It was the first Random Roster Race since Vanellope had learned that she was a princess (although she insisted on being called president) and she was understandably quite nervous. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought that it might jump out of her chest and join the candy heart citizens, an image that made her giggle. Smoothing down her princess dress for about the hundredth time that hour, she peeked out between the mint-green curtains at the assembled citizens and racers. Everything was so shiny, but looked so small from all the way up in her princess box.

"Princess, are you ready yet?" Sour Bill asked, checking in on her.

"I don't think I'll ever be ready," she admitted, aware of the blush heating her face. "I still have to do it though, don't I?"

"Yes," the sour candy confirmed in his droning voice.

"Okay," she nodded after taking a deep breath and then letting it back out. "I can do this. I just have to remember that they're my citizens and they'll love me anyway."

"Shall I introduce you to the crowd now?" Sour Bill asked, and she nodded. There was no use in putting it off, not if she was going to have to do this every night for the rest of the game's life. Sure, she wasn't going to be as enigmatic and playful as King Candy, but maybe the citizens didn't want her to be considering he'd been faking the whole thing. She just had to be herself. And what was it that Ralph had said?

"You'll be fine. Who doesn't love a brat with dirty hair?" Hearing his voice, she turned around and ran to hug him.

"You're here!" she squealed, "I'm so glad you came!" She was getting filth all over her dress, but she didn't really care. It was only going to be changed for her normal racer's outfit once the race started, anyway.

"It's your first Random Roster Race since you became princess, I wouldn't miss it for anything," he assured her, smoothing down her slightly-frazzled hair. Again, it would only be messy again soon, but it was a nice gesture all the same.

"Aww, thanks," she blushed slightly, glad that he still cared for her, and glitched back down to the ground once she heard the crowd hush at Sour Bill's voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he droned, "welcome to the nightly Random Roster Race." The crowd broke into more cheering, and the princess made her way to her spot just behind the curtains. She had her coin ready, which she'd taken from King Candy's stash, and she constantly passed it between her palms nervously.

"Good luck, president," Ralph whispered to her, and she instantly calmed and flashed him a grin. Judging by his response, it was a winning grin that the crowd would love.

"Thank you," she whispered back to him as she prepared to step out of the curtains.

"Presenting the race is, for the first time, Princess Vanellope von Scweetz," the sour ball announced, and Vanellope looked back at Ralph one last time before stepping out to the cheers and applause of the crowd. He flashed her a grin and a thumbs up, which settled her nerves entirely so she could relax enough to present the race.

"Hello!" she greeted everyone exuberantly after stepping out to take in their adoring cheers. She waved politely at first but was soon relaxed enough to start feeling the hype of the crowd. "This is the real ruler of Sugar Rush speaking, and I'm gonna do things a little differently now." This statement was taken in by confused expressions all round, until she laughed. "Just kidding! As usual, all of you will have a coin from your previous winnings, even if you were just an NPC at the time. I've got mine!" She showed them the shiny gold coin, resulting in more cheers, before pulling a lever to set up the race entry trophy. Still grinning, she tossed her coin onto the small launcher and watched with satisfaction as her name appeared on the screen. Now she was in familiar territory.

After everyone else had thrown their coins into the trophy, Vanellope glitched onto the ground and used the same strange power to change into her ordinary racer clothes. After slipping on her goggles, she sat in her kart and got into position for the race. Seeing Ralph waving from the crowd, she felt like she was home. And then the race began.