Vanellope had made it to Candlehead's house to tell her about her not being able to race. Vanellope breathed in ready to knock on the door, holding her fist for what seemed like minutes in hesitation.

Candlehead clearly had something against her, but what was it, was it because Taffyta was spending less time with her? Was it because she hadn't really spent time with all the racers outside of racing recently?

She tried to shake the feeling off, she needed to do it for Taffyta. She exhaled as she turned away from the door, composing herself for this confrontation...

"You can do this Vanellope, it's gonna be ok.."

She stood up tall, looking out with a spark in her soul, when she noticed Candlehead's kart wasn't parked outside her cottage. Was Candlehead even home?

Vanellope knocked on the door...

No response.

She must have already made her way to the race track.

The race track...with all the other racers there...

The fire quickly went out.

How could she face them all after yesterday? Facing Candlehead alone was a daunting task, she could hurl from the thought of having to face the others.

She wasn't ready for that.

But that didn't matter, she told Taffyta she was gonna tell her. In attempts to keep her promise, she glitched to the race track, as she hid beneath the bleachers to get a better vantage point without exposing her cover.

She could see all the other racers waiting in confusion about today's game play. How in world was she going to confront Candlehead alone...

Like a knight in shining armor, Taffyta rolled through them and created this amazing pixie dust cloud circle around them. She got up on her kart and to make a speech, as she waited for the cloud to disappear. God, she was such a badass...

Vanellope took this as her moment to warn Taffyta that she hadn't been able to talk to Candlehead.

She glitched over to Taffyta and whispered in her ear, nearly scaring the girl to death.

"Candlehead doesn't know she isn't racing, she wasn't at home and everyone is here..."

Taffyta nodded in understanding, motioning her to go back as the cloud of dust was going away.

Vanellope glitched back to under the bleachers as she watched Taffyta explain what would be happening.

She couldn't hear everything, but got some major parts of the speech, Citrusella's praise and Candlehead's confession and losing her privilege to race today.

"Serves her right," Vanellope thought.

And that's when she saw it, the same look she had been tormented with for so many years, the judgmental eyes of her peers staring at their next target.

Candlehead nearly in tears, drove off.

Vanellope instinctively followed.

Candlehead was frazzled, how could Taffyta be so cruel? How could the other racers so quickly turn their disgust of Vanellope into unbridled rage and disgust towards her.

It was torture, knowing that Taffyta must be so disappointed in her, but how could Taffyta even be gay? And it just had to be for their game's princess.

Figured Taffyta would only be worthy of being with royalty...Taffyta's declaration at Tapper's rang through her head once more.

'...I LOVE HER TOO!.'

She winced in pain. "Disgusting."

but wait...

Were they actually dating?

Swizzle had mentioned it at Tapper's, but it's not like he would actually know right? He probably was just making his general observations...but he usually wasn't wrong about his gut feelings.

Oh god they were dating weren't they?

Taffyta already knew Vanellope was gay for her, for a long time I bet.

She sighed.

She felt like an idiot. She should have just talked to Taffyta, she let her jealousy get the best of her...she just felt like she was losing her best friend, and this was the perfect way to get her back since Vanellope had upset her 2 nights ago...

Wait, how long?

Taffyta had always been in the spotlight, was it because of Vanellope's help?

No, Taffyta was a great racer, but she always got extra special privileges from Vanellope.

She was the only one who knew how to start races and change leaderboards without hacking the system...

Why had she not realized this before?

Just how long has this been happening?

Tears rushed down her face.

She felt so stupid.

Taffyta was angry at her, but all Candlehead could feel was anger towards being deceived and the frustration that Vanellope had played favorites for far too long.

And with those thoughts she made it home in record speed.

She hopped out of her kart, trying to wipe her tears as she walk to her door.

"Candlehead?"

That annoyingly squeaky voice pierced her ears, she turned around to see her.

"Are you okay?" Vanellope walked up towards her.

Candlehead was furious, she thinks she can come here and rub salt in the wound...

"Did you follow me?! Leave me alone you freak!"

"Candlehead, can we just talk?" Vanellope motioned.

"Why do you even care? You pulled me from the race!" Candleheads hands were balled into fists.

"To be fair, it was technically Taffyta's idea to pull you from the race." Vanellope casually mentioned

Candlehead's jaw dropped, she quickly pursed her lips to hold back the tears, and her fists tightened. Add that to the list of things that Taffyta had done to her in the past 24 hours.

"Well, whatever! You got what you wanted anyway!" She folded her arms.

"You think THIS is what I wanted." Vanellope looked distraught.

"Really? You expect me to believe that you didn't want me pulled from the race?" Candlehead scoffed.

"Well I'm not gonna lie and say you didn't deserve some form of karmic retribution for your little stunt you pulled, but this isn't how things were supposed to come out...how we were supposed to come out." Vanellope looked down embarrassed.

Candlehead winced, so it was true.

"Did you really look at security footage from the race?"

"No, "

Candlehead was more confused.

"Then how..."

"Taffyta is extremely perceiving to things, she kinda knows when her best friend is hiding something from her." Vanellope pointed out.

"Figures...wait..." Candlehead realized. She looked down in sadness "No, I'm not her best friend, you are...clearly."

"Candlehead, Taffyta can have more than one best friend..."

"I know, it's just you are..." She groaned, "You don't get it!"

Candlehead walked back to her door as she opened it to enter.

"Wait Candlehead, please just listen, I think we can talk about this..." Vanellope said as she rushed while following her.

"You are the last person I want to talk to right now!" Candlehead yelled, as she stared down at Vanellope from her stoop infront of the door.

"Candlehead, I know you must be upset..." Vanellope tried to get her to listen.

"Don't speak for me,you have no idea how I feel right now!" Candlehead shouted as she slammed her door on Vanellope's face.

Candlehead was furious, how was Vanellope even going to make things better? It's her fault this all happened.