It was a sunny day in the arcade known as Litwak's Family Fun Center. The games had their usual off season and were free to do whatever they want.
Inside the game world of the game called Sugar Rush Raceway, a couple of teenagers, looking to be around 15 years old, were walking around the town square. One was a girl with long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, brown eyes, and she wore a pink shirt with a picture of a pony on it, a blue hoodie, a brown skirt, and black boots. She also wore a heart shaped necklace and large red earrings. Next to her was a boy around her age with neat black hair, brown eyes, and fair skin. He wore a brown jacket with a black shirt underneath it, denim jeans, black boots, a cowboy hat, and a holster on his belt.
The boy turned to the girl and said, "Ain't it just a lovely day, Lucy?"
Lucy turned to him and said, "Yeah, I guess it is." She looked around the town square, looking calm and happy. It had been a long time since she actually felt glad like this. She often had a notorious reputation for having bad luck. Wherever she went, something always went wrong. But ever since she met Gummy, it seemed that those times have significantly improved. She looked at him, thinking about how she'd been feeling recently. She and Gummy had been bonding a lot these past few weeks. She usually went with her friends at their favorite spot, or just went home to do her own things. However, with Gummy around, she didn't care much about that. As long as she was with him, she was at ease.
"H-Hey Gummy," she said.
"Yeah?" he said, his head turning to face her.
"Mind if I ask you something?" the blonde said, feeling nervous.
"Go for it."
"W-Well... How long has it been since we started hanging out with each other?"
Gummy put a hand on his chin and thought about the question. "Hmm... I ain't all that sure. Maybe a couple of months?"
Lucy nodded. "And when did we first meet?"
Gummy thought again, but this time, the memory was a bit hazy. "I dunno. I think it was when you hit your head during P.E. class or somethin'. I carried you to the school nurse until you woke up an hour later. You were blushin' like crazy when you did." He began to chuckle at the memory. "Boy I'll tell ya, you were redder than Jubileena's hat on a hot Friday."
The princess remembered now. It was pretty embarrassing for her too.
It happened almost a year ago at school. During P.E. class, she was trying to show off to a couple of friends that she was just as fit as they were. She was doing exercises on the parallel bars and was doing well at first, that was until she tried to do a handstand. Because of her having not done the pose in a long while, she lost her balance and slipped between the bars, hitting her head on the floor rather hard and landing in a scorpion pose, which was not good for her back. This incident landed her in the infirmary with her brother, but that can be saved for a later time.
"Y-Yes, that's the one," she said as she blushed a bit and looked off to the side as she blew a lock of her hair from her face.
Gummy noticed this and tilted his head, seeming to gain an interest. "Why're ya askin' me about all o' this?"
"Well..." Lucy again began to get that nervous feeling as a thought came to her mind. "...it's just that..."
"Just what?" he asked.
"Just..." Lucy couldn't speak out what was on her mind. This question had been really bothering her for about two weeks now. She wanted to ask Gummy this for all that time, but was having second thoughts. Every time she tried to ask, either one of them was too busy, or their friends were present. She didn't want to reveal this yet to anyone, especially not her friends and family.
"Just...?" Gummy asked again.
Lucy kept staring into his eyes, still not able to make up her mind. "Uh..."
"Did I do somethin' wrong?" he said.
"N-No, it's nothing like that!" she said out loud. The princess of the game began feeling guilty that she unintentionally let Gummy think that he was at fault.
'Come on! Just spit it out already, you dum dum!" Lucy heard a voice inside her head say.
'Alright!' she thought to herself. Taking in a deep breath, and hoping that what she as going say would not drive Gummy away, she gathered her nerves and said, "I wanted to ask you if you've ever thought of us going on a..." she was struggling to say the last word, "...date?" Lucy closed her eyes, as if waiting for Gummy to either run away from her or possibly explode.
"A date?" Gummy asked.
Lucy opened her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a bit more calm knowing that Gummy was still there. 'Phew! At least he didn't run away. That's a good sign,' she thought to herself. She turned her attention back to him and said, "Y-Yeah, a date."
The cowboy themed racer was taken aback by this. He didn't seem too sure about what to say in this situation. "S-Sorry for askin', Lucy, and I mean no offense by this... I was just wonderin' why."
The blonde's hopeful expression suddenly turned to disappointment. "You mean, you don't want to?"
"N-No, no... I didn't mean it that way. I was just... you know..." Gummy took off his hat and scratched the back of his head, "I was just curious, what with all of this bein' so sudden and whatnot."
"Well... it's just that we've been spending all of this time together, and we talk about each other a lot about our lives, and we both have a lot of things in common," Lucy began explaining. "I just thought that it might be time for us to take the next step."
Gummy thought about what Lucy had said. True, they have been doing a lot of those things together, and he did like hanging out with her as much as he can. In fact, he often did wonder if there was something more to it than just spending time with a close friend. He had wanted to ask Lucy this at least once, but he was always afraid to do it at the risk of ruining their friendship. But now, opportunity had presented itself.
'It couldn't hurt to try, right?' he thought to himself. Putting his attention back to her, Gummy opened his mouth and said, "You know what, Lucy?" Lucy once again looked hopeful. "I reckon that it's a good idea. I mean, what's the harm in it, right?"
"R-Right," Lucy said as she felt anxiety, worry, and some unusual happiness come over her. 'I can't believe it, I have a date!' she thought to herself. She felt like she wanted to scream out loud but that would make things more awkward than they are now.
"So, where are we going for this date?" Gummy asked.
Lucy snapped back to reality when she heard the question. "Huh... you know, I have no clue. I wasn't really expecting you to agree right away."
The two were stumped. Because of the sudden decision, neither one of them knew where they should go for the date. Having one in a fancy restaurant was a bit too cliche, not to mention expensive. A walk in the park doesn't count as one either. Going on a picnic was out of the question too because it was a bit too soon for that. They literally just got a date with each other less than five minutes ago. It would take time for them to build up to that.
Gummy looked around, hoping to find something that may help. Upon looking at one of the shops a few meters from them, a commercial popped up on tv in one of the electronic stores in town. It seemed that fortune was on his side today. He smiled and pointed at the screen. "What about that?"
The two turned to the tv and saw an ad for a fair going on in Sugar Rush. The commercial showed that the fair would be around for a month.
"A first date at the fair? Sounds like a good idea to me," Lucy agreed after watching the ad. "How's about you pick me up tomorrow?"
"Alright. Until then, Lucy." Gummy kissed her hand, making her blush.
"Woah there, cowboy. You can save that for the date. We're gonna take this whole thing slow, okay?" Lucy said, but she felt flattered and giggled a bit.
"Right, right, beg your pardon, Lucy," Gummy apologized for his behavior. "Shall I pick you up at around 5-ish?"
"Hm... I'm okay with that," the princess commented. "So... I guess I'll be heading home then."
"Oh, okay. See ya tomorrow, Lucy."
The two said there goodbyes and walked off in opposite directions, heading for the Castle while Gummy headed for his family's farm. However, once they could no longer see each other, they immediately jumped for joy.
"I can't believe that I have a date! Me, on a date tomorrow with a handsome cowboy! EEEEEEIIIIIIII!" Lucy squealed out loud as she ran as fast as she could back home to tell her parents.
At the same time, Gummy ran back home to his family's gummy animal farm, "Da-Gum-It Farms." On his way, had similar thoughts to Lucy.
'I'm going on a date with the princess tomorrow! This is just too good to be true!'
Gummy ran through the fields on his family's property, the fields alive with growing gummy animal crops, mostly consisting of large gummy worms of many different colors and sizes. There were special machines that sprayed a type of feed around the field for the gummy worms to eat. The gummy worms weren't sentient in the way that other candy animals are, like the Devil Dogs, no. They were mostly considered as a type of livestock in the game. Pretty much what you would think a chicken or a pig would be like, not that these really existed in Sugar Rush.
The boy ran to his home further into the property. It was a typical two-storey farmhouse with a garage attached to it, with a bright blue pick up truck inside the garage. Next to it was Gummy's own kart, the Gum Bullet, a kart with a giant gummy worm as its main body, Lifesaver wheels, and a Swedish fish serving as the spoiler. But moving past the garage, he burst open the front door of their house, startling the two occupants within.
"Mom, Dad!" Gummy yelled out, not knowing that his parents were right there in the living room.
"Gummy, what is it?" a woman with curly green hair, green eyes, fair skin, and wearing a beige checkered dress with an apron around her waist, asked in worry. "What's wrong?"
"Mom, where's dad? There's somethin' I gotta tell ya both," he replied.
From up above him and his mother, he could hear some heavy footsteps coming from the stairs. A man with short red hair, a reddish-brown beard, and a tattoo of a bear on his left forearm, descended down the stairs. He wore a flax colored button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up underneath some denim overalls, dark work boots, and a mesh cap with the word "OSO" written on it. He also looked a tad bigger than most humans in the game. He wasn't exactly fat, but rather burly.
"Dad!" Gummy said as he saw his father.
"Hey son, Torina, what's all this ruckus about? I could hear it from upstairs," the muscular man said.
"Okay, but I'm gonna need the two of ya to sit down first. It's very important."
Without saying another word, Gummy led his parents to the living room. Once they were seated, Torina, Gummy's mother asked her question once again.
"So my little Gummy bear, what did you want to tell us again?"
"I'll tell ya, but only if you promise not to overreact," Gummy said.
"As long as it doesn't involve someone messing with our little Gummy bear or threatening that little gumdrop you've been spending an awful lot o' time with," the father said laughing.
"Harold!" Torina scolded, "That's a disrespectful way to talk about our son and his friend! Besides, I don't think they're close enough yet to spark up a relationship like that."
"Actually mom, that's what I wanted to talk to you about," the boy said softly. It was very strange to tell your parents that you were planning to date someone like Lucy Fluggerbutter. Aside from her reputation, she is the game's princess after all, while he and his family were simple farmers.
Torina turned to him, not expecting what he had just said. "W-What?"
Gummy inhaled deeply as he tried to figure out how to break the news to his parents. "Mom, dad, Lucy and I have been talking and... we agreed to go on our first date. Tomorrow."
The older gummy candy people were speechless. It felt like forever with the way things suddenly went silent. But that was until Torina formed one word.
"D-Date..." The instant she said it, the Trolli themed racer's eyes rolled back as her body went limp before landing harshly on the floor.
THUD!
"MOM!"
"TORI BEAR!"
