It was the August after all the Racers, plus a few citizens, had paired up. The original Racers plus Henreesa, having been around for over fifteen years, now had the minds of young adults. Even the new Racers, plus Applelo, Mazie, and Madison, had the minds of young adults. This was because the game, in order to help accept the new characters into itself, had mentally aged them rapidly without them knowing so that they would be more like the original Racers. Basically the game allowed the new characters to catch up with the old characters.
No worries, Applelo, Mazie, and the new Racers actually already had the childhood they needed, and them dating their new girlfriends was a good enough teenager life for them. As for Madison she had already mentally aged herself quite a bit in her own game so that she could be trusted to go out and about with just her friends and only one parent, so the extra aging the game gave her wasn't a big deal. Besides, game characters did age faster than humans anyway so even if the new characters had found out about the rapid mental aging they wouldn't have minded.
There was one problem though: having the minds of adults meant that they all wanted to get married...but didn't know whether they would be allowed to or not. After all despite having the minds of adults they still looked like kids.
No one else knew about this problem however, not even Vanellope...at least not until Saturday. The same day Rancis dropped off Taffyta at the castle. Sometimes Taffyta would come over to the castle so that she and Vanellope could discuss if anything needed to be changed or taken cared of around the country. Otherwise most of the time Taffyta would walk around the town or drive around the country with Rancis, and sometimes Candlehead and Matlow, to see if the other citizens needed help with anything. Yeah, Taffyta took her role as vice-president very seriously.
Anyway, after Rancis dropped Taffyta off he kissed her.
"I'll miss you Taffy." He smiled sadly after the kiss.
By this point Taffyta had allowed Rancis to call her Taffy too.
"I'll miss you too." Taffyta smiled sadly back.
Rancis then kissed her cheek and started to leave. Taffyta watched him until he was nearly out of sight.
"You really do love him don't you?"
Startled, Taffyta turned and saw Vanellope smiling empathetically at her.
"I know how you feel, I always miss Ralph whenever he has to go back to his own game." Vanellope added.
"Yeah, but at least you two are married." Taffyta sighed. "At least you two can stay together overnight...you even have a child."
Vanellope's expression changed from empathy to understanding.
"You want to marry Rancis don't you?" She realized.
"So much..." Taffyta hung her head. "But we still look like kids, so that can never happen."
"Never say never, true love always works out." Vanellope smiled. "We'll worry about it later though, first have there been any problems lately?"
"Not really, but I think the other Racers have been dreaming about getting married too." Taffyta said.
"Really? Even the new ones?" Vanellope was surprised.
"Guess the game aged them mentally so that they could catch up with the rest of us." Taffyta shrugged.
"We shouldn't be surprised, they got into racing pretty quickly too." Vanellope nodded. "Ah well, I'll think about that problem later tonight, as for now we'd best get down to business. And if we run out of business we can always just play."
"I'd like that." Taffyta smiled.
Later that night, during dinner, Vanellope thought about the age problem.
"Something wrong Sugar Cookie?" Candiel asked.
"Not really, it's just that Taffyta admitted that she wants to marry Rancis earlier today." Vanellope said. "But the age thing makes it a problem."
"Oh yeah...game characters do go by physical appearance." Ralph nodded.
"Right, which was why I was thinking...of altering the Racers' ages like I altered mine. Minus the potion." Vanellope admitted.
"Whoa, you mean messing with the code?" Reneult stared at her.
"I know, it's normally a bad idea." Vanellope shrugged. "But I really want my subjects to be happy."
"Then it's a good idea." Candiel smiled. "After all as long as they still look like kids to the players then any changes you make won't be a big deal. At least not in the bad sense."
"Good point." Reneult had to admit. "But, uh, mom, when you change the code can you leave mine and Stormberry's alone? She still kinda has the mind of a kid too so I think being turned into an adult would be weird for her...like it would be weird for me."
"No problem. I'll save yours and Stormberry's for when you do get the minds of adults." Vanellope smiled. "Excuse me, I'd better make an announcement to my subjects."
Everyone excused her, and she left. She went to get Taffyta, who in turn helped her contact the other Racers. And Applelo, Mazie, Henreesa, and Madison too.
"Everyone, I have a surprise planned for you." Vanellope said. "You'll find out what it is tomorrow, I'm just letting you know now so that I can say this: if anyone isn't happy with the surprise just let me know and I'll remove it. Thank you."
The others started talking excitedly amongst themselves after Vanellope left, wondering what the surprise could be. Taffyta, knowing Vanellope better than almost anyone else, had an idea but didn't say anything. She could be wrong, and if she wasn't then she certainly didn't want to spoil the surprise.
Late that night, when everyone else was asleep, Vanellope worked hard on the codes. She altered the appearances of those who had the minds of adults, giving them bodies to match and also altering their clothes, while making sure that they'd still look like kids to the players. She did leave Reneult and Stormberry's codes alone, especially since their description stated that they had the minds of kids. Vanellope was a little confused about the game not aging Stormberry mentally like the others, but then assumed that the game skipped Stormberry because of her being a younger sibling. Sometimes younger siblings stayed young on the inside longer than older siblings, especially since the older siblings often matured faster due to getting more responsibilities thrusted upon them.
The next morning Taffyta was one of the first ones to wake up. She instantly felt a little weird...and also noticed that she was taller. Excited, she rushed to her mirror and saw that she was an adult.
"I was right..." Taffyta grinned. "Vanellope changed the codes just so that we could marry the ones we love."
Taffyta took a moment to admire her new body before opening her closet. To her relief her clothes had been enlarged so that they would still fit her. She quickly got dressed and admired her new appearance again.
Her outfit still was the same, but on her new body it looked different. Her gloves were slightly longer, and her dress really showed off her curves now. Her face was also less round, and beautiful enough to not need makeup. She posed flirtingly, grinning.
"I'm really gonna knock Rancis for a loop." She chuckled; she then blushed excitingly. "I can't wait to see what he looks like."
Other Racers started to wake up as well, and at first thought they were still dreaming. Once they found out that they weren't dreaming though they excitedly started to admire their new appearances, realizing that Vanellope had done this for them.
Rancis admired his new sturdy form and his roundish square jaw. His heart raced as he now realized that he could propose to Taffyta now...and then his heart pounded a little. She really did love him, but would she agree to marry him?
The other guys also had handsome, sturdy forms, though not all of them had roundish square jaws. Most had round jaws, and none of them had square jaws, mostly because Sugar Rush had round pixels instead of square ones. They also realized that they would be able to propose to the ones they loved, and the reactions varied. Some were excited, some were nervous or even a bit scared, and others just decided to wait until they really were ready.
The other women also had attractive bodies like Taffyta's, though Adorabeezle, Torvald, and Henreesa had more athletic figures. They also had the faces of women, but otherwise not much had changed. They too realized that they'd be able to marry their boyfriends, and almost all of them were excited about the idea. One exception was Citrusella, who was a bit nervous about it. Had Sourward healed enough to be willing to marry her? Candlehead also wasn't sure about marrying Matlow. She was still a bit scared about holding him back, still not knowing that he had decided to make racing his official career. Matlow hadn't told her because he didn't know about her fear.
After everyone got used to their new looks they quickly had breakfast. Their parents, and Stormberry in Bodhi's case, were caught off guard but recovered after finding out what happened. The newly altered characters then went to the castle to thank Vanellope. However when they got there they didn't see Vanellope at all, and surprisingly Ralph, Reneult, and Candiel were playing by themselves near the castle.
"Where's Vanny?" Taffyta asked.
"She's still tired from working hard last night." Candiel explained. "We're letting her sleep in."
"So I'm guessing you all like your surprise?" Ralph smiled.
"Like it? We love it!" Candlehead said happily. "I know, let's throw a thank-you party for our president! We can hold it later tonight after she's rested."
Everyone else agreed, and got to work preparing the party. When afternoon came Vanellope was refreshed enough to get up. She couldn't wait to see how happy her subjects were and so headed into town where she was sure to meet up with most of them.
The girls were all discussing the party when Snowanna pointed out Vanellope. They stopped talking before Vanellope could overhear them and ran up to her, instantly thanking her for what she did. They even group hugged her.
"Well, I take it you all like the surprise?" Vanellope smiled dryly, glad they were so happy.
The girls, or women now, agreed and laughed before continuing to thank her. Later on the boys, or men, were able to thank her as well, though tried to act calmer about it.
Then that evening, after the Roster Race, Ralph, Reneult, and Candiel went over to Vanellope and distracted her with a conversation. The other Racers ran off - same with Applelo, Madison, Henreesa, and Mazie - to set up the party.
After Taffyta signaled to Ralph with a wave he told Vanellope to close her eyes.
"Why?" Vanellope asked.
"Just close 'em!" Ralph pretended to be stern.
Vanellope chuckled, remembering when she did that to Ralph years ago, and obliged. Ralph then picked her up and put her on his shoulder before walking to the party. Reneult and Candiel followed.
Then when they got to the party Ralph set Vanellope down and said that she could open her eyes. She did.
"SURPRISE!" The other Racers, and the new characters, cheered.
Vanellope gasped with delight. Strung between two trees was a banner that read 'Thank You Vanellope, The Best Ruler We Ever Had'. Don't worry about Candiel, the Racers had already asked him about the idea to make sure that they wouldn't end up hurting him. Candiel wasn't hurt about the idea at all, and even said that they should go with it because Vanellope really was a wonderful ruler.
"Oh you guys didn't have to do this!" Vanellope beamed.
"Of course we did, this was a wonderful thing you did for us and we wanted to do something wonderful in return." Adorabeezle smiled.
Everyone else agreed.
"Well, this is wonderful all right." Vanellope grinned. "Let's party!"
Agreeing, everyone did and had a great time.