Ever since Calhoun had moved into the Nicelanders' apartment, she and Felix took to traveling with Ralph each day to visit Vanellope in her home game.
Visiting Sugar Rush had gotten more exciting as days went by. It had started out with them simply watching the Random Roster Race. Felix and Ralph tended to act as Vanellope's cheerleaders. Calhoun always rolled her eyes at their excitement, but Felix noticed she would always smirk proudly when Vanellope came in first.
As the Random Roster Races began to lose their initial joy, Vanellope decided to entertain them in a brand new way. She proposed that the three of them made their own karts.
Ralph immediately protested, claiming he would never be able to fit into one of the "pipsqueak-sized karts of hers". But Vanellope wouldn't take no for an answer, and got her subjects to create a large Ralph-sized kart from scratch.
And once Ralph had a kart, the other two simply couldn't say no to building their own. It would be rude, after all, and Felix wasn't one to be rude! And as for Calhoun, well, being the competitive type that she was, the prospect of racing caused excitement to course through her body.
That's how the three of them ended up with their own personalized karts. Calhoun's hood bore a sharp point, and her entire kart was coated in black icing, topped with some orange gumdrops for good measure. Felix's was blanketed in light blue frosting, covered in an assortment of yellow candies. Plus, his wheels were made of pies! Ralph's was, of course, positively orange, with a handful of red candies. Otherwise, it didn't look very aesthetically appealing; he had cracked the glass of a bunch of other candy-filled glasses once again, accidentally dumping an extraordinary amount of candies upon the kart.
Before they could start racing, Vanellope took it upon herself to teach each of them how to drive. She had started with Calhoun, who wanted to get training over with as quickly as possible. The Sergeant turned out to be an efficient student; she learned quickly and with ease. It only took about two days before she was driving like a pro.
Vanellope moved on to Ralph afterwards, for Felix was anxious about starting to drive, and was struggling to prolong his imminent doom. Ralph took about a week to teach, and he had been in quite a few crashes in the meantime (it was hard for him to balance his weight within the kart), but once he got the hang of it, he was an excellent driver.
When it was finally time for Vanellope to show Felix the ropes, he was a nervous wreck. Learning was a huge struggle for him, for, he would always get really tense and forget to take in his surroundings, and this would cause him to only look straight ahead, which left his flanks and backside vulnerable.
When turning corners, Felix would always make the mistake of speeding up. And when told to stop, he would always begin to panic, and would never stop in time. Sometimes he mixed up the gas and brake pedals, which always ended in the worst crashes. And on top of it all, when panic got the best of him, he would slam too hard on the pedals, which would usually send him tumbling out of the car.
He definitely was the worst student out of the three of them, and after three weeks, he still hadn't made much progress. Vanellope was starting to get tired of it, and was tempted to give up. But upon Calhoun's prompting that learning to drive would be good for him, Vanellope agreed to continue to work at it.
"Okay, let's try something different," Vanellope declared one day as she hopped onto the hood of Felix's race kart. Felix flinched, already on edge just from being behind the wheel.
"You're always too focused on what's in front of ya, so I'm gonna teach you how to turn." She jumped off of Felix's kart and glitched her way into her own, landing smoothly in her seat. She had made sure to park her own kart far enough from Felix's that he would have more time to react.
"So here's what we're gonna do," she continued, "I'm gonna drive on this side of the road," she gestured, sweeping her hand up and down the race track.
Felix nodded, trying not to look too nervous.
"And you're gonna drive towards me. When I say so, you have to turn right. That's it. Got it?"
"I think so," Felix said with a shaky smile. "Er…" He looked at his gloved hands, trying to remember which way was left and which was right. You write with your right hand…oh. "Alright, I'm ready to go!" Felix said.
Vanellope nodded and revved her engine, causing Felix to jump. His heart rate began to speed up uncomfortably, and he fiddled with the wheel anxiously.
Vanellope began to drive her car towards Felix's, moving at a very slow pace. Felix pressed down on a pedal, but nothing seemed to happen. He tried to fight down his rising panic.
"Wrong pedal, small fry!" Vanellope shouted.
Oh, right.
Finally, Felix's kart began to inch forward. All of the car's movements were jerky, and Felix had his hands practically glued to the wheel.
Vanellope rolled her eyes and sped up a little. She was getting kinda tired of this. Besides, usually if she sped up a bit, he did too.
Felix did in fact speed up, but had pushed down on the gas way too hard. And now that he was moving faster, he couldn't seem to remember how to stop. Their karts were growing nearer and nearer, faster and faster. Vanellope relaxed a bit when she saw Felix driving at a more daring pace. Maybe he was finally loosening up.
"All right, Felix," Vanellope called, "Turn!"
Felix couldn't stop. He couldn't think straight; he was afraid to take his eyes off of the road in front of him.
"Felix, you gotta turn!" Vanellope tried again, louder.
This registered just barely in Felix's panicked mind, and he stiffly turned the wheel a tiny bit to the left.
"No, that's the wrong way! Stop! Stop stop stop—"
Felix's kart smashed right into Vanellope's. Both the kid and the fixer were propelled out of their respective karts, tumbling through the air. Vanellope tried to glitch out of Felix's path, but she reacted just a second too late. Felix and Vanellope slammed right into each other, mid-air. They landed in a heap on the race track.
Vanellope looked around dizzily. That doofus… she thought, trying to get her bearings, but the world was spinning. Everything went hazy, then fell dark.