and-neck with Taffyta for first place. The gamer playing Sugar Rush Speedway picked Adorabeezle to be her avatar, but unfortunately, Adorabeezle's in fifth place.

"Should we slow down?" Vanellope yells over the revving engines and wind blowing in her face. Taffyta, whose driving her pink candy kart beside Vanellope's multi-colored one, glances over at Vanellope as Vanellope adds, "We're pretty far ahead."

"We gotta challenge the gamer," Taffyta shouts back over the wind and speeding karts. "We can't make it too easy, you know?"

"Yeah, but--" Vanellope stops hollering so she can focus on a jump coming up ahead. Vanellope speeds up with Taffyta right behind her. The two racers zoom up a cheesecake ramp and over a chocolate powder trench. They land their karts on solid ground and Vanellope continues her conversation with Taffyta. "We're really far ahead from everybody else. We should slow down a little bit."

"Alright," Taffyta shifts gears and she slows her kart down just enough so she and Vanellope don't have to holler back and forth while they talk. Vanellope slows her kart as well.

"Vanellope," Taffyta continues, "I'm not being pushy or anything, but you really flipped out on Candlehead, Rancis, and me the other day. How come?"

Vanellope clutches her pretzel steering wheel until her knuckles turn white. "Fix-It Felix Jr got unplugged--" she says.

"What?!" Taffyta interrupts. She looks at Vanellope, concerned. "But doesn't Wreck-It Ralph live there? That guy you're crushing on?"

"I am not crushing on him!" Vanellope argues. Taffyta just smirks. Vanellope says, "That would be weird, Taffyta. I'm nine years old and Ralph's...like twenty-something, I don't know. I'm too young for him."

"Yeah, but if you two were the same age you would totally be dating him," Taffyta grins.

"Shut up and drive," Vanellope huffs while Taffyta snickers. "Anyway, let me finish. The game did get unplugged, but it just got moved, so Ralph's fine. I really wanna see him tonight."

"That's good," Taffyta comments. She focusses on the track as she speaks. "What would you do if the game never did get plugged back in?"

Vanellope unintentionally slows down her kart and Taffyta shoots past her. Vanellope then slams her foot on the gas pedal to catch up with her friend, and she does.

"I don't know," Vanellope answers. "Felix and I were really upset when we watched the plug getting removed. I guess he and I would've stayed that way for a while." Vanellope shakes her head. "But, everything's okay now. I just really want to see Ralph when the arcade closes."

The finish line is dead ahead, so Vanellope and Taffyta speed up their karts as fast as they can go until they both cross the finish line together. Taffyta slams on the breaks and so does Vanellope until their karts come to a complete stop.

"Let's see how far ahead we were," Taffyta suggests. She looks up at the jumbotron beside the track. She and Vanellope were about two minutes ahead of everyone else in the race.

"Wow," Vanellope says. Soon all the other candy themed racers come dashing down the track and they all cross the checkered finish line. Adorabeezle comes in third. Not bad.

The gamer leaves the Sugar Rush console and just minutes later, an announcement is made:

Attention: the arcade is now closed.

"Yes!" Vanellope whispers to herself and pumps her fist. "I'll see you later, Taff. Okay?"

"Yeah," Taffyta replies. She gives Vanellope a thumbs up and a wink and Vanellope returns it with a cheesy grin. Taffyta approaches Candlehead and starts a conversation with her immediately-well, maybe not conversation. It's probably gossip. Vanellope presses her foot on the gas pedal and makes a turn on the track. She drives to Game Central Station.

"Oh-ho, man. I can't wait any longer," Vanellope says to herself with a wide grin on her face. "I haven't seen him in forever!"

Then she realizes that two days isn't forever. But to her, it feels more like two weeks. She zooms up the rainbow ramp and into the wire that will lead her to Game Central Station. It's true. She can't wait any longer to see Ralph, so she speeds up.

Vanellope zooms out of the cord to her game and she drives through the station at an increasing speed. She's really not suppose to drive this fast in the station because she might run over someone, but she's just too excited. Then her eyes widen.

"LOOK OUT!!" Vanellope screams. She tries to slam on the breaks, but she doesn't react fast enough. She hits a tall woman with enough force to run right over her.

Okay, the reason Taffyta brought up the fact that she thinks Vanellope and Ralph would totally be dating if they were the same age is because I wanted to make a cute inside joke to all the people out there who 'ship' (is that what it's called?) Ralph and an older version of Vanellope. I actually like that pairing.

Ship it like FedEx.  :>