The Glitch

A Wreck it Ralph Fanfiction

By Scothanial Karrasch

On a cool fall morning, Lucas took a step out of his house and breathed in the cool fresh air. Almost all of the leaves had fallen from the tree in his front lawn. He shivered and stepped back inside for his orange sweater.

"Don't forget your lunch, sweetie," his mom called from inside the house. Lucas ran back inside to get the brown paper bag in his mom's hand, hopped up to kiss her cheek, and scurried out the door to catch the oncoming bus. As he passed the seats of the bus, he looked for an empty seat. Almost all of the ones in the front half were taken, but he found a nice cozy spot near the back.

Lucas stared at the red leaves on the trees that whizzed by. Like the tree in his front lawn, most of the leaves had fallen off. Lucas liked looking at the trees. They were different every day. When school started, the leaves were still nice and green from summer, but around fall they turned colors. Getting closer to winter, they fell off, leaving the tree limbs bare. It's a wonder the trees don't shiver; maybe they do, just when we aren't looking. Then, in spring, buds start to appear on the trees. From the buds come pretty flowers that, by summer, will turn into leaves that fall in autumn and the cycle starts all over again.

Before long, the bus arrived at the school and Lucas, along with all the other people in Spring Garden Middle School, exited the bus to start their day of schooling. Lucas put his lunch in his locker and got his books. Before class actually started, everyone had to go to Homeroom. There, Lucas sat near the back doodling in his sketchbook. He didn't really consider himself an artist; he thought of it more as a hobby than a profession.

The teacher roll-called, checking the students who were present and making note of any student absent. Everyone except for Dylan was present. It didn't surprise Lucas. Dylan barely showed up on time. Other than that, everything in school was normal. He was always on time to class, took notes that were on the board, listened when the teacher talked, doodled when he had time, ate lunch -the peanut butter and jelly sandwich his mom made-, jogged in gym, and then went home to take a shower. His mom always asked him how his day was to which he always replied "good." There was nothing to complain about, nothing too interesting to tell; just a normal day. But things were about to change with the arrival of the new girl in school.

His day started like normal. He stepped outside, shivered, got his sweater. A few more leaves were off the tree. He stared out the window until he got to school, put his packed lunch into his locker, went to Homeroom and sat down at his seat. He was in the middle of a drawing when he heard the teacher announce the new kid.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new student at Spring Garden." Lucas looked up. The teacher had a wide smile on her face to welcome the new student, but the new student barely smiled and blushed like crazy. "Tell everybody your name, sweetie."

She shyly squeaked out, "Vanellope." Her fingers played with the string on her light-green hooded sweater. Her pony tail swung back and forth as she swayed on the spot.

The teacher didn't hear her correctly and announced, "Welcome Penelope. We have an empty seat over there. Welcome to the school." She meandered over to the empty seat and set her books on the desk. Her seat was two seats up and two seats to the right of Lucas. If Lucas was a Knight on a chess board, he could have moved to the seat right next to her, but Taylor sat in that seat.

Taylor, the class mean girl, looked over Vanellope, intent to catch her on something abnormal. Apparently, everything about Vanellope retracted Taylor; from her too bright sweater to her mismatched striped leggings, and everything in between. She had various candy-shaped clips in her hair.

"Hey, Penelope. Nice hair. It looks like you haven't washed it in a while. You have candy all over it." The girls who overheard her comment laughed along with Taylor. Much to Taylor's pleasure, Vanellope blushed and clutched at her hair.

"No! They're clips. See? They come right out." She took a clip out of her hair and held it out for Taylor to see.

Taylor recoiled, "Ew, no! I don't want any of your hair infested candies." The girls laughed even more which earned Taylor a deeper blush from Vanellope.

Vanellope wasn't going to take this anymore, "Shut up! At least I have a chest!" The girls were awed. Taylor covered up her flat chest with crossed arms. Lucas chuckled. He never saw someone stand up to Taylor like that. The new girl had guts.

The bell rang for class to start. Taylor leaned over threateningly and hissed, "Don't think this is over, Twerp!" At this point, everyone gathered their stuff and left for class. Vanellope and Lucas were the last students out. As they stood up to leave, Lucas got a clear look of Vanellope.

Lucas wanted to say something, anything, to her. "Hey, don't pay attention to those girls. Your candy pins are cute." She said thanks but it didn't feel like there was any thanks in it at all. He tried to introduce himself, "I'm Lucas," but Vanellope left, covering a hand over her face to hide her blush. She was clearly troubled by the altercation on her first day. As Vanellope scurried out the door, Lucas thought he saw her flash light blue.

Lucas wanted to see her again. Something about her fascinated him. The next time he would get to see her was in lunch. Lucas had his own group of friends that he enjoyed sitting with. Matt was in the middle of a very enthusiastic story when Lucas noticed Vanellope taking her tray to an empty table. She sat down and tried to eat her lunch quickly so that she could leave early. Lucas couldn't help but feel sad for this lonely girl. If only she could make friends as quickly as Matt did. Everyone loved Matt; he's a likable person. But, with Vanellope, making friends was going to be harder.

The rest of the day was relatively normal. When his mom asked him how his day was, he had an actual answer.

"There's a new girl in school."

"Really? Is she cute?"

"Mom." Lucas rolled his eyes, and then blushed. "Well, yeah. She is. She's really short and looks different. Her socks are mismatched and she has candy pins in her hair."

His mom smiled. "She sounds interesting."

Lucas nodded. "Yeah, I think so too." Then Lucas remembered the flash. "There's something else though. I thought I saw her flash."

"What do you mean?" Mom asked.

"Well, as she was walking out the door, it looked like she flashed light-blue, and it looked like she turned into pixels." He shook his head. "I don't know. That's just what I saw."