I hope you like the story so far. It was a lot of fun to write.

The next morning Vanellope hears a knock on her bedroom door.

"Come in," she says slowly." Sour Bill opens the candy door and he steps into the room.

"Princess--" he begins but Vanellope interrupts him.

"President," she corrects the green candy person.

"President, the arcade opens in five minutes, you should've been at the main race track with your kart by now."

"I don't wanna race today," Vanellope sits in bed while twiddling with the licorice string on her hoodie.

"But you have to. It's part of the program that every racer is to race whether or not they are on the roster," Sour Bill reminds.

"No one's gonna notice one racer out of fifteen is missing. Come on, Bill, I need a break for once."

Sour Bill nods and walks out of the room, closing the door behind him. Vanellope groans and reluctantly stands up out of bed. Maybe she should race. It could get her mind off of the awful thing that happened yesterday. But, she doesn't want to be around her friends because she knows they're going to ask, 'Why so sad, V?' and 'What's the matter?' and the classic yet simple, 'What's wrong?'

Vanellope doesn't want to answer any of those questions. She exits her bedroom and makes her way to Game Central Station. She doesn't know exactly why she wants to go there right now. She probably just wants to be left alone. If she stays at Sugar Rush, Sour Bill might be checking on her all day. At least he cares.

Once she gets to the big fancy garage at her castle where she keeps the kart she and Ralph made together when she's not using it, Vanellope hops into the kart and sits down on the soft gob seat. She's about to press the green button that starts the kart, but she hesitates.

Vanellope glances down at the right side of her kart and there it is: Ralph's signature in red icing letters right below her own signature in light blue icing. Vanellope traces a finger on the red letters.

R-A-L-P-H

She smiles. That's one thing she has that belongs to Ralph: his signature. She remembers the day she and him signed the kart. That day was the best day of her life.

Vanellope sighs and starts the kart with the push of a button. She zooms out of the garage and out of the castle. She picks up speed quickly and races up the rainbow ramp to Game Central Station.

As she speeds down the tunnel to the station, she realizes something. Felix will be at the station when she gets there if he's not in Hero's Duty. She hopes he'll be there. Then she'll have someone to talk the day away with.

By the time Vanellope arrives at the station, everyone's heading to their games already. The arcade opens very soon. Vanellope parks her candy-coated kart by the steps to the entrance to her game. Then she sits there-silent. She decides to wait until everyone has cleared Game Central Station before she enters. It only takes a minute or so for the station to be empty. Then Vanellope steps out of her kart and walks into the power strip.

Then the surge protector stops her.

"Shouldn't you be in your game?" Surge asks her. "The arcade is about to open, ya know."

"I know," Vanellope answers, stuffing her hands in her hoodie pocket. "I'm not on the roster today so I don't have to race so I'm taking the day off."

"Nobody really does that but there's no rule that says ya can't, so okay..." Surge writes something on his clipboard and then he zaps out of sight. Vanellope sighs in relief.

She makes her way over to a copper bench and she takes a seat. Vanellope looks around. Felix isn't here. She swings her legs back and forth and twiddles her thumbs. It's quiet.

Then something breaks the silence. Vanellope hears quick footsteps echoing in the station. She turns her head to the game Hero's Duty and she grins. There's Felix, just entering Game Central Station. He looks a little off this morning. He has faint dark circles under his eyes and his posture isn't as impressive as it usually is.

"Hi, Felix!" Vanellope calls. She waves her hand wildly at him. Felix glances in her direction and half smiles.

"Hi, Vanellope," he greets once he gets closer to her. Vanellope pats the empty space on the bench beside her and Felix sits down next to her.

"Why do you have dark circles under your eyes? Arcade-game characters can go a couple days without any sleep, right?"

"Yeah..." Felix yawns. He props his elbows on his knees and he rests his head on his gloved hands. "Last night was a little rough. That's all."

"What happened?" Vanellope asks, concerned. A snore is her response. Felix is out.

"Felix!"

"I can fix it!!" he quickly says after immediately sitting up straight. "Wait, what?"

"What happened last night?" Vanellope says a little slower and clearer this time.

Felix blinks.

"A lot happened," he finally answers and he looks away. Vanellope understands some what.

I laughed at my own writing. When Felix sprang up after dozing off and shouted in a startled tone of voice, "I can fix it!!", that just made me grin. :)