AN: So here's this overdue chapter. I realize that I took WAAAAAYYY too long to get this up, but, I've been sort of really busy in real life, I guess. Either way, I didn't stop doing fanfiction, I've just had less time. I'm sorry this took so long, but, it's here now, soo…yeah.

Rancis wiped his hands off on his jacket after doing some minor checks on his kart. It was just after closing, and Taffyta was pretty much already asleep at the wheel.

Vanellope was also checking her kart, as were most of the others. The only ones he could see that weren't were Taffyta and Swizzle.

Uh oh.

Swizzle was making his way over to the sleepy Taffyta, who was on her way to Jubileena's house, he was pretty sure.

Rancis strained to listen to what Swizzle was about to say. He didn't want repeats of yesterday. "…So how'd it go with the president yesterday?"

'And here we go…' He groaned inwardly, looking up and hoping that Swizzle at least had the sense to not make a big scene.

Taffyta yawned. "It was fun, we stayed up kinda late and I'm tired, but, she's pretty cool to hang out with. I don't see why I was worried earlier." She thought for a second and turned to face Swizzle more directly. "She doesn't really know much about sleepovers or games or even some things that seem like common sense, but I think she'll catch on pretty quick. I liked hanging out with her. But, right about now, I'd like even more to get some sleep…." Taffyta added as an afterthought.

"Goodnight…" She yawned, and headed off for Juby's house again.

'Yes! I knew Taff would be friends with her! I gotta go tell her 'I told you so' when I get the chance.' Rancis thought excitedly, fist pumping for a moment before noticing that Swizzle was now headed directly for Vanellope.

"Not good, not good…" He repeated to himself under his breath as he tried to get there before Swizzle could.

"Hey, Vanellope!" Too late. Swizzle shouted for Vanellope's attention, which she gave, looking up and turning to face Swizzle from where she was standing.

"What's up, Swizzle?" She asked curiously, oblivious to the fact that it wasn't a friendly shout out from him.

"I'm calling you out, that's what! I don't trust you, and I think you did something to Rancis and Taff to make them like you." Swizzle glared, and Rancis facepalmed , and Vanellope just looked confused.

'Is that….is it just me, or does she look like she's about to smile?' Rancis squinted at Vanellope in confusion after moving his hand, wondering if his eyes were deceiving him. Getting called out in front of all of her subjects wasn't really something to smile about, was it?

"Hey, what are we doing now?" Candlehead came up behind Swizzle, peeking over his shoulder to see what the fuss was all about. "Oh, hi Vanellope! I bet you had a fun sleepover right?"

"Candle, you agree with me, right?" Swizzle asked confidently, turning to face the birthday-cupcake themed racer.

Candlehead tilted her head in confusion. "Umm…what?"

"Do you trust the president, I mean?" Swizzle asked urgently, now noticing that a crowd was drawing.

"Of course!" Candlehead chimed happily, then glanced up at her candle. "Do you guys think that the fire I set off over there will spread?" Minty grabbed Candlehead by the wrist and pulled her over to wherever she had set the fire, to go put it out. They left unnoticed by everyone else, the others were all watching intently to see how the situation panned out.

The suspicious ones rooted for Swizzle, the few that trusted Vanellope rooted for her, and the fence-sitters just watched for anything to help them make up their mind.

Swizzle huffed irritably and turned back to face Vanellope, who was simply raising an eyebrow at the turn of events.

"Well, this is turning out well for you, isn't it?" She commented sarcastically, setting a hand on her hip and allowing her racing goggles to dangle from the other. She still retained that almost-smile, a daunting reminder that she had the upper hand over Swizzle.

Swizzle gulped, before gathering his bravado up again. Rancis was now questioning how she was managing to get the most foolhardy racer in the game to have to stop and think about whether he should go on or not.

"I still don't trust you." Swizzle growled at her, crossing his arms.

"And I never said you had to." She shrugged, relaxed as ever. "If you don't trust me, that's your opinion, but right now I've got to be somewhere, since I promised I would show today."

Swizzle gaped at being brushed off just like that. Rancis was about to laugh.

"Wait, so, you aren't even going to try and prove me wrong?!" Swizzle exclaimed, half-challenging and half-asking. He looked frantic for an argument, and he was losing his cool.

"I don't need to. Nobody's backing you up. Face it, if you can't give one good case, this isn't worth everyone's time. Give me one example, one example of a time I've given you a reason not to trust me since I became the president, and maybe then I'll prove you wrong." She said, almost mockingly calm, before turning around and beginning to walk towards the exit. "But hey, no need to worry about it. After all, if you dislike me so much, surely you'll be able to give tons of evidence, right here and right now, with people who completely agree with you?" She added with a smirk, turning around once again.

Swizzle just gaped once again, unable to find evidence.

"Huh, well lookie here, all talk and nothing to back it up. I'd say it's surprising, but it really isn't, soo… I'm outta here." Vanellope slipped her goggles into her pocket, and walked off, leaving Swizzle to wonder what just happened, along with the other racers, and giving Rancis time to catch up to Vanellope while they all stood around.

"How'd you even handle him like that?" Rancis asked, glancing back at the still-gaping Swizzle. "Even I couldn't get him to shut up that quickly earlier, and I've known him for his, and my, whole life."

"I didn't realize it was such a feat." Vanellope scoffed sarcastically, looking back at Swizzle for a moment and rolling her eyes disdainfully.

"That guy is just one more person who's got it out for me. I don't care if he tells me what he thinks, because he doesn't think. Ever. If everyone says the same thing, it loses it's meaning, like saying a word over and over again." She continued, staring directly ahead of herself.

She turned to face Rancis curiously. "Has he tried that before? You said couldn't and earlier."

"We had a similar conversation, yesterday. I thought he'd drop it after I nailed him in the face with a dodge ball, but, I guess not…" He trailed off sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing to the side.

"You decked him in the face with a dodge ball?" She repeated, grinning ear to ear.

"Only a little.." He looked up to the side and pretended to be innocent.

"High five!" She laughed, holding her hand out. He smiled and high-fived.

"You know, we only have four fingers.." He commented afterwards, and she stuck her tongue out in response. "Well that's still what it's called." She argued.

He rolled his eyes and looked over to the exit, which they were walking towards. "So, where are you going?"

"Ralph's place. I didn't go see him after closing yesterday, poor guy almost knocked my door down." She snickered, suppressing giggles. "You'd think that a big, tough guy like him wouldn't be so worried about me, but I guess we can all be proved wrong, huh?"

"Yeah." Rancis agreed, before asking one more question. "But, really, how did you manage to handle Swizz like that? You didn't even look angry. You made it look like he barely had your attention, and left him gaping in a matter of minutes."

"Well, there's a certain way to handle everything. I had to get him to stop talking, but at the same time I didn't want to look completely defensive or react as if he'd committed treason, or something dumb like that. If I acted upset, the other racers would think I'm running a strict government, but in reality, I don't actually do anything other than check up on the code room with Felix now and then, since apparently it's my job to know all that stuff." Vanellope admitted, before continuing, "Honestly, I just want to be friends without all of this constant drama and fighting." She explained, before motioning over to the crowd of racers over by the tracks.

"Maybe we won't all hang out, but for as long as people are still arguing over whether or not I'm 'the president' or 'the glitch', the game will be a mess. We at least need to fix that, it could mess up other friendships, you know? I really do want to be friends with everyone. It just sounds like it would be nice, being on good terms with everyone in my game, being able to talk after the races, or before them. And I think it would give everybody some peace, if most of you feel the way Taffyta did." Vanellope finished, before turning to Rancis. "That's probably the best I can put it into words, anyways. I should get going to go see Ralph now. See you later!"

Rancis thought for a moment. He had a plan, about what to do about the other racers. 'Maybe…I could look for some of those fence sitters and ask them….' He thought to himself. He hadn't quite registered that she had said goodbye.

"I think I have an idea of something I could do, actually. I mean, about the other racers." Rancis mused, before snapping his fingers. "Yeah, it'll work!"

"Err, alright…." Vanellope trailed off. "Like I said earlier, see you later." She turned and headed for the exit.

"See you later!" Rancis waved after her, before rushing back down towards Swizzle and the others, who were still standing around. Minty and Candlehead had returned.

Swizzle turned around to face him with a bitter expression. "I will prove it, just watch." He grumbled, before hopping into his kart and driving off in a hurry.

Rancis rolled his eyes and looked at the remaining racers.

"…So, just for the sake of knowing, I have to ask….does anyone here share Swizzle's opinion?" He spoke up after a moment's silence. "A show of hands, maybe?"

Jubileena, Sticky, Crumbelina, Torvald, Nougetsia, and Citrusella first raised their hands, and then, reluctant-looking, the cops did as well.

'That's more than I thought there would be…' Rancis thought, almost ashamed that he'd been off the mark with the number he'd guessed there would be.

"And, how many of you can't decide?" He asked, looking at the rest of them.

Minty, Snowanna, and Adorabeezle raised their hands. "I'd love to say I knew exactly what side to be on here …on one hand, most of these rumors going around are ridiculous to say the least, and others have already been proven wrong….but on the other hand, we don't really know anything about her, so they could just as well be true." Minty said with a shrug, and the other two nodded.

Candlehead still hadn't raised her hand, but at that point it was a bit obvious what opinion she had. Gloyd was just muttering something under his breath about Swizzle.

"Would you be willing to, you know, give her a chance?" Rancis prodded, trying to move the conversation along to a point he would find useful information.

"It's only fair." Adorabeezle reasoned, weighing the options. "It'd be mean not to."

"Well then why are we still sitting here talking about it?" Snowanna interrupted, getting her friends' attention. "No excuses, let's all see if we can talk to her sometime this week. We've been fussing about it too long anyways."

"Can't argue with that." Minty shrugged, while Rancis watched the three wander off towards the town square.

'Did they forget I was here, or…?' He thought, mildly confused at whatever had just gone down.

"Thanks for the idea, Fluggerbutter!" Adorabeezle shouted back to him at the last minute.

"Well, that answers that question." He mumbled aloud, before shrugging and heading towards his house to relax a bit.

"Hey, what about us?!" Crumbelina shouted after him, bringing his attention to the others.

He shrugged once more. "I don't know, that's your business. I asked for a show of hands, not your schedule." And with that, he continued towards his house.

(POV shift)

Candlehead giggled and waved bye to Rancis. Gloyd was still standing around, so she decided to ask him what he was doing.

"Me? I guess the same old stuff I'm always doing. Pranks and tricks. Maybe I'll sneak in a little time to pull an extra special prank on some unlucky person." He shrugged, and started off towards his house. Candle just followed him.

"Do you think we could hang out with Rancis today? Taff's busy sleeping, but the three of us could have fun still, right?" She suggested.

"Sure, I guess. Let's go see what he's up to though. He might be busy." Gloyd replied, and started to lead the two over to the direction Rancis had gone off to.

"Hey, you got time for us?" He greeted lazily as the two came up behind Rancis.

"Hi again!" Candlehead chirruped, as if she hadn't just seen him less than three minutes ago.

"Hey guys. I was just headed back home for something, do you want to tag along? Maybe we can go get a root beer or something after. My treat." Rancis offered, and pointed with a thumb towards his house.

"Sounds like a plan." Gloyd laughed before adding, "Especially because you're paying."

Rancis rolled his eyes. "Figures that that's the part that gets you on board with the plan."

"What are you getting from your house?" Candlehead inquired, making her way back into the conversation.

"Hmm? I was going to grab a ball." He replied as they came up to his house. "Now I'm just going to grab some coins for the root beers. Are we going to Tappers or somewhere else?"

"Haven't been there before, so why not?"

"Sure!"

"I guess it's agreed then. Let's go." Rancis grabbed a few coins off his table inside and the three walked up to the GCS.

(Breakline/transition)

"Wow Rancis, you weren't kidding when you said this root beer was the best!"

The three kids were sitting at a table, standing on the chairs to see over them and to reach their root beer easily.

"I know, right?" Rancis grinned and took another sip of his.

"Hey, talk about coincidences. Isn't that Vanellope's friend over there? Ralph?" Gloyd pointed out, motioning across the room to the wrecker.

"Oh, yeah, it is! Hi mister Ralph!" Candlehead called across the room, waving.

Ralph looked up from his drink over to the group of kids.

"Candle…." Rancis groaned, as Ralph stood up from his table.

"Get over it, sissy-boy." Gloyd snickered, and hopped down from his chair to greet the large man with Candlehead.

Rancis nodded meekly and followed, staying behind the other two racers.

"Uh, hi. Did you need something, or..?" Ralph trailed off awkwardly as Candlehead shook her head.

"I just wanted to say hi! And thanks for everything!" She told him enthusiastically, not noticing how Rancis was shrinking back and Gloyd was starting to look embarrassed by her.

"I mean, you fixed the whole game, mister Ralph! That's really cool, and you also sorta indirectly had us meet Vanellope, and-" Gloyd stepped in to cut her off.

"What she means to say is thanks for bothering to fix our game. I know it happened a few weeks ago, but she's trying to give you a proper thank you, right Candlehead?"

Candlehead nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Thank you!"

"Umm…no problem, I guess? You two sure are outgoing." Ralph remarked, glancing down at the two racers in front of the suddenly-shy Rancis.

"I get told that a lot!" Candlehead giggled, and suddenly became interested in playing with her hair and got distracted.

"Errr….I'm just going to go ahead and get back to my table."

"Candlehead," Gloyd sighed once Ralph had left, "You really need to have better timing with that kind of stuff."

"I thought that was great timing!" She protested, as they all got back to their root beers. "I mean, we were both here, right?"

"Good point. Besides, I think we have more things to worry about with the wimp over here. Rancis, what was that all about?" Gloyd changed the subject to Rancis, who was nervously downing the rest of his drink.

"What was what all about?" Rancis laughed nervously.

Gloyd deadpanned. "Dude. You're scared of him, aren't you?"

"What? No." Rancis looked away, pretending to be offended as he finished off his root beer.

"Crud…" He muttered, before putting his glass back on the table.

"You're so scared of him, your expression just proves it. What's the big deal?" Gloyd snickered, laughing at his flustered friend. "You worried he's going to step on you or something?"

"No, it's just…gah, I don't know, he just scares me." Rancis whined, as Gloyd rolled his eyes.

"Better get used to it, wuss. He's going to be around a lot, especially if you're still going full force with the whole aftermath cleanup whatever thing with the president. Once he's done helping out in his game, those two are going to be practically glued to each other's sides, I'm calling it." Gloyd informed Rancis, who looked like he wanted to sink into the floor.

"Guys, I think that this was supposed to be fun! We came here for root beer, not arguing! And besides, it isn't really a problem." Candlehead tried to reason with them, motioning to her root beer.

"It's not a problem for you, Candle. You like everybody. I'm pretty sure you don't know how to be intimidated." Rancis argued.

"I do too! It's about ignoring that, though. I'm good at it." She replied, before sliding her half-empty root beer over to Rancis. "You can have the rest, if you'll cheer up."

"Thanks, Candle." He dropped the issue, and Gloyd seemed to do so as well.

"Hey, you guys. Don't you think it's weird how Ralph is here but Vanellope's not? Didn't she go to visit him earlier?" Gloyd asked, glancing back over at Ralph's table as if to double check.

"She's probably talking to someone else, she's also friends with the soldier lady and the guy who wears all the blue." Rancis shrugged.

"You mean Sergeant Calhoun and Felix?" Gloyd replied curiously.

"How'd you know their names?" Candlehead interrupted the boys' conversation.

"Well, Felix has a name tag, and he's standing over there. As for the other name, I've heard soldiers whining about her training since we got here." Gloyd motioned over to Felix, who had taken a seat next to Ralph, and then over to a group of Hero's Duty soldiers nursing bruises and muttering under their breath.

"Oh."

"Whatever, I guess that means that Felix is out, regardless, so she's hanging out with Calhoun. Who still scares me. But, she's married to him, isn't she? So where is she at?" Gloyd asked again, scanning Tappers for the tall blonde.

"Actually, they aren't married yet, Gloyd. They're dating." Rancis corrected the orange-clad boy.

"Isn't that the same thing? Both of them involve him being her husband, right?" He argued.

"No, right now he's her boyfriend."

"Oh. Well, whatever. We've determined that she isn't here and neither is the prez, but their other friends are, so that's that. We're all done with our root beer, so let's just scat before Calhoun shows up and beats the snot out of me." Gloyd hurriedly finished off his drink, eager to get out of the game.

"Sheesh, you're so nervous." Rancis laughed. "You're still afraid she's going to get revenge on you for that prank?"

"Actually, yeah, I am. So can we just leave before-"

"Going somewhere, Orangeboar?"

All three looked up to see the soldier glancing down at the mentioned.

"Heh, yeah, I have, a-a thing, so I'll just be going, r-right about n-now…." Gloyd stammered, before rushing out of Tappers at full speed.

Calhoun laughed and sat down in his seat. "Works every time."

"Hi!" Candlehead greeted cheerfully, waving to Calhoun. "How'd you know he was so scared of you?"

"Not much of a mystery, there." Calhoun rolled her eyes. "Anyways, I'm glad to see you took some initiative with the whole ordeal after I gave you that little nudge."

"No offense, but that was a shove. We really couldn't put it off any longer after that talk…" Rancis said nervously, looking off to the side sheepishly.

"Same thing." Calhoun shrugged, looking over her shoulder to check on Felix.

"Hey, so, if Vanellope's not with you, or with Felix and Ralph…where'd she go?" Rancis asked curiously, wondering if she was perhaps hanging out with the other bad guys he'd met earlier.

"What? She's here. I saw her with Wreck-it earlier. Why wouldn't she be here?" Calhoun replied motioning Felix over to them.

"Yes, Tammy? Do you need something?" He asked amiably as he came over to them, twirling his hammer.

"Isn't the cavity with you two?"

"Huh? No, Vanellope told Ralph and I that she was going to hang out with you, dear." Felix informed her putting his hammer back in its belt when he saw it wouldn't be needed.

"Well isn't this a pretty pickle…." Calhoun muttered, standing up from the seat she'd taken.

"Is there a problem? You don't think..?" Felix trailed off as Calhoun pulled out a radio.

"Markowski. Has anyone entered the game since I left?"

"You left?!"

"You were sleeping off a hangover again, weren't you? I oughta skin your sorry hide when I get back there…." Calhoun growled into the radio, before promptly turning it off.

"Fix it, wreck it! We've got a kid to find, move out!"

Felix quickly saluted his girlfriend and stood behind her, as Ralph ambled over from the other side of the bar.

"What, she's not with you?" He asked, brows furrowed. "Wouldn't that mean she went off to your game….without….." He trailed off before cursing loudly and rushing out the door.

Shouting from another part of Tappers was soon heard. "I was using the bathroom, nimrod! Get back here!" Vanellope rushed through the bar after him.

Tappers was silent for a while, before someone ordered a drink as if it wasn't weird.

"Does that….happen a lot?" Rancis asked awkwardly, as Calhoun just facepalmed and radioed in for her guards to stop Ralph and tell him the new intel.

"Not really," Felix started in explanation. "But there are a few…mix-ups, like this." He said sheepishly. "I probably should have noticed that she went to the wrong side of Tappers to be leaving."

"It doesn't matter anymore, regardless. Anyways, I was thinking when this is resolved, we could head over to your apartment…." Calhoun and Felix exchanged glances, and Felix blushed.

"That sounds wonderful, Tammy. We should go help out so it's done sooner." Felix suggested, starting towards the door. Calhoun followed and began talking about what they should do with the rest of their evening.

Which left Candlehead and Rancis in Tappers.

"Did that just happen?" Rancis asked after a moment.

"Yeah, it happened." Candlehead replied bluntly, before stifling a laugh.

"I just realized…" She giggled, "That they forgot to pay for their drinks."

Still stifling laughter, Candlehead moved over towards Ralph and Felix's seats and left some coins.

"I can't believe they all forgot." Rancis laughed, before pausing to think. "Hey, where do you think Gloyd got off too?"

"I don't know. Home?" Candlehead suggested with a shrug.

"I guess. Speaking of which, it's getting late. We should probably go home too." Rancis decided, and started towards the door. Candlehead laughed at him and stayed put.

"What's so fun- oh. I forgot to….." He sheepishly walked back in to Tappers and paid for the root beers. "Sorry! How'd you end up remembering this stuff, anyways?"

"Taffyta always forgets to do stuff when she's in a rush, so I'll usually have to remind her. It's sorta a habit I have now to remind people of stuff like this!" She explained cheerfully. "If I remember, anyways…"

"Huh. I didn't know that." Rancis replied, as they started back towards Sugar Rush. "I guess you learn something new every day."

"Yeah, I guess so."

AN: I have this headcannon thing and Candlehead is like that one person in the group of friends that reminds everybody else who's in too much of a rush to notice that they're forgetting other things. It may seem a bit out of character but I thought it would be cute or funny to include. Thank you for reading!