Filling in the Empty Spots
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Chapter 1: The State of Things
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Jubileena lay in the field of red-twist licorice grass, the tall stems stretching above her head and swaying slightly in the breezes that tumbled down from the Snowcone mountains. The glistening high peaks of rainbow colored ice enclosed the valley on the north side. Even higher overhead pink cotton-candy clouds floated peacefully through the sky. Butterflies with glassy wings of hard-candy fluttered past now and then.
She would lie there for hours, ignoring the occasional sound of kart engines in the distance. The days when she didn't make the top nine racers seemed to be spent more and more like this, lying alone, listening to the wind rustle the thick bright red grass and parade the clouds overhead.
No one ever knew she went there. Her kart was always perfectly hidden in a hollow away from the road. After parking it she would change into her formal gown and comb out her hair, and then lie in the grass waiting.
Waiting for him...
Waiting for hours...waiting for days...waiting for weeks...
Waiting for someone who would never come...
At least she could dream.
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The cheering of the crowds never ceased. Princess Vanellope von Schweetz tossed her coin into the huge trophy-shaped receptacle amidst the smiles of her loyal subjects and her name took its place at the top of the roster. Everything was as it should be.
The princess flitted down the stairs from the royal grandstand and glitched out of her fluffy pink gown and into her racing suit in a burst of red crystal sugar. It still seemed odd to Ralph, who still expected to see the blocky bluish pixels, the visible manifestation of what Vanellope had always called pixslexia, damage that had been caused by Turbo's interference with her Code.
Ralph found his eyes filling with tears, and he tried to hold them back. Quickly he grabbed his huge hankie and dabbed at his eyes.
The princess made her way to her large sparkling kart, appearing just like she did on the outside of the Sugar Rush cabinet. And on reaching the royal kart, she noticed Ralph sitting at the foot of one of the grandstands, and she waved at him.
Ralph managed a smile and waved back. The princess always had a wave or a little curtsey for him, and an unspoken fondness for the lumpy giant with sad eyes who came over from his game most nights to watch the Random Roster Race. Sometimes the other racers would talk to him, but never for very long. She kept meaning to chat with him herself sometime. But he never hung around after the race, and never after she crossed the finish line. After watching politely... quietly... he always left in a different direction every night, presumably to wander the kingdom alone. The other racers often reported seeing him all over the world, sometimes with a compass in one hand, sometimes with a map he appeared to be drawing, sometimes with a sketchbook he was scribbling notes into.
The Princess hopped into her kart and started the engine. It was going to be another fabulous race.
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Filling in the Empty Spots continues in:
Chapter 2: The Cherry Girl
Chapter 3: The Ice Cave
Chapter 4: Soda Water Shores
Chapter 5: Pie, Performance, and Pleasantries
Chapter 6: A Painful Anniversary
Chapter 7: Changes
Chapter 8: Breakdown
Chapter 9: Little Cabin in the Woods
Chapter 10: Back to the Meadow
Chapter 11: The Spring Solstice Ball
Chapter 12: The President's Legacy
Chapter 13: A Heavy Crown
Chapter 14: The Final Secret
Chapter 15: Filling in the Empty Spots Commentary
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Wreck-It Ralph and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Walt Disney Pictures. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.